Ragnarok2/Confrontation4
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2007 8:41 am
Jean Bey from Rackham has made an announcement regarding the a new version of the Confrontation rules.
This translation of the announcement was taken from the Danger Planet Games message board and was posted my forum member Arkeon.
We hope to have an official translation soon. Thanks to Chad Lascelles for the tip.
Confrontation new set of rules will not be an evolution of Confrontation 3 as Confrontation 3 could be considered an evolution of Confrontation 2. (Confrontation 3.5 was only a slight modification of the system in order to try certain game mechanisms). Confrontation is no longer a fast skirmish game. When a 400pts army fields from 15 to 20 minis, it’s not a skirmish game and when a game lasts more than one hour and 30 minutes, it’s neither fast.
The ambition has always been to develop a game allowing everyone to have fun with gorgeous minis. Rag’Narok v1 was not successful because it was too slow paced / overly complicated and disconnected from Confrontation’s evolution.
Nowadays, Confrontation’s scale is an intermediate between a skirmish and a battle game. This intermediate status is what we want to develop from now on.
Confrontation 3 was the last edition to use a system intended to function with such a large variety of miniatures. To do so it had to increase the number of abilities and to increase the maximal value of all characteristics. But this was detrimental to the coherency and clarity of the entire range of profiles.
This edition is not as convincing as we initially thought and won’t be sustainable in the long term. For the sake of comparison, AT-43 rules have a high playability and a great strategic depth. This is what we aim with the new Confrontation; a stable system focused on fun, quality and originality.
Some of the elite troops should have a legendary status and certain champions should be re-evaluated. To solve these problems we are building a new set of rules and profiles for Confrontation simultaneously. This should give the system a new stability and originality.
Instead of trying to balance 2 games with different formats, the aim is to offer a unique game which could be played as a “super skirmish” game with about 20 minis or as a battle game. Each player can decide which formats suits them. Therefore, we should allow players who are long time supporters and have several armies or the entire range of an army to be able to play their minis with a single set of rules. The minis will be managed as units and the game mechanisms will be inspired from both Confrontation and Rag’Narok.
To do so, it is necessary to start from simpler game principles (but not simplistic) which offer richness and not unnecessary complexity. The focus should be on combination of troops and not on combination of abilities.
However, we will keep the mechanisms that have been successful and make the tactical specificity of Confrontation such as the strategic draw.
Confrontation rules will be presented in book format but the rules core will be made freely available online as it is already the case for AT-43. This online release will happen before the rules go to print which will enable the players to avoid small mistakes and imprecisions of the rules. It will not be a beta but a pre-release. The actual book should be released in September.
Concerning Dogs of War, it will still be possible to play small companies and to follow their evolution. Fortification will also make a comeback and they are going to release plastic terrain elements in the next few months.
All existing Confrontation minis will still be playable. The new profiles will be available under different forms:
· online = free
· In the new Confrontation releases and in the armies supplements (army book)
· as pack of cards containing all of the army profiles and which will be released at a specially low price
Each supplement will contain the history of a faction, its vision of the Rag’Narok, the presentation of the troops, characters, spell, miracles, artefacts and a small Cadwallon chapter. Each army will have its own army scheme which will guarantee the equilibrium between regulars and elites while keeping a different gameplay between the factions.
We were the first to introduce the use of cards to offer a “ready to play” system but it’s no longer helpful for the playability of the game. What used to be a strength is now a weakness. The notion of a rank 4 will disappear but they will release Major allies, avatars and so on…
While I writes this message, 6 army supplements are being written and they are going to start a first play test of these 6 armies which will also help streamlining the ruleset.
We are also going to modify the release schedule in order to produce new releases for each army on a regular basis while focusing on the most recent armies. This theme will be developed further next Monday.
This translation of the announcement was taken from the Danger Planet Games message board and was posted my forum member Arkeon.
We hope to have an official translation soon. Thanks to Chad Lascelles for the tip.
Confrontation new set of rules will not be an evolution of Confrontation 3 as Confrontation 3 could be considered an evolution of Confrontation 2. (Confrontation 3.5 was only a slight modification of the system in order to try certain game mechanisms). Confrontation is no longer a fast skirmish game. When a 400pts army fields from 15 to 20 minis, it’s not a skirmish game and when a game lasts more than one hour and 30 minutes, it’s neither fast.
The ambition has always been to develop a game allowing everyone to have fun with gorgeous minis. Rag’Narok v1 was not successful because it was too slow paced / overly complicated and disconnected from Confrontation’s evolution.
Nowadays, Confrontation’s scale is an intermediate between a skirmish and a battle game. This intermediate status is what we want to develop from now on.
Confrontation 3 was the last edition to use a system intended to function with such a large variety of miniatures. To do so it had to increase the number of abilities and to increase the maximal value of all characteristics. But this was detrimental to the coherency and clarity of the entire range of profiles.
This edition is not as convincing as we initially thought and won’t be sustainable in the long term. For the sake of comparison, AT-43 rules have a high playability and a great strategic depth. This is what we aim with the new Confrontation; a stable system focused on fun, quality and originality.
Some of the elite troops should have a legendary status and certain champions should be re-evaluated. To solve these problems we are building a new set of rules and profiles for Confrontation simultaneously. This should give the system a new stability and originality.
Instead of trying to balance 2 games with different formats, the aim is to offer a unique game which could be played as a “super skirmish” game with about 20 minis or as a battle game. Each player can decide which formats suits them. Therefore, we should allow players who are long time supporters and have several armies or the entire range of an army to be able to play their minis with a single set of rules. The minis will be managed as units and the game mechanisms will be inspired from both Confrontation and Rag’Narok.
To do so, it is necessary to start from simpler game principles (but not simplistic) which offer richness and not unnecessary complexity. The focus should be on combination of troops and not on combination of abilities.
However, we will keep the mechanisms that have been successful and make the tactical specificity of Confrontation such as the strategic draw.
Confrontation rules will be presented in book format but the rules core will be made freely available online as it is already the case for AT-43. This online release will happen before the rules go to print which will enable the players to avoid small mistakes and imprecisions of the rules. It will not be a beta but a pre-release. The actual book should be released in September.
Concerning Dogs of War, it will still be possible to play small companies and to follow their evolution. Fortification will also make a comeback and they are going to release plastic terrain elements in the next few months.
All existing Confrontation minis will still be playable. The new profiles will be available under different forms:
· online = free
· In the new Confrontation releases and in the armies supplements (army book)
· as pack of cards containing all of the army profiles and which will be released at a specially low price
Each supplement will contain the history of a faction, its vision of the Rag’Narok, the presentation of the troops, characters, spell, miracles, artefacts and a small Cadwallon chapter. Each army will have its own army scheme which will guarantee the equilibrium between regulars and elites while keeping a different gameplay between the factions.
We were the first to introduce the use of cards to offer a “ready to play” system but it’s no longer helpful for the playability of the game. What used to be a strength is now a weakness. The notion of a rank 4 will disappear but they will release Major allies, avatars and so on…
While I writes this message, 6 army supplements are being written and they are going to start a first play test of these 6 armies which will also help streamlining the ruleset.
We are also going to modify the release schedule in order to produce new releases for each army on a regular basis while focusing on the most recent armies. This theme will be developed further next Monday.
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Mada kolikom brzinom farbam armiju i koliko igram...