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From Azazelx's post above -

Azazelx wrote:

 scarletsquig wrote:

But as people have well articulated here many times already, they need to drop the fixed faction thing.

This. I'd pay extra for this.
Cain nails it really... no matter what they do with the Orx, some people aren't going to want that faction.
Forgefathers would have been a more natural fit as the fourth faction, they're the most popular Warpath army.

That's why they're a paid add-on - (which can now be a "free" addition.) I believe the "free faction" thing wasn't part of the initial roadmap, but was instead damage control brought in to stop the backlash over the Orx from derailing the campaign.

My wording is inelegant, but the question still remains. Is it not cheaper to just re-sculpt the miniatures rather than having to placate people with additional miniatures?

 Fenriswulf wrote:
Can anyone explain the logic to me of giving out a free starter in a pledge to make up for the poor sculpts from the Marauders? Wouldn't it be a much better idea to have some really excellent sculpts for the Marauders made and piggyback excitement for that instead of doling out tons of free miniatures to make up for the lack in the ones currently?

I imagine that it's related to time constraints. The Orx appeared partway through the KS, and they (appeared to) hurt the momentum, at least from the comments. Getting them reposed and offering extra models gets the campaign moving much faster, as resculpts would take a lot longer to have completed (and then QAed). I agree that a far better long-term solution for Mantic would be to get the stuff sculpted beforehand, and actually QA it properly, but I'm talking about "what is, not what should be".

^ Ronnie was talking about how "lots of people might pick Rebs as their primary faction later on in the campaign" really early on before the pics of the Orx existed... which indicates that the extra faction was the original plan.

I think you're reading stuff into it that you want to read into it. I simply understand that comment as people picking "their team" from the starting four/"sweet spot" pledge level. The statement by Ronnie doesn't really say anything at all.

That said, your belief that the free faction is because of bad Orx sculpts is due to what exactly?

 Yonan wrote:
That said, your belief that the free faction is because of bad Orx sculpts is due to what exactly?

Hit the nail on the head!

Fenriswulf - not quite sure that was their intention, think you are looking for boogey men in the shadows to be honest?

Quite like the idea of the new book and will add $10 for that, although already have an absolute pile of Sci-fi zombies from Sedition Wars! One-player zombie survival games and the like definitely sound interesting, and it's quite cool that Mantic are tapping into the whole FPS computer game-type ideas.

 Yonan wrote:
That said, your belief that the free faction is because of bad Orx sculpts is due to what exactly?

Timing and reasonable circumstantial evidence.

The free faction was announced as complaints about the Orx were really getting loud, and came just a day before they announced they would be reposing them. It also came several days after Forgefathers and Asterians were revealed as "Buy 1 for $35, or two for $50" - which is clearly a much better value to buy-in for both factions. Adding in a free starter actually kinda screws the "Buy 1 for $35, or two for $50" as I'm sure a lot of people would have gone in for both at $50, and now can easily choose to grab one for free and not bother with a second for an additional $35.

I believe this is damage control in action - and well done, at that. It instantly negates anyone who has a problem with getting the Orx, because they're now "free". (I'll admit that seeing SS continue to say he'd pay extra to choose a different fourth faction after the freebie was added threw me.) Reposing the Orx, and the new "$20 of add-ons means free Wave 2 shipping" just further work to defuse the Orx situation. I think the free faction, reposing and shipping change were all very smart moves to defuse the Orx issues, and in turn the potential complaints about Forgefather shipping (were there complaints in the KS comments? We didn't seem to have them here).

No proof of course, and all circumstantial, but based on what I think is a reasonable set of circumstances and factors.

If you think otherwise, that's fine.

 Fenriswulf wrote:
Can anyone explain the logic to me of giving out a free starter in a pledge to make up for the poor sculpts from the Marauders? Wouldn't it be a much better idea to have some really excellent sculpts for the Marauders made and piggyback excitement for that instead of doling out tons of free miniatures to make up for the lack in the ones currently?

I believe the new tweaked sculpts are a lot better and its just the vocal minority that still dislike them.

Hard to judge really. Speaking for myself, I've gone from strongly disliking them to being much more ambivalent towards them. I still don't like them, but I don't especially dislike them either. People here seem to be much less negatively passionate about them. What's it like on the KS comments?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And yes, I agree that the tweaking makes them much better than they were.

Azazelx, I will have to disagree the announcement came exactly with the update that announced their streachgoal and the buy two for 50.

Isn't the value of this KS still roughly in line with other Mantic Kickstarters? If it's not substantially above, it stands to reason that this was all as planned. Earlier in this thread someone mentioned expecting both factions to be added as freebies to get this KS in line with "Mantic value."

