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the last one looks like a "Kaiju" from pacific rim.

1 hour left. 37K from the good ole' Doctor... We've done like 113K in 2 hours lol.

Upped my pledge back to its pre- Rick and Morty state to help with Falconer. As for the stomper abomination, I didn't really need another abomination variant, but that is one sweet design. All things considered, this is a nice return to form.

It's interesting to see that Falconer's been a divisive subject in the KS comments: some love it and find it tasteful, others question its legality and think it's trespassing on the man's legacy.

Looking at the actual (digital) sculpt, I don't have a problem with it. Falconer himself comes off dignified, not ridiculous. I guess some will find his weaponized wheelchair/tank ridiculous and out of bounds, but I don't find it offensive. Simply put, this homage doesn't feel like mockery to me.

One more won't make it but they'll throw it in anyway





Artwork looks male but I think it's based on Nebula (Hence the Cloud name)

Damn, I really want that one!

 DaveC wrote:
Artwork looks male but I think it's based on Nebula (Hence the Cloud name)

I think it is a mash of Nebula and Gamora (green skin for Gamora, everything else is Nebula). The artwork does look male, or at best androgynous.

That's not much of a Buster Sword...

Anyone remember when the Chinese unlocks happened on HATE? Was it during or after the campaign ended? I can't remember.

Added in 100k (only?) so they unlocked it.

Wow. If those Asian funds only unlocked that one mini, that's pretty lame. Anticlimactic, too. So much wasted potential with this one.

I wouldn't take the Asian slush fund too seriously. They weren't going to put out a final goal without giving it to backers, they just hiked up the stretch amount for Cloud to insure it would be the last one. There's a murky relationship between the stretch goals, the final total, and what it pays for in these campaigns. Green Horde got an art box that this campaign didn't, but other than that, it looks to me like Invader backers got an equivalent amount of stuff from a campaign that brought in about 2 million dollars less.

Not that I'm complaining.

True. If you compare the number of big abominations, extra survivors, and new monsters we're getting as well, it's a pretty sweet deal compared to the fantasy equivalents.

But still, there's so much untapped potential for their scifi one. At least we'll be getting a box full of interesting minis to put to use all over the place.

Still, it would've been nice to have a dreadnought sized power suit to slug it out with the abombs.

 highlord tamburlaine wrote:
... Still, it would've been nice to have a dreadnought sized power suit to slug it out with the abombs.

That right there... made me visualize it. Great visual. I have to agree. Maybe, they will make something like that eventually.

Untapped potential = season 2?

I really like a lot of these models, but have no interest in the core box and pretty much every single thing I want is Kickstarter Exclusive. Damn.

They are quick off the mark with the surveys! My payment hasn’t even gone through yet, 55 KS backed and now my bank decides to flag it as suspicious activity.

 warboss wrote:

 Pacific wrote:
I am so torn between this and Hellboy. Both have their positives and negatives.

I love the art style of this (Adrian Smith) and have had so much fun with the other Zombicide games. This one is probably a bankable guarantee of quite a few fun evenings of gaming. But, I love the Hellboy franchise, and perhaps I should go for something a bit different?

Arggghhhh! First world problems!

I say base it on the KS exclusives. Which ever one has more figs that you won't be able to find later on without paying a scalper's mark up, go with that one and pick the other one up at retail if it still tickles your fancy. YMMV.

Thanks guys! Yes I know what you mean - I have made a fair amount back from selling the extra KS figures (think it pretty much covered the cost of Z:BP for me).

This looks great but I haven't started working on my Kingdom Death set yet, and have Village Attacks arriving soon, so couldn't really justify the spend on this. Might reconsider at retail though once it finally arrives and if I've finished other projects by then!

That was a fun ride gents... With this and Street Fighter II, I'm really out of funds...

Can't wait to get these in May 2019...

You guys know they have a follow up planned already, right? They work on a 2-year out schedule.

