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Kroothawk wrote:I am starting to believe that Mantic has a secret death wish, because everytime they have to make a decision, they don't take the no-brainer obvious one but the WTF one.

Glad to know I'm not alone thinking that. Little did I know that the Space Dwarves would actually be the high point of the Warpath range. Everything they've released since their lovely plastic skeletons has been another step down the spiral.

I think the common consensus is the Corporation (I think released today or tomorrow?) are probably the best so far, at least for the Warpath range? Certainly they dump on the GW Cadians from quite a height, and they are a fraction of the cost.

Give them time, they are only a small company with less than a dozen employees. You can't expect every release to be perfect yet. The important thing is that they are encouraging feedback from customers, and have actively made changes or brought in new models at the request of fans (the upgrade kits for Forge Fathers for instance).

Kroothawk wrote:But if you want to introduce a new race with a box set in Space Corridors, why base the miniatures with gravel and grass?
I am starting to believe that Mantic has a secret death wish, because everytime they have to make a decision, they don't take the no-brainer obvious one but the WTF one.

Well everyone complains that they try to copy GW...

I like the corp figs so far, but I think I like the vets better than the regular guys. I'm planning to diversify my guard army a lot more and add in some of them along with some of the defiance marines

Thus far I don't see any of their steps as being down the spiral. If anything, the Orx, Forgefathers and now Corporation are moving in a very good direction. Veer-myn aren't my cup of tea, but those who want them will sure be glad to own them.

I am in the process of ordering in Corporation stock for my store. I may well be out of luck, as they might have run out. If that is the sign of a business spiralling down the drain, we should all be so lucky.

Again, as a poster put it a few pages back, some of you won't be happy unless the product Mantic sells is 100% original, yet can easily identified and used in a competitors setting, using much better materials but at a mere fraction of the cost of GW, and be made to your exact desires and wishes.

Just be glad GW has some robust competition starting from alternate suppliers. Maybe it will force them to look at their mutant proportioned miniatures and poor casting practices for Finecast, and make changes. Without these smaller suppliers coming online to challenge them, what possible reason would GW have to change their business practices?

Fenriswulf wrote:Again, as a poster put it a few pages back, some of you won't be happy unless the product Mantic sells is 100% original, yet can easily identified and used in a competitors setting, using much better materials but at a mere fraction of the cost of GW, and be made to your exact desires and wishes.

And others are happy, when Mantic takes fantasy miniature designs from the 90s, adds a bionic eye and a gun, paints them badly, takes a blurry photo, paints a big black spot on the photo ("Photoshop? What is Photoshop?") and presents it as the biggest competition to GW's 40k products.

Kroothawk I believe you were one of the loudest critics when the Warpath range was first revealed. And to be fair, I think a lot of people (including myself) agreed with you to an extent - they didn't look firmly enough in the region of sci-fi with sandals and swords (or is that swords and sandals? ). But, they have taken that criticism on board and released some upgrade packs for the FF - enclosed helms and different armour, so there is far less relation now between the Forge Fathers and KoW dwarf models.

But, I think they were a new company then starting out, and no doubt resources were stretched (perhaps too far with Warpath). But, at least as the FF have shown Mantic are continuing to try and push things in the right direction. I think it's unrealistic to expect them to do any more at this stage. With the Veer-myn looking less distinctly sci-fi, considering there are no KoW skaven-ish models one has to assume that they are concious design direction. While they won't be everyone's cup of tea, personally I think they look OK.

And now they will be used in the Project Pandora game as well, which I'm sure will be most people's experience of them. That game, it it's anything like Dwarf King's Hold, will offer a great little game for a cheap price. Again it is something that you can't get if you stick exclusively with GW, unless you want either Dreadfleet or to line the pockets of the ebay sharks offering Space Hulk for £100 or more.

Just be glad GW has some robust competition starting from alternate suppliers. Maybe it will force them to look at their mutant proportioned miniatures and poor casting practices for Finecast, and make changes. Without these smaller suppliers coming online to challenge them, what possible reason would GW have to change their business practices?

I agree with this wholeheartedly. A monopoly isn't good for the consumer regardless of the industry involved. Hopefully the end result from this 5-6 years down the line is that we will have another couple of wargame and miniature companies who can stand up alongside GW. It can only be good for the wargaming hobby as a whole.

