This is almost the last step in our preparations for dispatch. We’re now just waiting on the final pieces of stock to arrive at the warehouse. We’ve double and triple checked out picking sheets and stock levels and have done some testing, too. We will begin sending pledges out to backers in late March.
pancakeonions wrote: Aren't they still playtesting the rules? I'm pretty sure we have a ways to go until we see anything shipped...
Anyone know differently?
Deadzone rules are finished and in printing some backers already have the pdfs. Deadzone is due to ship by the end of the month most of the stock is already in their warehouse and unlike the miniatures which have to come from China the books can be printed closer to home and turned around in a short space of time. They will probably get a few out the door by the last day of March but most will be waiting until mid April (or later) for it.
The Warpath rules are in playtesting but that KS isn't due until September but that will probably get pushed back a bit.
We're keeping them outside because it will be easier to load them into the postal truck that way. Besides it will let us have more space inside to finish completing the Age of Fisty McGlueman statue that we have been working on while the rules committee does all the heavy lifting .
RiTides wrote: Wow guys, tough crowd! DaveC even wrote "just arrived"... I'm sure they took the boxes inside and didn't leave them out to be rained on!
Theophony's post indicated they were keeping them outside
NobodyXY wrote: Did you guys get the Mantic Email: Next Level Gaming? or anything from mantic digital? $1 backers had access I thought? any $1 dollar backer that can confirm that they got the code
Maybe try the ticket system? If all else fails. They should be able to manually give out codes, as it seems to be a generated code.
Yeah, I got the "next level gaming" email that features a link to their forums and a link to "how to "fix" browser issues because our forums are broken". I also put a lot into the first DZ campaign.
Wow, I was joking....and I'm not a rep by any means for Mantic, so obviously (hopefully fingers crossed emoticon) they won't be leaving it outside. The empty pallets around it concern me that they are hand carrying that mountain inside though.
Either that or the next kickstarter is to put a roof on this annex
Theophony wrote: Wow, I was joking....and I'm not a rep by any means for Mantic, so obviously (hopefully fingers crossed emoticon) they won't be leaving it outside. The empty pallets around it concern me that they are hand carrying that mountain inside though.
Either that or the next kickstarter is to put a roof on this annex
Assuming there is space inside, it would not take long at all for a guy or two to unload those and stack them inside by hand.
Theophony wrote: Wow, I was joking....and I'm not a rep by any means for Mantic, so obviously (hopefully fingers crossed emoticon) they won't be leaving it outside. The empty pallets around it concern me that they are hand carrying that mountain inside though.
Either that or the next kickstarter is to put a roof on this annex
Assuming there is space inside, it would not take long at all for a guy or two to unload those and stack them inside by hand.
Except the pic looks like about 250 boxes of heavy hardback books. If it only takes 1 minute to pick a box carry it in and come back out, that's over 4 hours. If it's 2 mins per box you're talking about an entire day of work without a break.
;-)
I had 350 square bales of hay delivered a couple of weeks ago, each weighing between 60-70 pounds. They had to be unloaded from a trailer and stacked under a pole barn. With one other guy and my 13 year old daughter (not all that much help there) we got them unloaded and stacked (6 or 7 high so one guy worked 'up' and other tossed up the bales) in a couple of hours. Distance from trailer to pole barn was about 35 feet (to far end of barn).
I know you can't throw or drop these boxes, but I don't see it being too hard a chore to be honest.
Spoiler:
That is the pole barn. I think it is 14 feet tall at the center and 12 on the sides. We stacked it to the roof. Picture was taken from about where the trailer was parked.
As fascinating as the discussion on stacking boxes may be, it's perhaps a little off-topic for the thread.
How about we just assume that someone at Mantic would have enough intelligence to move them out of the rain if that actually threatens to be an issue, and all get on with our lives?
Hi guys. Shipping of Deadzone pledge rewards and add-ons is due to start shortly. There are still a few last pieces to come in over the next week or so which is holding us up slightly in getting started but some exciting things have arrived including the lovely new rulebook:
Talking of the rulebook, we’ve just sent out digital copies of the new Deadzone 2nd Edition Rulebook and the Deadzone: Infestation Mission Pack.The backers of our original Deadzone kickstarter will be sent a link to get a copy of the new rules shortly.
If like us you can’t wait to start building your factions and playing some games then you’ve now got over 150 pages of rules, background, statlines and amazing colour photography and artwork to look over.
With shipping, we are planning on “pre-bagging” many components into sets first so that the final picking line is much reduced and easier to manage. The simplest packages will be sent first where we have components already and if we can, we’ll get those going before the end of the month. The bulk of the operation will be taking place during April however. We had planned for March as you know but events (and logistics!) have conspired against us (or perhaps some furry fiends are behind it all…).
Let us know what you think of the new books in the comments. If you haven't received your invitation, get in touch and we'll resend it to you.
There are just 2 days left to lock in your Warpath Kickstarter pledge.
Unless you are a $1 backer who does not want to upgrade to a higher pledge level, you must complete the Warpath Pledgemanager by 11:59pm GMT Thursday 31st March 2016 if you want your pledge.
If you do not fill out the pledge manager you will not get your pledge level during the shipment and we cannot guarantee that we will have enough stock to supply your full pledge.
Please fill out the pledge manager before 31st March. You will receive a confirmation email when you successfully check out from the pledge manager, and can check your order by clicking ‘My Orders’ on the pledge manager. If you do not receive a confirmation email and/or there are no orders on your account then you have not successfully completed the pledge manager.
I keep going "ooh, maybe I should late pledge" then I remember that shipping..
I'm glad the crew served weapons look like they were at least marginally researched before being sculpted. I also notice a distinct lack of tiny feet.
The Asterian ship however feels like it's a sculptural study in bipolar extremism. There's a few very nice looking hull sections joined together with the most narrow of structures and topped with the biggest flarking cannon I've ever seen.
That's assuming there are retailers in the US who want to carry Mantic products still.
Every time there seems to be a reliable source, they all end up clearancing them all out.
Surprisingly my local store has a pretty nice coverage in terms of Kings of War. We'll see what happens with the next iteration of Deadzone, and how Warpath gets packaged for retail.
I stayed pretty frugal for the Warpath PM, only adding a few sets of new plastics to check out and play with. I'm more interested in Deadzone & Firefight than Warpath proper as it is.
Shipping also wasn't super ridiculous. Around 25 I think when all was said and done for an Advanced Warfare pledge plus a few extra bits and bobs. Would I like to pay less? Absolutely. Did it surprise me? Not really.
The local FLGS has some KoW in stock, but put about two dozen elf boxes on clearance at 50% off. I don't know what that presages in terms of ordering Mantic product, but it doesn't look good for local support. I haven't seen any Deadzone since they cleared it out a while ago. They used to carry Mantic board games, but they cleared Pandora and I never saw any DS on the shelves. Dreadball is no longer supported. We'll see how Warpath shakes out, but with the latest batch of price hikes and Mantic's poor reputation with local sellers, I think it's going to end up available only through order.
More half off elves you say? I'm guessing they are the old white VHS boxes?
Perhaps I need to head off to the land of Vietnamese signs off the 22 Freeway...
For what it's worth, our local store has NONE of the old (classic?) Mantic boxes. it's all post-second kickstarter material. Army boxes, new ogre and troll kits, stuff like that...
Well, this was weird. I wanted to finalize my pledge for Warpath tonight, but when I went in to do it, I got security warnings that said the pledge manager's security wasn't implemented correctly. Firefox wouldn't let me finalize it. I messaged them about it, but I suspect I won't be hearing anything before their deadline.
I put in $1 during the campaign and have been waiting as long as possible to finish the pledge manager to see if DZI would ship.
As it hasn't I decided not to add anything and tried to close out the pledge manager with nothing in the cart and it's still trying to charge me $12 for shipping.
I had no security issues from Chrome. Ordered my stuff, which I presume will be my last significant Mantic KS order. $75 shipping pretty much confirms that.
I probably wouldn't have bothered if I hadn't put a pile of money down in the first place. I guess now I wash my hands of Mantic's KS. Once the whole pledge arrives with whatever missing parts they manage to feth up sometime in 2017, anyway.
Okay, I tried again tonight. I had been using the link to the add-on store that was in the pledge manager itself. That's what was giving me the warning. So, this time I tried using the direct link to the add-on store that was included in the pledge manager email. That actually worked. No security warning or anything. So, I filled out the pledge manager and submitted without any further issues. Just on a whim, I tried to access the add-on store through the link on the pledge manager page again. Still give me a security warning. Weird.
I wound up getting a GCPS bundle, their flyer, the Veer-Myn special character, a sprue of Asterian drones and a sprue of Plague 3rd Gens. Since I didn't care about the rulebook, tokens, or dice, it actually wound up being a better deal than if I had gone with one of the regular pledges. I think, like AzazelX, this may be my last Mantic Kickstarter as well. They're going to have to really wow me if they want to sucker me in again.
I think I'm pretty much done with Mantic's campaigns for the time being as well.
They need to get things smoothed out BIG TIME.
I ended up with a Forge Father battle group, a Skaven drill tank, and a few sprues from each of the new plastic lines. No extra cash added. Was tempted too, but decided they've got enough of my fun money for the time being.
I'm still sore over the Dungeon Saga Adventurer's Companion and lack of really fleshed out rules.
Hopefully Infestation will show up soon and make me do a 180.
In the same boat of probably not going for much more on Mantic's KS. Overall I like the product, but there's just been far too many missteps over the years to trust them up-front anymore, and the stories of Dakkanauts who have to contact support multiple times to still have no resolution is deeply concerning as well. I'll still keep an eye out for things available from retailers, but I have tons of models as it is that can be used.
Ended up with a GCPS Battlegroup, an Enforcer vehicle and a couple other things to poke at. Hopefully Mantic gets to the bottom of some of their logistic and support issues and takes care of them properly.
So, I'll ask this here in the hopes one of the Rules Committee members sees it, or something:
Are there any plans for a Shattered Empires style book for Warpath? I have a rather large Eldar army I don't want to go to the hassle of ebaying if I can find some use for, but they don't quite synch up to Asterians. I'd really like a force that uses not-Aspect Warriors instead of robots.
So, I'll ask this here in the hopes one of the Rules Committee members sees it, or something:
Are there any plans for a Shattered Empires style book for Warpath? I have a rather large Eldar army I don't want to go to the hassle of ebaying if I can find some use for, but they don't quite synch up to Asterians. I'd really like a force that uses not-Aspect Warriors instead of robots.
The last time there was an official response in public the answer was "no". I'm not aware that it's changed, but there's maybe only 3-4 people who would know and they ain't on the RC.
