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.

The Asterians have a great alien and/or robotic look to them. They make me...happy.

 insaniak wrote:

 MLaw wrote:
Also.. why do the robots have ears?

Because they're elf robots. Duh.



And yes, I realise that it's possibly somewhat hypocritical of me to criticise bearded tanks, but be perfectly happy with pointy-eared robots... But really, it comes down far more to the final look than to what it symbolises. I'd be ok with slightly anthopomorphic tanks if they at least looked cool... and those dwarf tanks just don't. They're just a box with a dwarf face on the front.

It's not hypocritical. Humanoid robots are by definition going to have humanoid features, it's just a question of how closely they will mimic a human. A stylised pair of ears like Batman's cowl doesn't look out of place on the Asterian drones.

 Azazelx wrote:

 BrookM wrote:
That Corporation concept that was previewed earlier, is that also happening?

It seems that they wanted to do Asterians first and did a "what do you think?" to test the waters and make sure there wasn't a huge backlash against. With 2 weeks, there's a good chance they'll get to the Corporation yet. Stretch goals seem to be for adding new things, rather than sweetening the pot - which is taking the form of troops discounted more heavily than they were in their own DZ1&2 KS campaigns.

Thanks, that's maybe something for me to look forward to in this gakshow then.

 MLaw wrote:

 judgedoug wrote:
As a consumer who loves generic sci fi stuff, there's nothing on the market that can compare with the Mantic Dropship. The Valkyrie is very specifically a 40k aesthetic. Other alternatives are WAY too small (GZG,Old Crow) and non-existent (Antenociti's Workshop). The price is right around 1/48 model kits and don't have the side effect of looking like kitbashed Apaches or Hinds.

Puppetswar and Titan-Forge are two examples of companies making nice dropships. I had a large hand in the initial design of the Titan-Forge dropship and I believe the retail on that will be around $60 and it is pretty close to the Valkyrie in size. The Puppetswar ships are nice too and range from about $30 to about $40 and are resin. I know there are one or two others out there but Mantics' dropship is definitely not the only game in town. A major difference is that the Mantic design is extremely basic, but if it appeals to you, hey more power to you. Nobody (as far as I can see) is telling you otherwise. The problem is that a fair enough number of us find it uninspiring that it's not compelling me to throw money at it. With it's poor design (my opinion of it) I am content with PW and TF and will probably buy up the AW and DF ones when they come out.

I'd pick the Mantic dropship over the titan forge one if both were the same price, I like the Hunter-killer look of the enforcer one and the TF one just reminds me to much of the chibihawk. The puppets war one is nice but has more of a transporter feel than a combat dropship.

I'd really like to see how the beard tank comes out as it looks like it will be fun to paint and SQUATS 4 LIFE. But if it looks derpy I will pass, ironically the titan forge tanks look amazing so I might even swap some of them into a FF force.

I'm working on a quick reference sheet for the Warpath alpha rules, if anyone hasn't had time to read through the rules yet, a quick skim through this should make it easier to figure out the bulk of the rules:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/27484619/Mantic/Warpath%20Quick%20Reference%20Sheet%20v0.1.pdf

Great job Squig!

I appreciate the condensed rules. Makes this whole newfangled "mass battle" thing you kids keep talking about much more approachable.

 dragqueeninspace wrote:

 MLaw wrote:

 judgedoug wrote:
As a consumer who loves generic sci fi stuff, there's nothing on the market that can compare with the Mantic Dropship. The Valkyrie is very specifically a 40k aesthetic. Other alternatives are WAY too small (GZG,Old Crow) and non-existent (Antenociti's Workshop). The price is right around 1/48 model kits and don't have the side effect of looking like kitbashed Apaches or Hinds.

Puppetswar and Titan-Forge are two examples of companies making nice dropships. I had a large hand in the initial design of the Titan-Forge dropship and I believe the retail on that will be around $60 and it is pretty close to the Valkyrie in size. The Puppetswar ships are nice too and range from about $30 to about $40 and are resin. I know there are one or two others out there but Mantics' dropship is definitely not the only game in town. A major difference is that the Mantic design is extremely basic, but if it appeals to you, hey more power to you. Nobody (as far as I can see) is telling you otherwise. The problem is that a fair enough number of us find it uninspiring that it's not compelling me to throw money at it. With it's poor design (my opinion of it) I am content with PW and TF and will probably buy up the AW and DF ones when they come out.

