I was initially in for Ogres, Werewolves, Golems and Gargoyles.
After seeing the Ogres, Werewolves, Golems, Gargoyles and Trolls, I asked to be switched to 2x Ogres and 2x Trolls - and they did so for me with no issues at all!
Strangely enough, I am not worried about these sculpts so far, and I think they'll all turn out OK.
Mostly based on their Dreadball stuff - suitably SF and all that, and then mostly based on the terrain shown to date, which is what I'm really in this for and most excited about!
Nkelsch, I'm not even getting into the blatant trolling; What I will say however, is that if you had bad casts, you really should contact Mantic. Mine were fine, as were those most of us got; it does seem some folks had bad castings etc, but from what I've heard (and this jives with my overall experience with mantic CS quite well; they're better than pre-FCGW at CS) they're good with replacing any bad casts etc.
I personally love all the Dreadball Season one models. Th eonly issues I had with them was some of the mold lines, but I'm no stranger to that, so it was nothing to scrape them off. Of all the models Mantic makes, I really don't like many of the Warpath Forgefather minis. They are very squished looking and often in weird running poses. The Dreadball Forgefathers are top notch.
kaiohx wrote: The Dreadball Forgefathers are top notch.
I'm hoping that when forgefathers appear in Deadzone, they represent a revamp to look more like the Dreadball Forgefathers. At some point, the hard plastics could be updated to that look as well.
BTW, I think the season 1 Dreadball sculpts were all great. Season 2 looks better (and apparently has better production value to minimize mold lines and such), but season 1 was still a hit.
Never really liked the Warpath Forgefathers but I think the Dreadball ones are fantastic so I'm hoping that the Deadzone ones are closer to the Dreadball ones.
I didn't have any issue with the Dreadball miniatures sure some are average sculpts and could have been better but there are none I'd consider bad I'm very happy with what I got overall. Restic can be a bit of a pain to clean up but I'm used to it now so it's of no major concern to me.
I just want some Forge Fathers already. I'm in for the $150 but if the additional scenery or Forge Father faction go up I can see doubling my bid quite easily.
We’ll throw in an extra scenery sprue in all pledge levels of Recon ($100) at up, meaning you’ll be getting more tiles with which to construct your buildings - and we can’t wait to see what designs you’ll come up with!
Right then, new stretch goal time…
$275,000 – Deadzone Upgrade!
Righty ho – if we hit this stretch, we can tool the Enforcer with Assault Blade and an alternate Plague 2nd Gen, as well as be able to throw in an extra Rebs Yndij and 2 additional sets of arms (one set of close combat, one set of ranged) for the Marauders Ripper Suits, meaning you can choose whether you want two with ranged weapons or two with combat weapons, as opposed to one of each!
Work in progress (this is NOT finished) Marauder Ripper with ranged options – for when you can’t decide which gun to take into battle. Marauder get more bigger models than anyone else, so there’s slightly less we can put into a faction starter.
If we hit this goal, we will be able to add one of these items to the relevant faction starter! That means you’ll get 1 extra item at Scout ($40), 2 at Recon ($100) and all 4 at Strike Team ($150)!
Seems to have slowed down a bit today, I guess alot of people are still waiting on the terrain packs as add-ons.
The pic of that Ripper Suit has made me a believer. I was excited before, but this puts me over the top. If they can keep that level up throughout this project, I would be more than pleased.
Also, his right hand looks like its holding a lascannon. Looks very GWish. Especially the barrel of the weapon. I don't care at all, just saying.
Terrain packs or optional upgrades. Without a few purchasable's it's going to stagnate a bit. But I think they can probably afford for it to go for a t least a day without breaking a new stretch goal before their forced to put in purchase only items (i.e. not extras). We'll see.
Hulksmash wrote: Terrain packs or optional upgrades. Without a few purchasable's it's going to stagnate a bit. But I think they can probably afford for it to go for a t least a day without breaking a new stretch goal before their forced to put in purchase only items (i.e. not extras). We'll see.
I think this is exactly what they've been waiting for. On a day where there's no stretch broken, they'll add terrain packs and/or extra crews as purchasable extras. An all-terrain pledge is another thing that's been talked about which would be popular and jumpstart a slow period.
Hulksmash wrote: Terrain packs or optional upgrades. Without a few purchasable's it's going to stagnate a bit. But I think they can probably afford for it to go for a t least a day without breaking a new stretch goal before their forced to put in purchase only items (i.e. not extras). We'll see.
I think this is exactly what they've been waiting for. On a day where there's no stretch broken, they'll add terrain packs and/or extra crews as purchasable extras. An all-terrain pledge is another thing that's been talked about which would be popular and jumpstart a slow period.
I wonder if they do a terrain only level if it would pull people out of their existing levels and therefor lower the amount of their pledges. I can't see the terrain only level being as much as the levels that come with multiple starter sets and terrain as well.
scarletsquig wrote:I like cathorse, the issue with regular feline anatomy is that it isn't designed to hold a rider.. one of the reasons why the GW mournfangs look so odd.
I'm no lover of GW- I don't own a single GW model at this point- but the mournfangs are about 10x better than that Mantic cathorse. Seriously.
That said, I'm with Alpharius, the ogres in particular and also the trolls came out fine. But it has been hit and miss (imo) with concept art to sculpts.
Which is why the marauders are so tempting. Because that's an actual sculpt. And it's totally badass!
BTW, noticed that the ripper suit add-on was slightly updated:
Now it appears that each add-on comes with both sets of weapons, so the stretch with only arms probably just balances out how they want to cast the ripper suits (body + 4 arms)
Hulksmash wrote: Terrain packs or optional upgrades. Without a few purchasable's it's going to stagnate a bit. But I think they can probably afford for it to go for a t least a day without breaking a new stretch goal before their forced to put in purchase only items (i.e. not extras). We'll see.
I think this is exactly what they've been waiting for. On a day where there's no stretch broken, they'll add terrain packs and/or extra crews as purchasable extras. An all-terrain pledge is another thing that's been talked about which would be popular and jumpstart a slow period.
I wonder if they do a terrain only level if it would pull people out of their existing levels and therefor lower the amount of their pledges. I can't see the terrain only level being as much as the levels that come with multiple starter sets and terrain as well.
I suppose that is that 'danger', but I think it is minimal.
I think a more likely scenario is that lots of new people jump in at 'terrain only' and a lot of existing pledgers up their pledges by... a lot!
AlexHolker wrote: The thighs are too small again. Apart from that, it looks good.
Yeah, the proportions of the model sculpt don't match the proportions of the concept art. The concept art shows proportions where the torso contains almost the entire marauder and it is more of a exosuit with extended limbs. Many things like the the waist has drastically shrunk, the head has grown which basically shrinks the overall model. The hands are back to the 'larger than your head' proportion opposed to the alternative regular marauders who have tiny realistic hands.
The model itself has completely changed to be more of a form-fitting powered armor. It is like going from Hulkbuster armor to Ironman armor. I would have expected the torso to be 'thicker' and the head to be 'smaller' to make it look more like a powerlifter suit and not just body-fitting power armor. I am not sure how he can be twice the size as an unarmored marauder and still have the same proportions or scale.
As for the arms, this is one of the situations where the model doesn't need a wacky pose. It is a big lumbering suit. It needs simple arms, guns forward. The "Hay look at mah gunz" overflowing the base pose does nothing for the model. That pose may be better for a Close-combat options, but with those two guns, it hurts the model. The concept art pose really would be better for this particular model. I think they need to start considering doing the model pose int he concept art the way many other manufacturers do it. Changing the pose while sculpting when they can't even get the model right in the first place may be part of their problem.
It isn't a terrible photo, but there do seem to be proportion issues in comparison with the concept art, and if I had a choice, I prefer the concept art both in pose and scale. While they say it is WIP, I really don't see them fixing any of the issues, so I would consider this model basically 'done' which means they saved me a lot of money. I will have to see if the retail release is worth 'repairing' to make it part of my armies.
Yeah, that's pretty damn good. It is likely to slow down pretty soon (terrain pledges and add-ons notwithstanding), but it has already trounced previous Mantic KS drives in terms of pledge levels. Getting so many early days at 100+ backers is a great sign.
Pacific wrote: Actually agree with you on this one, it would have looked better with a more moderate pose.
Rolt - where are you getting this stuff from? When I load the page I'm still getting the $250,000 level stuff..
Its all in the upddates section as normal Pacific, its loading for me just fine.
P.s Everbody make sure you apply for the Deadzone competition it ends May 5th, also be sure to add Deadzone as a "FAN" on BBG while you there, it will help get the game more exposure.
(If you don't do it I'll set an army of irritable rats after you.....)
I like the ripper suit, but do agree with nkelsch that it would look better with a boxier design around the thighs and lower torso. Not too sure about the arm design being wrong, since the design has to work gun/gun, CC/CC, or gun/CC. A straight forward shooting pose might look less good on a gun/CC model.
Pacific wrote: Actually agree with you on this one, it would have looked better with a more moderate pose.
Rolt - where are you getting this stuff from? When I load the page I'm still getting the $250,000 level stuff..
Its all in the upddates section as normal Pacific, its loading for me just fine.
P.s Everbody make sure you apply for the Deadzone competition it ends May 5th, also be sure to add Deadzone as a "FAN" on BBG while you there, it will help get the game more exposure.
(If you don't do it I'll set an army of irritable rats after you.....)
