Will Ronnie Spill The Beans? – A Mid Year Review – Friday Feature

The Friday Feature brings you a plethora of great entertaining content every Friday, including new release articles, work from staff and content creators, store visits and lots more!

Hello all, Ronnie here with a (just about) mid-year check-in.

Well, just when we thought the worst of the pandemic was coming to an end - and normal life was all about to resume we get a whole new world of crazy!

However, despite insane prices for fuel, plastic and cardboard, and the ongoing shipping disruption – the sooner we can get the McKinley Drive invented, the better - at least we are seeing some signs the hobby world is getting back to some kind of normal.

GAMING AND EVENTS

The Northern Kings tournament, which took place in June.

With Gencon just a week away, and the tournament scene back rocking across the USA, Europe and Oz, it has been great seeing people able to get back gaming. The other month, I got up to Northern Kings – a big UK tournament, and before that across to a weekend of gaming in LA at Scott’s House (amazing just how many gamers he can fit in to his gaming room!) - and in both cases it was great to see dice being rolled, fun being had and lots of Mantic armies gracing the battlefields.

Adepticon happened back in March and we flew the UK winners from Clash of Kings ‘19 and ‘21 over to play. From what I heard a good time (beer, gaming… and more beer) was had by all. We are now building up to this year’s UK Clash of Kings (get your ticket here) and there will be two US ‘imports’ flown over for winning Adepticon and Lone Wolf (this is the first time we have given the ‘Clash flight’ to an independent tournament) and I’ve heard rumours of a few other Americans flying over on their own dollar to grace us. It will be great to have a big US presence and these guys know how to play (and party)!

On top of that, these last few months have seen the release of German and French versions of Kings of War – and the communities are rapidly growing in both those markets, and with the usual Spanish contingent this should see a truly global flavour to the event.

So along with the usual (or maybe more) Europeans, it will be our most international tournament ever. It is fun playing against different opponents, especially from foreign shores – so if you fancy playing an American or European, grab a ticket here.

We are piggy backing the event on the back of the LGT (a London based largely 40K orientated event – so we can show them what proper fun gaming looks like 😉) but as the attendance grows - each Clash of Kings gets bigger and bigger (which means less and less locations can fit us all in). We are getting ever closer to the day we can host it in Nottingham and get everyone up to HQ and throw a proper weekend.

FIREFIGHT AND DEADZONE

Late 2021 Deadzone: Third Edition came out – and it has gone from strength to strength since, as new people love playing a game that’s quick, slick and full of cinematic moments that you’ll be talking about long after playing. But people love sci-fi tanks and fliers too! So, April saw the release of Firefight: Second Edition – a squad based game set in the same universe.

Firefight has got off to an amazing start, with plenty of battle reports already appearing on YouTube and lots of people picking up armies. If you want to get a feel for how they play, free rules exist for both sets and you can find them here.

If you haven’t tried these games – whether you are a KoW player or a Walking Dead veteran looking for something new – please do go and give them a try. The writers and RCs have done an amazing job creating fast, fun games in a sci-fi setting, all backed up with some of our coolest models… honestly, if you don’t look at a Spectra and want to start an Asterian army, I’m not sure what will.

We just had out biggest global summer campaign ever (although no planets were harmed in the making of the campaign) and the hub site has some amazing background. Also there are loads of how to videos to help you get started, and tactics, and a number of slow-grow leagues are on the horizon for when it isn’t so damn hot!

With more campaigns, lots of new release and a tournament scene about to blossom -  there never has been a better time to blow of the dust from that Warpath or Deadzone Kickstarter you backed all those years ago an build and play – and if you missed the Kickstarters then jump in here to the free rules and some wonderfully priced and extraordinarily excellent sci-fi armies here.

ARMADA

This month we’re having an Armada focus. Despite the – ahem – challenge of launching in a global pandemic, Armada continues to go from strength to strength. In fact, it’s now world famous after appearing in a Penny Arcade comic.

But we want to make it even easier for people to get into Armada, so we’ll be launching a special taster set at a CRAZY price. Seriously, I think Crazy Bobby must have come up with this one. Plus, I’m sure I heard something about free rules too, so you can see why this game is so amazing, before diving in with the taster set. There really is nothing like Armada out there, so if you’re looking for an accompanying game to Kings of War, then Armada is the one for you.

WHAT IS DEAD CANNOT DIE!

Kings of War…

…continues to power on, and we are just releasing the Empire of Dust in plastic and resin (no more metal hybrids, thankfully). They look amazing and the design team have really taken them on to the next level.

We have a wonderful short story serialised here so go and have a read and get inspired by their back story, and the models.

And keep watching we have lots more very cool things planned to keep Kings of War the only choice in rank and flank fantasy gaming!

AND FINALLY...

I am about to get over to the US for Gencon. Make sure you pop over to booth #1141 and you can probably convince me to spill the releases schedule for the next two years – and you won’t want to miss it because we have some absolute firecrackers planned!

In anticipation of me leaking everything (and messing up the whole messaging and reveals) I know the team here are planning some virtual Open days to keep everyone updated with what we are planning. Even better we are planning the return of the real-world Mantic Open day(s) around November – so what this space – for more sci-fi, KoW, Armada, Hellboy, and a few really rather fantastic surprises!

Speak soon, keep rolling 6s (or 8s, if you’re playing sci-fi).

Check back regularly for more exciting new release articles!