Mini Manufacturer

Just in case you’ve been held captive in the slave pits of Tragar for a few months, we’re pleased to announce the brand-new Abyssal Dwarf Kings of War releases are now up for pre-order. You can order from the Mantic website or pop over to your FLGS while wearing a false beard (if required) and demanding the new stuff in your shoutiest voice. Channel your inner Blessed.

ABYSSAL DWARF MEGA ARMY

Any self-respecting Abyssal Dwarf general needs to start here. The Mega Army is packed with those awesome hard plastic troops, along with some heroes, Slave Orcs (Operation: Green Shield), Golems and the disgusting new Grotesques.

ABYSSAL DWARF ARMY

A fantastic companion to the Mega Army is the smaller army set. This gives you plenty more of those amazing new hard plastic Blacksouls/Decimators, along with some Halfbreeds and an Overmaster to kick everyone into action.

HELLFANE!

This is the big one (quite literally). The Hellfane is one of the biggest resin kits we’ve ever produced at Mantic. It requires seven(!) moulds just to make one Hellfane and it stands over five-inches tall. Not only that, but it comes with three crew models (including an alternative Overmaster) that can be removed from the howdah and used in your army.

GROTESQUES

Although the Grotesque army has been around for a while, this is the first time we’ve been able to produce miniatures for them. The Grotesques are the failed experiments of Ironcasters, which live short and painful lives full of anger. It’s been interesting to watch the community responses to these, particularly people saying they’re too disgusting… erm, that’s kind of the point :p

GROTESQUE CHAMPION

Occasionally a Grotesque will live slightly longer than a few hours, so they’re immediately promoted to senior management as a Grotesque Champion. Sadly the only perks are having a massive iron cudgel fused to your forearm (which makes it impossible to access the managerial restrooms) and a helmet hammered to your skull (which always sets off the security alarms in reception).

BLACKSOULS/DECIMATOR REGIMENT

The superb new hard plastic Abyssal Dwarfs form the linchpin of the entire release and they’re also available as a regiment box too. Inside you’ll get 20 Abyssal Dwarfs, which can be built as Decimators or Blacksouls. What’s more, you also get four Mutated Mastiffs in each regiment set too. We must be barking mad!

VANGUARD BOOSTER!

Alongside all the awesome Kings of War releases, you can also grab the new Vanguard releases too. Miniatures like the Hexcaster, Infernox and Charnox all have entries in Kings of War and can be used in either game.

ALL THE ABYSSAL DWARF KINGS OF WAR RELEASES WILL START SHIPPING FROM 23rd MARCH, 2020. YOU CAN PRE-ORDER EVERYTHING HERE.

The post New Abyssal Dwarf releases up for pre-order appeared first on Mantic Games.

Today we’re handing over blog duties to internet legend, Andy ‘2D6’ Ransome. Famed for his striking choice of clothing and in-depth YouTube battle reports, Andy is also currently the number one Abyssal Dwarf player in the UK. So, with the revised Abyssal Dwarf army currently up for pre-order on the website, we asked Andy to give us some tips and tactics for new (or just really rubbish) Abyssal Dwarf players. Andy, take it away…

When somebody mentions Abyssal Dwarfs, you could be forgiven for immediately thinking of incredibly tough lumbering units backed up by a devastating artillery barrage. You’d only be thirty-three percent correct, however, because this is an army list that possesses a lot of options and flexibility. I like to break it down into six distinct sections, which roughly coincide with keywords in the unit profiles. There are plenty of synergistic crossovers, so don’t feel bound to this outline.

THE UNKILLABLE WALL OF DOOM!

Units: Lesser Obsidian Golems, Greater Obsidian Golem, Immortal Guard, Infernox, Hellfane, Ironcaster, and Hexcaster

These units provide a high defence wall of unwavering solidity. Avoid getting multi-charged and most of these units can take a frontal assault from almost anything. A nearby Ironcaster will provide Inspiring to all the Hellforged units, in addition to being able to Heal them (it’s worth looking at artefacts to boost this, since getting back those sweet succulent Defence 6 points of damage can be very significant). His most powerful ability could well be Surge, so you should always be looking to set up flank attacks with your Shambling units. Encourage the enemy to charge into the centre of your line and this should leave them open for some juicy manoeuvre.

Remember that you can Surge a unit into combat after they use a ranged attack, so the Charnox upgrade for the Lesser Obsidian Golems is quite a tasty prospect.

Also, don’t underestimate the power of the Greater Obsidian Golem’s base footprint. Being a perfect square and a Shambling unit can lead to some very sneaky sideways Surging shenanigans.

