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overtyrant wrote:
It's funny that some people claim that KS is driving business away from FLGS unfairly then you have MM that seems to me that they are driving business to them unfairly due to their price cuts, kind of like Amazon really. I'm just glad that there isn't a MM here in the UK, or the EU for that matter!

I've gotten 60-70% off Mantic more than a few times in the UK, northstar and ebay clearance sales happen sometimes.

Not a regular thing though.

A larger issue from a FLGS perspective is probably stuff like DBX being sold at 50% off on the Mantic store itself.

I do know that my local store isn't overly pleased with them kickstarting most things and the stock they have is quite static. They do back their Kickstarters as a retailer though, mainly a case of making the best of the situation.

So, is there a pledge manager for the Warpath kickstarter yet?

Not yet, no. I wouldn't bet on it coming before January imo

Purely my opinion but I think it would make sense at this stage to hold off on it until Xmas is done and people have had at least one month to recover.

Any word on when the DeadZone 2 KS stuff ships?

None and no update now for 3 weeks Mantic has gone very quiet on the subject which normally means delays I just don't see it shipping in January now. We have yet to see the jet bike, shredders, Steel Warriors or terrain sprues

Rules are in the process of coming together, they are a bit different from previous versions of Deadzone and are undergoing multiple iterations to polish them.

They seem to be trying to figure out some way to cope with the very vocal fall out from the Dungeon Saga misprinits/missing content that isn't going to involve them reprinting anything or shipping anything else to backers,

(Edit: personally I'd go for stickers to add page numbers and change what needs changing made available to all KS backers who actually requests them, cheap to send out and relatively cheap to print especially as a lot of people won't bother, but it will show they are willing to fix the fixable problems)

I would also hope they're having a thorough investigation about how the screw ups happened and who was responsible (other than Ronnie overpromising which they aren't going to be able to solve)

so hopefully they don't get the same on the incoming projects

Dungeon Saga issues mostly come down to missing scenarios, something which should be easy to remedy with an additional .pdf with all of the scenarios and maybe a few more.

I wonder if all the moaning and gnashing of teeth is due to a different crowd than usual for Mantic- more board gamers than the usual wargamers and hobbyists?

While I'm a bit miffed about the missing scenarios, and would much prefer having them printed than in pdf format, I also know the community will end up ironing out any kinks in the Invisible Overlord system... at least until Mantic ends up doing a Dungeon Saga 2.0 rulebook or something.

 scarletsquig wrote:
Dungeon Saga issues mostly come down to missing scenarios, something which should be easy to remedy with an additional .pdf with all of the scenarios and maybe a few more.

edit: Guess I should have checked KS today

Anyone at the mantic open day? They've got some of the vehicles from the warpath kickstarter on display that I'd imagine people would appreciate pictures of.

All courtesy of @FistyGlueMan on twitter:

Vehicle 3d prints:









Sprues:

Fisty Glue Man on twitter has pictures of the vehicle 3D prints, and test shots of Rat, Spacedorf and DZI terrain sprues

edit: Beaten like a red headed ork

Thanks for posting, such cool stuff!

It seems Deadzone is changing to 3x3 wonder how that will work with the current mats and will the new one be changed to 3x3. I always thought 2x2 was a bit small but for a more hybrid board game style game I could understand it.

Fisty Glue Man ‏@FistyGlueMan 24m24 minutes ago

... 3x3 feet board (instead of 2x2), diferent rules for LOS (simpler). But still compatible with existing minis and terrains

Fisty Glue Man ‏@FistyGlueMan 16m16 minutes ago

And finally they have some plans about an updated version of Project Pandora, similar to what they did for Dungeon Saga

Having 4x mats 3x3' is acceptable to me but that's a pretty big departure from the original game, and people just bought new pats for DZI in the 2x2' size when companies are readily cranking out 3x3 mats... I'll reserve judgement till I see the redux rules I guess.

Models look nice. Tunneler and asterian ship look much larger than the tank...which is supposed to be better than the size of a rhino so either its too small or those are huge...wish they had a mini in for scale.

