I'll be looking to buy well over 100 of the hard plastic enforcers. After I've seen the sprues, not before.

Hopefully they'll come out with a £50 army set with the peacekeepers and regular enforcers, entirely hard plastic. That would be extremely nice and I'd be looking to pick up 3-4 of them.

I'm also hoping to see giant bundle boxes of the plastic terrain (great big £100 things) to go nuts with. Definitely want to make that 28mm scale starship at some point and battlezones are going to be the thing to make it with.

 scarletsquig wrote:


I'm also hoping to see giant bundle boxes of the plastic terrain (great big £100 things) to go nuts with. Definitely want to make that 28mm scale starship at some point and battlezones are going to be the thing to make it with.

This would probably be better: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1621774283/battle-systemstm-sci-fi-modular-terrain

 JoshInJapan wrote:

 scarletsquig wrote:


I'm also hoping to see giant bundle boxes of the plastic terrain (great big £100 things) to go nuts with. Definitely want to make that 28mm scale starship at some point and battlezones are going to be the thing to make it with.

This would probably be better: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1621774283/battle-systemstm-sci-fi-modular-terrain

Not so much better as different I think Josh. Battle Systems terrain is awesome - I'm in for at least 2 strongholds. But it represents interior terrain. Deadzone represents exterior terrain, comes with things like landing pads and defence lines, and you can build it 10 levels high if you want. I have 14 Deadzone battlezones coming, and my plan is to run 2 battle systems strongholds covering 2x4 for interior stuff, and deadzone battlezones covering 4x4 for exterior stuff, on the same glorious 6x4 table.

Where in Aus are you yonan? Because that is a table I would love to see!!

Perth WA, I work to a very slow schedule but you'd be welcome to have a game with me in 4 years when it's finished! ; p

edit: Maybe 3 years, since Battle Systems doesn't need to be painted ; )

6 enforcers for DZ... warpath can have lots more. I have a feeling I'm gonna give up on my space Marines when my dz shipment gets here and if that's the case I Kay need a few more enforcers to replace them.

News for Deadzone scenery lovers:

Mantic has confirmed in the Mars Attacks comments section that you can pledge for ANY Deadzone battlezone you want, not just core worlds. Ruins, Landing Pad, etc, are all open season.

This effectively means, if you're waiting to pledge for more Deadzone battlezones on the 2nd survey anyway, you may want to consider doing it now and getting free Mars Attacks pledge rewards - like Plague suitable giant bugs or giant robots - thrown into the bargain!

Have never looked at Warpath, supposedly it's more problematic than Kings of War right? I hope Mantic can refine it too since I'm pretty keen on the setting now after getting into it with Dreadball and Deadzone fluff. There's a book coming out very soon too I hear which I'll definitely have to grab.

I'm going to look at making a set of homebrew rules for 40K to work with Deadzone, with a strong emphasis on balance. Whether I use it to replace 40k games, or to mix 40k armies into Deadzone setting just for fun I don't know yet, but I'm still keen on a lot of the 40k stuff so it has to be done ; p Deadzone rules seem perfect to represent Dawn of War (PC Game) Blood Ravens action on the tabletop, where you field at most 12ish marines against all sorts of grooblies. Also as someone else mentioned a while ago, it would work well for tabletop XCom which intrigues me ; )

I think 4 mat deadzone will be a very interesting skirmish alternative. 20-30 models on a side moving independently but in groups of 4-6 so kind of squad like. Maybe 1-2 light vehicles in a side. Definitely smaller scope than 40k but 2-3x the model count of infinity... sounds interesting to me

I'd just like to point out that, despite my concerns expressed in this thread, I have taken a leap of faith and pledged for the big ant-bug thing on the Mars Attacks KS. This is based on a render only.

I'm giving you a second chance, Mantic, don't let me down!

Hahah RiTides, did you see the review of the material they're using? It's not as sharp as the new restic formula which I think we can all agree looks from the pictures to be great, but it did look good enough.

I did not Yonan, could you link me to it? I don't mind dipping my toe in for the bugs anyway, but that would be very useful to know just for reference...

 RiTides wrote:
I did not Yonan, could you link me to it? I don't mind dipping my toe in for the bugs anyway, but that would be very useful to know just for reference...

Yep! Here's the review and this is a sample pic from itt hat's a bit big to inline. This is what I remember hearing was the same material used here, SS or someone else might be able to confirm for sure.

They look alright. To me MA looks more like a board game, you can play right out of the box, no need to paint or assemble your minis. DZ is more a tabletop wargame. Really cant wait to see what they do with a Warpath KS. The renders for MA look great, hope they keep to this method of sculpting in the future.

I caved in and have pre ordered the big set. Will make sure I have funds stached away for when the Warpath KS hits

the softer plastic used in MA allows greater flexibility in what will actually pull out of the mould safely

so you'd probably find they might not work in restic (and certainly wouldn't work in styrene)

that said they've certainly come on well with their digital work

Thanks for that, Yonan!

Also, folks who pledged for Deadzone terrain might want to check out the Games & Gears cityscape board as a cheap way to put a base on that city (it was just mentioned in the comments and I think it's a good idea!).

I think I'm more excited for the new material than I ever will be for restic again. A little bit of softness is much preferrable to my "Thanks, Obama" levels of restic rage.


Thanks, Restic!

Wait, what material is it? Not restic, you say? I'm not sure what "softer plastic" means...

It's the stuff in Yonan's post, used in Loka and the FFG Gears of War board game.

 RiTides wrote:
Also, folks who pledged for Deadzone terrain might want to check out the Games & Gears cityscape board as a cheap way to put a base on that city (it was just mentioned in the comments and I think it's a good idea!).

Another good looking terrain kickstarter, truly an awesome time to be a gamer. It does look good, but it seems to be better for 15mm rather than 28mm? The Battle Systems terrain also on KS seems to match the scale better I think, plus is interior focused compared to the Games and Gears and Deadzone terrain exterior focus.

 scarletsquig wrote:
It's the stuff in Yonan's post, used in Loka and the FFG Gears of War board game.

Swoit cheers, wasn't positive. I assume Mantic knows what they're doing and are choosing this over the new sexy restic formula for good reasons

 Yonan wrote:

 scarletsquig wrote:
It's the stuff in Yonan's post, used in Loka and the FFG Gears of War board game.

Swoit cheers, wasn't positive. I assume Mantic knows what they're doing and are choosing this over the new sexy restic formula for good reasons

I don't understand your first phrase. Do you mean this stuff is worse than normal boardgame plastic?

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

 Yonan wrote:

Swoit cheers, wasn't positive. I assume Mantic knows what they're doing and are choosing this over the new sexy restic formula for good reasons

I don't understand your first phrase. Do you mean this stuff is worse than normal boardgame plastic?

"Swoit cheers"? Sorry, Australianism I guess. Swoit = sweet, so "Sweet thanks (implied: for clearing that up), I wasn't sure if I was correct." Was in hospital yesterday doped up on morphine so I wasn't writing terribly well, my bad ; p

I don't really know about normal boardgame plastic, but the stuff used here looks fine - just has less crisp hard lines that you seem to get with the new restic used with Dreadball wave 3 and Deadzone, but others have said this might allow for better soft detail.

I like the plastic for the Gears of War game.

They don't feel brittle, you can see the detail, and they seem to paint up nice (from what I've seen of pictures, never gotten around to them myself).

They've survived my kids manhandling them, as well as getting stepped on and knocked all over the place, so that's always a plus that they can survive that kind of torment.

Good to hear! I figured there was a good reason Mantic chose it. Having simpler rules and being more board-gamey, they probably figure it's going to get a lot of attention from kids (I plan to play with my niece) so it stands to reason if it's tougher.

Am i the only one that isn't a fan of the GoW material?

Probably not?

Overall, I like what I've seen so far, and feel a lot better about my massive Deadzone pledge.

 Alpharius wrote:
Probably not?
Overall, I like what I've seen so far, and feel a lot better about my massive Deadzone pledge.

You and me both, was a bit worried for a while there hehe. Worst case now I think is they don't get their hard plastic troops right at all and we get them refunded or in restic, which certainly isn't ideal but we don't get burnt as such.

Did you get back in on Mars Attacks? I recall you dropped your pledge before Mantic shoed their deadzone production minis.

I didn't get back in on MA - something had to get cut, what with all the other recently completed and/or ongoing KS...

 Yonan wrote:

 RiTides wrote:
I did not Yonan, could you link me to it? I don't mind dipping my toe in for the bugs anyway, but that would be very useful to know just for reference...

Yep! Here's the review and this is a sample pic from itt hat's a bit big to inline. This is what I remember hearing was the same material used here, SS or someone else might be able to confirm for sure.

OHO! So they're using FFG-style plastic then? I hope they have the quality control on, because warped bases are a real thing with FFG's stuff...



Also, does anyone have a link to a pic of the $350-exclusive model? I can't seem to find it.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Yonan wrote:
Good to hear! I figured there was a good reason Mantic chose it. Having simpler rules and being more board-gamey, they probably figure it's going to get a lot of attention from kids (I plan to play with my niece) so it stands to reason if it's tougher.

As well as that - if it's a board game, it needs to be playable out of the box, rather than having the BG/BGG crowd fiddling around with assembly and such before they can play.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Alpharius wrote:
I didn't get back in on MA - something had to get cut, what with all the other recently completed and/or ongoing KS...

So... you dropped your pledge?

Without even once threatening to do so - I just...did it.

 Alpharius wrote:
Without even once threatening to do so - I just...did it.

You mean like I just did in the AVP campaign?

I could've sworn you waffled and or threatened there too, didn't you?!?

Nope. The first time I mentioned dropping was after I'd done it. I even checked.
I was very much "US shipping isn't free because XYZ" and "Grabbed the high pledge because it was limited instead of waiting till the end, will wait and see over the next three weeks how it goes."

This game should be pretty playable out of the box. 20ish models a side, newly upgraded 3d card counters for those who don't get the car/bug/cows/civilians/etc. Usable paper mat, dice rules, cards. The $150 level adds escalation for bigger games, martian mayhem for more fun stuff, and core expansion 1 for a fancier gaming experience at the basic game size and a couple more scenarios (plus cards, yey!).

The models are even color coded plastic, martians are teal, soldiers are green, survivors are red I think.

Oh, and everything in the game box should be single piece plastic, save for the little domes which are supposed to pressure-fit well enough to get by.

Double Oh (seven?), The $350 model is the alt sculpt for supreme regent. It was the only one initially, but then they added the one to whichever pledge levels so this high level backer tier is to be an alternate sculpt of the same concept. And I don't think we have anything beyond vague-ish concept art for either (so its a toss up as to which art would apply to which model).

Really happy to see the miniatures looking good. If they can pull off decent hard plastics for Enforcers this might get me back into Science Fiction games again!

If my enforcers look as cool and are as endearing as I'm thinking they're going to be... My 4500 points-ish of various space marines are going to be looking for a new home, brand new codex be damned!

I'm with you, grimdork. I think enforcers have the capability to be better than space marines. They already look better in my eyes, they're just a PITA to assemble.

Azazelx wrote:

 Alpharius wrote:
Without even once threatening to do so - I just...did it.

You mean like I just did in the AVP campaign?

Alpharius wrote:I could've sworn you waffled and or threatened there too, didn't you?!?

LOL, half his posts in the thread included a disclaimer of backing out at a latter date if the value isn't good. There is nothing wrong with that btw (and I didn't pledge in the first place for the very same reason) but to say that he just backed out without warning would be... incorrect. Thanks to dakka's nifty filter thread feature, here are some post quotes in order during the KS.

No EBs, so I went in on a "Game Over, Man" level, which I may or may nor keep until the campaign concludes, as it seems more than a little light on models at this point for the price.

I'm going to do my usual. Sit back and let my pledge ride, than decide in the last days if I still want/need it and if the final product warrants the amount of money. At this point, for me it doesn't - but that seems to be the way many of these things go nowadays - stripped-down boardgames so that stretch goals can refill them with the rest of the components you'd actually expect...

Yep, the only reason I went in at all right now was the potential for 100 copies of my charming little head to put onto other models!
Otherwise, I'd be right with you, waiting it out for the three weeks, based on the price for what's on offer at present...

If I weren't sitting on a limited pledge, I'd be playing wait and see for a day or two under 3 weeks, as many others here appear to be saying they will do, which doesn't help their momentum.

It also looks like it's caused them to lose 62 or so backers since it was posted.

Including me. Dropped my "Game Over, Man" $600 pledge since the "extras" were the same as the lower level unlimited pledges anyway, give or take a couple of facehuggers. While I can handle EB levels, I'm not a fan of time-limited rewards that penalise people who back a campaign earlier or later, and this kind of manipulation pisses me off. Back to the sidelines for the next three weeks for me.

