Grow the Hobby Day 8
For a couple of years, Warhammer was my only miniature game. Then a friend of mine showed me the beautiful models being put out by the french company Rackham for the game Confrontation. It only took a couple of tries and I bought his wolfen models to get my own force started.
The first edition was literally booklets that came with the blisters. Normal fighters had the base rules, wizards had the arcane magic rules, and divine casters had the divine rules. The blisters also included a small sheet of counters. Models came with appropriate cards and often spells.
Eventually they came out with a hardbook book for the second edition, and that was later followed up by a supplement "Dogs of War". This had all the information for all the factions in these, as well as all the spells and magic items. You still actually needed the cards to play, but you could not see all the factions available.
I got very involved with the community in the US for the game and even won a few tournaments. I won a tournament in September of 2005 and the prize was a resin statue of a Scourge Bearer (from the Dwarf of Mid-Nor). You might recognize it - I use him for my avatar / icon online just about everywhere. I won best painted in April of 2006, and then in August took third place at the NACORD National Championship at Gencon (first place won a trip to France to compete in the International championship - I got a medal). I also helped making terrain for the championship, and even ran some Confrontation events one year at Origins and Gencon.
You can check out all my wolfen at my (very) old web page for them here. (Yes, most of the links are broken, I've SLOWLY been moving everything over to my blog here).
I started a second army, Ophidians (giant snakes and human slaves), and then the game died.
Ok, it didn't just die, it was murdered by the company. They had decided that the future of miniature games was in pre-painted plastics, and were having some moderate success with their science fiction game AT-43. So at Gencon they announced they were stopping production of all their metal models, and were going to release a new version of the game that was all pre-painted plastics sold in unit boxes.
I remember us having a big meeting at Gencon as they told us about it. And I remember very well the American sales rep telling everyone that they knew we were upset, and people were already talking about keeping the "classic" game alive. But he was sure that in a years time, no one would be talking about that any more. And he was right, because in a years time the company was out of business and the game was no more. They had stopped all current production while they tried to startup this new game that no one wanted, and which there were no models out for (and no way to transition your old armies to it either). So their sales went to near zero and eventually they went bankrupt.
People have tried to bring the game back. Cool-mini-or-not got the license for a while, and put out a playtest version that was hated by everyone so much they abandoned it to start over.
Last year another company did a kickstarter to bring back Confrontation classic - the old rules with the original models all redone on PLASTIC (but not pre-painted). I believe their goal was to fund the switch to plastic, then come out with a new rule set next year with plastic miniatures already ready to go. Unfortunately things have not gone as they hoped, and while they say they are still going to fulfill the kickstarter, it is with METAL models, not plastic. And they are having financial troubles as well.
At the time it was a good skirmish game, and the models were amazing. Some of the sculptors have also done work for the Wrath of Kings game, and specifically the House Goritsi skorza miniatures look just like the Wolfen and Devourers.
Because it is all fun and games . . .
For a couple of years, Warhammer was my only miniature game. Then a friend of mine showed me the beautiful models being put out by the french company Rackham for the game Confrontation. It only took a couple of tries and I bought his wolfen models to get my own force started.
The first edition was literally booklets that came with the blisters. Normal fighters had the base rules, wizards had the arcane magic rules, and divine casters had the divine rules. The blisters also included a small sheet of counters. Models came with appropriate cards and often spells.
I got very involved with the community in the US for the game and even won a few tournaments. I won a tournament in September of 2005 and the prize was a resin statue of a Scourge Bearer (from the Dwarf of Mid-Nor). You might recognize it - I use him for my avatar / icon online just about everywhere. I won best painted in April of 2006, and then in August took third place at the NACORD National Championship at Gencon (first place won a trip to France to compete in the International championship - I got a medal). I also helped making terrain for the championship, and even ran some Confrontation events one year at Origins and Gencon.
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| Warband that won Dayton tournament 9/17/05 |
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| Best Painted Dayton 4/8/06 |
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| NACORD National Championship 3rd place, 8/11/06 |
I started a second army, Ophidians (giant snakes and human slaves), and then the game died.
Ok, it didn't just die, it was murdered by the company. They had decided that the future of miniature games was in pre-painted plastics, and were having some moderate success with their science fiction game AT-43. So at Gencon they announced they were stopping production of all their metal models, and were going to release a new version of the game that was all pre-painted plastics sold in unit boxes.
I remember us having a big meeting at Gencon as they told us about it. And I remember very well the American sales rep telling everyone that they knew we were upset, and people were already talking about keeping the "classic" game alive. But he was sure that in a years time, no one would be talking about that any more. And he was right, because in a years time the company was out of business and the game was no more. They had stopped all current production while they tried to startup this new game that no one wanted, and which there were no models out for (and no way to transition your old armies to it either). So their sales went to near zero and eventually they went bankrupt.
People have tried to bring the game back. Cool-mini-or-not got the license for a while, and put out a playtest version that was hated by everyone so much they abandoned it to start over.
Last year another company did a kickstarter to bring back Confrontation classic - the old rules with the original models all redone on PLASTIC (but not pre-painted). I believe their goal was to fund the switch to plastic, then come out with a new rule set next year with plastic miniatures already ready to go. Unfortunately things have not gone as they hoped, and while they say they are still going to fulfill the kickstarter, it is with METAL models, not plastic. And they are having financial troubles as well.
At the time it was a good skirmish game, and the models were amazing. Some of the sculptors have also done work for the Wrath of Kings game, and specifically the House Goritsi skorza miniatures look just like the Wolfen and Devourers.
Because it is all fun and games . . .
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