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To be fair, Fox haven't exactly done well protecting the AVP brand when it comes to multimillion dollar films, nevermind board games.

But yeah, if the brand is as big enough as people suggest (with fallout out of the running, I kinda doubt that...) There will be oversight from the relevant companies. I doubt that will go into the minutiae of rules though. Instead it will have more to do with the look and presentation of the product on the shelves or laid out on a table.

Of course it is possible, but one of the best indicators of future performance is past performance. Mantic has set patterns, betting they go against them in this case without evidence they're doing so seems silly.

I hope I am wrong, and if/when evidence to show I am pops up I'll reevaluate my position and admit being wrong.

But to assume they are doing something differently because 'licensed IP' without any thing else to go by seems premature.

 Compel wrote:
To be fair, Fox haven't exactly done well protecting the AVP brand when it comes to multimillion dollar films, nevermind board games.

Exalted - and too true!

 Compel wrote:

But yeah, if the brand is as big enough as people suggest (with fallout out of the running, I kinda doubt that...) There will be oversight from the relevant companies. I doubt that will go into the minutiae of rules though. Instead it will have more to do with the look and presentation of the product on the shelves or laid out on a table.

Also true!

The IP Owner will be mostly concerned with things 'looking right' and being branded correctly.

Beyond that...

 scarletsquig wrote:
Definitely a Kickstarter, probably a $1m+ one.

$1m+? Really? When...

Dungeon Saga has 12 different people complaining just in the past 24 hours about incorrect or totally missing deliveries that look like they won't be addressed until April.

Deadzone rules are being blown out of a shotgun to meet a self-imposed deadline (hats off the rules committee for dealing with that mess as well as they have though)

Warpath Firefight rules don't appear to be bucking that trend in any way, with no sign of a rules release.

Jake Thornton is tasked with Dungeon Saga fixes, still obviously has to have some finger in the Deadzone pie, and has another Kickstarter product coming in January (Age of Tyrants), so with Alessio on his other projects and Jake booked solid again it leaves Mantic without their signature designers.

Adventurer's Companion snafu is still fresh in the minds of the boardgame crowd that typically makes or breaks a $1m+ Kickstarter.

Forge Father "are we even still getting what we had stretch goals for" question remains open, on top of the issue that the hobby models are now coming clipped.

Mantic and Beasts of War's relationship being questioned after a glowingly positive review on the site when they even during the review show pages with the "Page XXX" issues.

Material switch still hasn't been totally addressed for Deadzone and Warpath issues (Blaine "might" be coming with a bonus in Deadzone, and the Chem Thrower and Aberration being switched from Resin to the latest resin plastic hasn't really been touched).

On that note, Warpath miniature materials for many of the new models seems to be left obviously up in the air in the pledge manager, after most being cleanly listed during the Kickstarter.

We got a "sorry about the mess" letter at the end of the year that sounded very much like the "sorry about the mess" letter we got at the beginning of the year. (I will at least admit seeing Matt coming aboard and then many positions being created is encouraging).

While Dreadball original got rave reviews and Deadzone 1 was well recieved for the game part by the boardgame community, the last few Mantic board games haven't exactly set BGG or other boardgame focused communities on fire. Mars Attacks has been on fire sales everywhere and has essentially no community, Dreadball Extreme looks to be stillborn, while Dungeon Saga is at least geting a "meh, good as a 2 player tactical game but not really the deep co-op campaign you might be looking for" review

Mantic's kickstarters in general were down across the board in 2015 from what would have otherwise been the expectations.



These are just things mostly in the past month or two. Maybe January sees some incredible feats happen, but right now Mantic is not in a place to be running million dollar kickstarters without Star Wars, Marvel, or another incredibly huge IP being attached. Then again, I'll still be there grabbing an early bird because who knows when we'll have another Mars Attacks situation where Mantic gives us fire sale price access to Battlezones again...

hmm I just had a thought. A returning critically acclaimed IP.