I don't know if this is the right place, but since the dreadball thread has been locked, is there anybody else who has not yet received their season 3 shipment?

 warboss wrote:

LOL, half his posts in the thread included a disclaimer of backing out at a latter date if the value isn't good. There is nothing wrong with that btw (and I didn't pledge in the first place for the very same reason) but to say that he just backed out without warning would be... incorrect. Thanks to dakka's nifty filter thread feature, here are some post quotes in order during the KS.

No EBs, so I went in on a "Game Over, Man" level, which I may or may nor keep until the campaign concludes, as it seems more than a little light on models at this point for the price.

I'm going to do my usual. Sit back and let my pledge ride, than decide in the last days if I still want/need it and if the final product warrants the amount of money. At this point, for me it doesn't - but that seems to be the way many of these things go nowadays - stripped-down boardgames so that stretch goals can refill them with the rest of the components you'd actually expect...

Yep, the only reason I went in at all right now was the potential for 100 copies of my charming little head to put onto other models!
Otherwise, I'd be right with you, waiting it out for the three weeks, based on the price for what's on offer at present...

If I weren't sitting on a limited pledge, I'd be playing wait and see for a day or two under 3 weeks, as many others here appear to be saying they will do, which doesn't help their momentum.

Yep, and none of those are "I'm now thinking of pulling out" - in fact they're all "I'm in earlier than I'd usually be in for something like this since there aren't any EBs - and for far more than I expected to be at that, and happy to wait and see how it goes." Of course none of them are "OMFGBBQWOW This is the awesomest thing EVAR" but then I'm never going to be like that at the start of a campaign. Though the Battle Systems terrain KS is pretty close as it has had no issues with value at all since I first saw it and backed it a few days ago, because it's pretty awesome and has just gotten better.



grrr. messy quote tags.

hey James -

any more pics of production minis? painted up?

also what's to be done for peeps like me, who ordered lots of Enforcer stuff in the survey (including individual Enforcer models)?

thanks!

I have attached one model I have painted, it's a promo model for demos. It was easy to clean up and great to paint. You are all in for a serious treat. Will post an enforcer later


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And the enforcers are lush. A little more cleaning time on these but well worth it. Will post photo in abit

Thanks!

Oh thank god, my phone was really hard to see detail on today, I was kind of unimpressed. It looks much better on my larger monitor screen.

Man, those guys have some really meaty arms. Guess it justifies their increase in combat ability.

Thanks for sharing

 judgedoug wrote:
hey James -

any more pics of production minis? painted up?

also what's to be done for peeps like me, who ordered lots of Enforcer stuff in the survey (including individual Enforcer models)?

thanks!

Hello! Sorry, didn't spot this until now. Got distracted by shiny Plague models.

The only Enforcers that are going into hard plastic are the ones from the basic Faction Starter (i.e. the ones in the boxed game). Now, as far as I'm aware - and don't take this as 100% accurate until I've checked with the studio manager (who has now gone home for the night) - every Faction Starter you ordered will get you a bag of restic Enforcers now with hard plastics later. I think. Again, I will check this. However, whatever the case, it's only Faction Starters that were affected. Everything else is still restic, and will still be coming out as normal. I will check this tomorrow and come back to you!

I think my enforcer count is going to almost double after this all arrives. And I just found another ten sitting in a box. I believe I have between 72 and 82 enforcers now (2 captains). Plus the two faction starters giving me 5 restic each, plus the 8? 10? each, we're up to at least 98 minimum, plus 2 of the big kits that give multiple shield/shotgun guys, couple medics, couple snipers, couple more captains and 10 peacekeepers, plus whatever else I see when models hit. I could do a full count tonight, but it's safe to say I'll have at least 120 enforcers after these shipments hit.


Turns out I'm getting another 70 enforcers through Deadzone. Yup. Doubled my amount.

 lagoon83 wrote:

 judgedoug wrote:
hey James -

any more pics of production minis? painted up?

also what's to be done for peeps like me, who ordered lots of Enforcer stuff in the survey (including individual Enforcer models)?

thanks!

Hello! Sorry, didn't spot this until now. Got distracted by shiny Plague models.

The only Enforcers that are going into hard plastic are the ones from the basic Faction Starter (i.e. the ones in the boxed game). Now, as far as I'm aware - and don't take this as 100% accurate until I've checked with the studio manager (who has now gone home for the night) - every Faction Starter you ordered will get you a bag of restic Enforcers now with hard plastics later. I think. Again, I will check this. However, whatever the case, it's only Faction Starters that were affected. Everything else is still restic, and will still be coming out as normal. I will check this tomorrow and come back to you!

shiny models?! post pics!

Specifically, the pledge manager allowed us to add extra individual models. I did this as I'm planning on using my Enforcers in sci fi games like Tomorrow's War, so I made an entire reinforced platoon based on modern military structure; so I needed some extras _after_ ordering multiple Enforcer Starters and several Enforcer Boosters.

So for example, from my DeadzoneKickstarter Survey Summary email:

* Enforcers with Heavy Rifles x 3 - $10: 2

I ordered two extra sets of three Enforcers with heavy rifles at ten bucks per set of three. What does that translate to?

NB I specifically have ordered only Deadzone Enforcers versus current existing Warpath Enforcers, as I don't like the Warpath Enforcer's "skinny knees" and the Deadzone ones on the KS had much thicker knee areas.

Got my Nameless, not too pleased. Heavy flash on the metal models, a mix of restic and metal models as I feared. Planning to ebay them, but if someone wants them cheap and to save me the trouble please PM me (like, a team plus 2 models, big monster, John Doe MVP, 2 keepers, 4 prones, and a bunch of clear hex bases for $25...).

 RiTides wrote:
Got my Nameless, not too pleased. Heavy flash on the metal models, a mix of restic and metal models as I feared. Planning to ebay them, but if someone wants them cheap and to save me the trouble please PM me (like, a team plus 2 models, big monster, John Doe MVP, 2 keepers, 4 prones, and a bunch of clear hex bases for $25...).

PM Sent!

Aww, damn.. out of all the backers on this KS I really wanted you to be happy with your Nameless RiTides. Sorry it didn't work out as well as I was hyping it at the time, I didn't see the sudden metal switch coming either. :(

The thing I don't understand is.. if you're gonna make a unit in metal instead of restic, why not MVPs instead of teams?

I really don't understand the economics angle on it, Mantic should avoid taking their accountant's advice as gospel... the logic doesn't feel right to me... "we're concerned that we might sell hardly any models of this unit so lets make the material worse to make sure that we do".

Which of course, creates a vicious circle of flawed reasoning and self-fulfilling prophecy... "Oh look, that unit we released in metal/ hybrid restic at £3/mini didn't sell so well, guess the accountant was right, we dodged a bullet there!". Negative feedback loop that results in a stream of flawed product and makes the company looks like it lacks self-confidence in its own product.

As someone who is a huge fan of it all, it strikes me as especially bizarre, it feels like I like Mantic's stuff and am more positive about where the company can/will go than Mantic is. I definitely see KoW and Warpath as the primary pick-up games in the UK by 2020, split roughly 50/50 with 40k and warhammer in the same way that Privateer Press has around 50% of the US market (remember PP was just as niche as Mantic 10 years ago, if not moreso). They can get there faster if they just stop hamstringing themselves and admit that they're bloody good at what they do.

I was hoping Mantic would leave that "nervous beancounter" approach to business behind with the support of Kickstarter but it seems to be stuck in old habits a little still (the same old habits that decided fantasy orcs and dwarfs with goggles to launch a new sci-fi line would be a good idea). It really wouldn't have killed them to put in a little extra considering that dreadball sold triple outside of the KS as a result of the money that KS backers put in. Make no mistake, it wouldn't have been as big a hit at retail with only 2 restic teams and £3/mini metal for everything else as per the original plan,so IMO Mantic should have put its backers first and pumped a bit of that money back into making sure that the last few season 3 models were done right instead of adding a negative to the end of an otherwise successful campaign.

I am very concerned about anyone who isn't happy with backing a KS, and the season 3 alts are a critical issue because the backers who bought them are typically the ones who dropped $4-500+ on the KS to get everything (all teams, all completionist sets).. you want to keep people like that with that much money and commitment to the company on-side, not risk losing their support for future kickstarters. I don't think that aspect was properly considered. "Customer-first" attitude is even more extremely important when your customers are also your seed capital.

And all of that is what keeps me slightly nervous still about my very large Deadzone pledge.

Fingers crossed...

I really appreciate the sentiment squig, thanks. And I'm not bitter, hopefully they will make kilcin very happy!

I am pleased with my golems from the KoW campaign, and pledged for the big bugs on Mars Attacks, too. But definitely on more fine / slight models like the Nameless, I probably will want to see a cast in the future. The painted pre-production models really had me excited for them, and I'm sure a good modeller could make them shine, but they were a let down for me.

Interestingly, I think my John Doe looks better- I got him in January, and he's a lighter colored restic. I can't remember if folks were saying lighter or darker colored was better, but he certainly looks better and he's lighter than the Season 3 restic stuff (maybe it's just a better sculpt shining through, though?).

^ Ah, brilliant. Mars attacks bugs were definitely cool, think I talked someone into getting an army of them for KoW (perfect for a goblin army, I may pick up a bunch more for use as trolls).

One thing you can at least be happy about is that the deadzone rules will be solid.

There is already a FAQ/ errata for the deadzone rulebook, as soon as the .pdf went out the internet got hold of it, found a few oddities (biggest one was that 2 identical models in a campaign could have different points values depending on how experienced they were when they picked their skills).

Al of it relayed straight to Jake, several long discussions ensued and we now have a FAQ out within the space of 2 weeks:

http://quirkworthy.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/dz-faq.pdf

Only one errata so far, it basically states "ignore the rank-based costing for skills, just use the first value in the column regardless of what rank you were when you got it".

Can't wait to get hold of the minis, only 15 days to go! As far as I'm aware the booster bundles will be wave 1 too so I'll have production pics of the entire Rebs and Enforcer mini line up on Dec 1st.

I, like SS, was a bit sad to hear RiTides didn't like his nameless; I've noticed RiTides and I liking similar things and thought it was cool. Figured least I could do was give him an easy transaction to get rid of them.

So far in putting my Nameless together I haven't had any issues. The only metal I got was two keepers (I believe that's what they are) so I didn't have an issue with them being metal. The flash on the metal was a bit more than I have been used to lately but easy to clean and no where as bad as some stuff years ago. Liking this rendition of the restic more then the previous stuff. Now I just need a Nameless faction in Deadzone/Warpath.

Only reason why I split Dreadball with a friend was because of the Nameless. A few people in my gaming group kept pestering me about getting in on it; after they showed off the art for John Doe I told them I would only get in on it if they released a team like him. And now here I am, with two teams worth of the Nameless.

Hey RiTides, give me a jersey number and I'll stick it on a big guy in your honor.

Hah, that's awesome . Definitely number 7 if you want single digits, or 42 if you want double digits!

Let me know what you think about the material on John Doe when you get the package. He is a fantastic model, imo, and I'm curious if this one is the same as the one you already have. Sounds like what you received was a similar condition (metal keepers, etc) so it probably is

I probably should have confirmed if any of the retail season 3 kits that I ordered were metal, I had ample time over the 7 weeks it took Wayland to ship my stuff.

Anyone know if retail versions of any of these will be metal?
Kalimarin Ancients - Nameless Team
Koeputki Kolossals - Zees Team
Shan-Meeg Starhawks - Asterians Team
Ukomo Avalanchers - Teratons Team
Whatevers in Dreadball Ultimate

Only the Keepers and booster upgrades (aka the 'alt' sculpts) for season 3 models will be in metal in general release.

If you buy a normal 'team' set of the initial models or the giants they'll be restic and you'll be fine.

Cheers Compel, I'll try to remember that so I know what I need to stay away from buying and make conversions for instead. You put my mind at ease for the meantime though!

 scarletsquig wrote:
I am very concerned about anyone who isn't happy with backing a KS, and the season 3 alts are a critical issue because the backers who bought them are typically the ones who dropped $4-500+ on the KS to get everything (all teams, all completionist sets).. you want to keep people like that with that much money and commitment to the company on-side, not risk losing their support for future kickstarters. I don't think that aspect was properly considered. "Customer-first" attitude is even more extremely important when your customers are also your seed capital.

Like me backed for "everything" in both DB and DZ (which is approx $1,300 I think), and never again after the S3 alts issue.

Also, as an accountant who specilises in that sort of work, only a bad accountant would give that sort of advice. Good accountants take the time to understand wider market issues which might for example include things like "wargaming customers get quite emotional* about the different materials that can be used".

*Maybe "emotional" is not the right word, but I think people get what I mean.

Emotional wargamer synonyms: Rabid Internet Troll, Overhyped Youngin', Jaded Old Man, Enraged Snorlax.

If Mantic sticks to what they've said recently re. being up front about the Deadzone plastics and letting us get refunds before they ship them, at worst we can't get burnt anymore. I hope this is the last lesson they need to learn. They copped a lot of flack for the plastic Basileans and metal Dreadball so I expect they have and I'm confident enough to give them my money... though of course, I *wasn't* burnt by those two issues which helps.

