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So, today The War Store posted on their front page that the AT-43 Army Box deals are finally shipping. This is the moment many have been waiting for.

What I would like to see in this thread, over time, are peoples' reports of whether they are seeing new AT-43 players joining up with the game as a result of these Army Box deals.

I want to know if FLGS stock them on shelves. If so, tell us where you are, and give the store a shout-out.

If you already play in an area where AT-43 gets some table time, let us know if you see new people showing up on account of these Army Boxes being in circulation. Again, tell us where you are.

I am very curious as to whether these Army Boxes will play to existing fans of the game or draw in entirely new players, or both - but let's not speculate. Let's allow people to post into this thread when they have specific information and if someone wants to speculate and theorize do so in another thread.

I'll let you know after I get back form GenCon. Buying a house has kept me from my Sentinel duties(or even playing, At-43 or anything else) over the past month, so I haven't been into a game store since mid June.

I know people are going to ask why getting back from GenCon will affect the reason I haven't been able to get to a store, and it's because we close the week I get back.

Hello, i havnt got mine yet but should have them by the start of next week i bought both army boxes from Gordon at alder hobby.once i get mine i will post something on them.i think this is a great idea by rackham as well,being on a limited budget and all.Oh were you do play in boston Cairnius! Thats were I am from.

Our local game shop Dragon's Lair has swept all Rackham stuff off the shelves.

It is of course too early to tell, but this is an ongoing question thread so fair enough.

I will look to see for when the bitz sellers and eBay bitz resellers start up and see what that market does. it might be a better indicator, besides I want more Krasny than I do Army Boxes.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

palaeomerus wrote:Our local game shop Dragon's Lair has swept all Rackham stuff off the shelves.

Which way do we take that comment.

The bad way I'm afraid. :(

They've put Alkemy, some fantasy navy game, and a modest amount of Battletech(classic) stuff in the row where the AT-43 and Confrontation stuff used to be.

Depackaged Cog bitz are on FeeBay already, given rate so far is for the two vehicles to make up the boxset price. likely the sets I am currently seeing are from multiple boxset buyers who sell off repeated top end units to recoup costs.

I have been expecting this to the extent I have been thinking of replacing my Hammerheads with conveted Vandals for an 'all' mecha army.

feebay is fine - what gets the models, we'll call them that, in the hands of new players is the most important thing.

johng, I don't play in Boston, because I'm one of only three or four people who I know who have ever come out to the big game club in the city to play AT-43, and even I don't anymore.

I do have enough models for U.N.A. and Therians to run 7500k games of AT-43 on 6' by 4' tables and with a wide plethora of terrain types, and also using this mission system me and my friend SaintManiac who fething lurks on here and never posts but you know you're out there, fether, and another friend of his.

We can always use another playtester...send me a PM and we'll talk.

Basically, while I did go crazy at the beginning with AT-43, I did correct the mistake of getting a huge Red Blok army as well and now find myself considering both Army Boxes. I can have my cake and eat it too now with Red Blok if you follow my meaning...

I think it could make the game easier to demo to people, for sure - but I wonder if there will be any kind of unified demo game at 2k points now for all five armies and not just the army box poster missions

Red Blok army boxes are neatly set up. just add Kolossi Molots and Sierp, and the two former are still avaialble on firesale discount.

I am planning on getting two army boxes soon as my three main armies are about complete.

Any reason you chose 7500pts Cairnius. I am floating between 7k and 9k based mostly on whaty I have got and the force orgs. I was going for 8k but for some reason it dodnt quite fit everything in for UNA. 7k did and so did 9k. However if I buy one more Molot than planned and a Soundounk from old Crow minitures and my Red Blok army can be 10000pts of Frontline on the nose. I was tempted to do that but know that if my Red Blok raches 10K my other armies will have to follow.

The opnly good news for my wallet is that my minimum bar for play now completely writes off any chance of bweing intereted in buying cogs, I dont like the models much, am not enamoured by the stats and cannot afford an 8k plus army.

