From my perspective, yes it has.

Despite some rocky bits at the start the game appears to have legs (intrest has yet to wane), the models have improved, and it has become the de-facto pickup and play sci-fi game around these parts.

Slowly but surely, yes it has. The biggest thing for it going forward is that smart LGSs have realized that it is way easier to sell this game to a new gamer than the competition.

To add from my erlier comment as I ran out of time to edit:

The thing that could make AT-43 fail is the simple fact that people might not buy in to the game enough. The models are on par with GW costs where I am located and thats a big factor for some people. The fact that its painted doesn’t matter. While in my opinion the game is fairly affordable to other people that is not the case. If enough interest is generated in the game and people can over look the cost this game will be as big as any of Privateer Press (PP) games. In addition it will also cut into the sales of GW like it PP has. In the store I work at PP sales have taken off and this can happen for AT-43 as well but only if more people jump on like people have with WM. Rackham need something like Press Gangers and Grey Knights.

I don’t think FFG squashed it. Rackham has handed over management of organized play over to FFG. FFG is in the middle of getting the program ready which will take some time.

Maybe foothold or beachhead is a better term then success? I think they have been successful in getting themselves established as a competitor in the marketplace, which is not an easy thing to do.

It will be interesting to see what happens when/if other sci-fi prepaint games hit the market. Right now, AT-43 has the ball to itself.

I LOVE the game, but here in the south, the closest players are almost 300 miles away.

They shouldnt be putting out books (Karmans) that cant really field armies that win due to lack of models.

I agree with the mismatched paint comments.

Its STILL har to understand the organizational rules. I have trouble figuing out what I need to field.

Definitely the lack of players is a hinderence. I know literally no one in the Northern VA area who plays. I’ve dragged my brother into a couple of games, but it would be nice to find someone as enthusiastic as I am.

And it seems the differing paint schemes is a common complaint on the AT-43 message boards. It’s shocking to me that they don’t listen to it. What do they have the boards for if not to gauge public opinion?

I like the game and we do have some players at JAC games in Akron Ohio with more looking all the time. The game is solid for a first run and being translated to English. I think it’s everything 40K is trying to be with it’s streamlined game play. People just have to get past the fact that it is pre-painted.

I would play this game even if I had to assemble and paint, but the true draw to AT-43 is that you can purchase your army and be ready to play right then and there, no effort required. As much as I do enjoy the hobby of painting and assembly, I don’t have much time for it so my armies sit either half painted, primed, or just unassembled. There are still some flaws.

The translations need to improve. The box sets need to be reorganized so that they are in full units or equal distribution of all unit options to make the customization of units easier and cost effective. The price for what you get in this game is still high and continue to keep new players away, but that can be addressed with the reorganization of box sets.

Overall, a great game in it’s first iteration with more on the way. As I said before, it’s a true miniatures game, not some kiddy clicky collectible crap, that happens to use pre-painted miniatures.

There were four or five players in my area soon after the game came out. That quickly dwindled to me and one other guy, and now both of us are leaving the game after cheacking out the new rules and units. We had started to generate some half-hearted interest in the system, but I can’t really see it taking off by itself. All the local stores made a similarly half-hearted effort to stock the system, but they don’t seem to have ordered anything in some time. I did enjoy the game. I’ve yet to force myself to sell off my models, but I know I will eventually. And that’s coming from someone who still has 40k models that haven’t been used since 1992 or so.

I really don’t want to turn this space into an argument about Rackham, but I always felt conflicted about supporting AT-43 and am somewhat relieved to be free of that feeling. I honestly think most of the new rules and units were designed to sell product without much regard for unbalancing or otherwise damaging the game.

Without an national distributor, a demo team and a rather hefty price (in Euro) AT-43 has only managed to gather a very small following in Germany.

If this changes anytime in the near future I don’t know, but with the current situation the game will simply dissappear as people shift to games and miniatures more easily available and affordable.

In Italy the AT-43 community it is growing every day. To be the best sci-fi 3D game must be cheaper then right now and with more armies.
I hope to receive good answers from JB about these two points.
The game is very good and well balanced, very tactical but easy in the same time. In one word it is GREAT!

As The Watchman wrote already… here in Germany it has a hard standing. I don’t know any player and our LGS hasn’t any AT-43 products. Imho it’s a game which no one likes to play over here. The latest contestants in the tabletop market, Hell Dorado and Alkemy, had a waaay better start off.

