Every wanted to visit Mantic Games? Well, now’s your chance!
After announcing previously that the Mantic store and gaming area would be opening up on a Friday, we’ve got some more exciting news! We are now extending the opening hours to include most weekdays and Saturdays too! Read on to find out how YOU can visit Mantic Games…
Over the past year, we’ve thoroughly enjoyed our Mantic Monday Night Club – an evening of gaming that anyone could attend and play some top-notch Mantic games. However, we were aware that some people were unable to make it on a Monday or wanted to pop over during the day to pick up some minis.
Well, after much discussion we decided we would change the day from a Monday to a Friday. What’s more, we’d open up during the day too, extending the hours to 2pm until 10pm. How exciting! Then we had even more discussion and decided ‘why not open up for even longer!’ This blog is packed with so many exclamation marks because it’s SO exciting!
So, welcome to a new and exciting era for gaming and
shopping at Mantic HQ that will see us extending opening hours throughout the
week and even the weekend. ZOMG!
VISIT MANTIC GAMES
The below visiting times will start from January 13th, 2020!
Monday: 10am-4pm
Tuesday: CLOSED
Wednesday: 10am-4pm
Thursday: 10am-4pm
Friday: 2pm-10pm
Saturday: 10am-6pm
Sunday: CLOSED
We’ll have space and terrain for a variety of games from Kings of War to Deadzone and an occasional DreadBall match thrown in for good measure. To book a table, please email store@manticgames.com
Elvis is ready and waiting for you… hang on, that sounds a bit ominous.
Of course, the store will be open during this time too – so
if you need some minis to complete your Mantic army or even some Army Painter
bits, then we’ll have those on offer too. We’ll also be expanding the products
available in the store too… stay tuned for more details on that.
We’re super excited about having the gaming hall open for
more games (and we may even get to play some games ourselves). To keep up to date
with what’s happening in the store, make sure you keep an eye on the Facebook Page for all the
latest info.
TOURS
We’re also pleased to offer Tours of Mantic HQ so you can see how some of our miniatures made and perhaps encounter the elusive, lesser-spotted Ronnie stalking through the corridors. Tours take place at 2pm. Please email store@manticgames.com in advance to let us know when you would like to visit.
The post Visit Mantic Games HQ appeared first on Mantic Games.
Ronnie here and it’s
my turn to take over the blog! Mantic launched The Walking Dead (TWD) back at
the end of 2016 – yeah, I know right? Seems like it was just yesterday.
It was a massive success both at retail and via the Kickstarter. Over the following years, we added to the range with cool direct to retail lines, then wave 5 (The Hunters) was a brand-new release direct to retail. We followed that up with Here’s Negan and Call to Arms – a more skirmish PvP take on the story – to reflect how the weapons and the character tooled up as the story progressed!
Considering that The Walking Dead has been around so long, it’s still one of Mantic’s top-selling ranges, with an active community and a very creative tournament scene, kept going by the likes of T&G Productions.
If you know what’s
happened in the comics this year, you’ll be aware there’s been a major shake-up
(no spoilers here). But look, even if the comics have undergone some ‘changes’
– ahem – and the TV series is only
getting 16 million viewers a week – we’re still up for supporting The Walking
Dead: All Out War and Call to Arms… if you are too Looking
ahead in the storyline, compared to where we are now, there are many stories to
play through and neat characters to sculpt and add to the collection.
We know last year was a bit slow for All Out War releases. With Call to Arms and Kings of War (plus support for Vanguard and Deadzone) we had a bit for everyone, but not enough Walking Dead for some. Well, we are coming back like the dead rising!
It all kicks off with the
Hilltop storyline in March – and we’ll be bringing some of the sexy, new stuff
to Adepticon too. In March/April we’ll be releasing Rick (Alexandria Leader) Booster,
Aaron and Rick Booster, Heath Booster, Jesus Booster and Maggie (Hilltop
Leader) Booster.
Alongside (or hot on
the heels of) that we have a very comprehensive support range to add to the
retail release featuring one of the surprise top sellers in the whole Walking
Dead launch. You might be shocked to hear that after the core game itself, the
top selling line was… drum roll please… the Scenery set. You know, the set with
the cars, barricades and objective markers (which also double as very nice
scatter bits). Now we don’t think all those bits just sold to Walking Dead –
and we don’t expect the same here – but they do fit mighty fine on those
Walking Dead themed tables I have seen you all building!
This year we are releasing the full zombie apocalypse/contemporary warzone pieces from the second TerrainCrate Kickstarter! So now you will absolutely have no excuse for not building the nicest gaming tables of any system And one of those sets works rather well with the Here’s Negan game – just in case you wondered!
But it isn’t all about
the sculpts – we also have the Walking Dead Gamer’s Omnibus (working title!).
