Dystopian Wars

Dystopian Wars was a tabletop wargame made by Spartan Games, now produced by Warcradle Studios. Set in 1870 with the industrial revolution having happened decades earlier than in our own history. There are seven core factions in the game that dominate geopolitics as superpowers, and appropriately these factions receive the most attention in the lore as well as the twelve allied nations. The game uses similar rules to its sister games Firestorm: Armada and Uncharted Seas.

The game is played with 1/1200 scale resin models.

Spartan Games declared bankruptcy in Late August '17, but Warcradle Studios announced that they picked up all of SG's licenses. They have now announced that the Dystopian setting has been moved to WWX, leading to some outrage as the land game changes scale, the North won the Civil War, everyone is infected by an alien parasite and the Covenant are now scientists who own Robo Slaves & also Cyborg Slaves. Also there is no war, only tiny skirmishes, with the occasional colossal naval battle.

Background

Singapore, 1864. The East India Company had become world leaders in trade, and didn't like the Japanese traders coming onto their turf and made their opinions known. The Blazing sun representative ignored everything, was caught with his pants down, and was evicted along with his delegation from Singapore. Suicide shortly followed and his name was stricken from Imperial records.

The mans uncle was a newly appointed commander in the Imperial army, and personally begged Empress Shizuna to allow him to restore his family honor by striking at the East India Company. He was given command of the Third division of the second Imperial army, named Wani, and went straight to Singapore, also casting off his name until family honor was restored. People would remember him as Oni. The city fell in a month, but Oni wasn't satisfied as the East India Company was still active. Empress Shizuna called him back before he could destroy more cities. Two weeks after the fall of Singapore the Britannian 45th Expeditionary Force, led by Lord Duxford, landed in Malaysia demanding reparations. Lead by Oni, Blazing sun forces destroyed the 45th, though Lord Duxford managed to escape.

Britannia declared war on the Blazing sun and sent its full military might into Malaysia. Empress Shinzua sent envoys to the Prussian Emperor Frederick Grunder. One month later the Prussian Empire launched assaults on Britannian colonies and gassed London. While Prussia, Britannia, and the Blazing sun slugged it out, the Russian coalition attacked the Prussian borders, managing to drive far into the Prussian Empire before being stopped. Prussia called on the Republique of France and League of Italian states to attack Britannia and the Russian Coalition respectively while they rebuilt.

At this point, the Federated states of America decided to expand their control of the pacific and sent the fourth federated fleet to invade Japan. The fourth fleet ran into a Russian Coalition fleet intent on the same thing. Both fleets attacked, thinking the other to be part of the Blazing sun. Hours later both sides accused each other of provocation and declared war on each other, forgetting about Japan. The Covenant of Antarctica, outraged that advanced technology that they helped develop was being used for war, promptly declared war on everyone and went on a war footing.

tl;dr: Shit went down in Singapore, everyone declared war on everyone else WWI style.

Forget all that cool stuff though. Now its just a proxy war between the great powers but for some reason people are still fighting with giant battleships, and because nobody lives there they are having giant tank battles in Africa as part of a proxy war. The Covenant of the Enlightened didn't find sturginium but invented some great batteries that allowed the tech jump.

Getting Started in Dystopian Wars

Basics

Games of Dystopian Wars are generally played on either a 4'x4' or 6'x4' surface, using 1/1200 scale miniatures produced by Spartan Games. Dystopian Wars accommodates war at land, sea and air, and while it is certainly fine to have all 3 going in a single game it is more often the case that games end up being either navy + airforce or land + airforce. Generally, naval games are far more popular and are the main attraction to the game for most players.

Is it expensive?

The game is quite affordable.

The core rules, now in edition 2.0, are the only ones you need in order to play. It contains all of the core rules and special rules in the game at this point. It also contains army lists for the core nations, but you can ignore these since Spartan frequently updates the army lists and releases them as free .pdfs on their site.

The 2.0 rules can be bought in three ways if you want a hard copy. The free edition is now avaliable at site. The Commodore edition, which is hardback and comes complete with background information, costs 30 pounds. The Admiral edition is thinner and only contains the rules, costing 20 pounds. Alternatively, the Admiral edition rules are included in the Shadow Hunter 2-player starter set which costs 80 pounds and comes with two respectably sized navies for Japan and America as well as some extra models related to the special scenarios designed for the starter set.

If neither of the forces in the starter set take your fancy, another fine place to begin is with a Naval Battle Group for any of the major fleets and some minor fleets as well. This costs 45 pounds RRP and will get you 850-900 points worth of models. For context 700 points would be enough for a tactically satisfying small game, 1200 points or so might be about average and 1500 points would constitute a larger game, though sometimes it is played all the way up to 2000. For context, a small frigate will cost 25 points, an aircraft carrier about 130 points, and a massive dreadnought can cost from 240 points to well over 300 points.

Is it complicated?

Some of the rules are laid out in a peculiar order in the book, plus it has a strange habit of bolding a quarter of the bloody words in each sentence which is the most annoying feature of the rules.

The core rules are very simple, and the basics of the game can be quickly grasped by someone who has never played a naval wargame. However but there are lots of situational factors, attributes and special rules that can make the first few games daunting or confusing. The 2.5 Ruleset was released just before Spartan's demise; yet is more or less the same as 2.0 with two major differences. First: The rules were totally re-edited to bullet-point form for easy referencing. And second, Carriers can now re-spawn downed fighter craft. Oh, and that stupid random bolding is gone.

What are the models like?

Highly detailed resin for almost everything except bombers and turrets, which are pewter with the new Warcradle models being made from high quality plastic except for the large capital shops, which are still made from resin with the same plastic turrets used on the smaller vessels. These things have heaps of detail on them, with portholes, piping, planks on the decks and rivets in abundance, as well as including details such as life boats. And the resin isn't too brittle so you don't have to worry about snapping anything off most of the time. Errors do creep in to models from time to time, being resin, but most of them are under the ships where they can't be seen and so make no difference to the appearance or integrity of the model. If something is broken or miscast Spartan Games has a good record for sending replacements. If you lose pieces or want duplicate pieces like turrets or such Spartan may be happy to sell these if you send them an email.

The models range from very practical and realistic with over-the-top guns bolted on (Prussians, Australians) to flying Mosques (Ottomans) and floating oriental fortresses (Chinese). The overall theme is fairly stylised steampunk, with the wackiness limited to a few of the more exotic robots available to the factions like the giant squid, the crab mech and the floating Chinese dragon.

Core Nations

These are the main playable factions in Dystopian Wars. They all have plenty of models for naval, aerial and ground warfare.

Covenant of Antarctica

Currently led by Lord Barnabas Draynes Sturgeon, the chap who discovered the incredible element 270 (Sturginium), responsible for the all leaps in technological advancement over the past decades that has seen the rise of gigantic vehicles and weaponry. The Antarcticans have seen the abuse of science in the creation of destructive new weapons by the nations of the world, and plan to employ their own forces to try teach them a lesson and save humanity from itself. The covenant have limited forces, but compensate by using the most advanced technology in the world. They have a weapon capable of bending time.

Tactics: The Covenant fleet plays a very elite and destructive game compared to most other factions. Overall they focus on a long range duel style. They have a plethora of template weapons that fire out to RB3-4, energy weapons and SAS drones. Considered one of the strongest factions generally, playing a maxed out list of these guys will get you the dreaded "That Guy" label. They do have some weakness to boarding and close range tactics, though, so are not undefeatable.

Empire of the Blazing sun

Currently ruled by Empress Shizuna.

Blazing Sun ships have a very distinctive aesthetic reminiscent of steam trains. Japanese boats are very maneuverable but suffer from restricted firing arcs on their broadsides, requiring precise positioning. The Japanese employ a lot of incendiary weapons and have some very nasty aerial units. They are generally a strong boarding faction.

Theme: Looking like a cross between a bullet train and a steam boiler, Japanese ships have a fast and clunky air about them. They have a giant robotic squid, and hovering squid, and a Pacific Rim Jaeger sized robot that can bring either a huge Naginata or rockets out the ass.

Tactics: Out of the gate, the Empire is a strong faction. Tons of incendiary munitions, crazy fast engines, and the highest base Critical Ratings in the game. A smart enemy admiral will learn quickly to chip away rather then go for a hay-maker shot, as those high CR values will leave them frustrated time and again. The fleet has a various amount of tactics to play with, from long range rocket bombardment to quick and deadly boarding actions. However, they do use a lot more Tertiary weapons compared to most factions, which can be rather hit or miss. Overall a fun faction for those who like to outmaneuver and outlast your opponent.

Federated States of America

Current leader is President Nathaniel Adams.

The second largest nation by territory (the largest being the Russian Coalition), the FSA is the result of the South winning the American Civil War. Slavery had already been abolished by 1825 though, so it was being fought over other issues. The FSA has experienced rapid economic and military development, and now stands to oppose the old Empires of the world in the struggle for supremacy. Adams is particularly determined to make the FSA the most dominant force in the Pacific, regardless of the British, Japanese and Russians attempting the same.