--

Wild West Exodus minis are arriving in the wild atm, and a "similar" thing seems to have happened there - more minis than expected were tooled in delicious WGF hard plastic instead of resin. It *was* announced that they'd try to do this though, but there has already been a "damn, I would have preferred resin". IMO WWX is in the clear since they said up front it could happen whereas Mantic did not, but it's a relevant comparison. (Also I love good plastic above all else so I may be biased)

Yndij MVP early next year I guess a Yndij team will appear later then based on that last line.

Project Update #129: Something's on the horizon...
Posted by Mantic Games ♥ Like

Now that the DreadBall Kickstarter campaign is over, a lot of people are asking what's next for the Futuristic Sports Game. Well, DreadBall Extreme (as mentioned in the closing pages of the Season 3 rulebook) is a little way off yet, but there's something rather exciting coming along at the start of 2014 that will keep things interesting...

Who wants a little sneak peek?



The Yndij are a little-known race from the Outer Sphere, known to be hostile towards the GCPS, but every rule has an exception. A’teo "The Savage" Adysi’s story has inspired countless vidcast serials and documentaries – after all, who could resist the tale of a feral savage who arrived in the Core without a single credit, looking to seek his fortune, only to rise to superstardom in the world of DreadBall?

As the only player of his race to tread the neodurium, Adysi (carefully managed by his sponsors in Carver, Inc.) does not have a home team, instead providing his services to anyone willing to pay his substantial hiring fee. He plays with untamed ferocity, and has generated a legion of fans who are crying out for more Yndij to join the game…

They do sprue less plastic in these boxes, right? I suspect we'll see a couple ogres, some undead, some goblins, enforcers, corporation and some Dreadball/Deadzone stuff. Basically, things that weren't in it last year (with the exception of undead, which everyone loves).

If that's what's in it, count me in pretty much. I'd like a nice variety of stuff for random painting projects, bitz and just "cool!" factor.

I would love anything that had ogres and some dreadball miniatures in it.

Last xmas had a lot of infantry sized stuff, and maybe the marauder trike thing. Been while and I didn't pick it up so I can't remember too clearly.

On another note, deadzone faction cards added for plague and enforcers in the digital rulebook. They look pretty sharp, diggin it.

It's mostly sprue plastic with a few things of non sprue plastic. At least it was last year.

Expect to see Z'zor Strikers and Guards. Remember, they initially had to take every 5th set and raid the Jacks to get the other 80% up to standard.

Hooray for tooling mistakes!!!

Anyone know when we'll see a Warpath kickstarter now that the mars attacks one is done?

KirbyFan wrote:
Anyone know when we'll see a Warpath kickstarter now that the mars attacks one is done?

June -ish.

I could handle June... thank god they're doing that tarrot of Lola that I have no interest in... they were killing my bank account . Good to have a chance to recover.

Where has that date been announced? I would imagine Mantic want to hold off the Warpath KS until they know they have a hard plastic solution that works (for the grunts for all the armies as well as some basic vehicles).

I reckon the Dwarf Kings Hold KS will be next (I'm envisioning making a set like Deadzone, with an optional GM or just teams of Fantasy Warriors raiding dungeons, with some hard plastic wall and door pieces that fit together like Deadzone's).

Plus we've got Kickstarters for Kings of War (to fund the plastic Twilight Kin, Abyssal Dwarves, Nature and Abyssal armies) and Dreadball (to fund the new Extreme version).

Hopefully Mantic will give an indicator of their plans at the Open Day.

ITs essentially been confirmed as june, just not out right announced. And The guy that posts on here said that the vehicles plastic is essentially done, it'll be the same stuff the Deadzone buildings are made of. And in fact the building tiles might of been a test per say for vehicle sprues. And I want PLastic mini's if they have to delay it then delay the warpath KS, That needs to be 95% plastic. 5% other.

Triszin wrote:
ITs essentially been confirmed as june, just not out right announced.

Confirmed by who, and where?

And The guy that posts on here said that the vehicles plastic is essentially done, it'll be the same stuff the Deadzone buildings are made of.

James said that? Where?

Isn't DKH closer to Project Pandora then Deadzone? Does it even need a KS?

Earth Dragon wrote:
Isn't DKH closer to Project Pandora then Deadzone? Does it even need a KS?

'Dwarf King's Quest' is more likely.

Mantic is now unable to release a product without KS monies.

But to be fair, DHK and Pandora could do with coming out in much nicer editions that are much more accessible to boardgame players. Both DHK and Pandora are good game rulesets, but the components - the card tiles, the boxes, the rules pamphlets - are a little cheap. From our wargaming perspective, the hard plastic figures (DKH) = Good. Restic multiparts (PP) = Okay. - but neither are particularly good for a boardgame, where you need single part figures, or push-fits at worst (Space Hulk).

Because, you know, boardgame players (understandably) want to be able to buy a product, open it, and play it immediately. If Mantic KS this stuff properly, there's a lot of money to be made. I imagine one box for DKH with more stuff added, and then the Elves, Orcs, etc will come via "Small Box" boardgame-style expansions or the like...

 Riquende wrote:

Triszin wrote:
ITs essentially been confirmed as june, just not out right announced.

Confirmed by who, and where?

And The guy that posts on here said that the vehicles plastic is essentially done, it'll be the same stuff the Deadzone buildings are made of.

James said that? Where?

1. i am searching for the post I'll keep looking but by god, there is a lot of posts.

-There is not an official post, but people figure it will be on or around the same time that the deadzone kickstarter launched. some say as early as march but, i think june at the earliest.

 lagoon83 wrote:

 Vermonter wrote:
James, (or anyone here, this may be generally known), is it certain the Warpath Kickstarter will launch sometime in 2014? Or is that still being debated in the Mantic bunker?

"Certain" is a word that terrifies me.

However, we're very, very interested in the idea. We've got a couple of other things that we'd like to do first, mind... a couple of rather extreme ideas.

2.

 lagoon83 wrote:

Triszin wrote:I really hope they can get the plastic sorted out shortly, as I expect them to do a Warpath Kickstarter in june, and If I'm right there is going to be a ton of vehicles and additions to the armies.

Those models look fantastic, and I'm glad the enforcers got a bulkier ankle. Also if you look through the pages you can see the enforcer special teams painted up, and they look nice.

One of the big things with Deadzone was to get hard plastics right so we could do vehicles. Looking at the terrain, yeah. Yeah, we've cracked it.

Can I just say, when the Warpath KS comes around, I want a proper dropship for my Enforcers. Designed by Antenociti's Workshop would be even better.

Triszin wrote:

 lagoon83 wrote:
We've got a couple of other things that we'd like to do first, mind... a couple of rather extreme ideas.

Doesn't really go into specifics on the 'when' and implies Dreadball 2 will be before it in the queue (assuming Dreadball 2 gets a KS).

2.

 lagoon83 wrote:

One of the big things with Deadzone was to get hard plastics right so we could do vehicles. Looking at the terrain, yeah. Yeah, we've cracked it.

I actually misread what you said as "vehicles are essentially done", so sorry about that. But James' quote, referring to the process of making hard plastic items doesn't mean that the vehicles themselves are anywhere close to ready. You still have to do small things like design the kits. Now that's certainly possible to do in 7 months, but it's not a definite indicator of timescale.

I think they already lined up the next kickstarter in the latest email. A Loka card game.

I actually misread what you said as "vehicles are essentially done", so sorry about that. But James' quote, referring to the process of making hard plastic items doesn't mean that the vehicles themselves are anywhere close to ready. You still have to do small things like design the kits. Now that's certainly possible to do in 7 months, but it's not a definite indicator of timescale.

Sorry, I didnt mean to convey "vehicles are almost done" i meant to convey the plastic for vehicles is probably almost ready. I'm talking about the material, not the models atm.

 Azazelx wrote:
Mantic is now unable to release a product without KS monies.

But to be fair, DHK and Pandora could do with coming out in much nicer editions that are much more accessible to boardgame players. Both DHK and Pandora are good game rulesets, but the components - the card tiles, the boxes, the rules pamphlets - are a little cheap. From our wargaming perspective, the hard plastic figures (DKH) = Good. Restic multiparts (PP) = Okay. - but neither are particularly good for a boardgame, where you need single part figures, or push-fits at worst (Space Hulk).
.

I suppose it comes down to the old cost vs. quality battle, and finding a balance between those things. I've seen DKH for £30, which is an absolute bargain - but, the cost of that is you don't get as good card tiles, or the variety of unique sculpts that you get in some other board games.

I had read that the board game side of things was very much an additional enterprise for Mantic. Apparently Jake Thornton convinced someone (Ronnie Renton?) what could be done with existing miniatures and with very little outlay in terms of design/production - that DKH sold out of several print runs has no doubt vindicated that decision, although I agree it would certainly nice having a fancier, more expensive version now that Mantic have started to find their feet a bit more.

Best not to get too ahead of reading into quotes, I don't see anything that can be nailed down in James' post there stating June 2014 WP KS or hard plastic vehicles already done. Obviously any large vehicles will have to be hard plastic, and DZ terrain is a good test for getting the fitting and tolerances done right.

All we know for sure is that Mantic has a lot of stuff in the works, it is possible that DKH and Dreadball Extreme might be a bit further away with more focus on the core games.

Warpath might end up further out since Mantic wants their QC sorted before going anywhere near that, a process which may take longer than expected.

Also, no licensed IP for 2014, focus on core games instead. I get the impression not even Mantic has a fixed timetable yet since there's so much stuff going on.

If there is going to be a big reveal of any kind it won't be before the Open Day, they'll be pretty keen to have the big announcement there.

Oh yeah, and contrary to comments previously in this thread, it looks like they'll be doing a few things that won't involve KS like the new Dwarf releases and some Dreadball stuff between now and Extreme.

Get the impression there's just plain tons of fun stuff coming next year and an even more accelerated release schedule (they've already dipped into 2-week release windows this year, might have to do it again).

DKH definitely made a lot of sense, they already had the minis sorted.

I think DKH is great for what it is, but a "dungeon skirmish" game with good miniatures is something I'm still in the market for.
Here's hoping they can deliver on that, personally I'm not that hopeful that Mantic are the company to provide me with characterful and well sculpted monsters though- seems like they just don't have the consistency required.

We're starting to get some unboxing pics (source):





Plague 1st Gen really is nice. I hope they sculpt more plague minis in that style in future, the 2nd and 3rd gens don't even come close in terms of sculpt quality.

The 1st gen has all the multiple layers of bone and muscle with holes in the bone and muscle showing through, tendons attached etc. It really looks like a gory human turned inside out and a coral-like bone structure.

The 2nd gens are a bit too neat, flat and uniform in comparison, there's none of that curved spikey detail that makes the 1st gen so wonderful.

On the plus side, 3 different sculpts with what looks like 6 different interchangeable arms is very nice and a bit of a step up from the usual standard of only doing 2 different bodies for large infantry kits. I like the dogs too.

Thanks SS! Higher res would still be nice, but it looks really damn good to me so far. Soft organic lines, crisp inorganic lines.

Can't disagree with either of you. Thanks for sharing the pics!

Very nice, SS. Do you know: Is this what a person who buys DZ from their retailer would get in their box set?

Thanks for sharing, I'm intensely curious what everything looks like but kind of short on time to go looking for it

From the text on the page he linked, should be production models. As in they took apart some sets and sent them to the pathfinders to get painted so they'll have a grand lot of them ready for big gaming fun on the 30th. Wish it wasn't an ocean away!

I agree that 1st gen is super amazing. I think that the 2nd gens aren't bad, I may take some greenstuff to all of my plague minis to further mutate them anyway, so maybe I can break up the clean lines a bit. I am *ecstatic* about the 3 bodies 6 arms. Even if they don't all match up 100%... that is far, far more variability than I was expecting for them. Even the barricade that the one pose is leaping is separate, so I have a feeling second gens can be made with quite a lot of character

The enforcers look good too. There's virtually no hope of converting the sniper, but thats ok as he's a pretty sweet pose anyway. Can anyone tell what the two pieces (look kind of like mirrors of eachother) that aren't the rocket or sniper rifle in the bottom right are? Looks almost more like a bit of scenery, but I don't remember it from any of the enforcer bases?

*edit* oh never mind, now that I see what those two laser rifle looking bits off to the side are... those boxy bits are the sentry guns duh

@privateer - It should be yes. Obviously, that's not the entire contents on show there,and the KS starters come with a few more minis than the retail sets.

Not sure if they're going ahead with the whole coloured plastic thing or not, I think they were toying with the idea of an alternate set of 1-piece coloured board game stuff at one point but there wasn't much demand for that during the KS from the looks of it.

I'm glad that they're aiming it more as a serious wargamer product, there's always Mars Attacks to fill the casual or board gamer market.

