Just was wondering what you guys are doing for Glue. I've used 3 different type of plastic glue, model super glue, household crazy glue and model cement. Honestly I can't get anything to hold. The enforcers have been the worst offenders. I'd like to build the models but I need to find better glue.
Just was wondering what you guys are doing for Glue. I've used 3 different type of plastic glue, model super glue, household crazy glue and model cement. Honestly I can't get anything to hold. The enforcers have been the worst offenders. I'd like to build the models but I need to find better glue.
I don't know how well it works on the new restic, but the cyanoacrylate (5-15 second curing) glue that I bought at Hobbytown works fairly well on the enforcers that I previously bought, as well as my Dreadball minis.
H.B.M.C. wrote: Well, my stuff arrived exactly when UPS said it would.
Haven't gone through it yet though.
well, i hope you enjoy your box of wonder
i've almost finished building all my terrain (i didn't add any extra to my pledge, so i don't have the mountains some people do), but its still let me turn out a goodly amount of stuff
I haven't got the new restic stuff yet, but I tend to use dollar store superglue on anything that isn't a sponge. I may try my craftics #33 acrylic cement too... if it bonds restic to acrylic bases...maybe it'll do restic-restic.
Just was wondering what you guys are doing for Glue. I've used 3 different type of plastic glue, model super glue, household crazy glue and model cement. Honestly I can't get anything to hold. The enforcers have been the worst offenders. I'd like to build the models but I need to find better glue.
So I endeavored to put some of the stuff together, and I must say I'm not super impressed with the models. There are lots and lots of mould lines and they may actually be more abundant than what we got with Sedition Wars.
This is my first Mantic purchase; are mould lines pretty much the status qup for their restic kits?
Mine should be here bright and early tomorrow morning! I feel bad for my girlfriend, I've been bouncing off the walls all weekend, annoying the hell out of her about it.
Big box... so much lewts. Looks like I got everything but still need to do a full check of individual minis, compare sprues for extra battlezones etc. Really happy with the quality of pretty much everything. Restic, antenocitii resin, dice, coloured dice, books, mats, terrain. No extras /shakesfist ; p
The acrylic counters I'm not sure I'm hugely sold on yet, but only had a quick look. Mantic does need to work on their "random" minis though. 3 FF MVPs in 3 strike teams isn't ideal, people were having the same prob with their christmas boxes too. My accessory sprues were delayed until second shipment too, must have been a lot of demand.
Super Glue brand super glue seems to be working just fine on the restic. I pick it up in packs of two at the dollar store. I used to spend $4 on a bottle of Zap-a-gap that would clog halfway through, this is just as much glue and it works just as well. for much cheaper and less clogging.
After playing around with the terrain all weekend, I'm less impressed than i thought I'd be. It's cool having hard plastic terrain pieces, make no mistake, but I just went with the basic strike zone package and I'm finding the clips provided and the 90° angles very very limiting. They're fiddly and break easily trying to assemble and disassemble (it usually takes some force to snap them in place, even just pushing them together with pliers/screwdriver) Mantic really should put an extra sprue of connectors in each battlezone, even if you don't break any you are pretty much forced to use the detail connectors in places you don't necessarily want them, and it would REALLY be nice if the 45° ones were included in the Core Worlds, even if they took the place of a few straight/90s.
Works out being superior to the Imex/Pegasus Platformer sets, but not as good as the Hexagon set. It does look more hi-tech than the hexagon stuff. I give it a solid 3/5 stars, but I'm not blown away by it
cincydooley wrote: So I endeavored to put some of the stuff together, and I must say I'm not super impressed with the models. There are lots and lots of mould lines and they may actually be more abundant than what we got with Sedition Wars.
This is my first Mantic purchase; are mould lines pretty much the status qup for their restic kits?
Yes, I call it the Mantic Aura.
It's extremely disappointing to see the mould lines are still this bad, it's not on everything but enough to be a pain.
So using the bag numbers from the update, can anyone tell me exactly what bags I should have if I'm expecting the Faction Starter + Faction booster Bundle for all 4 factions (except the delayed Enforcer booster ofc)?
I'm cataloguing everything that was loose in the big box before cracking open the retail box, and I'm feeling really light on rebs right now.
Glad more people are getting their DZ boxes, it really is an awesome game. yeah i got 4 humans, ive converted 2, so everyone is unique. I think the new restic is fine for wargamers, but abit trickey for those just wanting a board game, which tjhey have kind of marketed at.
NTRabbit wrote: So using the bag numbers from the update, can anyone tell me exactly what bags I should have if I'm expecting the Faction Starter + Faction booster Bundle for all 4 factions (except the delayed Enforcer booster ofc)
There should be a list of the bags on the invoice paper.
NTRabbit wrote: So using the bag numbers from the update, can anyone tell me exactly what bags I should have if I'm expecting the Faction Starter + Faction booster Bundle for all 4 factions (except the delayed Enforcer booster ofc)
There should be a list of the bags on the invoice paper.
There is, but according to the invoice paper I don't have a single bag of Enforcers in my shipment at all, so right now I'm either disinclined to believe the bit of paper, or worried that it's right and I'm missing an entire faction plus who knows what else.
Of course what I'm actually doing is completely misreading the invoice, and the bulleted items underneath Strike Team Package are not the sum total of the boxed game, but what is inside the boxed game in addition to the retail standard.
Back to counting. So far I'm down one head (see, those head counts are important ) and up and down some terrain.
I haven't done a full parts inventory of my pledge yet, but i did notice that i received an extra 'Marauder 3' bag. (The one with the captain model, 2 commandos and 2 mawbeasts.). I also received an extra female Rebel leader along with a second type 1 plague model in my booster bundle bags.
We're we supposed to get extras of those 2 models?
Aren't mould lines just a part of the hobby? Plastic, resin, restic (not sure about metals, I avoid them) all have them. The mould lines can be large on restic, but large or small they take the same time to clean since it's still covering the same surface area? Only problem is when they're in a bad location, like faces or other detail areas like cables.
Except the old restic which was spongey and a PITA.
Yonan wrote: Aren't mould lines just a part of the hobby? Plastic, resin, restic (not sure about metals, I avoid them) all have them. The mould lines can be large on restic, but large or small they take the same time to clean since it's still covering the same surface area? Only problem is when they're in a bad location, like faces or other detail areas like cables.
Except the old restic which was spongey and a PITA.
Normally I'd say yes, but they're sort of everywhere and are in plenty of bad locations, and some are multiple millimeters thick.
My box just got delivered today, and some of the models are fantastic. I'm particularly impressed with the Plague First Generation and the Plague Teraton.
Unfortunately, I'll have to echo folks above - the mould lines are absolutely appalling. It's taken me 3 solid hours to clean, de-mould, and put together just 4 models, and they'll need a good bit of greenstuffing.
In all honesty, though, I probably stuffed up my Plague Grenadier - he's got a huge one inch gap between the launcher and his wrist. I must've misjudged something when gluing him up.
Still, pretty happy. I'll put in an order to get some Microarts Studio Biotech bases, and then I can get to assembling the rest of the models and painting them up.
In all honesty, though, I probably stuffed up my Plague Grenadier - he's got a huge one inch gap between the launcher and his wrist. I must've misjudged something when gluing him up.
You have to be exaggerating. No way you have a 1 inch gap.
I got the ones inside my strike teams thankfully Grim, but none for the extra battlezones which is what, 4-8 I forget exactly. So maybe your 300 accessory sprues are being delayed too - or you have mine ; p
Yonan wrote: I got the ones inside my strike teams thankfully Grim, but none for the extra battlezones which is what, 4-8 I forget exactly. So maybe your 300 accessory sprues are being delayed too - or you have mine ; p
Exactly the same for me, only I also ended up with a bonus terrain 4.1 and 5.1 floating around the box, bonus 1st Gen because apparently the specialist booster in the bundle is everything in the Plague start bag minus the 1st Gen and I guess someone forgot to take it out, and didn't get a Dreadball MVP.
Finally had time to assemble some Deadzone figs last night, started with the Marauders.
A few things I noticed:
- new restic is way better than Dreadball. easy to scrape off mold lines with my Z-series Xacto and can file it no problem.
- speaking of mold lines, virtually none. the Marauder with two rifles had a thin mold line, and there was a mold line on the commander's hat, but I got the whole team assembled in about 45 minutes including some head swaps (so the duplicated dudes don't look exactly the same).
- the models have great detail! not as great as, say, Mierce resins, but I also pay a ton of money for that level of detail. these guys are great. i looked at the completed team, realized i had three more teams to do, and then 30+ sprues of terrain, and i literally can't believe the deal i got on all this.
Yeah, unless people have crazy mold lines, I'm not seeing them. Maybe pics or it didn't happen? My mold lines have been no worse than hard plastic models.
Has anyone been having difficulties with assembling terrain using the connectors? SHould I just give up and glue it?
One thing for both the proponents and detractors to bear in mind is that the there's a *huge* variation in terms of mould lines and casting with restic just as a nature of the beast sort of thing. So keep in mind that people saying A and people saying B are likely both right.
@gohkm: Restic is susceptible to warping and likely you have a piece that is not aligned correctly. The easiest way to correct that is to soak the piece in hot water for a bit which will make it very bendable. Straighten it to the needed position and then place it into some cool water. That usually takes care of alignment problems like what you described. If not, you can try to contact Mantic about a replacement bit, they're usually pretty good about fixing up just straight-up miscasts.
For my part, I'm most of the way through assembling my second Strike Team. The Marauders are taking the prize at the moment for worst mould lines and casting issues, but given that they were sort of an "oh, I get those too?" faction for me I'm not particularly angry about it. I do have to echo SS and say to make sure to check all your parts. Found a few small missing pieces this weekend that made me glad I didn't submit the order query yet. Nothing major so far, and obviously nothing I don't have multiples of anyway, but best to get it in one go I feel.
pretre wrote:Yeah, unless people have crazy mold lines, I'm not seeing them. Maybe pics or it didn't happen? My mold lines have been no worse than hard plastic models.
Has anyone been having difficulties with assembling terrain using the connectors? SHould I just give up and glue it?
I've seen one bag have no mould lines at all, open up the other strike team and the same bag will have incredibly noticeable ones. You could say it's a... mixed bag.
I've had some connectors not want to cooperate and some that just popped right in. If I remember who said it right, I think SS had the right of it that if some pieces (usually the corner ones) don't want to go in you may need to file them down just a smidge.
Give up and use glue is my advice for the terrain. It goes together a lot more quickly and with less stress. I just clipped the square pegs off the connectors and glued them into the recesses on each piece.
Also, make sure large buildings have one freestanding wall that can be removed in-game so you can place models inside the building. Use the support strut connectors (one on each side) to have the wall freestanding.
Quite pleased that the terrain allows you to do this, much better than leaving the roof loose.
I agree with Krinsath, the mold line vary wildy even amongst the same models beacause of the material. I have seen a few constants, such as the line on the Peacekeeper Captain's cloak and on the rebel commander/humans face but nothing that has outright ruined any detail on the models. It is also worth noting that the newer restic formula is a damn site easier to clean and deal with than some of the original formulas. In time familiarity with the material will make it easier to deal with for modellers. If it is new to you just experiment with the odd model which you are not too fond of/have many multiples of and in time you will get the hang of it.
i have also done the same as Scarletsquig, a further advantage being that you do not need half as many connectors when using glue. I am so fond of the terrain that i bought a couple of extra boxes on friday whilst also signing up for a league at my FLGS, there is quite a DZ community local to me already.
yea, glue is the way to go i've found also, especially after i had a few connectors break testing putting things together and then trying to take it apart
for the more scenic connectors and the like, i've also found it immensely helpful to go over the pegs with a file slightly
all and all, i expect i'll be purchasing a good deal more of these kits in the future
I'm still not hugely keen on gluing the terrain too much, but I guess if you use superglue you can always un-glue it. I'm normally a fan of plastic cement but being able to remodel the terrain down the track, even if you've glued it, would be a good thing imo.
lord_blackfang wrote: Sooo.... Mantic's running out of stuff for the lucky 1% of us whose pledges haven't shipped yet?
I imagine they made sure all strike teams are fully complete first, then for extras after that yeah, you might have a delay on getting stuff.
judgedoug wrote: - the models have great detail! not as great as, say, Mierce resins, but I also pay a ton of money for that level of detail. these guys are great. i looked at the completed team, realized i had three more teams to do, and then 30+ sprues of terrain, and i literally can't believe the deal i got on all this.
Yep no doubt about that. I have ~$900 worth of SMs (at ~30% off USRRP) sitting on my wall of shame atm, basically identical price paid to the Deadzone that arrived in first shipment. Comparing the quantity of the two is... one sided ; p
Yonan wrote: Yep no doubt about that. I have ~$900 worth of SMs (at ~30% off USRRP) sitting on my wall of shame atm, basically identical price paid to the Deadzone that arrived in first shipment. Comparing the quantity of the two is... one sided ; p
For a moment before you mentioned the discount off USRRP, I was going to say "$900AUD of Space Marines? You mean you got a whole SQUAD?!"
But seriously, I feel like I've gotten an excellent deal on the KS. The models aren't Mierce/KD/DFG quality, but they're good. The terrain works well and the game's rules look to be a lot of fun. I've certainly spent more and gotten less for it.
