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I actually like Hund; he's a bit like a four-armed tusken raider. I do think Mantic need some sort of explanation for the bizarre morphology of his extra arms, though. I'm thinking a jungle planet origin could do it, with the extra arms useful for vine / tree / rock climbing. Otherwise it's hard to see how they make any biological sense. Maybe they're for back-scratching?

I'm with Blackfang on the Sann-gar being the silliest Warpath alien yet. Say what you like about 80's cartoon awesomeness; that model is currently being sold at FRP at an 80's cartoon awesomeness clearance price for a reason.

So this has mostly passed me by. I'm not fussed by the game or most of the figures, but I like some of the terrain bits they've got. The only pledge levels seem to include a big load of stuff for $100+. Have Mantic said if pledging a smaller amount lets you just pick add ons? I can't see it in the FAQ.

I believe in an early update they posted that you can just pledge for addons, will try to dig out the exact wording.

My wife messaged them to ask that question and they said you can pledge for add ons, select "no reward" and use the credit in the PM for whatever you want.

 lord_blackfang wrote:

 PsychoticStorm wrote:
This must be the silliest alien they have designed so far.

Likely due to the inclusion in Season 2 of the Flash of "King Shark" a Earth 2 Villain.

$385,000: Kr-0m3, Blaine's bodyguard

It's about time they weaponized that great Dreadball robot design.

The person who designed that played a great deal of metroid.

It looks like something that could comfortable fit in with Robotech Tactics minis, too.

I hope it's a cheap enough add on to get multiples.

Yeah.. that's a pass from me. This is why I didn't want Mantic doing a robot "boss" .. It's big and goofy and looks like something from the toy aisle. I wish they would stick to their strengths but alas, others seem happy with it so w/e.

EDIT:
So.. I saw the "final" update.. WOW, this is their strength..

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
It looks like something that could comfortable fit in with Robotech Tactics minis, too.

I hope it's a cheap enough add on to get multiples.

1 added to the base pledge no option to buy more presumably as it will be on a tool with a load of other character miniatures.

No way this will hit $450k in the next 4.5 hours but they have said pledge manager funds will be counted.

the Blight mini boss should make it in though @$400k

My EB is up for grabs.

$400k reached The Blight Nameless mini boss is added.

Last SG The Nameless Monstrosity now @$425k

Well, surely we'll make another 15k in the pledge manager?

It is a safe probability, now we wait to see.


I wonder how much I will regret the decision to keep my pledge.

 PsychoticStorm wrote:
I wonder how much I will regret the decision to keep my pledge.

So they got you, too, huh?

I was really resisting this one. True, the ability to finally use all those Mantic minis I already own is very appealing, and Dungeon crawlers are much more my family's speed than skirmish or full-on tabletop wargames. But I have too many miniatures already, and Mantic really put me off by starting this with so many reposed renders from old campaigns, and then throwing in a bunch of redundant minis straight out of old campaigns. Early on, it was looking like ALL of the proposed expansions were going to be rehashes of existing mini renders: I'm pretty sure that they initially proposed doing Veer-myn, Plague, and Asterians expansions, all of which could come straight from their existing library of renders, paid for by previous kickstarters.

Why I changed my mind:

1. More new content

By the end they really turned it around with new material, particularly the Nameless. If kickstarter campaigns were a martial art, I'd call Mantic's style "Drunken Master." They usually start badly wrong-footed, with a deliberately emaciated core pledge that still looks underfed after they've squandered the initial rush by setting stretch goals too far apart. Then backing stalls out, and they're forced to shorten the distance between goals, "let Ronnie loose," etc., and suddenly they make brilliant pirouettes like bundling a genuinely new Nameless campaign into the core pledge (which could have been included from the beginning, avoiding the stall), not to mention scrapping the Warpath-model-rehash Asterian expansion for a Rebs one. We can argue about whether the Drunken Master technique is the most effective one Mantic can deploy - personally I think they could do a lot better with a stronger initial offering and less seat-of-the-pants lurching around - but what matters is the end result. And in this case, we finally ended up with plenty of new and interesting material.

