dust adventures * dust studio * how 2: easy weathering the waking ...

dust adventures * dust studio * how 2: easy weathering 

the waking bear * rosie’s scrapyard * from the front 

tactical corner * and much more

dust chronicles issue 3 

This issue of Dust Chronicles is a bumper 

issue! We’ve included enough material to 

hopefully keep you reading and playing 

throughout the cold nights of the season. 

Read on to see some of what this issue contains, 

or scroll down to the table of contents, 

either way, you will enjoy this issue of DC. 

Oh yes, you will… And if you don’t, contact 

us and let us know what needs to be 

fixed, added or deleted. 

Last issue we introduced Rosie’s Scrapyard, 

a system allowing you to build and field vehicles 

of your own devising. We received a 

lot of feedback to this article, turns out, many 

of you are as big a treadheads as the authors 

and myself. Incorporating the feedback and 

newly released vehicle and weapon rules 

Rosie returns this month in version 1.1. 

In addition, this issue sees the introduction 

of experimental platoon structures. Our first 

experimental platoons are Armored Platoons, 

now you’ll be able to field entire armies 

of walkers and tanks. Just the way it 

was always meant to be! 

editorial 

Submissions 

We have received many submissions, many 

of which are better than what we were coming 

up with ourselves. We must ask that if 

you submit something to us and we tell you 

we want to use it, that you not post it elsewhere 

prior to publishing in Dust Chronicles. 

Doing so will disqualify it from inclusion, 

of course once it’s published you are 

free to post it wherever you like, though we 

would appreciate it if you wait till the 10th 

of the month to do so. 

As you may have noticed, we are trying to 

theme each issue to a subject and or a season. 

If you have an idea that doesn’t fit the upcoming 

theme, please be aware that we may 

well wish to use it in a future issue. We are 

always looking for reports From The Front 

for either Tactics or Warfare. We have no 

set format for these reports at this time, just 

be sure to include both text and photos. For 

painting and modeling How2 articles, use 

the format that has been established here 

and is universal to the subject (i.e. step-bystep 

with accompanying pictures). 

editorial 

 

We’ve included examples of both custom 

and historical vehicles for you to use in your 

games of Dust Warfare. Of course you are 

free to adjust them as you see fit. In fact 

we’d love to hear your experiences using 

these vehicles. If you are fielding custom 

walkers and tanks in your games, snap a pic 

and send us it’s profile and we’ll try to include 

it in the pages of future issues. 

Speaking of new ways to play the game, we 

at Dust Chronicles are proud to present a 

whole new way for you to play Dust. Dust: 

Adventures is an RGP written and developed 

by Christopher Barnhart and is included 

free in this issue of DC for your enjoyment. 

You’ll be able to recreate the adventures 

from the comic books or explore new facets 

of the Dust world as never before. 

If you have ideas for submissions that don’t 

‘fit’ the current layout of the magazine submit 

them anyway. If they are good, we’ll 

find a way to make ‘em fit. 

Due to the time it takes to edit and layout 

the content of the magazine; please submit 

your content 30 days prior to the date of 

publishing. The next issue will be February 

2013 and so content needs to be submitted 

by January 1st. 

Submit articles, communications and complaints 

to dustfanzine@hotmail.com 

Editor-in-chief 

Patrick D

dust chronicles - issue 3 

Table of contents: 

Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 02 

Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 03 

Spotted!: Dust Studio Tour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 04 

Dust Community Showcase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 09 

Tactical Corner: Axis Walkers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 

How2: Easy Weathering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 

The Waking Bear - Part 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 

Beyond Dust: Anastyr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 

Step Away From Everything . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 

Dust Warfare New Mission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 

Tactical Corner: To Kill A Superhero . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 

Experimental Rules: Armored Platoons . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 

Dust On The Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 

From The Front: Warfare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 

Dust Adventures - RPG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 

How2: Build And Paint The Hunting Dog . . . . . . . . . . . 94 

Dust-League.Com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 

Tactical Corner: Kill It With Fire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 

Rosie’s ScrapYard V1.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 

Rosie’s ScrapYard Vehicle Showcase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 

Next Issue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 

table of contents 


“Chief Engineer”: Patrick Doty 

“Component Engineer”: Floris Hussaarts 

“Commissioning Engineers”: Jason McFarland, Lee Langston, Ignacio Brizzio, John Sisk, 

Roger Gerrish, Rick Ivansek, Michael Stacy, Clement Boen, Christopher Barnhart, 

Kenneth RB Chipman, Rob Hearn and Viêt Nguyên 

“Design Engineers”: Paolo Parente and Olivier Zamfirescu 

Cover Miniatures by: Tabletop Tahir 

Names and artwork are © 2012 Dust Ltd. and/or Fantasy Flight Games Ltd. All Rights Reserved. 

Dust Tactics & Dust Warfare and their logos are trademarks of Dust Ltd. 

Images and trademarks used with permission. 

This magazine is unofficial and is not endorsed by Fantasy Flight Games Ltd. 

We do our best to ensure www. links are correct but do not take responsibillity for the content of web pages 

this magazine links to.

spotted!: dust studio tour 

spotted!: dust studio tour 

For most of us Dust Studio isn’t exactly 

round the corner. Yet, I’m sure like us, 

you want to know what goes on there. 

For this reason we asked our roving reporter, 

Clement Boen, to investigate what 

happens on a typical day in the office. 

Clement took time out of her busy day 

providing great customer support and 

grabbed her camera. Over the next few 

pages you can see some of the pictures 

she took for us and we are sure you will 

be able to spot something you might find 

interesting (we certainly did).

On the previous page you can see the 

painters hard at work copying the paint 

schemes set out by Vincent Fontaine, 

the Art Director at Dust Studio. 

The shared vision, demand for quality 

and consistency of craftsmanship 

have united both Vincent Fontaine and 

Paolo Parente as artists who dedicate 

themselves to producing the most exceptional 

products possible. 

As Dust Studio’s Art Director, Vincent 

is responsible for the entire look 

and feel of the world of Dust Tactics. 

Through his color choices, texturing 

techniques, camouflage schemes, and 

building of model dioramas, Vincent 

has grown to be invaluable in realizing 

the visual designs found in Dust Tactics 

and Dust Warfare. He is responsible 

for painting the master reference 

samples of every miniature. Once everyone 

is satisfied with the final product, 

Vincent then engineers the processes 

and painting techniques that will 

result in figures that match the standards 

that have been set in the original. 

Of course, this wouldn’t be possible 

were it not for a very select group of 

miniature painters. 

Vincent works with the studio that is 

dedicated to painting the Dust Tactics 

Premium Edition models. He not only 

personally supervises the work that is 

done, but he continues to develop and 

train those painters in order to continually 

raise the quality of craftsmanship 

to ever higher standards. 

On this page you can see Paolo Parente 

looking over the shoulder of Vincent 

Fontaine, who is taking pictures of a 

Dust model. These pictures will be 

used on the Dust-models website, in 

the Dust expansion books and on the 

cover of Dust packaging. 

The second picture on this page shows 

the set-up inside Dust Studio where 

pictures are taken, rules are tried and 

models are storred. 

spotted!: dust studio tour dust chronicles issue 3

dust chronicles issue 3 spotted!: dust studio tour 

Apart from Paolo Parente going grey, we noticed something else in these pictures. 

Those models could well be the soon to be released Allied planes.

dust chronicles #3 

That is all for the Spotted! segment of this issue of Dust Chronicles. 

If you have something you want to see featured in Spotted!, then email us with the details 

and who knows, your gaming club, local store, gaming convention, and anything 

else Dust related could end up having its own feature for everybody to see.


 

www.dust-models.com

dust community showcase 

dust chronicles issue 3


top secret 

tactical corner: 

Panzer Läufer Greift An 

by Reichsmarschall Erwin Rommel 

Edited for field distribution by Leutnant Manfred Hirtzel 

special thanks to Francis Li for getting key info to the front lines 

For Kompanieführer’s eyes only. This document 

contains sensitive information regarding 

Axis walkers and their formations. Do not allow 

this document to fall into enemy hands under 

any circumstances. 

Panzer Aufklärerläufer I-B 

“Hermann” 

Combat Role: 

Walker Support and Pack Hunter 

Many Commanders have underestimated the 

usefulness of this early attempt at fielding a 

Laser Kanone. It’s slow fire time hindered 

initial combat successes, and several units 

were lost in direct combat when their weapons 

misfired. While now overshadowed by 

the Schwer Laser Werfer that has been assigned 

in limited numbers to heavy infantry 

squads, Hermann’s Kanone still maintains 

greater range. 

Panzer Aufklärerläufer I-A 

“Heinrich” 

Combat Role: 

Infantry Suppression and Air Defense 

Developed as a light air defense platform, Heinrich 

has proven itself time and time again on 

the battlefield. Heinrich’s aging 20mm Flakvierling 

has found renewed usefulness against 

enemy helicopters and armored troops. It fields 

superior range over other walker systems of its 

class, allowing it to easily deny entire sectors to 

enemy infantry advancement. Heinrich has also 

been equipped with an early warning and radar 

system, greatly enhancing its defensive and ambush 

capabilities. 

Hermann is best used in tandem with other 

walkers to increase its survivability. Some 

Commanders have taken to fielding them in 

packs, preferring strength in numbers to cut 

down stronger walkers. This tactic is made 

possible by the relative ease Commanders 

have in fielding this mass produced walker. 

Others have taken to advancing them alongside 

larger, more durable walkers. Such tactics 

take advantage of the natural tendency 

of enemy walker pilots and squads to target 

the larger unit, allowing Hermann to offer 

fire support without being quickly knocked 

out by enemy fire. 

tactical corner: axis walkers 

10 

Heinrich is easily accessible to Commanders, 

and is valuable protection from incursions by 

air. Depending on the situation and strength of 

enemy air support, Heinrich is either best deployed 

to control fire lanes or escorting other 

ground forces. Even in the most challenging of 

supply lines, no Commander should do without 

this vehicle unless resources have been allocated 

for a larger air defense platform.

Panzer Aufklärerläufer I-C 

“Hans” 

Combat Role: 

Infantry Support and 

Resource Acquisition 

The development of the new Panzerfaust 250 

quickly garnered interest as a walker platform, 

culminating in the new Hans model aufklärerläufer 

being fielded during the invasion of Britain. 

The I-C also implemented a new, individually 

rotating dual fire system that allowed this 

aufklärerläufer to be the first of its class capable 

of tracking multiple targets. 

Hans’ short range and versatile weapons platform 

makes it best suited for close infantry support, 

granting cover for advancing squads as 

well as valuable fire support. True to its designation, 

some Commanders have chosen to use it 

in a forward role, often securing strategic points 

and holding them until reinforcements arrive. 

Sometimes its mere presence can disrupt enemy 

movements long enough to seize the initiative. 

Panzer Aufklärerläufer KV-47(r) 

“Otto” 

(Captured Panzer Kampfläufer, 

Limited Deployment Available) 

Combat Role: 

Infantry Support and General Assault 

The often desperate situation on the Eastern 

Front has resulted in many Commanders 

augmenting their forces with captured 

and repurposed enemy walkers. Perhaps the 

most common model is the Otto, a captured 

soviet KV-47 outfitted the with Panzerfaust 

250 weapon system. Although some of the 

walker’s armor protection had to be cut down 

in order to fit the proper radios and other support 

equipment inside, the end result is light enough 

to allow pilots quick bursts of speed. Combined 

with its greater survivability compared to Hans, 

this walker is able to participate in frontal assaults 

that are too dangerous for other Panzer 

Aufklärerläufer. 

Otto should also be used to support advancing 

infantry, and Commanders should try to make 

the most use of its dual weapons platform to 

eliminate both infantry and armored threats. 

However Commanders should beware when 

fielding this walker, as the loss of one cannot be 

easily replaced. 

Panzer Kampfläufer II-A 

“Luther” 

Combat Role: 

Urban Combat and 

Auxiliary Air Defense 

Since its introduction to battle on the streets of 

Stalingrad, Luther has single-handedly proven 

tactical corner: axis walkers dust chronicles #3 

11

the usefulness of the Panzer Kampfläufer program. 

Designed for versatility, Luther combines 

a long range 5cm Flak and a general purpose 

Kampfzange. Many Luther Pilots were pulled 

from the ranks of pioniere, and many have since 

become combat veterans. Luther pilots know 

their vehicles better than any man on the battlefield, 

allowing them to make combat repairs 

and pull these walkers back from the brink of 

death. 

tactical corner: axis walkers 

Luther’s versatility can make them a difficult 

design to use to their maximal effectiveness, 

but few units can match their ability to handle 

any target. While it’s rate of fire is slower than 

our other autokanones, the 5cm Flak provides 

decent damage against infantry, light armor, 

and air targets. Luther is best deployed in urban 

environments, however, where it can bring its 

Kampfzange to bear against the enemy. Luther 

has always been strongest when it clears a path 

for our men. 

Ludwig’s drum magazines are typically loaded 

with the same Pzgr. 39 armor piercing rounds 

that are commonly used by our Tiger tanks. This 

makes it an effective and reliable tank killer, capable 

of penetrating even the heaviest of armors 

at great range. Even in the shadow of our laser 

weaponry, the infamous 88 still retains strength 

in accuracy and combat reliability. Some battles 

have even been lost due to an overreliance on 

our wunderwaffe for anti-tank support, a mistake 

Ludwig easily rectifies. Ludwig must be 

fielded with infantry support, however, as the 

Pzgr. 39 round fares poorly against infantry targets. 

Panzer Kampfläufer II-D 

“Lothar” 

Combat Role: 

Forward Artillery Support 

Proper artillery support is a keystone to every 

modern military success. However, as battlefields 

have become more mutable, artillery has 

been called upon to become increasingly mobile. 


12 

Panzer Kampfläufer II-B 

“Ludwig” 

Combat Role: 

Anti-tank 

Mounting the venerable 88mm kanone, Ludwig 

has been a feared walker upon the battlefield 

since its inception in early 1943. Though a respectable 

four years old now, a lifetime for any 

tank, Ludwig’s combat effectiveness has continued 

strong in the face of our enemies’ technological 

advancements. 

Lothar answers this need by combining twenty 

15cm Nebelwerfer rockets with the Panzer 

Kampfläufer chassis. It brings firepower equal 

to that of two of our panzerwerfer halftracks to 

any terrain and combat situation, allowing rapid 

delivery of saturation bombardments. 

In order to make maximal use of Lothar’s firepower, 

highly trained Beobachter teams have 

been deployed to accompany each unit. Additionally, 

command section radioman have been 

similarly trained to deliver artillery strikes. Due 

to the arduous task of reloading the Nebelwerfer 

batteries, Commanders who can spare the 

resources should consider fielding the Lothar in 

pairs to allow constant artillery barrage. During

urban engagements, some Commanders have 

taken the unusual tactic of using their Lothars 

to perform repeated direct fire attacks against 

infantry that have fortified themselves in buildings. 

However, such tactics are often discouraged 

by High Command, as they place these 

valuable walkers in potential danger from antitank 

platforms or flanking infantry. 

bring themselves back from seemingly critical 

damage. 

Some Loth pilots have become so skilled with 

the use of their Kampfzange that they have been 

able to use them to perform repairs on other 

walkers. These pilots are only available to certain 

Commanders, but those who are should not 

hesitate to use them as support platforms for 

their walkers. 

dust chronicles issue 3 tactical corner 

Panzer Kampfläufer II-E 

“Loth” 

Combat Role: 

Urban Support and Infantry Support 

Originally developed in the field by Luther 

kampfgruppen as a way of returning damaged 

units to the field, Loth has become a staple of 

our pioniere. Substituting an extra Kampfzange 

in place of the Luther’s Flak, Loth is not intended 

for direct combat situations. Regardless, 

Loth is a respectable foe, the powerful Kampfzange 

tearing through troop formations and armor 

alike. Loth pilots who have seen battle are 

among the most highly decorated for bravery, 

as they are known to charge their walkers into 

the enemy. 

Loth is not intended for direct engagements, 

however they are frequently called upon to demolish 

urban obstacles meant to slow our advance. 

This is especially critical when a breakthrough 

is dependent upon our Schwer Panzer 

kampfläufer, whom often find it difficult to 

maneuver. If forced into combat, the Loth must 

act aggressively to bring its Kampfzange to 

bear. Having come from the ranks of the pioniere, 

Loth pilots share the Luther’s ability to 

Panzer Kampfläufer II-G (Sd.Kfz. 479) 

“Bergeluther” 

(Experimental Stages, 

Limited Deployment Avaliable) 

Combat Role: 

Combat Engineering and 

Armored Recovery 

Designed purely as a support vehicle intended 

for use in high-risk areas, the Bergeluther was 

developed to augment the Loth in our Pioniere 

units. Designed with more rugged hydraulics in 

order to handle the strains of using the Dozer 

blade, and piloted by a skilled engineer, the 

Bergeluther is an epitome of survivability in 

even the harshest of combat zones. 

Bergeluther is primarily a engineering and recovery 

vehicle. It’s heavy dozer blade can 

uproot tank traps and fortified emplacements 

alike, allowing this vehicle to easily clear a path 

for our heavy walkers. The blade is also solid 

enough that it can be used to clear minefields 

placed to slow our advance. Perhaps it’s greatest 

strength is as a recovery vehicle, collecting 

valuable pieces from fallen walkers for our 

field mechanics to repair. This reduces the great 

strain wartime production has on the Axis, and 

therefore mitigates the damage the loss of these 

vehicles has on a Commander. 

13


Schwer Panzer Kampfläufer III-A 

“Wotan” 

Combat Role: 

Heavy Tank Hunter 

The Axis’ best in laser technology, the Wotan 

combines superior range and firepower into a 

heavy walker chassis. Wotan is best applied as 

a tank hunter, its Schwer Laser Kanonen have 

proven to be very effective against enemy armor. 

Walker Pilots have reported that their 

weapons have cut right through heavy walkers 

with a good shot. The Wotan should never go 

without infantry support, however. The Laser 

Kanonen require too much of a charge time to 

effectively target infantry, giving enemy antitank 

squads time to maneuver into position. 

Flammluthers should always be given covering 

fire before advancing, as they are still vulnerable 

to infantry anti-tank fire. Once in range, however, 

the Schwer Flammenwerfer make quick 

work of enemy entrenchments and garrisoned 

buildings. The Flammluther is a symbol of the 

Fatherland’s resolve to be victorious, even if 

our enemies force us to reduce their great cities 

to ruins. 


axis walkers 

Certain models have recently received armor 

upgrades, dubbed by troops as the “Wotan- 

AR”. While it can be difficult for a Commander 

to acquire one of these upgraded Kampfläufers, 

in certain situations it should be considered 

imperative to do so. Field reports have shown 

the increased armor has proven very effective 

at protecting the walker’s VK cells from allied 

Phaser fire, with many models of the weapon 

being unable to damage the Wotan. Units stationed 

in and around Zverograd have also reported 

an increased chance of survival against 

soviet Sulfur Throwers. 

Schwer Panzer Kampfläufer III-D 

“Flammluther” 

Combat Role: 

Urban Combat and 

Clearing Entrenchments 

Allied Napalm Throwers have long inflicted 

heavy casualties on our forces, especially in 

tight urban environments. In order to combat the 

stalemate in South Britain and ensure success in 

the city of Zverograd the Flammluther has been 

rushed to the field of battle. Designed with superior 

armor and firepower over the allied “Hot 

Dog”, the Flammluther has become a welcome 

sight to besieged Germans and a terror to our enemies. 

Our forward mechanics have also taken 

to modifying the primary hydraulics, allowing 

short bursts of speed. These modifications are 

time consuming to install, however, and have 

been ordered to be limited to Flammluthers. 

Schwer Panzer Kampfläufer IV-A 

“Jagdluther” 



Combat Role: 

Anti-tank and Tank Hunter 

True to its name, the Jagdluther follows the 

doctrine of our Jagdpanzers, sacrificing combat 

versatility for superior armor and firepower. 

Mounting a modification of the 75mm KwK 

42 L/70 developed for our panther tanks and 

a newly designed hardened glacis plate, the 

Schwer Panzer Kampfläufer IV is better armed 

and armored than its predecessors. 

The Jagdluther’s strength is in its ability to 

combat enemy walkers head on, it’s armor thick 

enough to deflect all but the largest of armorpiercing 

shells, while still maintaining higher 

maneuverability over our Königsläufers. Early 

models lack a machinengewehr mount, however, 

and are incredibly vulnerable to enemy 

infantry. If a Commander can choose to field 

them in a long range role, it is preferable to do 

so. They’ve also proven to still be vulnerable to 

American Napalm Throwers, a combat pairing 

Commanders should avoid at all costs. 

14

Schwer Panzer Kampfläufer VI-A 

“Königsluther” 

Combat Role: 

Heavy Anti-tank and Area Denial 

The very sound of a Königsluther approaching 

the battlefield strikes terror in the hearts of our 

enemies. Drafted using the 17cm K 18 howitzer 

as a basis, the resulting 17,3cm FpK is the 

strongest anti-tank gun ever created. Design of 

the Schwer Panzer Kampfläufer VI was slowed 

by the difficulties associated with creating autoloaders 

for such a massive shell, however the 

walker was rapidly fielded on all fronts. Combat 

reports have found the weapon to be very 

accurate, and while the Königsluther’s barrel 

length can hamper movement, the weapon’s 

high velocity allows our armor-piercing shells 

to cut easily through both enemy walkers and 

panzers. 

Perhaps one of Königsluther’s greatest assets is 

the fear it elicits in the enemy. Often a Königsluther 

Commander need not fire a shot to defeat 

the enemy. Areas of open terrain or large streets 

provide the Königsluther an immense fire lane 

that few enemy Commanders dare enter. In this 

manner, control of the battlefield can win the 

battle. However, Commanders should not hesitate 

to use the Königsluther’s kanonen to their 

purpose. Exercise caution in urban environemnts, 

however, as the enemy will undoubtedly try 

to outflank the Königsluther. Constant infantry 

support is advised to protect these vital assets. 

Advancing Königsluthers often also need support 

of combat engineers to clear obstacles, as 

the Königsluther’s immense size makes it difficult 

to maneuver. 

Schwer Panzer Kampfläufer VI-B 

“Sturmkönig” 

Combat Role: 

Infantry Suppression, 

Vehicle Suppression and 

Heavy Air Defense 

Enemy intelligence scoffed at the Sturmkönig, 

however the soldiers who faced this walker 

across South Britain do not. While armor had 

to be sacrificed in order to give the Sturmkönig 

the proper traverse speed to target fast moving 

aircraft, our new 128mm Flakvierling provides 

devastating firepower against enemy targets. 

The redesigned Flak 40 with state of the art autoloaders 

and recoil control systems has allowed 

the Sturmkönig prodigious rates of fire while alternating 

between its four kanonen, greater than 

any other heavy air defense platform. Loaded 

with the Sprenggranatpatrone L/4,5 the Sturmkönig 

is intended for engagements with air 

and light ground targets. However, the sheer 

firepower released by the 128mm Flakvierling 

is enough to cripple even the most heavily armored 

vehicles. 

Commanders are advised to make ample use of 

Sturmkönig’s state of the art early warning and 

radar system to engage any available targets. 

With unparallel traverse speed, this Schwer 

Panzer Kampfläufer can deny large areas to enemy 

air and ground movements. Reports from 

batteries paticipating in Operation Cerberus 

have shown the power of the Sturmkönig when 

faced towards a strategic building, preventing 

enemy infantry and walker reinforcements from 

striking against our advancing forces. Units 

stationed within Zverograd have also inflicted 

heavy casualties on soviet helicopters. 

dc#3 tactical corner 

15


axis walkers 

Schwer Panzer Kampfläufer VI-E 

“Königslothar” 



Combat Role: 

Heavy Artillery Support and 

Suppressive Bombardment 

Although only a few Königslothar have been 

deployed to date, their combat effectiveness has 

been heavily praised. Designed to overcome the 

limitations of the Lothar, Königslothar mounts 

thirty 15cm Nebelwerfer rockets, distributed 

between two batteries. The increased room 

granted by the Schwer Panzer Kampfläufer VI 

chassis allows the Königslothar to house a dedicated 

loading crew in addition to the Batterieoffizier. 

With the addition of a remote operated 

winch and expanded ammunition storage, the 

Königslothar is capable of reloading one battery 

while the other is aimed and fired. Combat 

reports show the result is devastating, with 

constant artillery bombardments proving very 

demoralizing to our enemies. 

