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RETURN OF THE TRIPODS!

A second edition of All Quiet on the Martian Front is coming to Kickstarter on October 30.


The second edition is being published by a company called Abby Normal Media. They appear to also have the rights to make a Thieves World RPG as well as Panzer Leader and Panzer Blitz board games.

AQotMF was originally developed and published by Alien Dungeon. (Many of you may recall their retail face, Architects of War.) Prior to its own acquisition by Asmodee, Miniature Market acquired the rights to the IP after the demise of Alien Dungeon. Table Top Hero Productions, a placeholder for Abby Normal Media, purchased the rights from MM.

There seemed to have been plans to launch this KS back in 2019. I don’t know what happened but it’s probably lucky that they did not considering everything that happened to global logistics during the pandemic.

Ah, I hate these kickstarter pre-notifications that contain zero details other than a date!

Love the cover art, would be interested in those tripod designs if they can be used for 6mm scale!

There are more pics on their Facebook page, FYI.

yes the public All Quiet on the Martian Front FG page has info, as does the Abby Normal company Facebook Page.

I know the full Martian force or human German force will be comparable in price.

They can be purchased as STL or printed physical models.

The book will contain info for Martian and German forces; a free pdf will be released so you can fully use your prior
UK and American armies from the 1st edition. They have stressed that all model will be valid.

People are excited for this, my fellow gamers locally are of mixed opinion. I'll probably support, I'm a sucker for 15mm.





Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Mallo wrote:
Ah, I hate these kickstarter pre-notifications that contain zero details other than a date!

Love the cover art, would be interested in those tripod designs if they can be used for 6mm scale!

Of course they can -- they will just be huge!

There are smaller flying martian vehicles in the KS that would make good heavy hitters in 6mm.

Interesting. I regretted not picking up some of the martians for the original version of this game, so will pay close attention to these new ones.

My local group is ambivalent. Quite a few of us had gone in heavily on the original kickstarter and were consequently burned a bit in the process when Alien Dungeon went belly up before they could fully fulfill the project, so we're already a bit hesitant to dip our toes in again, but the decision to go in with the Germans as the human faction for the re-release when the original was heavily focused on the American theater, and most martian invasion fiction involves either the UK (the original War of the Worlds) or the US (the famed radio broadcast that had the Martians make landfall in Grovers Mill, New Jersey) has rubbed us the wrong way. It comes across somewhat Kaiserboo/Wehraboo-ish, as well as not generally fitting the theme and not really supporting the armies that we already have. Of course including the rules for those armies is great, but not if you have no means of purchasing any of those models.

I'm kind of excited, as the original was an oddly great game. If there is a great value proposition I could see my wife and I go in hard.

chaos0xomega wrote:
My local group is ambivalent. Quite a few of us had gone in heavily on the original kickstarter and were consequently burned a bit in the process when Alien Dungeon went belly up before they could fully fulfill the project, so we're already a bit hesitant to dip our toes in again, but the decision to go in with the Germans as the human faction for the re-release when the original was heavily focused on the American theater, and most martian invasion fiction involves either the UK (the original War of the Worlds) or the US (the famed radio broadcast that had the Martians make landfall in Grovers Mill, New Jersey) has rubbed us the wrong way. It comes across somewhat Kaiserboo/Wehraboo-ish, as well as not generally fitting the theme and not really supporting the armies that we already have. Of course including the rules for those armies is great, but not if you have no means of purchasing any of those models.

I feel it was necessary for the company to distinguish themselves with a new faction and the capacity to write new Lore. I think the German stuff looks killer and will
go well with the Americans and UK that people dig up out of their closets.
expect a lot of the original to start hitting the sales pages as well.

Those molds are gone and never coming back, so I could of seen a re-design of just the original two nations prompting cries of "clone" and piggy-backing from some community
members.

We'll see how this pans out.

I spotted this a few days back but they only had a sign up page on their main site not a link to the KS, so held off posting until they cleared up. Nice that there's a KS notify page now!


Got to say I really like the rework they've done on the alien mechs, though I worry that they've pulled them forward a bit in design ethos whilst the tanks/humans still feel like they were designed 20 years ago in style. Time will tell but I think it can still work as it does separate the aliens out some.

Fingers crossed they do well. Certainly for smaller firms 3D printing is a viable approach to coming to the market (and as I own a printer I can't complain at the chance to get STLs)

chaos0xomega wrote:
but the decision to go in with the Germans as the human faction for the re-release when the original was heavily focused on the American theater, and most martian invasion fiction involves either the UK (the original War of the Worlds) or the US (the famed radio broadcast that had the Martians make landfall in Grovers Mill, New Jersey) has rubbed us the wrong way. It comes across somewhat Kaiserboo/Wehraboo-ish, as well as not generally fitting the theme

I’d be interested to hear more on your perspective here.

