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AT-43: Actual Play

By July 31, 2013November 17th, 2021Battle Reports, Miniatures Games, Videos

As one of the few surviving AT-43 players in the known universe, I feel the need to wax lyrical about this excellent, and yet sadly defunct, sci-fi tabletop wargame now and again. So it’s time for something just a little bit different from the EOG this week, as we take a short trip back in time—2011, to be exact—and drop you into the beating heart of an AT-43 game played between myself and my good gaming buddy, Will.

Will, by the way, has recently self-published an excellent WWII adventure yarn called Blood and Blitzkrieg, and I urge those of you you enjoy that sort of thing to get on over to his website and check out his pen scratchings.

Back to the desperate struggle for survival on an alien world, or perhaps my desperate struggle with the name of the Therian war machine. Galgath? Golgath? Galgoth? No, dammit, the thing’s called a Golgoth! Get it right!

The question is, of course, did you find this little snippet amusing? Because if you did, I’ve discovered a few other things in the same vein in the dusty archives here in the basement of the EOG. If not, feel free to let me know so I don’t inflict this personal level of torment upon you again.

Tormented or pleasured, the response of ‘liking’ and ‘subscribing’ to the EOG YouTube channel is always welcome. You know you want to!

30 Comments

  • Will says:

    Aah, it’s been too long between AT-43s … it is indeed an excellent game.

    Love the way the plane comes over in the middle there, giving a good impression of the Sonic Cannon going off on the tabletop. My apologies to all for the atrrrroooocccccious side-on camera-work, clearly video is not my forte.

    • Universal Head says:

      Also giving a good impression of life in inner-city Sydney, which I have now happily forsaken for New Zealand.

      Don’t worry Will, if this post proves popular we’ll be seeing you here at the EOG again (but not handling the camera next time).

  • Cory Gerleman says:

    Wonderful! I love AT-43, and don’t get to play it nearly enough. The karmans tripped my fancy long before I ventured into tabletop minis games… Saw them in some FFG catalogs, and drooled over them… Few things beat gorillas with guns!

    • Universal Head says:

      It’s definitely a Paolo Parente thing; I notice gorillas are being sneaked into Dust Tactics/Warfare these days too …

  • kevin schuler says:

    The one game I collect all the minis and manuals… and it goes under, I loved it although it was hard to find someone to play.

    • Universal Head says:

      I hear you Kevin, I did the same. But it’s still a great game and I have more than enough stuff to enjoy many, many great games of it in the future. And in a way, it’s nice to have a great collection of something that won’t be expanded forever and ever, with the resulting endless drain on the wallet …

  • Will says:

    Ah ha Kevin, despair ye not! If you have Peter’s excellent rules summary you can teach someone in a relatively short time.

    Plus I seem to recall that he also completely re-designed all of the unit cards to make them more comprehensible … see http://www.orderofgamers.com/games/at-43

    As for the Karmans Cory, I too found them irresistible, but it was hard to win with them because each figure costs so much you tend to get entire squads wiped out quite rapidly, while the pesky humans swarm in thousands over the barricades…

    • Universal Head says:

      All this will be illustrated when I upload our next mighty clash, because it just so happens to feature the damn dirty apes …

      • Universal Head says:

        Oh and by the way. Will, meet Cory. Cory, meet Will. Will, Cory is the evil reprobate who lured me into the world of Confrontation, the fantasy equivalent of AT-43, which we’ll be playing next time you visit. He has been directly responsible for costing me large amounts of money.

  • David says:

    Will, Peter…you are not alone. There are some here in the New World that still play this outstanding game. I enjoyed the video and especially your unbridled enthusiam for AT-43.

  • Chris says:

    AT-43 is still a great game, I played a massive 10,000 points per side game over Christmas, my Karman against UNA.

    And I have just been buying up Cogs on eBay to have a go with them!

    I like the new site and use all the AT-43 cards from here, great work.

  • Mattias Juhlin says:

    any more AT-43 battles coming up soon? 😛 Im still not over the license hasnt been picked up yet .. instead we have melee 40fantasy of sigmar @ its 12th edition running the same rules since the 80s. Depressing 😛

  • CK Lai says:

    Really wish I could pick up the U.N.A. and Therian factions without having to pay an arm and TWO legs for them…

    • Mattias Juhlin says:

      Ive seen a couple of armies sold on ebay recently, UNA and Red Blok, and they havent been all that expensive considering what you get. I got 4 COGs army boxes plus units and lots of Blok, Karmans from ludik bazaar a couple of years ago for basically nothing even with postage included. Now the Cogs have started going up in price as well. Lets not even mention Oni 😛

      • It annoys me how prices get driven up on Ebay for a game that hardly anyone is playing. Its lack of players and future should make leftovers cheaper, not more expensive. But buyers get the ‘rare’ tag stuck in their heads and stick a premium on them.

    • You could easily proxy with Dust figures for UNA and Red Blok. For Therians it’s a bit trickier.

      • CK Lai says:

        Heh. Thanks, UH. But aside from the actual AT-43 game (which everyone says is good which is why I want to try) I want to use the UNA and Therians FOR Dust and Deadzone. Not the other way around 🙂

        • Ah. That reminds me, I wish Parente would get around to making the long-awaited alien race (the Vrill?) for Dust. I cant imagine how the guy’s studio survives, considering how Dust has imploded. A bit of new blood in the form of a new faction could really make a difference, though last I heard they were going to work on a Japanese army, which doesn’t really interest me at all.

          • CK Lai says:

            Agreed. Instead, they are re-hashing the Axis, Allies and SSU in desert uniforms. Sighhh… talk about going too often to the well. I’m totally not interested, whereas if they had added a new faction (especially the Vrill) I would’ve been all over it.

  • Jim Hopper says:

    I have a bunch of UNA, Therians and Red Blok and we’re starting to play again after a long period. Really looking forward to it

  • Fred says:

    Hello… perhaps if some have the game and the maps as I see them here… people who want to play online
    can use a simple digital interface and play on the same (master) map with the one who have the map and
    units… so it could be possible to play…

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