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 Manchu wrote:

 n815e wrote:
Mongoose is not known for managing its product lines well.

Not a fair assessment of the JD miniatures game, which included a rulebook, an expansion, and a comprehensive miniatures line, including vehicles, which was available for quite a few yaers.

In fact, I would say that line was a major achievment. If I had managed to get all that made, I'd feel pretty pleased about it.

The kickstarter is still unfulfilled (four years later, I think).

Only a very few heavy backers may see the majority of the vehicles (if at all).

Despite my love for it, the line has very questionable choices in sculpting on a good number of models. It is inconsistent.

Promises of future releases, rules documents and support that were not fulfilled after months or years. A general plan of direction wasn't evident in the releases.

Before Warlord took over, the usual poor quality control.

Regarding the KS:

As I said in the update, all KS pledges will be honoured. There is no legal countdown on them. Everything you pledged for is guaranteed (and has been sculpted, it is just waiting to be cast).

 Cruentus wrote:

With re: to Osprey, the only thing I find good about them is that they are cheap. Most of them are samey, and not particularly compelling. There are some that people really like: Lion Rampant, Ronin, En Garde (upgrade of Ronin). I've bought most but not felt compelled to play them more than a handful of times.

I really like the Osprey games, but they are going to appeal to a particular kind of gamer. They tend to (though not all will) be toward the rules-lite end of the complexity spectrum. Further, they're not really aimed at folks who like an expansive game ecosystem that will be continually expanded with new expansions, miniatures, fluff, etc. I think an Osprey game could capture the attention of a game group for a campaign or occasional one-off event game, but you're probably not going to pick one game and base a game club around it like you would for 40k, Infinity, Warmachine, KoW, etc.

Oh cock.

I was hoping they'd do a second version of the rulebook, as while the game is fun, the rulebook is a fething mess to work with.

It does explain why Warlord is giving away the digital rules for free these days.

WLG has offered those for free for a long while now.

Well poop, I was thinking of picking up some stuff with the next paycheck.

Damnit Mongoose.

So, Mongoose acquired the Judge Dredd rights in 2002. So, fourteen years (although Gangs of Mega-City One came out in 2005 and the Judge Dredd Miniatures Game in 2011) . Longer than GW had the licence, I think. How long did WotC have the Star Wars licence for?

I never did get the Blood in the Streets, book. Does anyone know if it had anything good in it i'll regret not owning a few years down the road?

It is mostly scenarios, with some new characters and such thrown in.

The scenarios are for specific factions (so things like crime blitzes or checkpoints for the Judges, raids for muties, etc) or "historical" scenarios.

FYI

http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=439482

 Manchu wrote:
FYI

http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=439482

Great news to see Rebel Minis picking up more great figs from Mongoose. Plus, they'll probably be even cheaper priced than Mongoose.
First it will be just these two packs at $25 each, but more are coming!

Good stuff, taking Dredd off the box about halved the price!

Shame about the game (though good news about the old minis). Wanted to try it out, especially since watching Dredd, but just never got around to it.

Bit more info about the Warlord licence here:

https://www.2000adonline.com/post/1183

richstrach wrote:
Bit more info about the Warlord licence here:

https://www.2000adonline.com/post/1183

Very interesting. The styles might differ a bit, but it's very likely that you'll be able to pick up bargain figs from Mongoose to use in the Warlord game. Warlord will proably do right by the rules and support it, but they're not exactly known for bargain minis in their non-historical games.

 Cruentus wrote:
Off the top of my head:

Starship Troopers
Battlefield Evolution
Noble Armada: Bablyon 5
Noble Armada: A Call to Arms
Noble Armada: Star Fleet (though this might be with ADB now)
Now Judge Dredd all gone.

At least those are the ones I bought and have sat collecting dust (miniatures based). I think licensing took care of ST, Babylon, and now Dredd. Babylon and ST had pretty solid player bases, but its not like they're isolated cases.

It's not just miniatures games that Mongoose has mismanaged either, their publishing arm collapsed and took a lot of people's money with it. A good example is the Lone Wolf gamebooks, lots of people paid $500 upfront for 32 books over 5 years back in 2006... 8 years later they'd only made 16 out of the 32, and the author had to pull the plug on the license.. Mongoose didn't fully refund people and the author died last month... 5 years after Mongoose were supposed to have completed publication of his book series.

These were books that were *already written*, all Mongoose had to do was pay someone to do cover art/ layout and get a print run sorted.

