Mantic Games - Sci-fi News & Rumors: Sci-Fi Zombies released.

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**overtyrant**

I've downloaded my copy but not read it yet. I used the plague mortar twice and was so game breaking me and my mate agreed they should be used in larger games only.

**Azazelx**

CptJake wrote:
I wish they would have delayed the survey deadline until we had seen all the renders.

Those do look good.

It just cost them money in the end. I might have gotten them at KS prices, but I won't pay what they ask at retail for them...

**scarletsquig**

Big blog post from Ronnie about Kickstarters and deadzone missing bits/ delays:

http://manticblog.com/2014/03/13/mantic-and-you/

Ronnie Renton wrote:Well with James (best wishes, now get outa here!) exiting stage left I thought an update on all things Mantic would not go amiss. So with no further ado…

1) We have some really good candidates to look at for the community role. The fans we have are very important to Mantic. We simply would not be the company we have become without all the support and help we and and still do receive. It is probably an unusual role considering the size of company we are but I think that without someone sharing our thoughts and interacting with our supporters – and feeding back their thoughts and fears – we risk losing touch with what really matters as we get bigger. I don’t want that to happen – and so the role must be filled. I hope to have a new face to fill the slot in the next few weeks. Thanks to all those who applied.

Could Blaine be our next community manager? Nah.

2) Thank you for your patience with deliveries and missing items over the last couple of months. We got slightly behind because the picking of the Deadzone was harder than we anticipated. The fact that the orders were huge and the factions and boosters came in multiple bags meant each pledge took a long time to pick – and also that we made a good number of mistakes!!!

We have had about 1500 responses on the missing items form, along with lots of other contact forms regarding the sale – which created a backlog. Apologies if we have been slow in getting back to you but we are getting caught up now. About 1/3 of the missing items requests just needed more information and those are getting answers, but the rest were missing a bag or parts from a figure. We are working through them now and we have the stock for almost all the missing bits. We have been sending out replacements for a few days so envelopes should be arriving soon. Where we do not have the item in stock we have it on order. We are despatching about 50 of these a day so hope to have everyone’s missing parts out in the next 4 weeks, if not sooner. Lessons have been learnt too – with products now coming in bagged as we want to despatch them and simpler tooling solutions, alongside better planning for the despatch operation. Thanks again for being patient – and I hope we will be back to normal service soon – where any issues or problems are dealt with the same days or at worst the next.

3) Kickstarters, Kickstarters everywhere! I have been asked a few times for a little inside info on our plans for kickstarters – largely so people can plan their spending! Firstly to anyone who has backed any of our projects – thank you. The support we get goes directly into developing the range and helps us make the great products you see on the shelves. I also recognise that backing a KS is a pretty major investment for most people and the support we get is humbling. While we pride ourselves on giving a big box of fun and toys for each pledge it is still a lot of cash to stump up, and I appreciate that. So to help you plan it is worth saying that Dreadball Xtreme is the only major KS we will be running for a while – it comes with a game and a box expansion plus lots of new teams, MVPs, campaign packs and so on. It is a full game. After that we will have a few months away from running any kind of KS – so we can go back to having a nearly normal life for a short while! We will be concentrating on getting Deadzone played by everyone and sending out the Deadzone second shipment and the Mars Attacks kickstarter, plus launching the awesome BattleZone scenery on an unsuspecting gaming world!

When we do return we want to look at a couple of ‘mini kicks’ – to change around the format and make them more relaxed affairs. The ideas we have are to look at going back to Deadzone and making a few more models for the first 6 factions, then some new scenery sprues, and perhaps introduce a 7th faction (any ideas?) – but the hope is that it will be hard to spend too much money, because without a game to fund/pay for it can be more like a normal ‘hobby’ spend. It will also not be done until after the 2nd shipment for Deadzone is delivered in full. The other mini kick I would like is to revisit the Dwarf Kings Hold series – but again with it being a dungeon explorer rather than wargame the scope (and spend) should be limited.

After that? Well you best start saving now for these – they are going to be massive – one of course will be Warpath, the sci-fi wargame. Having seen the zombies coming through in the hard plastic I am really pumped about what this could be, and the vehicles from Mars Attacks are also looking great. The other future one is based around Kings of War – but even I am not so leaky to talk about this one yet but the ideas flying around for it are very exciting. The good news is that it will be very late this year, or early 2015, before we get round to either of these. So plenty of time to get playing the games you have on the way to you this summer!