I think one of the elements of horror about the original story was the irony of Britain, being the foremost imperial power on Earth at the time, becoming itself the target of extraterrestrial imperialism.

The horror for Americans in 1938 may have been a violation of the sense of security provided by the Atlantic and Pacific oceans — the unthinkable prospect of a land war persecuted by a foreign power within the 48 states.

Not quite sure what the compelling theme of an interplanetary invasion of Germany might be other than the association of Germany with military technology (like you say, wehraboo).

Nothing quite so deep I suppose, but you certainly make some really great points there.

I haven't really put much thought into it myself other than knowing that I did not find the Germans narratively compelling as being the foundation of the game. My overall level of interest in the game itself was too low for me to warrant putting the effort into interrogating it. To me the Germans would/should be expansion filler rather than being the starting point for a new iteration of the game. If this was more of a true "2nd edition" moment and the Brits and Americans were in full production and readily available, I wouldn't think much of it, but for what is truly a reboot of the game it was not a good choice IMO.

I found this over on the public Facebook page:



The Germans are a bit meh, although their land ironclad looks fun.

I do like the updated Martians. It would make sense that their tech might get a bit more sleek/upgraded since the first invasion.

I shall judge the rules on the ability of wrecked Tripods to chain-link nuclear explosions and destroy a good chunk of the table, on both sides, in a single turn.

I like the Martian redesigned sculpts a lot more this time around. They are quite sinister, very effective in my eyes.

To be honest, a lot of the charm of AQotMF the first go-around (at least as a product) came from the plastic tripods and tanks. They really nicely filled out a starter set, even if playing with just them didn't necessarily represent the scope of the ruleset.

I get that producing plastic like that can be a real challenge and 3D printing has taken off in a big way since 2016. Nevertheless, I would have loved to see the game return redesigned to fully embrace asymmetric vehicle combat (think OGRE) as its core gameplay, with 3D-printed infantry and lighter vehicles as "expansion" material, so to speak.

Coming back around to the Germans being the primary protagonists of Return of the Tripods, I'm not sure this even ticks the wehraboo box as (1) the classic icon of WW1 Germany is the gas-masked infantryman (not suited to 15mm gaming) rather than the A7V and (2) the main wehraboo aesthetic is, as the name implies, Wehrmacht-oriented but the more advanced (presumably) German tanks here look minimally panzerisch.

And while the tripods look cool (very reminiscent to the designs used in the Wings of Glory spinoff Tripods and Triplanes), they don't quite fit with the era/aesthetic in question. That was something the original models really got right. Now, they could have been a bit more dynamic in terms of poseability but the look was spot-on. But really the new tripods are fine and even cool.

> Quite a few of us had gone in heavily on the original kickstarter and were consequently burned a bit in the process when Alien Dungeon went belly up before they could fully fulfill the project, so we're already a bit hesitant to dip our toes in again,

Yeah, that. I haven't seen too may companies try to bring back a game on KS when the previous KS failed, even though it's a different company. With Confrontation, the new IP holders didn't use KS bring back the game, instead using retail. Anyone seen a KS whose IP failed the first time (ie. didn't get rewards) then successfully ran a campaign later?

> but the decision to go in with the Germans

fwiw, With the War of the Worlds boardgames, games had different fronts in France, Japan, etc. Different publisher, Dan Verssen Games (DVG), so may be a coincidence.

Martians look pretty great. Dieselpunk Germans are gonna have some stiff competition pretty soon, and in hard plastic.

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Dieselpunk Germans are gonna have some stiff competition pretty soon, and in hard plastic.

What from?

I think something that might feel lacking on the German front is that its very realistic in style at the moment (Barring the mega tank). If I recall right the armies in the original game got a few wild-card models that were more futuristic/invented and I think that "spark" is just missing from that launching army right now. I think once they get a few more wildcards like that it might elevate them up a lot more.


My biggest worry for the Martians is how those long whiplike parts are going to stand up to 3D printing, especially home-3D printing where people might be using fragile/softer resins/ Whips and long thin parts are something that hard plastics just do better than most other materials - resin and metals just don't do thin whips as well unless you get into harder metals than are normally cast with (brass/steel) or specialist resins.