Theme: The ships of the FSA are enormous paddle steamers. Imagine Samuel Clements wet dream powered by nuclear reactors and your getting close. A fair amount of bunting, especially on the newer models. They also have some more average looking style of ships, such as the WW2 style submarine or the flying Goodyear-style blimps.

Tactics: The FSA probably boasts the most impressive long-range firepower in the game, with mountains of rockets and gunnery. Their true strength is consistency, with re-rolls to many of their shots, helping tip the odds in their favor of spiking sixes. Expect to shoot first, shoot later, and then shoot some more with this faction.

Kingdom of Britannia

Currently ruled by Her Britannic Majesty Queen Victoria of the House of Hanover.

The Kingdom of Britannia commands the greatest maritime empire in the world. Although not as large overall as the FSA or the Russian Coalition – at least not yet, according to the Kingdom’s more belligerent politicians – its holdings are present everywhere apart from Antarctica. The Britannians exert control over the entirety of Canada, India (through their semi-independent vassal organisation, the East India Company), the western and southern portions of Australia, New Zealand, many of the Caribbean island chains, the tip of South America, the Indochinese peninsula, half of the East Indies islands and large tracts of territory along the western and southern coasts of Africa from Morocco to the Cape.

Tactics: The British have very good mid range gunnery (RB 2-3) and excellent torpedoes. Average toughness and speed, but every ship has a special rule that means taking damage does not reduce the effectiveness of their shooting as much as it would for the other factions. They also have submarines with giant chainsaws for tearing ships apart.

Prussian Empire

Borders France in the west and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the east, also owning Norway and Sweden. Currently led by His Imperial Majesty Frederick Grunder. The Prussian military consists of a council made of five men. The master of military is Heinrich Grimm, Sire Tannhauser commands the Navy, Sire Sigismund leads the Land ships, Sire Helbrecht commands the aerial forces, and Sire Jaeger commands all Infantry regiments. Makes extensive use of Tesla weapons that kill enemy crew when they fire successfully.

Tactics: The Prussians have very fast frigates and are the strongest boarding faction. They need to get in close before taking too much gunnery first. The faction features an enormous Zeppelin that shoots lightning and doubles as an aircraft carrier.

Republique of France

Ruled by elected President Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, stepson to Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte who died circa 1808. France's army was the terror of Europe in days of the Emperor, but after his death a series of disastrous military involvements crippled it and reduced France's Continental territories to somewhat less than it had before the Revolution, and it lost many more colonies besides. The nation has had a revival, and seeks to reclaim its prestige and glory.

Tactics: The French navy is famous for its flying ships, fitted with anti-grav engines. They have unique heat beam weapons of debatable consistency. If you don't Crit the enemy vessel, you can still roll a "light" Crit, but they do not take as many Hull Points worth of damage. This leads to their AD pools being smaller to compensate. The entire fleet features very high Ack-Ack stats, meaning that they are effective at staving off attacks by tiny fighters, rockets and boarding troops.

Russian Coalition

Ruled by Tsar Vladimir I Nikolaievich Rurik-Novy, the Russian Coalition is the largest nation in the world, claiming an entire sixth of the world's land. Its vast holdings girdle half the northern hemisphere, from the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth to the north-eastern tip of Asia; the Coalition even has borders with the FSA and Britannian Canada, as it also claims the great wilderness of Alaska at the north-western edge of the New World. Its northern border brushes the Arctic, while in the south it abuts the wastes of the Gobi Desert, China and the Ottoman Empire. It also features by far the larges population in the world, except perhaps for China.

Tactics: The Russian Navy features very resilient ships. Most of their fleet has almost no long range gunnery and very limited medium range gunnery, but devastating firepower at close range. They have very low stats for their Auxiliary weapons, making them vulnerable to aircraft and torpedoes. They have masses of low-quality boarding troops. The Russian airforce is generally lacklustre compared to other nations. Overall, the Russian fleet's resilience and firepower encourage straightforward aggression to overwhelm the enemy.

Allied Nations

Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

Sandwiched between the Prussian Empire and the Russian Coalition, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth has always stood in a precarious position in the volatile political intrigues and territorial disputes of central and Eastern Europe. The Commonwealth is not inconsiderable in size – its lands stretch from the Baltic to the Black Sea coasts, with Riga its northernmost city and Odessa the southernmost. Formed from a union of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Commonwealth has a unique system of governance; the elective monarchy. The ruling King of the Commonwealth is elected by a parliamentary body known as the Sejm, which holds the real political power in the nation – in the past several kings have been dismissed from office by the Sejm which felt that their rule was proceeding counter to the best interests of the Commonwealth.

The Commonwealth has some nasty flamethrowers and incendiary weapons spread over a limited number of ground and aerial units.

Ottoman Empire

Once thought to be a power in decline, the Ottoman Dominons have staged a remarkable recovery in their fortunes over the last century. Dominating the eastern end of the Mediterrenean, the Dominion occupies the crossroads of the Eurasian continent and as a result holds enormous influence on all overland trade between Europe and Orient. The Dominion’s central Asian territories also hold vast quantities of mineral oil – black gold whose significance is just becoming apparent to the other major powers. Long considered militarily backwards, the Dominion has recently undertaken a major overhaul and modernisation of its military forces under its dynamic new Sultan and his wise and experienced Grand Vizier.

The Ottomans have access to a nice variety of naval units and some air support. They have a lot of tricks they can pull with weather manipulation, moving sea mines, mortars and powerful broadsides. Their ships are a little on the expensive side, though.

League of Italian States

Of all the great powers of the world, perhaps none are as skilled in the arts of political chicanery and deadly focused violence as the Italian League. The fractious Italian peninsula has long been the scene of wars, dynastic struggles and political infighting, and such matters still exist today, although to a lesser degree, as the one thing that unites the otherwise disparate forces in Italian politics is their desire for territorial expansion – the League fancies itself as the forerunners of a new Italian empire dominating the Mediterranean basin. The Italians spent many years capitalising upon the weaknesses of their neighbours, taking only what they could wrest without provoking outright war.

Chinese Federation

Possessing all the requirements of a true superpower – population, resources and an overall central governing body – circumstances have consistently combined to prevent the Federation from joining the ranks of the great empires. Battered over the course of the centuries by numerous invasion attempts by the Russian Coalition, and with the Ottoman Dominions and the Empire of the Blazing Sun often chewing at its eastern and western extremities, the Federation is also plagued by destructive internal politics – the Mongolian Khanates of the Iron Horde who hold the Federation’s northern border regions with Russia are particularly fractious. The Emperor, although in theory the absolute overlord of the collection of kingdoms that comprise his nation, in fact has to rule with a combination of shrewd diplomacy and political ingenuity, playing off one kingdom against another in order to further his own goals. In addition, the Federation’s strong and well-justified distrust of foreigners and their intentions has prevented it from acquiring overseas aid in its industrialisation process, resulting in comparatively slow progress compared to the rest of the world.

The Chinese have enough models that they could almost be considered another core faction. They have lots of naval models and upcoming releases promise lots of new aerial and ground models as well. Their capital class ships are a little slow. They have lots of low-quality boarding troops. Their boats are quite resilient to taking single points of damage and to critical effects. Almost all of their weaponry either kills crew, starts fires, or corrodes the enemy over time in addition the regular damage they do.

Republic of Egypt

These guys don't have models yet.

The models were included as part of the expansion Kickstarter that ran in November/December 2016 but has not shipped yet.

Socialist Union of South America

And neither do these.

Dominion of Royal Australia and New Zealand

The 1840s witnessed many Australians rebelling against their British rulers for independence. Not all states supported independence though, and some supported the crown. The states of Victoria, Western Australia, Tasmania and South Australia maintained their old loyalties to Britain and stood against the rebels. The Rebels attacked Victoria before being repulsed, and the loyalist counter-attack never came- having learned of the devastation of the American Civil War a diplomatic solution was reached instead, granting rebelling states the right to secede as a separate nation with little blood spilt over the matter.

The Dominion of Royal Australia and New Zealand provide food and mineral resources to the Kingdom of Brittania in addition to troops who fight in her many wars abroad. Standing armies seldom remain on the continent in the aim of maintaining the mutually agreeable peace that stands on the continent.

Commonwealth of Free Australia

A new nation birthed from the states of Queensland, New South Wales and the Northern Territory that seceded after the brief Australian Civil War. Their independance was granted on provision that the new nation did not attempt to influence the loyalist states to revolution and that they maintain peace with the loyalists. The Commonwealth has moderate agricultural and material resources, but its main source of wealth are the mercenaries it provides to nations around the world, particularly to the Empire of the Blazing Sun. This has lead to tensions with Brittania, as the Japanese are at war with them in the Pacific, meaning that Australians have fought each other in the field. It is also known that they are one of the last allies of the Covenant of Antarctica, who supply the Australians with scientific support and advanced weaponry.

