Confrontation or Confrontation?

Whilst having a chat with the other Wipster's (as we do on an almost constant basis, seriously we are worse than 14 year old girls when it comes to mobile communication) the subject of Confrontation came up. Some of my illustrious brethren were discussing the impact that the original appearance of Confrontation in White Dwarf all those many moons ago. We were also discussing the game in general. Now, it is important as this point to note that there were a varied amount of opinions and they can be broken down into the following basic groups.

1. Confrontation is a fantastic background but I wouldn't touch the game with a Captain Crooks's floppy barge pole.
2. Confrontation is a unique creation and I'd love to play it as it was originally intended.
3. Confrontation should be completed and published in a form as near to a finished item as possible.  

Let's examine these in a little more detail

1. Confrontation is a fantastic background but I wouldn't touch the game with a Captain Crooks's floppy barge pole.

Confrontation was published in several White Dwarfs in the early '90's. It painted a picture of life in the hive cities of the Imperium and focused on the ultra-violent gang warfare that went on between the inhabitants. The writing and the images were the first in depth look at life beyond the front lines of war. There were no aliens or wide open battlefields, just claustrophobic corridors and steel roofs. The range of gangs and the concept sketches gave a new vision of conflict in the warhammer universe. The rules, on the other hand, stunk. They are based on Laserburn and were hampered by endless numbers of modifiers to shooting and combat. Using a percentage base numbers were added or subtracted for range, weapon, injuries, ammunition, cover etc. A large part of shooting was a long list of multiplications and subtractions before you got anywhere near rolling a dice and some people cannot stand the idea of having a calculator anywhere near their game of toy soldiers. The method was resurrected in Inquisitor and the same maths based fury has afflicted other gamers with that game (oddly enough they mind it less in RPG's -go figure). The basic issue is that despite some people loving the background of the game the ruleset itself just turns them off big style. Some would happily play a Confrontation game using a different ruleset but that leads us to another question. Is it a game of Confrontation if you use Confrontation figures and background but use (because it's current) Rogue Stars as rules? Furthermore, is it a game of Confrontation if you use random Copplestone Future wars figures and Rogue Stars but set it in Palatine Hive?

2.Confrontation is a unique creation and I'd love to play it as it was originally intended.

The second point of view is that Confrontation had such an effect on it's release that it has stayed with us for all these 25 years or so. At the time we have dabbled at playing it and tried to get a hold of the figures but we never quite got there. Now that we are older and wiser and have been able to hoard our little collections of classic/limited/unreleased Confrontation figures and been able to gather copies of the unreleased rules, we want to give it a go. We want to have a go at playing the game that has stuck with us all these years, that we have sweated over ebay for, that we have made clandestine deals in the back allies behind Frothers for. We know that it'll be a bit of a pain and that it'll be slow and probably have large chunks that don't make sense or don't work and that we'll have to use our considerable intellect to solve basic problems but we don't mind. We relish it in fact, we are like gaming masochists, reveling in the pain of a complex and painful system in order to get the game we have dreamed of. Struggling through modifiers and charts that are 25 years old with smiles on our faces in way that totally belies our total impatience of multiple modifiers and charts that have been published in the last week or so (hello again Rogue Stars!). Playing a game of confrontation is an extension of our extended nostalgia trip. An extension into a game we desperately wanted to play but were never quite able to manage. Wish fulfillment for grey hairs.

3. Confrontation should be completed and published in a form as near to a finished item as possible. 

There is of course a third view which is an extension of the last. Some people feel cheated by the lack of development that went into Confrontation and feel that, in these days of laptop publishing and photoshop experts living on every street corner, it should be possible to complete the rules. Using the playtest copies that float around the ether and the existing illustrations alongside pictures of painted miniatures from various fans around the world, it should be possible to put together a product that is as near to the intended item as possible. Recreating a set of rules that were never completed or published in the style of the time is like the holy grail of old school gaming, a product of it's time but never actually available. Will somebody ever go as far as carrying out this daft wish? I doubt it. Unless someone has enough money and enough time I can't see it being anything but a pipe dream but it's a lovely pipe dream to have.

So there you have it. Not a definitive view on the subject but a rough idea of how some of the Wipsters view Confrontation and hopefully the start of a debate about this odd, dormant, beast of a game. So come on. Lets debate.