Review on the game:
After reading the rules i find that there were few but rather significant changes to the Confrontation. For those who played the earlier editions, this one will seem simplified and somewhat streamlined to reduce record keeping and die rolling. for those who are just getting into the game, this version of Confrontation will feel a bit like in between WH40k and WMH in terms of complexity and gameplay. the feel is rather unique though as there are a lot of game system aspects that people dont often see in tabletop miniatures strat games.
the game is played in rounds and each round is split into 3 main sequences from what i can see:
1.Force preparation
players stack their units' cards to determine sequence in which these are going to be activated. the new book offers some interesting ways of doing so instead of the self determined way. one example is to shuffle all the different players' decks so that activation will be really random.
after the matter of the cards is done, players roll something like an initiative check, to see which side gets to reveal and/or activates their card first. there are also certain other benefits to winning this roll every round besides getting to choose who activates first, as this roll is also linked to mission objectives and stuff. The roll is actually 1d6 + the authority value of your force's commander, this is to represent how organized one army is over the other. for instance, goblins will have one tough time winning this phase over an army of say Lions (the imperial in rackhams universe)
2.Gameplay proper
Players Take turns taking activating their different units, based on the order in which the cards are revealed from their decks. Once a unit is activated it gets to move, shoot, cast magic, and do melee. Timing activations seems to play a significant role in the game, as there are significant benefits to attacking units which have not yet activated for that round.
the Magic in the game is divided into two main types, Faith and ... ummm Mana based. the Mana school seems to be the standards cast cast regenerate mana cast cast cast... the Faith magic however is more interesting. Mana is replaced by Faith Points, these in turn are generated by the number of 'faithful' there are in your unit. So say a shaman joins a unit of particularly zealous believers, their magic actually gets better.
one strange point i noticed is how the game resolves ranged attacks. Ranged weapons are not given a range limit, instead units with ranged attacks are given skill levels with their weapon. they choose a target and the distance is the difficulty of the shot, which they have to beat given their roll + their skill. one thing i didnt like about that section though was that distance is measured from the leader of shooting unit to the leader of targetted unit irregardless of other models in both units.
the way to kill units in the game is by taking out all their wounds. most units now have one wound. tougher models get multiple wounds, 2-4 if im not mistaken. each attack that succeeds takes out one wound. so the only way to kill a model outright is to charge it with multiple attacks. I prefer this over their old system in that you dont need to keep track of 3 levels of wounds for 'all' models on the table. also in the old game each wound level actually changed the stats of the model, which was another headache to keep track of especially for horde armies like gobblins and undead.
3.Consolidate for next round
this is like the breather round. after all the units have been activated, players consolidate by calculating their mana, faithpoints, and meeting victory conditions for that game, before starting the next round. Players also resolve expired spells and other game effects.
LOL yes i write a crappy game review but i hope that the above made sense haha. Anyway the game is of medium difficulty and should be easy to pick up for those who are only starting to venture into the miniatures strategy game genre. The models now come pre-painted, which in a way is a plus to new players, and the games still seem to be of a smaller scale than the games-workshop lines, as the rules are really more for skirmish level games IMHO as they would seem a bit to cumbersome for large scale armies and more cards to rearrange.
Review on the Rulebook:
if you like to know more about the world in which these armies take part in, buy this book. not only does it contain decent fluff on most of the armies (some are not mentioned, not sure if they have killed those off or maybe they banded with the other armies), but the rulebook is also very pretty. Its filled with really nice art and the models showcased are eyecandy.
however in my personal opinion, if you just want to go ahead and start playing, get another person to explain the game for you. the rulebook is really not that reader friendly. the topics jump from one section to another and refference to rules are particularly bad in some sections (especially those where they refer to a rule that is like 7 pages further into the book). One really bad note on the rulebook is that it will keep ask you to 'refer to army book' the magic and the characters section are practically near useless as they dont even give an example of actual spells or character profiles... they do tell you how to use these once they are in front of you... yeah so go get your army's armybook now XD
anyway the game has been simplified so the basic rules section is pretty straightforward read, its the advance section that i feel needs most of the work. oh and they also show you a template but an actual one that you can photocopy is not provided (they show a photo of the template marker they sell) in the book for those Area of effect attacks... that are also in the army books XD
yup thats my take on the Confrontation 4th ed.
Im willing to give this game a go, but only if there is a community that will actually take it up here. the models are not cheap, but they are nice.
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