Overview:
The following is a short review of At-43: Operation Frostbite, an expansion and campaign supplement for the AT-43 tabletop miniatures game. This review will address the contents of the boxed set and the campaign book. I have not played through the campaign system yet, so there are bound to be details I have not encountered.

Background:
For those unfamiliar, AT-43 is a sci-fi tabletop miniatures game played with miniatures of soldiers, armored fighting vehicles, walkers, etc. The original game rules and subsequent armor books form the core of the gaming system. There are also two other supplements, AT-43 Tactics, a tabletop RPG system, and AT-43 Operation Damocles, which was the original campaign setting for this system.

Operation Frostbite is both a new game expansion and a campaign system rolled into one. The 128 page full color rulebook has new units and heroes for all four of the current armies: UNA, Red Blok, Therian, and Karman. In addition, there is a comprehensive campaign system covering the battles for control of Elysee, the ice planet contested by all four galactic powers.

Components:
Operation Frostbite contains: a 128-page full color Campaign Book, a 16-page Gaming Aid (scenario book), 13 new cards (minefields, artillery strikes, and Karl, a Karman engineer), twelve double-sided terrain tiles, three pre-painted civilian engineer figures, and two pre-painted Elysium Crystal terrain pieces.

The Books:

Operation Frostbite consists of two books: the main book and the gaming aid, which is really a book of the scenario maps and some campaign tracking and summary sheets. I will not cover every rule, but instead will attempt to describe the general gist of the main book.

First, there is the obligatory fluff section on why everyone is fighting on one planet. This is actually a decent set of fluff, explaining that the planet has mineral deposits useful to the Red Blok for the production of their super alloy armor. It was, however, originally a Therian experimental planet which was seeded with Karmans. As a result, the Red Blok and Karmans came into conflict quickly one the Red Blok arrived to begin mining operations. At the same time, an AI consciousness called Babel, having arisen within the Therian networks, chose this remote location full of old Therian equipment as its base. Finally, the UNA discovered that the Red Blok were mining for their precious ore and launched an attack on the Red Blok colonies.

Second, the book includes army expansions for all 4 factions. Each army receives a new hero unit. Some, like Babylon.Nina Zero from the Therians, are quite powerful. Each army receives a new unit of troops, and a new transport vehicle. In addition, each army gets a new troop type called "support units." These units appear to be Rackham's ingenious solution to their previous packaging issues. To make a long story short, when buying units one often ended up with extra special weapons bearers and other specialists you could not use. Rackham has solved that problem by allowing every army to take small units of specialists on their own or as garrison units for bunkers. These units have a lot of firepower, but their small numbers (2-3 for a support unit, 4-6 for a bunker unit) make them vulnerable to concentrated fire. I found this to be an elegant solution to an annoying problem.

Third, the book contains a campaign system for recreating the battles for Elysee. The system assumes 4 players, one of each faction. Although the book has a short paragraph suggesting it can be played with fewer players or a different mix of factions, it is not readily apparent how one would do so. There is, however, a clear provision for the scenarios to be played individually, as one-offs. Each scenario has a "Rapid Deployment" section for playing them individually. Based on some recent plays, some of these campaign scnearios may be unbalanced when played as one-offs.

As a side note, I found that Operation: Frostbite has fewer translation errors or "Frenchisms" in it than previous At-43 products, resulting in an easier read and more comprehensible rules.

Campaign Rules:
The meat of the campaign is the three theaters of operations. There is one theater controlled initially by Karmans, one by Therians, and one by Red Blok. The UNA, a Johnny-come-lately to the planet, have no controlled sector. When I say "controlled", what I mean is that several locations on the theater map are already occupied by the faction. The map-based campaign system is difficult to describe without a visual aid. Suffice it to say there is a map with one HQ location for each faction, and about 6 or 7 potential battlegrounds linked together by "access zones". At the beginning of the campaign, in Phase 1, each player creates 3, 2000- point armies for the "reconnaissance" phase. Each campaign turn or "week", players buy reinforcement troops, special abilities and equipment, with "MP" earned from their battles.