We will pull together all the scenarios from waves one through five, add more
AOW scenarios covering the next phase in the story, then add a few new
scenarios for Call to Arms. There will also be extra scenarios, like Rick
clearing the prison (using the tiles from Here’s Negan). The result will be a
book that collates everything together for The Walking Dead in one awesome collection.
If all that isn’t interesting enough… King Ezekiel will be this year’s show exclusive. He will be making his debut at Adepticon and Salute, then online for the May Mantic Open day – for those who can’t get to shows.
And no doubt you want
me to leak what we are sculpting next. Well I won’t shout about it, but I might
whisper it at some point
Have a great 2020, and
thanks for all the fantastic support we have had for everything Walking
Dead-related in 2019.
Best wishes,
Ronnie
The post Christmas Blogs: The Walking Dead in 2020 appeared first on Mantic Games.
Hope you’ve been enjoying all the blogs! So far, we’ve covered Kings of War, Hellboy, TerrainCrate, organised play and today we’re talking about Vanguard.
After launching Vanguard back in 2018, the game has continued
to grow throughout 2019 and we now have nine(!) full warbands available. The
list is:
Basileans
Dwarfs
Forces of the Abyss
Forces of Nature
Goblins
Nightstalkers
Northern Alliance
Trident Realm
Undead
The tournament scene for Vanguard has also continued to grow
throughout the year, with two sold out events here at HQ and plenty of others dotted
around the world. If you’re quick, there’s even one taking place on January 11th!
Winter Vanguard is organised by our pals over at Weight of Fire and you can
check the details here.
However, we’re only just getting started on our Vanguard
journey. In 2020 we’ve got plenty of exciting stuff planned, including new
warbands, another Spearhead tournament and lots more. Read on to find out what’s
in store…
ABYSSAL DWARFS
It all kicks off next month with the launch of the Abyssal
Dwarf warband… and there are a lot of very excited people about this. That’s mainly
because it heralds the launch of our brand-new naughty dwarf hard plastic
sprue, which you can see below. These minis have been turning heads in the
office and they’re definitely going to cause a stir on the tabletop.
The little chaps are joined by some mighty monsters too,
including the fantastic Charnox, Infernox and Hexcaster… the latter of which
have profiles in Kings of War.
But that’s not all because the Abyssal Dwarfs are joined by
the Ratkin Slave Reinforcement Pack. That’s right, for the first time ever
we’re officially releasing Ratkin miniatures. Hmm… wouldn’t it be nice if we did
something like these in hard plastic one day? Time to pray to the Ratkin god,
Cheesus. That’s a thing, right?!
Just like the other full warband releases, we’ve gone back
to the original Abyssal Dwarf list and included some tweaks and adjustments to
ensure they’re well balanced and fun to play. We’ll have a full preview closer
to launch but the big gameplay elements for the Abyssal Dwarfs are the way they
interact with slaves and Power! Stay tuned to the Mantic blog for more details!
OGRES
In June we’re planning the release of the Ogre warband. This
will include some awesome new miniatures, like the Boomer Sergeant and (finally)
Ogre Siege Breakers. No pics at the moment, but we reckon these are going to be
very popular.
SPEARHEAD III
As if June wasn’t already exciting enough, we’re planning our THIRD Spearhead tournament. Both of the previous events have sold out and we expect this one to sell out too. We’ve got 28 tickets available and all attendees receive a £25 voucher to spend in the on-site Mantic store on the day. Head here to get your ticket before they sell out.
AND FINALLY…
Ok, this is a big one. Following on from the launch of Kings of War: Third Edition we know that a lot of people are starting new armies and may have a few models spare. These extra models – along with the heroes for your KoW army – are perfect for starting your Vanguard warband.
So, to make the transition from Kings of War into Vanguard that much easier, we’ve updated the free warband lists on the website with ALL the current stats. The free PDF now includes all the updated stats from Ice & Iron, along with the stat entries for units that were previously only available as cards when purchasing the warbands. You can download the updated PDF here and don’t forget the core rules are still free to download too – perfect if you’re starting out!
This will make the barrier for entry into Vanguard that much
smaller and will also be easier for checking out the abilities of your
opponents’ warbands too.
As you can see, there’s plenty planned for Vanguard in 2020
and we’ll be back soon with an in-depth preview of the Abyssal Dwarfs.
The post Christmas Blogs: Vanguard in 2020 appeared first on Mantic Games.
Happy New Year everyone, Martin here – I wrote this a few days ago as I predicted a hangover for today I hope you all had a great Christmas and Santa Claus was kind!
So 2020 is looking absolutely huge for Organised Play. One quick look at the two Kings of War community run resources KoWmasters and KoWtournaments shows that every month there is a tournament running at a store or club near you!
To support such amazing community activity we are launching a brand new Organised Play kit in January. The kit will have a fantastic token set made by our friends at Kraken Wargames plus certificates, spot prizes and a ‘how to run a tournament’ guide for those just starting their Tournament Organising journey. Check out the webstore soon for when they go live!