They're a really, really terrible company that just seems to be utterly lazy, I often notice Mongoose Matt flogging his own stash of OOP stuff for loads of money on ebay.

 scarletsquig wrote:


It's not just miniatures games that Mongoose has mismanaged either, their publishing arm collapsed and took a lot of people's money with it. A good example is the Lone Wolf gamebooks, lots of people paid $500 upfront for 32 books over 5 years back in 2006... 8 years later they'd only made 16 out of the 32, and the author had to pull the plug on the license.. Mongoose didn't fully refund people and the author died last month... 5 years after Mongoose were supposed to have completed publication of his book series.

These were books that were *already written*, all Mongoose had to do was pay someone to do cover art/ layout and get a print run sorted.

They're a really, really terrible company that just seems to be utterly lazy, I often notice Mongoose Matt flogging his own stash of OOP stuff for loads of money on ebay.

For some reason I always had better feelings about Mongoose than some other troubled dealers. Unlike Paladium, Defiance, etc they always seemed to be trying to do the right thing. However, examples like this and the shoddy product (or lack of it) that many folks seem to have gotten with the kickstarter is really making me re-evaluate my opinion. They've definitely become one of those companies that I'd advise folks to steer clear of.

Mongoose, mongoose, mon.... goose.

That was absolutely the last chance. Great that the figures came to fruition, and good to see Warlord keep the faith, but when you see those figures that I put hard earned coin to going to Rebel, even when the KS STILL isn't finished, you just have to laugh at it, or you wouldn't stop crying. To see the new developments, you just have to throw in the towel on some companies.

The technical term for it is hot garbage.

Normally a pretty negative guy re Mongoose (former Mongoose Infantry for SST for several years) but what's with all the bitching about Judge Dredd? After like 15 years, they're letting go of the license. Who else has had a license for that long? I guess GW with LOTR, but they let that linger for several years and only just starting releasing new stuff again. Also, as a backer in the JD KS for, well, everything, I think the only things left are Zombie and Robot Bikers, the Mo-Pad... and Nero? So like 99%+ of everything has been delivered.
Or is it one of those things with the myth of once a ruleset is no longer published, it bursts into flames and can never be played again?

I would hope that Mongoose could remove the Dredd-specific bits and republish the rules as generic sci fi rules - they're my favourite sci fi skirmish rules with character development.

Sounds a bit like a repeat of what happened with A Call to Arms: Star Fleet. My understanding is that both the rules and minis for that were supposed to be handled by Mongoose with ADB serving as the US distributor. Eventually, after many many months of woe - and a month or two after ADB published an update stating something along the lines of "Still no delivery from Mongoose and no acceptable explanation why" - ADB took both the miniatures AND the rules in-house. Looks like Warlord likewise decided Mongoose was dead weight but decided to cut them out of the loop entirely.

 Gashrog wrote:
Sounds a bit like a repeat of what happened with A Call to Arms: Star Fleet. My understanding is that both the rules and minis for that were supposed to be handled by Mongoose with ADB serving as the US distributor. Eventually, after many many months of woe - and a month or two after ADB published an update stating something along the lines of "Still no delivery from Mongoose and no acceptable explanation why" - ADB took both the miniatures AND the rules in-house. Looks like Warlord likewise decided Mongoose was dead weight but decided to cut them out of the loop entirely.

That doesn't sound at all like what happened, in the very least bit.

 Gashrog wrote:
Sounds a bit like a repeat of what happened with A Call to Arms: Star Fleet. My understanding is that both the rules and minis for that were supposed to be handled by Mongoose with ADB serving as the US distributor. Eventually, after many many months of woe - and a month or two after ADB published an update stating something along the lines of "Still no delivery from Mongoose and no acceptable explanation why" - ADB took both the miniatures AND the rules in-house. Looks like Warlord likewise decided Mongoose was dead weight but decided to cut them out of the loop entirely.

Don't attribute malice to licensing issues. For such a small one man show, I have had my issues with Mongoose in the past, but for this particular project, I see it as grasping farther then one can reach, in terms of the game itself, and the KS project. As the time ticked by, I have not seen Matt do anything less then hustle to try to keep up with such a large evoluted project, and even if there were a lot of hiccups, he has done a very good job of trying to accomplish what can be compared with counting sand on the beach.

Delivery is ongoing, and he seems at the mercy of subcontractors accomplishing their tasks to targets.

In short, it is a one man show trying to do GW level production and distribution, with the same amount of single person staff.

As to Armadillo... No, it wasn't like that at all. Star fleet battles, and old school "Call to Arms" were two completely different games. My guess? Loss of revenue, in trying to keep the licensing of both Babylon 5, AND Star Trek, as the company continued to vie for more material for different games. If you recall, this was both the time when Starship troopers, Conan, Mighty Empires, and those other properties were being continued, as the shaky systems continued to meet with resistance with the general gaming market.