Mercenary Factions

There are several mercenary factions that will work for anybody (or almost anybody) for the right price. This boils down to a force being able to take a Merc faction as allies, but they always come from your Non-Core selection, limiting you to only 40% of your force able to be taken from a Mercs faction. There is nothing wrong with making you main fleet a Mercenary faction, however, and several of the factions have been getting more love lately.

Black Wolf

Led by Captain Vladimir Nikonov, a former Russian submarine captain who went AWOL with an experimental Russian submarine because he wanted to be a pirate when he grew up, the Black Wolf is a well funded and large scale Mercs faction based primarily out of a secret base in Greenland. However they have bases all over the world at this point, and raid and pillage when not being contracted out by warring nations. They hold a particularly fondness for destroying Russian shipping, due to their previous ties.

Tactics: If there is a faction that captures a fast and hard hitting raiding force, this is it. With Devastating munitions on almost every gun, a plethora of super-torpedoes via experimental submarines, and a new airforce made to swat opponents from the skies, the Black Wolves can lay a beatdown on any fleet in the game. However, their emphasis on balls-out firepower shows, and they lack many defensive measures. So either hit first and hard, or be taken apart through attrition. Such is the life of a pirate!

Other Factions

For a game that only started in 2010 it already has 20+ factions and several hundred unique models. There are so many bloody factions that no mortal can keep up with them. In addition to those above, the British Raj, East India Trading Company, Kingdom of Denmark, Prussian Scandinavia, Protectorate of Belgium (not really a faction, since its models are simply considered to be from the Republique of France), and Dominion of Canada all have models. There are also various mercenary units that players can field as well.

3.0

With Warcradles acquisition of all of Spartan’s stuff, Dystopian Wars is back! Now having been rolled into Warcradle’s “Wild West Exodus” under the new “Dystopian World” IP.

New Dystopian Wars is Sea only now instead of Land & Sea like in the Spartan days with ground units now being moved to “Armoured Clash” which will be its own game (when the world ends) in a larger scale (A little bigger than Epic or Titanicus) released sometime In the far-far future. Limited ground units for the naval game are planned to be added in the form of tokens representing coastal guns & landed infantry & such, similar to how aircraft carriers work. The models are still of incredible quality, rivalling GW in terms of miniature detail even at the teeny tiny scale of Dystopian Wars. The majority of ships & all of the turrets ar plastic with the big ships made out of big blocks of resin (though a handful are also large blocks of resin). All the ships are new sculpts & so almost all of the ships are different to their Spartan counterparts, even the basic frigates & cruisers have different names & sculpts even if they have the same weapon profiles & roles. You can still proxy Spartan era boats as the new ones, which is something Warcradle stopped encouraging in fact, having released a Proxy Table showing which old ship Counts As what new one no longer produced.

Instead of shit going down in Singapore & the world declaring war on itself, shit has yet to go down in 3.0. The game place takes during a period called "The Interbellum" which involves all the nations of the world building up their armed forces & eyeing one another scornfully, all out war is yet to be declared but multiple skirmishes & isolated campaigns do take place. It is assumed that when Armoured Clash releases it will be accompanied by an advancement in the plot with shit slated to going down in Africa & the Interbellum turning into... Bellum. As explained below some were integrated into one of the Wild West Exodus Racist factions which are: Enlightened, Union, Hex, Holy Order, Watchers, Lawmen, Outlaws & Warrior Nation.

The Great Nations!

Instead of the major & minor nations, there are now 8 factions which all playable nations now belong to, these “Great Nations” are large Alliances/Power Blocks each containing one of the old major nations & a grab bag of the minor ones. The relationship between the members of these factions varies between each one: some are more pragmatic alliances the members of which are only taking part because they don’t want other powers to absorb them by force, others are more straightforward empires with the Major Faction at the centre while a few are less cynical partnerships with each member nation working together for the good of all of them.

The Alliance

The Latin Alliance is France’s faction, with Italy, Spain and Portugal among its members. The Socialist Unity of South America is also here kind of.

In Dystopian Wars, Napoleon was assassinated by the Knights Templar before he could invade Prussia. After Napoleon dies France descends into another civil war while the Imperium takes its place in terrorising Europe. After a period of rebuilding the descendant of Napoleon’s brother (who fled to Spain) reclaimed the French crown (why?) & began reviving the nation, however even a reborn France could not feasibly stand up to the other global powers (mainly the Imperium & Crown) and so, upon realising that the Italian’s had reached a similar conclusion, Napoleon proposed that the two nations form the Latin Alliance as a rival power block to make sure neither country got left.

While each member has its own Navy & fighting style, Napoleon is silly.

France

The Main Alliance Faction. Like in the Spartan lore, France has undergone a major revival after getting stomped & humiliated during the post-Napoleon fiasco (Prussia & Britain using their lands as a battlefield for their own conflict is particular sore spot) & is now determined to prove itself still a force to be reckoned with. The the French fleet comes in 2 parts, a fleet of regular boats that lack in defence but are better at supporting one another than other ships and a touch faster than some of their opponents & the “Levant fleet” of skimmer anti-grav ships that very manoeuvrable, if fragile. Play like a glass cannon of the shooty variety, aiming to zip around shooting lasers and using cover to protect themselves. At the moment though they're a little too fragile and tend to get mangled before the end of turn 2. Definitely in need of their allies to tank some damage for them.

Italy

The League of Italian States has joined the Alliance out of pragmatism & are doing the same things they were in the old lore, slowly expanding their Mediterranean empire without provoking major war & only sending their good ships to aid the other Alliance members when they’re sure it’ll benefit Italy as well, happily enjoying from all the perks of membership (like shared technology) while they’re at it.

The Italians prefer tough, high-quality ships that don’t sacrifice speed for their survivability. They don’t have many bells & whistles, but they do have rams & ablative armour. Their tough nature make them a great Anvil to Frances’s hammer that the frogs really need,but they can still throw down on their own no problem.

Spain

The Kingdom of Spain joins the Alliance through the use of a single unit, which does not yet have a model just artwork & rules. Their one unit is a single airship, it’s an old class of “aero galleon” that’s been retrofitted with newer technologies to become a much more modern flying warship (Putting French Levant tech into airships to just make them better at being airships is an interesting concept). Maybe in the future Spain will get models & become the Alliances aerial sub faction. But for now it’s just 1 unit with no model.

SUSA

The Socialist Unity of South America is Finally Here! Kind of… First of all the Socialist Unity consists of Brazil & not much else, The Union has invaded central America & Most of Northern South America, the Empire has taken Chile & the Imperium has somehow managed to annex Peru. The only reason SUSA became semi-official member of the Latin Alliance in the first place is because they needed help fighting the Union & the Alliance wanted to prove that it was a competent military threat, so anyone hoping for a “Unity” Faction based out of Southern America, too bad it’s just Brazil. There are no “SUSA” models yet, & the SUSA fleet you can field is just a bunch of other Alliance ships with susa written on the sides & their special rules replaced with the “Conscript Crew” & “Rebel Yell” rules from the Confederate Ships.

The Confederates

When the North won the Civil War, many Confederate captains refused to surrender, instead taking their ships South to Brazil, when the Union invaded further south the former Confederate Navy apparently acting as the Brazilian navy until the Alliance showed up, all the SUSA exclusive ships are confederate ships with special rules that make it seem like they’re still being crewed by confederates, so it’s not like the defecting captains brought blueprints with them & the SUSA is using old confederate designs. A “Confederate expats” minor nation is cool idea, but not cool enough to effectively replace the SUSA in-game.

The Confederate navy and by extension the SUSA navy is just the Union navy but without any of the more modern units, just the old workhorses. They can mount Heat Lances but those are really good at point blank range & American Paddleboats don’t close in very fast, also prime heat lance range is very close to boarding range & the “Conscripts” rule that all SUSA units get makes them extra bad repelling boarding actions. They also mount Alliance cannon batteries and broadsides so they can't to the party trick Americans do with their big guns and don't have any carriers, so no Alliance fighters without bringing French models. In practise they play like a worse Union but at least they can act like a meat shield for France’s ships. I mean so can Italy but the mixed nature of the SUSA battlefleets could be handy in smaller games. Maybe.

Portugal

Portugal (Britain's oldest ally you daft idiots WC) is also here. Every faction has 3 different static “ocean platform” units for mission types that involve them. One big gun platform, one regular gun platform & one support platform. For some reason these are all being given to a random minor power that only exists in game as the crews of these immobile platforms, & in the Alliance this is Belgium’s job, I guess the French just ship Belgium crews out to the Platforms & Belgium just controls all Latin Alliance platforms & that’s it.

