Welcome back villains! First up, have you been checking our previous blogs about League of Infamy? If not, shame on you. But look, we’re forgiving folk here, so make sure you read our introductory blog, plus the analysis of a villain card and our quick chat about the role of the Keep Master. Today’s article is a big one because we’re talking Disorder!

As we’ve mentioned before, playing as a group of villains doesn’t
always mean you have to play nice. After all, the assembled rapscallions have a
history of arson, theft, murder, treason and anything else nasty you can think
of. Although they’re working together on behalf of the League, ultimately they’ve
all got their own agendas.

Each Villain is trying to earn ‘infamy’ – basically bragging
rights when they’re down the tavern afterwards and want to show off about what
a total bad ass they are. What’s more, they’re all trying to gather the most
gold or the best equipment. As a result, there’s nothing wrong with being a
little selfish when it comes to completing the mission.

DISORDER CARDS

As part of their drive to prove themselves the greatest, the
Villains will not hesitate to undermine each other. This is represented by the
Disorder deck, which the Villains will draw from at the end of each round.

Each Disorder card grants the Villain the ability to use a
special Action – usually one which lets them act against their so-called
compatriots for their own good. Disorder cards are one-use, and once they have
been played they are discarded to a face-up discard pile next to the deck. If
the deck runs out, shuffle the discard pile to create a new one.

To sweeten the deal, and encourage some healthy
backstabbing, playing a Disorder card also gives the Villain an amount of
Infamy, shown in the Infamy icon at the bottom of the card. This means you’ll
always be looking for opportunities to stich up your ‘colleagues’ and gain that
all-important infamy. The more you act against the interests of the group, the
more Infamy you will earn.

What’s more, you can also use the Disorder cards to help you
out in sticky situations. About to get attacked by some angry elves? Why not
switch positions with a neighbouring Villain. Urgently need a health potion? Pinch
one from another Villain. Even better, you’ll also earn infamy when you do
this.

ESCALATION

Buried throughout the Disorder deck are a number of
Escalation cards. As soon as one of these is drawn it is placed face-up next to
the Disorder deck, and the player who drew it draws another card to replace it.

Escalation cards either give the Keep Master an extra Alarm
token every round, increase the number of Disorder cards that each Villain
draws to at the end of a round, or both. As Escalation cards are drawn the
Villains have more opportunities to score Infamy for their own personal gain,
but this always comes at their team-mates’ expense. Also, the more Disorder
cards are drawn, the more quickly the remaining Escalation cards will be
revealed. Will the Villains push for personal glory, or resist their evil
impulses for the good of the team? That’s for them to decide.

The post League of Infamy: What are Disorder Cards? appeared first on Mantic Games.

After yesterday’s blog looking through the Villain Card, today we thought we should probably look at the ‘courageous’ Keep Master and their pesky elves *spits in disgust*

A little like Star Saga and Dungeon Saga, League of Infamy pits one player against everyone else. Although unlike those games, this time the antagonist is actually the hero! It’s all about perspective. The Keep Master is in charge of the elf defenders that will try and stop the ‘evil’ villains carrying out their nefarious schemes.

“But wait a minute! I hate being the player that has to beat everyone else and ruin their evening – mainly because I also laugh and point at them. I wish this was entirely co-operative.”

Ah, it’s our old friend imaginary blog reader. Don’t worry! There will also be an AI deck that pits you against an imaginary Keep Master, so you can have four players all on the same side. Hooray!

Although their bastion is being assaulted by a team of highly skilled Villains, the Keep Master has a few tricks up their sleeve – after all, they have the home field advantage. This is represented by the Keep deck, from which they will draw a hand of cards at the start of the game and replenish each round.

The Keep Master’s hand size depends on the number of Villains in the Raid, so the more Villains involved, the more Keep Cards the master will be able to draw from the deck.

There are a number of different sets of Keep cards, each with its own theme designated by an icon. At the start of each raid the Keep Master is instructed to construct the deck for this Raid, usually from the “common” set plus one or more themed sets.

Keep cards each tell you which phase of the game they can be played in.

THE KEEP PHASE

In the Keep phase, the Keep Master rallies the defenders to repel the Villains. The Keep Phase has three steps, which must be completed in order.

STEP 1: STRATEGY

In the Strategy step, the Keep Master is able to play a number of their Keep cards, giving them bonus activations, allowing them to heal their Defenders and so on. These cards clearly state how to resolve their respective rules.

STEP 2: DEFEND

In the Defend step, the Keep Master activates their Defenders. They can always activate a number of Defenders equal to the number of Villain Players and can spend Alarm tokens to activate more.

