[KS] Mantic Games - Hellboy board game - ends 8PM BST Friday 25th May

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.

**Ghool**

The thing I find most baffling is the addition of duplicate minions for no apparent game reason.
Yeah there's the hardcore mode, but that's a lame excuse to pad the pledge with perceived value.

The component upgrades are a requirement with Mantic so it's nice to see them . But the amount it's taking to fund a linen finish and spot varnish is too much. It should not cost as much or more than adding a mini.

The actual game value is a bit lackluster, as are most of the stretch goals. It's a solid 'meh' although I could be convinced if it provides good value by the end.

**Mysterio**

I am looking forward to the resin character add-ons, though I hope they're not too expensive.

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

Ghool wrote:
The thing I find most baffling is the addition of duplicate minions for no apparent game reason.
Yeah there's the hardcore mode, but that's a lame excuse to pad the pledge with perceived value.

The component upgrades are a requirement with Mantic so it's nice to see them . But the amount it's taking to fund a linen finish and spot varnish is too much. It should not cost as much or more than adding a mini.

The actual game value is a bit lackluster, as are most of the stretch goals. It's a solid 'meh' although I could be convinced if it provides good value by the end.

I'll agree adding extra minions has minimal gameplay value, but it also doesn't cost much to add extra to the production run, and gives backers an additional reason to get in on the game (i'll certainly be using my extras elsewhere)

and as to what the stuff is costing, it's all a tool to keep the money flowing, they basically know what they want to offer and what they need to do so (no more on the hoof stuff like old mantic desperately trying to salvage a stalled KS)

**His Master's Voice**

Can't help but feel a little disappointed with the miniatures. They're technically fine, and will serve well as game pieces, but they do lack the flair of Mignola's designs, especially when set against the other components.

It's one of the rare cases where I think a more simplistic design would have worked better.

**Gallahad**

I don't know how I didn't see this before, but the minis are huge:

The normal humans are 40mm tall! That is like primaris or stormcast size. I think this moves this KS out of the "worth it" column for me. I don't have a use for a bunch of 40mm scale Nazis, dramatically reducing the value of the box to me. Hopefully I'll be able to pick up some Frogmen at retail.

**Aeneades**

Mantic are looking to clarify the size issue but sounds like they are 35mm (need clarification if that’s to the top of head or eyes) so looks like the image may have been incorrectly marked up.

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

Mantic Games 16-time creator 30 minutes ago

Hey everyone - back from the cinema now so I'm looking through the questions. I see there are quite a few about the scale. The standard scale for humans, e.g. Lobster and the Nazis is 35mm. I'll get another scale shot done to show some of the minions around the heroes.

Mantic Games 16-time creator 23 minutes ago

I've just taken that second image (the row with lobster Johnson in) off too - just in case there is a mistake with the measurements. I'll get it checked out tomorrow. I think the sculptor included the bases in the measurement too. Anyway, apologies for the concern.

**judgedoug**

Been vaguely following since my day 1 pledge, as the game looks like a fantastic co-op or solo boardgame.

Jump onto Dakka, complaints are that Hellboy board game is incompatible with... I have no idea... Bolt Action miniatures?

Good job

**Gallahad**

judgedoug wrote:
Been vaguely following since my day 1 pledge, as the game looks like a fantastic co-op or solo boardgame.

Jump onto Dakka, complaints are that Hellboy board game is incompatible with... I have no idea... Bolt Action miniatures?

Good job

Are most of the human miniatures you own 40mm tall? Stop being facetious.

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

Calling all BPRD Agents,

Make sure you read to the bottom of this update to see all the latest news/information. Well, the total has been a little like a yo-yo today (these things happen in the middle of a Kickstarter campaign). However, we definitely saw the total tick over £1,055,000 at one point so that means...

Kroenen has officially been added to pledges and we can get cracking on some new stuff! Nazi scientists were so last week...