I just got 1 Cog and 1 Red Blok army box today. They look great. There was some delay due to customs (oddly the Rackham GenCon booth did not seem to suffer from this issue). I have been playing for about a month and a half now. From my perspective the army boxes are great. I had picked up UNA because that was the only faction without a real player at Armored Gopher Games. It has been very frustrating trying to build a UNA army due to the complete lack of Firetoads in anything other than Damocles boxes. I am switching to Cogs because I like thier play style and because with 3 army boxes and some hunters I can set up a few different companies.

I got my boxes at Armored Gopher Games in Urbana, IL. Dave, the owner, is doing an extra order this week to get the other 2 boxes I asked for after GenCon. Friendly place with amazing table space. http://www.armored-gopher.com/ The Gopher has no intention of dropping AT-43 and may start having an actual league soon. I recently got my Dark Heresy game master to pick up AT-43 and have a few other people who have expressed intrest due to the army boxes. Right now, AT-43 is played whenever we get a couple people with armies at the store.

I do have one question: Is there any possibility for alternative platoon pattern army boxes? Just curious.

Let me know if you have any other questions that I haven't answered.

Edit: The Gopher just got a facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Urbana-IL/Armored-Gopher-Games/120773567901?ref=nf# Shameless plug for my FLGS

Army boxes are now on bitz sale.

I decided to open a new thread on thiso n news and Rumours rather than here because it is of possible value to converters as well as AT-43 players.

Cairnius wrote:So, today The War Store posted on their front page that the AT-43 Army Box deals are finally shipping. This is the moment many have been waiting for.

What I would like to see in this thread, over time, are peoples' reports of whether they are seeing new AT-43 players joining up with the game as a result of these Army Box deals.

I want to know if FLGS stock them on shelves. If so, tell us where you are, and give the store a shout-out.

If you already play in an area where AT-43 gets some table time, let us know if you see new people showing up on account of these Army Boxes being in circulation. Again, tell us where you are.

I am very curious as to whether these Army Boxes will play to existing fans of the game or draw in entirely new players, or both - but let's not speculate. Let's allow people to post into this thread when they have specific information and if someone wants to speculate and theorize do so in another thread.

My not-so-local-LGS sold out on their first batch, that's pretty cool!

But as it is a 2 hour drive to get there I seldom/never play there, much better to play in my (very) local club. But then again, in Sweden the gaming-culture is more of a club one. Few LGSes survived the 90's, so most of us don't have one withing an hours drive, thus we play in clubs and buys online. (Considering the $125 USD annual membership fee, I damned sure deserve to buy online! )

I got my first look at the Army boxes on Thursday.

First...the rumors about the painting quality being less all around were true, but this is why people shouldn't have freaked out when I reported it: they're still not that bad. The one-tone paint on the Red Blok faces might be better than a half-assed attempt at multi-tones which sometimes doesn't work. I find that single tones on my FoW mans works well, for instance. The absence of the tamped-on art was well-publicized and so I was expecting it, but it was a little sad on the Red Blok infantry as that was what made them so cool IMHO.

The difference in quality from unit box to Army box mini is pretty much just the missing tamp. and a need for some inking/washing.

The Cogs don't look bad...again, the absence of the tamp. made the vehicles look a little plain to me...and the entire Cog selection of units could really do with some inking/washing, but once that's done they'd fit right in with anything else from AT-43 I am sure.

What's funny is that two people, one of whom I invited into my club ages ago to play AT-43 with me and the other a friend of his who got roped into AT-43 by the Army Boxes, showed up at my club to play. That's the first time anyone has ever shown up to play AT-43 at my club without me being the ringleader getting them in there or setting up the match.

I only saw one friend of mine from the club checking out the game, and I know he's not interested in AT-43 as I tried to get him into the game back in May when I had full Red Blok, Therian, and UNA armies to lend out, but hey, it's something where before there was nothing.