The Hexcaster can help this section of the army with the Weakness spell, making it even more unlikely that your enemy will be able to kill one of these units.

KABOOM!

Units: Angkor Heavy Mortar, G’rog Light Mortar, Katsuchan Rocket Launcher and Decimators (with upgrade)

Nothing too complicated here. Make sure you take note of the relative heights of your army and the enemy, so you know which units you’ll be able to see over to your target (also keep in mind which of your weapons ignore cover). The Angkor Heavy Mortar may well be the most feared War Engine in Pannithor, and with good reason.

If your opponent has significant threats to these machines, such as fast Individuals, you may want to consider either spreading them out to keep them alive longer, or bunching them together to make them easier to defend with your own units. All in or all out.

FLY, MY PRETTIES! FLY!

Units: Great Winged Halfbreed, Ba’su’su the Vile and Gargoyles

Many armies have access to a large powerful flying Titan, but the Great Winged Halfbreed is among the scariest. Regeneration is quite a big deal, especially since you should be able to use your speed to avoid the hardest-hitting enemy units and stay alive. Threaten enemy flanks and watch them reposition their entire battle line in sheer terror.

We also have access to Ba’su’su the Vile, one of the game’s more potent Individuals. Perfect for swooping down on enemy units that may or may not have just taken massive damage from artillery, or joining in with a charge from a different angle to add some extra bite to the attack.

Gargoyles are a fairly standard flying chaff unit. A stiff breeze will kill them, so whatever you do keep them out of sight of enemy shooting. They can be used to clog up the enemy for a turn, preventing multi-charges, pinning units back, or just keep them hiding in reserve until the time is right to jump onto a vital objective late in the game.

Any of these could theoretically be used for War Engine hunting, but you’ll have to decide if it’s worth their points cost to do so at any given time.

CHARGE!

Units: Halfbreeds, Grotesques, Halfbreed Champion and Grotesque Champion

These units hit hard. They’re pretty fast, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you want them on the front lines.When using Halfbreeds, you NEED to make sure you’re hitting the enemy before they hit you. Mediocre Defence means they are very much a glass cannon. This is reflected in their cost being slightly lower than more survivable heavy cavalry in the game. Keep them out of harm’s way until it’s time to kick butt.

Grotesques are much more survivable, so they are certainly a frontline option. Just be wary that they can be wavered, unlike the units in the Wall of Doom we covered at the start.

Both these units take a serious hit in damage output when they become Disordered or make hindered charges, so make sure you hit first and consider investing in an artefact (Potion of the Caterpillar, Boots of Striding). Oh yeah, and remember not to charge head-on into a wall of spears.

SLAVING OVER A HOT VOLCANO!

Units: Slave Orcs, Slave Orc Gore Riders and Slavedriver

Abyssal Dwarfs have access to fairly inexpensive Orc slaves. With so many juicy options for expensive death-dealing units, you may sometimes find yourself looking for cheap ways to boost your unit count. Orc slaves do exactly what you’d think. They provide bodies for the enemy to chew through, while also being somewhat dangerous on the counter-attack. Keep a Slavedriver nearby if you want to give them a little boost.

HI-HO, HI-HO, IT’S OFF TO WAR WE GO (SLOWLY)!

Units: Blacksouls, Abyssal Berserkers, Decimators, Immortal Guard, Overmaster and Hellfane

It wouldn’t be a true Dwarf army unless you could field a line of painfully slow beard-bearers. Any of these units can benefit from the Overmaster taking an aura of Strider upgrade, especially if you’re planning on camping out in difficult terrain while the (presumably much faster) enemy advances towards your lines. Just remember that while it is tempting to set up Strider units in terrain, if you ever want to leave the comfort of the forest you will be doing so incredibly slowly.

All these units will also benefit from being near a Hellfane with the Brutal aura, if you’re looking for a centrepiece for your line of foot troops.

The Berserkers provide a slightly faster infantry option if you’re keen on actually moving anywhere, plus they hit pretty darn hard. Just don’t let them become pin cushions with that comically low Defence stat.

IN CONCLUSION!

The best Abyssal Dwarf armies will use elements from multiple “wings” of the army list, providing a balanced and devastating attack that is fiendishly difficult to kill. While you might be tempted to put all your severed heads in one basket, we have so many options that you’d be a fool not to at least dabble in the other options available to you (especially with the extra spicy new resin models arriving soon).

*wins not guaranteed

The post How to win in Kings of War with Abyssal Dwarfs* appeared first on Mantic Games.

