Mantic Deadzone Kickstarter - Completed! - $1,216,482 final total.

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**Eilif**

scarletsquig wrote:
Another 3D render from me, for those of you wondering how much terrain you get for $50:

[/img]

If we get another 1 free sprue added to Strike Team, then the above picture will be accurate for the terrain you get in that as well.

That's actually pretty good coverage. There are some fire lanes that are too long, but any gamer worth their salt can make some tall barricades, fences or rubble piles to break those up.
Thanks for posting that.

**Lansirill**

Does anyone have a recollection of roughly how the value of the KoW and Dreadball kickstarters improved over time? I wonder how much of this is people thinking 'Mantic is always a great value.' while it takes awhile to get there. Really this thing could end today and it'll have been a success and a good value, with the arguable exception of the expanded universe kits.

--

Nice mockup for the 2x2. I was planning on getting 8 or 10 battlezones worth of terrain to cover a 4x4 infinity board and it looks like that will indeed work out well. Mantic's guidelines appear to have turned out fairly accurate.

**pretre**

Edit: Oh, you asked a completely different question. Oh well, still interesting to look at.

Spoiler:

MUCH bigger start than either of the others. KoW and Dreadball had some pick up towards the end though. Already more backers than either other one.

**scarletsquig**

Lansirill wrote:
Nice mockup for the 2x2. I was planning on getting 8 or 10 battlezones worth of terrain to cover a 4x4 infinity board and it looks like that will indeed work out well. Mantic's guidelines appear to have turned out fairly accurate.

Thanks, I went ahead and made a mockup for 4x4 as well since I know that's the size a lot of you will be more interested in. Really good coverage for $185 of terrain, I think you'd struggle to get this kind of "full board coverage" from MDF/HDF terrain at that price, and the GW terrain won't do it for that price either.

Plus, there is some variety that can be added, that pic is just using the core worlds set and nothing else.
Add a landing pad set, and you could replace those 4 towers with a raised landing pad in the centre as well as making some non-boxy buildings with the triangle pieces... put an AW dropship on the top and have one hell of an impressive gaming board.

Lots of potential.

**Krinsath**

So Squig, would you feel it's safe to say if you got Suppression Team, the 8 battlezones add-on and 3 mats (a $670 pledge), you'd have a pretty packed full board?

**scarletsquig**

^ You'd be able to pretty much anything you wanted with that, you'd have around 14 battlezones total, 75% more stuff that is shown in the above pic.

You'd be looking at being able to do lots of high-rise or pyramids with walkways leading to towers coming off them or pretty much whatever you want within that 4x4 space.

The above pic doesn't include the 4 accessory sprues you also get with the $185 level, so there's a ton of ladders, crates, barrels and angled battlement/ siding pieces that you also get as well.

**Alpharius**

Earth Dragon wrote:
Showing that chart isn't gonna help anything Alph. It just makes more flakes flake like peasants fleeing from battle. Some gamers grabbed their pitchforks since this was the "cool thing to do" then once it hit a few bumps, several ran off, it became apparent they were running off, an others followed suit.

Focus on the fight, not the flight.

Disagree, completely.

The facts are the facts, and the sooner the ship is righted, the better.

**Agamemnon2**

Alpharius wrote:
Earth Dragon wrote:
Showing that chart isn't gonna help anything Alph. It just makes more flakes flake like peasants fleeing from battle. Some gamers grabbed their pitchforks since this was the "cool thing to do" then once it hit a few bumps, several ran off, it became apparent they were running off, an others followed suit.

Focus on the fight, not the flight.

Disagree, completely.

The facts are the facts, and the sooner the ship is righted, the better.

Something is always wrong if withholding data is reasoned away with the common good.

**warboss**

Knowing is half the battle.... at least that is what I was told daily in my childhood.

**Ronin_eX**

But at the same time raw numbers posted sans-context are meaningless. Sure, pledges over the last few days haven't been mind-blowingly high, but they have generally kept up fairly well compared to, say, Dreadball. I think the main problem is people contextualizing the data from Kicktraq as inherently bad and trying to push the narrative that a KS that has done quite well is floundering (possibly because more than a few people were coming up with some kind of Robotech rivalry in their head and so are comparing this campaign to that one). People are getting to convinced of their own predictions on how well they thought it should be doing.

