Saw this on Twitter I don't think they've posted it on the KS yet







and Black ops group pic

Damn that Green Team looks sweet. Can't wait to paint them...

I am sorry Darktraveler77 this is not what I wrote, so? maybe reread and try to understand what I say instead of thinking what I said?

I would say your assessment is mostly correct, mid 20's plus what essentially is the generation that is infused with computer games, you may not like my assessments and you may like what you get, it is fine to disagree, from the comments what I see is people expected/ wanted more games IP.

Aliens? well I would expect the aliens and maybe the power loader? or an ambient influence from aliens,

From what I have seen previously IPs taken from video games are a lot more likely to get a cease and desist compared to movies / tv shows which is why you rarely see them.

Regardig Aliens: CMON will be very wary of using any Alien inspired designs, power loaders or core characters (Ripley, Bishop, etc) as several companies have the Aliens tabletop licences and will be extremely protective about the IP. Sedition Wars got away with it as it was during a period where no miniature games had the rights. The character they have chosen is just minor and generically designed to get away with.

But Ripley is in the made Invaders game. Rigby, armed with a combined assault rifle/flamethrower...

And I hardly think Vasquez is a minor character.

 PsychoticStorm wrote:
I am sorry Darktraveler77 this is not what I wrote, so? maybe reread and try to understand what I say instead of thinking what I said?

Buddy, I've been trying to understand your posts from day one.

I quoted you in my response, so yes, that is what you wrote. Perhaps there is a language barrier in place. Try again with what you meant, perhaps?

 Popsghostly wrote:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
I forget, is the Black Ops expansion kickstarter exclusive or will it be sold at retail?

It'll be at retail but non-backer's miss out on the KS exclusives that come along with Black Ops to make it a better value...

Future me will have a real hard time deciding whether or not to buy that through the pledge manager. Or he will have totally lost interest. One of those.

It's fun delegating that kind of stuff to Future Me. He's way more level-headed about that kind of thing.

 DarkTraveler777 wrote:

 PsychoticStorm wrote:
I am sorry Darktraveler77 this is not what I wrote, so? maybe reread and try to understand what I say instead of thinking what I said?

Buddy, I've been trying to understand your posts from day one.

I quoted you in my response, so yes, that is what you wrote. Perhaps there is a language barrier in place. Try again with what you meant, perhaps?

DarkTraveller, this seems unnecessarily hostile. Psychotic Storm has been pretty level and logical with his criticisms, and resorting to this level of response doesn't do anybody any favors.

 Gallahad wrote:

 DarkTraveler777 wrote:

 PsychoticStorm wrote:
I am sorry Darktraveler77 this is not what I wrote, so? maybe reread and try to understand what I say instead of thinking what I said?

Buddy, I've been trying to understand your posts from day one.

I quoted you in my response, so yes, that is what you wrote. Perhaps there is a language barrier in place. Try again with what you meant, perhaps?

DarkTraveller, this seems unnecessarily hostile. Psychotic Storm has been pretty level and logical with his criticisms, and resorting to this level of response doesn't do anybody any favors.

How is that hostile? I responded to his statements and he is claiming I cannot understand what he said. Me suggesting that perhaps his language was off is not an insult. This is a diverse board with a lot of non-native English speakers. His grammar and phrasing throughout this thread is not typical of a native speaker. If he was trying to convey an idea to his audience (me) and I apparently did not understand his meaning, then he failed and needs to try again.

As for his logic and criticisms. No. No they have not been level and logical. They have been hyperbolic and subjective to his personal tastes, and he has routinely made broad statements of opinion as if they are facts.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Rick and Morty are on deck. Prepare your szechuan sauce!

Rick




Morty

In my opinion this CMON finale has been a bizarre dud. Where's the showmanship? The strategic pacing of well-calibrated final stretch goals that get better and better to build excitement? CMON seem to have held nothing impressive in reserve (abominations, mechs, large models, interesting add-ons, etc.) to help cross the 3 million mark and finish this campaign out with a bang. And the thing is, they usually do. But for whatever reason, this time they're closing with love-or-hate-them joke characters and an add-on for colored bases. Odd.

I'm dropping to 1$ and tuning out until this is over. I'll most likely buy in when the pledge manager rolls around - the product looks good, overall. But watching this campaign conclude has gone from exciting to boring to disappointing to irritating, and with no entertainment value or interesting goals coming to push for (I've lost faith in much of a final rush to get beyond the latest goals), I may as well wait to commit.

I kind of agree?

At least in that I would have liked a bigger showcase type of model for the final push/$3M goal.

Not-Rick and Not-Morty are just kinda of so-so.

Still, I am loving almost everything so far, and the 'value' is here for me now.

Rick & Morty isn't the worst choice, but weirdly late in the campaign. I'm still surprised we didn't get nearly the number of add-on teams like we did in Black Plague.

 Vermonter wrote:
In my opinion this CMON finale has been a bizarre dud. Where's the showmanship? The strategic pacing of well-calibrated final stretch goals that get better and better to build excitement? CMON seem to have held nothing impressive in reserve (abominations, mechs, large models, interesting add-ons, etc.) to help cross the 3 million mark and finish this campaign out with a bang. And the thing is, they usually do. But for whatever reason, this time they're closing with love-or-hate-them joke characters and an add-on for colored bases. Odd.

I'm dropping to 1$ and tuning out until this is over. I'll most likely buy in when the pledge manager rolls around - the product looks good, overall. But watching this campaign conclude has gone from exciting to boring to disappointing to irritating, and with no entertainment value or interesting goals coming to push for (I've lost faith in much of a final rush to get beyond the latest goals), I may as well wait to commit.

I was really excited for this campaign. For once I had a pile of cash ready for a big CMON KS campaign, and I was ready to spend it and be a part of a big enormously successful campaign. I even really really like the base game Xenos designs! I love cooperative games! My wife was even cool with me spending the whole summers gaming budget in advance! I was really excited for a zcide campaign with a more realistic and gritty style!

And you know what? The campaign has been mostly an enormous disappointment. The steady stream of "For the LULZ!!!" survivors just doesn't mesh at all with Adrian's art style. I don't know if more than 5 of the homage survivors would have been on anybody's top 50 list going into the campaign. Then add in the campaign within a campaign that sucked the wind right out of the sails of the original game and a distinct lack of any add-ons that anybody would have dreamed up. I mean the Kabuki gang is cool, and so are the orphans, but who would have heard "remote mining colony" and gone "Yes! It better have a cyberpunk Kabuki gang add-on!!!"

