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Hellfury did a better job then me of posting this info (and he did it quicker!) so I've deleted my post and thrown his text up instead:

Here is a link for the Rackham forum this was gleaned from. en-forum.confrontation.fr/viewtopic.php

Here is a quote from the site:

"Here are a few photos of the Definitive Operation Damocles box, as with the  Definitive prepainted quality.
Those photos show the minis as they will be in the released boxset, and have been slightly enhanced since the last photos we showed."

(emphasis my own. I assume we can expect the minis and contents to be exactly as seen here)


The game itself:



And some of the models close up (judging by the quality, I would say that these are the prepainted ones)

















There. That should do it. I like the new interface that dakka has now, but it takes some getting used to. Editing is a pain in the butt until I get to know the controls comfortably.

I already beat ya to it.

www.dakkadakka.com/Forums/tabid/56/forumid/6/tpage/2/view/Topic/postid/106594/Default.aspx

[edit]

The link dont need to be fixed, as I hosted the pics myself to make sure people can see them in case the rackham site gets flooded and cannot cope with the bandwidth (its running slow for me).

[further edit]

le sigh.

Well, since this probably does deserve it own thread, I will repost what I posted in Elusives thread.

EDIT BY Marcus:

I've put the stuff from Hellfury's original response up in my post to save future readers the waste of time that is reading my comparitively inferior post.    Thanks Hellfury for hosting the pics AND putting working picture links up! (mine ended up not working)

I was going to edit the above post further, but I dont dare.

Reading the forums on rackham, it has been officially confirmed that the contents in the picture are really what you will get, as opposed to what was reported in the Ava daily. (5 less models, one of which is a firetoad)

Jean BEY ( Rackham President and Creative Director ):

The AT-43 Initiation Set, Operation Damocles will contain:
- 160 page full color rules handbook in five languages,
- 19 plastic miniatures, assembled and painted:
8 Therian Storm golems with 2 special weapons, 1 Therian Wraith Golgoth mecha,
9 UNA White Stars troopers with 2 special weapons, 1 UNA Fire Toad mecha,
- 1 games support poster: double faced floor plan to play on,
- terrain elements: 2 generators, 6 low wall sections, 1 container
- game material: 6 Rackham d6, 1 AT-43 ribbon ruler and 9 AT-43 reference cards

The price will be same everywhere:
- 80 € in Europe
- 80 $ in USA
- 50 £ in the UK

The game will be available everywhere the same day.

I am not sure how I feel about the price tag, but it is prepainted to a decent quality... I wonder if the rulebook will be in five different languages, or they are printing a rule book for each of the five different languages. if its five languages in the same book, then it wont have a lot of rules at all to follow.

Grégoire BOISBELAUD ( Rackham Sales rep. )also had this to say:

"the minis are soft plastic, but blades and antennas are stiff."

and the Rackham-US OP Department had this to say about the release dates:

December:

Initiation Set: Operation Damocles - 160pg rulebook, 24 plastic minis (assembled and painted - 21 foot soldiers/3 combat striders), poster, terrain, rackham dice, ribbon ruler, template.

Army Box: Therians - initiation rules, poster, 15 minis (assembled/painted - 14/1), cards

Army Box: White Stars - initiation rules, poster, 13 minis (assembled/painted - 11/2), cards


January:

AT-43 Advanced Rulebook



I hope they have a couple expansion boxes ready along with the release of the damocles base set. I am sure alot of people will want to be more tactically flexible right off the bat as opposed to mirroring tactics with one squad and one "mech". Not much flexibility, but very good for demonstrative purposes.

I hope the ava daily dont stray too far from what will be a reality this christmas.

wow that seems like really high quality for pre-painted.

That's what I was thinking.

£50 sounds OK compared with the Battle for Macrage set or a GW battleforce considering the figures are pre-painted.

I hope the rules are good. Any sight of them yet?

Rackham exhibited the AT-43 game this past weekend at the parisian games trade exhibition show "Monde De Jeu", for demo-play purposes.

