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Now that's a nice ship

My only concern is the potential price for the XL ship. The Abbess is already 18€. Even if you don't need many models to play, the individual price per ship seems rather steep for such small models (as per the pic next to the Vanguard models).
Starter box is good but will think about the rest. After all, Mantic went from "affordable gaming" to "your hobby, your way".

VBS wrote:
After all, Mantic went from "affordable gaming" to "your hobby, your way".

Gotta say, I'm always sad when people poop on Mantic for wanting to invest money into producing cooler sculpts made with better materials / stay in business. Personally, I always look forward to giving Mantic money, especially as I'm encouraged to use whatever minis I want for KOW, which is fantastic for me as a hobbyist, but doesn't give me many options to toss $$$ at the company. Annnnnd I also have a high tolerance for minigame pricing, thanks almost entirely to GeeDub's cost = game use + artificial scarcity model

I think the prices are ok for what you get
those are big full resin models, and their price is normal compared to similar sized resin models (looking at the 1st Rate ships from Black Seas which are also resin and cost 24GBP I expect the XL Armada ships to be in the same range when the large ones cost 18€)

the "affordable gaming" slogan still holds up to a point, as a full fleet to play is still on the lower end what you usually pay for an army

another point might be that as the game is bases on a different game, that maintaining a higher price as Black Seas might be part of the License


and one last point, something that came up in one of the GW topics, this game is produced by Mantic in Europe so they also have to pay European prices for their people and raw materials.

I also would have liked the Starter Box to be 50 instead of 75, yet it is the same price as the other newer Mantic Sets
only Deadzone is really cheap, yet I have seen no one that uses the Mantic stuff here as a cheap replacement for 40k and people still rather play Kill Team that cost 2-3 times as much

Pricing is subjective for customers. Everyone has a different perception whether a product is "worth" the money based on what they like and/or purchasing power. It has nothing to do with pooping on a company for getting better or wanting to stay in business, as you say Boss Salvage.
There are companies that I wouldn't buy products from even with a 60% discount, based on the fact that I dislike their current minis. So not worth buying regardless of price. In other cases, a 10-20% more or less can mean I buy or not, if I consider it a good deal.

For me, Mantic has some cheap products, others not so much. Across games and time of release there are notable differences. From what I see for Armada, it's more the later besides the starter box.
More than welcome to have a different opinion.

Inflation is a bitch.

 Nostromodamus wrote:
I guess switching the fists for something like flails might appease me, but it’s still a little bit like they made the orc ships to compete in robot wars. Maybe we’ll get a wedge shaped one to flip other ships over...

I was thinking more like one of the Saw Boss minion vehicles from Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors

Now there's an IP Mantic need to get....

Some factions I am hoping for:

- Trident Realm, because sea monsters
- Varangur, Viking raider fleet with little ranged combat but masters at boarding
- Undead, because ghost pirates are a classic trope. Also would work with like half of the Dreadfleet models

 Mr Morden wrote:


Wind is a pretty complicated thing to make work well in fleet battles.

No it isn't. Black Seas does it alright. And this here is even better; you cut out the inner circle and place the card aligned over the ship model. Depending on the direction from which the wind hits it, its strength (and even if it's "fresh" or "fair"), the card gives you a direct measure of movement (non-linear, potentially a custom profile for every ship type). Takes about 3 seconds to apply on the table;

 Pacific wrote:
I was thinking more like one of the Saw Boss minion vehicles from Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors

 .Mikes. wrote:
Now there's an IP Mantic need to get....

ohmygodyes

 lord_blackfang wrote:

 Pacific wrote:
I was thinking more like one of the Saw Boss minion vehicles from Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors

 .Mikes. wrote:
Now there's an IP Mantic need to get....

ohmygodyes

OHMYGODNO!!! So little of my childhood hasn’t been revamped and reimagined by someone else who really doesn’t get it, please leave one or two things pure .

I think we can all relate to a young man whose absent father and a struggle with weed lead him to a fantastic journey involving space sailboats, wizards, plant girls and flying fish.

 lord_blackfang wrote:
I think we can all relate to a young man whose absent father and a struggle with weed lead him to a fantastic journey involving space sailboats, wizards, plant girls and flying fish.

Haha brilliant..!

I would love Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors to be a produced license (something like Gaslands with a click-together board representing the vines that the cars drive along?) but unfortunately think it's probably one of the least likely licenses to get picked up! (other than something like leisure suit larry: the wargame)

BlackJack Legacy Ship unboxing

I'm really excited for this one, and am going to be making it a part of the Fantasy Fisticuffs line-up. The fantasy/naval sub-genre has needed some love for a while, and this seems to inhabit a perfect middle-ground between accessibility, and substance.