 Gallahad wrote:

 Vermonter wrote:
In my opinion this CMON finale has been a bizarre dud. Where's the showmanship? The strategic pacing of well-calibrated final stretch goals that get better and better to build excitement? CMON seem to have held nothing impressive in reserve (abominations, mechs, large models, interesting add-ons, etc.) to help cross the 3 million mark and finish this campaign out with a bang. And the thing is, they usually do. But for whatever reason, this time they're closing with love-or-hate-them joke characters and an add-on for colored bases. Odd.

I'm dropping to 1$ and tuning out until this is over. I'll most likely buy in when the pledge manager rolls around - the product looks good, overall. But watching this campaign conclude has gone from exciting to boring to disappointing to irritating, and with no entertainment value or interesting goals coming to push for (I've lost faith in much of a final rush to get beyond the latest goals), I may as well wait to commit.

I was really excited for this campaign. For once I had a pile of cash ready for a big CMON KS campaign, and I was ready to spend it and be a part of a big enormously successful campaign. I even really really like the base game Xenos designs! I love cooperative games! My wife was even cool with me spending the whole summers gaming budget in advance! I was really excited for a zcide campaign with a more realistic and gritty style!

And you know what? The campaign has been mostly an enormous disappointment. The steady stream of "For the LULZ!!!" survivors just doesn't mesh at all with Adrian's art style. I don't know if more than 5 of the homage survivors would have been on anybody's top 50 list going into the campaign. Then add in the campaign within a campaign that sucked the wind right out of the sails of the original game and a distinct lack of any add-ons that anybody would have dreamed up. I mean the Kabuki gang is cool, and so are the orphans, but who would have heard "remote mining colony" and gone "Yes! It better have a cyberpunk Kabuki gang add-on!!!"

I agree with a lot of what you’ve said. I think there are enough survivors who do fit the base game aesthetic for me to be able to ignore the ones that don’t.

Although I’ve backed, I may still pull out at the last minute. You’re spot on about the Kabuki gang feeling weird and I think the problem I’m having with this whole game is the (imho) poor choice of setting. A remote mining colony gives very little scope for variety without it feeling forced or weird. I think a much better choice for a sci fi zombicide would have been the streets of a cyberpunk city. They could have had all kinds of fun with street gangs, cops, special forces etc. That Kabuki gang and the street kids gang would’ve fitted in just fine.

A cyberpunk city could've given us fun stuff like Boomers and Crisis Suits to fight them too. A shame.

Rick and Morty are unsurprising. They don't do much for me, but I'm sure there's some people that'll love it.

Still holding out for a power loader/ mech of some sort. Maybe some more Xenos?

At least all the survivors are nice and symmetrical looking on the KS page. We may have the Chinese pledges unlock something last minute as well...

But yeah, it's been a bit "eh" in terms of excitement and presentation.

I much rather have the mining colony and tunnels map pieces (that we have now) than copy of Moderncide maps with some neon signs glued in.

Cyberpunk is really just Moderncide (+) instead of SciFicide.

SciFicide needs to leave the planet.

I expected a space station maps before this thing started, but mining colony is fine too.

A space station would've worked fine for a setting. Then you could've had characters moving through vents and trash compactors and all sorts of fun stuff.

I'm still pretty disappointed with the look-alike stretches. They certainly weren't choices I would've made. Johnny Five and Doomguy should've been in here. Doomguy especially feels like the most no-brainer of all. Who better to have running around a derelict base fighting hordes of "zombies" and monsters than Doomguy? And obviously, he should've been posed with a shotgun in one hand and flipping the bird with the other.

I still would've liked to see more team add-ons. We wound up with what, 3? How many did Black Plague have again? I would've loved to have seen some other artists' ideas. I certainly would've liked to have seen a team of miners since, you know, they're in a mining colony and all.

Rather than having to wade through all their info, perhaps one of you good souls could help.

I have no interest in the base game, but I'd like some of the kickstarter exclusive stuff - is it possible to $1 pledge and add those on?

Vorian wrote:
Rather than having to wade through all their info, perhaps one of you good souls could help.

I have no interest in the base game, but I'd like some of the kickstarter exclusive stuff - is it possible to $1 pledge and add those on?

No per the FAQ you must have one of the 2 pledge levels to get add ons you can’t just get add ons - this is standard for CMON KS

Can I get just an optional buy?

No, you will need to have a base pledge ($100 or $150) in order to be able to add any Optional Buys to it.

Ahh, that's me missing out then. Thanks for the answer Dave

Hmm... doesn't look that certain that Morty will be unlocked.at all. There seems to be no hyping at all.at the end of this campaign. No updates at.a time that might actually.affect the outcome of the thing. Seems.weird.that more effort hasn't been made.just here at the end. Oh well. Maybe something special is planned.

It’s all gone very flat but I’d be shocked if it doesn’t take the $72,000 left for Morty. There’s probably 2 more SGs left. It took $248k yesterday versus MDs $354k second last day so it’s fallen behind MD now. MD took $505k on the last day this is currently at $86k it may get up to $400k I just don’t see CMON doing any more to push it.

Morty will get unlocked, but I have serious doubts about any further SG's after that.

Only thing I can think of is a ceremonial SG for a box to include the SG's but that's it

WAHOOOOOOO! Look at it go!!! What a last day!!!




Only 9 hours left on this wild rollercoaster!!!

I don't know of that was sarcasm, but the overall trends are not a million miles away from BP/GH.

Shorter campaign, and a comparably lacklustre final day seem to be the main difference.

Definitely still a 'win' for CMON though.

 Barzam wrote:


I still would've liked to see more team add-ons. We wound up with what, 3? How many did Black Plague have again? I would've loved to have seen some other artists' ideas. I certainly would've liked to have seen a team of miners since, you know, they're in a mining colony and all.

Black Plague had a lot of guest boxes, but Green Horde had very few. Maybe they’re not something that CMON wants to continue.

CMON have definitely moved away from lots of smaller addons to small number of large addons over the last few Kickstarters.

I am so torn between this and Hellboy. Both have their positives and negatives.