How do we do that? The email Mantic sent out in their newsletter had no links to the contest...
When I saw the concept art, I see the size of the head in comparison to the size of the heads of the plain clothed maurauders. Which makes the suit so large in comparison, that even the 'kommisar' maurauder who is probably the largest, his leg fully extended barley extends to the knee of the power suit. The scale makes almost the entire humanoid in the torso with limited extentions to the limbs. This means the potbellied look is required for functionality to work.
The preview sculpt just doesn't match what is in the concept art. Either this orx is 'regular size' so this model is much smaller than thought, or he is an overgrown orx who happens to just have a really big suit. Both are 'fine' but neither matches the concept. The sculpt appears as if the humanoid inside pretty much extends to the length of the arms and legs (and crotch) and it is a simple suit.
I do hope there is 'repair' work incoming on this model and it would be nice to see him next to a regular maurader before the end of the KS.
Yeah, I could always use the other three starter sets as gifts (I really only want the Rebs and other goodies. A hunnerd an' a half? I guess I can swing that.
i suspect by work in progress they mean clean up some of the details on the models and sharpen it up... not changing entire arms and legs at this stage... they;re covering the fine detail.
Too bad the last question on the BGG contest has no answer. All the other questions were easy, but after searching all the pages I could find for any keywords that would answer the question, I've found nothing. Diddly squat. Zilcho.
I wouldn't say "easily" found. I only saw it in one place. What's the difference between getting and missing that question? 9 entries versus 13 or something?
its not the middle dip, nor I was referring to that, it is the loss of the initial steam, I believe whatever streachgoal (almost) mantic had in the past days the result would roughly be the same, hence it was clever for them to do the terrain tooling strachgoals that early, I am expecting from now on the streachgoals to have more of an impact and need more consideration.
Haven't seen anyone disappointed with the ogres or golems, in fact I've seen lots of people happy with them.
And 90% of the complaints about the werewolves consist of over a dozen posts from Bob about their nipples.
I like cathorse, the issue with regular feline anatomy is that it isn't designed to hold a rider.. one of the reasons why the GW mournfangs look so odd.
Anyway, my point is, on the whole, most people who have backed Mantic Kickstarters are pretty happy with what they've gotten.
Ummm... Wait abit... Gotten?! I havn't gotten much more than the rulebook, counters and dice?!?
I'll back up Squiggy; I've been fairly happy with what I've gotten minus one minor bit of shipping damage (but who ever likes to get that on anything?).
This one is very tempting, especially for the terrain. I (sadly) don't care much for the Enforcer captain, though I do like most of the rest of the models in that line. Never cared for greenskins though, and 3rd gen plagues aren't grabbing me so much. Still on the fence, but it does fall during a convenient enough time in relation to pay day, so I'll be watching this one.
Yeah, the pace it's moving today add-on's are going to need to start being added. I think they road the initial push as far as it's going to take them. Now add-on's to pull in more streches which pulls in more peeps.
Dreadball and KoW both had 2 for 1 extra choices for $25. I think beyond terrain, if crews were available (without stretches) at 2 for $25, lots would sell and boost pledges to higher levels. Looking at the add-ons available, I don't think Mantic is going to do the 2 for $25 deals. Why offer a Ripper suit for $10 when you're going to offer a 2 Ripper suits, 2 captains and 8 basic marauder grunts for $25? Without the higher value of add-ons, I don't think pledges at the levels near what dreadball had is likely.
By the ways, I think that if the 2 for $25 were offered, many people would basically build an army out of these (enforcers and marauders seem particularly expandable, and forgefathers if they became available would be popular too).
Think I missed it, but is this like a "regular" skirmish game where buy buy starter sets and rules and everything separately (but bundled for the KS) or is it a big box set like Sedition Wars?
Necros wrote: Think I missed it, but is this like a "regular" skirmish game where buy buy starter sets and rules and everything separately (but bundled for the KS) or is it a big box set like Sedition Wars?
We don't know how many different ways it will be released post-kickstarter. There is some hint in that the "scientist" level is called a boxed game that comes with 2 factions, board, terrain, etc.
It's likely that post-kickstarter there will be a starter box like "scientist" and maybe a few other starter deals, a few faction boxes, and most everything also being available a'la carte. Take a look at Dreadball for an idea of what this will probably look like.
You can get starter faction add-ons for $35 now. Not too bad. Although I started thinking 'Oh, I'll get one of each' which, well, would be a bit silly. $140 for all 4 starters, or $150 for a second strike team.
Bit of a bumper update today as we've got new add-ons, the opportunity to play Deadzone at the Mantic Open Day AND a stretch goal teaser or two... are you ready for this? You'd better be.
New Add-ons!
We've had a storming start to the Deadzone Kickstarter and today we've got a new range of extras for you to add onto your pledge!
Please add $5 postage if not adding these to a pledge level of Scout ($40) or higher.
We will have a demo game of Deadzone being played at the event, so you can try your hand at the Alpha ruleset, as well as see the new models for the Enforcers and the Plague.
Don't worry if you can't attend however, we'll be posting the Alpha Rules online well in advance of the event and we'll be taking pictures!
We will be aiming to hold the largest game of Kings of War we’ve ever had so please feel free to bring your armies along and participate in some games on the day!
In addition, we’re also be holding the Manticbowl DreadBall Tournament as well as demonstration games of Warpath and our very popular seminar with Ronnie. Jake Thornton will also be in attendance plus more Special Guests still to be announced.
The team from Golem Painting Studio will be holding a painting workshop showing you how to paint hard edges on the DreadBall Teams, or flesh and cloth on the Corporation Marines. Reserve your spot and grab your Workshop Ticket Here!
The venue location has now been confirmed as 193 Hempshill Lane, Nottingham NG6 8PF. This is literally just around the corner from our Greasley Street Offices, a much larger venue with considerable parking!
New Stretch Goal Teasers!
We’ve had quite a few requests to show-off what’s next… so here are a few teasers for you to try and guess what they are!
Meh, $35 is ok if it keeps increasing as the packs increase. As it stands right now it's a great deal for the Marauders, an alright deal for Plague and a meh deal for enforcers and rebels. Enforcers doubly so as the captain is pants, the add-on's only add up to $15 so the additional $20 will already get you the Enforcers now at discounted retail.
Hulksmash wrote: Meh, $35 is ok if it keeps increasing as the packs increase. As it stands right now it's a great deal for the Marauders, an alright deal for Plague and a meh deal for enforcers and rebels. Enforcers doubly so as the captain is pants, the add-on's only add up to $15 so the additional $20 will already get you the Enforcers now at discounted retail.
Well, hopefully it helps boost a bit.
I think the new enforcers are more detailed than the old ones, and should have less mold lines, etc.. because of the changes in the process of making restic models after dreadball season 1. However, I agree that the value on these is a little disappointing compared to previous Mantic Kickstarters. $30 wouldn't have been as good of a deal as the other kickstarters, but still would be tempting enough to add some. At $35, I'm likely to just stick at the basic pledge (unless they go 2 for 1 at some point ).
I wonder if the Helfather is related to the forge fathers in any way, the gun is very similar to the stormrage veterans weapons and the legs are quite close to the Iron Ancestor.
Yeah the head and the shoulders are the only things that make me think its not a forge father but rather their tech, I think it is mentioned in their fluff they sell their technology to other groups, in particular lesser alien factions so that they stand a chance against the corporation forces should they resist the corps offers to join the co-proseirity sphere. So this could be a smaller alien race armed with forge father weapons and armour.
My guess would be an Abyssal Dwarf/Forgefather, who according to the Dreadball/Deadzone meeting at Adepticon are the ruling class of the Forgefathers.
seems reasonable!
I think the new enforcers are more detailed than the old ones, and should have less mold lines, etc.. because of the changes in the process of making restic models after dreadball season 1. However, I agree that the value on these is a little disappointing compared to previous Mantic Kickstarters. $30 wouldn't have been as good of a deal as the other kickstarters, but still would be tempting enough to add some. At $35, I'm likely to just stick at the basic pledge (unless they go 2 for 1 at some point ).
The card deck has to be taken into account with these sets, and the models are a lot bigger than dreadball. Mantic have said that more models are being added to the sets as well, so you can expect at least one more enforcer with assault blade, one 2nd gen (apparently they got eager and already included it in the pic) an extra cat alien thing and whatever else.
Black Nexus wrote: Mantic have said that more models are being added to the sets as well, so you can expect at least one more enforcer with assault blade, one 2nd gen (apparently they got eager and already included it in the pic) an extra cat alien thing and BRIAN BLESSED.
scarletsquig wrote: ^ We've known that the Forgefathers have a caste system ever since their earliest background.
Yeah, but I was expecting something a little different. I mean, really? A population of short, beardy guys who are good at math and science and medicine, who won't share their treasures with those outside the tribe, and now we find out they take their protocols from a caste of elders who grow horns, secretly worship Satan, and covet gold more than human life? I thought this was supposed to be sci fi. I only want to identify with the Forgefathers so far...
The gun outline looks like a Forge Father heat cannon, the pictures name is Helfather, yeah, calling it now. That is some kind of Forge Father armoured unit.
wasn't they're some kind of ape man in dreadball??
There was. I didn't think it was very intelligent though.
Going by this page here they are called The Zees and are apes with boosted intelligence. The army looks quite similar to that outlined in the picture although I expect that to be a Forgefather unit of some kind rather then a Zee.