You could just use the 40k fluff in place of the Warzone fluff. As in apply their "robot" rules to your Aspect Warriors rather than use your Aspect Warriors for their Robots. Essentially the same thing, but the "mental distinction" difference being you'd be using their rules for your 40k Eldar rather than using your 40k models as Asterians.
Surprise of surprises, Zak in Mantic's customer service department actually came through. My missing DBX items finally arrived. He sent me an email on the 21st saying they'd been shipped, but I'd heard that line before. It turns out he really did find the items in the warehouse and sent them out to me. I got my Mechanites (in retail packaging, no less), my Medibot, and Eclipse. There was also something that looked vaguely like a forcefield marker or something. It was a bunch of free-floating hexagons. I'm not sure what that piece is or what it's used for, but it'll make a great Nano Screen for my Shasvastii.
Barzam wrote: Surprise of surprises, Zak in Mantic's customer service department actually came through. My missing DBX items finally arrived. He sent me an email on the 21st saying they'd been shipped, but I'd heard that line before. It turns out he really did find the items in the warehouse and sent them out to me. I got my Mechanites (in retail packaging, no less), my Medibot, and Eclipse. There was also something that looked vaguely like a forcefield marker or something. It was a bunch of free-floating hexagons. I'm not sure what that piece is or what it's used for, but it'll make a great Nano Screen for my Shasvastii.
It sounds like my ticket has been diverted to Zak now. Will he close the ticket? Will he earn the coffee? I'm feeling optimistic.
And Barzam, I'm glad to hear that they fed you the same stories they fed me. They told me they shipped the items again and again, making me doubt reality, question my sanity, and suspect my neighbors of stealing Mantic boxes (while leaving behind the Amazon boxes and the two clearly marked iPhone boxes that the delivery guy just left on the porch without even a doorbell ring).
I sent them another email the other day, suggesting that I'd like a meaningful update since the last I'd heard was over two weeks ago telling me my stuff "is in a large queue" and that my first contact with them about the missing stuff was about 6 months ago.
Got a reply within a few hours from Rich, apologising and saying that he'd "resend" my missing items (which has an amusing implication that seems familiar given some of the stuff I've read here...) Which made me think "whua?" considering I hadn't heard anything about them ever being sent. I wonder what will be next in this endless saga?
I would be much, much more understanding if they just told me what was actually going on, even if it comes down to "we're months behind and tickets only get packed in the last hour on Fridays." The constant shiftiness and Jon Lovitzing in their emails makes me wonder if the whole company is untrustworthy or if there's just one guy pathologically lying both in and out of the company to cover his ass. It sure couldn't hurt to shuffle someone less surly and evasive into their PR/CS department.
I'd respond with something humorously sarcastic, but I wouldn't want to offend their delicate fething sensibilities and cause them to shy away from these forums.
After all, their quick and efficient handling of these CS issues might be affected.
On a more positive note - how are you enjoying your KoW stuff, Bob? I'm planning on a 24-hour Dungeon Saga session simply using proxies for all of my up-to-6-months-missing components. Right over Polonius and I make the unit trays for his army ourselves.
I just checked the "new ticket". Guess what the status is?
Waiting on Stock since 2 days 1 hours
So what the everliving feth does that mean? There's no indication of anything being shipped at any stage on the ticket system. Just a trail of "sorry, we'll get to you" messages. The last messages before I started agitating were:
Dave Symonds
said a month ago
Hi XXXXXX,
Thank you for your patience, it is much appreciated. Your missing items order is being processed and we are waiting for the warehouse to pack and send your items. I am really sorry that this has taken much longer than expected.
I will keep you updated,
Kind regards,
Matt
Customer service team
Mantic
Dave Symonds
said 20 days ago
Hi XXXXXX,
I am sorry for how long you are having to wait. Your order is in a queue to be packed and dispatched to you. We have a large back log of Dungeon Saga items for the warehouse team to work through.
Thank you again for your patience,
Matt
So just a revolving choir of CS people apparently not managing to do a fething thing. Just the same tired reiterations of "your order is in a queue". Apparently a queue that has taken longer to ship than the actual Kickstarter. And apparently anyone can log into Dave Symond's account, since the messages quoted above were both signed "Matt". Which means anyone can be logged into anyone else's terminal at Mantic, accountability in their warehouse area is clearly all kinds of fethed, and why doesn't Matt from the CST have his own login account for their ticket system? It shouldn't be hard for any passable IT system to create a new user account, and it should be pretty obvious for a workplace that handles h̶u̶n̶d̶r̶e̶d̶s̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶o̶u̶s̶a̶n̶d̶s̶ millions of pounds worth of product that each employee should have their own secure login. Because accountability matters (internally even more than to retail end-user schlubs like us).
Barzam wrote: Surprise of surprises, Zak in Mantic's customer service department actually came through. My missing DBX items finally arrived. He sent me an email on the 21st saying they'd been shipped, but I'd heard that line before. It turns out he really did find the items in the warehouse and sent them out to me. I got my Mechanites (in retail packaging, no less), my Medibot, and Eclipse. There was also something that looked vaguely like a forcefield marker or something. It was a bunch of free-floating hexagons. I'm not sure what that piece is or what it's used for, but it'll make a great Nano Screen for my Shasvastii.
I should point out, all of my communications with Zak were short and to the point. He never gave me any of the copy-pasted responses like I'd received prior to my communications with him. No "we're looking into," or "it's in the queue" or any of that. I had initially asked for some kind of explanation about why I never received my stuff and why I received that KOW stuff instead. He told me he had no clue and couldn't really check with the people I'd spoken to previously because they had left the company. He then asked what I was missing. I told him, and he came back saying he'd check with their warehouse and get the stuff shipped as soon as he found the items. I received a response a few days later saying he found the items and that they would be shipped asap. I then received a shipping notice not too much longer, which was on the 21st. He responded very quickly to my emails, too. Usually only about a day later, and in some cases within the same day. So, my experience with him at least was very good. Hopefully he'll get you squared away, Bob.
I got in touch with Zak via the support ticket system about two weeks ago now. I'm still waiting for anything for KoW to ship to me but the DZ:I refund was in my account within 24h of opening the ticket (granted that was quite a bit after the first few requests for that refund I sent, but at least this time it was handled quite well).
I'm inclined to believe they're improving substantially, now if only I'd finally get any of my KoW stuff...
On a more positive note - how are you enjoying your KoW stuff, Bob?
Do you mean my KoW2 stuff? That's what never arrived. Neither wave 1 nor wave 2. I expect all my orders to have some delay since I tend to pledge for add ons and not the easy sweet spot pledges, but not 3 or 4 months of delay.
If you mean my Kow1 stuff... I'm pretty happy with the orcs and the brocks and the Elohim. The Men at Arms were disappointing, but the weapons and the torsos have been great additions to the bits box. I have gained several elf, dwarf and undead boxes due to local clearance and I like those kits.
As for the game, I actually use the Arcane Legions minis on multibases and the lists you gave me. (They feel like game pieces and I just can't bring myself to multibase 28mm figures.) I tried a couple games with my dad and it didn't help things that I was learning, too. I'll try again when the boy is old enough or if I can convince some of my friends who used to play board games to give it a chance. My wife has precluded any matches between us. I was never in it primarily for the gaming and enjoy the minis and the fluff on their own merits.
No, that's probably not what it is. The image directly references Deadzone: infestation. Why would they have another kickstarter that is referencing a previous kickstarter? My guess would be that what this actually is is a unified site for all of their Warpath set games and the countdown is probably for Infestation's retail release.
Re shipping: a few orders have started to go but the pre-bagging exercise will continue into next week and then it's all go on shipping. Some items have been late getting to us and they were bits almost everyone had!
Barzam wrote: No, that's probably not what it is. The image directly references Deadzone: infestation. Why would they have another kickstarter that is referencing a previous kickstarter? My guess would be that what this actually is is a unified site for all of their Warpath set games and the countdown is probably for Infestation's retail release.
Barzam wrote: No, that's probably not what it is. The image directly references Deadzone: infestation. Why would they have another kickstarter that is referencing a previous kickstarter? My guess would be that what this actually is is a unified site for all of their Warpath set games and the countdown is probably for Infestation's retail release.
I was being sarcastic lol!!!
Hard to read sarcasm without emoji. Plus with Mantics pace on kickstarters it's not to far fetched.
The first three lines are good worldbuilding. A notice written in-character explaining what it means for your colony to be put under quarantine is a cool idea. Then Mantic ruins it by mugging at the camera for another seven lines.
The first three lines are good worldbuilding. A notice written in-character explaining what it means for your colony to be put under quarantine is a cool idea. Then Mantic ruins it by mugging at the camera for another seven lines.
I agree but I could see a teenage me getting into that.
Meh, I prefer a bit of satire or humor to unremitting grimness or plain blandness. The Dreadball flavor text has been my favorite Mantic fluff so far, so I would rather see them stick with their strengths rather than risk creating a boring universe that tries to cover all bases while taking itself seriously.
BobtheInquisitor wrote: Meh, I prefer a bit of satire or humor to unremitting grimness or plain blandness. The Dreadball flavor text has been my favorite Mantic fluff so far, so I would rather see them stick with their strengths rather than risk creating a boring universe that tries to cover all bases while taking itself seriously.
Dreadball is meant to be the comedic point of view of the universe, Deadzone and Warpath are meant to be the straight bat. Is what it is.
Maybe the Warpath universe is impossible to play straight. Maybe it's like Batman, where Adam West would be the Dreadball version and the 'serious' version will unintentionally end up every bit as campy over time the way the Burton and Nolan/Snyder films have. At least if the corniness is intentional it can be guided and used to strengthen the savory sections. I'd rather have a Paul Verhoeven Warpath universe than a nBSG Warpath, for example.
I thought the whole corporate-speak "deceased under central law" through "death redacted" bit was pretty funny, actually. Surely there was some tongue-in-cheek intended there?
As far as blurbs go, it did make me look forward to inventing / playing Deadline infestation scenarios, so it was a win for me.
I take Bob's point about not being able to take the Warpath universe entirely seriously: it's a weird melange deeply informed by popular Games Workshop fantasy archetypes that they refused to transpose into 40K. There's no reason for Mantic's Veer-myn to exist except to address the customer base for Space Skaven that GW were never going to make. Nevertheless, the Veer-myn appeal to me even as they insult my intelligence.
And since former fans now turned professionals / insiders lurk here, can I ask you if the forthcoming Infestation book will finally tell us what the all-new, all-improved origin of the Veer-myn actually is? Will they be like the all-new X-men, back in the day? I think in the past there were vague hints that they were the off-shoot of Corporation genetic experiments who took to infesting the cargo-holds of human space traders, but I believe that was all declared subject to revision by the Infestation campaign. And yet, we are still in the dark as to where the Veer-myn officially came from. If you can't spill the beans, can you let us know if this information is coming or not?