The Crown

Currently ruled by Queen Victoria.

It’s the British Empire chaps! Great Britain brings the might of the Royal Navy supported by her loyal colonies. Long Live the Queen! (Queen Victoria I mean.)

The Dominant global power for a long time now, the techno-boom of recent times will not see this globe-spanning empire crumble under its own weight, especially after major bureaucratic reforms (nothing’s more exciting than major bureaucratic reforms!)

The Crown & her dominions don’t rely on the Techno-Gimmicks of other Great Powers, instead they do good old fashioned gun batteries & torpedo barrages as best as they can be done, being the only faction with access to Heavy Torpedo turrets (as opposed to regular torpedo turret/Heavy Torpedo Tubes). Their shield tech is somewhat unique though, instead of a flat debuff against attacks targeting the shielded ship “Guardian” generators contribute dice to a shared pool that lets you pick & choose what attacks to debuff & by what extent.

Britain

The main faction in the British Empire (obviously). The Brits now skew towards a “Bunker” playstyle, with slow but tough as nails ships, heavy guns & torpedoes still roll the most damage at Closing range (the 2nd range band) but Heavy Torpedo Turrets are still really good at extreme long range. While rushing them/ teleporting into their ranks can work most British ships are fitted with Heavy Rams for just such an eventuality, also the kickass chainsaw submarines are still here thank god. The brits suffer in the objective game a bit, as being the slow but defensive faction isn’t helpful when you’re trying to capture objectives in the middle of the board.

The Royal Airforce doesn’t make use of Blimps & Airships of other nations, instead they field a mix of heavily armoured Rotor Craft (think the SHIELD Heli carrier from the Marvel universe) that trade speed for armour & extremely large planes which are so big they get classes as very small airships. Also bring some of the smallest dedicated flagships in the game.

Canada

The Dominion of Canada are currently the only sub faction of the Crown to have any real models, including the other Smallest dedicated flagships in the game. A touch more aggressive than the Brits Canada is all in on the shooting-bunker, trading the close-range rams for ablative prow armour. The Canuks have some good Submarines, with a Submersible Aircraft carrier being their only Battleship-sized vessel & some very aggressive cruisers. Most minor nations want to be joined by their faction’s major nation in larger games & this is true of the Canadians, getting supported by the British Rotor Ships in the big Imperium v Crown boxset. But an all-Canada army can certainly be fielded on its own.

The East India Trading Company

The EITC is still around, barely. Only get 1 unique type of ship, a massive Cargo-Dreadnought that has to lead EITC fleets if you want to bring them. The Rest of the faction consists of British ships with the Keywords changed & all the British special rules swapped out for the “East India Privateers” rule which makes them slightly better at everything, but only while you’re winning.

EITC fleets are British Fleets except they play worse from behind, better from the lead & all their lists have to be built around the “Adventurer Class Grand Indiaman” which sacrifices dreadnought level firepower for cruiser level firepower & several powerful support abilities.

Ireland

Ireland is also here. Every faction has 3 different static “ocean platform” units for mission types that involve them. One big gun platform, one regular gun platform & one support platform. For some reason these are all being given to a random minor power that only exists in game as the crews of these immobile platforms, & in the Crown this is Ireland’s job. I guess the Brits just ship Irish crews out to the Platforms & Ireland just controls all Crown platforms & that’s it. Is Ireland not integrated into Britain in this setting's era?

The Knights Templar of the Round Table (Malta)

The Crown’s lore booklet mention King George the 3rd (the mad/mental one who lost America) founding the Knights Templar of the Round Table (or he simply legitimized a much older organisation), granting them Malta as their fortress-headquarters. Rubbish! This secretive order seems to be tasked with the safeguarding of England from the shadows & guiding them through this new age of technology in one piece, even if that means putting the preservation of England before the Preservation of the Empire. Have no models yet & very little lore but hey, the Teutonic Knights have ships in the Imperium so it’s possible that the Templars may get units at some point in the future.

The Nautilus

You know that rad as hell Chainsaw Submarine? Well, when it was being prototyped this pirate lady stole the Prototype & took it on swashbuckling adventures with her rag-tag crew of Badass misfits. Kind of comes across like a Wild West Exodus warband that got cut thank god. Anyway, some more pragmatic members of the British Admiralty have swallowed their pride & convinced the Nautilus’s captain to fight for the Crown once more, presumably with money. Though she is still set on her crusade against the forces of darkness however & will happily work with other faction’s if they pay up.

The Nautilus is a Prototype Morgan-Class that’s much better than the regular kind (I guess the production version is less resource intensive?) boasting extra Torpedoes, a better engine & an Elite crew. You can only bring one since it’s Unique & since it’s a “Mercenary” battlefleet, any oner faction can field it. The Crown does not get any special bonusses for bringing her, other than they fact that the Crown player probably already has a Submarine that they can convert into the Nautilus. Used to be a weird 1-ship only fleet but now the Nautilus can be accompanied by up to 3 other Crown Submarine units, which at the moment mean 1 more Chainsaw sub squadron, 1 pack of the little Canadian torpedo coffins & that’s it, you can’t bring duplicate units in the Nautilus fleet & the Crown doesn’t have a 3rd type od submarine that isn’t also a flagship.

The Others

Free & Australia just seem to be one Australia in 3.0, they don’t have models or rules or art yet though. Same for the British Raj & New Zealand & other Crown holdings. Any models for these minor nations will presumably be a long way off.

The Commonwealth

In Dystopian Wars, Napoleon was assassinated by the Teutonic Knights & it was the Imperium who invaded Russia only to fail miserably & be faced with a hell march home over winter. Russia would still collapse however, as needing the weather to bail them out made the noble classes seem as corrupt & incompetent. This ended with the Russian Commonwealth taking over, led by a State Duma & a now significantly de-powered Tzar (though the current Tzar is increasing his already great personal leverage through good old fashioned schemes), said scheming Tzar has been consistently increasing the size of the Commonwealth, bring the Poland-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Mongolia, Ukraine & several other minor nations into the fold through calculated diplomacy. Now the largest Great Power (land-mass wise) is a true technological power, with more than simple manpower at their back. Some may say that the Commonwealth employs a secret police force to keep dissent down & the people in line, but all true citizens know that the Oprichniks do not exist & are enemy propaganda & anyone who says otherwise can expect a visit.

Russian polymath Helsinki Markov was a founding member of the Enlightened, until he turned out to be a Spy & stole the Promethius (subtle) a prototype Generator ship filled with experimental tech the turbo-nerds were keeping to themselves, studying the ship allowed the Commonwealth to catch up with the rest of the world technologically & reverse engineering the Generators allowed them to fill their coffers by selling the Blueprints. Commonwealth tech includes cool looking Cryo-Generators that shoot beams of ice & can make Iceberg Terrain on the map, as well as Railguns that do well at every range.

No, I don't know why they aren't still called the Coalition.

Russia

During the Decemberist revolution, it was the Tzars own generals who deposed him in the end, tiring of his incompetence & excess during both the Prussian invasion & the revolutionary war. Soon afterwards a ceasefire was called & terms were arranged. Grand Duke Nikolai Rurik-Novy, a Decemberist war-hero who had reforged the scattered revolutionary cells into a coherent “White Army”, would be the new Tzar, ruling alongside the newly formed State Duma. After spending much of his rule modernising the army & drinking himself into an early grave, the old Tzar died passing the title to his son Vladimir, who had spent most of his life getting elected to the State Duma as well as scheming his way into being the real power behind the throne, & may or may not have hurried his old man to the grave. It’s at this point Markov steals the Prometheus giving the Commonwealth a boost in both tech & wealth. Vladimir is a scarily competent leader (unlike his drunk of a father) & is eager to increase -his own personal list off titles- the power of the Commonwealth, the calculated politicking that brought most member nations into the fold now targeted at the holdings of other Great Powers.

While the old Russian Navy was very short ranged the new Russians can do well at any distance, their Railguns literally being just as effective at every range, they even field the biggest gun in the game for long-range critical existence failures, Drill-Rams on some of their ships for up close & Cryo-Generators to freeze ships in the mid-range. This makes Russia & by extension the Commonwealth a tough & flexible force, though they still lean towards the closer range with those Drills & Generators. Also bring field Ekranoplans for skirmish shenanigans.

Ukraine

Ukraine doesn’t have a particular story attached to it as to how it was brought into the commonwealth, but they sure are here. Ukraine is the Submarine subfaction, all of their models are submarines & all Commonwealth subs are Ukrainian (almost all of them anyway), They have little torpedo coffins, good cruiser-sized subs & even massive subs. They don’t have a dedicated flagship, with the Ukrainian fleet giving the flagship rule to their largest sub (which normally doesn’t have it). Your opponent in general doesn’t want these things popping up behind them but the little Torpedo coffins are particularly good for their points. The big submarine is actually built from the charred remains of the Deathbringer blueprints after Nikonov stole it & burnt the factory down/ & a worse Deathbringer is no bad ship.