The first additional activation of a phase costs one Alarm token. The second one costs two Alarm tokens, the third costs three, and so on.

Activating Defenders

When a Defender is activated they can make up to two Actions, and cannot make the same Action twice. Each Defender can only be activated once per Keep phase. If a Defender was activated earlier in the round (because of a special rule, Keep Card etc) they can still be activated in the Keep phase.

STEP 3: REINFORCE

In the Reinforce step, the Keep Master can spend Alarm tokens to summon additional Defenders as reinforcements. They can only summon Defender types that are in one of their Defender Slots, and for each Defender summoned they must spend a number of Alarm tokens as shown by the Alarm Cost / Infamy Reward icon on the Defender’s card.

When a Defender is summoned, the Keep Master places it off the board, next to a Reinforcement point, ready to move onto in the next Keep round.

So, there you have a quick preview of how the Keep Master works. Next week we’ll be having more sneak peeks, including a look at the infamous Disorder cards.

The post League of Infamy: What is the Keep Master? appeared first on Mantic Games.

Hello! And welcome to another sneak peek at our upcoming occasionally co-operative dungeon crawler, League of Infamy. Just in case you missed the announcement, League of Infamy will be launching on Kickstarter on October 28th. Over the next few days, we’ll be going into more details about how the game plays. Today we’re analysing a Villain Card. In the immortal words of John ‘Ray’ Arnold, “hold onto your butts”*

This is the Villain Card for Karzel Runesbane, a greedy Abyssal Dwarf Decimator with a passion for making noise… lots of noise. The Villain Cards will be roughly tarot card sized, so there’s plenty of room for some extra bits and bobs – which we’ll come to a moment.

Here are the main villain stats. The first is how far Karzel can move – in this case Karzel can move three squares. In the middle you’ve got Karzel’s health, so Karzel can take 14 wounds before he’s in a spot of bother. Finally, you’ve got defence – this is the amount of potential damage Karzel can take before he starts taking wounds.

On the left of the card you can find Karzel’s Fight stat. A little like Hellboy, League of Infamy uses a scale of differently coloured dice. White dice are the basic level, orange are slightly better and purple are the best. When fighting, Karzel starts with two white dice, but this can be upgraded with equipment or abilities.

On the right, you’ve got the Shoot stat. This works in exactly the same way as fighting. So, Karzel rolls three white dice as standard when making a ranged attack. Simple!

At the bottom of the card is Karzel’s Skulk stat. Although the Villains may like to go around smashing in doors and noisily shooting elves, sometimes you might want to be a little more cautious. Villains are able to pick locks on unexplored rooms so they can quietly sneak in without alerting the guards. Plus, there may be other events that require you to use your Skulk stats. We’ll leave you to guess how many dice Karzel rolls for skulking.

One of the most important elements of the card is the section listing Karzel’s special abilities, in this case Fusillade and Clanking Sprint. Each of the villains has special abilities that you’ll have to combine in order to successfully complete each mission.

You’ll also see the keyword ‘Deadeye’ above the abilities. During the course of the game you’ll be able to level up your villain with new skills. In the case of Karzel, as well as using Generic cards, he can also learn skills with the Deadeye ability. Stay tuned for more on skills later! What’s more, there may be other elements of the game that use these keywords.

STARTING EQUIPMENT

Now, you may be thinking. “A few puny white dice? I’m never going to be able to mercilessly slaughter elves while laughing maniacally.” Well, don’t fret aspiring elf killer because each villain starts with some special equipment. Huzzah!

One of Karzel’s starting cards is the one above. When using the Twin Pistols weapon, Karzel gets to upgrade one of his white dice to an orange dice. Ignore the little purple die in the corner – that’s placeholder for the moment!

Unfortunately, you’ll also generate an alarm token for the Keep Master (something we’ll come to in a later blog). You’ve got to weigh up the decision to create noise or potentially be more likely to take out your target.

Well, hope you enjoyed that rundown of a Villain Card. Come back tomorrow for more insights into the world of League of Infamy.

*we’ll try and cram obscure Jurassic Park references into as many blogs as possible

The post League of Infamy: What’s a Villain Card? appeared first on Mantic Games.

After yesterday’s blog talking a little bit about the early stages of development for League of Infamy (the occasionally co-operative dungeon crawler*), today we’re explaining a little bit about the background behind the mysterious League.

After the initial decision that the game would be about a group of villains trying to play nicely together, we needed to come up with a good reason about why they were heading off on this little jaunt. After all, a gang of miscreants wouldn’t necessarily choose to work together… without good reason.

