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.

*increments azazelx pledge cancel threat counter*

tick-tock, Clarice...

I take the "buy it all then sell/trade unwanted bits later" approach to these things.

The discount is usually steep enough for it to work out, and the delivery tends to be pre-retail for a lot of parts, so ebaying it can go well, too.

So far I'm fairly happy with the contents, Rampage is filling out nicely.

Apparently the current batch of Frenzy is the last batch, too so if you have any potential interest in it, might be best to park on it on with a second KS account.

 scarletsquig wrote:
Apparently the current batch of Frenzy is the last batch, too so if you have any potential interest in it, might be best to park on it on with a second KS account.

So... Mantic still hasn't realised that speculative pledges are bad? Front-loading pledges like this is bad, because they will all collapse later in the campaign, after you've screwed yourself with arbitrarily bloated stretch goal thresholds and rob the campaign of its momentum. Front-loading pledges with added value is good because these pledges are far more likely to actually stick.

The way I look at is this: I'll probably spend more money at retail getting this stuff, and I'll have less to show for it. So, might as well Kickstart it now and get a bunch of stuff later. Plus the extra 'freebies' I wind up giving to my buddies - when I got all my Dreadball stuff I wound up giving two teams to my friends so they would start playing and I gave all the "2 extra players" packs to all my friends that all played those teams, etc. So I wound up spending less money than I would have at retail even after getting two of my friends into the game (via free teams) and buffing another handful of friends teams with the extra models and whatnot.

Reevaluating my finances, no money to spare for this, will leave in the 1 or 10 dollar pledge to get digital rulebooks or whatever, if the survey runs long enough I may add later, but I don't feel like paying interest on a credit card to pre-order something, seems economically counter-productive

Still in the wings, hoping for a successful campaign (and then maybe a break until next year, or possibly just one other minor KS or something).

RiTides wrote:

 scarletsquig wrote:
I'm rather liking this concept art too, hope the mini is just as great

They've gone down this road before...

They certainly have.

And I have a hard time believing they'll be able to pull that one off to the point that it looks anywhere near as good as the artwork...

I dunno, the digital sculpt of the female infiltrator is looking pretty good.

Plus, we need to remember, this isn't restic anymore, but is instead the Gears-of-War plastic.

I think my main concern with going in big on this one is the chance that Mantic might do a Deadzone related KS later this year. If I keep my pledge small, I have some room to maneuver, but if I put in for a large pledge I'll effectively lock myself out of participating in a Deadzone expansion KS.

I realize it's unrealistic to expect an answer, but I emailed them to ask about the chances of a Deadzone KS in 2014. I couldn't see them doing Deadzone 2.0, but I could very much imagine a "mini-campaign" to launch four new forces and a smattering of new terrain or something.

Don't say that! That would ruin me

 Alpharius wrote:

RiTides wrote:

 scarletsquig wrote:
I'm rather liking this concept art too, hope the mini is just as great

They've gone down this road before...

They certainly have.

And I have a hard time believing they'll be able to pull that one off to the point that it looks anywhere near as good as the artwork...

I think their record on Dreadball/Deadzone concept art to model has been pretty strong, KOW was obviously a whole different story.

 scarletsquig wrote:

Any idea on the artist? I like the style.

Heads up that a scammer has started a campaign on indiegogo called Dreadball Xtreme:
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/dreadball-xtreme

They're using the DB Xtreme name, but stolen Pulp City content.

 Vermonter wrote:
I think my main concern with going in big on this one is the chance that Mantic might do a Deadzone related KS later this year. If I keep my pledge small, I have some room to maneuver, but if I put in for a large pledge I'll effectively lock myself out of participating in a Deadzone expansion KS.

I realize it's unrealistic to expect an answer, but I emailed them to ask about the chances of a Deadzone KS in 2014. I couldn't see them doing Deadzone 2.0, but I could very much imagine a "mini-campaign" to launch four new forces and a smattering of new terrain or something.

