Deadzone development began many, many months ago. We knew we wanted to create a skirmish game that combined simple but interesting game play, faction development, claustrophobic battlegrounds and great 3D scenery - and making it a fantastic example of all that the Warpath universe will become.
Slowly each piece of the jigsaw started to appear. Game play developed. The greens arrived from the sculptors, wonderful pieces of art landed in the dropbox. Then we received the gaming mat in the post. When the scenery tiles were delivered the office stopped to look. As each component arrived anticipation built.
The Kickstarter began 38 days ago.
However, none of us were ready for what happened then!!
We had asked for a $50,000 goal, higher than our other Kickstarters because of the more complex tooling. We thought this might take a few days.
On the first day we got 1297 backers and the project was funded in 33 minutes!
Since then there have been around 37,395 comments in the main section, plus many more in all the updates, 1000's of messages in the inbox, and 66 stretch goals. We have undertaken building 6 factions, with boosters, vehicles and characters, mercenaries, 2 core tile sets and 3 battle zones and game play that will allow PvP, solo play, multi-mat and multi-player plus a fantastic selection of scenarios - and of course hard plastic zombies.
We didn’t quite make the Enforcer Peacekeepers but so long as we make the remainder of the goal up via Paypal after the first survey, we’ll still honour the set. If you didn’t get chance to add-on them during the campaign you will be able to do so at this special Kickstarter price via the survey.
You have told us you want us to make this game, and make it great. We will do everything in our power to make you a game and models that you will be proud of backing.
Thank you for showing us faith in us - you support is truly humbling. Together we will make Deadzone everything we all know it can be - and more!
Cheers,
Ronnie!
A Word on the Survey
The survey will be out in a couple of weeks when Amazon has finished finalising all of the payments.
And finally – a word from Jake!
I just wanted to say thanks to all the backers of this incredible campaign. Deadzone is off and running in spectacular fashion!
I'd also like to say a huge thanks to all those brave folk who stepped up and built themselves boards to try out the Alpha and Beta rules for themselves. There's been loads of really useful feedback and the game is definitely stronger for all your efforts. If you're interested in continuing to follow its development then be sure to subscribe to my blog at www.quirkworthy.com where I'll be posting further updates over the coming weeks/months.
Personally I am glad we got the female enforcers, was surprised we got her mounted on a bike and alone,will be interesting to see how this will evolve.
I wonder if it's good thing or a bad thing that my credit card company don't even bat an eyelid when I drop several hundred dollars on a KS!
I was thinking the exact same thing. Spend a couple hundred on a web host and I get a phone call. Drop a few times that on KickStarter and they're like "meh, whatever."
scarletsquig wrote: Oh, and for those interested in Warpath Kickstarter rumours
- Next year.
- Hard Plastic everything.
- Large battles, with vehicles and flyers.
- Aiming to fund as much stuff as possible.
Be prepared for a far more "focused on the minis" Kickstarter when it arrives, and expect Reaper Bones levels of value.
See the 56 cents zombies and in this kickstarter? Extend that to an entire army.
This one was very much a mixture of minis/ rules/ terrain/ accessories. Warpath will be more focused.
And by next year I'll have forgotten my promise to only go big on one KickStarter in WarPath's universe....I SEE YOUR GAME MANTIC.
Seriously though, looking forward to Enforcer goodies, and possibly the Rebs depending on how the rules for them turn out. Can't wait to get my DeadZone forces already!
Actually, Mantic had full rules for flyers in Warpath 1.0 before GW released 6th edition and went nuts on them. And the rules for them were done far better than the 5th edition kludge for them, too.
Warpath sounds great, but I'm more interested in expanding Deadzone to slightly larger battles involving 25 or so models with a few "big-unz" like an Iron Ancestor or two added in, on 3x4 or 4x6 tables. It would get me the best of both worlds- the grid makes things nice and fudge-free for the wife, who isn;t a hardcore gamer, and I have lost the passion to paint huge armies made of squads of similar figures.
The assembly-line style needed to bust out painting for current 40K-scale size armies makes me go slightly insane, especially as I always have to paint the opposing force, too. So to play a game I have to do twice the painting work. But give me 15 Enforcers of varying styles and a big accompanying walker to paint to get an entire force together, and I am stoked to go.
Making the step from playing Deadzone-sized forces while I expand them to Warpath-sized ones is alot easier than a big force all at once before I can play at all.
The flyers were kinda interesting, they popped in, did something nasty, and popped back out. I think you had a chance to fire at them before they left maybe? Been awhile since I read those rules.
@TalonZahn, Think warhammer numbers more or less. Enforcers are very elite and require less, plague you can get a lot of zombie filler on the cheap. Maybe not IG footguard and greentide lists, but you can get a lot of boots on the ground, especially if you dont proxy models.
One of the cool things is the fairly flexible allies rules which allow most factions team up with 2-3 others.
.. and that was before the zombies were buy 3 get 1 free, so add another 20 zombies and 200 points to the total, there!
Just $95 added to Strike Team is capable of giving you a giant 2k+ Warpath army.
The Forgefathers and Enforcers are also really easy to make Warpath armies with out of the deadzone stuff, since they're elite armies and each unit costs a lot of points.
Anyway, I'm also looking to get good use out of deadzone as a game in itself, I think it'll work great as a small, short, fun pickup game, and I'm more interested in it as a game than I am with dreadball.
GrimDork wrote: The flyers were kinda interesting, they popped in, did something nasty, and popped back out. I think you had a chance to fire at them before they left maybe? Been awhile since I read those rules.
Yup, that's how they worked. I think it represents the strafing-run style of actual aircraft interaction far better than the barely-maintaining-altitude velocities you get with 5e/6e 40K Flyers.
Plus, Warpath 2.0 (The current rules set) have alternating activation rules instead of IGOUGO, which helps switch up the strategy quite a bit. There's also an absolute boatload of fan-made army lists for it that should cove revery 40K army without an equivalent official mantic list, as well as a bunch of other scifi armies (Crew of the Enterprise, USSR-style human army, HALO Covenant/UNSC/Flood, Protoss, etc.) so I'm quite stoked for the WP KS as well as hopefully it'll rev up interest in my area for the system.
Well, I backed this project for the scenery but ended up dropping more on minis! Mantic looks to be seriously upping their game in terms of sculpting quality and art direction. I'm hoping the stuff I backed for (Enforcers, Rebels, Zombies) all can live up to the concepts and quality of initial sculpts.
Well I missed the last few hours as I was in town for a bit but it looks like it was a great finish.
Glad the enforcers in peacekeeper armour finally showed up. $10 for 5 is a great deal, really gets my hopes up (and my wallet down) for the Warpath ks!
A bit annoyed that I was literally a few bucks away from $400 and the resin Rebs commander, especially since I plan on adding more in the survey. Ah well, what can ya do?
I have this idea of taking one of my plano accessory cases (its a hard plastic case, thats a rectangle, bit over a foot one way, not quite two the other way, 8 inches deep maybe) and somehow fitting everything I need for a 1v1 deadzone into it, so I can take it to a game store and set up to show deadzone off. The mat will have to be outside but so would books and dice so that gets its own small satchel bag or something. I think I could get the models for two factions inside it, not sure if I could get as muc hterrain as I'd like.. maybe if I broke it all down or took along two cases for pre-assembled easy set up.
I wonder when all the additional stuff ships, as the KS is somewhat unclear. I've seen Q2 2014 on some of it, but not all. I thought it said that Forgefathers/Asterians ship Q2.
I'm thinking that unless I get the new job I'm gunning for (which the wife says would put her in a "I don't really care what you spend" mode, I was thinking of going "Scout", picking Enforcers and then adding the Marauders starter, and then adding Forgefathers. Maybe a walker for both Enforcers and Marauders, too. I really want Forgefathers as I have always liked them, but at least I could get Enforcer/Marauder games played in the meantime if they indeed ship later.
110 bucks for three starters, even in comparison to the incredible Strike Team deal, sounds like a great deal, too.
And with my Space Hulk terminators having sold well (3 left) on eBay, I have enough to add on those Enforcer models I want. So glad this Kickstarter went well, and I'll be getting a LOT of Enforcers out of this!!
Thanks for the glimpse into the Warpath Kickstarter! I said somewhere, either here or on the Kickstarter comments, that I haven't ever been as excited about a game as I am for DeadZone.
The Warpath kickstarter will definitely change that though!
That was a pretty magnificent finish. Last night arou 10PM (local time), I gave up, bumped my pledge to $500 and went to bed. It looks like that might have been enough...
I pledged less that I might have because I'm still waiting for my figures from KoW.
timetowaste85 wrote: And with my Space Hulk terminators having sold well (3 left) on eBay, I have enough to add on those Enforcer models I want. So glad this Kickstarter went well, and I'll be getting a LOT of Enforcers out of this!!
That reminds me... I've still got two unopened copies of SH stashed somewhere. Is it better to sell as an unopened box or to part it out?
One of the things that I find interesting about KS is the similarity in the ranges of numbers for these projects.
It seems that mini games hover around the 5k backers range.
I've heard it claimed that after the KS, the retail version of the games have seen 2x sales number (that is around 15k total, 5k from KS and 10k from retail).
scarletsquig wrote: Oh, and for those interested in Warpath Kickstarter rumours
- Next year.
- Hard Plastic everything.
- Large battles, with vehicles and flyers.
- Aiming to fund as much stuff as possible.
Be prepared for a far more "focused on the minis" Kickstarter when it arrives, and expect Reaper Bones levels of value.
See the 56 cents zombies in this kickstarter? Extend that to an entire army.
This one was very much a mixture of minis/ rules/ terrain/ accessories. Warpath will be more focused.
I do hope that there isn't as much of a huge time frame between the kickstarter and the models coming out like with this (a year almost and that is if there are no delays for the wave 2 stuff I was interested in like the Medic). Is all of the stuff unlocked in the last 48 hours still coming in wave 2 or did it cross into a wave 3? I'd like to see a viable mass battle alternative to 40k hit the market (the warzone release was a "platoon level skirmish" scale).
I think for the WP KS, they will need to refine the rules to be based on stands of units rather than individual models. The original WP 1.0, while apparently unpopular, was a lot more focused like this, which lends itself far better imo to larger (100+) model games than the stretched-past-breaking-point rule systems like 40K trying to operate with 100s of models (or more for Apocalypse).
I hope the KS iteration of the Warpath rules shifts the focus back to that scale of battles and appropriate rules, as I think it will be far more appealing than just trying to make another scifi large-ish scifi skirmish game
darkPrince010 wrote: I think for the WP KS, they will need to refine the rules to be based on stands of units rather than individual models. The original WP 1.0, while apparently unpopular, was a lot more focused like this, which lends itself far better imo to larger (100+) model games than the stretched-past-breaking-point rule systems like 40K trying to operate with 100s of models (or more for Apocalypse).
I hope the KS iteration of the Warpath rules shifts the focus back to that scale of battles and appropriate rules, as I think it will be far more appealing than just trying to make another scifi large-ish scifi skirmish game
I agree, my group was much bigger fans of the 1.0 rules then the 2.0 rules.
darkPrince010 wrote: I think for the WP KS, they will need to refine the rules to be based on stands of units rather than individual models. The original WP 1.0, while apparently unpopular, was a lot more focused like this, which lends itself far better imo to larger (100+) model games than the stretched-past-breaking-point rule systems like 40K trying to operate with 100s of models (or more for Apocalypse).
I hope the KS iteration of the Warpath rules shifts the focus back to that scale of battles and appropriate rules, as I think it will be far more appealing than just trying to make another scifi large-ish scifi skirmish game
I agree, my group was much bigger fans of the 1.0 rules then the 2.0 rules.
Absolutely hated the 1.0 rules and I can tell you now if they go back to that the KS wont do anywhere near as good as this one (I know I wouldn't back it for the rules.)
Didn't like the way 1.0 had full units individually based but you didn't remove casualties. I also seem to recall needing to roll buckets of dice for stuff (although I may just be thinking KoW), which always puts me off games. Rolling over 20 dice for a single unit's attack is just too many for my taste.
I do hope Warpath stays platoon level skirmish as mass battles is terrible for 28mm. Go with 15mm for that stuff (there's plenty of manufacturers and rulesets to support it). 40k in it's current iteration would simply play MUCH better as 15mm, it's getting to be too much stuff on a standard 6'x4' table, especially with all the large super units and rumors that the apocalypse models are moving into the base game. I'd MUCH rather see Warpath as 50-100 models with a half dozen vehicles than see Mantic try and ramp up the numbers like GW has
evancich wrote: One of the things that I find interesting about KS is the similarity in the ranges of numbers for these projects.