Our next goal features a number of upgrades. The Information Gathered token will become a very cool 3D book token (so it looks better alongside the Impending Doom track). Meanwhile, the BPRD logo tokens will now be used to represent the investigation tokens that you gather during play and you'll get three of them, rather than just one.

Following that we'll be upgrading the Kickstarter Exclusive box to really make the most of that awesome Mike Mignola artwork. It'll now come with a linen finish (to help protect it) and we'll use a spot varnish on the logo to ensure it stands out on your gaming shelf. You can use it to dazzle and delight your gaming pals.

Our latest stretch goal is another brand new BPRD agent: Sidney Leach. Like we've done with the previous Back-up Agents, Sidney will be a Back-up Agent AND a playable agent (taking the total of playable characters in the core pledge to 12). Sidney has the ability to detect and manipulate metal, so his abilities will be useful for investigating and for combat too.

NEW SOCIAL GOALS

We've seen a lot of requests for new social goals and who are we to argue? As you know, we've been running a contest recently for people to suggest what pieces of Hellboy lore they'd like to be turned into Requisition Cards (equipment) in the game.

We've really enjoyed reading all your suggestions and have picked our favourites so far from the comments to be turned into items. Some were suggested by numerous people, so we've taken a variety of ideas for those. Others were suggested by individuals and we've tweaked them as required.

To celebrate the community involvement with these cards, we thought it made sense to add them as social goals.

Our first goal is to reach 200 fans on Boardgamegeek. To become a fan on the site, simply head to this page and click the little heart button (assuming you're a member, of course). This will unlock the Lich Candle card (as suggested by Marcel Claxton).

Why stop at 300 fans? Our next social goal is to climb to 400 fans on Boardgamegeek. This will unlock the decapitated head of Father Nicholas Budzen. This was suggested by backer Kees, although we changed the ability slightly, as his original suggestion was close to another item already in the game.

Can you ever have enough BGG fans? Well, clearly not because we want 400 of you to become a fan. This will unlock the Pancakes card. So many of you suggested this one and we tried to combine the ideas into one card.

Our final BGG social goal will be unlocked at 500 fans. That will unlock the Iron Shoes as a piece of equipment. We'll look through the comments again to find out who suggested this one but we really liked the idea.

The final social goal is to encourage 600 members in the unofficial Hellboy Fanatics Facebook Group. There are a lot of Fanatics pages out there for Mantic games and they're a great way for fans to get together and discuss their thoughts. You can join the group here. Once there are 600 members, it will unlock the Zinco Rocket Pack. Again, this was suggested numerous times by different backers and we've combined the ideas.

Phew, that's a lot of social goals. How long until we smash through them all? Please note the cost of each item isn't final and designs will be tweaked slightly in the final product.

LIVE KICKSTARTER Q&A

Finally in our big update of justice, James M. Hewitt the designer of Hellboy: The Board Game will be appearing on a live Kickstarter Q&A on Wednesday, May 16th at 8pm (BST). Comment below with any questions you've got for James and we'll quiz him during the live feed.

**Theophony**

Gallahad wrote:
judgedoug wrote:
Been vaguely following since my day 1 pledge, as the game looks like a fantastic co-op or solo boardgame.

Jump onto Dakka, complaints are that Hellboy board game is incompatible with... I have no idea... Bolt Action miniatures?

Good job

Are most of the human miniatures you own 40mm tall? Stop being facetious.

Mantic wants to be the a big player in the industry. They take industry standards (28-32mm) and biggify them (40mm), now they are the big boys in the industry

.

**SeanDrake**

Theophony wrote:
Gallahad wrote:
judgedoug wrote:
Been vaguely following since my day 1 pledge, as the game looks like a fantastic co-op or solo boardgame.

Jump onto Dakka, complaints are that Hellboy board game is incompatible with... I have no idea... Bolt Action miniatures?

Good job

Are most of the human miniatures you own 40mm tall? Stop being facetious.

