At-43

[drobvice]

Anyone ever hear of AT-43? I was at MidsouthCon this year and a local game store was selling this. I liked some of the figures. Sort of like pre-painted 40k from a French company named Rackham.

Starter Box Set (http://www.at-43.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=127&Itemid=242)

[Libuke]

Anyone ever hear of AT-43? I was at MidsouthCon this year and a local game store was selling this. I liked some of the figures. Sort of like pre-painted 40k from a French company named Rackham.

Starter Box Set (http://www.at-43.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=127&Itemid=242)

I've played Rackham's fantasy game, Confrontation, which is pretty good and the figures are highly detailed. They were not pre-painted however.

[Karak]

I think in another thread we talked about this as well. Its good. But I heard there are some problems with the company itself

[drobvice]

Yeah, I did a search before I posted and nothing came up. Just did a search now as well and still nothing coming up for "AT-43".

[Tayaya]

I own about $300 worth of AT-43 minis. I really wanted to like this game, and the core rules are really great with a system that's very straightforward and very easy for a miniatures-noob like myself to understand.

However, the two initial factions, the Therians and the U.N.A. are very unbalanced. In the few test games my friends and I played, the Therians won. Every time. With almost 0 unit losses. They have stronger weapons, they have better armor (to the point where some units can't even be damaged by most of the U.N.A. units non-special weapons), they are faster (can move farther on each turn), and they are brutal. Maybe we're just doing it wrong, but the way the game is makes it seem very hard to have a U.N.A. victory, even when using two armies that were point-for-point evenly matched.

This flaw aside, and again I think this could be my own fucking-up the rules, the game is awesome. Even if you don't go full-scale, the Initiation Box has a few great scenarios in it and is always closely matched, every time we play it. Get the starter box, and see how you like it.

[drobvice]

I'm in a real nonspending mood right now but I may actually look into this set. Of, course the problem never changes...no one to play against. Will have to find people but it never seems to work out.

[Tayaya]

I'm in a real nonspending mood right now but I may actually look into this set. Of, course the problem never changes...no one to play against. Will have to find people but it never seems to work out.

I'd definitely recommend the starter box. It really does a good job bringing you into the rules slowly and surely, and there should be some extra missions on Rackham's site that you can play (I may still have them if they're not on the site anymore). A few of them require you to purchase 1 or 2 extra units, but really I think that's a great way to get players into it. I just took the "let's buy 2 armies" approach, and regret that to some extent. The Damocles set, though, I am really glad I bought.

[Laughing Penguin]

I've bought pretty heavily into this game, having a large collection of Therian and Red Blok figures. Personally, I think the game is great, but not widespread enough to make it easy to find games. The biggest issue was how badly Rackham was being run. They filed for bankruptcy, cut off their US distributor, and put out no product for months, all but killing their games in most areas. They *seem* to be getting back on track now, but we'll see...

If you're still considering it, keep an eye open for the new army box sets coming out, they are a ridiculously good deal. So far, they have these boxes planned for Red Blok and one of the new factions, the Cogs:

http://www.thewarstore.com/product47152.html

and

http://www.thewarstore.com/product47153.html

Just to give you an idea, the Type 3 Walker in each box would normally retail for $60 on it's own, and through The War Store you can get a full, playable 2000 point army for $52. Supposedly they will be setting up similar starter boxes for the other armies as well, including the Oni (which i'm holding out for).

Additionally, a little digging around will still find you older stuff priced at half off or better as part of the old fire sale where the US disturbutor was forced to dump their inventory at cost... this was how I picked up my Red Blok.

Finally, you really need to play scenarios. In straight-up shooting matches, the game does feel very unbalanced. Therians can be silly good, and the otehrwise tough Red Blok can have a lot of trouble. The scenarios in the two books are mostly well done, however, and add elements that really even things outand force you to do more than just rush in at your opponent guns blazing.

Hopefully Rackham gets their act together and supports the game properly moving forward, because it really is a great game.

[Tayaya]

If you're still considering it, keep an eye open for the new army box sets coming out, they are a ridiculously good deal. So far, they have these boxes planned for Red Blok and one of the new factions, the Cogs:

http://www.thewarstore.com/product47152.html

and

http://www.thewarstore.com/product47153.html

Just to give you an idea, the Type 3 Walker in each box would normally retail for $60 on it's own, and through The War Store you can get a full, playable 2000 point army for $52. Supposedly they will be setting up similar starter boxes for the other armies as well, including the Oni (which i'm holding out for).


Those Army Box sets are a TREMENDOUS deal. Definitely rekindling my interest with deals like that.

[drobvice]

I got the Initiation set for $30 on eBay. Love the figures but have yet to play a game. Thanks for the info on the army boxes.

[Laughing Penguin]

For people still interested in the army boxes, Rackham has posted videos of what you see when you unpack the box... that's a lot of minis...

http://www.confrontation.fr/ARMYBOX/ARMYBOXVIDEO.html

They don't show the books, templates, etc, but you get a really good sense fo how much they pack into the boxes. Rumor is that the paint jobs on the minis aren't as good as they would be in the seperate retail boxes, but for the price, it's still amazing.

[Borthcollective]

If anyone is interested I have the starter box, full rules, and Red Blok army book that I am interested in getting rid of.

[Laughing Penguin]

Just an update in case anyone is interested... Rackham just relesaed painted samples of the new army coming up in the fall, after the Cogs. There's a French site that has collected all of the preview images released so far, and I'm pretty much sold:

The Oni Corporation

http://www.figouz.net/AT-43/ONI.php