Confrontation skirmish game. WTF?

Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:

No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.

If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

**Platuan4th**

Alpharius wrote:
Achilles wrote:

When does the new edition of AT43 come out? That I could actually sink my teeth into... provided I can play out of the rulebook with my own scenery collection, and not on a tiny poster.

I hear that!

Only questions is, does R?

Yes. Yes, they DO hear it. Everyday.

**Alpharius**

AgeOfEgos wrote:Is that a poor translation or was that really meant to be that unprofessional? If the translation was accurate, that was one of the more condescending, immature and bizarre PR posts I've seen in awhile.

Agreed!

Definitely in the "What were they thinking?" category.

I understand that they're after a certain segment of the market, but surely there's no need to alienate another segment of that same market, right?

Platuan4th wrote:
Alpharius wrote:
Achilles wrote:

When does the new edition of AT43 come out? That I could actually sink my teeth into... provided I can play out of the rulebook with my own scenery collection, and not on a tiny poster.

I hear that!

Only questions is, does R?

Yes. Yes, they DO hear it. Everyday.

Well, I guess that's good news.

**Kroothawk**

Scottywan82 wrote:
Kroothawk wrote:E.g. getting rid of the Jean Bey

Fixed that for you. They really have gone downhill since the guy who came up with the game left.

Well, that's the guy I meant, the Priestley of Rackham.

**Scottywan82**

Kroothawk wrote:
Scottywan82 wrote:
Kroothawk wrote:E.g. getting rid of the Jean Bey

Fixed that for you. They really have gone downhill since the guy who came up with the game left.

Well, that's the guy I meant, the Priestley of Rackham.

Damn skippy. That's actually the most accurate description I've ever heard.

And am I really the only person who LIKES the posters to play on? I really hate the tiles, but I think the posters are slick.

**carmachu**

You want to know why? Because we've gone fully painted plastic because we want an EASY ACCESS and USER FRIENDLY product! I shout because there might be some people with cotton in their ears who might keep asking when they will be able to take their metal minis, you know, the ones they pinned, glued and painted with love and patience and then put on the highest shelf of the cupboard to protect their treasure from the youngest ones I mentioned before.
I let my 1 year old girl play with a Mid Nor dwarf. You don't wanna see the result, believe me. As if Mid Nor dwarves needed to look even more like crap!
Aarklash Warpack is made for a younger audience or gamers who lack a lot of time. Not for modelling lovers who must have plenty of time in their hand. Anyway, considering the price of lead and tin metals nowadays, we sold our stock to a famous scrap dealer.

Wow, that puts Jervis rants to shame. Zero chance of ever buying rackham again.

**Oshova**

The sad thing is I will buy Rackham stuff again, as my Red Blok are incomplete . . . But I'm not going to buy any Confrontation. They lost that when they screwed over everything with the pre-painted stuff.

It still annoys me to this day the sheer disrespect they showed for the massive fan base they had. They thought they could just make everyone change how they played and bought there models overnight.

The on good thing about GW is that their models have changed slowly over 30 years? Whereas Rackham went for more drastic changes (from high quality metals, to low quality pre-painted) in the course of a few months.

ARGH!

End Rant

Oshova

**AvatarForm**

I hope this dies a horrible death... re-releasing their metals would de-value my entire collection of NiB Confrontation. Im 20-something minis away from having the entire colelction, including Mail Order and Limited Editions... (Even own duplicates due to bundles)

**Scottywan82**

AvatarForm wrote:I hope this dies a horrible death... re-releasing their metals would de-value my entire collection of NiB Confrontation. Im 20-something minis away from having the entire colelction, including Mail Order and Limited Editions... (Even own duplicates due to bundles)

Really? Have a spare Asgarh you can sell? =)

**frozenwastes**

Rackham is an amazing case study in building a multi-million Euro business (at their height, they had what? 14 million in sales?) and then completely throwing it away and heading in a totally different direction.

**Oshova**

frozenwastes wrote:Rackham is an amazing case study in HOW TO LOSE MONEY AND ALIENATE PEOPLE

Fixed it =p

Oshova

**frozenwastes**

Exactly Oshova.