I love the art style of this (Adrian Smith) and have had so much fun with the other Zombicide games. This one is probably a bankable guarantee of quite a few fun evenings of gaming. But, I love the Hellboy franchise, and perhaps I should go for something a bit different?

Arggghhhh! First world problems!

 Grinshanks wrote:
I don't know of that was sarcasm, but the overall trends are not a million miles away from BP/GH.

Shorter campaign, and a comparably lacklustre final day seem to be the main difference.

Definitely still a 'win' for CMON though.

I agree entirely. The game looks solid and the miniatures look well done. I guess I was just looking forward to a bit more pizzaz at the end

 Pacific wrote:
I am so torn between this and Hellboy. Both have their positives and negatives.

I love the art style of this (Adrian Smith) and have had so much fun with the other Zombicide games. This one is probably a bankable guarantee of quite a few fun evenings of gaming. But, I love the Hellboy franchise, and perhaps I should go for something a bit different?

Arggghhhh! First world problems!

Try saving for both. Nothing like the crappy feeling of trying to buy the KS exclusives off of eBay at really high prices...

Time for this and one more I'd say - $3.25 million good point to end at

 Grinshanks wrote:
I don't know of that was sarcasm, but the overall trends are not a million miles away from BP/GH.

Shorter campaign, and a comparably lacklustre final day seem to be the main difference.

Definitely still a 'win' for CMON though.

I dunno. The final number looks to be about a (or two) million bucks short of BP/GH.

Shorter campaign doesn't really matter - the first couple days and the last couple are what really matter for CMoN. The middle is filler, and shorter is less of a lull that drags on.

It's definitely a massive failure for CMoN, as it's dragging the "Zombicide" name down from a $5M+ property down to a mere $3M property. If they only wanted $3M, they should have labeled it "Xenoshyft" or "Sedition Wars 2". Trying to pretend it's not a failure is nonsense. You don't attach it to your $4-5M game system expecting to barely break $3M. You attach it looking to break out with $5-6M.

 Pacific wrote:
I am so torn between this and Hellboy. Both have their positives and negatives.

I love the art style of this (Adrian Smith) and have had so much fun with the other Zombicide games. This one is probably a bankable guarantee of quite a few fun evenings of gaming. But, I love the Hellboy franchise, and perhaps I should go for something a bit different?

Arggghhhh! First world problems!

I say base it on the KS exclusives. Which ever one has more figs that you won't be able to find later on without paying a scalper's mark up, go with that one and pick the other one up at retail if it still tickles your fancy. YMMV.

 DaveC wrote:
Time for this and one more I'd say - $3.25 million good point to end at

It's the best SG since not-Venom IMHO. Let's pick up the pace so we can get this one lol. 6 hours left!

 Popsghostly wrote:

 Pacific wrote:
I am so torn between this and Hellboy. Both have their positives and negatives.

I love the art style of this (Adrian Smith) and have had so much fun with the other Zombicide games. This one is probably a bankable guarantee of quite a few fun evenings of gaming. But, I love the Hellboy franchise, and perhaps I should go for something a bit different?

Arggghhhh! First world problems!

Try saving for both. Nothing like the crappy feeling of trying to buy the KS exclusives off of eBay at really high prices...

I think Hellboy will be the better option but Mantic are much better at making Kickstarter Exclusives available later via mantic points.

In any event, CMON always allow late pledges once the pledge manager opens so just hold off committing until you see all that Hellboy has to offer.

Aeneades wrote:

 Popsghostly wrote:

 Pacific wrote:
I am so torn between this and Hellboy. Both have their positives and negatives.

I love the art style of this (Adrian Smith) and have had so much fun with the other Zombicide games. This one is probably a bankable guarantee of quite a few fun evenings of gaming. But, I love the Hellboy franchise, and perhaps I should go for something a bit different?

Arggghhhh! First world problems!

Try saving for both. Nothing like the crappy feeling of trying to buy the KS exclusives off of eBay at really high prices...

I think Hellboy will be the better option but Mantic are much better at making Kickstarter Exclusives available later via mantic points.

In any event, CMON always allow late pledges once the pledge manager opens so just hold off committing until you see all that Hellboy has to offer.

Ditto this. You'll have like 2 more months to save for Invader...

 Grinshanks wrote:
I don't know of that was sarcasm, but the overall trends are not a million miles away from BP/GH.

Shorter campaign, and a comparably lacklustre final day seem to be the main difference.

Definitely still a 'win' for CMON though.

Who says today is lackluster??? We have already raised as much today as in day 14 of the campaign when a whole different campaign was launched within the campaign for Invader!!! And there are still 6 hours left!!! Crazy.

 Gallahad wrote:

 Grinshanks wrote:
I don't know of that was sarcasm, but the overall trends are not a million miles away from BP/GH.

Shorter campaign, and a comparably lacklustre final day seem to be the main difference.

Definitely still a 'win' for CMON though.

Who says today is lackluster??? We have already raised as much today as in day 14 of the campaign when a whole different campaign was launched within the campaign for Invader!!! And there are still 6 hours left!!! Crazy.

We're doing pretty well... 28K in the last hour. We keep this up, we'll get the big one by the end. Would like to see another SG added.

Thiago hinted today that the Z:I PM might come earlier than usually, so maybe don't count you have as much time to save money for it than usually?

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
It's definitely a massive failure for CMoN,

Thanks for the laugh, I needed it today.

HATE campaign got a whole new tribe added after China money was counted in, so I'm hoping we'll get something like a new gang box added in too! Who knows?

 Col Hammer wrote:
HATE campaign got a whole new tribe added after China money was counted in, so I'm hoping we'll get something like a new gang box added in too! Who knows?

Hoping this too. Isa (CMON moderator) is present now on comments, hopefully she'll announce something like this when we reach 3,100,000 soon.

I'm *sure* we can raise .9M in five hours.

As of this post we are at $3,127,680.

$22,230 until the Stomper unlocks with 4 hours to go.

I take it all back. The likely last sg is Steven hawking in a murderchair... inspired!

 Flinty wrote:
I take it all back. The likely last sg is Steven hawking in a murderchair... inspired!

Wow! I agree that is a really cool model.

 draugadan wrote:

 Flinty wrote:
I take it all back. The likely last sg is Steven hawking in a murderchair... inspired!

Wow! I agree that is a really cool model.

Come on, guys. Sharing is caring!

