Compel wrote:
I think they're standard retail focus soon is going to be on Kings of War?

Something to do with that whole 'War of the Beard' thing Ronnie was doing? *doesn't pay much attention to fantasy stuff*

 GrimDork wrote:
I don't feel like I fell into the 'kicked their dogs' category. They haven't been terribly snappy with every reply, but I haven't gone more than a week or two without they getting back to me. I did get my stuff late, but it was an honest mixup and they did send it out the moment things were available (not all the things, but I'm glad they sent what they did have in stock, or I'd never have gotten to work on it before summer busy season resumed). So if they kicked my dog, at least they were nice about it :p

NTRabbit wrote:
I finally filled out my survey, so I at least had something in case my memory fails me, and it keeps missing things, notably the sorak sword guys - I submitted a survey, they weren't in the email, resubmitted, still not in the email, then I got another email without resubmitting and they were on it. Strangeness.

Mantic Update wrote:From the Forge

Hi everyone,

I hope all is well with you all - there are great photos of the scenery built and painted surfacing everywhere - along with units of painted Plague and Enforcer factions. We love to see these, so please keep them coming.

We have also had a good number of the second survey back - so thanks for anyone who has sent it back. The deadline for returning it is 30th March so you need to get it back to us by then if you want some more bits adding to your shipment. This will give us time to get it made and ready to ship. However, we know that money can be tight at times, so you do not need to pay for any extras until the end of MAY, giving you a few more weeks to get that sorted. We will send out paypal requests but there will be a good window before payments are needed.

Today we have a nice big juicy update - with some rather splendid news (for Forge Father faction fans, at least), some other nice info and a few minor changes, so with no further ado, let's start with the not great news...
UPDATE: Missing Bits

We’re chunking through these nicely and the third batch has now been dispatched, meaning we’re still on track to get everything out in the next 2 weeks or so.

Thanks for your patience – nearly there folks, and sorry these were not packed as well as they should have been. We have listened and learnt and shipment 2 will be much better.
UPDATE: Terrain Sprues

When we came to tool the scenery range we knew it was going to look fantastic and be rather popular

So when we realised we have some more tiles sculpted than we thought we did we just had to put them on a tool and get them made. This tool is made up from a selection of cool (but not totally necessary) extra bits. Why? Well - who doesn't want more scenery choices and convertablity right?

This resulted in a brand new terrain sprue that you can use to upgrade the scenery you’ve already got.

This new sprue – the Deadzone Scenery Expansion sprue – includes:

- A ramp.

- Wall tiles to go alongside the long edge on the triangular floor tile.

- Diagonal Walkways

- 135 degree Pillars

- Additional connectors, such as the crane

- and more!

This will allow you to customise your battlefields even further. You don't need this tile - but it does offer some more great modelling choices. If you want to pick up the Deadzone Scenery Expansion Bundle on the survey you can (and if you missed it, you can go back, fill it out again and add more stuff on - we will remove any duplicates and only use the latest survey we recieve).

You may remember that when we shipped the first batch of Kickstarters we flew in the scenery to get it in your hands it first and very early! The retail range will not hit the retail shelves until May. We tried to get the whole range - and we nearly succeeded - the ruin sprues were ready just 2 weeks after we finished shipping! So we put them on a boat and they arrived recently. They look great and you will all be getting them in the second shipment (alongside the Deadzone Secret Weapon tiles which arrived last week and look fantastic too).

Next month sees the launch of the BATTLEZONES scenery range, and we are having a limited pre-release of the first terrain set - the £100 Urban Quadrant. It is mainly built with Core Worlds, Fortifications and Landing Pad sprues and a couple of the expansion sprue. However, we want to show them a little taste of what else the range has. As a one-off promotion we’re going to be including 1 of each ruin sprue.

We always try and get everything to you first, but in this case it is the only item we can add to these sets that they don't have. It will only be a few weeks before you have your second shipment so I hope you can forgive us this small indiscredtion. However it would not be Mantic if we did not try and make amends - so if anyone is going to be at the Mantic Open day (17th May) or a show we are attending (like Salute, Adepticon or PAX East) then please come by the stand and pick one of each up too. Just bring proof of backing to claim.