It seems that mini games hover around the 5k backers range.
I've heard it claimed that after the KS, the retail version of the games have seen 2x sales number (that is around 15k total, 5k from KS and 10k from retail).
That seems like a very small market.
But a small market with deep pockets. Miniature Kickstarter often have several hundreds of USD as average pledge-level. Most Computer Games Kickstarter, to name one example, often only have 30 or 40 Dollars as average pledge level.
Kingdom Death has $379,- average pledge. Deadzone has $283,-, Even the "budget" minis from Reaper made $194,- per backer on average.
Compare that to , say, Double Fine Adventure ($38,-) or, at most, $56,- for real heavy-hitters like Torment: Tides of Numenera, and you might get an indicator why selling expensive miniatures to few people is likely a more sustainable long-term strategy in this particular business than selling cheap miniatures to a lot of people.
Just wanted to say thanks to scarletsquig for keeping the thread so well updated and for everyone else who posted news and images in a timely fashion. That was awesome of you.
@Mo'teef: No word on anything yet regarding specific units, the only thing we've seen are sketches for the modular corporation hovertank (which have been floating around for over a year now).
Remade Marauder/ Forgefather core will probably happen, but it's highly likely they'll do core units that don't exist yet, and vehicles that don't exist yet, with a rework of existing sprues pencilled in for later down the line.
As for me, I'm gonna buy a bunch of those $2/mini Mantic terminators (hard plastic, with weapon options) and make a whole army out of them.
Why? Well, why not.. It'll only cost me $60 at most, not much different to the price of a single box of terminators from GW.
That's the thing about Mantic that most people don't always get at first glance... they think "I can afford my single 40k army, why would I need cheaper minis?".. Mantic is great for people who really want to expand their stuff or go and do crazy projects on a whim without spending all that much.
I've also had *much* better luck introducing Mantic to people new to wargaming or people who lost interest in wargaming when they went to uni (*lots* of people like this in the UK.. when people stop buying GW, most simply give up wargaming entirely, they don't magically start playing malifaux or warmachine for no reason, for them "wargaming" = "Warhammer/ 40k". As soon as they say the prices got too high or they didn't like the new rules, the rest is easy.
Also, reminder for everyone with a pledge - The awesome hard plastic enforcers are not "in the bag" currently.. they will require another $8.5k of survey money..
... so if you feel like throwing in another $10 to get 5 of these beauties in multi-part hard plastic, go for it! Only need about 1 in 6 people who pledged to up by $10 to hit the target, but it does have to be the first survey and not the second one.
The scalability of Deadzone and backers having multiple armies should do wonders for getting more people to play once it's released. A fair few backers will be able to field all 6 factions I'd say. Two people? Play a 2x2 campaign. Got 6 people? Play a 3v3 on 2x4-6x4! And why not throw some AI zombies in the mix for a big ole shindig. Introducing someone to the game gently? Have a comp stomp! 2vsAI should be good fun with the solo/zombie rules. I prefer comp stomps with mates in PC games, will be good to do the same on the tabletop too so they don't get miffed at always losing ; p
I think there is potential for me to add more to my pledge, although the $800 was a high pledge, partially to get all the exclusive rewards inc deluxe rulebook. I haven't had a sit down and actually work out what I want to add. I think what I wanted came to around $680, and that was before deciding how many suits, extra characters I wanted.
Also, reminder for everyone with a pledge - The awesome hard plastic enforcers are not "in the bag" currently.. they will require another $8.5k of survey money..
... so if you feel like throwing in another $10 to get 5 of these beauties in multi-part hard plastic, go for it! Only need about 1 in 6 people who pledged to up by $10 to hit the target, but it does have to be the first survey and not the second one.
Would love to get them. $10,- for 5 40mm base figures.. what's not to like.
But how are they going to survey that? If they put the option in the survey, they essentially (near-) guarantee that they'll make them. It'd be a huge mess to go back and tell X people that their survey isn't valid cause there weren't quite enough people pledging for the mini that could've been unlocked.
Or will it appear only in the 2nd survey, if enough people pledge another $8.5K on other things already unlocked?
I think they know themselves that the extra from the survey will more than cover the extra $8,500 or so needed so it shouldn't be an issue. I've spoken to a few KS creators and the average extra money taken in post KS pledge managers is around 8% of the final total - this is fairly consistent across a number of projects - so that would add another $96k or so anyway. Even Adam Poots without going into detail said in his comments that the post KS survey was enough to cover the original KS and Amazon fees so again in the 8% range
Final Strike Team included 11 sprues of terrain. Does that include the associated connector and accessory sprues or do I need to add those to my pledge separately?
@Mo'teef: No word on anything yet regarding specific units, the only thing we've seen are sketches for the modular corporation hovertank (which have been floating around for over a year now).
Any pics of that hovertank to share?
And I'll be in for at least 20 of those Peacekeepers too!
DaveC wrote: I think they know themselves that the extra from the survey will more than cover the extra $8,500 or so needed so it shouldn't be an issue. I've spoken to a few KS creators and the average extra money taken in post KS pledge managers is around 8% of the final total - this is fairly consistent across a number of projects - so that would add another $96k or so anyway. Even Adam Poots without going into detail said in his comments that the post KS survey was enough to cover the original KS and Amazon fees so again in the 8% range
Yes it strikes me much more as marketing than a likely lack of funds, but hey they're entitled to try and get as much money as they can. It's not like they're trying to gouge customers by saying "we can't do it for $10 since we missed the goal so if you want them you need to add $30 per set" or anything; they simply made the observation that IF they get 9k on the survey (which they probably expect to) then they will do these models that people want. If people want to throw in more money just to help ensure it happens, that's on the consumer and they will be getting more product in exchange so everybody wins.
A few random reflections from the morning after:
I almost stuck with my original plan for a pledge amount right up to the end, even if the contents shifted a few times. Yay!
With as much plastic as I have coming now, I might actually be done buying models for a while outside of truly fantastic kits. I mean it this time. Really you guys!
While there was some doubt in the middle phases, I think Mantic did a very good job on the KS. It could have been bigger, but could have been much worse. In the end they made over a million dollars so that's something to be proud of. Congrats to the whole crew over there
December seems really far away right now, but when I think about the piles coming in from 3 different KSes about that time it will likely be here far too quickly.
Big thanks to scarletsquig for all the effort he put in. For an unpaid fan, you always go above and beyond for Mantic without being a complete fanboy/zealot towards people who express criticism. I can only imagine the ton of work it takes for you to promote them like you do here. While it's "just forum posts", you're helping another miniatures company get bigger in the market which makes the hobby as a whole better. It might be a tiny piece of the puzzle overall, but every piece counts.
I agree with DaveC. Out of the thousands who joined the KS campaign, there will be a lot of people adding on to their pledge for the survey, and not just for the plastic terminators. At this point I'm not concerned about it; it will happen.
Feeling my first KS withdrawal signs this morning. Wanted to "tune in" and see the latest "stock report" of how high the pledge total was going.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating, so I guess around Christmas I'll know for sure if my investment in this was a good thing or not, and that will determine whether or not I continue to purchase from Mantic in the future. I've followed things carefully and done my homework, and all signs point to yes, but you never know for certain until you have the final product.
But looking over my list of purchases, I am well pleased. Part of the KS game is figuring out what you really want out of everything on offer, and trying to package it to make that work for your budget. For me that involved never upgrading to assault (didn't need the doubles) and leaving out the Forge Fathers. I was on the fence with them, but the Dwarf biker booster convinced me that Space Dwarfs aren't ever going to be my thing. Except for the Helfather, of course. (No offense to Dwarf lovers out there - it's just my personal taste, and if the Forge Fathers got you pledging more, hats off to you.) Even without assault or the FF, I went far beyond the Strike Team value on this. Warpath may be more focused on miniatures, but for me Deadzone offered too much of a "full package" to hold back - terrain, miniatures, Antenociti accessories, and most of all, a complete game to use it all with that won't be a rules nightmare to play with my son. Fantastic.
The value - provided the final product is as good as it looks to be - was so good that it overwhelmed my reservations about buying two entire faction starters I didn't want and would otherwise never purchase: the Marauders and the Plague. I will probably end up using some of the models from each of them, and I love having the gameplay variety of multiple faction options, so the rule sets and cards of those teams will be useful. Some of the models from both are excellent, too - the Goblin sniper from the Marauders is great, and Mantic's decision to invest in Remy's talents for the 1st Gen Plague was genius. That 1st gen really paid off for them and sold the entire game. The 2nd Gens look usable, if not inspired. The 3rd gens - wow. I think they will be a thorn in Mantic's side as they try to sell Plague armies to people going forward. I may end up just replacing every Plague model I have except Remy's 1st gen with Sedition Wars Strain models, which beat every Plague model but the 1st gen right into the ground. With Studio McVey's Strain models the army would look so awesome that I'd really WANT to play Plague - heck, they could become my favorite faction! The only niggle is that most SW zombies don't carry firearms, just the Quasimodos.
I dunno. I think some good head swaps could do a lot for Mantic's 3rd gens, so maybe they're salvageable?
For me, the stars of the miniature show were very clearly the Enforcers. After they fixed the captain, that was a rock-solid faction of good models. (I thought the "getting jiggy with it" assault enforcers were a little silly, but livable.) The Rebs also turned out very well, especially considering that team is entirely composed of hand-sculpted models. It shows that Mantic does have what it takes to do hand sculpts well, when they put their minds to it.
I ended up spending quite a bit anyway, but the Marauders and 3rd gens definitely impacted my decisions. I didn't buy any Marauder or Plague sculpt I didn't have to, and when investing in concept-only figures in bulk, I limited myself to 3-D sculpts like the Asterians. (I'm also buying 2 $8 hand-sculpts that I wasn't able to resist - the Helfather and Nemrath.) Not showing any Rebs or Marauders booster sculpts before the end of the KS put the nail in the coffin for those boosters for me. If Mantic get any photos of them up before the survey (Stewart told me that the Kraaw was nearly ready in an email) then I could change my mind.
My guess would be that if the Plague starter had looked as rock solid as the Enforcers at the start of the campaign, then Mantic would have done much better, especially as the "Zombie" thing is such a big Kickstarter draw. As it is, they still did very well, with the positives far outweighing the negatives. I had a great time, spent too much money, and, provided I'm not massively disappointed come December, am now a newly christened Mantic fan. I'm not generally into being a "fan" of any company, so that's quite an achievement on their part.
Looks like im going to be adding about $300-$400 on the pledge manager. Took a bit of a hit this month and could only just afford my eb1 strike so il be looking to add all the glorious extras!
I'l definately be adding in for 25 peacekeepers come second survey. Such a good deal! I really hope their a solid choice in the new enforcer armylist. I can see a really cool force of Peacekeepers and Striders.
Plus just noticed the Zombie multi pack deal so theres a must aswell!
Edit: I really like the 3rd gens, and think the orx aren't too bad.
For those who've commented about wanting the Warpath rules to go back to units ala 1.0, I'll toss my hat in the ring with those others who would be against that. I alpha tested those rules when they first came out and neither I nor my friends liked them. I too remember buckets of dice being rolled, but what's more is that there was no real reason to have miniatures at all at that point. With no models being removed from damage you could just use a movement tray with one guy on it and have it not matter. They way it is now is actually a lot of fun, a lot more than the 1.0 rules at least for me. I hope they polish up these rules but leave the core as it is. I wouldn't be opposed to having add-on rules for larger games that worked with units instead of models, but I'd like that be separate just like Apoc for 40K. That's just my two cents.
So it is going to take me days to dig back through the last dozen pages of frantic posting, but I was hoping you guys could point me in the direction of a couple answers?
At the last second, I ended up adjusting my pledge to $300, with the realization that I am much more able, personally, to add another $200-300 later, than I am responsibly able to do it all in one lump now.
That said, I have never been a part of a Mantic Post-Kickstarter, and was hoping for insights...
How do their pledge-managers tend to work? I've heard people mention they do their post-pledge add-ons in two-wave, IE, they give backers TWO chances to add funds. Is this correct?
I am even more inclined to treat this as a big pre-Warpath purchase if I can buy more now, and then find myself with another shot at adding FURTHER funds, later in the year.
Also, speaking of Warpath... WAY back in this thread, someone mathed out purchases needed from THIS KS to already field several legal lists for different factions. Anyone still have that info?
Finally, is it the case that EVERY Deadzone mini/model will have Warpath rules? I know it was said in earnest, way back, but they've just innundated us with one-off mercs.... Do the Warpath 2.0 rules even support "merc" or "hero" units?