2. Hats off to the new guys

This Mantic KS campaign felt more responsive to me than other recent ones, and I have to give some of the credit for that to the new guys on the scene, Matt and Rob. It also felt to me like the Mantic lore and universe were being implemented in smart and interesting ways. I wouldn't have expected to see a Matsudan Merc, or a Tsdochan that brought back the excellent heavy guard dreadball armor that went unused when Mantic Mantic made the team all jacks, or a weaponized Dreadball Robot, which I always thought were a great design for human military droids. The Nameless story arc is pretty much up in the air right now, in a good way - despite titles like "the fear" and "the terror," I wouldn't call this turn exactly Lovecraftian, but it does get me wanting to know what's pushing the Nameless from their homeworlds into human space, which is exactly the page-turning interest such game subplots should inspire. Also, I respect that Taaloc really hates the horror angle on the Nameless, but I'm delighted with it. Ending the campaign in pursuit of a "Nameless monstrosity" (which we will get, I have no doubt) was perfect for me.

Caveat: I am hoping that the answer will be more interesting than "the Plague drove them out;" even if it's Plague-related, I'd like it to present some hitherto unknown aspect of the disease. The Plague are a good villain, but I'm hoping that they won't become Warpath's answer to Chaos as the "one, true, ultimate enemy" that makes all other threats insubstantial. Sure, the Necrons and Tyranids etc. could wipe out humanity, but we all know that they won't, because it would be anti-climactic to 40k's lore. "The forces of Chaos had almost driven Mankind to its knees, when suddenly hive fleet Gertrude arrived from out of nowhere and devoured them all. The Ruinous powers were gobbled up before they could dance on humanity's ashes or laugh darkly. The end."

3. Actual, real, honest-to-goodness value in a Mantic (EB) core pledge, just like the good old days

Looking at what Dungeon Saga currently goes for on Amazon, it's hard to see how this core pledge will be cheaper to get at discount retail. (Dungeon Saga base set + Galahir will cost you $100, shipped. An EB pledge of Star Saga with the base set + Nameless expansion + Character creator (I do think this, unlike the impoverished-looking mission creator, will be sold as an actual expansion at retail) + KS exclusive figures + extra warpath minis etc shipped to the US was $105.) No, there's no future Miniature market clearance to reckon with anymore, either - it's plain that they haven't been touching any of Mantic's new sci-fi stuff. But for the heck of it, Dungeon Saga + Galahir will cost you $88.38 at Miniature market today (or would, if the base set was in stock). Even if you lowball Star Saga's Character creator expansion at $20 - and I think it will only hit that retail price under clearance conditions - you're still over the KS $105 price, and that's not even counting KS exclusive figures, extra Warpath models, etc. I think Mantic's EB core pledge on this was, in fact, the best deal that we will ever see on this material, and I've followed enough Mantic campaigns to know better than to ever say that, and I just begged Fate to kick me in the teeth by saying it anyway. It's not amazing value compared to million-dollar-grossing CMON campaigns, but I would call it a genuine value, and that feels like a return to form for Mantic.

Caveat: For the first time in a Mantic campaign, I'm sticking with the base pledge instead of the intended "sweet spot" $180-200 pledge, i.e., the EB core + the $75 expansion bundle + higher shipping, because the Blackstar expansion will be composed almost entirely of reposed renders of Warpath models that I already own. If Mantic got more creative with the Blackstar Veer-myn by giving them a different look or truly unique poses, I'd be more interested, but the similarity between images of Star Saga's PVC GCPS troopers and photos of upcoming Warpath GCPS hard plastic troopers doesn't inspire confidence.

4. The promise of better quality

Not much new to say here. As Scarlet Squig says, Mantic's Deadzone 2 PVC plastic was their best ever, and they're using it for the Star Saga figures. If they stick with this plastic, then Star Saga minis will be apples to Dungeon Saga's oranges, in a completely different league. Vac-formed plastic to hold the minis is also a welcome change.


What if they change the material? I'll just have to ask Fate to kick me in the teeth again on that one.

Didn't they state early on they will use the walking dead material?

Theyre way down my painting list but aside from needing to dunk then all in hot water was there anything really won't with the standard dungeon saha minis?

 PsychoticStorm wrote:
Didn't they state early on they will use the walking dead material?

Wasn't that a slightly improved version of the dz2 plastic, in their words?

 PsychoticStorm wrote:
Didn't they state early on they will use the walking dead material?

they did indeed but this is Mantic after all and another materialgate can't be ruled out

(although they have been better recently we still don't know what some of the warzone minis are going to be, for example the plague mules, the normal and plague were meant to be pvc, but then the normal one went to hard plastic and they were swithering over staying with pvc or switching to resin or even metal add ons to the normal hard plastic one for the plague version

Yes, their unreliability is the number one reason to be afraid of their KS, I will be massively disappointed if they manage to fumble the medic.

