"Is AT-43 still doing well sales wise?" Topic

I ask because a local gaming store just put all his AT-43 stuff on the clearance table at 25% off and I think the Warstore's prices seem a little lower than they were before too.

Is the game no longer moving? Anybody have any info or insight? Will the new campaign Operation: Frostbite likely pick things back up?

queue rampant speculation…

It never caught on locally. I think I might be the only one that bought any, and I bought the figs to use with other rules.
I tried the game with the shop owner, but wasn't impressed.
He tried to run a few demos, but his target market is still playing Warmachine, 40K and Mechwarrior. Everyone oohed and aahed at the Karman's, but no one bought any.

It is wildly popular by me.

We have 8-9 people collecting armies and playing over here in Halifax, NS, Canada.

Once we get a bit more organized we'll be hosting games in the store every weekend as we're still building momentum.

It's not flying off the shelves near me. However I'm seeing more people starting to play it lately.

It's doing pretty well at my local hobby shop. In fact I just started building my own army. since a lot of the group I game with at the shop are playing it.

Everyone oohed and aahed at the Karman's, but no one bought any.

Not even to use in other games? Does nobody have any imagination anymore?

I'll be using mine in retro-scifi games as well as for AT-43. They'll be from the planet Jumanji. :-)

I think the biggest issue facing AT-43 is/was supply. I finally was able to pick up a box of Jump pack UNA troppers in the local shop. First one I'd seen in – lots of Attachment boxes, but no basic sets.

I've seen it played in Vegas. Why are there so many seavans?

Its starting to catch on, gradually. The supply issue didn't help.

Alot of the 40K'ers think that the UNA/Red Bloc troops would make good IG proxies, and they are price competitive with the GW stuff.

Well that's good. The concensus sounds fairly hopeful and optimistic if a bit cautious. I guess I should just stop worrying and enjoy the bargains laid at my feet. As someone pointed out the Red Blok and UNA troops and gear would be good for other games if things go south and gorillas in power armor are cool enough to survive being orphanjustify the purchase even if they are oprphaned at some point in the future. While I like the Therians as a faction and adore their fluff (nearly-omnipotent internet twits) I can't say I love the look of the army in general, though the assault medusas look pretty cool.

AT43 is selling well for us, and I am happy with it. I like the game mechanics and I hope to see more race expansions going forward.
However AT43 will continue to meet resistance in the US because of its much lower than normal discount to retailers. FFG should have fixed that problem when they took over, they didn't.
Most US Hobby store retailers are not going to really get behind a short discount miniatures games, there is just too much risk involved.
Privateer bit hard on the bullet when they did it, but being cheaper than GW to retailers has helped them stay in the game and become the leader they are.

Neal

I think the initiation set also does not help. People are lead to believe that is all there is to the rules, but its not. Its comparing Space Hulk to 40K.

I feel the urge to get into AT-43 because of the figs, but the rules are a bit too simplistic for me and…not enough players around for me to spend the cash.

I agree with haywire -- I wish the Initiation Box had the full rulebook and the maybe a separate tutorial scenario book.

I have read the Confrontation rules and they seem to make for a better game.

The guys I game with don't play AT-43, but we use the figures for Rezolution.

The AT-43 walker is a nice substitute for the CSO Stomper model and I prefer the AT-43 figures over the regular CSO.

Rackham has said in several publications that AT-43 was selling well, and especially so in the US (surpassing all expectations).

The fact that they had supply issues here is likely one of the reasons they decided to partner with FFG. People in the US WANTED to play, but couldn't find the stuff. That's a far better problem to have than over-stocked, but with no customers!

The minis serve well as troops for any number of other games if AT-43 isn't to your liking. They are nicely done, and ready to go right out of the box.

I had no issues with a stripped-down version of the rules in the intro box. One thing I will say for their prices is that overall, I find them reasonable (of course, I buy all my AT-43 from Neal as no local store carry them).

Still, they are considerably cheaper than what GW would charge for the same thing. The army books, the main rules, the minis, it's all more reasonably priced.

Steve

…especially since you can download the full rules for free.

Last time I checked you could download a portion of the rulebook for free (the core rules, but none of the force building info and other bits).

I assume that is still the case?

You can download a forcebuilding utility for free too from the first post here.

tinyurl.com/4rd5vw

Now all you need is unit cards I guess. They come with the models. :)

At my FLGS AT43 seems to be doing ok but not really great for a number of reasons.

One thing people including myself are having a hard time with is the "*" use for army building, if it wasn't for the previously stated army builder I would still be in the dark.

The other main problem is the screwy way they out things in the attachment boxes that goes contrary to what the army books say.

Lastly is the way they've released things. There were a number of people including myself interested in the Monkey army but it has taken 4 months+ for them to release enough to actually make an army made of more than 3 units. That has kept people less than enthusiastic for the game.