Of course, we knew we wanted to set League of Infamy in the same universe of Kings of War (just like we did with Dungeon Saga), so we needed something that would make sense in that context. Initially we tossed around the idea that an Abyssal Warlock had captured the villains and was forcing them to do his bidding… and potentially a bonus mission would be a scenario against the warlock. The characters would each be trying to impress the warlock by performing the most evil deeds possible.

However, that didn’t really feel quite right, and it was back to the drawing board. It was actually during one of our discussions with James and Sophie that the idea of the League came up. They suggested the idea of a mysterious, illuminati-type organisation that would be sending their evil minions across Pannithor to commit all sorts of foul thievery and dastardly doings. Subsequently the League of Infamy was born.

The League is a group of shadowy individuals that only care about one thing: money! Lurking in the murky nation of Ophidia, the League has its influence spread across Pannithor. The League only really has one purpose… and that’s to make sure its members become as wealthy and as powerful as possible. As a result, although they’re happy to use ne’er do wells in their schemes, sometimes they may also be helping the good factions of Pannithor. As long as it helps their bottom line.

With League of Infamy, the League has heard that the elves have started to breed drakons – a smaller type of dragon that can be ridden into battle. The concern is that if the elves have an abundance of these powerful steeds, it could tip the balance of power in their favour and the League could lose its influence. Which would be very bad indeed! So, this is a mission that requires ruthless individuals that aren’t afraid to get their hands a bit bloody. Success will result in great rewards. Failure will result in… a messy end.

We love the idea of the League so much, that this board game won’t be the only time you’ll encounter their devious influence. If you backed the Kings of War RPG, you’ll know the League is mentioned there but you’ll also start to see them appear in Kings of War too. Remember Darvled from the Edge of the Abyss campaign? Well, let’s just say he’s probably got a Coin of Infamy in his back pocket. There’s also a potential civil war brewing in the dwarfen kingdom, which might come in useful for the League if that region becomes destabilised. And who encouraged La’theal Silverheart (now Bleakheart) to unleash the Nightstalkers… and is now funding the Basileans in their quest to stamp them out?

The Pondwarden will ensure any villains have a troublesome time in the Trident Realm.

What’s more, having the League as an organisation with influence across Pannithor, it means we can provide countless adventures for their minions. From the lush fields of the Shires, to the waterways of the Trident Realm… and who knows where else. In tomorrow’s blog, we’ll start delving deep into the rules!

*we are contractually obliged to say this at least once an article

The post Creating League of Infamy: Part Two appeared first on Mantic Games.

Today we’re kicking off a series of blogs giving you a behind the scenes look at the development of League of Infamy, our new board game coming to Kickstarter soon! In this blog, we’re looking back at the early stages of development and how League of Infamy came to be the ‘occasionally co-operative dungeon crawler’.

But first we need to travel way back into the distant mists of time. Remember 2014? Back when we didn’t have flying cars and robot butlers. What a crazy year. Well, Mantic launched a Kickstarter for Dungeon Saga, a classic take on the traditional dungeon crawler, and it went rather well! The campaign launched not only the core game, but a series of expansions and big monsters too.

After the Kickstarter, Dungeon Saga was extremely popular as a retail product. We had to re-print the core game almost 10 times and it was translated into multiple languages. We’ve often talked about creating an updated Dungeon Saga, using some of the revised rules from Star Saga and originally League of Infamy started from that idea.

However, as we were starting to plan the project, we realised that we were all a bit fed up of playing the heroes. The same old mix of dwarf berserker, elf ranger, wizard, barbarian, etc. was a little bit tired. Plus, there are only so many times you can smash your way through an evil sorcerer’s dungeon to uncover some sort of magical artefact.

We discussed how we would much prefer to play the villains. Ronnie joked about freeing the dragon, rather than slaying it, or rescuing an orc that’s been taken prisoner, rather than having to capture it! We also all agreed how much we hate pointy-eared, weedy elves and how much we would absolutely love to ransack an elven sanctuary.

Thus, the seeds of League of Infamy were planted! Next it was time to choose the villains. We wanted these to be a twist on the traditional dungeon crawling tropes. So, instead of a courageous wizard, you’ve got an insane Twilight Kin sorceress. The elf archer is now a greedy, noisy Abyssal Dwarf gunslinger and so on. We really enjoyed having fun with the characters and making them as evil as possible.

The next step was to start creating the game and we knew there was only one place we could turn… Needy Cat Games. We absolutely loved working with Sophie and James on Hellboy: The Board Game, and we knew they would do a fantastic job of bringing our vision of League of Infamy to the tabletop… and that’s exactly what they’ve done. The result is a mix between Dungeon Saga and Hellboy, with a little bit of wicked magic sprinkled throughout the whole thing.