Organised Play token set
But that’s not all. Vanguard will get an updated OP Kit in February. Only available through stores, this updated set will have a brand new Mercenary for players to collect. For those needing a clue, she is a certain angry Varangur….
Adepticon is fast approaching and we have some super events for you once again. For Deazone there is the Battle for Schaum-berg IV on the Saturday. And across both Saturday and Sunday there is the BIG one. Clash of Kings North America! The highest placed Mantic Army can once again win travel to play in COK UK 2020. Both the events are live and you can register here.
Clash of Kings UK is in October 2020 and this year we have more qualifying events than ever before… so grab your ticket
London – March 8th – Erit Bellum II – Franticon – Dark Sphere, London
Scotland – March 21st and 22nd – King beyond the wall 7: The Wild – Common Ground Games, Stirling
Midlands – 2nd May – Summer Offensive – Black Dragon Miniatures, Hinkley
North – 6th and 7th June – Northern Kings GT 2020 – Element Games, Stockport.
South East – 13th June – Jack of Herts 4: School Fundraiser – Aycliffe Drive Primary School
South West and Wales – 25th and 26th July – South West Clash 4 – Bristol Independent Gaming
Battle Masters 2020 – 22nd August – VC Games Presents – Midlands – Loughborough RFC
Spain – 22nd February – Hispania Wargames – Malaga
MANTIC CLUB!
One of the big changes for 2020 is that we’re changing the gaming club at HQ. Instead of being held every other Monday, we’ll be opening our doors from 2pm on Fridays.
This means you can wind down after a hard week at work by playing some of our fine games at HQ. We’ll also be open until slightly later too (10pm, in fact) so there’s plenty of time for dice-rolling action.
Make sure you join the Mantic Friday Night Club on Facebook to arrange games, find out what’s happening and more! We’ll see you from January 10th!
PATHFINDERS
Pathfinders are Mantic’s army of excited and energetic demo and event volunteers. Each Pathfinder is a Mantic ambassador – a volunteer who has kindly given up their time to spread the word of Mantic in stores, clubs and events. They are available to our retailers to help with their events and to help promote our products in their stores.
Pathfinders are exuberant people who are passionate about Mantic. They are tasked with being infectious and building excitement in customers. They do this through:
Getting them to play our great range of games.
Showing them how great our miniatures are, and that they can be used in all manner of Fantasy and Science Fiction games!
Introduce the notion to people that there is an affordable high quality alternative miniature range available to them.
Mantic is always looking for excited individuals who love to spread the Mantic message. In 2020 we want to expand the scheme and recruit more passionate individuals. If you are interested in showing people Mantic models and games then please send an email to Pathfinders@manticgames.com and we will get back to you with more information!
If this sounds like something you’d like to get behind, then get your email to us soon! Only two more blogs to go, tomorrow we’ll be back with Vanguard and then it’s The Walking Dead on Friday.
The post Christmas Blogs: Organised Play in 2020! appeared first on Mantic Games.
Hi Martin here. I hope you had an amazing Christmas and are getting prepared for a exciting New Year Eve celebration?
Now… is it just me or does it feel like we have just got started with Terrain Crate [Reader response: no, it isn’t just you Martin]. After a great 18 months of releases, where we have barely been able to keep up with demand we are looking to push the Terrain Crate range into the stratosphere. Next year is looking jam packed full of products that will help bring your tabletop gaming to life!
First up is an introduction to a new range of minis for all your fantasy RPG games. Welcome to Dungeon Essentials…
The first two products from the Dungeon Essentials line are ‘Dungeon Dead’ and ‘Dungeon Creatures’. The keen eyed will recognise them as the bad guys from the Wild Hunt and B.P.R.D. Archives for Hellboy: the Board Game… now everyone can use them whenever you need some evil on your tabletop.
Dungeon Essentials launch in February.
With the Terrain Crate 2 Kickstarter shipping in April, the retail launch is planned afterwards (much like we did for TC#1).
Over several waves and ranging from blisters, medium sets and mega sets, we will release themed to retail throughout the year. The themes are:
Modern Apocalypse – great for games like The Walking Dead or Ash Barker’s Last Days
Battle-Scarred Town – perfect for historical games, like Bolt Action or to mix in with your Walking Dead scenery
Gothic Manor – compliment your existing dungeon terrain with the Gothic Manor
Idyllic Village – a great mix of modern and more historical scenery for a huge selection of games
The Cityscape box – part of the Modern Apocalypse release
The Battlefield Ruins set – part of the Battle-scarred Town in July
It’s time to get spooky with the Gothic Grounds set – part of the Gothic Manor release
And we finish on some more great news. The GM’s Starter Set is BACK! Better packaging, better contents, same amazing price. This bestseller will be back on the shelves in February, so look out for it in your local store.