And will the new Veer-myn background make perfect hard sci-fi sense?
(Of course it will. Space ratmen. How could you go wrong?)
The Deadzone books say the GCPS doesn't really have any idea where the Veermyn came from. There has not been communication with them and their motives aren't readily apparent. Most of society treats them as a myth. The only thing known for sure is that their DNA has no ties to Earth, so they're not some sort of mutant rat race.
That is probably due to the incoming edition transition. Stocking stuff that's potentially about to be replaced with a new version is not a great idea. It sounds like all figures are making the transition, but there's probably going to be new starter sets and whatnot and stores wouldn't want to be stuck with the old boxes.
I like the hull of the tank (although I didn't have a problem with the original dwarf face version) but the turret feels too tall and bulbous when it should be angular like the rest of the tank. It looks like one guy designed the hull and the turret was assigned to another... and they never conversed until they met up to put the two halves together for the prototype.
I've been enjoying the daily True_Hera Twitter account Probably not a popular opinion here, but it's fun.
@Lord_Blackfang
Could be, maybe not though could just be surface design.
@Username
They should be amoung the first releases for Deadzone. It's hard to say yet. Not the tank though.
OT but semi-related.
Spoiler:
I've also been tinkering with restarting the battlescribe army builder but it's a lot of work. It's got upgrades for weapons and items.
I can definitely understand why nobody has picked it up to do Deadzone again. If I do more it'll probably be towards putting in the Veermyn and Enforcers. Doing all the armies would take probably close to 40 hours for me. Their are problems with it though. Weapons that replace the default are going to take some thinking/stealing. Sorry about going OT
Thats a lot of models for deadzone. Keep in mind that games are generally 150pts, and each peacekeeper is worth 30pts standard. So that box just for peacekeepers could make 150pts easily.
Also no pathfinders makes me wonder how those will be packaged.
Ah okay the other pictures show what look to be starter sets.
This is most likely a starter for at least 2 of the 3 games. It seems to sit nicely for firefight at 500-600ish for the Forgefathers. With the enforcers getting 780 with most of the upgrades. Seems like a solid start.
Now we sit and wonder at the price.
This also solidifies for me that veermyn will a follow-up retail release.
What material are the Kalyshi made in? I am not a fan but there are bound to be people out there who are. The new starters/boosters look great, have we got an rrp on them yet?
I'm not into the Kalyshi at all as the primitive counterpoint to liven up the robotic / drone Asterian forces, though that's probably down to the mohawk bikini aesthetic more than the concept. But since I'll be getting the models anyway with the lockdown pledge, I intend to make the most of them. Those metal double-bladed stave and tech-bow arms could look really cool transplanted onto other, better armored close combat figures. No doubt some of those arms will be more transplantable than others, and some will need to be cut off the metal bodies, but it looks promising to me.
I may be able to make a proper Turok homage figure at last!
I kind of like the painted Forgefather tank, which was a bit of a surprise, as it wasn't one of my favorites during the campaign. I didn't buy any of the new Warpath vehicles, and considering my big pile of shame, I have no regrets. It'll be a long time before I get through all my Deadline Infestation troops, never mind adding vehicles into the mix. But I will be watching with interest to see what fellow Dakka-ites who did buy the new tanks, dropships, tunnelers, etc. do with them (and to see if they measure up to their billing as quality kits. Fingers crossed.)
I'm probably going to go alot more tan, closer to my version of the pathfinder merc but with hard edged tattoos or mud style camo, which could be a cool look. the hair seems like its supposed to be natural dreads, but then aren't painted like that at all. Flat purple is a bad choice. blue tattoos are a bad choice too.
All that being said, I like the sculpts themselves.
I'm just guessing at what the countdown is. DZ Stuff is in packing right now. Could be a week of hype leading to a pre-order period or maybe the last day of the countdown coincides with some big event. dunno.
BobtheInquisitor wrote: Are they releasing the new Forgefathers and Enforcer Pathfinders to retail before sending them out to backers?
I doubt it - they both funded in Deadzone Infestation remember, not Warpath, which as NobodyXY says is in packing for backers right now. I expect the new starters/boosters will be on sale end of April, first week of May, but I don't think they'll have them in standalone 5/10/20 boxes until Warpath hits.
Nice pics. It it just me or is the Skyscraper totally a GW Ork, not a Mantic Marauder tho?
I don't mind bows. If your tech is advanced enough to be indistinguishable from magic, form doesn't matter functionally. So why not make it look like your cultural heritage? I bet if we had phasers some people would make theirs look like flintlocks or tommyguns or thundermauls.
lord_blackfang wrote: Nice pics. It it just me or is the Skyscraper totally a GW Ork, not a Mantic Marauder tho?
Nah, he's got a uniform, a standard issue gun, a plain but functional jetpack, and his head is in proportion to the rest of his body, definitely not a GW Ork
Automatically Appended Next Post: Packing has been ongoing, shipping starts next week. They've had three noteworthy delays - the Veermyn nightmare delivery was delayed, none of the flight stands came with Jetbike Blaine and they had to source more, and the Teraton Shock Trooper mould apparently kept tearing, which vastly slowed down the production rate as they had to keep replacing it. Speaking of, here it is
Well that's me bumped to the end as I'm getting 2 Teratons - they might end up like some of original metal parts that never got released due to molds wearing out.
I do wonder what sort of Mantic-style bungling happened at the start of this project to make all new sprues ever so slightly too small to fit all the bits.
DaveC wrote: Well that's me bumped to the end as I'm getting 2 Teratons - they might end up like some of original metal parts that never got released due to molds wearing out.
Probably. I suppose your 2 Teratons will be worth more, at least.
They really should have done the Teraton Shock Trooper models in Wrath of Kings plastic. I wonder if they're regretting going with metal to save money?
Eh I'm not mad at the small delay, especially since it took 15 days to recieve my last mantic stuff from an online retailer.
Sad to hear the teraton is causing problems as that probably means he will be a limited run mini.
The sprue thing looks like a compromise to me. It seems like it was planned as both the Dorf sprue and the Big rat sprue have it. I wonder if it was too allow more option on the actual sprue, while having legs or whatever on a separate sprue and clip them. That way mantic could keep using the jewel boxes maybe?
I got extra nightmares so that should put me down that list a bit too.
I'm really excited to see the nightmare sprue. They seemed to have translated really well from the renders. They look really crisp in that picture.
EDIT:
I've got the nightmare, helfather and hobgob merc but none have any problems... I mean the contact points for the Nightspawn(Old metal leader) were a bit shallow, hes big enough that he should be pinned. But there weren't bubbles or excessive flash, or deformities. I like it better for organic shapes though as both restic and HP are better for armour in my opinion. We will see how WOK plastic does though.
After getting my Mars Attacks! KS pledge, I realized how much I like having my stuff come de-sprued. I would love everything to come that way if it weren't for the inevitable QC issues.
NobodyXY wrote: I'm really excited to see the nightmare sprue. They seemed to have translated really well from the renders. They look really crisp in that picture.
I'm thrilled these didn't end up being metal. Hard plastic ogre-sized units . . . I'd love to see Mantic do more like these.
I expect they'll become popular for Skaven rat-ogre tinkering, too, provided the scale matches up.
No, they're existing ones - back left is a standard Commando without his bayonette, and back middle is a pyro, what's probably tripping you up is that back right and the front left and right are using the little seen metal arm and head packs on standard commando bodies to create a HMG commando, ripper talons commando, and claw commando respectively. They were available as sight unseen add ons during the first pledge manager round of the original Deadzone KS, but I've not seen them outside of there.
Those Orx are just the Deadzone ones with the metal upgrade set. It's nice to finally see those. Most of those late add-ons from the first KS have never shown up for sale, nor have I seen anyone other than myself post pics of them. Seriously, I've never seen anyone besides me post the Plague Enforcer, the corpses, or the special weapon Enforcer (though his weapon was included with the HIPS version).
But yeah, GCPS look good. It would be nice if those were actually the production plastics there, but I'm sure they're actually just resin masters or something. If the final product comes out looking that nice, I'll be very pleased with them.
ArtIsGreat wrote: Dwarf tank pic from Salute makes the turrent look less blocky, mebbe it was the angle?
Having seen it in the flesh (and having idly moved the turret around to see if it was fixed) had that thought too. I would put it down to the angle of the photo.
CthuluIsSpy wrote: That's a pretty nice paint job on the soldiers. I didn't know mantic models could be so detailed.
Also, those Marauders are totally Orks Is Warpath like KoW, where I could just use GW minis?
Who's the blue guy on the right? That's new, isn't it?
You could use GW minis, but the overlap isn't as strong as it is for Fantasy/KoW.
The blue mini is Adrienne Nikolovski, and she's a named Sphyr Rebs commander from the Deadzone Infestation KS project, but with a head and weapon swap doubles as a regular Sphyr Lancer for the Rebs.
@lordblackfang Just noticed that some of the Nyaids have de-sprued bodies as well. Seems like a choice that was made pre Deadzone.
corp look nicely detailed and when they get DZ rules I might pick up a box or two. One to use as a PDF or Planetary Police Force strike team/survivor group and the other box will get converted up into plague stage 3's.
@NTRabbit thanks for the link, I always forget about fisty.
I think the Marauder heads are all upgrades as none look familiar to me. but I could be wrong,
There's a cameo by the new DZ box in the deadzone display board pics. Not a great pic though.
@Taaloc I'm pretty jealous, I wish I could make the pilgrimage to one of the big yearly shows.
@Vermonter I've got 6 coming. They were the one thing that I knew I was going to add on to my LD pledge.
Ah thanks for clarifying NTRabbit I vaguely remember them now - I have little interest in the Marauders as the initial sculpts aren't great IMO hopefully any future plastic set will address the issues I have with them.
Back to the desprued bits again they explained this as being a shipping cost issue it's cheaper for them to get the factory to clip the parts from the sprues with a smaller number of larger parts (bodies, legs etc.) and ship them in a bag rather than ship a whole sprue most of which will end up the bin anyway - it saves on weight and size. The sprues with a larger number of parts (weapons and arms etc.) remain intact. It may not be to everyones liking but it a decision they seem to be sticking with. I don't mind so long as a bit of care is taken by the factory in the despruing.
When did Mantic get so good? Last time I saw their models, they looked terrible, but the detail on those soldiers is incredible. They even have visible shoe laces and folds in their uniforms.
Like, when I saw those soldiers earlier, I was expecting them to look bad up close, but even zoomed in they look good.
Its kind of scary 0_o
CthuluIsSpy wrote: When did Mantic get so good? Last time I saw their models, they looked terrible, but the detail on those soldiers is incredible. They even have visible shoe laces and folds in their uniforms.
