United Colonies of Mankind

Welcome to the mobile infantry...wait sorry, wrong universe. Welcome to the United Colonies of Man, Soldier! Would you like to know more? Nope, sorry, did it again. Let's just talk about some new ways to kill some bugs. Damn it, I can't stop myself! Below is our faction introduction and guide for Dropfleet's United Colonies of Mankind, including our ship guides (in progress!), in the links below.

Light Ships Mediums Ships Heavy & Colossal Ships Admirals

Welcome to UCM, the "average Joe" of the Drop-verse. They have a utilitarian look and feel to them that, despite being intentionally simple, is nonetheless wonderfully distinct. Their lore background and visual style is a mix between Aliens-universe Colonial Marines, the UNSC force from the HALO video games, and Starship Troopers (think movie, not book). They love cost-efficiency. It is a jack-of-all trades type of faction capable of doing essentially anything you want it to, but doesn't have any units that stand out as the absolute best of their type in the game. More than any other faction, in my opinion, UCM relies heavily on combined arms working in tandem. Their units are often specialized to do one thing decently well, but rely on other specialized units to cover their weaknesses. You can spam a lot of cheap units compared to other factions, or you can go with heavier specialized units. And when in doubt, they can happily just nuke it from orbit, just to be safe. Of the five factions in the Drop-verse, UCM feels like it has the widest variety of possible play styles. This article is a quick introduction to the UCM roster. The goal is to give new players a quick overview of what to expect. 

The United Colonies of Mankind was founded after the Scourge invasion, composed of colonists on the fringe of human civilization at the time, and those that managed to flee Earth and the Cradle Worlds. It is a federal republic, but significantly militarized. It has been described as “facist” by some, but that’s not entirely accurate. While the military has a bigger say in the government, including seats on the various governing bodies of the UCM, it is still subordinate to a civilian structure. There is no conscription (yet), civil liberties, a free press, free democratic elections, and so on. It is probably more accurate to describe the UCM as a thought exercise is what might happen if you push a democracy to the point of annihilation, which is exactly what has happened to humanity in the Drop-verse. They are a society aligned entirely behind a 160 year mission to extract vengeance on the Scourge and take back Earth and the Cradle Worlds.

Their military apparatus prizes cost-efficiency. Where the old Earth military generally had bigger guns and tougher armor, they also apparently cost a fortune to operate and required large crews. The UCM prefers equipment that does the job with the least amount of manpower, lowest investment, and is able to be tactically flexible. That’s not to say they go cheap. The UCM has plenty of resilience. They would just prefer three simpler ships with solid survivability operated by a smaller crew over one complicated ship with a little more survivability also operated by the same number of people. You see that approach well reflected in the units available to the faction. Their design aesthetic is brutal and straightforward. Their fleets like a swarm of angry guns flying right at you. It is as unique as it is awesome.

UCM’s identity has shifted a bit in DFC 2.0. They are still pretty solid in most aspects of the game. If you want to go with a lot of cheaper units with lower armor, but tons of guns, you can do that. If you want to focus on energy firepower, using burnthrough lasers to burn down targets, you can do that. If you want to overwhelm defenses with a mass of mass drivers, you can do that. If you want some heavily armed and armored frontline units, you can match the toughest cruisers out there (usually PHR) nearly blow for blow. You can focus on maximizing fighters and bombers fairly easily as well. What you aren’t likely to be is the best at any of those things. UCM wants to bring that giant bag of tools and make a sum greater than its parts. 

That’s not to say the UCM fleets don’t have some unique flavor. They stand out in three areas. UCM are excellent at the most important aspect of the game: securing and contesting clusters. They have access to the best bombardment ships in the game. Lysanders are a uniquely infuriating dropship, able to slip onto the opposing side of the board better than anything else. There’s nothing fancy about the San Francisco or the New Orleans, but they are both scrappy and tough enough to stick it out in contested clusters. UCM is also the king of torpedoes. It started with the introduction of the Havana destroyer and its light torpedoes. The most recent addition is the Rome Battlecruiser and its heavy torpedoes. If you want your full submarine fantasy, UCM can drown the board in torpedoes. Finally, they have the best all around kinetic armor in the game. Combined with Aegis, opponents will have an incredibly hard time cracking UCM kinetic armor.

I hope this helped you get your bearings with UCM. If you have questions, feel free to jump into the Steel Strategy Unnamed Place Discord at https://discord.gg/77EQzSF. We’ll do our best to answer your questions there. Thanks for stopping by!