Thanks for sharing

Gotta be honest, I'm less and less of a fan as each bit of news about the DZI revamp comes out

Do we know when the new Deadzone rules are being revealed (at least I'm beta form)?

I can't see 4x 3x3 being practical for me . . . I don't even have space for 4x 2x2 as it is. On the other hand, 1 3x3 mat would definitely be better than 1 2x2 mat, and I'll most likely be playing with one or two mats, maximum. So this could be good.

The tunneler and Asterian flyer look really good, but really big. I've been seeing a fair amount of chatter from 40K gamers recently about large vehicles being unwieldy for 28mm miniature wargames - I don't think that's anything new, it's just that I've recently become aware of it. (I follow 40K only sporadically and I mostly play skirmish games. Actually, I mostly think about playing skirmish games.) Long story short, I'm coming to agree with them. I just don't have a practical use for large vehicles or space to field them. So if I bought a tunneler, say, just because I like the Veer-myn and it looks fantastic, I'd probably never use it. Which is fine, but makes it even more of a luxury item. That actually makes the FF tank more appealing with its smaller size, but I'm not a fan of how the turret sits so close to the drop-off on the front of the tank. Looks a bit unstable, like the turret is a bit too large for the design, or should be set back a bit more.

I am thrilled that they are talking about re-launching Project Pandora Dungeon-Saga style. I don't take credit for inventing that idea or raising it first - I have no idea who did and don't care to do the research - but I take a little credit, because I was partly responsible for getting a conversation going during the Warpath KS about the idea that got Mantic interested and actively responding in the comments section. So maybe my role was in reality nil and they were going to do it anyway, but I'll live out my little fantasy and give myself a small pat on the back just the same.

Project Pandora Dungeon Saga style is my dream Mantic game! It would be the perfect gateway drug to get my family interested in Mantic's sci-fi universe, even more so than Mars Attacks, which has been the biggest success so far at home.

My only quibble would be that if I had my druthers, the miniatures would not be pre-assembled, and would be made in a more robust restic, if not hard plastic (although their boardgame plastic reformulations are getting sturdier). But I won't push for that, as in terms of the market it makes no sense and would in fact hurt the game's appeal to a broader boardgaming audience.

I'd be over the moon about this but for Mantic's switch to actual shipping charges from Europe to the USA. But I've already said my piece on that point and won't belabor it; I just hope it doesn't impact the overall participation of US backers / success of the campaign, as I'll be wanting to see as many expansions funded as possible. For myself, this is a project I would have gone in big for in the past. Whether I do now will depend on how tempting they can make the exclusives / benefits of pledging during the kickstarter, whenever it launches, since the contrast with buying retail prices won't be as significant as it once was.

But I'll definitely be in for the base pledge, and rooting for the project all the way. Hot damn! I really hope they can make the most of this. I could see a Project Pandora / Dungeon Quest mash-up becoming the ultimate sci-fi dungeon boardgame and ultimate sci-fi dungeon toolkit. If you want to play PP a la Space Hulk for a simple 2 player vs match, you can. If you want to play PP as a series of narrative DQ quests, you can. There are so many classic sci-fi scenarios that could be played out: Alien is the one that everyone thinks of first, but consider this - even Star Wars began with a Space corridor shoot-out. That said, if they don't include a vicious, more menacingly designed Zz'or faction for bug hunt scenarios, they're fools.

And for people playing Deadzone or Warpath looking for character models to liven up their squads, it's going to be a goldmine.

I wonder if they'll do an optional, 3d plastic space corridor battlezone kit, compatible with their current ones but optimized for Space Hulk style games? (Denser maze patterns possible, better visibility for figures in narrow corridors.) That would definitely be a luxury item, especially in the age of unsubsidized shipping. I'd want it, but probably wouldn't be able to afford a decent set-up. Maybe buy it piecemeal over the years if it is excellent.