They made super high end metals that were selling great (obviously to people who were really into them and the hole hobby game thing) and then switched to pre-painted plastics.

The only thing that kept Confrontation from ever taking off here in Canada was their mishandling of their rulebook translations and lack of clarity in what their starter product was. Confrontation? Ragnorak? Hybrid? Was it really so hard to put out a nice obvious entry point into the game and not have 2 or 3 competing rules sets that used the same miniatures out at the same time?

But then they switched to prepainted plastics and all the local stores cleared them at 50-80% off and never restocked any Rackham fantasy stuff again.

**Alpharius**

frozenwastes wrote:
But then they switched to prepainted plastics and all the local stores cleared them at 50-80% off and never restocked any Rackham fantasy stuff again.

Same thing here.

And I agree with you on the rulebook(s) and translation issues.

To me, THAT is what really stopped Confrontation from taking off.

**loomisc**

Hey Scottywan...if you need the cards check here...

www.confsden.com

Great resource page for the 3.5 and before stuff.

**Scottywan82**

loomisc wrote:Hey Scottywan...if you need the cards check here...

www.confsden.com

Great resource page for the 3.5 and before stuff.

Thanks! I looked there before, but they do not have everything. there used to be a download for all the cards in 3.5 for free. RE took them down when they went to the new site, and I was wondering if anyone still had it.

**Bomster**

frozenwastes wrote:

But then they switched to prepainted plastics and all the local stores cleared them at 50-80% off and never restocked any Rackham fantasy stuff again.

Yeah, over here too. In some bargain bins you can still find a couple of those old metal blisters; same for some lucky bids on eBay. The plastic stuff on the other hand - I've yet to find a local store that is willing to stock those sets (- not that I'm actually interested in buying them).

But then again, we've just learned from the Rackham blog that those local gaming stores are full of those dorky painters with too much time on their hand anyway. Maybe I just don't know how to find those really debonair stores catering to the cool people that use prepainted minis.

**loomisc**

Scottywan82 wrote:
loomisc wrote:Hey Scottywan...if you need the cards check here...

www.confsden.com

Great resource page for the 3.5 and before stuff.

Thanks! I looked there before, but they do not have everything. there used to be a download for all the cards in 3.5 for free. RE took them down when they went to the new site, and I was wondering if anyone still had it.

If you look on each armies page there, there should be a zip file to the left that has all the files. He has just not linked all the pics to the names yet. As far as I can tell they are probably 99% complete.

**Platuan4th**

Bomster wrote:
frozenwastes wrote:

But then they switched to prepainted plastics and all the local stores cleared them at 50-80% off and never restocked any Rackham fantasy stuff again.

Yeah, over here too. In some bargain bins you can still find a couple of those old metal blisters; same for some lucky bids on eBay. The plastic stuff on the other hand - I've yet to find a local store that is willing to stock those sets (- not that I'm actually interested in buying them).

But then again, we've just learned from the Rackham blog that those local gaming stores are full of those dorky painters with too much time on their hand anyway. Maybe I just don't know how to find those really debonair stores catering to the cool people that use prepainted minis.

We've got at least 2 stores here with the plastic Confrontation and 1 with a huge wall of the metals(although the fact that they're still at full price may have something to do with why they still have so many metals left).

**JSK-Fox**

May I ask what happened with this Rackham stuff, and why everyone is all angry at it from before (now, reading these posts, its justified, but what did Rackham do, since I'm clueless).
Sorry for poor wording.

**Scottywan82**

JSK-Fox wrote:May I ask what happened with this Rackham stuff, and why everyone is all angry at it from before (now, reading these posts, its justified, but what did Rackham do, since I'm clueless).
Sorry for poor wording.

People got angry long ago because Rackham switched from metal figures to prepainted plastic. The metals looked really amazing, and a lot of folks felt betrayed because they liked the metals. Hence, lotsa anger.

**JSK-Fox**

Understandable.
Pre-painted miniatures are noobish, imho.