I feel like I got what I paid for- a great price for some awesome terrain as well as some decent figures that need a bit of work. If the figures themselves were more money I would hope that the castings were done a bit better.
As it stands I've got almost all my rebs, plague, and the majority of marauders put together.
I think I've found that zenlike state that's needed to put the scenery together without any problems. I built a few small buildings with the kids, took them down, built a larger building with all those pieces, and then broke that down and put it in the box... all without busting a single connecter!
Hopefully the kids have less homework this week so we can get a few proper games under our belts. I'm wondering when we'll see someone put out a character builder of some sort. I want to run a Trollblood unit through the deadzone! Gunnbjorn, some sluggers and scattergunners, maybe some dire trolls or something along those lines... I'm sure they'd enjoy fighting the plague!
I hate to say it, but after putting all this work and effort into prepping the game... I'm ready for the fantasy version.
As much fun as it is having big bad manly soldiers and pew pew lasers, I'll take lots of giant monsters that you have to get up close and personal to make merry with, rather than plugging away at them from a distance.
I'm also very curious to see what kinds of fantasy scenery Mantic could come up with.
Well, my box is in. I haven't counted all of the terrain sprues , but just looking through the miniatures, I already can tell they gave me an extra bag of mercenaries, as well as a complete second marauder starter and some extra Rebs.
judgedoug wrote: Finally had time to assemble some Deadzone figs last night, started with the Marauders.
A few things I noticed:
- new restic is way better than Dreadball. easy to scrape off mold lines with my Z-series Xacto and can file it no problem.
- speaking of mold lines, virtually none. the Marauder with two rifles had a thin mold line, and there was a mold line on the commander's hat, but I got the whole team assembled in about 45 minutes including some head swaps (so the duplicated dudes don't look exactly the same).
- the models have great detail! not as great as, say, Mierce resins, but I also pay a ton of money for that level of detail. these guys are great. i looked at the completed team, realized i had three more teams to do, and then 30+ sprues of terrain, and i literally can't believe the deal i got on all this.
The mauraders are clearly the best. Have you touched the Rebs or the plague yet? Lots of mould lines, sadly. If you're able to get your Rebs cleaned and built in 45 minutes, please please please YouTube that so I can learn. It's taken me a while to clean up my Rebs.
The mauraders are clearly the best. Have you touched the Rebs or the plague yet? Lots of mould lines, sadly. If you're able to get your Rebs cleaned and built in 45 minutes, please please please YouTube that so I can learn. It's taken me a while to clean up my Rebs.
I'll work on them next! The Marauders are the only ones I took out of their baggies.
Just got my box in. I got it shipped to work so I haven't been able to look through it yet. Very excited to finally get to see what all of you guys have been talking about with the scenery.
I've got one group of enforcers and all my marauders built except the second ripper suit. Only the 1st Gen plague is done from that group, but flash doesn't look too bad on the bigger guys.
Honestly speaking, I've had some pretty terrible moldlines on my plague boosters (particularly the teraton and swarms) plus the special characters set but speaking overall they genuinely have been damn good.
I'm pretty sure I've assembled some 50+ models now, not including terrain, and they've on the whole been pretty damn good. I'd say maybe 1 minute per model on moldline duty now, on average (several haven't needed any more than a casual flick), which is a massive improvement over the dreadball season 2 days.
In all honesty, though, I probably stuffed up my Plague Grenadier - he's got a huge one inch gap between the launcher and his wrist. I must've misjudged something when gluing him up.
You have to be exaggerating. No way you have a 1 inch gap.
Makes me think back to one of the old Airfix Harrier kits, think originally made in the 70's where the mould had been used so many times you had something like a cm gap between the wing and fuselage.
@gohkm: Restic is susceptible to warping and likely you have a piece that is not aligned correctly. The easiest way to correct that is to soak the piece in hot water for a bit which will make it very bendable. Straighten it to the needed position and then place it into some cool water. That usually takes care of alignment problems like what you described. If not, you can try to contact Mantic about a replacement bit, they're usually pretty good about fixing up just straight-up miscasts.
Ah, thanks, mate. I'll give that a go.
BTW, all the big models go on 40mm bases, right? And the small ones on 30mm or 25mm ones?
baritowned wrote: I retract my previous statement, I'm missing my second Plague Booster, as well as an extra ripper suit that I ordered.
On the opposite side, I got an extra Marauder starter, bag of mercenaries, and I'm almost positive that I got way more terrain than I ordered.
The basic box is 10 sprues of plastic plus one sprue of connectors. The Strike Force pledge doubles that to twenty sprues of plastic plus two sprues of connectors.
Each battle zone is eight sprues of plastic plus one connector sprue.
For every two battle zones, you get two sprues of the accessory terrain.
So check what you received against the piece of paper you should have received showing what got shipped to you. Is it more terrain than you expected, or more than you ordered?
baritowned wrote: I retract my previous statement, I'm missing my second Plague Booster, as well as an extra ripper suit that I ordered.
On the opposite side, I got an extra Marauder starter, bag of mercenaries, and I'm almost positive that I got way more terrain than I ordered.
The basic box is 10 sprues of plastic plus one sprue of connectors. The Strike Force pledge doubles that to twenty sprues of plastic plus two sprues of connectors.
Each battle zone is eight sprues of plastic plus one connector sprue.
For every two battle zones, you get two sprues of the accessory terrain.
So check what you received against the piece of paper you should have received showing what got shipped to you. Is it more terrain than you expected, or more than you ordered?
It may have been a combination of both. Also, were Boomer and the Helfather supposed to ship in this wave?
Boomer is second shipment, wasn't ready in time. Helfather and chovar are both metal and shipped out this wave. All 3 were paid addons and not inclusive.
My Marauder Commando boss has genuinely half a centimetres gap for box to foot when trying to stand him up. I dunno if the hot water trick will do enough for that.
GrimDork wrote: Boomer is second shipment, wasn't ready in time. Helfather and chovar are both metal and shipped out this wave. All 3 were paid addons and not inclusive.
Then I guess I'm missing my Hellfather too. Missing three things out of that much isn't a big deal to me, other than the Hellfather they were all duplicated anyway lol. It's not like Mantic isn't willing to send out replacements.
The mauraders are clearly the best. Have you touched the Rebs or the plague yet? Lots of mould lines, sadly. If you're able to get your Rebs cleaned and built in 45 minutes, please please please YouTube that so I can learn. It's taken me a while to clean up my Rebs.
I'll work on them next! The Marauders are the only ones I took out of their baggies.
Rebs were definitely worse, more mold lines and took longer. Though I just did all my plague models in about 20 minutes as they had almost no mold lines!
Just got my box today. I only got the plague and enforcers (pre-release box) but I must have gotten one of the good batches as my models had very minimal mold lines.
Just finished sorting through my DeadZone models. I noticed the following incorrect/missing bags:
- I am missing 1 entire Plague Booster Bundle.
- Plague Extra 1 bag (the bag with 3 Third Generations) came with the wrong head/accessory sprue (I think the head sprue belongs to the Marauder Extra 2 bag)
Just sent Mantic a message about my missing items. REALLY pleased with the overall model quality! I've been working on Zombies all month so as soon as my DeadZone stuff arrived I could get my Warpath Plague Army together for Demo games against my Forge Fathers and Corporation.
On a related note, does anyone know when we'll be getting Warpath rules for the Rebs?
GrimDork wrote: Boomer is second shipment, wasn't ready in time. Helfather and chovar are both metal and shipped out this wave. All 3 were paid addons and not inclusive.
Then I guess I'm missing my Hellfather too. Missing three things out of that much isn't a big deal to me, other than the Hellfather they were all duplicated anyway lol. It's not like Mantic isn't willing to send out replacements.
on my paper, the hellfather was marked as shipping with the 2nd shipment, so i'm guessing they ran low on them or something
So, my thoughts, based on just a basic Strike Team package:
-Marauders: 5/5
I think these guys are going to be the Elves of Warpath; I wasn't enamored with them when I saw them online and in pictures, but now with them in hand they're easily my favorite faction. Models went together cleanly (Although the flamethrower guy had a 0.5cm gap between his arm and the gun-hand), although I had to crack open my cards and squint long and hard at the Ripper Suit pictures to figure out which doodads went where. Instructions there would have been helpful.
-Plague: 5/5
Big guy looks great, and the Gen 2 have the same Elf-effect the Marauders had above (Far better in person). Very much impressed with the gen 3 soldiers, and they went together easier than any other model besides the reb footsoldiers.
-Rebs: 5/5
Love the humans, love the grogans, love the teraton. Yindjijidiiwhatever look ok, but were more fiddly to assemble compared to the humans that they definitely mark below on the scale of how much I like the models. Drones have a bit of the Elf-effect for me personally, although I was markedly less enthralled by them when I found out I had neglected to add their underslung spotter-things after I superglued them to a shaved-to-fit flight stand top
-Enforcers: 4/5
Surprisingly, my least-favorite of the bunch. Like the models, but compared to the ease-of-assembly of the monopose models, I would buy monopose models over the PITA multipart models any day of the week. Engineer looks like a non-euclidean miscast until you figure out which part goes where and put him together. Enforcer Captain looks nice, and since I got a regular Enforcer Captain, I have to say the restic is vastly preferable to the metal, although the model does appear to be 10-25% smaller in overall volume
Mercs: 4/5
It would have been a nightmare trying to assemble these without the guide Mantic posted in the update, but after that it was a breeze. Only thing left is finding out if the Enforcer Scout's little orb thing is glued to its own base, or if it should be glued to the scout's base.
Game Components:4/5
Everything looks nice (Missing dice, but eh, I already have some). Rulebook was banged up on the edge opposite the spine, but not into unusability. Cards from the deck are nice quality. Tokens look nice and were punched out well, with no ripping.
Terrain: 2/5
Looks fantastic, but is an absolute pain to assemble. For whatever reason only about one-in-three of my connectors fits cleanly and snugly into the terrain. Another third fits, but so loosely that its function becomes decorative, and the remaining third doesn't fit full inside the receiving hole, leading me to wonder if I should risk damage by trying to force it with a mallet or pliers. I'd be willing to revise this view if it turns out I was not doing something right, but at the moment I'm not exactly happy with the idea of using the terrain in a game.
Overall: 4/5
Very glad I went into this for the models and rules, as neither has disappointed (Can't wait to play some games with my local gamer friend), but somewhat disappointed by the terrain. It doesn't feel or look nearly as secure and quick/easy to assemble as I'd hoped, and I'm now somewhat glad I didn't pledge for buckets of it.
darkPrince010 wrote: Terrain: 2/5 Looks fantastic, but is an absolute pain to assemble. For whatever reason only about one-in-three of my connectors fits cleanly and snugly into the terrain. Another third fits, but so loosely that its function becomes decorative, and the remaining third doesn't fit full inside the receiving hole, leading me to wonder if I should risk damage by trying to force it with a mallet or pliers. I'd be willing to revise this view if it turns out I was not doing something right, but at the moment I'm not exactly happy with the idea of using the terrain in a game.
Have you seen the discussion on the Mantic forum about how to improve the terrain connectors using a little bit of filing? Supposedly it makes it a lot easier, but the connectors are definitely the weak point of the terrain. Now that I have mine I'm going to have a look at seeing how viable it will be to magnetise.
edit: M\y Deadzone shirt fits well thankfully! Looks pretty good imo, subdued and not overly nerdy, glad I impulse bought it during the survey ; p
darkPrince010 wrote: Terrain: 2/5
Looks fantastic, but is an absolute pain to assemble. For whatever reason only about one-in-three of my connectors fits cleanly and snugly into the terrain. Another third fits, but so loosely that its function becomes decorative, and the remaining third doesn't fit full inside the receiving hole, leading me to wonder if I should risk damage by trying to force it with a mallet or pliers. I'd be willing to revise this view if it turns out I was not doing something right, but at the moment I'm not exactly happy with the idea of using the terrain in a game.
Have you seen the discussion on the Mantic forum about how to improve the terrain connectors using a little bit of filing? Supposedly it makes it a lot easier, but the connectors are definitely the weak point of the terrain. Now that I have mine I'm going to have a look at seeing how viable it will be to magnetise.
edit: M\y Deadzone shirt fits well thankfully! Looks pretty good imo, subdued and not overly nerdy, glad I impulse bought it during the survey ; p
yea, i found that taking a few seconds with a file helped immensely with the connectors, it took me from swearing and murderous back to happy and creative
Ok, I've built a couple more serious structures and now see where everybody's coming from. I've broken a good number of connectors, albeit usually when I lost patience and tried to jiggle them loose quickly rather than poking them out from the back, and some tiles are much easier to fit the connectors into than others. (But just try poking connectors out from the back when you have connectors on both sides, blocking all the holes.) For the open "X" tiles you make towers from, I'm finding needle nose pliers mandatory for getting the clips to click.
But overall I'm finding the connectors usable, and I don't really see the advantage of just gluing buildings together right away. I'm pretty sure that whatever I build in the next few weeks, I'll end up realizing I could do it much better a different way in a month or two, or decide that I want to do use the same tiles in an entirely new design. I may break a number of connectors taking my buildings apart, but if that's the price I pay for being able to revise my designs, I'll pay it. And if I change my mind, I can still glue my buildings later if I decide I really want to.
