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Getting harder to resist buying into Deadzone once it hits retail. Kinda helps that I have no money, tho.

 Micky wrote:
Getting harder to resist buying into Deadzone once it hits retail. Kinda helps that I have no money, tho.

Don't worry Deadzone will still be around when you have money .

Don't think I've seen this on here but qwirkworthy has over the weekend, put some stuff on there for having bigger(point scale) deadzone games.

Code 13
http://quirkworthy.com/2014/01/18/deadzone-code-13/

Also, they're supposed to be updating the rulebook for the 2nd and later printings of the DZ rulebook to include corrections that have been put up on Quirkworthy. Getting a first run book means you get to hand-edit the corrections.

Yeah, they're just now sorting the zombies right? Cool about nexus psi, would be silly to be backer only.

privateer4hire wrote:
Also, they're supposed to be updating the rulebook for the 2nd and later printings of the DZ rulebook to include corrections that have been put up on Quirkworthy. Getting a first run book means you get to hand-edit the corrections.

Hooray.

You don't expect them to keep error/omissions in the book on subsequent print runs, do you?

The thing is, honestly speaking, buying into Deadzone just makes sense.

The Starter Set comes with the Rulebook, plus 2 complete sets of faction cards. - Which are effectively the 'codices' for the armies, including the booster models you don't get in the starter set, so they're the complete sets.

The Starter set contains 88-92 points of models for one faction and over 140 points for the other. The typical game size is 70 points.
This does indeed mean that the starter set is giving you *more* points for each side than you'll use in a normal game. That's a really huge deal. Even Dropzone Commander, my other current favourite starter set only gives you 1/3rd of the forces needed for a typical game, same with X Wing.

GW's starters are usually around a quarter. - Assuming you use every model, which you're probably not... I don't think I've ever seen the Helbrute used in a proper game, for example.


You get some scenery. While you probably need double what you get in the starter set for a typical game, if you've got some left over from 40k or the like (I use my LOTR scenery quite often), you're probably sorted.

With the 2' by 2' mat included in the box, you can play quite happily on, say, the kitchen table, and you won't need to faff around with taking your giant gaming board out of the shed, or assembling a realm of battle board or any of the sort.

But yeah, it's worth picking up the starter set at the very least. The other faction starters also give you a pretty good mix of units that you'd be wanting to field, without needing to look at the boosters that'll be coming out. In saying that though, usually there's at least 1 unit that'd be really, really handy in a booster.

James Hewitt from Mantic has his own Deadzone list he put up today, to tempt you further.

And then consider a faction starter gives you a generally viable force for well under the cost of a box of marines, and each faction even ordering direct from mantic tops out at less than 100 bucks for the completionist.... good times.

Yeah, i have a starter and a booster of Rebs, but nothing else. I'm increasingly getting tempted to grab the starter box (maybe i can sell the models or split the cost with a buddy) just so that I have access to all the other stuff needed to play the game.

I'd love to play Deadzone, I just have to wait for all the items that were missing from my order to actually show up.

I'm waiting to see if mantic can get their plastics right with consistant quality, if they do ill probably buy a couple of sets of enforces and forge fathers and whatever else they do

then i will probably invest in their warpath kickstarter, ive got some corporation minis as well does anyone know if they'll bring out a deck to use corp soldiers? if so count me in for deadzone the other groups dont do much for me

They had talked about doing expansions for DZ with different antagonists, something like Deadzone: Infestation with Veerymyn as the main badguys, or Deadzone: Invasion with the Z'zor. If they do those as a 1v1 set like DZ:contagion, then corporation should surely be the opposing faction. All speculation though, no promises or guarantees.

The MA kickstarter has faction decks for both the martians and human survivors, it may be possible that the later moderately well represents the marines... but surely they'll make a deck for the GCPS marines eventually, almost silly not to.

I wonder if they'll offer the marines and martians as an addon option for wave 2? Would be a nice option for those of us not interested in MA as a game in and of itself, but I'm totally down with mixing them in against Enforcers and Marauders and such!

 Alpharius wrote:
Has Mantic started replying to everyone who had problems with their Deadzone shipments?

Or, maybe the better questions is, WILL Mantic be replying to everyone who had problems with their Deadzone shipments, or are we just going to get the replacements and/or missing items in our second shipment boxes?

Well, I hope you get your stuff sorted out, but after my experience getting KoW sorted out (got in touch with them more than 2 weeks before MA started, but ended up getting my stuff over a month after it finished...) I wouldn't hold your breath...

I would personally recommend waiting until the second print run before picking up deadzone as a boxed game.

That way you'll get the updated rulebook with the errata and missing special rules sorted, and the hard plastic enforcers. Or get a faction starter for now if you know someone with the set.