Plenty of great stuff coming up for TerrainCrate then in 2020 and the original dungeon terrain is still available in stores.
The post Christmas Blogs: Terrain Crate in 2020! appeared first on Mantic Games.
Welcome back to another of our Christmas blogs! After kicking things off with a Cyber Sale yesterday, today we’re covering what’s coming up for Kings of War in 2020. Spoiler – it’s a LOT.
First up it’s worth saying that the Kings of War: Third Edition launch went amazingly well and continues to perform fantastically. The response from the gaming community has been epic and we’ve seen players new and old getting stuck into Kings of War like never before. Community projects like the Blackjack Legacy Slow Grow campaign are really helping to inspire people (including Mantic staff) to get involved and paint up their armies. And even Ronnie got his dwarf army finished.
In 2020 we’re going to continue to grow the Kings of War
community and pretty much every month we’ve got a Kings of War-related release
or we’ll be talking about something new coming up for the game. Basically, 2020
is the year of fantasy (lowercase f)! We’re not going to run through everything
here, but we’ll pick out some of the most exciting elements.
NIGHTSTALKER UNITS
Since the Nightstalkers first slithered their way into the world last year, we’ve had numerous requests from players to release units like the Reapers, Phantoms and Shadowhounds outside of the mega army or army boxes. Well, hold onto your butts because these are all available to order RIGHT NOW! They’ll be shipping from January 20th, alongside the Gamer’s Edition rulebook.
That’s not all for January because we’ve also got the Northern Alliance Dwarf Clansmen Reinforcement Pack – predominantly for Vanguard, but you could mix them into a unit of standard dwarfs for a Kings of War unit.
Plus, there’s the wonderful Crocodog ‘pet’ for ogres.
ABYSSAL DWARFS
Moving into February and March and we’ve got some short,
angry customers for Vanguard and Kings of War! The Abyssal Dwarf are marching
into view alongside a host of nasty monsters and new heroes.
The big news though (no pun intended) is that the Abyssal
Dwarf release features the first ever hard plastic sprue for naughty dwarfs. On
the sprue you’ll find the pieces needed to build Blacksouls or Decimators.
These are some of the nicest hard plastic fantasy miniatures we’ve ever made
and we can’t wait to get them in your eager hands!
In February we’re kicking the Abyssal Dwarf celebrations with a new Vanguard wardband (more on that next week), then in March we’ve got the full force of the Abyssal Dwarfs, with the army and mega army, along with Grotesques, core infantry and the amazing Hellfane. If you thought the Steel Behemoth was cool, then the Abyssal Dwarfs have gone one step further with this magnificent monster.
GOBLINS
Skipping forward to the summer and there’s something mean and green on the horizon… goblins! After the huge popularity of the goblins in Vanguard, particularly the Reinforcement Pack with a Rabble, Spitter and Sharpstick goblin, we’ve gone back to give the hard plastic sprue a massive overhaul. The aim is to produce goblins that look more like those fantastic metal ones from Vanguard.
Using everything we’ve learnt about making awesome, multi-purpose hard plastic kits over the past few years, we’ve redesigned the goblin sprue so you’ll be able to make Rabble, Sharpsticks or Spitters from the same kit. If these pictures don’t get your green juices flowing, then we don’t know what will.
GLOBAL CAMPAIGN
As if all this wasn’t exciting enough… we’re building up to
a massive Kings of War global campaign later this year. After the great success
of Edge of the Abyss, which introduced new characters, formations and changed
the game map, this year’s global campaign will be even bigger.
The Abyssal Dwarfs have been digging deeper than ever
underneath the Halpi Mountains and they’re close to unleashing an ancient magic
that can be used by the Forces of Good and Evil for their noble or nefarious
agendas.
We’ll be officially announcing the date for the global
campaign (currently called Halpi’s Rift) in a few months, but now’s the time to
get your army started. Once again, the outcome of this campaign will affect the
development of Pannithor and the map will change based on YOUR results!
All this is really only the tip of iceberg for our Kings of
War releases in 2020. So, make sure you’re signed up to the Mantic newsletter
to get the latest developments on everyone’s absolute favourite mass battle
game. ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE.
The post Christmas Blogs: Kings of War in 2020 appeared first on Mantic Games.
This year was an absolutely fantastic launch for Hellboy: The Board Game. After delivering the Kickstarter in Q2, we went on to release the retail edition around the globe and, in fact, we’ve already sold out of the first print run and are preparing to re-order.
Hellboy was the biggest Kickstarter we’ve ever delivered,
and it was amazing to see the excited response from backers when they received
that mighty box of goodies! In fact, we’re sure some of you probably still
haven’t got around to playing with everything in the package.
What’s more, after the success of Holiday Hellboy in 2018, this year we unveiled the spooky Krampus. It’s worth noting that if you haven’t already ordered your limited edition Krampus, today is the FINAL CHANCE to get this very limited edition resin gaming piece. We’ll start the delivery next week for those that have already got theirs pre-ordered.
