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So, like many, I recently got into KoW.

I am building 6 armies. With an eye on others once these are done.

I have spent a grand total of $150 on Mantic KoW product, and that includes the hardback rulebook.

Meanwhile I have a list of 500 GBP worth of GW models I still need to buy to round out my armies. I ordered a bunch of Reaper minis, too. And I need some Crocodile Games, Wargames Factory and Gripping Beast stuff.

I just purchased 100 chaos marauder guys from the AoS starter from a bitz site for my Abyss army.

I love shopping around, but I have to wonder, is this really a sustainable model for Mantic?

I'm sort of the same way. I dropped ~$175 on GW products to make a 1500 point KoM list, and that needs to get up to 2000. But that was mostly because a local FLGS was having a sale on their Fantasy stuff.

I do plan on spending a bunch to get a Mantic Undead army, since I happen to like that range so much.

Don't forget that in addition to KoW, Mantic also has Deadzone, Dreadball, Dungeon Saga, and Mars Attacks - all ranges that it's just easier to use Mantic's miniatures for. KoW might be their original product, but I bet a lot of money comes in from their other games. So KoW acts as a good will aggregate, pulling in disaffected GW customers as well as new hobbyists.

Oh, trust me, I know. I must've blown $2000 on Mantic's kickstarters by now. It's just KoW that's in this strange spot where the rules are good but there's not much incentive to get the models.

Some of the ranges are fine - the Undead and the Ogres, in particular. (I like each more than their GW equivalents.)

That said... I have seen a fair number of GW armies make their way from the End Times into Kings of War.

I also like the dwarfs, but I seem to be in a minority there....

The Auld Grump, my gods, those dwarfs... they have... knees!

I probably have enough Mantic undead, elves, dwarfs and orcs to make full army lists of each, but I'm using Arcane Legions minis to build my actual KOW forces that I hope to play with. There's just something about KOW and its multibasing approach that really encourages outside the box thinking.

I for one love Kings of War, but I don't own a single Mantic model, and have no immediate plans on getting any either.

I will get the rulebook however, so Mantic will still get some money from me.

I am getting all my stuff on Ebay. Given that AoS seems to have created a glut on Ebay WHFB sales things are pretty cheap.

I'm in the 'a little from column A and a little from column B' camp in that I plan to buy a bunch of second-hand WHFB armies very soon but to play both WHFB and KOW. Obviously, will be buying rulebook from Mantic but I am also planning on buying the Goblin and Orc army deals from them too (already have Undead, Elves, Dwarves and not-Chaos Dwarves). I would buy the Ogres too but I think they look a little too knock-knee'd for my tastes.

I've been wondering this as well. Is it actually a sensible business move to highly encourage using alternative minis when you have your own to sell? Which other miniatures-focused company does this?

 Mymearan wrote:
I've been wondering this as well. Is it actually a sensible business move to highly encourage using alternative minis when you have your own to sell? Which other miniatures-focused company does this?

Warlord Games, admitedley they are historicals which are notorious for mixed source armies unlike fantasy/sci-fi.

 ChaoticMind wrote:

 Mymearan wrote:
I've been wondering this as well. Is it actually a sensible business move to highly encourage using alternative minis when you have your own to sell? Which other miniatures-focused company does this?

Warlord Games, admitedley they are historicals which are notorious for mixed source armies unlike fantasy/sci-fi.

And Warlord has reported 40% growth in the past year, now valued at over £4 million... so, not too shabby

And my local group is slowly seeing more KoW miniatures in use - we have one player that has ordered an Abyssal army (two players, if I include myself), and another that has a Nature army coming. (I kind of wish that I had the money to get one of those as well.)

My good lady is building up a mixed force of dwarfs - with Mantic, Reaper, and Avatars of War as the primary models. (And one ancient Limpfondle the Queen's Champion... from way back when....)

Not this paint job.... but this image was online at Stuff of Legends.