I remember a week or two in, people were declaring that backers per day would unlikely ever dip below 40-50 people. I get the urge for people to go out, grab a flag and team jersey and root for their side but when that enthusiasm starts to sour because they should be doing better than this that sentiment can turn toxic.

I have backed Kickstarters that would have killed to put up Mantic's numbers as they stand. So posting them with a comment indicating that it is somehow bad seems weird to me. Is the sub $10k day thing less than they have generally gotten lately? Sure! Is it a bad total? No! If the KS ended today would I regret backing it? Not a chance.

So post the numbers, that's cool. But I think that we are letting our bias show up in how we interpret them at this point.

But then again, this is pretty normal for people to start getting all downtrodden around this time in a KS, so it doesn't surprise me. I just think people are starting to fetishize Kicktraq numbers themselves rather than focusing on the Kickstarter. Wallowing in a pit of "X < Y, we're all going to die!" isn't going to help and just makes me think people need to sit back, have a cold one and maybe do something else for a bit.

**Krinsath**

scarletsquig wrote:
^ You'd be able to pretty much anything you wanted with that, you'd have around 14 battlezones total, 75% more stuff that is shown in the above pic.

You'd be looking at being able to do lots of high-rise or pyramids with walkways leading to towers coming off them or pretty much whatever you want within that 4x4 space.

The above pic doesn't include the 4 accessory sprues you also get with the $185 level, so there's a ton of ladders, crates, barrels and angled battlement/ siding pieces that you also get as well.

While we can't really get into what the different ones would look like since we have no idea what the sprue layout on the new battlezones will be, I wonder how the fortification and landing pad would fit into that. If you had 6 battlezones, could you still fill out a table if you didn't want to use the "specialty" zones?

Just trying to establish what the level of value is looking like in a large-scale pledge in this regard.

**porkuslime**

Got an email just now..

Mantic Newsletter

As the campaign has evolved it started to become more of a “Kick within a Kick” – which is great because not only do we now have a beautiful range of sci-fi figures that also crossover into our Warpath armies, but we also have a brilliant game and an excellent science fiction scenery range.

However, with the reveal of the Ruined BattleZone pledge level we’re all but done with the scenery and from here on out we’re going to be focusing on the core game by:

Finishing the Asterians and the Forge Father Faction Starters
Our newest additions need some love and they will be getting some awesome specialists and fantastic support options as we finish off the Faction Starters in style.

Expanding the Game
We’ve already started fleshing out the core Game with some new and unique characters such as Simmonds and Recon Unit N32-19 - both of which are free in game pledges of Recon ($100+Early Bird) and up!

We’ve got more to come – a psychotic Judwan has been spotted and there’s rumours of a wicked headhunter wandering around these parts – and we’re going to cap them off with Solo Play and Zombies.

Yep, Zombies.

Those Corporation explorers on Nexus Psi never were safe…

From there – we’re going BIG!

Big boards, big faction expansions (we’re talking orbital drop troops, 2-man weapon teams, new leaders, bigger named characters and more assault rifles and heavy weapons than you can shake a Corporation Carbine at!!) and bigger kits means your factions will be dripping in character and variety.

**scarletsquig**

6 battlezones would be less coverage and more open space than in the above pic (take out one quarter of the terrain), but still fairly decent.

**Barzam**

EDIT- Gah, porkuslime beat me to it.

**squall018**

Excited about everything but the zombies. I have lots of Zombies. I love the idea of the psychotic Judwan!

**scarletsquig**

Some more discussion from Ronnie about what's coming next for the kickstarter:

Ronnie Renton wrote:Once we are through 'finishing' the core factions, solo play and the named characters we will start in earnest looking at the game on a 4x4. this does a couple of things - it brings ranges into effect - until this point it is only pistols and grenades that have been limited - but with a 'killing zone' between the factions there is room for bigger things, and faster things and things that shoot further - like 2 man weapon teams!!!
What this means is that you will start having to pick your favorite faction (or 2!) and tool them up for larger skirmishes... and for each faction we will look to provide a 'booster pack' - with another leader (to command the second squad who looks different than the captain), 2 man weapon teams (HMGs, mortars, shield and weapons combos - you know the types) and a few more (hard core) specialists - once through that a name character for each faction - a proper big, hard dude/bossman - and then a vehicle - bikes, jeeps/walkers and kick-ass robots!