Schwer Panzer Kampfläufer VI-C 

“Prinzluther” (Sd.Kfz. 451/1 Ausf. A) 

Combat Role: 

Armored Command Vehicle 

The increased role of Panzer Kampfläufer in all 

theatres of battle has resulted in an increased 

need for command vehicles. In order to speed 

up design of this crucial vehicle and deploy it 

to Southern England and Zverograd, our engineers 

combined features from multiple existing 

sources. To create the new chassis, the latest 

halftrack blueprints were combined with the 

panzerfunkwagen designs from the early days 

of the war. In order to maximize space, it was 

chosen to use the Schwer Panzer Kampfläufer 

VI walker as a basis for the new chassis. Turrets 

from our aging fleet of Sd.Kfz 222 fleet were 

used to give the walker a modicum of air and 

ground defense. After taking efforts to improve 

the armor protection of the walker, and loading 

the interior with the latest high-powered radios 

and state of the art radar equipment, the first 

Prinzluther was born. 


16 

Königslothar’s large size and limited defensive 

capability means that this walker should never 

be used in direct fire engagements, except only 

to route already broken enemy formations. Multiple 

Beobachter teams or command sections 

should be fielded to accompany a Königslothar 

to the field, in order to maximize the potential 

targets this walker can lay fire upon. Enemies 

exposed to fire from a Königslothar may entrench 

themselves in buildings or bunkers for 

fear of artillery bombardment, allowing them to 

be picked off or flushed out by our troops. 

The Prinzluther has been a stunning success, 

providing much needed protection and support 

to our valuable command sections. Our Kommandotrupp 

find that the walker’s equipment 

increases their ability to command troops in 

the midst of a chaotic battle, as well as greatly 

increasing the speed at which reinforcements 

can arrive. In prolonged engagements, the Prinzluther 

has even been known to become a mobile 

repair platform and aid station. Since the 

Prinzluther’s arrival on the battlefield, Commanders 

have reported a significant decrease in 

the loss of much needed veteran officers.

Schwer Panzer Kampfläufer VI-D 

“Strumprinz” (Sd.Kfz. 451/1 Ausf. B) 

Combat Role: 

Armored Troop Transport 

and Air Defense 

With the success of the Prinzluther, the armored 

transport variant of the Panzer Kampfläufer VI 

chassis has been brought into full production. 

The Sturmprinz quickly surpassed the Prinzluther 

in manufacture rates due to the reduced 

equipment costs, and is now seeing extensive 

use on every front. With less equipment taking 

up the interior space, the Sturmprinz is able to 

transport and entire squad of Sturmgrenadiere. 

The armored shurzen have also been adapted to 

allow an additional squad to travel on the exterior 

of the kampflaufer, alowing them to provide 

supporting fire for the walker’s advance. In 

a similar fashion to its predecessor, the Sturmprinz 

has requisitioned 30mm flakzwilling turrets 

from our Kugelblitz light tanks. Although 

most of the radio equipment has been removed, 

Sturmprinz retained the radar in order to increase 

the ability to target and intercept aerial 

targets with its 30mm kanonen. 

units, while other commanders have chosen 

to capitalize on the maschinengewehre of our 

aufklärer sturmgrenadiere. Still others have had 

Jagdgrenadiere mount the caseless PaK 75mm 

kanone on this walker, granting it an increase in 

long range anti-tank firepower. However they 

are used, any commander should watch for tank 

traps and barricades that may otherwise impede 

the advance of these walkers, as every moment 

stalled is another German soldier lost. 

Further information on the subject of Axis 

Walkers can be found by navigating yourself 

to: www.Dust-Models.Com where you can request 

reinforcements for your army. 


december 2012 

Sturmprinz is better armed, can carry more 

troops, and is more accessible to Commanders 

than the Prinzluther. However, it is no longer 

suitable as a command vehicle as its predecessor 

was. Instead, the Sturmprinz should be used 

for troop transport, safeguarding out grenadiere 

through enemy fire lanes and into the heat of 

battle. Already, commanders have used innovative 

tactics with this new Panzer Kampfläufer, 

including the use of scharfschütze teams on the 

walker exterior to ward off enemy anti-tank 

17

how2: easy weathering 

Table Top Tahir is here to give us a quick 

and easy weathering guide. 

Step four: In order to chip the white paint, 

brush some scratches on with dark grey. 


Speed weathering: 

Step one: Primer your model black. 

Step five: Fix your decals in the usual 

manner. 

Step two: Dry brushing in three steps 

from dark grey to a lighter level 

Step three: I used Tamiya Masking Tape 

to get a white line on the legs and hull. 

Step six: Use a blister sponge and dab all 

edges with Boltgun metal and all white decals 

with dark grey 


18

Step seven: Paint Dark flesh into recessed 

areas, around plates, rivets and anywhere 

water will collect and damage the metal. 

Use an orange (Macharious Solar Orange) 

and paint it into the Dark Flesh areas. Be 

sure to leave a border of the Dark Fleash 

showing, it adds depth to the rust. 

Step 8: Use a black wash over all to get a 

dirty look and to shade the rust. Once dry, 

base and seal you model. 

how2: easy weathering 

Now you’re ready for the table top. 

19


the waking bear part 3 

20 

Deep in the cold, inky blackness of the abandoned 

service tunnels beneath the ruined streets 

of the city once known as the jewel of the Soviet 

nation, a ragged shape crouches on the edge of 

a raised walkway. The sluggish, partly frozen, 

murky water slowly trickling by in the storm 

drain running along the center of the tunnel. 

If any living thing was nearby to notice, the 

stench alone would have convinced them that 

only death lingered on in the silent darkness. A 

sickening mix of stinging chemicals and rotting 

meat, rancid and noxious with fresh decay. 

Something was busy being messily dead in the 

sewers of Zverograd. 

No sounds above the whisper of the flowing water 

penetrated the darkness. Not even the tick of 

tiny claws or the subtle squeaking of the unusually 

absent sewer rats so common in the under 

city. It was a quiet, icy darkness, matching the 

images of hell in some classical, disturbed, artist’s 

imaginations. 

From a great distance, barely perceptible, a 

noise echoed from curved wall to curved wall 

down the silent tunnels. Almost vulgar in its violation 

of the deathly silence. The screeching of 

poorly lubricated steel on steel, the quiet clash 

of a gate closing... 

Abrupt motion disturbed the darkness! Stiffened, 

translucent lids snapped open, uncovering 

black, clouded orbs. Slick with mucus, and 

alight with a feral, mindless hunger. The only 

sound, a single, wet, rasping inhalation and the 

dull clink of heavy steel scraping the concrete, 

and in a flutter of tattered cloth, the ragged 

shape was gone. Moving disturbingly quickly 

down the tunnel. 

Moments later, four more ragged bundles of rot 

and menace, rise from the deepest shadows, and 

silently follow.... 

* * * 

Private Conners winced as the gate closed with 

a sharp screech and a clang behind him. Every 

head in the line of soldiers ahead of him, 

snapped around, startled by the noise. Conners 

felt his face burn furiously red in the near darkness 

afforded by the red-light torches each man 

carried. 

Really, the noise was not loud at all, but in the 

unnatural quiet of the under city, and with the 

threat of being discovered by the lurking Axis 

patrols, any sound was a hanging offence! 

Sergeant Miller graced the shame faced private 

with his best Drill Instructor glare for a moment, 

then silently waved the squad to resume its quiet 

march. The squad had been in the surprisingly 

well-tended service and drainage tunnels under 

the northern commercial district of Zverograd 

for hours now. The original plan had been to lay 

down a false trail, and find a place to eat and rest 

for a few hours. But within the first hour, the 

noise of Axis search parties sweeping the tunnels 

from the south and east, had forced Miller 

and his men to flee farther west into progressively, 

smaller and more maze like feeder tunnels. 

And the continued exhaustion was starting 

to tell in mistakes made.

It had been over two hours since the last signs of 

Axis patrols, and Miller figured that if the Germans 

dont get them, stumbling around in the 

dark, bone tired would. Motioning his men to 

gather around in a football huddle, the sergeant 

pulled his map of the city from his armored 

coat. 

“Okay men, time for a break” Miller whispered, 

shining his red light on the map. A chorus of 

quiet sighs welcomed his declaration, “If I remember 

all those turns we made correctly, we 

should be about, here.” His finger stabbed the 

map about eight city blocks west, and twelve 

blocks south of the building marked as the platoons 

meeting point, the place where most of 

them had died. 

“We should find another rail line and a platform 

ahead, not far, we can bed down for a couple 

hours there.” Miller continued, “no lights, no 

cooking, though.” He cautioned his boys. 

They all nodded and Miller looked from face to 

face, noting the tension, and the fatigue but also 

the determination and strength. Even the kid, 

Pinski, looked older and tougher than he did two 

days ago. ‘Now if I can just get them home.’ 

Miller wondered for the thousandth time. 

Miller folded and stowed his map and the squad 

moved back into the tunnel, single file, moving 

a bit quicker to the promise of rest. As the sergeant 

hitched up his pack and started walking, 

he wondered when the other shoe was going to 

hit him in the backside! 

* * * 

Blocks away, in the rubble strewn streets of 

this accursed hell hole of a city, another soldier 

fought past exhaustion just as acute. 

Oberleutnant Johan Sammt, 214th Sturmgrenadiers, 

4th Platoon, was just getting ready to lead 

another fruitless search party into the frozen 

bowels of this god forsaken frozen city, in this 

god forsaken frozen country! He had to steady 

himself as the bitter bile of his frustration almost 

overflowed! 

He and his men were finished; they had nothing 

left to give. Two and half days ago, his company 

was returning from a punishing rotation on 

the eastern front of the city, four weeks of hard 

fighting, digging snipers and patriotic lunatics 

with incendiary bombs out of the ruins of the 

industrial centers. 

Just a few blocks from the reserve depot, and 

a hot meal and a soft cot, explosions tore the 

depot’s storehouses to pieces! As his company 

arrived, the depot commander enlisted his commander 

to help track the Allied saboteurs who 

did the damage. 

His Hauptmann, always eager to please officers 

with Bluetkruez ties, “volunteered” the 4th 

platoon to hunt the Allied troops down. His men 

had just enough time to swap ammo belts, and 

the hunt was on! 

the waking bear 

21

dust chronicles issue 3 the waking bear 

22 

Now, fifty odd hours, and little sleep, later, his 

quarry had gone to ground in the sewers. He 

shook his head in disgust, and tried to rub the 

fatigue from his red eyes as he lead his Command 

squad to yet another partially ruined subway 

entrance. 

His Hauptmann had radioed earlier in the day 

that a platoon of Blutkreuz “Special Operatives” 

had located the enemy infiltrators, and 

was setting to ambush them in a ruined department 

store, but it seems the ambush was only 

partly a success, and an unknown number of Allied 

troops had bloodied the Blutkreuz platoon’s 

nose badly, and escaped into the sewers. 

Which is why the Hauptmann was riding Sammt’s 

platoon so hard to be the ones to smoke 

them out and show off in front of the Special 

Forces Commander, the creepy officer in the 

gas mask. Johan shuddered at the memory of 

those emotionless glass eyes. 

Just as his squad approached the steps leading 

into the under city, the radio on the back of 

Obergefreiter Stiener squawked to life. Stiener 

stopped and listened into his headgear for a moment, 

Johan’s squad halting with him. 

“Oberleutnat, priority call from the Blutkreuz 

Hauptmann, sir.” Stiener called out, stepping up 

and handing Johan the second headset. Sammt 

held it to his ear, making sure the microphone 

was at his lips. 

“Yes, Hauptmann, this is Sammt, over.” He 

spoke loudly, surprised at how raspy his voice 

had become. 

The voice that answered him had a hollow, emotionless 

quality, and a dry hiss to it that made 

his skin crawl. 

“Oberleutnant Johan Sammt. You will pull your 

men out of the sewers and regroup at block 

point B two twenty nine and await further instructions. 

You will guard the sewer exits there, 

and under no circumstances deploy your men 

under the streets. Acknowledge.” The voice had 

an unsettling softness, almost a feminine quality, 

and for a moment, Johan couldn’t speak for 

the revulsion he felt. 

“Un-understood. Sir” he answered, unconsciously 

standing to attention. A click, and the 

line went dead. Johan handed the headset back 

to Stiener and dug his map from his coat. Block 

point B 229? He found it to be a water treatment 

facility, about fifteen more blocks to the south 

and west. A large, open facility, with multiple 

entrances into the sewers, all draining into a 

large open aquifer. 

Johan smiled a hunter’s grin. His platoon was to 

be the trap, the Special Operatives, the hounds. 

Driving the Allied men right into them! 

Somewhat reinvigorated, Johan spun to his 

men, “Round up the squads. We head straight 

to the ambush site. Stiener, radio Karlson and 

Metzner to get the Panzers back from the patrol, 

we are heading out!” 

His men snapped out salutes, and then darted 

off to round up the platoon’s scattered men. 

* * *

Private Pinski used his booted foot to nudge 

the huddled form of Malone yet again when his 

quiet snores began to gain volume like an oncoming 

freight train, still distant, but promising 

to soon be a mighty roar! 

Malone snorted and rolled over, squeezing his 

body into a tighter ball in his Ranger issue blanket, 

his snored quieted. 

Pinski was sitting on an overturned trash can 

on the outer edge of his sleeping squad mates, 

keeping second watch for the rest brake. 

A hundred yards from the rusty gate, the squad 

found an abandoned terminal platform for a connecting 

city train. Ten feet wide from tiled wall 

to track bed ledge, and about forty yards long, 

it bore a striking resemblance to the “Tube” stations 

Pinski had visited in London during his 

Ranger training before deployment. 

The stairs to the surface had collapsed and filled 

in with rubble from the street level above, making 

it relatively safe from Axis patrols from that 

direction. And the only other access points were 

the black openings of the train tunnel they arrived 

through. 

The squad had collapsed in exhaustion as soon as 

sergeant Miller had called for a rest break when 

they found the station. Milller had to make eating 

a cold meal an order before the squad could 

sleep, and quickly set a watch schedule for the 

rest period. They couldn’t linger too long, not 

with Axis squads making forays into the tunnels 

all over this part of the city! 

Pinski silently glanced at his sergeant, sitting 

on watch at the other end of the sleeping group, 

keeping an eye on the south tunnel entrance in 

the low red light from his night-lantern. Pinski 

had slept for an hour when Conners had awoken 

him for his turn at watch, and Miller had been 

sitting in the same place when he went to sleep! 

The man was indestructible! Pinski realized just 

how lucky his squad had been in the last three 

days of constant danger, to have survived intact 

with everything they had faced. But he couldn’t 

help but feel that that good luck had somehow 

flowed through Milller’s iron will and fearless 

leadership. 

Without him, we’d have died a few times already! 

Pinski thought gratefully. 

Pinski’s mind wandered some as he swept his 

own red light around the north tunnel entrance, 

his body crying for more rest, a hot meal, just 

not to be cold! A rancid, rotten smell began to 

tug at his awareness, and with a grimace of distaste, 

Pinski nudged Malone’s sleeping form 

none to gently, “Gollly, Manny! What did you 

eat?” he whispered at his snoring squad mate. 

Miller’s eyes drifted away from the south tunnel 

at the sound of Pinski’s quiet voice. He was 

just as tired as his men, but couldn’t sleep down 

here, so he kept watch while his boys collapsed 

around him. He kept going over his choices of 

the past thirty six hours, trying to see his mistakes 

clearly, to learn from them. He couldn’t 

wait to get his men back to Allied lines, another 

day, day and a half moving through the tunnels 

to reach the waterfront, and they will be in 

friendly territory. A weak smile tugged at his 

lips as he realized how much his after action report 

is going to read like a dime store adventure 

novel! ‘Don’t get ahead of yourself, Nathan,’ he 

mentally scolded himself, ‘you gotta get them 

out of here first.’ 

story by john sisk 

23


It took him a moment to notice the deep shadows 

over Private Pinski’s slouched shoulders. 

Where the shadows at the mouth of the north 

tunnel shifting and moving? Pinski’s youthful 

face scrunched in distaste as he took a couple of 

heavy sniffs and started to look around for the 

real source of the foul odor. Realization burned 

the fog of fatigue from Sergeant Miller’s mind, 

and he jolted to his feet, hands snatching up his 

Remington shotgun from the floor beside him. 

“INCOMING!” Miller bellowed as he ran towards 

the north tunnel, kicking sleeping feet as 

he passed his men, “Up! Up! Zombies!”, 

Pinski stared open mouthed at the wild eyed 

screaming madman that looked just like sergeant 

Miller as he ran towards him, bringing 

his large-bore shotgun up and aiming it right at 

him! Suddenly, Manny Malone bolted up from 

a deep sleep, nocking Pinski from the trashcan 

he used as a perch, sending him sprawling on 

the floor next to his stacked gear. Manny’s eyes 

were wide open and alight with barely controlled 

panic. He racked his shotgun and braced 

it on the recently vacated can. “Get that damn 

flamethrower on!” He roared at the stunned Private. 

Private Pinskis blood froze in his veins as an 

ear piercing, in-human, shriek from the darkness 

answered the booms of the men’s guns. He 

looked wildly over his shoulder, trying to see 

what made such a horrid sound, hands fumbling 

with the straps to his flamethrower’s tanks. 

From the inky blackness beyond the red light 

cast by the night lantern, a hunched figure staggered 

into view. His chest torn open from the 

shotgun’s heavy rounds. Pinski had never seen 

anything so terrible in his life. The soldier wore 

a torn and filthy German uniform, missing a 

boot, and his hairless, desiccated, head gave 

him the look of an old, old man. 

Expecting the soldier to collapse from his obviously 

mortal wound, Pinski was more than 

shocked, to say the least, when the German 

crouched like a beast and a wet, ragged laugh 

rumbled from it’s shriveled lips. The man leapt 

straight at Pinski and Malone, and the young Private 

had just a moment’s glimpse of the heavy 

steel mace-like weapons were a man’s hands 

should be, before Malone’s hand on his collar 

yanked him bodily back along the concrete, and 

out from under the German’s attack. 

the waking bear part 3 

24 

The rest of the squad was busy tossing off covers 

and scrambling for their weapons with sleep 

induced clumsiness. Pinski had just snapped 

out of his shocked daze, and had begun pulling 

his gear towards himself, when a deafening 

blast and bright, white flash, assaulted his ears 

and sternum. Malone had just fired his shotgun 

a few feet from his head, into the darkened tunnel 

beyond. Sergeant Miller slid to a halt, standing 

just behind Malone, and instantly he too 

snapped off two, fast, booming shots into the 

darkness. 

Both metal fists slammed into the platform floor 

right where Pinski had been, exploding gravel 

sized chunks of cement and cracking the floor 

like glass for a yard all around. The unbelievable 

strength of the blow rang even louder than 

the shotguns in the close confines of the tunnel. 

The sergeant stepped in between the beast man 

and Malone, who was still dragging the frozen 

Pinski and his gear backwards, and fired a blast 

point blank into it’s chest. The German berserker 

flew back into the curved wall and crumpled 

to the floor.

Malone shoved his wild eyed face forcefully 

into the stunned Private’s face, eyeball to eyeball. 

“Flamethrower! NOW, kid! Or we’re all 

dead!” He yelled over the ringing in Pinskis 

ears. 

Private Pinski blinked twice and snapped back 

into focus, reaching for his weapon and struggling 

to strap it on as fast as he possibly could. 

A non-stop chorus of “Holy hell, holy hell!” accompanying 

his efforts. 

Just as the Sergeant was racking his weapon to 

put another round into the fallen berserker, two 

more ragged shapes ran from the shadowed tunnel 

with shocking speed, right at him! A shotgun 

blast at Millers side took one of the men 

clean off its feet as the now fully awake Private 

Conners moved up to assist his Sergeant. 

The second wildman threw himself bodily at the 

Sergeant, metal mace-hands leading the way. 

Miller tried to spin away from the attack, but the 

berserker slammed into him, side on. Luckily, 

both weapon hands missed, but the slamming 

weight of the beast’s momentum carried both 

it and Miller to the floor in a crashing heap of 

flailing arms and legs and animalistic snapping 

teeth! 

To be continued.... 


25

eyond dust: anastyr 

In this irregular series we go beyond the world of Paolo Parente’s Dust and investigate what else is 

out there. The only criteria is that somehow there is a connection to Dust (even if sometimes it is a 

flimsy, eyebrow raising connection). 

For the first one, the connection is obvious, both ranges have been created by Paolo Parente. 


26

On August 24, 2012 Dust Studios announced the release of Paolo Parante’s much anticipated fantasy 

line of miniatures Anastyr. The initial offerings include three elements of the Tribe of The White 

Eagle: Undrall, Queen of the North, Konrad, Master of Blades, and Skoll The Protector. 

beyond dust: anastyr 

The resin chosen by Dust Studios holds details extremely well, but like most resins, is more brittle 

than metal alloys commonly used in miniature casting. Care must be taken when handling the sprues 

and in removing elements from the runners. The castings show very few mold lines, pin holes, or 

other imperfections and are among the very best resin castings that this reviewer has seen. The pieces 

fit together well and there is very little work to be done to prepare them for priming. They make 

excellent collector’s pieces. Dust Studios has plans for producing the Anastyr line in a high quality 

plastic medium that will be more suited for the rough and tumble of the gaming table. 

27

eyond dust: anastyr dust chronicles #3 

28 

The boxed sets for Undrall and Konrad contain the elements needed to assemble both mounted and 

unmounted figurines, while the set for Skoll contains two versions of the model each with a unique 

head, and weapon plus a pair of very large spiked pauldrons. 

Mr. Parente’s shapes reveal a clean bold spirit and his details a deeply felt warm appreciation of the 

human form. The sharing of the style and decorative design elements in the miniatures, draw the 

viewer into the fantasy iconography of the Tribe of the White Eagle. Primitive symbols of fertility 

and reproduction appear in the bulbous decorative elements of the armor, crescent shaped weapon 

tips, and Earth Goddess shaped weapon hafts. These combine with images of the spiraling path of 

initiation and the skulls of death and transformation. 

Differences in style in the design elements provide contrast. The skull forms on Konrad’s blades and 

the spirals on Skoll’s are more angular as are the relief design elements on Konrad’s helmet, and the 

arrow head shape of Skoll’s second sword tip, while the designs on Queen Undralls’ blades are sinuous 

and serpentine. The feeling of strength and masculinity in these weapons is echoed in the angular 

spiral on Konrad’s saddle. The strong shapes and wild movement shown in Konrad and Undraal’s 

cloaks show the strong presence of the wind element. Undraal’s feather cloak brings to mind images 

of the Goddess Freya and the Valkyries and teases one’s mind into the realms of winged flight, and 

through that into the White Eagle Tribe’s namesake, while Konrad’s rough fur cloak complements 

the masculine presence of the blademaster.

The potential for the range is amazing, who knows what the future holds for Anastyr. . . . 

beyond dust: anastyr 

The ever expanding 

range of Anastyr models 

is available from: 

www.dust-models.com 


29

how2: improve 

the ssu helicopter 

Step away from everything 

the ssu helicopter 

dust chronicles issue 3 how2: improve 

30 

When I got my first games console, I took the 

controller apart to make the casing smaller so 

it fit in my hands better. To keep a long story 

short, I broke it and I was told to step away from 

the Nintendo. 

When I got my first house I decided to put a 

wooden floor in myself and was going to figure 

out how to place it by trying. Long story short, 

the floor was warping before the last board was 

put down, I was told to step away from the nailgun. 

When I got my first . . . . . . 

(I think you know where this is going). 

Every time I get my hands on something new 

I have the urge to “improve” it and my family 

now want me to play it SAFE (Stay Away From 

Everything). Instead of listening to them I keep 

coming up with ways to do things that to me 

sound like a good idea at the time but more often 

than not turn into a major dissaster. 

In this series of articles I will be sharing my experience 

when trying to bring my next briliant 

idea to life. Am I doing things how they should 

be done? NO! this isn’t going to be a “HOW2”, 

if anything it is a HowNot2 so I guess what you 

will learn from me is not what to do but what 

not to do. 

I was about to start painting my SSU Transport 

when I got an idea. 

The helicopter has two doors at the back for 

the troops to disembark from, having the doors 

open with a SSU trooper standing in the hold 

sounds cool (admit it, you agree). 

How hard can it be? The thing is only made 

from plastic. My partner saw that look in my 

eyes and told me to “Step Away From The 

Chopper!” But I haven’t got the greatest track 

record of doing what she says and I took a kife 

to the helicopter. 

The doors have clear lines and this made it a lot 

easier to cut where I needed to. At first I tried to 

cut the plastic in one go but after half an hour 

and only a small line into the first door I decided 

to change tactic. 

