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.

Scarlet Squig, thanks for the army lists, but could you edit them to include the number of models in each squad ?

It would help those less familiar with Warpath to figure out how far their Deadzone factions would go in Warpath

I think once Mantic go for hard plastic Enforcers, their sales will skyrocket. They are really nice figures, the latest designs are great, and at a good price point they could likely wipe out the very aged looking Space Marines as the choice for those wanting power armoured super beings.

I hope Mantic can start to turn around and put pressure on sculptors so they can make this happen. They don't need duds in their line weighing them down in both sales and reputation. Better to pay the extra and get them done as the concept artwork is made. Hoping for good things.

Well I asked they answered - good news

Creator Mantic Games 3 minutes ago

@ DaveC - I think Stewart is looking at going digital for both the Forge Father Forge Guard and the Asterian Cyphers.

We've already had the DreadBall Praetorian sculpted and got the resin back today, so we're getting that photographed and hope to show you tomorrow

Just saw the Forge Father update. Decent looking concept sketches. But....

Mantic Update wrote: Concept art is designed to show our sculptors what the look and feel of the model is, which why it’s a static design. Often the sculptor will go away and re-pose the concept into something more dynamic, or our artists will suggest some poses for the sculptor to copy.

Following the pattern of the Marauders means we can expect the actual sculpts to look like similar to these:

Bearded or beardless?
Update #40 · May 16, 2013 · 25 comments

Before we press on with some Forge Father concepts, Ronnie and Jake are currently in the office playing the Alpha Rules before recording the next Podcast - don't they look happy?!

Following on from our rather sad story earlier (Poor poor Fillon…) we’ve got some shiny Forge Father concepts we wanted to show you…

Now that we’re currently in the process of funding the Asterians and Forge Fathers, we’re looking at what other unit types and specialists we can add to them to really flesh out the diversity and uniqueness of the faction.

When it comes to the Forge Fathers, you’ll notice we’ve started with a squad of five Forge Guard suits – 1 Huscarl, 3 standard Troopers and 1 Heavy weapon. Not only is this a lethal combination in Deadzone, it also means that one of the gaps in the Forge Father Warpath Army is filled!

The Forge Guard Huscarl could also be used as the Thane Squad Leader in the set.

The Forge Guard have been sent by the Forge Father overlords to protect the mining ships of the Star Realm and it’s crew: the Brokkrs.

Brokkrs are the equivalent of scrap metal merchants in Forge Father society, fervent in their work of stripping planets of anything they can reuse.

When it came to concepting them, they required a different look from the more elitist Forge Father warriors: open-faced, lightly armoured and showing a bit more character:

Controversially, we've got a suggested alternate head design with no beard. Now this doesn't mean we'll do it, but what do you think - bearded or beardless?

They are renowned for getting angry during a fight, and often making them Enraged or Berserk in the game makes them much better at swinging their Heat Hammer.

In addition, there will also be special equipment that the Forge Fathers employ. The Brokkrs bring tracked mining lasers with them operated by a single crew member. This is quite large when compared to the equipment options the likes of the Enforcers and the Rebs get with their sentry guns and drones.

Concept art is designed to show our sculptors what the look and feel of the model is, which why it’s a static design. Often the sculptor will go away and re-pose the concept into something more dynamic, or our artists will suggest some poses for the sculptor to copy.

These are both additions we’d like to put into the Forge Father Faction Starter in future stretches - what do you think? What other units types could we do?

Don’t forget that you can now add-on the Forge Father Faction Starter to your pledge as part of our fantastic value Expanded Universe Bundle Deal - the perfect addition to Strike Team ($50)!:

The aim is that the new faction starters will be expanded to include the same amount of diverse models as the first four factions by the end of the campaign - saving you $20 off purchasing them individually!

We’d love to have your feedback on the Brokkr and we’re a little stuck in picking which variant of the mining laser we’d like to use – please let us know what you think in the comments!
And finally...

Oo - don’t forget Ronnie will be doing another exclusive Live Chat on our Facebook Page tonight at 9pm British Summer Time to answer your questions!

The lighter armored Forge Fathers have Marauder-level screw up potential...

And I like the tracked laser version in the lower right corner best...

i'm excited to see the sculpt of the Praetorian given it shares the same designs as the asterian cyphers.