Paleo … all of the cards are available on the Rackham site. They can be displayed and downloaded as jpg files. I have been doing this "just to have them" since they first started showing the minis and their cards at the very start. I don't think they've stopped.

Will you burn up a lot of ink printing them? Yessir! But unless they took them off their site, you can get them for free.

And yes, they are still there. Just to make sure, I went to their site, selected AT-43, from there I picked the UNA faction:
link

Scrolled down and picked the Steel Trooper Unit box:

link

You see piccys of the minis and the cards. Select a card, it will expand. Right click, and save to your computer.

Of course, you need to then be able to pull the image into a graphics program of some sort and set the printed size of the image to be the proper size, but at least you have the image.

Steve

Impressive customer service then. An example for some.

Rackham has done a good job of introducing AT-43 incrementally. This has meant that retailers and customers could try the very basic Initiation Set rules, and slowly build up their armies to play full games.
Positives of their approach:
Not a huge investment at any one time for retailers or players.
Plenty of time to get used to what you have before adding more.

Negatives:
We want it all, and we want it now!

I'm old enough to think about Warhammer 40k's introduction with Rogue Trader. New models dribbled out for the game and it took several years to (mostly) fill the existing armies. Twenty one years later, there are still some holes in figure lines. Also, several lines (and sub-lines) were eliminated from the game (Robots, Squats, etc.) over time.

AT-43 is what, two years old? How much can we reasonably expect two years after the introduction of a "from scratch" miniatures system?

Two years after the introduction of 40k, army lists were still dribbling in as White Dwarf articles – in October 1989 the Orks got warbikes, and the Space Marines got Vindicators. In 1990, Eldar lists were being released, and the Orks finally got their Battlewagon.

AT-43 is a good game – rules are easy to learn and in my opinion, are well written for 25-30mm skirmish (weapons don't have range they have accuracy). The miniatures line is good to great, the paint jobs can be wonky at times but to be completely honest, I've barely noticed while playing a game.
Locally there are a handful of people playing at various stores and it seems to be doing well. Overall I really like the concepts and design and I think it's been carried off well. As someone already pointed out, it's only 2 years old so contra to all the chubby, cheetoh dust fingered, living in their moms' basement gamers who are whining about this or that, I think Rackhams done pretty well for itself and the game so far.

anyone do a review of this game, comparing how it stax vs 40k an others?

I'd like to play AT-43, buts just too rich for my blood. Considering I can get 2-3 squads of Stargrunt figures for the same price as a unit box, I don't forsee myself buying much AT-43 stuff soon. If I can pick them up cheap somewhere I might get some to play FWC with but until then…

It sucks that its target audience (40k players) "have too much money invested in 40k" to even try it.

In my area we have interest but we are waiting on the summer league to start up.

Here is a comparison with 40K:
link

I'm interested (I like simple rules, and this sounds about right), but not in replacing all my miniatures. I could proxy or make up my own stats.

andy

I really liked AT-43 the times I got to play. Have yet to buy any of it myself, though. Very simple to learn system. Great minis. Only thing I don't like is that you can't make your own units, but that seems to be true of most systems I have come accross.

Excellent comparison site Andy, many thanks for that link! I found it quite accurate too.

I have been enjoying my games of AT-43, and just started up a regular gaming schedule with a buddy who has been lured into AT-43. As I have two 4000+ armies already (the UNA and Therians) he is going for Red Block.

I have taken the time to make a few subtle changes to the paint schemes of the pre-painted minis (to personalize them) but really appreciate that for about $4 USD a figure I have an assembled, reasonably well painted and ready to field figure. Something I cannot say about GW figures.

Thanks for that link Andy – informative. The only thing missing from the AT43 side I think was the concept of drills & routines

Well I just contributed my share of the national debt to that sale for them!

miniaturemarket.com/at_43

These guys have some AT-43 stuff on clearance.

miniaturemarket.com/therians
link
These are a few of my favorite things…aliens with big black sharp blades on their backs…hulking machines with little doll faces…all leaving bodies and gore in their last places…dum dum dumm dumm dum…monsters with creepy crab armor…things made of deep dark black horror…these are a few of my favorite things…

Now if I only had a few extra bucks…aw well, if wishes were fishes then all of my dreams would be wet.

So, why did FFG put a lot of the AT43 stuff on a huge, US-only discount?

I though FFG was dumping the line based on that sale.

Like others, I bought the figs but dont use the rules.

Lion, here's some 411 on what's up with FFG and Rackham.

link

I figure we'll be playing locally 'til I can get my hands on a unit of Succubi. If those things are as good on the table as they are on paper, I'm pretty much going to have to avoid using them.

The FFG people have put all fo their their AT-43 stock AND their Confrontation preprainted stock on sale AGAIN for crazy prices. US customers only though.

link

FFG is still trying to clear their backstock I guess. More for me!