Instead of cutting I started just sliding the knife 

accross the model and this gave me a slightly 

deeper groove every time I did that. After ten 

minutes I was able to push the knife all the way 

into the helicopter and now I could actually 

make cuts to seperate the doors from the hull. 

This method also gave me the idea of not removing 

the doors completely but only making a 

groove on the side of the hinges and then bending 

the doors to have them open. Once I had the 

first door open it was easier to get to the second 

door and that one only took half the time. 

Just over an hour after I started the doors where 

open and I was ready to paint the model.

I decided that seeing how the doors where already 

open, so I could see there was enough 

space to put the mechanism into the SSU helicopter, 

there was no reason not to try. 


Now I think somebody tried to say: “Step Away 

from . . . .” but I was in the zone. 

OK, so now you are thinking, “is that it?” 

Well, no. 

When I walked back into the living room I noticed 

my 3 year old had left one of his toys out 

and I looked from the SSU helicopter in my 

hand to the toy on the floor and back to the SSU 

helicopter. 

Every other person whould see this: 

The first thing I did was drill a hole from the 

point where the old blades where connected to 

the hull straight into the cargo hold. Seeing how 

there was going to be a long metal rod leading 

from the “engine” I wanted to make sure it was 

all going to line up. 

After drilling the hole I found out that there was 

no way to angle the metal rod so that it was going 

to slide into place. So I took the top part 

of the helicopter (thinking I should have done 

that when I was trying to get the doors open), 

took the helicopter blades of the toy and placed 

the new engine block into the hold of the SSU 

helicopter. 

However, I am not every other person and what 

I saw on the floor was this: 

As it turned out, it didn’t fit as well as I expected 

and I needed to cut away a fair amount plastic 

from the “engine block”. 

step away from everything 

31

s.a.f.e. 


It took some pushing and in the end I had to cut 

more parts from the helicopter to get a fit. It all 

worked out and my SSU Transport Helicopter 

was ready for its first test “flight”. 

The blades spin so fast that while on the flight 

stand the Helicopter does its best to fall over 

and nine out of ten times manages to do so. For 

this reason the finished model will have to be 

stuck to a standard base. That will also explain 

the doors being open, who is going to fly up 

high with the doors open, right? 

Now Dust Chronicles doesn’t have a way to put 

movie clips in the magazine so if you want to 

see what the helicopter looks like in action then 

check out the Dust Chronicles Facebook page 

where the short movie has been uploaded. Find 

it here and don’t forget to click Like. 

There you have it. Just one example of me getting 

an idea and it snowballing into something 

much more involved than planned. 

step away from everything 

This time it worked out ok. Well apart from my 

3 year old wondering where his toy helicopter 

has gone (I’m in so much trouble when he is old 

enough to go on Facebook and sees the movie). 

Join me in Dust Chronicles #4, when I get spraypaint 

on the livingroom floor. 

32

dust warfare scenario: ambush 

In this scenario we will recreate 

a classic ‘L’ ambush. 

The ambusher is the attacker 

and the ambushed is the defender. 

Both sides will employ an 

equal number of points for their 

armies. 

Game Length 

The game will last 5 rounds 

Terrain 

The attacker sets up all the terrain. 

He may place as much or as little terrain as 

he chooses. The terrain can be set up anywhere 

on the table so long as it is more than 8’ from 

the long centerline of the table. 

Deployment 

Players roll 5 dice to determine initial deployment, 

with the player who scored the most hits 

deploying a unit first, and then alternating unit 

placement as normal. 

The defender must deploy his units within 4’ 

of the long centerline of the table, beginning at 

one short edge and extending 48’ along the long 

centerline towards the opposite short table edge. 

The defender must endeavor to fit as much of 

his force into the deployment area as possible. 

Purposefully holding units off board to avoid 

the first round ambush is frowned upon and is 

considered unsporting. 

Any of the defender’s units that do not fit into 

the deployment zone must be held in reserve 

and deploy onto the table from the 8’ of deployment 

zone touching the defender’s short table 

edge. Allied players may not use the ‘Air Drop’ 

platoon upgrade in this scenario. Other aerial 

reserve deployments are allowed as normal. 

his force onto, to a depth of 12’. All of the attacker’s 

units must be in or behind a terrain feature 

that obscures line of sight to the unit. Any 

units that are unable to be deployed in such a 

manner, must be held in reserve and can be deployed 

onto the table in subsequent rounds per 

the normal reserve rules. The attacker’s reserve 

units come onto the table from their deployment 

zone table edges. 

Initiative 

On round 1, do not roll for initiative. Instead, 

the attacker begins with one command point and 

the defender receives none. The attacker will be 

able to take a single action in the COMMAND 

phase (triggering the ambush) while the defender 

will not be able to do anything at all in the 

first command phase. This cannot be modified 

in any way, by command squads or special rules 

etc. In the first UNIT phase the attacker also 

goes first, this despite the fact the defender had 

no commands (as though he scored all blanks in 

the initiative roll). In subsequent rounds, roll 

for initiative as normal. 

Victory Conditions 

For each unit the defender is able to move off 

the table via the attacker’s short table edge, the 

defender gains 2 victory points. 


The attacker deploys his forces onto the short 

table edge opposite the defender’s deployment 

zone, to a depth of 12’. The defender may also 

choose ONE of the long table edges to deploy 

For each unit completely destroyed, the attacker 

gains 1 victory point. 

The player with the most victory points wins the 

scenario. 

33

Tactical Corner: To Kill a Superhero 

by Leutnant Manfred Hirtzel 

Laser Grenadiers 

One of the few small arms that will penetrate armor 

4, this squad may make a sudden comeback 

to the game tables with a full strength of 5/1 lasers. 

Hope for those lasers to kick in, however, 

lest they die a gruesome fate under a superhero’s 

fists, a fate from which they cannot defend 

themselves. 

Pair with: Sigrid, she’ll add another 1/1 laser 

with the same range. Berserk will also help in 

landing your shots. 


34 

Operation Hades will have already commenced 

by the time you are reading this article. With 

it comes the first Superhero to the battle, the 

glory of the Sino-Soviet Union. Winter Child 

will stride powerfully on the battlefield, but he 

is just the first of the VK enhanced Supermen to 

enter the game. 

Winter Child marks the first Armor 4 hero in the 

Dust Universe. Combined with his Damage Resilient 

skill, he makes a challenging foe. While 

there are certainly a slew of vehicles that can 

outrange and gun down this man, one must remember 

that Winter Child will debut in the sewers 

and subway tunnels of Zverograd. Here, vehicles 

cannot tread, and battles quickly devolve 

into deadly close combat. It’s also important to 

remember that most small arms cannot harm armor 

4 infantrymen, and the flamethrower that 

once reigned supreme is pitiful against a single 

man. So the question becomes, relying only on 

your arsenal of infantry, how do you kill a Superhero? 

Axis 

Heavy Flak Grenadiers 

(when they use Burst) 

If you can get this squad to squeeze off Burst 

fire, they can roll 6/1 against an armor 4 Superhero. 

Their combat knives will also provide you 

with 3/1, so the squad will go down fighting if 

the foe closes on them. They’re far from the best 

option, but they can do in a pinch. 

Pair with: No one, unless you really need the 

extra health. Other than that Lara is practically 

useless in this fight. 

Axis Zombies or Gorillas 

These squads are going to take a beating, and 

you can pretty much kiss them goodbye (I don’t 

recommend that though, because eww). But 

with 10/1 and 6/1 in melee dice respectively, 

they may do some serious damage as a one hit 

wonder. 

Pair with: Totenmeister / Markus, these heroes 

will add health and another 4/1 in melee dice, 

increasing damage and the chances of keeping 

that thing busy for another round.

Allies 

Tank Busters 

Despite being thought of as an Anti-tank unit, 

this squad will still deal 6/1 against an armor 

4 superhero. If engaged in close combat, you’ll 

still have the benefit of 3/1 rocket punches. 

Pair with: Ozz 117, for star power (Heroic Attack). 

He won’t add much damage though. 

Devil’s Own or Legio Patria Nostra 

These guys were practically made to kill superheroes. 

8-bolt-2 phasers represent one of the 

strongest weapons against armor 4 infantry in 

the game. As if that wasn’t enough, their Knife 

& Grenade attack will deal an astounding 9/1 in 

close combat. 

Pair with: Action Jackson, because MORE 

phaser. 

The Hammers 

They’ll be decent in a fight with 6/1 melee, but 

like the gorillas and zombies you can kiss them 

goodbye (for real this time). 

Pair with: Ozz 117, because this combo makes 

star power extra hilarious/infuriating. Just make 

sure to use it before you engage in melee. 

Red Devils 

Phasers are unaffected by the distinction of light 

versus heavy infantry. Use this to your advantage. 

6-bolt-3 presents a fairly good lineup, on 

average doing as much damage as many og the 

aforementioned squads, but with a much higher 

damage potential. Like many allied heavies, 

they also have a hefty 3/1 rocket punch to back 

them up. 

Pair with: Action Jackson, because more 

phaser. 

SSU 

Winter Child 

Sorry SSU, you got the short end of the kill your 

own faction stick. Unless you’re interested in 

juggling Molotovs in front of an angry bear, a 

bear with metal fists and is radioactive, there’s 

little you can use to deal significant damage. So 

have fun while I debate which one of you is the 

evil twin. 

(Hint: it’s both of you, you dirty communists). 

tactical corner 

35

dust chronicles issue 3 experimental rules 

36 

experimental rules: 

armored platoons 

Admit it, ever since you first saw those wonderful 

walkers you’ve wanted to field entire platoons 

of them. I can’t blame you, I’m a treadhead 

(Walker-head?) at heart. As the Warfare 

rules stand right now, there is no way to do that. 

So we here at Dust Chronicles present to you 

these Experimental Rules: Armored Platoons. 

As is implied by the ‘Experimental’, these rules 

are not official, cannot be used in tournaments 

and really shouldn’t be used without your opponent’s 

consent. We hope to bring you more 

Experimental Rules articles in the future and 

what we really hope for, is to hear from you, the 

community. Let us know what works and what 

doesn’t, if something needs a tweak speak. You 

can drop us a line at dustfanzine@hotmail.com 

or on Facebook on the Dust Chronicles group. 

New Rules: 

Platoon Upgrade: Tank Hunters 

A platoon that is NOT an Armored Platoon may 

take this upgrade. All units in the platoon gain 

the Tank Killer Weapons from the Dust Warfare 

Rulebook (p.58). The upgrade costs 5 points per 

unit and must be applied to all units that have at 

least one weapon which can harm an armor 3 

vehicle. For instance, Recon Boys and Grim 

Reapers would have to take the upgrade but 13 

Foxtrot would not. 

Tank Commander 

This rule applies to the Command Section of all 

Armored Platoons. 

- The Walker or Tank chosen as the mandatory 

command section has the Command Squad rule 

(Dust Warfare rulebook page 54). 

- The Command vehicle counts as a radioman 

(Dust Warfare rulebook page 56). 

Note that this applies weather or not your force 

is lead by a hero piloted vehicle or a vehicle 

without a hero at the controls.

Platoon Structure 

Platoons are purchased in the normal manner. 

The command and first section being mandatory. 

However, this is not a combined arms endeavor! 

Armored Platoons may not be paired 

with other platoons, if you are going to have one 

Armored Platoon then all Platoons in your army 

must be Armored Platoons! 

Furthermore, SSU armies may only include KV 

Walker lead platoons OR IS Tank lead Platoons 

but not both. If you want to combine arms, then 

there are perfectly good lists already in the Dust 

Warfare: Zverograd and Hades books. 

The Platoons: 

SSU Armored Platoon 

Command Section (mandatory) 

-Any Hero with the Pilot skill and any KV 

walker (KV 47 aero walker/KV 3) 

OR 

-Any Hero with the Pilot skill and any IS Tank. 

OR 

-Any IS Tank or KV walker. See the ‘Inflexible 

Command Structure’ rule below. 

1st Section (mandatory) 

-Any KV 47 walker (not aero) 

OR 

-Any IS Tank 

2nd Section (optional) 


OR 

-Any IS Tank 

3rd Section (optional) 


OR 

-Any IS Tank 

4th Section (optional) 

-KV 3 Heavy Walker 

-KV 47 Aero Walker 

OR 

-Any IS Tank 

-MIL MI 47 Ground Attack Helicopter 

Support (one per two sections) 

-SSU Observer Team 

-MIL MI 46 Walker Transport 


OR 

-SSU Observer Team 


SSU Armored Platoons have access to 

the following Special Order: 

Onward Comrades! 

This order can be issued once per game in the 

command phase to any units that do not already 

have a reaction marker. The order does not apply 

to helicopters or fliers of any sort. 

The ordered SSU units may make a 6’ move and 

change their facing by 90 degrees. This applies 

to all ground units regardless of weather they 

are IS Tanks or KVs. All units moved in this 

way receive a reaction marker. 

SSU Armored Platoons have the following 

special rule: 

Inflexible Command Structure 

The command and control of SSU Platoons is 

rigid and unbending. To reflect this, an Armored 

Platoon lead by a KV walker may not 

include any IS tanks and an SSU Armored Platoon 

lead by an IS tank may not take any KV 

walkers. You may however take different platoons 

in the same army. 

Platoon Upgrades: 

SSU Armored Platoons may use the following 

Platoon Upgrades from the Zverograd Rulebook 

(page 43) at the costs described there: 

Train Support 

(As per the Zverograd book page 43.) 

Improved Command 

Instead of adding a radio equipped model, it 

is assumed the individual leading the platoon 

is well trained and able to issue multiple commands 

and has an upgraded communications set 

in his vehicle. 


37


Allied Armored Platoon 


-Any Hero with the Pilot skill and any Walker 

OR 

-Any Walker 

1st section (mandatory) 

-Any Walker of the same ‘weight’ as the command 

tank. i.e if the command tank is a medium 

walker then your 1st section walker must 

also be a medium walker. 

The Commander of the platoon is able to lean 

on his years of experience and talk a walker pilot 

through a quick field repair. 

Choose a vehicle within command range (or use 

the radio) that is suffering an on-going effect 

from the Vehicle Damage Table (Dust Warfare 

page 44) and/or has lost at least one but not all 

of it’s Damage Capacity points. Immediately 

remove the on-going effect. This order cannot 

effect the Ammunition Detonation or Hull 

Breach results, that amount of damage is simply 

not repairable on the battlefield. In addition, 

the ordered vehicle may roll a dice, if a ‘hit’ is 

scored, a single Damage Capacity point is restored. 

The ordered vehicle receives a reaction 

marker. 

Allied Armored Platoons have the following 

special rule: 


-Any walker 


-Any walker 


-Any walker 


-Any walker 

-Ranger Observer Team 

-Any Allied Flier 

Rosie Donovan 

-Rosie Donovan has the ‘Pilot’ skill when taken 

as part of an Allied Armored Platoon. Her 

Tank Head skill applies to the You’re gonna be 

alright son! order. Rosie may only pilot a medium 

walker. 


Allied Armored Platoons have access to the following 

Platoon upgrades at the points listed in 

the Dust Warfare rulebook page 87: 

Additional Resources 

Instead of issuing the You’re gonna be alright 

son! Order you may call down a Long Tom artillery 

strike. 

Air Drop 

As per the Dust Warfare rulebook page 87. 

experimental rules 

38 

Allied Armored Platoons have access 

to the following Special Order: 

You’re gonna be alright son! 

Once per command phase the Command vehicle 

of the Armored Platoon may issue this order 

to a (non-flier) vehicle that has not yet received 

an order. 







Aeronca GB-9 Strike 


Preparatory Barrage 

As per the Dust Warfare rulebook page 87.


Axis Armored Platoon 


-Any Hero and any Walker 

OR 

-Any Walker 

1st Section (mandatory) 

-Any Walker 


-Any Walker 


-Any Walker 


-Any Walker 


-Any Walker 

-Any Axis Flier 

-Beobachter Team 

Axis Armored Platoons have access to 

the following Special Order: 

Blitzkrieg! 

This rule functions exactly as per the Dust Warfare 

rulebook page 116. 

Axis Armored Platoons have the following 

special rules: 

Sigrid Von Thaler 

-Sigrid Von Thaler has the ‘Pilot’ skill when 

taken as part of an Axis Armored Platoon. Her 

Berserk skill applies to her walker. She may 

pilot any medium walker or a Konigsluther. 

PanzerGrenadiers 

If you take a PrinzLuther as your command 

vehicle you may also take a Kommadotrupp. 

For Sections 1-4 you may take a PrinzLuther 

or SturmPrinz. If you do so, you may also take 

one of the following squads for each of the PrinzLuther/SturmPrinz 

walkers at the cost listed in 

the Dust Warfare rulebook; 

-Battle Grenadiers 

-Recon Grenadiers 

-Laser Grenadiers 

-Heavy Recon Grenadiers 

-Heavy Laser Grenadiers 

The squads must be deployed in their transports 

at the beginning of the game. 


Axis Armored Platoons have access to the following 

platoon upgrades at the points listed in 

the Dust Warfare rulebook page 115: 








Nebelwerfer Barrage 


Lightning War 


39


Example of an 

Axis Armored Platoon 

1st platoon (recce) 

Command Section 

-Hans (25) 

1st Section 

-Heinrich (20) 

2nd Section 

-Heinrich (20) 

3rd Section 

-Herman (20) 

4th Section 

-Herman (20) 

Subtotal: 105 

2nd platoon (tank destroyer) 

Command Section 

-Sigrid + Ludwig (60) 

1st Section 

-Ludwig (40) 

2nd Section 

-Konigsluther (95) 

Total: 300 


40

dust on the web 

When you browse the internet for websites that 

cover Dust Tactics and/or Warfare then you 

will come across a large number of results. You 

have the official sites like www.dust-game.com, 

where you can find premium and unique models 

and www.fantasyflightgames.com, the site of 

the publisher of both Tactics and Warfare. 

Lets get started. With both the Dust Studio and 

Fantasy Flight Games having their own website 

where news is posted you can easily miss out on 

the latest developments. Luckily there are websites 

that collect news items from all over the 

internet, for example Tabletop Gaming News. 

This website has the latest on games from all 

over the web (useful if your gaming isn’t limited 

to Dust). 

Then there are also websites that cover mainly 

Dust news but also create their own content. 

Some examples of these are Unit Forward and 

Front Towards Enemy and also Fire Broadside. 

Not only do they have all the latest in one convenient 

place but they also provide original articles, 

like unit reviews and battle reports. 

There are many, many more. The following is 

by no means the complete list of Dust related 

websites, it is a casual look at some of them. 

As a final note, before we dive in, this article is 

not an attempt at ordering the websites by how 

good they are. So don’t feel upset if your favourite 

website is not the first one mentioned. 

A good way to get noticed in the ever growing 

sea of websites is to do something that the other 

websites aren’t doing. A good example of this 

is BattleTactics.TV. These guys don’t go anywhere 

without their camera. The movie clips 

you can find on the website range from opening 

the latest release to building a gaming table out 

of your pool-table. Their coverage of GenCon 

2012 allowed those of us not able to go a close 

up look at upcoming releases. 


41

dust on the web 

Now that there are two games set in the universe 

of Paolo Parente’s Dust (ok, there is a third but 

getting hold of that is not easy) there are websites 

who focus on just one or the other Dust 

game. Dust-War.Com is one of these websites 

and this one covers Dust Warfare. There are 

weekly updates, ranging from army list discussions 

to full-blown articles about armies and the 

use of units. 

Now this is only a glance at the large amount 

of Dust websites out there and what follows 

is a list of more websites that cover Dust Tactics 

and Dust Warfare in one way or another. If 

we missed your website out then let us know 

and we will include it in the next issue of Dust 

Chronicles. 

http://www.facebook.com/#!/ 

groups/303941853917 

The official Facebook page for Dust. 

http://radiodustinforma.blogspot.com 

A Spanish Language Dust resource. 

http://darkfuturegaming.blogspot.com/ 

Gaming blog that covers a variety of game 

systems and always worth reading. 


42 

This website also has close links with the Dust 

Warfare Army Builder website. This website allows 

you to build your army without the need 

of pens and calculators, having a printer is however 

a good idea. 

Another good place to find original content are 

blogs. These can range from blogs with the emphasis 

on a local league like the Portland Dust 

League Blog or new units and conversions like 

the The War Continues - Dust Tactics Blog. 

Blogs can be a great place to find ideas for your 

own games and conversions and often enable 

readers to comment and ask questions . 

http://homepage.mac.com/brentdietrich/companyB.htm 

Good aftermarket bits for your walkers. IR 

lights and scope, tarps, sacks, battlerattle, etc. 

http://www.warlordgames.com 

28mm Historical WWII miniatures. Their plastic 

multi-part kits are a great source of bits. 

http://www.secretweaponminiatures.com 

Bits for infantry conversions, weathering pigments 

and washes, and basing materials 

http://www.westwindproductions.co.uk 

West Wind Production’s Secrets of the Third 

Reich and Berlin or Bust, a great source for 

alternate heads and weapons. Some of their 

miniatures work well for Dust too. 

http://www.tamiyausa.com 

A source for 1/48 scale WWII models. 

http://www.quarter-kit.com 

They have some conversion kits for 1/48 models 

that allow you to ‘update’ your historical 

mundane vehicles to the Dust world. (Panther 

II turret etc.).

www.swdustdevils.com is the home of the Southwest Dust Devils, an alliance of Dust 

and Panzerpunk fans centered in the Southwestern United States. Our goal is to promote 

Dust Tactics, Dust Warfare, related games and products, and everything Dieselpunk. 

To this end, we run Dust demos, tournaments, and special events, as well as gaming 

“get-togethers”. Watch the site for more information about the Southwest Dust Devils 

as it unfolds and don’t forget to Like our Facebook page, where you can join the members 

of our community as they discuss all things Dust and Dieselpunk/Panzerpunk. 

We’re also proud to share our first major event announcement - Dust Day Southwest 

2013, “Dust-Up in the Desert” will be held on February 22nd and 23rd, 2013. We 

think you’ll enjoy our host venue - Imperial Outpost Games in Glendale, Arizona - 

and know that you will love our very special guest, Paolo Parente! Make your plans to 

join us in February for games, tournaments, prizes, and more. Watch this site for more 

information and event news. 

Gamers, would be dieselpunk scientists, cosplayers, and anyone who enjoys the world 

of Dust or dieselpunk in general will find this destination event to be the highlight of 

their year! 

Dust Day Southwest 2013, “Dust-Up in the Desert” 

February 22nd and 23rd, 2013 


Imperial Outpost Games 

Address: 4920 Thunderbird Road, 

Glendale, AZ 85306, United States 

43


from the front: warfare 

SITUATION: Florence, Italy - 1947. As part 

of the massive Italian Campaign, the Allied 8th 

Army pushes into the devastated city of Florence 

to prepare a staging ground for Operation 

Olive II to break the Axis Gothic Line and recapture 

Italy… 

THE PLAYERS: The game is played by 

two artists from Lazuli Miniatures Studios, Viet 

Nguyen and Lynn Tong. We had just finished 

painting up these two magnificent armies for 

Roland in Switzerland and were eager to try 

them out. Viet commands the Germans while 

Lynn plays the Americans. 

MPW II-D “Lothar” – “Andrea” 

MPW II-B “Luther”- “Yvonne” 

Blutkreuz Platoon 

Sturmpioniere 

Heavy Laser Grenadiers 

Heavy Flak Grenadiers 

Axis Zombies 

HPW VI-A “Königsluther” – “Marie” 

MPW II-B “Ludwig” – “Sara” 

The game was played at Sci Fi Factory’s Grand 

Opening on terrain designed by Lazuli Miniatures 

Studio. 


44 

OBJECTIVE: Eliminate the Enemy (we 

modified the rules so that a Hero was worth 2 

points and a Heavy was worth 3). 

DEPLOYMENT: Advancing Lines 

CONDITIONS: None 

The Axis: 

Heroes 

Sigrid Von Thaler 

Manfred 

Sturmgrenadiere Platoon 

Kommandotrupp 

Battle Grenadiers 


Recon Grenadiers 


The Allies: 

Heroes 

Rosie 

Bazooka Joe 

Combat Platoon 

“The Boss” Ranger Command Squad 

“The Gunners” Combat Ranger Squad 

“Recon Boys” Recon Ranger Squad 

“BBQ Squad” Assault Ranger Squad 

MCW M2-B “Hot Dog” – “Valentine” 

MCW M2-C “Pounder” – “Dara” 

Combat Platoon 

“The Boss” Ranger Command Squad 

“The Gunners” Combat Ranger Squad 

“Recon Boys” Recon Ranger Squad 

“Death Dealers” Ranger Weapon Squad 

MCW M2-F “Steel Rain” – “Jenny” 

Assault Platoon 

“Hell Boys” Ranger Attack Squad 

“BBQ Squad” Assault Ranger Squad 

HAW M6-A “Punisher” – “Nyranee”

Deployment: 

We arranged the board so that the larger buildings 

faced the outside while the ruins faced inwards 

making for a killing ground in the center 

of the board with light cover scattered in the 

ruins and on the streets. Both armies deployed 

infantry in the cover of the large buildings while 

the tanks were placed in between the buildings 

with their cannons covering the streets. 

