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Hello fellow dakka'ers!

I've recently begun thinking of starting a Vampire Counts army but after adding up the costs for a decent 3,000 point army I soon realized it outside my budget. However, after doing a bit of searching around on the Mantic Kings of War site I realized that I could get the following for $188.

-80 Skeletons
-40 Revenants (thinking of using as Grave Guard)
-40 Ghouls
-60 Zombies

The above would all be from two of their 'Kings of War Undead Army Set' which I can get for $63.99 apiece, making a total of $128.

I figure I could then throw in a unit of 10 'Undead Revenant Calvary' which would work great as Black Knights for $36.

Finally I could throw in 10 'Undead Wraiths' for $20 which would work great as Carn Wraiths.

Altogether this would give me a great backbone (and some fun with the Carn Wraiths) for $184.

After the mantic stuff I was thinking of throwing in a few of the more unique GW models like the terrorgheist, mortis engine, corpse cart, and a few vampires/necormancers.

Adding everything up comes to roughly 3200(or so) points with no upgrades for slightly less than $350 with shipping.

My main question is in regards to whether anyone has mixed mantic figures with GW figures and if it works well?

What do you all think? Any suggestions or concerns I may not have thought of? Thanks!

I haven't done it personally but Mantic started as a 'hey look at all these models you can use with your warhammer for a tenth of the price' company.
The are designed to fit in.

Most people use Mantic. You get what you pay for, though, the quality does not reach the level GW does.

...but then again, at that price, who the f! cares?

The only things that would stick out are the bases (Mantic have blocky, squared of fbases, while GW use sloped base edges) and model quality.

Bases are a minor sticking point - I notice these thigns, but I'm sure others wouldn't Model quality... eehh, I can't get behind Mantic. Their new models from their kickstarter are pretty good, but have a very distinct style leaning away from 'hey, use our stuff in GW games!'. Their old stuff, ranges between generic and unabashedly terrible. When mixed with some of GW's stuff, you'll end up with a very disjointed looking army.

This is my opinion, however. I'm pretty big on range consistency. When companies have their own style, they tend not to play well together. It's unfortunate in this case because Mantics Undead are great for people starting Vampire Counts, but there's some great new models for VC's from GW that Mantic don't have an equivalent for, and mixing the ranges tends to have poor results aesthetically.

Grimnoc, a few questions before I look into this.

Do you mind getting used models?
Do you mind possibly salvaging those same models?
What's the most you're willing to pay for you're army?

Thanks for the feedback guys. Some of the Mantic stuff (quality) doesn't seem amazing, but quite a few of the base undead units looked up to snuff. I'm definitely someone who cares for consistency so I wouldn't be mixing GW ghouls with Mantic ghouls. My main concern is whether having a unit of say Mantic zombies would look way out of place next to a different unit type of GW troops (not the same troop type).

Necroshea,
Yeah, I do kinda mind used models. I find that generally when I get used models they are below my level of tolerance (ie. big globs of glue, not well cleaned, poorly primed) and I hate putting extra work into cleaning them up. This is why I like going new far better. Basically, my limit is right around $350 (which as you can imagine makes getting a new army a bit more difficult). I another almost psychological reason I dislike used models is just the thought of the lack of caring the previous owner showed (it almost overshadows my dislike of the extra work needed to get them into top form). For instance, I magnetize everything and keep then in nifty boxes so the models don't slide around and bang up against each other. When I saw my friend carry his models into my house jumbling around in a shoe box I swear I almost punched him in the jaw!

Grimnoc wrote:
Thanks for the feedback guys. Some of the Mantic stuff (quality) doesn't seem amazing, but quite a few of the base undead units looked up to snuff. I'm definitely someone who cares for consistency so I wouldn't be mixing GW ghouls with Mantic ghouls. My main concern is whether having a unit of say Mantic zombies would look way out of place next to a different unit type of GW troops (not the same troop type).

Necroshea,
Yeah, I do kinda mind used models. I find that generally when I get used models they are below my level of tolerance (ie. big globs of glue, not well cleaned, poorly primed) and I hate putting extra work into cleaning them up. This is why I like going new far better. Basically, my limit is right around $350 (which as you can imagine makes getting a new army a bit more difficult). I another almost psychological reason I dislike used models is just the thought of the lack of caring the previous owner showed (it almost overshadows my dislike of the extra work needed to get them into top form). For instance, I magnetize everything and keep then in nifty boxes so the models don't slide around and bang up against each other. When I saw my friend carry his models into my house jumbling around in a shoe box I swear I almost punched him in the jaw!

Ah, alright then. You could easily get your army with the amount you listed, but how good or bad they might be is up in the air.

Grimnoc wrote:
Thanks for the feedback guys. Some of the Mantic stuff (quality) doesn't seem amazing, but quite a few of the base undead units looked up to snuff. I'm definitely someone who cares for consistency so I wouldn't be mixing GW ghouls with Mantic ghouls. My main concern is whether having a unit of say Mantic zombies would look way out of place next to a different unit type of GW troops (not the same troop type).

If you stuck with Mantics Zombies and Ghouls, it wouldn't be jarring. Slight scale differences maybe, but that's about it.

The thing about the Vampire Counts model range though is GW is a pretty good job of redoing their skeletons. All of them - Skeleton Warriors, Grave Guard and Black Knights. Grave Guard look like heavily armoured and armed Skeleton Warriors, and Black Knights are essentially mounted Grave Guard. So throwing, say, a bunch of Mantic Skeletons on the table next to Games Workshop Grave Guard and Black Knights, you'll end up with a aesthetic clash.

What you said sums up my thoughts about the Mantic range. Their Core units (Ghouls, Zombies and Skeletons) aren't bad. They're too 'generic fantasy undead' for my liking, but they work. I have issues with the skeletons, but it's not something I want to get into. The Core stuff is good and servicable. Their special units are abysmal. They're so amateurishly cartoonish they'd look right at home next to GW's zombies.

But again, if you want to keep the aesthetics from clashing too much, I'd stick to the Zombies and Ghouls. The Zombies, as mentioned above, fit better with the Corpse Cart than GW's own Zombies, and the Ghouls are perfectly fine. The Skeletons are going to clash with the Grave Guard and Black Knights if that bothers you. Anything for the Special and Rare slots... yeah, I'm not a fan. I'd even go so far as to recommend these from Reaper for your Cairn Wraiths.

Definitely shop around for your characters. The new GW Necromancer is fantastic, but if you want more than 1, their others are terrible. Same with the Cairn Wraith and Banshee - good models, but lack of variety. Though the Mortis Engine has 3 more Banshees in different poses. Vampires is something GWs range completely lacks which is ridiculous. Reaper is a great alternative for Vampire models.