Thank you for reading my insane ramblings. I hope it has been helpful. If you have comments or ideas about how to make Mantic better or any areas we need to improve please send me a comment via facebook or the contact us link on the website. And finally, thank you for backing or supporting us – even if it is just sharing the kickstarter link or speaking up for us at your club or store, it means a lot to us. I hope we are a hobby company you can be proud of and remain approachable and fun – so we can keep making hobby products you want to game with.

Best wishes

Ronnie

So, no more Kickstarters for a while, and then two "mini" kickstarters for Deadzone and DKH 4... which are probably going to be anything but mini.

**Zweischneid**

Yeah.

Well, I wish they'd done a "mini-kick" for DreadBall too, or offered a little Season 4+ box to expand on DreadBall Original, separate of DBX, instead of forcing people to buy into DBX, whether they like it or not, (not to mention forcing Jake Thornton to balance some 12 teams for two games in 6 months, when he didn't manage to make 4 teams for DBO Season 2 without mostly breaking the game).

A pity.

**judgedoug**

Still waiting on preview shots of Enforcers and Peacekeepers and final instructions for those of us who pledged for a bunch of Enforcer restic individual models such as myself.

**timetowaste85**

Yeah, I definitely want to see my plastic enforcers. When is the survey due again? April 14th? Gotta figure out my wants and needs. Spent very little on the first part, going big on part two.

**pretre**

timetowaste85 wrote:
When is the survey due again? April 14th?

We realize that there is a lot of choice here, and quite a few things people want to add on. For this reason we have given a deadline of the end of March to complete the survey, and we will be posting lots of pictures and updates during this time to give you all the information you might want to help you decide. We can get then get it ordered and over for shipping.

However, we are keeping the window for payment open for much longer – all the way to the 2nd June – which should be just a few weeks before shipping. This will give you the time to save a few pennies and get your finances organized. We understand many people will want to pay immediately so we will get the invoices out quickly, but we are also happy to wait until you are ready. We hope that helps.

**judgedoug**

So they have 18 days to post pics of the plastics that look good.

**Compel**

Yeah, I'm not touching my survey until I see the plastics and how they're incorporated into it.

**timetowaste85**

Compel wrote:
Yeah, I'm not touching my survey until I see the plastics and how they're incorporated into it.

That's how I've treated it-no pics, no touched survey. Thanks pretre, I've been too busy to keep track, and work is too grueling to keep the date in mind. I'm sure I'll ask at least one more time before they're due.

**Talking Banana**

I appreciate Mantic announcing their KS intentions, but I didn't find it very reassuring. I'm disappointed that they seem to want to gear the Deadzone "mini-kick" mostly towards doing new units for the existing factions. I don't want any more figures for the existing factions, I think they're fine with the boosters and heroes and vehicles and whatnot that they already have.

I'd be a lot more excited if they turned the emphasis around, with a plan to release 6 new Deadzone factions and a handful of units for existing ones.

And the possibility that Warpath might appear later this year rather than early 2015 actually makes me a bit nervous in terms of how much I can safely spend on Dreadball and the Deadzone mini-kick.

**timetowaste85**

I'd be happy with another two basic DZ factions, with four planned and announced stretch goals for four others, with a Merc for each faction planned, plus a couple specialist options from outside the regular faction starters. Keep it small, and announce the stretch goals ahead of time.

**pretre**

Do we need more mercs?

**scarletsquig**

I think I'd rather see a DZ 2.0 KS done properly.

Zz'or Deadzone expansion, with Zz'or faction, alien hive terrain.

Veer-myn Deadzone, with Veer-myn faction, industrial/ "underhive" terrain, lots of pipes, machinery etc.

Then from there throw in something interesting and popular on top like Nameless and Crystallan factions.

**judgedoug**

Nah, I'd rather have a normal release schedule for Deadzone. A new faction every 2-3 months or something, complete with booster figures etc.

I WANT them to focus entirely on hard plastic tooling and make Warpath KS amazingly awesome. Having fun playing WP2.0 and while I personally like Veer-Myn and Corp and FF minis, I know a lot of people don't - and the restic stuff just needs to go away. good quality Corporation plastics at Mantic prices will sell by the bucketload.

**CptJake**

Compel wrote:
Yeah, I'm not touching my survey until I see the plastics and how they're incorporated into it.

Amen.

**Compel**

It's not just me being mean, but it's in Mantics interests too.

Ideally, the Enforcer Booster Pack set will be equivalent to a couple of the plastic sprues or the like, so I'll be able to get 3 of them, plus the Marauder booster and I'll be set.

**timetowaste85**

pretre wrote:
Do we need more mercs?

Only one for each new faction, not more generic ones. I believe in options for everyone, but I haven't started using mercs yet. Haven't needed em.