The Auld Grump

I got a mantic orc and goblin army from the first from the first KS (I had wanted to get some of their orcs long before that), as well as enough ogres for a mediumish allied force. Since then, I have picked up an undead starter army as well. I love pretty much everything I've gotten from mantic.

I'm making a KoM army (so no Mantic minis) but I've been planning on buying their Undead for a very long time.

We got about 250 Mantic Goblin models so far and about 100 are currently being painted by our commissioned painter. Best Goblin models by a LONG, LONG shot.

Last thing we bought from GW was in early 2013. Since then...China.

I think I will soon be ordering some Chinese fantasy miniatures myself to round out my armies. I received $150 worth of Chinese gothic sci-fi miniatures just today and they are all top notch.

 Sigvatr wrote:
We got about 250 Mantic Goblin models so far and about 100 are currently being painted by our commissioned painter. Best Goblin models by a LONG, LONG shot.

Last thing we bought from GW was in early 2013. Since then...China.

Are the Goblins good now? Looking to get some myself very soon.

We never had problems with Mantic Goblins

 Sigvatr wrote:
We never had problems with Mantic Goblins

Good to hear that. I heard they were among the worst models in the entire range.

Edit: Hell, it's 4 AM.

Mantic's goblins are a decidedly polarizing topic. I, personally, like them a lot, but there are a lot of people who don't. Before you sink any money into the models, you should try to get a good look, preferably in person.

They look fine in the pictures. I heard the detail is soft in early print runs or something?

Well I'm sure I'm not alone in that AOS has caused my interest in KoW. Had my first game the other day (Empire - now KoM army) and really enjoyed it!

Can't see me buying too many models for this force, as my Empaire army is pretty big, unless they bring out Chariots sometime.

My Dwarf force however... I've already ordered some Brock Riders. DWARF SLAYERS ON BADGERS!!! MUST HAVE!!!
And some Obsidian Golumns for Earth Elemental conversions.

I'll definitely be buying more Mantic models (and certainly the books), but it won't be huge amounts. More the more interesting models that I don't have similar..

And for those interested in the goblins, the "melty goblin" that gets posted every time someone wants to show how horrible the mantic figures are is an incomplete fill of the injection mold it was made from, not a "typical" Mantic Goblin.

The pic has been around since 2009? 2010? when the first production of Goblins arrived from the suppliers and gets trotted out to show how terrible Mantics figs are.

The Goblins are not GW, but good enough for a mass battle game.

I think this is a natural by product of Kings of War's position in the market as a direct alternative to WHFB and the ...uneven quality of their figures. This is exacerbated even more by the current AoS factors.

As Mantic's figure ranges slowly improve though, more people who start with GW figures will dip their toes into Mantic's own ranges. The majority of my Fantasy models are GW, with AoW, Reaper, etc sprinkled in - but I also have large armies of Mantic's Undead, Abyssal Dwarves and Ogres - along with a sprinkling across several other ranges as well.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

lees_shadow wrote:
And for those interested in the goblins, the "melty goblin" that gets posted every time someone wants to show how horrible the mantic figures are is an incomplete fill of the injection mold it was made from, not a "typical" Mantic Goblin.
The pic has been around since 2009? 2010? when the first production of Goblins arrived from the suppliers and gets trotted out to show how terrible Mantics figs are.
The Goblins are not GW, but good enough for a mass battle game.

Seems to be that someone - probably a Mantic customer/fan because we know companies can't seem to do this sort of gak to save themselves - should take a few good quality sprue and built unpainted pics of their goblins to get them out on the interwebs.

lees_shadow wrote:
And for those interested in the goblins, the "melty goblin" that gets posted every time someone wants to show how horrible the mantic figures are is an incomplete fill of the injection mold it was made from, not a "typical" Mantic Goblin.

The pic has been around since 2009? 2010? when the first production of Goblins arrived from the suppliers and gets trotted out to show how terrible Mantics figs are.

The Goblins are not GW, but good enough for a mass battle game.

