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Over the Christmas break I started seeing deals for GoA and caught up on some videos of game play, faction overviews, etc.
I've played Bolt Action and liked the mechanics and the videos make the mechanics look decent enough.

Anybody actually played the game and have an opinion they'd like to share?
Thanks.

Have a Ghar force here, though its not been out to play in over a year.

GoA is actually a pretty good game, its well worth the time to try it - fixes many of the issues BA v1 had, using a D10 for the fire mechanic helps, removing pins is easier so units spend less time pinned to the ground doing nothing.

Otherwise straightforwards game to play with "ok" models, usual range, some good some less so - the Ghar armoured suits are fun.

Main issue it had was timing, a bit like how KoW got a huge boost by the farce that AoS was at launch, GoA suffered when 40k 8th was better than expected.

if you can get an opponent its a fun little game, has a few issues here and there, its a v1 game, but the basic mechanics are sound

Great game, I was a MOD on their forums this summer up until some family problems pulled me away. If you can get people to play against you then great, problem is most people are either 40k players or skirmish gamers. The reason for it is simple, if they are going to build a huge army and want competitive play then they want a large gaming community, and BtGoA is not able to get those numbers. People start forces and may get a small group playing, but sustaining it or building a real community is what holds it back. If people want a big game system they fall into 40k for sci-fi or AOS, Hordes/warmachine for fantasy. It’s a great game with balance due to using a D10 system and them not trying to break the game just to sell models.

Here’s a big tip if your trying to save money as your post suggests.

Join the Warlordgames newsletter, set your purchase currency to GBP (bottom of the webstore page there are two flags, US and the Union Jack, select the Union Jack) your DakkaDakka flag says your I need the US, so you order in GBP and let your credit card/bank do the exchange rate which is (as of right now $1.28=£1.00) instead of their automatic exchange rate close to ($1.60=£1.00) basically giving you a 30% discount off of MSRP here in the USA. They are fine with this and if you order during special postage cost times (was running free shipping over £10/$15 recently), then you are not paying taxes or shipping prices. They also run big promos time to time of buy one of these boxes and get a free xxxx. The best deals I’ve seen with this is I ordered the Kar’A nine starter and got a free tank box with free shipping. Spent $40ish dollars and got $100 total dollar MSRP shipped free to me. I know Miniaturemarket.com was clearancing stuff out, but the discounts really aren’t beating the exchange rate savings I said above. Hope it helps

Thank you. That is helpful. Very helpful.
I would likely only have one opponent, a gaming buddy with a mutual "I'll play it as long as I don't have to buy it" pact.

EDIT: I saw really crazy deals they were running on their store over Christmas but am trying to be reasonable about spending any more.
Already have a ton of stuff sitting on the shelf. What I buy I wanna make sure I play.

Again, thank you both for your feedback.
Happy to hear anyone else's suggestions or experiences, too.

 privateer4hire wrote:
Thank you. That is helpful. Very helpful.
I would likely only have one opponent, a gaming buddy with a mutual "I'll play it as long as I don't have to buy it" pact.

EDIT: I saw really crazy deals they were running on their store over Christmas but am trying to be reasonable about spending any more.
Already have a ton of stuff sitting on the shelf. What I buy I wanna make sure I play.

Again, thank you both for your feedback.
Happy to hear anyone else's suggestions or experiences, too.

SO BE WARNED, THE SALE I WAS TALKING ABOUT IS CURRENTLY RUNNING SAVE YOURSELF

So if you will be the only one buying the game components then the real question becomes which two armies would you like to buy? I’d limit myself to the C3 (Concord Combined Command), The Ghar and the Algoryn as these have the most basic units available in plastics and are the three armies represented in the two starter boxes.

Staying on budget I’d suggest Concord and Algoryn, as they are the two armies in the Strike on Kar’A nine box set
https://store.warlordgames.com/collections/core-game-collection/products/beyond-the-gates-of-antares-strike-on-kara-nine
It isn’t £35 (about $45 with the exchange rate) you get 10 Concord and 15 Algoryn infantry plus 9 drones all the dice you need, templates a play mat and a starter rules book.

The only options they have right now for the freebies are Algoryn troops, the Algoryn Command squad and the Ghar battle suits, strange there’s no Concord but it’s the end of the sale time so they may have sold out. Personally I’d get the Command Squad just for variety. $50 and your started with the mini rulebook and all.

If you have a bit more budget get the main starter set
https://store.warlordgames.com/collections/core-game-collection/products/beyond-the-gates-of-antares-starter-set
£70 (roughly $90) gets you 20 plastic Concord troops a metal character, 6 Ghar battlesuits (which are great models to play around with) a bunch of drones which are key to the game, dice, templates and a full sized Hardback rulebook.

Going this route you get two very different armies the Ghar in their heavy nigh-indestructible battlesuits versus the Concord. I’d also use the free box set you get to snatch up a squad of Ghar Battlesuits as point wise it is a little lop sided in the Concord favor in the box set. I’d get the Ghar Bomber Squad to get the one Bomber unit and two battle suits just for more play options.

Expanding the forces in the future is easy and they run sales all the time from their website, so joining the newsletter is key to staying abreast of the situation and saving money.

Where they get you ,
Dice, key component to the game mechanic and they are expensive (not super, just dumb for a key element). I got around it over a couple years by buying the main set then 2 of the Kar’A nine boxes.

Resin big kits, each army has some large pieces which are in resin, usually the big tanks for the armies or the big beasts. If you stay small with your armies then it’s less expensive (duh)

Metals, some armies like the Boromites (which I hated the look of originally, but love now) are almost all metal....and expensive because you need a lot of units and no core box for them.

Hope it helps , PM me if you have any more questions.

