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.

Earth Dragon wrote:
Isn't DKH closer to Project Pandora then Deadzone? Does it even need a KS?

'Dwarf King's Quest' is more likely.

Mantic is now unable to release a product without KS monies.

But to be fair, DHK and Pandora could do with coming out in much nicer editions that are much more accessible to boardgame players. Both DHK and Pandora are good game rulesets, but the components - the card tiles, the boxes, the rules pamphlets - are a little cheap. From our wargaming perspective, the hard plastic figures (DKH) = Good. Restic multiparts (PP) = Okay. - but neither are particularly good for a boardgame, where you need single part figures, or push-fits at worst (Space Hulk).

Because, you know, boardgame players (understandably) want to be able to buy a product, open it, and play it immediately. If Mantic KS this stuff properly, there's a lot of money to be made. I imagine one box for DKH with more stuff added, and then the Elves, Orcs, etc will come via "Small Box" boardgame-style expansions or the like...

 Riquende wrote:

Triszin wrote:
ITs essentially been confirmed as june, just not out right announced.

Confirmed by who, and where?

And The guy that posts on here said that the vehicles plastic is essentially done, it'll be the same stuff the Deadzone buildings are made of.

James said that? Where?

1. i am searching for the post I'll keep looking but by god, there is a lot of posts.

-There is not an official post, but people figure it will be on or around the same time that the deadzone kickstarter launched. some say as early as march but, i think june at the earliest.

 lagoon83 wrote:

 Vermonter wrote:
James, (or anyone here, this may be generally known), is it certain the Warpath Kickstarter will launch sometime in 2014? Or is that still being debated in the Mantic bunker?

"Certain" is a word that terrifies me.

However, we're very, very interested in the idea. We've got a couple of other things that we'd like to do first, mind... a couple of rather extreme ideas.

2.

 lagoon83 wrote:

Triszin wrote:I really hope they can get the plastic sorted out shortly, as I expect them to do a Warpath Kickstarter in june, and If I'm right there is going to be a ton of vehicles and additions to the armies.

Those models look fantastic, and I'm glad the enforcers got a bulkier ankle. Also if you look through the pages you can see the enforcer special teams painted up, and they look nice.

One of the big things with Deadzone was to get hard plastics right so we could do vehicles. Looking at the terrain, yeah. Yeah, we've cracked it.

Can I just say, when the Warpath KS comes around, I want a proper dropship for my Enforcers. Designed by Antenociti's Workshop would be even better.

Triszin wrote:

 lagoon83 wrote:
We've got a couple of other things that we'd like to do first, mind... a couple of rather extreme ideas.

Doesn't really go into specifics on the 'when' and implies Dreadball 2 will be before it in the queue (assuming Dreadball 2 gets a KS).

2.

 lagoon83 wrote:

One of the big things with Deadzone was to get hard plastics right so we could do vehicles. Looking at the terrain, yeah. Yeah, we've cracked it.

I actually misread what you said as "vehicles are essentially done", so sorry about that. But James' quote, referring to the process of making hard plastic items doesn't mean that the vehicles themselves are anywhere close to ready. You still have to do small things like design the kits. Now that's certainly possible to do in 7 months, but it's not a definite indicator of timescale.

I think they already lined up the next kickstarter in the latest email. A Loka card game.

I actually misread what you said as "vehicles are essentially done", so sorry about that. But James' quote, referring to the process of making hard plastic items doesn't mean that the vehicles themselves are anywhere close to ready. You still have to do small things like design the kits. Now that's certainly possible to do in 7 months, but it's not a definite indicator of timescale.

Sorry, I didnt mean to convey "vehicles are almost done" i meant to convey the plastic for vehicles is probably almost ready. I'm talking about the material, not the models atm.

 Azazelx wrote:
Mantic is now unable to release a product without KS monies.

But to be fair, DHK and Pandora could do with coming out in much nicer editions that are much more accessible to boardgame players. Both DHK and Pandora are good game rulesets, but the components - the card tiles, the boxes, the rules pamphlets - are a little cheap. From our wargaming perspective, the hard plastic figures (DKH) = Good. Restic multiparts (PP) = Okay. - but neither are particularly good for a boardgame, where you need single part figures, or push-fits at worst (Space Hulk).
.