Mongolia

Mongolia is also here. Every faction has 3 different static “ocean platform” units for mission types that involve them. One big gun platform, one regular gun platform & one support platform. For some reason these are all being given to a random minor power that only exists in game as the crews of these immobile platforms, & in the Commonwealth this is Mongolia’s job, I guess the Russians just ship Mongolian crews out to the Platforms & Mongolia just controls all of the Commonwealth’s platforms & that’s it. Mongolia doesn’t even have a navy, it’s a Land Locked Steppe. If ever there was a faction that only needed exist as a ground army & maybe an air force it was this. Well, actually, it does has a navy, it's the tiniest navy consisting of one ship of 6-7 officers who might not have learned swimming patrolling a lake connected to Russian river. Originally created by the Soviet Union to transport materials to Russia.

The Black Wolf

Captain Nikonov & his Russian defectors that stole a valuable & now irreplaceable prototype submarine so that they could live out a life of Piracy, killing many Russian sailors & engineers & civilians in the process. The fleet of pirates that once targeted Russian shipping specifically. Well now they’re now back in line with the Kremlin.

Apparently Tzar Vladimir’s daughter Anastasia was won over by stories of his daring-do & roguish charm & set out on a mission to woo the pirate captain to annoy her father. Meeting him in Alaska she secured his Hand in marriage & bringing the famed mercenary back under the Tzar’s influence, with the Tzar going so far as to gift him one of those Mobile Fortresses’ as an engagement gift (which he has named The Anastasia).

Was seeking out Nikonov in Alaska just a rebellious outburst by the Princess to piss off her father? Or was it a more calculated move to bring this Rouge Nation under control? & if so by whom, the Tzar, his Daughter or both of them? Was marriage always part of the plan? or did Captain Nikonov net himself a Princess’s hand in marriage purely through his bad boy attitude & ruggish good looks? It’s up in their air at the moment, but either way these Black Wolves are the Tzar’s dogs now & alongside regular mercurial activities they are often sent by the Kremlin sink ships that the Russians officially don’t want sunk. The Tzar’s rivals included.

Now based out of that Mobile Stronghold mentioned above, which is usually in Alaska & not Greenland, the Black Wolf no longer has devastating munitions on every gun that doesn’t have them by default, only fields regular torpedoes, & only has a single experimental submarine (the Deathbringer). Now they are a mish mash of all the Ukrainian Subs as well as more aggressive of Russia’s ships. They are still a Merc fleet though so a single battlefleet can be fielded by every faction, which is much better since the assortment of Commonwealth ships is a lot more valuable in a faction that can’t take those by default. No longer such an emphasis on balls-out firepower but they also no longer lack so many defensive measure either.

All ships in the fleet get a special rule that makes them better at boarding & while under pressure, but only if you’re winning. The Commonwealth can take 2 Black Wolf Battlefleets, one led by the Deathbringer, & one led by the Anastasia. If the Black Wolf had access to Flagships that weren’t Unique & limited to one per game then the Commonwealth could take as many Black Wolf fleets as they wanted, but they don’t so they can’t.

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

Was originally invaded by the Russian Commonwealth only to fight them off with Steam-Punk Winged Hussars. This lasted for 15 years until a succession crisis allowed the Tzar to snag himself the position of Poland's king, resulting in the Russian Commonwealth becoming the Russian-Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth after the signing of a very Poland-sided treaty (the name was shortened to The Commonwealth after Mongolia joined). No models or units or art yet.

The Enlightened

The Covenant of the Enlightened is the Covenant of Antarctica of old. Their capital & the bulk of their stuff are still in Antarctica, but now Enlightened members are also present across the globe in “Promethean Complexes”, Large advanced enclaves that serve as Fortress-Laboratories for the scientists within. Antarctica in fact consists of 2 especially large Complexes built next to each other, one on the Coast & one on top of “The Vault”, a crashed Alien Spaceship the secrets of which most of the advanced technology in Dystopian Wars is based on. These Enclaves are kept around by the nations they reside within partly because the techno-fortresses are incredibly well defended & partly because they make & sell advanced parts & machinery to them, Britain’s flying-battleship fleet for instance were designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel from his Complex & probably uses many intricate parts that he supplies while any Sturginium & RJ-1027 the Crown might need also comes from members of the Enlighted (RJ-250 especially). The Enlightened is also far more of a collection of scientists then a hard & fast nation state. So while the Crown might fight & even go to war with other members of the Enlighted, their relationship the Brunel is going to be much better, hell some “Peers” as the scientist caste is known have straight up defected to their home countries. Add to that the fact that if you destroy the only complex in the world that makes the bits needed for the homing part of homing torpedoes then you’ve shot yourself in the foot & earned the ire of every nation in the world that used those torpedoes as well.

It should also be noted that The Enlightened in 3.0 is much less unified than the Covenant of Antarctica that came before. They are led by their founder Barnabas Sturgeon, “The Vault” serves as a kind of capital & the Enlightened certainly do look out for each other, but each Complex is its own kingdom & is doing its own thing. Especially since the Covenants different members are split between 2 schools of thought.

The Custodians believe the nations of the world are to warlike & uncivilised to be worthy of the advanced alien technologies of the Vault, that after sharing their early findings with the world the result was flying battleships & esoteric killing machines so to share more is to abet apocalypse (We discovered WMDs in the Vault & realised those barbarians can’t be trusted with nuke, similar to their motivation under the Spartan) . While the Egalitarians who think the Alien technology of the Vault should be shared sold to the rest of the world & sure maybe millions would die at the hands of advanced weapons we created but… We’d make a fucking killing selling those weapons & also out Fortress-Laboratories will double as nuclear fallout shelters. Also, we should help mankind advance & grow & stuff sure.

Initially the Egalitarians were very small in number having been expelled from Antarctica following Markov’s betrayal. Until Burson Carpathian got his hands on a Hex shard (a broken piece of an Alien god. Unrelated to the Alien spaceship in Antarctica. Yes it’s a little confusing.) & discovered he could milk it, this forbidden God-Milk could be refined into RJ-1027 which can then be used to make Super Petrol, Extra Killy Guns, Performance Enhancing Drugs/Psychotics & all sorts of other stuff. It is fuel & for a ton of stuff now, mixed into the ammo for a lot of weapons, is used in Many of the Enlightened’s most fucked up genetic experiments & it gives the Egalitarians a major boost in influence, since they can trade it to Custodians for vault based tech & can buy from the source at a discount, provided of course that their view of Egalitarianism is the same as Carpathian's (I.E sell weapons, shack up in Complex, watch the tendies flow in as the world burns). This is what he did during the American Civil war, earning tons of cash & materials at the cost of millions of lives over the course of the conflict. They are all members of the Enlightened however, & Antarctica is only the capital, so while they have their major disagreements, they all look out for one another, & all horde the really good stuff for themselves (people like Tesla who start full on serving a nation instead of just selling deadly schematics to them are kicked out wholesale). It should be noted that while the Custodians may have arguably more noble end goals, they are in no way morally superior to the Egalitarians. In fact some of the fluff texts that describe the way Non-Peer (Peers are the scientist caste) members of the Enlightened are treated show a pretty cruel & Darwinian culture has been forced upon the lower castes (the Fighter Planes are crewed by quadriplegic cyborgs literally wired into them, yet they still get used like the disposable drones the old Spartan era Antarcticians fielded) & while each complex does things differently, Antarctica is definitely breeding people into an animalistic warrior caste to fill out the boarding parties of their unique ships. Carpathian’s Egalitarians may be uncaring arms dealers but the “Only we may be trusted with the secrets of the Vault.” tenant of Custodian thinking reads less like an indictment of the Great Power’s warlike nature & more like simple hubris. Can nukes really be trusted to them either? They are the ones fielding battle time-machines after all.

Unlike Most other Great Powers, the Enlightened doesn’t have minor nations or sub factions (you could call every Promethean Complex could be its own sub faction, but they are all the same rules-wise). In battle they still field smaller amounts of the most advanced warships in the game, however they aren’t totally focused on Long Range warfare like they were before. In fact some of their fancy Microwave guns work best at point blank range. Now they tend to want to use their Techno-Defences & Pseudo-Submarines to close the gap so they can unleash Particle Cannons & Aetheric Oscillators & their other technobabble themed war crimes at their most effective range bands (which tend to be closer). They are rather tricky for new players to learn, mainly because all their esoteric weapons & special effects are a lot to keep track of for someone who’s also learning the game (they do not possess regular Gun Batteries, just Particle Cannons, Swarm Torpedoes & Microwave Emitters). Essentially an elite faction that favours being in short range, outnumbering them is easy & effective but their fancy ships are full of advanced repair apparatus so will still be hard to bring down even under weight of fire. Can also launch robot whales like underwater fighter squadrons, which is nice.

