Fantasy Flight Games recently began re-distributing AT-43 in the US, and they fixed some problems such as the poor discount. It's probably too little too late. The discount issue, supply problems, lack of interest in organized play and simplistic rules did it in. I say the rules did it in because it doesn't quite grab the experienced miniature gamer, instead appealing more towards collectible minis players. You don't want to rely on a collectibles base for your livelihood, believe me.
It's time to call this one dead for us and move on. As for the existing stock, my plan is to dump them on eBay and slowly let the stock dwindle (no in-store sale). We can always special order items if you're still playing this game.'
That's a shame. It's a good game. I stopped playing it when I moved because the major advantage of being able to buy a unit and put it right on the table isn't much of an advantage when you don't have anyone to play it with.
ReplyDeleteI'd argue against the rules being simplistic. I'd put them in the same complexity category as 5th edition 40K. They have fewer exceptions and special cases than 40K, but they're certainly more complex than any collectible game I've ever played.
If the impression was that it was a simplistic rules set then I think that was just an impression based on the crap rules that come in the starter set. They should have put a complete rules set in the starter box like GW does.
I think the organized play issue is what killed it for you. This game would be killer if there was organized play because of the buy and use factor: "I could have used another unit of X instead of this unit of Y... let me go buy a unit of X and we'll play again."
That's the kind of situation that the AT-43 model is perfect for, but you have to have the in-store play going on for it to work.