No, I didn't know they already have a "Season 2 for Invader" planned - more details please!

A little post-mortem commentary -

A kickstarter that brings in over 3 million isn't a failure. I also doubt the conventional wisdom that because this failed to reach Green Horde's 5 million+, or because they bundled Dark Side into this campaign, that Invader will be Zombicide's one and only foray into sci-fi. Consider their very next kickstarter project, advertised at the end of this campaign: a sequel to Arcadia Quest, a Ks project that brought them a whopping total of $774,122. If that's enough money to make an Arcadia Quest sequel worth doing for CMON, I think Zombicide sci-fi will have a future. (But the perception that CMON will never touch Zombicide sci-fi again will no doubt help scalpers dupe ebayers who 'missed the boat.') I just don't expect to see them revisit it for at least another 3 years.

So it made 3 million, so it's a great big success and there's nothing more to be said? Let's be serious. I just checked out some German language websites covering Invader, and guess what the #1 passing comment was? You know the answer already: How awful Invader's Abomination looked, often followed by an expression of disinterest in the entire campaign.

To be frank, I never liked Zombicide's original art style, and the fact that this Abomination looked terrible basically meant to me that he just followed Zombicide's long tradition of stupid-looking boxed set abominations. I know some people love the original Zombicide series art, so this is a personal taste issue. But the bar was a lot lower for me because I didn't like any of the boxed set zombies from Black Plague, but I bought it and got loads of mileage from the gameplay anyway. So while I understand complaints that the Invader xenos were at best uninspired or at worst just awful, the fact that I like any of them is a + for me since I'm getting the game regardless for its gameplay.

But it is going to cost Invader money at retail, and I'm sure it impacted the takings in the KS as well. Why make your most visible, iconic big figure in the box such a half-arsed design? I remember reading a Magic the Gathering designer's advice on how to get new people into the game: Give them a deck, and make sure that deck includes some cards they won't like. Why? So they'll be intrigued but dissatisfied, and motivated to start buying packs of Magic cards to replace the obviously flawed ones in their first deck. Pretty clever, pretty evil. Along those lines, I'm tempted to believe the Invader abomination was deliberately awful, to drive people to back the KS campaign and get the much better designed kickstarter exclusive ones. That strategy would still leave CMON selling a game at retail with a terrible centerpiece figure, which seems boneheaded, but these days they don't seem to be focusing on retail sales.

On the other hand, don't underestimate miniatures companies' capacity to unknowingly shoot themselves in the foot with obviously bad designs. (Do FFG's Mansions of Madness minis really have to be that awful? The game is successful, sure, but wouldn't it be moreso if the figures were actually good?) Conspiracy theories aside, it's possible CMON staff really did think Invader's xeno minis were fine, including the abomination.

It's obvious that CMON knew Dark Side's xenos were better, though, which is why they made sure that you had to buy Invader to get it. They would never have done the reverse: If they'd started the pledge with Dark Side and made Invader the optional add-on, it wouldn't have sold. Why didn't they just do Dark Side from the get go and forget about Invader entirely? You've got me. I know doing Invader and Dark Side this way was a cash grab, but it sure was a weird cash grab. The traditional way to grab cash would be to make Dark Side your starter set, then follow it up with well-designed expansion add-ons containing xeno figures that people are thrilled with.

As for the homages, you can say CMON couldn't win because everyone has different ideas of what sci-fi is, so no-one was ever going to be happy with their homage choices, and more sci-fi properties are being produced as mini games now, so a lot of popular references are off limits. I also think some backer frustration with the homages came from the idea that this would be the one and only sci-fi Zombicide CMON ever does, so it was now or never to get it right. (As I said above, I don't believe that.) Finally, I'm a different generation from the CMON staff, and I have different tastes in sci-fi. All of that said, I still think they could have done better, but I can use what they did do.

