What if WWII was weird?

Well, here we are again, the third time I’ve completely redone my rules summary for Dust Tactics/Battlefield/Warfare/1947! The Dust road has been a long and troubled one, but after the Kickstarter debacle that saw Paolo Parente and Battlefront part ways, Dust was resurrected again by Parente’s Dust Studio as Dust 1947.

Dust Studio re-released a lot of the existing units in new boxes, and re-wrote the rules and the unit cards. It took years, but some new minis came out too, most notably for a Mythos faction that introduced Cthulhu and cultists and the like – an addition that well, didn’t really feel Dust-like to me. The almost mythical alien Vrill, long-promised, never did get delivered however, which was a shame.

I put off trying out the new rules as I was somewhat frustrated by the many changes over the years, but a recent podcast convinced me to give the new rules a try, and in fact go back to the original grid system that Dust was designed for. Yes, you can still play Dust 1947 as a normal tabletop miniatures game, but for ease of play, you can just use map tiles divided into squares instead. And in fact, everything about this new system seems simplified after Battlefront’s go at making Dust a more traditional tabletop miniatures game. The special abilities are certainly simplified, for a start. I haven’t yet got the game to the table, but I have made new unit cards for all my existing miniatures, and one day I’ll get a battle report video together to show you how it plays.

Eventually however, exacerbated by the global situation, Dust Studios closed up shop this year in 2022, and once again the future of Dust is uncertain. I’ve got boxes of the stuff, and certainly enough to play with for many a year, so that doesn’t bother me too much. But it is sad to see such a long-running property come to a close. Perhaps one day it will be back again, with another publisher – in which case, I’ll probably be redoing this rules summary and reference yet again!

Update Log

Date Version Changelog
Aug 2022 1.1 Made reactive attacks section clearer on summary and reference sheet
Jul 2022 1 Original release

8 Comments

  • John H. says:

    Peter, I’m glad you’re hanging in there with Dust (1947). I fell in love with the models and have been frustratingly hanging in there with all the rule changes. However, I feel the last revision seems to me to be the simplest and best (easiest) rule rendition. I even play a “Memior 44 (1947) on 6×4 gaming mat using 5 inch hexagons ( which eliminates the diagonal measurement).
    There are several groups on Facebook that still love the game and show off their models. I use to volunteer to run run Dust at Los Angeles Strategicon three times a year and will try and continue to do so.
    It’s too bad that two of my favorite games, “At-43 and Dust 1947” have ceased to continue to be produced; but, I still have the miniatures and still have the desire to play.
    Thanks for rule summary and references for At-43, it was much appreciated.
    I’ll find a way to support your work,,,,,thx!

    • Thanks John, glad to hear the new rules are good, I’m looking forward to playing it again.

      As for supporting me – thankyou! There’s a donation page on this site, or even better, you can sign up to my Patreon page (there are rewards!).

  • John says:

    Hello UH,
    Will you be uploading your new unit cards for Dust 1947?
    I have to say aside from the “slightly” more complicated dice for Dust 1947, it really is a more simpler and streamlined system.
    They more evenly balanced the SSU in this version (which was really underpowered in the 1st edition).
    Thanks.

    • Hi John
      I don’t upload my unit card designs these days because I only do enough cards for the units in my collection. Doing them all would be a MAMMOTH project (as I’ve already discovered for Confrontation and AT-43, which I’m still updating to this day), and if I upload what I’ve done someone would always say “but can you do such and such a unit”? Supporting old games can only go so far unfortunately!

      Finally played these rules the other day and really enjoyed the game!

  • Nacho says:

    Hello and Thanks for such a clear and succinct rule summary.

    It’s specially useful given the original’s book design choices with the 1940s comic book aesthetic, which while undoubtedly cool, it is not the best for quickly glancing for a specific rule while playing. It also doesn’t help that the resolution of the PDF versions of the rulebook you can find on the internet are quite poor.

    One question I have for you is why some pages are doubled, is there an intended way to print it to that it’s useful for both players that I can’t find? what am I missing?

    • Those pages are reference sheets – doubled so you can print out 2 on a page and give one to your opponent. The whole document should be trimmed after you’ve printed it (laminating is good too).

  • Mark Lechak says:

    This tight little group of reference sheets are fantastic. I’m still holding on to Dust 1947 and intend to for quite a time to come. Thanks!

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