Mantic Fantasy Games & General News & Rumour Roundup

[Karak Norn Clansman]

Nice with plastic gobbos at last: http://www.chaos-dwarfs.com/forum/sh...1272#pid191272

[loveless]

I'm confuzzled myself over when Mantic says plastic while meaning restic or when they say plastic and mean injected plastic sprues.

Mantic: We'll put these models out in a non-metal material at some point.

I'd agree they need to define the difference in their plastics - there seems to be a price difference between the two in addition to the construction difference, right?

If the newer goblins are on sprues, I'll pick some up. If they're "restic" I'll probably pass again.

[mattjgilbert]

Pretty sure this is a plastic sprue of goblin archers and not restic models.

[Karak Norn Clansman]

Let's hope for plastic, not restic gobbos.

Besides, can someone inform me why several plastic kits are being discontinued by Mantic?

http://www.manticgames.com/Shop-Home...continued.html

Are only the 10-men boxes discontinued, or are the kits disappearing altogether?

I won't miss anything from the elves and dwarves (the weakest ranges of Mantic's) except their pet animals, but the plastic skeletons deserve to live on.

[imm0rtal reaper]

Let's hope for plastic, not restic gobbos.

Besides, can someone inform me why several plastic kits are being discontinued by Mantic?

http://www.manticgames.com/Shop-Home...continued.html

Are only the 10-men boxes discontinued, or are the kits disappearing altogether?

I won't miss anything from the elves and dwarves (the weakest ranges of Mantic's) except their pet animals, but the plastic skeletons deserve to live on.

Just the ten man troop boxes.

[scarletsquig]

List of KoW releases for July and August:


Kings of War: Dwarven Assault Force
$59.99
July

Kings of War: Elven Assault Force
$59.99
July

Kings of War: Abyssal Dwarf Katsuchan Launcher
$24.99
August

Kings of War: Abyssal Dwarf Half-Breed Cavalry
$34.99
July

Kings of War: Abyssal Dwarf Immortal Guard
$29.99
August

Kings of War: Abyssal Dwarf Blacksouls
$34.99
August

Kings of War: Abyssal Dwarf Decimators
$24.99
August

Kings of War: Abyssal Dwarf Army
$74.99
August

Kings of War Rulebook 2012
$34.99
July

Kings of War Starter Set
$74.99
August

Kings of War: Orcs Assault Force
$59.99
July

Kings of War: Undead Assault Force
$59.99
July

Pricing looks largely the same on the Abyssal infantry, although keep in mind that these advance lists are often wrong by quite large amounts (For instance, some webstores already put the assault forces up for pre-order for much less than $60). Plus, it *might* be a case of a complete restic reboot,so that the models are no longer hybrids based on the fantasy dwarves. The army box going down in price by 25% to £50/$75 certainly suggests that.

There was also something about Mega Army sets, for Orcs/ Undead/ Dwarves/ Elves/ Abyssals for $174.99, although I'm not sure if that's a new release or a re-release of the existing ones.

[ogretyrant]

Any idea what unit types/numbers is going to be in them?

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

[Chicken Pig]

So those Goblins are plastic http://www.manticblog.com/?p=5990&preview=true

But far more importantly, new Halfbreed Cavalry!

[GomezAddams]

I think they mean head where they've put hair.

So yes, quite impressed that they've used the metals to make plastics... interesting developments on that front. Are the current metals being changed to a conversion set for the plastics?

[Mallo]

No quivers??!!

[sasheep]

Bah, looks like I am going to have to start a goblin army.

Out of interest does anyone know how well Mantic an GW gobos mix? Just thinking I will need some cheap spearmen and wolf riders.

[emperorpenguin]

New abyssal halfbreeds, and the Abyssal Dwarf special rule is changing to Vicious. http://www.manticblog.com/?p=6001

Plus there will be abyssal conversion pieces like they did with twilight kin.

Love the models but miffed that Twilight Kin are no longer unique in having "Vicious"

[EmperorNorton]

Nice, I think I'll pick up some Halfbreeds.
And probably some Goblins, too. Is there a price for these yet?

[Karak Norn Clansman]

Plastic gobbos are the way to go, Mantic! They look fine, too.

Sadly, the Abyssal Dwarves are an even bigger disappointment than KoW's ordinary Dwarves.

[loveless]

Woo for fancy plastic goblins - coming soon to a loveless controlled tabletop RPG near you!

I'm not digging the half-breeds - the detail seems a bit too soft, like they melted a touch.

[scarletsquig]

You can't really tell anything about the detail from that pic, the photography isn't great...

Specifically, it's slightly out of focus, contrast and colours are completely washed out, the image appears grey and blurry, you can tell from the horns, the red skin and the base which are all much greyer than they should be.

I feel like we need some unpainted pics from the side before we can really make a proper judgement on these.

The original abyssal dwarves also looked terrible in the pictures, but excellent in-person, I'm kinda hoping people won't draw the same conclusions again.

I'm going to photoshop Mantic's pictures to better reflect what the models actually look like. Bit of a rush job, just tweaked the contrast to sort out the colours and added an unsharp mask. If I had more time I'd modify the levels properly rather than fudging it. The important thing was bringing back the gold, since it looks kinda smudgey and dull on the original pics, which makes it look like the sculpted detail is soft, as opposed to the picture just being blurry.




Compared with the originals:

http://www.manticblog.com/wp-content...dividual-1.jpg
http://www.manticblog.com/wp-content...dividual-2.jpg

So yeah, my opinion is great models, bad photographs. I really like the crocodile-mask helmet.

Golem's painting has improved a whole lot, it's just the photography and post-processing that isn't up to scratch at this point.

[Chicken Pig]

Hmmmm. I had high hopes for these, but they are a little bit "meh". I am a fan of the great weapons and the new helmets but the recycling, again, of 3 old head/body combos is a bit much for me. If they go to the trouble of sculpting 2 new heads, and new weapons/bodies for all, why not go the whole hog? These could also do with a standard and musician as these will be a bit of a bugger to convert. The details of where the bull/dwarf join are also odd, and as others have said look very "soft". But the move to restic and thus a cheaper price than the original set (did anyone but Gaarew even buy any of them?) is a very big plus. So in all I am underwhelmed, I am more positive about the conversion sets.

[Nightsword]

I am a fan of the great weapons and the new helmets but the recycling, again, of 3 old head/body combos is a bit much for me.

Every pieces is new - nothing has been recycled.

[Chicken Pig]

Every pieces is new - nothing has been recycled.

Not true, three of those heads are already available on other kits.

The three heads on the right on the Immortal Guard kit pictured here


http://www.manticgames.com/Shop-Home...tal-Guard.html

are clearly recycled on the halfbreeds.

[loveless]

Even in those pics, scarlet, the detail looks soft. It could just be the paint jobs - I really dislike the majority of mantic's studio paint jobs - but those pictures do not show them in a favorable light.

I think this is one case where I'd be happy to see them unpainted just to get a good idea of the actual product.