Like, when I saw those soldiers earlier, I was expecting them to look bad up close, but even zoomed in they look good.
Its kind of scary 0_o
The painter's going to be pissed that his Veer-myn model's already lost an arm.
I'm still a fan of Mantic's Veer-myn, but not a fan of their official Battlecheese Yellow™ color scheme.
The GCPS troopers look pretty good, but out of all the factions shown, I think its the FF who really look like they mean business in the photos above. Best space dwarfs I've ever seen.
The Marauder with the claw hand looks like he's saying "Hey! Pass it to me! I'm open!"
There are Enforcer and FF Army deals which are just the starter plus the booster plus either Howlett or the Hellfather in metal for £49.99 /$79.99 / €79.99
(the Euro price must be wrong as it should be €69.99)
CthuluIsSpy wrote: When did Mantic get so good? Last time I saw their models, they looked terrible, but the detail on those soldiers is incredible. They even have visible shoe laces and folds in their uniforms.
Like, when I saw those soldiers earlier, I was expecting them to look bad up close, but even zoomed in they look good.
Its kind of scary 0_o
legoburner wrote: The tank gives me a really nice 'Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors' vibe. Needs Sawboss' blade on top too
Hah, nice spot. Maybe that's why I like it so much.
The Deadzone starter looks boring as hell. 3 different models for the Enforcers and a whooping 1 for the FF. Not my idea of a detailed campaign skirmish. Really should have kept some restic in there.
ulgurstasta wrote: Does this mean the old restic minis are being phased out?
Some of them, yes - 3rd Gen plague, FF Stormrage Veterans, Enforcers, GCPS Infantry, Veermyn Nightcrawlers are all restic kits that are being replaced by hard plastic kits, and in some cases hard plastic multikits, which are replacing restic, restic x metal, rare original hard plastics, or are first representatives for stuff that had entries but no models.
Plenty of restic is remaining though - all of the Rebs and Marauders, all of the extant Walker-class and Guntrack-class minis, the Enforcer specialists, several bulkier minis such as Plague 1st, 2nd, and Teratons, and the Peacekeeper Captain. The new Veermyn equivalent guntracks and large, bulkier minis, and really anything of that sort moving forward is going to be made in boardgame plastic.
It seems like kind of a shame to get rid of the restic Plague. I thought their figures were actually some of Mantic's better restic offerings. They ought to have just kept them for Deadzone and used the plastic ones for Warpath.
I'm sure the hard plastic 3rd gens will sell much better for Mantic, so phasing out the restic plague makes good business sense.
I continue to be happy I got in on Mantic's lines when I did, though. Mantic's restic first, hard plastic second production phases gave us a lot more varied trooper models within each faction than miniature companies normally produce. I don't hate restic, but I don't lament the disappearance of Mantic's restic models from the market because I have as many as I'll ever need already, just from being a typical "sweet spot pledge" Mantic KS backer.
I'm in the same spot. It's why I liked the restic Plague. They gave a lot more variety is poses. Some were also much more dynamically posed than their HIPS counterparts as well, like the Assault Enforcers. If I'm going to play a game that has lots of guys on the table, I'd like to have as much visual variety as possible.
ArtIsGreat wrote: Roid rage plague were awful, I'm glad their dead. When do we get a Mantic EPIC game?
Warpath is getting rules for 6-10mm scale, it fits the game really well.
There is no need for extra rules to do that.
Same like Kings of War which can be played with 28 or 15mm models without changing much (use centimetre instead of inch)
Vermonter wrote: I'm sure the hard plastic 3rd gens will sell much better for Mantic, so phasing out the restic plague makes good business sense.
I continue to be happy I got in on Mantic's lines when I did, though. Mantic's restic first, hard plastic second production phases gave us a lot more varied trooper models within each faction than miniature companies normally produce. I don't hate restic, but I don't lament the disappearance of Mantic's restic models from the market because I have as many as I'll ever need already, just from being a typical "sweet spot pledge" Mantic KS backer.
That probably wasn't an intentional thing, but yeah it's a nice benefit of any revamp of a line. I've definitely considered hunting down, for example, the metal version of the Hordes Gatorman Posse even though I have one of the plastic ones since then I would have a distinction between the two units.
It's also a benefit of mixing stuff from different lines of figures. My Kings of War Dwarves are a mix of GW, Mantic, and Russian Alternative so I've got a pretty nice visual variety.
Switching topics back to Deadzone, I'll probably pick up the new starter set even though I've got the old one. The marginal cost over the upgrade set is low and I'll get some of the new poses.
I'm waiting for the rat war machine that is a catapult like the old goblin doom diver from GW, but instead flings the rats at its opponents. They could call it the Victor, and bribe the unwitting ratanauts with hunks of cheese to step onto the launch pad. Of course there's the odd chance of it failing horribly and the catapult snaps back and breaks their neck.
DreadPathZone have done a few Deadzone and Warpath BattleReps, They also walk through the rules, items and abilities in a 2 part video series.
https://www.youtube.com/user/Skrakjaw7/videos
Finally a few new images, again from the warpath website.
The dossier is a fun read, and from a fluff perspective is a step up. I didn't get to read it until now.
The bit about bone density testing tied nicely into me watching Ajin on Netflix recently. I like the more cold war style conflict between the two factions as well.
I'm a retail Deadzone 1 buyer and emailed them awhile back about getting the new PDF. I got a response that sounded like a yes, but so far haven't got the PDF. Have any other retail buyers gotten it?
Yeah it's paper, that and the rough halving of the terrain in the box compared to the original was their way to get the price of the 2 player starter down as close to impulse purchase price territory as possible.
NTRabbit wrote: Yeah it's paper, that and the rough halving of the terrain in the box compared to the original was their way to get the price of the 2 player starter down as close to impulse purchase price territory as possible.
That's smart though. Hell, I backed DZ1, passed on the rest, and even I'd be inclined at the right price point to pick up DZ2. I've got four restic factions, the dwarves look ace, and I'd have a decent chunk of terrain.
Did I hear that the GCPS Corporation would also have Deadzone rules in 2.0? I might be interested to pick it up if I can play them and build a few factions from hard plastic. The last edition of the game's rules were pretty lopsided in the campaign and the restic was the worst material I'd ever had to deal with (barring maybe finecast).
GCPS aren't in the book at printing, but I'd be shocked if we didn't get a GCPS-centric PDF a little further down the road, once the new stuff from the Warpath KS starts getting close to retail.
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Bolognesus wrote: For those actively playing dz2 NOS, is a 2'*2' field stil recommended? I have the sw board zo that's kind of important to me :-)
Yes, an 8x8 grid of 3" squares (ie 2'x2') is still the specified playing surface size, as per 'Set Up the Battlefield' on page 9. The only specific mention of multimat games so far is for a "challenge" level on a mission in the Infestation book, but there's a general bit about increasing points limits for fun in the main book.
NTRabbit wrote: Yeah it's paper, that and the rough halving of the terrain in the box compared to the original was their way to get the price of the 2 player starter down as close to impulse purchase price territory as possible.
OK thanks. Does V2 have the same board size as the original game, and if so are there any third party better mat types available? (i.e. mouse pad style?)
Nothing wrong with the paper as a starter but would like to have something a bit more heavy duty!
Mantic make two styles of them, but deadzone being re-released means that the urban one isn't up on the site again yet. The newer red mat should release sometime after may.
These are all assumptions, but seem reasonable seeing as the DZI lockdown pledge includes a 'deluxe' mat with the newer design.
Ugh, that Enforcer fluff is still just so infuriatingly bad! That fluff PDF reads like something a teenager would have come up with and then tried to convince all his friends how cool they would be. "None of the super-secret soldiers using super secret technology are allowed to be seen without their helmets" (right underneath a picture of 5 Pathfinders showing their faces), "All of them have identical uniforms" (same picture showing some Enforcers wearing cloaks, wearing Peacekeeper armor, and wearing Pathfinder tanktop armor. With no helmets.) "And everything about them is a mystery, but they're really famous heroes and everybody knows how awesome they are and can tell the famous named units apart from the identically uniformed not-named not-famous ones, but remember nobody actually knows anything about them because they're super secret super soldiers! Their armor is the best and their ships are the best and they can't die, even when you shoot them a lot, but nobody knows they're actually super humans since nobody has seen them when they don't want to be seen! And there's even MORE super-elite ones and you can tell because they wear... (wait for it!) ALL BLACK!" /facepalm
Why can't they please just be the Corporations' elite super-soldiers, used by the larger Corporations for their own specal interests? Instead of some Mystery-Military bull, why couldn't they have been rare and elite because even large corporations can only afford to make and equip small amounts of them? Please? Nope, they're super-secret commandos using super-secret technology and answerable only to the super-secret Council. Which is not only incredibly uninteresting but also means there is absolutely NO reason for an Enforcer on Enforcer battle, ever. There's even less justification than Space Marine vs Space Marine battles. *sigh*
They're made by Secret Weapon Miniatures and have been available since Deadzone1 KS for $80 USD, but being able to get them from Mantic if you live in the EU is a nice option, won't have to pay such high shipping and import taxes. If you're in the US and never saw those before, you can get them here since Mantic does't ship them outside EU
@Kal
The most common in universe reason for enforcers to fight is field training. Imagine modern day exercises on a smaller scale. Actually It's probably closer to how tactical response teams train. This gives a pretty good reason as to why you'd see different markings and colours. Shirts vs Skins basically.
That being said the enforcers are my least favourite fluff wise. But I think thats mostly because I can't personalize them as easily. It can be done though.
For example a strike team that has been tasked time and again with cleansing veermyn infested cargo ships. After a prolonged deep space op, cleansing countless cargo ships they've developed ticks. essentially I said "okay, enforcers must have a breaking point right? What happens when they cross it and how would that look?"
I came to the conclusion that certain enforcers would develop nervous ticks, some would become sullen or depressed, others would take trophies. all this cumulates into a strike team perfect for cleaning out rat nests, but one that shouldn't or can't reintegrate back into the main enforcer army. You've got an apocalypse now style enforcer team basically being swept under the rug and eventually a shiny new enforcer team is being sent to cleanse the first...
Automatically Appended Next Post: Yeah I would have linked to the main site too, but I figured that would be fine for @Pacific
I don't know of any third party makers off hand that produce Deadzone mats already, but most mouse mat/vinyl makers offer the ability to put a hex grid over one of their existing pictures as a custom order, it's not that much of a stretch to get a 3" square grid.
So the Enforcers are lacking personality and individuality while at the same time being too powerful in the fluff for the tabletop?
Here's the solution: have the enforcers overthrow the four largest companies and keep their CEOs in cages, then model their civilization after Egyptian dynasties and Dr Doom. Boom, solved.
BobtheInquisitor wrote: So the Enforcers are lacking personality and individuality while at the same time being too powerful in the fluff for the tabletop?