Come on guys. Let's reach this one. It's gonna be tough. We did 100K in 3 hours. Gonna need 150K in the same amount of time. But I think we can do it...

I keep getting that blank picture too. o.O


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Popsghostly wrote:
Come on guys. Let's reach this one. It's gonna be tough. We did 100K in 3 hours. Gonna need 150K in the same amount of time. But I think we can do it...

Just double checking my math (maths for the English in here). $420 is the right amount for all in?

Against better judgement I just upped my pledge. I want Hawking!

 draugadan wrote:
I keep getting that blank picture too. o.O


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Popsghostly wrote:
Come on guys. Let's reach this one. It's gonna be tough. We did 100K in 3 hours. Gonna need 150K in the same amount of time. But I think we can do it...

Just double checking my math (maths for the English in here). $420 is the right amount for all in?

Are meaning 'all in game content' or 'all in everything that is extra too' like doors, bases, dice and deck holders?

 Mysterio wrote:

 draugadan wrote:
I keep getting that blank picture too. o.O


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Popsghostly wrote:
Come on guys. Let's reach this one. It's gonna be tough. We did 100K in 3 hours. Gonna need 150K in the same amount of time. But I think we can do it...

Just double checking my math (maths for the English in here). $420 is the right amount for all in?

Are meaning 'all in game content' or 'all in everything that is extra too' like doors, bases, dice and deck holders?

All in for everything, extra dice, peoples, tiles, all the gubbins.

I'm in for the $150 pledge. Haven't decided on any of the add on things but I'll see if I want anything else once the PM rolls around.

 draugadan wrote:
I keep getting that blank picture too. o.O


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Popsghostly wrote:
Come on guys. Let's reach this one. It's gonna be tough. We did 100K in 3 hours. Gonna need 150K in the same amount of time. But I think we can do it...

Just double checking my math (maths for the English in here). $420 is the right amount for all in?

I have $420.

There is a spreadsheet going around on the comments part of the KS for Invader that has every single item broken down. KingZombie (KZ) posts it every few hours.

We just did 56K in one hour. If we can keep this pace up, we'll have him.

I went all in for all 'unique' game content and I think that's $310?

 Mysterio wrote:
I went all in for all 'unique' game content and I think that's $310?

SP- 150 DS- 90 G1- 15 G2- 15 G3- 15 Xenos- 30

Do you count extra xenos unique? If so, I have $315...

Professor Falconer is fantastic, and the only survivor stretch I've actually cared if it's in the box or not. I'll do my part and jump back up to Soldier.

 Gallahad wrote:
Professor Falconer is fantastic, and the only survivor stretch I've actually cared if it's in the box or not. I'll do my part and jump back up to Soldier.

Yeah Falconer is a wonderful tribute. I ended additionally pledging for dice, markers, card holders, etc., that I'm not even sure I'll use.... But need Falconer!

Falconer is cool, but I still feel we're missing out on a power loader/ mech stand in.

Happy we have a few abomb variants at least, and some unique xenos to fight.

the last one looks like a "Kaiju" from pacific rim.

1 hour left. 37K from the good ole' Doctor... We've done like 113K in 2 hours lol.

Upped my pledge back to its pre- Rick and Morty state to help with Falconer. As for the stomper abomination, I didn't really need another abomination variant, but that is one sweet design. All things considered, this is a nice return to form.

It's interesting to see that Falconer's been a divisive subject in the KS comments: some love it and find it tasteful, others question its legality and think it's trespassing on the man's legacy.

Looking at the actual (digital) sculpt, I don't have a problem with it. Falconer himself comes off dignified, not ridiculous. I guess some will find his weaponized wheelchair/tank ridiculous and out of bounds, but I don't find it offensive. Simply put, this homage doesn't feel like mockery to me.

One more won't make it but they'll throw it in anyway





Artwork looks male but I think it's based on Nebula (Hence the Cloud name)

Damn, I really want that one!

 DaveC wrote:
Artwork looks male but I think it's based on Nebula (Hence the Cloud name)

I think it is a mash of Nebula and Gamora (green skin for Gamora, everything else is Nebula). The artwork does look male, or at best androgynous.

That's not much of a Buster Sword...

Anyone remember when the Chinese unlocks happened on HATE? Was it during or after the campaign ended? I can't remember.

Added in 100k (only?) so they unlocked it.

Wow. If those Asian funds only unlocked that one mini, that's pretty lame. Anticlimactic, too. So much wasted potential with this one.

I wouldn't take the Asian slush fund too seriously. They weren't going to put out a final goal without giving it to backers, they just hiked up the stretch amount for Cloud to insure it would be the last one. There's a murky relationship between the stretch goals, the final total, and what it pays for in these campaigns. Green Horde got an art box that this campaign didn't, but other than that, it looks to me like Invader backers got an equivalent amount of stuff from a campaign that brought in about 2 million dollars less.

Not that I'm complaining.

True. If you compare the number of big abominations, extra survivors, and new monsters we're getting as well, it's a pretty sweet deal compared to the fantasy equivalents.

But still, there's so much untapped potential for their scifi one. At least we'll be getting a box full of interesting minis to put to use all over the place.

Still, it would've been nice to have a dreadnought sized power suit to slug it out with the abombs.

 highlord tamburlaine wrote:
... Still, it would've been nice to have a dreadnought sized power suit to slug it out with the abombs.

That right there... made me visualize it. Great visual. I have to agree. Maybe, they will make something like that eventually.

Untapped potential = season 2?

I really like a lot of these models, but have no interest in the core box and pretty much every single thing I want is Kickstarter Exclusive. Damn.

They are quick off the mark with the surveys! My payment hasn’t even gone through yet, 55 KS backed and now my bank decides to flag it as suspicious activity.

 warboss wrote:

 Pacific wrote:
I am so torn between this and Hellboy. Both have their positives and negatives.

I love the art style of this (Adrian Smith) and have had so much fun with the other Zombicide games. This one is probably a bankable guarantee of quite a few fun evenings of gaming. But, I love the Hellboy franchise, and perhaps I should go for something a bit different?

Arggghhhh! First world problems!

I say base it on the KS exclusives. Which ever one has more figs that you won't be able to find later on without paying a scalper's mark up, go with that one and pick the other one up at retail if it still tickles your fancy. YMMV.

Thanks guys! Yes I know what you mean - I have made a fair amount back from selling the extra KS figures (think it pretty much covered the cost of Z:BP for me).