Cyporiean wrote: The Zee are not supposed to be Apes, at least not originally.
They're Martians.
Are you sure?
This is the description of The Zees from the Kickstarter -
Some Corporate sponsors haven’t got easy access to bizarre aliens or giant robots to form unusual teams, and everyone wants something weird to draw in the crowds. Farbiketek scientists began experimenting with retraining cerebrally enhanced monkey clones mainly for their own amusement when a supply problem marooned them on Shebentor IV’s outer moon for over two years. By the time the rescue team arrived they found two teams of highly trained monkeys playing DreadBall and nothing more than a few bones of the original scientists. Not one to miss out on a potential profit, the commander of the rescue mission kept the teams intact and ran a league of his on on the way back to base. The rest, as they say, is history…
csimian wrote: I was thinking about the multi-hex Simian.
The description from the Dreadball Kickstarter -
Alpha Simians are large beasts from the jungle worlds of Inera, competitive aliens that enjoy the thrill that comes from a 200mph weapons-grade titanium being flung around a small enclosed arena. Alpha Simians are not the dumb brutes that they are often made out to be – the most famous among them is Toutanka, a maverick Corporation owner and star DreadBall player affectionately dumbed “Hank” – though there are those, like in every society, that simply prefer to keep things primitive and batter the opposition instead…
I could see a Merc Alpha Simian turning up at some point.
csimian wrote: I was thinking about the multi-hex Simian.
The description from the Dreadball Kickstarter -
Alpha Simians are large beasts from the jungle worlds of Inera, competitive aliens that enjoy the thrill that comes from a 200mph weapons-grade titanium being flung around a small enclosed arena. Alpha Simians are not the dumb brutes that they are often made out to be – the most famous among them is Toutanka, a maverick Corporation owner and star DreadBall player affectionately dumbed “Hank” – though there are those, like in every society, that simply prefer to keep things primitive and batter the opposition instead…
I could see a Merc Alpha Simian turning up at some point.
What are you basing that on? The description saying they are genetically modified apes is taken directly from the Kickstarter.
Heath Foley works for me.
The concept art might have been for Martians originally then but it was definitely used as the concept art for the genetically modified ape team in the end.
Aeneades wrote: The concept art might have been for Martians originally then but it was definitely used as the concept art for the genetically modified ape team in the end.
And at one point in the Kickstarter they were referred to as clones.
Some Corporate sponsors haven’t got easy access to bizarre aliens or giant robots to form unusual teams, and everyone wants something weird to draw in the crowds. Farbiketek scientists began experimenting with retraining cerebrally enhanced clones mainly for their own amusement when a supply problem marooned them on Shebentor IV’s outer moon for over two years. By the time the rescue team arrived they found two teams of highly trained clones playing DreadBall and nothing more than a few bones of the original scientists. Not one to miss out on a potential profit, the commander of the rescue mission kept the teams intact and ran a league of his own on the way back to base. The rest, as they say, is history…
Added on another few bucks for another Enforcer set but I have already decided I don't want it, might just keep the money there for when something I actually want shows up. Mantic really need to make that other captain as an add on, I want to give them more money but there is nothing for me to get!
I'm in the same boat. The add-on's right now don't grab me at all. Outside of maybe getting more bomb dogs for counts-as flesh hounds for my dark mechanicus army nothing above the intiial level screams at me. And the value isn't quite there on the additional full "teams" for me to grab some just to get more stuff.
I might just throw in my max and walk away for 20 days and come back. It's tough not to look at it but I think that might be best for me
streetsamurai wrote: I wouldn't mind chaos dwarf, as long as theyre part of the forgefather faction.
Hell i'd much rather like the forge fathers to be only chaos dwarves, instead of the lame copy of squat they are now
Actually, they aren't really squat copycats either. Squats had a pretty distinct style to them (stunty Hells Angels) that was very much not like the current Forge Father high-fantasy by way of space opera. Forge Fathers are like taking a classical high fantasy race and plopping them in to the sci-fi equivalent (space opera). I actually kind of thought this was refreshing, myself. No twists or "like X, but..."
Just a bunch of short, bearded, armoured lumps straight out of Norse myth. That said, bringing some of the Abyssal Dwarf stylings in to the Forge Father repetoire will be awesome. I can't wait to see the full art for the Helfather.
Think they could be interesting, as long as they don't use any bits from Kings of War for them (Forge Father with an Abyssal dwarf head being the worst route they could take with this.. ).
I think with them going for all-restic this time around means we wont be seeing a repeat of the KoW sprue reuse.
The overall helmet design looks similar but part of me is thinking it will have the carved-face look of standard FF stuff. My guess is they will probably just be porting over some of the general shapes and proportions used instead of the spikes. Which works for me, if that is what is going on.
Either it is what they will use to denote upper-class FF's or it is going to become a new common design aesthetic.
If the thing about Abbyssals being the FF overlords is true then this Helfather may be the character (and if that is a heat cannon, a very heavily armed one). I'm glad I held off getting any add-ons, because I am going to be pumping a lot in to getting FF stuff, that outline alone looks promising.
Ronin_eX wrote: I think with them going for all-restic this time around means we wont be seeing a repeat of the KoW sprue reuse.
The reaction to the KoW sprue reuse means we won't be seeing a repeat of the KoW sprue reuse. I think there'll be a harder sci-fi edge to warpath stuff going forward than the first edition had.
Cyporiean wrote: Abyssal Dwarf/Forgefather, who according to the Dreadball/Deadzone meeting at Adepticon are the ruling class of the Forgefathers.
I got the exact same reaction... How mantic would dare to turn the most honorable race on fantasy (sometimes grumpy, and not very friendly, but always honorable) into vassals of some sort of their evil cousins? Serious, if this is true, i will start to think that @Mantic dont like dwarfs in space at all... :/
I got the exact same reaction... How mantic would dare to turn the most honorable race on fantasy (sometimes grumpy, and not very friendly, but always honorable) into vassals of some sort of their evil cousins? Serious, if this is true, i will start to think that @Mantic dont like dwarfs in space at all... :/
Hey at least they like them enough to even make them
looks non-slip, rollable and high quality, and much better than paper. wonder if they will through it in free or it's an add-on? maybe free at strike team? That would make me happy.
I would imagine that it'll be a stretch goal, and once it's hit it will upgrade the mat in all copies of the game.
Either that or they'll treat it like the pitch upgrades from DB, and they're an addon (to be honest, I think most people would go for it, so maybe that's a good idea).
Wow. Looking at the comments section on the KS, what some of these guys are starting to expect is just unreasonable.
I agree with having vision on 2 stretch goals. If you don't like one, you may like the other. It just keeps MORE people interested and excited. But comments like "No new factions unless they are added to Striker please" are just a bit over the top. It's not "$150 will get ya everything we make". There is no way they'd be able to actually pull that off fiscally.
Earth Dragon wrote: Wow. Looking at the comments section on the KS, what some of these guys are starting to expect is just unreasonable.
I agree with having vision on 2 stretch goals. If you don't like one, you may like the other. It just keeps MORE people interested and excited. But comments like "No new factions unless they are added to Striker please" are just a bit over the top. It's not "$150 will get ya everything we make". There is no way they'd be able to actually pull that off fiscally.
Blows me away what people expect sometimes.
I don't think that's too unreasonable.
The point of the "Strike Team" level is that you get the starter for each of the factions, along with some gubbins for those factions. It's the "I'll have a strike team for each faction, so I can get the maximum amount of people interested into buying their own" level in my opinion.
To be fair the guy saying that also said he'd be cool if he could switch out factions from a second strike team for new factions.
I think that at $150 four full factions is fine. And I'm fine with paying $30-$35 for each new fully fleshed out faction additionally. Though they have to be a better buy than the enforcers which you can actually get cheaper right now buying the special model add-ons and retail enforcers....
I'm in the same boat a lot of you are. I've got money tied up in a bunch of other kickstarters that I would gladly drop if Mantic gives me something exciting to start tossing more money at.
I'm sure we'll see the eventual terrain pledges once they get something manufactured/ modeled. I wish it would happen soon though.
Hopefully we'll see those crazy buy one get one free deals towards the end to really ramp things up. We'll probably need some more factions by that point though.
So it seems that yesterday’s teasers went down very well (in that everyone was suitably teased!) so now it’s time to add some meat to the bones by getting onto our next stretch goal!
$300,000 – Deluxe Deadzone Gaming Mat In the sparsely populated planets of the far reaches of Corporation space, the settlements all tend towards a familiar look – built from the same prefab units that are supplied by Shensig Interplanetary to almost every colonist collective and security unit known to man. These boxy and utilitarian blocks are formed into storage units, barracks, workshops, offices, armories, labs, holding pens, and medi-centres with equal ease. They are the defining architectural wonder of the Corporation and are commonly what alien races assume to be the pinnacle of human achievement. They are a far cry from the architectural marvels of the Core. Read more on the blog.
Made from Manticanium (well, a similar material to what mouse mats are made from) this incredible one-sided gaming mat is non-slip and made of win – honestly, we’re a little in love with this material. Here's why:
- It rolls up. - Doesn’t crease when it’s folded. - Doesn’t slip off the table. - It’s durable - you won’t get any tearing or fraying. - Can be put down next to other mats to form a 4’x6’ or 4’x4’ gaming area.