Here's the solution: have the enforcers overthrow the four largest companies and keep their CEOs in cages, then model their civilization after Egyptian dynasties and Dr Doom. Boom, solved.
Between this and the dalek drawing a while back I vote Bob for mantic art director
Eh, the enforcer fluff is fine in concept. The idea of an elite detachment of soldiers who polices the other corporations to make sure they behave sounds alright.
The problem though is how its written. Like, they can't show their faces? Then why does that enforcer in that Deadzone art have his mask lifted? What about those light enforcer infantry, who don't wear helmets at all. I also like how they are unmatched in the galaxy, and yet in the Forge Father dossier there's a story about an enforcer detachment getting beaten hard by Forge Fathers
Warpath fluff is a response to the times, just like 40k fluff was: 40k was a response to the fascism of Thatcher's Britain, while Warpath is a response to the current corporate dystopia.
The GCPS armies are PMCs that are now the legitimate armed forces in the absence of national identities, the evolution of today's SerCo, G4S, etc while the Enforcers are an extension of the special forces of today - mysterious, revered, everyone wants to be in them (half the internet pretends to be on forums), and in Warpath they've continued serving the central governments long after those governments transitioned from being political, to corporate boards. The pharmacological, biological, and technological 'augmentations' have followed the trajectory they're already steaming along.
I think it's very suitable fluff.
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CthuluIsSpy wrote: Like, they can't show their faces? Then why does that enforcer in that Deadzone art have his mask lifted?
When you see video footage of US SWAT teams, Carabinieri, Gendarmes, Guardia Civil, any of those special units they use for anything from counter-terror raids to suppression of protest groups, do you ever see their faces? Have you never noticed that every single one of them is always wearing a balaclava under their tactical helmet whenever there's public and/or cameras nearby? Same goes for special forces in Afghanistan. That's what the can't show their faces thing is about.
The Enforcer Pathfinders are always in the field, never near cameras, that's why they don't have masks, regular Enforcers and Peacekeepers are in the fluff being called in for civil work like busting up riots.
The only one who ever shows his face is the stern captain, the face of authority whose necessity exceeds the facelessness required of all the other troopers.
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BrookM wrote: It's a parody of GW's Space Marine fluff, but done in such a way that it's really unfunny.
CthuluIsSpy wrote: Like, they can't show their faces? Then why does that enforcer in that Deadzone art have his mask lifted?
When you see video footage of US SWAT teams, Carabinieri, Gendarmes, Guardia Civil, any of those special units they use for anything from counter-terror raids to suppression of protest groups, do you ever see their faces? Have you never noticed that every single one of them is always wearing a balaclava under their tactical helmet whenever there's public and/or cameras nearby? Same goes for special forces in Afghanistan. That's what the can't show their faces thing is about.
The Enforcer Pathfinders are always in the field, never near cameras, that's why they don't have masks, regular Enforcers and Peacekeepers are in the fluff being called in for civil work like busting up riots.
The only one who ever shows his face is the stern captain, the face of authority whose necessity exceeds the facelessness required of all the other troopers.
You misunderstand; I'm not complaning that they can't show their faces in lore, I'm saying its inconsistent with what they have shown us.
Good point about the pathfinders though. Makes sense.
I don't think it's inconsistent - aside from the Pathfinders, the only unmasked Peacekeeper we've ever seen is the one in Peacekeeper that features on the origina box art. I just flicked through the new rules and the dossier, the rules have only the same captain art, and the dossier has one Peacekeeper with assault gear and the same fliptop head. Which is what the dossier says
"Every man is identically uniformed, and only the field commanders are
allowed to show their faces from behind their enclosed helmets"
I think the Enforcer Engineer came with an option to build him with his face hanging out? That or I built him wrong. The pathfinder monocyclist had her face out too on the mounted version, I think, and the new hard plastic pathfinders have a couple of faces too- though fluff-wise, pathfinders might be a different kettle of fish.
Taaloc wrote: I think the Enforcer Engineer came with an option to build him with his face hanging out? That or I built him wrong. The pathfinder monocyclist had her face out too on the mounted version, I think, and the new hard plastic pathfinders have a couple of faces too- though fluff-wise, pathfinders might be a different kettle of fish.
I think that was a headswap with the peacekeeper captain from the KS. I'm not 100% sure about that but I did the same thing IIRC.
Taaloc wrote: I think the Enforcer Engineer came with an option to build him with his face hanging out? That or I built him wrong. The pathfinder monocyclist had her face out too on the mounted version, I think, and the new hard plastic pathfinders have a couple of faces too- though fluff-wise, pathfinders might be a different kettle of fish.
I think that was a headswap with the peacekeeper captain from the KS. I'm not 100% sure about that but I did the same thing IIRC.
the headswap was definitely for the Captain. Considering the plastic sprues for regular and peace keeper Enforcers have all masked heads, I suppose that at least is keeping with the fluff. And, to be fair, the original Pathfinder figure was wearing a mask as well. They probably should've included a few of those with the Pathfinder sprues as well.
Yup got exactly the same email, full of links that were not links. If I was a cynic, I'd say Mantic have simply selected a number of pledges to be 'wrong' because they are anticipating a shortfall in the number of exclusive minis and this way, it's "your" fault they can't provide them to you..
As a Mantic regular who's had plenty of issues with them and their product recently... the new DZ2 stuff is looking good. Happy to have waited for retail though.
One of the backers on the KS mentioned that he got the same email and it was because he had placed two (or more) orders via the PM and paid shipping both times. I guess they needed to refund some of that shipping but doing it this way seems.. kind of strange.
I also placed two orders (pledge first, add ons later) and paid two lots of shipping so that could indeed be the cause.
I only made 1 order too, got the "problem" email. Link in the email was bunk, but logging into mantic digital I found my order and it looks all present and correct. So opened a Support ticket asking what the issue actually is. Gave em the order number too.
Taaloc wrote: I think the Enforcer Engineer came with an option to build him with his face hanging out? That or I built him wrong. The pathfinder monocyclist had her face out too on the mounted version, I think, and the new hard plastic pathfinders have a couple of faces too- though fluff-wise, pathfinders might be a different kettle of fish.
I think that was a headswap with the peacekeeper captain from the KS. I'm not 100% sure about that but I did the same thing IIRC.
Oh. Fair enough then. Great minds and all that.
I know my Peacekeeper captain ended up with the bearded Rebs trooper head.
I shall wait to see if I get the email of doom- although I asked the question if all was OK with my Infestation Lockdown pledge at Salute, and got an email a few days later saying all OK. (I had requested a refund around the time of the material change bombshell but never got a response- I changed my mind in the end and emailed in to say so, but didn't get a response to that either. I could just imagine them saying the order had been cancelled without sending me a refund so I asked when I had them there in front of me at Salute)
Mantic Games - You've received that email in error - if you have completed the pledge manager but received an email from us please do not email us. We were contacting customer's who have not filled in the pledge manager and some parameters were incorrectly set. We apologies for any inconvenience.
and KS comments
Mantic Games about 4 hours ago
Hi guys,
If in doubt please contact the support desk.
I would rather spend a few minutes checking your order is fine and find that it is than you leave it and we end up with a non completed Pledge Manager issue further down the line.
Also apparently if you originally backed for $1 but didn't use that $1 credit as part of your order payment then it creates a conflict in the PM that needs to be resolved.
At least one person has received their outbreak pledge. Must have been right down the street or something as he showed it 3 days ago. do you generally get a tracking notice or anything for mantic KSes or does it just kind of show up?
I've been avoiding the Mantic threads, since being a Negative Nancy seems to be an issue, despite their constant feth ups. But since I just got an "your Incursion order had problems" email, with a link to the KoW2 PM and then a second email with a link to Incursion, despite my order being sorted and confirmed back in 2015, so I had to check in.
Good to see that nothing's improved in Mantic-Land. No need for memes or humour here, though - right?
@Azazelx
What a weird way to describe yourself. The message might have been a mistake, assuming you actually filled out your PM properly. They sent out some messages in error to a few extra people intending them to go to people who hadn't finished their PM.
DaveC mentioned it a page ago, I think it was pulled from both the KS page and Facebook.
Azazelx wrote: I've been avoiding the Mantic threads, since being a Negative Nancy seems to be an issue, despite their constant feth ups. But since I just got an "your Incursion order had problems" email, with a link to the KoW2 PM and then a second email with a link to Incursion, despite my order being sorted and confirmed back in 2015, so I had to check in.
Good to see that nothing's improved in Mantic-Land. No need for memes or humour here, though - right?
Just more fething facepalms.
I hope I'm not being too much of a Positive Polly, but Mantic finally came through with my missing stuff and a healthy bribe to soothe ill feelings. Have they sent you your stuff yet?
It's nice to see them playing to type, though. Really appeals to the conservative nature of model collecting.
...Should I be worried if I didn't receive one of their faulty emails?
If you didn't get an email mistakenly claiming something is terribly wrong with your order, it probably means your order isn't in their database at all
@Bob
No, but I'd start a ticket if your concerned.
@streetsamurai
Prefacing this just to say I have and play both Deadzone(DZ) and Deathwatch: Overkill(D:O).
It depends on what your comparing. Price per model(USD)
Deathwath Overkill is 165(Full Retail) or 50 models at 3.3 per model.
Deadzone is 79.99(Same) or 20 models at 3.95 per model.
That doesn't really tell us much though. so lets dig into it a bit more.
D:O has thick card tiles, a softback rulebook. 6xD6 dice, 2 sets of cards and a non standard clear ruler.
DZ has HIPS plastic scenery, a hardback rulebook, 8xD8, 6(?) non standard command dice, token sheet and a paper mat.
So which is a better value? Depends on your needs.
I played a slightly simplified version of D:0 with my 6 year old daughter and she understood all the concepts needed, I consider this a plus.While playing it with adults, it was full of interesting choices, The genestealers especially. I really like the way the GSC deploy, the whole concept of asymmetrical warfare appeals to me in general though. D:O has a lot of models to prep before you can play mission 1. I dislike using unpainted models so having to paint a large chunk of those models to play the first mission, I see as a negative. The models are nice, and are similar in terms of mould lines to the mantic HIPS I've seen(Forge Guard and Enforcers). The models are monopose and to be honest this hurts the kit a bit. In my opinion the best part about a GW kit is the customization options. If this had been more in line with BAC I would have had more fun building these models. The number of unique poses helps, but I don't feel that same attachment as a model I posed and armed myself. The game is ultimately not going to engage a meat and potatoes gamer much longer than a the length of the campaign. Replay value is increased by being able to choose the DW team, and through the use of the Broodmind Deck.
