Musings on Army Building:
Part 4 — Moving to the House of Plastic
Guest Article by Will Shick
I started collecting Rackham miniatures several years ago with the release of Confrontation 3. Back then a force consisted of 20 models or less and amounted to no greater then 400 AP. It was a fun skirmish system, but the main attraction was the beautifully sculpted miniatures. With the release of Confrontation: The Age of the Rag'narokI was dismayed to find that my finely tuned skirmish forces were ridiculously small for the new system. Instead of 400 AP of individual models, forces now consisted of 3000 AP of fully formed units. After reading the new rules set and scoping out the beautiful new miniatures I decided to try my hand at turning my Wolfen band into a army worthy of the Rag'narok!
Confrontation 3 had been individual based, while Confrontation:AOR is unit based. In addition to having to create complete units, there are also very strict army composition rules in the form of banners. Therefore I decided to start by seeing how my small force of individual models fit into the new system.
Old Force
| 2 Great Fangs | 4 Hunters |
| 3 Predators of Blood | 1 Sylvan Animae |
| 1 Wolfen Vestal | 1 Repentant |
| 1 Rune Guardian | Onyx the Prowler |
| 3 Predators of Blood | 1 Sylvan Animae |
Looking at the new Wolfen army book, I joyfully discovered that I had a better starting force then I had originally thought. The 4 Hunters fulfilled not only the minimum unit size, but also the compulsory Rank 1 slot in my banner. Though I only had two Great Fangs, thanks to the specialist unit attachments I was able to form a complete unit of 2 Great Fangs, a Repentant, and a Rune Guardian which gave me a very decent Rank 2 unit. Finally the 3 Predators of Blood were reincarnated as a Bloodthirsty Predators unit. With no effort at all my old army looked like this:
| 4 Hunters | 425 AP |
| 4 Great Fangs with Repentant and Rune Guardian | 550 AP |
| 3 Bloodthirsty Predators | 525 AP |
| Grand Total | 1500 AP |
Without any incarnates I was halfway to my goal of 3000 AP. After some quick math I realized it would only take a few simple purchases to bring my force up to par. As I browsed the FFG website I discovered everything I needed was available online. Under the new system, incarnates like Asgarh, Irix the Ultimate Edition, and Killyox became useful and respectable choices. Without a second thought they were all in my shopping cart. I also picked up 2 boxes of Fang warriors, a Great Fang UA box, a Waning Moon Worg, and two blisters of Sylvan Animae. With one quick and easy shopping trip my final banner looked like this:
| 8 Fangs with Onyx, Rune Guardian, Repentant | 960 AP |
| 4 Great Fangs with Repentant and Rune Guardian | 550 AP |
| 3 Bloodthirsty Predators | 525 AP |
| 1 Worg with Asgarh | 660 AP |
| 6 Sylvan Animae | 300 AP |
| Grand Total | 2995 AP |
Hopefully this article has inspired those veterans of Confrontation 3 to dust off the metal and get in on the Rag'narok! The process of turning my small Confrontation band into a fully fledged army of destruction has been so enjoyable that I’m already eyeing my Tir-na-bor force and planning. Of course this gives me a great excuse to snatch up some more of Rackham’s amazing pre-painted plastics, but really I think I owe it to the stalwart defenders of the plains. Besides — the Armored Chariot is just so cool I definitely need one…or maybe two…