We'll see what happens; but, after a fashion, one could say that the Army Box initiative "worked" in my local area. Seeing someone come play AT-43 at my club on their own was a first. I'm sure it will not be the last time, either.

I'm still selling my Therians, though.

I don't think it has, at least not here in Ireland. FLGS no longer stocks it; always felt the price was a bit too steep, however i ordered both army boxes via the warstore & they arrived in less than a week. If anyone here is resident in Dublin & plays then pm me, or if you know of anywhere in Dublin that stocks AT-43 then do let me know. Thanks. I personally love the army boxes but i think that they'll be initially overshadowed by the release of Space Hulk. Just waiting on O.N.I. now

Just posting an update. On Saturday, I ran one guy through his first AT-43 mission and helped coach 2 others through their first mission. One of them has already started buying Therians. Getting closer to having an AT-43 night at my FLGS, so the initiative seems to be at least helping.

I purchased both the Red Blok and COGS Army boxes.

The Red Blok, although I wouldn't field the force quite like this (I like RPGS and hate heroes) I find it to be a great deal and a fieldable force that you can play OOB. I purchased it to fill certain units up.

The COGS I would not have purchased on their own. In this case, yes the Army Box deal worked.

After reading the COGS Army book, I was a bit dissappointed in the COGS AB layout. The COGS box is not a completely "fieldable" force. It needs more stuff to play.

1 Vandal
1 Prowler
1 Warmonger set
1 Sharpshooter set
1 C-Naps heroes set

for $70 is still a great deal.

But you will need a couple more prowlers for the AI Beacon ability and the you may want the attachment boxes for the medic, CE, and special weapons. So expect to pay another $100+. This was a surprised because the RB has the specialists and special weapons. So sadly will have to wait a while before my cash budget regens.

I just saw the stats for the Karmans and Oni Army Boxes and they look good too.

I picked up the Cogs box and got two RB boxes for the RB players in the group. They believe the Dotch Yoga alone was worth the box price and I'd tend to agree.

There are no LGSs that sell Rackham here so I can't say whether it has gotten more players in the game. Given that the boxes have been out roughly 2 weeks I think it is way too early to say.

I have to agree with haywire that the Cogs box doesn't make a great army. I also got 2 Warmonger ABs, an additional Prowler, and 2 boxes of hunters. I had a lot of difficulty making a 'round' army. I ended up with a 2075 point list. I had two other units not played: a prowler, the vandal, and some extra sharpshooters and the other 3 warmongers with jammers.

I played against one of the RB players yesterday with that army. Didn't lose a single model (thanks G-Naps!) while I wiped out most of his army. Finally, I have units that can wipe out those Kollossus suits! I found the Hunters to be the best unit so far. Their rockets can tear up tac-arms, and even put the hurt on the larger vehicles despite needing '6's to wound thanks to their 11/2 stats and number of shots.

Last week we played 3 games with a 3 person set up. Players used the Dotch Yoga, the Vandal, and the Therian *** Golgoth. My Vandal died first every game. The 14/1 weapon can't really do enough damage to the other vehicles whereas their x/2 weapons meant 3 hits would put my Vandal down reliably. Of course, that wasn't a great comparison test, but it was an interesting experiment.

I think the issue with the Vandal is the expectation that the heavy quantum cannon is the main weapon. The first game I had with it was against a red blok and the mortar was picking up a squad of infantry a turn. I used an support WM w/ jammers and hunters to help suppress his ** officer strider and once he was down, gave in on turn 3 when his kolossus unit failed completely to damage the vandal camping one of the two objectives (hunters had no LoS to that part of the board where his pods were).

The box isn't great as a contained army, but it's a pretty decent start. I got a pack of hunters and attachments for both the sharpshooters and the WM's. I hope the rest of the *** tacarms come out soon.