Deadzone isn't something that could be as easily taught to a 6 year old because while the game uses simple mechanics it then layers them in a complex way. DZ games take place in a 3D space which feels more realistic. Deadzone definitely has more 'meat' than the former. Examples include customization of standard units, Command Dice and a campaign system. DZ needs less models to play your first game. about 10ish for a standard game. This was important to me as I wanted to use only painted minis, if you remember. The models themselves are a multi-pose and comes with all the pros and cons of multipose models. The game play itself can best be described as a small tactical skirmish. The counters(assuming similar quality as V1) are sturdy enough to last a long time. Speaking of counters, DZ is a counter 'heavy' game. Models may have 1,2 or in extreme cases 3 tokens attached to them at any time.
This feels a bit cluttered given the already restricted playing space. The biggest single benefit to the DZ starter box(past and present) is that it is a perfect entry point, containing almost everything( no paint, clippers or glue) you need in the box to start the hobby AND play a game of DZ as it was meant to be played. No additional terrain or model buys are needed to have a game at the standard level. I feel this is rare in starters. This feels more like a complete game in a box with expansions, rather than a 'first one is free' style of starter set.
Azazelx wrote: I've been avoiding the Mantic threads, since being a Negative Nancy seems to be an issue, despite their constant feth ups. But since I just got an "your Incursion order had problems" email, with a link to the KoW2 PM and then a second email with a link to Incursion, despite my order being sorted and confirmed back in 2015, so I had to check in.
Good to see that nothing's improved in Mantic-Land. No need for memes or humour here, though - right?
Just more fething facepalms.
I hope I'm not being too much of a Positive Polly, but Mantic finally came through with my missing stuff and a healthy bribe to soothe ill feelings. Have they sent you your stuff yet?
It's nice to see them playing to type, though. Really appeals to the conservative nature of model collecting.
...Should I be worried if I didn't receive one of their faulty emails?
Good to hear that they finally sorted you out. I hope the bribe was significant. As for me, Kings of War, yes (via direct contact with Ronnie, several times). DKQ.... well, they claim to have, and we're on the edge of it being "late", but not yet "late". I got the email from RIch on April 1 saying
I am very sorry your order has not arrived.
I have placed another on the system to be shipped out to you.
Which seems ...unlikely at best. It's very, very rare that things go missing, and I order a lot of stuff. Oh, and I never got a "your stuff has been despatched" email, either, so... Then on April 12th Rich emailed to say that it's been sent. So 11 days from ticket to despatch, and just over 2 weeks in transit now, while UK delivery times usually take 5-14 days.
NobodyXY wrote: At least one person has received their outbreak pledge. Must have been right down the street or something as he showed it 3 days ago. do you generally get a tracking notice or anything for mantic KSes or does it just kind of show up?
You might be talking about me. I got mine on Saturday and posted some pictures up. I live about 40 miles away from Mantic HQ.
Mine was a small order and came via Royal Mail with no tracking notice.
Some orders with miniatures have started to show up. There are posts on the DZ Fanatic page on facebook showing some of the new items.
lord_blackfang wrote: If you didn't get an email mistakenly claiming something is terribly wrong with your order, it probably means your order isn't in their database at all
Dammit! I should probably submit a ticket just in case.
Azazelx wrote: I've been avoiding the Mantic threads, since being a Negative Nancy seems to be an issue, despite their constant feth ups. But since I just got an "your Incursion order had problems" email, with a link to the KoW2 PM and then a second email with a link to Incursion, despite my order being sorted and confirmed back in 2015, so I had to check in.
Good to see that nothing's improved in Mantic-Land. No need for memes or humour here, though - right?
Just more fething facepalms.
I hope I'm not being too much of a Positive Polly, but Mantic finally came through with my missing stuff and a healthy bribe to soothe ill feelings. Have they sent you your stuff yet?
It's nice to see them playing to type, though. Really appeals to the conservative nature of model collecting.
...Should I be worried if I didn't receive one of their faulty emails?
Good to hear that they finally sorted you out. I hope the bribe was significant. As for me, Kings of War, yes (via direct contact with Ronnie, several times). DKQ.... well, they claim to have, and we're on the edge of it being "late", but not yet "late". I got the email from RIch on April 1 saying
I am very sorry your order has not arrived.
I have placed another on the system to be shipped out to you.
Which seems ...unlikely at best. It's very, very rare that things go missing, and I order a lot of stuff. Oh, and I never got a "your stuff has been despatched" email, either, so... Then on April 12th Rich emailed to say that it's been sent. So 11 days from ticket to despatch, and just over 2 weeks in transit now, while UK delivery times usually take 5-14 days.
I got a similar message through the ticket system, saying my order had shipped. Then they closed the ticket. A week or so later, the box arrived. It included extras like an Abyssal Fiend, Ronnie the Bard, KoW2 hardcover and players edition and a poster.
Azazelx wrote: Good to hear that they finally sorted you out. I hope the bribe was significant. As for me, Kings of War, yes (via direct contact with Ronnie, several times). DKQ.... well, they claim to have, and we're on the edge of it being "late", but not yet "late". I got the email from RIch on April 1 saying
I am very sorry your order has not arrived.
I have placed another on the system to be shipped out to you.
Which seems ...unlikely at best. It's very, very rare that things go missing, and I order a lot of stuff. Oh, and I never got a "your stuff has been despatched" email, either, so... Then on April 12th Rich emailed to say that it's been sent. So 11 days from ticket to despatch, and just over 2 weeks in transit now, while UK delivery times usually take 5-14 days.
I'm broadly in the same situation. Finally got my KoW in February (the parcel was opened, but I didn't care to check if anything was missing so I've just marked it as delivered), still waiting for DKQ (I was told months ago it would be end of March, now I get "The stock will be with us shortly but I do not have a specific eta yet."). As a result I didn't up my $1 Warpath pledge.
As for DZ2, I only vaguely remember I was going in halves with someone for a split on Enforcers and Veermyn. However I fully expect to have nothing turn up once again, which would definitely stop me pledging on any future Mantic KS.
Azazelx wrote: I've been avoiding the Mantic threads, since being a Negative Nancy seems to be an issue, despite their constant feth ups. But since I just got an "your Incursion order had problems" email, with a link to the KoW2 PM and then a second email with a link to Incursion, despite my order being sorted and confirmed back in 2015, so I had to check in.
Good to see that nothing's improved in Mantic-Land. No need for memes or humour here, though - right?
Just more fething facepalms.
I hope I'm not being too much of a Positive Polly, but Mantic finally came through with my missing stuff and a healthy bribe to soothe ill feelings. Have they sent you your stuff yet?
It's nice to see them playing to type, though. Really appeals to the conservative nature of model collecting.
...Should I be worried if I didn't receive one of their faulty emails?
Good to hear that they finally sorted you out. I hope the bribe was significant. As for me, Kings of War, yes (via direct contact with Ronnie, several times). DKQ.... well, they claim to have, and we're on the edge of it being "late", but not yet "late". I got the email from RIch on April 1 saying
I am very sorry your order has not arrived.
I have placed another on the system to be shipped out to you.
Which seems ...unlikely at best. It's very, very rare that things go missing, and I order a lot of stuff. Oh, and I never got a "your stuff has been despatched" email, either, so... Then on April 12th Rich emailed to say that it's been sent. So 11 days from ticket to despatch, and just over 2 weeks in transit now, while UK delivery times usually take 5-14 days.
I also had a llllllong amount of waiting. I got a healthy bribe too; so much so, that I can't even list it on here for fear of being attacked by all you guys! The part that I can list is that I got 2 boxes of Ogres that were sent as an apology and a Judge Dredd ref. Beyond that...I can't list. But it was substantial. Mantic has done better by me with CS than GW (and GW has always been great for me!). The KoW2 gifts have blown GW out of the water. And GW has always been above everyone else as far as CS.
I got a similar "I'll let you know when it ships out" response to my KoW2 (still missing every fething thing!) ticket over a month ago, two weeks ago I noticed I couldn't find the ticket on the support website any more even though I still hadn't heard anything, and I still don't have anything in hand either so it seems even in the new support system I have found yet another couple of cracks to slip between -_-'
NobodyXY wrote: @Bob
No, but I'd start a ticket if your concerned.
@streetsamurai
Prefacing this just to say I have and play both Deadzone(DZ) and Deathwatch: Overkill(D:O).
It depends on what your comparing. Price per model(USD)
Deathwath Overkill is 165(Full Retail) or 50 models at 3.3 per model.
Deadzone is 79.99(Same) or 20 models at 3.95 per model.
That doesn't really tell us much though. so lets dig into it a bit more.
D:O has thick card tiles, a softback rulebook. 6xD6 dice, 2 sets of cards and a non standard clear ruler.
DZ has HIPS plastic scenery, a hardback rulebook, 8xD8, 6(?) non standard command dice, token sheet and a paper mat.
So which is a better value? Depends on your needs.
I played a slightly simplified version of D:0 with my 6 year old daughter and she understood all the concepts needed, I consider this a plus.While playing it with adults, it was full of interesting choices, The genestealers especially. I really like the way the GSC deploy, the whole concept of asymmetrical warfare appeals to me in general though. D:O has a lot of models to prep before you can play mission 1. I dislike using unpainted models so having to paint a large chunk of those models to play the first mission, I see as a negative. The models are nice, and are similar in terms of mould lines to the mantic HIPS I've seen(Forge Guard and Enforcers). The models are monopose and to be honest this hurts the kit a bit. In my opinion the best part about a GW kit is the customization options. If this had been more in line with BAC I would have had more fun building these models. The number of unique poses helps, but I don't feel that same attachment as a model I posed and armed myself. The game is ultimately not going to engage a meat and potatoes gamer much longer than a the length of the campaign. Replay value is increased by being able to choose the DW team, and through the use of the Broodmind Deck.
Deadzone isn't something that could be as easily taught to a 6 year old because while the game uses simple mechanics it then layers them in a complex way. DZ games take place in a 3D space which feels more realistic. Deadzone definitely has more 'meat' than the former. Examples include customization of standard units, Command Dice and a campaign system. DZ needs less models to play your first game. about 10ish for a standard game. This was important to me as I wanted to use only painted minis, if you remember. The models themselves are a multi-pose and comes with all the pros and cons of multipose models. The game play itself can best be described as a small tactical skirmish. The counters(assuming similar quality as V1) are sturdy enough to last a long time. Speaking of counters, DZ is a counter 'heavy' game. Models may have 1,2 or in extreme cases 3 tokens attached to them at any time.
This feels a bit cluttered given the already restricted playing space. The biggest single benefit to the DZ starter box(past and present) is that it is a perfect entry point, containing almost everything( no paint, clippers or glue) you need in the box to start the hobby AND play a game of DZ as it was meant to be played. No additional terrain or model buys are needed to have a game at the standard level. I feel this is rare in starters. This feels more like a complete game in a box with expansions, rather than a 'first one is free' style of starter set.