If we hit this goal, we’ll be able to fund the Deluxe Gaming Mat and upgrade the paper mat to this shiny new version in the Strike Team ($150) package and up absolutely free!
In anticipation of hitting this goal, we’ve made the Deluxe Gaming Mat available in the add-ons and have put together some awesome bundles for those of you who want to expand your gaming table to 4’x4’ or 6’x4’ – maybe a hint for what’s coming later in the campaign? Just maybe!
* If you want 4 or 6 mats without selecting the Strike Team reward level, simply purchase a single and a bundle of 3, or 2 bundles of 3.
A 6’x4’ Urban Warzone gaming table.
In addition, we have two alternative models from our Warpath range – the Enforcer Captain and the Marauder Warlord – to add on to your pledge at a special kickstarter rate. Check them out:
So it seems that yesterday’s teasers went down very well (in that everyone was suitably teased!) so now it’s time to add some meat to the bones by getting onto our next stretch goal!
$300,000 – Deluxe Deadzone Gaming Mat
Spoiler:
...
...Made from Manticanium (well, a similar material to what mouse mats are made from) this incredible one-sided gaming mat is non-slip and made of win – honestly, we’re a little in love with this material. Here's why:
- It rolls up.
- Doesn’t crease when it’s folded.
- Doesn’t slip off the table.
- It’s durable - you won’t get any tearing or fraying.
- Can be put down next to other mats to form a 4’x6’ or 4’x4’ gaming area.
Spoiler:
Will be nice for the game, but I'm not terribly impressed as an add-on. Printing being what it is, a 2x2 mousepad for 20 bucks isn't a bad deal, but if I need more game tiles, I can make them much cheaper and as good or better looking with vinyl flooring tiles.
I may end up doing this anyway if one of the guys I'm splitting the game with ends up with the game mat.
That said, I'm sure there are some folks who will look at this as an easy opportunity to cover a whole tabletop. Hopefully it's a "win" for Mantic.
Will be nice for the game, but I'm not terribly impressed as an add-on. Printing being what it is, a 2x2 mousepad for 20 bucks isn't a bad deal, but if I need more game tiles, I can make them much cheaper and as good or better looking with vinyl flooring tiles.
It is an innovative idea, and I could see it being a great surface for gaming. I just know from personal experience with a bulk order you can ger 18"x24" custom printed mousepads for dirt cheap if printed in bulk enough.
doc1234 wrote: Still fingers crossed towards them doing a Scenery only level. At this stage i'm literally just watching this for a just mats and building option.
It is obviously coming, but for some reason Mantic is dragging this one out!
Probably waiting for the true Mid-Campaign lull, but for after there are enough add-ons to the 'sweet spot' $150 level so that not many will drop down for the terrain only?
I don't thank that would happen anyway, but when they finally really SHOW us the terrain and its many combos, as well as giving a terrain add-on package?
Really pleased with getting the upgraded gaming mat for free, can't stand paper mats!
The terrain only pledge is mainly waiting on them talking to their factory, which is currently on holiday, before they can nail down a price for everything.
They'll probably be looking to haggle things downwards using the bulk purchase as leverage. Ronnie is pretty good with the supply chain side of the business, considering that was his job for over a decade.
If they can get it down to around $5/sprue at the highest bulk buy level, that'd be amazing, you could completely cram a 4x4 board full of multi-level terrain for $160.
Seeing as the bulk order isn't likely for my area a cheap (relatively) table surface is something I'm interested in. I went ahead and just upped my pledge to include enough for the mats and the captain (since he's cheaper than retail and a sweet model). I'm about $50 from what I want to spend so if enough stuff comes up to eat up that 50 then the mats will start to get replaced by other toys
Man, a free mat at Strike Team is awesome. Also sorely tempted to grab five more to cover my table, but I will probably hold off on that since I don't really need it. If I find myself with an extra $90 burning a hole in my pocket, it will probably go to more buildings. Either way, definitely a well timed update and group of add-ons, we've already soared past yesterday's total with ~7 hours left in the day. The weekend rush should help carry us the rest of the way to $300k and from there I can only hope we start seeing Forge Fathers and I can start going crazy with my pledge.
I also ended up popping $10 on to grab the alternate Enforcer Captain. This will leave the restic one free to convert to my heart's content.
Edit - Oh, and this popped up on the KS comments section. Looks like scenery backing levels and add-ons are incoming soon.
Mantic wrote:@ Jake - scenery add-ons and a scenery only pledge level? That's coming - stay tuned!
Ronin_eX wrote: I also ended up popping $10 on to grab the alternate Enforcer Captain. This will leave the restic one free to convert to my heart's content.
Same!
Edit - Oh, and this popped up on the KS comments section. Looks like scenery backing levels and add-ons are incoming soon.
Mantic wrote:@ Jake - scenery add-ons and a scenery only pledge level? That's coming - stay tuned!
Yeah, they've been saying that for a while. I put it to them a few days ago and the response was similar. I think they're waiting for the new pledges to stagnate a bit before adding them in to keep the momentum going.
Edit - Oh, and this popped up on the KS comments section. Looks like scenery backing levels and add-ons are incoming soon.
Mantic wrote:@ Jake - scenery add-ons and a scenery only pledge level? That's coming - stay tuned!
Yeah, they've been saying that for a while. I put it to them a few days ago and the response was similar. I think they're waiting for the new pledges to stagnate a bit before adding them in to keep the momentum going.
In China they take a 3 day national holiday to celebrate labour day around the 1st of May and this year I believe the 2 preceding days so the factory may not have worked since last friday (I have no idea if the factory would have been open over the weekend), so Mantic have not been able to finalise contents and cost of each Scenery sprue with the factory which is holding up the process. They are likely to be back at work tomorrow so hopefully that will get things moving again.
edit: They also have a meeting with someone regarding window pieces tomorrow (I would guess both whole windows and broken window pieces like on the demo table) so if the meeting goes well I would expect to see those as a future stretchgoal.
mantic wrote:In anticipation of hitting this goal, we’ve made the Deluxe Gaming Mat available in the add-ons and have put together some awesome bundles for those of you who want to expand your gaming table to 4’x4’ or 6’x4’ – maybe a hint for what’s coming later in the campaign? Just maybe!
From the comment feed apparently Ronnie has been sharing some info on what's coming up.
Next 2 factions are Forge fathers and Asterians. They plan to get the first 6 factions fully funded and will then consider more.
Asterians may well be a drone/bot faction with a single Asterian commander who hangs back and let's the drones do the fighting, they are unwilling to commit actual troops to fighting the plague even though they know what's caused it they don't much care for the corporation and aren't to willing to help out.
Not sure I like the idea of a single Asterian it will depend on the drone designs I guess. So long as the Forgefathers have the Dread ball design bring it on.
awww no Veer-Myn for ages it seems, although its not like theres only a few days left and it would be cool to finally see the Asterian's in action, do love me some space elves. Personally I quite like the idea of a drone heavy faction, it does make sense in the context of the game, hopefully the drones will look good. I'm voting for lambda from blazblue or aegis from persona style drones, it aint gonna happen but a man can dream.
Also someone needs to explain to me this whole "Brian Blessed" junk thats all over the Deadzone KS comments section.
It comes with a high grade paper mat thats being upgraded to the deluxe version as part of a stretch goal, the upgrade is free at the $150 level and a $20 add-on for lower levels or if you just want extras.
the game comes with a paper gaming mat, this is an upgrade that takes it to a material used in making mouse mats. free at Strike Team and then an add-on at 20 bucks as well, plus some sweet deals if you want to build a 4x4 or 6x4 table with them.
This game totally looks to be shaping up to be what I have been trying to force Sedition Wars to be. I just wish it had come out earlier, so I would have IT instead.......can't fund another Kickstarter, probably ever.
Hey, this one will be worth it for buildings and mat alone also, take a look at the quality of previous mantic rule sets; they're clear, concise, easy to read and learn but quite tactical nonetheless. It might not quite be your taste, but you'll be sure to get a decent game at a good price at least. Mantic is *much* more of a known quantity than Studio McVey was ruleswise. (model-wise at least this is mantics usual quality/price band so you have examples; mcvey was only known from - relatively expensive - resin collectors' stuff).
Really like the matt idea.. wondering though, it kinda looks like it's just a mouse matt kind of thing, only bigger.. think the edges would start to get frayed a lot, or sharp pointy swords might catch and rip little holes over time?
So... what is the Brian Blassed thing about? Will he be some kind of winged Forgefather? Will he command his Hawk Men to DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE?
(If there is an homage model based on his character, I'll buy it sculpt-unseen.)
Also, I'm curious if the Asterian drone rumors have anything to do with the demand for plastic wraithguard... I sure hope 'Craftship Eyarndon' stays out of trouble.
@Ronin: Aren't you tapped out from the warzone KS? I hope you have an army of talented minimum wage painters to help you paint your hauls in a few months.
warboss wrote: @Ronin: Aren't you tapped out from the warzone KS? I hope you have an army of talented minimum wage painters to help you paint your hauls in a few months.
Heh, close to it. But I am already so far in the painting hole I may as well dig a bit deeper. With the extra 80-ish hours I work this month (why I agreed to it I will never know) I may be able to keep a small army of painters fed for the amount of time I'll need 'em.
At least Deadzone seems to be slated for December, I may get through up to a quarter of my Warzone stuff before it arrives.