Now, let's get on to the good stuff. As you know we agreed to re-look at whether it was possible to tool the Forge Fathers and Asterians in hard plastic.
UPDATE: Hard Plastics

The tooling for the Enforcers and Peacekeepers were signed off in the last couple of weeks, meaning that work has started on the molds.

We actually went ahead and added the Defender Shields onto the Peacekeepers Hard Plastic frame – for no other reason than they’re badass!

It’ll be a little while before we have sprues to show off, but if our Plague Zombies are anything to go by, the lines are going to be sharp and crisp.

Furthermore, we went back to our tool-maker and looked at putting the Asterians into hard plastic, but the sculpts simply wouldn’t work, so we’re pressing on with the original plan of keeping them in Resin Plastic.

While we are talking all things Asterians we have killed off the Drone Swarm! We nominated them because we could never quite get the concept right, they always looked weird and never really fit in with the feel of the army. So what we’ve done is replace these with a Cypher with the new Force Rifle, so you'll be gaining a new special weapon and a full infantry figure instead of 2 small spidery things. Much cooler, and much more befitting the army!

Secondly, we’ve also rebalanced the Asterian Faction Booster Bundle, dropping the basic Cypher with Flux Rifle, and replacing him with a very-awesome specialist Black Talon instead.

If the drones swarms or the Flux rifle were the absolute clincher for you then let us know and we can credit or swap to a different faction - but I think the Asterian faction looks and feels a lot cooler this way and you will be very pleased with the results.

Jet packs? Awesome.

Now then, Forge Fathers.

We went back to the tool maker and made the necessary changes to the mould plan and sculpts - this means the Forge Guard are going into hard plastic!!!

We’re making a six-figure hard plastic frame: Five Forge Guard - each one armed with Hailstorm Rifle and Heat Hammer, plus the Forge Guard Huscarl as well. We’re also going to put the Missile Launcher, Heat Cannon and Hailstorm Autocannon heavy weapons on the sprue.

Early Prototype Forge Guard painted by Curis Webb in the Nethyr Edge colour scheme. Curis said that there is a lot of detail on the model, but felt the figure was a little too small, so we’ve bumped up the size for when they are produced in hard plastic...

The change to hard plastic has a few knock-on effects:

- Forge Father Booster Bundle – because we can’t really do single figures from a hard plastic frame, we’ve removing the Forge Guard with Missile Launcher. Don’t forget there’s a vehicle in the booster though

- Forge Father Booster Bundle – we’re throwing in a complete hard plastic Forge Guard sprue, meaning you can build the Forge Father with Heat Cannon and Hailstorm Autocannon in the specialist booster, the Forge Guard with missile launcher plus you’ll get 2 additional Forge Guard with Hailstorm Rifles AND a bonus Forge Guard Huscarl.

Given you can buy one Faction Booster Bundle and get another of your choice for free this makes the faction Booster a very sweet deal.

If you need to make any changes - like add more forgefathers or scenery tiles - to your survey just fill out the second survey with the new additions. This will overwrite your previous entry.

Finally…

Next week is the survey deadline. It is your last chance to get Deadzone goodies at Kickstarter prices!

There are a few sculpts you have not seen yet but we’re going to try and get as many of the new kits previewed in the next week before the deadline so you can see everything you might want.

All in all we're in good shape for our June second shipment and can't wait to get these into your hands.

Thanks for reading and backing us! Once you have the second shipment I would love to start up a conversation about what you'd like to see next for Deadzone, but we can save that for another day

Best wishes,

Ronnie

Mantic Update wrote:Furthermore, we went back to our tool-maker and looked at putting the Asterians into hard plastic, but the sculpts simply wouldn’t work, so we’re pressing on with the original plan of keeping them in Resin Plastic.

 Compel wrote:
I've not had the opportunity to use it yet. Usually I'd be happier aiming, or moving.

Mind you, I need to actually shoot/Blaze THEN move more often too.

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
one aimed shot/burst,

then keep your finger on the trigger for extra less accurate fire

 scarletsquig wrote:
... I completely forgot that I could both shoot AND blaze away in the same turn...

privateer4hire wrote:

 scarletsquig wrote:
... I completely forgot that I could both shoot AND blaze away in the same turn...

Can't believe we hadn't done that yet.
Thank you.