Sadly, my french stinks to high heaven, so I dont know whats what.

It shouldnt be too long now before we hear back from some bilinguals regarding the game.

google isnt helping very much right now.

So december is the release date?

Yes, december.

here is a bit recently posted on the racham forums concerning the game itself.

Posted by Le_Maraudeur:

"I've played one of the first demo at the "Salon du Jeu", and what I can say is that it's a very good surprise !

the game is quick, easy to get, and finally need a good sense of tactics!

the rule concerning fire area add strategy in unit movements that make the game interesting when pieces of scenery are on the battlefield.

I really enjoyed, and was not the only one apparently... "

I dont have any idea if the rules had changed at all since origins, but here is an old article displaying the demo.


en-forum.confrontation.fr/viewtopic.php

Thanks for the help Hellfury- I hadn't noticed your last post in that thread and I didn't bother checking that thread first as these pics came from Rackham themselves and not from the German forum's posters. Never-the-less, sorry for stepping on your toes like that :p

Pre-painted urban camo that doesn't suck? Yes, please.

The soft plastic comment was kind of disturbing, but the quality is there.

I'm sold.

Reassuring .

Is it confirmed whether or not an UN painted set will be released?

I really wont buy this if its pre painted. For me the main attraction of the hobby is painting myself. Also if its soft plastic (urgh) and prepainted how will spary paint take to it if we want to undercoat them to paint ourselves? If the quality of the paint is thick and lumpy and not nicely done if its sprayed over, the surface textures will show through. Also if its soft plastic it might make stripping the old paint difficult.

Personally I really love thew idea of this game, the minis and the artwork... but for me this whole prepainted Toys R us approach is a serious turn off and a very bad mistake. Confrontation is how it should be... not like this.

 

 

Sorry double post, dakka went a bit crazy

 Actually while I'm at it, looking at that photo... 50 pounds. Theres not much there for 50 quid. 19 minis and some gaming matt and rule book.

When you consider the fact that you get a whole lot more minis in the battle for skull pass.

Cinsidering that most people wont be paying full retail for this, they will most likely pay $50-$55 for this item through discount retailers, it shouldnt be too bad of a problem.

But the removal of five models from the original advert is kind of disheartening, as there were so few to begin with.

New stuff now.

I kinda like this gimmick. Its a nice demo kit with the ability to keep everything in one place to use this stuff.



Its kind of refreshing to see the president of the company taking so much personal interest in not only displaying whats new for the rackham lovers, but personally replying too. GW Could learn alot from this personal touch.

Posted By Gundammecha on 09/20/2006 3:49 AM

Sorry double post, dakka went a bit crazy

 Actually while I'm at it, looking at that photo... 50 pounds. Theres not much there for 50 quid. 19 minis and some gaming matt and rule book.

When you consider the fact that you get a whole lot more minis in the battle for skull pass.

It's about what you get in Battle For McDonalds and two of the models are dreadnought sized.

I'll buy it.

I too thought that the box offered few models for this price tag, then I saw the new Eldar Battleforce on the french GW site... Same price tag - 80 € - and the same amount of miniatures... Unassembled and Unpainted. No gaming mat, dice, ruler, rulebook and scenery either.

IMHO, GW received kicks from Privateer Press but this new game from Rackham is really the killing blow.

This looks pretty cool, I dont know how tactical 1 squad and a dread can be but I play 40k so I doubt it would be worse. I like that its prepainted Im so sick of painting.. Bad guys look cool too!

Posted By Kotrin on 09/21/2006 12:01 AM

I too thought that the box offered few models for this price tag, then I saw the new Eldar Battleforce on the french GW site... Same price tag - 80 € - and the same amount of miniatures... Unassembled and Unpainted. No gaming mat, dice, ruler, rulebook and scenery either.

IMHO, GW received kicks from Privateer Press but this new game from Rackham is really the killing blow.

Funny I was looking at the same comparison & came to the opposite conclusion. But then in my mind, assembled and painted = uninteresting & unattractive. Maybe when my kids are bigger, I'll have a need for this sort of game.