Kroothawk wrote:But if you want to introduce a new race with a box set in Space Corridors, why base the miniatures with gravel and grass?
I am starting to believe that Mantic has a secret death wish, because everytime they have to make a decision, they don't take the no-brainer obvious one but the WTF one.

It took years for GW to realize that with an infinite universe in which to play, set on Cathedral worlds, Industrial Worlds, in Ash Wastes or on Demon Worlds of liquefied corpsefields and crystalline towers, that 'Goblin green and sand" was pretty damn tedious, unimaginative and soulless, and they actually tried to force players to use it. If that didn't kill them, it shouldn't make much difference to Mantic. Its purely an aesthetic choice, and I have a feeling they are trying to cultivate the 'Bunch of like-minded hobbyists' feel, rather than the 'Infallible Mega-Corp' feeling GW has going for it. Is it concidence that they named their borderline-fascist neo-colonialist 'human' race 'Corporation'? I think not.

I think that the basing and painting has been outsourced here, hence why it doesn't 'fit'.

Some of the minis in Mantic's range may well be back to the 1990s in standard, but I don't really mind that as long as we go back to the 1990s in price too! Frankly, the Dwarf King's Hold minis are at least on a par with the ones in 1st Edition Space Hulk -- I'd say the Mantic stuff is better, in fact -- and at a £35 price point today, compared to £25 or so for the GW boxed games of 20 years ago, still seems very reasonable.

Hi all

There's a bunch of Veer-Myn concept art up on Beast of War's site, not sure if I should re-post it here since its listed as "exclusive", I'll be happy to post it if its OK with everyone else
and the Mods. The concepts look pretty cool and defiantly show off the finer details of the Veer-myn's design, much better than the preview pictures we've seen so far.

Artworks here:

http://www.beastsofwar.com/warpath/sneaky-sneaky-veermyn/

There is also a video called Veer-myn by Mantic Games with Ronnie talking about upcoming Veer-myn stuff and a few tid-bits about the army as a whole.

The video is here:

http://www.beastsofwar.com/warpath/veermyn-mantic-games-revealed/

Here is a lowdown on what managed to get from the video:

1) - He mentions some un-previewed models, monstrous mutant rat-men (think rat-ogres) and subterranean vehicles.

2) - There will be two main unit boxes coming out, Crawlers and Nightmares. Not a 100% sure of the amount of guys in each, I think he said 10 for hoard units and 5 for elite units,
but don't hold me to that. Not sure if these are going to be plastic or resin either.

3) - Stalkers and Gougers will be coming out after the first two sets, no real details.

4) - Nightspawn might be coming out around the same time, is going to be a Hero/HQ unit.

5) - There will be metal upgrade packs like the forge fathers. Interestingly he mentioned that these will be aesthetic parts, but later mention that these will
unit upgrade packs? Mantic could be planning to do what PP having be doing with their Warjacks and produce cheap standardized units that can upgraded into
more rarer units via metal add-ons/replacement parts.

6) - Also they do a turn-around display of some of the Veer-Myn models at the end of the video. The models look pretty good, much better than Mantics crappy preview pictures
have shown so far. On a personal note I must say this actually gets me interested in Project Pandora and the Veer-Myn army again (I may need to do some converting mind you).

7) - Warpath 2.0 will be landing later this year and by the sound of it all four current armies will get a bunch of new stuff.

That's all for now.

I'm hopeful for more Mantic plastic models.
All the resin stuff has expanded their range, but at expense of their stated goal of cheap minis.
Especially Corporation and maybe FF and Orx re-sculpts.
Their decision to go resin with so many of the recent kits seems to have more to do with production and time than desire.
Warlord just pushed out a huge line of British and Zulus, and Perry Miniatures have expanded their Napoleonics.
If Renedra isn't expanding, somebody is getting pushed to the back, and it seems to be Mantic.

All the hate for the Veer-Myn makes me laugh a bit.
Ever since 3rd ed, and that hrud picture, there's been a constant stream of "GW should totally do Space Skaven".
A company steps up and does them, and its "That's boring and unoriginal".