On the last of day of comments Mantic confirmed that they would be providing rules for every figure to use in Warpath, although as you point out that could be a little odd for the mercs.
Also I emailed Mantic regarding adding on to my pledge and they said I would have two opportunities to add on.
You can download the Alpha Plague army list from their website although it does not contain the special characters from the ks.
Out of curiosity... Do you have to "spend" all of your KS pledge during the first survey? Do funds roll over to the second? I'm thinking that my first survey is going to be LEAN probably extending no further than the one Strike-Force itself, whereas I imagine my Wave 2 order being OBSCENE.
Good question! I think you pledge for all the waves initally and when the 2nd survey comes out for the 2nd wave you can pledge again. Not sure if you can get more first wave figures in your 2nd pledge. I guess the second pledge manager will come out after the 1st wave has been delivered.
This is my first Mantic ks so not entirely sure. You could prob drop them an email through KS, they normally get back to you within an hour or so.
Also I emailed Mantic regarding adding on to my pledge and they said I would have two opportunities to add on.
That's good to know. Two more times I can throw money at them? Then I guess I'm getting all the robots after all. Shame the rebs didn't get something to tool around in. Even the Plague got a robot!
I hope the Orbital Dwarf Gundam character is going to be a bit larger than his Forge Guard buddies. Orbital drop armor should have some girth to it, be big and imposing- for a squat little dwarf that is. I also wonder if Mantic had something up their sleeves in case we met the plastic Enforcers goal, or if that was the last goal they were going to attempt.
My brother was talking about painting up his Asterians in Zeon colors. Does that mean I'm going to have to do my Forge Fathers up in Fed or AEUG color schemes? Hmm...
On to the inevitable wait! Maybe we'll hear something about that co-op Dwarf King's Hold in the meantime!
Other people likely know better, but is the 1st gen Plague the only model Remy did for this game? It really looks like Mantic are moving more of their hand-sculpting jobs in-house. I emailed them to ask if Remy would be doing the alternate 1st gen sculpt too, the one you get for $500, and they answered probably not, it would most likely be done by the in-house sculptor.
Seems like a big shift from the old days where Remy did almost all of the Warpath figures, if now he is only doing the stand-out figures like the 1st gen that are meant to be showpieces and sell the entire line.
Also, 3-D sculpting is obviously a fast-growing element of Mantic's miniature line, and while the kickstarter mostly stuck to the things it does easiest - armor and machinery - the organic, hard plastic Zombies are also going to be 3-D sculpted.
Given that they had some problems with complaints about changes between concept art and final hand-sculpted executions, are we seeing the beginnings of a big shift from hand-sculpts towards 3-D computer rendered ones? Especially if 3-D sculpts turn out to be quicker, cheaper, and more reliable in terms of translating concept art? Add to that that the technology of 3-D sculpting is probably growing by leaps and bounds every year. I would imagine this is an industry-wide issue, and that a lot of traditional sculptors without tech savvy, especially those who aren't "top-tier", are justifiably nervous about the future of their careers.
Don't get me wrong - I'm old enough to have a nostalgia for hand-sculpted models and wise enough to appreciate the value and artistry of hand-craftsmanship. But I'm also realistic enough to think this is going to be a big issue, and find it interesting. I'm not advocating a massive shift towards 3-D sculpting, I just suspect it's coming. Am I wrong? I'm only posting this because I'm interested to know what you guys think. I'm sure you're better informed than I am.
Feeling my first KS withdrawal signs this morning. Wanted to "tune in" and see the latest "stock report" of how high the pledge total was going.
Don't worry Vermonter it doesn't last long but you do spend 30 odd days following a project day after day then suddenly nothing so there is a bit of withdrawal all right, I think it actually does feed into the desire to back more projects to start the cycle all over again. Having backed 17 projects I'm past that at this stage, KS ends I close it forget about it until an update comes out read it forget it again, in fact I'm pretty much past KS now, of those 17 projects 1 was cancelled, 4 have delivered and 12 have yet to and that's a lot of funds tied up in something I don't have yet so I'm reluctant to spend much more. I have my eye on 3 more projects none of which start any time soon and I think that will be it for me. Deadzone wouldn't have been nearly as appealing to me if it wasn't for the terrain to the point I may not even have backed at all - now I went all in for Deadzone but the Terrain was the key part for me as that's the one thing I'm short of at the moment I have enough miniatures to last of life time now!
I agree with DaveC's assessment of KS backing. I'm about 45 projects in. I've had about 9 deliver with many more nearing completion. At this point I have to be really wowed to back something. That said I have 1 project I have a set it and forget it pledge in. Few projects get me to follow them closely anymore. Deadzone was like that
After a few projects it just becomes easier to ignore things. Dead zone got me for the same reason Dave went in as well. Terrain! I own 0 nice pieces of sci if terrain so I spent for a good bundle of the stuff. I can't wait to start using that stuff with relic knights and robotec!
DaveC, the terrain was the big part of it for me, too, although I did end up really getting into the miniatures as well. Without the terrain I could have either stayed out, or just stuck at a much lower pledge level. But I decided to go all in. For me, that means no more KS campaigns for a long, long time, and no more miniature / hobby purchases except for a large paint set, brushes, pinning kit, etc. I'm a returning gamer after having abstained for 20+ years, so I need to stock up on all the basics before I'm ready to roll.
Unless there's a "Deadzone sub-package" option I probably won't get into the Warpath KS at all. But watch me break my vows if they release a Veer-myn-driven DeadZone expansion. I'd probably infuriate my wife all over again for that. But honestly, with Mantic's plans for KSes already laid out for a while, I don't see a new Deadzone expansion coming out for at least 2 years or so, depending on how the first one sells.
You know how people say they want to do a fully painted set, and then they put it aside and get more models and end up with tons of games that are never fully painted? Well, I abstained from buying any more hobby games or miniatures for over two decades, and I want my Deadzone set fully painted. If that takes me years and years, that's perfect. I am very much looking forward to putting in the quality time necessary for a fantastic set.
After a few projects it just becomes easier to ignore things. Dead zone got me for the same reason Dave went in as well. Terrain! I own 0 nice pieces of sci if terrain so I spent for a good bundle of the stuff. I can't wait to start using that stuff with relic knights and robotec!
The terrain is what pulled me in. I need some terrain for Infinity and Relic Knights, when that shows up.
Feeling my first KS withdrawal signs this morning. Wanted to "tune in" and see the latest "stock report" of how high the pledge total was going.
Don't worry Vermonter it doesn't last long but you do spend 30 odd days following a project day after day then suddenly nothing so there is a bit of withdrawal all right, I think it actually does feed into the desire to back more projects to start the cycle all over again. Having backed 17 projects I'm past that at this stage, KS ends I close it forget about it until an update comes out read it forget it again, in fact I'm pretty much past KS now, of those 17 projects 1 was cancelled, 4 have delivered and 12 have yet to and that's a lot of funds tied up in something I don't have yet so I'm reluctant to spend much more. I have my eye on 3 more projects none of which start any time soon and I think that will be it for me. Deadzone wouldn't have been nearly as appealing to me if it wasn't for the terrain to the point I may not even have backed at all - now I went all in for Deadzone but the Terrain was the key part for me as that's the one thing I'm short of at the moment I have enough miniatures to last of life time now!
Sounds about the same for me, actually!
How many of those 12 that haven't delivered yet are actually late though?
I've backed 21 projects so far with:
1 didn't fund
2 cancelled
4 delivered (2 late, with one those being a partial though, as it is Sedition Wars)
14 pending
Of the pending, three are late, IMBRIAN ARTS and RELIC KNIGHTS and the poster boy for late due to wild, unplanned mega-success: OGRE.
evancich wrote: One of the things that I find interesting about KS is the similarity in the ranges of numbers for these projects.
It seems that mini games hover around the 5k backers range.
I've heard it claimed that after the KS, the retail version of the games have seen 2x sales number (that is around 15k total, 5k from KS and 10k from retail).
That seems like a very small market.
But a small market with deep pockets. Miniature Kickstarter often have several hundreds of USD as average pledge-level. Most Computer Games Kickstarter, to name one example, often only have 30 or 40 Dollars as average pledge level.
Kingdom Death has $379,- average pledge. Deadzone has $283,-, Even the "budget" minis from Reaper made $194,- per backer on average.
Compare that to , say, Double Fine Adventure ($38,-) or, at most, $56,- for real heavy-hitters like Torment: Tides of Numenera, and you might get an indicator why selling expensive miniatures to few people is likely a more sustainable long-term strategy in this particular business than selling cheap miniatures to a lot of people.
Yeah, I didn't mean that as "what a waste of time on such a small market".
It is interesting that there are about 5k people that are willing to fund a mini game on KS. I wonder if those are mostly the small 5k people.
So, if that number is true and games like that sell around 15k copies, how many copies of Level 7 or Space Hulk or Dread Fleet are sold?
According to the Interweb, no-one bought Deadfleet. But if you have 15,000 players, you only need to get players to spend another $100 a year to generate a revenue of $1,500,000... but that is the tricky bit!
How many of those 12 that haven't delivered yet are actually late though?
Sorry yeah I should clarify that
4 Delivered - 2 on time , 2 late - 2 of these have another wave to go but the main game has been delivered.
12 to be delivered - 3 late to date, I expect 2 others to miss their delivery date and 1 is currently ahead of schedule but they haven't hit that tricky molding,production, delivery phase yet.
At this stage I add 6 months to whatever delivery date is listed and use that to judge if I'm happy with the wait and a potential delay. That said Mantic have been on time to date and are trying hard to keep this up - some might say at the expense of quality I haven't noticed that myself but they do seem to be upping their game recently. I'd rather a missed delivery date to a rushed one.
I bought Dreadfleet - It's still in the original wrapping and is sitting at the bottom of the wardrobe
How many of those 12 that haven't delivered yet are actually late though?
Sorry yeah I should clarify that
4 Delivered - 2 on time , 2 late - 2 of these have another wave to go but the main game has been delivered.
12 to be delivered - 3 late to date, I expect 2 others to miss their delivery date and 1 is currently ahead of schedule but they haven't hit that tricky molding,production, delivery phase yet.
At this stage I add 6 months to whatever delivery date is listed and use that to judge if I'm happy with the wait and a potential delay. That said Mantic have been on time to date and are trying hard to keep this up - some might say at the expense of quality I haven't noticed that myself but they do seem to be upping their game recently. I'd rather a missed delivery date to a rushed one.
I bought Dreadfleet - It's still in the original wrapping and is sitting at the bottom of the wardrobe
I think Mantic will be OK here in terms of deliveries and hitting dates.
But as others have mentioned, the sooner Mantic goes to mostly digital design and sculpting, the happier many people will be!
Yes I think so too.. Mantic have got the KoW and DB kickstarters sorted (with a few hiccups), if anything this one should throw fewer 'surprises' in their path and hopefully deliver everything on time.
So, there will be a "second survey" with the second wave?
Them, i can get my humble strike team now with the only 165 dollars i have, and still add the Asterian and Forgefather stuff when the second survey come in? (With a EU bundle?)
When Mantic expect to release that second survey? If it comes after november, i can see myself throwing lots of money in it (apart from Strike Team, everything in want is on second wave).
I think Mantic will be OK here in terms of deliveries and hitting dates.
But as others have mentioned, the sooner Mantic goes to mostly digital design and sculpting, the happier many people will be!
Digital is not a cure-all, especially since their current digital folks still have issues with organic forms (cloth, anatomy, etc.) and posing (Assault Enforcers). They are good and can get better but not if people keep cheerleading them without critiquing them.
I think Mantic will be OK here in terms of deliveries and hitting dates.
But as others have mentioned, the sooner Mantic goes to mostly digital design and sculpting, the happier many people will be!
Digital is not a cure-all, especially since their current digital folks still have issues with organic forms (cloth, anatomy, etc.) and posing (Assault Enforcers). They are good and can get better but not if people keep cheerleading them without critiquing them.
~Eric
And then there is the issue of Mantic simply changing their mind on the artistic direction a previewed model should go in. Digital modelling may reduce the accidental chance of tiny T-Rex arms (or troll legs) but not the purposeful redesign to tiny T-Rex arms.
scarletsquig wrote: ^ Yeah, 5000 backers, $300 average pledge and $1.5 mil total seems to be the most likely outcome.
Will be interesting to see what effect this has on the freebies, I'm wondering what Mantic's endgame plan for this is for the inevitable $500k or so of funding that will hit in the last 3 days.
Out of random boredom I wanted to see how Squiggy's predictions panned out.
Final tally of 4306 backers, $282 average and $1.216M and $506, 791 in the final 3 days.. That gives him a score of 86%, 94%, 81% and 100%, respectively. Combined average of 90.25% which for how early he made his prediction (8 days into a 37 day project) is reasonably accurate on the prediction front. Not perfect, but pretty darn close considering the number of things that could have derailed it totally.
^ I said 1.5 mil before this started, too.. didn't post it on dakka though.
The backer and average pledge amount guesses did come later. I'm fairly happy with how the prediction turned out, thanks for the % figures!
My initial thoughts were $2mil finish, then I heard that restic was being used and not hard plastic, so I revised downwards.
Fairly happy with the prediction overall. I think it could have hit $1.5mil with a few more exciting stretches, hard plastic enforcers are a really big deal, they haven't quite figured out to handle their final day properly... We were waiting on an update for a full 10 minutes at the end of this, if it had been posted more quickly, I'm sure that would have gotten the extra £8.5k.
Think the Robotech model of throwing all the cards on the table 3 days before the end is a great idea, too.. it shows confidence from a project creator.
I'll guess $2.25mil / 6000 backers/ $375 average for the Warpath KS, as a super-advance guess. Not a massive jump in total backers, but the spend will definitely be bigger as some people buy 8 full 5k armies or whatever. Much more room to go nuts with it.
Triszin wrote: so when are we going to find out if we got the plastic peacekeeprs?
Probably after the survey 1 deadline. But we should easily get them. I am trying to scrounge up cash now just to throw a simple 10 bucks in for the effort.
^ Once the 1st surveys have been filled out and returned... could be a while yet, they'll be sent in 10 days once the KS payments are all processed, and I'd imagine people will have until the end of the month to fill them out.
I can't see the peacekeeps not being produced.. for starters, they've said they'll be an option in the survey... so if they don't get the $8.5k it'll be a pain for them to have to pick out and re-send every survey that has enforcers picked. :p
In earlier kickstarters they simply went ahead and unlocked the final goal based on people messaging them saying "will increase on the survey by X amount"... they took a more measured approach this time.
In fact, they have with the entire KS, it has been a very cautious one, almost as if the massive day 1 made them think "crap, this will hit $4mil for sure and we can't handle that"... only towards the end did they feel comfortable enough to get it moving again.
Second survey should go out a couple of months before the second shipment ships (sometime in 2014).
Waiting on word of what will make the first shipment.. naturally, everything in Strike Team will be there by December.
Everything else... might have to wait a while. They've said "2014" for the second shipment without holding themselves to a date. Probably a good thing for the overall quality of the product.
I think Mantic will be OK here in terms of deliveries and hitting dates.
But as others have mentioned, the sooner Mantic goes to mostly digital design and sculpting, the happier many people will be!
Digital is not a cure-all, especially since their current digital folks still have issues with organic forms (cloth, anatomy, etc.) and posing (Assault Enforcers). They are good and can get better but not if people keep cheerleading them without critiquing them.
~Eric
Right?
And there aren't too many blind cheerleaders around here, are there?
Anyway, the KoW stuff is starting to become an absolute train-wreck.
At least the models we've seen here have been at worst "OK" and at best, really nice.
recruittons wrote: I agree with DaveC's assessment of KS backing. I'm about 45 projects in. I've had about 9 deliver with many more nearing completion. At this point I have to be really wowed to back something. That said I have 1 project I have a set it and forget it pledge in. Few projects get me to follow them closely anymore. Deadzone was like that
After a few projects it just becomes easier to ignore things. Dead zone got me for the same reason Dave went in as well. Terrain! I own 0 nice pieces of sci if terrain so I spent for a good bundle of the stuff. I can't wait to start using that stuff with relic knights and robotec!
Maybe you haven't picked the right projects? I mean... I'm about 25 projects in to my backing history, and if nothing else, my Oculus Rift has provided some of the most life-altering experiences I have ever had. So far, Kickstarter has been very good to me.
Oh, and Zombicide has as well, as I have sold my $170 of pledged goods, for about $1150. :-p
recruittons wrote: I agree with DaveC's assessment of KS backing. I'm about 45 projects in. I've had about 9 deliver with many more nearing completion. At this point I have to be really wowed to back something. That said I have 1 project I have a set it and forget it pledge in. Few projects get me to follow them closely anymore. Deadzone was like that
After a few projects it just becomes easier to ignore things. Dead zone got me for the same reason Dave went in as well. Terrain! I own 0 nice pieces of sci if terrain so I spent for a good bundle of the stuff. I can't wait to start using that stuff with relic knights and robotec!
Maybe you haven't picked the right projects? I mean... I'm about 25 projects in to my backing history, and if nothing else, my Oculus Rift has provided some of the most life-altering experiences I have ever had. So far, Kickstarter has been very good to me.
Oh, and Zombicide has as well, as I have sold my $170 of pledged goods, for about $1150. :-p
I'm not saying I'm unsatisfied, I'm saying that the honeymoon period is over and I'm not so easily swayed by a project's pitch. Basically, the KS experience is less the entertainment experience it was before, and I'm seeing it more for the project's goal, less for the ride of the project.
I went in for about $250 on Zombicide S2 because I plan on reselling my second Inmate level for a profit (probably not what the S1 stuff goes for, but I am betting it will be a decent value). But I don't just dive head first into every popular project for hundreds and hundreds of dollars unless I think about it logically and without hype. KS tends to infect people with an enormous amount of community driven excitement that causes people to hemorrhage money into it based on very little except the other people giving over to the unbridled entertainment of the project's success and carefully laid goals and updates. I'm happy that I'm slowly becoming immune to that stuff because I've spent several thousand dollars on KS this year alone, not to mention the thousands last year, and I want to be able to reasonably, and rationally, say no to stuff that I don't need because, honestly, most things can safely be skipped and bought later (if at all)
I think Mantic will be OK here in terms of deliveries and hitting dates.
But as others have mentioned, the sooner Mantic goes to mostly digital design and sculpting, the happier many people will be!
Digital is not a cure-all, especially since their current digital folks still have issues with organic forms (cloth, anatomy, etc.) and posing (Assault Enforcers). They are good and can get better but not if people keep cheerleading them without critiquing them.
~Eric
Right?
And there aren't too many blind cheerleaders around here, are there?
Anyway, the KoW stuff is starting to become an absolute train-wreck.
At least the models we've seen here have been at worst "OK" and at best, really nice.
I would agree with the OK to Really Nice assessment if we are speaking purely about the digital work.
And the cheerleader comment was meant in general. I don't think you are, so sorry if it came across that way.
There are a few people, here and elsewhere, who will pretty much accept anything and then cheerlead it like it is the best sculpting work ever. Which worries me for the industry in general as well as for Mantic in particular.
Zombicide - Late, but all delivered now. Sedition Wars - Late, and incomplete. Reaper Bones - Late. Relic Knights - Very, very late. Crusader Leviathans - All my stuff is Wave 2 or 3, which isn't late (yet). Rivet Wars - Not ready yet, so not late. Zombicide Season 2 - Not ready yet, so not late. Secret Weapon Tablescapes - Already delayed. Deadzone - No doubt will be late.
I mean, going by the "The More Successful A Kickstarter, The Later It Will Be" formula, maybe, but... I don't know if we're in "No doubt" territory yet!
Someone's got to break the successful Kickstarter 'curse', right?
Zombicide - Late, but all delivered now.
Secret Weapon Tablescapes - Already delayed.
Sorry for going off on a tangent here but I received Zombicide in September 2012 as listed and wave 2 in Q2 2013 as listed so no delay there but this is the only CMoN project to hold it's delivery date so far, rumour has it Rivet Wars won't make September.
Secret Weapon's Scrap Yard set is due for delivery in October 2013 they had an issue that meant the first tiles had to be redone and that has delayed tooling but that hasn't yet affected the delivery date. All other sets are delivered at 2 month intervals after that.
I expect Mantic will deliver Deadzone in December as planned however some things that should be in wave 1 might get bumped to wave 2 so they can make that December delivery date.
Kings of War - On time (second shipment is on time I think also)
Dreadball - On time, other than a couple models being delayed.
Blackwater Gulch - Late
Blackwater Gulch: Rebels & Reinforcements - On time (just read it should be shipping in a few weeks)
Dreamforge - Wave 1 was late, and I think the rest are going to be
Sedition Wars - Late
Bones - Late, and still waiting
Project Eternity - On time?
Deadzone - Hopefully not late yet.
I have no doubt deadzone will be on time. A few items might get bumped back a wave, but overall mantic has a pretty great record on meeting the delivery times (but not the models matching concept)
Ooh, lists, what fun! A warning: mine is predominantly computer game related, but it's still interesting to see how many Kickstarters meet their expected release dates.
In chronological order of backing, not counting projects that failed to fund:
Double Fine Adventure: Late, unreleased
Wasteland 2: Due October
The Banner Saga: Late, unreleased
Shadowrun Returns: Late, unreleased
Turrican Soundtrack Anthology: Late, unreleased
Tex Murphy - Project Fedora: Late, unreleased
Legends of Eisenwald: Late, unreleased
Xenonauts: Late, unreleased*
Kinetic Void: Late, unreleased*
Lilly Looking Through: Late, unreleased
Tropes Vs. Women in Video Games: Late, released (ongoing)
Star Command PC: Late, unreleased
Moon Intern: Due November
Project Giana: Released on time
Project Lodus: Due 2014
Broken Sword - The Serpent's Curse: Late, unreleased
Expeditions - Conquistador: Late, released
Unwritten - That Which Happened: Due August
Dreamfall Chapters - The Longest Journey: Due 2014
Torment - Tides of Numenara: Due 2014
Consortium: Due July
Fox & Chicken: Due July
Deadzone: Due December
Unrest: Due 2014
So, of 24 projects backed, 11 are late and unreleased, 2 were late but are now out, 10 aren't yet due, and a grand total of 1 has been released on time.
Fortunately, I went in to all of the Kickstarters fully aware of the risks - not just of delays, but of disappointment and/or complete failure to deliver, but those are still fun stats to see.
Huh. This thread got shifted over from N&R within one day of the KS ending. Meanwhile the KoW kickstarter thread is still there. Will this thread get shunted back when we see some work in progress images?
JoshInJapan wrote: Huh. This thread got shifted over from N&R within one day of the KS ending. Meanwhile the KoW kickstarter thread is still there. Will this thread get shunted back when we see some work in progress images?
maybe if it has its own personal teleporter
If Mantic can produce the meat of the game including the terrain by xmas its will be all gravy. I think the terrain part is what needs to be a high priority, as Mantic may lose some support if they push ship dates further back. But, hearing about the sorting by hand Dreadball ordeal, I think they actually care about the product AND the consumers.
NewTruthNeomaxim wrote: Oh, and Zombicide has as well, as I have sold my $170 of pledged goods, for about $1150. :-p
Why oh why did I back Sedition Wars instead of Zombicide?
So far I've backed:
Ouya
Sedition Wars
Relic Knights
Reaper Bones
Bug Hunt Corridors
Deadzone
Have only received the first part of Sedition Wars, late, at much lower quality than anticipated.
Yeah, I'm late to the party. I came really close with Kings of War but the uncertainty in the end got to me (and it's frankly a good thing all these months later).
JoshInJapan wrote: Huh. This thread got shifted over from N&R within one day of the KS ending. Meanwhile the KoW kickstarter thread is still there. Will this thread get shunted back when we see some work in progress images?
The KoW Kickstarter thread is not still there. That's the Mantic Fantasy news and rumours thread. Big difference, largely exactly the same discussion. It's just that Kickstarter threads get moved off N&R after a few days.
For reference, here is the Mantic N&R or post-kickstarter discussion on Warpath. It's a dead topic that hasn't been posted in for for months, but it is the official topic:
There is no current N&R thread for Deadzone, and I'd be happy to make one, but I'd really, really, really rather be allowed to make a single Mantic sci-fi news and rumours thread at this point.
We have a Warpath N&R thread (which no-one posts in and is impossible to find), a Dreadball thread (again, same problem, I'm the only one that bumps it), the same thing will happen with a deadzone thread unless all of Mantic's sci-fi stuff gets combined. There is not enough discussion to sustain 4 different threads for a single company, and the amount of duplicate threads I've seen cluttering up N&R about Mantic all because the official thread is on page 17 and impossible to find is huge.
It's be cleaner to have Deadzone, Warpath and Dreadball in the same thread, if that's okay with everyone?
So that the dreadball discussion isn't lost, I could have that thread repurposed with the title edited to Mantic Games [Warpath][Dreadball][Deadzone] sci-fi news and rumours?
I was just thinking, it would be really helpful to have a list of what is going to be in which wave. I did $100 over strike team, and I may use it for extra terrain & mats if the boosters, mercs, and special characters don't come out until after the second survey.
baritowned wrote: I was just thinking, it would be really helpful to have a list of what is going to be in which wave. I did $100 over strike team, and I may use it for extra terrain & mats if the boosters, mercs, and special characters don't come out until after the second survey.
I am gutted I missed out on this kickstarter followed it every day some nice looking stuff on its way. I hope mantic stick with cad modelling for most of their warpath minis on its kickstarter. Can't wait for that one. The kings of war minis have been a but inconsistent, I wish the dwarfs were like the metal characters. Love mantic though looking forward to see what the come up with
Thanks for the opinions everyone... after asking the mods, I've gone ahead and re-purposed the dreadball news and rumours thread into the Mantic Sci-fi News and Rumours thread.
Man I just realized just how almost "depressing" it feels now that the hustle and bustle of this Kickstarter is over, I've followed this like a hawk the last 30+ days and really really enjoyed every update, and now its just over.
Oh well I least we can all look forward to the surveys and giving Mantic even more of our money, bit of shame the Astarains and Rebs didn't get a "big" unit like the other factions, but I'm doubtful it'll be like that for long.
Without doubt a really great kickstarter that I'm so glad I joined in with, hopefully I'll get some Deadzone/Warpath related games in with some of you fine folk if any you are planning on going to Paw 2014 or Salute 2014.
Now that this is all over I think I might start work on that Veer-Myn army I was planning, gonna be doing a few custom sculpts for it including an idea I had about twin veer-myn sisters (count-as Night Spawn) on a single
base, one armed with the combat drill and the other with duel chem-thrower pistols, think I might just call them "The Twins", could be fun and unique. Well anyway I'm going off-topic a bit here, sorry.
Which is apparently quite likely as Mantic said that every KS they have done has made around 8% of the total back in post KS pledges. And considering how many people were saying they would be upping by a few hundred after the end, I believe we should hit the last $14.5k pretty easily.
Hell I may even go in for an extra box. That's a damn good price.
PsychoticStorm wrote: They will actually be unlocked if the additional funds cover the difference needed.
Could be I'm misinterpreting, but they're now listed on the main page as an addon with the rest. Seems indicative to me that they're being offered as an addon.
Sigh, I controlled myself on this KS (went gorilla-gak over the Dreadball and KoW KSs), and only got striker, but it looks like I'll have to add another $100 minimum for enforcers, Irine (iron-wolverine), and the Orx boss. Maybe I'll just get two squads of peacekeepers. And yes, Howlett will now be renamed Irine in all my posts. Accept it.
Seem to remember them saying something about weapon options too. Could be day dreaming, but I dont think so.
If the pricing on those and the zombies is indicative of what we're looking at for the WP kickstarter, I may spend just a little more than I was planning to (deadzone having wiped out my hobby budget for at least a year or two).
A question for you guys who have KickStarted for Mantic before. I have only done one other KS, SedWars, and I keep hearing about two surveys? SedWars was all in one big survey, so you had to be able to afford to pledge all at once. How will two work?
Am I interpreting things correctly: There will be a survey in the next few weeks, which will cover all the "Wave 1" stuff that comes out by December. Then, sometime before the 2014 wave, there will be another one for the "Wave 2" stuff? And you can add additional things to both?
So for instance, I want more stuff than I can afford right now. But I don't have to worry about putting up the additional funds for, say, the awesome Forgefather stuff (which was listed as Q2 2014) I want until the second survey, and just use my available funds for stuff like Enforcer and Marauder faction sets in the 1st survey?
That would be awesome. I can see myself stretching the funds for two consecutive surveys much farther than with one big one right up front.
AegisGrimm wrote: A question for you guys who have KickStarted for Mantic before. I have only done one other KS, SedWars, and I keep hearing about two surveys? SedWars was all in one big survey, so you had to be able to afford to pledge all at once. How will two work?
Am I interpreting things correctly: There will be a survey in the next few weeks, which will cover all the "Wave 1" stuff that comes out by December. Then, sometime before the 2014 wave, there will be another one for the "Wave 2" stuff? And you can add additional things to both?
So for instance, I want more stuff than I can afford right now. But I don't have to worry about putting up the additional funds for, say, the awesome Forgefather stuff (which was listed as Q2 2014) I want until the second survey, and just use my available funds for stuff like Enforcer and Marauder faction sets in the 1st survey?
That would be awesome. I can see myself stretching the funds for two consecutive surveys much farther than with one big one right up front.
Historically that has been exactly how Mantic rolls. For DreadBall they gave you the option of adding more a couple weeks ahead of Season 2 shipping (March 24th was the deadline to add more, with shipment beginning about a month later). Kings of War had a similar setup ending around the same time as this KS, as Squig and others alluded to as a reason their DZ pledges were lower. It would stand to reason this would happen here as its not a gargantuan amount of effort for Mantic and, as you say, results in them getting many more shiny gold rocks.
I would love it if they did. I really want Forgefathers, but only really have the budget (right now) for two factions plus some extras for those factions. If I went for, say Forgefathers and Corporation, I wouldn't even be able to play the game till the FF came out in 2014, and that would be a real bummer.
Aegis, the way they did the KoW survey was an initial survey after the pledging, then they followed it up with the army packs that were already built, as well as the books and dice. When the new models were (are, actually) ready to start getting shipped out, they sent a new survey, to add stuff on. For me, this is a second survey before my first shipment of models (I got the one that included new ogres, werewolves, and book). Dreadball had a survey before each shipment. Hope that adds a little bit more detail. We'll have this survey now, a second survey before the next batch of models, and if there ends up being a late shipment, I'm sure we'll see a survey before that too. I'm pretty sure you can add anything on that was on the previous surveys too, not just models for the current shipment and later-I was able to add on an additional pitch on the second survey for Dreadball.
If that is the case than that will suit me quite well. I manged to keep all my pledges to the 1st wave. 9-12 months from now when wave 2 hit's I'd probably be inclined to add Wave 2 stuff.
Also if dreadball is any indication, I wouldn't be surprised if the initial survey includes some product from their other lines. I got project pandora from them for a discount on the survey.
Yeah, I THOUGHT I got project pandora for a discount... It ended up being more expensive due to exchange rates that I would have been better off buying it from totalwargamer.
I do hope they get WP army lists worked out and published sooner than later. I'd like to put together what the models I've bought are and where I might be a bit short of a particular model. Like I'll be 2 Enforcers with Assault blades short of 2 squads, so I'd be inclined to tack on a couple more to balance that out, etc.
Compel wrote: Yeah, I THOUGHT I got project pandora for a discount... It ended up being more expensive due to exchange rates that I would have been better off buying it from totalwargamer.
I am too lazy to go on multiple sites to order things. If it wasn't offered during the KS, I never would have it. Now that you say it, it probably will be on there, but not at a discount compared to what you get here.
scarletsquig wrote: I'll guess $2.25mil / 6000 backers/ $375 average for the Warpath KS, as a super-advance guess. Not a massive jump in total backers, but the spend will definitely be bigger as some people buy 8 full 5k armies or whatever. Much more room to go nuts with it.
If restic is nowhere in sight, if it is all hard plastic, if there is far more information about what is going to be available and if Mantic feel they can handle it (and if they have a big decent sprue of female corp soldiers...), I would be unsurprised at $3 million+. And Mantic if they want can go nuts with the freebies as the additional cost of plastic is mostly P&P if they are set up properly for volume (which the KoW plastics show they were perhaps not). But really a good core deal, a good set of extras and the sky is the limit. I would do 2 armies at a time focus wise, from most popular to least popular (or fully fleshed out if there is not much more to add to something like plague.
So faction wise what is warpath up to? Corp and Enforcers, Rebs, Plague (undead), Dwarves, Orcs, Elves, Skaven. So far I like the equal opportunity destroyer rebs, though if I can get a load of female corp to supplement other ranges they will skyrocket to the top (otherwise will be using my old citadel army figs).
I'd be willing to dump some serious money into a Warpath KS if vehicles and fliers are more involved, and if models are actually produced for everything.
If something equivalent to a not-Titan were to be produced, well, you could call me Phillip J. Fry.
Automatically Appended Next Post: And back on topic, just got an email update stating that the first survey will start on the 12th.
Project Update #94: Withdrawal Symptoms!
Posted by Mantic Games Like
My my, it’s been less than one week since the Deadzone Kickstarter has finished. Now we’ve had time to exhale, given our fingers a rest from all of the typing and allowed our graphics wizard time to recharge his super powers, we’re back with a new update!
Work started on all of the new Deadzone stuff the moment our funding goals were met, meaning we’re already getting renders and photos through from our team of creatives.
Just check out this Work In Progress Zombie Sculpt:
Let us know what you think in the comments below!
About the Survey
We’re aiming to release the survey the week commencing 17th June.
On this email you’ll be able to tell us what you’ve pledged for as well as purchase any additional products. Once the survey deadline has been hit, we’ll then send out any invoices.
Thank you for your patience.
Automatically Appended Next Post: They are genius for making the survey another 2 weeks from now. Another paycheck! I am going to add probably another 100 minimum in stuff.
Well... he has what looks like a little bit of boot on his right foot... I think if they do 1-2/3 or 2-3/5 (pending how many sets of unique legs there are per 5-zombie sprue) with boots and the rest without, they'll come closer to making everyone happy.
I'm actually taking zombies off of my first survey. I'll just wait till next year when I'll be able to get the bundle, along with some peacekeepers. Frees me up for some terrain or something I guess.
Trying to decide if I wanna break for a single ruins set, with a couple of accessory sprues, or a bunch of accessory sprues just because.
If they do the Peacekeeprs ("if" being in air quotes here ), I reeeally hope they do a zombies-style bundle for them, like 20 for $30 (4-for-price-of-3) or some similar discount bundle, as I'll probably get oodles of them...
I'm ok with there not being a bundle deal for peacekeepers. I mean, look at what you get. Assuming they come with comparable weapon options, that is. Say, 5 gw terminators, those are 5 for $50 right? $50 buys you 25 peacekeepers. I'm ok with $2 a model for not-terminators.
Of course, if there is a deal, I may just get EVEN MOAR of them . It is the reason i'll be ordering 80 zombies
PsychoticStorm wrote: They will actually be unlocked if the additional funds cover the difference needed because Mantic was just playing games with the Kickstarter.
Fixed that.
They might not have been as obnoxious as Raging Heroes, but they were clearly up to something. The hard plastic option would have been on the table much sooner otherwise.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
AegisGrimm wrote: A question for you guys who have KickStarted for Mantic before. I have only done one other KS, SedWars, and I keep hearing about two surveys? SedWars was all in one big survey, so you had to be able to afford to pledge all at once. How will two work?
Am I interpreting things correctly: There will be a survey in the next few weeks, which will cover all the "Wave 1" stuff that comes out by December. Then, sometime before the 2014 wave, there will be another one for the "Wave 2" stuff? And you can add additional things to both?
So for instance, I want more stuff than I can afford right now. But I don't have to worry about putting up the additional funds for, say, the awesome Forgefather stuff (which was listed as Q2 2014) I want until the second survey, and just use my available funds for stuff like Enforcer and Marauder faction sets in the 1st survey?
That would be awesome. I can see myself stretching the funds for two consecutive surveys much farther than with one big one right up front.
That is how it has worked so far. In addition, you can always email Mantic and tell them that you want to add X, Y and Z or swap N for M pretty much any time before they actually start pre-shipping, and they'll handle it. I'm going to do most of my Deadzone pledging this way once I see the sculpts... unless they're terrible. The KoW debacle still has me feeling shakey.
I could swear that the armor Enforcer Captain was wearing was called Stygian Armor. Isn't that what it's called? If so, what is the difference between that and the Peacekeeper armor?
I guess its possible they are actually different, all we have for peacekeeper so far is silhouettes. After seeing all of the updates for the kickstarter, i'm not even sure enforcers use laser rifles anymore.
Just like I can't decide if I'm supposed to call them stunts or goblins. Hopefully various written materials for deadzone clear some of this up once we've received them.
Could also be an nickname versus an official designation. The unit is called Peacekeepers, so in the field it is referred to as Peacekeeper armour regardless of make, model or variant but the specific model may be Stygian (or what have you). Kind of like how Terminators have armour that is actually Tactical Dreadnought Armour but most people nickname it Terminator Armour.
