Alliance

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Dystopian Wars is a tabletop wargame of naval battles using highly detailed miniatures to represent huge engines of destruction on, above and below the high-seas. Set in an alternate late-Nineteenth Century called the Dystopian Age, super-science fuelled nations clash over resources and power.

Pick your faction and fight for dominance over the seas and skies with incredible machines of war fuelled by extraordinary technology - dread marvels of the Dystopian Age.

This box set contains everything you need to start playing Dystopian Wars with a fleet of ships at your command.

When negotiations between the Factions of the Dystopian Age break down or when only conflict will settle a dispute fleets clash. This can happen anywhere across the globe and in the heat of battle many a Captain has been caught out by a sandbank or tidal Island. Some larger islands even have modest fortresses and gun emplacements built on them to add protection to the secrets and supplies that lie within.

At the heart of the Alliance battleline can be found the Oriflamme Battlecrusier. Thoroughly modernised from the hulls of ageing Prince de Joinville class Battleships, the Oriflamme are the pride of the Republique. As much a work of art as a Battlecruiser, even enemy crews can't help but be impressed by the lines and craftsmanship of an Oriflamme cutting through the waves.

Even the Oriflamme, as elegant as it may be, cannot engage an enemy fleet alone, and so relies on support cruisers to assist. The Chevalier Class Cruisers are the mainstay of Alliance cruisers and are able to launch screens of torpedoes in a wide range of fire arcs, as well as lay down heat lances or rocket batteries, when necessary.

The Charlemagne Heavy Cruiser is bristling with guns, primed and ready to unleash hell on the enemies of the Alliance. Crews are rightly proud of their positions on these ships knowing that often they are being relied upon to deal with an engagement as quickly as possible.

Loire Light Cruisers are at the forefront of Alliance Battlefleets and as such often the first to engage with the enemy. They provide screening and reconnaissance for the rest of the battlefleet and any commodore worth his salt will know how to make best use of any Loire's under their command.

Captains of Picardy Monitors understand their role to guard the rivers and waterways of Europe, and further afield, from invaders. While they may not be the most heavily armed of ships, they have the perfect balance of firepower and ability to operate in shallow waters. Crews are reminded that they are often the last line of defence for civilians and as such are assigned from recruits hailing from inland towns and cities. This ensures they understand what is truly at stake should an enemy vessel get past them and into Alliance territory.

Multiple squadrons of these stalwart craft accompany Alliance Battlefleets. Ecuyere can defend the flanks as well as grouping their attacks against key targets of opportunity.

Named after the Alliance victory against the Imperium in 1859, the Magenta class is the pride of Napoleon’s levant fleet. These powerful battlecruisers are capable of hovering a hundred meters or more above the sea bringing their powerful heat lances or other weapons to bear.

The Saint-Michel Levant Assault Carrier is often the centrepiece of a Levant focused battlefleet. Flight crews of the fighter craft that launch from Saint-Michel are often known as ‘Anges de la Mort’ as a matter of pride. The agility of the skimming Levant Carrier allows it to surge to great heights then descend upon the enemy as scores of ‘angels’ unleash the wrath of President Louis-Napoleon.

The mainstay of the Levant style of ships is the Chasseur Levant Strike Cruiser. Their ability to soar above their enemies if need be makes them hard to precinct as does their various ways of being outfitted. Gun batteries, heat lances or force multiplying generators; even seeing a Chasseur on the horizon makes no guarantee what you might actually be facing in battle.

No captain wants to see an enemy craft soaring above them but the Furieux Levant Grand Corvette make ones blood freeze in terror. That could be the last time the crew feels cold as the Furieux releases deadly thermal cluster bombs. Even the bravest crews know to be rightfully scared if they spot a Furieux rising into the air ahead of them.

As fighter pilots rise in the ranks they may be promoted to become flight crew on a Voliere Levant Support Carrier. The launch catapults put greater strain on pilots and landing on a Levant that could be at almost any height takes incredible skill. Despite this, pilots elevated to this level are often competing with each other to gain more confirmed kills so they can be promoted once again to become the Angels of Death aboard a Saint-Michel Assault Carrier.