Agree that the board size is a breath of fresh air, it is very simple to set it up on any table... all told, a game of monopoly requires more room once you take into account space for cards, money and the bank. It is probably one of the best looking games around that still fits on a dining table, so you can play it pretty much anywhere. With a bit of careful assembly, the terrain can all fit into the box itself too.

The complexity is a little too high for the typical board gamer market, but Mars Attacks is going to do extremely well at retail I think. I honestly prefer the ruleset for that a *lot* more than Deadzone, simply because it takes a knife to the complexity of the game while still keeping the core of it. And then of course, the 1-piece coloured plastic minis are going to be a very welcome break.. much like Loka it'll be a game that I won't feel bad about not painting.

That's just my preference though, I also think Dreadball is more fun without the cards/ref (for quick/ casual play anyway) and love KoW for its simplicity compared to the overcomplex warhammer.

Hey everyone, remember back when ss was a raving Mantic fanboi and I was a hater? Good times. What the heck happened?

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Hey everyone, remember back when ss was a raving Mantic fanboi and I was a hater? Good times. What the heck happened?

Ko and a hundred or so Men at Arms, that's what happened. Mantic half - arising things to make a quick buck will make anyone sour.

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Hey everyone, remember back when ss was a raving Mantic fanboi and I was a hater? Good times. What the heck happened?

Still am. And you were never in the hater category, just in the disappointed category.

Got a pile of KoW angels (which are really nice) on my desk, a bunch of deadzone on the windowsill waiting for the fog to pass so I can glue them together and I'll probably spend a couple of hours this evening updating the battlescribe files.

I always have been pretty objective with my posts, they were just under closer scrutiny back in the days when I was one of the few people with anything positive to say about Mantic on this forum. I'd make a nice long post and then someone would typically cherry pick a single line from it that I hadn't carefully considered the exact wording of and go on a "SS = paid mantic shill" rant. If anyone is wondering why my Dakka posts have so many edits on them, this is why. Also, if anyone is wondering why I joined Dakka at around the same time as Mantic was getting popular (conspiracy abounds!), it was due to me deciding to abandon warseer completely as a result of their blanket ban of discussion of any product funded by Kickstarter (Mantic's entire model range, basically).

I always felt you were fairly well-balanced SS, you get a bit enhuisastic sometimes but we all do. At least you didn't become cynical about Mantic like I have.

 Alpharius wrote:

And where is the "Official" Mantic representative that used to post here?

He wasn't only active when their Kickstarters were live, was he?

It's been awhile since James was around, indeed. If there's a KS in Feb, I assume we'll see him again around then...



Automatically Appended Next Post:

 scarletsquig wrote:

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Hey everyone, remember back when ss was a raving Mantic fanboi and I was a hater? Good times. What the heck happened?

I always have been pretty objective with my posts, they were just under closer scrutiny back in the days when I was one of the few people with anything positive to say about Mantic on this forum. I'd make a nice long post and then someone would typically cherry pick a single line from it that I hadn't carefully considered the exact wording of and go on a "SS = paid mantic shill" rant. If anyone is wondering why my Dakka posts have so many edits on them, this is why.

No, they're still under heavy scrutiny. I honestly think you're much more objective now than earlier. And I like it. And yes, the post I just wrote in the other thread was before seeing this post of yours. Now let's all have a love-in!

SS is completely not on the Mantic Payroll. Totally untrue.

Tbh I trust the objective person more than the cynic, every time. The only thing that worries me about SS is when anyone mentions Hard Plastic. The man's obsessed!

^ Argh, you had to type that didn't you. Can't resist replying now.

It took me a month to take the mould lines off/ hot water bend my Deadzone minis (I'm painting them now, yay!). I still haven't taken the mould lines off my restic basileans after 7 months. There are 80 cavalry there, and every single one of them so far has required hot water bends on the two halves to avoid gaps. Every single sister arm needs hot water bending. I've started a mini-project of a 14-model angel army just to preserve my sanity. Ever seen a painted mass-infantry basilean army posted online other than the official pics? I sure haven't!

There are recent mantic minis that have taken me longer to clean and assemble than to paint. I will never give up the broken record on that front since the affordable hard plastics of old were what people really loved about the company.

I remember the first mantic boxes, you got a painting guide, poster (both printed on very high quality paper) and shield stickers in the box (which itself was foam lined and re-usable), everything felt really luxurious for an extremely low price. Even the sprues had superior casting quality and finer detail, better sculpts etc. than the last GW product I had bought (empire infantry, soft detail, horrible mould lines, a few sprues slung in a cardboard box). It really made me think "hang on, why the hell should I even bother with GW anymore?", and then the KoW beta sealed the deal. Fantastic free rules of superior quality to GW, great friendly company. Awesome.

I first picked up an undead box early 2010 and was just blown away by how superior the quality of the product was compared to GW, while being sold at a third of the price.

Just a bit nostalgic for those old days where, okay, Mantic only released one army every six months, but you got a real sense of a lot of care and effort having gone into the product. People might not have liked the dwarf sculpts but they did get six separate hard plastic sprues.

