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Giant Rats IN SPACE, your first RPG encounter

AlexHolker wrote:

scarletsquig wrote:Still not looking very ratlike.

It's got a rat tail sticking out from under its robes.

And Daemonettes have crab claws, does that mean they're crabs?

If the argument amounts to "Mantic derived their entire concept for the 8th race from an s-shaped squiggle in the arse-end of the 3rd edition 40k rulebook", then I'm quite happy to let people post that and make themselves look silly, just like back in the days when everyone was making ever-so-serious multi-paragraph posts about green orcs and goblins having been stolen from GW.

Just because GW don't make Space Skaven doesn't make it an original idea. They're brought up every time a possible new 40k faction is being discussed, there have been plenty of 40k Skaven conversions, etc.

Good on Mantic if they make something people want (and if they make it look good for a change) but let's not pretend that space rats are a novel idea.

The thing in the picture has canines, not incisors though. Space Werewolves would be pretty cool.

Jes Goodwin did a pile of sketches and designs on Space Skaven back in the day, they can be found in his art book le Gothic and le Eldritch.

Just watched thE video from Mantic. It's pretty lame and not worth the 3 minutes I wasted with it.

Here's a guess, 8th race = 8 pointed star of chaos or have they done marauders already? It's hard to remember what they have and havent cribbed at this point.

No, no, Marauders are the space orks. Their space orx will be the space chaos barbarians.

BrookM wrote:Jes Goodwin did a pile of sketches and designs on Space Skaven back in the day, they can be found in his art book le Gothic and le Eldritch.

OK thanks that must be what I was thinking of. The general conception, going back for quite some years, was that Hrud equalled space skaven. However, I couldn't tell you where else that originated, other than someone started talking about it and it was assumed that that's what they were? It might just have been my gaming group though.

Although TBH it doesn't matter a toss to me where the concept comes from, as long as the sculpts are OK and the game fun to play.

On a side note, I think there are plenty of other companies out there producing things for a completely separate game-type and universe if that's what you want. Mantic have decided that there is a market for a cheaper option that can also be used in GW games as well as their own, and are going for that. This might not be popular with GW upper-echelons (and, from what I have heard they are well aware of what Mantic is doing, and the condescension has already started), but I hope they can continue - GW core games are still the most popular, and I like having the option of being able to build a new army without needing to put buying a new car on hold to account for it.

notprop wrote:Here's a guess, 8th race = 8 pointed star of chaos or have they done marauders already? It's hard to remember what they have and havent cribbed at this point.

Frankly, I wish Mantic would do "not-Chaos Marauders," because the GW models are terrible.

I've already sourced alternative Chaos Warriors, alternate Marauders is the next step. I might have to settle for the (super expensive) Bestigor option.

Interesting, from a post on Warseer the original blurb for Project Pandora had them down as 'Veermyn', but this has now been changed to 'Scavengers' (which I believe was a community chosen name, in the same was as Twilight Kin was chosen)

So, almost without question going to be some spin on 'anthropomorphised rats in space'. We will find out for sure on Thursday, looking forward to seeing them in any case

Bit of background blurb that was just posted by Jake Thornton on the Mantic blog

The Zloveshy Vassily has a bad reputation and is widely held to be an unlucky ship. Few of the itinerant deckhands that hang around the bars in the Corporation ports would sign on with her unless they had nowhere else to go, and the crew has a deservedly suspect reputation of its own. Those that serve on her call her the Grim Cargo with a perverse sense of pride. Few serve on her long.

Of the many who have died in her aged and variously stained corridors, not all have been found. Several have simply disappeared into the bowels of the myriad ducts and accessways between the rooms, for she is an elderly design, long obsolete. When she was built it was fashionable to hide the engineering behind gaudy panelling and pretend that the vessel was a shopping mall or grand hotel rather than a tin can floating in the hard vacuum of deep space. The loneliness of that thought, went the theory, would send people mad…
For those that understand the design, the Grim Cargo is a functional warren of tunnels and narrow corridors, dimly lit and rarely travelled. Most of the engineering access ports are hidden behind clip-on panelling, and many of the ship’s maintenance stations are tucked away neatly out of sight. Of course, this is fine when you don’t need to fix anything, but when there is a failure an inexperienced crew can spend hours searching for the correct accessway. And they don’t always find their way back.

