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For me, it was the zombies - I wanted a few hundred of them for a Pathfinder scenario, and I thought that these were both less expensive than GW and better looking. (I am not a fan of the big heads and huge hands of GW zeds.) Soon I had a mass of 300 zombies ready for a scenario with fifth level characters.

Then I bought Dwarfs, and Undead - originally planning on using them for Warhammer, then deciding that I do not much like the current 'random charge' edition of WH and then tried KoW. KoW was much more to my liking - less silliness, better rules cohesion.

My one KoW complaint is the lack of bodyguards for heroes - sorry, but I do not like my general running around daring archers to snipe at him....

I have a friend that bought a bunch of the dwarfs for use in Warhammer - and now he is playing KoW as well as WH, but mainly he still uses them for Warhammer. At this point most of his dwarfs are Mantic, the berserkers are Avatars of War. I think that only his character models and the Anvil of Doom are still GW.

And another dwarf player that bought the KoW dwarfs and rules for his very first fantasy wargaming.

I like the Mantic Elves, but no one else seems to want to play them, and I have enough for KoW with my Undead and my Dwarfs.

I also play Kingdoms of Men, with a 100% GW Empire army....

So I think that is the full gamut, yes?

How do others shake out?

The Auld Grump

For me, it was the Kickstarter. Incredible deal on so many figures. I loved the figures but being on a budget, I could not justify the purchase to my better half. When they ran the kickstarter, I listed all the figures for the reward level I was getting and I now I have the 1000 point Undead army with more figures to arrive in the second shipment.

I bought some of their elves when they first came out just to see if I liked them. Back then, there were very few options for plastic SF&F minis...and there still are.
I ended up buying more elves, then some undead, and fell in love with their dwarf design...and now I tend to spend my former GW budget on Mantic.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
I bought some of their elves when they first came out just to see if I liked them. Back then, there were very few options for plastic SF&F minis...and there still are.
I ended up buying more elves, then some undead, and fell in love with their dwarf design...and now I tend to spend my former GW budget on Mantic.

Goes a lot further now, don't it.

I already had an army before they had their Kickstarter - but I was more than happy to jump on the bandwagon. You can find The Auld Grump on page 147 of the rules book.

I forgot to mention one rudely painted Twilight Kin army that I sometimes face - half of the miniatures are old Ral Partha wood elves, painted topless.

Those minis are about twenty years old now....

The Auld Grump

I bought them first because they were cheap and I was curious. I think I got a small pack of Dwarves first, with intentions of making a unit of hammerers. The differences in scale and style made me hold off on getting any more for a while. Since then I've gone for the Undead, because I like the looks of them and I wanted an undead force for various reasons. I have bought the bulk troops from Mantic while going to GW for characters, monsters and cavalry.

I bought some orcs for 40k because they were cheaper. I wasn't a huge fan, but I went ahead and tried some dwarves for fantays and fell in love with them. Now half my dwarf army is mantic and I still have more to build and paint. So yeah, you can't beat Mantic for the price of what you get as far as I'm concerned.

I first got it because of the kickstarter. Cheap enough investment for a TON of stuff.

Then I got dreadball. I will support them in the future probably. Not the biggest fan of the style of their futuristic stuff though.

Space Dwarves. I had always liked the idea of squats, so forgefathers seemed like something worth checking out.

Price was a big concern also. I wouldn't have started buying them if they'd been GW-priced, but at Mantic's prices it seemed worth testing the waters.

Eilif wrote:
Space Dwarves. I had always liked the idea of squats, so forgefathers seemed like something worth checking out.

Price was a big concern also. I wouldn't have started buying them if they'd been GW-priced, but at Mantic's prices it seemed worth testing the waters.

Me too actually! After years of waiting for something official regarding Demiurg, Squats or whatever from GW, and feeling like some homeless kid sat outside of Scrooge's window waiting for a half-chewed chicken leg to be thrown out, I was over the moon when Mantic released that range. Admittedly the first stuff wasn't as good as I had hoped (although the mixing of KoW bits was obviously through financial necessity), but the later Drakkarim metals and Forge Father especially have been awesome. Now looking forward to the Warpath Kickstarter this year, and seeing what that brings!

Also have a sizeable collection of Orcs & Goblins waiting to be put together, and of course Dreadball!

 Pacific wrote:
[. Admittedly the first stuff wasn't as good as I had hoped (although the mixing of KoW bits was obviously through financial necessity), but the later Drakkarim metals and Forge Father especially have been awesome. Now looking forward to the Warpath Kickstarter this year, and seeing what that brings!

Agreed. I liked the line it enough to purchase a couple of units (the Forgefather is really nice!) but not enough to continue to a full army. I'm really hoping that the Kickstarter will change this. I'm looking forward to an army Space Dwarves that are not half-fantasy miniatures.

For me it was the price, there are not very many game systems where you can buy a sizeable force for £25!