I know what you’re thinking. Why aren’t they called 'The Covenant'? That’s what people called them before & it would fit better with the other faction’s naming conventions. That’s a good question. The answer is probably cause their integration into the Enlightened faction in Wild West Exodus.

The Imperium

The Prussian Imperium consists of Prussia & It’s Imperial Holdings: Scandinavia, All the former HRE states, Croatia, Denmark as well as several other minor nations. The Teutonic Knights are also still around & have formed a semi-secret society. Their aims are mysterious but definitely pro-Prussia & despite being a secretive society of enigmatic knights they also maintain a large scholarly core (the Knight-Luminaries, it was the kidnap of 2 renowned scientists to forcefully induct them as luminaries that first spurred the founders of The Enlightened to found The Enlightened) as well as their own navy. It was the Templars who assassinated Napoleon, allowing Emperor Heinrich Otto to go on his own invading spree instead, invading Scandinavia, the former HRE & large Swathes of France, things went well until the Krauts imitated Napoleon’s invasion of Russia. Terrible winter included after the hell march home the reformed Imperial army was decisively defeated by the Crown at Waterloo. Apparently the first use of Landships in battle, not sure by which sides if not both, the end result was a final blow for the Imperium & it all went to shit, Otto was deposed & the mysterious Templars who had assisted in his accension but turned a blind eye to his Mania, turned a blind eye to his downfall as well. Afterwards much of Prussia’s conquests were taken back, except for Scandinavia, almost all of the Former HRE & Croatia meaning the Prussian Imperium persevered. Now having recovered under a pair of non-maniacal Kaisers the Imperium is ready for the coming storm & probably intent on taking the rest of Europe this time. Have the enviable power of being Warcradles favourite faction, this isn’t GW levels of favouritism, but The Imperium is always first to get new models when a cycle of releases begins, it was the first to get mechs, & it even gets the single largest ship is the game as a freebie alongside all its other stuff. It was the first to get dreadnoughts (in the form of those massive Airships) & it was the first to get a proper fleet for its minor faction as well.

The Imperium & its members make heavy use of Volt Guns & other electrified weapons, to the point were they can’t bring normal guns rockets & torpedoes, just Volt Guns, Shock Rockets, Spearschluders (Electric Torpedoes) & several other lightning weapons with German names. Crew can’t be directly killed anymore so instead the “Voltaic” weapons spread disorder among their targets & fuck up shield generators if they roll right.

Prussia

The Major Nation of the Imperium, “An Army with a State” Prussia holds a large dominion over central Europe. Described by Napoleon as having “Hatched from a cannonball” the small but industrialised nation was always able to punch well above its weight & now even more so with the Imperium taking care of its non-military needs.

Prussian ships have a modern Knife-Like silhouette & a Rail-like modular system. Prussian Ships have Train tracks on them & the guns & other fixtures are pulled off & pushed on by train, allowing the Prussian navy to retrofit itself at breakneck pace. Larger ships can swap out their guns in a day, but the Cruises don’t even have their bridges built into the hull, allowing the Prussians to completely repurpose them at a drop of a hat. Say you don’t need dedicated Artillery ships for a while, just wheel off the Heavy Bombard, Move the citadel forward & roll on the Volt Guns Batteries to make a good old Cruiser, or wheel on the runway & turn it into a Aircraft carrier for a week or two, & you need to retrofit again all you need is a dock with a railway & some decent trains (though fixing everything down & plumbing everything in probably takes longer & require teams of technicians, but most of the hooking up could be done outside of drydock or even while at sea).

The Luftwaffe maintain a large force of Airships & even flying Dreadnoughts.

In game Prussia & the imperium at large are extremely aggressive, they are fast, good at boarding actions, all their guns face forward & they want to get in close because that’s Lightning cannon range. Generally aiming to blitz the enemy down. Though they are all geared for speedy aggression they don’t really have the level of specialisation that the rail-system would allow them to achieve. Which is a shame since the Omni-Ships are a really cool idea for a fleet of specialised-generalists.

Teutonic Knights

The Teutonic Knights turned into a secret militant pro-German society who aim to do…something... Unite Germany? Protect the German peoples? Who knows, it involves a lot of spy work & being shady. Maintain a large number of Knight luminaries that research new weapons & technologies for the Knights & the greater Imperium, the Imperium’s world-famous High-Speed Railway is probably down to them.

In game the Teutonic Knights play like a smaller & more Elite Imperium. Ships have more gadgets & Elite Crews but cost more. Often they can be mixed in with the Prussians. Also maintain the Ice Maidens alongside the Prussians.

Scandinavia

Fuck around & the Viking comes out. The Scandinavians were one of the first conquests by the Imperium, yet they seem to be pretty alright under Prussian rule & maintain a sizable navy, definitely one of the largest among the other minor nations at time of writing.

The aggressive boarding themed faction of the Imperium, which is impressive considering how aggressive the rest of the Imperium is. Able to move incredibly fast turn one to close the distance, the Scandinavians use a lot of close-range weaponry & are all about boarding actions, actually getting better at them as things onboard become more chaotic (meaning crippling their ships doesn’t stop them taking yours).

Bavaria

The landlocked Bavarian mountains don’t produce many sailors, but airships are another story. A short story though. Currently exist only as 2 Airships that can be built from the Prussian airship. Can be fielded in the Bavarian air fleet which is the 2 Airships they get & up to 1 ”Maximillian” class vessel. The Maximillian isn’t out yet & has not art or rules & will presumably be built from the Prussian big airship set when that gets released on its own.

The Train Locomotives that the Prussian fleet use to move the guns & stuff on their rail-ships are all Bavarian built so there’s that.

The Scions of Jutland

This is the Imperium’s Mercenary fleet. Apparently. Don’t have rules yet & are just a blank fleet card with the words “Coming Soon tm” on it. Will presumably act like the Black Wolf & will maybe be released alongside a potential Kingdom of Denmark fleet (the Danes aren’t in the game at all at the moment).

Croatia

Croatia is also here. Every faction has 3 different static “ocean platform” units for mission types that involve them. One big gun platform, one regular gun platform & one support platform. For some reason these are all being given to a random minor power that only exists in game as the crews of these immobile platforms, & in the Imperium this is Croatia’s job, I guess the Prussians just ship Croatian crews out to the Platforms & Croatia just controls all of the Imperium’s platforms & that’s it.

The Union

The Union of Federated States, or the Americans. The Yanks are here too after fighting a brutal civil war they’ve rebuilt & are fighting the world as an emerging Great Power all on its own, but also can’t properly secure its own western frontier (Wild West Babyyyyy!!!!). In the Dystopian Wars cannon slavery was rather non dystopic-ly outlawed across the states before the Civil War began (the invention of robots made it obsolete), instead the “Ore Wars” as they are known were fought between the North & the South over… Mining rights? Considering that millions died & the losing Confederates were so pissed off at the Yankees that they committed double treason & took their surviving ships to the SUSA to continue fighting rather than accept peace, a conflict over resources seems like a pretty petty flashpoint (perhaps that’s the point). Anyway, Carpathian from the Enlightened has set up his Promethean Complex (the Warcradle) in the west on top of his super-secret God-Milking chamber & made a pretty penny selling his RJ-1027 enhanced everything to both sides of the conflict as well as every other techno-doodad he could acquire. war-robots, nuclear powered mechanical, bizarre super weapons, advanced parts for warships, the works. What was originally a simple dispute over Mining Rights that could well have been hashed out in a courtroom spiralled over into a colossal war, the exact extent that Carpathian stoked the embers of the conflict is uncertain as the lore extract which blames his for everything is also explicitly a piece of in-universe propaganda but his rampant drms dealing to both sides definitely turned the conflict into one that would claim millions of lives & is the text book example for why The Enlightened stopped sharing technology with the rest of the world. Maybe Carpathian was intending the Ore-Wars to rage indefinitely, selling both sides just enough weaponry to prolong the conflict until both sides ran out of money, maybe in his mind this was some sort of Darwinian test to find the strongest half of America but the Ore Wars were ended early when fellow Enlightened Egalitarian Nikolai Tesla defected from both The Enlighted & The Imperium & joined The North. Providing them with his Tesla Technology & Tesla Tanks which allowing the Yankees to deal a final blow to the South, ending the conflict much to the Carpathian’s vocal annoyance. After rebuilding the Union has now turned itself to the one thing that matters most. GLORIOUS CONQUEST! Steamrolling Mexico & all of Central America & invading large swathes of Northern South America, only stopping at modern day Brazil because the Alliance intervened, Union Forces are also pushing North into Canada, turning the entire border region into contested territory. Is also notably full of Enlightened Enclaves with no less than 6 Promethean Complexes set up in its North American heartland, not counting Tesla’s Pipeworks which is also a Promethean Complex but seems to be fully a part of the Union, as in Tesla left both the Imperium & the Enlightened & is full on an American asset. I guess that’s option No. 2 for Enlightened Egalitarians who don’t like the Carpathian approach.