These dangers have made the crew very reluctant to leave the central command areas and most of the more remote zones of the Grim Cargo have been all but abandoned to broken venting, flickering lights and unexplained creaks and groans. It is an unnerving vessel to explore, and a far cry from the sleek military ships of the Corporation fleet that Sergeant Cruise and his men are familiar with.
What makes matters worse for the Troopers is that their mission obliges them to stay in exactly those areas that the crew avoid most, guarding the cargo they have been tasked to protect in whichever corner of the storage sections it has been secured. They have no idea what they are guarding, though there is much speculation.
But the 8th Race know…

Definitely interested to see what the game tiles look like now..

scarletsquig wrote:If the argument amounts to "Mantic derived their entire concept for the 8th race from an s-shaped squiggle in the arse-end of the 3rd edition 40k rulebook", then I'm quite happy to let people post that and make themselves look silly, just like back in the days when everyone was making ever-so-serious multi-paragraph posts about green orcs and goblins having been stolen from GW.

Whoops, I think the point I was trying to make came out a bit wrong, sorry bad wording on my part I guess.

Lets try this again,

Now lets face the obvious point, despite the fact that GW fans have been banging on about space Skaven/Hurd being made for years now, it's never going to happen. Now wherever or not mantic has decided to produce their own space rat-men as a direct repose to the GW fans or its simply them covering another well known fantasy race as a way of separating their product line and covering races that other companies like GW wont/haven't is anyone's guess and at the end of the day not really a big deal, it cool just to have space Skaven finally.

The part that worries me about this release is that space rat-men could potentially be a very easy race to mess up from a design perspective. The whole degraded and primitive look that is commonly associated with rat-men and of course is what we see in GW's Skaven range could end-up looking too "fantasy" in nature if Mantic does it wrong. After all its going to be very disappointing if they just look like fantasy rat-men holding ray-guns now isn't it?

For a good example of a degraded future race/army, look up the reavers from firefly, they look degraded and almost tribal in design, yet don't look out of place in the futuristic universe of firefly. Now hopefully this is what Mantic will achieve and these space-rats will end up being well grounded into the sci-fi/future design style and won't simply end up looking like somebody's not-Hurd/space Skaven conversion project.


Also Tarellian Dog-soldier's, you really think they look like werewolf's? Personally I think they look more like some sort anthropomorphic alligator/lizard race, have you ever seen the bangaa from the final fantasy series their basiclly lizard men:







Automatically Appended Next Post:
Just ran across this on Mantics site, thought I'd throw it up for y'all:

Twilight Kin Assassain (Final Miniature, Metal single blister)


The face seems really off, also seems a little "sparse" detail wise, just my 2 pennys worth.

Also, on Mantics blog they have some pics of the Project Pandora floor tiles.

Right Here: http://www.manticblog.com/

Not looking to bad.

One thing about the assassin: dont worth it... GW sell a box of 12, and they look better...

And Pandora is just looking great... Im on it...

A few more Corporation pics from Remy's blog:

























So, information for interested Imperial Guard players:

- melta, plasma, flamer for the special weapons.
- lascannon, autocannon for the heavy weapons.

Regular lasguns, hellguns, power fist, laspistol. Power sword/ fist options on the commander.

I imagine the Elysian special/ heavy weapons conversion kit that Forge world sells would be a perfect fit if you want to fill in any gaps or get a more exact-looking match for the GW weapons.

MANTIC is starting to excite me...while I wasn't thrilled with some of their early figures, their casts seem to be improving (rather dramatically) in a relatively short amount of time.

Now if only their game systems would gain some traction I'd have an excuse to buy something (I don't have much interest in using figures as warhammer proxies because I've fallen a bit out of love with the systems over the last few years).

Corporation look pretty cool with helmets on.