But what about 2020? What could that possibly hold?! Well, read
on dear blog explorer!
RELEASING OTHER EXPANSIONS FROM THE KICKSTARTER
The Kickstarter produced a massive amount of content,
including some additional expansions and extra content. During the course of
2020, we’ll start to release some of the extra products funded so that players
who currently only have the retail game can start collecting those sweet
expansions.
We’ll be kicking things off with Hellboy in Mexico in March.
This is a limited edition, one-print expansion and was definitely one of the
most fun elements of the Kickstarter campaign. The expansion tells the story of
Hellboy’s lost period in Mexico fighting vampires alongside three Luchadores.
Also includes a giant wrestling vampire bat… which is always good.
Then in May we’ve got the B.P.R.D. Archives expansion. This
allows you to create your own Case Files featuring different minions and
bosses. It will also come with additional minions, including witches,
werewolves and more! Alongside the B.P.R.D. Archives we’ll also have two
smaller boosters featuring Hecate and Baba Yaga.
BUSTS!
One element of the Kickstarter that was very popular among
fans was the small busts of Hellboy, Liz, Abe, Johann, Lobster Johnson and
Roger. In fact, we had a lot of painters ask if we were doing larger versions
with more detail. Well, the good news is that we will be releasing larger
busts! Hooray.
We’ve gone back to the original sculpts to include more
detail and make them considerably larger (approximately 9cm). Detailed busts
like these are hugely popular among hobby painters and we can’t wait to see
some of your awesome paint jobs. They’re due for release in spring.
LIMITED EDITIONS!
Just like Hellboy Holiday, Nimue and Krampus, we’re also
planning some surprise limited editions and a show exclusive in time for
GenCon. We’re not quite ready to spill the beans on all of them yet, but the
below image might give you a clue about one figure we’re keen to do.
So, there you have a sneak peek at some of the things we’ve got
planned for Hellboy: The Board Game in 2020… although there still might be one
or two surprises up our sleeves. Thanks again for the massive support in 2019
and here’s to an exciting 2020.
The post Christmas Blogs: Hellboy in 2020 appeared first on Mantic Games.
Hope you’ve had a great Christmas! Welcome to the first of our Christmas Blogs. Over the coming days, we’ll be previewing some of the exciting stuff coming up from Mantic in 2020. We won’t be covering absolutely everything – as some things are still super top secret (and we’ve mostly kept Ronnie under control) – but we’ve got plenty of thrills and bean spills planned.
Just so you know when to tune in for your favourite game, here’s the schedule for the blogs. We’re skipping the weekends, if you’re wondering where some days went
December 26th – Cyber Sale (that’s today)
December 27th – Kings of War in 2020
December 30th – TerrainCrate in 2020
December 31st – Hellboy in 2020
January 1st – Organised play in 2020
January 2nd – Vanguard in 2020
January 3rd – TWD in 2020
We realise there’s no sci-fi planned for the blogs but fret not – we’ve got something very special up our sleeve for sci-fi in 2020 but we’re not quite ready to reveal all just yet. Let’s just say if you’re an Asterian fan, there’s something that will mech your year and if you like large, sumo-wrestling space lizards, then you’re likely to be very happy indeed.
Anyway, let’s crack on with today’s blog! Chances are you
might be reading this very text on a shiny new tablet that Santa plopped down
your chimney yesterday! With that firmly in our mind, we thought it would be a
great idea to kick off a cyber sale over on the Mantic website.
Plus, we know that at this time of year, a lot of you are likely to be thinking about new games or new armies… and often the rulebook is the first place you’ll start your journey. To help you out on your 2020 hobby adventure, we’ve discounted almost every digital product on the website – with a few items reduced by a whopping 80%. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights below…
The big release from 2019 was most certainly Kings of War: Third Edition. Now, we realise that some of you might have weak arms from rolling lots of dice when charging in the rear with a horde of orc Longax or something, so the thought of carrying that big 400-page hardback fills you with FEAR. But don’t worry! With the digital edition you only have to carry a tiny tablet.
Our next top choice is The Walking Dead: Call to Arms! If you’ve been an avid All Out War player since the early days when Rick first stumbled out the hospital, then it’s likely you’ve amassed quite a big collection of minis. Call to Arms takes your games of The Walking Dead to a new level, with more Walkers, more weapons and more Survivors.
For Deadzone fans wanting to survive on the urban battlefields of the future, then you need to check out Escalation. This is the latest Command Protocols book, which introduces new scenarios, a mercs faction and contains stats for all factions. We’ve recently updated the digital edition with the latest errata too! And remember, you can still download the core Deadzone 2.0 rulebook for FREE from the Mantic website too. Aren’t we generous?!