It should also be noted that Abraham Lincoln only faked his death & is in fact alive & leading a secret service of celebrity spies against evils unknown. They are the Union faction of Wild West Exodus. The Union Navy still make proud use of the Paddleboat though their new models are less like press-ganged river-liners & more like proper paddle-warships. Though they like Tough ships that can take a beating, the good old UF of S are really all about the firepower. Not putting much stock into fancy Esoteric weapons, the Union build their naval cannons with revolving chambers like massive six shooters that give them the option to rapidly fire off all loaded chambers in a single devastating salvo, barrel heat be dammed! Paddleboats aren’t super-fast, but they can take a beating & contra-rotation allows Union ships to turn on a dime & point their guns at anything they damn well please. This combination of tough & easy to use ships with simple weapons make the Union an ideal starting point for newer players learning the game. Though the ability to turn 90 degrees at a whim may teach some bad habits. The Union is the other Great Power that doesn’t have any sub factions, Mexico & the other conquered Hispanic nations don’t get their own army (They’re proud States of America now. Whether they like it or not) & while Tesla’s Experimental Arc-Ships can be taken as their own unique fleet, being in R&D doesn’t make you your own special minor-nation. With that said.

The Honourable Eclipse Company

Similar to how the Black Wolf Mercs are now mixed into the Commonwealth, the Honourable Eclipse Company are now a part of the Union. Unlike the Black Wolf however, The HEC aren’t out yet. Just a blank fleet card with their name on it marking them out as a mercenary fleet that will one day be part of the Union.

The Sultanate

The Ottoman Sultanate is The Ottoman Empire, no longer split in 2 & has been promoted to Great Power status! Was in something of a decline until a wise & great Sultan followed by his OK son set about reforming, it wasn’t until The Order showed up & gifted them some enigmatic technology that the former sick man of Europe saw a change of fortunes & is now firmly on the up & up.

The Sultanate’s unique tech is mainly from the Order, including the special engines they use to make their ships go fast as well as portal generators & really killy Particle Beams (laser guns from space).

Turkey

Having gone through a similar decline as the real-world Ottoman Empire until Sultan Mehmed the Learner took over & turned things around. Not sharing his predecessors propensity for the appearance of progress over actual progress, Mehmed proceeded to unglamorously drag his nation into the modern day, revitalising industry, reforming institutions & reinvigorating the armed forces. Stabilizing much of the crumbling empire in the process. While these weren’t the flashy shows of wealth that the people expected from their Sultan, as time went on & his public projects bore fruit the people realised the good his “New Learning” was doing for Turkey & by the end of his reign he was regarded as one of the countries greatest leaders. Though while he was a great ruler, he was lacking as a father. He only had 2 children; an elder daughter named Scheherazade. & a younger son sired from a Concubine, name Prince Mustafa. Scheherazade was neglected & could never truly win her father’s approval, no matter how well she did in her academic studies, while Mustafa, being the only male, was doted on by the Sultan & could do no wrong in his eyes. Scheherazade started to spend more & more time abroad in the universities of Europe, finding better company in her scientific peers while Mustafa was prepped for the throne, Scheherazade was notably not invited to her brother’s coronation & instead given a generous stipend in return for studying with the Enlightened & never coming back. Mustafa share’s his father’s passion for The New Learning, Striking a deal with The Order for new alien tech. But he also has the propensity for large shows of wealth with small, short-term benefits had originally caused the Ottoman Empire to decline as it did. So extravagant is the Sultan & so willing is he to spend money that his people call him Mustafa the golden, or Mustafa the Gold Plated behind his back, for he has actually managed to drain the royal coffers to the point that his vizier has started borrowing money from the Ottoman mafia just to keep the parties flowing, & though the Sultan is a wise diplomat able to successfully convince The Order to share technology, said vizier may be the only thing keeping the actual Turkish government afloat.

The once decrepit Turkish navy has been brought back from the brink, first by the New Learning & then by shared Order technology these second-hand British hulls have been turned into lean-mean-killing machines. The Great Powers like to think the Sultanate is a paper tiger, fast sure but useless if actually challenged. & that’s a delusion the Sultan is all to happy to let them keep.

In battle the Turkish are speedy glass cannons, their ships are fast, can turn batter than anyone else’s & are even faster if they choose to move in a straight line instead. They aren’t super durable, but they are more then manoeuvrable enough to keep out of the enemies best lines of fire. In battle the Turks want them to be where the enemy doesn’t want them to be, if the opponent wants to sit back & shoot then the Turks can close in, if the enemy wants to get close then the Turks can keep them away, if the enemy have forward facing weaponry then the Turks can hit them from the sides no problem etc. etc. on top of that they can stick any 2 Cruiser sized ships together to make a single Mass 3 Catamaran that acts as a kind of pocket battleship, letting them cheaply bring multiple large ships to act as a more durable core for what might otherwise be a rather delicate force. A difficult force to pull off correctly but very deadly if you do.

Actually, have a very large array of Mass 3 ships since every variety of Cruiser has a Catamaran form it can be built into.

The Order

OK. so. The Hex yeah? You know that broken alien god-thing? The One the Enlightened are milking for Rj-250? Yeah well the Order are a group of Religious Zealots formed in direct opposition to the aforementioned alien god thing & all it’s horrible followers. It’s probably been shattered into a bunch of shards by them & has been chased all over the galaxy by them as well, with Earth being it’s last refuge. Invading Earth is out of the question since the Hex-Shards that fled here centuries ago are now hidden all over the place by its gribbly alien cultists & invading a planet just because some refugees fled there without the worlds knowledge is a dick move & against their code (it would inspire all the Earthlings to join up with the Hex & use the resulting gribbly mutations to fight of the Order). so The Order have gone in as small sects of religious warrior-zealots to places showing Hex activity to kill Hex-Cultists & maybe capture a Hex Shard while they’re at it. Humans are considered neutral parties usually unless; they want to join the Crusade in which case they may be allowed to prove themselves, attack members of the Order/have joined the hex in which case they must be purged or show signs of beings horribly mutated by the Hex’s terrible influence in which case they are in desperate need of a mercy killing. This was until extremist Greek rebels showing signs of Hex mutations started using Hex weaponry to raid ottoman positions. After sending in the Templars to do a purge the Order forces started working alongside the Sultanate to purge the cultists & forced the Hex back into hiding, at which point Sultan Mustafa convinced Order leadership decided now was a good time to make a friend amongst the natives & the Order began sharing tech with the Sultanate. The shared knowledge & technology was well received by the Sultanate admiralty & in return this small militant order of crusaders get a Great Power on their side in the fight against the Hex, which is presumably how a faction who can just about whip up a Skirmish sized warband in Wild West Exodus is now also able to build equip its own navy, the Sultanate is providing the raw materials & manpower to make the things & do all the Donkey work onboard while the Order just provide the technology & do all the exiting boarding actions & captaining.

Yes this is a faction of Aliens, there are probably humans mixed in but this is an alien faction using alien technology to hunt down other aliens. No, this is not related to the Alien spacecraft crashed in Antarctica that the Enlightened are studying, those are different aliens. No, they can’t bring their spaceships to join in the fun, don’t know why it’s probably explained better in Wild West Exodus where they are also a faction alongside the Hex & the 3rd race of aliens who built those spaceships the Enlightened are studying.

In battle the Order play much like a smaller more elite Turkey, their ships apparently packing even more advanced tech than some of the Enlightened ships they sure do talk the talk with deadly Judgement-Lances on their vessels, making them an even cannon-ier glass cannon.

Egypt

The Egyptians don’t have much lore yet. And they don’t have models either but they do have artwork & all their ships have test-rules in the Orbats so we know what their navy looks & plays like.

The Egyptians like their hovercrafts. Everything they have is a skimmer. From small Hovercrafts to massive Hover-Strongholds Egypt is the Skimmer faction through & through.

Look very similar to France’s Levant Fleet in that fact, except they pack a different variety of laser.

League of Crimson

Remember Scheherazade? The eldest Daughter of the Mehmed the Learner who was paid a healthy stipend to stay in the Enlightened & never come back? Well, she’s back now & she’s brought an eclectic army & gentlemen Rouges with her to act in the Sultanate’s best interests, whether the Sultan wants them to or not. If she’s planning to take the throne for herself once all of the Sultan’s debts get called in or if she really is just here to help her brother out is unknown.

Don’t have rules yet, much like the Scions of Jutland or Honourable Eclipse Company these guys are just a mystery merc fleet for the moment. Scheherazade was a pioneer of hovercraft technology during her time in the Enlightened & probably brought over most of the tech that the Egyptians are using, so perhaps the League will be released alongside them similar to how the Black Wolves were released alongside the Ukrainians.