So Mantic is doing Dwarf Kings Hold IIIIIN SPAAAAAAAACE as a new release? Well if the tiles are good...

I really have nothing to do with IG, and i only play 40k, but those corporation made me wish i liked IG gaming style...

Maybe in future i try some foot sloging IG...

Thanks for that post, that has dispelled last of my doubts about these. Totalwargamer.co.uk has the Corporation army set (40 troops + 3 heavy weapon teams) for £38, which is a no-brainer I think.

Lovely looking sculpts, I had no idea they were so detailed. Going to use these as the Elysian army from IA: 8, great stuff

Which models are these? the arms are so long

Scouts or veterans I think they were called. I'm going to have to get a box of those, they look the bees knees.

Rolt wrote:
Also, on Mantics blog they have some pics of the Project Pandora floor tiles.

Right Here: http://www.manticblog.com/

Not looking to bad.

A little help for the work blocked anyone?

LunaHound wrote:Which models are these? the arms are so long

The rangers

Their arms are only long in comparison to the stumpy proportions of the GW figures.

The Rangers look awesome and I am sold. I really wish I could like the Marine guns, I really do, but I don't really like them at all. Unfortunate. Will have to find an alternative to use.

Overall though, they look fantastic!

Overall proportions on those guys are god for true scale. Some folks need to remember GW uses heroic (aka unrealistic) scale.

Im interested to see more on this new game.

Loving the new sculpts. I'm in a pickle... I promised myself I wouldn't start any new armies, but I decided to start painting an old baneblade I never got around to, and decided to paint it in desert colors instead of matching my new army, just for fun, and now I'm telling myself I won't but I know I'm gonna be starting a whole new IG regiment all because of this dumb tank. I'm thinking a small (yeah, that'll happen) army of vets and stormtroopers.

So... now I just dunno what to do... go with Corporation for the figs? Or hold out for the Defiance german troops? Or clean out my 401k and get both?

A little help for the work blocked anyone?

Here you go:

Genral Corridor/Room?:


Winding Corridors:


Engineering level:


Also so more info from the blog:

These pieces are just three of a much larger array of tiles available to build your starship. There’s also T-junctions, corner pieces, an airlock and a large storage area to name a few – and that’s before we even get to the action counters! We’ll show these off and what goes into the design process later this week.

Well, that’s it for today – check back tomorrow for more on the Corporation in Project Pandora!

Good to hear it's not just going to be single tile corridors and small rooms like space hulk.

I do like the Mantic sculpts. I just don't dig the helmets (yet).
They look to square ala kin to a rugby helmet and the visor is way too big.
When painted the visor looks out of place, or is it just the green they were painted that threw me?

It's a futuristic item, and I get it. Who knows what will pass for usable armor.

However, why no leg protection. they are going to have a medic ward full of one legged Corp. soldiers if they cant get any protection..

Cheers Rolt.

Re the rangers/corp troops it's the legs that are looking odd to me. Abit lacking in the thigh perhaps?

We'll see on the flesh I suppose.

The legs look a bit silly because they've rolled the pant leg up and bloused it over their boots.

notprop wrote:Re the rangers/corp troops it's the legs that are looking odd to me. Abit lacking in the thigh perhaps?

I agree. Even for truescale, the ratio of the width of their thighs to their height looks off by 15-20%. The top-heavy design of the armour doesn't help.

There was a note on the other forum that that was incorrect painting on behalf of the studio that did it. They aren't meant to be roll-ups, but rather part of the boot (like jackboots). If you look at this one, you can see that quite clearly.



The sculptor is a chap called Remy Trimblay, who has done a lot of freelance stuff for Studio McVey. It was mentioned by the Mantic guy who posts on Warseer that he has done the sculpting for the 8th race as well (hopefully revealed tomorrow!)

As far as I'm concerned I'm frankly stunned by how good these look. I would say they are pretty much comparable to the FW Elysians in terms of sculpt detail, and although some might consider it almost sacrilegious to say, they dump on the now rather aged looking Cadian sculpts by a country mile. And that's regardless of the price discrepancies when compared to the above.