DragonWars - The ultimate aerial combat miniatures game, 3D printable at home!

Description

DragonWars is a turn-based aerial combat miniatures game, inspired by convention-style wargames. It emphasizes precise movement, quick play, and genuine vertical height. Players control a set of dragon units, each with its own movement and combat capabilities, in a race to capture a central objective or simply outmaneuver and outlast opposing dragons.

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Features

• Fully 3D-printable - everything is 3D-printable on a standard Ender-3 size FDM printer

• 2-6 Players

• 4 Dragon Types: Four distinct units (Wyrmling, Drake, Elder, Ancient) each with unique speed, size, and combat abilities.

  

• 3 Vertical Height Systems:

  • Basic Risers – Modular pieces that stack

    

  • Telescoping Risers – Modular pieces that stack, can rotate in discrete increments, and can telescope in increments up to a height of 7

    

  • Sliding Poles – A pole-based system for fastest height adjustment

    

• 3 Game Modes:

  • Capture the Egg – A race to retrieve the dragon egg from the summit of the mountain and return it to your lair.
  • Deathmatch – A fight to the death, destroy all enemies and be the last dragon standing.
  • Colors vs Chromatics – A team-based deathmatch variant where colored dragons and metallic dragons face off.

• Customizable 3D Terrain A modular hex system supports custom 3D map layouts. Optional chipboard terrain pieces (via laser-cutting or similar approach) for maximum visual appeal.

  

• Intuitive Action Plotting System Enables fast plotting of 3 turns of movement and combat actions for 4 dragons

  

• Simple Stats Tracking Allows easy assessment of the state of the game

  

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How to Play

1. Set Up the Board and Lairs: Arrange hex-based terrain. Each player places their four dragons (Wyrmling, Drake, Elder, Ancient) in their designated lair hexes.
2. Plot Actions: Each Round consists of three Turns. Players simultaneously and secretly plot movement and combat for all three Turns on their plotting boards.
3. Resolve Movement and Combat:
   • Movement: Once plotting boards are revealed, execute each dragon’s plotted moves. Track height changes using the riser system or carbon rods. Illegal moves (e.g., crashing into terrain) may cause a dragon to fall and take damage.
   • Combat: After movement, all valid plotted combat actions are resolved. Dragons sharing a hex at the same height may also engage in melee attacks.
4. Victory Conditions: Vary by mode.
   • Capture the Egg – Retrieve the egg token from the summit and return it to your lair.
   • Deathmatch – Eliminate all other players’ dragons.
   • Colors vs Chromatics – Eliminate all other team's dragons.

For full details, including diagrams, movement and combat resolutions, and advanced rules, consult the DragonWars v0.9 Rules Guide.

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What to Print

• Dragon Minis and Bases:

  • For each player color:
    • 1x wrymling.stl (or wyrmling_with_hole.stl if using sliding pole height system)
    • 1x drake.stl (or drake_with_hole.stl)
    • 1x elder.stl (or elder_with_hole.stl)
    • 1x ancient.stl (or ancient_with_hole.stl)
    • 1x small_base.stl (or small_base_with_hole.stl)
    • 2x medium_base.stl (or medium_base_with_hole.stl)
    • 1x large_base.stl (or large_base_with_hole.stl)

• Player Boards:

  • For each player color:
    • 1x plotting_board.stl
    • 1x tracking_board.stl
    • 4x slider.stl (in color red)
    • 4x slider.stl (in color blue)
    • 72x plotting_peg.stl

• Terrain Hexes and Connectors:

  • 5x hex_connector.stl
  • 37x hex_holder.stl
  • 108x leg_length_1.stl
  • 72x leg_length_3.stl
  • 36x leg_length_6.stl
  • 9x leg_length_9.stl
  • 8x short_wall.stl
  • 6x long_wall.stl
  • 6x a-shape_hex_grid.stl
  • 6x c-shape_hex_grid.stl

  If not using laser-cut chipboard:

  • 129x terrain_hex.stl (1 Summit, 18 Mountain, 18 Forest, 62 Field, 12 Scorched, 18 Lair [3 of each player color])

• Risers or Poles for Height:

  If using telescoping risers (recommended):

  • For each player:
    • 12x telescoping_riser_bottom.stl
    • 8x telescoping_riser_top.stl
    • 4x telescoping_riser_layer1.stl
    • 4x telescoping_riser_layer2.stl
    • 4x telescoping_riser_layer3.stl
    • 4x telescoping_riser_layer4.stl
    • 4x telescoping_riser_layer5.stl
    • 4x telescoping_riser_layer6.stl

  If using basic risers:

  • For each player:
    • 36x basic_riser.stl

• Miscellaneous Components:

  • 1x egg.stl (if playing "Capture the Egg" game mode)

What to Laser Cut (Optional)

If you do not have access to a laser cutter, 3D-printed terrain hexes alone will suffice for normal gameplay.

A total of 128 terrain hexes are needed: 1 Summit, 18 Mountain, 18 Forest, 62 Field, 12 Scorched, 18 Lair [3 of each player color, or can use Scorched]

Images are provided for printing on 4"x6" photo paper or 8.5"x11" photo paper at 300dpi.

If cutting a 4"x6" print:

• 4x6_with_2_hexes.svg

If cutting a 8.5"x11" print:

• 8p5x11_with_11_hexes.svg

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Thank you for trying DragonWars! If your group makes any tweaks or improvements, please reach out and let me know!

For a detailed blog post describing the design and testing process, go here.