Players then move their units on the map by an initiative system. After all moves are completed, all battles are fought using the scenario for the particular location, such as an airfield, mine, or strategic pass. It is possible to have more than one company of the same sub-faction fight against a single enemy company, so operational maneuver is possible. It is possible to attack an enemy army of 2000 points with 2 armies of your own. After 3 campaign turns or "weeks", Phase 2, or the "battle" phase, begins. Each player increases their existing platoons to 3000 points and gets an additional 3000 point platoon. Then, the battles are fought again on the same map, but with different mission rules. In effect, each scenario on the book is actually two scenarios staged over the same terrain. Phase 2 lasts for 4 turns or "weeks". To make matter more interesting, ambitious players can play up to 3 theaters simultaneously, if desired.

There is also an experience system, similar to that used in the Damocles campaign, whereby players can roll a veteran ability for units that survived a battle for every 10 victory points achieve during the battle.

In sum, the campaign system seems logical, fun, fluffy (story-driven) and playable. There may be some exploits in there waiting to be abused, but it will take more than my initial reading of the rules to detect them.


Bitz:
Operation: Frostbite also includes 12 reversible winter terrain tiles which are compatible with the existing AT-43 terrain tiles and maps. These are full color and have a glossy finish for withstanding intensive use. Also included are 3 civil engineer figures. These are standard civilians with some tech gear. They are actually quite useful in the game, as any company can take up to three for free, and the engineers provide 50 reinforcement points each per control phase, giving a player more ways to get their reinforcements on the board in the many scenarios that use them. There are also two plastic three dimensional crystal bases. These look good and they have a game effect of providing "resonance" with Karman units, giving them a cover save even when they are not in cover. The pieces are sturdy and look good. The crystals do not stay on the bases very well, however, but any gamer with a bottle of super glue can remedy the situation.

Other observations:
Rackham did a nice job with this supplement in servicing the needs of the player base. In addition to giving everyone something new, they cleaned up three things which seem small but are big improvements. First, they create the support squads. this regards those players who bought a bunch of troops and have leftover specialists hanging around. Now we didn't waste our money. This was a very smart move by Rackham.

Second, they changed a tiny rule that could give you fits: the assault/reinforcement split. Previously, in most scenarios every army had to have an assault element and a reinforcement element. This was typically characterized by a 1500/500 split in points, for example. Technically, you could not reduce your assault points and increase your reinforcement points. For example, it was previously against the rules to have an assault force of 1300 and a reinforcement force of 700. This led to some awkward acrobatics in force creation. This overly technical rule has been explicitly rescinded in Operation: Frostbite, much to the relief of AT-43 players everywhere, I imagine.

Finally, Rackham seems to be watching the game for balance. There are rumors that the Karmans are a relatively underpowered. Operation: Frostbite includes not one but two goodies for the Karman army in general: the Crystals, which can be purchased as part of the Karman army, and the "Karmic Warrior" option. "Karmic Warrior" allows a Karman unit to force an opponent to re-roll a round of shooting or other attacks, or allows the unit to re-roll its own attacks, once per game, at a cost of +5 points a model. So, Rackham is looking out for play balance and is taking steps to fix any issues. I cannot guarantee that the fixes are perfect, but Rackham is clearly putting in the effort.

There are a few small flaws with Operation: Frostbite, of course. One annoying flaw is that the stats for the bunker, which is used in a number of the campaign scenarios and even included as a template for those who have not purchased the official plastic one, was omitted from the book. The stats are online however, at Rackham's forum. (Armor 17, Structure Points: 4, Roof points: 2!!) In addition, the rules are not laid out in the most logical or easily-digestible manner. This is standard problem for Rackham. To their credit, the inclusion of a campaign summary sheet in the gaming aid is quite useful for clearing up any confusion in the main text.


Bottom Line:
Operation Frostbite is a first-rate product and a fine addition to the AT-43 line. It provides new goodies for players of every faction, fixed some problems with the existing system, and provides a new setting with comprehensive campaign rules. As usual, Rackham's production quality is very high. Although the expansion seems pricey at the MSRP of $59.99, when you consider that you get an army expansion book, campaign rules, pre-painted miniatures and terrain, and a reversible gaming mat the price is pretty reasonable. If you like AT-43, this expansion is definitely a worthy addition to your collection. 8.5 out of 10.