Deadzone Kickstarter - Key Links

Mantic's Deadzone Kickstarter is building up steam as it heads into the last weekend. This is a truly fantastic project that has grown in scale and scope along with the backer numbers and funding. From the original concept of a two-player boardgame on a paper mat, it now includes a total of six factions, each with a range of troop types, a range of modular scenery including a landing zone, a gun bunker, and ruined buildings, a custom vinyl playmat, loads of individual mercenary models, rules and models for including zombies, multi-player and large battleground rules, booster packs to increase the size of your force all the way up to army size and more, with even more stretch goals still to come.

All this is possibly too much for one front page. So, for new backers, those that are thinking of pledging and those that have been in it for a while but can't remember what update each particular bit of news was in, here's a list of the most relevant updates and youtube videos for your perusal.

There is also a bunch of cool stuff to read over on Jake Thornton's Quirkworthy blog, but I just don't have time to trawl through it just now :)

 

The Updates 

  Terrain

Concept art for accesories sprue.
 
Deadzone Gaming Mat description and pictures

 Secret Weapon Board and Assault Enforcers

 Ruined Battlezones and Survivor Green

Sprue Details - Pictures of Core Worlds Sprues

Landing Pad Concept Art

Building Blocks - Details of Terrain

 Antenocitis - Increased Bundle Sizes

Fortifications Battlezone concept art

 What Does a Battlezone Build? Artist Impressions of DZ Tablescapes

The Figures

Faction Focus The Enforcers

Faction Focus The Rebs 

 Faction Focus The Rebs Part 2

 Faction Focus Marauders 

Faction Focus Marauders 2 Rippers, Commandoes, Snipers and Mawbeasts Background and Sculpts

Forge Fathers Background and Some Concepts

Enforcer vs Cyphers, Asterians Background

 A Special Kind of Trooper - concept art and background for specialists

 EU Bundle Extras - Heavy Supports, Brokkrs, Nastanza

The Pathfinder Background and 3d sculpt

Stompy - Teraton sculpt and Zombieton concept art
 
Faction Boosters, Enforcer Booster Sculpts

Rebs Faction Booster Concept Art and Blaine Background

 Plague Faction Booster, Blaine Concept Art

Wrath Background and Concept Art

The Helfather description and concept art

 Chovar Sculpt and LOS Video

 Concept art Survivor model

Dr Simmonds Concepts and Background

Freya the Forge Father Smuggler

Resin Loot Counters, Nem-rath, Limited Edition Compendium

Kish, Plague Sphyr

Eddak P'mera Concept Art and Background plus Strider

List of Stretch Goals to $1m and Sergeant Howlett Background

Bjarg Starnafall in Drop Armour 

Goblin Stuntbot and Chief Radgrad 

Radgrad Background 

Hobgoblin Boomer and Iron Ancestor Concept Art 

Enforcer Peacekeepers Background

Extra Gameplay

 The Nexus Psi campaign

DZ Compendium, Veteran Status, Zombie Rules and Models, Concepts

Multi-mat Games and Wrath Concept Art and Background

DZ Counters, Gameplay Vid Turn 1, Plague Zombies Components

Solo Play

Videos.

Shooting -

D8's -

Enforcers Background -

Faction Focus The Rebs -

Rebs Playstyle -

Faction Focus Marauders -

Marauders Second Video -

DZ Terrain - Ronnie's Intro -

Faction Focus Plague -

LOS -

Beta Gameplay Part 1

 Terrain Connector Clips

Thats the lot for now. If you think there is something missing that should be on the list, leave a comment. Now go pledge!

The Future is Mantic

I had the good fortune this past weekend to attend the Open Day at Mantic's headquarters in Nottingham. I had the further good fortune to spend the morning there in a painting workshop with painters from Golem Studio and even further fortune to walk away with a box of Enforcers - Mantic's new army for their Warpath game.

I frame all this as being fortuitous because not only are the folk at Mantic very nice and friendly, they also make some very good miniatures that cost a fraction of their equivalents from Games Workshop.

I have, in the past, been a little critical of Mantic's minis. I checked out sprues for several of their fantasy and sci-fi armies and found them a little lacking. It didn't help that many if the sprues were in fact the same - the same torsos any way, but with different arm options, depending on the timeframe the model is intended for.

But a few months down the line Mantic minis are really starting to develop into something special and cool. Check out the attached photo of one of my Enforcers.

Details are crisp and clear. The sculpts are attractive. These parts all came sprue-free and required minimal clean up before gluing. They come with their own foam-lined carry-case and cost roughly half what ten Space Marines would.

There are still limitations to this awesomeness though, its true. There's little variety between the models and different entries in the army list all use these same models, just varying the number of special weapons they come with.

But this is because Warpath is still in beta - the current ruleset is 2.0. The game, then, is but officially released. The plan is for a Kickstarter to launch the game around April, 2013, shipping product in September. These models are a promise of things to come.

So, there may not be a truly compelling reason for everyone to completely jump ship from the good old S.S. 40k just yet. But its on its way. To of the iceberg, and all that.

I'm already thinking of shifting my Forge World budget over to buying Mantic minis so as to be ahead of the curve as it were, but also to be able to show people there really is an alternative fie toy soldiers from Nottingham.

Who knows, they might even get me playing fantasy wargames!