Chromium Chargers Unboxing

I picked up Season 2 of Dreadball from Mantic at the weekend and the Chromium Chargers team to go with it. Here's what you get in the box:

I found during construction there was a fair bit of flash to clean up and two or three mould lines on each model. They were easy enough to tidy up though and the models, being only three pieces each, are really easy to put together.

The major drawback of the set is, of course, their gameplay gimmick. Although the team take the field as Jacks, they can transform into any role, provided you roll good dice and have the tokens to spend. You get six jacks in the box, plus two strikers and two guards, but a) this may not be enough models if you want to go heavily one way or the other, and b) the models all look pretty similar. Unless you paint them distinctively it may be hard to tell which model is which. Plus, if you do choose just swap out the jack models as needed, how are you going to number them? Basically this will put you out of a lot of tournaments unless you buy several boxes full and paint up variations for each one. Its a pickle, to be sure.

I got in a game with the robots against a Marauder team on Tuesday night and managed to squeak in a win in overtime.

It turns out the transforming is a bit of a handicap in the early game as you have to pay a token to do it, leaving you short one to spend elsewhere and having burnt one of the two you could spend on that player. More thought is needed into how to handle the hurdle of getting players out of Jack mode for future games.

The 'bots are expensive too. You only get 6 in your starting lineup, making you very prone to being shorthanded, particularly if you're against orx. I finished regular play with two dead players and two in the box. Luckily I had been holding the ball with a Striker in the opponent's end and it was simple enough to run into a scoring zone and get the win when overtime ticked round.

But perhaps losing players is part of the expected strategy for robot teams. After all, one less player on the pitch means more tokens and cards to play on the others and this might make their role-flexibility really worthwhile. Again, more thought needed to figure this one out.

Anyway, enjoy the video and feel free to ask any questions.

Mantic Open Day 2013

I'm writing this from a service station, halfway between Nottingham and home. Its been a long day and its a long road, but here are some pics, thoughts, and recollections from this year's (first?) Mantic Open Day.

Please note these are very quick entries, not exhaustive, and I won't be held responsible if I misquote Ronnie ;) Or fur spelling mistakes.

First, the pics.

There were lots of minis on display today. Strangely they were mostly crammed into one tiny display box - cabinet would be too generous a term - in the worst-lit part of the building. This phone's camera is pretty good though, so enjoy :)

You've got the Basileans. Male paladins with broadswords and females with smaller weapons. I'm not that impressed with the females but both sets of models are definitely really nice and a great addition to KoW.

I think you can see the werewolves and trolls in the background of a couple of the photos. Three for £15 was the price point being mentioned for the trolls. I would have liked the werewolves to be a bit hairier, but maybe greenstuff will work.

The mummies are awesome.

The reb figures for deadzone were there too. I love the teraton and I think they're going to be a very popular line for dz and Dreadball.

I took some pictures of the deadzone display board as all the enforcers there are new models as, if course, are the plague. Check out how big that phase 1 is! I really like the sniper and the engineer models in particular. I was told at Salute that the engineer's backpack could be detached to make the sentry gun but I'm not sure if that feature is still included.

There are a few detail sits if the dz terrain. You might be able to see the surfaces aren't smooth. There's a fine crenelation. This is a result of the pieces being prototypes from a 3d . The final product will be smooth. I actually quite like the texture, I think it makes them look more organic, but smooth works too.

Finally there's the game mat for deadzone. It is indeed very very nice. It's much thinner than I thought it would be, maybe 2mm our 3mm thick. The back is a strong rubber that will hold it to a table our desk pretty welland the top really does feel like a mousemat. It's thinner though, so no worries about areas sinking our dice bouncing wildly :) I'm pretty sure I'm canceling my Secret Weapon kickstarter pledge tonight...

So, on to the Ronnie talk. Ronnie talks very quickly and possibly makes some of it up as he's doing so, so here's a quick collection of bullet points I remember:

He acknowledged it is very hard to make inroads in fantasy or sci-fi tabletop battles against the market leader. Apparently gw have £60m in tools and this is hard to compete with. Thus Dreadball and deadzone help people start building a collection of Warpath minis and interest in the setting that can be used when warpath launches for real.

Regarding the mat, the search for a material was exhaustive. Apparently Stewart's corner of the office looks like a haberdashers there are so many samples. As to different themed mats, the problem is volume. The current deal Ronnie has with the supplier is for 5000. This is the minimum the supplier will do and the price is still high. Ronnie hopes to do a deal for, say, 5000 of the first theme, plus a thousand of this theme, a thousand of this one, and so on. Yet another good reason to up your pledge for more mats ;)

The dz kickstarter once again exceeded expectations for early success.