That’s really only the tip of the iceberg for the cyber sale! But you’ve only got until January 2nd to take advantage of the digital offers, so head over to the Mantic website now and get downloading.
Ok, so that’s our first blog done! We’ll see you tomorrow for an exciting Kings of War bonanza.
The post Christmas Blogs: Cyber Sale appeared first on Mantic Games.
Ronnie here with a quick update about Krampus shipping. Our intention was to start shipping Krampus in December and then into the New Year (similar to Holiday Hellboy earlier this year).
We have to do these limited edition items as one print, and usually we can guess the final number – then we print a few more than that, get it printed and start sending, even though the cut-off date for orders hasn’t passed.
However, due to the sheer number of orders so far we have had to put the print order on hold. We have already gone past the forecast, and often there is a final rush as the deadline approaches too. So in this case we just don’t know where we are going to end up, and we don’t want to disappoint people and risk them not being able to get Krampus!
This means we are going to have to wait until late December to place the print order – which means that all orders (including trade orders, so we are fair to the hobby shops too) will start shipping in January.
The good news is the print takes just a few days (and we will be busy casting throughout December – which is another time consuming bit) so we will be able to start shipping early January. Plus because January is traditionally a quiet time, we will get them out to you very quickly.
Apologies to those of you that were hoping to receive Krampus before Christmas. If you have a web order that features other items (excluding Nimue) and you require those before Christmas, please email support@manticgames.com and we’ll get those shipped out separately and Mantic will cover the shipping. Likewise, if you needed it before the holidays and want a refund for your Krampus, please contact support, and we can sort that, no questions asked.
Anyway, we just wanted to give you an update so you weren’t
shaking down the postman every day, and can manage excitement levels
accordingly.
If you still haven’t ordered your Krampus, you can do so until December 31st. Check out the video below to whet your appetite… or just be totally freaked out.
The post Krampus Shipping Update appeared first on Mantic Games.
For today’s blog post we’re dipping into the media community to have a chat with Tom from T&G Productionsabout their new content for The Walking Dead: All Out War in the form of an exciting four-player campaign!
Q) A campaign? Sounds exciting! What can you tell us?
A) Well after marking TWD battle reports for a couple of
years, we’ve really developed an affinity for certain factions and characters,
as well as ongoing narrative in-jokes and acts of heroism. Whether it’s Carl’s
lucky hat, Shiva hitting like a damp sponge or the impeding sense of dread when
someone draws There’s a Storm Comin’, we have plenty of fond moments to look
back on. We wanted a way to create further opportunities for these great gaming
moments as well as adding some weight to each battle and decision. So, we have
four players, each with their favoured teams (Grimes Family, Greene Family,
Saviours and Prisoners), battling it out in a five round (10 game) campaign for
supremacy!
Q) Great! Will you be using the Fear the Hunters
expansion?
A) We’ve created a slightly updated campaign document
specifically for the channel, though it is certainly based heavily on the FtH
expansion from Wave 5. Ideas such as the ‘campaign cards’, which add a variety
of complications to battles, as well as the grid-based system and places of
interest are all present. However, we have made some significant changes to add
unique flavour to each crew and battle.
Q) So what has changed then?
A) Quite a bit! Firstly, we have allocated survivors and
weapons to particular areas of interest, meaning players will have to gain
control of these regions in order to expand their options. However, these areas
are hidden by a ‘fog of war’, meaning players must roll on a table whenever
they encounter a new location. One of my favourite examples is the ‘Hunting
Ground’, which not only houses Chris and his vicious Hunters, but also gives
players access to silenced weapons such as the crossbow and tranquiliser gun!
Each area also gives an ongoing buff for your battles, with the previous
example allowing you upgrade your defensive cover rolls once per game! All this
feeds in nicely to the fact that any scavenged supplies picked up in battles
are kept by survivors, meaning you really have to think about when you use
those bandages and ammo reloads!
Q) This is all sounding incredibly thematic! Are there
any other aspects that transfer between battles?
A) Survivor injuries are a big one, and something we did
a lot of playtesting with. We want everyone’s favourite characters to shine but
at the same time need to add a level of consequence to each loss. In order to
do this, we’ve added in a few rules concerning the lasting damage of ‘kills’
and bites. Permanent death is possible during the campaign, but in general
you’ll find players ‘resting’ those that have seen too much action. There are
also some lasting impacts of your faction markers on the map, with walker
infested zones adding to the Threat Tracker while attacks in your ‘base’ hex can
trigger a specific game type called ‘Assault’ – all of which add to the ongoing
struggles for control shown by the factions.
Q) So who are you taking and who are you gunning for?