Dal'yth Dude wrote: Given that the boxes have been out roughly 2 weeks I think it is way too early to say.

Very important point.

Again, read the OP...this is meant to be a long-term thread that people revisit over time with new information.

I would say that "success" in this initiative is bringing new players into the game on account of the now cheap startup cost who stick with the game for at least a year. A vitalization of the player base. It will take a while to figure out whether this has happened or not. I said it seemed like it had "worked" in that I saw someone new at my club playing AT-43, but I would want to see that at least twice a month, consistent-like, before I was willing to report that the game was really being played in my area.

Keep reporting in. Considering I yelped up AT-43 here on Dakka Dakka so long and so well as to inspire the Sentinels to choose this ground to defend (as opposed to other websites that seemed to get ignored, but oh well) which then led to the forum name getting changed (again, you are welcome) and considering this is a very popular wargaming site, this is where you want to post your good news, ladies and gentlemen.

Lest anyone think there's any sort of altruism here, I still own 8k UNA and Therian armies, though I am trying to shed the Therians without much success...the irony is that the army I actually want to keep is the army that I could likely make a profit selling right now...and so I would love it if AT-43 games were as easy to come by in Boston as 40K and Flames of War games are.

So, to my silent audience in Boston who reads Dakka Dakka but who never post on here but rather just tell me how much they enjoy the circus, keep bringing your friends into the club with your Army Boxes.

I think I'll wait for second edition. I just didn't like the damocles rules, and all the stuff people say about the full rules makes me hold off.

Vertrucio wrote:I think I'll wait for second edition. I just didn't like the damocles rules, and all the stuff people say about the full rules makes me hold off.

People? Do you mean CAirnius and Orlanth? pshhh check the official forum better

Only because those two want an power gamer game does not mean the game does not work with gamers that go for tactics.

Check the rules, they are way better than those two try to give the impression.

All I really want from a 2nd edition is more some specific cover rules.

Wolfen wrote:

Vertrucio wrote:I think I'll wait for second edition. I just didn't like the damocles rules, and all the stuff people say about the full rules makes me hold off.

People? Do you mean CAirnius and Orlanth? pshhh check the official forum better

Duncan_Idaho wrote:
Check the rules, they are way better than those two try to give the impression.

Sheesh, will you guys stop.
I made no comments on the game rules on this post whatsoever. So why am I being singled out here?
Cairnius hasdnt either, the discussion has been about army box contents and marketing strategy, not rules discrepencies.
Unless you are again trying to label and silence critics even before they start posting.
I thought we made this clear, on Dakka we think for ourselves. I will not be silenced by Sentinels.

Vertrucio. Go ahead and read whatever they say, but remember you will only get party line. AT-43 forums are in-house and tolerate no real critique.

Duncan_Idaho wrote:Only because those two want an power gamer game does not mean the game does not work with gamers that go for tactics.

Actually those who want game balance are by definition not 'power gamers'. Nice bit of ad-hominem labelling is a good way of avoiding the issues. Mis-label the man, so you can ignore what he says.

Orlanth wrote: I will not be silenced by Sentinels.

dude, i am not a Snetinel

Keep in mind, I've played AT-43. I like the core aspects, but company support for the style I want to play (which is far as possible away from power gaming) is lacking.

You played Damocles? Thats just a quick look into the game. And it is very easily possible to play AT without power gaming.

Have 2 boxes of RedBlok and a Cog in the mail Sadly I don't think that there is any LGS north of Calgary that actually stocks AT-43 anymore.
There was a diehard group of about 6 of us that tried to keep the game going at one of the stores but due to the frustrating lack of support and any type of shipping schedule on Rackhams part it fizzled and died.
We still play it, although at each others homes now, and still pull in the odd new player with multi-person orders from WarStore and Miniature Market but the LGS scene is dead...all have pretty much refused to stock Rackham product.
Hoping that these boxes will help...a lot..it is a great game and I don't want to see it die here.