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I didn't see any other suitable forum, so sorry if this is in the wrong place...

Phoenix and I were at the Strategicon here in LA over Memorial Day weekend and participated in a demo tournament for AT-43.  We've both never seen or played it before.  We were introduced to it with the basic rules, 1 unit each side, and had some fun moving around the toy soldiers shooting at each other.  Our main gripe/disappointment was hand-to-hand...the way we were shown, a unit can "charge" into hand-to-hand with another, attack it on its turn and will not be attacked back.  When it's the other players turn to activate that unit, they can choose to either stay there and attack the unit back in hand to hand or simply take a step backwards, maybe an inch, and shoot the unit...usually hitting on 2's and then shredding the unit that charged it.

Our questions are if this is how it really works, and if, in the more advanced rules, there's a way to stop the unit from getting out of hand to hand, or what?  Looking at it, it seems that the system really detracts from the idea of melee combat....hopefully someone here can help shed some light on it though for us.  Thanks!

http://en-forum.at-43.com/viewforum.php?f=3

Yes, that is how hand-to-hand works.  It is actually one of the things that I like about AT-43.  If you want melee, play fantasy.  In modern combat, firearms are used even at close quarters.

It is not that bad, though.  Usually you set up in cover.  Being engaged in hand to hand negates cover, and being engaged reduces you to 1/2 your base movement.  If you are attacked, you can back up, but backing up far enough to be disengaged means your attacker will gain a cover save if you shoot at him.

Heya Fellblade, thanks for the reply. For some reason I can't get your link to work. Moving at half speed is pretty interesting...and it sounds like I could move up to the cover you're hiding behind, not actually touch you base-to-base, and still attack?

...I think Rackham's site is currently offline.
[Edit:] looks like it's up now.

Duncan Idaho is the person to ask about AT-43.

Comming from the point of "hand to hand sucks and you shouldn't use it" makes the system they seem to have (we were playing with stripped down demo rules) make a lot more sence. I'm ok with the idea, its just not how it was presented to us so I was a little anoyed when I found that it sucked.

All in all, what do people think of the game? Any good?

Yeah, now that the full rules are available (as opposed to the intro missions in the intiation set), a lot of people in my area are really interested. The basic system is really easy to learn. I think the rules have a nice mix of the abstract & the detailed. Commanders are used for the Leadership points they generate, rather than a leadership value. Leadership points can be used to do things like give units special orders (take cove, or split fire) or to activate units out of order, or even (for the Therians) return dead models to the table.

Definitely find someone who can run some demo games with the full rules.

And, it is not that hand to hand sucks and you shouldn't use it- Therians do quite well in hand to hand. But humans aren't as good in HtH as Therians, and naturally want to avoid it. And in this game, they can bug out if things get hairy.

 

One other twist to hand to hand in At-43 is that you can Fire at a unit, then move and engage a unit in close combat. This allows the Therians to pull off some very devastating attacks. Additionally, Therain close combat is brutal, hitting and wounding on 3's vs Steel Troops and 2's vs Star Troops (I think, I might be wrong about the star troopers). But my point is that Storm Golems are very powerful at Close range, basically being able to attack twice (once with shooting and once with Close combat). I think being able to back out of close combats helps to balance things a fair amount.

EXACTLY.

It's the action sequence breakdown that really creates the balance. A model can shoot, move in, and fight in close combat all in one turn. The defender can move back and shoot, but he's limited to only a short distance, and only gets to move back and then shoot once. He can't attack in melee, then move backwards, then also shoot.

Steel Troopers are godawful at killing Storm Golems in HtH, and Storm Golems are excellent at killing Steel Troopers in HtH, so backing up and shooting is really the humans' only chance once the Therians get in.  But doing so forces them to retreat (which is a big deal when they need to be moving in some other direction to complete the mission), and it allows the Therians to keep repeating the Shoot, Move in, Attack in Melee sequence. For every shot the Steel Troopers get off, the surviving Therians get TWO chances to kill a defender. The system rewards the attacker while still giving a shooty defender the ability to back up and shoot. I was actually very pleased and impressed with this design when I tried it out. Much more realistic while still giving the assaulty guys a chance.