Game Review: Confrontation
A game that I have been collecting now for a few years is Rackham Entertainments Confrontation: The Age of the Rag’Narok. I was first introduced to Mini Gaming by getting into Rackhams other game AT-43. Naturally, I decided to check out Confrontation as well. A bit of history first.
Confrontation was the brain child of Rackham in the before times. In the times when Jean Bey was at the head of the company. It gained momentum with its complex rules and exquisitely designed and sculpted miniatures. It was a metal miniature line and required some actual building and painting skills. Here are some pictures of the line as it existed in it’s previous incarnation.
Confrontation and it’s RPG Caldwaldon were unrivaled in quality and a lot of gamers really took note. Rackham decided a few years ago as they were faced with bankruptcy to move to a prepainted plastic miniature line, as well as a rule overhaul. This upset the majority of the Confrontation players and many left the game feeling that the rules were dumbed down for the casual gamer.
A box set was offered to introduce new players into the world and game of Confrontation. The intro set includes everything you need to start playing a two player game of Confrontation. A complete rule book, two small armies (Griffin and Wolven) as well as a terrain piece, game poster, dice and a ruler. It was a good enough deal to get my interest. And I’m glad it did.
I spent the majority of today reading the rule book and the army books. Confrontation is a fantastic game. It is a world rich in background and history. It is fantasy gaming at it’s finest. The rules are easy to understand, perhaps that is why the old school gamers were upset. I have a third edition rule book which is about 3 or 4 times the size of the current rule book. For me, a more casual gamer, the rule set as it stands now is perfect. It contains complexities enough to develop strategies and flows easily enough to pick up the basics in a few short games.
The game is based on the different ancient Gods who once roamed the planet Aarklash and their dealings through the different races of the planet as they vie for control. Your leaders are Incarnates, driven by the Gods for their purpose of conquest in their name. Each race has a set of spells their magicians and faithfuls can invoke, as well as miracles their Gods can perform in their behalf. Foot soldiers and beasts collide against creatures, war machines and Titans in battles as epic as your imagination.
The current armies that are available are the Human Griffin, who fight for the ways of Light. The Lions, also humans fighting for the Light. The Wolven fighting for their God and the Path of Destiny. The Dirz, clones and creatures fighting for the Darkness. And the Ram, the undead fighting for the Darkness as well.
The new box sets you no doubt have heard about for AT-43 are also being produced for Confrontation. Currently the Lion, Wolven and Ram boxes have been released. You can pick them up now at the WarStore for around 60 dollars. This will give you a 2000 point starter army, with dice, rulers, templates and game posters enough for you jump into the world and start playing. And because they are prepainted, there is no time needed to prep your army.
With the current value for the miniatures, and the simple yet deep rule book, there is no reason not to give this game a chance. Go pick up an army today and get started playing Confrontation.
I’m toying with the idea to build another world wide campaign, much like my Operation: Frostbite for AT-43 but in the Confrontation universe…
Click here for the main Confrontation page from Rackham Entertainment.
January 18th, 2010 at 6:14 am
A large campaign for Confrontation would be awsome. My group has been playing this for the last couple months after a 6 month run of AT-43.
It has been a blast and our games have been getting larger and larger. Been a lot of fun.
January 18th, 2010 at 8:15 pm
I agree with Berman, this game would greatly be improved with the introduction of a campaign of some sort. Along the lines of AT-43′s Operation: Damocles and Operation: Frostbite. Anything to move the story along, as it is….