Confrontation: Age of Ragnarok (CaoR) is a game I've had a recent interest in. For those that don't know, CaoR is one of two flagship games produced by Rackham Entertainment, a French gaming company. Most gamers either love or hate Rackham; the reason being it's change of direction by doing away with it's metal range and going with prepainted miniatures. Those who hate Rackham do so because of this change, and those that love them are loyal to the core regardless of the change.
I tip my hat to Rackham for heading in such a bold direction. Miniature gaming is more a lifestyle choice and less of a hobby in my eyes, where one dedicates hours to painting their models before a die is ever rolled in anger (my wife tells me I should be married to my minis I spend so much time on them). As I've gotten older, I know that real life trumps the hobby, and less time can be devoted to it. Miniature gaming is also affected by other industries, such as video games, where a just a disk needs to poppled in a hard drive and, voila, instant gratification.
Rackham, with its concentration on the gaming aspect of the hobby, as opposed to the hobby aspect, has hit the nail on the head. They've created a product that you can take home and play right out of the box. It's prepainted miniatures are the best you will find, it's studio paintjobs are excellent and with a bit of effort, can be touched up and repainted to be the same quality you would be able to achieve on GW product.
Regardless of that change, what attracted me to CaoR was the artwork, the original metal model range (which in my opinion was one of the best sculpted miniature ranges and can still be found at a great discount and used in the game) and the fact that it was a game not produced by the English or Americans, which gives it a bit of an exotic touch. The ruleset is very solid as well, being simple enough to pick up without being over-complicated. I've picked up a few of the old metal models, which I have started to paint and have posted pictures of below.
Above, I've painted a Wolfen Repentant. The background for these Wolfen is that they are failed challengers for the pack leadership, cast out for a time and only let back in under their current guise. I don't have the CaoR rules for him, but apparently adding a Repentant to your Fang and Great Fang units will bolster their ability to take damage and keep on fighting.
I've got a few more Temple and Wolfen minis I'd like to paint, and hopefully be able to post up here in due time!
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