Part of this magic comes from the Disorder Cards. “What are Disorder Cards,” we hear you cry imaginary blog reader. Obviously a group of villains aren’t necessarily going to be team players and are more likely to be looking out for themselves, rather than the rest of their ‘team’. This is represented by the Disorder deck, a set of cards that basically allow you to stitch up your fellow players… or get stitched up. Each time you play a Disorder Card you’re rewarded with ‘Infamy’. This is basically bragging rights, so that when you’re all down the tavern afterwards, everyone will be talking about a total bad ass you are.

As a result, James and Sophie have done a great job of making sure you’re always engaged with the game because you’re either watching out for opportunities to play your Disorder Cards or potentially negotiating with the other players to get you out of a sticky situation. You see, ‘Infamy’ becomes a currency in the game, so you can exchange any Infamy you’ve earned with the other players at any time in the game. For example, if you’ve just been whacked by an elf and need a health potion, you can attempt to weedle it out of another player in exchange for infamy. “I’ll tell everyone how you killed that baby drakon with just one punch, if you give me that potion. OK, ok! I’ll say it was a full size drakon… just give me the bloody potion!”

So, there you’ve got a brief overview of the early stages of development on League of Infamy. In the rest of the blogs, we’ll in greater detail at how the game plays and lift the lid on who/what the League of Infamy is!

The post Creating League of Infamy: Part One appeared first on Mantic Games.

Hi Martin here with what must be my 9008th blog this week (Rob is away filming so the blog is alllll miiiiine!! muhahahahah).

This weekend Rob, Elvis, Clive and myself are all heading up to Element Games in Stockport to support our friends at Top Table Gaming and Blackjack Legacy who are holding their second Top Table Legacy weekend gaming bonanza.

Amongst a whole raft of games, the chaps are running two Mantic organised play events. Dan Meadows from The Walking Dead rules committee is running an All Out War event and our very own Clive is helping run the Vanguard event. If you have a ticket you can sign up for these at the Weekender Facebook Page here.

We are also taking up all sorts of games for attendees to play…

• Want to try Kings of War Third edition? CHECK
• Fancy Kings of War: Vanguard? CHECK
• Hellboy: The Board Game tickle your fancy? CHECK
• Braaains Braaains The Walking Dead? BRAINS

On top of that we are giving the public a first look at League of Infamy which is our new occasionally cooperative dungeon crawler coming soon to Kickstarter. We will have this set up on Saturday and Sunday so come over and get a demo.

We will also have the prototype Hellboy Dice Game we are play-testing on Saturday and Sunday.

Finally, we are bringing stock to sell through the Element Games store. Hopefully you will be able to see our smiling faces behind the mountain of Terrain Crate and event exclusives!

There are still tickets available. you can contact Jay, Steve or Andy here for more information.

We cant wait to see you there!

Martin

The post Mantic and the Top Table Legacy Weekender 2 appeared first on Mantic Games.

Greetings Mantic fans, Kirsten from resin casting back for another blog post.

I’ve been busy painting these last six weeks and even had my very first game of Kings of War.  Now, any such claims as to the result made by people such as Sunny are entirely fabricated.  Don’t be taken in by him.  Should video evidence emerge, he probably faked it.

Got that?

Anyway, moving on.  So far I have painted two regiments of crossbowmen, one regiment of spearmen, two heavy arbalests, an Abbess, a troop of sisterhood, and a troop of sisterhood scouts.  This is honestly far more models than I’ve painted in a long time, so I am pretty pleased with that result.  After the first game, I’ve since decided that crossbowmen aren’t really what I want from the army, and am planning to turn one regiment in to more spearmen, and rebase them all in to a spearmen horde.  The second crossbow regiment will be split in to two troop units.

Ed’s note – not sure what is happening here but we love it.

This is not in any way related to the game, or what may or may not have happened in said game…

Having painted so many men at arms and sisterhood, I’ve actually taken a breather and painted a Frost Giant as something of a palette cleanser.  This is also nothing to do with the game I had.

Looking ahead for the Basileans though, I’ve got three Elohi to paint, an ogre palace guard horde, along with a dictator and war wizard.  Plus the aforementioned men at arms changes.  After that, I’ve got my pre-order in for the two player starter set, as I want to do both a Northern Alliance and Nightstalkers army (both were taken when I chose at the start of this challenge).  It’s fair to say that I’ve been bitten by the Kings of War bug, even with a crushing defeat to ogres.