Independence Day: Resurgence


my dreams: Gears of War, but I think only GW could do the space mariney COG goodness

Gears would both make sense and be strange to bring back simultaneously. On one hand, The Coalition (current studio developing Gears 4) was looking for someone to make their minis line, and Mantic is an acceptable fit from their needs of rebooting the franchise under a new studio and just getting some tie-ins out there. Fantasy Flight also just lost the Gears licsense, so it is certainly available.

On the other hand, Fantasy Flight just lost the licsense after making a FANTASTIC IP driven game. The game was great on its own, and felt like a good implementation of Gears thematically too. If Mantic is going to come to the table with a Gears board game that is going to be an incredibly tough act to follow and likely won't be viewed upon positively by the boardgame community (Gears taking the IP from FFG's great game to make a quick buck with a Kickstarter company will be the likely complaint). Going full wargame seems unlikely, as even the heavily hyped wargames on Kickstater haven't really exploded and Mantic making hard plastic Gears miniatures when they are just finally getting their flagship property into the material is asking to die a death by overreaching. Likely it would be an expandable skirmish game a la Mars Attacks using a modified Deadzone engine, but what gamer is pounding down the doors for Mantic's third skirmish system?

Still holding out hope for a Mad Max Fury Road game, as nothing is really in that design space and that IP lends itself to doing some crazy stuff both for retail and for Kickstarter one-offs.

Ya but Deadzone layout and gameplay also work great for gears. small squad vs A.I. card deck or another player controlling the horde.

My biggest gripe would be the quality of the finished product, I'd want it to be insanehly high, thats something mantic has never quite achieved except with the new enforcer plastics.

This is my last off topic, generalization on this topic for now. I don't want to keep bumping it with just speculation. I want it to get bumped with the actual announcement

Triszin wrote:
hmm I just had a thought. A returning critically acclaimed IP.

Independence Day: Resurgence


my dreams: Gears of War, but I think only GW could do the space mariney COG goodness

They did have a blurb about will smith....and a dog, everyone was thinking the zombie movie he did. (I am Legend).

Is there enough ground stuff for an independence day game?

Mantic surely arent crazy enough to try to take on X-wing and Star Wars with a fighterplane based game, right?

Bombad wrote:
Gears would both make sense and be strange to bring back simultaneously. On one hand, The Coalition (current studio developing Gears 4) was looking for someone to make their minis line, and Mantic is an acceptable fit from their needs of rebooting the franchise under a new studio and just getting some tie-ins out there. Fantasy Flight also just lost the Gears licsense, so it is certainly available.

Hrmmm.. I didn't realize they decided to not renew it. I'm not surprised given the poor support after release and the years long delay in getting it out. I picked up a copy long ago but have yet to play it. I was a huge GOW1 fan but soured a lot on the series with the sequels. It never really crossed my mind that it would be in the running (even if I had known the FFG license expired)

I really enjoyed the Gears game.

It would be a tough act to follow I think. Nice meaty pieces, thick boards and tokens... I don't know if Mantic would be up to it.

On the other hand, if it gave us a chance for more of the varied and larger Locust units and monsters, I'd be down.

I don't know if Gears would be a 1M+ property on Kickstarter though these days...

Independence Day would certainly be one to come out of left field.

I can't imagine Independence Day as a gaming KS making $1million+. The AvP franchise KS Prodos ran didn't come close that, and from a franchise perspective there have been a lot more toys/games for AvP than for Independence Day.

Sci-fi or Fantasy - it's basically going to be up against their own IPs. That is, unless the company licensing it, allow them to to mix it in with their own IP.

Mars Attacks gained rules for Deadzone and Mars Attacks figures have been sold within the Warpath KS as well so it'll get Warpath rules.

The LotR IP from GW forbade them to mix it in with their own Fantasy Warhammer stuff - to the point where GW made it a more true scale 28mm and gave it circular bases, so it didn't match.

My prediction for this license would be a Mars Attack style skirmish game set with something like Independence Day. The KS will have bucket loads of exclusives in an attempt to copy Cmon's Zombicide survivor mania, raising the value of the KS with addons to a level that it hits front pages of mini sites.