Turn One: 

Turn One saw both armies double move 

across the streets and taking cover in the 

ruins near the center of the board. The 

Lothar “Andrea” fires its Nebelwerfer 

42s at the American Pounder “Dara” and 

manages to score two points of damage. 

The Konigluther “Marie” and the Luther 

“Yvonne” fire at the advancing Allied infantry 

but fail to cause any casualties. 


The M6 Heavy Walker Punisher 

“Nyranee” moves into position to cover 

the ruins with her powerful Dual 

155mm Howitzers while two infantry 

squads cover her side in case any German 

units attempt to flank her. The 

Steel Rain “Jenny” awaits orders for 

targets safely inside a building. 

ALLIES: 0 

AXIS: 0 

45

from the front: 

dust warfare 

Turn Two: 

In the second turn, walkers exchanged fire while 

infantry poured into the ruins. The Axis won Priority 

and advanced infantry into the ruins without 

fear of Reactions from the close-range BBQ 

Ranger squads. The Konigsluther “Marie” shot 

the Hot Dog “Valentine” through the ruins but 

only managed to score one point of damage. The 

Luther “Yvonne” killed two Rangers. During 

the Allied turn the Pounder “Dara” opened with 

is 17 Pounder Gun and destroyed the “Yvonne” 

in a spectacular explosion. Bazooka Joe’s BBQ 

Squad and Hellboys killed one Zombie and two 

Laser Grenadiers. 

ALLIES: 1 

AXIS: 0 


46 

Rosie moves her Combat Rangers behind a barricade 

in the center street, a position that would 

prove pivotal to the game.


The “Dara” provides covering fire while the 

Allied Infantry enter the ruins. 

Turn Three: 

Priority in Turn Three went to the Allies, 

“Jenny” fired her 4.2 Rocket at the Konigsluther. 

With the combined power of 

“Nyrane’s” Dual Howizters, the Konigsluther 

“Marie” took 3 points of damage. 

“Marie” turned her attention away from 

the Hot Dog “Valentine” and fired back at 

“Nyranee” scoring 2 points of damage. 

The Axis Zombies charged Bazooka Joe’s 

squad leaving him with one wound and 

without a squad. The BBQ Assault Rangers 

mopped up the Zombies with their 

shotguns and flamethrower. 

Joe and the Attack Rangers desperately 

try to hold off an Axis Zombie assault 

while the BBQ Squad arrives from behind 

to cleanse the monsters. 

from the front 

47


Sigrid and the Sturmpioneer squad 

fight the Combat Rangers. 

ALLIES: 2 

AXIS: 1 


48

Turn Four: 

The Allies won the initiative again 

in the fourth turn. The Recon Grenadiers 

fired at the Allied Command 

Squad and kill the mechanic and radioman. 

The BBQ squad shot at the 

Laser Grenadiers and killed four but 

not before they reacted and made 

casualties of two of the Rangers. 

The Ludwig had flanked the Punisher 

“Nyranee” and scored one point 

of damage while the Heavies continued 

to exchange fire. The Gunners 

wiped out Sigrid’s Sturmpioneer but 

the Heavy Flak Grenadiers wiped 

them out. 

The Axis Kommandotrupp fired at 

Bazooka Joe taking his last wound 

and putting the Axis in the lead. 

On the other side of the board, the 

Heavy Laser Grenadiers combined 

their Schwer Laswer-Werfers with 

the Ludwig’s machine gun and inflicted 

two casualties on the Allied 

Command Squad. “Dara” shoots its 17 Pounder 

Gun at the Lothar and does 3 points of damage. 

The return fire destroys the Dara. 

The Allied squads are faltering under the axis 

advance. 

ALLIES: 4 

AXIS: 4 

Turn Five: 

The Axis moved first on the 5th turn and finished 

what they had started in the previous turn. 

The Kommandotrup finished off the BBQ 

Squad. The Recon and Battle Grenadiers killed 

the Boss Command Squad but lost two soldiers 

in the process but the 2nd Command Squad and 

the Recon Rangers finished the Heavy Laser 

Grenadiers on the other side of the board. 

The Lothar “Andrea” realizing how 

close the “Valentine’s” Naplam 

Thrower was to the Konigsluther 

fired it’s artillery, but failed to destroy 

it. The “Valentine” proceeded 

to burn the Heavy Flak Grenadiers 

turning their armor into a pile of 

ash. The Ludwig and the Konigsluther 

continued to pound away 

the Punisher “Nyranee” and finally 

neutralized it. 

Rosie and the Combat quad train 

their Bazookas onto the Konigsluther 

“Marie”. 


49

Marie watches the destruction of 

the “Nyranee” from the cupola of 

her Heavy Walker. 

ALLIES: 6 

AXIS: 9 


Turn Six: 

Turn Six was the epic conclusion of 

the battle. The Axis won priority again, 

the Grenadiers finished the last Allied 

Recon Squad on their side of the board. 

The “Valentine,” Rosie, and the Combat 

Rangers focused their Napalm and 

Bazookas onto the Konigsluther and finally 

take it down. 

CONCLUSION: 

ALLIES: 9 

AXIS: 10 

The Axis scored a very narrow victory 

over the Allies, Florence is theirs. For 

now and Operation Olive II has been 

delayed for another day. 

50


If you enjoy playing Dust Tactics and/or Dust 

Warfare and want to see your battles featured 

in a future issue of Dust Chronicles then simply 

take some pictures next time you play and who 

knows, your victory might be the next “From 

The Front”. 

There is no need to write an entire article, pictures 

of soldiers and vehicles often tell the story 

all by themselves. Check page 2 for details on 

how to submit anything. 

51


www.panzerpunk.com 

www.panzerpunk.com 

52

RPG rules set in the world of 

Paolo Parente’s Dust 

Written By: 

CS Barnhart 


53


The core mechanic of DUST: ADVENTURES is the six sided dice. The game revolves 

around dice pools of six sided dice with each dice having one of two possible outcomes, 

a hit (which counts as a success) and a miss (which does not count as a success). The six 

sided die has two hit results on it and four miss results. If not using proper specialized 

DUST dice, treat any roll of a 5 or 6 as a hit and rolls of 1, 2, 3 or 4 as misses. (Dust Dice 

Purists may prefer to have the 1 and 6 be hits and 2, 3, 4, and 5 be misses). 

Dice are available from www.dust-models.com as well as www.battletactics.tv or can be 

custom made by many companies including www.chessex.com. Otherwise you can just use 

standard dice as described above. 

ATTRIBUTES 

When making your dice pool you will default to 

the attribute (a statistic or ability that defines a 

wide range of possible talents and capabilities) 

most related to the action at hand. 

For example, the Game Master may require a 

character to leap across a chasm as a castle in 

Bavaria is collapsing from internal explosions. 

The player of the character would default to his 

Dexterity (or Strength at GMs discretion) to 

form his dice pool. A character that has Dexterity 

of 3 would roll 3 dice and count the number 

of successes he rolls and the compare them to 

the difficulty the Game Master assigned to the 

leap. 

HEROES AND CHUMPS 

There are two classification of characters in 

Dust: Adventures. The first is the heroic individuals 

who hold the balance of the world in 

their hands, these individuals are called heroes 

even if they are not so heroic (evil scientists and 

storm trooper commanders for the Axis would 

still be classified as heroes, even though in reality 

they are villains). The second category is 

everyone else. 

SKILLS 

Attribute dice pools are further augmented by 

specialized skills that enhance a character’s capabilities 

in limited or focused ways. 

In the above example, the character may add his 

dice of the Jumping skill to improve his odds of 

making the jump. If the character had 2 dice in 

Jumping he would add those dice to his Dexterity 

of 3 to form a total of 5 dice in his dice pool. 

dust adventures - rpg 

Throughout these rules you will see references 

to what heroes can do and what everyone can 

do. If the rule refers to heroes only heroes can 

benefit or suffer from that rule. By definition, 

for this game, heroes are those characters who 

started the game with at least one fate point 

54

DICE POOLS 

When calculating a character’s ability to accomplish 

a task the player or GM must determine 

the correct dice pool. This is simply a matter of 

adding the numbers together. The first number 

of the equation is the character’s corresponding 

attribute which then has any skill levels added to 

it and is finally augmented (either up or down) 

by equipment and other modifiers that the GM 

determines are applicable. 

Lastly, heroes always add a bonus die (see 

Chance Die below) to resolve actions (but only 

for actions, not for resisting damage or inflicting 

damage or any other role that is not directly 

an active skill or attribute use to accomplish a 

task). The GM has the final say if you get your 

hero die or not. 

Die may be rerolled multiple times until it comes 

up as a miss. Each additional hit is added to the 

final result of the dice pool roll. The first reroll 

of a chance die is automatically considered a hit 

even if it comes up a miss for calculating total 

hits, but is only rerolled if it actually comes up 

a hit. 

SGT Hein rolls his 5 dice and gains four misses 

and a hit. The hit was on his chance die. He 

rerolls his chance die and gets a miss, but since 

it is the chance die the first reroll is counted as 

a hit, but since it was actually a miss he stops 

rerolling it. If he receive a hit on the second roll 

he would continue rolling until he rolls a miss. 


Example: 

Trying to leap over the chasm, SGT Hein of the 

55th Signal Command gathers his dice pool. 

Hein has a DEX of 2 and a STR of 3, the GM 

decides the leap is more a feat of strength and 

lets Hein use his STR 3 as the basis. Hein also 

has Jumping at 1 for a total of 4 dice. 

THE CHANCE DIE 

The dice pools of Heroes have a special Chance 

Die rule. When the Chance Die rule is used one 

die is added to the dice pool and is either rolled 

separately or with a die of a different color or 

another way to distinguish it from the other 

dice. This is the Chance Die. 

SGT Hein is a hero character, therefore he adds 

a bonus die to his pool. This brings his pool to 

5 dice (3 for STR, 1 for Jumping and finally 1 

Chance Die). 

When the Chance Die comes up as a hit it is 

rerolled until it comes up as a miss. The Chance 

HOW HARD CAN IT BE? 

Every task has a difficulty that the Game Master 

has to determine, while later sections in the 

book (Attributes and Skills, Combat) will aid 

and suggest Difficulties, the final Difficulty 

Number is determined based on the action and 

needs of the story. 

Dice rolls are only needed when the action is 

dramatic and important to the plot or story of the 

adventure. Bazooka Joe does not need to make 

a drive roll to take his jeep from his command 

tent to the chow tent when in the field, but he 

does need to make rolls when driving the same 

jeep, the same distance through a mine field. 

In general, an easy task has a Difficulty of 1, a 

Hard Task a Difficulty of 2, a Very Hard Task a 

Difficulty of 3, and so forth. 

The GM has determined that SGT Hein’s leap is 

a Very Hard task requiring a difficulty of 3. SGT 

Hein rolled and scored 2 hits on his five dice, he 

has failed. 


55


EXPERIENCE POINTS 

In addition characters are able to spend Experience 

Points to further alter the result of these 

rolls. Experience Points represents a character’s 

knowledge, experience and the ability to apply 

them to real world events and circumstances. 

Players may either horde Experience Points to 

later use to permanently increase a skill or even 

ability or they may spend them to immediately 

gain bonus dice to a dice pool to ensure they 

succeed in a task. 

FATE POINTS 

Lastly all characters begin play with up to 

two Fate Points and may have a maximum of 

up to five Fate Points. Fate Points are special. 

They must be spent before the roll is made 

and do not alter the dice pool in size at all, 

instead they invert the results. When spending 

a Fate Point Misses are treated as Hits 

and Hits as Misses. Fate Points even alter the 

effect of bonus dice from Experience Points. 

Other than how you read the dice, Fate Point 

rolls are treated the same for all other purposes. 

Fate Points can only be spent on actions 

the user performs with the following exception: 

Anyone can spend a Fate Point to assist 

anyone else on a Resistance Roll! 

Any character, be it a player character of a 

non-player character run by the Game Master, 

that has at least one Fate Point is considered a 

Hero. 


56 

When spending Experience Points a player immediately 

adds one dice to his dice pool for 

each Experience Point spent. These bonus dice 

are only good for one roll, one action, but often 

they are the difference between success and 

failure, life and death. A character can spend 

no more than 5 Experience Points on any one 

action, however he may spend them before the 

roll, after the roll or even after he is informed 

of the original roll’s success or failure, but all 

Experience Points bonus dice do not need to be 

rolled at one time. You can add one die initially, 

roll your dice pool and be unsatisfied with the 

result and then spend two more to find out you 

still failed and then decide to spend two more. 

Be careful, however, as spending too many Experience 

Points on bonus dice will slow your 

advancement. 

Not wanting to plummet to his death, SGT Hein 

opts to spend 3 Experience Points to alter his 

chances of survival. He scores a bonus hit 

on these three dice. Tying his difficulty target 

number. 

HOW WELL DID I DO? 

Usually when a character succeeds at a dice pool 

roll it is because he has scored enough hits on his 

roll to equal or exceed the difficulty number set 

by the rules and adjusted by the Game Master. 

This usually means the task at hand is complete; 

the character has leapt the chasm and avoided 

falling to his doom. However, sometimes an action 

or task needs more detailed results or takes 

longer to achieve. Fixing an engine may take 

hours, requiring multiple skill tests to be made. 

At other times the number of successes may 

determine how far you leapt, how much of the 

code you cracked, how well you flew the plane 

under the bridge.

In these circumstances the final result must be 

tallied and if necessary applied against the difficulty 

number a second time. Or they may be 

added to a bonus to determine how effective the 

final result was. Essentially, success is not simply 

hit or miss. 

Once a character has no fate points, Experience 

Point bonus dice are treated as normal dice. 

SGT Hein gained one hit on the Experience 

Points he spent, he is allowed to reroll that dice 

and add further hits to his final score. He rolls 

a miss and his rerolls end. 

Unlike normal Chance Dice, 

the first reroll is not considered 

an automatic hit. 

DEGREE OF SUCCESS 

Hits and successes that are higher or lower than 

your Difficulty Number are categorized as degrees. 

If your number of hits is one away from 

the Difficulty Number, it is one degree, if it is 

higher it is a one degree success, if it is lower, 

it is a one degree failure. Certain skills and actions 

have different results and effects based 

on how many degrees of failure or success you 

achieve. 

Going back to our example: 

Scoring 3 hits and needing 3 to make the leap, 

SGT Hein has barely succeeded in his action. 

He is safe, on the other side of the chasm, for 

now. If he had failed by one degree the GM may 

give him a second chance to catch the ledge, if 

he failed by more he would likely plummet to his 

death. If he gained one of more degrees of success 

he would have clearly landed on the other 

side. 

EQUIPMENT 

Some equipment will have 

modifiers that give you bonuses 

to your successful 

rolls meaning if you succeed 

on your normal ability 

you will gain additional 

successes to improve your 

overall performance. Other 

types of equipment will give 

you bonus dice to roll after 

you succeed or even on the 

initial roll. However, some skills are equipment 

dependent and can’t be used without the same 

equipment. After all, you can’t use the firearms 

skill without a firearm. 

Sometimes the result of the action is directly determined 

by the gear you have. Equipment that 

adds a modifier to your skill will be noted as 

doing such in their description. 


PLAYING WITH FATE 

Characters who have at least one Fate Point treat 

all bonus dice from Experience Point expenditures 

as Chance Dice. With the following exception, 

these dice are treated exactly like normal 

Chance Dice: These bonus dice do not create an 

automatic hit on the reroll, if they come up as a 

miss they are treated as a miss. 

57


OPPOSING SIDES 

The Difficulty of an action that is directly opposed 

by another character (PC or NPC) is determined 

based on their skill, attributes and die 

rolls. 

Bazooka Joe is confronted by a Grenadier while 

he is tracking a Hans Light Panzer. Joe decides 

that if he knocks the Grenadier out Joe can then 

get a clear shot at the Hans. Joe has Dexterity 

of 3 and 2 in Brawling and he is a Hero for a 

total dice pool of 6. He scores 3 hits. Since this 

is a melee combat, the difficulty is based on the 

target’s Brawling skill for which the Grenadier 

has 2 in Dexterity and 1 in Brawl. He rolls and 

gets one success. Joe gets in a nice clean hit and 

knocks the Grenadier down. 

The defender always wins ties. 

The Grenadier is down and now Joe needs to 

take out the Hans. He has two actions on his 

next turn and lines up his shot, realizing he is 

out of range, Joe decides to take a move action 

and then use a miscellaneous action to aim. 

SUSTAINED ACTION 

Normally a character has upwards to two actions 

he can perform per action round. Usually these 

are combinations of move, skill use or attack action, 

however a character may perform two of 

the same actions if he prefers and this is called 

a sustained action. A sustained action is determined 

like any other dice pool, but the character 

is allowed to reroll any misses one time. 

Characters performing a sustained action are 

distracted and focused on their primary action 

and this lowers any defensive rolls, perception 

rolls and other rolls determined by the Game 

Master by 2 dice. However, it will never reduce 

a Resistance Roll or Damage Roll. 

Bazooka Joe decides he really wants to take the 

Hans Light Panzer out of action. He decides 

to aim carefully on his action and use the Sustained 

Action rules. He has Firearms (Grenade 

Weapons) at 4, with Dexterity of 3, and he is still 

a Hero for a total dice pool of 8. He also used a 

Miscellaneous action to aim which the GM has 

given him a bonus die for. He rolls his nine dice 

and gets 3 hits and 6 misses so he rerolls the 6 

misses and gets a result of 2 more hits for a final 

result of 5. That Hans is in trouble. 

58 

STANDARD ACTION 

Each turn a character has two actions. These actions 

are quite simple, they are Move, Attack, 

Skill Use and Miscellaneous. A character can 

use two of the same actions in one round but 

anytime they do so for an Attack it has to be 

resolves as a Sustained Attack and not two individual 

attacks. 

Miscellaneous actions are anything not covered 

in the rules that a player wants to try. Most 

common are focusing a skill and aiming an attack 

which takes up the entire action but gives a 

character a bonus die to his die pool to resolve 

his focused skill or aimed attack. 

Immediately afterwards, the Grenadier Joe 

punched earlier attacks back. The Grenadier 

has Dexterity of 2 and Brawling of 1. Joe has 

Dexterity of 3 and Brawling 2 but suffers a 2 

penalty on all automatic actions (the only actions 

Joe can still perform, luckily a parry defense 

is an automatic action). The Grenadier 

scores one normal hit and a hit on the Chance 

Die but fails to gain any more hits for a total of 

2. Joe scores no hits. Joe might want to spend 

some Experience Points! 

Characters can only use Sustained Action on actions 

that involve skills they are trained in.

AUTOMATIC ACTIONS 

Automatic actions are those that a character can 

perform without sacrificing any of his standard 

actions. These include using language skills, 

damage rolls, perception rolls, resistance rolls, 

defense rolls and anything else that is more a 

reaction than an action. The GM has final say if 

the use is classified as an Automatic or Standard 

Action. 

Except in special circumstances (as determined 

by the GM) a character cannot use a sustained 

action on Automatic Actions. 

RESISTANCE ROLLS 

Finally, the last core rule to understand is the 

Resistance Roll. The Resistance Roll is a last 

ditch attempt to avoid damage or other negative 

effect. The roll is made against the total success 

of the initial attack/skill attempt targeted at the 

character which can be modified by additional 

factors such as gear and circumstance. Much 

like the Opposing Sides roll, the original result 

is the new Difficulty Number. 

The most popular Resistance Roll is against 

damage. Each degree of failure on the Resistance 

Roll for damage results in the target suffering 

a wound level (see Combat). The total Difficulty 

Number for a damage Resistance Roll is 

calculated using the following formula: Attack’s 

Degree of Success + Weapon Modifier. 

The Resistance Roll for Damage is made by 

rolling your Toughness and adding your Armor 

Modifier to it. 

The Grenadier has struck Joe squarely in the 

chest. The damage is 3 as the Grenadier scored 

three hits over Joe’s defense and is unarmed. 

Joe has a Toughness of 3 and is wearing Armor 

1 gear. He rolls his dice pool and gets no successes, 

Joe takes 1 wound levels (2 damage, reduced 

by 1 for his armor) leaving Joe Stunned. 

Joe now has a fight on his hands. 


59


WHO ARE YOU 

DUST: ADVENTURES assumes that the players will be playing ASOCOM Rangers. The 

basic assumption is that the Axis are the bad guys, while the SSU is at best an estranged 

ally and that the men and women of ASOCOM are the heroes. While not every ASOCOM 

member or nation is necessarily a heroic, altruistic saint and not every Axis grunt is a vile 

evil agent of chaos and destruction, for the purposes of DUST: ADVENTURES the Axis 

will play the role of the villain. Future supplements may provide rules for Axis as heroes, 

SSU as heroes or even Majestic 12 Player Characters (and maybe even Vrill one day) this 

basic set is focusing on the Allies as PCs. 

BUILDING A CHARACTER 

Every character is defined by six core attributes: 

Mobility, Toughness, Reason, Dexterity, 

Strength, and Presence. These attributes range 

from 1 to 4 in a normal character, with very few 

having 0 in any of them and even fewer having 

5 in any attribute. The number of the attribute 

directly reflects the number of dice in the standard 

dice pool, before skills are added in. 

The standard Allied grunt in the ASOCOM has 

2 in each of the six attributes and the average 

hero should have 3. 

In addition characters are defined by Skills, 

Wound Levels, Fate Points, and Experience 

Points. 

For the record, the average ASOCOM grunt has 

0 Fate Points, 3 Experience Points and 10 dice 

in skills. They also use standard “non-hero” 

Wound Levels. 

Heroes (generally) start with 2 Fate Points, 10 

Experience Points and 12 Dice in Skills. They 

also have the extra Wound Level of “Flesh 

Wound”. 

extra-special permission you cannot reduce 

any attribute to 0, attributes of 0 are purely the 

domain of NPCs. (Game Masters, do not give 

them approval). 

With the Game Master’s approval, however, 

you may exchange your fate points for extra attribute 

dice at an exchange rate or 1 for 1. Doing 

so, however, will reduce the maximum Fate 

Points you can ever have by the same amount as 

you exchanged for attribute dice. 

Joshua is creating a character he has named 

Lucas “Big Dog” Baines, a New York raised 

gold gloves boxer drafted to serve in ASOCOM. 

He first decides to increase all his attributes to 

2, costing him 6 attribute points. He then raises 

Strength and Toughness to 3 for an additional 

2 points (1 for each). He decides that Lucas is 

a tough and muscular man and opts to increase 

both Strength and Toughness further to 4 each 

(2 more points). He has 2 points left after this 

and decides to raise his Presence and Dexterity 

by 1 each making them both a final of 3. His 

final attributes look like this: Mobility 2, Toughness 

4, Reason 2, Dexterity 3, Strength 4 and 

Presence 3. 


60 

ATTRIBUTES 

Your hero will begin with 1 in each of the six attributes. 

You will gain 12 more points to divide 

between them. It costs one point to go from 1 

to 2 in an attribute. It costs another point to go 

from 2 to 3 (for a total of 2 points). It costs yet 

another point to go from 3 to 4 (total of 3 points) 

and it costs 2 points to go from 4 to 5 (total of 

5 points). Unless the Game Master gives you

SKILLS 

Each character begins play with 12 skill points 

these can be added to any skill the player wishes 

but with no more than +5 to any one skill. All 

skills start at 0 and each skill point placed into 

the skill increases the skill level by 1. 

Skills are usually linked to a particular attribute, 

but under certain circumstances different attributes 

can be used to form the character’s dice 

pool: for example Climbing could be done with 

Strength, Dexterity, Mobility or Toughness depending 

on the circumstance. 

Many skills have a broad area of study under 

them, such as Scientist. A specialization is a focus 

on one of the subgroups of the broad skill, 

for example, in Scientist it may be Botany or 

Vrill Technology. In Survival this could be 

Cold or Desert, in Firearms it could be Pistol 

or Submachine Gun. These specializations must 

be selected at character generation. 

Some skills are advanced skills and cost twice 

the normal price to gain bonuses in. Advanced 

skill also cannot benefit from specializations, as 

they are in general already specialized. Examples 

include Berserk, Damage Resilience and 

Mighty Blow. Advanced skills are marked with 

an (A). 