I'd pick the Mantic dropship over the titan forge one if both were the same price, I like the Hunter-killer look of the enforcer one and the TF one just reminds me to much of the chibihawk.

Since you mentioned it I went back and checked - and I agree with you.

As much as I really don't like the Enforcer version, the TF version is even worse.

Plastic over resin for a vehicle this size is preferable too.

Maybe the Enforcer Dropship will grow on me...

 Alpharius wrote:

 dragqueeninspace wrote:
[I'd pick the Mantic dropship over the titan forge one if both were the same price, I like the Hunter-killer look of the enforcer one and the TF one just reminds me to much of the chibihawk.

Since you mentioned it I went back and checked - and I agree with you.

Yeah, it's sobering and strange to check out the field of available drop ships, isn't it? So many wargamers seem to want them, but no one has quite hit the nail on the head yet, at least for my tastes.

Initially I wasn't so fond of the Enforcer interceptor. Then I looked at what's available, and I liked that even less. If Antenociti ever made theirs, that's the one I would go for, but that product seems to have vanished into some sort of development / infinity rights hell right now. I do like the GW Valkyrie and would buy one to modify, but it actually looks too large for my purposes. Smaller vehicles are better in my case, since I'd be using them primarily as occasional Deadzone scenery / objectives.

I'm still not thrilled by the prominent seam running down the middle of the Enforcer interceptor, and I wouldn't be happy to pay for Warpath vehicles that turn out to have seams just as prominent as those on the Mars Attacks robot. I've just asked Mantic about this, politely but point-blank, on the KS comments. But design-wise, I must admit that the Enforcer interceptor actually is my favorite. Partially by default, but even so.

I'm hoping they can eliminate the seam, and that it grows on me, too.

Supposedly that seam is just an angle top piece of the interceptor thats actually gonna sit flat in the mold. They just edge highlighted it. Apparently.

 MLaw wrote:

 judgedoug wrote:
As a consumer who loves generic sci fi stuff, there's nothing on the market that can compare with the Mantic Dropship. The Valkyrie is very specifically a 40k aesthetic. Other alternatives are WAY too small (GZG,Old Crow) and non-existent (Antenociti's Workshop). The price is right around 1/48 model kits and don't have the side effect of looking like kitbashed Apaches or Hinds.

Puppetswar and Titan-Forge are two examples of companies making nice dropships. I had a large hand in the initial design of the Titan-Forge dropship and I believe the retail on that will be around $60 and it is pretty close to the Valkyrie in size. The Puppetswar ships are nice too and range from about $30 to about $40 and are resin. I know there are one or two others out there but Mantics' dropship is definitely not the only game in town.

I'm unfamiliar with the Titan Forge dropship and I don't see it available on their website. Can you provide a link? I'm always interested in well-designed near future/sci-fi vehicles!

The Puppets War aircraft are all pretty much the 40k/Robogear toy aesthetic, however, unless I am missing a model.

 MLaw wrote:
A major difference is that the Mantic design is extremely basic, but if it appeals to you, hey more power to you. Nobody (as far as I can see) is telling you otherwise. The problem is that a fair enough number of us find it uninspiring that it's not compelling me to throw money at it. With it's poor design (my opinion of it) I am content with PW and TF and will probably buy up the AW and DF ones when they come out.

Actually the generic-ness of the Mantic design is what does appeal to me. It's definitely better than the Puppets War ships I linked above, but I am anxious to see the Titan Forge one. Of course, this would all be moot if Antenociti's Workshop ever released theirs

I think the enforcer plane and the men themselves would have looked a lot better in a dirty weathered and more military color scheme, rather than trying to copy the clean cerberus look from Mass Effect. Armor always looks awesomer when it's dirty.

Hopefully the finished, plastic model has an actual cockpit; that would make it more attractive, as would interior detail.

I'm not a modeller by any stretch of the imagination but painting interiors and magnetizing doors is something that I can do and makes me feel like one of the big boy modellers.

 Vermonter wrote:
Yeah, it's sobering and strange to check out the field of available drop ships, isn't it? So many wargamers seem to want them, but no one has quite hit the nail on the head yet, at least for my tastes.

