Warhounds 2 Warmasters

A series focussing on a group of would-be admirals taking on a new game-system with Warcradle’s excellent: Dystopian Wars

So, many hobbyists will fondly recall the original and subsequent ‘Tale of Four Gamers’ articles in White Dwarf during the Fat Bloke era. For those that have never experienced these wonders, the premise is simple: A group of four players commit to playing a new army from scratch, documenting their journey and the growth of the force until such time as all of those playing have forces of a set level and typically the series ends with a collection of battle reports in which those forces take to the tables.

Here is where things diverge from that classic, elegant formula: We have more than four players getting involved, we all collect and paint at differing speeds and none of us have ever played this game system before – what could go wrong!

As to why we chose Dystopian Wars, several of us already play Dropfleet Commander and whilst that was considered, it was felt that doing a new force with half of us being experienced vs the others being completely new would prove to bring too much imbalance. Also, Princess and I very much love boats and whilst initially it was going to be a smaller scale side-project for the two of us, once Alex got his teeth into the ruleset and we learned more about the game it all just took on a life of it’s own! Now that a few of us have had a chance to play basic rules introductions it has firmed up into this idea and having a schedule to work to, articles to write and targets to meet should help us all stick with things until an assembly of fleets emerge that we can be proud of.

So, what is Dystopian Wars?

To quote Warcradle, because I am lazy:

”Welcome to Dystopian Wars

Dystopian Wars is a tabletop wargame of naval battles that uses 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 powered by extraordinary technology – dread marvels of the Dystopian Age.”

As a high level summary, Dystopian Wars is a tabletop game featuring fleets of models that can be Surface, Submerged or Airborne. There are Eight factions to choose from, typically comprised of three nations or countries that are aligned in this alternate history setting. The system began it’s fourth edition late in 2025 so it is a great time to jump in and the rules team have really worked some magic – which after we learned that James ‘Father of Titanicus’ Hewitt was involved was no surprise – learning this was enough for one of the contributors to this series to make the jump, such is the faith in James’ rulesets. Speaking of the rules, they are free to download from Warcradles website: https://www.dystopianwars.com/about-the-game

So, we can expect regular articles (we are aiming to release one introduction article a week until all of the admirality are unveiled) and a lots of nautical references!

Adeptus Titanicus remains the primary system for us all here at Warhounds2Warmasters but I’m very enthused with this project and look forward to seeing where it goes.

Next week, the first Introducing Admirals episode will go live, with myself in the spot-light and my chosen faction, the Imperium! (Not that one). Ahead of my own fleet’s progress, here are some of the stunning studio pics of a variety of Imperium vessels – taken from their website and significantly better than anything I will manage to manifest!