Also a GoA player, with Freeborn as my chosen faction.

It's a fun game that made me put away Konflikt 47 as a game becuase it ticked all the sci-fi boxes I was looking for (also trying to keep the rules seperated in my head was a little difficutl). Plus it's more sleek and utopian than 40k's aethetic.

I would have chosen Isorians, but like Theopony said, they're one of the "all metal/resin" factions. You'd think Warlord would work on getting at least core infantry units in plastic like they already did for Concord, Ghar, Algoryn, and Freeborn, but that's Warlord for you. The most attention-deficit wargaming company in the market since Spartan shut down.

 infinite_array wrote:
Also a GoA player, with Freeborn as my chosen faction.

It's a fun game that made me put away Konflikt 47 as a game becuase it ticked all the sci-fi boxes I was looking for (also trying to keep the rules seperated in my head was a little difficutl). Plus it's more sleek and utopian than 40k's aethetic.

I would have chosen Isorians, but like Theopony said, they're one of the "all metal/resin" factions. You'd think Warlord would work on getting at least core infantry units in plastic like they already did for Concord, Ghar, Algoryn, and Freeborn, but that's Warlord for you. The most attention-deficit wargaming company in the market since Spartan shut down.

QFT, I have t been back to their forums until last night because I noticed Test if Honour no longer has a section on their webstore. I guess with them repackaging the old war games factory stuff to be used in Warlords of Nowhere (really it’s called Erehwon, someone else pointed out it’s nowhere backwards ) I guess the test of honour samurai will become a faction for that game.

If your friend likes fantasy more then maybe get in on that game as it will be using the same basic BtGoA rules but in a fantasy setting.

Meh. To be honest, with Cruel Seas it's become pretty obvious that if it's a game not based on Black Powder or Bolt Action systems, then it's a shoddy set of rules meant to sell sprues. And Test of Honour has been dropped since the guy behind it went on to push his own company and games.

One thing I like about Antares is that the weapons teams feel like an important part of the battlefield. Thanks to their suspensor mounts, your LMG or small AT gun equivalents can move and fire alongside your infantry squads, making the game feel pretty dynamic. Of course, there are plenty of heavy weapons like Plasma Bombards and X-Howitzers that make for decent firebase weapons.

Oh, and X-weapons! X-Launchers and X-Howitzers are pretty cool in that you can choose what ammo types you want to bring with your launchers. You can be cheap and just take the 5 point upgrade to get Net ammo (which doesn't cause damage, but does cause extra Pins, and if you put enough pin markers on a unit, it routs from the table), or spend 15 points and get the full suite package. Some ammo forces units to run away, others deactivate upgrades or mess up line of sight. Infantry squads can also take Micro X-Launchers, which are basically portable grenade launchers. You can only choose Net Ammo for them, but you can also choose to fire them directly and get better armor piercing quality instead of a mult-hit blast.

Thanks, all. You are guys are really encouraging.

We're semi-set with dice since I have 20 of 'em (10 of two different colors) from Bolt Action. We're going to proxy using stargrunt and miscellaneous stuff we have that better fits the aesthetic of Antares to see if we like the rules. I've got the stripped down rulebook PDF that takes out some advanced stuff like the special reactions you can make.

A lot of good points, so not sure how much else I could share but...

I got into it a bit enough to make 2 1000 point armies. Or maybe 1500 points.. don't remember

Concord vs Algoryn. Models look ok. Nothing amazing but you get what you pay for and its fairly cheap to 40k. I usually got all my stuff on ebay with the discount days they had 15% off or 20% off. Ontop of the usual 30% off and free ship.

Gameplay is good. It can be heavy, depending how much you want to do like all the reactions, or special stuff you can do. Playing as a more simplified game, Its fun. I usually hate historical (not my thing) but I enjoyed bolt action a lot, so when I saw a scifi version I had to try it.

My stuffs all painted and on a shelf, haven't touched it in awhile as 40ks been going heavy and strong, and that's our groups main game.

Of the few games I have managed to get in, I have enjoyed the game immensely. The mechanics are pretty neat and all of the various models look decent.

It's also decently priced, so you won't break the bank getting into it or building up an army.

Sadly in my area if you're a Sci-Fi gamer you're either playing 40k or some skirmish game, so Gates barely gets played or noticed.

Love GoA, glad to see it getting some positive attention here.

I've got a small Isorian force I'm working on, with a few C3 guys on the side. It's definitely a trip with all the metal models...but for the Isorians, most of the larger models (medium/large weapon drones, bikes, etc.) are in resin. I don't really mind the metal mini's...I like the throwback feel and the recent metal sculpts are much better than stuff was in the 90's/early 2000's.

The rules are better than 40k IMO. The action dice/alternating activation means you're not getting tabled on turn one and the reaction system makes it feel a little more realistic.

Hopefully we'll see it pick up in popularity. I feel like the only exposure GoA gets in my area is at the NOVA Open, which is where I was introduced to it by a guy at the Warlord table.

Played our first game today using stand in armies and the free general rule booklet from Warlord. Buddy played Ghar (6 suits and a large outcast squad and a support weapon). I had Algoryn stand-ins of some standard squads, a cmd squad and IIRC an x-launcher team.

Pretty decent rules but I'm wavering on whether I'm going to jump into yet another game with an actual investment. Couple more plays before we decide.

Hope its ok to comment on older post, think slight necro is probably better than clone thread... anyway...

I don't agree with everyone else about quality of sculpts. Or I suppose it is that I like them so much regardless of average to above average quality because the style is so original and fresh from I am used to with 40k. I like the futuristic realism look of the models and am going to purchase some particular models for a rogue planet home grown world lore I am cobbling together.