Ronnie’s Ramblings: 2017 so far and what’s coming next…

Hey there,

How can it possibly be July already? It is past halfway through the year, and it’s nearly time for the Kings of War summer campaign!

We’ve been hugely busy here at the Mantic bunker, so apologies I’ve not got more blog posts up. Let me give you a quick round up of what has been going on…and of course a few things I shouldn’t mention, but will :)

First up, any bad stuff! Over the last year one of our main toolmakers – who we have worked with for 6 or so years now – had some problems. This meant that although they did the first 2 Warpath vehicles (and a fantastic job they did too!), they were unable to help with the Asterian Chroma/Chira, Veer-myn Tunneller, GCPS/Plague Mule nor GCPS/Plague Hornet.

We had another company that wanted to work with us, and so we chose to send them just one kit to see how they got on, and if it was up to our usual high standards. We sent them the Veer-myn Tunneller, and I’m so pleased to say they have nailed it. It looks fantastic. On this basis we have now commissioned the last few Warpath kits. While this is a bit of delay over our initial expectations, I’ve learnt through bitter experience it’s better to be a little late than release something that falls short, and you have it live with for a long time to come.

This means that next month we have a year of very sexy, easy to assemble and amazing-looking vehicles coming your way. Which is why we’re calling August ‘Tank Porn Month’! So for those of you that don’t like a good bit of rank and flank fantasy action, you’ve something to keep you going through the summer.

Oh I think we will be having a Vehicle ‘Brush with Death’ Painting competition late summer so all you kit bashers might want to get going now ;)

In other Kickstarter news, Star Saga is well underway with the print files sent to the factory, and DreadBall is just behind it. We think there is a space in the competitive play space for a sports board game that easy to get into and can be played to conclusion in an hour. With this in mind we’ve been back to the locker room with the DreadBall 2.0 and tried to make it as inclusive as possible to beginners, but ensure it will scale up as your skills develop. The Kickstarter will ship to backers this year, but won’t launch in retail until end of quarter one in 2018 – so backers will get a nice amount of time to master their skills before everyone else can get to the pitch!

Finally on Kickstarter, TerrainCrate has already finished sculpting and is going off to tooling as we speak/type/read this! Again, it’ll be on retail shelves sometime in the first half of 2018. And those of you that need to fill in your pledge manager, or want to bag a late pledge then here is the link – it closes at the end of July, so be quick!

The Walking Dead: All Out War is continuing to bring in loads of new people to our wonderful hobby – lots of people who have never played a minis game are picking it up and loving it. We are going to be working over the whole of this year and next to keep getting this out to new stores and avenues. With the Walking Dead name, the low price point, and the quick to learn game play it’s an ideal starting point for people to get into the hobby. Later in the year there is the Safety Behind Bars expansion – where you can play as Rick and the other survivors and recreate the story from the whole Prison arc. Again there will be a few retail exclusives, such as Armoured Glenn and Maggie Greene, so watch out for those in stores in September.

Oh, and if anyone has a particular scene that they would love to see immortalised in resin then please let me know – the ‘Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo…’ resin diorama was a huge hit, with Negan at his menacing best. While it was limited to 2,500 copies, we had to remove it from sale at about 1,500 sets because the order rate was so high people were going to be waiting weeks before we could catch up with demand! Now our in-house resin is set up and working smoothly, we’d love to do some more… so please let us have your ideas J

And then on to the big topic for the day… a big, global summer campaign where the results will affect the world map! In November/December this year Kings of War will get its own source book – just like the one we made for Warpath (which is amazing by the way and expands the Warpath Universe beautifully). The map in this book will depend on the outcome of the global campaign – we have drawn it several different ways and the results of the global campaign will be reflected on the map. Each year we will keep progressing the story, so Mantica becomes a living game world that you, the gamers, affect. Cool, huh?

On the blog we are in the thick of a month’s worth of Kings of War blogs, that will introduce newcomers to the different races, give beginners some tactical advice and explain how to play. This will cover everything KoW – whether that is how to start playing KoW, thinking of collecting a new army or wanting to get involved in the Edge of the Abyss summer campaign. It’ll all be there, with lots of sneak peeks of new figures and general KoW goings on. Please pop in and get informed.

Also, some of you may be aware that we’ve been busy working away in the background on the oft-mentioned Kings of War skirmish game (you may have even seen a sneaky peek of me playtesting on Facebook). This is shaping up to be something really special that will give Kings of War fans the opportunity to fight it out with small warbands in campaigns that can also be tied into larger games of Kings of War. Make sure you tune into our new #ManticMonday on social media to potentially see it being played!

Finally, we have been asked for more fluff and background about both the KoW and Warpath universes – and we all know summer is about putting your feet up and getting reading – so we are planning something special for your beach-time relaxation. Next week we will have a bundle with our novels at a crazy ;) summer price, and all our starter rule books and some of the expansions will be available at bonkers prices too. So watch out for our ‘beach book bonanza by…’ well that would be telling but you might be able to guess - and pick yourself up a few great summer reads.

Best wishes, looking forward to meeting you online this summer!

Ronnie