At-43

[Haskear]

I'm a collector really more than a player, but I'm curious to know how many people are still interested, play and enjoy the game. I always felt it had a promising start and I absolutely love some of the miniatures, particularly the oni zombie tac arms I managed to get before the demise. So really Just a topic to reminisce and chat about the game. I know there is a dedicated forum elsewhere on the web but it seems rather inactive. I have also searched for a topic and I could not find anything on here so apologies if I have repeated another topic on the subject.

Something I wondered recently if there was enough support, if just models (unpainted plastic kits) could be reintroduced, I can remember that unpainted plastic kits was indeed a Rackham plan which never came to fruition and I also wondered if kick starter might be a way to persuading the company that holds the IP to the game.

Anyway I'm interested to know people's thoughts on any subject AT-43 related!

[loveless]

Get me unpainted (preferably multi-part) Therians for a reasonable enough price to make an army and I'd be all over the game.

I liked the game concept and the look of some of the races, but the presentation of the game was abysmal and the model quality rather horrid.

[Haskear]

I found some of the model quality was definitely poor. I particularly wasn't keen on the UNA's rocket troops, I found some of their expressions odd and I wasn't keen on the modelled smoke/flame trail. I thought the walkers/tanks were brilliant and stylistically well varied between the races, even the two human factions had quite different looks to their vehicles. My only gripe with them were the tacky coloured plastic used to represent lights.

From what I have read it seems the unpainted multi part kits were on the way (do not quote me on this as it could have been pure rumour).

[Castiel]

Fire Industries did the multi part resin Therians - they were very nice kits.

Overall I thought the game had potential, the couple of games I played were very enjoyable. It was a shame that Rackham mismanaged everything so badly - I was looking forward to picking up the Karman army deal that was previewed but never released.

I do wonder at times whether anyone will attempt to resurrect it.

[loveless]

Well, they're "working" on resurrecting Confrontation in some form - but that was popular long before AT-43 came around.

Who owns the rights to AT-43? Is it the same company that took over the Confrontation sculpts, or are they still floating around in limbo?

[Haskear]

By all accounts it seems to be the games developer Cyanide studios that hold the IP but the moulds could be with someone else I would be interested to find out the situation

[Haskear]

I forgot to add to my opener that I'm interested in acquiring any models people have which are unwanted.

I thought I would contact cyanide just to see if they did get the IP, I also asked if they had the moulds as part of this (these things can often get split), awaiting a reply.

[Charistoph]

I know my LGS (Empire Games, Mesa, AZ) have a few boxes of the apes left, mainly because not enough of the hobbyists really cared for pre-painted minis. Since they are the main drivers of the store, the line was dropped after a few months.

[Nymie_the_Pooh]

By the time AT-43 came out I was used to the mess that was the old Confrontation game so gave it a pass as Rackham wasn't doing the great models they used to. The rules were a real mess for the first couple of editions of Confrontation and players translating them to other languages was great, but when there are things unclear in the native tongue it doesn't help with translating the technical aspects of a game. I picked up a copy of the AT43 box set shortly before Rackham went under followed shortly by the big rulebook and a couple of the army books and Frostbite. I wish I had given this game a chance when it launched. The big thing I would like from the line is the map sheets that came before the Frostbite set.

Hopefully Cyanide will decide to relaunch the game. According to their forums they did buy the AT-43 IP. They have stated they plan on reprinting the 3.5 rules for Confrontation. Then again, they did a video game in that setting and are trickling out some of the old models so it makes sense for them to do so.

[Haskear]

Similar to me nymie, got into it just as it went under, I was fortunate to pick up an ONI box set, which I believe is quite rare. I also got hold of a cogs one to which I know are still possible to find, just wish I'd picked up the medtec box and daimyo j. Priest and most of all I wish I had picked up samurai b. Samedi.
I'm a big fan of the rules and find it easy to get going have fun and not be tied up in a single game for to long.
I'm believe there is scope for cyanide to release multi part unpainted sprues, I think as well as players of at-43 there are many interesting conversion options. I've always thought that the various tacarms would make a good basis as alternatives to terminators.