The Enforcers that we'll be getting will be new, re-tooled versions, right?

The concept art we've seen to date would indicate that they've 'fixed' the legs, and that they won't be looking like this:



Right?

There are pics of the Enforcers on the Kickstarter...

Actual miniatures of Enforcers without super-skinny legs, including the heavy weapons versions?

I'll admit to not being familiar with the Warpath line, so I didn't even know that the heavy weapons troopers already existed until today - and I don't like the look of their legs, so... that's why I'm asking!

I kinda want to change those heavy lasers into guitars

 Alpharius wrote:
Actual miniatures of Enforcers without super-skinny legs, including the heavy weapons versions?

I'll admit to not being familiar with the Warpath line, so I didn't even know that the heavy weapons troopers already existed until today - and I don't like the look of their legs, so... that's why I'm asking!

The original enforcers had skinny knees and bad unnatural poses.

The 3D renders have seemed to address at least the pose issues which may have made knee-size a non-issue. The renders don't look 'wrong' to the eye the way the warpath ones do, so they might finally have fixed it all.

Right - the 3D Renders look nice - but unless I'm wrong (and I could be!), there are no actual Enforcer miniatures for us to see yet, right?

There is the Captain that everyone hates, and several other Enforcers in the Kickstarter. Check some the erailer updates.

 Alpharius wrote:
Right - the 3D Renders look nice - but unless I'm wrong (and I could be!), there are no actual Enforcer miniatures for us to see yet, right?

The first two pictures on the main page show 3 Enforcers. I believe the pictures from Salute showed some more. It's not every Enforcer (that I'm aware of) but what they've shown don't look wrong, at least from the photos I've seen.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Battle.

Fleet.

Profit.

Exalted! I almost laughed out loud at work...

There's a facebook chat going on with Ronnie now on their mantics page.

And no, I have no idea what exactly a facebook chat entails

Can someone ask him why their office furniture is so awful?
It looks like they're located in the back of an op-shop.

 Compel wrote:
There's a facebook chat going on with Ronnie now on their mantics page.

And no, I have no idea what exactly a facebook chat entails

Going to go out on a limb and say that they probably are chatting... on facebook.

Hardy harr harr.

Anyhow, some good deadzone news... So far.

Question: Given that there's lots and lots of interest in new units and scenery and so on, how much pressure are you feeling to make Deadzone scale up to larger battlegrounds and army sizes and are we likely to see such an expansion in this kickstarter?

Reply: I think taking it to a 2x4 game is easy - so you can have 4 player - 2 per side and they ally vs the 2 opponents. however we have also talked (at length - today even) about the 4x4 and if we get the funding this would be brilliant (it will be season 3/compendium 2 in effect). at this point you can add 2 man weapon teams and weapon ranes become really significant - as does more commander figures of different ranks, and I definately think the game will scale really well into that space (well we have designed it thus) _ i hope we can make it there. I don't think it will scale much bigger than 4 feet between forces because of the time it will take to close into hand-to-hand combat. Anyway we will have Warpath for that

Question: So I'm wondering what the next few stretch goals are gonna be, are we gonna see more stuff for the Expanded Universe factions, or something else? If something else then what can we expect?

Reply: we are definitely going to focus some time and love on the Forge Fathers and Asterians and bring them up to the same level as the other factions - and they will all be free to anyone that picks up the faction itself. We also intend to do another scenery sprue to keep that rolling on. We will also be doing some character/storyline models - such as PAthfinder N-32 and Professor Symonds. these characters will feature in the short stories collection (also a soon to be chased stretch) and then can be objectives in scenario/narrative campaigns and then feature in the armies as heroes in future battles.

Question:
I'm curious about the rules as well. I know Jakes been working on an alternative for Turn activation to get away from you go I go, how is that coming?? he's been quiet on this topic on Quirkworthy.

Reply: there is a little detail below - and I will get it wrong if I try to explain it - but his solution is pure genius, and scales up. basically you have a command level (which is a sum) and you can move up to that many in your phase, then the opponent goes and so on, until every model has acted, so it cuts the turn up nicely, but you can still do a co-ordinated move with a few figures. there are a few other touches too but best he details those in a full explanation. The new updated alpha/beta rules will be going up in the middle of next week so keep your eyes peeled.