Mantic wants to be the a big player in the industry. They take industry standards (28-32mm) and biggify them (40mm), now they are the big boys in the industry .

Worked for GW with there biggius Marines

Anyway there is no industry standard outside of maybe historicals, most ranges are not even consistent. 40k is scattered from 28mm ish to 40mm ish. Infinity is becoming legendary for It's scale issues and the poor child soldiers of the Nomads.

Honestly if this is the best dakka can manage on a Mantic KS thread mantix must be doing well

**Gallahad**

Theophony wrote:
Gallahad wrote:
judgedoug wrote:
Been vaguely following since my day 1 pledge, as the game looks like a fantastic co-op or solo boardgame.

Jump onto Dakka, complaints are that Hellboy board game is incompatible with... I have no idea... Bolt Action miniatures?

Good job

Are most of the human miniatures you own 40mm tall? Stop being facetious.

Mantic wants to be the a big player in the industry. They take industry standards (28-32mm) and biggify them (40mm), now they are the big boys in the industry .

Thankfully in the comments Mantic indicated there may have been a mistake with the measurements (the sculptor including the base perhaps?). He said he would put up scale shots today.

**kodos**

Gallahad wrote:
judgedoug wrote:
Been vaguely following since my day 1 pledge, as the game looks like a fantastic co-op or solo boardgame.

Jump onto Dakka, complaints are that Hellboy board game is incompatible with... I have no idea... Bolt Action miniatures?

Good job

Are most of the human miniatures you own 40mm tall? Stop being facetious.

of course Mantic until now was the one company with consistent scale with their fantasy and SciFi minis and are going to make a different scale for a boardgame not connected to any other game
(and it would still for any GW game were the scale ranges from 1/56 to 1/35 for models of the same faction)

**Mysterio**

Honestly?

Didn't only one person 'complain' about the scale issue with the 'regular humans' here?

And even then, didn't Mantic state that the scale pic was wrong anyway? And promise to put up a corrected one...today?

Sheesh...

**Aeneades**

New comparison shot I believe -

Abe and Hellboy are both taller than a regular human. The half frog man hybrid at the end is 32mm to top of the head which should mean that the humans scale nicely with most other ranges.

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

Add-On Wednesday is here! Resin miniatures for painters and collectors! Plus, a new stretch goal...

Calling all BPRD agents,

It's Wednesday and you know what that means: Add-on Wednesday! However, before we get to that, there are some other important things to deal with. Firstly, overnight you unlocked a new stretch goal.

This means that the Information Gathered token has now been upgraded to a 3D book and the clues gathered tokens have been upgraded to BPRD logos. So, what's next?

We're just around the corner from upgrading the Kickstarter Edition box and should blast through this goal in absolutely no time.

Following that, BPRD Agent Sidney Leach will be ready to join the gang. Sidney will be a Back-up Agent and playable agent, so you can play a BPRD-only team, should you want to. He has the ability to detect and manipulate metal, so will certainly offer something different from the standard agent.

Our next stretch goal is another component upgrade that's been requested numerous times in the comments. A key part of Hellboy: The Board Game are the clues that you'll have to gather during the course of a mission. Originally these were just going to be cardboard tokens, however with this goal we'll upgrade them to 3D plastic tokens. Please note, the designs above are absolutely not final (and will have more of a distinct Mignola-vibe) but give you an idea of roughly what you'll receive.

ADD-ON WEDNESDAY IS HERE!

Wow, this is turning into a long update. Anyway, the latest Add-On Wednesday is here! Just in case you've only joined the campaign recently, every Wednesday we add some optional extras to the campaign that people can choose to add to their pledges. Last week we had the Hellboy in Mexico expansion and today we've got some fantastically detailed resin miniatures that are perfect for painters or collectors.