**Scottywan82**

JSK-Fox wrote:Understandable.
Pre-painted miniatures are noobish, imho.

Well, you'll feel right at home with them then.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

loomisc wrote:
If you look on each armies page there, there should be a zip file to the left that has all the files. He has just not linked all the pics to the names yet. As far as I can tell they are probably 99% complete.

Wow! Got the Wolfen one. I see Ashan'tyr on the site, but she's not in the pack. Any reason why not?

**MeanGreenStompa**

/shrug

I don't trust this company, having seen what they did to people on the bait and switch.

I am, however, quite prepared to see them make more of the great looking metal minis they made before and see if any can be adapted to games I am/will be playing, WHFB, 40k, Mordheim, Infinity...

As to those fething woeful messages put up here, I think it's a case of perhaps too literal an interpretation of the French and therefore comes across in English as pushy, aloof, arrogant etc.

**His Master's Voice**

MeanGreenStompa wrote: I think it's a case of perhaps too literal an interpretation of the French and therefore comes across in English as pushy, aloof, arrogant etc.

No, seriously, if that twit let's his daughter play with his Mid-Nor it's his goddamn problem. I have shelves higher than the reach of a five year old and cases where I can install rudimentary locks unpickable for 12 year olds if the need arises. I also happen to have more than a quarter of a brain.

I guess they know they lost most if not all of the old customer base so maybe they don't mind flaming these people a bit. Arrogant to the very end...

**BrookM**

MeanGreenStompa wrote:As to those fething woeful messages put up here, I think it's a case of perhaps too literal an interpretation of the French and therefore comes across in English as pushy, aloof, arrogant etc.

Never seen a real-life frog before have you now?

**Scottywan82**

Well, if it helps end the debate, the tone was intentional. Gregoire from RE has said so. He spoke to the blogger since, and explained that it wasn't cool, but they felt what was done was done, so they left it up as is.

Apparently the guy who wrote it frequently goes on RE's C:AoR forums, and the last vestiges of C3 players - who are a pretty bitter group - enrage him as much as they enrage me and most other C:AoR players. So he "stuck it to them" or whatever in his blog.

Childish, yes, unprofessional, yes, rude, yes. I can empathize, but as someone working for the company he shouldn't have done it. Stupid move.

**BrookM**

Is their current stance also reason for the massive 30-70% sales that they are having on all their stuff?

**NAVARRO**

Scottywan82 wrote:
Childish, yes, unprofessional, yes, rude, yes. I can empathize, but as someone working for the company he shouldn't have done it. Stupid move.

The only thing constant on Rackham is sadly the stupidity, so this does not come as a surprise.

**Scottywan82**

NAVARRO wrote:
Scottywan82 wrote:
Childish, yes, unprofessional, yes, rude, yes. I can empathize, but as someone working for the company he shouldn't have done it. Stupid move.

The only thing constant on Rackham is sadly the stupidity, so this does not come as a surprise.

That and Jean Bey makes awesome games. Only he's gone now, so hence - Aarklash Warpack.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

BrookM wrote:Is their current stance also reason for the massive 30-70% sales that they are having on all their stuff?

No, that would be because the metal fans are so vocal that any new player trying to get a group started for C:AoR is shouted down and booed out of a store or forum. thus no new players, thus mega-sales.

**Alpharius**

Scottywan82 wrote:

No, that would be because the metal fans are so vocal that any new player trying to get a group started for C:AoR is shouted down and booed out of a store or forum. thus no new players, thus mega-sales.

You don't really think that's the reason for R's troubles, do you?

**Platuan4th**

Alpharius wrote:
Scottywan82 wrote:

No, that would be because the metal fans are so vocal that any new player trying to get a group started for C:AoR is shouted down and booed out of a store or forum. thus no new players, thus mega-sales.

You don't really think that's the reason for R's troubles, do you?

Yes, because AT-43 sells(or rather sold before Alliance refused to order restock product from France in the past year or so) really well(especially in America) despite what the R haters like to propagandize.