Good call, at (sub?)15mm scale ain't nobody getting those whips off the supports in one piece

Yeah they are very iconic to the model designs, but at the same time I'd be worried about them in plastic, let alone resin. I hope they tested the prints with a few different resins; I'd hate to think that they've used a top grade really resilient resin for all their tests and are going to release whips that just won't print with more affordable resins that customers use.

Cause if they have they will get a lot of complaints about the whips

Well, they got the whips off the supports for the sample minis so they can't be *that* bad. I certainly wouldnt expect them to survive shipping though.

I'm sure they're hoping to get at least some of the original players back,

and as such not repeating the UK/US forces they already have is smart giving them something new to buy

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Martians look pretty great. Dieselpunk Germans are gonna have some stiff competition pretty soon, and in hard plastic.

From what system, and in the same scale?

 Shrapnelsmile wrote:

chaos0xomega wrote:
My local group is ambivalent. Quite a few of us had gone in heavily on the original kickstarter and were consequently burned a bit in the process when Alien Dungeon went belly up before they could fully fulfill the project, so we're already a bit hesitant to dip our toes in again, but the decision to go in with the Germans as the human faction for the re-release when the original was heavily focused on the American theater, and most martian invasion fiction involves either the UK (the original War of the Worlds) or the US (the famed radio broadcast that had the Martians make landfall in Grovers Mill, New Jersey) has rubbed us the wrong way. It comes across somewhat Kaiserboo/Wehraboo-ish, as well as not generally fitting the theme and not really supporting the armies that we already have. Of course including the rules for those armies is great, but not if you have no means of purchasing any of those models.

I feel it was necessary for the company to distinguish themselves with a new faction and the capacity to write new Lore. I think the German stuff looks killer and will
go well with the Americans and UK that people dig up out of their closets.
expect a lot of the original to start hitting the sales pages as well.

Those molds are gone and never coming back, so I could of seen a re-design of just the original two nations prompting cries of "clone" and piggy-backing from some community
members.

We'll see how this pans out.

None of the picture links seem to be showing up?

I thought Miniature Market/Asmodee had the molds - have they been destroyed or sold off?

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
giving them something new to buy

I see what you mean but given they are o]going the STL route, the product is not going to be driven by sales of models really.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Stormonu wrote:
I thought Miniature Market/Asmodee had the molds - have they been destroyed or sold off?

Abby Normal purchased them.

 Manchu wrote:

 Stormonu wrote:
I thought Miniature Market/Asmodee had the molds - have they been destroyed or sold off?

Abby Normal purchased them.

Ah, thanks. The poster I had quoted made it sound like they had moved off to where the ones running the Kickstarter wouldn't have access to them.

The new company does not have access to the old molds. From what I've read -- I cannot confirm -- this is the case: Alien Dungeon owed a lot of cash to the plastic manufacturer. In the hundreds of thousands. When they could not pay, the molds were withheld and they refused to return them. They may be sitting somewhere, or destroyed, but it is unknown. So those sweet plastic U.S. tank kits are history, and plastic sprues cost a small fortune to design. The dude from Mini Market bought all the remaining inventory, blowing thru most of it on his site at a discount. Abby Normal purchased the rights later from MM, and here we are. The cool Monowheels, the nice American infantry, they are all gone to my understanding. You can certainly ask on Abby Normal or All Quiet Facebook group. The company owner has been transparent about it without being disparaging to Alien Dungeon. But They must move forward at this point. The U.S and Brits aren't even in the new rule book it has been implied. They are kind of a legacy army, will be supplied with rules via PDF.

the only models that will be avail in the KS to my understanding are:



they are also going to try to do some terrain (woot!)

The martians look good but the germans are meh.

The first game was set after the events of the war of the worlds novel, during a second invasion of earth. This is why it was set in the USA, and gave them the ability to give the humans cool diesel punk weapons which had been reversed engineered from the martians first invasion. This made sense from a game development point of view as if set in the time of the book the human forces would have just been a historical army, which many other manufacturers already produce.

I assume this is the same sort of deal given the germans have that super tank, but otherwise they do look very WW1.

 Tamereth wrote:
The martians look good but the germans are meh.

The first game was set after the events of the war of the worlds novel, during a second invasion of earth. This is why it was set in the USA, and gave them the ability to give the humans cool diesel punk weapons which had been reversed engineered from the martians first invasion. This made sense from a game development point of view as if set in the time of the book the human forces would have just been a historical army, which many other manufacturers already produce.

I assume this is the same sort of deal given the germans have that super tank, but otherwise they do look very WW1.

Some of the German vehicles look off to me, but it may be the paint on the windows that give it a toy appearance.

I am fond of the standard german tanks, not so much the big beastie.

Americans and Brits being pdf content is even worse.