Yeah, and the captain/1st gen don't even have integrated bases to slot into the regular mantic bases. No doubt that this is meant for wargaming. Looks more like what you'd get in Dark Vengeance or the like than what you'd get out of a proper board game. Yet you could actually play many fun games and even campaigns with the contents of even the retail box without buying more stuff. I'd have trouble saying that about the other thing I mentioned


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I see SS's plague and enforcers, and raise Marauders!
Compliments of one James Hewitt, found here (go give him some encouragement to get painting!)




Loving the ripper suits, and how gigantic the mawbeasts are Its like they're there to dare you to charge the sneaky comando captain while they've got overwatch:move banked and ready

Nice find! As he says in the blog, bit of GS to make the arms fit smooth is about all that's required, though there's a bit of flash on that knife ; p Models are all looking excellent.

It looks (from that picture) that China is still tearing things off the sprues rather then clipping them, though...

If they were quick learners or gave a crap they'd have better jobs.

Hard to see much in SS's pics... that model in the top right of the first pic in particular...

GrimDork, yours aren't showing up for me.

THEM ANKLES (on the enforcers). they are looking great. no more twigs!

That's the enforcer sniper, he's cast as part of his cloak, looks like much converting for that one is unlikely. Not sure which of those legs goes to him, perhaps the one connected to the mini-base. It looks like the definition is there, just hard to see from the picture.

I nabbed the marauder pics off of the mantic forums. Are you able to follow that link I posted? They're on the same page, just scroll down a couple of posts.

Probably because you have to be logged in to see a lot of stuff on Mantic's Official Forum, maybe?




I can see them in the preview of this post... but is it because I logged in first, and now they're in my cache?

Sounds plausible.

I can see why people might not like the small-leggedness of the marauders, but I love the sculpt, and the cast seems great. I'm also partial to the more militaristic/disciplined take on greenskins they seem to have. I'd much rather multi-part plastic (WGF Mantic, srsly!) but hopefully we can spice them up with extra bits, GS and some chopping and hacking.

It might be too late, but I do wish Mantic would lose their "Tiny Legs/Giant Torso" fascination...


Having said that, it 'works' OK for Marauders, but not so much for the Plague.

The Plague do all look a little like immortal body builders who have skipped leg day since the dawn of time. A little like upside down zombie triangles.

 carlos13th wrote:
The Plague do all look a little like immortal body builders who have skipped leg day since the dawn of time. A little like upside down zombie triangles.

This was great well done.

 carlos13th wrote:
The Plague do all look a little like immortal body builders who have skipped leg day since the dawn of time.

Ha - that made me laugh out loud - and I'm on East Coast USA time now, so that's trouble!

Yeah its probably something with the mantic forums. Same way flickr seems to work.

I like the marauders, and I've even started to get used to the supertorso and gorilla arms of the plague 3rd gens. I still think I'm gonna splice in some zombie parts to suggest that the mutation is also somewhat as likely to waste limbs away as it is to bulk them out, and maybe some bone spurs or tentacles. I'm kind of bad with green stuff at this point, so I'm limited to pretty basic stuff.

It will depend largely upon the feel I get when I get hold of my plague models. I'll either like them as is, or want to "chaos them up" so to speak. The other three factions probably won't need or be receptive to such things, so the plague will be my only chance to do it.

 GrimDork wrote:
Yeah its probably something with the mantic forums. Same way flickr seems to work.

I like the marauders, and I've even started to get used to the supertorso and gorilla arms of the plague 3rd gens. I still think I'm gonna splice in some zombie parts to suggest that the mutation is also somewhat as likely to waste limbs away as it is to bulk them out, and maybe some bone spurs or tentacles. I'm kind of bad with green stuff at this point, so I'm limited to pretty basic stuff.

It will depend largely upon the feel I get when I get hold of my plague models. I'll either like them as is, or want to "chaos them up" so to speak. The other three factions probably won't need or be receptive to such things, so the plague will be my only chance to do it.

The cool thing too is the Mutation rules for the Plague in DZ means that those mutations might actually come into effect (possibly) during the course of the game, vs having every guy be identical in stats despite looking wildly different

See, since I ordered double faction starters and a booster for plague, I had this notion to go over the mutations, pick those models which I had extras of and would be most likely to use them on... and go ahead and model the mutations, and use the models for those mutations when I got them. I think there would be enough 3rd gens to make this happen, and really maybe even enough 2nd gens seeing as there are only so many useful mutations for them. But I hit a sticking point when I consider going up to 2x4 or 4x4 sized games where I'd need a lot more of my plague to fill out the 2-4 strike teams. I guess I could always revert to counters at that point, though.

On similar note, after reading through the rules (and having my slow+agile mutation shenanigans shot down by actually reading the proper wording ), I've now decided that a 1st gen with the vestigial wings mutation may well be the most terrifying thing ever (unless you consider the same thing but plague teraton, then it's that...), IFF he happens to have a 4-5 cube high spot in his deployment zone. Hard as nails? Check. Really nasty in melee? Check. Suddenly halfway or better across the board? OMGRUNZ!

Glad I'm not the only one thinking about winging up the 1st gen.

Hell, the Teraton too.

Question is, what kind of wings to use?

Also I'd be quite curious to see what kinds of dungeon critters Mantic could come up with for DKH. Maybe they'd do up some proper lizards! Plus those little- legged trolls would be perfect for taking a leisurely stroll around the Dwarf King's Hold.

 carlos13th wrote:
The Plague do all look a little like immortal body builders who have skipped leg day since the dawn of time. A little like upside down zombie triangles.

Hahaha very good..

Actually great to see the sculpts, not long to go now! Know some people on here pledged big-time for this, sure they must be starting to rub their hands together..

 Alpharius wrote:
It might be too late, but I do wish Mantic would lose their "Tiny Legs/Giant Torso" fascination...


Having said that, it 'works' OK for Marauders, but not so much for the Plague.

I dislike the sculpting style on both and have already arranged to sell off both marauders and plague. I knew this back when the KS was running anyway, my opinion hasn't changed since. Much more hopeful for the forgefathers and asterians (Freya is a wonderful sculpt, forge guard look fantastic, really really really want the brokkrs to turn out well, I hope they stick to them being lower caste miners with the sculpt design and don't overly roid them out). Those will be the 4 factions I play deadzone with.

Some of it does seem to be down to the concept art (or possibly someone higher up telling the concept artist what proportions are wanted) since we have seen this sculpting style from multiple sculptors now (and the original excellent designs for the KoW Trolls were thrown out and replaced with new ones that led to the crap models), there seems to be some artist or art director or whoever there who is obsessed with having every single monstrous model mantic releases be an upside-down triangle with giant torso and stubby legs, gorilla arms that almost touch the floor and giant fists, see the concept for the molochs as an example... I already kinda get the impression that I'm not going to like these models when I see them, for obvious reasons:

Nothing really all that scary about that, just looks cartoony. Considering that the abyssals are supposed to be based around biblical hell, it is an incredibly tame design. It's quite rare in the industry to have a sculpt that is actually scary, only a few like Kingdom Death and Mierce have made a proper effort at capturing the horror element in miniature and succeeding to some extent. With that concept the odds of getting some waddling goofball with tons of spikes sticking out as the final sculpt rather than something simple and menacing:


.. is quite high.

I find the background for both Marauders and Plague interesting, and will happily buy a Warpath army for either/ both if Mantic ups their game a bit on the sculpting front and sticks to truescale (like the corp, enforcers, rebs, forgefathers, asterians and the entire dreadball line already are) and puts some serious thought about how they want to express the background material in the minis like they have done with Rebs/ Enforcers/ Forgefathers instead of having a schizophrenic-looking model line. The background for the plague and marauders is pretty serious and cool, so why sculpt them as if they leapt out of a 70s cartoon? In the case of the marauders the concept art looked really cool too.

The 1st Gen and Commando Captain are both excellent models for both factions with character, good sculpting and proportions, so it is possible for a good sculpt to be made for them. They're good because they don't ruin the immersion, the 1st Gen looks properly scary rather than just "goofy roid zombie", and the commando captain has a cunning/ sadistic look to him as opposed to "drooling brute".

Looking forward to the plague zombies, I already like the look of the renders a lot more and if they turn out well (they need to be compatible with KoW zombies, so that should at least stop them from having torsos twice as big as their legs), I'll add guns to them and use them as 3rd Gens too.

I mainly pledged on Mars Attacks simply because the thing was so well-done. Had no interest in the IP initially, but the high quality standard of the sculpts convinced me to give it a second look.

Anyone have paint scheme thoughts yet? My enforcers are sticking with the iron man theme, and I'm thinking Hulk'd out humans, Abomonation, A-Bomb and others for the plague. God, I'm such a marvel nerd... Also, considering using character styles from Don Bluth's "Titan AE" for my Rebs. Corso, Prood and the others should be totally doable from what I've seen. Anyone who hasn't seen Titan AE, Netflix is is your friend. One of the best damn sci fi 'after earth' cartoons out there. Possibly the best. I'm thinking my marauders may end up with an albino skin setup.

Call me boring, but I like the schemes used by Mantic for the first four factions and will copy it closely if I can. The enforcers do lend themselves to Iron Man comparisons I guess ; p

I'll check out Titan AE too... IMDB says it has Ron Perlman voice acting in it so I'm sold already ; p I tend to go for anime over cartoons but the more mature ones can be good.

Titan AE is listed as a kids movie, and it has Don Bluth's classic animation with teenagers/young adults still having baby fat in their cheeks. But the story is great, the characters are awesome, and it's probably my favorite childhood movie, possibly clashing with Quest for Camelot.

And as for paint schemes...A-Bomb smash!!! Rick Jones angry!

Enforcers, Mass Effect N7's

Rebels, LOTR Aragorn style green leather jackets.

Plague... Too many ideas, I was thinking Incredible Hulk originally, but then I realised that's too many greens. Now I'm contemplating more Mass Effect schemes, so that's either brown or blue.

I've already painted some corporation up as mass effect Cerberus.

I'm half tempted to paint my marauders in flesh tones, more like ogres/ogryns than orx. That's if I ever get round to painting them.

 scarletsquig wrote:

 Alpharius wrote:
It might be too late, but I do wish Mantic would lose their "Tiny Legs/Giant Torso" fascination...


Having said that, it 'works' OK for Marauders, but not so much for the Plague.

I dislike the sculpting style on both and have already arranged to sell off both marauders and plague. I knew this back when the KS was running anyway, my opinion hasn't changed since. Much more hopeful for the forgefathers and asterians (Freya is a wonderful sculpt, forge guard look fantastic, really really really want the brokkrs to turn out well, I hope they stick to them being lower caste miners with the sculpt design and don't overly roid them out). Those will be the 4 factions I play

Well said on all that but...

...did you just set a record for number of edits on a post?!?

 timetowaste85 wrote:
Anyone have paint scheme thoughts yet? My enforcers are sticking with the iron man theme, and I'm thinking Hulk'd out humans, Abomonation, A-Bomb and others for the plague. God, I'm such a marvel nerd... Also, considering using character styles from Don Bluth's "Titan AE" for my Rebs. Corso, Prood and the others should be totally doable from what I've seen. Anyone who hasn't seen Titan AE, Netflix is is your friend. One of the best damn sci fi 'after earth' cartoons out there. Possibly the best. I'm thinking my marauders may end up with an albino skin setup.

I quite like the mantic scheme for the enforcers, but for the plague I was thinking about a sickly green for the skin and a brown armor and or clothes depending on the gen. The Rebs you can just go all over the place to make them look more like the rag tag bunch they are. Not sure about marauders as they are my least favorite faction and haven't given it much thought.

 Alpharius wrote:

 scarletsquig wrote:

 Alpharius wrote:
It might be too late, but I do wish Mantic would lose their "Tiny Legs/Giant Torso" fascination...


Having said that, it 'works' OK for Marauders, but not so much for the Plague.

I dislike the sculpting style on both and have already arranged to sell off both marauders and plague. I knew this back when the KS was running anyway, my opinion hasn't changed since. Much more hopeful for the forgefathers and asterians (Freya is a wonderful sculpt, forge guard look fantastic, really really really want the brokkrs to turn out well, I hope they stick to them being lower caste miners with the sculpt design and don't overly roid them out). Those will be the 4 factions I play

Well said on all that but...

...did you just set a record for number of edits on a post?!?

Fairly average for me, I treat forum posts with the same care as blog posts. Record is 297 edits on the DZ KS OP though.

I may paint my plague like my corporation zombies, at least in skin tone. And I've got a cache of weapons left over from that project and may follow SS down the path of making plague zombies into 3rd gens for a proper warpath army (if I get around to it, 80 for $45 is a great deal, but I have so much to do as it is!).

My enforcers will probably be somewhat close to the studio. Its hard scifi, there may be some splashes of color but I still expect these guys to act *sort of* like actual military units and not run around with heraldry and pastel colors shouting 'shoot me'! Some combination of black, grey, and white if I can stand it. Maybe a touch of red tying them in with my corporation marines.. maybe.

Now that someone said marauders with human-ish skin tones... I have to try it on at least one model. I think it might end up terrifying/gross, but that's an angle I could work with Probably keep them to blacks and greys, it seems to be consistent with the look and feel of deadzone.