This looks great but I haven't started working on my Kingdom Death set yet, and have Village Attacks arriving soon, so couldn't really justify the spend on this. Might reconsider at retail though once it finally arrives and if I've finished other projects by then!

That was a fun ride gents... With this and Street Fighter II, I'm really out of funds...

Can't wait to get these in May 2019...

You guys know they have a follow up planned already, right? They work on a 2-year out schedule.

No, I didn't know they already have a "Season 2 for Invader" planned - more details please!

A little post-mortem commentary -

A kickstarter that brings in over 3 million isn't a failure. I also doubt the conventional wisdom that because this failed to reach Green Horde's 5 million+, or because they bundled Dark Side into this campaign, that Invader will be Zombicide's one and only foray into sci-fi. Consider their very next kickstarter project, advertised at the end of this campaign: a sequel to Arcadia Quest, a Ks project that brought them a whopping total of $774,122. If that's enough money to make an Arcadia Quest sequel worth doing for CMON, I think Zombicide sci-fi will have a future. (But the perception that CMON will never touch Zombicide sci-fi again will no doubt help scalpers dupe ebayers who 'missed the boat.') I just don't expect to see them revisit it for at least another 3 years.

So it made 3 million, so it's a great big success and there's nothing more to be said? Let's be serious. I just checked out some German language websites covering Invader, and guess what the #1 passing comment was? You know the answer already: How awful Invader's Abomination looked, often followed by an expression of disinterest in the entire campaign.

To be frank, I never liked Zombicide's original art style, and the fact that this Abomination looked terrible basically meant to me that he just followed Zombicide's long tradition of stupid-looking boxed set abominations. I know some people love the original Zombicide series art, so this is a personal taste issue. But the bar was a lot lower for me because I didn't like any of the boxed set zombies from Black Plague, but I bought it and got loads of mileage from the gameplay anyway. So while I understand complaints that the Invader xenos were at best uninspired or at worst just awful, the fact that I like any of them is a + for me since I'm getting the game regardless for its gameplay.

But it is going to cost Invader money at retail, and I'm sure it impacted the takings in the KS as well. Why make your most visible, iconic big figure in the box such a half-arsed design? I remember reading a Magic the Gathering designer's advice on how to get new people into the game: Give them a deck, and make sure that deck includes some cards they won't like. Why? So they'll be intrigued but dissatisfied, and motivated to start buying packs of Magic cards to replace the obviously flawed ones in their first deck. Pretty clever, pretty evil. Along those lines, I'm tempted to believe the Invader abomination was deliberately awful, to drive people to back the KS campaign and get the much better designed kickstarter exclusive ones. That strategy would still leave CMON selling a game at retail with a terrible centerpiece figure, which seems boneheaded, but these days they don't seem to be focusing on retail sales.

On the other hand, don't underestimate miniatures companies' capacity to unknowingly shoot themselves in the foot with obviously bad designs. (Do FFG's Mansions of Madness minis really have to be that awful? The game is successful, sure, but wouldn't it be moreso if the figures were actually good?) Conspiracy theories aside, it's possible CMON staff really did think Invader's xeno minis were fine, including the abomination.

It's obvious that CMON knew Dark Side's xenos were better, though, which is why they made sure that you had to buy Invader to get it. They would never have done the reverse: If they'd started the pledge with Dark Side and made Invader the optional add-on, it wouldn't have sold. Why didn't they just do Dark Side from the get go and forget about Invader entirely? You've got me. I know doing Invader and Dark Side this way was a cash grab, but it sure was a weird cash grab. The traditional way to grab cash would be to make Dark Side your starter set, then follow it up with well-designed expansion add-ons containing xeno figures that people are thrilled with.

As for the homages, you can say CMON couldn't win because everyone has different ideas of what sci-fi is, so no-one was ever going to be happy with their homage choices, and more sci-fi properties are being produced as mini games now, so a lot of popular references are off limits. I also think some backer frustration with the homages came from the idea that this would be the one and only sci-fi Zombicide CMON ever does, so it was now or never to get it right. (As I said above, I don't believe that.) Finally, I'm a different generation from the CMON staff, and I have different tastes in sci-fi. All of that said, I still think they could have done better, but I can use what they did do.

This wasn't the best run campaign. The pacing was off. Doing Ruby Rhod and the two-part Rick and Morty stretch goals near the finale brought campaign to a crawl. Closing kickstarters with a bang isn't rocket science - just put out your best crowd-pleasers in order of popularity, then throw in a large, impressive monster model, and you're done. As Dana Carvey impersonating George Michael once said, "it was supposed to be butt shot, shot of the hair, back to the butt, hand, butt, hand, butt, hand, butt, belt, butt, beard, butt, belt, butt, earring, face, butt, butt, earring, hold on the butt, hold on the butt, it's a formula but it bloody works!" They did get their wind back in the end with the Stomper Abomination and Falconer, but doing Rhod, Rick, and Morty in the early-to-middle campaign would have made more sense.

The three offbeat gang figure add-ons did seem to leave money and potential on the table, too. I liked them, but that was it? Nothing else to expand the sci-fi palette, like things better suited to the game's actual setting (miners, conscripts, dare I say Riddick? How do you do Dark Side without a Riddick homage?) or one of the many untouched sci-fi genre staples? Hopefully this was deliberate, because they're saving things for another campaign years from now. They sure saved a lot.

So how do I feel about this KS? I'm really happy with it, and looking forward to when it arrives in a year+. I'm trying to stop kickstarting games, but I'd been waiting forever for CMON to do sci-fi Zombicide. Despite all the flaws and quibbles, there's a generous amount of good minis here, the gameplay is reliable if stodgy, and production values will be high. (No surprise shortcuts on quality, like the kind that plague my favorite company, Mantic.) I actually don't hate all of the Invader Xenos as much as some do (just the abomination and the two KS exclusive worker poses), and I really like the KS exclusive xenos and abominations. As for Dark Side, that's the best horde of xeno-aliens I've seen in a long time that aren't from 40k or a movie property. Their design influences are obvious, but again, "it's a formula that bloody works." (Well OK, I think the Dark Side abomination looks kind of stupid, but that just upholds the venerable tradition of all Zombicide box sets. Boxed set Zombicide abominations have to look stupid. Because reasons.) I want to set up a game where the Invader and Dark Side aliens are at war, with the players caught in the middle as they try to escape.

