The Drowned Earth review - Dinos, dice and dynamic movement

• Posted on 12 January 2022
• By TableTopper - Simon Thurtle
• Posted in 35mm, The Drowned Earth
• 0

The Drowned Earth review - Dinos, dice and dynamic movement

Type: Skirmish (5 to 15 minis) wargame, post-apocalyptic sci-fi
Players: 2
Dice: 10 sided (D10)
Playtime: About 60 to 90 minutes depending on army size
Table size: 3’ x 3’ or 3’ x 4’ for larger games
Scale: 35mm
Version: First edition, 2019
Manufacturer: Olmec Games

Every once in a while, a new game pops into the hobby which makes you go “oooh”. So it is with The Drowned Earth (TDE), The debut skirmish wargame from the UK’s Olmec Games.
Based on the land of Ulaya, TDE takes place several hundred years after “The Event”, a cataclysm which devastated the advanced civilization of the planet. The game mixes familiar post-apocalyptic styles we’ve seen before with… dinosaurs. What’s not to love about that?

Olmec really want you to play this game. So much so, you can get the rulebook for free directly from them as a PDF download. But, of course, there’s a gorgeous, hardback rulebook available which is almost 50% rules and 50% background/ fluff for the world. This might be a new game, but they’ve made some engaging and compelling lore for this world which you won’t want to miss.

It’s worth taking a moment to mention the artwork in the rulebook. Few first editions have the quality and volume of lovely images that you’ll find in TDE’s pages.
Featuring six different factions brought to life with 35mm scale, white metal miniatures. There’s a lot going on with TDE, but is it actually any good?

Gameplay
The game is clearly focused on two things, fun and cinematic moments. But don’t let that make you think it lacks depth; you’d be mistaken if you think TDE doesn’t have competitive play potential.
TDE is skirmish scale, so you’ll typically be using between 5 and 15 miniatures (including dinosaurs) in a game, depending on the point size of game you play. The game is played on a 3’ x 3’ table for a standard game and does require quite a lot of line of sight blocking terrain with the rulebook giving you recommendations of density and type. However, it’s recommended that at least 25% of the table is water… this earth has, after all, been drowned!

The game takes place over 4 to 6 turns, depending on the scenario. TDE is very much designed to be played with scenarios and missions, the straight “kill the other guy” style game isn’t really suitable for this type of system. So, get ready to be booping boxes and assassinating targets in no time. The rulebook comes with five core scenarios, but more are available online and coming soon from Olmec.
Each model starts a turn with a number of activation points (AP), each AP lets that model complete an action such as move, shoot, jump etc. You can complete the same action repeatedly, so if you want to stand there and blaze away with your gun or beat a single enemy into submission, you can!

This ability to combine actions as the player wants creates epic game play moments.
Want your leader on her triceratops to charge across the board and slam into combat with an enemy? No problem. Fancy seeing that medic parkour across the field to help a fallen friend? Bring it on.

If you’re feeling like showing off, dive your gorilla out the window letting loose with his chain gun before belly flopping into a river? Why not!

Each turn will see activating a single miniature in turn until all miniatures have been activated. So, play passes back and forth between both players in relatively quick order. You’ll never be sat on your side of the table waiting for your opponent to stop slaughtering your troops in TDE!
If, during your opponent’s activation, one of your models can draw a line of sight to the opponent’s activate mini and still have APs left, you can react to them. Dodging, shooting or close combating back as you want.

This reactive option not only makes for some awesome moments, but it also means you’re always involved in the game. Your opponent’s turn isn’t just about making saves and removing minis. Having the ability to protect your models and punish enemy mistakes is crucial in game with such a low miniature count.

Mechanically speaking, the game uses a 10-sided dice (D10), with each attempt at an action requiring two dice rolls: a skill check and a feat check. This gives a range of outcomes from “it’s gone so well, I got a bonus” to “Oh dear, I broke my gun/ myself”. Having the D10 also gives greater range of possible outcomes than the lowly D6, giving more scope for different quality of troops to exist in the game in future.

Overall, the rules are clear, well explained with examples and even novice players shouldn’t have an issue
picking up the game after one or two turns. For expert players, the rulebook includes optional, deeper rules if you want to turn the game up to 11.

The miniatures
The rules might be epic, but if the miniatures are not up to much it can totally ruin the experience....

Thankfully, Olmec have done an amazing job.

TDE has some of the most unique and well-designed miniatures out there. Sculpted in white metal and coming in pieces, you’ll need your superglue to get these guys together. But they’re not hard to assemble, even for relatively inexperienced players.
Details on the miniatures are crisp and clear with little flash or mould lines to remove.
However, with some of the dinosaurs, which are a mix of metal and resin, we did have some issues with the scale of the metal and resin parts. Olmec will replace these for free and without fuss, so it’s not a big issue, but we’d recommend dry-fitting and checking this on any metal/resin models before you spend time cleaning/ building.

TDE has a starter box for each faction, with each starter including five miniatures which come to around 100 points, so perfect for your first games. After that, you can add individual miniatures to your collection. Each faction is colour coded, so it’s really easy to spot which models you can add to your army. This is great for new players.

Also great, each starter box and model you get for TDE will include a printed, double-sided card for each model. These contain the in-game statistics and special rules for the models you’ve got. Cards are a fantastic way to make play quick and easy for new and veteran players alike. Note that, if you lose or damage these, you can download the cards in PDF form from the TDE website for free.

The upside

• Dinosaurs
• Clear, easy to learn rules
• Dinosaurs
• Cinematic moments included as standard
• Dinosa… okay, you get the idea
• You’re always involved in the game with the I-go-you-go and reaction mechanics
• A really fresh game in the wargaming world
• Low model count
• It’s new, so you don’t need to buy 200 miniatures to catch up
• FREE rules available online

The downside

• You’ll need a lot of terrain
• It’s new, so with the low model count, army builds are limited, but that is changing during 2022

The Verdict
If you like fast, cinematic game play with a solid rule set and dinosaurs, you should download the rules for TheDrowned Earth now. Seriously. Go. here (we made it easy for you)

TDE has a bright future ahead of it, and, whether you’re a new, casual or tournament player, it’s well worth your time to get involved today.