Did you miss out on the original League of Infamy Kickstarter? Well, we’re delighted to announce that late pledges are now available for the dungeon crawler where YOU get to be the villains. With the Master of Shadows pledge, you’ll save around 50% on the RRP and get 127 miniatures – including some mighty bosses.

However, if you’re still on the fence, have a read about some of the reasons why YOU should jump on board the late pledge option.

IT’S GOOD TO BE BAD!

Ever wanted to shoot an elf in the face with a fireball? What about looting a Halfling’s packed lunch? Perhaps you’ve always fancied stealing treasure from under the nose of a Elf Lord on Drakon? Well, League of Infamy gives you the perfect excuse to be as bad as you want! Loot the sanctuary! Take out pesky elves! Steal things from your fellow players! It’s all possible in the League. Just take a look at this quote from a player…

LOADS OF REPLAY VALUE!

Each of the scenarios can be replayed time and time again. No missions will ever be the same, thanks to the Keep Deck, which randomly generates special actions for the Keeper, the Chamber Cards, which randomly generate the contents of rooms and the huge range of playable Villains.

Plus, as the dungeon master (aka Keep Master) learns how to play the game, they’ll be able to customise their dungeon layout with extra defences or choose any of the available Defenders in their arsenal. Want to team up the elves with The Herd? Go for it! What about adding some Trident Realm Placoderms to your squad. Not a problem! Each of the scenarios can be played multiple times with very different results.

WATCH YOUR CROOKS BECOME SUPER VILLAINS

During a campaign your Villain will learn amazing new abilities and discover new weapons or armour. Each of the Villains has a special keyword that allows them to learn certain skills and abilities. Choose your new upgrades as you earn XP during a campaign and carve a villainous path for your chosen character.

PLAY CO-OPERATIVELY FOR UP TO FOUR PLAYERS

Fed up of always being the dungeon master? The Unseen Keep Master provides an artificial nemesis for you to play against. Up to four players can all take on the role of a Villain, as they go up against the goody-goody elves, fishy Trident Realm or hungry Halflings.

AMAZING (NOT SO) MINIATURES

Fantastic, plastic, assembled miniatures in the same incredible quality PVC plastic as Hellboy: The Board Game. Or, if you prefer your heroes/villains in resin, we’ve added the option to buy a great selection of miniatures as optional extras. We’ve also got singles available for units that are currently (or will become) units in Kings of War or Vanguard too. Like the mighty Knucker and Halfling Iron Beast.

Late pledges are available until April 6th and make sure you subscribe to our YouTube Channel to see the new gameplay videos coming up soon!

The post League of Infamy late pledges available NOW! appeared first on Mantic Games.

Hello! Studio Dave again. Welcome to the second part of our in-depth exploration of how we made the awesome new hard plastic Abyssal Dwarfs. In yesterday’s blog I explained all about the early concepting stage and now we’re onto the good stuff: sculpting. Enough waffle, let’s dive straight into it…

After the concepts were finished and approved, this was all
sent over to our supremely talented sculptor, Luigi Terzi. Luigi has worked on
plastic kits in the past, so he has a great understanding of what’s required in
order to have the parts work in that material. One of the major concerns that hard
plastic has that since the molds are made from steel and the plastic doesn’t
bend well, there cannot be undercuts – the mold has to close and open around
the piece without going into it. This means that details on the side of the
models have to be flat so that they work in the mold. This is different to
resin and metal, which both have silicon or rubber molds that can bend around
the pieces, so they can have details all over the place.

Using the concept art, Luigi sculpts the pieces for the
sprue, adding details as he goes. Luigi developed ‘flames’ that appear as
filigree on a lot of Abyssal Dwarf armour – so this became a visual staple of
the range. The careful part of this process was ensuring that each piece fits
on all of the bodies in the kit – so that any arm goes with any body. We had to
add about 1/2mm of space to the shoulders on each side to stop the arms from
hitting the legs too much and limiting the poses you could make. It sounds like
a small change, but it makes a large difference when you’re working with the
models. We also check with Luigi and on 3D prints that everything ranks up –
this is a requirement of any units we produce.

One of the questions on the new sprue was why we’re leaning
more towards ten-man (or dwarf, in this case) sprues rather than fives, or
less. In the short run, it’s a larger investment for us, but in the long run it
goes towards keeping the kits inexpensive for you guys and saves a lot on
packaging (and thus shipping and the environment), too! Each time we do a new
sprue, we work off what we learned from the previous ones. For example, one
piece of feedback from the lovely Northern Alliance Clansmen Sprue is that they
could do with just a couple of extra heads so you had a little more choice,
rather than exactly the same number of heads as models. So, the new Blacksouls
sprue comes with thirteen heads, one of which is fancy enough to use for a
commander. We made sure to include some extra parts of the sprue so that you
could build the leader point for using them in your games of Kings of War too.