That's why Mantic were geniuses with their timing. Right before summer, started at the end of month, but ends right after paycheck a are given out at the beginning of another month.....
I'm positive this will break a mil, and may see a "Bones" ending because of some of the add-ons. The pledge per backer amount will probably break $300.
At their current rate I think 1mil is a pretty good guess right now. It got a much better start than DB and that ended pretty well. DB also managed to stay pretty constant throughout the middle, if Deadzone manages those kinds of numbers through the middle and has as impressive and end as it did a start then I think we are in for a pretty good campaign. At nearly 2000 backers and $300k before even releasing terrain-based stuff, this thing is looking solid. And if those mats caused enough of a surge to turn a potentially slow Wednesday in to a fairly successful day then the rush once the terrain add-ons come in may be an impressive one.
I can't wait to see how the rest of the week shapes up (at least once the terrain stuff goes up). If the terrain has even half the effect that I think it will then the Forge Fathers and Asterians may get funded pretty damn quick.
At least a successful campaign will make sure it's a healthy product once released for retail. I can say that even if I can't currently afford the kickstarter, I would definitely still be interested in getting into this game once it releases, if even just bought as smaller chunks.
Out of curiosity, do kickstarted projects sell well in your local areas? I've seen maybe a half dozen products total at my local store that were initially kickstarted and it doesn't seem like they're selling much in either case. I also don't tend to see people playing them either much. I don't know if that's a local phenomenon or a more global thing.
I believe at Mantic's press conference they said that they had interest from distributors for 3000 to 5000 copies before the Kickstarter, but after that they sold out of the first two productions runs of Dreadball totalling 10000 copies and created the Dreadball Kickoff boardgame variant because of the popularity.
I've seen Sedition Wars, Zombicide, and Dreamforges stuff in local stores. Not much else yet. Though I'd expect to eventually see Dreadball. The problem for mantic is that some stores don't want to cannibalize their GW sales for fantasy and 40k by carrying Mantic regularly. Might be less a thing with Dreadball.
warboss wrote: Out of curiosity, do kickstarted projects sell well in your local areas? I've seen maybe a half dozen products total at my local store that were initially kickstarted and it doesn't seem like they're selling much in either case. I also don't tend to see people playing them either much. I don't know if that's a local phenomenon or a more global thing.
My LGS rarely even gets things outside of the GW and PP range of things. I was surprised when Malifaux seemed to have taken off (Infinity didn't unfortunately; he only ever got the starters for it and is still sitting on six). But amazingly I saw a copy of Zombicide up for sale, I was going to grab it last week when my wife and I went (she loves zombies and board games) but it had been sold already. That was the one and only KS product I have ever seen on the shelves.
I can almost guarantee he wont stock Warzone when it comes in for retail (he still has Heartbreaker/Target minis lying around, not to mention box after box of the FFG one). So I don't think I'll see another Kickstarter product in their until Zombicide Season 2 stuff gets released. But when it does, it will probably sell pretty well.
Edit - Wait, just remembered. I totally saw Sedition Wars in there as well.
judgedoug wrote:I believe at Mantic's press conference they said that they had interest from distributors for 3000 to 5000 copies before the Kickstarter, but after that they sold out of the first two productions runs of Dreadball totalling 10000 copies and created the Dreadball Kickoff boardgame variant because of the popularity.
Good to hear. If anyone could be considered experienced with running successful tabletop minis kickstarters, it would be Mantic. I've seen some of their stuff at the local store but nothing from the more recent KS releases but rather earlier traditionally released stuff.
Hulksmash wrote:I've seen Sedition Wars, Zombicide, and Dreamforges stuff in local stores. Not much else yet. Though I'd expect to eventually see Dreadball. The problem for mantic is that some stores don't want to cannibalize their GW sales for fantasy and 40k by carrying Mantic regularly. Might be less a thing with Dreadball.
I saw a selection of the Dreamforge stuff just a month or two back and one copy of zombicide but that's been it for me. I hadn't thought about it but I do see how a store could see Mantic's lower price points cannibalizing higher priced offerings.
They did say that but later on in the comments said that would only happen if "thousands were sold". I think they said it as a joke and quickly backtracked when they realized how seriously people took them. I would go try to find where they said it in the comments but the comments page has thousands of Brian Blessed comments and no one has the time to dig through all that. But they definitley said it would take thousands of orders to make that happen, without ever actually putting out a real number.
I'm loving the look of this so far. I was already in for the $144 early bird Strike Team, but I just upped it another $75 to make a 4x4' gaming surface, and the two captain figures. I've always loved that Maurader but never picked him up, definitely a good time to do so. Once the scenery tiles come up as an add-on I can totally see my pledge for this game coming in at over $300.
warboss wrote: Out of curiosity, do kickstarted projects sell well in your local areas? I've seen maybe a half dozen products total at my local store that were initially kickstarted and it doesn't seem like they're selling much in either case. I also don't tend to see people playing them either much. I don't know if that's a local phenomenon or a more global thing.
The store I frequent doesn't carry too many products that I've seen previously on KS. They have a pretty ample selection of ranges of all sorts, but they seem to be from the usual suspects like GW, WarmaHordes, FFG, Infinity, Malifaux, Spartan Games, CMoN, etc.
I got into a discussion one time about KickStarter with the owner and he expressed that ordering things based on KS performance is something of a crap shoot for him. In the case of Reaper, a line that has a decent chunk of shelf space in the store, they were giving so much away by the end of their KS you were almost crazy to not go in on that if you liked the product. With so many people doing that, and his clientele being relatively Internet-savvy, it becomes a guessing game on if your customers would be interested in something because it was wildly popular online, or if they already got it off of KickStarter for less than he can afford to sell them for in which case you end up with a lot of stock that's already saturated. Factor in re-sales of unwanted models online and that specific picture gets even grimmer. I'm sure there are some things that could work, but I see his point in that for something like DreadBall I'm getting all the teams and rulebooks and MVPs from the KS, so what would he have to sell me?
Now that I think about it though, Mantic doesn't have a presence at all in the store that I recall; I'll have to inquire about that sometime.
i can then see them doing light vehicles maybe like walkers perhaps if the board size gets increase.
Also, new update:
Afternoon update for you today as there are a ton of things going off at the moment:
Jake’s Deadzone Development Diary
Jake talks Grids, boards in a wargame and line of sight in a 3D environment in this enthralling blog post on quirkworthy – here’s an excerpt:
The Challenge
Those of you who have played my other games will know that I like fast and simple games which include a lot of tactical decision making and choice. The challenge for me here was to bring that design ethos into a skirmish game environment and avoid as many as possible of the traditional pitfalls and difficulties.
These problems tend to congregate around movement and who can see what. Getting tape measures into and between scenery can be awkward and whether things are just in or just out of range is a frequent debate that is only made worse by the measuring being difficult to do accurately.
Read the full article here!
Alpha Rules coming tomorrow
Jake has completed the Alpha Rules manuscript and our resident graphic design artist, when not staring at 6’x4’ gaming table made of our shiny new Deluxe Gaming Mat (currently being funded!) is now pulling his hair out getting it into some sort of shape to release to the masses tomorrow as a free download.
Here’s Jake with more:
Live Chat with Ronnie
Ronnie Renton, the big bossman at Mantic Games and general ideas man (whether good or bad) is ready to spill the beans on Deadzone. We’ve kept him quiet but he’s now close to bursting, so we’re letting him loose on our Facebook page and in the comments this evening to answer your questions.
He’ll be online from 8:30 BST – get your questions ready!
Open Day
There is a little over one week to go until the Mantic Open Day!
Held on the 11th May 2013, we will have a Deadzone demo game being run, will be showing off all of the models and sculpts that we have in the office AND Jake Thornton will be on hand to answer your questions.
We have loads of other events being run including a painting seminar with Golem Painting Studio where they will run through hard edge highlighting, painting cloth and more!
Grab your tickets here – don’t miss out! There is only one week to go!
The mats look nice the group deals are somewhat odd. In an industry that has either square or rectangular playspaces, the deals that offer odd numbers of mats leave you with a completely useless one. You can make a smallish 4x4 area with the 5 matt deal for $90 but you end up with a pointless dead area mat on the side. I'm not sure if the odd numbers are there to convince people to buy another one matt or what. I don't plan on playing the smaller skirmish games but would be much more likely to use them in larger scale wargames so the choice of odd numbers of mats is (pun intended) odd. For those more familiar with mantic kickstarters, is it likely that a later stretch goal will increase the number of mats in the deals or decrease the price? Or does mantic generally only do completely new addons/stretch goals instead of revising older ones?
I'm guessing that the base game has a bloodbowl/space hulk grid pattern based on the grid pattern on the mat as well. In a minis game that doesn't use a grid, those lines can give you a heck of a bonus in determining if you'll be in range with a particular set of moves/actions.
warboss wrote: The mats look nice the group deals are somewhat odd. In an industry that has either square or rectangular playspaces, the deals that offer odd numbers of mats leave you with a completely useless one. You can make a smallish 4x4 area with the 5 matt deal for $90 but you end up with a pointless dead area mat on the side. I'm not sure if the odd numbers are there to convince people to buy another one matt or what. I don't plan on playing the smaller skirmish games but would be much more likely to use them in larger scale wargames so the choice of odd numbers of mats is (pun intended) odd.
Its because the 'Sweet Spot' pledge includes 1 mat.
It might be assumed that people are using the mats with the included one. Strike teams gets a free deluxe and Recon gets a paper one, so they could be used together
warboss wrote: The mats look nice the group deals are somewhat odd. In an industry that has either square or rectangular playspaces, the deals that offer odd numbers of mats leave you with a completely useless one. You can make a smallish 4x4 area with the 5 matt deal for $90 but you end up with a pointless dead area mat on the side. I'm not sure if the odd numbers are there to convince people to buy another one matt or what. I don't plan on playing the smaller skirmish games but would be much more likely to use them in larger scale wargames so the choice of odd numbers of mats is (pun intended) odd.
Its because the 'Sweet Spot' pledge includes 1 mat.
And you can also purchase a single mat, and when added to an order with an odd number of mats, PRESTO!, you end up with an even number.
warboss wrote: The mats look nice the group deals are somewhat odd. In an industry that has either square or rectangular playspaces, the deals that offer odd numbers of mats leave you with a completely useless one. You can make a smallish 4x4 area with the 5 matt deal for $90 but you end up with a pointless dead area mat on the side. I'm not sure if the odd numbers are there to convince people to buy another one matt or what. I don't plan on playing the smaller skirmish games but would be much more likely to use them in larger scale wargames so the choice of odd numbers of mats is (pun intended) odd.
Its because the 'Sweet Spot' pledge includes 1 mat.
Plus, if you want a 4x4 you buy the 1 pack and 3 pack. If you want 4x6 you can get 2 of the 3 packs, which they mentioned in that update I believe. For people not in the Strike Force pledge, you can still get your rectangular boards, but for the people in strike force (roughly 84% of pledgers are strike force or above) you don't end up with a 'wasted' mat.
That said it did take me a minute to realize what was going on with the add-on levels for that. They probably could have explained it a little better.
Also, don't forget that Recon gets a paper mat, so that can still be used with the deluxe mats. Heck, mount it on a piece of foam-core and it should rest at about the same height
recruittons wrote: Also, don't forget that Recon gets a paper mat, so that can still be used with the deluxe mats. Heck, mount it on a piece of foam-core and it should rest at about the same height
That's what I'm going to do for larger games (If I play larger games.) Just make some 2x2 or 2x4 MDF panels with a grid on 'em, slap together for a 4x4 or 4x6. The nice mats are, well, nice, but they're still just flat printed maps... main advantage is that they're probably a bit easier to transport than 2x2 MDF panels.
warboss wrote: What is the likelihood that they'll bump up the deals on mat addons? Does mantic do that or do they only do new stuff in stretch goals historically?
I'd say it is unlikely.
They appear to be a 'good deal' already, and one is getting thrown in 'free' at the $150+ levels.
yeah, they've not traditionally added anything to bundles like these.
Automatically Appended Next Post: EDIT: According the mantic facebook page Ronnie is doing a live chat answering Deadzone questions at 8:30pm tonight uk time
Project Update #13: Shooting and the Plague
Posted by Mantic Games Like
In our second update of the day we’ve got some gameplay tidbits from Jake, some add-ons for your pledge and a look at the Plague…
Gameplay – Shooting!
First up, we’re going to be posting up a number of videos across the weekend featuring different aspects of gameplay.
We’re going to be talking about D8s, Line of Sight, card decks, objectives as well as have a basic overview of a turn, all in support of the Alpha Rules that will be released tomorrow!
Today we’re starting with everyone’s second favorite action (the first being using grenades, which we will cover in a separate video) just to get you warmed up – Shooting things!
Now then, let's take a look at what you'll probably going to be shooting...
Featuring: The Plague
There have been increasing reports of a terrifying virus unleashed by alien artefacts scattered across the Expansion Zone. Each primary victim is twisted into a brutal colossus hell-bent on spreading its contagion to new hosts. These second-generation victims suffer the same mutation to a lesser degree, becoming less massive but no less deadly. Once the virus reaches its third generation the physical changes are mostly superficial and some brain function is left intact; some say that these are the worst of the three, as they can still operate weapons and machinery. These beasts exist only to spread their Plague to new hosts, and once they arrive on a planet it can only be a matter of time before it is overrun and ruined.
Troop Focus: 3rd Gen with rifle; 3rd Gen with Heavy Machinegun
By the time the Plague reaches its third generation, its mutating effects are considerably lessened, meaning a much higher number of victims survive to join the ranks of the infected. These third-generation troopers still undergo a physical alteration, but their minds are left almost intact. As a result, they are the only warriors in the Plague ranks that are capable of operating machinery, and quickly scavenge weapons to provide covering fire to their bestial masters.
Add-On: Plague Faction Starter
Add-On: 3rd Generation Bundle (4 Figures!)
Add-On 3rd Generation with Heavy Machinegun
Add-on 2nd Generation
Add-on 1st Generation
New Add-ons!
As you might have spotted in our first look at the Plague faction, we’ve got some new troop bundles that you can add-on to your pledge and flesh out your boots-on-the-ground troopers!
Don't forget!
We're currently hunting down the Deluxe Gaming Mat - a sexy upgrade that is unlocked if we can break $300,000!
If we hit this goal, we’ll be able to fund the Deluxe Gaming Mat and upgrade the paper mat to this shiny new version in the Strike Team ($150) package and up!
The Deluxe Gaming Mat is also available in the add-ons and we have put together some awesome bundles for those of you who want to expand your gaming table to 4’x4’ or 6’x4’.
And Finally - Live Chat with Ronnie
Ronnie Renton, the big bossman at Mantic Games and general ideas man (whether good or bad) is ready to spill the beans on Deadzone. We’ve kept him quiet but he’s now close to bursting, so we’re letting him loose on our Facebook page and in the comments this evening to answer your questions.
He’ll be online from 8:30 BST (that's about 20 mins away!) – grab a glass of your favourite drink and get your questions ready!
Thanks for supporting Deadzone!
While nice, these aren't quite the add-ons I was looking for!
They're more what I was looking for in terms of add-ons though. I'm glad they're putting up basic infantry.
Mantic's been making some vague hints in the comments today, if you can cut through the Brian Blessed bits. It seems they've been meeting wint Antenociti's Workshop. Does this mean they might be designing vehicles? Will that neat dropship end up being an Enforcer craft? Also, the silhouette for the backer designed mercenary has been changed. Now it looks like Prince Vultan. With all the Brian Blessed stuff going on, I think it's only a matter of time before someone claims one of those pledges and has them make a Vultan mini.
Also, I just realized, those Marauder Ripper suits will make perfect Obliterators! Slap a Terminator head on one of the ranged ones and they're perfect!
Hulksmash wrote: The Brian Blessed....stuff....has completely driven me out of the comments section.
It couldn't drive me off. Looking at all that crap kept me from jumping on to begin with. I wish those folks could realize:
1. It ain't as funny as they think it is 2. It very much ensures some folks with good ideas (and some with bad to be fair) are not going to participate in the comments.
Yeah, It didn't drive me off cause I got an early bird and that hadn't really started yet. But I can absolutely see it driving people away who might want to participate and could even, in some cases, see it preventing people from pledging like yourself. It can make people feel like the game isn't for them if the crowd feels to alien.
@Cypher-xv
They are currently working out the terrain stuff. The terrain only pledge is suppose to get worked out today or tomorrow, monday at the latest. I'm sure they will update the front page once it does.
"We will be really ramping up the development of scenery and next week (probably wednesday) we will be have enough different sprues to offer a scenery only plesdge level and special priced upgrade bundle for existing backers - so they can make a gaming table (or very big DZ table) of scenery. this means you'll be able to get a full game, with cool factions and units AND your wargames terrain from the KS (scenery such as damaged buildings, over grown buildings with Alien vegitations and so on).
Then we will have 2 more factions, to develop, sci-fi Zombies as an add-on suppliment, and..."
Yeah, Kickstarters who have a very 'click-like' comments section can really harm people who have legitimate questions or contributions who don't know enough to find the related forums or company places where discussion is happening.
I really wish there was some moderation or cleaning of comments functionality by the KS runners who could basically hide or shrink comments which are just spammy or highlight actual real good contributions.
I often find the Dakka Threads way more useful than many of the KS comments for getting information or questions answered.
Yeah, It didn't drive me off cause I got an early bird and that hadn't really started yet. But I can absolutely see it driving people away who might want to participate and could even, in some cases, see it preventing people from pledging like yourself. It can make people feel like the game isn't for them if the crowd feels to alien.
.
Mantic needs to be told that:
- It makes it harder for pledgers AND potential pledgers to get actual info from the comments section - It discourages participation and pledges - They have more than the small handful of turd bags who think it is funny interested in the game
Hulksmash wrote: The Brian Blessed....stuff....has completely driven me out of the comments section.
This. I don't even bother going in the comments section anymore. I don't get the joke, and I really don't want to.
Ugh that Brian Blessed joke/whatever has gone way to far, I don't even bother reading the comments section anymore, unless its posted by Mantic, some of thier comments have some interesting little tid-bits and hints at upcomming stuff. I thought the whole thing was just bugging me, not so much by the looks of it, I'm not 100% sure what the joke is about but I'm starting to get the feeling people are trying to force Mantic to create a Brian Blessed hommage figure by spamming it like crazy in the comments, I really hate that sort of behaviour, Mantic should'nt give into them.
On a more positive note were up to about $290K and some great new add-ons are available, might have to pack up a few more Teratons and Yndij troopers, really like those guys.