The way flyers are handled in Warpath is far more realistic imo than they are in 40K, and if it's that much of a worry your personal group can always disallow them without worrying about breaking the game
So, someone tolds us some pretty big news over on the Mantic forums that I didn't know about.
Kalonjacarl wrote:
i mailed mantic on the deadzone kickstarter about the strider this is their response:
Mantic Games
Monday Jun 10 2013, 7:52am EDT
Hi
Actually, the Corporation version of the Strider that came out is intended for the Rebs - they can use as one they've stolen. It's the Enforcers that don't get a vehicle - they are getting the troops in Peacekeeper armour instead.
As for showing off more sculpts, we will be doing this as much as we can. I've got some more stuff that's just come in - we'll get it up online later this week.
Thanks
Stewart
So the Corporation Strider is actually the REB's strider and the Enforcers do NOT get to use it.
And all of that was released back during 5th edition 40k, so the 40k comparisons are moot.
Well, moot as the current WP 2.0 doesn't have fliers.
Still, WP 1.0 flyer rules made more sense than 6e 40K fliers do even looking at it in restrospect imo...
Automatically Appended Next Post:
baritowned wrote: Really? I haven't seen them anywhere, google kind of fails for me lately.
Would you possibly have a link to them?
The official ones are most likely gone, but Hellebore's WP 1.1 up on the Mantic forums does have aircraft rules, although his are more akin to 40K's flyer rules.
Spoiler:
The original rules basically were that flyers began the game off of the board, and when they came in from reserves they were placed anywhere on the table, facing any direction, during the movement phase. At start of your next turn, they were removed from the table and re-entered reserves, repeating until end of the game.
Shooting at them incurred a 18" range penalty (iirc) as it was assumed they were really high up, and there was a special rule that some antiaircraft units had allowing them to ignore the penalty, or get a bonus to hit, por something like that.
WP 1.0 aircraft were fragile as hell and were a cool way to implement the rules in a somewhat realistic fashion as they represented a strafing run rather than VTOL-hovering. I was really sad when they were removed from WP 2.0...
Another day, another inbox full of shiny, shiny things - all made possible by your support! I'm sure you're all eager to get your surveys done and lock in all the great new toys coming your way, so to keep you going until next week check out these beauties!
Today it's the turn of the Marauders to get a little love, and first up is the final figure from the faction starter, the Commando Captain:
The Captain is his own master - he has broken away from his shackles as a Corporation lackey and led his team into the Deadzone in search of plunder. Unlike your typical Orc, he wins his battles through strategic skill rather than brute force.
The picture doesn't do justice to the level of detail on this figure - he's going to be an absolute joy to paint!
Next up, the Goblin Weapons Team... albeit minus the goblins... With Enforcers, Forge Guard, Cyphers, Zombies, Scenery, and more, we've made a lot of progress with digital sculpting on this project, which means very good things for Warpath next year. For now, the Marauders have had their first taste of it with this:
There's plenty more to come - keep an eye on your emails over the coming days and weeks. As always, let us know what you think in the comments below!
LOTS of nice looking stuff in there - fingers crossed on renders/art to reality!
baritowned wrote: Really? I haven't seen them anywhere, google kind of fails for me lately.
Would you possibly have a link to them?
The official ones are most likely gone, but Hellebore's WP 1.1 up on the Mantic forums does have aircraft rules, although his are more akin to 40K's flyer rules.
Fortifications, Forge Fathers, and Shipping Dates
Update #96 · Jun 13, 2013 · 26 comments
Hi Guys!
We're currently putting the finishing touches on the survey - double checking all the add-ons are there, making sure all the bundles and deals are correct, and adding lots of pretty pictures! The survey will be sent out to you on Monday, and you'll have until the 21st of July to complete it and lock in your rewards. You will then have until the beginning of October to get your payments in for any additional items that you want. Keep an eye out for our next update next week.
In the meantime work is continuing on the game, and we're currently on track to get more into the first shipment than we'd expected! One such item is the additional BattleZones. We haven't finalised the layout of the sprues yet, but we've got lots of new components sculpted that massively widen the scope for your sci-fi buildings, and here are some examples:
Fortifications BattleZone - thicker, armoured wall sections and pillars, just a taste of what's to come.
Landing Pad BattleZone - not just a landing pad. 135 degree connectors, longer walls and triangular pieces allow for much more varied shapes in your buildings.
Shipping Information - 1st and 2nd Shipment
A lot of you have been asking about what ships when, so you can budget effectively for the surveys. Every item in the Kickstarter will be made available in the survey that will be out on Monday, regardless of when it ships. The second survey will be sent out shortly before we're due to ship the second batch (roughly Q2 next year, or earlier if we can), allowing you to top up your rewards should you wish. This survey will ONLY contain second shipment items - it will not offer anything already shipped.
These are the items we currently have planned for the second shipment:
Forge Father Faction Starters and Boosters
Asterian Faction Starters and Boosters
Plague Zombies
Light Support Vehicles (Pathfinder on Bike, Iron Ancestor, Stuntbot, Striders)
Faction Special Characters
Enforcers in Peacekeeper Armour (if funded!)
Deadzone Compendium
Deadzone Collector's Edition Hardback Book
AI Card Deck
Due to some changes to our tooling schedule made possible by your support, EVERYTHING else will come in the first shipment, so you'll have the vast majority of your order with you by Christmas! As we get closer to the release dates, there may be some items that change. For example, the Plague Zombies are very close to being finished, and we might be able to squeeze them into Shipment 1. If this is the case, we'll add them to the second survey anyway so that you can pick up some more if you need them. The same applies to anything else that we can speed up. We'll keep you posted in the updates as we know more.
Of course, we're just as hard at work on the second shipment items too, so I'll leave you with this...
Unposed work-in-progress render of the Forge Father Forge Guard infantry.
The landing zone really throws a wrench in my plans; I had intended to snag one just out of completion-ism, but if it lets us build things like vaguely round buildings that might alter the equation dramatically. I might actually have to up my pledge for more terrain! The early view of the fortification looks quite nice too.
I like the look of the Forge Guard so far; their digital sculpts are going very well for them on this KS. I'm not chomping at the bit to get them, but I think they'll look nice as one of my free faction starters.
I am also thrilled by the news that the faction boosters will be in Wave 1. That gives me a great many more Enforcers to play with.
The FF Render cemented for me why I don't like the FF figures so far, with the exception of the Dreadball ones. Their heads are far too low on their chest. Their shoulders are at about ear-level. Even the DB ones suffer from this a bit, but nowhere near as bad as the others.
Since it is an un-posed render, I'll also point out that there are some collision issues and wait to see if they are fixed on the final model.
Taarnak wrote: Their heads are far too low on their chest. Their shoulders are at about ear-level.
Eric
Their shoulders are at approporiate level. There is a crap ton of armor, like fist thick, sitting on his shoulder, making the top of the armor ear level, but not his actual shoulders.
That argument never flies for anything. The armor cannot be that thick or they couldn't move in it. The shoulder pads are huge, for sure, but you can clearly see the thickness of the plates in the render and where the shoulder attaches to the torso.
I'm being a bit nitpicky here, I appreciate that. I might even come across as only critical of Mantic, which is wrong. I like a lot of their products and want them to improve.
These little details keep their designs good, instead of being great.
Here are a couple pictures that I edited to show what I mean:
The lines are roughly where each of the respective figures' shoulder top would be.
But really, I'm not interested in an argument. If they keep putting out space dwarves that I don't like, I'll use Hasslefree's Grymn, since they have all the broad strokes covered with regard to troop types, and they are superb sculpts.
What if their heads are further down on their chest then humans? I mean, they are aliens after all, their anatomy is allowed to be a little different. I appreciate the sentiment, but I'm not sure they are supposed to have human proportions, just scaled down to dwarfy greatness, to begin with.
I am unfamiliar with the other artwork and background so it may be that they are supposed to be what you say. It looks ok to me, but I can see where you are coming from as well.
I see those proportions as being what makes a dwarf a dwarf, it's deliberate to create a hunched-over, stocky frame that doesn't look like a human with dwarfism.
This dwarf of theirs (bare skin, for an anatomy reference) has the top of the shoulders at ear level as well, the neck and arm muscles are massively thick, and the neck is short:
IMO, the grymn look too much like small humans and not dwarfy enough, due to them being upright with heads being high above the shoulders.
If you prefer them, then buy them and use them, they're nice enough sculpts.
Personal preference doesn't mean the mantic minis are badly sculpted and need to change, though.
For reference, the mantic dwarf pictured in this post was sculpted by the same person who sculpted the grymn (Kev White).. excellent sculpts on both sides, just sculpted in different styles.
scarletsquig wrote: I see those proportions as being what makes a dwarf a dwarf, it's deliberate to create a hunched-over, stocky frame that doesn't look like a human with dwarfism.
This dwarf of theirs (bare skin, for an anatomy reference) has the top of the shoulders at ear level as well, the neck and arm muscles are massively thick, and the neck is short:
IMO, the grymn look too much like small humans and not dwarfy enough, due to them being upright with heads being high above the shoulders.
If you prefer them, then buy them and use them, they're nice enough sculpts.
Personal preference doesn't mean the mantic minis are badly sculpted and need to change, though.
For reference, the mantic dwarf pictured in this post was sculpted by the same person who sculpted the grymn (Kev White).. excellent sculpts on both sides, just sculpted in different styles.
No, I totally hear you that it was probably a deliberate choice. I just don't like it. In fact, looking at it from that point of view, I will retract the statement that it is dragging them down. I also tend to doubt that it was a deliberate choice at the beginning of their line, but that is a whole separate discussion.
The point that there are little issues that they could avoid which do drag them down, I'm sticking to.
Also, I never said they were bad sculpts. In fact, I said they were good, but that they missed great because of what I pointed out. Totally opinion, and I stated it more like fact. My bad.
I know that Kev sculpted a number of their figures. I might argue with you that this one's shoulders hit his ears, but when you add armor on, they most likely would appear to. Still not a fan. More power to you if you are though.
I quite like the GWLotR dwarfs myself since the proportions on them seem very well-done. (in fact, a lot of the lotr range is lovely, and the only minis I will even consider buying from GW).
I've toyed with the idea of a KoW dwarf army using them since I've owned, and am not a fan of the mantic plastic dwarfs (metals and artillery are lovely, though).
I like the forgefathers a lot though since they've restrained the heroic scaling on them more. It should be one of the nicer-looking ranges, and I'll wait to see all the FF and Asterian sculpts before adding them in the second survey (quite confident about the forgefathers, not sure about the asterians, the dreadball minis other than the cypher look crap).
I'm interested in getting some opinions- what do you guys think would be a better value for scenery?
I had been thinking of getting the Antenociti bundle deal, or at the very least the warehouse set due to not really owning any sci fi scenery and figured all those barrels and junk would make good cover.
Looking at the accessory sprue though, it seems like it offers up a fair amount of boxes and barrels to clutter things up. It's also SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper. I'm also probably going to get the resin loot counters as well.
So- 2 or 3 sprues or stick with the warehouse set? What do you guys think?
Yeah, once they put the accessory sprue in as a $5 add-on, I dumped the rest of my antenocitis stuff. I mean, 7 accessory sprues vs any antenociti bundle. Or, more likely, 2-4 accessory sprues and another 15-25 dollars to use on other add-ons.
Antenocitis stuff would be nice, i'm sure its fancier and all that, but if you were going to get the warehouse anyway... and especially if you intend to use it for gameplay and not taking pictures... accessory sprue wins.
GrimDork wrote: Yeah, once they put the accessory sprue in as a $5 add-on, I dumped the rest of my antenocitis stuff. I mean, 7 accessory sprues vs any antenociti bundle. Or, more likely, 2-4 accessory sprues and another 15-25 dollars to use on other add-ons.
Antenocitis stuff would be nice, i'm sure its fancier and all that, but if you were going to get the warehouse anyway... and especially if you intend to use it for gameplay and not taking pictures... accessory sprue wins.
I agree with the Acc sprue thing. I was gonna get a set of each the Antenocitis stuff but came to my senses after trying to justify the purchase. They are some nice pieces of scenery, but I was already at $750 and wanted to eat this month. Now I don't have to work the corner(joke) to clutter up the board with crap.
Urban Dictionary: swoit www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=swoit Mar 13, 2003 – Something that is awesome. Ethnic Australian corruption of sweet, frequently heard when talking about cars.
No. You get a lengthy E-mail listing off every possible option with little "1"'s or whatever number you put next to each thing you put a number next to.
Going by the comments you get an email confirmation afterwards, but it doesn't say whether there is a summary in it or not.