We worked with the tooling company in China to fit all of
the parts on a couple of frames. These are both inside the mold, so each time
we order one, we get both frames of parts. There’s a lot of thought put into
the size of this frame, as a small change in the measurements can stop it from
fitting in the box! Ideally, a regiment should fit into one of our standard
sized boxes. This is the ‘glamourous’ side of wargaming you don’t often see.

There are then lot of approvals and back and forth at this
point as each file is amended to fit onto the sprue and then checked carefully
at our end to make sure that they still do what they need to. Sometimes you
have to compromise a little, losing a rivet here and there, to get the parts to
work properly. The toolers had to add an extra piece to the mold (a slide core)
to give one of the mutated mastiffs horns, for example. Plus, a couple of
shields had to be taken off their arms to keep the detail on them when they
cast. So these were spread out on the sprue and labelled, which means you can
tell which part goes where.

All of this work – which at this point has taken several months – culminates in the test shot. This is the first time the mold has plastic injected into it and we are sent the results – the very first sprue. At this point, it was around October 2019 when we could hold one of these for the first time.  These are built and checked (I swear it’s work, honest!) and were then sent off for painting. This is also a final opportunity to spot anything that’s not quite right and get it fixed.

Speaking of production, that’s the final step. It takes a couple of months after approval for the thousands of sprues to be produced and make it across the world to our warehouse in Nottingham. By the time this has happened, I’ve usually forgotten most of the work on the sprue and have been focused on seventeen other things since (which are squeakret, so shhh!). The Abyssal Dwarfs now being happily packed into boxes and will be on their way to equally happy players soon.

IF ALL THIS HAS WHETTED YOUR APPETITE FOR THE NEW ABYSSAL
DWARFS, THEN YOU DON’T HAVE TO WAIT LONG. ALL THE NEW RELEASES WILL BE UP FOR
PRE-ORDER TOMORROW!

The post Creating the new hard plastic Abyssal Dwarfs – part two appeared first on Mantic Games.

The best selling Games Master’s Starter set is back and even better than ever! To celebrate Video Matt flexed his Role Playing muscles to create some examples of how Terrain Crate can be used in any adventure… Over to you VM!

‘The Tavern’

Like most good stories this one starts in a tavern. As our heroes find out about an ancient magical sword that was stolen from the local temple, they discover that the main suspect was a robed man with magical talents. With this information the party agrees to retrieve it and stop whatever plans he hopes to achieve….

‘Wizards Study’

After locating the study of the main suspect, the party must seek out any clues regarding the stolen sword. As they enter the study they find a packed room filled with books and scrolls. Whilst undead servants are on patrol, looking for any intruders.

Could they sneak and avoid the undead or must they fight their way through the undead guards? With luck they find a map on the Wizard’s desk with the possible location of a portal and his insidious plan to bring forth an ancient dragon into this plane.

The non-perceptive group are not aware, however, that the wizard had left a stealthy counter measure. The innocent form of an owl familiar is spying on their every move.

‘The Trap’

As our brave heroes move towards the portal site a trap is sprung. The owl familiar has relayed information back to its master. To buy him some time the wizard has acquired the skills of a band of orcs who have set up camp in the valley and with the promise of power and more importantly gold they angrily guard the entrance to the cave. To add to the danger, the evil Wizard has ordered traps placed to hinder the parties progress.

‘The Portal’

Pushing through the trap our adventurers find the portal room, but they are too late! The dragon steps through the portal with a ferocious roar!! But his powers are not yet fully restored, the party must act now if they hope to save the city!

Through clashing of swords, firing of arrows and casting of spells they manage to defeat both the wizard and the dragon. Closing the portal by retrieving the sword just in time before its unstable magic destroys the cavern.

With the evil wizard defeated the brave group has one more job to do… Help themselves to his vast horde of treasure…. Payment for a job well done…

All miniatures shown are from the GM’s Dungeon Starter Set and key Terrain Crate sets.

The post Video Matt’s RPG adventures… appeared first on Mantic Games.

Hi! Dave from the Studio here to ramble on about the process we went through creating new Abyssal Dwarf infantry sprue, plus a general look at the design process of kits in general. The Decimators and Blacksouls were hybrid metal and plastic kits – some of the earliest Mantic has ever produced – and with the Blacksouls out of production for years, they were more than due an update to match the rest of the range.