Good to hear that. I had stayed away from the gobbos at least partially due to that picture, as well as an infomercial's worth of testimonials. Now, I'll take the plunge and get a box to see them for myself....just as soon as I have the money.

On a related note, the 2.0 rule book's Goblin section somehow took the same goblin tropes I've read about in GW, TSR, Way of the Tiger, etc., and made them interesting to me. Whoever wrote that section deserves a handshake, a nod, and a cold nonAmerican beer.

I also think a lot of Mantic's customers play Vampire Counts already before WHFB died: look at those undead, maaaaaan.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

lees_shadow wrote:
And for those interested in the goblins, the "melty goblin" that gets posted every time someone wants to show how horrible the mantic figures are is an incomplete fill of the injection mold it was made from, not a "typical" Mantic Goblin.

Good to hear that. I had stayed away from the gobbos at least partially due to that picture, as well as an infomercial's worth of testimonials. Now, I'll take the plunge and get a box to see them for myself....just as soon as I have the money.

You're a brave man, Bob. If you're going to do this though - you need to take some good quality naked sprue photos. I'll host them on my blog if you like. Get your wife to take them with her kick-arse camera. It can be a true team effort!

 Azazelx wrote:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

lees_shadow wrote:
And for those interested in the goblins, the "melty goblin" that gets posted every time someone wants to show how horrible the mantic figures are is an incomplete fill of the injection mold it was made from, not a "typical" Mantic Goblin.

Good to hear that. I had stayed away from the gobbos at least partially due to that picture, as well as an infomercial's worth of testimonials. Now, I'll take the plunge and get a box to see them for myself....just as soon as I have the money.

You're a brave man, Bob. If you're going to do this though - you need to take some good quality naked sprue photos. I'll host them on my blog if you like. Get your wife to take them with her kick-arse camera. It can be a true team effort!

I' up for that. However, budgets being what they are, it might be a month or so. I splurged on some AoS Sigmarines when I really should have waited...

lees_shadow wrote:
And for those interested in the goblins, the "melty goblin" that gets posted every time someone wants to show how horrible the mantic figures are is an incomplete fill of the injection mold it was made from, not a "typical" Mantic Goblin.

The pic has been around since 2009? 2010? when the first production of Goblins arrived from the suppliers and gets trotted out to show how terrible Mantics figs are.

The Goblins are not GW, but good enough for a mass battle game.

The goblins are passable. The s̶t̶i̶c̶k̶ ̶f̶i̶g̶u̶r̶e̶s̶ elves on the other hand...
I've always used Mantic figures for WHFB and GW figures for KoW. Apart from that I also use a lot of Perry miniatures and character models are from all kinds of companies. The fun with collecting Fantasy miniatures is that there is no need to stick to a single company.

I like the elves. I've got a couple/three existing WHFB armies and have picked up a bunch of mantic undead, dwarfs, and orcs (oh and enough elves to make a strong showing as allies for one of the forces) from various sources. I like the models from both ranges and from various time periods on the GW end. I definitely prefer the skinnier mantic skellies to the clunky old GW variety (I know they've got new ones but I'm probably not agreeable to the price). I don't really like the GW 'most or all elves like to wear robes' aesthetic so I'm a fan of the GW weedy elves. They may be just a tad too skinny, but it's not seriously jarring for me.

I don't remember a lot about GW orcs, never having owned any, but I like the cunning/fierce look the mantic orcs seem to have. As for goblins... I have snotlings and orclings and they're both going to get used a lot as Smurfs Goblins though... gw goblins are too cartoony. Mantic goblins are pretty cartoony too though a bit leaner which I prefer. If I really was gonna go after goblins I'd want something more like the LotR goblins.

Dwarfs... can't really say. I like the mantic variety just fine, never had the GW dudes but I do remember them having like kilts and feet and then really long arms.

There's good goblin fluff in the new 2.0 book? I guess I should download my PDF and see how the thing turned out, still a few weeks out of getting my hardback probably.