I like the Elven miniatures, and double them up as WHFB High Elves as well. I'll be buying some GW Elves but I'll be buying off EBay. Once my Drow Elf army is done I'll be getting some Undead. The Zombies are totally appealing and I really like the Catapault mini too. So yeah, for me it's a no-brainer.

Once I've finished my KoW armies I'll be working towards a Corparation Force for Warpath. Looking forward to it, and I can double those up as IG. All is looking rosy in the Mantic garden at the moment!

The Crazy Xmas box from last year.

I was interested in their models and such for about 6 months beforehand but couldn't justify the purchase to myself. The Xmas box fixed that conundrum, and I couldn't have been happier

I never wanted any Mantic miniatures. Not because of any issues over quality or similar, but as much as enjoyed KoW I didn't want to collect another 'regimented' army (because of the painting that entails).

Then the Kickstarter came, and I wanted to support them so I had to pick an army. I went with Undead. They're all still on the sprue, but once I get my many projects down to a manageable level I will get round to doing something with them.

Since the Kickstarter I've bought a few bits, but they've all gone into 'the box'.

 darkPrince010 wrote:
The Crazy Xmas box from last year.

I was interested in their models and such for about 6 months beforehand but couldn't justify the purchase to myself. The Xmas box fixed that conundrum, and I couldn't have been happier

Heh - I gave away a bunch of the 2011 Crazy Bags as presents - my RPG players use those bags for their Pathfinder books.

Awesome with chocolate sauce.

The Auld Grump

It became quite clear to me very early on that Mantic were doing everything right that GW were doing wrong. Sure, they were a little rough around the edges (and still are in some respects), but they're a damned good company that is serious about making wargaming affordable and fun for everyone.

GW's new pricing for warhammer is £2/model for basic infantry, and £3/model for elite infantry.

So, a single unit of 40 miniatures will cost you £80-£120. Which is, of course, insane, no matter "how good" the models are.

Meanwhile, over in Mantic land, you can get an entire damned army of 100+ minis for £50.

This was enough to get me buying their minis, I bought an undead warhost mid-2010.

Then, Kings of War was released and was absolutely brilliant.

Free rules and army lists, reguarly updated online? Clean, straightforward and highly tactical game from a company that takes the rules very seriously?

From that point on it was "count me in" and I've never looked back.

I only ever visit the GW site to laugh at the prices these days (Latest WoC release is a great example - single plastic hero (£15), 10 infantry (£30), big monster (£50).. who even buys this stuff anymore?).

It was the KoW kickstarter for me as well. I had been admiring their orcs for a while, but couldn't justify yet another fantasy army. The kickstarter prices were just too good, and Kings of War is (or at least appears to be-- no gaming where I am) a much better rule set than WHFB. I hope to divest myself of some old WH stuff, but in the meantime I'm loving the hell out of my new army.

I was really burned out with my orks (mind can only take so much converting) and flgs had this mantic sale. I kinda liked steel warriors so I thought to myself "Why not, 10€ aint breaking my budget".

I first bought the Elves. I was just curious about it. For me the main selling point was the dead Elf figure it came with. And then they announced the Orcs, and it was all over. I also bought the dwarves just for the dog. I also might get the collectors figure of the dog. Then I order the crazy bag just to get a sampling of a little bit of everything that Mantic has to offer. Yup, it's like plastic crack to me now. And for the record, I'm a modeler, not a gamer, but now thanks to Mantic, I have several hundred miniatures, and the spring cleaning sale isn't helping either.

 orkork wrote:
I first bought the Elves. I was just curious about it. For me the main selling point was the dead Elf figure it came with. And then they announced the Orcs, and it was all over. I also bought the dwarves just for the dog. I also might get the collectors figure of the dog. Then I order the crazy bag just to get a sampling of a little bit of everything that Mantic has to offer. Yup, it's like plastic crack to me now. And for the record, I'm a modeler, not a gamer, but now thanks to Mantic, I have several hundred miniatures, and the spring cleaning sale isn't helping either.

No kidding: the only reason I didn't jump on the Spring Cleaning sale was because I have to call my bank to get permission for any sales in the UK (or any country other than the USA). I got the dwarves because I had a mild interest in trying WHF dwarves. Then I got Undead for the same reason. Then I saw the Kickstarter, saw the awesome prices for getting lots of trolls and ogres, wanted to try an ogre army too, got my KoW rulebook, and haven't played WHF since! I game and model, and the deals Mantic has been putting out have been awesome. And some websites have also given great deals on them: Miniature Market had a clearance sale that netted me 2 Dwarven army boxes (170 infantry+4 cannons) for $80, then Mini Wargaming had the same deal: $160 later, I have 8 cannons, 340 Dwarves. Throw in 8 metal characters and 40 more infantry and I've spent $240 on 400 dwarves+the cannons.

