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AT-43
AT-43: The Rulebook
A planet lost in the midst of many others, and yet the cradle of a bold and aggressive species: Mankind. When the Therians tried to invade this planet, they were met with fierce resistance and humanity even managed to push back into space those they scornfully call the "morphos". However, Ava suffered greatly from these battles: the climate and the orbit itself were deeply affected. These events became known as the Trauma, the starting point of a new calendar. Forty three years after the Trauma, the combined forces of humanity are launching a counter-attack, dragging in their wake the mysterious Karmans.
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
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April 4, 2021
There was a time when I was heavily into Warhammer 40K. Hours of painting miniatures and creating terrain, as well as thousands of dollars were spent, and I have no regrets. But there was a moment after years of 40K play where my gaming group was fed up with painting and were looking for a new miniature wargame- enter AT-43., a miniature wargame set in a technologically advanced setting with great pre-painted miniatures. We decided to give it a go.
The rules are simple enough and adhere to standard miniature wargaming elements. Build opposing armies using a decided point count, an army has a force composition that must be abided by, use six-sided dice to determine the effects of combat and different army factions are available, each with their own unique playstyle and theme. AT-43 has four factions: The U.N.A. (a technologically advanced human race), the Red Blok (humans that revolted against the U.N.A. that have less technology but more people to fight), the Therians (an advanced organic race that uses machine to fight but leads them with cyborg-like leaders) and the Karmans (Intelligent gorilla-like creatures who fight in pursuit of some spiritual journey).
The setting for AT-43 is okay (definitely not great if compared to Warhammer 40K) and seems contradictory at times, for examples the Karmans were granted intelligence by the Therians and because of this the Karmans want to repay them by sometimes fighting against them and sometimes fighting for them? Doesn’t make sense. Another example is that both the Red Blok and the U.N.A have holdings on other planets other than their planet of origin, Ava, but when the Red Blok broke away from the U.N.A., the revolutionary war, and later battles, take place predominantly on these other worlds. Apparently the U.N.A. and the Red Blok didn’t want to fight on Ava where there were plenty of close easier to get to targets available. But hey, people are interested in playing the game and not the lore.
AT-43 isn’t a bad game, but it’s just not to the level of other wargames, such as Warmachine or 40K. It has a lot of interesting rules, such as having a pool of leadership points that you can use to give units special orders and larger fighting models (Striders for example) have damage boxes for mobility and weapon systems similar to what Warmachine uses. The game didn’t last long before my gaming group went back to 40K (and our rotation of other miniature games, such as Warhammer Fantasy and Flames of War). Some of the factions did not seem balanced against others for competitive gameplay (for example, the Therians always seemed low on Leadership points when compared to other factions and this started hindering their ability to use some of their special powers to build new units and do the generic special orders that all factions could do). Some factions had access to special units more so than others, that severely hindered an opposing force (I played Red Blok and I was able to have more medics than other factions and this kept my already larger than most other armies decently intact during battles). Of course, I understand that all these miniature games can be exploited to some extent, especially with players who dedicate hours to number crunching favorable combinations, which my group definitely does, but in AT-43, it seemed that once we found that sweet spot for the army, certain factions seemed to shine more so than others. Of course, its hard to compete with 40K which has many factions, army combinations and a variety of models to choose from (it is the big dog in miniature wargaming) and AT-43 just couldn’t compete.
The rules are simple enough and adhere to standard miniature wargaming elements. Build opposing armies using a decided point count, an army has a force composition that must be abided by, use six-sided dice to determine the effects of combat and different army factions are available, each with their own unique playstyle and theme. AT-43 has four factions: The U.N.A. (a technologically advanced human race), the Red Blok (humans that revolted against the U.N.A. that have less technology but more people to fight), the Therians (an advanced organic race that uses machine to fight but leads them with cyborg-like leaders) and the Karmans (Intelligent gorilla-like creatures who fight in pursuit of some spiritual journey).
The setting for AT-43 is okay (definitely not great if compared to Warhammer 40K) and seems contradictory at times, for examples the Karmans were granted intelligence by the Therians and because of this the Karmans want to repay them by sometimes fighting against them and sometimes fighting for them? Doesn’t make sense. Another example is that both the Red Blok and the U.N.A have holdings on other planets other than their planet of origin, Ava, but when the Red Blok broke away from the U.N.A., the revolutionary war, and later battles, take place predominantly on these other worlds. Apparently the U.N.A. and the Red Blok didn’t want to fight on Ava where there were plenty of close easier to get to targets available. But hey, people are interested in playing the game and not the lore.
AT-43 isn’t a bad game, but it’s just not to the level of other wargames, such as Warmachine or 40K. It has a lot of interesting rules, such as having a pool of leadership points that you can use to give units special orders and larger fighting models (Striders for example) have damage boxes for mobility and weapon systems similar to what Warmachine uses. The game didn’t last long before my gaming group went back to 40K (and our rotation of other miniature games, such as Warhammer Fantasy and Flames of War). Some of the factions did not seem balanced against others for competitive gameplay (for example, the Therians always seemed low on Leadership points when compared to other factions and this started hindering their ability to use some of their special powers to build new units and do the generic special orders that all factions could do). Some factions had access to special units more so than others, that severely hindered an opposing force (I played Red Blok and I was able to have more medics than other factions and this kept my already larger than most other armies decently intact during battles). Of course, I understand that all these miniature games can be exploited to some extent, especially with players who dedicate hours to number crunching favorable combinations, which my group definitely does, but in AT-43, it seemed that once we found that sweet spot for the army, certain factions seemed to shine more so than others. Of course, its hard to compete with 40K which has many factions, army combinations and a variety of models to choose from (it is the big dog in miniature wargaming) and AT-43 just couldn’t compete.
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