Interview mit Olivier Zamfirescu – Autor von Dust Tactics

Auf der Spiel in Essen war Olivier Zamfirescu auf dem Stand von Battlefront. Er hat sich bereit erklärt ein paar Fragen zu beantworten. Wir haben uns eine Weile über verschiedene Themen zu Dust Tactics unterhalten. Dabei hat er Fragen zur Zukunft von Dust Tactics, Dust Warfare und dem Wechsel zu Battlefront beantwortet. Hier ist das Interview in englischer Sprache. Eine deutsche Übersetzung werde ich bald online stellen.

Nachdem wir ein bisschen über Miniaturen und allgemeines geredet haben, stellten wir schnell fest dass Olivier ein wirklich netter Kerl ist. Alles in allem haben wir über eine Stunde mit ihm geredet und die neuen Miniaturen angesehen. Hier nun unser Interview:

About Olivier and developing Dust Tactics

Freizeitstrategen: Our first question is for our readers who don´t know exactly what you do and what your job is with Dust Tactics?

Olivier: In short I write everything there is to write, I write the background, the rules and the cards. Of course it is a process where everybody is involved but most on the writing is done by me since the beginning. So I developed the game with Paolo and an other friend Laurent and than we wrapped up the ideas that we wanted. We wanted a game that was easy to learn, that everybody could play. And a game where we wouldn´t argue about line of sight about cover and all the problems that you get in a regular miniature game. So we came right away with all that ideas and came up with dust tactics. But my job is to write everything that is produces at Dust.

Freizeitstrategen: How long did it take, until the first edition was ready to publish?

Olivier: A little less than a year. Ten Month. We had the first meeting and ten month afterwards the game was printed. But we already had the miniatures. Because the rules and writing takes a lot of time but takes much less time making miniatures. So miniatures were already ready for the launch.

Freizeitstrategen: And how do you write the rules? Are you sitting on a table and writing, calculating for hours or is it an ongoing process, everywhere you are you write down ideas?

Olivier: First there is a discussion between all of us of what are the things that we would like to have. So I have ideas with vincent, who is our painter who´s get ideas, and paolo of course who designs vehicles and most of the troops has ideas.  And we combine everything, have a discussion about it and see what we can do what we can achieve in a certain amount of time. It is a creative team that makes up everything. There is not a single person that decides.

Freizeitstrategen: So you have an Idea, you write the rules and you play it together with the others and then you come up with new ideas and change or adapt it?

Olivier: Yes, but it has to be more than just an idea. It has to be feasable. And it has to fit the spirit of our game otherwise it is useless. So each time we try to have new ways to change the game or bring something new to the game. So find a new way of playing. That is also a big motivation. For example even if we have a good idea about a new walker but we already have one that does the same thing maybe we are not going to do that. We want to do something that changes the way people play. That´s something we looked for. And we try not to have to many similar or units that do the same thing. So all these things are combined and after that as I said, we see if we produce it or things are to difficult to produce or even not suited for production. Because for the models we use hard plastic. You cannot do everything you want. Plastic is different. It has to be strong enough. It shouldn´t be to fragile. So maybe an idea is good, but translated into a model it is completely different. Something that might be a good idea, when you make it real in 3D maybe it´s not such a good idea. We have to look at all these things when we create a miniature.

New releases in the Dust 48 range

Freizeitstrategen: Right now the Dust 48 Range is not available anymore, as many models become legal ans will be published from Battlefront in the future. Will there more new Dust 48 Models in the future?

Olivier: Yes there will be. And these will be legal right from the start. And some, I can´t say all, will be made of plastic. So some of the items that are sold out now, we won´t produce new ones because some will be made of plastic and will be released in the general range.

Freizeitstrategen: And there will be also new ones?