Alleged defeat.

I’m not bitter.

I have learned a lot though, and seeing two armies line up fully painted on a fantastic table is tremendously rewarding and has really motivated me to keep going.  Momentum is not going to slow down once this challenge is over.

See you on the gaming table and remember, “Ogres do good combat”. Oh, and before I go, I understand it’s tradition to have a little sneak peek at a unit in Third Edition. Well, seeing as I’ve got one painted up, here’s the Heavy Arbalest.

The post Road to Third Edition: Kirsten’s Basileans appeared first on Mantic Games.

We’ve got a special guest for today’s blog – Jason Moorman from the esteemed Kings of War Rules Committee is here to talk about how they approach development on Third Edition. Over to you Jason…

Since Mantic announced that third edition was coming this year, there has been a lot of talk about the changes to the core rules, with spoilers splattered across blog posts, videos, and podcasts throughout the tabletop world.   Very little, though, has been said about the process of writing the rules and deciding what changes would be made.  I thought I’d take a moment to pull back the curtain and give a peek at how those of us on the Rule Committee went about writing the new edition.

Mantic informed the RC that Third Edition would be released in 2019 well over a year ago, so we began our prep work even before we had hard deadlines in place.  We started by creating a living rulebook that integrated all existing errata and Clash of Kings changes into the second edition text.  We kept this up to date so rules changes wouldn’t slip through the cracks when it came time to write third properly.  Then, when Mantic officially told us to begin work on Third, we started by rewriting sections in order to make sure all the frequently asked questions were included in-text in a clear and concise way.  This created some messy or rambling rules sections that we then cleaned up, taking the opportunity to also create new terms to cut down on wordiness (e.g. replacing Second Edition’s “non-allied” with third edition’s “Core”).

This process gave us something that could reasonably have been called edition 2.5.  It was a cleaned-up rulebook that accurately reflected how the game was being played in late 2018.  Third Edition, however, gave us the opportunity to not only clean up the rules, but to improve gameplay.   We asked ourselves where the game could be cleaner, richer, and better prepared for moving the game forward.  Let’s look at a few of those places.

Engagement

The five of us agreed that easily the messiest part of almost any game of Kings of War is regrouping after a charge that doesn’t rout.  Since Second Edition came out, the rules governing that 1” fallback have become increasingly complex.  In some games sorting out which units falls back and how far they fall back takes up as much time as the actual combats.  There aren’t a lot of tactics involved in shuffling units 1”, just steps to mindlessly follow.  We felt we could do better.

Our solution was to simply get rid of the fallback all together and leave units Engaged after combat.  No more pushing your units back 1”, or as close to 1” as possible.  No more forcing the defending unit to fall back 1” because the attacker can’t.  Units simply stay in contact.  Then, if the other player doesn’t want to remain Engaged, they can simply Disengage on their turn by moving their unit out of contact with the enemy.

Generally, we were happy with this solution, but we worried that this may result in the loss of some tactical options created by the 1” fallback.  We added a free Withdraw move to make sure we didn’t inadvertently remove depth of play while streamlining.  Basically this conditionally moves the 1” fallback into the other player’s turn and makes it optional.

Both internal RC playtests and the larger group of playtesters found this to be an elegant solution to a messy problem that reduced game times considerably.

Individuals

Like a lot of the community, we felt heroes can be a bit dull in Kings of War.  One general is much like another, and many options rarely see play time at all.  We wanted to add a bit of depth to Individuals without slipping into so-called ‘Herohammer’.  We found a couple of ways to do this.

First, we created two tiers of combat Individuals.  Most Individuals are Yielding, meaning, among other things, that other units may move through them under normal circumstances.  The average flagger or wizard can’t stop a horde of Paladins from moving freely about the battlefield.

On the other end of the spectrum, however, are the Mighty Individuals, the impressive warriors that are capable of shifting the tide of the battlefield on their own.  These individuals simply don’t follow the rules for Yielding.

To add more flavor to specific types of Individuals and further add to the distinct feel of some Heroes we also added Auras.  Aura-like effects had already been given to some heroes through the Clash of Kings books.  Third gave us a chance to expand on the idea across armies.

Preparing for the Future

We wrote third edition with an awareness that we will be adding in new units, new abilities, and new spells in the years to come.  We worked to put systems in place that would make integrating these new changes as easy as possible going forward.  A good example of this is spellcasting tiers.