Deciding that Lucas was a prize fighter in the 

civilian world, Josh opts to put 4 skill points 

into Attack (Brawling), 3 into Attack (Shotgun), 

2 into Martial Artist (gaining 1 skill level because 

it is an Advanced skill), 2 in Attack (Grenade) 

and 1 into First Aid. 

FATE POINTS 

AND EXPERIENCE POINTS 

Starting characters have 2 Fate Points (unless 

they exchange them for Attributes, see above) 

and 10 Experience Points. If they character desires 

he may skip ahead to the chapter on Advancement 

and Experience and spend the 10 

Experience Points before the first game begins, 

but it is recommended that they keep at least 5 

Experience Points for adventuring (though not 

required). 

STARTING GEAR 

As a member of ASOCOM the character has 

his initial gear issued to him based on mission, 

role and personal relations with the command 

and especially the quartermaster. While Walkers 

and major weapons of war are a key feature 

to the DUST universe, not every adventure and 

every character is going to be issued a walker 

out of the gate. 

In general ASOCOM characters will start with 

Basic Armor (Armor 1), any standard weapon 

with which they have 3 or better skill rating in, 

but not more than one rifle and one pistol sized 

weapon and a max of one special weapon again 

based on skill rating of 3 or better (such as flame 

thrower, bazooka or other). In addition they can 

assume to have one grenade per skill rating in 

the grenade skill. 

A combat knife is also part of the standard kit, 

as are general rations, compass if they have navigation 

and a medical kit if they have any degree 

of medical skills (first aid or medicine). Characters 

with a 5 or better in the repair skill can 

expect to be issued a set of mechanic’s tools. 

Based on his skill list, Lucas begins play with a 

shotgun, a medical kit and 2 grenades. In addition 

the GM agrees to let Lucas start with sap 

gloves which they determine are -/1 PEN 2 AP 

NA weapons. As a standard troop in ASOCOM 

he also starts with Basic Armor. 


61

dust chronicles issue 3 dust adventures - rpg 

62 

LEARNING AND IMPROVING 

SKILLS AND ATTRIBUTES 

Heroes can use Experience Points, accumulated 

from completing missions, to learn new skills 

and improve old ones. Spending Experience 

Points this way may be done only between missions. 

In addition to Experience Points the hero needs 

experience with the skill, either through training 

or by attempting to use the skill and mission. If 

there is a significant amount of training involved, 

or the hero needs to find a suitable teacher, that 

might become an adventure’s focus. 

In most cases, the cost of getting a new skill after 

initial hero creation equals three times the 

attribute that relates to the skill. For example, 

if a hero wants to learn Navigation after an adventure 

and he has a Reason die code of 3, the 

first die in Navigation costs him nine Experience 

Points . The hero then has a 1in his Navigation 

skill, which becomes a 4 when added to 

his Reason on standard uses. 

The cost of improving most existing skills is 

determining in the same way, except that the 

number of dice in the skill plus attribute is used 

to determine the cost. For example: a hero has 

an acrobatics and Mobility total of 4 and wants 

to increase it. To raise the total to 5 (Mobility 3, 

Acrobatics 2) the hero must spend 12 Experience 

Points . To increase the skill to 6 after the 

next scenario the hero must spend 15 Experience 

Points. 

Skills may only be improved by 1 per completed 

mission. Advance skills (those marked with 

a (A) beside them) cost double to increase. 

Attributes are increased in a similar manner, 

but the cost is 10 times the numeric value of the 

attribute for any attribute up to 4, to increase 

an attribute above 4 costs 20 times the numeric 

value in Experience Points and one Fate Point. 

As with skills, no attribute can be increased by 

more than 1 per mission and they can only be 

increased in between missions. Only one attribute 

can be increased at a time. 

ATTRIBUTES AND SKILLS 

As we saw in the Basic Rules and Character Creation sections, characters are defined by 

several categories, the two most important are Attributes and Skills. 

ATTRIBUTES 

All characters, NPCs, creatures and basic encounters 

are described in six basic attributes. 

These attributes are broad area of physical, mental, 

emotional or spiritual abilities and can represent 

a wide range of abilities and statistics. 

MOBILITY: Mobility represents a character’s 

control over their body as a whole, their ability 

to move, maneuver, walk and run. A character 

with a high Mobility score is athletic and capable 

of complex movements while in motion. 

Gymnasts, swimmers, runners, divers and athletes 

of all varieties would benefit from a Mobility 

of 3 or more. Typically used for the skills 

of Acrobatics, Athletics, Dodge and Running.

DEXTERITY: Dexterity is a character’s applied 

agility and hand eye coordination and reflexes. 

A character with a high Dexterity score 

has deft and fast hands, accuracy and steady 

nerve. Surgeons, pilots and baseball pitchers 

would benefit from a high Dexterity. Dexterity 

is most often used with Firearms, Brawling and 

Driving. 

TOUGHNESS: Toughness combines an individual’s 

endurance, stamina and pain threshold 

into one overall attribute. A character with a 

high Toughness can ignore duress, go extended 

times without food and water, is fit for survival 

and can sustain larger amounts of damage without 

concern of serious injury. All ASOCOM 

Rangers would benefit from a high Toughness. 

Toughness is commonly used with Resistance 

Rolls, Survival and general tests of endurance 

and resilience. 

PRESENCE: Presence 

is a combination of attractiveness, 

bravery, 

loyalty, leadership, charisma, 

spiritual fortitude 

and will power. Officers 

and NCOs as well as 

those who study the supernatural 

or are in need 

of an unusual supply 

of courage would benefit 

the most from a high 

Presence score. Presence 

is used most often with the Command, Intimidate, 

Persuasion and the Willpower skills. 

Remember attributes are presented in a number 

format and that number is the number of dice 

used in the dice pool when performing an action 

related to that attribute. 

SUPPRESSION 

All characters have a Suppression Score (see 

combat). A character’s suppression score is 

equal to his number of dice in Presence plus his 

skill dice in Willpower plus his current number 

of Fate and Experience Points. 

Lucas has a Presence of 3 and 10 Experience 

Points with 2 Fate Points, giving him a starting 

Suppression Score of 15. 


STRENGTH: Muscle, mass and the ability 

to use it properly is covered by a character’s 

Strength. A high Strength directly influences 

lifting capability, damage inflicted in close combat, 

carrying capacity and to a limited degree 

a character’s ability to climb, jump and swim. 

Boxers, martial artists, weight lifters and construction 

workers would all display exceptional 

strength and it is often used with the Lifting, 

Jumping, Grenade and Airborne skills. 

REASON: Reason not only covers a character’s 

general intellect and knowledge, but also 

covers a character’s mental fortitude and alertness. 

Scientists, snipers, scouts and officers all 

benefit from good Reason scores. Reason is often 

associated with Perception, Repair, Invent, 

Navigation and Knowledge skills. 

63


SKILLS 

Skills are more refined versions of attributes, 

they cover a specific circumstance an attribute 

may cover and further enhancing it by adding 

their dice pool to that of the attribute. 

The following skill descriptions are divided up 

by their governing Attribute. The governing attribute 

for the skill, while at any time the skill 

may default to another attribute, this governing 

attribute is used for purposes of character advancement 

and is generally the attribute used 

when forming your dice pool. 

Skills marked with a (A) are advanced skills 

and have special uses that may differ from the 

standard use of skills. 

GENERAL SUCCESS 

As a general rule, a GM may allow any skill 

roll that gains at least one HIT to be considered 

a General Success, even if it doesn’t beat the 

target difficulty. A General Success means the 

attempt didn’t outright fail and the character 

may try again on the next round. If no HITs are 

scored then treat the skill test as a failure. 

MOBILITY SKILLS 

Agile: Used in conjunction with Mobility to 

maneuver around obstacles. A successful test 

against terrain difficulty will allow a character 

to ignore movement penalties. Using Agile 

counts as a Move action and not a skill action, 

though it cannot be used with any other skills 

during the same round. Terrain of an easy level 

has a Difficult of 1, medium level is a 2 and hard 

level is a 4. 

Dodge: Used to determine difficulty of ranged 

attacks made against the character. The result 

generated is added to the character’s defense 

when calculating difficulty to be hit. 


SKILL LEVEL 

Skill level is a reference to the actual number 

of dice in a skill, not the total Skill + Attribute 

dice pool. 

SKILL ACTION POINTS 

Skill Action Points are bonuses that act identical 

to Experience Points but can only be used to 

augment a certain set of skills and may not be 

saved up to increase attributes or skills during 

character improvement. 

Fast (A): The Fast skill allows the character to 

move swiftly. Each skill level in Fast allows the 

character to move an extra meter once per round. 

No more than 6 bonus meters can be gained in 

this manner. The bonus movement can only be 

applied to one move action a round, so even if 

the character moves twice he can only use this 

skill once. 

Initiative: Bonus dice added to initiative rolls 

in combat. 

Martial Arts (A): Used to replace Strength 

Damage. When used the character totals up his 

skill level between Martial Arts and Mobility 

and treat this result as his STR for calculating 

strength damage. 

64

Riding: Used to ride various animals, each animal 

type is a separate skill. Riding becomes a 

character’s default Attribute and Skill for purposes 

of Dodging when using the Dodge skill 

while riding. This use of Riding as Dodge does 

not stack with Mobility or Dexterity but is rolled 

only at skill level. 

Scout (A): A special skill that provides a character 

with bonus Skill Action Points that can be 

used every adventure but only to augment Hide, 

Navigation, Sneak, Survival, and Tracking. 

Other skills may be permitted to be augmented 

by the GM but at a cost of multiple bonus Skill 

Action Points, such as 2 points gaining you a +1 

die on First Aid and so forth. 

Sneak: Used to avoid detection and remain silent 

while moving. The Skill roll is made every 

round that the Sneak skill is being used. 

DEXTERITY SKILLS 

Attack: A broad skill that covers all forms of 

weapon use, from knives and fists to guns, grenades 

and walker weapons. Each category is its 

own skill. 

Driving: Driving is the skill used to drive cars, 

trucks, motorcycles and other land vehicles. 

Each type is a separate skill. Driving becomes 

a character’s default Attribute and Skill for purposes 

of Dodging when using the Dodge skill 

while driving a vehicle. This use of Driving as 

Dodge does not stack with Mobility or Dexterity 

but is rolled only at skill level. 

Hide: Used to avoid detection and remain silent 

while stationary, unlike sneak, hide lasts for 

a long and a role may only be needed every hour 

or day depending on situation. 

Piloting: The skill used for piloting walkers 

and aircraft. Each vehicle type is its own skill. 

Piloting becomes a character’s default Attribute 

and Skill for purposes of Dodging when using 

the Dodge skill while Piloting a vehicle. This 

use of Piloting as Dodge does not stack with 

Mobility or Dexterity but is rolled only at skill 

level (See Combat: Vehicles). 

Sniper (A): A special skill that gives the shooter 

the ability to ignore resistance roll bonuses 

for cover and armor, one die of RR bonus can 

be ignored per level of Sniper. Alternatively, 

the character may use his levels instead to increase 

suppression by one per skill level used. 

The character may mix his effects as he wishes 

(for example, a character with Sniper 3 may reduce 

RR bonus by 2 and increase suppression 

by 1). 

Thievery: A catch all skill for sleight of hand, 

picking pockets, opening locks and thieving in 

general. 

TOUGHNESS 

Badass: Badass gives a character a number 

of Bonus Action Points equal to the skill level 

the character has. These bonus points can only 

be spent to resist intimidation or to counter out 

Suppression damage on a one for one ration. 

Charge (A): A successful charge skill roll 

against a difficulty of 2 allows the character to 

move twice and still attack in one round. 

Damage Resilience (A): Bonus dice added to 

Resistance Rolls to avoid damage. This skill is 

not normally available to Player Characters. 


65

DUST ADVENTURES - RPG 

Frenzy (A): A special skill that provides a 

character with bonus Skill Action Points that 

can be used every adventure but only to augment 

Charge or Attack. 

Heroic Stand (A): Heroic Stand gives a character 

a number of Bonus Action Points equal 

to the skill level the character has. These points 

can only be spent on resistance rolls, but these 

bonus dice count their misses as hits and hits as 

misses. 

Survival: Used to find food, shelter and water. 

Generally each Hit is enough to sustain a 

character for one day. While multiple Hits can 

be split between days and the number of people 

sustained. 

(For example, Hicks rolls three hits he can sustain 

himself for three days or three people for 

one day or himself for one day and a friend for 

two days). 

Mighty Blow (A): Each level of Mighty Blow 

allows the character to reverse a single die of 

damage from Strength Damage treating misses 

as hits and hits as misses. 

Swimming: Used to tread water, dive and perform 

actions in water. 


66 

Strength 

Airborne: Used to make airborne jumps into 

enemy territory. Allows for ease of use of parachutes, 

jump packs and jet packs as well as repelling 

and helicopter assaults. 

Grappling: Allows the user to use his Strength 

for attacks in close combat instead of Dexterity, 

in addition, when engaged in a Strength against 

Strength opposed test, Grappling lets the character 

treat one dice per level of skill in Grappling 

as if a hit is a miss and a miss is a hit, these 

dice must be selected before they are rolled. 

Jumping: Used to jump, leap, and vault and 

otherwise bound over obstacles. In general a 

single success allows a character to jump two 

meters (length or height) with each additional 

success increasing this by one meter. 

Reason 

Black Ops (A): A special skill that provides 

a character with bonus Skill Action Points that 

can be used every adventure but only to augment 

Initiative, Demolitions, Command, Assault 

and Radio. 

Demolitions: Used to properly employ and 

detonate explosives. Also used to disconnect, 

disarm and dispose of other explosives. 

First Aid: Used to cancel stun (difficulty 0), 

reduce Wounded by one level (difficulty 2) and 

stabilize incapacitated characters (difficulty 4). 

Medicine (A): Used to stabilize dead to incapacitated 

(within one round of “death”) with a 

difficulty of 4. Treats one die of First Aid per 

level of Medicine as if hit results were misses 

and misses were hits, select these dice before 

rolling. 

Navigation: Used by characters to chart, plan 

and schedule routes to other locations and to 

determine direction, distance, elevation and 

general location while out in the field. This skill 

also covers all aspects of map reading and map 

making. Each success allows a character to navigate 

successfully for one hour.

Perception: Represents a character’s awareness, 

their ability to notice the out of the ordinary, 

sense danger, pick up on small details and 

search areas for valuable information. Can be 

used to oppose the hide and sneak skills. 

Radio: Used to properly use, transmit, encode, 

decode and communicate with radio systems. A 

Radio skilled character can also use his position 

to help artillery and indirect weapons fire more 

accurately. 

Repair: Typically used to fix damaged good, 

such as radios, walkers, weapons or other mechanical 

and electrical devices. The degree of 

damage (each “wound level”) increases the difficulty 

by 1, with a standard difficulty of 1 as 

a base. Each additional hit repairs one “wound 

level”. 

Tank Head (A): Treats one die of Repair per 

level of Tank Head as if hits were misses and 

misses were hits, nominate these dice before 

rolling. 

Tracking: This skill is used by characters to 

follow trails, identify who or what they are 

tracking and estimate time since passing. Each 

success allows a character to track successfully 

for one hour. 

Weapon Systems: Weapon Systems is used 

for attack rolls using vehicle mounted weaponry. 

Skill is specific to particular vehicles. 

DUST CHRONICLES ISSUE 3 

Scholar: Used to gather or recall data and information 

on various subjects. Subjects can be 

as broad as Science of History or as narrow as 

Biology or American History. The narrower the 

field the more bonus dice the GM may enable 

a character to roll. A character selects his area 

when assigning skill dice to a Scholar skill. 

Spotter (A): A spotter can use his dice in the 

Spotter skill to allow one adjacent ally to reverse 

one attack die per skill level of Spotter so 

that misses are treated as hits and hits are treated 

as misses. These dice must be selected before 

rolling. Spotter can also be used to help artillery 

and indirect weapons fire more accurately. 

Presence 

Animal handling: Used by characters to control, 

train and interact with animals. Can mimic 

Command, Interrogation, Intimidation and Persuasion 

with animals. This skill may not be used 

on Kampfaffen. 

Assault (A): Characters can lead an assault 

toward the enemy alongside a number of allies 

equal to the skill level of Assault are permitted 

to ignore a number of suppression equal to the 

character’s level of Assault. In addition, all assaulting 

allies ignore all suppression (whether 

pre-existing or gained during the round of the 

assault) for the one round per skill level in assault. 

This skill may only be used once per adventure. 

For example, Manfred has Presence of 4 and 4 

levels in Assault. He can lead 8 allies into combat 

and ignore 4 points of suppression. 

Berserk (A): A special skill that provides a 

character with bonus Skill Action Points that 

can be used every adventure but only on Initiative, 

Resistance Rolls and Strength Damage. 

DUST ADVENTURES - RPG 

67



Command: A character with command can 

use his skill to reduce suppression damage an 

ally has suffered (the target recovers one suppression 

point per hit scored) as well as permits 

the commander the ability to motivate and lead 

troops in combat. 

Interrogation: Opposed by Presence and 

Willpower, each extra hit over the difficulty 

will reveal one answer the interrogator desires 

to know. 

Intimidation: Opposed by Presence and Willpower, 

each extra hit over the difficulty will 

inflict one point of suppression damage on the 

target. 

Persuasion: Opposed by Presence and Willpower, 

each extra hit over the difficulty will 

force a target to follow the character’s instructions 

for one action. If more than one action is 

available to the target, he may divide them up 

against multiple targets as long as the extra targets 

have a total Presence + Willpower lower 

than the original target. 

Willpower: Used to overcome fear, to resist interrogation 

and intimidation and as a bonus to 

suppression score. 

COMBAT 

In a World at War, fighting, shooting, stabbing and general violence are inevitable: At 

some point during your DUST: ADVENTURES missions you are going to have to physically 

confront your opponents. And while the combat actions are all variations of the 

general Game Basics and Attributes and Skills use, special circumstances and rules will be 

needed. The following is a basic run down of the rules. 

68 

INITIATIVE 

All fights have an instigator, something that 

starts the hostilities and a way to determine 

who the aggressor is. But it isn’t all that simple. 

In DUST: ADVENTURES whenever a 

fight breaks out the characters must dice off for 

initiative. The winner goes first, with each individual 

with a lower score going in order after 

him until the lowest initiative score finishes 

the round. A higher initiative holder can always 

hold his action and go later in the round, even if 

that means stopping someone else in the middle 

of their action to perform his own. 

Initiative is determined by rolling your Mobility 

attribute dice pool. If you have the initiative 

skill, now is the time to roll those dice as well. 

In certain circumstances initiative may default 

to Presence (in character interaction) or Reason 

(mental showdowns) but in general, for physical 

actions the standard attribute for initiative is 

Mobility. 

SIDES 

Some GMs may want to speed up play and avoid 

all the countless rerolls for multiple participants 

tying in initiative rolls. To do so the GM is encouraged 

to have each side roll initiative and the 

highest side has initiative will all its members 

going first. Each side rolls 1 dice per member 

they have and add in the highest Command skill 

in the group.

Other ranges Include: 

A) Artillery: cannot fire less than 12 meters 

and has a range increment of 36 meters. 

C) Close combat attacks: have an effective 

range of 1 to 2 meters, cannot benefit from bonuses 

or penalties based on range increments. 

Either they are within 2 meters or you cannot 

attack them. 

T) Thrown range: range increment is equal to 

1 plus the character’s Strength value. 

COMBAT DIFFICULTY 

The Difficulty of a Combat Action is always at 

least 1 (see Attacking Zero below). Meaning if 

you score 0 hits you automatically miss. However, 

the Difficulty is determined in an opposed 

action. If shooting at a target then that target 

determines the Difficulty by making a Mobility 

roll (with Dodge if applicable), the successes 

the target gets (number of hits) becomes the 

Difficulty number. Even if they generate 0 hits 

you still need to score at least 1 hit to successfully 

attack them. 

Melee combat is done the same way, except the 

skill used is either Brawl or Melee Weapon, depending 

if the target is unarmed or not. 

ATTACKING ZERO 

Sometimes your difficulty may indeed be 0. 

You have an attack difficulty of 0 when you 

are attacking someone who is unable to defend 

themselves or is unaware of your attack. If you 

score no hits you still miss. However, if you 

score one or more hits you attack succeeds and 

gains bonus hit added to it to calculate damage 

or other results. 

In addition there are other basic range categories, 

these are Close and Adjacent. Close range 

is considered to be anyone within 3 meters of 

another character or NPC. Adjacent is targets 

that are within C range of each other. 

FULL DEFENSE 

Sometimes you just don’t want to get hit. In 

these circumstances you can use the Sustained 

Action rules for your defense. When doing so 

the character can take no other action. You perform 

this action like any other Sustained Action, 

rerolling any misses one time. 

However in Full Defense you get to add one additional 

automatic success to your final total. 

Rosie decides to use Full Defense to avoid sniper 

fire. She has a Mobility of 2 and Dodge at 1. 

She rolls 4 dice (2 for Mobility, 1 for Dodge and 

1 for being a hero) and gets on hit. Since it is a 

Full Defense and therefore a Sustained Action, 

she rerolls the three misses and gains an additional 

success. She has a total defense of 3 for 

the round (2 from the roll and a bonus of 1 for it 

being a Full Defense). 


Range 

Range in Dust Adventures is done in increments. 

Targets that are less than half the distance of the 

base increment are easier to hit, giving the attacker 

a bonus die when attacking. Targets up 

to the range listed for a weapon are treated as 

normal. For each increment after that the target 

is harder to hit and the attacker loses one die. 

69

dust chronicles: issue 3 

HIT THE DIRT 

A character can spend an action to Hit the Dirt. 

This automatically reduces the character’s suppression 

score by one but he is considered to be 

in soft cover even if no cover is available. Staying 

in the Hit the Dirt position continues to cost 

one action per round, but additional suppression 

is not sustained on subsequent rounds (except 

from enemy attacks, see below). 

In addition, hitting the dirt while you are in soft 

cover raises your cover level to hard. 

DAMAGE 

If you successfully strike your target (generated 

more hits than the target did) you are now entering 

the damage phase of combat. To calculate 

the damage take your number of extra hits 

above your target number (Degrees of Success) 

and add them to whatever damage modifier your 

attack has. This becomes the Difficulty of the 

Resistance Roll the target must make. 

Some weapon damage modifiers are automatic, 

meaning that they are added directly to the 

number of Degrees of Success that were scored 

on the initial attack, others are additional dice 

you roll to see if you get extra damage. For example, 

a M1 AR adds +2 automatically to your 

damage, but a punch adds a number of dice equal 

to half your Strength (round down, minimum 0) 

to the damage. Damage codes are presented in a 

#/# format. The first number is automatic damage 

modifiers and the second number is dice 

damage modifiers. 

Despite her best effort to dodge Rosie is hit by 

the sniper who scored a total of 4 hits on his 

attack. His damage will be 1 (for the additional 

hit above 3) plus his sniper rifle’s damage code 

of 2/1. He fails to gain a hit on his 1 damage to 

be rolled (the 1 of the 2/1) but gets to add 2 to 

the final damage (the 2 of the 2/1) for a total 

damage of 3. 

THE RESISTANCE ROLL 

After being hit the character must take a Resistance 

Roll, this is usually his Toughness attribute, 

but certain circumstances may use other 

attributes (like Strength in Grappling, or Presence 

in character interaction). In general you 

need to score the same amount or more hits on 

your Resistance Roll then the total damage of 

the attack you just suffered. Scoring lower can 

result in being stunned, wounded or worse. 

RESISTANCE ROLL

Back to our example: 

Suffering 3 points of damage Rosie makes her 

Toughness roll of 2 dice and gets 1 hit, reducing 

the damage to 2. Since she is a hero she uses the 

Hero Damage chart and notes that she has suffered 

a Flesh Wound. 

Vehicles use their own damage chart. 

WOUNDS 

Stunned: Character suffers a penalty of 1 die 

to all actions for one round. 

Flesh Wound: Character suffers a penalty of 1 

dice to all actions until the character spends an 

action to address the wound, this can be either 

make shift first aid or to make some cliché hero 

comment i.e. “I aint got time to bleed!” This action 

requires no dice roll to achieve, just the use 

of an action. If near another hero or a character 

(PC or NPC, hero or not) who has the first aid or 

medicine skill, the other character can spend the 

action for the hero with the flesh wound. 

Wounded: The character suffers a penalty of 1 

die to all actions until properly treated by someone 

with the first aid or medicine skill or other 

ability. 