Olivier: There might be. Maybe some weapon variations. Because we always try to have two weapons variants with each model of the regular range. And sometimes we make a third one. But for example if you have an expensive mold and you need two to make the miniature and this extra weapon would be another expensive mold then we do this in resin and release in Dust 48, because otherwise it is to expensive for just one weapon.

Freizeitstrategen: So Dust 48 will become more special stuff for existing miniatures?

Olivier: Yes. So the Dust 48 range will see more stuff. I don´t know when. But also we need to have something new and interesting. Not just releasing something for releasing something. The Dust 48 Models at the moment are quite unique and to sell them we go into plastic.

Questions about rules

Freizeitstrategen: We have two questions about rules. There is always the discussion about the weapon-teams. For example, if there ar hit by a flame weapon does is count as one unit and you use one die or do you count every model on the base ans use more dice?

Olivier: The Base is just cosmetic. It is just because it looks better. It is just because it is nicer to look at a single base. So if there are three or four people on the base you need to use three or four dice. But I explain this in the new FAQ. It is not released yet, I´m still working on it. But really, this is just cosmetic.

Freizeitstrategen: Another question about airplanes and vehicles: If they are destroyed and crashed and there is a pilot (a hero) inside can he get out like troops in transporters?

Olivier: He can go out like he was carried, or transported. You roll one die to see if he was wounded like any other miniature. But yes he´s down on the floor. This is complicated, I agree. Because inside the vehicle you have for example the carried troops, they follow the carry capacity rule, so if the vehicle is destroyed you roll one die to see if they are dead or not and they can go out. And they can activate and do something else. The pilot rules is the same except the pilot doesen´t activate alone. He activates with the vehicle.

Plans about new miniatures and rulebooks

Freizeitstrategen: We also have some questions about the future of Dust Tactics. What can we expect beyond wave 9?

Olivier: There are a lot of things. We had a planning and we are late. We are a few month late. At Gencon we said that we relase a lot of things. We are not on schedule with this releases. But as you see the miniatures are already there and they are ready to go. But since we just came together with battlefront we have to had a little time to adapt to their way of working they had a little time to adapt to our way of working. But now the synergy between the two companies is going very well. So the releases will flow very soon. We just needed a little time to adapt and now things are really going to start. So starting in January we gonna have the new starter sets.

Freizeitstrategen: And will there also be a new edition or just new starter sets?

Olivier: No just new starter sets. So we have three starter sets one for the allies, one for the axis one for the ssu. These are mostly for new players. They are one box, one hero, two squads, one vehicle. One for each army and they are made to get new players. Also we are going to start rereleasing Bestsellers, that are sold out, like the zombies, gorillas. There are many units that are now sold out but that we are going to re-release together with this new starter sets. And between January and March we will release new miniatures also for the old players. And starting in March, I think, you will have all the anounced releases. So the Africa Korps, as you saw and we are going to expand the Marines Army and then you have the S1 SSU-Army and special forces. And we have many many new things going on.

Freizeitstrategen: And will there be a new edition or at least a new rulebook? Because at the moment the rules are spread over many Boxes and extensions.

Olivier: Yes. This is going to be released also next year in the first quarter. So 2014 we are making one rulebook. You will have a small rulebook of course in the starter sets for new players. But we will also bring out a new rulebook where everything is combined.

Freizeitstrategen: And will it be only released in english or will there be a german version?

Olivier: Yes, there will be an english version. But I can not promise you that it will be printed. But at the very lease we will have the files done as pdf. So at least you get the pdf Version in german. If we can print them, we print them. If we see that we have a good german partner, that is willing to do that. But otherwise it will be available as pdf for free of course. So every player can go to our website and download this new rulebook so everyone plays with the same rules.

What happens with Dust Warfare?

Freizeitstrategen: Also for Dust Warfare?

