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 Pacific wrote:
Have received my Armada box - great!

Only had a quick look through but first thoughts are very positive.

My first impressions were a littlke mixed. First it wasnt a proper box!! (i do like a decent sturdy box to keep as much of a game system in) and unfortunately alot of the ships were broken with parts of the detail missing. Perils of resin i suppose. Most importantly some of the masts for the orc fleet were not included, ive emailed Mantic but had no confirmation that i will recieve these missing components.

One minor niggle is the upgrade tokens not being double sided with the same upgrade, could be annoying to find a specific counter.

On the plus side, the rulebook is very nice and the game does look like it be awesome to play.

I'm hearing and seeing a bunch of reports of mispacks and miscasts, that's a bummer! But the shots I'm seeing of finished ships look fantastic. I can't wait to get my hands on my copy, should come this weekend or early next week.

Very nervous now about opening my ships packs!

I will take a look over the weekend and report back.

I quite like the wooden tokens that come with it, very old-worldly and goes with the setting.

Finally got my order. And... well, meh?

The Orc minis seem like they made the trip alright, but the Basileans are a wreck. Tons of broken little bits, sails got snapped in half. And I somehow ended up with two Gunbrig hulls, but no deck gun.

mine arrived, but I did not open it yet (went under the christmas tree) but it is heavier than I expected and at least from the outside everything looks fine .......

It does seem like Mantic were a bit surprised by the initial popularity of Armada and had to scramble to get everything set up for the release date (there was that slight delay of a week or so but it was nothing) in the volumes they required. The sad fact is by rushing it out they will now have a number of unhappy customers, who knows how many first time Mantic purchasers?, and a customer service headache that will not be sorted before 2021. A shame.

I'm just catching up on the thread so apologies for rehashing old news effectively but I'm really impressed by these. It's been a while since I could say that about Mantic's offerings personally (for a variety of reasons beyond just aesthetics) but these look really nice. Bravo!

Ya, those Drakon riders were due a makeover. The merry-go-round seats just didn't inspire much fear. Though overrunning a unit of orcs because they had collapsed in laughter was perhaps some small solace?

And unfortunately, as I build my models for Armada, I'm finding the Basileans didn't fare so well either. bad castings seem common in my lot. I got the "all the ships" preorder, something like 24 units, and 4 had broken or missing pieces and required replacements. All the orcs were OK (sloppy casting doesn't matter much, but thankfully they weren't too bad) but the two Basilean ships I've spent time with (Gur Panther and gun brig) were both kind of a mess. I'll make them work, but they're not very nice.

I'm not giving up yet, but this first round wasn't that great.

 pancakeonions wrote:
And unfortunately, as I build my models for Armada, I'm finding the Basileans didn't fare so well either. bad castings seem common in my lot. I got the "all the ships" preorder, something like 24 units, and 4 had broken or missing pieces and required replacements. All the orcs were OK (sloppy casting doesn't matter much, but thankfully they weren't too bad) but the two Basilean ships I've spent time with (Gur Panther and gun brig) were both kind of a mess. I'll make them work, but they're not very nice.

I'm not giving up yet, but this first round wasn't that great.

My Orcs also ended up alright, and I like the minis.

The way it went, I've been told, is that Armada was waaaay more popular than expected. Apparently their whole inventory that was supposed to last beyond the entire pre-order period got snapped up in the first 24 hours. So they had to scramble to get more, as well as deal with lockdowns and other covid complications. So I'm willing to forgive initial teething issues, especially since Mantic took a chance and didn't use kickstarter for this (kudos).

Hopefully the Dwarfs and EoD releases go smoother.

I too am willing to forgive. I'm a Mantic fan, and am keen to see this succeed. I do hope this doesn't sour others' experiences with them, as I'd really like this game to last longer than a few months/years.

Ironically, going the KS route might even have been better. We'd have had to wait longer, but they'd have a better idea of the demand, and a longer time to develop and produce top-notch minis...!

I had damage issues with a few ship hulls in my starter set (resin filled to uneven level on base, cannon snapped off, base sawn off at all angle). A little frustrating, but after one quick email to customer service I got a friendly reply, and pristine replacements within a week or so. And the quality of the pieces really is excellent - so sharp!

I think partly it's them having to rush to meet demand, partly that it's such a premium product (so flaws are both more noticeable and less acceptable for the price), and partly that they're not packed very well - multiple loose bags with a single thin layer of bubble wrap in a box that also contains a heavy book... All very fixable!

I have the Orc fleet. I am very happy with the way the sculpts turned out. I did have to straighten some masts but that’s to be expected with just about any long thin resin products.

Once I get all of these sails painted I’ll get some pictures up on Discord.

I have like six months to get the orcs and terrain complete before High Elves come out.

Kings of War and Vanguard 2021 previews - lots of Ratkin

https://www.manticgames.com/news/christmas-blogs-kings-of-war-in-2021/

https://www.manticgames.com/news/christmas-blogs-vanguard-in-2021/

Demonspawn



Swarm Crier



Birthing Daughter



Brute Enforcer



Clawshots



Salamander Tyrant



LEKELIDON

SNEAK PEEKS
Ok, so far, it’s been mostly stuff you’ve been expecting. Well, what if we told you we’re planning two more hard plastic sprues, in addition to the Ratkin release in Q1?