Tripoli

Tripoli is also here. Every faction has 3 different static “ocean platform” units for mission types that involve them. One big gun platform, one regular gun platform & one support platform. For some reason these are all being given to a random minor power that only exists in game as the crews of these immobile platforms, & in the Sultanate this is Tripoli’s job, I guess the Ottomans just ship Tripolitania crews out to the Platforms & Tripoli just controls all of the Sultanate’s platforms & that’s it.

The Empire

Currently ruled by the Council of Celestial Emperors, with the Empress of Vietnam being the eldest & thus defacto in charge.

Ok so, some factions are easy to introduce. Like the Crown is the British Empire with Heli carriers, the Union is America with robots. Some factions need a little explanation, like the Latin Alliance is France & its cronies banding together so they aren’t left behind by other Great Powers (somewhat mirroring irl Latin Bloc) after Templars assassinated Napoleon Bonaparte, some factions are like the Celestial Empire…

The Celestial Empire consists of China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam & a bunch of other Asian nations. It was formed when the Emperor Ming (not quite fitting Emperor name or title at that era unless it's a Flash Gordon thing) took to the throne & was faced with a conundrum, what to do about the cycle of corruption that was constantly befalling Chinese Emperors as well as every other royal lineage in the world? He was a Great Emperor sure, but his son? His Grandson? Sooner or later the Ming Dynasty would fall into the same decadence & incompetence that had allowed him to overthrow his predecessor. The only thing that could save his Dynasty would be if he himself was immortal. & it’s here when things get weird.

Shortly afterwards Ming is contacted by Tian Shang Warrior Monks who have found “The Celestial Gift” a shard of the Hex (A powerful Space Alien, unrelated to the Watchers which are the aliens that the Enlightened have been studying. The Hex is its own dark Alien god-thing pursued across the galaxy by a religious order keen on snuffing it out & has been broken into a bunch of shards. As Wild West Exodus factions: Hex, Holy Order & Watchers) They had trapped the artifact in a cage of jade which prevented it from communicating with the other Hex Shards, & thus allowed them & later Ming to wield the full extent of its poorly defined powers without the threat of an evil alien worshipping cult showing up to take their god back. Using its powers he brought the leaders of all the different nations surrounding China & brought them in on his plan, using the Powers of the Hex every leader would be psychically linked with one another in a semi-conscious dream-state through which they can instantly plan & co-ordinate their actions as leaders, in this Dream State no one could obscure the truth from their fellow members meaning they are physically unable to lie to one another, ensuring that the members of this Celestial Council would only be able to work towards the progress of the Empire as a whole. Each member state would have its own specialty (I.E. Hunting, The Navy, The Army, Agriculture), though each member state still does non-specialty things to a lesser extent, I.E though Japan is the head of the navy all nations still have a coastal defence force, all of them have an army, only one nation was the Empire’s dedicated breadbasket but all nations practice agriculture to some extent. Officially every leader who sat on the council was equal but in practise the Eldest member was defacto-in-charge, also China is far & away the largest & also houses the Celestial Gift, which probably gives them some extra sway. Since Ming was wielding literal magic, every leader he approached believed him & elected to join his Empire, allowing Ming to move onto step 2 of his Imperial Project: ““Immortality””.

Basically, every Celestial Council member would tell their subjects that the Celestial Gift” was making them immortal & at the end of their life, their body would be carried to a special chamber where they would lay in state for a day or two before emerging once more; young, alive & rejuvenated for the next lifetimes worth of rule. This was a trick however, as every Council member would groom their progeny to look like them, have the same mannerisms & personality & be essentially a younger clone of themselves, once the Council Member dies, they would be taken into the rejuvenation chamber whereupon they would be carried out through a secret door & cremated by trusted attendants while the Mini-Me takes their place as them. The new leader would sit in the rejuvenation chamber long enough to be officially inducted into the Celestial Council by the other members before exiting & taking over the nation. It can be assumed that the intense mental conditioning required to groom a child into being their parent is assisted by the nebulous powers of the Celestial Gift, as potential Aires are able to sort of enter & perceive the Celestial dream while only the ordained council members can access the magic skype levels of immersion.

TL:DR, the Not!Shaolin Monks captured a bit of an alien god & helped Emperor Ming use this god-bit to create a psychic Skype-call with a bunch of other Asian monarchs that lets them Co-Ordinate a special Empire where every Member-State has it’s own area of specialty & the leaders themselves are pretend immortals because they meticulously groom their children to be little clones of them to take their place on the throne & in the magic Skype call after they die.

TL:DR x2 All the East Asian nations are unified in an Empire. No one nation is “in charge” & they all inexplicably don’t despise one another due to mind control aliens and inbreeding.

The Empire is famous for its “Alkahest” a Universal solvent that essentially acts as green-super Napalm. Presumably it’s made from Hex-Goo similar to the Rj-1027 produced by The Enlightened, though The Empire is keen to keep it all to itself. In battle this green fire is employed by all sorts of incendiary weapons & munitions, these Alchemical weapons cause extra disorder to ship they hit.

China

You may think that if Japan is the country in charge of the Empire’s navy, then they would be the main faction considering this is a Naval combat game. You’d be wrong. China is the “Main” faction of the Empire, but Japan is a very close second. They both have the same amount of Ship models; more Japanese ships are planned while China has test rules for “Sky Fortresses” which have yet to be released. China uses Paddlewheel ships mounted with massive flamethrowers in the front, favouring Alchemical rocket batteries & flamethrowers to stack disorder tokens on their enemies, pretty flexible in what they want but the paddlewheels make them slower & more agile than other ships. Also bring flying Dragon mechs which are neato.

Japan

As the head of the Empires navy, you’d think Japan would have by far the biggest navy but at the moment they are tied with China for number of ships (planned released & test rules none-withstanding). Japan is going more for Quality vs Chinas Quantity, with every vessel having good stats, elite crews & better deployments abilities, also having more types of ships doesn’t mean you have more ships total. Essentially the Empire’s other major nation the Japanese favour more aggressive ships with good stats, they don’t spam flamethrowers & rockets like the Chinese do instead relying on normal weapons with the odd Alkahest shell. Also use regular ships instead of Paddleboats just so you know they’re serious. The old Blazing Sun aesthetic of train-ships is a little toned down, so they look like actual warships. They look very imposing & advanced without looking like Knock-Off Enlightened. As is fitting of their Elite nature. Notably their Fleet-Carrier launches “Exo-Subs” instead of planes, what makes a flying submarine not a plane is unclear & the distinction may actually be entirely political (see Korea).

Indonesia

The Madjas are also here. Every faction has 3 different static “ocean platform” units for mission types that involve them. One big gun platform, one regular gun platform & one support platform. For some reason these are all being given to a random minor power that only exists in game as the crews of these immobile platforms, & in the Empire this is Indonesia’s job, tbh with The Empires weird delegation of different parts of warfare to different nations Indonesia manning every nation Sea-Platforms & little else makes more sense than it does in other factions.

Korea

Korea was originally the head of Hunting & Hunters when the Empire started (why an entire nation needs to be in charge of Hunting & Hunters is anyone’s guess) but when Planes were invented Korea managed to snag the fucking sky as their responsibility. Literally all planes are flown by Koreans for that reason, even Japanese carriers launch Korean planes with special Korean rules for the planes (hence why the big Japanese carriers launch Exo-Subs instead). This is probably the reason no-one else in the Empire has large aircraft carriers that launch actual aircraft. Pretty mad about China building its Flying Dragons & Sky Fortresses as it feels that’s its domain, but at the same time Japan is mad at Korea for building a bunch of Carrier Fleets because they feel aggressive forces like those are its domain.

Anyway, every aircraft carrier in The Empire carries & launches Korean aircraft but aside from that the Koreans don’t have any models of their own. A Korean fleet is planned presumably consisting of Carriers & Flying ships & Flying Carriers & maybe really big planes that function as small airships. But it only exists as rumours which have been confirmed on the official Discord though, so don’t expect a Korean box for a while.

The nebulous boundaries of how big a navy/air force/army a nation can have without overstepping its boundaries is as much of a grey area in lore as it is outside of it & the different member states quarrel about it endlessly. China having a massive navy for the Army-Nation is probably as much of an overstep in universe as it seems to be, only China’s sized & ownership of the Celestial Gift is giving it a lot of sway. Is Korea even the custodian of the sky or is it just in charge of planes? Who knows?

The Others

The rest of The Empire don’t have China’s size, Japan’s naval traditions or an interesting gimmick like the Koreans, so they are yet to get a Navy & probably won't for a long time. The Queen of Vietnam is currently the oldest Council Member making Vietnam the de facto leader of the Empire, but Emperor Ming is second oldest & he is aggressively calling for war. So, when the Vietnam lady “gets rejuvenated” the Empire's stance might get a bit more violent. The other nations have done nothing interesting yet.