I believe this one will be a make or break for them, it had a moderate following, a bit negative feedback following their trail of fumbles and if they do not deliver this at least in a decent form, their company will take a huge reputation hit.

I really wish Matics unofficial moto here "almost" was not so true.

 PsychoticStorm wrote:
Yes, their unreliability is the number one reason to be afraid of their KS, I will be massively disappointed if they manage to fumble the medic.

I believe this one will be a make or break for them, it had a moderate following, a bit negative feedback following their trail of fumbles and if they do not deliver this at least in a decent form, their company will take a huge reputation hit.

I really wish Matics unofficial moto here "almost" was not so true.

Don't forget they brought on all the new people too, to fix issues. If this KS goes south then it really shows there's no hope for Mantic.

I stuck with the core pledge for just about the same reasons Vermonter already stated. Plus extra scenery, because the stuff that came with Dungeon Saga was great.

I'm not adverse to adding the expansions either, especially if the sculpts differ enough from the other Mantic minis that they're already based on.

If we get some fun poses that couldn't necessarily be obtained with the hard plastic Veermyn (or any of the pre-existing figures) outside of drastic conversions, I'll happily pick up the expansions.
If the poses differ enough they'd probably look just as good getting tossed in the Deadzone/ Warpath mix of figures as well then.

Hell, maybe for once they'll keep us in the loop in regards to how all the renders and sculpts go.


Looking at the Battlesystems campaign, I wonder if we'll get stats for the Tiger Corp from Mars Attacks? Those were some nice figures.

My opinion of Mantic hasn't changed.
This campaign added stuff and "great gifts from Ronnie" just like Dungeon Saga did. Too much swag and too many promises to keep while still maintaining profitability so I expect another KS with broken promises and changes in content by the end.

I hope that's not the case for those of you who chose to gamble on it. I do hope Mantic does make good on their promises for a change. I agree with PsychoticStorm in that this might be the "make it or break it" campaign for them. It certainly didn't do the $1M that Dungeon Saga did. For me, actions speak louder than words and we'll see how they conduct themselves this time around.

That being said, I did pledge $1 to see where this goes and so I can add things (like that cool scenery) during the PM. If they showcase more developed game play and production models before it closes I might be tempted to pledge for the game, too. For me, though, the background and the model sketches weren't compelling enough so I'd need to see something special that just wasn't there during the campaign. Just my opinion, of course.

 Theophony wrote:
Don't forget they brought on all the new people too, to fix issues. If this KS goes south then it really shows there's no hope for Mantic.

The problem, though, is that these people are in customer fulfillment. Mantic's KS aren't going to be fixed until they stop creating problems that need to be fixed! (If they've hired some higher-ups, do let me know.)

IMO, Dungeon Saga was Mantic's "make or break", particularly because it was Mantic's debut game for the boardgame community. A revision of an existing game, the original designer on the project, generic fantasy, What Could Go Wrong, right?

KS certainly did. KS's problem is that the creator doesn't know the end amount of funding, so, possibly, they ran out of game content before the funding period ended. Maybe they should have done more research on BGG for what boardgamers were looking for in a dungeon crawl (eg. AI and character advancement) and design these features before the KS. Also, comparing themselves to their past KS and CMON, they could have come up with a rough idea at how much the KS would fund (eg. SG's up to 2M).

The Walking Dead: All Out War wave 1 shipments have started to go out today so that should give an indication as to how good the new material mix is which sounds like the same one Star Saga will be using.

Aeneades wrote:
The Walking Dead: All Out War wave 1 shipments have started to go out today so that should give an indication as to how good the new material mix is which sounds like the same one Star Saga will be using.

They did confirm it was the same material as the TWD, fingers crossed for good quality.

(Poor Warpath, over a year and still nothing while TWD ships first. )

I'd rather have Warpath done right. Hopefully Mantic wants it to succeed as well.

If the extra time helps them polish things up (especially Firefight) I think I'd rather have them spend longer getting things polished.

krystalking wrote:

Aeneades wrote:
The Walking Dead: All Out War wave 1 shipments have started to go out today so that should give an indication as to how good the new material mix is which sounds like the same one Star Saga will be using.

They did confirm it was the same material as the TWD, fingers crossed for good quality.

(Poor Warpath, over a year and still nothing while TWD ships first. )

I will try to get some good photos if my copy turns up this week.

Warpath would have been out the door already if backers didn't unanimously chant "delay it and get it done right" every chance we get.

And I think that is a healthy approach, Mantic considering.