We’re not quite ready to reveal all just yet, but here are two clues to fuel the fires of speculation. What do you think these could be?

Demonspawn is my favourite.

Demonspawn is probably the only Mantic model I'd get as a Ratkin player. The rest of the infantry is simply too bulky/orky for my taste, compared to the classic emaciated Skaven look.

Thanks for reposting! I really dig the Ratkin line, nice break from the GW rat-dogs of old that are still kicking around. I genuinely like the demonspawn and birthing daughter, and I can dig the brute look they've gone with. Solid split from the Skaven mutated rat ogre look (aside: I still can't believe GW is selling the terrible RO multipart RO box and didn't bother at least repackaging the pair from IOB )

Happy to see Mantic pushing quantity and quality of mini releases, especially in these under-represented non-human/elf/dwarf factions.

I like that Demonspawn. I've always been a sucker for big monstrosities with an excessive amount of limbs.
With Mantic pointing out it would be great for an Arch Fiend for the Abyssals leads me to believe it'll be a nice big centerpiece type model.

I'm sure I'll be sampling a bunch of these Vanguard models they've got coming. I wish I was big league enough to get review copies so I could check everything out in person!

the Demonspawn really wants me to play Ratkin

not really my flavour in general but the new models really make a difference

Here’s a picture of my first completed Orc Ship (Bombboat). I’ll post all other pics in the appropriate Mantic sub-forums (and more pics in Discord), But I did want to post a photo or two here since we were having a discussion about the model quality up above.

Also, I’m really looking forward to the 2021 Armada preview tomorrow.

Love, love, love, the Demonspawn! Definitely picking one up. The rest of the Ratkin are pretty meh... I think they’re a hard pass for me. Would be very much happy, though, if Brutes were returned to the Ratkin list. It’d give someone for the Brute Enforcer to, well, Enforce.

Valete,

JohnS

 Deathwolf wrote:
Here’s a picture of my first completed Orc Ship (Bombboat). I’ll post all other pics in the appropriate Mantic sub-forums (and more pics in Discord), But I did want to post a photo or two here since we were having a discussion about the model quality up above.

Also, I’m really looking forward to the 2021 Armada preview tomorrow.

I NEED a tiny light house, How did you make or acquire this delightful thing and what scale is it?

I found that one on Thingiverse:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4369540

I printed it out as is without any changes to the file. I added a ruined statue head to the base fro help fit in with the Kings of War theme. I downsized a head from Imperial Terrain:

https://imperialterrain.com/collections/stls-for-star-wars-legion-terrain/products/ancient-ruins-heads-digital-stl-files

If you do not have access to a 3D printer you can also buy an appropriate sized Lighthouse from Warlord Games:

https://store.warlordgames.com/products/black-seas-scenery-pack

 Deathwolf wrote:
I found that one on Thingiverse:

Spoiler:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4369540

I printed it out as is without any changes to the file. I added a ruined statue head to the base fro help fit in with the Kings of War theme. I downsized a head from Imperial Terrain:

https://imperialterrain.com/collections/stls-for-star-wars-legion-terrain/products/ancient-ruins-heads-digital-stl-files

If you do not have access to a 3D printer you can also buy an appropriate sized Lighthouse from Warlord Games:

https://store.warlordgames.com/products/black-seas-scenery-pack

Thank you!

 DarkBlack wrote:

I NEED a tiny light house, How did you make or acquire this delightful thing and what scale is it?

There's also this stuff

http://www.brigademodels.co.uk/SmallScaleScenery/index.html

And Privateer Press sells a perfect coastal fort for some reason

https://www.gamenerdz.com/monsterpocalypse-empire-of-the-apes-jungle-fortress

Incase it slipped by, Dwarf faction for Armada is avalible for preorder. Shipping starts 25th jan.

Vanguard Ratkin arer up for preorder
https://www.manticgames.com/games/vanguard/ratkin-vanguard/?wmc-currency=GBP

Ugh. They just don't look good to me. And I can see the soft detail through the paint job.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
Ugh. They just don't look good to me. And I can see the soft detail through the paint job.

They just look like old school GW skavens. It's important to cater to the nostalgic people, since it's mostly them Mantic Games try to keep.

KoW has always been a bit cartoon-ish, anyway. Like Warhammer Fantasy Battles 5th edition.

Ya, the ratkin kinda bum me out too. Not too sure why, but the cartoon-y look just isn't grabbing me. I much prefer the older GW skaven. And the plastics from Isle of Blood.

Soft details for the old PVC models, not a big fan of them but easier to convert than GW's Rat Ogre models (because of the clear cut between body and arms)

Infantry is better than anything I have from GW (Island of Blood models are nice but only because it was the best you could get)

Resin Heroes are good, like the Warlock but the War Chief is less impressive than the Island of Blood one

not sure if I want to get the bundle or just the Warband Set as I don't need that many Heroes or wait for the KoW release and just get the Infantry