I suppose it comes down to the old cost vs. quality battle, and finding a balance between those things. I've seen DKH for £30, which is an absolute bargain - but, the cost of that is you don't get as good card tiles, or the variety of unique sculpts that you get in some other board games.

I had read that the board game side of things was very much an additional enterprise for Mantic. Apparently Jake Thornton convinced someone (Ronnie Renton?) what could be done with existing miniatures and with very little outlay in terms of design/production - that DKH sold out of several print runs has no doubt vindicated that decision, although I agree it would certainly nice having a fancier, more expensive version now that Mantic have started to find their feet a bit more.

Best not to get too ahead of reading into quotes, I don't see anything that can be nailed down in James' post there stating June 2014 WP KS or hard plastic vehicles already done. Obviously any large vehicles will have to be hard plastic, and DZ terrain is a good test for getting the fitting and tolerances done right.

All we know for sure is that Mantic has a lot of stuff in the works, it is possible that DKH and Dreadball Extreme might be a bit further away with more focus on the core games.

Warpath might end up further out since Mantic wants their QC sorted before going anywhere near that, a process which may take longer than expected.

Also, no licensed IP for 2014, focus on core games instead. I get the impression not even Mantic has a fixed timetable yet since there's so much stuff going on.

If there is going to be a big reveal of any kind it won't be before the Open Day, they'll be pretty keen to have the big announcement there.

Oh yeah, and contrary to comments previously in this thread, it looks like they'll be doing a few things that won't involve KS like the new Dwarf releases and some Dreadball stuff between now and Extreme.

Get the impression there's just plain tons of fun stuff coming next year and an even more accelerated release schedule (they've already dipped into 2-week release windows this year, might have to do it again).

DKH definitely made a lot of sense, they already had the minis sorted.

I think DKH is great for what it is, but a "dungeon skirmish" game with good miniatures is something I'm still in the market for.
Here's hoping they can deliver on that, personally I'm not that hopeful that Mantic are the company to provide me with characterful and well sculpted monsters though- seems like they just don't have the consistency required.

We're starting to get some unboxing pics (source):





Plague 1st Gen really is nice. I hope they sculpt more plague minis in that style in future, the 2nd and 3rd gens don't even come close in terms of sculpt quality.

The 1st gen has all the multiple layers of bone and muscle with holes in the bone and muscle showing through, tendons attached etc. It really looks like a gory human turned inside out and a coral-like bone structure.

The 2nd gens are a bit too neat, flat and uniform in comparison, there's none of that curved spikey detail that makes the 1st gen so wonderful.

On the plus side, 3 different sculpts with what looks like 6 different interchangeable arms is very nice and a bit of a step up from the usual standard of only doing 2 different bodies for large infantry kits. I like the dogs too.

Thanks SS! Higher res would still be nice, but it looks really damn good to me so far. Soft organic lines, crisp inorganic lines.

Can't disagree with either of you. Thanks for sharing the pics!

Very nice, SS. Do you know: Is this what a person who buys DZ from their retailer would get in their box set?

Thanks for sharing, I'm intensely curious what everything looks like but kind of short on time to go looking for it

From the text on the page he linked, should be production models. As in they took apart some sets and sent them to the pathfinders to get painted so they'll have a grand lot of them ready for big gaming fun on the 30th. Wish it wasn't an ocean away!

I agree that 1st gen is super amazing. I think that the 2nd gens aren't bad, I may take some greenstuff to all of my plague minis to further mutate them anyway, so maybe I can break up the clean lines a bit. I am *ecstatic* about the 3 bodies 6 arms. Even if they don't all match up 100%... that is far, far more variability than I was expecting for them. Even the barricade that the one pose is leaping is separate, so I have a feeling second gens can be made with quite a lot of character

The enforcers look good too. There's virtually no hope of converting the sniper, but thats ok as he's a pretty sweet pose anyway. Can anyone tell what the two pieces (look kind of like mirrors of eachother) that aren't the rocket or sniper rifle in the bottom right are? Looks almost more like a bit of scenery, but I don't remember it from any of the enforcer bases?