Warts and all, I'm happy with the building set. It takes effort, time, and some sailor-mouthed cursing, falling much more on the side of miniature modeling than lego toy building, but the results are great.
Cleaning my plague first gen and my god, it's such a beautiful model. If there was a "Best model of the year", I think I'd put this up there with the FWHH character series, I really love it.
I got around to painting up a pair of my Plague Troops. Thought I'd share.
Please ignore any mold lines that remain. I know I will.
They fit quite well with my existing Plague Zombies. I can't wait to have the whole bunch painted up and hanging out together. And then there'll be the wave 2 zombies...
These are the primary colours I'll be looking at choosing from for my plague to make something close to the official plague scheme:
Spoiler:
Any excuse to use Fluorescent Magenta from Vallejo, I love that colour, so vibrant. Minitaire Lust Pink is really nice too, similar but superior to Squid Pink from Vallejo I think, it's deeper. Heavy Warmgrey is a great slightly warm/pink bone base to work from.
My pink skin is coming out way more neon than I'd like at the moment.
It's done using just washes. It's the same technique I used on my zombies. Use a white base (in this case it's just primer) with Druuchi Violet/purple wash applied first. Once dry, apply Reikland Fleshshade. And that's it. Some of the zombies in there were done using the same technique only with Agrax Earthshade and Reikland Fleshshade. I'll be using a similar technique for my Grogans, too. The blood on them, that was done using GW's new Blood For the Blood God paint. That stuff is actually really good for doing blood. Even better than using Tamiya's clear red.
Yonan wrote: Any excuse to use Fluorescent Magenta from Vallejo, I love that colour, so vibrant. from.
I just bought a bottle of this for another project, and it's arrived really, really thick. Like, I've tried shaking and stirring it for 15 minutes, and when I shake it there's still no sound of fluid movement. Is this normal for fluo colours, or does it just need a bit of thinning?
I've had a really thick vallejo colour, I forget which one, it might have been magenta. Some thinning - to the extent I had to throw some of the paint from the bottle out to make room for water - fixed it up nicely.
back to here. We are looking at the campaign mechanics. Seems pretty solid. We will try it out in the weeks to come. some of the crew played their second game yesterday. Solid game.
Incidentally, while everyone is focusing on inventories and assembly (good ideas all around, mind you), we've actually been playing with the game/rules, a bit.
Just thought i'd throw this out there for folks who aren't in love with playing on a grid, per se.... We've actually had amazing success converting the rules very linearly to a proper table-top game.
If all you do is the logical changes (IE, reading 1 movement as 3", ditto for shooting/melee ranges, etc...) it frees you from the grid, while retaining Jake's design intentions, etc, and giving the game a little more granularity. If you essentially make every measurement x3 (the length of what was a grid) then you can extrapolate the rules for where to place tokens, etc...
Thus far we've enjoyed it more this way, so I thought i'd share. :-)
NewTruthNeomaxim wrote: Incidentally, while everyone is focusing on inventories and assembly (good ideas all around, mind you), we've actually been playing with the game/rules, a bit.
Just thought i'd throw this out there for folks who aren't in love with playing on a grid, per se.... We've actually had amazing success converting the rules very linearly to a proper table-top game.
If all you do is the logical changes (IE, reading 1 movement as 3", ditto for shooting/melee ranges, etc...) it frees you from the grid, while retaining Jake's design intentions, etc, and giving the game a little more granularity. If you essentially make every measurement x3 (the length of what was a grid) then you can extrapolate the rules for where to place tokens, etc...
Thus far we've enjoyed it more this way, so I thought i'd share. :-)
NewTruthNeomaxim wrote: Incidentally, while everyone is focusing on inventories and assembly (good ideas all around, mind you), we've actually been playing with the game/rules, a bit.
Just thought i'd throw this out there for folks who aren't in love with playing on a grid, per se.... We've actually had amazing success converting the rules very linearly to a proper table-top game.
If all you do is the logical changes (IE, reading 1 movement as 3", ditto for shooting/melee ranges, etc...) it frees you from the grid, while retaining Jake's design intentions, etc, and giving the game a little more granularity. If you essentially make every measurement x3 (the length of what was a grid) then you can extrapolate the rules for where to place tokens, etc...
Thus far we've enjoyed it more this way, so I thought i'd share. :-)
Hmm... does that work with the cube-based movement and relations for diagonal/orthagonal adjacency? Admittedly I've only read the rules and have not played it at all yet.
NewTruthNeomaxim wrote: Incidentally, while everyone is focusing on inventories and assembly (good ideas all around, mind you), we've actually been playing with the game/rules, a bit.
Just thought i'd throw this out there for folks who aren't in love with playing on a grid, per se.... We've actually had amazing success converting the rules very linearly to a proper table-top game.
If all you do is the logical changes (IE, reading 1 movement as 3", ditto for shooting/melee ranges, etc...) it frees you from the grid, while retaining Jake's design intentions, etc, and giving the game a little more granularity. If you essentially make every measurement x3 (the length of what was a grid) then you can extrapolate the rules for where to place tokens, etc...
Thus far we've enjoyed it more this way, so I thought i'd share. :-)
"Cover" in the game was already heavily abstracted with only a model LITERALLY in 100% open space having no cover. As such, it is really easy/logical to apply the old, "If you can trace any line to this model that crosses an object, it is in cover. If any conceivable line from model "a" to model "b" is free, they're not in cover.
Likewise, we apply the again "common sense", anything you're touching personally is ignored for this purpose.
As far as "scatter" we still use the D8 with 1 being "directly up table", 5 being "directly down table" etc...
Automatically Appended Next Post: Honestly, its been one of the easiest "home brew" projects I have ever seen, and it in fact, so easily converted to raw table-top game, that i'd suggest it was partially developed as such BEFORE the grid came into being.
NewTruthNeomaxim wrote: Incidentally, while everyone is focusing on inventories and assembly (good ideas all around, mind you), we've actually been playing with the game/rules, a bit.
Just thought i'd throw this out there for folks who aren't in love with playing on a grid, per se.... We've actually had amazing success converting the rules very linearly to a proper table-top game.
If all you do is the logical changes (IE, reading 1 movement as 3", ditto for shooting/melee ranges, etc...) it frees you from the grid, while retaining Jake's design intentions, etc, and giving the game a little more granularity. If you essentially make every measurement x3 (the length of what was a grid) then you can extrapolate the rules for where to place tokens, etc...
Thus far we've enjoyed it more this way, so I thought i'd share. :-)
Just curious what drew you guys to deadzone then? Part of the reason I enjoy the rules is due to the quick and non fiddely movement and measuring(I played orks in 40k and hated moving 25 boyz 6 inchs). Seems like if you want to measure there is plenty of other games in that vein. Just honestly curious what inspired this change, not trolling!
NewTruthNeomaxim wrote: Incidentally, while everyone is focusing on inventories and assembly (good ideas all around, mind you), we've actually been playing with the game/rules, a bit.
Just thought i'd throw this out there for folks who aren't in love with playing on a grid, per se.... We've actually had amazing success converting the rules very linearly to a proper table-top game.
If all you do is the logical changes (IE, reading 1 movement as 3", ditto for shooting/melee ranges, etc...) it frees you from the grid, while retaining Jake's design intentions, etc, and giving the game a little more granularity. If you essentially make every measurement x3 (the length of what was a grid) then you can extrapolate the rules for where to place tokens, etc...
Thus far we've enjoyed it more this way, so I thought i'd share. :-)
Just curious what drew you guys to deadzone then? Part of the reason I enjoy the rules is due to the quick and non fiddely movement and measuring(I played orks in 40k and hated moving 25 boyz 6 inchs). Seems like if you want to measure there is plenty of other games in that vein. Just honestly curious what inspired this change, not trolling!
Thanks,
Lukez
You would be surprised how few GOOD sci-fi skirmish games exist at this scale. We play and enjoy games like Malifaux, and appreciate highly characterful games using small numbers of models but very tactical thinking/positioning. In fact, one of the best games to scratch that itch is similarly a home-brewed project, "Warhammer 40k: Kill Team".
I love the Deadzone universe (which is a given considering I had the opportunity to work on it), and love the aesthetics. We love campaign games/systems, we love the Necromunda style upgrades. Hell, Deadzone is incredible and it just happens that the one thing we DON'T like was the "stream-lined" movement/measurement systems. As everything else is just wonderful... we fixed it. :-p
Oh, and I am a big fan of Warpath, and given that Warpath 2.0 is about to become a VERY big deal in our hobby, part of why I mass bought Deadzone was to ultimately funnel into that game.
But, for context I am also one of those people who thinks Dust: Tactics is an absolute joke of a game, whereas Dust: Warfare is a huge personal favorite... so I/we here have a precedent for ditching the "casual" incarnation of games.
NewTruthNeomaxim wrote: Incidentally, while everyone is focusing on inventories and assembly (good ideas all around, mind you), we've actually been playing with the game/rules, a bit.
Just thought i'd throw this out there for folks who aren't in love with playing on a grid, per se.... We've actually had amazing success converting the rules very linearly to a proper table-top game.
If all you do is the logical changes (IE, reading 1 movement as 3", ditto for shooting/melee ranges, etc...) it frees you from the grid, while retaining Jake's design intentions, etc, and giving the game a little more granularity. If you essentially make every measurement x3 (the length of what was a grid) then you can extrapolate the rules for where to place tokens, etc...
Thus far we've enjoyed it more this way, so I thought i'd share. :-)
Just curious what drew you guys to deadzone then? Part of the reason I enjoy the rules is due to the quick and non fiddely movement and measuring(I played orks in 40k and hated moving 25 boyz 6 inchs). Seems like if you want to measure there is plenty of other games in that vein. Just honestly curious what inspired this change, not trolling!
Thanks,
Lukez
You would be surprised how few GOOD sci-fi skirmish games exist at this scale. We play and enjoy games like Malifaux, and appreciate highly characterful games using small numbers of models but very tactical thinking/positioning. In fact, one of the best games to scratch that itch is similarly a home-brewed project, "Warhammer 40k: Kill Team".
I love the Deadzone universe (which is a given considering I had the opportunity to work on it), and love the aesthetics. We love campaign games/systems, we love the Necromunda style upgrades. Hell, Deadzone is incredible and it just happens that the one thing we DON'T like was the "stream-lined" movement/measurement systems. As everything else is just wonderful... we fixed it. :-p
Oh, and I am a big fan of Warpath, and given that Warpath 2.0 is about to become a VERY big deal in our hobby, part of why I mass bought Deadzone was to ultimately funnel into that game.
But, for context I am also one of those people who thinks Dust: Tactics is an absolute joke of a game, whereas Dust: Warfare is a huge personal favorite... so I/we here have a precedent for ditching the "casual" incarnation of games.
So, out of curiousity, why would anyone take mercenaries? I took a look at the stat cards and the negatives (no XP and rep negative) seem pretty bad for what you get. Am I missing how awesome they are?
pretre wrote: So, out of curiousity, why would anyone take mercenaries? I took a look at the stat cards and the negatives (no XP and rep negative) seem pretty bad for what you get. Am I missing how awesome they are?
Yes a few of them seem over-priced (Blaine for instance, unless I'm missing something?) But, a couple of them look quite kick-ass: The Helfather - armour 3, and an AP4 weapon with 'irresistible' will mean goodnight sweetheart for most things it hits (and if they do survive, they get set on fire!). Nastanza as well, the agility with sniper ability, can imagine her (him?! ) jumping around and hiding under her (or his) stealth cloak, and that being pretty annoying to face. Think that range 14 is the longest in the game so far as well, which would be fun for people who've started playing with 2 mats together. Boomer looks like a fun character to play also for 10 pts.
Hey doods! Great to see everyone enjoying deadzone and there is quite a buzz too, Here is my first finished reb. Had 4 games now and watched 2, I must say I'm loving it!
I think the mercs have more to offer in isolated one off games, but some are pretty solid even with the rep hit. Consider them leveled veterans who won't have to sit out to level up anymore. Basically, each merc costs 3 rep per battle paid after the fact. So if you ever considered bringing a few ammos or a frag grenade, you've already rationalized the cost of any merc.
Blaine is like a faster 1st gen without command, dunno if he's cheap but nor would I call him overcosted readily either. Nastanza and Helfather are both standouts, and boomer and chovar bring a lot of utility. Boomer has unlimited grenades for 10 points, and those usually cost 3 or more points apiece.
Freya is 9 points but if you can escort her in you get 2 VP easilyso she may be worth it to you as well.
Mostly goes over whats missing that they know about, everything has been shipped so you should have it soon if you don't already (=/, still no shipping update for fexex here), missing sorak they knew about for awhile and forgot to bring it up the the rush to get done etc, supposedly you can get a 2 pack sorak yndij for a couple of bucks on the next survey to make up for not getting as many the first time round. They ran out of accessory sprues early on so most of us only get the ones that came with strike but not any extras ordered. Glad I ordered 16 =/
I might try freya or nastanza in a game. Mainly becuase i just like the models and freya will help ease the pain waiting for the forge father team. Think i got lucky with my order, only the 4 dice missing. @Baritowned the base was simply just grit and sand glued to the base then painted grey
The GS around the waist is a bit rough, but I am assuming there is tidying up still to do there. The idea is fantastic, however. Consider it duly "borrowed".