I was one of the first people to confirm the pledge manager. I love in rural Iowa, and I'm getting a bit paranoid.
Due to being in the middle of nowhere I tend to be one of the last people to get my things. Also, I've had some REALLY bad luck as of late (imagine paying for 3-day shipping only to have to cancel your order 6 weeks later).
If there is anyone else in the Midwest that has received their things let me know.
cuda1179 wrote: I was one of the first people to confirm the pledge manager. I love in rural Iowa, and I'm getting a bit paranoid.
Due to being in the middle of nowhere I tend to be one of the last people to get my things. Also, I've had some REALLY bad luck as of late (imagine paying for 3-day shipping only to have to cancel your order 6 weeks later).
If there is anyone else in the Midwest that has received their things let me know.
cuda1179 wrote: I was one of the first people to confirm the pledge manager. I love in rural Iowa, and I'm getting a bit paranoid.
Due to being in the middle of nowhere I tend to be one of the last people to get my things. Also, I've had some REALLY bad luck as of late (imagine paying for 3-day shipping only to have to cancel your order 6 weeks later).
If there is anyone else in the Midwest that has received their things let me know.
For which KS?
The Deazone KS that ended a few months back. The one with the Mules transport.
cuda1179 wrote: I was one of the first people to confirm the pledge manager. I love in rural Iowa, and I'm getting a bit paranoid.
Due to being in the middle of nowhere I tend to be one of the last people to get my things. Also, I've had some REALLY bad luck as of late (imagine paying for 3-day shipping only to have to cancel your order 6 weeks later).
If there is anyone else in the Midwest that has received their things let me know.
For which KS?
The Deazone KS that ended a few months back. The one with the Mules transport.
That was Warpath and isn't scheduled to deliver until the end of this year.
Not the best paint jobs (they may even be unfinished?), but the models look very promising. Very excited to have these in my hands. I expect they'll need some modding for full potential, especially if (as I expect) Mantic went ahead and designed the marionettes with their legs, torsos, and chests cast altogether as one body piece, leaving just the head and arms for multipart posing.
But I'm into modding anyway.
I'm just glad they didn't make them look like T&A 80's Glam Rock stars, like Marvel did.
CthuluIsSpy wrote: I thought marionettes already had models? Didn't they look like guardians with spikey things out of their shoulders?
Those are Cyphers. Marionettes are new, here's the fluff:-
More basic versions of the same technology powering Cyphers, these drone-like combat chassis sacrifice the precision and elegance of a Cypher for simplicity, allowing several to be controlled by one operator.
Definitely useful for any sci-fi gaming as just humanoid drones
That's why I grabbed some! I too am hoping they aren't a single piece torso and body, but at the very least they shouldn't be too difficult to slice apart if I want some variation in poses.
I love the look of them. I'm glad I ordered a bunch.
From the look of it, the torsos are likely separate pieces on the mold, tilted back slightly to allow for the sockets in each shoulder where the arms attach. If that's the case, the design is brilliant.
Does anyone know who is doing the tooling/plastics? The Lower Abyssals for KoW2 seem to be an entire level of tooling and casting quality above the Salamanders, so I'm hoping Mantic sends more work to the better factory or team.
Should I be surprised Mantic just sent me an email telling me how awesome it is that DZ2 can be bought online at at stores in May, and yet I still don't have my DZ2 stuff from the KS?
CptJake wrote: Should I be surprised Mantic just sent me an email telling me how awesome it is that DZ2 can be bought online at at stores in May, and yet I still don't have my DZ2 stuff from the KS?
Mine says May 23 for retail, and apparently people are already getting their pledges in the Mail. Hopefully won't take 24 more days to get to you.
TNT is pleased to advise you that MANTIC GAMES has arranged for a shipment to be collected from them on 29-Apr-2016 and delivered to <ME>.
The Shipment has a TNT CONSIGNMENT NOTE NUMBER: #######
To be able to check the status of the shipment simply click here >> Track my Shipment and more detailed information on the consignment will be available.
If MANTIC GAMES has provided a reference, this reference can be used to track the consignment.
These look fantastic. How do they look alongside the other races? Are they about the same size (and same base size) as Enforcers? I've asked Mantic what the base size is for the Asterians, as I've not seen them photographed alongside the other factions, and haven't yet gotten an answer. Thanks!
Automatically Appended Next Post: another reason why I'd like to know how big the Asterians are: I have an Eldar army. I'm wondering how well they'd sub in for Asterian figures.
My entire Deadzone 2 Lockdown pledge (+ a ton of extras) just arrived.
Kudos to Mantic!
It came trackable through TNT and I received email notification.
The entire Lockdown pledge with a load of extras arrived perfectly packed, with nothing missing.
The quality of the plastic sprues looks excellent and I was mistaken for thinking the new pvc was actually resin. The detail looks fantastic.
Obviously I haven't put any models together yet, so I can't comment on how well they fit.
After a quick look, the only models I felt underwhelmed by were the metal models - although I haven't really given them much chance.
The hardback rulebook for those wanting to know is the same physical dimensions as the Kings of War v2 hardback - although the Deadzone book has less page count so is thinner.
Now I have a box of plastic crack large enough to last well beyond the end of my natural life - and I was about to start painting my Maelstrom's Edge too.
I had a "You were out" from TNT today. Turns out, the nearest TNT place to me is halfway to Nottingham. I am... not impressed at all.
Rang them up and was told that, TNT are primarily a business-to-business delivery company, so don't cater for the sorts of things you'd expect for residential customers. - EG Drop-off points.
Very, very frustrated with Mantic. I'm probably going to have to take a days leave to get this delivery. Which, tallying up the invisible balance sheet, would cost me more significantly more money than I saved in the kickstarter.
pancakeonions wrote: These look fantastic. How do they look alongside the other races? Are they about the same size (and same base size) as Enforcers? I've asked Mantic what the base size is for the Asterians, as I've not seen them photographed alongside the other factions, and haven't yet gotten an answer. Thanks!
Almost all DZ infantry are on the same 25mm round bases, the exceptions are the larger things like the Plague Stages 1 and 2, ripper suits, peacekeepers etc.
The older style miniatures are on mini integral round bases which slot into the hole in the base but the newer miniatures (like the marionettes) go on the other side of the base which is flat.
Compel wrote: I had a "You were out" from TNT today. Turns out, the nearest TNT place to me is halfway to Nottingham. I am... not impressed at all.
Rang them up and was told that, TNT are primarily a business-to-business delivery company, so don't cater for the sorts of things you'd expect for residential customers. - EG Drop-off points.
Very, very frustrated with Mantic. I'm probably going to have to take a days leave to get this delivery. Which, tallying up the invisible balance sheet, would cost me more significantly more money than I saved in the kickstarter.
I'd contact Mantic on this topic - being in the UK, you can actually phone them & talk to a person!
It does sound unreasonable, and presumably not part of their intent. I've had numerous parcels delivered to me by TNT in the past, so I don't think their point about being an entirely B2B provider is accurate. I do live in London though, where collection points are presumably more numerous.
Very, very frustrated with Mantic. I'm probably going to have to take a days leave to get this delivery. Which, tallying up the invisible balance sheet, would cost me more significantly more money than I saved in the kickstarter.
Surely you should be frustrated with TNT, not Mantic. You would have had an email notification with tracking details from TNT anyway so you should have known that it was arriving. If you knew you weren't going to be in and there'd be no one else about to take delivery you could have called TNT and arranged another date, a neighbour, a safe location, or whatever else would have suited (I have just gone through these options with them myself). If you didn't get an email from TNT then that's on them. Your situation is obviously frustrating but it isn't Mantic's fault.
So, I took the day off to wait for the parcel. - That's basically the only applicable option for me (My work doesn't accept deliveries, unsurprisingly, my neighbours have this whole 'work and job' thing too. The reason I'm annoyed with mantic as opposed to TNT, is that it's Mantic that chose an unsuitable company for home deliveries. If I go to a Chinese restaurant and ask for fish and chips, they might do them, sure, but for a better fish supper, it'd be more suitable to go to the chippie next door.
In any case, I've now wasted a day off. At least I've done an unboxing of a lockdown pledge for you all.
So, I've got my stuff now at least and everything seemed fine until I started looking at the Veer'myn. I'm not quite sure if everything is adding up there properly. It looks like there's a lot of chopping and changing of names going on
Apparently I've got, as the "Veer'Myn LockDown Bundle'
Plastic Sprue of 5 basic Veer'Myn troops
A bag of a restic/resin Veer'myn with a sniper rifle and one with a syringe
Plastic Sprue of 2 'rat ogre' style guys, sprue is labelled "Veer'myn Nightmares"
Bag of 5 restic Veer'myn with weird weapons
Weird monster stabby thing with lots of claws.
A vehicle (the chem thrower), driver, one other dude
Weird monster type dude that has 2 other veer'myn in a bag too
Stalkers/crawlers
Progentiors
These are the actual Nightmares in the book.
The old heavy weapon rats. Basically they're the maligni now I think.
Night Terror
the chem thrower
Piper I think.
Compel wrote: So, I took the day off to wait for the parcel. - That's basically the only applicable option for me (My work doesn't accept deliveries, unsurprisingly, my neighbours have this whole 'work and job' thing too. The reason I'm annoyed with mantic as opposed to TNT, is that it's Mantic that chose an unsuitable company for home deliveries. If I go to a Chinese restaurant and ask for fish and chips, they might do them, sure, but for a better fish supper, it'd be more suitable to go to the chippie next door.
I'd still suggest the problem is not Mantic, nor their choice of TNT, but instead your particular nearest TNT office not being up to standard, because there doesn't appear to be anyone else having these sorts of issues.
NTRabbit - If you're not a Mantic representative, get on the horn and get them to make you one. That's not a backhanded snide remark. I think you'd make a bang-up representative for them down under. (Bang-up is an American term meaning "outrageously fabulous".)
If any of you lucky folks who are getting your stuff sooner than the rest of us care to put up some pictures, please do. Yes. Since I'm asking for your valuable free time, maybe post the models you're happiest with, and perhaps one of the ones you're most disappointed with, whatever they are?
I'm hearing the metal Kalyshi aren't so good, which isn't that big a deal to me as I was probably going to replace them with Eldar or Dark Eldar anyway. I am hoping that the metal Teraton turned out great, though. Need more great Teraton sculpts. Many more. Why can KOW have hard plastic Salamanders, but Warpath having hard plastic Teratons is "yeah, right, in your dreams, turtle boy! snicker snicker!" TMNT was huge over here at one time, after all, and it moved a hell of a lot of (bad) plastic toys. Chew on that bit of rawhide, you British crumpet-eating game makers. Yeehaw.