Incapacitated: The character cannot perform 

any actions, and is in all likelihood unconscious 

or dying. 

Dead: Well, he’s dead Jim! 

SUPPRESSION 

Each character has a suppression score equal 

to his Presence Attribute. This is increased by 

+1 for each level of the Willpower skill he has, 

as well as +1 per current Experience Point and 

Fate Point he still has. When a character is attacked 

by a ranged weapon he reduces his current 

suppression score by 1 per each hit the attack 

scored, multiple attacks in one round will 

stack. These hits are counted even if they come 

from attacks that miss the character entirely. 

If a character’s suppression is reduced to 0 he 

is considered suppressed and is reduced to one 

action as he is considered to be using the second 

action to Hit the Dirt. 

A character recovers one suppression every 

round he is not in the combat. In addition the 

Command skill can be used to reduce suppression. 


In addition to her Flesh Wound, Rosie suffers 4 

Suppression damage from the Sniper’s attack, 

since he gained four hits on his attack. Rosie 

has a Presence of 3 and Willpower skill of 3. 

She currently has 2 fate points and 7 experience 

points for a total of 15 (3+3+2+7) Suppression, 

which she reduces to 11. 

As an optional rule a GM can rule any non-hero 

character is automatically suppressed after the 

first round of combat. This will lead to a lot of 

fights with cover and single actions allowing the 

heroes to be more heroic as they can take two 

actions a round. 

It also saves a lot of book keeping for new or 

inexperienced players. 

71


ARMOR 

Armor, much like weapons, adds to a character’s 

Resistance Roll, and the bonus is automatic 

not rolled. So armor with Armor Class 

+1 automatically gives the character a bonus hit 

against damage in addition to any hits rolled on 

the Resistance Roll. 

Double checking her character sheet Rosie’s 

player realizes that Rosie is wearing ASOCOM 

Flak Armor which has a Armor Class of 2 reducing 

her damage to 0. However she still suffers 

the Suppression loss but she is no longer 

wounded. 

COVER 

Cover is protection sought out by hiding behind 

debris, walls and fortified structures. It comes 

in four varieties, NONE, SOFT, HARD, and 

COMPLETE. Only Hard and Complete affect 

close combat. 

NONE: There is no modifier; the character is 

out in the open. 

SOFT: Difficulty to hit the target is increased 

by 1. It also reduces Suppression damage by 1. 

HARD: Difficulty to hit the target is increased 

by 3. In close combat the Difficulty is increased 

by 1 for the first round only. It also reduces Suppression 

damage by 2. 

ARMOR PIERCING 

AND PENTRATION VALUES 

Weapons have several values to them aside 

from damage, amongst these are Armor Piercing 

(AP) and Penetration Value (PV). 

PV: Penetration Value the maximum AC (Armor 

Class) the weapon can be used against. 

COMPLETE: Target cannot be seen and 

therefore cannot be hit under most normal circumstances. 

If Rosie would have been in Soft Cover she 

would have still been hit (her Difficulty to be 

hit or Defense would have gone up 1 point) but 

she would have suffered one less damage (the 

Sniper would not have got the degree of success 

to increase damage) and would have only 

lost 3 suppression. If she was in Hard Cover she 

would have been completely missed and only 

suffered 2 Suppression (4 hits from the Sniper’s 

attack, reduced by 2 for Hard Cover). 


72 

AP: Armor Piercing. The first number is the 

highest AC (Armor Class) the AP can affect, the 

second number is the amount of AC it ignores. 

You Cannot reduce an Armor Class below 0. 

Realizing that the German Sniper Rifle has 

a AP of 3/2 the GM adjusts Rosie’s damage. 

The Sniper Rifle ignores two points of Armor 

Class if the Armor Class is 3 or less. This effectively 

reduces Rosie’s Armor Class to 0. Rosie 

will take 2 points of damage after all, moving 

her back to a Flesh Wound. She might want to 

spend some Experience Points to attempt to reduce 

that damage!

STRENGTH DAMAGE 

Strength Damage is applied to all hand to hand 

and melee combat attacks (C). It is simply bonus 

dice rolled to increase final damage when 

the target is hit in close combat. The Strength 

Damage bonus a character has is equal to half 

their Strength score rounded down with a minimum 

of 0. Characters with a Strength Damage 

of 0 will need to rely on weapons and good attack 

rolls to threaten targets in close combat. 

Rhino has a Strength of 4, so he adds -/2 to 

all damage from weapons with a range of C. 

Markus has a Strength of 6, he adds -/3. A 

standard ASOCOM or AXIS grunt is Strength 2, 

with a Strength Damage of -/1. 

Finally the damage value of Soldier scale attacks 

on Vehicle scale targets is all treated as 

rolled damage, essentially any value before the 

/ is added to the value after it. 

A MA1 Assault Rifle is normally 2/1 against 

Soldier scale, against Vehicle Scale it is -/3. 

When Soldiers are attacked by Vehicles they 

can reverse the result of their dodge rolls, but 

the Vehicles reverse the result of their damage 

rolls. In addition the damage value of Vehicle 

scale attacks on Soldier scale targets is all treated 

as automatic damage, essentially any value 

after the / is added to the value before it. (a MA1 

Assault Rifle is normally 2/1 against Soldier 

scale, against Vehicle Scale it is -/3). 


SCALE 

DUST: ADVENTURES is a world of giant robots, 

angry gorillas, alien technology and tanks. 

All kinds of tanks, big tanks, small tanks, medium 

tanks, walking tanks, possibly even flying 

tanks. Therefore DUST: ADVENTURES uses 

a special scale rule. 

DUST: ADVENTURES deals with three scales, 

Soldier, Vehicle and Aircraft. 

When attacking the same category of target as 

you, use the rules in this book as normal. 

Soldiers attacking Vehicles reverse the dice 

results for attacks, treating hits as misses and 

misses at hits. However, unless the weapon or 

character has a special skill or trait, you also reverse 

the result of the Vehicle Resistance Rolls. 

Therefore it is easier to hit a Vehicle but harder 

to hurt it when a Soldier attacks it. In addition, 

additional damage from Soldier scale weapons 

attacking Vehicle scale targets are gained for 

every 2 degrees of success instead of every one 

degree. 

4.2” Rocket System is aVehicle 3/1 weapon, 

against Soldier scale targets it is a 4/-. 

When Aircraft are attacked by Soldiers or Vehicles 

(unless the attacker has some sort of AA 

trait) they are permitted to reverse both their 

dodge rolls and their Resistance Rolls. However, 

an Aircraft on the ground or flying very low 

is considered a standard Vehicle for these rules. 

In addition, additional damage from Soldier 

scale weapons or Vehicle scale weapons targeting 

Aircraft are gained for every 2 degrees of 

success instead of every one degree.Finally the 

damage value of Soldier scale attacks and Vehicle 

scale attacksare treated as rolled damage, 

essentially any value before the / is added to the 

value after it. 

4.2” Rocket System is a Vehicle 3/1 weapon, 

against Aircraft scale targets it is a -/4. 


73

Only equipment and weapons suited for quick 

multiple actions may be used several times (up 

to the limit of their capabilities) in a round. 

Some examples include semi-automatic guns or 

items with little or no reload time, like hands or 

small melee weapons. 

dust adventures 

You may never use a Sustained Action on a 

Multiple Action. 

ACTIONS 

As mentioned before, characters have two actions 

they can take per round but only one can 

be an attack (exception, see multi-tasking and 

Sustained Actions). The other action can be 

movement or any skill action. 

Multiple Actions 

Characters may attempt to perform several 

tasks in a single round, or, if the action takes 

longer than one round to complete, in the same 

minimum time period. The more they try to do, 

however, the less care and concentration they 

can apply to each action. It becomes more difficult 

to succeed at all of the tasks. Thus, for 

most characters, for each action taken beyond 

the first, the player must subtract 1 from all skill 

or attribute rolls (but not damage, damage resistance, 

or initiative rolls). Thus, trying to do 

four actions in one round gives the character a - 

3 modifier to each roll. For weapons with Spray, 

Auto Fire or Scatter traits the multi-action penalty 

doesn’t take effect until the character uses 

up his allotment of actions (See Weapons). 

REACTION 

Character who has not taken an action yet during 

a combat round may immediately take a reaction 

when an opponent takes their action and 

that opponent is either A) Targeting the character, 

B) adjacent to the character or C) unaware 

of the character. A reaction is treated like any 

other action but counts as two actions therefore 

it cannot be a sustained action but may be an attack, 

a skill use or a move. Naturally a character 

without two actions cannot react (already acted 

once, is suppressed, and so forth). 

MOVE 

As a standard action a character can move 6 meters. 

Special traits and skills may augment this. 

A character can do a double move as his full 

action and move 12 meters. Movement through 

difficult terrain usually reduces a character’s 

Move by half. Climbing and Jumping are considered 

difficult terrain by default and doing so 

over terrain that is also identified as difficult 

terrain reduces the move by another half, effectively 

quartering it. Trying to move at full speed 

over obstacles is a problem. Use the following 

chart to determine full speed difficulties and results. 

role playing game 

74 

MOVEMENT DIFFICULTY 

Terrain Type Cover Soldier WALKER WHEELS TRACKS 

Craters Soft 1 2 1 1 

Fences Soft 1 1 2 1 

Forest/Jungle Soft 1 2 2 2 

Hedges Soft 1 1 1 0 

Hills Soft 1 1 1 1 

Barbed Wire None 3 1 1 1 

Rubble Soft 1 2 2 1 

Stone/Brick Walls Hard 2 2 3 2 

Swamp None 2 3 3 4 

Tank Obstacles Hard 1 5 3 5 

Trenches Hard 2 3 4 6 

Vehicle Wreckage Hard 1 3 2 1 

Water (Deep) Hard 2 5 3 2 

Water (Shallow) Soft 1 2 1 2

Failure on the piloting/driving/agile test results 

in becoming stuck. You may become unstuck 

by trying again and again at the same difficulty 

+1. Further failures result in a 1/1 damage on 

the vehicle of -/1 on a Soldier scale for each degree 

of failure. This new damage ignores Armor 

Class. 

VEHICLES 

Vehicles use a slightly different combat system. 

First, Vehicles track Hull Points for damage and 

do not accumulate Suppression. If a Vehicle is 

reduced to 0 Hull Points it is destroyed. In addition 

whenever a Vehicles suffers damage that 

is over its Armor Class it may suffer structural 

damage. The attacking player rolls one die per 

damage sustained and compares it to the chart 

below and the Vehicle suffers these further effects. 

When Vehicles suffer damage they apply it 

against their Armor Class first. Anything over 

that value is damage inflicted on the Vehicle. 

The Vehicle then can roll its Toughness to further 

reduce this damage, but even if this damage 

is removed the original value over the Vehicle’s 

Armor Class is applied for the structural damage 

roll. 

STRUCTURAL DAMAGE CHART 

HITS EFFECT 

0 No additional effect. 

1 Blinded 

2 External Fire 

3 Weapon Damaged 

4 Drive System Damaged 

5 Ammunition Detonation 

6 Hull Breach 

Blinded: The vehicle’s vision has been compromised. 

When taking a Sustained Attack action, 

the vehicle cannot reroll any Combat Dice 

until repaired. Repair difficulty 2. 

External Fire: Part of the vehicle’s armor is 

on fire. As long as the fire is burning, the vehicle 

suffers 1 Hull Point of damage at the end of 

each of its activations (do not roll for this on the 

Structural Damage Table). While the vehicle is 

on fire, the vehicle will resolve a an additional 

1/1 Attack against any Soldier unit it Overruns. 

The vehicle must spend an action to put the fire 

out. Repair Difficult 1, per round on fire. 

Weapon Damaged: One weapon may not be 

fired until repaired. The vehicle is treated as if it 

did not have the weapon, any abilities conferred 

by the weapon (such as Repair) are lost. The attacker 

rolls a Combat Die. On a hit, he chooses 

the weapon, on a missthe defender chooses. Repair 

Difficulty 1. 

Drive System Damaged: Thevehicle may not 

take Move actions until repaired. Repair Difficulty 

3. 


Ammunition Detonation: Oneweapon of the 

Attacker’s choice isdamaged and may not be 

fired until repair (as weapon damaged above). 

In addition, allSoldier with a within12 meters 

of the vehicle (andany Soldier units embarked 

in thevehicle, see “Carry Capacity”) suffer 

1/5damage. Repair Difficulty: 3 

Hull Breach: There is a massive hole in the 

vehicle. It cannot makeany Armor rolls, and all 

weapons gain a bonus of -/1 damage against the 

vehicle. Repair Difficulty: 6 

75

REAR ARMOR 

Attacks resolved against the rear of a vehicle 

ignore its Armor Class and the vehicle can only 

defend with its Toughness. 

move back 6 meters twice (two rolls against difficult 

3) or a combination of the two (3 meters 

and 6 meters with a difficulty of 1 for the first 

and 3 for the second) as the pilot sees fit. 


PILOTING 

Characters use the Pilot skill (or Drive skill) 

to control vehicles. While the Drive skill may 

cover a wide variety of vehicles (Motorcycles, 

Cars, Boats, Scooters) the Pilot skill is defined 

by a specific category of vehicle (for example 

M1, M2, M6 for Allies, LPW I, MPW II and 

HPW VI for Axis). Piloting skill rolls are made 

to dodge, pivot, move backwards and navigate 

difficult terrain. (The following uses standard 

movement for walkers for distances, these would 

be different based on vehicles being used). 

Dodge: Functions identical to normal dodge 

skill use, however, cannot use Full Defense. 

Pivot: Normally a vehicle can only move in 

a straight line, unless the character performs a 

pivot maneuver which is an action to perform. 

A difficulty of 1 for every 45 degree change in 

direction the pilot desires. May be sustained up 

to 90 degrees, after 90 degrees is becomes a full 

action (takes both actions to perform). However, 

a pilot can pivot 45 degrees for free every 

round. 

Navigate Difficult Terrain: The difficulty is 

based on speed (3 meters or 6 meters) and type 

of terrain. To move 3 meters is a base difficulty 

of 0, to move 6 the base difficulty is 1. Easy 

level difficult terrain adds 1 to this difficulty, 

medium level adds 2 and hard level adds 3 (see 

Move above). 

A character can pilot a different category of hull 

from the same faction at a 1 dice penalty and 

can pilot the same category of hull from a different 

faction at a 1 dice penalty. Lastly, you 

can pilot a different hull from a different faction 

at a 2 dice penalty. 

For example: 

Sigrid has 5 dice in MPW II, she can therefore 

pilot the LPW I series and HPW VI series at 

4 dice. She can also pilot the Allied Medium 

Walkers at 4 dice as it is the same category as 

the MPW II (Medium Walker) and she can pilot 

all other walkers at 3 dice. 

WEAPON SYSTEMS 

Characters use the Weapon Systems skill to attack 

using vehicle weapons. The Weapon System 

skill is defined by a specific category and 

class of vehicle (for example LPW I (A, B or 

C), MPW II( A, B, D or E) and HPW VI (A or 

B )for Axis). 

However, Weapon Systems are very similar and 

if you can use one form you can use another 

almost as well. If a character is trained to use a 

specific vehicle’s weapons he can employ the 

weapons of a similar configuration of the same 

general type (hull) at a one dice penalty. To use 

76 

Move Backwards: A difficulty of 1 to move 3 

meters to the rear, difficulty of 3 to move 6 meters. 

To play it safe a pilot can Sustain Action 

these moves. Or he could try to move 3 meters 

back twice (two rolls against Difficulty 1) or

another hull from the same faction the character 

suffers a 2 dice penalty. To use a similar category 

of hull from another faction is a two dice 

penalty. Finally to use a different category of 

hull from a different faction is a 3 dice penalty. 

Sigrid has 6 dice in MPW II-B “Ludwig” Weapon 

Systems, she can therefore fire all MPW II 

series weapons at 5 dice. She can also fire the 

LPW I and HPW VI series weapons at 4 dice 

as well as the M2 Series of Allied Walkers as 

it is the same category as the MPW II (Medium 

Walker) and she can fire all other walker weapons 

at 3 dice. 

OVERRUN 

Vehicles are large and heavy and usually fast. 

Pilots can use land based vehicles to conduct 

overruns. To do so they must be able to reach the 

target and must pass a piloting skill test against 

a difficulty equal to the target’s dodge skill (or 

Mobility) roll. Success causes damage equal to 

the vehicles Armor/Toughness (where armor is 

automatic damage and toughness is rolled). 

In addition Overrun causes one suppression 

damage per hit on the initial piloting roll and an 

additional suppression damage per hit the rolled 

damage (but not for automatic damage). Overrun 

is considered to have the scatter trait. 

It requires a move action to perform and this 

may be a sustained action. 

VEHICLE SPECIAL ABILITIES 

The following are the common special abilities 

vehicles may have in Dust Adventures. 

All in One: This allows a vehicle to fire at full 

auto, when it does so it adds 2 dice to attack and 

-/2 to damage. This can only be done once per 

encounter. 

Amphibious: Most natural defenses in Europe 

and the Eastern Front rest upon river lines, and 

coastal landings are decisive. This has led to 

research into various amphibian technologies 

for both vehicles and men. Amphibious units 

are sufficiently waterproofed to float and propel 

themselves across rivers, lakes, seas, and other 

deep bodies of water. Amphibious miniatures 

treat areas of water as open terrain for movement 

purposes. 

Carrying Capacity: Some vehicles can carry 

passengers. The number listed is the number 

of standard troops that can be packed into (or 

onto) the vehicle comfortably. And additional 

50% may be added but after passing the threshold 

for comfort the passengers risk extra harm 

when attacked. 

A vehicle that suffers damage beyond it Armor 

Class risks injuring its passengers. For each 

point of damage over the vehicle’s Armor Class 

all passengers suffer a -/1 damage. If they are 


77

overcrowded (more passengers than the vehicle’s 

Carrying Capacity) the damage is 1/-. Armor 

cannot be used to reduce this damage, only 

Toughness. 


It takes a single action to embark or disembark 

from a vehicle until the vehicle meets its Carrying 

Capacity. If the vehicle is overloaded, it 

takes two actions to embark or disembark. 

Charge: Much like the skill a character would 

have, a vehicle with charge can make two move 

actions and still perform a close combat attack. 

However a vehicle automatically succeeds to 

use this skill and does not need to roll. 

Dozer Blades: Vehicles outfitted with Dozer 

Blades gain a bonus Toughness dice to resist 

damage from attacks from the front. Furthermore 

Dozer Blades gives the vehicles 2 bonus 

dice to pilot through difficult terrain and adds 

-/1 to overrun damage. 

Fast: Much like the normal skill Fast allows a 

vehicle to move at a quicker pace. One movement 

per round may be made with an extra 6 

meters added to it. 

Jump: A vehicle with jump can move vertically 

or horizontally 9 meters, ignoring terrain 

that is 9 meters or shorter in height and length. 

It counts as a move action. 

Self Repair: A vehicle with self repair can 

make a single die roll if it spends the entire 

round doing nothing (counts as two actions, but 

does not count as sustained). After the round is 

complete they can roll a single die, on a hit result 

the vehicle recovers a single Hull Point. 

Tracks: These were once the most common propulsion 

type for tanks. However, tracked tanks 

have been gradually overshadowed by walkers 

as first the Axis and then the Allies produced 

them in ever greater numbers. If a tracked vehicle 

declares a Move action that begins, moves 

through, or ends in difficult terrain, roll a Die 

for it. On a roll of Hit the vehicle’s movement is 

stopped when it first contacts any terrain. 

Wheels: A vehicle with Wheels moves well 

enough across open terrain, but can’t traverse 

difficult terrain easily. If a wheeled vehicle declares 

a Move action that begins, moves through, 

or ends in difficult terrain, roll a Die for it. On a 

Miss the vehicles movement is stopped when it 

first contacts any terrain. A vehicle with Wheels 

cannot make a pivot very easily and all difficulties 

to do so are increased by 1. 


Scout Vehicle: A scout vehicle is outfitted with 

special equipment to perform recon and exploratory 

operations. A scout vehicle provides a bonus 

die to all perception, initiative and survival 

rolls while in the vehicle (or have access to the 

vehicle in the case of survival). 

78

WEAPON SPECIAL QUALITIES 

Accurate: A weapon that is accurate gains a 

bonus of 2 dice added to the attack dice pool 

if the character has a chance to use sustained 

action on the shot. It represents a better ability 

to aim the weapon. Just as any normal dice on 

a Sustained Action, these bonus dice can be rerolled 

one time if they come up a miss. 

Anti Aircraft: Weapons with this trait treat 

Aircraft as if they were the same scale (Vehicle 

vs. Vehicle or Soldier vs. Soldier). 

Anti Tank: Weapons with this trait treat Vehicles 

as if they were the same scale (Vehicle vs. 

Vehicle or Soldier vs. Soldier). 

Burst: If the target of a Burst weapon has yet to 

act they suffer an additional 3 dice of damage. 

Note that this damage must be rolled after the 

target is hit and is not an automatic +3 to damage. 

However, the rolls are treated like they are 

Experience Point bonus dice. 

Grenade: Grenade weapons that hit a Soldier 

target always receive at least a stunned result on 

the damage chart regardless of actual damage 

inflicted. If the damage inflicted is more severe 

the gravest level of the two is used. However 

the automatic stun does not stack with previous 

stun results to upgrade damage to wounded. 

Grenades also inflict an additional point of suppression 

even if the target is unharmed. 

Indirect Fire: The attacker does not need to 

see a target, as long as he has an ally who can 

communicate with him that has line of sight on 

the target and the proper skill (Spotter or Radio). 

Line of sight, cover and range bonuses are 

based on the observer’s range and sight. 


Artillery: Artillery weapons ignore cover. 

Tank killer: Weapons with Tank Killer suffer 

no scale penalty to hit or damage any scale of 

ground targets (penalties for Aircraft still apply). 

Furthermore when used against armored 

vehicles, it always treats misses as hits and hits 

as misses. 

Area-Effect: Area Effect attacks are applied 

against all targets in the target area, even though 

only one attack roll is made. In addition they 

ignore 1 point of Armor Class and ignore all 

cover bonuses. 

Auto Fire: Weapons with Auto Fire can fire 

an extreme amount of rounds at a target at an 

alarming and fast rate. A character using an 

Auto Fire weapon can opt to add 1 dice to his 

initiative or his attack roll. 

Laser: These weapons are very dangerous. All 

damage dice rolled for Laser weapons are rerolled 

if they come up a hit, extra hits rolled on 

these rerolls are added to the damage and are 

rerolled again until no hits come up. 

Long Range: The weapon cannot target enemies 

closer than 12 meters from the user. The 

weapon never suffers a bonus to hit based on 

range. 

Mighty: Weapons with the Mighty ability roll 

damage dice and treat hits as misses and misses 

as hits. 


79


Overcharge: Weapons that can overcharge can 

inflict +2 damage but gain the reload trait immediately 

after the overcharge is resolved. The 

reload trait lasts for the rest of the combat until 

the character has a chance to readjust his weapon. 

Overcharge can only be used once without 

readjusting. 

Phaser: Phasers are another powerful weapon. 

When using a Phaser weapon you ignore cover 

and armor. 

Pinning: Weapons with Pinning double the 

normal amount of suppression they inflict. 

Point Blank Bonus: The weapon gains a bonus 

trait but only against targets within point 

blank range. 

Rapid Fire: By emptying the clip, a Rapid Fire 

weapon can attack up to three targets that are 

considered close to each other without multiaction 

penalty, but the weapon is emptied and 

must be reloaded by spending two actions to do 

so (see Reload). 

Reload: Weapons with the Reload trait must 

spend two actions reloading after being used. 

These two actions can be spent in different 

rounds if desired. 

Scatter: Scatter weapons send multiple projectiles 

in an area making it easier to make attacks 

on multiple targets. The attacker can attack up 

to two targets with no multi-action penalty as 

long as the two targets are adjacent to one another. 

Spray: Spray is similar to Scatter, but is much 

more effective. That attacker may select up to 

five targets that are considered close and adjacent 

to one another and attack them all in one 

action without a multi-action penalty. 

EQUIPMENT 

A sci-fi pulp action alternate Post-World War Two setting is bound to have hundreds of 

thousands of varieties of specialized weapons, gear, armor and more. To cover every piece 

of equipment available during the real World War Two would take dozens of books and 

thousands of entries. 

To save space and time so we can get to the heart of DUST: ADVENTURES we are only 

going to focus on the most common equipment members of ASOCOM and that of their 

enemies the AXIS. 


WEAPONS 

As a war game, it is only natural that the universe 

of Dust is littered with guns and knives 

(and grenades and robots). The following is a 

listing of common ASOCOM issue weapons. 