The GS around the waist is a bit rough, but I am assuming there is tidying up still to do there. The idea is fantastic, however. Consider it duly "borrowed".
~Eric
Eric, good point. I didn't want to spam the pile of pictures, but one should have been posted. Original post has been updated now with the Engineer group shot.
Yeah. I still have a little cleaning to do on the GS. I used the paintable stuff as the space was really close. Once that drys fully I will likely need to do a little tight smoothing/sanding and maybe a second coat of gs on it. All should be done with the cleanup of the flash as well.
Do you mean the step by step on how I did it or the conversion I will be doing for the Missile Launcher Enforcer? I actually have a lot more GS to do for him and so his conversion is not quite started yet. I hope to get him started this weekend though.
If you mean the step by step, I don't have another Engineer/Missile Launcher guy to cut apart. :( And I didn't think ahead to do the step by step shots. I 'know' what I did though and can easily replicate it again with the pieces. One thing I will say is a nice hot water bath made these guys cut like butter for me.
I like the Engineer figure. I wish I could get a bit more versatility out of his sculpt and not have to have him kneeling all the time. What you did definitely works well. I just wish I had another engineer and missile dude to try that out on.
Barzam wrote: I like the Engineer figure. I wish I could get a bit more versatility out of his sculpt and not have to have him kneeling all the time. What you did definitely works well. I just wish I had another engineer and missile dude to try that out on.
Engineer torso with the leg bits from the regular Enforcer figures would work too. Might even be ultimately easier to pull off. That is what I intend to do since I have bunches of Enforcers and will likely never field a full army of them.
Yeah, that probably would be easier. Then I'd only have to cut one figure in half. The downside is of course that I don't have a spare engineer to try it on. Hmm, maybe I can grab one for round 2.
Barzam wrote: I like the Engineer figure. I wish I could get a bit more versatility out of his sculpt and not have to have him kneeling all the time. What you did definitely works well. I just wish I had another engineer and missile dude to try that out on.
Engineer torso with the leg bits from the regular Enforcer figures would work too. Might even be ultimately easier to pull off. That is what I intend to do since I have bunches of Enforcers and will likely never field a full army of them.
~Eric
Second this idea. I think it'll work quite well and give some nice versatility.
Well, quite possibly the last box to be shipped from Mantic has arrived. Anyone in the last 1% who's still waiting can look forward to a lot of "we ran out of this so you'll get it later" notes all over your order form. Helfather, Chovar, Boomer, MVP, accessory sprues are all out of stock. I also got Plague instead of Enforcers for my bonus faction and no deck for either. Still inventorying the rest.
Upon closer inspection, it's even worse. It seems I only got the $20 boosters instead of the $50 booster bundles that I paid for and I got about half a Plague starter for my freebie that should have been Enforcers. That's without even diving into the baggies to check for individual component errors.
In compensation I got one extra half-sprue of fortification bulkheads. And I found my MVP at least.
Got a game in with my kid last night. Really high level, skipped cards and command values but just tried to get a feel for it. It was pretty cool although I don't think we got any damage applied. lol
really annoyed with UPS right now the local depot got my pack on Tuesday it's then been scanned in and out each day rang this morning to be told it would be delivered today and I've now just got an email to say it never left the depot for the third day in a row.
DaveC wrote: really annoyed with UPS right now the local depot got my pack on Tuesday it's then been scanned in and out each day rang this morning to be told it would be delivered today and I've now just got an email to say it never left the depot for the third day in a row.
Couriers, shudder
Waiting on 3 orders from the states I think may well be courier bound I feel your pain even more than normal
It's bad enough going off to the Royal Mail sorting office and at least there you get your box to take home again
(I'm sure that because UPS didn't put it on a van it's now buried under Xmas boxes in the deopt and they're unwilling to do the work needed to dig it out until it surfaces naturally)
Ahh well, dumb look sorted. As I had started to figure my shipment got missed somehow, one of a very few out of 4400ish. My best guess is to be seeing my stuff sometime around when they start sorting out everyone's mispick/packs after they've restocked. Got a nice email from Clive about it. Happy to know, is much better than waiting and watching the road for the mail truck.
So, I humbly ask you folk to keep sharing your dz paint jobs and creations, I'll be enjoying dz vicariously through you all for a little bit yet.
Has the Asterian faction deck over on quirkworthy been mentioned here yet? Looks interesting for sure!
Well they finally found my box although how you lsoe a 21kg box I'm not sure but I've been upgraded to Saturday delivery - another day sitting around waiting for a courier to call. This is why I didn't opt for courier to begin with as Orlando says far easier to just pick it up from the local postal sorting office which is 10 minutes from me (not that I'm not grateful to Mantic for upgrading everyone to courier shupping at their expense)
GrimDork wrote: Ahh well, dumb look sorted. As I had started to figure my shipment got missed somehow, one of a very few out of 4400ish. My best guess is to be seeing my stuff sometime around when they start sorting out everyone's mispick/packs after they've restocked. Got a nice email from Clive about it. Happy to know, is much better than waiting and watching the road for the mail truck.
So, I humbly ask you folk to keep sharing your dz paint jobs and creations, I'll be enjoying dz vicariously through you all for a little bit yet.
Has the Asterian faction deck over on quirkworthy been mentioned here yet? Looks interesting for sure!
Wow, they look even more expensive than the Enforcers..
Now.. at the risk of sounding like a spoiled Brat, Jake please release the Forge Father rules!
Awesome, really pleased to see the beta lists all up.
Tough + Life support + (4+ Survive minimum on all infantry) makes them really durable. Possibly even moreso than the enforcers since AP can't negate Tough, only armour.
I'll definitely be going for a brokkr theme list, regardless of tabletop effectiveness. Having seen all the minis in-person, they are just plain awesome, all skinheads and all looking mean, the style is much closer to the dreadball forgefathers than the warpath plastics.
Happy holidays from everyone at Mantic! We're now closing for the festive period until 6th January so we can eat too much and rummage through pressies like a bunch of sneaky Zees.
For those that do not get the newsletter, the shop is closed until january 6th, but their online sale starts Boxing day. From february Deadzone wise they will have:
" We’ll have the boxed game back up for sale, along with faction starter sets, booster packs that let you customise your force, scenery packs (hooray!) and more Mercenaries."
And for Dreadball they have this little tease for January:
highlord tamburlaine wrote: Anyone else getting the urge to paint 1st and 2nd stage Plague up like traditional Genestealers?
I started off with a pink base coat and now I want to go grab some purples and blues and go all Space Hulk on them.
I really hope to sit down and get a game or two in next week since I've got nothing going on work wise.
Guess I'll have to go check out those Asterian rules when I get home.
Well, I for one do have to work next week, so it wont' be me you'll be playing with.
However, I have been steadily painting up my Plague. I even started basing them. Once I get a few more of the bases painted up, I'll post some pics of them. So far, I've tried painting three of the four initial factions and I find the Plague to be the most fun to paint. I'm very curious if we'll have a regular Plague faction for Warpath proper and what kind of units it'll get.
Forgeguard could be considered not-terminators. They're the forge father elite, you don't really need 5 but that number will be nice for wp. Steel warriors would be closer to a brokkr with more armor and a rifle than a forge guard.
And only the fg trooper with rifle is 21 points, the leader weighs in at just over 30 pts
@Barzam I swear they did rules for plague in warpath 2.0 ... Maybe someone got the link? I'm not seeing it right now and baby won't give me time to trawl the kickstarter updates to look for it, could have sworn it was on the mantic site too though.
GrimDork wrote: @Barzam I swear they did rules for plague in warpath 2.0 ... Maybe someone got the link? I'm not seeing it right now and baby won't give me time to trawl the kickstarter updates to look for it, could have sworn it was on the mantic site too though.
Mantic christmas boxes rocked up with some extras tacked onto my order. Great value from Mantic as always. Really like the quality of all of it (even the Men at Arms), though as with getting the same MVP for all 3 strike teams, I got the same MVP and giants for both christmas boxes... not ideal *grumble*. 3 Forgefather MVPs I can work with, 2 large Void Siren ladies... maybe one will look good with a missile launcher for Deadzone ; p
Was happy to get extra rebs with each box, including a sorak? The Ogres are amazing, by far my favourite Mantic fantasy army.
Anyone on this thread have any interest in buying my deadzone stuff? I have the Rebs starter and Rebs booster, the enforcers starter and booster, and the plague starter.
I was just really unimpressed by the models and don't want them just taking up room in my house.
cincydooley wrote: Anyone on this thread have any interest in buying my deadzone stuff? I have the Rebs starter and Rebs booster, the enforcers starter and booster, and the plague starter.
I was just really unimpressed by the models and don't want them just taking up room in my house.
You got the Enforcer booster? Or do you mean the future shipment?
I know and understand that Mantic is on break now but I have been emailing thru the web form, and trying to reach James thru regular email, and have not heard back in almost 4 weeks
I am kinda in an interesting spot.. I have been part of the Dreadball and Deadzone kickstarters, but only by piggybacking on other peoples pledges.
With both kickstarters, there has been a small issue (but important for gameplay)..
the Dreadball kickstarter got me the Terraton Team, but 2 of the models had problems.. one had a mis-molded leg, and another had one style of body, a non-matching head, and 2 non-matching arms..
For Deadzone, I got the Rebel faction, and when assembling them yesterday, I realized that 3 of the 4 blades on the Terraton's wrist weapons had snapped off, and one of the grogan ammo belts was in 3 pieces..
After the lack - of - response with my Terraton team, I have acquired a second team solely to bulk out the remaining 2 models, and get some extra team guys, but I do NOT want to re-buy the Rebels..
I am mainly dropping this here in the hopes that Mantic will see it.. as emails seem to fail.
I have had NO other issues with Mantic, and love their stuff.. which is kinda why this is grating..
Maybe you should ask whomever it was that actually pledged to contact Mantic? In their place I would be wary of demands for replacements from people who aren't even on the backer list.
Well, in my emails I did go out of my way to establish how I got the figs, and provided the names of the person I used for Dreadball.. since the Rebs issues were only seen by me yesterday I have not brought that yet to their attention..
I fear if I use the contact form or email today, it will get lost in the blizzard of holiday emails..
porkuslime wrote: Well, in my emails I did go out of my way to establish how I got the figs, and provided the names of the person I used for Dreadball.. since the Rebs issues were only seen by me yesterday I have not brought that yet to their attention..
I fear if I use the contact form or email today, it will get lost in the blizzard of holiday emails..
The Order Query problem form thing is specifically set up so that all problems with KS stuff can be dealt with in one location with all the info they need (as you fill out fields etc) to replace the parts asap
Back to your problem earlier - I have had problems over the last few months with my emails being marked as spam. both Mantic, Gamezone, Avatars of War and a few other places have had my emails go to their spam/junk filter. This is because someone had spoofed my email address and used it as the "sender" for lots of junk mail, causing my email to be basically blacklisted. So that might be something, I dunno.
If you use the Order Query form, you'll get an automated response listing out your answers. Should at least give some peace of mind that they received it and it didn't go to to the ether. Of course, they probably have to sort through a couple thousand queries asking for 4 more dice, so I wouldn't expect a response for a while longer. Sent my missing order data on Dec 9, but not really expecting any sort of response until mid-January.
cincydooley wrote: Anyone on this thread have any interest in buying my deadzone stuff? I have the Rebs starter and Rebs booster, the enforcers starter and booster, and the plague starter.
I was just really unimpressed by the models and don't want them just taking up room in my house.
I PM'd you as well, I want your Rebs. Possibly Marauders too, but the Rebs are the big ones.
RiTides wrote: Blackfang, if he's emailing pics of miscast items, whether he bought them in a store or through Kickstarter really doesn't matter, does it?
[Devil's Advocate]You piggyback my pledge, and your models are defective. I catch this ahead of time and argue with Mantic to replace said models. Generally they don't ask for the models back, so I send you the good models along with the bad... You've now got some defective models, and contact Mantic about getting those models replaced.[/Devil's Advocate]
Not saying thats the reason, or that its a legit reason.. but ya never know.
But, for context I am also one of those people who thinks Dust: Tactics is an absolute joke of a game, whereas Dust: Warfare is a huge personal favorite... so I/we here have a precedent for ditching the "casual" incarnation of games.
Glad I'm not the only one who thinks Dust Tactics was a joke. Sounds like I need to look at Dust Warfare.
RiTides wrote: Blackfang, if he's emailing pics of miscast items, whether he bought them in a store or through Kickstarter really doesn't matter, does it?
Its my understanding that if he bought them via kickstarter its mantics responsibility to correct the issue if he bought them through a store its the stores. He didn't do either. If it was me, I'd contact mantic via the person who did the kickstarter.
Deadzone rule updates being incorporated into the next printing run of the rulebook, from quirkworthy. These changes should be incorporated into the two collectors edition books in wave 2 too I imagine.
Spoiler:
Some Deadzone Corrections Posted on December 23, 2013 by Quirkworthy Deadzone seems to be doing very well. Despite it being the largest print run of any Mantic game they’ve run out already and need to print some more. This is good news for a couple of reasons. Firstly this means you’ll have loads more people to play against. Secondly, it’s given them the opportunity to incorporate a few corrections into the core book.