I bought a mantic elf army because I wanted to join in with WHFB at my club but GW pricing here means that no-one is going to start up at those prices.

I've heard people say that the elves are too small - but I've yet to have any of them furnish me with a REAL elf so that I can compare the scaling.

I've tried KoW, but prefer WHFB. It's not my "main" game, but there for when I want to play something apart from Infinity (which IS my main game).

One thing to consider is that if you're going to be painting hundreds of models for a regimented game, then wouldn't it be easier to have simple models instead of tiny gems on cloaks?

 ExNoctemNacimur wrote:
One thing to consider is that if you're going to be painting hundreds of models for a regimented game, then wouldn't it be easier to have simple models instead of tiny gems on cloaks?

Yeah, pretty sure that 'get 'em painted, get 'em on the table' is part of Mantic's design philosophy.

Army Painter's free painting guide even uses Mantic's models for their examples.

The Auld Grump

Agreed Auld Grump, I'm currently wading through 100+ Elves and praising whatever god may be listening that the minis are pretty easy to paint. It also helps that ive got a nice simple, but striking paint scheme.
I work on the reward system. Finish 30 Elves, paint a single character or war machine. The biggest problem I have is the lack of decent Elven Calvary minis from Mantic. I'm looking at buying High Elf Reaver Calvary as stand ins. The problem there of course is that GW make 'heroic scale' minis, so my light cav may look out of place.

And that's another reason I buy Mantic instead of GW for my fantasy inklings.

I must admit scale is a big selling point for me. To my eyes most GW fantasy miniatures (and a lot of the 40k ones, I'm looking at you catachans) simply look wrong compared to the more "realistically" proportioned models being produced by Mantic and other companies. I know some people dislike Mantic's style but personally I love it, hell I even like the Dwarves which a lot of people seem to detest.

Obviously price is another big factor I once priced up a pair of equivalent Orc armies from Mantic and GW. From Mantic a 1000pt WFB or 600-800 point KoW army would have been around £60 (assuming you convert a few models) which is very reasonable. From GW it would be a whole £100 more which is astonishing. Although since I already have a ton of Elves I won't be pulling the trigger on that anytime soon.

I'm now rather heavily into Dreadball (got all 4 teams and a pair of MVPs already) so rather obviously that kinda sells itself and I'm getting into Warpath courtesy of the current sale, got the Forge Fathers starter army on it's way to me and I'm really looking forward to getting started on it. I will admit though that there's a good chance that my Forge Fathers will also get used for 40k (if I can find suitable rules or write some) but IMO it's no bad thing being able to use the same models for 2 (or more if I find other suitable rulesets) different games.

It seems like a lot people like Mantic because of their prices. And yeah... they're prices are pretty good, and some of their miniatures are pretty top notch. One thing which I have noticed about Mantic is that the price per miniature decrease as the army sets go up. Definitely a great idea when first starting out or just bulking out an army. And that's probably another reason why I buy Mantic.

 Nick Ellingworth wrote:
I must admit scale is a big selling point for me. To my eyes most GW fantasy miniatures (and a lot of the 40k ones, I'm looking at you catachans) simply look wrong compared to the more "realistically" proportioned models being produced by Mantic and other companies. I know some people dislike Mantic's style but personally I love it, hell I even like the Dwarves which a lot of people seem to detest.

You mean the fact that the Skeletons will actually fit inside of bodies? (I do not understand why GW feels that Skellies and Zeds need to have outsized heads and hands....)

I am also a fan of Mantic's dwarfs Their elves too, for that matter. But did end up painting the Drakons as carousel dragons....

The Auld Grump

Those dragon-swan riders were god awful. I hope mantic has learned their lesson about releasing sculpts that poor.

 sarpedons-right-hand wrote:
The biggest problem I have is the lack of decent Elven Calvary minis from Mantic.

They're being released in a few months, the Kickstarter funded them.

 Da Boss wrote:
Those dragon-swan riders were god awful. I hope mantic has learned their lesson about releasing sculpts that poor.

Oh, I don't know - I have gotten some entertainment out of them.

Mind you, I have them mounted on knurled posts through their backs and bellies, some up, some down.... I really wasn't joking about having painted them up as figures from a carousel.

I do hope for a more... dramatic... release in the future, though....

The Auld Grump


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 scarletsquig wrote:

 sarpedons-right-hand wrote:
The biggest problem I have is the lack of decent Elven Calvary minis from Mantic.

They're being released in a few months, the Kickstarter funded them.

Heh - that was going to be my next post....

The Auld Grump

I want to build a Dwarf army, and it's GW prices which are leading me to Mantic minis... I do have a few questions.

People have noticed a slight scale difference. How noticeable is this? I was planning on using GW minis that I have from the battalion as front rank with their detail, but I don't want them to look too different from the Mantic minis.

How similar are they equipped for the sake of wysiwyg?