Olivier: I don´t know yet. Ok, the thing with dust warfare. Dust Warfare is not our game. It was the game of Fantasy Flight. It was a license, so they made it. They developed it completely on their own. So now they have dropped the support of the game. But we know the Battlefront is working on something. We are not abandoning the dust warfare players. So in the new wave that´s coming up now your are going to have both cards. Dust Warfare and Dust Tactics with the miniatures. So the warefare players, even if they don´t have the rules yet, they have the cards to play the unit. And after that, I really don´t know what the plan is, but as we have said with Paolo, are are not going to abandon the Dust Warfare players. So we have to figure something out.

Freizeitstrategen: So even if not ready yet, but there will be something for Dust Warfare? They just have to wait a little bit?

Olivier: Yes, they have to wait a little bit, but at the same time they have now the official cards to play so they can use the new units. I know they want to have some books, of course, but this will come in the future. But I don´t know when.

Plans for a new Army

Freizeitstrategen: And what plans do you have according to complete new armies?

Olivier: This will come later, maybe in 2014. But I don´t want to talk to much about it yet. But yes, there is a fourth human army coming out. And then after that we are going to expand on something for the players who want to have more thematic armies. For example if you want to play a panzer division, you just play regular troops, and walkers and tanks but you have no laser, no zombies no gorillaz and you have only the regular infantry. And based on that we are going to expand thematic armies. For example if you want to play british commandos in a desert, it won´t be a huge army, but if you wann play only marines soon you can. If you want you will have a bonus playing a thematic army. It doesen´t look like much, but between this and the fourth real army we have a lot more to tell.

Rumours about 15mm scale

Freizeitstrategen: There were rumours about a 15mm Dust Tactics version.

Olivier: I don´t know that. Of course it is logical because we teamed up with battlefront, but such a release would be their decision.

Freizeitstrategen: But you don´t have a plan about 15mm?

Olivier: Well, it is something we considered at the start, because, me for example, I love to play in this format. And I love to collect miniatures in this format. But in 15mm the miniatures are very small. They can be nice miniatures, but… No, it would be the decision of Battlefront. We are not starting that to compete with them. I think they should do it. I think they should, because they have early war, middle war and late war and they could make an expansion with Dust with all our special stuff. But it is up to them. I don´t know what is the plan. And it has to be made by Battlefront, with us of course, but that would go into flames of war. This is now the most played miniature game for world war 2 in the world. And I think, I´m not sure, but I think our customers and fans are not gonna switch the scale. I think very few would go into two scales.

Working with the new partner Battlefront

Freizeitstrategen: And one last question about moving from Fantasy Flight to Battlefront. What changes do you expect for Dust Tactics in the future because of your new partner Battlefront?

Olivier: Well the thing is, the people at Battlefront, they make miniature games. And we make miniature games. So we understand each other much better. Fantasy Flight Games is a great company for boardgames, but I don´t think they know that well the miniature business and how we organize everything. So even tho they are a great company, they were great partners, but now with Battlefront – these guys know miniature they know how to produce miniatures. The´ve been making miniatures for a very long time, so it will only help up to develop the game. And all the people at Battlefront, they love the game. They love Dust Tactics, they all have armies. So they are going to support it a lot. So I think it will really help broaden the community and when it grows people find lot more players to play with. Because the worst thing that can happen to a miniature game is that you don´t find any opponents fo play with. Then, what´s the point. So with the new products we have, with the new starter sets we wanna expand the player base. So we will have more events, more tournaments to go to and it has to be easier to find other players. An other thing that we are going to work on is to have a „player-finder“. This is something that needs to be done. There, all the players in the world can register, all the game shops can register. For example in your shop you can say that for example every friday night you are having Dust Tactics games, so players can register, see where you are, see you are not to far away and then you can communicate with each other and say, ok, I come with that army or so on. Because sometimes you are alone, you have your army and no one to play with and you don´t know that just 10 minutes away from yourselve there is another gamer. We need a page to support find other people. Not everyone uses facebook, not everyone knows about the dust devils. It will grow, but if you can find a tool like that on the official website it will help a lot.