Ronnie’s Annual Christmas Message

Hi Everyone, Ronnie here with my annual Christmas message!

Mantic’s mission is to bring fun, affordable gaming to everybody...we want to be known as the great gaming company.

2022 saw the (gaming) world getting back to nearly being stable and normal again (editor’s note: well, normal for us), after a disrupted couple of years.

We got three new plastic kits out for three of our Kings of War armies, culminating in the amazing Empire of Dust, and finally the jaw dropping Ogres.

We flew 2 brits to Adepticon for the North American Clah of Kings and two Americans back to Blighty for Clash of Kings UK (to join the eight Spanish, three French, three Polish, and many more).

As the world got back to big organised gaming events, we further developed our rule sets with the release of Firefight - a very playable squad level Sci-fi game, and the Big Red Book for Kings of War, pulling all the various rule books and supplements into one place. It would be remiss of me when talking about books to not mention our various, fantastic rules committees. We have them for Kings of War , Deadzone, Firefight, Armada, and even Dungeon Saga! They all worked tirelessly through lockdown, often without access to their local gaming groups, to keep developing new rules and bring balance to our rules and creativity to the lore of all our games! They are the heroes of our hobby, and it is important we acknowledge their incredible efforts. Both current and past members leave an indelible mark on our games.

We also launched the Mantic Companion App out to the world and gave everyone full access for FREE until the end of January. If you haven't signed up yet you can via the Mantic Website! We have so much cool stuff in the pipeline including adding rules sets, functionality, community stuff and something extra special in the middle of the year!

However,

enough that retrospective stuff 😊 let’s look at what is coming up, because 2023 will see Mantic blow the bloody doors off!

We kick-off with a massive recruitment focus – to make up for the lost two years, and get lots more people playing our games...

First up, we have the Kings of War Ambush sets. We are launching six new boxes that are perfect for newbies – but also a rather easy (and amazing value) way to add a couple more units to most existing armies! I’ve also had messages from players who plan to use them as a delightful way to have a go at building and playing a new army, before you go all in with an army or mega army box! Perfect to see if you like both the building and gaming style of a new force.

Next we have the full release of the Terrain Crate Dungeon Adventures range. Two sets containing mini DnD 5^th edition compatible campaigns that introduce scenery to fantasy RPGs. The launch also has amazing sets of warbands and NPCs for your role playing games.

And that is just January! February sees us revisit the Warpath Universe! There is a new Deadzone 2 player set featuring Asterians and Plague, alongside a full Mason Labs army for Firefight.  If you have signed up for the Mantic Companion give Firefight a read (it is free until the end of Jan). Firefight is a breathtakingly amazing game and we have big plans for it in 2023 and beyond (as we do with Deadzone!). But please give it a try while you have full access to all the rules and army stats for free.

And then March we set sail in Pannithor once again with probably the most insane fleet of them all… The Trident Realm! These ‘boats’ are looking utterly spectacular! Oh and the Armada game comes to the Mantic Companion so all the rules and all the stats included with your monthly sub! If you want to get a few bases or some pieces of card and see if the sea (!) life is for you then you’ll have access to the full game and can give it a whirl before spending a penny on boats. (Obviously then you’ll buy ALL the fleets because it is amazing).

Or will you?

You’ll definitely want the boats – but maybe there will be other ways to get the boats! Hmmm...watch this space! ;)

...and that is just (some!) of the highlights from the first three months!

We are relaunching the Pathfinder programme again in early January to help us get out and demo all our games. The Pathfinder program will be headed up by Jonny (and supporting Pat with North America), bringing Yorkshire love to demoes the world over! We have more plastic planned for Kings of War than we have EVER released in a calendar year, the UK Clash of Kings is now independently run (and much the better for it) and all the CoK will have access to fantastic new and cool prizes, as Martin relaunches the Organised Play programme!

We will be having a virtual Mantic Open day around March and by then we will have enough cool stuff to show off for not just one, not two, but at least three MAJOR announcements (although I no doubt will have leaked all the actual stories long before then!). If you fancy a top-secret play test day then keep an eye on the newsletter each week. We will be having a few of those for new games coming up later in the year, and early 2024.

In the next couple of days we will explore a little deeper into both Kings of War and Warpath universe releases with some brilliant blogs... but until then here is a little scoop (well, leak, but you know!!!)

At the start of this Christmas message I said Mantic mission is to bring great gaming to everyone. I’ve been in this hobby for a while now and I have had three kids grow up. While I have had a few gaming experiences with them (usually Rafe kicking my ass at Walking Dead!). I‘ve realised that there isn’t a Dungeon Crawler designed to walk you and your family into the joy of a tabletop experience. Do not get me wrong, there are some amazing games but they are designed for us, the hard-core veterans!

Well, no more! We are diving into a little corner of Pannithor to revisit the Dungeon Saga adventuring party and how it all began. And we are making something for kids, mums and dads, and tabletop newbies everywhere!

Dungeon Saga Origins will have inspiring adventures, cool minis, character progression, multiple settings, solo, co-op and PvP options, fearful monsters, heinous baddies and of course you the brave adventuring party! It is easy to learn and playable straight out of the box. DSO will be the best way to get adventuring with anyone you want to get into tabletop games! Watch this space early 2023 for more information and to see the cool stuff planned for this brilliant game.

Have a great 2023 and keep rolling 6s (or should that be 8s)!

Ronnie.