These days it's a bit more "rush it out the door to meet KS deadline, even if we know it's not really the quality standard we used to produce."

There is no getting away from the fact that restic costs twice as much as hard plastic and takes at least twice as long to assemble and clean. The only benefit of the material (other than easy reposing, which shouldn't be required if there is enough part variety in the first place) is that the tools are cheaper. This is a benefit to Mantic, but not a benefit to the end consumer, who would prefer lower pricing and minis that are easier to work with.

Additional benefit of Restic - undercuts!

 scarletsquig wrote:
Also, if anyone is wondering why I joined Dakka at around the same time as Mantic was getting popular (conspiracy abounds!), it was due to me deciding to abandon warseer completely as a result of their blanket ban of discussion of any product funded by Kickstarter (Mantic's entire model range, basically).

Did they really draw that line in the sand? Ughh... I haven't been there for a few years regularly (never posted much, just lurked but their Painting and Modelling sections used to be alot better than Dakka's years ago).

Dunno about then, but Warseer presently has a ghetto subforum for crowdfunded games, just like for everything else non-GW. Nothing non-GW is allowed in the forums proper, not even 3rd party products designed for GW games.

Sorry for off topic.

 sukura636 wrote:
Additional benefit of Restic - undercuts!

True!

However, intelligent sculpting/ tooling (GW character sculpts are a good example) and slide-core moulds (see Malifaux sprues) can make this a non-issue. Kingdom Death has some extremely complex sculpts that are being rendered pretty much 1:1 in hard plastic, despite that not being the original plan for the sculpts.

The slide-core tooling has actually already been used on both the goblins and men-at-arms, although for somewhat bizarre reasons (adding a peg hole in the goblin arms, adding a random hollow disc under the MAA integral bases). The Chinese company quite clearly has the tech in place, whether they have a clue about what they're doing with it is another matter it kinda feels like they were good at making plastic army men or something but then a client (Mantic) came along and required more technical expertise that they quite simply didn't have.

I think Mantic will eventually reach some sort of solution where they hire a ton of UK specialist staff to work full-time in China and get the job done right.

@warboss: Wildly off-topic (and possibly against forum rules?), so I'll just quickly mention that it got very uncomfortable for the Mantic Fanatics over there and we all left, first to a self-made forum, and then to the mantic forums after the upgrade. Any discussion beyond this sentence is best off in PM's.

 warboss wrote:

 scarletsquig wrote:
Also, if anyone is wondering why I joined Dakka at around the same time as Mantic was getting popular (conspiracy abounds!), it was due to me deciding to abandon warseer completely as a result of their blanket ban of discussion of any product funded by Kickstarter (Mantic's entire model range, basically).

Did they really draw that line in the sand? Ughh... I haven't been there for a few years regularly (never posted much, just lurked but their Painting and Modelling sections used to be alot better than Dakka's years ago).

Yeah they did - I left at the same time. You'd go into the news and rumors and it was just this ridiculous wasteland with no new discussion - then you'd go outside to any other website and get this huge sense of excitement with everyone talking about the latest/greatest kickstarter. Absolute night/day difference. Apparently they do have a "crowdfunding" section now buried deep in the bowels of the site but that was after months and months of deleted & locked threads & warnings.

All that to say - 3 cheers to the people who update Kickstarter threads because they're often easier to get info from than the Kickstarter page!

OnTopic: Just saw the Dreadball digital editions. Looks like a really great move from Mantic. Still can't believe I missed out on the dreadball kickstarter and yet upped my pledge for more sisters and men at arms. Oy.... hindsight and all that. :p

 sukura636 wrote:
Additional benefit of Restic - undercuts!

Or you could have proper multipart plastic kits and have both undercuts and options.

I too long for the hard plastic halcyon days that SS refers too, I have a fully painted Mantic Undead army in excess of 400 miniatures, about 95% of it is hard plastic. It was easy to put together and a joy to paint. Like others I cannot bear to even deal with the Basilean figures in restic, just so many mould lines to get rid of on the likes of the Paladins. Others, such as my Abyssal dwarfs and Gargoyles were far less trouble.

That said I have really enjoyed my Deadzone experience. I was one of the test shipments and as a result got my stuff very early, and was missing nothing, it was just a shame that subsequent shipments let a lot of people down. But seeing the new retail release schedule has got me stoked again, even if it is mainly restic. that said the DZ restic is a large step up from most of the stuff delivered in the KOW Kickstarter.

I do think it is inevitable though that if Mantic do wish to continue to grow a reliable provider of hard plastic sprues is the way to go. I have only recently got into Maliufaux and their hard plastic kits are spectacular, the trade off is you pay for it. But given the model count for that game being similar to Deadzone maybe that higher price, higher quality, lower model count is a route that Mantic can go? I just do not know how many people would be happy to pay for it.