The rebs? Gonna have to have them in front of me! The marauders are kind of stealing black, but that doesn't mean I'll *have* to paint the rebs brown or something. And I think they could totally have a cohesive color scheme, just because they're rebels doesn't mean they have to be rag-tag. Of course, there's nothing wrong with that look either, I just figure the ones going in on my DZ tables will be professional and at least have a unifying color... probably different off-colors.

Titain AE you say? I watch all kinds of cartoons instead of what I'd rather watch since daughter came about, I'll give it a shot

@Pacific, I would be one of those people rubbing their hands together

GrimDork, I can honestly say I'd be shocked if you hated it.

I'll also be starting a Deadzone paint thread to show off everyone's creations once they arrive in December. We all want to see everyone's crazy color schemes, right?

I'm pretty easy going with things I watch. And yes, sign me up for your paint thread

Even if brown wasn't the studio colour for the rebs, I imagine it'd be the most popular one...

Mal was actually my first thought, but I figured a lot of folks would do him already. I wanted to be semi unique in my use of pop culture, which is why I'm going Titan AE.

Yeah, that's why I'm going for bottle green cloaks and burgandy shirts.

Made me check my record edits. 625 on the rumor thread.

 pretre wrote:
Made me check my record edits. 625 on the rumor thread.

That's a bit different, I think.

Still, impressive self-reflection, everyone!

My understanding is that the original Deadzone enforcers were basically computer rendered, "remastered" versions of Remy's originals, which addressed some of the flaws noted in customer feedback.

I think for Warpath, Mantic need to do a similar "remastering" of both the Plague and the Marauders. I'm pretty much with Scarlet Squig on the Plague. The 1st gen looks great and is the best (surprise, it's the only one Remy sculpted). The 2nd Gens aren't as good as they could be, but aren't terrible. The 3rd Gens are terrible - I'm either going to use plenty of green stuff or just swap them out altogether for other models. Like Squig, I've also been planning to put guns in the hands of the Plague Zombies and use them as 3rd gen replacements for quite some time. If they scale well, I'd be happy to swap in Sedition Wars strain for every Plague model but the 1st Gen.

On the whole, I'll have to wait and see what I ultimately think about the Marauders when I've got them in hand. But I do think Mantic really should do a computer rendered re-do of the ripper suits when they launch Warpath. I think the Ripper suits are actually very close to being great models. They're held back by goofy heads (which I will solve with head swaps) and nonsense poses (which I will try to rework with green stuff and / or arm swaps). If they were done with computer rendering like the other armored units in Deadzone, getting them into logical action poses (i.e., pointing their weapons at something) would be a snap. They're not awful as they are, but Mantic could sell a lot more of them with some sensible tinkering.

I don't have any photos of them at the moment, but I would recommend for the plague, doing a sickly almost Neon Green mixed in half and half with a grey. I did it for some Ghouls and the color turned out amazing, not dead flesh but a very strange sickly like color, I will try to post an image of them if you guys really want it.

Some more pics, courtesy of puggimer on the Mantic forums:





Their manufacturer still fails completely at getting the base disks done right... instead of adding platforms to the rocket enforcer shoes it would have been far better to have the front foot attached and the back for not attached to the mini-disk.

A lot of the minis don't come with bases either, so I'm toying with the idea of clear acrylic for everything.

These are good pics finally. The limb contact points seem to all need a little work which isn't ideal, but I can put up with that.

I like the 2nd gen vaulting the terrain ; )

 scarletsquig wrote:
A lot of the minis don't come with bases either, so I'm toying with the idea of clear acrylic for everything.

I'm no longer toying - I've decided if I can track 'em down for a decent price, I'm going to base every DZ mini on clear acrylic.

Dunno about your location, I've got 200 25mm and 25 40mm 1.5mm thick bases coming along with some glue and epoxy from litko for $50ish. Definitely doing clear acrylic on SciFi moving forward. Scenic bases are great for taking pictures in a light box, but I think clear look great on nice terrain and I've gotca boatload of that coming!

Again, thanks for sharing the pics

 scarletsquig wrote:

A lot of the minis don't come with bases either, so I'm toying with the idea of clear acrylic for everything.

Okay seriously, Mantic, I love you guys.. but if you aren't going to make bases a constant thing then please stop forcing every model to have that damn little disc or make the disc actually work as a proper base.

WTF is going on with the platform shoes on the rocket guy. That looks awful.

Litko is nice, but kinda expensive. I recommend this ebay seller, ordered from them twice with good results. The 1" are of course spot on, and the 1.5" are close enough at 38mm. The laser cut edges are also a lot smoother than many shops I've seen, there's almost no vertical texture.

100 1"x1/16" acrylic circles

100 1.5"x1/16" acrylic circles


A few test figs I tried them on


The TAG was pinned ot the base with brass rod, other 2 were just glued using normal super glue. The assassin got a little too much and you can see a bead of it where he meets the plastic base, as well as a small amount of frosting near his loincloth. Using less glue should sort out both problems, although I think I can solve the bead with a micron pen or small amount of black ink lining where the model meets the base.

So these aren't going to come with bases?

Where the hell am I putting everything then?

I mean, I've got bases laying around... but not enough of a similar size and shape for each team to match.

I hope they just didn't discover where they were in the box yet or something.

They all come with proper bases, 1" circles that the small discs on the figures fit into. We're just talking alternatives for those of us that don't like the style of base mantic uses. They leave a gap that needs to be filled and they don't have any kind of bevel on the edge or anything.

 timetowaste85 wrote:
Anyone have paint scheme thoughts yet? My enforcers are sticking with the iron man theme, and I'm thinking Hulk'd out humans, Abomonation, A-Bomb and others for the plague. God, I'm such a marvel nerd... Also, considering using character styles from Don Bluth's "Titan AE" for my Rebs. Corso, Prood and the others should be totally doable from what I've seen. Anyone who hasn't seen Titan AE, Netflix is is your friend. One of the best damn sci fi 'after earth' cartoons out there. Possibly the best. I'm thinking my marauders may end up with an albino skin setup.

I'll likely be using Iron Man (and the Silver Centurion armour, and War Machine) as my inspirations. I do like the Mantic standard scheme, but I'm not averse to brightly coloured minis - I collect Space Marines, after all...

 scarletsquig wrote:


A lot of the minis don't come with bases either, so I'm toying with the idea of clear acrylic for everything.

That quote worries me.

I'd guess it's just the bigger stuff that's baseless?

I would hope that the final production copies have bases included for everything.

However- after checking out that ebay link for those laser cut clear ones, I'm tempted to partake as well.

The larger minis that go on 40mm bases don't have the integrated disc is all Scarlet means.

Yeah, I meant they don't come with integral base disks. The larger ones probably come with MDF bases like with Warpath.

Have to say, it'd be very interesting if they produced a clear polystyrene round base sprue, or got Renedra to run their existing ones in clear plastic. Would be a very cool option to be able to buy.

I think acrylic could end up a bit scratchy long-term.

I have 11 sprues of bases coming from the PDC Kickstarter specifically for my DZ minis.

Fair enough.

I wouldn't have expected the larger pieces to have integrated bases. That I can deal with.

Excited nevertheless.

 timetowaste85 wrote:
Anyone have paint scheme thoughts yet? My enforcers are sticking with the iron man theme, and I'm thinking Hulk'd out humans, Abomonation, A-Bomb and others for the plague. God, I'm such a marvel nerd... Also, considering using character styles from Don Bluth's "Titan AE" for my Rebs. Corso, Prood and the others should be totally doable from what I've seen. Anyone who hasn't seen Titan AE, Netflix is is your friend. One of the best damn sci fi 'after earth' cartoons out there. Possibly the best. I'm thinking my marauders may end up with an albino skin setup.

Enforcers- Mass Effect's Cerberus colors. They look great painted up like that and it's practically the same as the studio colors anyway. Here's one of mine in it.

Marauders- Afrika Korps
Reps- lots of earth tones
Plague- purply-pink so that they match my existing zombies
Forge Fathers- their mech suits are getting Zaku color schemes. The rest will get Cadian style khaki and green to match my existing ones
Asterians- Tron

I'm going to do my Enforcers in three tone US Navy dazzle camouflage measures 31, 32 and 33

My Plague in either purple or a deep red instead of pink

Marauders are going to range from light green through dark green and maybe teal and blue depending on the species of the guy

My rebels are just going to be whatever creative colour looks good on each one, though I've earmarked an orange and red two tone thing for the Teraton.

Forge Fathers and Asterians I won't decide until closer to their arrival date.

Enforcers - Black and silver for me with neon green accents. Possibly, will have to do some tests, they're a bit tricky.
Rebs - Grey/ Brown in various combinations with various accents and skin tones. I like the idea that these guys don't stand out and can blend into the civilian population.

Plague/ Marauders - Won't be doing until Warpath launch, but for the Marauders would be a dark red/brown skin tone and black/silver gear. Plague I think could be interesting in an albino theme, mostly white with some raw dark red flesh and eyes showing through. Not pink, and not rotting/ zombie tone, they're not zombies.

Forgefathers are an interesting one, either black/ orange or copper for me, want them to have a warm look. blue/grey and gold with fiery orange could be interesting too.

Asterians will most likely get some kind of clean and shiny white/turquoise/gold combination, depends on the models.

Enforcers: Either studio scheme or some kind of Digital Camo
Rebs: Variety but mostly muted earth colours not too dissimilar from the enforcers, maybe some kind of Camo (not digital)
Astheiran- Either tron style or possibly similar to the Geth from mass effect.
Plague: No Idea, probably similar to that poster of the human body under the skin that my girlfriend has.
Marauders: Similar to ww2 germans. Not sure about skin yet.
Forgefathers: Black and Yellow maybe

Their manufacturer still fails completely at getting the base disks done right... instead of adding platforms to the rocket enforcer shoes it would have been far better to have the front foot attached and the back for not attached to the mini-disk.

Wow. That is really craptastic. Who at Mantic approved that? Why was it approved?

Still considering paint schemes . . . and truthfully, I plan to see what some of you do with yours before making my final decisions on a number of factions. I've been out of the miniature painting game for over two decades, and while I'm confident in my general artistic aptitude, I'm not going to rush in and have regrets later.

So far my list goes:

Enforcers: Like Squig, I'm planning black and silver with a 3rd color to keep them from being too boring. What the 3rd color will be is up in the air. Silver goes well with Black, isn't as difficult to pull off as white, and gives a more realistic vibe than stormtrooper white. (They do look good in white, though.)

Rebs: Like many, Browns and other subdued, earthy colors, with a uniform grayish metal for their chest armor to help tie the faction together.

Marauders: Not sure yet. I'd like to do either Red / Ochre or Blue skin tones, but part of me leans towards the traditional green. Not certain about their clothing yet, but I won't be doing black, as I like reserving that for the Enforcers. Final color choice also depends on whether I keep the commandos as-is or swap them out for other models entirely.

Plague: For the 3rd gens at least, not pink. Possibly a wasted looking white and grey combo, with yellowed bone highlights. Not sure about the 2nd and 1st gens, though - the "skinless" exposed muscle fiber seems to demand bloody reds and pinks. Final choice also depends on whether I keep the 3rd gens as is or swap them out for Sedition Wars strain or something else.

Forge Fathers: Not sure I'll even be picking these guys up. We all have our personal standards of what works and what is just too silly, and while I fully appreciate that Marauders or Veer-myn could be too ridiculous to field for some, I can't get my head around Dwarfs in space. Yet. We'll have to see what the final models actually look like. I'd be all over a faction of Space Abyssal Dwarfs / Helfathers, though. Why? Who knows? Just my taste.

Asterians - No idea yet. I'll be looking closely at what you fellows are doing.

Dont forget we have an enforcer captain in our army painter: http://www.dakkadakka.com/core/painter.jsp?i=1

I'm thinking some black and yellow scheme like the CCC Yellowjackets from Mercs for the Enforcers.

Yeah, i'm sold on clear acrylic bases, too, and I want to redo all my figs with 'em. (I still like scenic resin for fantasy) I'm only wondering how I'm going to glue/balance my old lead genestealers on acrylic bases, lol.

Enforcers - Pathfinder Scheme (Black and Yellow)
Plague - human colours, with green fatigues - trying to go for a 'thing' look.
Marauders - Green skin, and dark blue/grey fatigues, with black leather.
Forge fathers - Possibly red and grey?
Rebs - No idea.
Astarians - Alabaster white armour, with Dark red details, and blue/grey skin. Gloss black eyes. these are aliens, not pointy- eared humans.

 Vermonter wrote:


Forge Fathers: Not sure I'll even be picking these guys up. We all have our personal standards of what works and what is just too silly, and while I fully appreciate that Marauders or Veer-myn could be too ridiculous to field for some, I can't get my head around Dwarfs in space. Yet. We'll have to see what the final models actually look like. I'd be all over a faction of Space Abyssal Dwarfs / Helfathers, though. Why? Who knows? Just my taste.