For those hoping it would launch with modes where you face-off with monsters, its worth noting that Mantic's preorder page added their Trident Kingdom's Kraken. ;-)

 Esmer wrote:
Some factions I am hoping for:

- Trident Realm, because sea monsters
- Varangur, Viking raider fleet with little ranged combat but masters at boarding
- Undead, because ghost pirates are a classic trope. Also would work with like half of the Dreadfleet models

Matt was on the Counter Charge podcast and talked about what factions would/wouldn't be getting fleets. Unforuntatly Undead are on the "not" list, since they're not likely to take to the seas in the Mantic world. Similarly, Ogres are unlikely to get a fleet.

We may see individual mercenary ships for them, though.

Varangur would make sense. And Matt talked about how Trident Realms would be difficult, since an underwater faction's most obvious tactics would just be "attack from underneath," which doesn't make for fun gameplay or good visuals.

Basilean masts are bent, as is one of the dvarven cannons in a turret and a piece of the smokestack is missing. Not a good start, if these are the early view models mantic sent out ...

Lucas Blackwolf wrote:
Basilean masts are bent, as is one of the dvarven cannons in a turret and a piece of the smokestack is missing. Not a good start, if these are the early view models mantic sent out ...

These are not final production copies. They are earlier test copies after which defects are fixed and sub-masters made, ahead of production.

 infinite_array wrote:

 Esmer wrote:
Some factions I am hoping for:

- Trident Realm, because sea monsters
- Varangur, Viking raider fleet with little ranged combat but masters at boarding
- Undead, because ghost pirates are a classic trope. Also would work with like half of the Dreadfleet models

Matt was on the Counter Charge podcast and talked about what factions would/wouldn't be getting fleets. Unforuntatly Undead are on the "not" list, since they're not likely to take to the seas in the Mantic world.

Wow.. I'm struggling to think of something cooler than a pirate ship crewed by skeletons! Why on earth would you not want to make that?

I can understand why going the Pirates of the Caribbean look for Undead is not something Mantic wants and there are not many other possibilities for it though
but I would really like to see Vampire themed Undead Pirates

PS:
if those are the only problems (from early production models), than Mantic is already way ahead in quality over GW/FW in Resin casting

 mattjgilbert wrote:
These are not final production copies.

I humbly retract my judgment.

If we don't get an undead faction, it'd definitely be cool to at least get a pirate-Vampire ship, or a pirate-Ogre ship, or a pirate-Ratkin ship.

Anything that can be "piratized," I guess.

As for upcoming races, I'm looking forward to seeing the Salamander fleet, since they're talked about as having a strong naval presence.

How are there no undead options other than Pirates of the Caribbean? Do weaponized zombie whales.

Aren't Empire of Dust an Undead faction coming out?

 infinite_array wrote:

 Esmer wrote:
Some factions I am hoping for:

- Trident Realm, because sea monsters
- Varangur, Viking raider fleet with little ranged combat but masters at boarding
- Undead, because ghost pirates are a classic trope. Also would work with like half of the Dreadfleet models

Matt was on the Counter Charge podcast and talked about what factions would/wouldn't be getting fleets. Unforuntatly Undead are on the "not" list, since they're not likely to take to the seas in the Mantic world. Similarly, Ogres are unlikely to get a fleet.

We may see individual mercenary ships for them, though.

Varangur would make sense. And Matt talked about how Trident Realms would be difficult, since an underwater faction's most obvious tactics would just be "attack from underneath," which doesn't make for fun gameplay or good visuals.

Are the undead damaged by water?

 kodos wrote:
I can understand why going the Pirates of the Caribbean look for Undead is not something Mantic wants and there are not many other possibilities for it though but I would really like to see Vampire themed Undead Pirates

I wonder if part of the reasoning is because vampires can't cross running water unless they're snugly buried in native soil, or whatnot? One assumes their hold on their minions would also turn off, leaving the ship to the necromancers / liche kings? Merhaps?

 Boss Salvage wrote:

 kodos wrote:
I can understand why going the Pirates of the Caribbean look for Undead is not something Mantic wants and there are not many other possibilities for it though but I would really like to see Vampire themed Undead Pirates

I wonder if part of the reasoning is because vampires can't cross running water unless they're snugly buried in native soil, or whatnot? One assumes their hold on their minions would also turn off, leaving the ship to the necromancers / liche kings? Merhaps?

Might be, yet having ship with a literal graveyard on it for enough native soil and resources of minions would look interesting

Hey, if vampires can't cross running water, then a giant floating mausoleum would solve that problem.

We might do an undead fleet at some point, but I felt the EoD was a stronger choice to open with.

Just like I think Trident Realm fleet could look great when we get to it, and we can combine believable (for the faction) with balanced.