These are two concepts that Antenociti's Workshop previewed two years ago - and still haven't made (the one in their Kickstarter looks like a pregnant Firefly ship)

 judgedoug wrote:

Puppetswar and Titan-Forge are two examples of companies making nice dropships. I had a large hand in the initial design of the Titan-Forge dropship and I believe the retail on that will be around $60 and it is pretty close to the Valkyrie in size. The Puppetswar ships are nice too and range from about $30 to about $40 and are resin. I know there are one or two others out there but Mantics' dropship is definitely not the only game in town.

I'm unfamiliar with the Titan Forge dropship and I don't see it available on their website. Can you provide a link? I'm always interested in well-designed near future/sci-fi vehicles!

The Puppets War aircraft are all pretty much the 40k/Robogear toy aesthetic, however, unless I am missing a model.

 MLaw wrote:
A major difference is that the Mantic design is extremely basic, but if it appeals to you, hey more power to you. Nobody (as far as I can see) is telling you otherwise. The problem is that a fair enough number of us find it uninspiring that it's not compelling me to throw money at it. With it's poor design (my opinion of it) I am content with PW and TF and will probably buy up the AW and DF ones when they come out.

Actually the generic-ness of the Mantic design is what does appeal to me. It's definitely better than the Puppets War ships I linked above, but I am anxious to see the Titan Forge one. Of course, this would all be moot if Antenociti's Workshop ever released theirs

The titan forge drop ships are not available yet as they were part of one of their recent KS

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:

The titan forge drop ships are not available yet as they were part of one of their recent KS

Spoiler:

they also have a collection of shared hull vehicles from the same KS https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1084608523/x-terra-space-force-vs-daemonic-kingdom-tabletop-a/posts/1343818 eg

That is unfortunate. They are of the 40k/Robogear style aesthetic - large, bulbous cockpits and 6up weapons.

I've been tempted by the ISSCV dropship that Acme 360 makes, I might have to bite the bullet and get one along with the Mantic ones.
http://www.acme360models.com/mycustompage0001.htm

 GrimDork wrote:
Supposedly that seam is just an angle top piece of the interceptor thats actually gonna sit flat in the mold. They just edge highlighted it. Apparently.

Yeah, I found their response on the KS helpful so I'm copying it here. And bully to them for being up front with their answers.

"1) Regarding the (Forge Father) tank, we've actually given it to a new sculptor because the sculptor wasn't comfortable that he could do the concept justice. We want to match the concept art where we can - I think the Interceptor is a pretty spot on replication of the concept art.

2) (Regarding how much value will be added to the pledge levels) We are expanding the value in the Battlegroups, which by extension expand the value in the pledge level. That's not to say we don't have one or two things that can go in the pledge level, but just like Kings of War 2 it's the armies where we're putting in the value.

3) (On the dropship "seam".) That isn't a seam or a join, that top panel for example is one piece that'll sit flat in the mould, you won't get a mould line there. Basically, it's a slightly angled piece, and Dave has picked that with a highlight right the way down the middle.

4) (On the quality of vehicles to be produced.) To ease those worries, we've been doing big, flat, hard-line sci-fi panels for years now - the Battlezones scenery in part was a test run for designing and manufacturing vehicles. Much of the learning going into the vehicles comes from the Battlezones scenery range - we very consciously did it that way around."

I then pushed a little harder to say I'm hoping for better quality than the Mars Attacks vehicles, and got this:

"4) Us too, and we'll be pushing the toolmakers accordingly "

Regarding the "seam" that isn't one, before anyone says "now it's a feature lol!", yeah, it actually is a huge difference. If the ridge is a deliberate design choice, it will have none of the sloppiness or irregularity of a manufacturing seam. I was honestly hoping they'd say something like this, because it does improve the product a lot in my eyes.

 Vermonter wrote:
3) (On the dropship "seam".) That isn't a seam or a join, that top panel for example is one piece that'll sit flat in the mould, you won't get a mould line there. Basically, it's a slightly angled piece, and Dave has picked that with a highlight right the way down the middle.

Regarding the "seam" that isn't one, before anyone says "now it's a feature lol!", yeah, it actually is a huge difference. If the ridge is a deliberate design choice, it will have none of the sloppiness or irregularity of a manufacturing seam. I was honestly hoping they'd say something like this, because it does improve the product a lot in my eyes.