But what's a resin miniature? Well, rather than the standard PVC plastic miniatures, which are made in China, resin miniatures are all handmade by our expert team here at Mantic HQ in Nottingham. Resin miniatures capture the crisp detail of our sculpts slightly better than PVC plastic and are very popular with miniature painters who like to carefully pick out every detail.

Since the Kickstarter began we've had numerous requests from backers and those interested in backing if we could offer the option for resin miniatures, so we're happy to oblige! We've tried to group them into sets to ensure you save money based on buying individual miniatures but also to make sure it's logistically much simpler when it comes to packing. Although, we have made sure that Hellboy is available on his own, as we're sure he will be very popular! Anyway, enough waffle, let's take a look at what's on offer...

First up is one that's useful as a gaming piece, rather than for painters (and is VERY cool). One of Johann's abilities is 'Projection' which allows him to leave his containment suit and explore a different area of the board. Normally this is represented with a token but with this set you'll get a translucent ectoplasmic projection of Johann and an empty suit marker to show where he started. This is a cool little optional extra that was suggested by one of our playtesters.

Below are the rest of the resin miniatures you can choose from. Please bear in mind you are already receiving the majority of these as part of the Agent Pledge in PVC plastic. We're offering these sets for miniature painters and also for anyone who just wants to purchase the miniatures on their own.

ARMY PAINTER SETS

If you're just getting started with miniature painting, then we can recommend the Army Painter series of paints, so we're happy to offer these as an optional extra (just in case you want to start painting the moment your miniatures arrive).

As the name implies this is a great entry point into painting. This set contains all the colours you'll need to paint your Hellboy set and (most importantly) it does include red!

If you want to throw yourself in at the deep end, then the Mega Paint Set should really set you up for life!

HOW TO ADD OPTIONAL EXTRAS TO YOUR PLEDGE

If you want to add any of the Optional Extras to your pledge, it couldn't be easier.

1. Click on 'manage my pledge' and increase your overall total by the amount required. For example, if you want translucent Johann, increase your total by £10

2. Relax and enjoy the rest of the campaign

3. After the campaign closes we'll email you the pledge manager. In the pledge manager you choose what optional extras you want to receive. Any extra funds pledged during the course of the campaign will become credit to spend in the pledge manager or you can add extra funds directly into the pledge manager. We're currently expecting to send the pledge manager to backers in late June/early July.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Boo Hiss Mantic

those sets of resin minis almost seem designed to get you to end up with extra minis you don't want

(there are suggestions there may be an all in bundle/another bundle with horned hellboy in later but as it stands it's pretty poor)

**Aeneades**

There is at least one more resin pack to unlock before the bundle appears (horned Hellboy and Baba Yaga will be in it I believe along with models not yet shown).

Mantic are looking into changing the Johann model to be him outside of his suit for the ethereal projection. The empty suit marker that comes in that addon will also be a 3D model (not certain if Resin or Plastic but would assume Resin given lower volumes).

**JoeRugby**

Aeneades wrote:
New comparison shot I believe -

Abe and Hellboy are both taller than a regular human. The half frog man hybrid at the end is 32mm to top of the head which should mean that the humans scale nicely with most other ranges.

Same shot as before I believe, I wouldn’t take the frog man as an indicator of average size if they do update the numbers.

If you look at the group pics of the heroes liz and gas dude are taller than abe.

When I asked about the average scale I was told it was 35mm which should mean either to the eyes or to the top of the head.

If you measure the nazis and humans on your screen (get the base to 25mm at the largest) then you can measure the height yourself, they come to about 40mm. So about 2mm taller than a primaris and 1 cm taller than a guardsman.

I’d want to use these with my 40k, hasslefree, crooked dice etc minis so they wouldn’t work for me, so I’m out.

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

@ODYNH - we talked about that in the Q&A. The demo Case (the one in the video) is intentionally a bit easy - the Case Files themselves will be harder. My goal for testing is around a 30% win rate on first playthrough, in other words you can beat them if you've got your wits about you but it shouldn't feel like an auto win.