Part of Napoleon’s modernisation of the French navy, the Sirene is a powerful attack vessel able to close undetected until it surfaces with its deadly heat Lancette in range to do maximum damage to the enemy.

The tactical counterpart to the Sirene class, the Epaulard uses its secretive deployment to surface at a distance and employ its magnetic bombard to deadly effect.

The Mars class heavy battleships are the pride of the League of Italian States. The Tetrarchy know the worth of these powerful vessels and not a single one weighs anchor unless they are convinced that it is Italy's needs and not the vainglories of Napoleon that are best served by doing so. Pride of the Castellammare di Stabia shipyards, the Gladius is a superb vessel. Optimised for long sea voyages with comfortable crew berths and excellent fresh-water reclamation systems, the Gladius is a popular assignment in the Regia Marina. Variants on this hull design also fulfil other fleet roles as and when required, the most successful of these being the mighty Spatha. Used where other nations might deploy a heavy cruiser, the Spatha is a naval brawler. Capable of exchanging fire with powerful enemy vessels and holding their own, the Spatha crews prefer to do so while closing to ramming range.

At the close of the Ore War, Confederate President Davis commanded his forces to stand down. Though General Robert Lee carried out this order, Fleet Admiral Elizabeth Buchanan refused and withdrew her battlefleets southwards to find a safe haven in the Socialist Unity of South America. For the vessels of the Union fleet, while they had served well during the civil war, the fleet was in need of modernising and expanding if the nation was to fulfil its Manifest Destiny as the preeminent Great Power of the Dystopian Age. Newer designs became more common and began to take on frontline roles such as the Constitution, Yorktown and Farragut classes.

The Columbia class was the most powerful vessel found in both the Union and Confederate navies during the Ore War. 12 of these vessels were maintained by each side in the conflict though their rugged design allowed several of these prized vessels to be returned to service after sustaining catastrophic damage. Occasionally this saw Columbia class ships returned to battle in service to the opposing navy. After the CSS Merrimack was sunk by the USS Monitor in the closing stages of the civil war, she was repaired and recommissioned as the Union vessel USS Virginia. That ship, like all Columbia class vessels, was recategorised as a Heavy Battleship, post-war.

The Confederate navy did not fall into despair and disrepair, however, despite the predictions of the Union's analysts. Instead, Admiral Buchanan accepted a seat on the council of the Latin alliance and put her considerable fleet and experienced crews at the disposal of the Socialist Unity of South America (SUSA). The Confederates found surprising common ground with their new compatriots with their refusal to yield to the aggressions of the Union, The fleet was modernised with the best engineering and weaponry available to the Alliance. Within a few years of the Ore War, while the vessels appeared superficially to resemble their Union counterparts, their internal systems and armaments were distinctly a product of their new allegiance to the Alliance.

While SUSA lacks most of the engineering marvels that are becoming commonplace in the north, the Union's continuous martial footing that it has maintained since the end of the war has caused a small but constant flow of disenfranchised or disaffected military personnel and their families to flee southwards. In SUSA they find former brothers and sisters proudly defending the seas of the South-Western Atlantic, swelling the crews with new blood and ideas. It is no surprise that within twelve months of the Providence and Sumter class refits in the Union that similarly renovated vessels were in service to SUSA. Even the Mark II Talon autogyros from the Ore War have slowly been replaced by locally manufactured variants that are the equal of the Mark VI in use today by the Union.

The Chevalier cruisers and Charlemagne heavy cruiser are the mainstay of Alliance cruisers and are able to launch screens of torpedoes in a wide range of fire arcs, as well as lay down heat lances or rocket batteries, when necessary.

Loire light cruisers are at the forefront of Alliance Battlefleets and as such often the first to engage with the enemy. They provide screening and reconnaissance for the rest of the battlefleet and any commodore worth his salt will know how to make best use of any Loire's under their command.

Captains of Picardy monitors understand their role to guard the rivers and waterways of Europe, and further afield, from invaders. While they may not be the most heavily armed of ships, they have the perfect balance of firepower and the ability to operate in shallow waters. Crews are reminded that they are often the last line of defence for civilians and as such are assigned from recruits hailing from inland towns and cities. This ensures they understand what is truly at stake should an enemy vessel get past them and into Alliance territory.