*edit* oh never mind, now that I see what those two laser rifle looking bits off to the side are... those boxy bits are the sentry guns duh

@privateer - It should be yes. Obviously, that's not the entire contents on show there,and the KS starters come with a few more minis than the retail sets.

Not sure if they're going ahead with the whole coloured plastic thing or not, I think they were toying with the idea of an alternate set of 1-piece coloured board game stuff at one point but there wasn't much demand for that during the KS from the looks of it.

I'm glad that they're aiming it more as a serious wargamer product, there's always Mars Attacks to fill the casual or board gamer market.

Yeah, and the captain/1st gen don't even have integrated bases to slot into the regular mantic bases. No doubt that this is meant for wargaming. Looks more like what you'd get in Dark Vengeance or the like than what you'd get out of a proper board game. Yet you could actually play many fun games and even campaigns with the contents of even the retail box without buying more stuff. I'd have trouble saying that about the other thing I mentioned


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I see SS's plague and enforcers, and raise Marauders!
Compliments of one James Hewitt, found here (go give him some encouragement to get painting!)




Loving the ripper suits, and how gigantic the mawbeasts are Its like they're there to dare you to charge the sneaky comando captain while they've got overwatch:move banked and ready

Nice find! As he says in the blog, bit of GS to make the arms fit smooth is about all that's required, though there's a bit of flash on that knife ; p Models are all looking excellent.

It looks (from that picture) that China is still tearing things off the sprues rather then clipping them, though...

If they were quick learners or gave a crap they'd have better jobs.

Hard to see much in SS's pics... that model in the top right of the first pic in particular...

GrimDork, yours aren't showing up for me.

THEM ANKLES (on the enforcers). they are looking great. no more twigs!

That's the enforcer sniper, he's cast as part of his cloak, looks like much converting for that one is unlikely. Not sure which of those legs goes to him, perhaps the one connected to the mini-base. It looks like the definition is there, just hard to see from the picture.

I nabbed the marauder pics off of the mantic forums. Are you able to follow that link I posted? They're on the same page, just scroll down a couple of posts.

Probably because you have to be logged in to see a lot of stuff on Mantic's Official Forum, maybe?




I can see them in the preview of this post... but is it because I logged in first, and now they're in my cache?

Sounds plausible.

I can see why people might not like the small-leggedness of the marauders, but I love the sculpt, and the cast seems great. I'm also partial to the more militaristic/disciplined take on greenskins they seem to have. I'd much rather multi-part plastic (WGF Mantic, srsly!) but hopefully we can spice them up with extra bits, GS and some chopping and hacking.

It might be too late, but I do wish Mantic would lose their "Tiny Legs/Giant Torso" fascination...


Having said that, it 'works' OK for Marauders, but not so much for the Plague.

The Plague do all look a little like immortal body builders who have skipped leg day since the dawn of time. A little like upside down zombie triangles.

 carlos13th wrote:
The Plague do all look a little like immortal body builders who have skipped leg day since the dawn of time. A little like upside down zombie triangles.

This was great well done.

 carlos13th wrote:
The Plague do all look a little like immortal body builders who have skipped leg day since the dawn of time.

Ha - that made me laugh out loud - and I'm on East Coast USA time now, so that's trouble!

Yeah its probably something with the mantic forums. Same way flickr seems to work.

I like the marauders, and I've even started to get used to the supertorso and gorilla arms of the plague 3rd gens. I still think I'm gonna splice in some zombie parts to suggest that the mutation is also somewhat as likely to waste limbs away as it is to bulk them out, and maybe some bone spurs or tentacles. I'm kind of bad with green stuff at this point, so I'm limited to pretty basic stuff.

It will depend largely upon the feel I get when I get hold of my plague models. I'll either like them as is, or want to "chaos them up" so to speak. The other three factions probably won't need or be receptive to such things, so the plague will be my only chance to do it.