Yeah... there's gonna be a Warpath LS, and its going to be awesome, and likely have DZ hooks... I can't get a straight answer from anyone officially, but no one poops in my cornflakes when I get loud and excited about hard-plastic, Mantic-priced, vehicles, either. ;-)

 Baragash wrote:

 AlexHolker wrote:
I wish that people who write stupid rules wouldn't make even stupider arguments to defend them. According to Jake Thornton, this is a sport where a Striker is literally allowed to kick a man to death as he lays on the ground, but isn't allowed to shove someone who is on his feet. There is no referee, the throw-in can kill people and the pitch is strewn with explosives but if you're any good at handling the ball it is literally unthinkable that you would shove someone back.

Hmmm, I thought having stat increases on the advance tables was pretty dissociative (in context of DB), but that might just knock it off top spot.

The rebellion continues. Jake Thornton deleted all discussion of the rule and posted a new article excusing it, and then the Mantic mods gave a couple of threadgakkers what they wanted by locking the discussion there and told everyone to only discuss it on Jake's site.

The site that just deleted all discussion on that topic.

Have they hinted at what the other teams might be? I don't mind the robots and mutants but am not really keen on the others.

What's this nonsense about a Deadzone related kickstarter you mention Vermonter? Just wishful thinking?

Don't toy with my Deadzone radar like that!

I'm finding myself in a similar situation to many of you. It looks like a fun game, but if I go all in now, that's one less game I can get a large chunk of later down the road.

I'm finding a sports game to be a very hard sell to anyone in my family. Barzam won't bite, kids aren't interested, wife laughed and walked away...we have a younger cousin who will play just about anything, but he lives far away and has no transportation of his own.

Deadzone cross compatibility would give me a reason to go in heavy. I wonder if they're saving those big gun type announcements for when Recon, Super Dungeon Explore, or Dwarven Forge all drop (if they all drop soon that is).

 highlord tamburlaine wrote:
What's this nonsense about a Deadzone related kickstarter you mention Vermonter? Just wishful thinking?

Don't toy with my Deadzone radar like that!

Nothing official, just a paranoid delusion. If Mantic would come out and say, "we're definitely not doing any Deadzone expansions later this year," I'd feel more confident about going in big on this one. It's not realistic to expect that, of course, but in the absence of that certainty, I may have to keep this one small. Don't plan on ditching Rampage, though - too many tasty Warpath universe things coming out of this. Even sponsors used as bystanders or objectives could add a lot of flavor to my Deadzone games.

 highlord tamburlaine wrote:
wife laughed and walked away

Ouch! I can imagine that one. "It'll be really great, honey! I'll pit my team of shark men against your team of space elf supermodels in a dark and gritty urban future. They have these awesome MVPs too, including a guy who's so crazy he wears a necklace made from his dead wife's hair! Yeah, he went nuts and killed her, and now he kills other people in illegal backstreet matches and the fans love it! Isn't that just crazy? Wait, where are you going?"

 highlord tamburlaine wrote:
Deadzone cross compatibility would give me a reason to go in heavy. I wonder if they're saving those big gun type announcements for when Recon, Super Dungeon Explore, or Dwarven Forge all drop (if they all drop soon that is).

I think they'd rather not bother with Deadzone cross compatibility; one of them responded to me in the comments somewhere that they wouldn't be doing it. I think the longer the KS drags, the more likely they'll be to rethink that decision. At the moment I'd read a major reversal on Deadzone compatibility as a sign of desperation.

I thought this would do worse than Deadzone and better than Mars Attacks, but while both are being borne out, it's falling lower within that spectrum than I expected. Right now I'm not seeing how this KS will break a million, particularly since Mantic just did a pretty significant piece of damage control with the 2 free Rampage teams, and they have a popular MVP design as the current stretch goal, and nothing much has changed. If pledge levels stay about the same until the end, even if Mantic makes as much on their final day as they did on their first, they will fall well short of a million.

Not that they need to make a million, of course. Mars Attacks was a great deal at about half that. But it probably would mean that early talk of a possible 16 new teams instead of twelve would become pie in the sky.

