Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Let's be honest here : I doubt the majority of people buys KoW plastic kits just for conversion material in mind. With the price hike, it's not interesting enough just for that. I totally get people waiting for rules before engaging fully in. That just tells the miniatures alone aren't really that great to incite impulse buy like some others. And that's a good thing. MG tends to rely a bit too much on their fan community blindly buying anything they make, which is why they rely on KS as well.

That you are arguing these miniatures are great for sci-fi or something else should be telling how a miss it is for a fantasy game like KoW.

Mantic does do some odd things at times when it comes to concepts but I don't really think their miniatures are "budget options" or low quality anymore.

A lot of their stuff is absolutely *derivative*, but I think that's also true of a majority of miniature ranges out there. mierce will stick to their faction theming to a comical degree (dragon faction, forest spirit faction, undead faction etc.) but tend to put out cool sculpts that people have few complaints for.

Mantics stuff for me has gotten good enough over the years that it's become a genuine aesthetic alternative which can have a lower bar for painting something nice than many of the ranges out there. Para bellum makes really cool concepts for their minis but does a very poor job with silhouettes and has the same chunk problem mantic does but worse, as another example.

The new armada stuff they've put out is a great example of this to me, good and bad. A lot of it's chunky, rather symmetrical and almost absent at times, while still having personality, being fun and easy to paint, having really good presence on the table, and being backed by generally better rules than most of the competition at a decent enough pricepoint

> Mantic has had a distinct air of discount alternative since the original undead were released, but I've never likened them to dollar store material.

I have -- but those were all the old sets. Mold lines everywhere for the soft plastic. One sprue for an entire race (eg. ghouls). Still useful when you needed a quantity of minions, though. Maybe he's referring to those sets.

While I don't have the Mantic Archon-made sprues, I do have a ton of Archon. (Their Dungeon and Lasers mini's seem to be a better fit with my interest in generic fantasy miniatures for RPG's.) Easiest plastic I've had (not that I play many wargames) to get rid of those mold lines. Details and sculpts are great, though this may be specific to Archon mini's.

EDIT: Backed their first two Terrain Crates. Soft plastic. Iffy on recommending it. Bought because I wanted more dungeon stuff.

No hurry to catch up with any improvements Mantic has made with their miniatures. Too many miniatures to paint, as it is.

EDIT: Good to hear Grunk's comments. I'll look closer when Mantic has another KS that's not a boardgame.

Sarouan wrote:
Let's be honest here : I doubt the majority of people buys KoW plastic kits just for conversion material in mind. With the price hike, it's not interesting enough just for that. I totally get people waiting for rules before engaging fully in. That just tells the miniatures alone aren't really that great to incite impulse buy like some others. And that's a good thing. MG tends to rely a bit too much on their fan community blindly buying anything they make, which is why they rely on KS as well.

That you are arguing these miniatures are great for sci-fi or something else should be telling how a miss it is for a fantasy game like KoW.

I buy them for conversion fodder, and so do a Cao hole of my friends. None of us play KOW. We don’t play many GW games, either. On the Mantic FB groups there appear to be far more people interested in the game itself, so somebody out there is playing it. Ironically, I see tons of conversions using Mantic bits….on the Wargames Atlantic group.

And yeah, the prices have stopped me from buying whole boxes sometimes, but companies like McDougall Designs give me the opportunity to buy a sprue or two to play with for every plastic kit Mantic puts out. (I did buy the Ambush box for the Night Stalkers, and am now more likely to get one for the TK when I have the funds since the kit is looking more interesting the more I see of it.)

I mostly buy Mantic terrain, but I did buy a bunch of original Plague miniatures for homebrew wargaming and my 28mm webcomic. The Hornet VTOL is a great kit and got a lot of page time in my comic.

However, I am likely to buy some of their KoW stuff for my dungeon crawl (among other projects). Especially Twilight Kin sprues via McDougall.

So yeah, I am one of those people who enjoy their stuff for conversion fodder and not a "let me get Not-GW stuff cheap for GW games" people.

Ronnie has done an interview on Mantic Universe Podcast.

He confirmed that Mantic plan to continue with army releases similar to 2023 every year.
So two armies reviewed/updated, like Northern Alliance and Nightstalkers this year, and a big release like Twilight Kin.

Also confirmed that Trident Realm and Forces of the Abyss are being updated next year, but the big release remains to be revealed.

The rumours are that the big release might be dwarfs or The Herd, but I'm not sure what it's based on.

 DarkBlack wrote:

Also confirmed that Trident Realm and Forces of the Abyss are being updated next year, but the big release remains to be revealed.

Well that makes me nervous, those two are from that short era in early 2nd edition when sculpts were actually pretty good.

What armies are left that need a full re-work

Dwarfs, Elves, Orcs and Undead to a point, (could also only be an update) and Armies without dedicated model lines, except the human ones, are only Herd.

Another Human faction would be nice, though except for Kingdoms of Man everything else would only need an "update"


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 lord_blackfang wrote:

 DarkBlack wrote:

Also confirmed that Trident Realm and Forces of the Abyss are being updated next year, but the big release remains to be revealed.

Well that makes me nervous, those two are from that short era in early 2nd edition when sculpts were actually pretty good.

Why?
NS/NA like update would mean replacing metal/PVC models with plastic and resin, something I would not rate "bad"

and for Trident we already saw teaser for the Riverguard coming in plastic and the Coral Giant getting a model, and one of the monster/large infantry models gets a plastic unit

 kodos wrote:

Another Human faction would be nice, though except for Kingdoms of Man everything else would only need an "update"

I would be happy if they updated Basilean paladins (on foot and on horse) and angels. And the sisterhood once and for all.

Depth Horrors, Riverguard and Coral Giant would all be great. Dambusters also don't have an actual unit either, just the hero in resin.

One of the strongest rumors I've heard is Orcs and Riftforged being combined, but I always assumed that would be a 4E consolidation thing. Like moving Herd back into Nature, for example. Super awesome if Herd get Mantic models to justify their continued existence tho! We've seen several individual sculpts that could be expanded on.

Subfactions within factions are always a possibility, or the options to take only herd models, but the faction is still FoN.

 Boss Salvage wrote:
Depth Horrors, Riverguard and Coral Giant would all be great. Dambusters also don't have an actual unit either, just the hero in resin.

Later in the podcast Ronnie said the release would be frogs and frogs on frogs.
Also something about "frog mortars" spitting across the table.

Coral gaint sound reasonable too, presumably a resin/stl upgrade to the giant kit, like the shadow-hulk and storm giant.

 Boss Salvage wrote:

One of the strongest rumors I've heard is Orcs and Riftforged being combined

Would it not require some changes in fluff? Riftforged revere their maker when normal/original orcs not so much.

 DarkBlack wrote:

 Boss Salvage wrote:
Depth Horrors, Riverguard and Coral Giant would all be great. Dambusters also don't have an actual unit either, just the hero in resin.

Later in the podcast Ronnie said the release would be frogs and frogs on frogs.
Also something about "frog mortars" spitting across the table.

Coral gaint sound reasonable too, presumably a resin/stl upgrade to the giant kit, like the shadow-hulk and storm giant.

Frogs would be something I would be interested in. ?

 Grumpy Gnome wrote:

Frogs would be something I would be interested in. ?

It does sound rather delightful!
I'll most likely gets some, even if only a warband for a skirmish game.

 DarkBlack wrote:
Later in the podcast Ronnie said the release would be frogs and frogs on frogs.

Yessssssss I've long wanted an all frog Trident army and very nearly 3D printed one, happy to have put the brakes on that

 kodos wrote:

I need these guysin Vanguard.

 .Mikes. wrote:

 kodos wrote:

I need these guysin Vanguard.

Mikael is rather large. He's on a 50mm base, if memory serves.

I'd recommend an ambush box, if you need a small group for vanguard.

For those looking for Armada digital files, Mantic Games will start a Frontier campaign on 29/09/23 (basically crowdfunding, even though it seems it's just everything they already have for the starter set of Armada).



https://www.myminifactory.com/frontier/armada-the-game-of-naval-battles-2156?utm_source=Storepage&utm_medium=SP&utm_campaign=22-09-23_IC_ManticGames_Armada-The_Game_of_Naval_Battles_FT_Pre-M&pk_campaign=22-09-23_IC_ManticGames_Armada-The_Game_of_Naval_Battles_FT_Pre-M&pk_kwd=SP

That's the ripper hulk not a smasher lol

Forces of the abyss update you say. Awesome it’s one of mantics best looking and unique looking armies.

Mantic added more pictures of painted models and pics of the frames to the TK models on the website https://www.manticgames.com/kings-of-war/kings-of-war-factions/twilight-kin/

Pics so low resolution as if they're not fully confident in the sculpts, I'm amazed they still have a working VGA camera

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Pics so low resolution as if they're not fully confident in the sculpts, I'm amazed they still have a working VGA camera

Jokes aside, I cannot fathom that they still, after so many years, cannot properly present their products on their site.

"mobile friendly"

They sure are good to look at on your phone.

TBH, since they make pictures of a whole unit instead of individual models, it's good enough for Mantic customers. And since Mantic miniatures are best not to look in details...this is certainly the most effective depiction of their products.

Sarouan, your constant derisory comments about "Mantic Customers" is incredibly disrespectful and borderline trolling.

Sarouan wrote:
They sure are good to look at on your phone.
TBH, since they make pictures of a whole unit instead of individual models, it's good enough for Mantic customers. And since Mantic miniatures are best not to look in details...this is certainly the most effective depiction of their products.

#sigh
You just can't help it can you?

 Tabletop_Magpie wrote:
Sarouan, your constant derisory comments about "Mantic Customers" is incredibly disrespectful and borderline trolling.

Sorry, it's not my intention. I meant, Mantic customers buy these miniatures more for a mass effect in their games, hence why pictures are focused on units rather than individual models. KoW is all about regimental units, it's more effective to advertise these products with these pictures.

It's the same for painting. It's the mass effect that counts for these kind of units. Sure, you can always spend a lot of time on each individual model if you want, but let's face it ; that's not what KoW Mantic miniatures are usually designed for.