The June release of AT-43 stuff is looking mighty hot. There are new rules coming in the new “Frostbite” campaign plus new heroes. The new rules are pretty interesting stuff and will greatly change the games tactics. The changes are mainly in combat drills for infantry lead by a hero.
The campaign looks interesting. I don’t know if it is a set of battle scenarios like the SkirmishCampaign books are set up or if it is some sort of build points map campaign. It deals with pre-AT-43 events back when the Karmans were discovered by the Red Blok near the North Pole. (And by discovered I mean, they wandered into an ambush, were beaten like rented mules and sent running!) I am excited for it because it gives a nice framework to tell the story of AT-43. Al Gaiser and I have been having fun with the basic game quite a bit. It has provided us with a lot of enjoyment. We tried to do one of the scenarios but they have pretty specific table sizes and after trying to set one of them up we realized we had “edge drift” and Al started too far from where the battle was going to take place. This limited his ability to really get to the victory points quickly. So I am working on making a couple of 60cm x 60cm foamcore boards just for this specific type of gaming.
The new heroes plus the new hero combat drills make a big difference in the game. The game has expanded the options a bit. I always felt the combat drills were fairly limited. Some of them I wasn’t sure made sense – such as the delay/double action commands. I have never used them. Maybe I’ll play someone who will use them to crush me like a bug and then I’ll understand how they are useful. My only thought is that they become useful when you win initiative when you didn’t want to and this allows you to go second. It does happen.
They have taken the new releases and really pushed the boundries with them a bit. I like how they are within theme but also very individualistic. Nina Zero, shown left, is an example of reskinning what was already there and making it look like a customized job. I am sure the history behind the characters will show just as much individuality as I’ve come to expect from the writers at Rackham. When they write interesting back stories they give the opportunity for great scenario hooks. It encourages people to get creative with their own homegrown scenarios and to have fun with the background.
Here is the cover of Operation Frostbite.