"@DaveC - I think the best figure in season 3 is the Asterians robot and it got us thinking about how the elves would fight - and would they risk precious elf lives on dusty crappy no name planets - probably not. BUt please don't think drones - these are fully animated (manga style) robots, very refined and elegant, but deadly! they will hsve mini drones flying all over the place, and a big one in the centre dealing big damage - the only weakness in the army will be the elf hiding away at the back - because if the enemy kills him..."
yeah the Brian Blessed thing is doing my head in now they're not doing it nor are they doing Firefly they've said this outright leave it be already.
I tossed a few more bucks into my pledge for the eventual add ons, but not knowing how things are going to roll point- wise/ rule- wise I'm not sure what exactly I want.
More than likely I'm going to end up with another 1st gen Plague. Guys like cool.
Very curious about the Asterian mecha drones. Sounds like my kind of thing.
I think I might of read it on Quirkworthy (or maybe somewhere in the comments) but Dwarf King's Hold is going to be coming down the pipeline too. Very interested in seeing how that turns out and whether or not it's going the Kickstarter route.
I prefer Brian Blessed to Firefly. Seriously, the next time someone thinks of suggesting Firefly, remember this, how seeing all the comments is so annoying, then don't suggest Firefly.
Yeah, all the Brian Blessed stuff is... extremely off-putting and it turns me off the project, somewhat. I think I'll just avoid the KS for a while and only check in for updates, otherwise all that nonsense will ruin it for me.
Honestly at this point I doubt I'd suggest Firefly. To many of them have already been done, no one should need more.
I think the problem is they aren't just asking for the models, they are going on and on about jokes and movies and random stuff associated with it. With Firefly it was generally just some people doing what some of the people have been doing for Forge Fathers and Veermyn. It's a bit different from my perspective.
Personally if I want an homage character it's things like Riddick, Predator, Rico's Roughnecks (novel, not movie....), and things like that. Heck, even a mad scientist that looks like Walter from Fringe. But, as much as I like Firefly, I'm tired of them being the go to people want.
@Hulksmash: Just got finished watching Fringe on Netflix like... 25 minutes ago. Only had up through season 4, but I would LOVE a Walter mini. Or some Observers
so then what we know after tonights chat with Ronnie
Rules - Alpha rules tomorrow
Terrain - there's more to come they still have to finalise the layouts but they should be in a position to add the terrain pledges on Wednesday or so, this will include the terrain only pledge and discounted terrain bundles for other backers. There's a chance of ruined buildings and alien stuff if it gets far enough.
Game Mat - 1 design for now but if it gets far enough in they might do a second theme.
First 4 factions - still a few bits to round out before they can call them done. Rebs and Marauders are sculpted already. They will start showing off the Rebs over the weekend. There are upwards of 20 alien species associated with the Rebs so lots of room to expand.
Next 2 factions - Forgefathers and Asterians. Asterians will have only one "elf" as the commander the rest of the faction will be drones - manga style drones.
VeerMyn and Z'Zor they have special plans for these but they aren't yet intended to be part of the KS but if it gets far enough they might make it in. They would be the main "bad guys" in future expansions like the plague are now.
There will be a plague zombie expansion as part of the KS, new sculpts in hard plastic - not a kit bash like before.
Nameless - they are trying to find a way to fit them in - so probably not as full faction then.
Kilcin I actually just edited that in while you were typing - they'd like to get them in if they can make them fit but I get the feeling not as their own faction.
2 other points I missed.
Mantic had a meeting with Antenocitis Workshop today - no more details than that.
and Secret Weapon and Mantic have come to an arrangement more news over the weekend
First 4 factions - still a few bits to round out before they can call them done. Rebs and Marauders are sculpted already. They will start showing off the Rebs over the weekend. There are upwards of 20 alien species associated with the Rebs so lots of room to expand.
Next 2 factions - Forgefathers and Asterians. Asterians will have only one "elf" as the commander the rest of the faction will be drones - manga style drones.
This all sounds like exactly what I was hoping for. 20 alien species? Fantastic! Can't wait to see some of the sculpts.
Not too interested in the Forgefathers as dwarves in space never really interested me, manga style drones however...
Edit: Uggh, remind me to never go into the comments section again, talk about dragging a joke out too much. If anything of actual interest shows up could someone please just post it on Dakka?
rebs, what tau should have been. maybe have the nameless be a fast moving hard to hit race, but once hit they go down fast. I still want me pure robot faction (the dread ball equivalents in warpath, and i want a pure teratron faction, i know that faction would be so small unit wise, but i dont care.)
Asterians will have only one "elf" as the commander the rest of the faction will be drones - manga style drones.
Ugh...I was really looking forward to the Asterians until now. Well, it seems to put other people's buttons. :(
To each his own and all, but I think the way the Asterians play sounds pretty awesome. Anything original and different is good as far as I'm concerned.
Makes more sense for a low population/ hi-tech race to use drones more rather than risking their own skins.
Would be nice if GW background for the eldar was similar instead of black library books and codexes constantly depicting of waves and waves of suicidal guardian squads (civilian militia) being mown down in their hundreds by space marines.
Why would a dying race risks even a small number in an environment like this. I'm not find of the magma aspect per say, but the concept is solid and I really like it.
Edit: Ninja'd. I guess SS has a reputation as a "homer/fan boy", so me backing up the point still has merit
Earth Dragon wrote: Why would a dying race risks even a small number in an environment like this. I'm not find of the magma aspect per say, but the concept is solid and I really like it.
I'm sure there will be some reason other than "If they didn't, then they wouldn't be a faction in the game at all"!
And I think you were looking form Manga, not Magma - auto-correct...for the loss!
Earth Dragon wrote: Why would a dying race risks even a small number in an environment like this. I'm not find of the magma aspect per say, but the concept is solid and I really like it.
I'm sure there will be some reason other than "If they didn't, then they wouldn't be a faction in the game at all"!
And I think you were looking form Manga, not Magma - auto-correct...for the loss!
Dammit!! And to think the first time it corrected to "mango". Guess it refused to recognize the word
Heh, it jumped $10k in 2 minutes. Looks like no reward selected either, since the $5k council of seven pledge was picked up a few days ago.
Don't be surprised if the total doesn't stay that way... it'd be super-awesome if someone just put down a genuine 10 grand, but experience tells us it's more likely to be someone playing silly buggers.
Ronnie gave bit of information in on the Asterian background last night basically they know what caused the plague but they are not there to set things right they have their own reasons for being there they view the Corporation itself as little more than a plague just in another fashion they are unwilling to commit troops to a battle that isn't really their's to fight so they send drones instead with a single commander in charge of them they'll be fast but if your commander dies it's game over.
I've prestagers some money (not in this instance) could be multiple people doing the same. Who knows. But you are correct. There is probably a chunk of that pledg total that is fake, but considering the amount per backer is still pretty low, I'm sure others will add as they decrease.
Actually, it turns out that there's been a problem with Amazon in the last few hours with dollar totals not being updated (some other really big KS was closing).
So, most likely, it's legit, and Ronnie's 2 hour questioning thing really raised a lot of extra interest.
Nah I don't buy the Amazon payments issue no other KS I'm watching has moved like that kicktraq is showing 60 backers and $12,153 add $10,000 to that and that's an average pledge per person today of $366 but the projects average per backer is $145 something's not right there.
Mantic themselves just confirmed they can't see any issue with Amazon that would cause that $10k jump
@ ScarSquig: so he raised 10 k for saying manga stylized robots for the asterians. THAT is actually very believable. Now im waiting for the next stretch goal announcement.
Joyboozer wrote: I prefer Brian Blessed to Firefly. Seriously, the next time someone thinks of suggesting Firefly, remember this, how seeing all the comments is so annoying, then don't suggest Firefly.
Today's gains were greater then yesterday's. Really good sign. I still think they need 2 stretch goals showing. Same reason as always: if one doesn't float your boat, maybe the other will.
Not really, yet. You can get a 3-pack of mats for $55, a fourth mat for $20 and US shipping add-ons only for $5, totaling you $80 for a 4x4 area of gaming mat. No buildings. I expect the hinted-at terrain pledge (will be around some time next week, I believe?) to offer quite a bit more value over that @ ~$100 level or so, but I could be mistaken
Terrain only prices are coming soon; the Mantic folks say they're still working with the factory on that at the moment.
OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT OF A PENDING OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT AN OFFICIAL... ah, you get the idea....
I'm off to bed, and I'm waiting for logos to come through to make everything official, but I can tell you now, that I will be telling you later, that Secret Weapon *WILL* be offering an official Deadzone compatible board!
DEADZONE BOARD - ANNOUNCEMENT INCOMING!
And so I'll leave you with that... because I spent today so excited that I'm exhausted!
It seems like a lot of people tend to have a bit of a knee-jerk reaction of "ugh" whenever they hear "anime/manga style." I suspect a lot of people are having flashbacks of the McFarlane Toys Manga Spawn line or generally just unfairly think of Gundam Wing whenever they hear the term used in relation to robots. The Japanese know how to design robots and I'd say there's a few designers out there whose aesthetics would actually work quite well with Eldar/Asterians. Case in point, the Siren R from Mamoru Nagano's Five Star Stories. This is just one of many, many cool mecha designs from that comic.