We found throughout Second Edition that it was difficult to introduce new spells because a spell that was balanced when taken by a 120 point spellcaster suddenly seemed broken when taken by three 50 point spellcasters.  Even Legendary spells were sometimes too powerful on cheaper casters.  To get around this going forward, we’ve introduced Spellcaster tiers.  Simply put, each spellcaster in the game has been assigned a numerical value reflecting how powerful they are.  In future supplements this allows us to restrict spells to more powerful Spellcasters if we feel the need to do so, or to give more powerful versions of a spell to more powerful Spellcasters.

Though it is neither obvious nor explicit, we actually used Spellcaster tiers to determine what spells to give the Spellcasters in the book, and to determine how powerful those spells would be.  So, for instance, the Tier 3 Empire of Dust Cursed High Priest has more and better spells than a tier 1 Goblin Wiz.

Another method of future proofing Kings of War, is the introduction of keywords. Below each unit entry are a selection of highlighted words. Although at the moment, many of these do not have an effect in Third Edition, they may become important when we introduce elements such as formations (which will be returning once the meta has settled down), new spells or special rules. So stay tuned!

Well, hope you enjoy his glimpse behind the RC curtain. We’re all really excited about the changes in Third Edition and can’t to see all our hard work in your hands soon!

The post Shaping the Rules for Kings of War: Third Edition appeared first on Mantic Games.

Hi Martin here. Pathfinder extraordinaire Ben Edwards has written a blog to give you all a detailed overview of FrantiCon 2020. Over to you Ben!

Some people have only heard whispers of the legends of Mantic FrantiCon, others have glimpsed upon its sublime wonders but have been unable to attend in the past.  But there is a third group. A special group. These are the lucky souls who have heard, seen and experienced Mantic gaming nirvana. If you’re a fan of Mantic’s games (and it would be odd if you’re aren’t, because this is the Mantic Blog…) then read on below and get excited for next year. 

MANTIC FRANTICON

Mantic FrantiCon is the largest and most exciting Mantic convention in the world. Organised in partnership between Mantic Games and the Frantic Gamers podcast and held at Dark Sphere Megastore in Shepherds Bush, London, the sole aim is to create the best event experience possible for players to revel in the Mantic Games ecosystem.  With 78 attendees, MFC 2019 saw five events covering Kings of War, Deadzone, Warpath: Firefight and DreadBall over a single, amazing weekend.

After receiving incredible survey feedback from attendees afterwards, we thought we’d make Mantic FrantiCon 2020 bigger, better and way more awesome!  This blog is to give you an overview of 2020, and there will be additional posts in the run up showing off goodie bag loot, sponsors, prizes, event details and more! And if you don’t have much time, the TLDR is MORE days, MORE events, MORE Early Bird gift choice, MORE time and MORE sponsors!

MORE DAYS!

The FrantiCon crew started discussing this pretty much immediately after MFC2019.  Not only did we want to revel in more of Mantic’s games, we had an idea for a different, super special activity (more on that later).  A lot of attendees turned up on the Friday anyway so we thought we would take the opportunity to add an extra day!

MORE EVENTS!

As if five wasn’t enough, Mantic FrantiCon 2020 will have an epic seven events to choose from over the course of the three days!  On the Kings of War 3rd Edition front we have the Kings of Herts @ FrantiCon doubles on the Saturday and ranked singles on Sunday with Erit Bellum II. 

For Deadzone we have Desolation I singles on Saturday and a yet-to-be-named doubles tournament on Sunday (although we are toying with allowing players with 2x200pts lists to play as a single-person team as well!).

We also have the DreadBall UK National Championship 2020, but this time the DreadBall will be split over Friday and Saturday evenings. 

With the success of Kings of War: Vanguard we thought the game definitely deserved a slot in the line-up, so in that comes on Friday.

And finally, miniature painter extraordinaire Juan Hidalgo will be running his first Painting Masterclass on the Friday as well! There will only be 20 spaces available for the masterclass, so if you’re keen then make sure you book!  Both of the Friday events will have late starts (around midday) to give players ample time to walk, drive, fly or swim their way to the venue in the morning.

MORE EARLY BIRD CHOICE!

Last year we were able to offer the amazing Early Bird deal of any DreadBall team, Deadzone starter box or Warpath vehicle.  This year we pulled out all the stops and have been able to make it even better. With an Early Bird ticket at Mantic FrantiCon 2020 you can choose (subject to stock availability) from ANY Deadzone starter set, ANY Vanguard starter set, ANY Warpath vehicle ANY new DreadBall team or ANY large terrain crate!  Make sure you don’t miss out – the Early Bird is only available until 23:59 on Saturday 30th November.

MORE TIME!