So, once we’d decided that we were going to do a new hard plastic Blacksouls kits, I set to work writing up briefs. These are used to describe the models and the kit for concept artists and sculptors. They’re usually based on a combination of the background, the rules, and how the kit is going to be produced. I think it’s important so say that this written way back in May 2019 – that’s how early we start planning! With this sort of thing I generally start with a short brief before going into too much detail:

“Abyssal Dwarfs, same scale as modern Ironcaster. 20mm based infantry to be made in hard plastic. Heavily armoured, but more lightly armoured than Immortal Guard – cuirass, pauldrons, helmets, some chainmail. 5x Torsos/Legs, 5x sets of arms with blunderbusses. 5x arms with axes/hammers/curved swords,  5x arms with shields, 1 bare head, 10 helmeted heads (lower sections), 10 helmets (upper sections), 1 champion helmet (upper section only), 1 champion arm with imposing weapon.  Includes 2 mutated mastiffs who have interchangeable heads.“

From this brief you can see a quick parts breakdown (before anything had even been sculpted) and a description of what we need and other details. One of the key things with the new range was to update the scale of the core troops a bit. The best way to do this was to use a model with a scale we were happy with – in this case, the metal Abyssal Dwarf Ironcaster. This was to be used as a guide for the size and proportions of the new models. Helpfully, this model was digitally sculpted, so there is a digital copy of it that can be referenced by the sculptor.

From this short brief, we went into more detail about how the kit worked and how the physical models would look.

“These are line infantry for the Abyssal Dwarfs. They must rank up next to each other, so please take this into account with posing. Additionally, most components in this kit must be interchangeable with others.

“These are armoured infantry, wearing a cuirass, pauldrons, and an armoured tasset (loincloth) – this is similar in make up to the existing Immortal Guard miniatures. They wear heavy leather gloves and boots, and have a small amount of cloth hanging down from beneath their armour to cover the back of the legs to the knee. Some may carry small items from their belts, such as bones, skulls, metal runes, daggers, or animal teeth. All of their armour should be ornate, with sculpted demonic faces where there is space, or geometric designs on smaller plates.

“Blacksouls are armed with hand weapons and shields. They regularly carry hammers, axes, and short, curved swords. These weapons should look heavy and cruel –crafted by an evil society. The shields can be variable in design, as each warrior would have acquired their own, rather than being issued with them as a military.

“Decimators are armed with short blunderbusses. These are also made with demonic faces – please use the existing miniatures as reference for the design.

“Abyssal Dwarfs wear tall, ornate helmets which often feature horns and leering demonic faces. Their faces exposed, usually very ugly and always featuring beards. These should be in the same style as the Iron caster’s, with rings and trinkets in each one.”

There was also a full component breakdown for the kit, too, but the details were in the text above. Abyssal Dwarfs don’t have a standing military: they tend to fight in loosely organised groups of individuals. Every single warrior has taken their own path to Tragar and the models needed to reflect this. So, we tried to include as many different forms of armour in the kit as possible, but with all of them having roughly the same equipment as each other. Each dwarf is heavily armoured – but not as heavily armoured as the Immortal Guard.

From this, the supremely talented Juan Diego Dianderas created concept art. This was to iron out visually how the new models would look. There was a range of different heads, shields, weapons and armour which we could pick and choose for the sculptor to work from. Juan did a great job of coming up with similar, yet individual designs for armour for each dwarf.

There are a few interesting notes to take from these. Abyssal Dwarfs make more use of swords than their southern brethren, so there are more of those present than any other type of weapons. The shields don’t bear symbols of allegiance, because each one would only belong to the soldier who bore it. There’s some round shield designs because the Free Dwarfs (from which the Abyssal Dwarfs originated) tend to use round shields. We also took this opportunity to redesign the helmets a little. Although they’re still over the top and ostentatious, there’s less height and weight to them so they’re more believable to look at. Those of you who are getting the new sprues will be able to spot the design and pieces that made it into the kit.

One major change we made was to down armour the designs so that these would work well as line infantry alongside the immortal guard. Also, since they don’t have the blank shields like the Immortal guard, there needs to be an area to add colour that isn’t on the armour. The above diagram was used to demonstrate this point. The warrior on the left has less armour than the warrior on the right.

In tomorrow’s blog, we’ll move from the concept stage to the actual sculpting of the new hard plastics!

The post Creating the new hard plastic Abyssal Dwarfs – part one appeared first on Mantic Games.