All the talk about the Wrath of Kings plastic figs turning out so well has me chomping at the bit. (An American term meaning "outrageously fabulous".)
If any of you lucky folks who are getting your stuff sooner than the rest of us care to put up some pictures, please do. Yes. Since I'm asking for your valuable free time, maybe post the models you're happiest with, and perhaps one of the ones you're most disappointed with, whatever they are?
I may have bad luck with delivery companies, but I at least I'm prescient. - Here's my (almost) full box break down.
I think I've got a bit more of a cold than I thought I had though. In any case, I'm still learning this whole online review / unboxing thing.
But yeah, that letter from Ronnie in the box read really weird.
Favourite model? just from looking at him, the Plague Aberration looks awesome. I like the Enforcer Pathfinders too for that matter, though.
The metal Kalyshi though, they're flipping awful.
Vermonter wrote: NTRabbit - If you're not a Mantic representative, get on the horn and get them to make you one. That's not a backhanded snide remark. I think you'd make a bang-up representative for them down under. (Bang-up is an American term meaning "outrageously fabulous".)
If only they were hiring, it's my professional area too!
Where I've seen the metal Kalyshi called out specifically, it's mostly people saying "I wish they'd made these in boardgame plastic too"; the flash is about what you'd expect, maybe a little more than, but the bows and staffs are coming weirdly bent, and they don't look durable enough.
Still waiting for my shipping notice down here though.
The flash has been the worst I've seen... possibly ever.
And I've been working with Knight Models Batman miniatures recently, who aren't exactly the most user friendly of metals. The metal feels *very* soft, with flash extending off the moldlines down the middle of one models face for literally half the distance their face is again.
I uploaded some other pics too.
Here's the letter.
Spoiler:
I'm not the only one that thinks it's a little weird, right?
I couldn't read every word due to the flash, but it sounds like Mantic is either prepping to pull a Privateer Press or seriously bleeding money due to lack of retail/distributor sales. Either way, it sounds bad.
I don't have any of the new Deadzone plastics, but I have the KoW plastics now, and they are mostly great kits, except for the salamander kit which is very much 'almost'. (Note: that is not an American term meaning "outrageously fabulous".) I'm very optimistic about their future plastics.
Wow, Compel. You deliver fast. I owe you one, if I ever end up getting something before you do. That probably won't happen with any Mantic KS, though.
NTRabbit - it's your line of work? You're working in table top gaming? Like, making a living at it? I thought that didn't happen in real life.
Regarding the letter, maybe I'm just a bit thick-headed because I almost electrocuted myself repairing the dryer today. (I did manage to melt a nice pair of needle pliers I usually use for miniatures, dammit.) The letter seemed perhaps a bit on the megalomaniacal / world domination side, but no more so that is standard corporate speak. I'm not really seeing the bleeding wound subtext.
But like I said, Im probably operating on a few less bran cells right new.
They know people put in big the first time around, but the game fizzled out due to rule issues and/ or model quality.
They want people playing their games, not just having them sit in the closet waiting to be painted (like mine currently is).
Must say I am starting to warm up to receiving my pledge, especially after the debacle of Dungeon Saga, which at this point I would be just as happy to get rid of.
Hell, I even put together my Forge Father and Enforcer plastics today, and starting cleaning off some restic ones!
Thanks for doing the video. I won't watch, I plan to wait and see myself, but I'm glad you did it.
@HT I'm pretty ready to be get my pledge. I've been doing little bits of dressing cover myself. A video terminal with a giant smiley face sign on top, Neglected Potted plant and a garbage pile that'll sit up against a wall.
They know people put in big the first time around, but the game fizzled out due to rule issues and/ or model quality.
They want people playing their games, not just having them sit in the closet waiting to be painted (like mine currently is).
Must say I am starting to warm up to receiving my pledge, especially after the debacle of Dungeon Saga, which at this point I would be just as happy to get rid of.
Hell, I even put together my Forge Father and Enforcer plastics today, and starting cleaning off some restic ones!
What the hell was that all about?
Will you be bringing DS to the Brookhurst Hobbies Bring n Buy?
I feel like Mantic is just starting to generate enough fluff to make their rule books interesting reads in their own right, and their KOW2 plastics have renewed my interest in the range. They Re head and shoulders above every other fantasy game right now. If they release those Kingdom of Dust minis soon and maybe some expansion, worldwide campaign, or RPG game books, they could capitalize on the market's untapped interest in big fantasy battles worlds. Deadzone will need more work to reach the same point, and the sci fi market seems much more competitive.
I feel that it is certainly better than the previous PVC offerings, but
1) has arrived heavily warped (the Veermyn hero's base is completely twisted, making standing impossible)
2) is still in no way superior or an equivalent alternative to the resin that some of these were sold as.
Mould lines are still in evidence, just reduced, and have caused slippage on the detail where the mould halves have not aligned. Detail on some fine areas is poor, see the heads and tails on the rat swarms vs. the original renders.
Yup, it's why I requested a refund for this project (and got said refund, finally, a month or two ago). Funny enough, they *did* ship me my (now unpaid) pledge. Ah, Mantic...
Anyway, while I haven't taken anything out of the sealed baggies (I'd be surprised if they actually issued a return shipping label but it's only decent to keep it pristine until they either decline to or, in their usual fashion, ignore me completely for the next week or two), I'm pleasantly surprised with the quality of the now-PVC models.
As in, they're a *lot* better than I'd expected them to be. Of course I'm peeking in through the (glossy) plastic so it's perhaps not 100% accurate but:
- they seem remarkably devoid of horrible mould lines (there's some, but not much, and a lot of it is fairly cleverly hidden/removable);
- little to no warping on mine, from what I can work out; and
- detail is actually surprisingly good. Fairly sharp edges, decent ridge detail, you name it. It's certainly not anything I'd call 'soft' when dealing with wargaming minis in general.
*However*: while they're certainly fairly sharp, I'm 100% positive they could have been sharper in resin. Especially the big plague stompey-thing from the booster, while it looks pretty good and I wouldn't have minded actually paying $25 for it, even in KS prices, if they'd been honest about material choices up front, would likely have been sharper in quite a few places if produced in resin, as promised.
Honestly though, while the quality of pretty much everything in the box seems decidely un-Mantic-ally consistently good in quality, I'm still sufficiently miffed about the bait and switch with that sudden batch of restic that I stand by requesting that refund (and will happily ship the damn lot back if so directed). Spotty consistency is to be expected but that was plain bad faith.
On another positive note, however: literally all of the HIPS stuff I've seen (quarantine pledge) is really pretty damn impressive. If they can keep the warpath stuff on this level there's going to be quite a few kits in their range which will distinctly overshadow their excellent undead products by quite a bit.
I'm really impressed. I mean, damn, even the veer-myn which are really not my cup of tea, conceptually, just really invite you to start building and painting. Really impressive. (Shame they couldn't do a bunch of goaty/ox-ey beastmen to that standard; I'd likely be spending money with them again in a heartbeat).
Bolognesus wrote: *However*: while they're certainly fairly sharp, I'm 100% positive they could have been sharper in resin. Especially the big plague stompey-thing from the booster, while it looks pretty good and I wouldn't have minded actually paying $25 for it, even in KS prices
I sure wouldn't have been willing to pay $25 USD for a bit of resin that size, that's as bad as the idiotic prices the other Nottingham mob try to hang on their middle of the road products, like some sort of detached from reality premium label. I'm fully in favour of them switching not only from resin to boardgame plastic, but from metal as well, because you end up with good, usable product, at realistic and affordable prices.
The next time they run a Scifi KS, say to work on the Rebs and Marauders in a couple of years, I'm hoping they expand the notion from last time and make it a "restic, metal, and resin-free project", with everything in hard plastic or boardgame plastic.
- I wouldn't call this particular sculpt 'middle of the road' by any stretch. Quite the contrary, it's damn good. Not Mierce good, but surprisingly close, come to think of it. (which puts Mantic's 'supremely good sculpts' counter at two, now: this and the S1. Glad I actually *do* have that one in resin)
- Resin is inherently fairly expensive to produce.
I get you like cheaper, good enough models, but I'm fine with paying a premium for that better production quality, as long as the sculpt quality is actually there (such as with this model).
To each his own, but to say this would have been a 'middle of the road product' if produced in the proper resin as promised seems more than a little harsh to me.
And honestly, I'll take metal over restic for things like centaurs any day. the horsey parts will be fine but the human parts and weapons will be noticeably better in metal and at €1,50 per cavaly model more (at EU RRP, outside of bundles, so not a way you'd even ever buy Mantic models realistically...) I'll actively take metal to avoid some of those quality issues.
Which sculp are you talking about, Bolognesus? The only plague monster I recall was the bald Image Comics monster, and there's no way I'd put that in the same room as the G1 plague guy, let alone on the same shelf.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Right now, Mantic seems to returned to it's strength of producing nice, simple, good-not-great minis which would sell well at decent prices. The Abyssals are great fantasy plastics. The Enforcers have great designs. Forgefathers are simple, but fun. This seems like mantic's niche. I hope they remember that and work to strengthen their brand here rather than attempting to aim for premium anything.
- I wouldn't call this particular sculpt 'middle of the road' by any stretch.
I was calling all the most recent produce from the other Nottingham mob middle of the road; every single thing produced for their most recent fantasy game hasn't stretched above mediocre, and frequently falls into awful, while being priced like something from a boutique maker like Mierce. I still won't pay $25 USD for one resin medium sized monster, I don't care how sharp it turns out in resin. Boardgame plastic gets near enough for a fraction of the price, and it's lighter and more resilient to boot.
I would argue that places like Mierce exist entirely for people like you, in that minority - leave the Mantic stuff in the affordable category for the majority of us who aren't in a top tax bracket.
As for metal, I'll take it reluctantly for Kings of War, because I can put the minis on large unit bases, but for single bases in scifi the material is horribly impactical, and just too heavy for me to ever want to use - and that's forcing myself past the issue of pinning, which I hate doing, and in many circumstances am physically incapable of doing, especially on spindly stuff like Infinity minis.
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WTB a tarp please.
Wow, I was joking....and I'm not a rep by any means for Mantic, so obviously (hopefully fingers crossed emoticon) they won't be leaving it outside. The empty pallets around it concern me that they are hand carrying that mountain inside though.
until all the issues have been fixed, even then I'm finding other sources of better quality minis for cheaper.
, why couldn't they have been rare and elite because even large corporations can only afford to make and equip small amounts of them? Please? Nope, they're super-secret commandos using super-secret technology and answerable only to the super-secret Council. Which is not only incredibly uninteresting but also means there is absolutely NO reason for an Enforcer on Enforcer battle, ever. There's even less justification than Space Marine vs Space Marine battles. *sigh*