**GrimDork**

Mercs kind of seem like DBO MVPs, I cannot see needing so many since they're one per list and have penalties/restrictions. Still neat though.

Intentional or not, I think both mini kicks will blow up well beyond mini. We'll see I guess.

**agnosto**

We don't need more units for a skirmish level game unless they intend for Deadzone to become as big as Warpath. I'd love to see what Zzor would look like.

Also, not touching my survey until we see the loads of pics we were promised. They did say they're going to send out a big update next week....so figure 2 weeks from now in Mastic update time.

**Earth Dragon**

agnosto wrote:
We don't need more units for a skirmish level game......

Right there.

The only thing involving "more units" is prefer is more weapon options/load outs for the ones we have.

I'm with the crowd who would rather do a Veer-myn or Zzor infestation setting, have the "official" groupings for those settings, and of course if we want to go all helter skelter and group whatever together we can.

Sphyr, Corporation Troops, Crystillians (or whatever they are called) are also great options for additional factions.

**AlexHolker**

scarletsquig wrote:
Veer-myn Deadzone, with Veer-myn faction, industrial/ "underhive" terrain, lots of pipes, machinery etc.

I have a better idea: a Deadzone kickstarter with industrial/"underhive" terrain and no Veer-myn.

**JoeRugby**

New minis/options are always a good thing in my opinion.

I want more options for my Rebs. I want more yindji (or however it's spelt) sculpts, I love the furry ...........!

**willb2064**

Deadzone 2 sounds interesting. Could always use more terrain. Unit adds to existing factions doesn't interest me though, as they will undoubtedly be restic which I'm not touching again after putting the Rebs together.

**Earth Dragon**

AlexHolker wrote:
scarletsquig wrote:
Veer-myn Deadzone, with Veer-myn faction, industrial/ "underhive" terrain, lots of pipes, machinery etc.

I have a better idea: a Deadzone kickstarter with industrial/"underhive" terrain and no Veer-myn.

Nope......don't think that idea is better

I would really like to see a Deadzone setting with Veer-myn as the main antagonist.

**Alpharius**

Mantic's got a ways to go to make the Veer-myn background rise up the level of 'barely acceptable' though.

**BobtheInquisitor**

Alpharius wrote:
Mantic's got a ways to go to make the Veer-myn background rise up the level of 'barely acceptable' though.

Definitely. Veermyn are a hard sell that only appeal to a small niche among Mantic fans, and are a turn off for everyone else. Meanwhile, Mantic has done jack-all with their Nameless (i.e. Cthulhu in space!!!) faction or Zzor, both of which are popular and fit into much bigger nicehes in the market. Cthulhu and bug aliens sell well for everyone. Crappily-sculpted, terribly-proportioned steampunk space rats don't.

And their background is even worse.

**NTRabbit**

Alpharius wrote:
Mantic's got a ways to go to make the Veer-myn background rise up the level of 'barely acceptable' though.

What better way to do it than to make them the next Deadzone antagonist and produce a rulebook and another mini-compendium full of fluff?

I'd be fine with the minikick just offering the one antagonist - Veermyn or Z'zor - and then stretching up to a new terrain type and 1-2 new other factions, and that's all. Improves the base game, doesn't go over the top or push too hard, and is nice and affordable. Then maybe some new units for the existing factions as the last few stretches if the money is there, the plague could use some more infected aliens for example.

**streetsamurai**

BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Alpharius wrote:
Mantic's got a ways to go to make the Veer-myn background rise up the level of 'barely acceptable' though.

Definitely. Veermyn are a hard sell that only appeal to a small niche among Mantic fans, and are a turn off for everyone else. Meanwhile, Mantic has done jack-all with their Nameless (i.e. Cthulhu in space!!!) faction or Zzor, both of which are popular and fit into much bigger nicehes in the market. Cthulhu and bug aliens sell well for everyone. Crappily-sculpted, terribly-proportioned steampunk space rats don't.

And their background is even worse.

Dam right. The Veermyn managed to turned me from a (moderate) mantic groupie, to a raging hater. It will take a lot of thing for mantic to fall back in my good grace, tough quality hard plastic for either the nameless or the Zzor would probably do it.

**NTRabbit**

Nameless are just another unincorporated set of alien species on the fringe though, they're not a "bad guy". I think if anything nameless will end up as one of the two new 'raiding' forces that comes in an expansion featuring the Veermyn or Z'zor as the antagonists, because they're both definitively militaristic and hostile to the other major species in the fluff.

An alternative could be the new Koris from DBX - they're funky looking, psychotic, operate in small groups rather than a collective nation, and they're essentially giant teleporting spiders. Raiding their web nest moons for loot could make a good game!