**Barzam**

Glad they're looking into vehicles after all. I just hope we'll be able to reach that goal. I just noticed we've reached $525k though, so there's hope.

**Alpharius**

Ronin_eX wrote:
But at the same time raw numbers posted sans-context are meaningless. Sure, pledges over the last few days haven't been mind-blowingly high, but they have generally kept up fairly well compared to, say, Dreadball. I think the main problem is people contextualizing the data from Kicktraq as inherently bad and trying to push the narrative that a KS that has done quite well is floundering (possibly because more than a few people were coming up with some kind of Robotech rivalry in their head and so are comparing this campaign to that one). People are getting to convinced of their own predictions on how well they thought it should be doing.

I remember a week or two in, people were declaring that backers per day would unlikely ever dip below 40-50 people. I get the urge for people to go out, grab a flag and team jersey and root for their side but when that enthusiasm starts to sour because they should be doing better than this that sentiment can turn toxic.

I have backed Kickstarters that would have killed to put up Mantic's numbers as they stand. So posting them with a comment indicating that it is somehow bad seems weird to me. Is the sub $10k day thing less than they have generally gotten lately? Sure! Is it a bad total? No! If the KS ended today would I regret backing it? Not a chance.

So post the numbers, that's cool. But I think that we are letting our bias show up in how we interpret them at this point.

But then again, this is pretty normal for people to start getting all downtrodden around this time in a KS, so it doesn't surprise me. I just think people are starting to fetishize Kicktraq numbers themselves rather than focusing on the Kickstarter. Wallowing in a pit of "X < Y, we're all going to die!" isn't going to help and just makes me think people need to sit back, have a cold one and maybe do something else for a bit.

That's a heck of a circular argument there, combined with a fair amount of "moral highgrounding"!

In the end - don't fear the truth. Or the numbers.

Anyway...

The Deadzone Kickstarter continues to storm ahead, smashing through $500,000 and knocking over a couple of stretches over the weekend, adding in a free faction starter of your choice (that's up to 13 free models) and a special unique character.

As the campaign has evolved it started to become more of a “Kick within a Kick” – which is great because not only do we now have a beautiful range of sci-fi figures that also crossover into our Warpath armies, but we also have a brilliant game and an excellent science fiction scenery range.

However, with the reveal of the Ruined BattleZone pledge level we’re all but done with the scenery and from here on out we’re going to be focusing on the core game by:

Finishing the Asterians and the Forge Father Faction Starters
Our newest additions need some love and they will be getting some awesome specialists and fantastic support options as we finish off the Faction Starters in style.

Expanding the Game
We’ve already started fleshing out the core Game with some new and unique characters such as Simmonds and Recon Unit N32-19 - both of which are free in game pledges of Recon ($100+Early Bird) and up!

Enforcer Pathfinder Recon Unit N32-19 and the late Doctor Gayle Simmonds.

We’ve got more to come – a psychotic Judwan has been spotted and there’s rumours of a wicked headhunter wandering around these parts – and we’re going to cap them off with Solo Play and Zombies.

Yep, Zombies.

Those Corporation explorers on Nexus Psi never were safe…

From there – we’re going BIG!

Big boards, big faction expansions (we’re talking orbital drop troops, 2-man weapon teams, new leaders, bigger named characters and more assault rifles and heavy weapons than you can shake a Corporation Carbine at!!) and bigger kits means your factions will be dripping in character and variety.

Join us and let's see which of these concepts we can unlock!

From here on out it’s all about the creating the best science fiction game we can make: Fantastic Miniatures, Awesome Scenery, a Fast, Simple and Fun Rules System.

This is Deadzone. Please pledge your support on Kickstarter.