[Captain tanuki]

Haskear, have you received a reply from Cyanide ? I was planning to contact them too regarding this IP, but i'll wait to see if you got an answer first.

Cyanide will certainly never release any kit, they are a software company. But they might agree to sell the IP for miniatures. Of course, if they dont have the molds or masters, thats not gonna be very useful.

[Haskear]

I have to confess I have not had chance, moving house at the moment, but I intend to in the next week or so. Interestingly confrontation, the kind of Warhammer equivalent (forgive my ignorance if this is incorrect) that Rackham designed also went to cyanide studios. Now this has just started to be relaunched. Coolminiornot seem to be the people making the miniatures but under licence from cyanide.
This would probably be the most sensible way to release the miniatures as Coolminiornot seem to have production available to them but also they have the distribution both as a direct order service and out to trade outlets.
But the question about how popular a seller it would be? I know I would be keen especially to get hold of the samurai b samedi and daimyo j priest ONI hero boxes, been looking for reasonable priced ones for yonks!!

The question of the moulds still looms however and when I get a spare hour I will email them. If anyone has any knowledge of what happened to moulds it would be great to hear.

[DEADMARSH]

I'm a collector really more than a player, but I'm curious to know how many people are still interested, play and enjoy the game. I always felt it had a promising start and I absolutely love some of the miniatures, particularly the oni zombie tac arms I managed to get before the demise. So really Just a topic to reminisce and chat about the game. I know there is a dedicated forum elsewhere on the web but it seems rather inactive. I have also searched for a topic and I could not find anything on here so apologies if I have repeated another topic on the subject.

Something I wondered recently if there was enough support, if just models (unpainted plastic kits) could be reintroduced, I can remember that unpainted plastic kits was indeed a Rackham plan which never came to fruition and I also wondered if kick starter might be a way to persuading the company that holds the IP to the game.

Anyway I'm interested to know people's thoughts on any subject AT-43 related!

Were AT-43 to be re-lauched, I'd definitely take a look at it again.

I bought the Damocles box set on a whim at a FLGS where I used to live while visiting the in-laws. It sat in my closet unplayed for five or six months, then I ended up on night shift at my old job with a buddy who was kind of interested in the whole RPG/ 40k thing but didn't know where to start.

Six months later he's got around 5,000 points of Therians and I have about 3,000 points of Red Blok and we play 2,000 point games just about every night during our lunch hour (which actually ends up being most of our evening, hiding in the offices when possible).

I really liked AT-43. I don't know why it didn't catch on stronger other than Rackham's mismanagement of inventory and news updates. I played a few times at my FLGS, but it seemed like the only folks who played were the guys who play every wargame and all the various rulesets become this amalgamated mess in their heads. I'm not a rule nazi by any stretch, but it just became too frustrating to play with them not knowing the rules.

My buddy from work then got sent to Alabama for a few months, and my wife and I had a kid. We haven't played since although we still have all of our old stuff.

I really didn't think the models were that bad. They were probably closer to "toy" quality than "model" quality, but not to the point of distraction, at least in my opinion. People complained about the pre-paints, but they weren't bad to paint over. I did kind of a winter theme with my Red Blok after a few months of playing. Came out decently although I wasn't as good of a painter then. The rules I thought were simple and elegant; unlike 40k, I spent more time thinking about how to apply the rules in-game to my tactical situation than trying to think of "Gotcha!" loopholes. I loved the turn bidding and activation sequence (I loved it even more when I included Sgt. Tymofieva!) There were some broken units in the army books, and there definitely mis-matches, but the game had a ton of potential and actually did get a lot of things right.

EDIT: Haskear, you seem to be pretty up on this stuff- does the Dust miniatures game have anything to do with why/ how AT-43 died out? I was MIA from gaming taking care of the new baby when the whole Rackham went bankrupt/ disappeared/ whatever thing went down and never did really hear what happened exactly. Took about a year off from everything, then when I came back, all I see are random AT-43 army box deals on some closeout websites and Dust Miniatures. I remember at one point way back in the day, AT-43 essentially was Dust Miniatures, but the Dust guy (name escapes me- Italian dude, I dhink?) left Rackham/ AT and started his own company or something?