AT-43 Looking Better
There is an interesting discussion over at tabletop gaming news about how at-43 is going. The article points to the poor rules translations, long periods between releases and the non existent communication from Rackham about anything. The article shines a critical light on Rackham, something that doesn’t happen all that often over here at at-43addict. 4 months ago I would have agreed that rackham is in decline, its part of the reason I started this blog, I wanted to help support the community through a rather rough patch and help new gamers out. Today is a different story.
I would be lying if I said these problems aren’t still real, but they are temporary. We have seen great improvement with the latest CHO release. The monthly format had most everything that a gamer could want. Fluff, previews, new rules and a release plan. We also now have release dates for the new Cog army. Given that Rackham changed to Rackham Entertainment and they ended their distribution deal with Fantasy Flight Games, their release plan is very aggressive. I haven’t seen any reason yet why I should worry about the future releases as I was able to get my Hussar and Fire Crawler without a problem from the most recent wave.
Many people worry about the speed of releases but remember that much of the waves being currently released were planned out before Rackham became Rackham Entertainment. Who knows what problems rackham was facing before this change, and the changes we’ve seen since have been nothing but positive. We’re seeing models coming out to address some of the oversights of the previous releases, granted they’re in Resin but getting Grim Golem overseers and Yeti / Wendigo Medics shows that Rackham Entertainment IS listening and is addressing the known issues.
If I were writing this piece 4 months ago it would have taken a more worried tone, but today all of the current indicators are pointing in the right direction. The only thing I wish Rackham was doing better right now is communicating with the player base. The great community that surrounds at-43 will fill in until they get that sorted out as well (the new CHO showed promise of this happening), we’ve got your back Rackham.
I’ve been following this since the beginning and I agree with your statements. As a 40K player who just got sick of that game during the mess that was 4th Ed, I drifted over to AT-43 and bought some models and proxied others to try it out. Needless to say I was impressed, but the prices were a bit high and the company a bit too distant to feel good about. While I could afford the minis, I could see that many young players would be intimidated at a new and somewhat costly game.
With this sale and a clear effort on the part of Rackham to reach out, I’m optimistic in a way I wasn’t last year. AT-43 really could be primed for a breakout. Let’s hope.