 AlexHolker wrote:

 Baragash wrote:

 AlexHolker wrote:
I wish that people who write stupid rules wouldn't make even stupider arguments to defend them. According to Jake Thornton, this is a sport where a Striker is literally allowed to kick a man to death as he lays on the ground, but isn't allowed to shove someone who is on his feet. There is no referee, the throw-in can kill people and the pitch is strewn with explosives but if you're any good at handling the ball it is literally unthinkable that you would shove someone back.

Hmmm, I thought having stat increases on the advance tables was pretty dissociative (in context of DB), but that might just knock it off top spot.

The rebellion continues. Jake Thornton deleted all discussion of the rule and posted a new article excusing it, and then the Mantic mods gave a couple of threadgakkers what they wanted by locking the discussion there and told everyone to only discuss it on Jake's site.

The site that just deleted all discussion on that topic.

Yeah I read it.....score a victory for circular reasoning, ad hominem and false analogies.

I'm pretty much certain that a Deadzone 2 isn't even remotely on the cards at the moment. The current lineup I think is



Dreadball Extreme
Kings of war 2
Dwarf Kings Hold Version 2 (in the horizon)
Warpath (in the far distant horizon)

There's also whispers about the Mantic 2nd IP and Deadzone style modular fantasy terrain.

I'm sure you are completely safe in no Deadzone kickstarter coming in the next 16 months

Speaking of Deadzone and Dreadball compatibility, I was thinking it could be an awesome 4 player game to have a Dreadball game running inside a Deadzone battle. Have defence of the game the mission of the enforcers, and the plague, marauders, whatever, attacking and getting points for killing players.

Doubt there would be much crossover between the 2 sub games, but it could be great fun imo. Could be a mission in a campaign with big rewards depending on who wins. Rebel attackers winning would get their message across, enforcers winning would get a huge image improvement etc.

A dead zone mission were the sponsors and teams have to escape from an enforcer raid would be cool...

 Yonan wrote:
I may be missing sarcasm (wrong smiley in that case!!) but a bookmarked pdf - or depending on game, bunch of pdfs - is so much quicker than hard copy even on my antiquated first gen ipad.

Sorry for off topic, but I disagree entirely. I can flip to any particular page before you even hit the Bookmarks tab every time. If we're not sure exactly what page we need, I can flip through a dozen pages way faster than any device will turn them. Let's not even talk about loading multiple pdfs, that's hilarious.

The only instance where digitized reference material beats paper is in the case of such disastrous layouts (Spartan Games books, for example) that you need a Search function to ever find anything.

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Sorry for off topic, but I disagree entirely. I can flip to any particular page before you even hit the Bookmarks tab every time. If we're not sure exactly what page we need, I can flip through a dozen pages way faster than any device will turn them. Let's not even talk about loading multiple pdfs, that's hilarious.

The only instance where digitized reference material beats paper is in the case of such disastrous layouts (Spartan Games books, for example) that you need a Search function to ever find anything.

Given Mantic is releasing rules digitally, I think I can slightly continue this conversation without it being *too* off topic.

A single click will take you exactly to the section or page you need. 2 clicks will take you to the exact page you need in one of the other 5 books you have open. Not roughly to the area, exactly to the page since it's bookmarked. Properly bookmarked pdfs are an awesome tool. I'd like to see you get exactly to the spot you need with your hard copy (click it!) faster than I can with this codex, this supplement, and this BRB open in tabs on my tablet, or even better a laptop. If you prefer the feel of hard copy sure, that's subjective and perfectly understandable. But digital is objectively faster to access when setup correctly as with the pdfs I linked. Not to mention, I have your codex on it too and can have it open before the game begins to quickly check to make sure if your HQ really has a rerollable 2++, and the FAQ to clarify that no, your stealth suit can't just be a blank base etc ; p Once I bookmarked my (totally legitimately bought books, which I scanned myself to be in compliance with Australian law) pdfs, accessing information became so much faster for me, both on PC and when playing games.