This wasn't the best run campaign. The pacing was off. Doing Ruby Rhod and the two-part Rick and Morty stretch goals near the finale brought campaign to a crawl. Closing kickstarters with a bang isn't rocket science - just put out your best crowd-pleasers in order of popularity, then throw in a large, impressive monster model, and you're done. As Dana Carvey impersonating George Michael once said, "it was supposed to be butt shot, shot of the hair, back to the butt, hand, butt, hand, butt, hand, butt, belt, butt, beard, butt, belt, butt, earring, face, butt, butt, earring, hold on the butt, hold on the butt, it's a formula but it bloody works!" They did get their wind back in the end with the Stomper Abomination and Falconer, but doing Rhod, Rick, and Morty in the early-to-middle campaign would have made more sense.

The three offbeat gang figure add-ons did seem to leave money and potential on the table, too. I liked them, but that was it? Nothing else to expand the sci-fi palette, like things better suited to the game's actual setting (miners, conscripts, dare I say Riddick? How do you do Dark Side without a Riddick homage?) or one of the many untouched sci-fi genre staples? Hopefully this was deliberate, because they're saving things for another campaign years from now. They sure saved a lot.

So how do I feel about this KS? I'm really happy with it, and looking forward to when it arrives in a year+. I'm trying to stop kickstarting games, but I'd been waiting forever for CMON to do sci-fi Zombicide. Despite all the flaws and quibbles, there's a generous amount of good minis here, the gameplay is reliable if stodgy, and production values will be high. (No surprise shortcuts on quality, like the kind that plague my favorite company, Mantic.) I actually don't hate all of the Invader Xenos as much as some do (just the abomination and the two KS exclusive worker poses), and I really like the KS exclusive xenos and abominations. As for Dark Side, that's the best horde of xeno-aliens I've seen in a long time that aren't from 40k or a movie property. Their design influences are obvious, but again, "it's a formula that bloody works." (Well OK, I think the Dark Side abomination looks kind of stupid, but that just upholds the venerable tradition of all Zombicide box sets. Boxed set Zombicide abominations have to look stupid. Because reasons.) I want to set up a game where the Invader and Dark Side aliens are at war, with the players caught in the middle as they try to escape.

Should I spend hundreds on this board game? Should anyone spend hundreds on any board game? Probably not, but I have a trump card: I'll get great mileage out of playing this with my son, and that makes this campaign worth its weight in gold. YMMV.

What was that KS obsession with Riddick by the way?

Pitch Black was an ok, by the numbers, sci-fi film. Enjoyable, but nothing special. Certainly not a sci-fi staple.

For me, I am glad to back the Kickstarter and get all the extra miniatures. Whether it is a success/failure to CMON...since I don't run their business, I think they can decide themselves about that .

For me, I think Invaders is a better suited product for a wider general audience as the survivors are soldiers+civilians. Dark Side (i like the monsters better) there are no civilian survivors in the mix.

 Vermonter wrote:
...
Consider their very next kickstarter project, advertised at the end of this campaign: a sequel to Arcadia Quest, a Ks project that brought them a whopping total of $774,122.
...

To be fair, there has already been a second Arcadia Quest KS. The second one pulled in $1.7million. That's $2.4million raised on KS between the two campaigns. This new expansion was actually announced and said to be a straight to retail option at last year's Gencon. I guess they decided to use KS as a straight to consumer pre-order platform instead.

 Grinshanks wrote:
What was that KS obsession with Riddick by the way?

Pitch Black was an ok, by the numbers, sci-fi film. Enjoyable, but nothing special. Certainly not a sci-fi staple.

Riddick is a great character. I like Vin Diesel enough that I can watch pretty bad movies if he is in there. Pitch black was a great scifi film, chronicles less so, but still ok. The last Riddick movie was a bit samey to Pitch black, but watchable too.

Final thing that makes me like the character of Riddick was the game where you play Riddick, busting out of various space prisons. That was a great game and made the character memorable to me at least.