Dwarfs in space just come from a planet with higher gravity than earth. I dont know if thats in the fluff (unlikely) but that seems more plausible than orcs in space. I suppose we all have different places things we find implausible.

 CptJake wrote:
Why was it approved?

Because Mantic.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Vermonter wrote:

Forge Fathers: Not sure I'll even be picking these guys up. We all have our personal standards of what works and what is just too silly, and while I fully appreciate that Marauders or Veer-myn could be too ridiculous to field for some, I can't get my head around Dwarfs in space. Yet. We'll have to see what the final models actually look like. I'd be all over a faction of Space Abyssal Dwarfs / Helfathers, though. Why? Who knows? Just my taste.

Consistently divergent human populations are already a thing. Just extrapolate from that.

They're not fantasy dwarfs, they're aliens based around norse myth. They're a caste system society with high technology and their own large stellar empire that the Corporation doesn't dare provoke open war with.

Considering that norse myth (which is actually quite sci-fi when you delve into it) states that the dwarfs shared the secrets of metalworking with humans there's room for a potential "forgefather landed on earth ages ago" scenario for those who want to rationalise it. I think they're quite well done considering, their high tech level makes them a little more believable then the marauders/ veer-myn who are entirely dependent on the scraps of the Corp for everything (and for their existence).

It seems a little unlikely that the marauders and veer-myn wouldn't have simply been wiped out by the Corporation, or at least reduced to the point of being a negligible threat, they're quite keen on making things extinct.

I think a lot of the background issues are grounded in the various races being introduced in drips and drops... with the Zz'or in the picture and full-on attacking the Corp a lot of the other factions being able to take hold amongst Corporation dominance would start to make sense. I'd really prefer it if they expanded on background a lot more, at the moment its entirely game or miniature based. Small fluff pieces written specifically to show off a game, units in a game or the backstory of special characters. Needs more of a general overview of the universe and a compelling tagline.

The core idea of greed and resource grabbing taking priority over everything else in a dystopian nightmare where humans are dominant but also evil is quite a fun one to play with. Just needs more development and more races introduced at the concept stage long before they get miniatures. Some of that has possibly already happened with dreadball and deadzone, would be highly interested in a Nameless army with bio-constructs and tech, but having them be an essentially good but often misunderstood race rather than the "mindless lobster/bug alien that only wants to kill" angle that the factions with biotech often end up with (the main thing that has made me lose all interest in both Dropzone and Total Extinction, the main antagonist race is this cookie-cutter aggressive no-negotiating purple biotech race that is the same as countless others in sci-fi media before it).

Judwan are probably the most interesting one for me that's entirely Mantic IP currently (as opposed to space skaven, space elves, space dwarfs, space orcs), a race of pacifists is a cool idea, and a very radical one for a wargame.

I do like the fact that Asterians primarily use drones rather than risking their own necks in warfare, it makes a lot of sense for an advanced race to do this.. I'm a lot more hopeful for the non-cypher minis after seeing nastanza (excellent mini, great armour design), the dreadball ones just look dull. I was kind hoping they'd break away from the "not 40k eldar clone" angle a bit more and have the (fleshy) asterian minis be thin, but 10 ft tall or something, that would have been very cool.

 JoshInJapan wrote:
I have 11 sprues of bases coming from the PDC Kickstarter specifically for my DZ minis.

Those bases are awesome! You will not be disappointed, trust me.

Yeah SS, the Asterians using drones is a big ++ for me. One thing that grates me about Eldar is they send their civilians in with bad weapons and armour /facepalm

I do like a lot of the fluff in Warpath, but as you say it seems a bit disjointed. The Forgefathers are well thought out too as you say... and I *really* want to see more from the Z'zor ; p

I think you guys will be really happy with the Deadzone fiction anthology, if you're wanting world building.

The guys at Mantic were amazing about giving us freedom to build culture, religion, etc... up as we saw fit so long as it hit broad-stroke canon and world-building requirements.

As such, writing for it, had a bit of Mos Eisely Cantina feel... where I could just sense how diverse and interesting that universe is, and how rich with potential it is.

I'm hoping they have me back for Warpath, as I would love to play around in that setting, some more.

Deadzone fiction anthology you say, what is this heresy you speak of?! Please say it's something we get in the KS ; p

Yeah I'm pretty sure its a collection of short stories backers get in PDF form and in the compendium. Was an early stretch goal that caught some flak for not being more models.

 Yonan wrote:
Deadzone fiction anthology you say, what is this heresy you speak of?! Please say it's something we get in the KS ; p

It is. If you refer to the KS Strike Team graphic you will see it at the bottom as "Short Story Compilation" named "Containment Protocols". I don't recall what update added it though, but yeah...

I was really happy with the non-mini stretch goals in Deadzone, added acrylic counters and the hardback book to my pledge. The art upgrade stretch in Mars Attacks was well-received too, since it was an upgrade to have unique art on all the cards instead of just text.

James talked about the fiction compilation at length on Mantic Radio, the plans they have for it are really good, a mixture of established writers and new ones (anyone could submit a piece), they got about 20 submissions and picked the best 8 or so to print.

The limited hardcover, I BELIEVE also includes the short-story anthology. Don't take my word for it, but I am pretty sure it will be the only way to get a physical copy.

I wish I could share more, but I don't want to spoil anything. I just know that despite writing for fifteen years now, I have never had more fun, more freedom, and a better experience, than while working with the Mantic guys... and that says something considering I have had the good fortune to have worked with Marvel (brielfy), some top tier video-game developers, and so on.

Ex-cel-lent, that stuff will be in the delicious hardcover collectors edition thing too then. Looking forward to it!

edit: ninjaed. Yeah glad I went in deep enough to get that free ; p Glad you enjoyed it, I'd really love for more depth to the Warpath universe so if they want to hire you back for more come the Warpath KS, you have my vote (assuming you did a good job ; p)

Hey... if you want it, let them know. Ronnie, James, etc... are super receptive to what fans what. I was offered the opportunity in the first place because a couple KS backers were very supportive of me, and asked that I be included in the first place. :-p

Hopefully I did a good job as well. You guys will judge. Hopefully you're fans of space gypsies... is all i'll say. :-p

As I prepare for Mars Attacks, my copy of 'We will Destroy Your Planet' just arrived!

http://www.amazon.com/Will-Destroy-Your-Planet-Conquering-ebook/dp/B00G1IUP0A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1384879478&sr=8-1&keywords=we+will+destroy+your+planet

Those nasty earthlings are in trouble now!

Some more production pics, this time of the 3rd Gen plague along with the whole starter set, courtesy of mattjgilbert on the mantic forums:




And, a better quality closeup of the Enforcers:



As far as I know, that, plus the pre-existing restic enforcers will be included in the first wave, with the hard plastic to follow later.

Couldn't view those initially ScarletSquig, is because you need to be logged in to the Mantic forum?

They look very nice! The big guy especially, makes me think of the half-developed 'Zoanoid' from the first episode of the old Guyver anime..

^ Yeah, you do. I'll fix that.

Edit: Fixed, thanks for the heads up!

Looks good, I guess they finally figured out the casting problems, no sign of the Mantic Aura!

Thanks SS! The minis are looking great.

What's that between the enforcers legs in the third pic?
Ha, I can't count!

Looking forward to getting this now, managed to sell it to quite a few of the guys at my gaming club. Looking forward to a December of learning Deadzone rules and kicking off a campaign in the new year!

Does anyone know the rough shipping date, is it still end of November?

I'm tempted to go to the open day to get my stuff (only live an hour away from Nottingham), anyone else plan on going?

I put my hat in for the open day on Monday.

I'm expecting a fun day out. Though I am looking for details on the Dreadball ultimate games they mentioned.

I'd rather not panic paint if I didn't need to. :-P

A few of the guys have taken to playing Dreadball over Bloodbowl at the club, i definitely regret not going in on that kickstarter!

Its on my list of games to get for sure.

How hard is it to cut through the restic to remove the integrated base thingie?

Because I really don't like them, and want to rebase them on other bases, if possible.

 Alpharius wrote:
How hard is it to cut through the restic to remove the integrated base thingie?

Because I really don't like them, and want to rebase them on other bases, if possible.

I really wish they would drop the integrated base as well. It is horribly outdated, and more work to remove than a simple slot tab.

Having said that, they can be removed. I've done several at this point. I just cut (carefully, and in small steps) around the feet of the mini with clippers. Then I trim the excess off of the bottoms of the feet (usually after a dip in warm water to soften things a bit). Lastly, use some sandpaper on a flat surface to even out the bottoms of the feet, et voila! Ready for basing; on clear bases in my case.

Hope that helps a bit Alph.

~Eric

Oooh I hadn't thought of a soak before cutting, genious! I cut the tabs off of 46 corporation Marines, its not easy but it isn't terrible either. On caution, and it only happened once, when youclip bbetween the legs be carful it isn't too fast or sharp or you might push the legs apart and snap the brittle restic. Like I said only happened 1/46 and the warm water dunk may solve it too.

Thanks for the pics, SS, appreciated as always!

Thanks for the pics SS. Those models look fantastic. I hope this means Mantic has put some of their past problems behind them. Either way, looking forward to getting my hands on them.

I have some time off work late in December. After I'm done seeing family I will be all over this.

Have we seen any production models of the Rebs or Marauders yet?

Very happy with what I'm seeing!

I have one half painted production Marauder. Same quality as seen above. Are there mold lines? Yes, a few. Are They difficult to remove? Nope. If I can do it, anyone can.

 Pacific wrote:

They look very nice! The big guy especially, makes me think of the half-developed 'Zoanoid' from the first episode of the old Guyver anime..

Totally, off topic, but man, what I wouldn't give for a sandbox tabletop henshin hero board game.

I think that's one of the biggest unexplored areas of tabletop gaming. I guess it ventures too much into superhero territory. Maybe it's too foreign of concept for the majority of tabletop gamers?

But man... having tabletop equivalents of stuff like Garo and the Makai Knights, various Kamen Riders, Sentai teams, Guyvers... all teaming up against an assortment of tabletop kaiju? Heaven.

Will settle for what is shaping up to be an awesome sci fi skirmish game.

Nice to see bases on everything. I guess I'm in the minority for liking the Mantic integrated bases that pop into the bigger bases.

 highlord tamburlaine wrote:

 Pacific wrote:

They look very nice! The big guy especially, makes me think of the half-developed 'Zoanoid' from the first episode of the old Guyver anime..

Totally, off topic, but man, what I wouldn't give for a sandbox tabletop henshin hero board game.

Its among the projects I'm working on.

Sign me up!

You best be ready to spill the beans when the time comes Cyporiean.

My kids absolutely loathe American superheroes, but they're down with the Japanese counterparts even though they're just as ridiculous.

Will there be magical girls to go along with all the hot blooded manliness?

I hope beyond hope that we get Deadzone over Christmas break. What a great way to waste my vacation time!

 highlord tamburlaine wrote:
You best be ready to spill the beans when the time comes Cyporiean.

My kids absolutely loathe American superheroes, but they're down with the Japanese counterparts even though they're just as ridiculous.

Will there be magical girls to go along with all the hot blooded manliness?

Just keep an eye on our subsection of Dakka.

Everyone needs to encourage me to paint all my current enforcers before this hits. 16 down, 60 to go. Ish

Just as an aside, and I know we haven't had the first lot yet, but does anyone know when the second wave will be arriving?

I presume the Forge Fathers will be in it? One I'm looking forward to the most (although the Hel Fathers also look like they might give them a run for their money!), although sadly I can't for the life of me remember how much I pledged and whether it included them!

I can't remember what I pledged for either. I hope they include some kind of checklist in the box.

The more I see these pics, the more excited I am getting for this.

I keep meaning to find out if I need to order a compendium or not.

I know it was free if you pledged 300, but was it ever made clear if that was only during the campaign, or when all was said and done.

I couldn't pledge a lot during the campaign... but I certainly added more than that via the pledge manager.

Those acrylic counters are definitely something I'm getting the next time around. Those looked nice.

I am pretty sure the compendium was only if you pledged 300 during the campaign, not after the pledge manager.

(if I am wrong, I better be getting 2, because I ordered one in the pledge manager!)

Go through your old emails, you should have a copy of your survey in the confirmation email of some kind.

I remember 90% of what I got, and with a pen and paper, could probably get it down to the last couple of dollars But I'm a nerd and was very very interested in my pledge

FF and Asterians are second shipment. Survey for that is to go out in Q2 of 2014, and obviously the shipment will have to be behind the survey by a good month or two at least so they have time to put in the order, get the stuff, and ship it. Maybe around when Mars Attacks is hitting?

You get the compendium free if you pledged 300 during the campaign or in the pledge manager after the campaign. It was only the limited edition alt sculpts that was avaliable during the campaign.

overtyrant wrote:
You get the compendium free if you pledged 300 during the campaign or in the pledge manager after the campaign. It was only the limited edition alt sculpts that was avaliable during the campaign.

well in that case.... I am getting 2!