Multiple squadrons of Ecuyere frigates often accompany Alliance Battlefleets, defending their flanks as well as grouping their attacks against key targets of opportunity.

The mainstay of the Levant style of ships is the Chasseur Levant Strike Cruiser. Their ability to soar above their enemies if need be makes them hard to precinct as does their various ways of being outfitted. Gun batteries, heat lances or force multiplying generators; even seeing a Chasseur on the horizon makes no guarantee what you might actually be facing in battle.

No captain wants to see an enemy craft soaring above them but the Furieux Levant Grand Corvette make ones blood freeze in terror. That could be the last time the crew feels cold as the Furieux releases deadly thermal cluster bombs. Even the bravest crews know to be rightfully scared if they spot a Furieux rising into the air ahead of them.

As fighter pilots rise in the ranks they may be promoted to become flight crew on a Voliere Levant Support Carrier. The launch catapults put greater strain on pilots and landing on a Levant that could be at almost any height takes incredible skill. Despite this, pilots elevated to this level are often competing with each other to gain more confirmed kills so they can be promoted once again to become the Angels of Death aboard a Saint-Michel Assault Carrier.

Part of Napoleon’s modernisation of the French navy, the Sirene is a powerful attack vessel able to close undetected until it surfaces with its deadly heat Lancette in range to do maximum damage to the enemy. The tactical counterpart to the Sirene class, the Epaulard uses its secretive deployment to surface at a distance and employ its magnetic bombard to deadly effect.

Pride of the Castellammare di Stabia shipyards, the Gladius is a superb vessel. Optimised for long sea voyages with comfortable crew berths and excellent fresh-water reclamation systems, the Gladius is a popular assignment in the Regia Marina. Crews of Pilum monitors are reminded that they are often the last line of defence for civilians and as such are assigned from recruits hailing from inland towns and cities of Italy. This ensures they understand what is truly at stake should an enemy vessel get past them and into Alliance territory. Cestus Zebeks are often tasked to defend the flanks of Alliance fleets as well as grouping their attacks against key targets of opportunity.

"While our discoveries of Sturginium and its uses has ushered in a time of scientific marvels, unrecognisable to those of previous generations, there has also been a recent resurgence of older designs but with vastly more powerful results. The Rostratum Naval Ballista is a perfect example of this. The simple idea of a bolt being launched to impact and pierce a target has been with us since ancient times. The Italian Engineers of the Latin Alliance have advanced this in a way that could only be achieved with hitherto unknown comprehension of engineering. They have designed bolts using current alloys that are a fraction of the weight of a comparable steel structure while losing none of its material hardness. In place of twisted rope they use electro-magnetic rails that fire the bolt at incredible speed. Reports of a projectile impacting on the hull of an enemy vessel and then being hauled in to spin the target to a less desirable facing are troubling and interesting in equal measure. I propose we explore ideas like this further. Imagine the untapped potential we already have in our history. Imagine a trebuchet with a thousand times its previously registered force, Da Vinci’s designs made real or Greek Fire made on an industrial scale."

- Peer of the Enlightened, Robert Abernethy, at a symposium shortly before his disappearance.

The Chevalier cruisers and Charlemagne heavy cruiser are the mainstay of Alliance cruisers and are able to launch screens of torpedoes in a wide range of fire arcs, as well as lay down heat lances or rocket batteries, when necessary.

Loire light cruisers are at the forefront of Alliance Battlefleets and as such often the first to engage with the enemy. They provide screening and reconnaissance for the rest of the battlefleet and any commodore worth his salt will know how to make best use of any Loire's under their command.

Captains of Picardy monitors understand their role to guard the rivers and waterways of Europe, and further afield, from invaders. While they may not be the most heavily armed of ships, they have the perfect balance of firepower and the ability to operate in shallow waters. Crews are reminded that they are often the last line of defence for civilians and as such are assigned from recruits hailing from inland towns and cities. This ensures they understand what is truly at stake should an enemy vessel get past them and into Alliance territory.

Multiple squadrons of Ecuyere frigates often accompany Alliance Battlefleets, defending their flanks as well as grouping their attacks against key targets of opportunity.