Should I spend hundreds on this board game? Should anyone spend hundreds on any board game? Probably not, but I have a trump card: I'll get great mileage out of playing this with my son, and that makes this campaign worth its weight in gold. YMMV.

What was that KS obsession with Riddick by the way?

Pitch Black was an ok, by the numbers, sci-fi film. Enjoyable, but nothing special. Certainly not a sci-fi staple.

For me, I am glad to back the Kickstarter and get all the extra miniatures. Whether it is a success/failure to CMON...since I don't run their business, I think they can decide themselves about that .

For me, I think Invaders is a better suited product for a wider general audience as the survivors are soldiers+civilians. Dark Side (i like the monsters better) there are no civilian survivors in the mix.

 Vermonter wrote:
...
Consider their very next kickstarter project, advertised at the end of this campaign: a sequel to Arcadia Quest, a Ks project that brought them a whopping total of $774,122.
...

To be fair, there has already been a second Arcadia Quest KS. The second one pulled in $1.7million. That's $2.4million raised on KS between the two campaigns. This new expansion was actually announced and said to be a straight to retail option at last year's Gencon. I guess they decided to use KS as a straight to consumer pre-order platform instead.

 Grinshanks wrote:
What was that KS obsession with Riddick by the way?

Pitch Black was an ok, by the numbers, sci-fi film. Enjoyable, but nothing special. Certainly not a sci-fi staple.

Riddick is a great character. I like Vin Diesel enough that I can watch pretty bad movies if he is in there. Pitch black was a great scifi film, chronicles less so, but still ok. The last Riddick movie was a bit samey to Pitch black, but watchable too.

Final thing that makes me like the character of Riddick was the game where you play Riddick, busting out of various space prisons. That was a great game and made the character memorable to me at least.

I'm just salty that they didn't do a DS-based base pledge, and they won't sell it directly as an add-on. I asked, and they said no. Not even $1 this time.

 Mysterio wrote:
No, I didn't know they already have a "Season 2 for Invader" planned - more details please!

Since Black Plague, every Zombicide "core" game released has been as a standalone product and they've done away with the "season" moniker.

CMON bought out the Zombicide brand last year (maybe sooner? time flies) and they're going to milk it for all it's worth. I'd expect to see another around May 2019. Every year since 2012 they have run a Kickstarter campaign for a Zombicide game sometime between March and June, with the only exception being 2016 when they ran Massive Darkness in that slot instead (which clearly utilized the same design team).

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
I'm just salty that they didn't do a DS-based base pledge, and they won't sell it directly as an add-on. I asked, and they said no. Not even $1 this time.

Mebbe they'll learn from their "success" what sort of sculpts backers want and offer it next time -- if there is one.

A possibility is that CMON is more interested in selling more product to a smaller target, much like how other hobby companies sell their stuff (eg. Games Workshop). So it's better for them to have more projects in a shorter period of time (eg. upcoming Arcadia Quest "flash" KS, overlapping GH delivery date with Invader KS). And it's fine to make 3.3M gross when you could have made 5.0M gross on a particular project when your *net* for the year is higher. KS is not a store -- because stores don't track customer data as well as KS! With KS, there's the potential of creators knowing your buying habits *much* better than the traditional retailer-distributor system. I mean, *you* can click on someone's username and at least know what projects they've backed. Just try walking into a FLGS and asking the manager what products another customer bought. So it's possible that CMON is tailoring their KS to hunt, for those who are familiar with the video game term, whales. CMON may be setting up their KS to go after competitions who will buy the more profitable add-ons, not backers who will only buy a base pledge.

That's just an explanation to fit what we're seeing. Of course, Invader could have been "managed by committee" where everyone go to have their pet idea resulting in an incohesive art direction and whatnot. Occam's Razor.

@ Vermonter -

Great write up. I agree with your points.

From my perspective, it seemed as if the design team passed up some good, low-hanging fruit and grabbed some off the ground instead. I would have loved a Miner team add-on with a Sean Connery Marshall (from Outland).
I don't mind the 40K imagery but really would have liked more civilians. The Back To The Future followed by the Rick and Morty were too similar and, IMO, better choices could have been found. Backers were offering plenty of ideas.

For me, a lot of these minis, even the aliens, will get used in games and home-brewed scenarios of Core Space. While the Kabuki gang still makes no sense to me in Invader, they will be perfect gangers in gritty Core Space.

Except, that didn't happen. If you look at the numbers:
* the 85% of Invader backers who selected a full pledge averaged $214
* the 89% of GH backers who selected a full pledge averaged $206.

Invader had a lot fewer backers, and a lower conversion rate (i.e. higher number of fence-sitters), and I'm pretty sure it's not worth gaining a mere $8 over $206. That's now how to get whales.

@Grinshanks - I never raised Riddick in the KS comments, because 1) going on and on about any character you want gets annoying and 2) so many other people were doing it anyway. Why Riddick? I just like the character, and he's better suited to the setting than most of the survivor homages they chose.

@Kriswal - thanks for the correction on Arcadia quest. I still think Zombicide sci-fi has a future, but it'll be years from now. I'm sure they'll revisit their Fantasy and Modern eras and then expand the franchise with Zombicide: Weird West, Zombicide: Steampunk, and Zombicide: Jurassic Dark Carnival editions before they do sci-fi again.

@Myrthe - Thanks! And thank you for bringing up Outland, an oft-overlooked gem. I would have loved to see that homage. I don't have Core Space, but I think a lot of us are looking at the load of sci-fi survivors and thinking about exporting them to other games. Most of the survivors aren't the usual assortment of straight-up marines or soldiers, which is very handy.

@Myself - stop using the @ sign so much. It's @nnoying.

PM is live they aren’t hanging around. No update yet on closing date. (EDIT invite says July 1st)

Shipping is in 2 waves - base game then everything else. Shipping cost seems to reflect this $62 is probably the highest I’ve been charged without doubling up the base pledge - although it is 2 full stand alone games.

 PsychoticStorm wrote:
I am sorry Darktraveler77 this is not what I wrote, so? maybe reread and try to understand what I say instead of thinking what I said?
I would say your assessment is mostly correct, mid 20's plus what essentially is the generation that is infused with computer games, you may not like my assessments and you may like what you get, it is fine to disagree, from the comments what I see is people expected/ wanted more games IP.
Aliens? well I would expect the aliens and maybe the power loader? or an ambient influence from aliens,

You guys are both wrong.
Average age of a gamer is now 35. I'm older than than and now what Anthem, Gears of War et al are - and I also know what BTTF, Dune, Blade Runner are.