Personally, I just hope they give the DZ RC more time to sort out Deadzone to make it perfect and then actually do something about the Warpath Firefight rules before the Pledge Manager for that ends. I'm guessing Mantic are passed caring about these two though and just want them done and dusted. They're probably just seeing $$$ from the new KS license. :-(

Bombad wrote:

 scarletsquig wrote:
Definitely a Kickstarter, probably a $1m+ one.

Spoiler:

$1m+? Really? When...

Dungeon Saga has 12 different people complaining just in the past 24 hours about incorrect or totally missing deliveries that look like they won't be addressed until April.

Deadzone rules are being blown out of a shotgun to meet a self-imposed deadline (hats off the rules committee for dealing with that mess as well as they have though)

Warpath Firefight rules don't appear to be bucking that trend in any way, with no sign of a rules release.

Jake Thornton is tasked with Dungeon Saga fixes, still obviously has to have some finger in the Deadzone pie, and has another Kickstarter product coming in January (Age of Tyrants), so with Alessio on his other projects and Jake booked solid again it leaves Mantic without their signature designers.

Adventurer's Companion snafu is still fresh in the minds of the boardgame crowd that typically makes or breaks a $1m+ Kickstarter.

Forge Father "are we even still getting what we had stretch goals for" question remains open, on top of the issue that the hobby models are now coming clipped.

Mantic and Beasts of War's relationship being questioned after a glowingly positive review on the site when they even during the review show pages with the "Page XXX" issues.

Material switch still hasn't been totally addressed for Deadzone and Warpath issues (Blaine "might" be coming with a bonus in Deadzone, and the Chem Thrower and Aberration being switched from Resin to the latest resin plastic hasn't really been touched).

On that note, Warpath miniature materials for many of the new models seems to be left obviously up in the air in the pledge manager, after most being cleanly listed during the Kickstarter.

We got a "sorry about the mess" letter at the end of the year that sounded very much like the "sorry about the mess" letter we got at the beginning of the year. (I will at least admit seeing Matt coming aboard and then many positions being created is encouraging).

While Dreadball original got rave reviews and Deadzone 1 was well recieved for the game part by the boardgame community, the last few Mantic board games haven't exactly set BGG or other boardgame focused communities on fire. Mars Attacks has been on fire sales everywhere and has essentially no community, Dreadball Extreme looks to be stillborn, while Dungeon Saga is at least geting a "meh, good as a 2 player tactical game but not really the deep co-op campaign you might be looking for" review

Mantic's kickstarters in general were down across the board in 2015 from what would have otherwise been the expectations.




These are just things mostly in the past month or two. Maybe January sees some incredible feats happen, but right now Mantic is not in a place to be running million dollar kickstarters without Star Wars, Marvel, or another incredibly huge IP being attached. Then again, I'll still be there grabbing an early bird because who knows when we'll have another Mars Attacks situation where Mantic gives us fire sale price access to Battlezones again...

All these reasons are why I won't back a Mantic KS anymore. They should be professional by now but it seems they don't won't to leave the amateur level they are currently at.

I just think Mantic have to much going on at once, it seems like a constant state of rushing to get this project are that project done. If they could just focus on one game for a while there end product would be so much more polished.

overtyrant wrote:

Bombad wrote:

 scarletsquig wrote:
Definitely a Kickstarter, probably a $1m+ one.

Spoiler:

$1m+? Really? When...

Dungeon Saga has 12 different people complaining just in the past 24 hours about incorrect or totally missing deliveries that look like they won't be addressed until April.

Deadzone rules are being blown out of a shotgun to meet a self-imposed deadline (hats off the rules committee for dealing with that mess as well as they have though)

Warpath Firefight rules don't appear to be bucking that trend in any way, with no sign of a rules release.

Jake Thornton is tasked with Dungeon Saga fixes, still obviously has to have some finger in the Deadzone pie, and has another Kickstarter product coming in January (Age of Tyrants), so with Alessio on his other projects and Jake booked solid again it leaves Mantic without their signature designers.