I'm in a quandry - I'm a relatively new wargamer so I have very little in the way of either terrain or scatter. I originally pledged for some of the Antenociti stuff, am I better served putting that $65 towards 2 more Battlezones and 4 accessory sprues (1 free)?
Nah, I got my survey too (US backer in Japan at the moment).
Debating if I just want to add only season 1 stuff, pledge for a bit of round 2 with that, or just go hog wild and end up with as large of bill as I can possibly rack up.
I'm a dead man though if I go with one of everything like I had originally hoped to.
Plus I need to figure out what stuff my brother's getting to make sure it's a fair fight when our groups eventually clash, and what stuff my kids want to fiddle with as well.
I gotta figure out if I can still get that free compendium by hitting veteran status. I spent a little under 300 during the campaign, and I'm not sure if I'm still eligible to get the book once I go over that amount.
Debating if I just want to add only season 1 stuff, pledge for a bit of round 2 with that, or just go hog wild and end up with as large of bill as I can possibly rack up.
I'm a dead man though if I go with one of everything like I had originally hoped to.
You only die once, but how many people get the chance to truly live?
I would say go scenery-heavy because as you point out you won't be able to add it later. By the time the second survey goes out, you'll have (hopefully) assembled and played a few games with the kids and can play the "Look! It's a way for me to spend quality time with the children...I'M BEING A GOOD FATHER WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO STOP THIS?!" card.
Alpharius wrote: For those of you who've already filled out your survey - did you already get the email with your summary?
I filled it out and submitted it but haven't gotten the summary yet...
I haven't had my summary e-mail and it's been a couple of hours. I assume their server is being loaded quite hard, will wait a day or so before I chase I guess.
NTRabbit wrote: Going by the comments you get an email confirmation afterwards, but it doesn't say whether there is a summary in it or not.
I'm in a quandry - I'm a relatively new wargamer so I have very little in the way of either terrain or scatter. I originally pledged for some of the Antenociti stuff, am I better served putting that $65 towards 2 more Battlezones and 4 accessory sprues (1 free)?
I spent most of my pledge on terrain related items- I ended up with the 'four battlezone' package, and I selected the four Antenociti bundles also. They're pretty unique looking and the Antenociti resin I already have is great quality. I tend to do close up photos for contests and they'll be very useful to me. Plus, I like the 'lived in' look of a tabletop with little details.
I really don't 'need' the crates and stuff because I have a bunch of Hirst Arts crates and boxes that I cast anyway.
If you want terrain for gaming, I think your $65 would get you more bang for your buck (in terms of surface area/footprint and LOS blocking) if spent on the battlezones and accessory sprues.
But if you want good looking sci-fi gadgets and hardware- the details that make a scene come alive- it would be hard to top Antenociti.
NTRabbit wrote: Going by the comments you get an email confirmation afterwards, but it doesn't say whether there is a summary in it or not.
I'm in a quandry - I'm a relatively new wargamer so I have very little in the way of either terrain or scatter. I originally pledged for some of the Antenociti stuff, am I better served putting that $65 towards 2 more Battlezones and 4 accessory sprues (1 free)?
I spent most of my pledge on terrain related items- I ended up with the 'four battlezone' package, and I selected the four Antenociti bundles also. They're pretty unique looking and the Antenociti resin I already have is great quality. I tend to do close up photos for contests and they'll be very useful to me. Plus, I like the 'lived in' look of a tabletop with little details.
I really don't 'need' the crates and stuff because I have a bunch of Hirst Arts crates and boxes that I cast anyway.
If you want terrain for gaming, I think your $65 would get you more bang for your buck (in terms of surface area/footprint and LOS blocking) if spent on the battlezones and accessory sprues.
But if you want good looking sci-fi gadgets and hardware- the details that make a scene come alive- it would be hard to top Antenociti.
Thanks, now I'm thinking I might strip out a bunch of the second shipping minis, and make the cost back up to my pledge amount with both terrain and the Antenociti stuff, and then pay extra for the second shipment stuff I want when that survey comes around next year. With such a long way into the future to defer costs, why not?
Alpharius wrote: For those of you who've already filled out your survey - did you already get the email with your summary?
I filled it out and submitted it but haven't gotten the summary yet...
I haven't had my summary e-mail and it's been a couple of hours. I assume their server is being loaded quite hard, will wait a day or so before I chase I guess.
I'll have to resend my survey to correct a mistake, and things may always change as more concepts get shown off.
Happily, I've managed to only add an extra 23 dollars to my pledge for this survey, though I did move a little bit to second survey to do it.
The helfather was giving me mad puppy dog eyes, and I felt bad for leaving him behind. Fishlady, elfboss, and 'somehow different from the other ripper suits marauder' are still on the bench, much unlikely to come off.
That, and courier shipping. I figure, 800 dollar box(es) of plastic, and leaving it at basic shipping? Silly. Second shipment can come by normal mail, but i'll probably upgrade it to courier if they (wisely?) include the option during the second survey.
The recent update states "Payment must be made by the 6th of October for your rewards to be dispatched." I take it that means we don't have to pay for any additions right away. So, how would one pay for any additions then? Also, can we pay over time or do we have to pay all at once for the additions?
Piperi wrote: The recent update states "Payment must be made by the 6th of October for your rewards to be dispatched." I take it that means we don't have to pay for any additions right away. So, how would one pay for any additions then? Also, can we pay over time or do we have to pay all at once for the additions?
Widdershinz wrote: Arrrgh, I'm moving house and don't have an address for the new place yet. What should I do if I don't have an address by the 21st?
Find someone nearby you trust who isn't moving, and have it delivered to them. Then pick it up yourself, or have them post it domestic to you.
Alternatively, are you moving somewhere for work? A lot of people have their parcels delivered to them at their office, if the office allows it, so that they're not constantly having to put up with the little attempted delivery cards.
Widdershinz wrote: Arrrgh, I'm moving house and don't have an address for the new place yet. What should I do if I don't have an address by the 21st?
Just message Mantic on the Kickstarter page to let them know your new address when you have it. I'm moving house in a couple of weeks and have done this with my KoWKS package.
I never saw the point in delaying adding funds until after the kickstarter ended, so I pledged a lot upfront during the campaign. Even so, I've added a fair bit afterwards anyway. Just keep changing my mind about what I really want.
I've decided to go heavy on terrain and booster figure deals, hoping to get maximum playability from the game. Since I'm already in for quite a bit, I'm cutting out any add-on that looks close to retail price value, and any items that just look like they're priced badly. So no single $8.00 restic figures, $20 Mechs, or $20 acrylic counters for me this time. I had a very soft spot for the Helfather concept art, really liked the CAD render of Howlett, and would've liked to have picked up Nem-Rath for increasing my Asterian faction's toughness (it looks like he'll be able to sub-in if your Asterian commander is assassinated, potentially saving your butt if that Achilles heel of the faction gets exploited), but if they turn out well as final sculpts, I'm not too worried about picking those figs up later at retail for around $8 or less. As for the Mechs, well, I can wait to see both how they end up looking and whether they actually play well in Deadzone or unbalance the game. I've found the Iron Ancestor online for a few dollars less than $20, so $20 a Mech is not really a tempting price point.
I went ahead and submitted my survey, but may end up revising my survey a lot depending on what the landing pad and fortifications sprues end up looking like, and what the Rebs / Plague boosters look like. If the Plague terraton sculpt isn't any good, or if the Rebs booster figs don't hold the same standard of quality as their starter set figs, I'll probably drop those boosters entirely and put more into terrain. On the other hand, if the Marauder booster fig sculpts end up looking great, there's a slight chance I might reconsider dropping any add-ons for that faction. But there's no way I'm taking any chances with concept art for that faction in particular.
It should be an interesting couple of weeks to see how things are shaping up in the Mantic sculpting studios.
Hmm - this post had a pretty cynical slant. Since no one's commented on it yet, I will say I'm really liking the way the Plague swarm sculpt seems to be shaping up. I generally don't care much for "swarm" style unit sculpts, but this one has a lot of animation and enough protruding chitin, mandible, etc bits to keep it from being too flat or bland.
Widdershinz wrote: Arrrgh, I'm moving house and don't have an address for the new place yet. What should I do if I don't have an address by the 21st?
Just message Mantic on the Kickstarter page to let them know your new address when you have it. I'm moving house in a couple of weeks and have done this with my KoWKS package.
I had to do the same: put it in the survey that I'd be moving, then emailed Stew and let him know and be readjusted all my addresses for everything except Loka because that's somebody else's setup, which is totally fine. Mantic will definitely work with you, not against you, on address changes.
KS Update 96 wrote:
Shipping Information - 1st and 2nd Shipment
A lot of you have been asking about what ships when, so you can budget effectively for the surveys. Every item in the Kickstarter will be made available in the survey that will be out on Monday, regardless of when it ships. The second survey will be sent out shortly before we're due to ship the second batch (roughly Q2 next year, or earlier if we can), allowing you to top up your rewards should you wish. This survey will ONLY contain second shipment items - it will not offer anything already shipped.
These are the items we currently have planned for the second shipment:
Forge Father Faction Starters and Boosters
Asterian Faction Starters and Boosters
Plague Zombies
Light Support Vehicles (Pathfinder on Bike, Iron Ancestor, Stuntbot, Striders)
Faction Special Characters
Enforcers in Peacekeeper Armour (if funded!)
Deadzone Compendium
Deadzone Collector's Edition Hardback Book
AI Card Deck
Due to some changes to our tooling schedule made possible by your support, EVERYTHING else will come in the first shipment, so you'll have the vast majority of your order with you by Christmas! As we get closer to the release dates, there may be some items that change. For example, the Plague Zombies are very close to being finished, and we might be able to squeeze them into Shipment 1. If this is the case, we'll add them to the second survey anyway so that you can pick up some more if you need them. The same applies to anything else that we can speed up. We'll keep you posted in the updates as we know more.
Accidentally picked marauders for second free faction. Will have to resend mine if I want any elves. Gonna wait though. See if it smooths out.
Boomer is a paid add on only who was one of the last stretch goals on the crazy final day. He's a stinky hobgoblin demolitions expert who will work for anyone that can put up with the stink.
I've been pretty critical of Mantic but I must say that the latest Deadzone and Dreadball models have inspired more confidence. All going well I can easily see my placeholder 10 dollar pledge becoming a double Strike Team and 4-500 dollars worth of add ons by June 21st.
GrimDork wrote: Accidentally picked marauders for second free faction. Will have to resend mine if I want any elves. Gonna wait though. See if it smooths out.
Boomer is a paid add on only who was one of the last stretch goals on the crazy final day. He's a stinky hobgoblin demolitions expert who will work for anyone that can put up with the stink.
And now I just realized that I screwed up on my 2nd sending of the pledge manager, so once I get confirmation of that one, I'll have to be sending in a 3rd one!
Yeah, I messed mine up too... and I never got a confirmation for it. I don't really like this pledge manager idea of not having a login to see what you pledged for or to change the pledge... bit confusing.
Lt. Coldfire wrote: Yeah, I messed mine up too... and I never got a confirmation for it. I don't really like this pledge manager idea of not having a login to see what you pledged for or to change the pledge... bit confusing.
Agreed - I wish they have went a different direction with this one as well.
CMON has many faults, but their pledge manager setup isn't one of them!
When you get your confirmation, they send you a list breaking everything down you selected. So if you want or need to change anything, you can view that and see what you need to change.
I agree it could have been better, but the tools and capability are there. It may take a day or so to get your survey confirmation, but they will get it back to you.
Well, the monsters and their fantastically flexible pledge manager, I've adjusted myself up to Strike Team + 4 Battle Zones + Peacekeepers + Nish. I believe this qualifies me for a printed copy of the compendium, correct? Now that I'm over $300? Or was that only during the campaign, like some of the other offers?
Quick question: For increasing our pledge, does anyone know if the "Paypal invoice" is resolved immediately using the same payment source as the original KS payment, or does it sit on Paypal until you resolve it?
I ask because I'm in the process of shutting down my old bank account that I made the original KS payment with, and don't think I can afford more awesome goodies if I have to use it instead of my new bank for the survey extras.
darkPrince010 wrote: Quick question: For increasing our pledge, does anyone know if the "Paypal invoice" is resolved immediately using the same payment source as the original KS payment, or does it sit on Paypal until you resolve it?
I ask because I'm in the process of shutting down my old bank account that I made the original KS payment with, and don't think I can afford more awesome goodies if I have to use it instead of my new bank for the survey extras.
I've added some bits and not received any invoice yet.