Each weapon has the following entries available 

to it. 

PV: Penetration Value the maximum AC (Armor 

Class) the weapon can be used against. 

AP: Armor Piercing. The first number is the 

highest AC (Armor Class) the AP can affect, the 

second number is the amount of AC it ignores. 

Special: Any special rules or abilities the weapon 

has (see Combat section). 

80 

Name: The name of the weapon. 

Range: The distance the weapon can accurately 

be used at (see Combat section). 

Scale: The category of warfare the weapon is 

intended for (see Combat section) followed by 

a number indicating the base damage.

AXIS WEAPONS 

2cm Flak-Vierling 

Range: 30 Meters Scale: Vehicle 1/4 PEN: 4 AP: 3/1 

Anti Aircraft 

5cm Flak 43 


Anti Aircraft 

8.8cm Doppel-FPK 


12.8cm Flak-Vierling 


Anti Aircraft 

17.3cm FPK Zwei 


Penetrator 

dust Chronicles issue 3 

20mm Solothurn 

Range: 36 Meters Scale: Soldier 3/1 PEN: 4 AP: 3/2 

BlutKreuz 

Range: C Scale: Soldier 3/3 PEN: 4 AP: 4/2 

Circular Saw 


Combat Knife 


Flammenwerfer 40 

Range: 6 Meters Scale: Soldier 2/2 PEN: 4 AP: 0 

Burst, Spray 

Fliegerfaust 


Anti Aircraft, Burst 

Granatwerfer 

Range: 16 Meters Scale: Vehicle 3/1 PEN: 4 AP: 0 

Spray, Indirect Fire 

Grenades 


Grenade 

Kampfzange 

Range: C Scale: Vehicle 4/2 PEN: 4 AP: 3/1 

Kick & Punch 

Range: C Scale: Soldier -/- PEN: 4 AP: 0 


81

Knife 

Range:C Scale: Soldier -/1 PEN: 2 AP: 1/1 


Laser–Gewehr 


Laser 

Laser–Kanone 


Laser 

Laser–Pistole B 

Range: 12 Meters Scale: Soldier -/2 PEN: 4 AP: 2/1 

Laser 

Laser–Werfer 


Laser 

Mauser 


MG 44 


Anti Aircraft 

MG 44 Zwei 


Anti Aircraft, Rapid Fire 

MG 48 


Anti Aircraft 

Nebelwerfer 42 

Range: A Scale: Vehicle 3/2 PEN: 4 AP: 4/2 

Artillery, Spray, Reload 


Panzer Glove 


Panzerfaust 


Reload 

Panzerfaust–Werfer 


Tank Killer 

Panzerschreck 


82

Schwer Laser-Werfer 


Laser 

Schwerer Panzer Glove 

Range:C Scale: Soldier 2/1 PEN: 4 AP: 3/1 

Sniper Gewehr PSG1 


Accurate, Pinning 

StG 47 

Range: 16 Meters Scale: Soldier 2/- PEN: 3 AP: 2/1 

Unarmed 



ALLIED WEAPONS 

.30 Cal Victory MG 


Anti Aircraft 

.45 Auto Colt Pistol 


.50 Cal Victory MG 


Anti Aircraft 

4.2” Rocket System 


Reload 

17 Pounder Gun 


60W Phaser Gun 


Phaser, Overcharge 

75mm Howitzer 


Tank Killer 

120W Dual Phaser Gun 


Phaser, Overcharge 

220mm Long Tom 



83

Aeronca GB-9 Strike 

Range: A Scale: Vehicle 4/1 PEN: 4 AP: 0 


Demolition Charge 


Point Blank Bonus (Anti-Armor), Grenade, Demolition 

Dual .30 Cal Victory MG 


Anti Aircraft 

Dual .50 Cal Victory MG 


Anti Aircraft 

Dual 155mm Howitzer 


Tank Killer 

Dual Heavy PIAT 


Dynamite 


Point Blank Bonus (Anti-Armor), Grenade 

Fireball Napalm Thrower 


Burst, Spray, Tank Killer 

Flamethrower 


Burst, Spray 

Grenade Launcher 


Grenade, Reload 


Grenades 


Grenade 

Hand Flamethrowers 


Burst, Spray, Pair 

Heavy Rocket Punch 


Mighty 

Kitchen Knife 

Range:C Scale: Soldier 1/1 PEN: 2 AP: 0 

84

Knife 

Range:C Scale: Soldier -/1 PEN: 2 AP: 1/1 

M1 Assault Rifle 

Range: 16 Meters Scale: Soldier 2/- PEN: 3 AP: 2/1 

M9 Bazooka 


Anti Tank 

M9-D Bazooka 


Anti Tank 

M10 Bazooka 


Anti Tank 


Napalm Thrower 


Burst, Spray, Tank Killer 

Petard Mortar 


Reload, Indirect Fire, Long Range, Tank Killer 

Quad .50 Cal Victory MG 


Anti Aircraft 

Rocket Punch 


Mighty 

Shotgun 


Scatter 

Sniper Rifle 


Accurate, Pinning 

UGL 


Grenade, Reload 

Unarmed 


Webley Revolver 

Range: 6 Meters Scale: Soldier -/2 PEN: 4 AP: 1/1 


85

AXIS LIGHT WALKERS 

LIGHT PANZER WALKER I-A “HEINRICH” 

ARMOR CLASS: 2 TOUGHNESS: 3 

MOVE: 6 TYPE: VEHICLE HULL POINTS: 6 

BASIC UNIT: 1 LIGHT ASSAULT WALKER 

WEAPONS: 2CM FLAK-VIERLING (F) 


LIGHT PANZER WALKER I-B “HERMANN” 




WEAPONS: LASER-KANONE (F) 

LIGHT PANZER WALKER I-C “HANS” 




WEAPONS: GRANATWERFER (F) AND PANZERFAUST–WERFER (F) 

SPECIAL ABILITIES: SCOUT VEHICLE 

AXIS MEDIUM WALKERS 

MPW II-A “LUTHER” 



BASIC UNIT: 1 MEDIUM COMBAT WALKER 

WEAPONS: 5CM FLAK 43 (F), KAMPFZANGE (F), AND TURRET MG 44 

SPECIAL ABILITIES: CHARGE 


MPW II-B “LUDWIG” 




WEAPONS: 8.8CM DOPPEL-FPK (F) AND TURRET MG 44 

86 

MPW II-D “LOTHAR” 




WEAPONS: NEBELWERFER 42 (F) AND TURRET MG 44

MPW II-E “LOTH” 




WEAPONS: KAMPFZANGE X 2 (F) AND TURRET MG 44 

SPECIAL ABILITIES: CHARGE 

AXIS HEAVY WALKERS 

HPW VI-A “KÖNIGSLUTHER” 



BASIC UNIT: 1 HEAVY ASSAULT WALKER 

WEAPONS: 17.3CM FPK ZWEI (F) AND MG 44 ZWEI (F) 

HPW VI-B “STURMKÖNIG” 




WEAPONS: 12.8CM FLAK-VIERLING (F) AND MG 44 ZWEI (F) 

ALLIED LIGHT WALKERS 

LAW M1-A “WILDFIRE” 


MOVE: 6 TYPE: VEHICLE 3 HULL POINTS: 6 


WEAPONS: QUAD .50 CAL VICTORY MG (F) 

SPECIAL ABILITIES: FAST 

LAW M1-B “BLACKHAWK” 




WEAPONS: DUAL HEAVY PIAT (F) 

SPECIAL ABILITIES: ALL IN ONE, FAST 

LAW M1-C “HONEY” 




WEAPONS: 120W DUAL PHASER GUN (F) 

SPECIAL ABILITIES: FAST 

dust adventures - rpg dust chronicles: issue 3 

87

dust adventures - rpg dust chronicles issue 3 

88 

ALLIED MEDIUM WALKERS 

MCW M2-A “MICKEY” 




WEAPONS: TURRET 75MM HOWITZER, TURRET .50 CAL VICTORY MG, 

AND .30 CAL VICTORY MG (F) 

SPECIAL ABILITIES: FAST, JUMP, SELF REPAIR 

MCW M2-B “HOT DOG” 




WEAPONS: TURRET NAPALM THROWER, TURRET .50 CAL VICTORY MG, 


SPECIAL ABILITIES: JUMP 

MCW M2-C “POUNDER” 




WEAPONS: TURRET 17 POUNDER GUN, TURRET .50 CAL VICTORY MG, 


SPECIAL ABILITIES: JUMP 

MCW M2-F “STEEL RAIN” 




WEAPONS: TURRET PETARD 

ALLIED HEAVY WALKERS 

HAW M6-A “PUNISHER” 




WEAPONS: DUAL 155MM HOWITZER (F), TURRET DUAL .50 CAL 

VICTORY MG, AND TURRET DUAL .30 CAL VICTORY MG (2) 

SPECIAL ABILITIES: DOZER BLADE, CARRY CAPACITY 6 

HAW M6-B “FIREBALL” 




WEAPONS: FIREBALL NAPALM THROWER (F), TURRET DUAL .50 CAL 

VICTORY MG, AND TURRET DUAL .30 CAL VICTORY MG (2) 

SPECIAL ABILITIES: DOZER BLADE, CARRY CAPACITY 6

armor AC special 

BASIC FLACK 1 None 

ASOCOM FLAK 2 None 

AXIS ARMOR 2 None 

SSU ARMOR 2 None 

XM-18-22 3 May be outfitted with Drop Rig 

or Rocket Pack. 

SCHWER-STURMGRENADIER 3 Models B and C have Damage Resilience of 2. 

ALIEN ARTIFACT 4 Various 

NONE 0 None 

KITS 

Kits are special sets of tools and utensils that aid 

a character in the performance of certain skills. 

The following are common kits available to soldiers 

on the warfront. 

Mechanical Bag: Tools for repairing and 

maintaining vehicles, adds +1 dice to Repair or 

Tank Head rolls. 

Medical Kit: Medicines, cutting tools, bandages, 

pain relievers and other items to aid in 

the care of the injured and sick, adds +1 dice to 

First Aid and Medicine rolls. 

Survival Kit: Maps, compasses, rations, information 

guides and additional items designed to 

aid a character in survival, adds +1 dice to Survival 

rolls. 

Radio Kit: Contains codebook, maps, frequency 

list, useful how to guides and references for 

proper radio procedures and practices (faction 

based), adds +1 dice to Radio rolls. 

MISCELLANEOUS GEAR 

Rocket Pack: Can be affixed to XM-18-22 

Aerial Assault Armor by Allied troops. Gives 

+3 dice to Jumping and provides the vehicle trait 

of Jump to a soldier scale character. In addition 

the character’s base move (normally 6 meters) 

is doubled (normally to 12 meters). 

Drop Rig: A special airborne assault device 

that can be attached to XM-18-22 Aerial Assault 

Armor. It adds +5 dice to the Airborne skill. 

Night Vision Goggles: Reduces penalty of 

darkness by 2 dice. 


Sniper Kit: Contains scopes, silencers, range 

finders and other useful devices for snipers, adds 

+1 dice to the first attack rolled while sniping. 


89

dust chronicles issue 3 dust adventures - rpg 

90 

STURMGRENADIERE 

Sturmgrenadiere – “Storm Grenadiers” – form 

the backbone of the Axis forces holding Europe 

and large swaths of the globe in thrall. They are 

hard-bitten, superbly trained veterans of a decade 

of world warfare that are fanatically loyal 

to the ideals of the Thousand Year Reich. Competition 

to join the Grenadiers is fierce and each 

year only the best conscripts are selected for 

training at brutal infantry warfare schools like 

Bad Tölz or Posen. The instructors at such places 

specialize in taking freshfaced recruits and 

turning them into disciplined, obedient Teutonic 

warriors with iron in their souls. 

Grenadier recruits are trained in a wide variety 

of infantry weapons and tactics as their training 

regime “sifts” each new intake of men. 

Over time the body of recruits are allocated to 

specialist squad training according to their individual 

talents. Here recruits might be drilled 

in unique tactics, or be given twenty minutes to 

dig entrenchments in the field before tanks are 

brought in to walk over their positions. Casualties 

in training are not uncommon but, for the 

elite, no sacrifice is too great in the struggle for 

greatness. 

However well-trained recruits might think 

themselves, the front line troops are their final 

tutors, and they are uncompromising masters. 

Any front line officer has the right to send a recruit 

back into training if he finds them unsatisfactory, 

a fate worse than death for most when 

their instructors find out. 

A Storm Grenadier’s basic equipment includes 

“Sturmgrenadiere Ausf. A,” a rigid body armor 

made up of plates covering the chest, back, and 

shoulders, in addition to the ubiquitous steel 

helmet. Sturmgewehr 47 assault rifles are standard 

issue, along with knives for close-quarters 

battle and often – but ironically, not always 

– grenades. 

BUILDING A STURMGRENADIER 

Sturmgrenadiers are built by assembling various 

packages together. Every Sturmgrenadiere 

starts with the Basic Stats Package and adds to 

this by selecting one or more Sturmgrenadier 

Sub Packages. Normally a Sturmgrenadier has 

two packages (Basic Stats Package and one 

Sturmgrenadier Sub Package) but special elite 

troops may have two or three packages stacked 

together. 

For example, a Heavy Kommandotrupp Schwer 

Officer would have three packages: the Sturmgrenadier 

Basic Stats Package, the Commander 

Sub Package and the Heavy Grenadier package. 

The Sturmgrenadier possesses all the skills from 

all of his packages, if the same skill is available 

more than once they are added together. 

Johan Strucker is a Heavy Grenadier Commander. 

Both the Heavy Grenadier package 

and the Commander package provide the Willpower 

skill at 1. Since Johan has both packages 

he has Willpower at 2. 

A Standard Grenadier has the Sturmgrenadier 

Basic Stats package and the Weapon Specialist 

Sub Package usually focusing on grenades 

or panzerfausts.

STURMGRENADIERE BASIC STATS 

M: 2 D: 2 T: 2 S: 2 R: 2 P: 2 

SKILLS: Attack (Rifle) 1, Attack (Knife) 1, 

Survival 1, Navigation 1, First Aid 1 plus at 

least one package. 

EQUIPMENT: Sturmgrenadiere Ausf. A Axis 

Armor, STG 47, Knife and one package. 

STURMGRENADIER 

SUB PACKAGES 

COMMANDER 

SKILLS: Command 2, Radio 1, Persuasion 1, 

Willpower 1 

EQUIPMENT: Radio (Short), Map, Survival 

Kit, Code Book, Radio Kit 

HEAVY GRENADIER 

SKILLS: Pilot (Armor) 2, Intimidation 1, Willpower 

1, Repair 1 

EQUIPMENT: Schwer-Sturmgrenadier Model 

B, replace STG 47 with MG 44 Zwei or Fliegerfaust 

or Schwer Laser-Werfer, and replace 

Knife with Combat Knife 

MECHANIC 

SKILLS: Repair 3, Tank Head 1 

EQUIPMENT: Mechanical Bag 

MEDIC 

SKILLS: First Aid 1, Medicine 2 

EQUIPMENT: Medical Kit 

PILOT 

SKILLS: Pilot (Choose One) 2, Weapon Systems 

2, Radio 1 

EQUIPMENT: Vehicle 

RADIOMAN 

SKILLS: Radio 2, Willpower 1, Repair 1, Navigation 

1 

EQUIPMENT: Radio (Large), Codes, Maps, 

Radio Kit 

SERGEANT 

SKILLS: Command 1, Navigation 1, First Aid 

1, Survival 1, Willpower 1 

EQUIPMENT: Combat Knife, Orders, Medical 

Kit 

SCOUT 

SKILLS: Hide 1, Sneak 1, Scout 1, and Survive 

1 or Navigation 1 

EQUIPMENT: Survival Kit, Woodland Suit 

SNIPER 

SKILLS: Attack (Rifle) 1, Sniper 2 

EQUIPMENT: Replace ST 47 with Sniper 

Gewehr PSG1, Grenades, Binoculars, Survival 

Kit, Woodland Suit 

SPOTTER 

SKILLS: Spotter 2, Hide 1 

EQUIPMENT: Grenades, Binoculars, Survival 

Kit, Woodland Suit 

STURMPIONIERE 

SKILLS: Fast 2, Will Power 1 

EQUIPMENT: 

WEAPON SPECIALIST 

SKILLS: Attack (Specialist Weapon) 2, Repair 

1, Demolitions 1, Willpower 1 

EQUIPMENT: Knife, Specialist Weapon of 

choice (usually one of the Laser Gewehr or Laset 

Werfer or Panzerfaust or Panzerschreck, or 

MG 48 or Flammenwerfer 40 or Grenades). 


91



92 

BLUTKREUZ APES 

(AXIS KAMPFAFFEN) 

German scientists began experiments on enhanced 

apes in the late thirties, ostensibly to 

create candidates for Axis rockets. Under the 

auspices of the shadowy Blutkreuz Korps the 

experiments continued, using newly developed 

drugs to create Kampfaffe 001 (nicknamed 

“Markus”), the first true “war gorilla”. 

Markus and his cohorts proved mentally agile 

enough to make useful soldiers in battle, and 

have been brutally suborned into the Axis war 

effort. The natural speed and strength of war 

gorillas is a terrifying thing to behold and is 

further enhanced by steel fists – panzer gloves 

– that render the apes capable of literally ripping 

vehicles apart in hand-to-hand combat. 

M: 3 D: 2 T: 4 S: 4 R: 1 P: 3 

SKILLS: Attack (Brawl) 3, Survival 1, Fast 4, 

Blutkreuz Ape, Intimidation 3 

EQUIPMENT: Panzer Gloves (two each) 

BLUTKREUZ APE: The Blutkreuz Apes 

are spawned in the dreadful laboratories of the 

Blutkreuz Korps. These ferocious beasts gain 

the following abilities: 1) They ignore all effects 

of Suppression. 2) Blutkreuz Apes are 

immune to Persuasion, Intimidation and Interrogation 

skill tests from non Blutkreuz Korps 

individuals. 3) Blutkreuz Apes act as if they had 

the Climb skill at 4. 4) Blutkreuz Apes gain a 

free action in the first round of combat or on 

any round determined as a surprise. This bonus 

action does not suffer any multi action penalty 

and may only be used for Intimidation. 

BLUTKREUZ ZOMBIES 

(UNTERTOTEN) 

These creatures are “resurrected” from fallen 

Axis soldiers by the Wiederbelebungsserum. 

Less than half of those “treated” retain enough 

sentience to recognize their allies and these are 

only capable of wielding the simplest weapons. 

Nonetheless, these “Untertoten” are hard to kill, 

and their presence spreads a morbid fear through 

Allied forces. Axis zombies are only deployed 

for critical operations as their existence is still 

officially denied by higher command. 

M: 3 D: 1 T: 3 S: 3 R: 1 P: 2 

SKILLS: Attack (Brawl) 3, Fast 4, Intimidation 

3, Blutkreuz Zombie 

EQUIPMENT: Panzer Gloves (two each) 

BLUTKREUZ ZOMBIES: Blutkreuz Zombies 

are raised using the Wiederbelebungsserum. 

These “Untertoten” gain the following abilities: 

1) They ignore all effects of Suppression. 2)The 

unit reduces the effectiveness of any cover it is 

in, treating Hard cover as Soft cover, and Soft 

cover as no cover. 3) Blutkreuz Zombies gain a 

free action in the first round of combat or on any 

round determined as a surprise. This bonus action 

does not suffer any multi action penalty and 

may only be used for Intimidation. 4) Blutkreuz 

Zombies are considered to have the Damage 

Resilience skill at 3. 

WHAT’S NEXT? 

Please remember that Dust Adventures is always 

growing and evolving as new rules are written 

and excisting rules are changed. That is why we 

want to hear from you, if you have suggestions 

or comments about this RPG then get in touch 

with Dust Chronicles. 

Updates and expansions to the Dust Adventures 

- RPG will be published in future issues of Dust 

Chronicles and can be found in the dedicated 

section of the dust-chronicles.com website.

name: 

age: 

rank: 

peace time occupation: 

m: d: t: 

s: r: p: 

skills: 

Agile: 

Dodge: 

Fast (A): 

Initiative: 

Martial Arts (A): 

Riding: 

Scout (A): 

Sneak: 

Attack: 

Driving: 

Hide: 

Piloting: 

Sniper (A): 

Thievery: 

Badass: 

Charge (A): 

Damage Resilience (A): 

Frenzy (A): 

Heroic Stand (A): 

The latest version of this Character Sheet 

can be found at dust-chronicles.com 

Survival: 

Airborne: 

Grappling: 

Jumping: 

Mighty Blow (A): 

Black Ops (A): 

Demolitions: 

First Aid: 

Medicine (A): 

Navigation: 

Perception: 

Radio: 

Repair: 

Scholar: 

Spotter (A): 

Tank Head (A): 

Tracking: 

Weapon Systems: 

Animal handling: 

Wound Level: 

Fate Points: 

Experience Points: 

Assault (A): 

Berserk (A): 

Command: 

Interrogation: 

Intimidation: 

Persuasion: 

Willpower: 

armor: 

Any character will always 

start with a minimum of 

Basic Armor (Armor 1). 

equipment: 

Combat Knife, general rations, 

dust adventures - rpg character sheet 

93

how2: hunting dog 

how2: build and paint the 

Based on the original model 

by: Jason Weimer. 

In this article we take a look at how to assemble 

and paint Jason Weimer’s Hunting 

Dog. The Hunter is a variant of the Pounder, 

mounting a smaller gun in exchange for 

increased mobility. Its task is to Seek and 

Destroy enemy armor, especially the dreaded 

Konigsluther. By scouting and flanking 

the enemy, it maneuvers into the rear arc of 

enemy heavies and blasts them where their 

armor is weakest. See this issue for Warfare 

stats for the Hunting Dog. 

Step 1: 

To get started we need to do a simple conversion. 

Use a 1/48 scale M10 tank destroyer 

turret to replace the Pounder’s turret. Tamiya 

has a great kit; you can find them second hand 

for cheap on certain internet auction and discount 

sites. 


94 

Sub-assemble the turret as shown and then 

primer it and the Pounder’s lower half black. 

Once dry, spray several even coats of War Paint 

British Armor over all components. 

The subassemblies sprayed British Armor Green.

Step 2: 

Glue your subassemblies together using plastic 

glue. If you end up with any white crusty looking 

areas, dust the area with more British Armor. 

Do not glue the turret to the lower hull. 


You can paint the areas that are going to be metal 

black at this stage too, but you will probably 

get white onto them so you may as well wait till 

later. A lesson I learned the hard way… 

Step 3: 

Paint watered down black ink into the recessed 

areas between armor plates and around rivets to 

give the model a bit of depth. 

Step 4: 

Determine where you will place your decals and 

cut out some pieces of masking tape to cover 

those areas. 

Using a bit of sponge, like the sort you have left 

over from Battle Foam trays, use the chipping 

technique to dab white paint onto your model. 

To chip the paint on, place some white paint 

onto a tile and dip the sponge into it. Wipe off 

the excess paint and press the sponge onto the 

surface of the model. 

Step 5: 

Remove your masks and apply your decals. 

You could apply your decals first and then mask 

them but they might pull off when you remove 

the tape. 


95

Touch up or paint the areas that are going to 

be metallic with black. 

Step 7: 

Rust weathering was accomplished by use of 

pigments. I mix a bit of rubbing alcohol and 

Secret Weapon pigments (Rust brown first followed 

by Terracotta Brown). Paint the mix into 

those areas that would accumulate rust, like 

around armor plates and rivet heads. 


Step 6: 

Paint your details. To add a bit of interest I 

added some of the tools and stowage that came 

with the M10 kit. The bags were painted German 

Camo Beige followed by brown ink and 

then German Camo Beige again. The tool handles 

were painted Calthan brown followed by 

Ochre. 

Step 8: 

Paint the metal areas with Boltgun metal and 

follow it with a black ink. 


Step 9: 

Paint your glass Mordian Blue. Add a lighter 

stripe towards the bottom and a dot of white 

near the top. 

96

Step 10: 

Using Stirland Mud, dab a bit onto the lower 

parts of the legs and feet. 


Step 11: 

Base your model to match your army. In this 

example I glued sand to the base with wood 

glue and then painted it Calthan Brown with a 

dry brush of Iyanden Yellow. 

The rocks were base coated Chardonite Granite 

and dry brushed Codex grey and Fortress grey. 

The grass clumps are from The Army Painter 

and the snow is from Woodland Scenics. To do 

the snow, I painted white onto the base where 

the snow was going to go and then applied a 

mix of snow flock and PVA glue. 