(hopefully someone wants to buy one)

(surely someone will want one)

Can't wait for mine

Minis are looking good but they are coming off those awful mini bases - they work for Dreadball becuase of the clear hex base but not here. I just ordered a load of Dragon Forge Concrete rubble bases for them - they seem to fit the Deadzone style best IMO.

Well, I say this speaking relatively, but I know a lot of folks will be "disappointed" when their Wave 1 orders arrive. I say this, not because you won't get a mountain of amazing stuff, but rather because sooooo much of what most people are getting really will be in Wave 2.

I know i'm drooling over receiving all of my stuff, but I admit, I want some of the rules and minis from Wave 2, most of all... specifically those delicious faction boosters.

Also, I cannot wait for the next round Pledge Manager. I am easily going to throw another $300-400 at the game once I can order the mech-suits, motorcycles, etc... from the light vehicle options, and then probably even more terrain, and more character starters/boosters.

In my head i'm going to be doing all this mass buying in order to beef up my Warpath options... though silly me, I keep forgetting a proper Warpath KS is coming, and will happily steal another $500+ from me. Hard-plastic, Mantic-priced vehicles? HELL YES.

So, NTN, you do realize the pledge boosters are on the list of things that are supposed to go onto the first wave, right? Has that changed in the last week or two, because otherwise it's been the case for months at this point.

I will probably also be dumping more money in on the second survey, there are some SS stuff I left off to save money for other stuff, primarily peacekeepers and maybe the zombies... more terrain if I need it (or they produce that other sprue of it like they said), and possibly one each of the walkers... *maybe*.

I'm gonna do clear acrylic bases. I have some reservations, but i'm 90% sure those will melt quickly when I get my deadzone mats and terrain.

I'm not so sure. I was under the assumption that all the faction-boosters are Wave 2. I could be wrong, and am purely going by memory from the KS, but i'm 99% sure every booster model is Wave 2.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1744629938/deadzone-the-sci-fi-miniatures-board-game

According to the graphic, under booster-bundles, it says "ALL Booster Bundles Shipping Q2 2014".

Here you go, update #96

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1744629938/deadzone-the-sci-fi-miniatures-board-game/posts/508735

To my knowledge, nothing I've seen so far as contradicted the shipping information you'll find in the middle of that update, meaning that the only things you shouldn't expect in your first shipment are:

Forge Father Faction Starters and Boosters
Asterian Faction Starters and Boosters
Plague Zombies
Light Support Vehicles (Pathfinder on Bike, Iron Ancestor, Stuntbot, Striders)
Faction Special Characters
Enforcers in Peacekeeper Armour (if funded!)
Deadzone Compendium
Deadzone Collector's Edition Hardback Book
AI Card Deck

If anyone knows better or differently, please to letting us know

Hey... I will be very, VERY happy to admit i'm wrong. ;-)

 timetowaste85 wrote:
Everyone needs to encourage me to paint all my current enforcers before this hits. 16 down, 60 to go. Ish

You're still going the Iron Man route, right?


Get going!

So hyped. Getting my Xbox one tomorrow, Got my part to fix my watch today, and getting Deadzone in a few weeks! AND FALLOUT 4 BEING ANNOUNCED ON DECEMBER 11TH. HYPE TRAIN GO, I CANT BE STOPPED!!!


edit:
when do we get the compendium and the collectors book?

Ooooh fallout 4... that has promise.

Also, very hyped about deadzone

 Azazelx wrote:

 timetowaste85 wrote:
Everyone needs to encourage me to paint all my current enforcers before this hits. 16 down, 60 to go. Ish

You're still going the Iron Man route, right?

Spoiler:

Get going!

Yup, still going iron man route. I'll post pics of the 5-man squads all together with captains (once I finish the 5th WM and SC armor model for each unit). Then I just have to finish the other squads. Have Monday and Tuesday off though, so that helps!

Just to confirm, Enforcer Boosters won't be in wave 1 shipping, they're waiting on the hard plastics for those. Rebs, Plague and Marauders will get their boosters.

Fallout 4! Deadzone release pending!

* head explodes*

...small scenery package OTW to Mantic today...

131,000 individual pieces in all, over half a tonne.... 3 months + 2 weeks (pretty much 7 days a week) work.

Roy (pictured) is a very happy caster now that's all done!

That is awesome! Can't wait to get this stuff...

Hahah awesome Antenociti, thanks for the pic ; )

It would be a shame if something were to... happen to... that delivery. *makes a phone call*

I thought enforcer boosters were all restic? Or is this because of the plastic burst laser and shields? If that's the case.. bummer. I may have to do marauders or rebs to go with plague for my first intro/demo games.

Although the starter isn't bad per se. Would probably focus on the captain though... and I may have a few of the corporation marine guns that it looks like they took the fusion gun from...

From the latest MA update:



Muwahhaha. That's what I'm getting (just in for 6 bugs, probably 3 ants and 3 spiders)

That looks pretty great. I also like that its bigger than the martian (obviously), without being so big it would feel like it would take up the whole table.

Once again, I'm starting to think Mantic is really picking up their game.

That is pretty amazing. That looks like at least a 50mm under it if not a 60! Sweet

Hard to tell the detail without a matte coat, but the size and proportions seem good.

Christmas Crazy box is up for preorder - £19.99

http://www.manticgames.com/mantic-shop/christmas/treats/product/mantic-christmas-crazy-box-2013.html?utm_source=Mantic+Games+Newsletter&utm_campaign=8e6fd0b49d-Mantic_Games_Newsletter_228&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_20fe4cf5a8-8e6fd0b49d-201384889



Number of Miniatures: LOTS!

Product Type: Mixture of plastic, Sprueless Plastic and Metal

This Set Includes:

1 random DreadBall Giant
1 random DreadBall MVP
Kings of War miniatures
Warpath Miniatures
Poster
Plenty more!

And there goes the Mantic website melting down in flames.

Well, everyone got the newsletter at the same time. I thought everyone would be sleeping at this hour...

Well thats that ordered then!

 JoshInJapan wrote:
Well, everyone got the newsletter at the same time. I thought everyone would be sleeping at this hour...

It is 2:30 PM here in Left Coast USA, it means people are still "working" since its Friday, if of course they haven't left early already.

10.30pm UK time, not too late for a bit of pre-ordering




Automatically Appended Next Post:
10.30pm UK time, not too late for a bit of pre-ordering

Yeah, I've already ordered mine. Done it every year and have yet to be disappointed.

Gonna look at that asap. Might let someone get it for me, I'm pretty tapped after kickstarters... but maybe I can't wait either

I'd get it if I wasn't already drowning in Mantic minis.

Got over 1000 that need painting.

So from what it says, even if you follow the doom and gloom sayers and figure you'll get all MaA for kings of war and all steel warriors or marauder grunts for warpath, you still get a dreadball MvP and giant, combine those and you're well on your way to half the price anyway, plus whatever extras $35, looks like a fair bit of fun for what a box of tactical marines used to cost, so I think i'll have to get one

Would really like to get a Dreadball Mech so I can conscript him to the rebs Or a Jotunn, those are pretty spiffy.

Knowing my luck I'll get Barricade or Dozer, the 2 giants I don't need duplicates of.

 scarletsquig wrote:
I'd get it if I wasn't already drowning in Mantic minis.

Got over 1000 that need painting.

I'll see your 1000 and raise it! 400 dwarves, 160 MaAs, 100 paladins, 40 mounted pallies, mounted and on foot sisters, 9 Elohi, 60 Enforcers still, 100 corps, 100 marauders, LOKA, 40ish Ogres, and everything from Dreadball except the Zees and female Corps. Plus characters for everything. And that's not including the host of Deadzone models coming in a couple weeks. I may have a problem...good thing my buddy is helping me sell all my GW stuff to some of his friends, or I'd be running out of room switching to a better group of game systems.


Sad part is, despite the 1500 or so minis I have, I've only spent a little over a grand on Mantic stuff so far. Yay kickstarters and online retailers (miniwargaming, miniature market, wayland)!!


It's officially a MANtic measuring contest now.

 DaveC wrote:
Christmas Crazy box is up for preorder - £19.99

http://www.manticgames.com/mantic-shop/christmas/treats/product/mantic-christmas-crazy-box-2013.html?utm_source=Mantic+Games+Newsletter&utm_campaign=8e6fd0b49d-Mantic_Games_Newsletter_228&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_20fe4cf5a8-8e6fd0b49d-201384889

Stocking gift to myself sorted

Yeah, I'm sure I won't get a dreadball mech. But may be a fun painting distraction besides

 scarletsquig wrote:
I'd get it if I wasn't already drowning in Mantic minis.

Got over 1000 that need painting.

Same here*. I have dozens of orcs, forgefathers, dwarfs, Dreadball and KoW rewards to assemble. And then each one deserves at least 30 seconds of pew-pew noises admiring a job well done.

Painting is not even on the table for them.






*Although we all know damn well I'll be adding some of those bugs, some of the plastic Martians and troopers and some plastic DZ units to the pile anyway.

Free international derivery, merry christmas to you Mantic! Only need to contend with the low Aussie dollar now.

If you guys have this many unpainted atm, I shudder to think of your project list once Deadzone and MA lands ; p

edit: Is every box the same unless it says "random" ie. the dreadball minis?

WHAT REALLY!? I didn't even see that, sweet. Wonder if I can get a dreadball MvP to ride along with that shipping, been wanting agent 88 for awhile and I don't trust getting him in either strike team or the CCB.

It had a set list last year, this time it doesn't. So my guess is that they either will be doing random stuff, or simply haven't finalized the list at this time.

Wait. The delivery is free?

Standard Shipping (World): £8.00

Items: £39.98
Shipping: £8.00
Free Standard delivery £-8.00
Total (includes VAT): £39.98

... why did you have to give me the horrible idea of adding more to the order. WHY?!

edit: Don't a lot of UK companies charge us (internationals) VAT but give us free shipping because they don't actually pay VAT on our orders?

Is the shipping free if we just buy the one Xmas box?

Just the one? What are we, peasants?! /jk I added a couple extra small things so far (decal sheets, hex bases), and still have the free shipping so it seems you can add to the order and still get it.

edit: Do we get any Mantic points from KS pledges?

edit 2: From the Mantic front page:

FREE SHIPPING
On orders over £30/€30/$75 or more!

So it's not just the christmas box, and you'll need to get 2 (or add something else) if you want the free shipping.

 Yonan wrote:
Standard Shipping (World): £8.00

Items: £39.98
Shipping: £8.00
Free Standard delivery £-8.00
Total (includes VAT): £39.98

... why did you have to give me the horrible idea of adding more to the order. WHY?!

edit: Don't a lot of UK companies charge us (internationals) VAT but give us free shipping because they don't actually pay VAT on our orders?

I must only be in the commonwealth. I had to pay $5 US for shipping. Still dirt cheap, though, so I'm not complaining.

I'm not gonna order it just now so I can't confirm, either way I'm sure the box will be heavily discounted. new mantic points are up to, surprised the warpath enforcer captain is only 15... I may have to snap one of those up...

 Yonan wrote:
you'll need to get 2 (or add something else) if you want the free shipping.

Whew! Thanks, Mantic, for helping me decide to avoid this deal.

Ahh that's what it was, he was over their free shipping limit, dur. Well, I"ll have to consider some extras then hrm.

 Yonan wrote:
Standard Shipping (World): £8.00

Items: £39.98
Shipping: £8.00
Free Standard delivery £-8.00
Total (includes VAT): £39.98

... why did you have to give me the horrible idea of adding more to the order. WHY?!

edit: Don't a lot of UK companies charge us (internationals) VAT but give us free shipping because they don't actually pay VAT on our orders?

Yes, that's the usual way of doing it. Some charge the VAT and then postage on top of it. Mantic's ROW free delivery used to require us to order $70+ in US$ at an unfavourable rate compared to the UKP, so if they've changed all that and we can order smaller amounts, and directly in pounds, then that increases my chance of looking at one or two.. if I can find any spare cash.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Yonan wrote:

edit 2: From the Mantic front page:

FREE SHIPPING
On orders over £30/€30/$75 or more!

So it's not just the christmas box, and you'll need to get 2 (or add something else) if you want the free shipping.

There we are. Do ROW orders have to be paid in US$ still?

I haven't bought direct form Mantic before, but my checkout was showing pounds when I added this stuff earlier. Haven't ordered yet though, hoping my DB S3 stuff arrives in the mail soon so I can get something with mantic points at the same time.

I got the box, and added the Simian giant and Ludwig to take it over 30 pounds for free shipping - since the box comes with one giant and one MvP and I have two Dreadball teams, I figure that's one for each when I bring it out for a first game over the break, hopefully my random ones are different!

Any word yet on when we will be seeing the injection plastic stuff aside from the base terrain sprues? I'm really curious to see how they turn out. I'm convinced that Mantic will forever remain a 2nd tier miniature company unless they can get injection plastic right.