These are clarifications of the rules as they are intended to be played rather than a reworking of the game. However, they will, hopefully, make a few things clearer.
If, like me, you have one of the original run of books, you’ll want to know what these changes are so you can pencil them in. There are (apparently) a bunch of typos and minor layout things I’ve not seen as well, but I’m not so worried about them. The important differences between the initial print run and the reprint are as follows: Page 22, Free Actions section, 1st para, 5th line, sentence finishing “…action of the same type”: add “for the same model” to the end of the sentence so that the sentence reads” A free action cannot trigger another free action of the same type for the same model.” Page 22, the sentence after the one above: Add to the end “unless it has been earned by a different model”. The sentence will now read: ” If the result says that a second free action of the same type is earned then ignore that part of the result unless it has been earned by a different model.” Page 28, right col, 2nd para, 2nd line: delete “for free”. The sentence will then read “…same cube as an enemy model then it will Fight as part of that action.” Page 53, right col, third para: After “…only have each ability once.” add a new sentence: “Use the cost listed at the top of the column where the ability first appears, regardless of the model’s actual Rank at the time.” Page 68, Deployable weapons, last sentence: delete the last sentence “All they do is react to enemy models.” Page 68, Deployable weapons, between last two paras: insert new paragraph “Any model that moves into a cube containing a Deployed weapon in circumstances that would allow it to pick up a normal item (see page 27) may choose instead to destroy the Deployed weapon.” Page 78, Sentry Gun: in the bold first line, before Range insert “Shoot 5+,”. These don’t fix everything, though they do help. I’ll add these and some surrounding clarifications to the FAQ when I get a moment.
This was interesting: Q: "So you can’t destroy a Sentry Gun by shooting it?" A: "No. If you could then that would make it just like everything else, and the whole point of including them was to add variety to the tactical landscape. They pose a different problem for the opposition, and offer a new string to the bows of those that can deploy them. That is, of course, a bit of an abstraction, but not entirely. SGs are very small, hardened targets that are bolted to the ground when deployed so they provide a stable firing platform. If you can see them then they are probably firing back at you too " A: "Yes, any model can destroy a Sentry Gun once they’re in the same cube. Explaining this in more detail than I had room for in the correction (and with examples) is the main thing I want to expand in the FAQ."
So that makes them kinda neat. Still tricky to fit enough into a list to justify the engineer to me, but a bit more viable at range. Just have to protect them from melee like other valuable shooting assets.
Just opened up two battlezones worth of terrain that I traded for commission work. I've taken all the panels and other bobbins off of their sprues, and so far I'm liking what I'm seeing. The connectors are, as everyone has said, very fragile. I managed to break one already. I've got Christmas Eve festivities to get to, but I think I'll sit down afterwards tonight and get building! Maybe I'll do some painting as well...
You are correct, I had figured they'd have more/better material by now. Beyond a few threads on the mantic forums I guess we're still out of luck. I don't have my stuff and won't be getting it for awhile so I'm no help =/
I've been playing around with the terrain since yesterday and I have to say that I am mighty impressed! I didn't realize how versatile they were until I really started getting creative with them.
The only bit of terrain that confuses me is the landing pad, what I am supposed to do with the stairs is beyond me. That being said I did manage to whip up quite an impressive looking layout.
I've been slaving away too. Haven't really "got" the system to the point where cool designs would come to me by heart, so it's all a bit all over the place. I call it Bunghole Station.
lord_blackfang wrote: I've been slaving away too. Haven't really "got" the system to the point where cool designs would come to me by heart, so it's all a bit all over the place. I call it Bunghole Station.
I do want one of those big square sentry guns. Want to kit bash it onto a Challenger or Merkava tank and see how it looks. I think it could give one the futuristic look needed for cheap Tank kits for Warpath.
Saw those, was going to pop by and mention it, though it's hard to get a scoop on SS.
Sort of tempted to get some Jotunns, but I probably better leave it. After all of the holiday madness I've ended up with 15 stormrage vets, surely that's enough heavy firepower.
scarletsquig wrote: KoW art book any good? I never got one with my KS order for some reason.
If it's free, yes. Otherwise, you will feel buyer's remorse. It's mostly just a collection of sketches we've seen before. Except for the never-before-seen-by-backers troll artwork that the sculptors used, of course.
Actually, how do you feel about the Blanche art books?
Yes, it is. Especially if you intend to run forge fathers counting as space marines I just don't know that I care to bother, get so few games in, and so many models piled up as it is
All the GW art books are pretty great, but only because they're physical books.
And things like Xenology with a combination of art, fiction and background are perfect.
Think I'll skip the art book if its just thrown together, would rather see a stretch goal for a good one, was really happy to see Mars Attacks have a stretch for original art on the cards.
Also, worth noting that Deadzone is almost entirely out of stock everywhere now until the end of February.
They've sold out the entire 10k print run (half of that went to KS backers, the rest to retail) in one week basically. It's the largest print run they've ever done and the fastest to sell out.
I wouldn't be surprised if they sell 50k copies in the first year.
Miniature Market says its got 20+ copies of the base game, if anyone's still looking. They're out of marauders but seem to have the other faction starters. If I hadn't ordered assault and a truckload of terrain I'd be tempted to order something from them so I could have SOME deadzone around. Oh well, patience is a virtue..
GrimDork wrote: Looks like a nice tower and wall, good and solid.
Miniature Market says its got 20+ copies of the base game, if anyone's still looking. They're out of marauders but seem to have the other faction starters. If I hadn't ordered assault and a truckload of terrain I'd be tempted to order something from them so I could have SOME deadzone around. Oh well, patience is a virtue..
If you do decide to order it through them, it might take a while up get it. I put an order in on the 18th, and it "shipped" on the 20th, I still don't have it. I know, the holiday and all, but I haven't even gotten so much as a tracking number.
GrimDork wrote: Looks like a nice tower and wall, good and solid.
Miniature Market says its got 20+ copies of the base game, if anyone's still looking. They're out of marauders but seem to have the other faction starters. If I hadn't ordered assault and a truckload of terrain I'd be tempted to order something from them so I could have SOME deadzone around. Oh well, patience is a virtue..
If you do decide to order it through them, it might take a while up get it. I put an order in on the 18th, and it "shipped" on the 20th, I still don't have it. I know, the holiday and all, but I haven't even gotten so much as a tracking number.
Have you used their live customer service chat?
I had an order on 12/20 arrive yesterday.
I ordered from them over their black friday sale and got my stuff in good order. My sister got my xmas stuff quick too but that was the more expensive shipping. Ordering the boxed game from MM would put me dangerously close to having spent 4 digits on Deadzone sight unseen, I'll just be a bit more patient. I don't think I could use triples of a lot of the plague and enforcers.
Might help that I live at most 4 hours away from MM's St. Louis warehouse too though. No tracking number here either, but you don't always get one for normal post office stuff it seems like. And thanks for the input, knowledge is power
Just glad there is no carrier of DZ in town, or I'd probably have gone out and gotten *something* regardless of the too much already en route.
Any thoughts on whether it's better to (at least partially) paint the terrain while still on sprue? I imagine priming and airbrush basecoating at least should be fine? All the bridges are in places that won't be seen much, and they can be touched up with the brush manually later I'd imagine.
Painting each tile individually... I can't think of a good way to hold them.
I was considering laying them out on a flat surface and doing the two sides in batches. Spray, dry, flip. Of course this is all disembodied speculation .
You're an ideas man! No bridge points to clean up afterwards and it should get the edges well. I find spraying on sprues to be convenient where possible, but a big table full of tiles on newspaper should work really well.
From Lowes... does that mean Valspar, or do they have a 'dollar' equivalent like walmart's colorplace or w/e you call it. I have great luck with Krylon, and didn't like the one Valspar I tried, although it was only one can and probably something i missed (seemed satin/glossy, and I always get flat, but maybe I didn't etc).
@Yonan there was a post on the mantic forum.. the guy was doing them like I said, and if you keep them all facing "up" or whatever, you can spray from the "top" and instead of being thorough and going in from varying angles you can leave that bit of shadow the spray leaves under raised bits. Adds a little bit of depth, almost like pre-shading, and it can be done even with a rattle can.
I think he was following that up with salt. Like prime black, salt, grey, salt, white, salt. Remove salt, pretty neat weathered tiles without a whole lot of effort. I'll probably be doing the sponge weathering myself, it seems a bit quicker (and quicker drying) than anything to do with hairspray and salt. That, and I've never done the salt trick, and am somewhat unwilling to try it out on shiny new DZ tiles.
I loosely intend to fully paint my tiles and then seal (possibly dip then seal, but the simplicity of spray-spray-sponge-sponge-seal is fairly tempting), and then collect them all into a pile before I start making buildings. Like not every single tile, just a batch at a time. Will probably have to file the connector sockets out a little bit due to the paint, but it sounds like that has to be done fairly often anyway. Dipping screams durability but it's a little more intensive than just a quick and dirty wash, what with having to spend a little more time cleaning up the extra dip... Airbrushing beyond the basecoats is out for me until I do some training, and I don't see it happening before I get my stuff, even if that is a while off yet.
lord_blackfang wrote: I've been slaving away too. Haven't really "got" the system to the point where cool designs would come to me by heart, so it's all a bit all over the place. I call it Bunghole Station.
Looks cool. It reminds me of the base they defend in Starship Troopers where they find the cowardly general.
^ Probably only a matter of time before someone makes a replica of that using battlezones, it would be quite straightforward, in the film the outer walls even have a tiled appearance roughly equivalent to three of the half-size tiles.
Here's a version of it that was made using the platformer/ hexagon stuff:
Spoiler:
Automatically Appended Next Post: Double post, but I bring you a juicy pic of the ruins battlezone!
Should add a lot of versatility to the core worlds set since ruins are easier to move minis in and out of during a game.
Haha, I appreciate the sentiment Alpharius, especially after the whole "Ralph" incident of yore
I've hardly gotten anything done hobby related since the move, so if it was going to happen to someone, may as well have been me anyway.
Initially, I wasn't very sold on any of the 3 variant BZ types, but they've all been growing on me. Especially fortifications and landing pad, they just change the look of the core set so much. Ruins will probably be great for having an "intact" building look, while still having access.
Alpharius wrote: Ruined Battlezones look good - I still don't know why I went in for 3 of them though!
Survey 2 will probably see me order a few more of the Fortifications Zone.
And at this point, I feel safe in saying that we all cannot wait for GrimDork to get his Deadzone stuff.
Agreed on all counts! I think I'll be happy with my 2 Ruins zones, but 2 Fortifications isn't nearly enough. It's easily the best looking set. Oh, and another dozen accessory sprues, please!
You guys are making me blush. Or perhaps it's just the fever. I think there was a carrier monkey at christmas dinner, a lot of us are turbo-sick. I don't get sick like this, so I'm being a huge baby about it =/
I may have to get more fortifications too. I think I got 8CW and 2 of each of the rest. I think between what you get with battlezones/multi-bz-sets, I've got 16 accessory sprues coming (the $5 one, before the split... so 32?). I was gonna be bummed if I didn't get a crap load of those (they were running out) so I'll be kind of glad of (hopefully) getting everything at once.
Got a yndij from christmas crazy box assembled... dunno if i could lift a brush tonight though
A whole load of not-Squat models to play games of 2nd edition with, for me! Bikes, Hearthguard in Exo-armor, normal Warriors, and a support weapon (probably a Rapier)
I figure that if I get the main set, the expansion (with two more bikes) and the new Iron Ancestor, there will one model I can't re-purpose as a counts-as, and that's the little demo drone, lol.
Sorry to hear that. If they had done that to me after KoW; I may have had to use some frequent flier miles for a ticket to the UK....kidding....sort of. I hope you get your stuff soon.
Yeah, a general guide in the box would be a good idea... I don't want to have to sit at my computer and look on their website to put stuff together.
I think it looks good as is, it might look as good or better shorter, it's hard to tell. You could always glue it back on again I guess if it ends up looking worse.
If it were on a mount such that it could shoot upwards... It currently looks like some kind of long ranged rapid firing machinegun/cannon, a twin linked auto cannon to call it in a 40k sense. I think if you're going to be shooting at local targets on the ground, then it probably could stand to be a bit shorter.
Maybe take the long part out of the middle, and attach the wider round portion between the middle and furthest/thinnest pieces to the base. Maybe.
Have my first building done and wanted to share. It will be part of the commercial / administrative sector of my colony, well behind defensive lines. This is where the citizens of colony 43 on Hell planet Rachel Ray Sigma feel most secure.
This building went through several revisions to bring it in line with my evolving goals, which included:
- make the building look like a real, functional building
- use connectors only, no glue
- use removable walls / roofing to provide easy access to the building's interior during games
- make it tall
As long as you use enough connectors to make your building rock solid, some false walls / ceilings will not make it fragile.
And the really good news is that false walls and ceilings that stay on firmly but are easy to remove are easy to do.
For the removable ceiling on top of my building, I used posts from the Landing Pad battle zone. I think the pictures illustrate how better than words:
As for the removable walls, the easiest, best solution turns out to be putting a handful of connectors on the edges. When you "attach" the wall, make sure these connectors are resting on the building's holes, but do NOT apply any force to make them "Click". The false wall's border clips will hold to your main structure well enough that they don't require any additional pieces to stand up or stay in place, and the false wall will remain easy to remove on the fly.