When your pdfs aren't bookmarked I'd say it's maybe a wash, or probably even faster with physical books as you can "see" multiple pages as your're flipping through, in non-bookmarked pdfs you're relying on page number alone. It enrages me that the Mantic Deadzone digital rulebook isn't bookmarked, and is locked down so I can't add them in myself. That reminds me, I need to message them about that again. *grumbles incoherrently*

MVP stretch goals don't appeal to me or the rule books in paper.
you cant use mvps in one offs or tournaments and they would be making a rule book anyway? I don't own a tablet and when I'm playing a board game i don't want to have to use a laptop.

 Yonan wrote:
Speaking of Deadzone and Dreadball compatibility, I was thinking it could be an awesome 4 player game to have a Dreadball game running inside a Deadzone battle. Have defence of the game the mission of the enforcers, and the plague, marauders, whatever, attacking and getting points for killing players.

Doubt there would be much crossover between the 2 sub games, but it could be great fun imo. Could be a mission in a campaign with big rewards depending on who wins. Rebel attackers winning would get their message across, enforcers winning would get a huge image improvement etc.

Kind of similar to something I read on another forum - someone building a true to scale Emperor Titan was planning to play Apoc with it, and simultaneously run a game of Kill Team within the cathedral on top, and what happened in the kill team battle impacted the Titan's fighting abiity, while regular spacemans on the apoc ground could shoot at kill team spacemans from the ground if they got a shot.

Game within a game!

Looks like it's going to be the 5th or 6th before they unlock their fifth team. $154,000 are tied up in 420 Frenzy pledges right now, and Mantic's in danger of losing them all if they don't start doing things smarter.

 AlexHolker wrote:

 Baragash wrote:

 AlexHolker wrote:
I wish that people who write stupid rules wouldn't make even stupider arguments to defend them. According to Jake Thornton, this is a sport where a Striker is literally allowed to kick a man to death as he lays on the ground, but isn't allowed to shove someone who is on his feet. There is no referee, the throw-in can kill people and the pitch is strewn with explosives but if you're any good at handling the ball it is literally unthinkable that you would shove someone back.

Hmmm, I thought having stat increases on the advance tables was pretty dissociative (in context of DB), but that might just knock it off top spot.

The rebellion continues. Jake Thornton deleted all discussion of the rule and posted a new article excusing it, and then the Mantic mods gave a couple of threadgakkers what they wanted by locking the discussion there and told everyone to only discuss it on Jake's site.

The site that just deleted all discussion on that topic.

That's not very encouraging all.

In fact, it is poor form - what was the reasoning given for the delete and re-boot?

Daedleh wrote:Heads up that a scammer has started a campaign on indiegogo called Dreadball Xtreme:
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/dreadball-xtreme

They're using the DB Xtreme name, but stolen Pulp City content.

Someone should send a message to Mantic and whoever is running Pulp city to file DMCA notices with indiegogo.

http://support.indiegogo.com/entries/20494757-How-Do-I-File-a-Copyright-Infringement-Complaint-

 AlexHolker wrote:
Looks like it's going to be the 5th or 6th before they unlock their fifth team. $154,000 are tied up in 420 Frenzy pledges right now, and Mantic's in danger of losing them all if they don't start doing things smarter.

This project is going to hit a back slide at some point it's inevitable the way Mantic have set it up with the speculative Frenzy pledge and they clearly haven't learnt from Mars Attacks. I've backed at EB rampage on my main account $160 currently gets me all 4 season 4 teams (8 man Teams will do just fine for now) and The Brokkr team I really want (if/when it unlocks) plus $10 for Weiss. Add to that a free Season 6 team if it gets that far and I might put another $30 for 2 other 8 man teams so that's 8 teams. The Crystallans and potential Hobgoblin teams don't really interest me so I can pass on them. I do want a few extra scenery sprues which I have to pay for either way so I think $200 up to $250 and I'm good to go on this.

I also have an EB Frenzy parked on my second account just in case it becomes insane value. That's $360 that isn't real money for this project even if I do opt for it right at the end the other account losses $200. Is it right that it's set up like that not really but that's how Mantic have choosen to do and I have no problem "playing the game" for my own benefit.