One of the key learnings we took from both our experience and the Survey Monkey feedback of MFC2019 was that people wanted a little more time to chill out and catch up with friends.  We certainly succeeded in making an action-packed weekend but it might have been a little too action packed!  The main reason we will be splitting DreadBall over two days is to allow more time per DreadBall game and so massively reduce the pressure, particularly on new or inexperienced players.  This has the knock on effect of enabling us to go a tad later with the daytime events, as well as leave more time for evening feasting before the face-smashingly good DreadBall fun starts.

MORE SPONSORS!

We have new sponsors in the line-up for MFC2020. Instar produce high quality miniature paints and receive glowing reviews from the painters that have tried their range.  Even more excitingly, they are releasing a line of truly unique paints later this year – Alpha. As thin as water but with the coverage of old Foundation paints, we were all incredibly excited.  Not only will they be providing the paints for Juan’s Painting Masterclass, bundles of their paints will be prizes available too!

THE DETAILS

For more information on the event sponsors, the goodie bags and lots more news – visit the event Facebook page!

The moral of the story: you should absolutely come to Mantic FrantiCon 2020.  We look forward to seeing you there!

Tickets are available NOW – just use this link!

The post Mantic FrantiCon 2020 – Dark Sphere – 6th – 8th March appeared first on Mantic Games.

Hello, it’s Sunny here. I’m the person that picks and packs all the web orders… so there’s a little bit of Sunny Love in each delivery [Ed’s note – we’ve checked and Sunny’s Love isn’t against the dangerous goods act, so you’re all fine]. If you’ve watched the Road to Third Edition video, you’ll know that I’ve opted for ogres in Third Edition.

I mainly went for ogres because the model count is relatively low, so I knew a full army would be well within my grasp. And now with just a few weeks to go – the end is in sight! So, what progress have I made since the video was filmed? Actually, it has been pretty strong for me, as I am naturally a procrastinator and overthink how to paint. So currently I have four hordes of ogre warriors, two hordes of Boomers, a giant, a standard bearer, ogre captain and an ogre warlock! That’s about 1,500pts in Third Edition. BOOM!

The highlight of the army isn’t any individual but the army as a whole. As they do look quite big and menacing. I also opted for bright, striking colours to make them stick out, where I normally paint darker earth tones and this was out of my comfort zone. Although I do think I’ve managed to pull off a good standard of tabletop ogres.

Next up
I’ve got some braves to paint and hopefully a horde of chariots – mainly to get
into combat quicker and break those archers, sooner!

I recently
had a game against Kirsten’s Basileans and, as I learnt, “Ogres do good combat”!
They were brutal and I was generally shocked (although perhaps not as shocked
as Kirsten) about how well they performed. Everything I hit seemed to crumble
after a turn of combat for the unlucky Kirsten.  I actually anticipated my ogres would be shot
off the board but that did not happen! Once I closed the gap it seemed to swing
in my favour in a big way. I don’t want to spoil the outcome so make sure you
watch the bat rep, once it’s live.

Overall then, I’m very pleased with my progress. The starting goal for me is simply having 2,000 points done and painted for the release of third edition. The end goal is to have 3,000 points so I can mix my ogres up and then hopefully enter Clash of Kings 2020.

Oh, I understand
I’m meant to preview some of Third Edition stuff in this blog? Well, I’m currently
working on making some Siege Breakers because they look like they’ll hit pretty
hard. Oh, and I spied on Dave’s computer the other day that he was looking at
some pictures of Siege Breakers… so hopefully that means we’ve got some Mantic
ones coming pretty soon. Not sure if I’m meant to say that, but I’m sure
someone will cut it out if I’m not.

Anyway, thanks
for reading the blog and hopefully I’ll see you at a tournament soon.

The post Road to Third Edition: Sunny’s Ogres appeared first on Mantic Games.

Hey, Martin here!

Wow, what a weekend that was. Thanks to all attendees Clash of Kings 2019. Congratulations once again to Mario Murillo for his outstanding (and hard fought) win.

If you would like to watch some of the games (and can put up with Rob’s inane ramblings), the live streams are available on our YouTube channel. Also, if you want to see the results in full, head over to WarScore.

Clash of Kings 2019 was officially the biggest ever! We had 86 players from around the world (UK, Ireland, Norway, Italy, USA, Spain and France) all fighting it out to be crowned champion. And what a fitting send off to Kings of War: Second Edition.

However, with Third Edition fast approaching, we want to make Clash of Kings 2020 even BIGGER!

LOCATION

As mentioned on Saturday night I have been plotting ahead of time as I wanted to give everyone enough time to start making their plans for Clash 2020. With this in mind I am happy to confirm next year’s event will be at Firestorm Games in Cardiff and the tournament will be held over the weekend of the 10th and 11th of October 2020.