Forge Fathers and Asterians are all but guaranteed to be included in the kickstarter. It sounds like models are, at least, at the concept art stage, sine may even be in sculpting.

Forge fathers go toe to tie with the corporation. They aren't afraid to displace humans from worlds they want and are happy to fight for them. As a quarantined world is likely to be unoccupied for fifty years, this also represents a great opportunity to plunder. Hearthguard act as security, brocks (aka berzerkers) are the scrap dealers of ff society and will often do the final strip of a planet, even taking all its dirt for sale elsewhere!

Asterians, or elves, might rate a human world as being worth 1 or 2 elf lives.So their armies will include one fragile Asterian commander and a load of combat robots. These will be 'kick-ass fast'and hard. So their gameplay might involve the commander desperately hiding from snipers and enemy units while the robots do the fighting.

Plans are drawn up for stretch goals for quite a way down the line. It sounded like up to about 800k. If it goes over that we might see seasons approach, like with db, to allow more stuff to be sculpted and tooled for release next year.

Ronnie is very happy to include partner companies' stuff in the dz kickstarter. He loves all the stuff Antenocitis do. He acknowledged Mantic doesn't have time to Maher all those little bits themselves and is open to focusing on the stuff it does do while partnering with specialists in complimentary bits and bobs. He mentioned opening a shop if there was enough product lines to stock, so who knows what might happen there?

Jake Thornton was quite enthused about answering a question on the next Dwarf King's Hold. It sounded like he had already given it lots of thought and seemed, to me, to be describing something akin to Super Dungeon Explore. All backed by Mantic's affordable minis, meaning a dungeon master would have many varieties if monsters to throw at adventurers. No definite plans for this were confirmed, but:

Mantic had another ks planned for this year. That one slipped out and no-one seemed to pick up on it...

KoW will, in some ways, be relaunched again this summer. Trolls are up next month, then - I forget - then Basileans. The possibility of spinning KoW off into its own mini-studio was mentioned, but as a possible option, rather than one being seriously proposed.

Ronnie loves those buildings. He likened the possibilities to minecraft. I still think they are more like Halo Forge pieces though. Ronnie guaranteed they will click together and apart but seemed to feel they perhaps weren't intended to be used in dz as people seem to envisage actually using them. You can see this in demo games for dz, where you can see the facade of as building almost being more important than its 3d shape. Dz is designed for a 2x2 table so there's not actually that much room for compete buildings. But Ronnie does believe they have the potential to become a staple for all sci-fi games on the market. As do I.

There is the possibility of a collection of short stories for dz to help establish the background for the factions. This could be a stretch goal and include Jake Thornton and guy haley. Probably depends on people asking for it though.

All three money from the KoW ks went into tooling new models. Mantic also put down $10k out of the kitty to get it all done. So kickstarter does just what it should - get things happening faster than they would through the traditional sales and investment cycle.

Dreadball has sold three times more copies through retail than were sent out from the ks.

Ok, that's all I can remember for now. I'll post more later if I remember it and probably my own thoughts on the day and Mantic in the 201 in another post.

It's not the size, it's what you do with it

The long wait is finally over: this year's Mantic Kickstarter is here!

I've been waiting since the Mantic Open Day last autumn for this. Ronnie all but promised a Kickstarter for Warpath, Mantic's sci-fi property, and this is it: Deadzone.

The idea is that there is a plague, a contagion, of unknown origins, that is irritable and unstoppable. Where it strikes, all men die, or are at least converted to horrific monsters. The only method down to successfully stop the disease us absolute containment, even of while star systems. If your ship happens to be in a system when am outbreak occurs, you will find yourself stranded there, as the corporation switches off all navicomputers and halts all traffic trying to leave the area.

For some, the 'Deadzone' is an opportunity. The rebels and marauders see rich pickings to be had on the afflicted planets - the challenge is getting in and out without entanglements with plague-carriers and corporate Enforcers.

Deadzone is a boardgame, not a full on tabletop wargame. The guys I spoke to at Salute last week tools me it was expandable though. So you could initially play it at a skirmish level on a 2x2 table, but expand it to larger surfaces add you want. Handy that Secret Weapon Miniatures are doing a Kickstarter for moulded plastic gaming surfaces now too. And that Mantic are going to be distributing them...

Its not the full Warpath Kickstarter many of us were expecting then. But I think Mantic have learnt from the Kings of War and Dreadball funds and made a smart move. Both funds showed there is a lot of demand and support for what Mantic does: quality minis at low prices. But it is hard to seeing large numbers of people from the established market leader to your new system even so. Kings of War massively exceeded expectations on Kickstarter, but is still not widely played. Dreadball did more than double the business on ks - the market loves boardgames right now and its a great way to get large amounts of your miniatures into the public's hands, priming them, if you will, for a full on launch of a wargame later on.