I think the reason that stuff from well known Aliens, Predator, Terminator, Star Wars, Star Trek, Doctor Who, Judge Dredd didn't show up is because all of those properties have current licencees in this very space. Prodoss, River Horse, FFG, Wizkids, Warlord Games. And if you don't think EA (owners of Anthem, Titanfall) and other games companies watch their IPs and are quite litigious to protect their properties, have a looky here.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/megacongames/myth-0/posts/527334

This was over a decoration within their LOGO.

And yeah, the "Dredd" model doesn't actually look like anything Dredd unless you really look for it, what with the kilt and all. And even then, it's sketchy and based on the film rather than the iconic comic-book look. The "ambient influence from Aliens" is all over the Xenomorphs from the standalone expansion, but making all the survivors simply Colonial Marines knock-offs would have been boring, and clearly not the more Heinlein/40k-inspired direction that they wanted to go in.

CMON just posted this to the Zombicide: Invaders update page.

Character Redesign

<INITIATING SURVIVOR EMERGENCY TRANSMISSION>

We regret to inform that we ran into some issues with three of the unlocked Stretch Goal Survivors: Richard Kindred, Madame Singleton, and Doctor Stakefrieze. They have been temporarily removed from the campaign page. But don’t panic, they are undergoing a redesign session and will soon be reinstated into our ranks.

<INVADER DETECTED> </END TRANSMISSION>


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Madame Singleton = Not Tina Turner from Mad Max
Doctor Stakefrieze = Not Morpheus from Matrix
Richard Kindred = Not Deckard from Blade Runner

Copyright claim or production redesign?

Comment section is full of comments wishing most of the other tribute characters (and the basic abomination) have the same fate...

kinda nuts.

Given all 3 of those would be Warner Brothers I guessing a threat to sue them out of existence.

I would guess more dissapear once Fox and the rest get wind of this.

Which characters were those parodying?

Stakefrieze and Singleton are no great loss pity about Kindred. It just shows they sailed to close to the wind with the new artwork no issues since the first KS and now 5 in this one.

As for those wanting their money back because 3 characters (out of 37) will be changed does no one read the terms and conditions anymore

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

By pledging to this project, you acknowledge that the final look, materials and content of the rewards (and the project) are subject to change and may differ substantially from what is presented while the Kickstarter project was active.

Is this a trick question? almost nobody reads terms and conditions at all, not anymore, from their start.

The case studies about it are so numerous one should take it for granted.

Edit what worries me is what if people star using it as a tool to change miniatures they do not like, there are many voices in the comments wishing X tribute was not there, given copyright claims seem to be an effective way to remove such models it is no big leap of logic to have people "from the good of their hart" notifying companies of "possible issues" and if these companies take notice, it can be a big disruption for kickstarter projects, not just CMON

In the past CMON offered refunds when Miramax sent them legal notice about two characters based on the Kill Bill franchise.

BreezingThrough about 3 hours ago
In case wondering who:
(previous removed was Will Smith)
Harison Ford
Tina Tuner
and Laurence Fishburne (Morpheus)

No great loss with those three. If they end up being replaced by original designs like Will Smith was, I'd even be quite happy.

Losing th doctor and madame is no big deal to me (sculpts were bland). However losing Kindred sucks. I didn't think the mini even had the likeness of Ford, but he at least was one character from a more well known sci fi series.

Maybe alter the art/mini a tad and leave as is?

Although maybe this will help us get riddick and a samus/boba hybrid!

They do this to themselves, what would possess them to have artwork created that looks exactly like an actor, when the miniature itself would never come close to that detail? Just make a mini of Guy in a lab coat with crazy hair looking at his watch, and have the self restraint not to make him look exactly like the guy from Suburban Commando.

An alternative way to avoid celebrity likenesses would be to have them actually wearing helmets and rebreathers since, you know, they're in a hostile environment and all.

As long as the redesigned minis are better, I don't mind those three being replaced. Losing Will Smith got us a much better mini.

 DaveC wrote:
Stakefrieze and Singleton are no great loss pity about Kindred. It just shows they sailed to close to the wind with the new artwork no issues since the first KS and now 5 in this one.
As for those wanting their money back because 3 characters (out of 37) will be changed does no one read the terms and conditions anymore

Well, most T&C aren't legally worth the paper they're not printed on, so there's that. As for people wanting a refund because of the three characters - they're still within the full refund window of the KS that CMoN offers, aren't they?

I think Adrian Smith's "realistic" painted artwork probably doesn't help them with it all either. The line art from previous campaigns was quite a bit looser, especially when it came to facial features as opposed to AS painting an actor's face taken directly from a film still. They should/could have made the artwork more generic, since it's not like their tiny pvc figure's heads would have looked exactly like Harrison, Tina or Lawrence. gak, they could probably use the exact same figures with new non-infringing artwork.

Looking at the PM for this thing, and still trying to decide to go in or not (fastest PM I've ever seen!) I have a couple of questions - and as the KS comments are typically a human sewer, I'm asking them here.

What's the specific use for the Counter base set? (and are there really only 6 of each?)

Is the tiles set new stuff, or reprints from the core set?

Are the Promo Xenos different sculpts to the ones included in the regular core sets?

The counter bases are just for easy identification of any enemies you feel are worthy of note. I guess it's because there are plenty of people who don't paint the miniatures, so all of the special xenos are going to look roughly the same from a distance. Keeps you from mistaking a seeker for a worker, I guess.

The tiles are reprints from the Invader sets (9 Invader Core, 3 Black Ops)

Promo Xenos set sculpts are the same as the freebies

To any returning Zombicide players, are the tiles worth it? Or will I find the main missions engaging enough to not feel the need to make my own?

 Tim the Biovore wrote:
The counter bases are just for easy identification of any enemies you feel are worthy of note. I guess it's because there are plenty of people who don't paint the miniatures, so all of the special xenos are going to look roughly the same from a distance. Keeps you from mistaking a seeker for a worker, I guess.