Let me close this rambling salivating with a question for ye who have suffered through it:

What do you think? Would it be economically worthwhile for Mantic to invest in a 3-D, plastic sci-fi Space Hulk corridor kit? Is there enough of a market out there for something that pricy? Because in Deadzone, even one battlezone is useful. Tiny buildings work. But in Pandora, if you can't network a good amount of rooms and corridors, requiring a big buy-in, it's not worth it for the consumer.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I just noticed that that Steel Warriors sprue IS the complete Steel Warriors sprue, not one of 2 like the Enforcers have. Personally, I'm disappointed. I'm not a fan of integrated heads, and had intended to do a lot of head swaps on my new FF, which will now be more of a chore to pull off. I know the first Steel Warriors sprue had a few integrated head pieces, but I didn't like them, either, and unlike the new kit, they also had some with separate heads.

I'm sorry to see Mantic skimp on one of their core army sprues like this. It's still a great look for the FF, and will still be useful for people who just want alotta Space Dwarfs on the table, but it doesn't allow for much variation and will be harder to customize than I'd hoped. And making two out of five possible poses so distinctive - the running guy and guy with his foot on a rock - is going to make massed regiments with those identical poses look more silly.

That said, as a Veer-myn player I feel spoiled. The nightcrawler sprue is comparatively luxurious for whatever reason, and the heavy Veer-myn Shredder units will also be hard plastic, making them the only faction outside of the Enforcers (with their Peacekeepers) to get heavies in something other than restic or metal.

So you win some, you lose some. For me at least, the Veer-myn are the big winners of DZ2 and Warpath so far, while Mantic's flagship line, the FF, comes up short. (ha ha.)

Who would have expected that?

How is that the entire FF sprue Verm? Do you have confirmation of someone official saying this? There are only six guns, we're supposed to have options for regular guns, all flamers, and all heavies, or so I believe the updates went. Also, I'm pretty sure that bottom row does not equate to torsos AND heads to match the legs... there *has* to be another sprue. Just has to be.

*I mean to say, how is that sprue the entirety of the steel warriors, there just has to be more than one sprue.

 GrimDork wrote:
How is that the entire FF sprue Verm? Do you have confirmation of someone official saying this? There are only six guns, we're supposed to have options for regular guns, all flamers, and all heavies, or so I believe the updates went. Also, I'm pretty sure that bottom row does not equate to torsos AND heads to match the legs... there *has* to be another sprue. Just has to be.

*I mean to say, how is that sprue the entirety of the steel warriors, there just has to be more than one sprue.

Maybe the other parts of the sprue were deformed and they couldn't get a 100% sprue there in time, so chose to hide the faulty part of the test run to avoid another "melty goblin" scenario?

There has to be a second Steel Warrior sprue there is only 1 Hailstorm rifle on that sprue for a start.

Guys,

I leapt to a conclusion and you straightened me out. Thank you, I needed that.

And I'm greatly relieved.

Thats what i mean Dave, exactly that.

Here's the problem, Fisty Glue Man only took a photo of one of the two sprues

Yeah see, way more arms and parts that look like they'll be torsos and heads when I can take a better look later.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh huh... Looks like they've got empty closed hands that the guns go onto, the rifles at least, much like tactical space marines? Interesting switch from hands-attached to guns all around.

I am less than thrilled to hear these rumors about DZ going to 3x3.

Invalidates their old mats, unless 2x2 remains a viable option.

Models look great though! I wish I could have gone all in on Warpath like I planned to.

Not exactly happy about my SW DZ board getting invalidated either, TBH.

Impressed at how 'full' the veermyn sprue looks, though. They're catching up in terms of sprue density, it seems.

Much obliged, NTRabbit. Now I'm glad I went for 20 of the little guys on DZI.

And thanks to Thraxas for posting the pics here in the first place.

On the Mantic Fantasy thread there's people buzzing about a licensed upcoming post-apocalyptic project that I know everyone's already aware of. Personally, I'm hoping it turns out to be Mad Max, as I would have no interest in that.

If it's Fallout, I'm dead meat. The last thing my budget needs is a second genre to spend money on.