I like that Mantic sees the design space that GW has left, and are trying to fill it.
There is a demand there for Chaos Dwarves, Space Ratmen, Space Dwarves, and cheap plastic alternatives for fantasy staples.
Didn't GW start out as an alternative producer of minis for D&D?

skrulnik wrote:I'm hopeful for more Mantic plastic models.
All the resin stuff has expanded their range, but at expense of their stated goal of cheap minis.
Especially Corporation and maybe FF and Orx re-sculpts.
Their decision to go resin with so many of the recent kits seems to have more to do with production and time than desire.
Warlord just pushed out a huge line of British and Zulus, and Perry Miniatures have expanded their Napoleonics.
If Renedra isn't expanding, somebody is getting pushed to the back, and it seems to be Mantic.

QFT. If you're not the big dog at least realize it and charge little dog prices. Their prices have made me decide to wait and see what Defiance comes up with since they're doing plastic only. Why pay mantic prices for resin when I can just pay a dollar or two more for GW? AoBR Ork Boyz run about $15-$20 on Ebay but mantic is charging $20 for 10.... yeah, I'll pass.

I've been contemplating a vampire count army and will be using Mantic's undead line for a good part of the army if I decide to go that route but I'm completely not interested in resin, restic or whatever other label people want to put on it.

LunaHound wrote:

Alpharius wrote:

Pacific wrote:

I don't know why it continues to surprise me, but man GW's 'heroic scale' sculpting is ridiculous looking!

It isn't bad within the range as a whole, but when you see them next to 'more realistically proportioned' miniatures that are allegedly in the same scale... wow!

Welcome to my world,
and to make it worse, im not a GW fan, so every flaw sticks out like a sore thumb

They look alot better once you see them under BOW'S close-cam http://www.beastsofwar.com/warpath/corporation-army-set/

I held them in my hands today and they are lovely little models. I really don't think any of the shots on Mantic's website, or the previews on blogs for that matter, have really done them justice.

They should really do the '360 degree' shot for them as they did for the Veer-myn.

Anyway, the army box for £38 from Totalwargamer.co.uk , an absolute bargain. I'm going to pick up some more of them despite not long finishing another IG army, they are that good!

Pacific wrote:I really don't think any of the shots on Mantic's website, or the previews on blogs for that matter, have really done them justice.

So the 2 seconds invested in the blurry phone pics were not enough?

Pacific wrote:I held them in my hands today and they are lovely little models. I really don't think any of the shots on Mantic's website, or the previews on blogs for that matter, have really done them justice.

They should really do the '360 degree' shot for them as they did for the Veer-myn.

Anyway, the army box for £38 from Totalwargamer.co.uk , an absolute bargain. I'm going to pick up some more of them despite not long finishing another IG army, they are that good!

I would love to see some shots of these dudes next to some 40k dudes

I am thinking of getting a few to use as my inquisitors body guard and space station security (doing a campaign that will start with a zone of mortallis game)

I got my birthday box today, and I was pretty happy with what I got.

-10 Skeletons
-10 Elves
- 4 Dwarves (I think some are cannon crew)
- 3 Orcs
- 1 Dwarven Cannon
- 1 Skull Catapult with crew
- 1 Elven Bolt Thrower with crew

And on the Warpath end:
-11 Marauder Grunts
-8 Forge Father Steel Warriors
-5 of the restic dwarves with heavy weapons (which I wasn't expecting, and are really rather nice!)
-1 Marauder speeder thingy.

And 2 clippers!
A decent amount of stuff for the price!

Edit: The only disappointing thing is that the set arrived without any bases!

Hi all

I ran across this, seems to be the other half of the Corporation vs Veer-myn box artwork.


Enjoy

I got my birthday box today, and I was pretty happy with what I got.

Seem like a rather random assortment of stuff there Boss, happy birthday BTW.

Heh! It wasn't my birthday, but Ronnies. they did a deal where you could order a random selection of miniatures for a reduced price to celebrate his birthday, so I went for two boxes.

Da Boss wrote:Heh! It wasn't my birthday, but Ronnies. they did a deal where you could order a random selection of miniatures for a reduced price to celebrate his birthday, so I went for two boxes.

Ah I see, my mistake. Sounds like a pretty cool deal though a nice way to view a seletion of thier core products for cheap, shame I missed that would've picked up some Warpath stuff.