I'm just salty that they didn't do a DS-based base pledge, and they won't sell it directly as an add-on. I asked, and they said no. Not even $1 this time.

 Mysterio wrote:
No, I didn't know they already have a "Season 2 for Invader" planned - more details please!

Since Black Plague, every Zombicide "core" game released has been as a standalone product and they've done away with the "season" moniker.

CMON bought out the Zombicide brand last year (maybe sooner? time flies) and they're going to milk it for all it's worth. I'd expect to see another around May 2019. Every year since 2012 they have run a Kickstarter campaign for a Zombicide game sometime between March and June, with the only exception being 2016 when they ran Massive Darkness in that slot instead (which clearly utilized the same design team).

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
I'm just salty that they didn't do a DS-based base pledge, and they won't sell it directly as an add-on. I asked, and they said no. Not even $1 this time.

Mebbe they'll learn from their "success" what sort of sculpts backers want and offer it next time -- if there is one.

A possibility is that CMON is more interested in selling more product to a smaller target, much like how other hobby companies sell their stuff (eg. Games Workshop). So it's better for them to have more projects in a shorter period of time (eg. upcoming Arcadia Quest "flash" KS, overlapping GH delivery date with Invader KS). And it's fine to make 3.3M gross when you could have made 5.0M gross on a particular project when your *net* for the year is higher. KS is not a store -- because stores don't track customer data as well as KS! With KS, there's the potential of creators knowing your buying habits *much* better than the traditional retailer-distributor system. I mean, *you* can click on someone's username and at least know what projects they've backed. Just try walking into a FLGS and asking the manager what products another customer bought. So it's possible that CMON is tailoring their KS to hunt, for those who are familiar with the video game term, whales. CMON may be setting up their KS to go after competitions who will buy the more profitable add-ons, not backers who will only buy a base pledge.

That's just an explanation to fit what we're seeing. Of course, Invader could have been "managed by committee" where everyone go to have their pet idea resulting in an incohesive art direction and whatnot. Occam's Razor.

@ Vermonter -

Great write up. I agree with your points.

From my perspective, it seemed as if the design team passed up some good, low-hanging fruit and grabbed some off the ground instead. I would have loved a Miner team add-on with a Sean Connery Marshall (from Outland).
I don't mind the 40K imagery but really would have liked more civilians. The Back To The Future followed by the Rick and Morty were too similar and, IMO, better choices could have been found. Backers were offering plenty of ideas.

For me, a lot of these minis, even the aliens, will get used in games and home-brewed scenarios of Core Space. While the Kabuki gang still makes no sense to me in Invader, they will be perfect gangers in gritty Core Space.

Except, that didn't happen. If you look at the numbers:
* the 85% of Invader backers who selected a full pledge averaged $214
* the 89% of GH backers who selected a full pledge averaged $206.

Invader had a lot fewer backers, and a lower conversion rate (i.e. higher number of fence-sitters), and I'm pretty sure it's not worth gaining a mere $8 over $206. That's now how to get whales.

@Grinshanks - I never raised Riddick in the KS comments, because 1) going on and on about any character you want gets annoying and 2) so many other people were doing it anyway. Why Riddick? I just like the character, and he's better suited to the setting than most of the survivor homages they chose.

@Kriswal - thanks for the correction on Arcadia quest. I still think Zombicide sci-fi has a future, but it'll be years from now. I'm sure they'll revisit their Fantasy and Modern eras and then expand the franchise with Zombicide: Weird West, Zombicide: Steampunk, and Zombicide: Jurassic Dark Carnival editions before they do sci-fi again.

@Myrthe - Thanks! And thank you for bringing up Outland, an oft-overlooked gem. I would have loved to see that homage. I don't have Core Space, but I think a lot of us are looking at the load of sci-fi survivors and thinking about exporting them to other games. Most of the survivors aren't the usual assortment of straight-up marines or soldiers, which is very handy.

@Myself - stop using the @ sign so much. It's @nnoying.