It took Deadzone about 33 minutes to raise its initial funding goal of $50k yesterday. At time of writing it is closing in on $200k. If I were a betting man, I'd put money on it beating the KoW total comfortably. Its hard to say whether it will top Dreadball's though. Dreadball probably benefited in this case as much as it suffered from comparisons with Bloodbowl. People like GW's game and the real sports Dreadball is based on. The comparison a lot of people will probably make this time is with Necromunda. Us the market really ripe for a small scale skirmish game?

I certainly hope so. I think the strong miniatures line and scenery will help.

Deadzone is the debut of another of Ronnie's favourite things for tabletop games: scenery. Deadzone will come with several sprues of it, walls, floors, and windows that clip together. I was told at Salute that they also unclip, so different configurations are possible in different games. It Ead also pointed out though that, at the moment, noone is sure how strong those joints will be. That is, how many times can you reassemble them.

Details on rules and gameplay are also scarce at the moment. We know the game
uses d8's, which suggests more refinement to encounters than standard d6 games, but that's about it.

Given that this game has been in development fora good few months now, I'm surprised at how little info Mantic did choose to put up there from the start. Is this a sign of laziness, or certainty that the magic of Kickstarter nabs punters will put down cash no matter what is shown to them up front? I hope not. I hope it is simply just another case of Mantic genuinely not expecting such massive support so early in the game.

The coming days will be important though. An initial surge of interest can quickly die away unless new material and information is given out to keep the hype going.

I've made my pledge any way and am looking forward to seeing more goodies unlocked and more background shared.

Salute 2013 Part 1 - Anvil Industries

This past weekend saw Salute 2013 go off at the Excel Centre in lovely London. It was my third time at the event and the most fun I've had there to date. Part of that is probably due to amount of toys I came home with, the first of which I'm showcasing here.

The floor was fairly dominated by retailers this year and there was a fair amount for sale to fans of 28mm gaming. The first thing that really caught my eye was the Anvil Industries stand. I have, in the past, enjoyed the Horus Heresy novels and it has been fun seeing Forge World come out with models to match. I really like the more baroque styles of armour and weapons they have been putting out. Their prices though are something else. Now, I'm not saying Anvil are making their own version of FW's stuff. But it is extremely 'compatible'. That is, it shares enough similarities that, I reckon, you could use Anvil's 'Exo Lords' in your 40k or 30k games, but with some different twists.

 

It was the Black Ops squad that first attracted me. They look like knights in space (notice I didn't say 'space marines' there?) but with a Halo accent. Extra ammo pouches, more streamlined weapons, but still like dark ages suits of armour with power packs. Perfect, I decided for bulking out my Blood Angels Vanguard Veterans in time for some Apocalypse games this summer.

The only hangup was realising the Black Ops packs only come with rifles - not close combat weapons. Luckily you can buy most of Anvil's range 'a la carte' - mix and match legs, torsos etc. to get the look you want.

Now, get ready for really the cool part - the complete set of five miniatures cost me £14.50. For all five. I then bought some 'Silver Wing' jet packs from Max Mini at £6, meaning I now have a full assault squad in cool armour for twenty quid. A similar sized set up from FW would run to £33. I added some chainswords and purity seals from my bits box to get some extra Blood Angels flavour, but this is still a massive saving.

 

The guys running the Anvil stand were also really friendly and helpful. Every part I chose they showed me several different styles they had for sale and I felt like I was really getting the models I wanted, rather than the ones they were trying to sell me.

 

There are options for 40k players then - at least if you play marines or, maybe, guard. Not so much Eldar or Tau and it would be nice to see a few more companies in the market with alternate parts for those races. Maybe the Chapterhouse/GW legal tussle is keeping companies out of that arena for now, although recent depositions and testimonies would suggest GW doesn't really have a leg to stand on when it come to some of their copyright claims.

So, now I've told you all about the alternatives to expensive Forge World resin, my next post will be about the Eldar Lynx I bought :)

Sedition Wars - First Models Finished

A little under a year ago, I was going nuts for the Sedition Wars Kickstarter, by Studio McVey. I missed the bus for the Zombicide fund, but I liked what I saw on its successor and jumped aboard. After a long wait, the game got sent out and, after a slightly shorter pause, I have got round to painting up the first five (of about 50!) figures.

Not quite 10% of the way there...

The setting for the game is a future dystopia, nothing novel there. Except in this world-gone-mad, terrorists have attempted to awaken ancient gods or something but inadvertently fused AI with bio-matter, creating a new life-form - the Strain. Dun, dun derrrrr! Sedition Wars: The Battle for Alabaster takes place in a research station that has been infested with this new biohazard - players can be either the troops sent in to investigate and reclaim the place or the Strain.