I also very lightly dry brushed some Calthan 

brown onto the lower legs, knee guards and any 

other lower plates that looked like they needed 

some mud. 

Once that was all dry, I hit it with Testor’s Dullcote 

and while it was drying, sprinkled some 

more snow flock onto the base. 


The base. 

To use this model in your games of Dust Warfare, 

see this Issue’s Rosie’s Scrapyard. 

97

win the hunting dog model 

used for the how2 article 


That’s correct, you can win the actual model 

of the Hunting Dog featured in the How2 

article in this issue of Dust Chronicles. 

All you need to do to be entered into the 

prize-draw is email us at the following address: 

competitions@dust-chronicles.com 

Put “Hunting Dog” as the subject and make 

sure it gets to us by the 6th of January 2013. 

On the 7th of January 2013 a random winner 

will be drawn from all the entries. 

The winner will be contacted that same day 

to arrange where the Hunting Dog model is 

to be posted. 

This competition is open to anybody, anywhere 

except members of staff of Dust 

Chronicles. 

The boring but important bits: 

Members of staff are those people who have 

their name on the contents page of issue 3 

of Dust Chronicles. 

No details will be passed on to third parties 

and apart from a conformation email 

you will not receive any further emails from 

Dust Chronicles. 

The only person contacted is the winner and 

the winner will be announced on the Dust- 

Chronicles website and also in the February 

issue of Dust Chronicles. 

This competition is not supported by Fantasy 

Flight Games Ltd. or Dust Studio Ltd. 

Note that entries that do not have “Hunting 

Dog” as their subject will not be accepted 

and all entries must be in by Sunday the 6th 

of January 2013 (UTC-9*). 

competitions@dust-chronicles.com 

98 

* UTC-9 means the competition is closed at 9am Monday 7th of January 2013 British time.

At Dust-League.Com, we keep track of the 

games of Dust Tactics and Dust Warfare that 

are played all around the world. Anybody can 

submit results and at the end of each league period 

there will be prizes for the winners of both 

the Dust Tactics and the Dust Warfare Worldwide 

League. All you need to do to be part of 

the Worldwide League is fill in the League Results 

Form and we will do the rest. 

The current Worldwide League period will run 

up to and including Monday the 10th of December 

2012. Winning a game will earn you two 

League Points and a loss/draw will get you a 

single point. 

The total number of games recorded and how 

well the armies of Dust are doing can be found 

on the Worldwide Results Page. 

When the current Worldwide League period has 

ended we will announce the winner and runner 

up for both Dust Tactics and Dust Warfare. 

There are prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place for 

both game systems. 

www.dust-league.com 

When you have submitted the result(s) of your 

game(s) you can check the Leaderboard for 

each game and find out where you are ranked at 

the moment. 

If you missed out on the current league then 

don’t worry, a new Worldwide League will start 

in 2013. 

99


tactical corner: Kill It With Fire 

by Leutnant Manfred Hirtzel 

In these cold and bitter months of endless Russian 

winter, nothing quite warms the heart like 

the heat of a flaming jet of napalm. The battles in 

the streets of the world’s cities can be especially 

brutal, and sometimes you meet that special enemy 

who deserves nothing less than to die in a 

fire. These are the heroes for that situation. 

The Unusual Choice: 

Recon Grenadiers 

When you need fiery death on a budget, combining 

the everyday low price of Stefan with the 

classic Recon Grenadiers can make for a pretty 

effective combination. While you should limit 

this combo to tight maps where their lack of 

Fast won’t be as much of a liability, it still saves 

you 11 points over the Sturmpioniere. Besides, 

I hear that the Recon Grenadiers have a great 

recipe for open-flame bratwurst. 

burn baby burn!! 

100 

Stefan 

The Natural Choice: Sturmpioniere 

Stefan was the first to learn that the Allies were 

on to something when they utilized fiery death 

in canister form, and now he’s taught the troops 

how it’s done. The Sturmpioniere are not as 

powerful in close quarters as their Allied and 

SSU counterparts, and this is where Stefan 

comes in. For a mere 18 points, making him 

one of the cheapest heroes in Dust Tactics, you 

can add a second flamethrower to your squad. 

This makes them comparable to the dreaded 

Hell Boys, the scourge of any Axis commander. 

In addition, his assault ability can give your enemies 

a shock when they’re blitzed by a seemingly 

out of range unit. 

The Chef 

The Natural Choice: Hell Boys 

No faction can beat the allies in sheer flamekissed 

cooking power, and this combo seems 

like a natural. This unit of four flamethrowers 

will char any squad or vehicle that has the audacity 

to get within range. And Chef Zanicotti 

will be more than happy to serve up those freshly 

cooked enemies with his impressive skills with 

a cooking knife. It will cost you a pretty penny, 

however, at a whopping 56 points, and The Chef 

is a little frailer than most heroes, which does 

not bode well for the return trip from Hell. 

The Unusual Choice: BBQ Squad 

Now you may be thinking, “Manny, what’s this 

about the BBQ squad being an unusual choice? 

What’s so unusual about that?”. To this I’ll reply 

“Are you forgetting your place, Soldat! That 

is not how you address a superior officer!” and 

then explain. The trick here is to field the BBQ

Squad AND the Hell Boys. By embedding The 

Chef in the BBQ squad and reinforcing your 

Hell Boys with someone else, your enemy is 

going to have a hard time prioritizing targets. It 

also spreads out your resources, so that if your 

enemy gets lucky against your Hell Boys, you 

haven’t lost everything. If you can afford the 

immense cost, this will likely prove a deadly 

combo to your foes. 

Yakov 

Ok, so technically the infamous Yakov Pavlov 

(of Pavlov’s House fame) carries an acid thrower, 

which isn’t a flame weapon. But drowning 

your enemies in a bath of acid is almost as satisfying, 

so he gets the pick. 

The Natural Choice: Fakyeli 

Close combat squads are traditionally hard to 

keep alive long enough to reach their target, and 

a hero’s health only goes so far. This is only aggravated 

by the fact that the Fakyeli are Assault 

troops, rather than Fast ones. But Yakov is the 

most expensive man in the world for a reason, 

his 30 points buy you the Legendary Tactician 

skill. This makes any squad he’s in, and any adjacent 

squads as well, increase their cover by 

one step, even if they otherwise wouldn’t be 

in cover. This is a decided advantage for the 

Fakyeli, who will always have soft cover, if not 

hard cover, while advancing upon the foes of the 

Motherland. And even though his mighty acid 

thrower doesn’t ignore cover like the Fakyeli’s 

sulfur thrower, it still deals one die per enemy 

beneath its spray. And for good measure, Yakov 

carries a trusty TT-46 pistol with him at all 

times. 

The Unusual Choice: 

Jnetzi, Nabludatyel, 

or any front line squad 

The great thing about Yakov is that his Legendary 

Tactician skill is so versatile. Combining 

him with a squad of snipers or observers can 

make a completely open field feel like a reinforced 

bunker because of these squad’s superior 

cover saves. Standing in the middle of a snow 

covered plain never felt so good (but definitely 

still cold). 

Alternatively, you may choose to take advantage 

of the fact that Legendary Tactician extends to 

all adjacent units as well. To do this, combine 

him with any squad of strong Soviet stock, such 

as the Frontoviki. He’s also good with any of the 

Red Guards squads, like Red Thunder or Red 

Assault, who carry immense firepower once in 

range. Even the Chinese Volunteers can present 

an interesting scenario, wherein you utilize their 

Agile nature to keep Yakov closest to the center 

of your troops. No matter who you field him 

with, however, be sure to keep him surrounded 

with as many soldiers as you can. That way they 

all benefit from his cover boost. 

tactical corner: kill it with fire 

101

dust chronicles issue 3 rosie’s scrapyard v1.1 

102 

Rosie’s scrapyard v1.1 

Rosie’s Scrapyard is an on-going community driven initiative. As new rules 

and vehicles come into the Dust Warfare world, and as community members 

make suggestions these rules will be revised. 

Premise: The objective of Rosie’s scrap yard is to come up with a workable 

system to generate new designs of vehicles for Dust Warfare with stats and 

an AP value in line with the rule book. It should also be able to handle conversions 

like ‘re-gunning’ an existing design or, most importantly of all, giving 

workable stats for conventional tanks, soft vehicles and anything else. 

This is intended purely for hobbyists to be able to field conversions and different 

model types in their games. It isn’t intended to be used competitively, 

but if you do so and find interesting ways to break it let us know and we’ll 

adjust accordingly. 

Step 1 Choose hull size, Damage and Armor values 

Our starting point is the size of the hull you’re designing – light, medium or heavy as these 

equate well to the classifications in Dust Warfare and real world tanks too. 

Hull size 

DEDICATED TRANSPORT – Min-Max total AP value less than 15 

Max combined Damage and Armor value of 5 

Dedicated Transports are those vehicles who’s primary function is to transport squads across 

the battle field. They must be purchased as a ‘squad upgrade’ much in the same manner as 

an extra bazooka can be bought for The Gunners and thus do not count as a platoon section. 

Dedicated Transports run the gamut from unarmored jeeps and trucks to lightly armored 1/2 

tracks like the sdkfz 251 or M3. Dedicated Transports never count towards VP in any way 

and may not contest or claim objectives. 

LIGHT - Min-Max total AP value 15 to 29pts 


MEDIUM – Min-Max AP 30-49pts 


HEAVY – Min-Max AP 50-120pts 


For light and medium vehicles the two values are simply multiplied together to reach a structure 

cost in AP. For heavy vehicles this cost quickly becomes prohibitive so multiply Armor 

and Damage capacity together and then halve the result for a heavy hull. 

Examples: 

Dedicated Transport Armor 2 Damage Capacity 2 = 2x2 = 4 AP base cost 

Light vehicle Armor 3 Damage Capacity 3 = 3x3 = 9 AP base cost 

Medium vehicle Armor 4 Damage Capacity 4 = 4x4 = 16 AP base cost 

Heavy vehicle Armor 7 Damage Capacity 10 = (7x10)/2 = 35 AP base cost

Step 2 Determine Speed 

The table below indicates the base speed of vehicles of various hull size and mobility types. 

Base Speed 

Light/ 

Dedicated Transports Medium Heavy 

Wheels 7 5 - 

Half Track 6 4 - 

Track 5 5 3 

Biped Walker 6 6 4 

Multi-leg Walker 4 4 6 

If you wish to increase the base speed of your vehicle it will cost the following AP: 

Light/ 


Wheels 1/12” 1/8” - 

Half Track 1/8” 1/6” - 

Track 1/7” 1/7” 2/6” 

Biped Walker 1/12” 2/8” 2/6” 

Multi-leg Walker 1/12” 1/9” 2/7” 

The value before the slash is the AP cost to increase max speed by 1”. The value after the 

slash represents the maximum possible speed for that size and type of vehicle. 

So for example it will cost 2 AP to increase speed of a Medium Biped Walker by 1” and the 

maximum speed that can be bought for such a vehicle is 8” 


103

Step 3 Select weaponry 

Total weapon mounts by hull size 

This is the maximum number of independently targeting weapon systems a hull can mount. 


Light 2 

Medium 3 

Heavy 4 

Weapon mount maximums 

Twin and quad weapons occupy two weapon 

mountings on light and medium hulls but only 

one on heavies. Values shown are for Fixed forward/Turret mounts. Walkers count fixed 

forward arc weapons as forward arc weapons instead. 

Light/ 


MGs/HMGs Quad/Twin 2x Quad/2xTwin 4xQuad/4xTwin 

Up to 20mm Quad/Twin 2xQuad/1xQuad 3xQuad/4xTwin 

Up to 37mm Twin/single Quad/Twin 2xQuad/2xTwin 

Up to 50mm Twin/single 2xTwin/2xSingle 2xQuad/2xTwin 

Up to 76.2mm Single/NA Twin/Single Quad/2xSingle 

Up to 95mm NA Twin/Single Quad/Twin 

Up to 128mm NA Single/NA 2x Twin/Single 

Up to 155mm NA NA Twin/Single 

Up to 223mm NA NA Twin/Single 

Artillery Single/NA Twin/Single Quad/Twin 

Napalm Thrower/ 

Schwer Flammenwerfer Single/NA Twin/Single Quad/Twin 

Heavy Naplam Thrower NA NA Twin/Single 

PIAT / Werfer Twin/single Quad/Twin 2xQuad/2xTwin 

Light Phaser Twin/single Quad/Twin 2xQuad/2xTwin 

Heavy Phaser NA Twin/single Quad/Twin 

Laser Kanone Twin/single Quad/Twin 2xQuad/2xTwin 

Schwer Laser Kanone NA Twin/single Quad/Twin 

rosie’s scrapyard v1.1 

Expanded Statistics and Weapon Cost Chart 

Choosing weapons is next, AKA the fun part. We’ve created this list with all the weapons in 

Dust Warfare added various historical tank guns to let us do our historical tanks. We’ve also 

added some twin and quad weapons to those already in Dust Warfare where it seemed logical 

to do so. You’ll find an AP formula for weapons after the chart. 

104


105

Creating your own weapons 

You should feel free to create your own weapons as this list is by no means exhaustive. The 

AP values are calculated by the following simple formula from Roger the Gearhead, take it 

away, Roger: 


Welcome to Weapons Design 101: 

Our original brief was to try and create a design process which would attempt to match 

published Rulebook values. So I chose the Pounder as the ‘benchmark’ vehicle. After 

costing for vehicle structure it appeared that giving the 17 pdr a value of around 18 AP 

seemed about right. 

So additional weapons design and costing would be based on their relative values to the 

17 pdr taking into account Firepower, Range and Special Weapons Abilities. 

Firstly I needed to determine a Firepower value. For each weapon entry in the basic 

Rulebook there can be up to 14 separate FP values for each weapon entry plus a range 

value in inches, 4 x Anti-Infantry, 7 x Anti-Tank and 3 x Anti-Air. e.g. 

As portrayed in the basic Rulebook the majority of these values are written in the example 

format of 7/1 or 1/3. To determine the firepower value I simply took the larger 

value and multiplied it by the smaller so: 

7/1 = 7 FP 1/3 = 3 FP 3/2 = 6 FP 

For Burst weapon I use the following FP values: 

*/1 = 5 FP **/1=10 FP 

So reading the entry for the benchmark 17 pdr in the Basic Rulebook I get fourteen 

values 8,4,2,2,7,7,6,6,5,5,4,0,0,0 

Step 1: I add these values together (8+4+2+2+7+7+6+6+5+5+4+0+0+0) = 56 

I then multiply this resulting value by 0.009 (yep I know you will need a calculator for 

this, but the latest VK powered ones do the trick.) 

So in the above example I get a value of 0.504 

Next I factor in the weapons maximum range. The 17 pdr has a range of 36” 


Step 2: Simply multiply the value derived in Step 1 by the range of the weapon in 

inches.. So for the 17 pdr which has a range of 36”. 

0.504 * 36 = 18.144 Round this down to 18 

106 

Step 3: The total from Step 3 can additionally be modified to take into account any 

special weapon abilities. Increase or decrease the Firepower value by the percentage 

values listed below. Where the weapon is subject to more than one Special Weapons 

Ability add them together. 

(the Spray Attribute is already factored into the firepower calculations)

Special Weapons Abilities AP Modifiers 

Penetrator 50% 

Tank Killer 50% 

Artillery 25% 

Indirect 15% 

Burst 25% 

Phaser 50% 

Laser 25% 

Reload -50% 

Other Weapon Creation Examples 

Example 1 

Ok lets calculate the value of the 17.3cm FpK Zwei 

Step 1: Determine the Firepower factors of the Anti-Inf, Anti_Tank and Anti-Air. Checking the 

weapon entry in the Basic Rule Book gives values of: 

(10 + 5 + 3 + 3 + 11 + 11 + 9 + 9 + 8 + 8 +7+0+0+0) = 84 

Multiply 84 by 0.009 = 0.756 

Step 2: Multiply the result of Step 1 by the range in inches. 0.756 x 36 = 27.216 

Round down to 27 

Step 3: The 17.3cm ‘Zwei’ in the Basic Rulebook has ‘Penetrator Weapons’ ability. 

Referring to the Special Weapons Ability table we see that the final fire power value should be increased 

by 50%. 

27 x 1.5 (50% ) gives a final AP value of 40.824 rounded up to give a final cost of 41 AP 


Example 2 

Lets go to the other end of the spectrum and calculate the cost of a .30 cal MG 

Step 1: FP factors from the Basic Rulebook are: 

(6+3+1+0+2+1+0+0+0+0+0+1+1+0) = 15 

Multiply 15 by 0.009 = 0.135 

Step 2: Multiply the result of Step 1 by the range in inches. 

0.135 x 16 = 2.16 rounded down to give a final cost of 2 

Step 3 can be skipped as the .30 cal MG does not have any Special Weapons Abilities 

107

dust chronicles issue 3 rosie’s scrapyard v1.1 

Example 3 

The deadly Nebelwerfer 42 

Step 1: Firepower factors from the Basic rulebook are: 

(10+10+10+10+6+6+6+6+6+6+6+0+0+0) = 82 

(A burst value of **/1 is counted as FP = 10) 

Multiply 82 by 0.009 = 0.738 

Step 2: Multiply the result of Step 1 by the range in inches. 

0.738 x 36 = 26.568 round up to to 27. 

Step 3: The Nebelwerfer 42 in the Basic Rulebook has the ‘Reload’ and ‘Artillery’ Special 

Weapons Ability. Referring to the Special Weapons Ability table we see that the final fire 

power value should be increased by 25%. for ‘Artillery’ and reduced by 50% for the ‘Reload’ 

ability. This gives a net reduction of -25% 

27 x 0.75 (-25% ) gives a final AP value of 20.25 rounded to 20 

You can apply the above formula to create and cost all manner of fiendish weapons both historical 

and super-science to dominate the Dust Battlefield 

Step 4 Assign special moves and/or abilities 

Special moves (cumulative increase to total cost) 

One of the fun things about a design system is being able to make up new things, like tanks 

that can fly! This comes at a cost... 

Light/ 


Jump 1% x Speed 1% x Speed 2% x Speed 

Hover 1% x Speed 5% x Speed 10% x Speed 

Flight 2% x Speed 10% x Speed 20% x Speed 

Amphibious 10% 10% 10% 

108

Special abilities (cumulative increase to total cost) 

Special abilities are also a big part of making Dust walkers unique. No hard limits are placed 

on adding special abilities but use your discretion. Most things shouldn’t have more than one 

or two special abilities and it should be common for designs to have none at all. 

Examples using Rosie’s Scrapyard Construction rules 

Here is the Pounder Walker: 

Step 1 Calculate Structure Points: 

DC = 4 and Armor = 4 

Multiplying these values together gives us a Structure points cost of 4x4= 16. 

Step 2 Calculate cost of Movement 

Basic speed of a medium walker is 6” So no additional AP’s are required for Movement. 


Step 3 Add Weapons 

The Pounder carries the following weapons. 

17 Pdr Gun (turret) = 18pts 

50 Cal Mg (turret) = 4pts 

30 Cal Mg (f) = 2pts 

This gives a weapons total of 24 Points 

Added to the 16 Structure Points gives a sub total of 40 Points 

Step 4 Calculate cost of Special Traits 

The Pounder can ‘Jump’ referring to the special moves table we can see that the Structure 

points should increased by 6 % (Speed=6 x 1% = 6%) 

So total value of the Pounder is 42 points (this can be compared with the Dust warfare Rulebook 

value of 40 AP. 

109


Next a Panther Tank: 



Multiplying these values together gives us a Structure points cost of 4x4= 16. 

Step 2 Calculate cost of Movement Traits 

Basic speed of a medium tracked vehicle is 5”. 


Our Panther carries the following weapons: 

7.5cm kwk L/70 (turret) = 18 

MG44 (turret) = 2 

MG44 (F) = 2 

This gives a weapon total of 22. 

Added to the structure points gives us a sub total of 38 points. 


The Panther has Damage Resilient. Looking at the chart we see that the sub total must increase 

by 10%. Thus 38x10% = 41.8 rounded to 42 points for our Panther. 

Because the Panther is a tracked vehicle, don’t forget to use the Tracks special rule from the 

Dust Warfare Rulebook page 56. 

rosie donovan - asocom 

110

Or What about a ‘Truck’ 

‘Truck’ refers to the ubiquitous ’Deuce and a halfs’ Opelblitz etc. These should be built as 

Dedicated Transports. 



Multiplying these structure values together we get 2x2 = 4. 

Step 2 Calculate cost of Movement Traits 

Wheeled Light/Dedicated Transports have a movement of 7”. 


N/A 

Since our truck is unarmed, our subtotal so far is 4. 


We decided to give our ‘Truck’ a Carry Capacity of 12. Looking at the chart we can see that 

for Light/Dedicated Transports we will multiply our subtotal by 5%. 4x5% = 6 AP Total. 

Note that all wheeled vehicles should also use the special Wheels rule from the Dust Warfare 

Rulebook page 56. 

Since this is a dedicated transport, a Death Dealers squad could be upgraded to ride in a 

‘Truck’ for a total squad cost of 26 points. For an SSU combined squad, I would recommend 

paying the cost of the truck twice. There would be only one model but effectively there are 

two squads being upgraded. i.e. Two SSU Battle Squads being lead by The Trediakovsky 

and mounted in a ‘Truck’ would cost 14+14+8+6+6=48 points. SSU players, let us know 

how this works out for you. 


There you have it, the updated rules for Rosie’s Scrapyard. Now please understand that we 

will keep working away on these to make them better and easier to use. However, this can 

only be done with your help. Let us know your experience with the current version (RS v1.1) 

by emailing: dustfanzine@hotmail.com. The more feedback we get the better we can make 

these rules. 

111


rosie’s scrapyard 

vehicle showcase 

All the vehicles listed here were made 

from the Rosie’s Scrapyard v1.1 article 

in this issue. If you have some converted 

or historical vehicles you’d like to see in 

Dust Chronicles, send their profiles and 

pics to (dustfanzine@hotmail.com) and 

we may include them in a future issue. 

rosie’s vehicle showcase 

112 

Panther F Tank 

Move: 5” (tracks) Armor: 4 DC: 4 

Base Cost: 42 

Basic Unit: 1 medium Tank 

Weapons: 7.5cm kwk L/70 (turret), MG44 (turret), MG44 (F) 

Special Abilities: Damage Resilient, Tracks (DW p.56) 

5 4 4

Sherman VC 


Base Cost: 36 


Weapons: 17 pdr (turret), .30 cal (turret) 

Special Abilities: Tracks (DW p.56) 

5 4 4 


Jagdpanther 

Move: 5” (tracks) Type: Vehicle 5 DC: 4 

Base Cost: 46 


Weapons: 8.8 L/71 (F), MG44 (F) 

Special Abilities: Tracks (DW p.56) 

5 5 4 

113

dust chronicles issue 3 rosie’s vehicle showcase 

114 

234/1 

Move: 7” (wheels) Armor: 2 DC: 3 

Base Cost: 19 

Basic Unit: 1 light vehicle 

Weapons: 2.0 cm Flak (Turret), MG44 (Turret) 

Special Abilities: Wheels (DW p. 56), Agile, Artillery Strike 

7 2 3 

MCW M2-H “HUNTING DOG” 

Move: 6” (walker) Armor: 4 DC: 4 

Base Cost: 41 

Basic Unit: 1 medium Walker 

Weapons: US 76mm M1A (Turret), .50 cal (Turret), .30 cal (F) 

Special Abilities: Scout Vehicle 

6 4 4

osie’s vehicle showcase 

MCW M2-C2 “TUSKER” 

Move: 6” (walker) Armor: 4 DC: 4 

Base Cost: 40 

Basic Unit: 1 medium Walker 

Weapons: US 90mm T54 (Turret), .30 cal (F) 

Special Abilities: Damage Resilient 

6 4 4 

251 Half Track 

Move: 6” (1/2 tracks) Armor: 2 DC: 2 

Base Cost: 8 

Basic Unit: 1 light vehicle 

Weapons: MG44 (F) 

Special Abilities: Carry Capacity: 6, Dedicated Transport (see this Issue’s 

Rosie’s Scrapyard), Tracks (DW p.56) 

6 2 2 


115


Tiger II (Vk) 


Base Cost: 65 

Basic Unit: 1 Heavy Tank 

Weapons: Schwer Laser Kanone Zwei (turret), MG44 (turret) 

Special Abilities: Damage Resilient, Tracks (DW p. 56) 

5 5 5 

116

see you next year 

1st of february 2013 


we fight our way through zverograd! 

in the february issue 

117

dust adventures * dust studio * how 2: easy weathering the waking ...

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