Hopfully we'll see some nice Corporation VS Veer-myn boxed deals when they release, even though I don't like the idea of space rat-orges, might build a custom "Scrap Rat-Mecha" to replace those.

More info, taken from this video on BoW:

http://www.beastsofwar.com/kings-of-war/kings-war-hardback-edition/

- KoW hardback will have 8 armies. Rules for siege, magic items, and running tournaments as well as a fleshed-out background section with lots of artwork.
- "7 of the 8 armies will be out by the time the rulebook hits".
- 3 new armies coming in an expansion in 2014, rather than rushing to get them into the hardback.
- Plastic werewolves are being sculpted.
- Plastic Trolls (coming end of the year, base, bestial sculpts), and "probably ogres".
- New £30 warhost-style starter sets coming, with rules, dice, to give people a lower entry point to the game.
- Orcs and Goblins Vs. Undead confirmed for new KoW starter set.
- Wound counters etc. in the starter set.
- KoW rules planned to stay fixed for 5 years, but with regular updates to the downloadable army lists for new units etc.
- Big abyssal dwarf release - Halfbreeds in restic, slave driver for the slave orcs, Mortar.
- 3 "giant wights" as the new undead unit.

Next 5 years are likely to be "2 months of board games, 10 months of cranking out unit after unit after unit", with the rules being fixed in place.

If anyone here has a backstage pass for BoW, there is a backstage pass video where it looks like Ronnie talks about the new goblin releases coming soon:

http://www.beastsofwar.com/backstage/kings-war-force/

If anyone can relay information from that video, it would be really appreciated!

Hmm I do hope the plastic werewolves are good. That is a big leap of faith (for me anyways!) though

And wow Undead for the 3rd starter set! I think that just proves how much people really like them compared to the rest

Oooh, I wonder how big the Werewolves will be?

Kroot Hawk, look who else copied the "Elysian" helmet....


NOT!

I won't bite this time

Okay, current word on the backstage pass video on BoW is that it states that the next KoW army will be Angels, Paladins, good humans, that sort of thing.

No other info, so again, if anyone can give more info on that, it would be great.

Kepora wrote:Oooh, I wonder how big the Werewolves will be?

Big. Current KoW rules have them on 40mm bases, same as the recently-released forge world ones.

Kroothawk wrote:I won't bite this time

.....krootie.... There is nothing to bite.
The picture is supposed to show that is what special OP helmet looks like ( broad, large, none angular forhead piece )
Elysian have it, Gundam have it, Patlabor have it, and mantic special OP has it.

scarletsquig wrote:Okay, current word on the backstage pass video on BoW is that it states that the next KoW army will be Angels, Paladins, good humans, that sort of thing.

No other info, so again, if anyone can give more info on that, it would be great.

Wait, seriously? If true, and if it means female angels and/or paladins in plastic, I take back most of the bad things I've said about Mantic.

If they make it resin, please make it Elite type of army ( Angels and Paladin sounds elite enough yay )

But for any horde unit in the future please make it plastic or dont bother >.<

LunaHound wrote:If they make it resin, please make it Elite type of army ( Angels and Paladin sounds elite enough yay )

But for any horde unit in the future please make it plastic or dont bother >.<

For the last time, the goblins were metal because Mantic is getting tired of people telling them that their models look terrible *after* they've already spent massive amounts on tooling plastic moulds. :p

Doing them in metal first costs them only a tiny amount in terms of paying the sculptor and tooling the mould, and gives them the advantage of customer feedback on the sculpts before going ahead with plastic.

Basically, metal models = beta-testing for the plastics.

As for details on what plastic kits will be released for goblins, details are probably in that BoW backstage video that no-one can view!

scarletsquig wrote:

LunaHound wrote:If they make it resin, please make it Elite type of army ( Angels and Paladin sounds elite enough yay )

But for any horde unit in the future please make it plastic or dont bother >.<

For the last time, the goblins were metal because Mantic is getting tired of people telling them that their models look terrible *after* they've already spent massive amounts on tooling plastic moulds. :p

Doing them in metal first costs them only a tiny amount in terms of paying the sculptor and tooling the mould, and gives them the advantage of customer feedback on the sculpts before going ahead with plastic.

Basically, metal models = beta-testing for the plastics.

As for details on what plastic kits will be released for goblins, details are probably in that BoW backstage video that no-one can view!

I liked it...