Here is the back of the building with the false walls (there are only 2) on and off:
This building is basically done, but it does not represent a finished Deadzone field. I intend to add another large building, interconnected with the first one via elevated walkways, whenever I end up getting more connectors.
(I'm fresh out of them, with what looks like over half of my tiles left.)
Excellent! Glad to finally see some proper height! I wanna go a few tiles higher, but that is a beautiful building. And rather complete, you've even done the floors I've seen some crooked buildings, but the use of plenty of connectors seems to have yours fairly straight overall. Nice work, keep us updated when you get more connectors and some more progress
Thanks for the thoughts Grimdork. I tried to cobble a mount together but I doubt we'll see fliers in deadzone so thought better of it. I might go shorter and as Yonan said, I can glue it back on if it doesn't look right.
That is pure awesome Vermonter, you have identical goals to me and it's good to see you could pull it off - and so well at that. Has to be my favourite terrain piece that I've seen so far, probably because it matches what I want to make so much.
So it turns out that large buildings are a real pain to build. The weight of the tiles eventually beats the strength of the clips resulting in an incredibly fragile structure. However I managed to keep this beast standing long enough to photograph it so here we go!
Dimensions are 5x1.5 on the bottom and 5x3 on the top as a result of the angled clips I used. Unfortunately I ran out of clips halfway so I couldn't make it as large as I wanted...
Time to smash this construct up now and go build it all again. Man I love this clip system!
I think I want to use the clips to make a semi-permanent structure. Basically I'll leave the same set up for months but if I decide to change it down the road I can.
Sorry, I didn't realize that you'd have to be logged in to the Mantic forums to see my pictures. Thing is, I tried hosting the pictures on flickr and dropbox before resorting to the Mantic forums, and linking to them on Dakka didn't work for me. Is there some trick to embedding images here with either of those services that I should be aware of?
As for gluing / not gluing, my building was a lot less interesting and considerably smaller in its original form, but got considerably better after several major revisions. And I'm probably going to revise it further. If I reach a point where I decide it's perfect and I'll never want anything better, perhaps I'll glue it. But for me, gluing remains an option. Those who glue first and ask questions later don't get to have second (or third, fourth, fifth, etc.) thoughts.
In the end, I could see going with partially gluing together modular sections, mostly to keep the cost of buying additional connectors down. (2.50 pounds isn't cheap when you want to buy 12+ more sets of them.) But I'd rather do that when I have more practical experience with the building system, so I know I'm doing it in the best way.
I'm sorry Commander Cain found his large building ended up fragile. I didn't have that experience, myself. (Don't know if it made a difference for Cain, but I also didn't file any of the connector holes, so all my connectors were attached at maximum tightness / strength. And yes, that meant that for the open X tiles, getting those connectors to click in the first place usually involved needle nose pliers.) It's clear that the connectors pull on the tiles they're connected to, and there's a kind of logic to counterbalancing the pull of each connector with others to get straight and firm results. However, I found the system somewhat forgiving if you don't skimp on connectors (which means you run out of them real fast.) The middle floor of my building is missing two corners because open air windows wrap around them (the kind of windows you make from two small barrier sections), which is a no-no for traditional stone and brick architecture. With steel architecture, though, you can cheat by allocating that corner support elsewhere inside the building, and I found Deadzone plastic equally malleable in that regard. (The middle floor of my building with the two open corners is held up by the two corners that are present, and by a wall centered beneath the middle of its floor. Those three points of support are solid enough to bear that floor and the two floors above it as well.)
I'm not saying "the only limit is your imagination," because that's always a sales pitch lie. It's not a perfect system, and some things that should be simple - like, say, making double rows of stairs align with the rest of your building - are barely possible. (I pulled it off acceptably, but try it and you'll see what I mean.) Structurally legos are much, much better, but then legos are better than just about any toy building system and have been tested and refined for decades. Too bad legos look like the toys they are, or I'd use them. But for the look I want, I can definitely work with the Deadzone terrain.
Glad to hear Yonan and Grimdork have similar, perhaps grander plans in synch with the "realistic" look people like myself and Commander Cain are going for. I look forward to seeing and learning from your work! I like my building so far, but it was always intended to be a test subject and a "bit player" on a larger board, and I'd like to make bigger structures with more floorspace in the future. Ideally I'd like to make a board where figures are more or less constantly running into and out of complete buildings with the same facility that they run into and out of fragmentary cover, using removable walls so that there is minimal fussiness or slowdown playing in the building's interiors during actual games. I could see half a deadzone playmat becoming multilevel "interior" space.
Vermonter wrote: Structurally legos are much, much better, but then legos are better than just about any toy building system and have been tested and refined for decades.
At least part of the problem seems to be that Mantic or their subcontractors did a mediocre job with the tolerances of the parts. Every peg should be identical and every hole should be identical, to whatever level of accuracy is necessary to get a good fit.
Vermonter wrote: Structurally legos are much, much better, but then legos are better than just about any toy building system and have been tested and refined for decades.
At least part of the problem seems to be that Mantic or their subcontractors did a mediocre job with the tolerances of the parts. Every peg should be identical and every hole should be identical, to whatever level of accuracy is necessary to get a good fit.
This. This is the key going forward.
Some parts work great, some are a pain.
Uniformity would help IMMENSLY and I think we'd have some pretty wild setups if that was the case.
As it is, I've had a lot of success once I've learned what certain pieces tolerances are. I haven't broken any connectors since the first week I got the game (knock on wood).
Maybe the next standalone Deadzone game with Corporation troopers, Veer- myn, and the bugs will have the kinks ironed out (I'd say wave 2 is a bit too hopeful).
Since they* haven't figured out a way to eliminate flash from plastic or resin miniatures, complete uniformity is probably unrealistic for this sort of plastic terrain. I don't think these have been billed as precision machined parts.
I've only sat down to clip out and trim about a dozen tiles, and after putting together the first two cubes and starting on the third, I noticed that those decorative cross struts (the big triangular bits on the accessory sprue and elsewhere) seem to be pretty useful in both stabilizing things and making the connectors go further.
solkan wrote: Since they* haven't figured out a way to eliminate flash from plastic or resin miniatures, complete uniformity is probably unrealistic for this sort of plastic terrain. I don't think these have been billed as precision machined parts.
If Milton Bradley could make snap-together parts 23 years ago for Space Crusade, why can't Mantic do it today?
solkan wrote: Since they* haven't figured out a way to eliminate flash from plastic or resin miniatures, complete uniformity is probably unrealistic for this sort of plastic terrain. I don't think these have been billed as precision machined parts.
If Milton Bradley could make snap-together parts 23 years ago for Space Crusade, why can't Mantic do it today?
Space Crusade pieces had problems with variable sizes of pegs and holes, and for permanent assembly to any basic presentation standard required filing, fitting and putty work around the wrists of the models.
The hexagon kits had a much better connector that allowed for a proper "clip" since it was a circular clip where the ends of it closed in place after you forced in the piece. Tough to put together and impossible to take apart, mind.
With the current connectors I'm really confused as to why they didn't make the area of the clips much larger inside of just about 3mm across, that would have made the tolerances less of an issue.
A 0.5mm error is a huge problem on a 3mm clip, but on an 8mm one its not so bad (and it's much easier for human fingers to work with).
As it is they're designed for people with tiny hands and an incredibly strong hand muscles. Not a combination that exists all that often... I have tiny hands but I find it hard to force the connectors into place.. someone with larger tougher hands might find it easy to snap the connectors in, but find the connectors fiddly and hard to work with.
I think this is why we're getting variation and some people saying that they're fine... they just have the hands for it.
The connectors, as it stands seem to be designed to clip together with a very long and thin pair of needle pliers, not average human fingers.
They might have thought through the engineering, but definitely not the ergonomics.
Just get a large LEGO block or something similar and use that to push the clips in, gives you something large to get your fingers around. I find that something like 80% of all connections go together fine this way, sometimes there's some trimming required.
I've found that, having filed all the hole just a little, most parts are fine, it's only the floor parts I've had trouble with for some reason. On the whole it's remained modular and easily changeable, but I've found it handy to keep a file or other metal object around to poke out connectors if they get stuck, and, as above, some kind of larger plastic piece to push them in and out. It's also an idea when doing that to make sure you'e on a hard surface to offer resistance.
To get the clips to push in easier I just use the flat side of my clippers allowing me to use my whole wrist to push it in as a pose to one fingernail. Also when removing them again the clippers are perfect for pushing them back out, saves all that endless wiggling of the clip and sore fingers.
They ought to take a page out of Playmobil's book and have a "tool" included to push in/ remove all the plugs.
Those suckers have worked wonders trying to rebuild my daughter's castle after it's been destroyed by rampaging dinosaurs and kaiju for the umpteenth time.
Okay guys, I have it sorted. I'm reposting three of my building pictures here using the Dakka gallery, so hopefully everyone should be able to see them. Mods, feel free to delete my first post of these images - since only people logged into the Mantic forums can see the images there it's more trouble than it's worth.
So here are my photos, starting with one of the entire building. Although the building itself is pretty much finished, the board is not. The plan has always been to make another tall, interconnected building to balance out the board and get rid of the "one side has cover, the other side has none" effect. The second building will also resolve the elevated walkway's current "bridge to nowhere" problem.
The second two photos demonstrate how to make a handy removable roof using pillars from the Landing Pad set:
This is the removable roof, placed upside down to reveal the interior posts. Those posts have been glued to the connectors that are holding them to the ceiling, so the posts won't fall out when the roof is flipped over. The connectors themselves have not been glued to the ceiling and don't need to be in order to have a strong grip.
The posts socket into the pillar connectors attached to the floor. (Don't glue the pillars to these!)
If you look closely at the removable roof images, you can see I've inserted two, small neodymium magnets into the two buttresses that face each other. The buttress pieces have a small hollow in the back that can be further expanded to insert a magnet. So far, they are the only pieces that seem easy to magnetize.
The magnet method worked, although since the buttresses aren't flush with each other I had to extend the top magnet so it is actually protruding out from it's housing in the buttress. I haven't talked about the magnet experiment before because while it worked, I discovered it was entirely unnecessary. The removable wall that I thought the magnet was holding in place stayed securely in place when I took the roof off. It turned out that the two half-tile sized panels I had on either side of the removable wall to make the magnetic fit more exact held it in place just fine with pressure.
Unfortunately, on this computer I don't have access to my pictures of the removable walls, but I will post those again later this week.
Thank you everyone for bearing with me as I learned how to embed pictures here - it's been a long, long time since I uploaded photos to any forum, but I've benefited a lot from seeing your pictures and reading your advice, so I figured it was about time I contributed something. My apologies for the inconvenience.
As far as the critiques of the connectors go, I can only agree. I have large, reasonably strong hands, but not being a masochist I gave up on just pressing the clips into place on the more stubborn tiles and resorted to using needlenose pliers. After that I was much happier. Making the connections fit universally well with all the tiles should be a major focus for Mantic going forward.
My perspective is that I invested in a new product, and particularly with a modular building set, it isn't surprising that there are still issues to be worked out. The reason I'm not angry about that is that I've found that with patience (and sometimes a sailor-mouthed lack thereof) I can still make the Deadzone tiles work for me and get the results I want. Is it harder than it should be to do that? Yes. But it can be done, and I'm very happy with the results. Taste is subjective, but for me there's not a better looking, more open-ended plastic sci-fi set on the market. (For paper sci-fi interiors, battle systems is coming, and I have little doubt that it will prove to be a much more user-friendly system.)
What bothers me most is the extreme lack of connectors. If I clipped out the rest of my tiles and stacked them up next to my building to illustrate how many additional connectors I'd need to buy, the image would be pretty damning. As it stands, connectors are an additional "hidden cost" that people will need to factor in when weighing how many battlezones to invest in. As I said, 2.5 pounds isn't cheap when you want to buy 12+ of them just to use battlezone tiles you've already bought.
If I were Mantic, I'd start throwing additional connector sprues into their general release battlezone sets. And if they're not going to give extra connector sprues away free to kickstarter backers, they should make additional connector sprues available to us for a rock-bottom price. Considering how many are required if you want to construct a large building, bulk discounts would be a very good idea. While it's very true that you don't need many tiles to set up a board that plays very well for a Deadzone game - in fact, building larger structures without compromising gameplay is much harder - in this hobby, a lot of people will also want to make large buildings and cityscapes. Mantic should want to get more connectors into their terrain-purchasing hands.
It's mostly core worlds, but I also bought two landing pad battlezones and got very good mileage out of them for this build. The roof tiles, triangles, interior and exterior stairwells, and the defense line barriers that I used for the elevated walkway's guardrails all came from those two landing pad sets. As for how many battlezones the building represents, that's a little hard to say without doing a lot of math. I can count up all the tiles, but as you can see, this building mostly uses window tiles of a single double-window type. I had 10 Core Worlds battlezone sets to draw those identical double window tiles from (and I still have some left over). If you wanted to recreate the building with the same amount of double-window tiles, you'd need to buy more battlezones than if you wanted to make an equivalently sized building with more blank walls and fewer windows.