(Picture comes from Gears online, btw)
Or there's the mechs from Magic Knight Rayearth (which is actually a magical girl show, if you can believe it)
Point is, anime style could be a very good thing here. Hell, the Eldar Titans were already pretty much aping Nagano's designs anyway.
And I'll just echo the comment about GW's Eldar fluff not making any sense. If your species is near extinction, why wouldn't you use some damn robots?
I think he slightly misrepresents Infinity game system in his brief description of it, but gives some basic outlines on his take of a modern IGYG system.
Interesting, but I am not fond of random cards for actions/ reactions, that been said this is an outline, the alpha rules will give a better insight on it.
DaveC wrote: so then what we know after tonights chat with Ronnie
Rules - Alpha rules tomorrow
Terrain - there's more to come they still have to finalise the layouts but they should be in a position to add the terrain pledges on Wednesday or so, this will include the terrain only pledge and discounted terrain bundles for other backers. There's a chance of ruined buildings and alien stuff if it gets far enough.
Game Mat - 1 design for now but if it gets far enough in they might do a second theme.
First 4 factions - still a few bits to round out before they can call them done. Rebs and Marauders are sculpted already. They will start showing off the Rebs over the weekend. There are upwards of 20 alien species associated with the Rebs so lots of room to expand.
Next 2 factions - Forgefathers and Asterians. Asterians will have only one "elf" as the commander the rest of the faction will be drones - manga style drones.
VeerMyn and Z'Zor they have special plans for these but they aren't yet intended to be part of the KS but if it gets far enough they might make it in. They would be the main "bad guys" in future expansions like the plague are now.
There will be a plague zombie expansion as part of the KS, new sculpts in hard plastic - not a kit bash like before.
Nameless - they are trying to find a way to fit them in - so probably not as full faction then.
Thanks very much for that summary, very useful!
Almost at the 300,000 mark now, will be interesting to see what the new stretch goal will be.
Many of the mercenary warriors who ply their trade on the fringes of Corporation space have blood-curdling nicknames and impressive ranks. Few are as well-deserved as that of Shadrek Mal-Raz.
The assumption is that he is a Forge Father by race as his armour and weaponry are all made by that most secretive and closed culture. However, it is clearly a customised or at least extremely rare form of equipment as no other examples have been reported on other battlefields.
In combat, the roar of his double-barrelled heat cannon is as distinctive as the clank of his massively armoured exo-suit. He is to be found at the forefront of the attack, destroying everything within reach. Vehicles are reduced to semi-molten smouldering heaps of slag, habtainers are shattered and their contents set ablaze, even the concrete foundations are cracked and blackened by the searing heat.
The survivors of this assault emerge into an inferno of destruction and it is these tragic few who have dubbed him Helfather.
If we hit this goal, we will be able to sculpt and tool The Helfather mercenary, a secretive renegade agent from one of the galaxy’s more technologically advance races… hint hint!
Earth Dragon wrote: Why would a dying race risks even a small number in an environment like this.
Oh...it's a dying race of space elves. That's much more original
I'm disappointed because I liked the look of the Asterians in DB. I was hoping there would be a bunch of equally cool space elves in DZ. One guy and a bunch of drones...not so interesting for me. I grant you it makes much more sense to send robots or RP androids in to clean up a plague zone rather than running around without even a face mask on like the Rebs or Marauders. I mean that would just be stupid.
^ We don't know if it's a dying race or not, we don't know anything about the Asterian background other than them lurking around black holes and abducting people.
Bolognesus wrote: Not really, yet. You can get a 3-pack of mats for $55, a fourth mat for $20 and US shipping add-ons only for $5, totaling you $80 for a 4x4 area of gaming mat. No buildings.
I expect the hinted-at terrain pledge (will be around some time next week, I believe?) to offer quite a bit more value over that @ ~$100 level or so, but I could be mistaken
Terrain only prices are coming soon; the Mantic folks say they're still working with the factory on that at the moment.
Excellent news I'm not interested in buying yet-more-figures* but I'm pretty tempted by the mats.
*Because I've already got about 500-600 28mm figs in the backlog.
I like the concept art. I'm already in for enough to cover quite a few add-ons. Don't expect to spend over $300 so I just went in for that. But this model is definitely going to be part of my order.
I really dont mind 15k or smaller stretches for add-ons. maybe instead they should do 3 special character add-ons per 25k. just to give more variety and more reason for people to add 8-24$.
^ Yeah, there's no freebies for this particular stretch goal.
At $8 for an add-on, it's worth noting that that's what the dreadball MVPs cost.. and is likely to be what the mercenaries cost too, unless they're metal (which they won't be), or huge models (this is a dwarf).
So, I wouldn't recommend buying him as an add-on, better to wait until seeing the final sculpt rather than buying blind 8 months in advance.
There's probably going to be better places to put add-on money as this progresses anyway, the terrain will be a major one to sink money into.
I'll buy in for mercs if they release a bundle pack for all of them with a discount, just have to wait and see on that. If there's around 8 or so mercenaries in the rulebook (same amount as dreadball season 1), then we could be in for around 8 fairly boring $15k stretches sprinkled in amongst the more interesting $25k - $50k ones.
That's okay though, it's clear they don't want to focus the freebies around mercenaries this time, if no free mercs means they're later able to do a free starter set for a couple of new factions, then I'm fine with that.
They're already at $270 worth of stuff at the $150 level... they max out on capacity for freebies at $500 (around 70% discount, the level both KoW and Dreadball hit), so they're probably looking at the current success of the campaign and factoring in that upper limit at an early stage, thinking hard about what freebies in particular people would like the most (probably terrain, new faction sets, expansions for current factions) and focusing on those for the freebie goals.
Personally, I'd like any stretch goals without freebies to be EXCITING, to make up for the lack of freebies.
e.g. $50k stretch for a hard plastic Enforcer sprue, with no freebies? Hell yes! Don't care about no freebies, because I'd be too happy about the new sprue.
Seeing as this game isn't going to be a niche as Dreadball I'd bank on the model costing more than $8 retail.
Most of Warpath's characters cost between $10-$15 retail. Granted that's before the Warstore discount so it's really $8-$12. So it's likely a discount on retail.
For a unique one off I absolutely can. You're buying the model to play the game with. The material really shouldn't matter at that point. It'll likely be similar in price to other single models in the range.
Maybe not but it's likely honestly. You think the HQ's would get a price drop if they were redone as restic instead of metal?
^ Yes, mantic regularly re-releases popular metal models in restic and halves the price. I can list well over a dozen kits where this has happened. They're genuinely committed to good value for money, and don't pull any kind of "charge the same for both metal and plastic just because" crap like GW does.
They are well-known for value, and aren't going to be charging $15 for a single (small) restic mini any time soon. Just isn't going to happen. Metal, yes, but metal is more expensive to cast.
Anyway, Alpha rules will be here soon, should be fun.
Genuinely curious, have they ever done it with a character, not a unit?
I'm also excited for the rules just for the bump it should hopefully provide. I generally don't get the chance to play much outside of events so I hope everyone else play tests them well for me
At $8 for an add-on, it's worth noting that that's what the dreadball MVPs cost.. and is likely to be what the mercenaries cost too, unless they're metal (which they won't be), or huge models (this is a dwarf).
So, I wouldn't recommend buying him as an add-on, better to wait until seeing the final sculpt rather than buying blind 8 months in advance.
that's just an assumption they haven't said anything about what the RRPs might be.
they said in the comments that the models are bigger than dreadball and that the abyssal king is obviously similar in size to the helfather which is $14.99 in metal. As another example Buzzcut was $10 on the kickstarter and $12 on the mantic website and you've the added bonus of supporting the kickstarter and getting more stuff funded.
scarletsquig wrote: ^ Yes, mantic regularly re-releases popular metal models in restic and halves the price. I can list well over a dozen kits where this has happened. They're genuinely committed to good value for money, and don't pull any kind of "charge the same for both metal and plastic just because" crap like GW does.
They are well-known for value, and aren't going to be charging $15 for a single (small) restic mini any time soon. Just isn't going to happen. Metal, yes, but metal is more expensive to cast.
Anyway, Alpha rules will be here soon, should be fun.
Didn't they stop this when they realized that restic models shrank?
@Black Nexus: I forgot about buzzcut, you're probably right that the RRP on this one will be closer to $10 or so, making the add-on a good deal.
I'll still wait and see if a "completionist bundle" gets released towards the end like they did with dreadball.
@decker - they have a process that they use to counter the shrinkage, they know about it and it is taken into account, or (more often than not) the minis get new and better sculpts when they get converted to restic.
Everyone seems to be expecting a big bump in pledges once the rules are previewed. Has this actually happened in other kickstarters before? I was under the impression that it would not really impact how much people wanted to pledge...
It'll be $60 for the Display Board option once those are gone, but if you want a larger play area the full Urban Streets set will be Deadzone Compatible.
Huh......why would you need them to 'write' an open campaign. You just use the missions and play them at your leisure. When 'writing' a campaign, there is a story attached.
Earth Dragon wrote: Huh......why would you need them to 'write' an open campaign. You just use the missions and play them at your leisure. When 'writing' a campaign, there is a story attached.
an open campaign gives you rules to play unlimited number of games with progressing squad, while a campaign with a story only gives you a number of encounter that are effected by the previous ones.
Don't understand why you find it weird that I'd like it better
).
I just got that one. I swear this toddler-induced sleep deprivation is really taxing what grey-matter I have left