Adventurer's Companion snafu is still fresh in the minds of the boardgame crowd that typically makes or breaks a $1m+ Kickstarter.

Forge Father "are we even still getting what we had stretch goals for" question remains open, on top of the issue that the hobby models are now coming clipped.

Mantic and Beasts of War's relationship being questioned after a glowingly positive review on the site when they even during the review show pages with the "Page XXX" issues.

Material switch still hasn't been totally addressed for Deadzone and Warpath issues (Blaine "might" be coming with a bonus in Deadzone, and the Chem Thrower and Aberration being switched from Resin to the latest resin plastic hasn't really been touched).

On that note, Warpath miniature materials for many of the new models seems to be left obviously up in the air in the pledge manager, after most being cleanly listed during the Kickstarter.

We got a "sorry about the mess" letter at the end of the year that sounded very much like the "sorry about the mess" letter we got at the beginning of the year. (I will at least admit seeing Matt coming aboard and then many positions being created is encouraging).

While Dreadball original got rave reviews and Deadzone 1 was well recieved for the game part by the boardgame community, the last few Mantic board games haven't exactly set BGG or other boardgame focused communities on fire. Mars Attacks has been on fire sales everywhere and has essentially no community, Dreadball Extreme looks to be stillborn, while Dungeon Saga is at least geting a "meh, good as a 2 player tactical game but not really the deep co-op campaign you might be looking for" review

Mantic's kickstarters in general were down across the board in 2015 from what would have otherwise been the expectations.




These are just things mostly in the past month or two. Maybe January sees some incredible feats happen, but right now Mantic is not in a place to be running million dollar kickstarters without Star Wars, Marvel, or another incredibly huge IP being attached. Then again, I'll still be there grabbing an early bird because who knows when we'll have another Mars Attacks situation where Mantic gives us fire sale price access to Battlezones again...

All these reasons are why I won't back a Mantic KS anymore. They should be professional by now but it seems they don't won't to leave the amateur level they are currently at.

I think I've learned to stop saying "Well it can't get worse!", cause clearly Mantic is trying to prove me wrong.

Thing is, the lead times on this stuff are so stretched out that no company can afford to focus on one brand, if that company wants to be beyond being a small 1/2/3 man band type of company.

GW has sat on the Horus Heresy sprues since 2014, Warlord has a steady drip feed of product across 3 big brands and several smaller ones, along with supporting other companies stuff and general hobby line.

As for KS predictions, well at one point people were convinced this was going to be Fallout 4. Imagine if it had been how many people would actually care it was Mantic, imagine how many people just buy in because they know the brand and love the entertainment media based on that brand. Mars Attacks did stupid well and that was almost retro, based on a comic series and card set, with very very little merchandising previously. And Mantic fudged the KS mid way on that one.

On another note, anyone taken the plunge for the uber crazy box? Im tempted but afraid Im going to open it to find a Deadzone box and a ton of forgefather sprues......

 Gimgamgoo wrote:
My prediction for this license would be a Mars Attack style skirmish game set with something like Independence Day. The KS will have bucket loads of exclusives in an attempt to copy Cmon's Zombicide survivor mania, raising the value of the KS with addons to a level that it hits front pages of mini sites.

Whilst they might get away with one or two, I don't think the nature of the IP lends itself well to this route.

Wait. What's going on with the new Forgefather plastics? I hadn't heard there was a Mantic with them--what did I miss? (Forgefathers were the plastics I went nuts on. It's the Basilean Men at Arm's all over again.)


Also, is Warcraft technically a post apocalyptic setting? That might be worth $1 million. however, an Independence Day Resurgence fighter game in DZC scale would have my attention.

If Blizzard wanted to make miniatures they could probably just afford the molds themselves by now? But I don't think it really is, cataclysm was two expansions ago and otherwise the setting is high/fantasy.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Wait. What's going on with the new Forgefather plastics? I hadn't heard there was a Mantic with them--what did I miss? (Forgefathers were the plastics I went nuts on. It's the Basilean Men at Arm's all over again.)