I'll post an exact tile count later this week, which I hope will be helpful. I don't mean to be evasive, but when you just a get a bunch of loose sprues in a big box it becomes hard to keep track of how many battlezones you're using.
^ If you've only received 2 bags of Enforcers, that's normal. One bag with warpath enforcers, the other the deadzone minis. The rest is coming in hard plastic in April.
Not sure what's going on with the Rebs, but be sure to use this guide:
I've spent the past... I don't know how long going over everything, comparing what I have to various updates and whatnot. I've figured out what's missing (aside from what's in Wave 2, obviously).
4 of the 10 d8's.
The entire Plague Booster Bundle.
And I got a Reb Booster Bundle instead. So I'll use Mantic's fancy order query thing to get this sorted.
Yeah, even with the online guide it's not easy to figure out what's what and how many of each you should have. Like there's an extra Plague G1 in there simply because it's in the same bag as the three G2s in the booster bundle. Turns out I'm not missing nearly as much as I first thought - just a bag of Marauder ripper suits and a complete set of Enforcers (including cards).
That is seriously handy, thank you! I already did a "lay everything out and count bags", but was still unsure of some things. As has been pointed out, the "bonus" minis from buying double faction boosters are a bit of a mess, since they're split across multiple bags and these bags frequently contain extra models.
As a general point, are people happy about how the models are packaged? I have a mate who refuses to ever back a Mantic Kickstarter again, after a group of us went in on the Dreadball one for a 3x $150 level, and he had to spend several hours separating out a mishmash of stuff that had all been thrown in together, to get everyone the teams they had ordered and to check for missing parts.
I understand when one or two-man teams like Heresy or Hasselfree send you stuff that's been put into a little bag, (although even then it's usually one bag per model), but is this desirable when we're talking about a boardgame? Even a "pre-release" version of one? Personally, I'm slightly unhappy with how long it has taken to work out that I got what I ordered (or which wave it should be in), on top of the extra prep-time for restic. But then I have memories of popping figures out of blisters, gluing on an arm and the base and then spraying them...
I'll agree with your friend on the point that these things could certainly be packaged/arranged/organized a LOT better.
I recently received my WWXKS Pledge, and that was put together a lot nicer than this one was.
It appears as if most Deadzone pledges were really 'thrown in the box', and there appear to be a lot of people with missing/wrong items.
I don't think it will stop me from ever backing another Mantic KS, but it is another thing Mantic needs to work on to get to that proverbial 'next level'.
I'm personally finished with Mantic until they are capable of taking my expenditure of money a bit more seriously. If I were to walk into a game shop, see the deadzone box and buy it because it looks cool, I would open the box and be presented with numerous little baggies of unidentified miniatures and no printout that explains what goes where; even the hard plastic terrain has no basic construction guide to follow. Not much of an introduction to a company and their range when a casual purchaser is left scouring the internet for content and assembly instructuons when every competing board game on the market does so.
Think a lot of this will improve when hard plastics come along, much easier to inventory and check a bunch of sprues rather than a ton of tiny fiddly loose components spread across multiple bags. With a sprue you can be reasonably confident that all the components on it are present and not miscast without having to take more than a quick glance.
TBH, I never even got around to checking the components inside my KoWKS stuff, just the bags themselves.
It seems to be a much bigger issue with Kickstarters as Mantic hires a lot of temp staff who are more likely to be unfamiliar with wargaming and/or warehouse work itself.
When I worked at a (terrible) book distribution place if we made three packaging mistakes over the course of the entire time spent there, that was it, fired. If Mantic applied those standards they wouldn't have any staff left. :p
scarletsquig wrote: Think a lot of this will improve when hard plastics come along, much easier to inventory and check a bunch of sprues rather than a ton of tiny fiddly loose components spread across multiple bags. With a sprue you can be reasonably confident that all the components on it are present and not miscast without having to take more than a quick glance.
TBH, I never even got around to checking the components inside my KoWKS stuff, just the bags themselves.
Here's hoping, it really kills the enthusiasm when you go to play and stuffs missing.
scarletsquig wrote: Think a lot of this will improve when hard plastics come along, much easier to inventory and check a bunch of sprues rather than a ton of tiny fiddly loose components spread across multiple bags. With a sprue you can be reasonably confident that all the components on it are present and not miscast without having to take more than a quick glance.
And yet, three of my hard plastic terrain sprues were missing 1-3 pieces each which were not loose in the box. There were a few others missing a piece or two where the piece was in the box.
Sorry, it isn't the material or format of the material, it is a mindset. 'Chuck a bunch of sheet in the box fast' is a lot different than 'QC the components and then carefully pack the boxes with the right ones'.
I would point out that this could be (and probably is) a case of a noisy majority. Even if we took everyone who has had an issue and mentioned it over the net, I doubt that it would add up to more than 5% of the total orders. And managing two warehouses in two countries, things will slip through.
Additionally Mantic is now putting more time aside to cover this sort of thing (although this never stops complaints of late deliveries?) as evidenced by the Mars attacks KS.
On instruction leaflets, I did make a point to ask a while back about this and why they weren't in. To cut a long story short, printing costs. Now I'm not sure how valid this answer still is, but it's a point to consider.
sukura636 wrote: I would point out that this could be (and probably is) a case of a noisy majority. Even if we took everyone who has had an issue and mentioned it over the net, I doubt that it would add up to more than 5% of the total orders.
How about the Men at Arms? A 100% failure rate, and they still sent them out.
sukura636 wrote: I would point out that this could be (and probably is) a case of a noisy majority. Even if we took everyone who has had an issue and mentioned it over the net, I doubt that it would add up to more than 5% of the total orders.
How about the Men at Arms? A 100% failure rate, and they still sent them out.
Completely different issue. Are we having the same conversation atm?
Are we sure that there won't be instructions in the "official" release of the game? Do we know that they won't fix the packaging? I'm legitimitley asking here. I got the pre release version, and mine was also just thrown in the box like the KS ones were, but I'm wondering if they will do that for a retail release. I don't know if its feasible to fix it now, but I agree with agnosto that the way my box was packed would be very off putting to someone who bought the game off the shelf.
Money is tight on a KS, we all know that. But they should definitley spring for some instructions for the regular release stuff. Its the little things that go a long way sometimes.
Quite a few of us have brought up the presentation issues on both the manticblog and Jake Thornton's Quirkworthy website - for example, I compared it to the Drop zone Commander starter set which comes with loads of game aides
However, it is worth saying there's going to be a big difference with the actual retail release, for one thing, the box itself is going to be near half the depth, I think.
I really doubt that better presentation and packaging would represent a cost so great that it would offset any benefits it would bring - both to Mantic and potential customers.
The same goes for some simple terrain explanations/instructions.
If Mantic really wants to continue to grow, and continue to be taken seriously, they're really going to have to get a bit more...professional?
I would agree with that Alph. Including instructions and labelling bags is not a great deal to ask of a company.
I think when you earn over a mil on a kick starter need to realise you have gone beyond a garage business in terms of level of support and expectation.
I feel like Mantic's business slogan should be 'Almost' instead of 'Building Bigger Armies' or whatever it is.
Jumping into hard plastics was really risky, and they did some very nice stuff (stylistic concerns aside). Then, Elves riding toy dragons.
Dreadball material switch outs without mentioning it. They knew that players didn't like that and STILL waited to say anything about the fact they were doing that with some Deadzone stuff too.
Men at Arms...
The Deadzone packaging is horrible. Is it really too much trouble labeling the invoice with the actual name of the add-ons, instead of the generic terms like 'Plague2'?
Acrylic counters. I wouldn't pay $1 for them if they were in a discount bin, much less the amount I actually spent.
Like many people I had at least one packing error. Instead of Rebs2 I received ExtraRebs2. With names like that, for unmarked packs of stuff that look the same at first and second glance, it's no surprise. Mantic should have looked at Antenociti, who did it right with clearly labeled separate and secure packing.
Mantic is always so close to doing something great... Then, almost.
Past big boxes like Vor, Void, Warzone, etc. were really well done and I can't imagine they had the resources Mantic did after the KS. I wish Mantic would take a breath and get it right because they could really be great.
Dr Mathias wrote: I feel like Mantic's business slogan should be 'Almost' instead of 'Building Bigger Armies' or whatever it is.
Jumping into hard plastics was really risky, and they did some very nice stuff (stylistic concerns aside). Then, Elves riding toy dragons.
Dreadball material switch outs without mentioning it. They knew that players didn't like that and STILL waited to say anything about the fact they were doing that with some Deadzone stuff too.
Men at Arms...
The Deadzone packaging is horrible. Is it really too much trouble labeling the invoice with the actual name of the add-ons, instead of the generic terms like 'Plague2'?
Acrylic counters. I wouldn't pay $1 for them if they were in a discount bin, much less the amount I actually spent.
Like many people I had at least one packing error. Instead of Rebs2 I received ExtraRebs2. With names like that, for unmarked packs of stuff that look the same at first and second glance, it's no surprise. Mantic should have looked at Antenociti, who did it right with clearly labeled separate and secure packing.
Mantic is always so close to doing something great... Then, almost.
Past big boxes like Vor, Void, Warzone, etc. were really well done and I can't imagine they had the resources Mantic did after the KS. I wish Mantic would take a breath and get it right because they could really be great.
Organization could be better, and instruction sheets would be a good idea. In general, I believe consumers with legitimate issues should air them, and I get annoyed at "patriotic" shills who think any critique needs to be silenced in the name of company loyalty. (That's a commentary on no one I've seen posting here, by the way. One of the reasons I like this forum.)
But at the risk of sounding like a shill, I also have to be honest about my own experience, and the Deadzone KS has been a good one for me overall. Inventorying my Deadzone shipment items was a chore, but I did get everything I ordered, and mine was a substantial order. The only thing I was missing were two refrigerated crates, which I've contacted Antenociti about and they've promised to replace. I also had two broken figures, which I expect Mantic will replace and am not worried about.
That should mean diddly squat to people who did have problems, and it doesn't mean I don't recognize areas for improvement (more connectors, better organization), but for what it's worth, Mantic did right by me.
squall018 wrote: Are we sure that there won't be instructions in the "official" release of the game? Do we know that they won't fix the packaging? I'm legitimitley asking here. I got the pre release version, and mine was also just thrown in the box like the KS ones were, but I'm wondering if they will do that for a retail release. I don't know if its feasible to fix it now, but I agree with agnosto that the way my box was packed would be very off putting to someone who bought the game off the shelf.
Money is tight on a KS, we all know that. But they should definitley spring for some instructions for the regular release stuff. Its the little things that go a long way sometimes.
They said that the actual printing of the game will have a smaller box, I believe. The first 10,000 - KS and prerelease - are in the massive box.
Wouldn't surprise me they spent the extra month or two making the official release a little tighter.
Compel wrote: Quite a few of us have brought up the presentation issues on both the manticblog and Jake Thornton's Quirkworthy website - for example, I compared it to the Drop zone Commander starter set which comes with loads of game aides
I think the importance of this can't be over-estimated. That Mantic have ways of getting feedback to them is vitally important, and also that they are a) acknowledging there is a problem with a product, that it can be improved and b ) that they are doing something about it.
It feels to me like they are a growing company and they are still trying to find their feet. There are several areas where they have fallen short, but at least there is a desire to improve and learn from mistakes. It was quite heartening reading in the other thread about the reasons for the problems with the Men at Arms and goblins. While this is scant consolation for people who ordered those models, and in a lot of cases are now selling or having to do involved conversion work, it bodes well for future releases.
I think Mantic is now at something of a cross-roads. They made money early on by being a cheaper alternative to GW games. Now, they need to keep their prices competitive, and at the same time try to carve out a name for themselves. I think Dreadball and Deadzone are big steps in that direction (they feel much more like a games company now, rather than their other, possibly unkind, label of 'GW knock-offs') but no doubt there is still some way to go, not least in the overall feel of professionalism with releases like Deadzone. Will be very interesting to see what Mars Attacks looks like when that finally arrives, and how KoW and Warpath develop over the next year or so.
Alpharius wrote: I'll agree with your friend on the point that these things could certainly be packaged/arranged/organized a LOT better.
I recently received my WWXKS Pledge, and that was put together a lot nicer than this one was.
It appears as if most Deadzone pledges were really 'thrown in the box', and there appear to be a lot of people with missing/wrong items.
I don't think it will stop me from ever backing another Mantic KS, but it is another thing Mantic needs to work on to get to that proverbial 'next level'.
If you look at the Beast of War youtube video from the open house, you can see how the stuff was organized and going to be shipped out. Maybe Warren personally mismatched some Dakkites' packages during his "Oh shiny! Let me pick it up!" tour through the packing rooms.
It feels to me like they are a growing company and they are still trying to find their feet. There are several areas where they have fallen short, but at least there is a desire to improve and learn from mistakes.
I think that phase only lasts so long, and at this point, Mantic should be past it.
While Deadzone certainly redeemed them in many people's eyes, there's still work to be done.
Seriously though, if anyone's disappointment is sufficient to make them want to dump their $50/bogof plague booster set, hit me up Really, I could kick myself for not getting the right faction boosters right off the bat; it's exactly that stuff which is still nowhere to be seen at retail.