A) Well I think it will come as no surprise to anyone
that I’ve gone with the Prisoners – and while Dexter and his buddies might be a
little less powerful than their opponents one on one, they have some excellent
synergy and options for cool equipment to power them up. As we have a
gentlemen’s agreement to try and equip our survivors in as much of a WYSIWYG
(what you see is what you get) manner, the prisoners also benefit from being
modelled with a variety of weapon types. As for who I’m gunning for…well,
actually I might need to play avoidance in the early rounds as there are some
BIG hitters in the starting crews, Negan, Shane, Rick – all with high nerve and
damage potential. So my plan is to try and limit my casualties early until I
can recruit a superstar leader like the Governor or Andrea from one of the
points of interest.
Q) Is the campaign something that viewers can use for
their own games?
A) Certainly. We have compiled the information into a primer document here for viewers to make use of. We are hoping that those who enjoy the battle reports might be spurred into running their own ongoing narratives and are welcome to make use of the format that we have produced, digging out some of those lesser-used minis (looking at you Eugene) for a run out. Additionally, after the success of this year’s Conflict event, there is definite scope for us to run a ‘campaign weekend’ with players joining forces in teams to represent factions on a larger variant of the map!
Q) Fantastic! When and where can people tune in?
A) The campaign goes live TODAY! We have an intro video
and the first game uploaded with forthcoming matches uploaded into early 2020.
Viewers will be able to see each map update at the end of every second video (eg.
Round 1, Game 2) to see how the factions are expanding their influence and
we’ll be sneaking teasers into our social media as each game is recorded.
Uncharted Empires isn’t the only big release for Kings of War this December – because we’re also preparing to unleash three new Titans upon Pannithor. First off though, if you missed our Uncharted Empires preview from Matt Gilbert, you can check it out here.
We’ve got three new Titans on the horizon, including the Phoenix, Kraken and Goblin Slasher. You can read a quick preview of each below. However, before our main feature, we have a quick trailer.
PHOENIX
The Phoenix was already an entry for the courageous Basileans but is now also a part of the updated Salamanders list. The Phoenix is the symbol of Basilea: an emblem of rebirth, holy fire and blazing fury. These semi-magical birds are summoned by the mages of Basilea to fight with the armies of the Hegemon.
Phoenixes are vast birds of prey, part fire and part feather; it is unknown exactly how they came into being. They are the favoured creature of the Shining One Fulgria, the goddess of fire, and legend states how they were created from her own sacred flames.
Stats-wise the Phoenix is the same in the Salamanders and Basilean list. The stat that catches the eye is the tasty Fireball (10) spell, which is likely to see your foes turning to ash. Meanwhile, the Heal (5) spell might come in handy for healing your troops.
KRAKEN
Similar to the Phoenix, the Kraken had been a staple in the Trident Realm list since Second Edition… but we’ve finally been able to produce a model! In times of great need, Naiad Centurions, or even one of the Trident Kings themselves, may summon one of these terrible and mighty monsters.
These titans from the deepest ocean have surprised many an enemy of the Neritican army – their immense size and gait belies the speed and ferocity of an enraged Kraken.
In the Trident Realm list, you’ve got the option of two Titans: the Coral Giant and the Kraken. Both are pretty speedy (coming in at Sp 7) but the Kraken arguably has the combat advantage, thanks to a guaranteed 12 attacks in melee. It also has Ensnare, so attackers suffer a -1 modifier to their melee attacks. Well, guess those tentacles would put you off a bit!
GOBLIN SLASHER
Obviously, we’re saving the best until last! The Goblin Slasher is a slight modification to our existing Orc Krudger on Winged Slasher kit… but this is loads better because it has wonderful goblins riding it.
One of the great coups for a goblin king is the taming of a Slasher. A king’s most trusted, skilled and experienced Snaggits are sent into a Slasher cave to tame these powerful reptiles. When they don’t come back out, the king sends in any old goblin to try and subdue it. Eventually the Slasher will be dragged from its den, blinking and confused about the Sharpstick Thrower now clumsily strapped to its back.
The Goblin Slasher can used by either a goblin force or an ogre army. Once again, the stats are the same for both. For the goblins, the Slasher is one of the few units that hits on a 3+ in melee – so it’s potentially pretty deadly. What’s more, before you actually get stuck into the enemy in close combat, you can be firing away with the Sharpstick Thrower, which has a range of 36″. So, weaken them down and then head in for the kill.
THESE NEW TITANS AND THE UNCHARTED EMPIRES SUPPLEMENT WILL BE AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER FROM FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22ND – ALONGSIDE CRAZY BOBBY’S LATEST BLACK FRIDAY DEALS.
The post Kings of War – New Titans! appeared first on Mantic Games.
Hello! I’m Matt Gilbert, the studio manager here at Mantic and head of everything Kings of War. I’m here today to talk about the hotly anticipated follow-up to the Kings of War version 3 rulebook – Uncharted Empires!
The new supplement will be available to pre-order from the Mantic website this Friday… alongside the start of Crazy Bobby’s Black Friday deals. I’ll tackle this in a Q&A style interview with myself (yes, I’m sitting alone in an office right now with no other company) so that it hopefully deals with all the questions and comments I’ve seen (or am anticipating!) in the various groups online.