**Gallahad**

JoeRugby wrote:
Aeneades wrote:
New comparison shot I believe -

Abe and Hellboy are both taller than a regular human. The half frog man hybrid at the end is 32mm to top of the head which should mean that the humans scale nicely with most other ranges.

Same shot as before I believe, I wouldn’t take the frog man as an indicator of average size if they do update the numbers.

If you look at the group pics of the heroes liz and gas dude are taller than abe.

When I asked about the average scale I was told it was 35mm which should mean either to the eyes or to the top of the head.

If you measure the nazis and humans on your screen (get the base to 25mm at the largest) then you can measure the height yourself, they come to about 40mm. So about 2mm taller than a primaris and 1 cm taller than a guardsman.

I’d want to use these with my 40k, hasslefree, crooked dice etc minis so they wouldn’t work for me, so I’m out.

I'm afraid I will have to make the same choice you did. I just don't need a bunch of 40mm Nazis. Even if they come with a great game, there are other great games out there that come with miniatures that scale with my collection that I can spend money on. Great game +minis that scale > potentially great game + minis that don't scale.

Additionally, if you haven't read the comics (or only the movies plus a few comics like myself), the bulk of the stretch goals have been generic Nazis and generic agents. The box is basically filling up with boring stuff. I the the later releases where Hellboy fights more creatures and less Nazis would better suit me (since creatures scale easier)

**grefven**

Would love to get the "original" Hellboy and the "horned" Hellboy in resin, but too bad I cant just get those two. :/

**ritualnet**

I'm happy with this KS so far, although... I do wonder about the extra minions for no reason.

However, I don't intend to use the figures outside of the game so it's all good.

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

Well an official answer for the scale question (and not what I expected)

The miniatures in Hellboy: The Board Game are 35mm scale. Here's a line-up to show how they stack up against one of our 28mm scale Star Saga Marine.

a bit disappointing (not so much the 35mm scale, but the 'human' Nazis seeming to be a bit oversized even for that)

time for a bit of a value rethink based on new info

**Gallahad**

OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
Well an official answer for the scale question (and not what I expected)

The miniatures in Hellboy: The Board Game are 35mm scale. Here's a line-up to show how they stack up against one of our 28mm scale Star Saga Marine.

a bit disappointing (not so much the 35mm scale, but the 'human' Nazis seeming to be a bit oversized even for that)

time for a bit of a value rethink based on new info

Well, I'm out. As far as I am concerned this choice is inexplicable. As I explained above Fun game +miniatures that scale> Fun game + miniatures that don't scale. There are a lot of games competing for my money, and lots of cool stuff I don't own yet. There is no shortage of competition in the the fun game + minis that scale column.

**Mysterio**

Yes, you've told us that already!

I'm potentially dropping out too now as part of the 'value' for me is using these minis in other Weird War II games.

**Gallahad**

Mysterio wrote:
Yes, you've told us that already!

I'm potentially dropping out too now as part of the 'value' for me is using these minis in other Weird War II games.

Ha! Sorry to keep repeating myself. I really like Hellboy, and I was pretty juiced about this campaign, I got an EB and everything. I guess I'm just processing the disappointment and talking myself out of buying a bunch of 40mm Nazis.

**Mysterio**

Heh - no worries!

I'm a little disappointed too.

They probably went a bit bigger here for a couple of reasons - one is that they'll show better, I guess, and the other is that they'll have fewer PVC problems at that size too.

I'm still on the fence, as I'm a Hellboy fan too, but I'm wavering.

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

and that image has gone again, and 'consultations' are going on

so we yet see a size change, or maybe not

**DaveC**

OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
and that image has gone again, and 'consultations' are going on

so we yet see a size change, or maybe not

Well the one thing that’s absolutely correct is the height of the Star Saga Marine which is 35mm to the top of the head excluding the base (I checked last night)