I think the sprue will come with a bunch of clipped off arms from a second sprue which they've not shown, leading people to suspect that they're not going to get quite the inumber of weapon options that they wanted/were promised

(from the sound of it some people were expecting to be able to build the complete sprue with weapon A or B or C etc, but now you probably won't be able to do the complete set with some of the special/heavy/fancy weapons.... I'm not certain if this is actually a mantic backtrack or just assumptions being made that turn out not to be true)

It could be "Sword of Shannara" I guess, to match with the new TV show that's coming soon. - Although that's fantasy, that's actually a post apocalyptic setting, set in 'our' future.

I know it has a strong following, but I don't think it's that strong.

Which is the problem I think (unless the $1m is just really wishful thinking).

To have that kind of kickstarter, it has to be really huge. Fallout could have done it, Walking Dead could do it (but that's FFG or GF9 I think). Mad Max will be popular, sure, but $1m popular? Nah.

You are forgiven for missing it, as it came in the same update as the material change. The wording in update 58 was:

[...]we have had to make a few tweaks to the number of heavy weapons just to get it to fit on the tool we funded!


Followed by that is an image including two Drakkarim flamethrowers and 3 Stormrage heavy weapons. There was a stretch goal to fund the Steel Warriors, a Stretch goal to add 5 heavy weapons, and a third stretch goal to fund 4 Drakkarim flamethrower options. Whether we have these or not hasn't been clarified beyond the wording in that update, so it has festered in the comments on both Warpath and Deadzone for a few weeks now. At best, just a miscommunication

Clipped off arms and not enough weapons... It sounds like maybe the sprue they come on is subpar, and instead of sending it back for retooling Mantic is just clipping off the acceptable bits and throwing them in a baggy. I guess that works if they clip and send enough parts to cover what was promised.

The 2 sprues were shown at the open day - the one that's being clipped into parts is the one on the left. As can be seen there aren't enough parts to arm all members of a 5 man "specialist" squad with the appropriate weapons (Rekkhhyrr, Stormrage Veterans), you need to mix a few sprues worth together which isn't a major issue if you intend on building all the variants as there will be left overs for other squads but a single 5 man kit will not build a full unit of specialists. I still think the issue with the sprue being clipped is down to retail packing as the sprue might be too long for the boxes.



The final sprue contains 2 heavy weapons less than funded but the Dragon Breath flamers didn't specify a number

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1744629938/deadzone-infestation-sci-fi-skirmish-game/posts/1190100

We will pack the frame full of heavy weapons including at least two hailstorm autocannons, two heat cannons and one missile launcher, allowing you to make a variety of heavy weapon troopers for your Deadzone Strike team.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1744629938/deadzone-infestation-sci-fi-skirmish-game/posts/1190443

This stretch goal adds the Drakkarim options to the Forge Father Steel Warrior sprue, allowing you to field up to four Forge Fathers with Dragon's Breath Flamethrowers – the perfect weapon for clearing the Veer-myn from their tunnels in Exham IV!

When we hit this stretch goal, we will upgrade the sprue to include all of these extra bits, giving you more choice and variety in the types of units you can field, whilst allowing you to field Drakkarim in hard plastic for the very first time.

Just looking around the mantic store for something that's no longer appears to be on sale, what happened to the giant Martian robot kit? I thought mars attacks was a big seller?

They were selling it and deadzone at 50% off over the Christmas period so they may have just run out?

from facebook

Mantic Games


4 hrs ·
.

Important announcement

Over the next week the warehouse will be close as they perform a complete stock take. During this time, we will not be dispatching any items. Normal dispatch operations will resume on Monday 11th January.

For those of you who are waiting on missing items or pledges, the Customer Service team are working through these as quickly as they can.

If you have a webstore order placed earlier than the 26th December that is still awaiting dispatch, then please contact us through the contact form on our site.

Thank you for your patience

So, any chance that the Walking Dead pics floating around are the Post-Apoc game that Mantic is going to be doing?

Yawn. I wish Mantic would just spill the beans already. Building up the "excitement" isn't that exciting.