With the retail release of Hellboy: The Board Game tantalisingly close, we’re publishing a different article about the game’s mechanics every day. Today it’s my turn, James M. Hewitt, to give the designer’s perspective on some of the key parts of the game. If you missed yesterday’s entry (describing the Agent Cards), you might wanna check it out here.

Today, though, we’re talking about Case Files!

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Mignolaverse, Hellboy is (sometimes) a field agent for the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defence. A shadowy organisation founded in the wake of WWII, the B.P.R.D. is dedicated to protecting mankind from all manner of occult threats, from cult uprisings and ancient gods to witches and werewolves. When they catch wind of any such occurrence, they assemble a team of skilled field agents and send them to investigate. Hellboy: the Board Game replicates this on the tabletop, with the players taking control of the B.P.R.D.’s A-Team and taking on some very serious threats indeed.

It actually took a while (and a fair amount of playtesting!) before I hit on an interesting way to represent this in the game. Case Files were the solution!

When you open your copy of H:tBG (acronym alert) you’ll find several decks of cards; you’ll also find several Case Files. Each one is tied to a particular Case (that’s a scenario, in standard gaming lingo) and includes various unique cards. You’ll get a deck of Encounter Cards, which will determine what’s in each location you explore (more on them later in the week), and possibly some other cards to be shuffled into the Deck of Doom or the Requisition Deck (again, more on these later!). Most importantly, though, you’ll find the Case File deck.

The Case File deck is something you’ll want to treat with due reverence. It’s not a normal deck of cards; for starters, you mustn’t shuffle it or look through it! It occupies a space on the HQ board (which Rob’s going to tell you about tomorrow) and handles the pace and narrative flow of the game. Only the top card is visible at any time, and will give instructions for when it should be flipped over. The back of the card might reveal a hidden passageway to a new area, give the players a much-needed leg-up or contain a new objective – anything’s possible!

Some Case File cards might be put “in play”, meaning they’re taken off the top of the deck and placed next to the HQ board. These cards will show a trigger – for example, “flip this card if all the agents are Knocked Out”, or “flip this card if the Information Gathered track reaches 10” (more on that from the delectable Rob tomorrow).

Eventually, each Case File deck will come to the Confrontation, a final showdown against a Boss. Going into the Case the players won’t necessarily know which Boss they’re going to face – they’ll have their briefing, sure, and there might be some clues along the way, so they might think they know what they’re coming up against… but what would Hellboy be without a few unexpected plot twists?

What’s more, there might be multiple routes to a Confrontation. If Rasputin’s cooking up an evil scheme in the basement of a crumbling manor, you’d better hope you can find him through exploring the board… but if you all get knocked out, you might wake up to the sound of maniacal chanting and find yourselves in the middle of the ritual circle, stripped of all your kit! Whatever happens during the game, the Case File deck ensures that you’ll always get to play the Confrontation, even if it means you start at a serious disadvantage; that way, every game ends with an explosive show-stopper, instead of just fizzling out because you had some bad dice rolls.

“Hey, James,” one might ask, “surely this mean you can only play each Case once! What about replayability? You are the literal worst!”

Thanks, convenient hypothetical questioner. Haven’t heard from you in a while!

During playtesting, we’ve found that playing through the same Case File multiple times is absolutely something you’ll want to do. The first time will always be special – after all, you’ll be surprised by what’s going on, and that’s always a laugh – but chances are you won’t beat it. Hellboy: the Board Game can be tough, as all good co-operative games should be, so we’ve made a big effort to make the Cases replayable. Each time you play a Case you’ll find that the Deck of Doom and Encounter Deck will combine in new ways, providing different challenges and keeping things fresh.

Hellboy: The Board Game is available to order NOW from the Mantic website. The retail version will be launched on April 27th in all good game stores.

The post Developing Hellboy: The Board Game – Case Files appeared first on Mantic Blog.

It’s Hellboy Week(s) on the Mantic Blog. Over the next few days we’ll be delving into key gameplay elements ahead of the retail launch on April 27th. We kicked off the blogs earlier this week with an overview of the early development stages. If you missed those, make sure you read part one and part two.

For today’s rules focus, we’re looking at an Agent Card. In Hellboy: The Board Game you and up to three others (although you can play solo too, don’t worry) will choose your BPRD agent and then head out into the field. In the core game you’ll find four agents to choose from: Hellboy, Liz Sherman, Abe Sapien and Johann Kraus. Each agent has their own unique card with their own special abilities.

For now we’ll look at Hellboy’s Agent Card and explain all the various parts. In some cases we’ll give a brief overview as we’ll be expanding on them later in the week. This is just to whet your appetites. A rule aperifit, if you will.