Gameplay is fun enough, but I really want to talk about the miniatures here.

The McVeys are artists, so the visual design of the set is a pretty big component.

Girls! In space!

The art and the mini's have what I can't help thinking of as a 'European' feel. Maybe its the fact women are part of the Vanguard - the combat troops sent in to the fight. Maybe its the fact there are non-Caucasians in there.  But I think there's something else about the while thing that just doesn't feel like standard Americanised sci-fi. Nothing against Americans or American sci-fi.  But I'm not going to buy just any old marines-in-space game. These figures are all very very cool though. I'm looking forward to painting Akosha and the higher level Strain models in particular. But you do get a lot in the box, even if you don't have the Biohazard pledge level set with double the basic figure count or all the optional extras to work through. Add to that my addiction to BLOPS2 and Aliens:CM, and, well, its going to be a while before they're all ready.

Master Who?

The five Vanguard I have finished off are based with GW's Astronomicon Grey, washed with a mix of blue and black wash, layered again with the Grey, then a layer of Grey mixed with Skull White, then a line highlight of White. This gives a very cold looking model, so, to contrast,  I did the visors with a base of Blazing Orange, then a layer of Vallejo's Amarillo Yellow, and a highlight of Sunburst Yellow. For the ladies, basic skin tones and light coloured hair provided a bit of warmth. The bases are all done with a base of Black mixed with a touch of Codex Grey. I then drybrushed them with Codex Grey, Fortress Grey, and, finally, Space Wolves Grey. I washed them with thinned Desert Yellow, and added a few spots of Devlan Mud for added warmth.

Not entirely gratuitous - also to show the detail on the back

For playing pieces for a board game, I'm fairly happy with the standard and it didn't actually take too long either.

Next: a few Strain grunts, before I treat myself to a character mini.

3-Month Hiatus - Dreadball

Its been a while! Frankly I got a little bored with the hobby and a little disillusioned. Its hard to say which was the bigger factor in not writing for so long.

Any way, here's some models.

For those who don't recognise them, these are Mantic's Veer-myn models for their boardgame, Dreadball. Here are some things you need to know about Dreadball:

It is nothing like Bloodbowl.
It is not the same as Bloodbowl.

I mention these things because the first question most people ask when I mention Dreadball is 'is it like Bloodbowl?'. When I say that out loud I say it like Scott used to ask 'how are the graphics' on his podcast. I forget the name of the podcast, but I've only had a few hours sleep so I can barely type right now, let alone remember the name of a show I haven't listened to for four years.

Anyway, Dreadball is an excellent game. It plays like a mix of ice-hockey and basketball with lots of fast plays and end to end runs.

Games can be over really really quickly or they can go a maximum of seven turns per player. I played in a tournament a few weeks ago that ran for four games in a day and was not tired at the end of it. There would easily have been time for most players to get in five or maybe even six games in the day.

The mechanics are really simple and intuitive. It is so easy to pick up - I have taught four or five players how to play so far and none of them had any trouble picking up the system.

If it has a weakness it is perhaps that, for pickup games, the teams may eventually become somewhat limited. There are rules for MVP's included in the game, but these are only designed for inclusion in league-playing teams. so for casual gaming you are stuck with a vanilla selection of strikers, jacks, and guards - no special rules or abilities.

The runaway success of the Kickstarter campaign means two expansions, including further teams are guaranteed though, so there is variety on the horizon.

As for my team, the LV Raiders (formerly the LV426 Raiders) wear the silver, they wear the black, don't get in their way. Star players include: Sqeaky Barber, Randy Mouse, Troy Ratomalu, and Pavel Ratsuyk (I love hockey as much as football!).

In the Copperbowl tournament, they did - ok. Two 7-0 wins, two 3-0 losses. Both of the losses were real squeakers though, with one seeing me fail four shots on goal while my opponent only scored one. The other saw my opponent score a 1-pointer and a double while I, once again, could not hit the mark on two or three attempts. I even missed my last shot on my last rush, caught the rebound, then failed to hit the goal on the second bite at the cherry. So it goes with rats....

Dreadball is great fun, quick to pick up and learn, and doesn't cost the Earth.

Painted jotunn Hailstorm cannon - Forgefathers Big Gun

Finally finished painting up the Frogefathers' mobile cannon today. I'm so-so pleased with the paint job. I'm trying to master speed-painting, that is, getting things to a good tabletop standard quickly rather than spending days over every little effect and technique. Simply because I want some Mantic armies painted quickly to start challenging people to learn the game with me :)

So here's my cannon: