[Kings of War] Mantic Fantasy News & Rumors

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**Bioptic**

He...might be referring to the fact that at the height of Mantic mispacking, the errors cut both ways and some people got a fair amount of extra product!

**MasterSlowPoke**

On the customer service front, I was missing 10 Gargoyles from my Abyssal starter. I placed the missing pieces form in mid January, and they arrived on Thursday/Friday this week. Pretty speedy turnaround compared to history, and didn't require any poking or prodding!

**Polonius**

MasterSlowPoke wrote:
On the customer service front, I was missing 10 Gargoyles from my Abyssal starter. I placed the missing pieces form in mid January, and they arrived on Thursday/Friday this week. Pretty speedy turnaround compared to history, and didn't require any poking or prodding!

You're also a retail customer.

**BrizzleRob**

Polonius wrote:
You're also a retail customer.

If true that is very telling, and I already had a bad impression of Mantic's delivery of their KS projects (all hype, followed by far too much chaos and mismanagement).

**Daedleh**

Are people seriously insinuating that Mantic are deliberately ignoring KS customers so they can fulfil missing parts of retail customers?

I mean, seriously? Two (or more) people actually believe that?

**BobtheInquisitor**

Daedleh wrote:
Are people seriously insinuating that Mantic are deliberately ignoring KS customers so they can fulfil missing parts of retail customers?

I mean, seriously? Two (or more) people actually believe that?

I don't know about intentionally, but I have yet to receive wave 1 or 2 of my KoW2 pledge despite numerous emails to Rich and Dave, as well as a ticket put in back when Mantic told us they would respond to our tickets.

At this point, they almost have to be ignoring some of us, right?

**Daedleh**

They are specifically on about Mantic deliberately ignoring KS customers in order to fulfil retail customers.

**Hulksmash**

Well it can seem that way if you're a KS customer that has pursued them for months and a retail customer has their issue resolved in a reasonable amount of time.

**mattjgilbert**

Riquende, BobtheInquisitor, Polonius - please PM me and I'll get your missing stuff sorted (or at least get you an answer as to what is happening and when).

I'll need your kickstarter details, address and anything else you think relevant. I'm sure the guys have it but better safe than sorry. If you've submitted a missing items form, or ticket, let me know what email address you did that with and ticket number if you have one.

timetowaste85.. you're stuff is being dealt with?

I'm back in the office on Wednesday so can investigate this week.

**Wehrkind**

Daedleh wrote:
They are specifically on about Mantic deliberately ignoring KS customers in order to fulfil retail customers.

I think Polonius' point was more that when choosing which fires to put out, retail customers are likely to be chosen ahead of non-retail customers. Businesses generally prioritize higher revenue customers over lower, it is just what they do. So a higher priority customer saying "I got my problem fixed pretty well, pretty quickly" is not going to be the normal experience of the non-retail customer base. I think that is all Polonius was pointing out.

I mean, sure it is "deliberately ignoring KS customers in order to fulfil retail customers" but only because people have to choose something to focus on, some priority to order their actions even if it is just "whatever issue randomly comes to hand first." The issue isn't that so much as the fact that there are so many problems, and they are so slow to get fixed. That some of them are getting fixed quickly is not necessarily a ray of hope it seems likely that those being fixed quickly is more a question of special status/priority, as opposed to everything getting in order and the fixing process going smoothly.

**Compel**

I believe (literally) all of my mates who backed Dungeon Saga are still missing their Black Fortress tile sets.

At least they all have playable games now after the last round of missing parts being shipped.

I still think, I shouldn't have the feeling of, "at least I'm the lucky one." When it comes to delivery of toy soldiers...

**MasterSlowPoke**

Polonius wrote:
MasterSlowPoke wrote:
On the customer service front, I was missing 10 Gargoyles from my Abyssal starter. I placed the missing pieces form in mid January, and they arrived on Thursday/Friday this week. Pretty speedy turnaround compared to history, and didn't require any poking or prodding!

You're also a retail customer.

News to me, as I'm a kickstarter backer. Abyssals weren't even out in January through retail channels, what in the world would make you assume so strongly?

**BobtheInquisitor**

Because you got your stuff?

**mattjgilbert**

Odd double post shenanigans...

**Compel**

These weren't marked to "follow on." (I've seen scans of that marking online). My mates just had theirs simply missing.

**BobtheInquisitor**

mattjgilbert wrote:
Odd double post shenanigans...

You overwrote your original post. Anyway, preparing my PM.

**Polonius**

MasterSlowPoke wrote:
Polonius wrote:
MasterSlowPoke wrote:
On the customer service front, I was missing 10 Gargoyles from my Abyssal starter. I placed the missing pieces form in mid January, and they arrived on Thursday/Friday this week. Pretty speedy turnaround compared to history, and didn't require any poking or prodding!

You're also a retail customer.

News to me, as I'm a kickstarter backer. Abyssals weren't even out in January through retail channels, what in the world would make you assume so strongly?

My apologies. I must have misread your post.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

mattjgilbert wrote:
Riquende, BobtheInquisitor, Polonius - please PM me and I'll get your missing stuff sorted (or at least get you an answer as to what is happening and when).

I'll need your kickstarter details, address and anything else you think relevant. I'm sure the guys have it but better safe than sorry. If you've submitted a missing items form, or ticket, let me know what email address you did that with and ticket number if you have one.

timetowaste85.. you're stuff is being dealt with?

I'm back in the office on Wednesday so can investigate this week.

I will, but I think the issue I have is that the movement trays are on back order. I've been told a couple of times by a couple of people that they've been shipped out, so there are either three boxes of movement trays trapped somewhere, or I'm the recipient of the best of intentions.

**Prestor Jon**

Automatically Appended Next Post:

mattjgilbert wrote:
Riquende, BobtheInquisitor, Polonius - please PM me and I'll get your missing stuff sorted (or at least get you an answer as to what is happening and when).

I'll need your kickstarter details, address and anything else you think relevant. I'm sure the guys have it but better safe than sorry. If you've submitted a missing items form, or ticket, let me know what email address you did that with and ticket number if you have one.

timetowaste85.. you're stuff is being dealt with?

I'm back in the office on Wednesday so can investigate this week.

I will, but I think the issue I have is that the movement trays are on back order. I've been told a couple of times by a couple of people that they've been shipped out, so there are either three boxes of movement trays trapped somewhere, or I'm the recipient of the best of intentions.

I hope you get your movement trays. Since you're in the US you might want to check out http://ironheartartisans.com/shop/product-category/bases/ That's where I got mine and I'm happy with them.

**mattjgilbert**

BobtheInquisitor wrote:
mattjgilbert wrote:
Odd double post shenanigans...

You overwrote your original post. Anyway, preparing my PM.

Weird. The page showed my post twice, even after two refreshes. I edited one and it left the other. Now the non-edited one is gone.

Nice

Anyway, IIRC, the Black Fortress follow-on orders start shipping this week. That's what I tried to post

**MasterSlowPoke**

That's the way the double post code on this forum works. It'll let/make you double post, then it'll detect it a minute later and delete the first post.

**Polonius**

Prestor Jon wrote:
I hope you get your movement trays. Since you're in the US you might want to check out http://ironheartartisans.com/shop/product-category/bases/ That's where I got mine and I'm happy with them.

thanks! I think I might just make the order for what I'll use at Adepticon and other events, and when I get the rest from Mantic, I'll just have some extras.

**timetowaste85**

mattjgilbert wrote:
Riquende, BobtheInquisitor, Polonius - please PM me and I'll get your missing stuff sorted (or at least get you an answer as to what is happening and when).

I'll need your kickstarter details, address and anything else you think relevant. I'm sure the guys have it but better safe than sorry. If you've submitted a missing items form, or ticket, let me know what email address you did that with and ticket number if you have one.

timetowaste85.. you're stuff is being dealt with?

I'm back in the office on Wednesday so can investigate this week.

I haven't heard from Rich in at least a week, so I'll PM you the details as well when I'm in front of a computer. Thanks Matt!

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

We have a (disappointing) update from Dungeon Saga

Second Survey Shipping and Customer Service Update

In this update, news on shipping the Adventurer’s Companion reprint and a general customer service update.

Dungeon Saga Pledge Manager 2

Tomorrow we begin shipping out the first batch of Dungeon Saga pledge manager items.

The items we are sending out are:
•Adventurer’s Companion reprint
•Dungeon Saga rucksack

If you purchased a book box as well as any of the items above and did not split your shipping, your package will ship later (see below).

Follow-on Items

As part of the same dispatch, we will also be sending out items listed as Follow-on – namely the Black Fortress tiles.

When can I expect my delivery?

It will take until approximately the 19th February to get this batch completed, please allow a few weeks afterwards for your package to arrive.

If you do need to get in touch regarding this second dispatch please do so by contacting us on our new customer service portal (bit.ly/1PkxwKI).

Update on Book Box

If you have ordered a Book Box then this shipment will begin in March. However as we extended the second pledge manager to give backers more opportunity to request a reprint of the book and get the book box, we exceeded our print run and have had to place a second order to fulfill all of the Book Box.

With Chinese New Year affecting our ability to get stock in, approximately a quarter of book boxes will not ship until May.

Customer Service Update

Zak and his team are on top of all the missing item requests that can be completed. However there are some items we are out of stock on, such as the Kickstarter Exclusive Book Box for Carton B’s and Dungeon Furniture. If you haven’t received your order yet, we will send it out once we receive more stock in March. Please be aware that there may be some unique items that we are unable to get hold of. If this is the case, we will be in touch with you once we’ve confirmed what stock we won’t have, and will offer an alternative.

this is the most depressing bit " Please be aware that there may be some unique items that we are unable to get hold of. If this is the case, we will be in touch with you once we’ve confirmed what stock we won’t have, and will offer an alternative. "

since most of the issues (if not all) do seem to be down to Mantic's pledge manager eating the data of a bunch of people it seems to me that even if it costs them a bunch they really should supply everything to everybody no matter what the cost (even if it does mean a minimum order of 5000 when they only need 50 or buying their own stuff on the secondary market)....

I guess if the alternatives are sufficiently good people may be OK with them, but the comments are a tad grumpy at the moment

**scarletsquig**

Delivering alternatives for some unique items doesn't sound promising.

I'm getting the distinct feeling that KS exclusive resin missing from my pledge is going to stay missing.

Really hope they take a break from Kickstarter for the rest of the year once TWD is out. I'd be fine with nothing but retail direct metal KoW releases for the next year or so.

Dreadball is about as complete as its going to get for a game, Warpath and Deadzone have a huge queue of funded stuff to fill out their launch (and relaunch) over the next year (and that could also be bulked out with further retail-direct metals).

Dungeon Saga still has quite a number of things to release to retail, add TWD to the retail chain and it's basically filled right up to mid-2017.

Even if Kickstarters make a return in 2017, I'd prefer them to focus on hard plastic for KoW and Warpath rather than adding another side game to the mix. Extra Dungeon Saga expansions would also be great.

**Compel**

I imagine an example of the "unique item" would be for my mate in the Kings of War kickstarter - Who went for Ultimate Tyrant, no less, has ended up missing out on the KS Exclusive Blaine on dinosaur mini cause of mantic's various screw ups.

He has been offered an alternative though. - I do not believe that alternative model has been sent to him yet (of course...)

**Polonius**

OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:

this is the most depressing bit " Please be aware that there may be some unique items that we are unable to get hold of. If this is the case, we will be in touch with you once we’ve confirmed what stock we won’t have, and will offer an alternative. "

since most of the issues (if not all) do seem to be down to Mantic's pledge manager eating the data of a bunch of people it seems to me that even if it costs them a bunch they really should supply everything to everybody no matter what the cost (even if it does mean a minimum order of 5000 when they only need 50 or buying their own stuff on the secondary market)....

I guess if the alternatives are sufficiently good people may be OK with them, but the comments are a tad grumpy at the moment

Ouch... it's downright embarrassing to run a kickstarter, get the order and the money up front, and then a year or more later tell a customer they can't deliver. I feel bad for people this affects, because its denying them some unique items they clearly wanted, and also leaves a real bitter taste toward Mantic.

I'm also getting a little tired of Mantic acting like these things just "happen" to them. "We are unable to hold of" = "We didn't properly manage our supply chain."

Automatically Appended Next Post:

scarletsquig wrote:
Really hope they take a break from Kickstarter for the rest of the year once TWD is out.

If they don't... I think it's fair to say that Mantic simply isn't listening to it's core customer base.

The people they are screwing over with their screw ups aren't casual customers, they're the people that can evangelize and spread the word. Guys that are running demos, building armies from their models instead of 2nd hand WFB, and building a long term community.

People used to joke that being a GW fan was like being in an abusive relationship, but GW never lost an order for months, mispacked every third order, or had to offer refunds on a preorder.

**BobtheInquisitor**

On the one hand, I'm pretty livid that I'll probably never receive the Blaine on dinosaur mini I ordered.

On the other hand, does anyone want my resin Tyrant King Blaine for $100 shipped? Just $100.

**Compel**

Dino-Blaine is pretty much a certainty. - My mate who had his missing told me something like, "they are unable to procure any more."

**Bioptic**

Which, without wanting to sound too angry, is nonsense! They own the master, they own all moulds of the master, they have in-house casting facilities, they continue to offer resin miniatures that are actively being cast, and they promised that all Kickstarter-exclusive models would be available through the Mantic points scheme in the future.

**Zywus**

How can you be unable to "procure" a resin model that you yourself produce?

It would be one thing it it was a plastic kit where the molds had deteriorated too much or something, as it's a hefty investment to create new ones.

Resin models can literally be cast by amateurs in their garages as long as there exist a master, or even a copy to work from.