I don't think they can take more money from the original KS account as your Amazon Payments auth was just for the pledge amount, you will have the opportunity to specify the payment source through PayPal as normal
recruittons wrote: Well, the monsters and their fantastically flexible pledge manager, I've adjusted myself up to Strike Team + 4 Battle Zones + Peacekeepers + Nish. I believe this qualifies me for a printed copy of the compendium, correct? Now that I'm over $300? Or was that only during the campaign, like some of the other offers?
The Compendium is a post KS reward, correct. The $400, $500, and $750 rewards had to be achieved during the campaign.
Secure the LZ
Update #98 · Jun 27, 2013 · 14 comments
With the survey deadline approaching on the 21st July and all of our sculptors working like crazy to get everything finished, we’ve got some new scenery sprue contents to show off!
First to be funded was the Landing Pad BattleZone:
The Landing Pad BattleZone contains 3 x Landing Pad sprue, 1 x Defence Line Sprue (see below) and 1 x 48-piece connector sprue.
The crane piece works as a 90 degree connector and can be put on any floor, wall or ceiling.
The small pieces in the top right corner are stair connectors, allowing you to combine staircase pieces and make a staircase as wide as you like.
The pillars work as 180 degree connectors, so are useful for strengthening any building.
This BattleZone is sufficient to make a complete Landing Pad raised up on pillars with a perimeter defence line, a gun turret and a staircase, with plenty of bits to spare!
You’ll notice above that the Landing Pad BattleZone features 3 Landing Pad Sprues and the Defence Line Sprue upgrade sprue funded at $1.15m that can be used to add even more variety to both the Landing Pad and Fortification BattleZones!
Defence Line Sprue (Part of Landing Pad and Fortification BattleZones):
The defence line pieces are designed to fit around the edges of the Landing Pad or along the top of a fortified wall or bunker.
On its own the sprue also creates a line of Barricades up to 29.5 inches long! The turret is standalone and can be used as a comms array or burst laser.
The 135 degree connectors are on both this sprue and the Landing Pad and can be used to join the defence line pieces at 135 degrees, or to angle them outwards around the edges of the landing pad.
NOTE: All sprue designs are awaiting final confirmation from our factory, so there may some slight tweaks still to come, but we will ensure that you can still build just as much with them!
We’re expecting final renders of the Fortifications and Ruins Sprue in soon so keep an eye out for them!!
Yeah, I realized yesterday that I don't really have an interest in almost any of the mini's outside of the goblin artillery, hulk, the forge fathers, and some random characters but that I'm totally into the terrain at this point. I'm hoping for a full layout on the sprues before the survey ends but I switched from Strike Team to an all Terrain pledge with a few mini's added on. I'm never going to paint something that doesn't fit into an army I'm building so I only grabbed two models I thought looked good enough to get to paint.
Dang they are slow to respond to mails, sent a mail through Kickstarter nearly three days ago, and one through their contacts page nearly 48hrs ago, and still no contact.
Thanks for asking Alph, but just looking to see if they'll let me pull my Deadzone pledge. Come to conclusion I jumped in on this late, and suddenly aware I can't actually fit this into my house right now.
I might look at it again, but the amount I pledged seems silly considering I in all likelihood it'll sit in a box and to me it seems more logical to loss the 10% and bail.
Of course I have no idea of Mantic's view on pledges, I've seen others let people pull out, no idea on Mantic.
edit - Yeah I just left a post on their facebook as well. Seems their community manager is on holiday which won't be helping.
The problem with pulling a pledge is they didn't get all that money. Amazon got some, kickstarter got some, and I'm sure sure some c-cards got declined and such.
I might look at it again, but the amount I pledged seems silly considering I in all likelihood it'll sit in a box and to me it seems more logical to loss the 10% and bail.
Earth Dragon wrote:The problem with pulling a pledge is they didn't get all that money. Amazon got some, kickstarter got some, and I'm sure sure some c-cards got declined and such.
I think he's aware of that, and willing to work with them.
Exciting news - we’ve just had confirmation that we’ve taken more than enough through the survey to fund the tooling of the hard plastic Enforcer Peacekeepers!
But there's more...
If we continue the way we’re going with the survey results, we think we’ll also be able to tool an additional scenery sprue...
Having read the feedback on the update last week, many of you have been clamouring for full height walls the length of the long edge of the triangular pieces (a tile 3" high by approximately 4.2" wide), allowing you to make buildings in far more interesting and varied shapes. There was also demand for ramps. Unfortunately these pieces simply didn't fit into the BattleZones - they took up too much of the sprue and significantly impacted the flexibility of the sets. However, we have a solution!
If enough comes in through the surveys, we think we can rectify this and create a brand-new sprue fully compatible with the existing kits, containing large wall pieces, a ramp, additional triangular sections and associated accessories, once again improving the variety and customisability of the kits!
Hmm, unexpected. I mean, we all knew the money for the peacekeepers was there. I'd still rather have the long bit in the landing pad, though I think the longer walls that come with it will probably be workable anyway, but if they say it doesn't fit then it most likely doesn't. I'll probably be wishing I had more scenery by the time second survey comes out so I don't think I'll exactly mind if there's an option to buy more next year.
Battlezones! Lots and lots of battlezones! Speaking of that, I really need to get off my own butt and correct my survey so I don't end up with extra marauders instead of any asterians at all.
New update. Fortification looks OK. Happy to have one inc. May cut down lz tho don't need so many defense line sprues. Looking forward to seeing the ruins.
Super excited about the extended second survey too!
I'm holding off on my survey until I see a few more WIP posts. I'd really like to see some renders of what the landing pad and fortifications look like assembled.
Is there a pledge manager manager around anywhere? I need to work out what I'm going to get in this thing, since I've been pretty much ignoring it for the last two months.
Yep this pledge calc is really good, though the shipping doesn't work when I throw it in google docs. Think it's updated with everything bar peace keepers? Maybe they're in it too.
I haven't even looked at mine yet either. I need to do that sometime soon. The fact that we can add full KS stuff onto the second pledge does make me happy though, so I may leave this at just the EB striker for now.
Judwan Medic
Reb Weapon Team
Reb Kraw
Plague Weapon Team
Plague Terraton
Plague Swarm
Marauder Sergeant
Marauder Hulk
The Marauders continue to be a disappointment yet again the Hulk has tiny legs on a huge torso, I've decided to not get any Marauder stuff and off load the starter faction when I get them. The rest looks pretty good.
Still waiting for the Ruined Battlezone renders to be posted so I can make a final decision and complete the survey.
Well that Hulk has made me switch my pledge around again....That, combined with the ability to purchase stuff on the second survey means I can avoid this until I see a final product.
Not in love with the hulk. Guess I could drop marauder faction booster and spelfs and pick them up 2nd survey if I still want. Get two more. Battle zones . Don't have to have 4 full factions at Xmas. Maybe too lazy to bother tho.
Hard to tell really from that picture. That material is spectacularly bad for photographing. Don't know why they let this out in the wild before a resin copy was made.
Having said that, from what little I can actually see:
Hard surfaces =Good
Organic surfaces = Mediocre to Bad.
Will reserve final judgement for a good photo of a resin copy...
I'll wait for the *official picture/update before I make judgement... but if the hulk is no bueno I don't think the goblin weapon team is worth the cost of the booster bundle to me at least. May just frontload an even more ridiculous chunk of scenery.
For me it isn't the detail on the sculpt I actually really like the gun for example, it is the goofy appearance/body characteristics/pose of the sculpt. A resin version would still have those traits.
As other have said, the hard surfaces look good. The flesh and cloth? Yuck. The hulk looks like something you'd get from a fast-food happy meal. And the resculpts of the Marauder commandos still look really bad, though a little better than the originals. Why is Mantic having such a hard time getting the Marauders right?
Don't like the hulk's head at all. That said, I'm sure I'll have extra heads from the Ogres and Trolls (depending on Hulk's size), and can probably figure out other ways to put other heads on. Legs look fairly static too. Waist to neck looks good though. Half the model good, half bad. Definitely needs fixing Mantic! I'm a Marauder supporter and not a huge fan of this, but there are far worse cries than mine.
If you've pledged your 'full' amount in the original kickstarter, can I just put down the first shipment items now, then leave the kickstarter money I've 'banked' for the second shipment ones?
Yeah... it's all cause of the crappiness of the orks / trolls.
Assuming the stumpy legs were made that way on purpose, I have no real complaint about the Marauders. If I ever play 40K again, they'll fit in with my Orks, and my Orks will port over to Warpath.
He does look an awful lot like the trolls. I'm not even so disenchanted with marauders, its more that I'm constantly trying to trim model fat to get more terrain in without further breaking the bank.
So I finally looked at the pictures in more detail (hard to tell on my phone sometimes). Everything looks pretty good, I thought the commando with knives was bad but it was just lack of detail on my phone, he seems ok to me. The plague with the reeeaaaly long torsos kinda throw me off though. Looking at the other third gens, I guess they are all that way, something about the newest two just shows it more for me.
I've gotta see the hulk in a different material its too hard to see what's going on right now, but if he's basically a KoW troll with a gun I guess I'll be ok with it.
Compel wrote: If you've pledged your 'full' amount in the original kickstarter, can I just put down the first shipment items now, then leave the kickstarter money I've 'banked' for the second shipment ones?
Yeah... it's all cause of the crappiness of the orks / trolls.
If that's to me, I think maybe there was a misunderstanding? Ogres n trolls have extra heads-meaning extra heads for these guys. I like the ogres and trolls. Orx too-I have two battalions of em. I just don't like these heads or legs. I'm fine with the other guys.
GrimDork wrote: He does look an awful lot like the trolls. I'm not even so disenchanted with marauders, its more that I'm constantly trying to trim model fat to get more terrain in without further breaking the bank.
So I finally looked at the pictures in more detail (hard to tell on my phone sometimes). Everything looks pretty good, I thought the commando with knives was bad but it was just lack of detail on my phone, he seems ok to me. The plague with the reeeaaaly long torsos kinda throw me off though. Looking at the other third gens, I guess they are all that way, something about the newest two just shows it more for me.
I've gotta see the hulk in a different material its too hard to see what's going on right now, but if he's basically a KoW troll with a gun I guess I'll be ok with it.
He's more upright, and his face is very different. The KoW trolls look very trollish, while the face on this one looks like a human face but with a heavier forehead and fangs.
i love that fact that now the second survey will have everything that the first survey had. For my secodn survey i will be adding more 5 sets of peacekeepers all of the forgefatehrs and asterians, all of the heros and larer units. the infiltration bike and more terrain, possibly some acrylic sprues. cant wait.
I'm also extremely happy about the alteration. I may have too much terrain as it is, and I know I have too many models, but now there isn't as much additional pressure to pick things up survey 1. Now I can just get enough of everything for fat deadzone forces and fill in the blanks for warpath units after the lists are out (assuming they'll throw us that bone by the Q1 next year...).
Well, at least I can free up the price of the Hulk in the survey for something else, lol! I was really hoping I could at least use something for the Marauders that wasn't GW, but nope. I'd still rather use an Ogryn, even at a higher cost.
Putting everything from the first survey into the second survey has been great for me. Although my first survey isn't everything I originally pledged for, some shuffling around means it's still the same $ value - with the AI cards, walkers, special characters and Enforcers put off until next year, I've used that money to get one each of the Antenocities stuff, 5 mats instead of 3, some dice, the acrylic counters and the loot counters. I've also reduced my terrain back to Urban battle with 1 landing pad, 1 fort and 2 ruined.
It's basically allowing me to hedge my bets - I get 5 zombies, 1 set of each of the counters, 1 of each scatter, and 1 or 2 of each battlezone, and if I like them and decide I want more of them, I have the option of getting them next year, rather than jamming them in now and hoping for the best. Working out well so far!
Sounds like the landing pad sprue is supposed to have 2 90 degree corner bits instead of 1. Some kind of oversight. Mantic responded once to some comments on the kickstarter. Woot?
Taarnak wrote: Hard to tell really from that picture. That material is spectacularly bad for photographing. Don't know why they let this out in the wild before a resin copy was made.
Having said that, from what little I can actually see:
Hard surfaces =Good
Organic surfaces = Mediocre to Bad.
Will reserve final judgement for a good photo of a resin copy...
~Eric
I think the bigger issue is the proportions, which are awful or worse - and not hidden by the material.
Yeah the only issue for me is the proportions, the legs just seem substantially too small for the torso and arms. I don't hate it, but it's far from ideal.
The Rebs in the update looked good for the most part. The medic and Kraaw looked great, as did the shark man. I don't know what to think of the ambiguous gendered rocket person. Don't even get started on the Zees...