Posted By RanTheCid on 09/21/2006 12:10 PM

Funny I was looking at the same comparison & came to the opposite conclusion. But then in my mind, assembled and painted = uninteresting & unattractive. Maybe when my kids are bigger, I'll have a need for this sort of game.

I knew one would not have to wait for long before seeing this kind of condescending comment. No doubt the wargaming community will face a schism in forcoming months, between pro- and anti- prepainted people. Two different visions - the  down-to-earth, player guy, and the elitist, artistic prima donna...

As you can guess, and despite spending insante amount of time painting miniatures and enjoying it, I welcome the prepainted era. Like playing was not fun without the sweat of painting. Sorry, but I enjoy both, at different levels. And I don't see the problem of selling painted miniatures - it doesn't deprive me of anything. I can still use my skills to enhance those models or repaint them completely if I feel like it. Hell, I've done that dozens of times with awfully prepainted-like secondhand GW miniatures sold on Ebay.

If you like painting as much as you write, a ready to paint miniature is just a spray can away. Will you dare "enjoy painting" that much?

LOL Kotin, you should be carefull where you point that cynicism of yours.

My hobby time is split 90/10. 90% hobby and 10% playing. Buying prepainted minis is a total waste of time and money. Until such time as I have a 5 or 6 year old to entertain- then these bendy pre-painted things will be great!

Regarding the 5-years old to entertain... Well, prepainted doesn't mean edible.

We haven't seen the rulebook content yet. That's the biggest question remaining in regards to AT-43. It's not because miniatures are ready to play that rules must be dumbed down.

...Prepainted rules?

And the elitist attitude goes both way.

I care more about the game than the miniatures! Prepainted rules! Painting is for suckers!

There always has been a schism. Heck, since the clix stuff came out.

Posted By Kotrin on 09/21/2006 2:09 PM

Posted By RanTheCid on 09/21/2006 12:10 PM

Funny I was looking at the same comparison & came to the opposite conclusion. But then in my mind, assembled and painted = uninteresting & unattractive. Maybe when my kids are bigger, I'll have a need for this sort of game.

I knew one would not have to wait for long before seeing this kind of condescending comment. No doubt the wargaming community will face a schism in forcoming months, between pro- and anti- prepainted people. Two different visions - the  down-to-earth, player guy, and the elitist, artistic prima donna...

Wow. That was unnecessary.

There's plenty of people in the hobby who's primary interest is the painting and modeling aspect. As a matter of fact, what drew me to Dakka years ago was the number of very talented painters and modelers. Sadly some of them have moved on, but there's still many here and throughout the community who would find the prospect of pre-painted, pre-assembled miniatures unappealing and boring without being "elitist, artistic prima donnas".

As for RanTheSid's comment about his kids, could it be that he simply meant that pre-painted, pre-assembled (and most likely durable) miniatures, will be just the thing for when his kids are old enough for him to introduce them to gaming?

*EDIT - Kotrin, most 5 or 6 year olds (i.e. Kindergarten - First Grade) know better than to eat their toys.*

That's how I took Ran's comment. And Kotrin- please try and keep a more civil tone

Posted By Drake_Marcus on 09/21/2006 3:53 PM
That's how I took Ran's comment. And Kotrin- please try and keep a more civil tone

Civil? Civil? It hurts me to see how damn polite Dakka has become. I don't know what people have been writing in this thread (because reading before replying is for mommy-clutching sissies) but I do know that Games Workshop has always been about pointing out how cretinous people are. But nowadays all you kids talk about is crap like painting miniatures and playing the game. That's not wargaming. Calling random internet strangers fatty buttergolems is wargaming. Even the supposedly "shark infested" You Make the Call is a My-Little-Pony healing circle compared to the wonderfully well-oiled dick pit of yesteryear. I never used to leave Dakka with a full bladder.

You people wonder why GW is having problems? It's because we're not allowed to make 14-year-olds cry on the internet. For shame.