Question:
So, you have Enforcers, Rebs, Marauders, Forgefarthers, Asterian Plague........ Will we see more corporation troopers? Perhaps some robots?

Reply:
I think we will be going deeper into the 6 factions we have first - so they are really rounded out forces (rather than 4 complete and say 4 more that are only 1/2 as good), also want to put on with this style of scenery. I think ZZ'or vs Corporation could carry their own expansion/upgrade - especially when you add in the Veer-Myn) after all the council don't just have to deal with Plague outbreaks (Contagions!) they also have Swarms (!) to deal with! and Infestation (not a great name, but you get the idea) - also power wise Corp vs RAts and ZZ'or feels more balanced - as does Plague vs Enforcers

Question:
Concern was expressed about the Dreadball judwan models and poses during the kickstarter with no notable change when the models were released. Now, with the overall very negative reaction, including several dropped pledges after the orx greens in deadzone were previewed can we get assurances that changes to the orx figures now are actually feasible and possible.

Reply:
we will be working on the Orx tomorrow, and we will be showing them off BEFORE the end of the KS so people have time to have a good look and pass comment. I think the photos did not do them justice, however, we all feel that these models are not right yet - and that is why we are sitting down tomorrow to get them sorted.
ith this KS we have mowe time to get everything right, and a better idea of what producing this will take - both KoW and Dreadball caught us by surprise (as has this a little in terms of speed, if not the opverall number yet!!) - with this we had more finished - except the Orx landed with us for a first loook on Friday, we took them to the Open day ebfore we have really looked at them and then everything went off. now the second shipment is opening up

((Editors note: Phew!))

Sounds like Malibu Orxy's getting a new hat.

Hard plastic plague zombies and enforcer heavies confirmed if this kickstarter gets high enough (around the 1 million mark)

Also, they'll be fixing the marauder sculpts and showing them off again next week once this is done.

If people still don't like them, they'll be completely resculpted.

I'm not convinced there will be any major change

(which seems to be what the majority of those who dislike them wants)

much as I like Mantic when they promise change it just doesn't happen

Well, I doubt any meetings with the company head were held about the judwan.

There is a few other mentions too... And worst case we see the final models before we put our money in

 scarletsquig wrote:
Hard plastic plague zombies and enforcer heavies confirmed if this kickstarter gets high enough (around the 1 million mark)

Interesting. Also, interesting choice of words: Enforcer "Heavies". Does that mean heavy weapon specialists only? Seems like a bit of a waste, but I'll take it either way.

 scarletsquig wrote:

Also, they'll be fixing the marauder sculpts and showing them off again next week once this is done.

If people still don't like them, they'll be completely resculpted.

Time will tell on this.

I'm especially wary since some people actually liked them as is.

~Eric

I'm guessing more dudes in the commanders armour. Stygian suits?

Yeah, a whole unit in the same armour as the captain.

 scarletsquig wrote:
Yeah, a whole unit in the same armour as the captain.

Not as excited for that, but it could be interesting if done well.

~Eric

Well.. I think a lot of people are looking at this particular instance now to see how Mantic react.

If they do release proper photos of the painted minis, and they still get a similar level of dislike and yet go ahead and release them, then it will certainly not reflect well on them.

I have to say I do like the fact that they at least give the appearance of listening to the fans.. often opinions are split about the quality of a release. However, in cases such as this when opinion is almost universally falling one side, then it looks good if the company is able to react and make changes.

 scarletsquig wrote:
Yeah, a whole unit in the same armour as the captain.

I'll have like, 20 please.

Also, I hear a lot of talk about a Warpath ks and the plastics that will come with it. Is this fact or just speculation?

 Commander Cain wrote:

 scarletsquig wrote:
Yeah, a whole unit in the same armour as the captain.

I'll have like, 20 please.

Also, I hear a lot of talk about a Warpath ks and the plastics that will come with it. Is this fact or just speculation?

I will likely have many of them as well. It just seems that they would be better served, especially for this game, by making the "basic" Enforcers in plastic.

They have said that there will be a Warpath KS, probably next year, and that plastic figures and vehicles will be a big part of it. I don't have a direct quote or link for you, but it has been stated multiple times and places.

~Eric