At this point I wouldn't even mind paying full RRP for some of that plague stuff too much, but the option just isn't there. Seems second survey might actually be the first real opportunity to get a hold of it now :/
So I had an order (rebs and marauders starter) come in for some deadzone stuff today. I ordered it from Amazon ( I don't have a FLGS). Anyways, it came in legit looking retail packaging. Hard VHS looking case and all that. Anyways, there are no instructions in that either. Not some big revelation, but it looks like they may be planning on going to retail the way things are now. Maybe not the main box, but the other stuff.
Same thing with the terrain upgrade box. Pretty awesome box and everything, but pretty much what you guys got with the KS, just with an extra piece of cardboard surrounding it.
I guess they have time to fix it, but I don't know they will after seeing that. Just thought I'd throw that out there.
Those white clam shell case things are great. Put some finished minis in one and close it, they don't go anywhere. I'm not sure I wanna spend $4 a pop to get more, but I'm tempted. I'll definitely consider the value of those cases any time I'm looking at clearance mantic stuff from now on.
Alpharius wrote: Yeah, "Second Survey" really is going to be "First Chance" to get a lot of this stuff.
Or a lot more of this stuff.
Luckily I already bought everything that was intended to ship in wave 1, so in the Second Survey I only need to add the Forge Fathers and Asterians ($50), their booster bundles ($50), all the vehicles ($100) and the special characters ($45). Oh, and another 3 deluxe mats for larger games ($50) and maybe another 10 battlezones...
Alpharius wrote: Yeah, "Second Survey" really is going to be "First Chance" to get a lot of this stuff.
Or a lot more of this stuff.
Luckily I already bought everything that was intended to ship in wave 1, so in the Second Survey I only need to add the Forge Fathers and Asterians ($50), their booster bundles ($50), all the vehicles ($100) and the special characters ($45). Oh, and another 3 deluxe mats for larger games ($50) and maybe another 10 battlezones...
I paid it forward for the 5th and 6th factions and their boosters. I didn't order any walkers, special characters, zombies, or peacekeepers. I think I'll get the MA rubber mats and then I'll have like 4 of each so I shouldn't need more of those.
I think $45 for 80 scifi-zombie-mutants is pretty damn amazing if they come out well... but I'll be hard pressed to ever get through them all so I may just have to stick with 20. Definitely need 2-3 orders of peacekeepers though. I wasn't going to get all of the walkers... but the concept art is getting better and better. Still not sold on all of the special characters, but something like 3-4/6 so may order them anyway... funds permitting.
squall018 wrote: So I had an order (rebs and marauders starter) come in for some deadzone stuff today. I ordered it from Amazon ( I don't have a FLGS). Anyways, it came in legit looking retail packaging. Hard VHS looking case and all that. Anyways, there are no instructions in that either. Not some big revelation, but it looks like they may be planning on going to retail the way things are now. Maybe not the main box, but the other stuff.
Same thing with the terrain upgrade box. Pretty awesome box and everything, but pretty much what you guys got with the KS, just with an extra piece of cardboard surrounding it.
I guess they have time to fix it, but I don't know they will after seeing that. Just thought I'd throw that out there.
Those would be pre relase stuff. Not retail release (confusing, I know). There will be differences between the two.
The connector sprue has been brought up, with Mantic. No promises, but they are looking into adding another sprue into retail. Why wasn't this passed on? Because its in no way certain or official, so by no means take it as definite.
Additionally, not sure if I am meant to mention this or not, but the pathfinders are discussing the instructions thing. Again nothing solid yet, so for the love of Ronnie, don't assume anything.
squall018 wrote: So I had an order (rebs and marauders starter) come in for some deadzone stuff today. I ordered it from Amazon ( I don't have a FLGS). Anyways, it came in legit looking retail packaging. Hard VHS looking case and all that. Anyways, there are no instructions in that either. Not some big revelation, but it looks like they may be planning on going to retail the way things are now. Maybe not the main box, but the other stuff.
Same thing with the terrain upgrade box. Pretty awesome box and everything, but pretty much what you guys got with the KS, just with an extra piece of cardboard surrounding it.
I guess they have time to fix it, but I don't know they will after seeing that. Just thought I'd throw that out there.
Those would be pre relase stuff. Not retail release (confusing, I know). There will be differences between the two.
The connector sprue has been brought up, with Mantic. No promises, but they are looking into adding another sprue into retail. Why wasn't this passed on? Because its in no way certain or official, so by no means take it as definite.
Additionally, not sure if I am meant to mention this or not, but the pathfinders are discussing the instructions thing. Again nothing solid yet, so for the love of Ronnie, don't assume anything.
Just trying to allay things.
Thats fair. I wasn't necissarily knocking it, so much as putting the info out there as most of the guys here have the KS version, not the pre-release version. The stuff I have looks like its made for retail, so while it may not be final I can't see too many changes coming. I guess instructions would definitley be an easy change without messing with the boxes though.
Like I said, happy with my stuff, just sharing my experience, which is definitley different than the KS backers so far.
Just saying that you get more assembly instructions in a Dust Tactics box of pre-assembled, pre-painted minis. I hope that Mastic intends to step up and provide something; either that or add a warning on the box next to the age label. I think someone with experience with say Zombiecide, or any other non - war game boxed product, were to pick this up, they may be disappointed with the amount of work they'll have to put in before they can play a game.
I don't feel that myself and others pointing this out constitutes butt hurt or a general displeasure with the quality of the product, just that this game is most definitely not currently accessible to the casual board game crowd or people without a good deal of model building experience.
Yeah. It's just a matter of taking the extra bit of care to be a professional game company, rather than the "she'll be right, mate - hobbyists will work it out!" attitude that they still have.
Part of me wants to see if I have enough tiles to make an X-Wing Death Star board out of DZ terrain. 3'x3' (standard X-Wing game size) would be 100 solid tiles, plus 20 to make a 6" "trench" down the middle. The scratch-build "gun" from the accessory stuff a few pages ago would be awesome for such a thing as well. I'm at least close to that number, I'm just not positive that I'd have enough. If I ever get off my lazy ass to do such a crazy thing, I'll make sure to post pictures. It won't be soon though, as there's still a ton of terrain to cut out at my house.
Originally I wanted to use Deadzone scenery to make a 3-D Space Hulk board. I still think that could be done, although it would be quite expensive, and the height of the tiles is not ideal for viewing 28mm figures top-down in tight corridors, so you'd need to make a lot of creative use of half-tiles and windows if you wanted gamers to have a view of anything but the tops of the figures' heads. Now I'm pretty sure that Battle System's paper terrain will do sci-fi interiors easier and better, so I think I'll be sticking with BS for indoors and keeping Deadzone tiles doing exterior scenery.
Now if Mantic wanted to do something like relaunch Project Pandora with Deadzone-Style terrain and kick Space Hulk's pirate booty, that would be awesome. (Especially if they expanded it beyond the two faction "bug hunt", so that gamers could stage and play any kind of interior starship battle scenerio they wanted, with multiple factions and scenarios available.) Three pieces of advice to Mantic if they ever went that route:
1. Make 2x2 foot starship floor plastic boards, but with evenly spaced connector holes across the board so that freestanding tile walls can be firmly attached anywhere. Or less expensively, use a mouse-mat board, and design walls that interlock and stand up on their own firmly. Maybe do both, with the mouse mat being standard and the plastic board being a "deluxe" add-on option, as they did in the Deadzone KS.
2. Make starship interior wall tiles that are a maximum of 2 inches tall, not the Deadzone standard of nearly 3 inches tall. A 2 inch maximum height would keep the space corridors feeling immersive, but not be so tall that they frequently block a player's view of the actual miniatures on the board.
3. Make angled / ramped wall pieces so that corridors appear wider and less boxy, and better accommodate 28mm figures (which tend to be narrower towards the feet and wider at the top with outstretched arms etc.) while still conserving table top space (getting the same visibility / maneuverability with straight walls would require making the corridors wider). This might be done the way they currently do Fortification walls in Deadzone, with angled ramp pieces that clip onto flat tile walls, or they could make clip-on pieces that fit like wedges at the base and angle the entire wall.
Battle Systems did ramped corridors first in paper; I'd actually argue this was the key innovation that launched their business and set them apart from other sci-fi paper terrain makers like World Works Games.
The original Battle Systems download it and print-it-yourself set:
The kickstarted, pre-printed version:
However, other hobbyists did it long before BS did using homemade and / or Hirst Arts cast-your-own plaster blocks and a variety of other hobby materials.
Ramping interior walls are a general 3-D Space Hulk convention at this point, and I'd love to see Mantic's take on it in plastic.
(I'm a Battle Systems supporter and am very excited about what they have coming.)
Maki Games kickstarter also had spaceship dungeons parts made in plastic, but while they widen in the mid-height, they contract back to normal size at the top so perhaps not what you were exactly looking for. Still, they're made of plastic.
GrimDork wrote: I think both companies are probably looking to stand on their own, but I think BS terrain would be lovely for both PP and DKH in future projects.
A collaboration could be great - the foundations could have been laid by the use of Mantic models in the BS promo shots?
Think mine was dead on, although got an extra Dreadball MVP - got 2 of the same guy, although I already had him
I just want to double check that this is correct, so for just the Stirke team pledge level I should have everything pictured in that post? Plus any wave 1 extras?
Just realized that I am missing the packet containing the Rebs commander from my order. No matter, I have more than enough to paint while I wait for it to arrive.
If we chose the Enforcers as our extra faction were we supposed to receive another set of the Deadzone models with this shipment or are they being made into hard plastic also? I only have one set of them and was wondering if this is the norm.
I have to say I really love the models in the Rebs faction, all the aliens are really well sculpted and make for a very interesting group to paint. I have also added a lot of the dreadball models to the faction (with added weapons of course). Might have to add the faction booster before wave 2 comes around...
@Luide - As you guessed, I'd rather that the tops of the Maki corridors didn't contract, as that will just block players' view of what's going on on the board. I can't deny that those pictures are pretty exciting, though. I'll have to keep my eye on Maki when their stuff hits retail.
@Grimdork - Agreed, a Battle Systems / Mantic Project Pandora team-up would be pretty fantastic.
I just started cleaning and assembling my Enforcers. Is it just me or are the restic heads for these guys (the DZ ones) really lacking in detail, and what detail is present is very soft?
Honestly, i'm still a huge (read: slightly bigger) fan of the Dust Tactics/Warfare modular building sets. They aren't perfect aesthetically, but they're cheap, and can be much easier to work with than the Deadzone one's thus far. That comes at the expense of versatility, but for 40k, Malifaux, and most of my gaming needs, I use the five or six sets of those I own, to tremendous effect.
Bolognesus wrote: Enforcer raction starter wave 1 is 1 old enforcer bag and 1 new enforcer bag. Second enforcer starter? You should have 2 of each of those.
Hmm, I thought as much. Will have to make sure I get those guys sent to me as well...
Decided to assemble the Deadzone miniatures this morning. Had to walk away when I realised I had started to sing my lumps, my lumps, my lumps of restic junk.
I'd like to know where miniature quality sits on Mantics priority list?
Is the scale of the miniatures suitable for the material?
If I like to do more than tabletop quality paint jobs should I avoid Mantic products?
There are mold lines through faces and guns that are so small the detail is flat and looks like a plastic lump, why did these make it to the design stage let alone past QA?
I've recently gotten my daughter into gaming, she likes the GW and privateer press stuff to look at. We play super dungeon explore and her favourite game is zombicide.
She took one look at Deadzone and asked why I bought that. I replied I thought we could play it and she said no thanks!
pretre wrote: Really? Because, despite mold lines, I really like most of the deadzone minis.
It's not the miniatures themselves, those I like, it's the quality of the casts.
Maybe you got a bad batch. Mine have been pretty good overall and the majority of what I've seen in this thread have been good. Compare what you have to what's here and, if necessary, get a hold of mantic for replacements.
QA and QC would force Mantic into having less Kickstarters as they would have to take more time instead of just slinging plastic bags in boxes and slinging them out the door. I will give them this; Deadzone cast quality has so far been much better than KoW. Who knows, maybe within the next 4 or 5 Kickstarters they'll rediscover plastic as a viable material for miniatures.
I had to resort to the internet to assemble my models as instructions are nonexistant. Missing random limbs here and there is annoying as well; so far missing one plague arm and one human reb arm. The halo of flash around the teraton(?) Weapons has been annoying to clean up as has been bending warped weapons and limbs. I seriously do not have the time to correct poorly cast product; if they can't be bothered to send me a well-formed, complete product, I can't be bothered to give them any more of my money. This nonsense is exactly why I don't buy Forgeworld or any other non-plastic mini. Ronny told me the new resin would be better than the KoW type and he is correct but it's still less than high quality. My modeling skills are just not sufficient to remove the copious mold-lines without damaging detail as they seem to be placed on or near fine features.
I do love the ripper suits and other Orx. Had they been cast in plastic, I'd be placing a large order for more.
Ah well, I'll go back to my corner; I only posted because I had been puting models together today and was annoyed.
) and up and down some terrain.
mixed bag.
) jumping around and hiding under her (or his) stealth cloak, and that being pretty annoying to face. Think that range 14 is the longest in the game so far as well, which would be fun for people who've started playing with 2 mats together. Boomer looks like a fun character to play also for 10 pts.
