Mantic Fantasy Games & General News & Rumour Roundup

[Llew]

Mantic has FINE looking products. Here's hoping Mantic continues to grow....AND....brings out some "humans' that are usable for historical armies too.

I'd sooner expect a human army list that covers a wide variety of troops far in advance of actual toy soldiers. With the great variety of suitable human troops in fantasy and historical lines, there's not a huge market guaranteed for anything Mantic might produce. In other words, it's likely to be a high-cost, low return investment. After all, historical minis from Perry are likely to be far lower in cost than what Mantic could supply.

[lord marcus]

hehehehehe....true.

Oh The fate of Ronnies poor studio berserkers, how he missed them so...... *cue violin*

[Cyporiean]

One thing I did ask Ronnie about, aside from Badgering him about Dwarf Cav, was Hippie Elves.

There will not be a dedicated Tree Lover Elf list, but Dryads and Trees That Walk will be added to the 'High' Elf list.

[scarletsquig]

Hmm.. the big dwarf box that was a really good deal now has 5 less ironguard in it.

Either Maelstrom got it wrong, mantic caught the error themselves... or I shouldn't have gone ahead and done the maths on those sets. :P

Oh well, the ironguard are expensive anyway, and I think most people only use the metal command for the front rank and then fill out the rest with plastics.

Ironguard would be best done as a hybrid kit based on multiples of the dwarf command sprue anyway. Something like the Morax would be good, with a lot of extra heads.

The modifying of the Dwarf set also gives me hope that mantic will *add* something to the orc set, because right now it has £15 less value than all of the other ones. It's a bit annoying since that's the box I would have been most interested in buying... if it had 15 extra Ax or the flagger on foot, I'd happily buy 2 sets.

The mention of free rules seems to have been removed from the list of stuff you get in the £50 dwarf army box, so it's possible that we won't be getting rules in the £50 boxes anymore... I guess that technically adds value to the £99 sets. I guess I prefer this approach if the alternative would have been raising the price on the £50 sets to include the new rulebook in them.

[André]

Please, no more hybrid kits.... the gaps really kill me.

[mattjgilbert]

Yes I dislike hybrids. Metal and plastic really do not work well together. One of the most terrible sets to put together were the old GW metal/plastic devastators *shudders*.

[strewart]

What about hybrid restic and plastic? That has more potential, the light weight alone would make keeping the models in one piece easier.

[Siam-Tiger]

A common comment on all the lines was, "I've seen them on the web, but they really look a lot better in person!"

That was a regular line on the RPC this year, and well, our own team said the same when we were guests at mantic towers last year.

[Importman]

Any news on Mantic goblin release?

The current GW plastic gobbos are simply horrible!

[scarletsquig]

Next year, Importman.

Before then, Mantic will be releasing Marauders (October), Forgefathers (December), and Corporation (January) for Warpath to get that game up and running with it's three core races.

Goblin release likely to appear immediately after that. Exact release months might change. All signs point to Goblins and Humans being mantic's plastic KoW releases for next year, with Twilight Kin done as hybrids.

I'm not sure when/if we're going to see the Twilight Kin released, but I had hoped it would be this side of this year. I quite like the models I've seen so far and am more interested in buying them than buying regular elves.. I think the mantic elf plastics are better suited to a more evil/ freaky concept of elves. the entire range is sculpted and a few army boxes have already been cast and sold, so I'm hoping they'll be out this year.

[Baragash]

Yes I dislike hybrids. Metal and plastic really do not work well together. One of the most terrible sets to put together were the old GW metal/plastic devastators *shudders*.

Ditto, and cheers Matt for the nightmares

The other thing I'm not keen on is metal units that exceed 10 models in size.

[Llew]

Goblin release likely to appear immediately after that. Exact release months might change. All signs point to Goblins and Humans being mantic's plastic KoW releases for next year, with Twilight Kin done as hybrids.

The impression I got -- and it's just that, not a specific statement -- was that Mantic wasn't planning on jumping on human minis until they had a distinct look for them that would carry them. They'll support them with a broad-based army list, but they wouldn't make them until they had a specific look and style that they thought would carry the range and not just be a rehash of something you could already buy elsewhere. (The would definitely not be puffy sleeved.)

[Nightsword]

The modifying of the Dwarf set

The dwarf set has not been modified and we provide all of our retailers with a contents list. This has been editted on the maelstrom site and doesn't match to what is in the photo.

[scarletsquig]

Ah, maelstrom did get it wrong then.

I'll decide what to buy once I know whether or not the new rulebook is still going to be included in the £50 army boxes and how much the rulebook costs seperately.

I'm glad that there's now more options for bulk purchases since I was starting to think that my plan to buy 4 of the £50 boxes would have left me with way too many gore riders anyway.

The £100 boxes offer greater variety than buying 2 of the £50 boxes and are a more complete army in themselves. Definitely a good idea. I'll crank out some army lists once I've got my hands on the new rules, see if these boxes are good for 1500 points of KoW.

[lord marcus]

all mega armies are now out

http://www.manticgames.com/Shop-Home...ga-armies.html

[Morat]

Oops, the High Elf one lists 1 bolt thrower as included but pictures 2. Unless one of them is a dragons breath (pretty sure it isn't), in which case that's not listed either.

[cudasquarius]

From my list there are two bolt throwers. They are great deals and with the £50 sets a great way to start off your army.

The new starter set is still good value but makes the army sets more appealling now.

tom

[hellweed]

It was a typo and they seemed to have fixed it.

I think the elf one needs some elite units or something in there. Its all troops! I mean if that's what you're looking for thats cool , but doesn't have a lot of variety. I would have thrown in palace guard of maybe some storm wind cav . I guess its a consolation that you get the dragon lord , but i still would have liked to see some other units in there.

As for the other ones, they have a good blend of things in there. I think the dwarf one is my favorite. Interesting choice to have the berserker lord with no berserkers included in the deal versus something like the standard bearer or warsmith.

The undead one is real nice as well. Also found it interesting they give you more ghouls than zombies.

Surprised they didn't mention the ability to make orcling hordes for the orc mega army.

The unit variety of the abyssal dwarf one is top notch, but with a model count of only 56 it hardly feels mega. Damn you metal prices!

I would say this was my two cents but it feels more like a fist full of change.

[hellweed]

separate note , twilight kin army list is out. Check your inbox folks. I had a creeping suspicion this would be the one they release. I would have liked to see the updated version of one of the existing lists but I was really hoping for fishmen....

[mattl]

Most interesting is the change to KoW's nerve system -- with all stat lines containing two numbers.

When you get damage, roll 2D6 + current damage (and modifiers)

* Lower than the first number (Wavering number), the unit is steady.

* Equal or higher than the Wavering number, but not as high as the second number (Routing number) then the unit is Wavering.

* Equal or higher to the Routing number, the unit Routs.