For some numbers:
http://www.tabletoptournaments.net/eu/t3_games.php?gid=36

Only 3% of our users from Germany, Austria, the Switzerland, Belgium and France(!) play AT-43. Alkemy is at 5% and HD at 9%. With these games coming both from Rackhams home country At-43 has a hard standing there if you look on the french values only: 7% AT-43 vs 13% Alkemy vs 23% HD.

Even if these are only some numbers based on a couple of users… it shows nicely the current spreading of the games.

I think the overall tendence is that people in Europe prefer fantasy games to scifi games.

I go to the same club as Rich_B and can second his views. Our club bought the starter box when it came out, and even with zero cost to play it AT-43 has not seen a lot of table time. I’d guess a third or fewer of the club’s members have bothered to play it. Like I said, that’s when it’s free…

Of my two main FLGS only one has AT-43 units (not the big boxes) in stock reliably. However there also only seems to be a feel people who play, and they tend to snatch up all the releases at the other store.

I think AT-43 is at the point, in my area, where it can either break through and get a foothold in the area or wither away. Rackham has never done to well sales wise around me due to the cost - and I think thats AT-43s problem too.

That said I want a pewter Deathdealer tac arms mini - hopefully Rackham will still follow through with thier metal minis for AT-43 idea

In my opinion, I feel AT-43 has and will continue to succeed as a war game. The overall idea is pretty original, with some great fluff/meta-plot involving around the 4 armies and their respective units. The rules aren’t too cumbersome and are generally easy for new players to learn.

The fact that the miniatures are pre-paints, and good ones at that, really helps players jump into the game immediately without a lot of pre-game miniature prep. And even if the pre-painted miniatures do not meet a player’s expectations, they can easily be retouched or improved upon as the player sees fit. Further, the miniatures serve a secondary use as excellent generic sci-fi or Weird War II miniatures for any war gamers that also play role playing games.

I am REALLY looking forward to the new uber-large units, namely the King Mammoth, Baal Golgoth, and Fire Crawler, as these vehicle-sized units are sorely needed to round out the army lists. This brings me to the only fault with the game; the immediate need for more units! While I understand some R&D goes into the creation of new units and miniatures, primary consideration should be on the new and unreleased units first, with alternative paint scheme units being secondary. Otherwise, I feel AT-43 is a great war game that expertly fills a niche by providing much needed competition in the realm of sci-fi war gaming.

Like a few others, I work in a LGS in the UK and for us, AT-43 has been a huge success. Boxes are flying off the shelves and the enthusiasm of the game convinced me to pick up a few UNA pieces myself and I have to say, it was great fun when I played through the scenarios last week.
We’ve started having games in the store most Saturdays now and (as you’d expect) that in itself is generating more interest in the game.
At-43 new releases are guaranteed sales for us at the moment and folk just can’t wait for us to get the releases in.

AT-43 in the UK has been slow to progress. I liked it a lot when it first came out but the constant rules “clarification” on the official forums that left rule book completely wrong etc and the manipulation of rules errors by Senior Rackham staff via the forum left the active players a bit lost here in the UK and elsewhere.

The game balance was becoming evident in our group to be heavily weighted one way and then FFG arrived and all Sentinel work stopped over night. All support for the UK. Infact it took several weeks for FFG to acknowledge the UK existed as a market on their website or in their schemes. The USA predomination and French Predomination were clear to see. BUT of the actual rule set, its fun to play, when not constantly being re-edited by R staff on the forums.

The pricings are too high however. Individual figures for £10 is just not a seller. Rackham has been under financial protention in france for some while and near to going bankrupt. If the game is a major success, then I would be surprised at this state of affairs, unless it was a case of serious miss-management at head office.

Has it been a success. NO, not in the UK. It is played, it is fun, but it has yet to be properly promoted, properly supported and FFG are yet to pull their fingers out and sort this out. If that remains the way it is. I personally can see it dying a death. I have already started to spot collections appearing on ebay, as people move onto other things.

So..for me, its a “Not Yet” answer. I hope this will change. Despite how negative my views of some aspects. It is actually fun and novel system that is quick to play and has a lot of scope if it ever gets the support it needs from FFG.