Well, yeah, it has to be a separate piece due to the top detail, panel lines, etc. That would have been impossible to produce in plastic unless the top/front of the dropship were separate pieces.

@judgedoug,

That Grendal is awesome.

Oh, that Titan Forge stuff is neat.

RE : Dropship - I think it's pretty safe to say that people want dropships. A lot of people are more than happy with the Enforcer one. I don't think it's horrible in design, it has a bit of a Destiny type of design (a lot of Enforcer stuff feels like it's rooted in Destiny to be honest).
When the TF KS had stalled, that's when I suggested to them to do a dropship and the numbers really picked up. Hopefully, Mantic will follow their cues and add options for alternate wings, cockpit, etc etc so people can customize if they want but either way, I probably will get 1 of the Mantic ships, if nothing else but for a spaceport table I want to do.

AW needs to stop dragging their feet on getting those designs out. I have to go back and look but I could almost swear he was showing prototypes of one but it might've been in 15mm.

EDIT: If you want an actual HK dropship, the Pegasus one is pretty cheap, reported to be closer to 28mm scale than 54mm, and is..I dunno.. an actual HK???

At least all of the designs on this page are different, right? Because it'd be pretty boring if they all looked the same, and not particularly helpful to the people who don't like that particular type.

Do you fine fellows think the hard plastic Warpath vehicles will all have the same price at retail? Or is the current pricing parity likely to expire when the KS does?

Almost everything they've put out at retail has been higher. A few things have been similarly priced after a 25% discount. I'm assuming the vehicles will be closer to $40 if they're 30 now. I know people seem to want to double the price to guess at Mantic's retail pricing but I dunno if they'll be selling any at that price range. But I doubt they'll be the price they are now.

I'm sure they'll raise the prices, too. I was asking more if people thought that a Forge Fathers Tank would still cost the same as a Veer-myn Tunneler, for example, or if they thought Mantic would differentiate hard plastic vehicle prices based on their manufacturing, or differing value to the game, or size of the cross-game market interest, or number the average player would want to or be able to field, etc. Will everything cost $50, or will dropships always be cheaper than Asterian troop transports?

My instinct on the vehicle pricing - which I admit is fairly uninformed - is that the $30 KS price will be hard to beat at discounted retail except in cases where the game tanks and a store is clearing its shelves. Which would be a bad sign for Warpath and an extreme case, of course. The wild card is how much shipping from the UK will add to that $30.

Re the dropships it's worth remembering that the GCPS/Plague have a dropship option as well that's different to the Enforcers that may be more in line with peoples expectations for what a scifi Dropship looks like the Interceptor seems to have been designed very much with Enforcer aesthetics in mind rather than a more generic look.

Ahhh. Hmm. That's an interesting point. Right now I think you'd pay more for the interceptor with options and tank with transport section AND turret options, versus a basic tunneler with no extras. However... they'll probably make options for the tunneler.

Mantic only has so many price points online the last time I checked, so I think things will be pretty similarly costed but if one or the other winds up costing them more to tool, they'll probably charge appropriately.

The KS pricing will definitely be lower. That only means a bargain if you perceive it that way though. Mantic stuff on clearance is not that absurd or uncommon either though, nor is their stuff resurfacing on KS at deeper discounts.

On the GCPS Dropship - Here's to hoping?

 DaveC wrote:
Re the dropships it's worth remembering that the GCPS/Plague have a dropship option as well that's different to the Enforcers that may be more in line with peoples expectations for what a scifi Dropship looks like the Interceptor seems to have been designed very much with Enforcer aesthetics in mind rather than a more generic look.

Are you saying we should expect to see Mantic make another dropship design for the GCPS / Plague at some point? For this campaign, at least, it seems that mostly it's been murmurs about GCPS HIPs tanks, which might indicate that Plague and GCPS are stuck with modified Enforcer dropships despite the design's specificity to Enforcers. Unless you think Mantic might want to tackle more than one GCPS hard plastic vehicle? There might be a case for that, as opposed to making two for a faction like Asterians or Veer-myn, given the presumably generic applicability of GCPS designs across multiple company lines.

Or did I miss something and the likeliest GCPS HIPs vehicle actually is a dropship, not a tank?

At a glance, they seem to all require about the same amount of sprue space, so they should cost the same. Maybe the ones that are shared by several faction might cost a bit less because they'll sell more?