 PsychoticStorm wrote:
Azazelx, I will have to disagree the announcement came exactly with the update that announced their streachgoal and the buy two for 50.

This is correct as evidenced at: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1744629938/deadzone-the-sci-fi-miniatures-board-game/posts/480948

I suspect the truth is somewhere in-between. There was likely some concern with the grumbling about the Orx as well as a question about the model count in comparison to their other KSers, but I don't think that was why they did it; it was more pushing the pendulum in the direction it was already headed. In the grand scheme once tooling is paid for, the models cost a little bit of nothing to make and are added to shipping that was being done anyway so the overall loss on the "free" faction is comparatively minor. As Azaelx said, it's a smart move to warm people up to Mantic's "we want you here" pledge level.

Was it ever confirmed one way or another if that's it faction- wise for this kickstarter?

I know they discussed further deadzone areas (Contagion, Insurrection... I forget what else they mentioned) would have their own sets of rivals to fight it out... Zzor, Corporation, and Veermyn were mentioned as being the stars further down the line.

Are there any other untapped Warpath/ Dreadball races at this point?

Simians, Zees, Judwan, Nameless... have I forgotten anyone? I know we're still waiting on our Judwan medic/ rogue monk model.

I'm still mulling over what I want to do with that extra bonus starter faction. Wondering if we might see a seventh faction before things are all said and done.

Pretty much it faction wise. Jake said if he had to put the Zz'or or the Ver'myn in he would feel like he would not be doing them justice.

Plus, they've said they have bigger plans for the Veer-myn and Zzor, which might indicate expansions based around them creating their own deadzones.

Zees are being added at some point.

Which of these figures is already available?

Do the current range selections work with this game?

Any of you have any pictures of already painted Mantic sci fi guys already put together and painted up?

 Grot 6 wrote:
Which of these figures is already available?

Other then a variant of the Enforcer Captain, none.

 Grot 6 wrote:
Do the current range selections work with this game?

No, these are meant to be 'elite' units rather then the few grunts that have been released.

I'll be surprised if they add the Zees as Jake said they were not really designed with combat in mind. Though I could imaging the Alpha Siemen getting some armour and becoming a line breaker or something.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Cyporiean wrote:

 Grot 6 wrote:
Which of these figures is already available?

Other then a variant of the Enforcer Captain, none.

 Grot 6 wrote:
Do the current range selections work with this game?

No, these are meant to be 'elite' units rather then the few grunts that have been released.

Well IMO yes you could as the only real difference between the grunts and elites are how many medals they have on there chest. Also all the new stuff WILL have rules for them in Warpath.

I don't see why you couldn't use the current enforcer models in deadzone.

Aside from the fact they're metal/plastic hybrids with skinny knees, that is!

so whats the current sweet spot in terms of most band for your buck? I'm talking strike team + addons
at 346$ you get (with strike team) 25 building sprues, and 113 minis so far.

Triszin wrote:
so whats the current sweet spot in terms of most band for your buck? I'm talking strike team + addons

I think it's the Strike Zone plus just the two faction (Forgefathers and Asterians) upgrade. That's 200 bucks for 7 factions, a total of around 80 miniaures, $50 worth of terrain, and all the other supplies necessary to play the game.

Does anyone know if the Dreadzone compendium will include artwork? It mentions a hobby gallery and I would love to see some of those amazing line drawings included.

 Commander Cain wrote:
Does anyone know if the Dreadzone compendium will include artwork? It mentions a hobby gallery and I would love to see some of those amazing line drawings included.

that would be awesome to have like 15 pages dedicated to the artwork behind deadzone.

Triszin wrote:

 Commander Cain wrote:
Does anyone know if the Dreadzone compendium will include artwork? It mentions a hobby gallery and I would love to see some of those amazing line drawings included.

that would be awesome to have like 15 pages dedicated to the artwork behind deadzone.

How about a blog?

http://artofhf.wordpress.com/

Jakes blog entry on plague zombies

http://quirkworthy.com/2013/05/25/deadzone-zombie-infestation/

Another question on add-ons, since this is the first time I've participated on a kick-starter.

If I'm pledging Strike Team and want to add on $20.00 of stuff for the free shipping of a FF kit, do I pledge $170.00 out of the gate or add them on at a later date?

Thanks

You select the 'Strike Team' radial button for the reward you want. Then on the textbox at the top, you put in $170

 Compel wrote:
You select the 'Strike Team' radial button for the reward you want. Then on the textbox at the top, you put in $170

D.d.d.dang you're fast. Thanks!

There is a sweet spot for miniatures (Strike plus EU) but there isn't much of one for terrain. More sprues gives a bit of a discount but nothing huge.