This weekend avoids the Cardiff Marathon and any other events that I can find on the calendar. I was aware that Clash has clashed with other things previously and to avoid Clash Clashing I wanted to get it booked early so you can all get travel and accommodation sorted well in advance. Have I said clash enough?!

WHERE TO STAY?

Firestorm has guidance on where to stay including hotel and hostels – click here. There are of course lots of places to stay via airbnb etc. For our international guests or those wanting to take a flight, Cardiff Airport is only 30 minutes from the venue by car, so getting there is as easy as Ronnie losing his hat.

EVENT DETAILS

Along with the standard six fantastic games of Kings of War (probably no Kill next time though), we also want to make sure there are extra activities to keep you all entertained in the evening.

We’ve arranged with Firestorm to open until 11pm on the Saturday, plus the kitchen will be open until 9pm, so there’s no need to leave the venue for food. We will once again be holding a spoiler-filled and teaser heavy Kings of War keynote, featuring the enigmatic Ronnie Renton and quiet but powerful, Matt Gilbert.

Also – and I know this is why most of you actually attend the event – the Burman Pub Quiz will be making its spectacular return. Will he run out of Mantic-related questions? Can he cram in another Jurassic Park question? Only time will tell.

As if all this wasn’t already exciting enough, the goody bag will be packed with delicious things once again- with a value of over £50 (so your ticket is basically free). Look out for future posts for more details!

After numerous suggestions, we are looking to introduce a list submission closing date of around a week before the event next year. Again look out for further details in future blogs.

You can book your ticket here. Get involved

Cheers,

Martin

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Hey, Martin here. To continue on from Rob’s amazing Goblin post last week, I wanted to give you all an update on where I am with my Nightstalker Army build, as part of the Road to Third Edition.

It’s fair to say I’ve been pretty busy. I have been truly caught up in army building this year and seeing it develop over the months and get it to the tipping point of being a usable force is such a rewarding experience.

MARTIN’S NIGHTSTALKERS

To date I have around 3,300 points TER (by Third Edition Reckoning) and have even had time to put together a few hobby projects to fill in any gaps for miniatures we haven’t done… yet.

Here is my completed army so far…

• Butcher Fleshripper – Hero
• Horror – Hero
• Shade – Hero
• Banshee – Hero
• Reaper Souldrinker – Hero
• Void Lurker – Titan
• Portal of Despair – Titan
• Terror – Titan
• Shadow-hulk – Titan
• Mind-screech – Monster
• Fiends – Regiment
• 2 x Butchers – Hordes
• Phantoms – Regiment
• Shadowhounds – Regiment
• 2 x Spectres – Troops (as a regiment it makes the full list legal)
• 2 x Reapers – Troops
• Scarecrows – Legion
• Bloodworms – Regiment
• Soulflayers – Regiment

My thinking behind my army was rather simple. Just build and paint as much as possible then I can pick and choose what I want to play . I knew I wanted to have the big Titans in there, so they were what I painted first – from there it has just spiralled and I am rather happy with how everything has turned out.

It’s not just about painting though as Rob and I managed to find the time for a 1,000 point game recently (my first of 3rd edition). Even with his hordes of Spitters I was able to close the space and get stuck in due to the Stealthy rule. Once up close the Butchers and Reapers were able to do a fair chunk of damage and win the day!

UPDATED UNIT

Those observant readers may have noticed the Soulflayers on my list above? Well, these are the new name for Nightmares (because let’s face it, I have enough of those already) and have a slightly updated profile..

This unit was one of my hobby builds. The Studio had some amazing concept artwork for me to use as inspiration so I used some Wraiths, hollowed out the cloak area and used hot water to mould them around the back of the Undead Cavalry. I know the cavalry have two of their legs missing, but what is a couple of absent hooves between friends…?

OI! WHERE IS MY TEASER?!

Would I leave you without something to discuss dear reader? No chance….

….which Nightstalker units do you think have access to the Screamshard upgrade? Answers on a postcard to R. Renton – Mantic HQ.

WHAT’S NEXT?

I mentioned earlier about being caught up in army building… well so much so that I have just started my second army for 2019. The Basileans! I’ve started with one of the hero models (Jullius) and I’m going with a Roman Empire/Fire colour scheme and I have just begun building five regiments of Men at Arms.

I really can’t wait for the Phoenix to be launched in December! If i get it to 0.000005% as good as Angel’s (see below) I will be happy.

Cheers for reading, see you at Clash!

Martin

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