The tiles are reprints from the Invader sets (9 Invader Core, 3 Black Ops)

Promo Xenos set sculpts are the same as the freebies

To any returning Zombicide players, are the tiles worth it? Or will I find the main missions engaging enough to not feel the need to make my own?

Thanks for that - I see the point there on the counter bases I guess. The Green Tide walkers and runners look way too close to each others' designs. Is it just the 18 of them (3x6) in the set for US$15 though? Seems pretty expensive for what you get there.

I've found that once you get a few sets in, you've got more tiles than you'll ever use. I've also gone "double core pledge" a few times, but never really needed the extra tiles. Depends on how often you play and the mentality of your group. I find the scenarios are replayable, but I've got a mate who has a "get through it all as fast as possible" mentality, so if we get super lucky and all goes perfectly and we finish a scenario in 15mins, that one is done and dusted for him forever. GG would also frequently publish new scenarios on their bog/website and there was an app for previous editions to build your own.

Ah, fantastic, good to know.

There are 48 counters in the set, 16 of each. Don't know how I missed that in my first reply. The graphic is a tad misleading, but presumably they wanted to show them off properly instead of as a mass of circles of potentially ambiguous form.

Thank you - I get that with the image, but often they add some text with the exact numbers of things.

CMON just posted an update with resin samples of miniatures and they look terrible with shallow melty detail.








More "bad old days of PVC" horror here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cmon/zombicide-invader/posts/2368605

This makes me very worried about the final quality of the miniatures. These would be bad even for PVC. If the resins look like this imagine how the PVC will look...

Yikes
But then we will get "quality akin to GW" in the youtube reviews nonsense...

I like the space manta ray`s design though

There are a couple that are not tooooo bad in the link (Stomper Abomination for example is pretty nice)

Mold lines are pretty gross though, and "Shadow Abomination" is probably the worst not-Alien I`ve ever seen.

From the comments: "And since when has cmon had a bad looking mini."
Bhaha

The other thing that is pretty horrendous is the presentation of these minis -a wooden table and a black carpet backdrop? For a 3.35 million dollar campaign?

from the update it sounds very much like they got the door test shots from the factory (which have good photos)

but these basic mini shots are ones taken at the factory and are not stuff they've got at CMON HQ yet

(also based on the resins we saw for starcadia quest they were far worse than the production minis that were made from them so hopefully that will be the case here too for those who backed)

I'm really hoping they haven't given the go-ahead for production on these. They are honestly the lowest detail resins I've seen.

Wait- those are the resins? Jeez. That is bad then.

Considering the bulk were all 3d sculpted as well, you'd think they'd have a lock on getting these to turn out nicely.

Then again, considering how bland some figures from games have looked in photos prior to arrival, I won't pass judgement until their in my grubby paws.

I remember one of the Rum & Bones games had all sorts of complaints about poor photography, and the figures turned out fine. Conan too had a bunch of teeth gnashing over poorly lit shots.

I think the Green Horde figures came out great, so I'm hoping these will be of similar quality in the end.

I feel like that's a typo/mistake - those pics don't look like resin, but definitely look like mediocre PVC.

Yikes.

Well if anyone feels like these are not acceptable quality levels, now is the time to make a stink over in the comments section. I think it is important to let businesses know early on in the process what is and isn't acceptable quality rather than just crossing our collective fingers.

As if CMON reads the comments once a project has funded...

(as I said above I bet these are rough draft resins which will be scanned and then improved digitally just like Starcadia Quests stuff was, although it doen't help with the fairly limp art direction)

I'm pretty sure they still keep tabs on the comments even if they aren't active there. If enough people say something I'm confident they will see it. Surely it is more likely at least than just saying something about it here

Strange, the minis look not worse than Black Plague Zs to me...

The survivor resins are looking pretty nice. Interesting to.see how they survive the transition to pvc.

I can still pay for my pledge here - I like the look of many of the minis, but some of the previews are leaving my thinking that CMON might have taken a step back in terms of their PVC quality?

Soft 'resin' previews - leading to soft detail PVC production minis?

Any thoughts - or words to convince me one way or the other?

After the preview pictures, I'm convinced that about 30% of the minis will be low detail mush and that CMON don't care.

That being said, I'm generally pessimistic and reactionary.

Any sort of delay on big projects like this( to fix truly crappy resins for example) pushes out the timeline of everything else in their pipeline. So I think anything with a crappy preview resin will end up as a melty PVC mini.

Green Horde plastics were nice. I'm still hoping these will turn out to be of equal quality.

Yeah, probably so.

Decisions, decisions!

Some of the initial 'plastic' previews of the main box minis looked quite good.

I think I'll gamble on it, as the minis have so many additional 'counts as' potential for me too...

In general, I would just assume that the pictures of resins you saw are good indicators of final quality. Many of them looked good. One batch with the interesting creatures looked poor. The final product will almost certainly follow the same route, with everything adjusted down a bit in quality from the resins.

I was reading some of these posts about the quality and wow, a lot of people seem disappointed with some of the previews. I was very disappointed that I missed out on this Zombicide kickstarter, so I pledged for Project: Elite and picked up the Zombicide: Invader crossover to prep for the future. Regardless, if anyone isn't happy with the previews from Zombicide: Invader, please back out of the pledge/ kickstarter while you still can! I'm on the late pledge list so I would gladly take your place.

They've posted some production plastic pictures - They look good to me for PVC board game minis sure one or 2 details could be sharper (thinner gun parts) but overall they are grand.

I thought they looked pretty good.as.well. The smallest gun barrels look a wee bit warp, but otherwise the details look.pretty crisp.

It does look good. Then again I thought it looked good during the campaign so maybe I'm a bit biased.

I look forward to getting this!

I think they look OK, but definitely inferior to the recently delivered HATE miniatures. The first guy doesn't have much of a face and their left arms with the shock glove things, fingers and armor plate edges all look a little melty to me.

The color of the plastic is propably hiding some of the details for the heroes. If you look at the monster, it has nice details and it has a bit darker coloured plastic.

Anyway, I'm happy with these guys. They will form a squad under the SciFi skirmish game rules I just kickstarted.

The Orphan Gang production plastics review is up now and they look great. Nice details and nothing too melty or soft looking. Looking forward to.painting them up in super bright fluorescent

The Orphan gang was the only extra I bought. It is always nice to have kid characters for the nieces and nephews etc.

They are thankfully looking okay from a detail standpoint. They will be fun to paint.