No pics yet. Last we heard was that they're still working on it, and that they'll show us before the second survey at which stage if we don't like them we can get something else instead or a refund.

Agreed, they need to sort their hard plastics. WGF is showing you can get great detail with it and I love working with it. The new restic is looking good, but not as good as hard plastic, and it's not multi part poseable packed sprues of bitzy goodness.

Wgf? That's a nice mini.... Who are wgf?

Wargames Factory I think. No idea what particular kit though.

Yep Wargames Factory. That's a mercenary from Wild West Exodus, a Kickstarter that is shipping out atm. Rigeld has received some already and posted pics in the WWX thread.

 GrimDork wrote:
So from what it says, even if you follow the doom and gloom sayers and figure you'll get all MaA for kings of war and all steel warriors or marauder grunts for warpath, you still get a dreadball MvP and giant, combine those and you're well on your way to half the price anyway, plus whatever extras $35, looks like a fair bit of fun for what a box of tactical marines used to cost, so I think i'll have to get one

Would really like to get a Dreadball Mech so I can conscript him to the rebs Or a Jotunn, those are pretty spiffy.

I think id be happy with any of the giants to help me get into db and I'd be happy to get some of the MaA just to see if they live up to their reputation.

Was there some vehicles in last years box? I missed out at the time.

I remember there being some Warmachines in the last box but I didn't get any vehicles.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Yonan wrote:
Yep Wargames Factory. That's a mercenary from Wild West Exodus, a Kickstarter that is shipping out atm. Rigeld has received some already and posted pics in the WWX thread.

Assuming they are casted by WGF but not one of WGF's actual products.? If that makes sense.

 carlos13th wrote:

 Yonan wrote:
Yep Wargames Factory. That's a mercenary from Wild West Exodus, a Kickstarter that is shipping out atm. Rigeld has received some already and posted pics in the WWX thread.

Assuming they are casted by WGF but not one of WGF's actual products.? If that makes sense.

Correct, they're WWX minis that WGF were hired to make. WWX = Wild West Exodus, from Outlaw Miniatures. Dreamforge is in a similar situation, they get WGF to make their (delicious) minis and not-so-mini minis. WGF does have its own ranges, and while they're decent they're not amazing which the DFG and WWX ones are imo.

I think they had a Jotunn cannon and a marauder raptor, but then there weren't any dreadball items in there either so the balance is probably shifted. I suspect we may see some of the new KoW stuff, especially if they have too much of some of it, but hopefully they'll still include a sprue or two of their awesome undead. I'd like a sprue of elves too so I can objectively weigh in on them, since they seem to polarize people pretty fast!

Oh, while I'm here, I linked this over on the other Deadzone thread here, but:

http://gmortschaotica.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/deadzone-preview.html

Looks like somebody got a hold some faction starters (or maybe some other bits too, I forget) and painted+assembled them. I really like the gory plague and their other color schemes are good too. Marauders are not yet present.

Argh, a lot of the Rebs have that platform shoes thing going on with the base tabs too. Still really nice minis though, very glad to have went in big on Rebs (far more than I'll ever need just for Deadzone).

wasn't last year's box almost twice as expensive, too?

Not sure. I remember 50 something, but whether it was pounds or dollars, I can't say.

What would be amazing is if mantic ditched the integrabases for the warpath kickstarter. Wishful thinking though.

Platform shoes will be getting hacked off with the rest of the mini rounds to make way for the clear acrylic disks so they don't bother me much, but I'd prefer not to see them.

Bolognesus wrote:wasn't last year's box almost twice as expensive, too?

I bought last years box and I think it was the same price. £20 for the normal version and Maybe £25 with the bag.

scarletsquig wrote:Argh, a lot of the Rebs have that platform shoes thing going on with the base tabs too. Still really nice minis though, very glad to have went in big on Rebs (far more than I'll ever need just for Deadzone).

I can't believe the platform shoes thing got past any kind of QC, if there was any QC.

 carlos13th wrote:

Bolognesus wrote:wasn't last year's box almost twice as expensive, too?

I bought last years box and I think it was the same price. £20 for the normal version and Maybe £25 with the bag.

The bag is awesome, btw. Nice and compact, but not flimsy either.

What's the bag?

Mantic messenger bag, it's very nice!

They don't have the bag this year.

Its just a canvas messenger bag with mantic on the side. Decent bag, nothing fantastic.

New update with Chovar and Boomer, and some shipping info:




Here's what ships in wave 1:


Deadzone Boxed Game, including all of the counters and cards you need to play.
Faction Starters – Enforcers, Plague, Rebs, Marauders
Faction Boosters – Plague, Rebs, Marauders
Faction Booster Bundles – Plague, Rebs, Marauders
All individual models in the above sets
8 Plastic Mercenaries – The Survivor, Recon Unit N32-19, Blaine, Nastanza, Wrath, Doctor Simmonds, Freya, and Oberon
2 Premium hand-cast metal Mercenaries – Helfather and Chovar
Random DreadBall MVP
Warpath Heroes – Enforcer Captain, Forge Father Huscarl, Forge Father Thorgarim Hero and Marauder Warlord
Scenery – Core Worlds, Fortifications, Landing Pad, Accessories and Connectors
Antenociti’s Workshop Urban Detailing Bundles
Gaming Mats Rulebooks
Faction Dice
Acrylic Counters (If you've ordered these you will be getting both the Standard and Plague pack)
Resin Equipment Crates
Battle Foam (may ship separately)
Bags
T-Shirts
Patches
Paint Sets


Quite a lot of stuff shipping well in advance of retail there, 3 of the faction boosters, 2 of the battlezones and some mercenaries.

INB4 "ohfethwhydidthechovarhavetobemetal" discussion.

 scarletsquig wrote:
2 Premium hand-cast metal Mercenaries – Helfather and Chovar

Aaaand I'm glad they are the only two I didn't order. Again with springing metal on us unannounced?

The rest looks good though, lots of loot!

In all fairness, Mantic did say straight up during the KS, in the update with the chovar in it that the chovar might not be restic:

Mantic Games on May 14, 2013
@Adam Fair - at this stage, there is no guarantee that the model will be resin plastic like the factions are. That decision depends on how many we sell during the Kickstarter. Also, this model is 40mm tall - I think you'll agree that $10 is pretty good value for something that big :-)

Source: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1744629938/deadzone-the-sci-fi-miniatures-board-game/posts/480461

They also said that it'll have individual ball and socket joins for each tentacle, so that one's going to be a bastard to assemble.

Yeah, I didn't get those guys either. Not that I'd mind metal so much in Deadzone, it's really just Dreadball where I didn't want it.

...fethfethfeth I forgot to order a few chovar. Feth again, really liking the look of it and would love a couple.

Second survey it.

 scarletsquig wrote:
In all fairness, Mantic did say straight up during the KS, in the update with the chovar in it that the chovar might not be restic:

A comment (especially on an update) isn't good enough imo. The KS faq said the models would be plastic, if there were exclusions to this it should have been listed there or in its own update.

I'm with Yonan on this one. Fair enough on Mantic's forewarning with the Chovar, but I don't believe there was any such discussion concerning the Helfather. I have Mantic's Warpath Enforcer model in metal, and I'm not impressed with the casting quality. I was considering the Chovar, and the Helfather was going to be a "must buy" for me on the 2nd survey; now I'll be dropping both. Pity.

Frankly, unless Mantic adopt an entirely up-front policy on announcing during kickstarter campaigns which models will or even may be cast in metal, I will approach all of their future kickstarters conservatively and wait for 2nd surveys before going in big on any peripheral models. I'm not going to pre-order any model without knowing what material it will be cast in, and I think it's a little ridiculous to expect otherwise from this customer base in general.

I have no idea what I ordered - Off to check if I got a mail from the survey

Little dissapointed in the two metals but only cause its bothering other folks. I'm more excited about getting 3/4 of the bzs coming in the first wave.

And that they're packing. Exciting.

 Vermonter wrote:
Frankly, unless Mantic adopt an entirely up-front policy on announcing during kickstarter campaigns which models will or even may be cast in metal, I will approach all of their future kickstarters conservatively and wait for 2nd surveys before going in big on any peripheral models.

Doesn't it come down mainly to demand though? Unil you get the surveys in you don't know if you're going to need 20 or 2000 of a particular model.

^ The flipside of that debate is that there was a $15k stretch goal during the DZ campaign to fund the sculpting and tooling of... a single metal dwarf, that wasn't a freebie.

The Chovar and Hellfather are the only 2 I passed on I actually don't mind them being metal here as they are 1 off pieces it's more annoying if you have half a team (or faction) in different materials. I thought about adding them in survey 2 but I'm not overly impressed by the casting quality on the metals so I'll pass.

and Scarletsquig brings up a good point yet again the sculpting and tooling of these was paid for by stretch goal soothe number ordered in the survey shouldn't matter the funds are there to tool it in restic.

 Riquende wrote:
Second survey it.

I don't think it was actually going to be on the 2nd survey. Would be happy to be mistaken, though.

Everything is going to be on the second survey, Mantic changed their minds on that point.

 Riquende wrote:

 Vermonter wrote:
Frankly, unless Mantic adopt an entirely up-front policy on announcing during kickstarter campaigns which models will or even may be cast in metal, I will approach all of their future kickstarters conservatively and wait for 2nd surveys before going in big on any peripheral models.

Doesn't it come down mainly to demand though? Unil you get the surveys in you don't know if you're going to need 20 or 2000 of a particular model.

If you need £x to tool y models in a particular material then you set up the Kickstarter to gain you £x to make those [i]y[/y] models, regardless of the mixture of those models that are actually ordered.

Now whilst I don't particularly mind for Deadzone in practical terms, it's the principle of the thing, and I'm still irritated about the S3 Dreadball situation because a) it puts the onus on me to do something about it and b) good luck getting anything out of Mantic during a Kickstarter fulfilment cycle.

No more pre-production model purchases from Mantic for me.

@Riquende - I understand the economics of it, but that doesn't change my attitude towards not knowing what material the miniature I'm buying will be cast in. If economics dictates that this is how it must be, so be it, but I'll just avoid pre-ordering peripheral individual models from Mantic in the future and stick to the bundle deals that will definitely get cast in plastic.

The lesson here is that if a hero model is bundled with a pledge level, you can be pretty sure it'll be plastic (Blaine, Oberon, Freya, etc.) If it isn't and is likely to receive only a few customer orders, it'll be metal (Helfather, Chovar).

By this logic, it's a safe bet that Boomer, Nem-Rath, Kish, Eddak P'Mera, and Chief Radgrad will be cast in metal too. I was going to pre-order a few of those; now that I have a better idea of their likely casting material, I won't. At the prices Mantic sells its individual, non-bundled figures at, it's not like I'm going to be missing out on a great deal anyway if I change my mind and buy them later at retail.

In terms of pre-orders, it's bundled, high-volume Mantic models for me from here on out.

I sympathise, and I take the exact same view myself on the whole "don't pledge massively at the start for absolutely everything" issue (on Deadzone the only thing past my pledge were a booster bundle, a few more terrain sprues and the compendium). Once Mantic said everything would be available on the second survey I deferred everything else to then so I'd have a better idea on what I'd be getting.

I just don't think they'd be able to say during the Kickstarter which material is most likely. Obviously the earlier the information is out there the better, Mantic are unfortunately adopting a "we're shipping now - surprise! metals." attitude, which isn't really pleasing anybody.

 scarletsquig wrote:
Everything is going to be on the second survey, Mantic changed their minds on that point.

Good to know, thanks (oh you wouldn't happen to have shipped my ases already, would you? )

 Riquende wrote:
I just don't think they'd be able to say during the Kickstarter which material is most likely.

They didn't even say that they were thinking of it - that's all they need to do, during the kickstarter and not buried in the comments. "We'll make the following minis in plastic, unless there's low demand in which case they'll be cast in high quality metal" is fine. I won't buy them if they do say that (until they've confirmed if they'll be plastic - I really don't like metal) but I have no problem with minis being metal if that's how they choose to make them.

 DaveC wrote:
The Chovar and Hellfather are the only 2 I passed on I actually don't mind them being metal here as they are 1 off pieces it's more annoying if you have half a team (or faction) in different materials. I thought about adding them in survey 2 but I'm not overly impressed by the casting quality on the metals so I'll pass.

and Scarletsquig brings up a good point yet again the sculpting and tooling of these was paid for by stretch goal soothe number ordered in the survey shouldn't matter the funds are there to tool it in restic.

I'm with Dave on this one.

The Chovar doesn't really have to scale too closely with anything else, so that one should be OK no matter what.

The Hellfather could be problematic if it doesn't fit well with the rest of the Forgefathers or whatever they end up calling the eventually released Evil Space Dwarves.

But that might be OK, as he could just be hand waved into being a Big 'un.

Still, Mantic...

The Hellfather should be the same size as the Abyssal Overmaster - due to leg stilts. Perhaps he's compensating for something......

Dwarves (and their evil or space derivatives) always have to compensate for the fact that they're not Elves (or their evil or space derivatives).