Q: Wait… I thought
the book was called Armies of Pannithor? That’s what everyone’s been calling
it.
A: Yes – that was the working title but we decided that because people knew what Uncharted Empires was from Second Edition, it made sense to stick to the same format for Third
Q: So what does the
book contain and how many pages is it?
A: The book is
112 pages and contains both background and army lists for the following:
Brotherhood (these now have two lists: The Order of the Brothermark and The Order of the Green Lady)
Free Dwarfs
Salamanders
Sylvan Kin
The Herd
Kingdoms of Men
League of Rhordia
Ratkin
Ratkin Slaves
Twilight Kin
Varangur
There’s a background section from pages four through to 31 and just like the rulebook, each army list gets a few pages of background leading into it too.
Q: Are all the lists
in the book full army lists?
A: Some of them
are Master Lists and others are Themes. Themes are presented and discussed in
the main rulebook but Uncharted Empires is the first time players will have
access to them. Themes are a great way for us to include lists with similar
roots but then add a new flavour so they play in a different way. Theme lists
have a parent Master list which they take some of their units from. They then
have a variety of their own units that are also available for selection.
The Salamanders, Kingdoms of Men and Ratkin are all Master
lists. The rest are all Theme lists. For example, the Varangur is a Theme list
where the parent Master list is the Northern Alliance (but with an Evil
alignment!). Varangur theme units include things like Draugr, The Fallen and
Mounted Sons of Korgaan, alongside units from the Northern Alliance, like
Clansmen, Huscarls and Snow Trolls.
Q: Why didn’t you
just include all these armies in the main rulebook?
A: I had a very
specific format for how I wanted the armies in the main rulebook to be
presented via art and photography. That meant sticking to armies that we
produce a significant range of models for, and ones we didn’t have to ask for
permission to use pictures of! This means the main rulebook really shows off
just how far Mantic and Kings of War has come over the last 10 years – but it
also gave more time for the extra armies to get some testing in, and gave our
layout team a break before doing more pages and pictures. Between the two
books, version 3 has launched with more than 500 pages of material… and that
would be a hefty tome to carry around in your bag. We would have to start
selling official Mantic wheelbarrows to carry everything in.
Q: So does that mean
there are no pretty pictures or art in the Uncharted Empires book?
A: The layout and presentation follows on from the main rulebook – this is the design for this edition of the game. We do have new art in the book some of the new armies, and we have taken some new pictures – but there’s just not as much as in the main rulebook. It’s all still really nice though!
Q: Are there any more
of those great new maps in the book?
A: Not this time
– the locations of the armies in Uncharted Empires are all covered in the maps
in the main rulebook.
Q: If this book helps
represent many of the models that Mantic doesn’t currently make, are there any
plans to start producing models yourselves for these armies in the future?
A: Yes! Obviously there’s still a lot to fill in as part of our existing ranges. But we have plans to attack both. With the original Uncharted Empires book for the previous edition, we tried to be accommodating to many models people might already have, while ensuring that the background we wrote started to put a Mantic spin on each army – cementing them into the world of Pannithor. We continue that here and will do so again in the future, slowly adapting armies and bringing them in line with our own models, ranges and IP as build the world and the game. We will always welcome new players and provide a means for them to play, but of course as we expand our own ranges, there will be many new units that new players will not have and should be excited to try, integrating with their existing collections. Who knows, perhaps one day we might do things like Ratkin, for example…
Q: Have some units
been dropped from the previous edition?
A: Just like with
the lists in the main rulebook, we’ve taken the opportunity to look at how we
wanted each army to behave, as well as how the game played overall. Some of
this involved consolidating similar units into one, some units were removed,
but others have also been added. Not all units removed will have gone forever –
they may come back in a future Clash of Kings book, on their own, or as part of
a formation, for example. Some units were moved out of what is now a Master
list and into a Theme – and so some units currently not available may do
likewise in some of the Themes we introduce in the future.
Q: Where have all the
halflings gone!?
A: There are
still some halflings in the League of Rhordia list! However, the halflings are
pulling back from the League of Rhordia, and while they continue to fulfil
their basic and mandatory military obligations, there is a growing migration
back to the shires. Have no fear though, the armies of the shires are swelling as
a consequence so you can probably read between the lines (and refer to a
previous answer above!) if you are a fan of the little people.
Hopefully that gives a little insight into the new book and answers some of your questions in advance, and might just create some new ones!
Armies of Pannithor – sorry, UNCHARTED EMPIRES, will be available to pre-order from the Mantic website this Friday (the same day our Black Friday offers go live too). It is due to start shipping from December 2nd.
The post Matt Gilbert talks Uncharted Empires appeared first on Mantic Games.
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And one of those sets works rather well with the Here’s Negan game – just in case you wondered! 
