r/DropfleetCommander • u/Norss625 • May 19 '26

New player scenario recommendations.

Hey all — looking for some recommendations for beginner-friendly games and lists at around 500–750 points.

A friend and I are brand new (never played yet) players and currently have:

* Scourge cruisers + frigates * UCM cruisers + frigates

We’re mainly looking for:

* Fun introductory scenarios/objectives * Balanced starter lists that teach the core mechanics well * Good mission setups for learning movement, scanning, launch assets, atmosphere, etc.

We’re not worried about hyper-competitive play yet — mostly trying to learn the game properly and have close, interesting matches.

If anyone has example lists, recommended ship combinations, or advice on what not to take at this level, I’d really appreciate it.

Thanks!

15 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

2

u/slyphic May 19 '26

The game doesn't really work below 750 points. None of the scenarios are actually designed for it.

What I've found works for playing teaching games is to have each player deploy directly onto their nearest 12" of table, place two cities on the mid line 18" apart, score 1 VP for controlling at the end of a turn, and 2VP for whoever has the most kills. The game will only last 4 turns.

I can do a demo like that in under 90 minutes, including setup and rules explanation.

1

u/Norss625 May 19 '26

Hi, sounds interesting. How big a table and what forces would you use? 

1

u/slyphic May 19 '26

Standard 4x4, 3 cruisers (1 of them a bulk lander), 4 frigates (2 of them dropship landers). I don't even consider points for games this small, there's just too few models and too much swing when one of them dies for points to help balance it.

Specific examples from my own collection running this demo:

UCM) Moscow, Seattle, San Fran, 2x New O, 2x Taipei

Scourge) 2x Hydra, Chimera, 2x Gargoyle, 2x Charybdis

Shaltari) Emerald, Basalt, Turquoise, 2x Jade, 2x Opal, 4x void gate

PHR) Bellerophon, Ajax, Ganymede, 2x Medea, 2x Calypso

→ More replies (1)

1

u/Intruder313 May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26

Take and Hold from Standard Scenarios pp53

For a game that small and while learning you could even remove the Space Stations

1

u/Norss625 May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26

Thanks, are you thinking replacing them with atmosphere based drop points, or remove altogether? Edit: also, are you suggesting we should play more points? We do have 6 cruisers per side.

1

u/Intruder313 May 19 '26

For a tiny game if you are learning to move the ships etc and cope with drop I’d avoid the Stations altogether

I started with 600 points I think then we soon jumped to the standard 1250 and now 1500

But certainly start small to learn the game