**Barzam**

You think that digitigrade alien there is an Yndij or something new? I'm kind of hoping for a wolfman, myself.

**overtyrant**

Despite the low numbers these last few days, the KS is doing fantastic IMO.

**Cyporiean**

Looks like the Judwan is coming up soon.

**pretre**

overtyrant wrote:
Despite the low numbers these last few days, the KS is doing fantastic IMO.

Yeah, more backers than either KoW or DB.

**Earth Dragon**

Agamemnon2 wrote:
Alpharius wrote:
Earth Dragon wrote:
Showing that chart isn't gonna help anything Alph. It just makes more flakes flake like peasants fleeing from battle. Some gamers grabbed their pitchforks since this was the "cool thing to do" then once it hit a few bumps, several ran off, it became apparent they were running off, an others followed suit.

Focus on the fight, not the flight.

Disagree, completely.

The facts are the facts, and the sooner the ship is righted, the better.

Something is always wrong if withholding data is reasoned away with the common good.

Well, you can throw out cheesy philosophy all you want. Constantly posting that people are abandoning ship whilst nothing is wrong is just gonna cause panic and in turn more people abandoning ship. We've seen there is a problem. There is a HUGE difference between withholding data and constantly showcasing data people already know about.

**overtyrant**

Is that a Judwan I see there? I like them! Shame I will not be playing the rebs, it's the Enforcers, plague and Forge Fathers for me! (If the FF turn out like the DB ones that is!).

**warboss**

Ronin_eX wrote:
But at the same time raw numbers posted sans-context are meaningless. Sure, pledges over the last few days haven't been mind-blowingly high, but they have generally kept up fairly well compared to, say, Dreadball. I think the main problem is people contextualizing the data from Kicktraq as inherently bad and trying to push the narrative that a KS that has done quite well is floundering (possibly because more than a few people were coming up with some kind of Robotech rivalry in their head and so are comparing this campaign to that one). People are getting to convinced of their own predictions on how well they thought it should be doing.

**snip**

I have backed Kickstarters that would have killed to put up Mantic's numbers as they stand. So posting them with a comment indicating that it is somehow bad seems weird to me. Is the sub $10k day thing less than they have generally gotten lately? Sure! Is it a bad total? No! If the KS ended today would I regret backing it? Not a chance.

The only kickstarters that are negatively affecting this one are namely the other ones done by Mantic that seem to have had a significant increase in complaints recently. People are noticing that the art they saw in previous efforts isn't matching to their expectations the models they're actually getting or finally seeing. Add to that an apparent perceived lack of mantic levels of value (whether true or not) and the that this is a relatively long campaign where the added week is apparently firmly in the typical mid-kickstarter lull. This kickstarter is already a big success and even if it only earns 5k per day for the rest of the campaign with no tail, it'll still be a huge seller. I see no way of this campaign thon-ing out frankly so getting your feathers in a ruffle over posted stats is a bit pointless as it's a non-issue in the end when there are other tangible reasons (see above) why the kickstarter isn't performing to fan expected standards.

**Dais**

Does anyone own the pegasus hobbies hex or platformer terrain to compare the value of the deadzone battlezones to those existing kits? I've been on the fence about going in for the urban battlefield pledge but I get the feeling I could do better buying some of the pegasus kits from the warstore.

I am also very weary of going into a pledge level that is "done for a while."

**Compel**

Is the 'psychotic Judwan' be different from the 'judwan medic' or will he be replacing him?

I quite liked the medic idea

**overtyrant**

The Judwan will be a very hard close combat opponent if they decided to turn there hand to it. There meditation is almost a form of Martial Arts, they remind me of Shalin Monks.

**Taarnak**

I'm excited about some of the upcoming stuff. This "roadmap" is exceedingly vague and not very map-like though...

Also, why haven't we seen pictures of the Rebs miniatures yet? They have all looked pretty good. Seems like that would be a good move at this point.

~Eric

**Hulksmash**

Well we've seen painted pictures of the Grogan, that hand/feet guy, and the two human troops. They've been showed in a lot of random photos. Only ones we haven't seen is the little running fella, commander, and flying dude so far. Oh, and the drones.