SKILL LEVEL ICONS

First up in the top left are your skills. Starting from the left you’ve got:

• Fight (used when attacking enemies in the agent’s area)
• Shoot (used when attacking enemies in other areas)
• Explore(used when examining clues and points of interest)
• Defend (used when defending against enemy attacks)

The different colours represent the colour of dice you’ll be rolling when making that test. We’ll be covering this in further detail later in the week.

SPECIAL RULES

Next up you’ve got the special rules for the agent. These are abilities that are always active for that agent. As you can see from Hellboy’s card, he’s pretty handy (ba-boom tish) at Fighting because he can shake off any damage. However, he’s also good at helping fellow agents with the Seen it all Before rule.

THREAT LEVEL

This is important for the start of the game. Ahead of the mission, you place character icons on the target priority tracker. During the enemy phase, the character in first place will be the target of enemy attacks. Thankfully this changes during the course of the game, so poor Hellboy won’t always be suffering damage.

UNIQUE ACTIONS

Here’s one of the most exciting elements of the card! These are the Unique Actions the agent can perform as part of their turn. Each costs a differing amount, so you’ll have to choose carefully when you want to perform them. We’ll be going into more depth about Agent Actions in a future blog. For now just imagine how much fun it will be to throw furniture at a frog monster. Answer: lots of fun.

STARTING CARDS

Agents start with their own unique pieces of equipment or abilities (for example Liz’s Flame Tracker). In this case it’s Hellboy’s Pistol and some deep pockets! Hellboy is always rummaging around in his coat to find something useful – whether that’s a charm, weapon or something else entirely – and that’s represented by the Deep Pockets card.

HEALTH TRACK

No one said fighting the harbingers of Doom would be easy and the agents are likely to take damage during the game. We’ll be covering damage in a future blog, but just rest assured that if this fills up, then bad things will happen.

And that concludes our quick review of Hellboy’s Agent Card. As mentioned above we’ll be exploring some of the elements in closer detail over the next few days. In tomorrow’s blog, the dashing James M. Hewitt will be here to explain what Case Files are… and you definitely don’t want to miss that!

Hellboy: The Board Game is available to order NOW from the Mantic website.

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In yesterday’s blog we talked about the early stages of development for Hellboy: The Board Game. You can check it out here. For today’s entry we’re looking at how the game progressed once James M. Hewitt and Sophie Williams from Needy Cat Games joined the project.

James and Sophie have been running Needy Cat for a number of years now. James previously worked at Mantic as our much-loved (and missed) community manager and professional He-man cosplayer. He then went to work at a little known independent games manufacturer called Games Workshop where he worked on something called Blood Bowl and Warhamer Quest *shrugs*. Sophie also worked at the boutique store, Games Workshop, and since launching Needy Cat Games has designed the skirmish game Ancient Grudges: Bonefields.

Immediately James and Sophie began tinkering with the basic mechanics we’d established, i.e. a co-operative game for up to four players in which the BPRD explores a gothic location and hunts down a suitably terrifying beast! Yeah, so not a lot to work on…

However, something they immediately realised from reading the comics is that there’s a decent portion of investigating involved in the original stories. Often Hellboy and the crew won’t know exactly what they’re facing. Instead they must hunt for clues at the scene and, invariably, fight some wicked minions along the way, before facing off against a towering monster (like Sadu-Hem below).

With this in mind, James and Sophie began by splitting the gameplay into two key elements: investigating and, somewhat inevitably, combat. For the investigation element you’ll have to search your surroundings for clues about the threat you’re hunting down. If you fail to find a piece of the puzzle, then the final confrontation will be a whole lot tougher.

Combat is also a key part of the comics so James and Sophie wanted to ensure this was as cinematic and fun as possible. As a result you’ve got Hellboy punching monsters around, Liz setting fire to things, Abe taking aim with his gun and Johann possessing his enemies. The combat (and investigating for that matter) both use a really simple but rewarding custom dice system that we’ll cover in a later blog.

With the two elements of gameplay defined, this led to the creation of the Impending Doom Track and the Information Gathered Track. The former tracks how much danger the agents are in and how close they are to the final fight. While the latter shows the amount of evidence they’ve gathered. This could be a piece of equipment or vital information that will expose an important weakness ahead of that end battle. A key part of the game is successfully balancing these two elements and there’s often a frantic race to grab that crucial info before the Impending Doom track reaches its dramatic conclusion. Stay tuned to a future blog for more details about these.

Another genius element introduced by the Needy Cat crew was the creation of the Case File deck. We always had the idea that it would be great if missions were contained in a top secret envelope so you never knew what was coming. However, we took that one step further with the Case Files. Before each mission you’ll need to crack open a small, top secret envelope to unveil a deck of cards.

These cards act as the scenario generator for the mission and explain things like how to set up the board and trigger special events. Thanks to the secretive nature of these cards, the first time you play a mission, you’ll have absolutely no idea what’s in store. Even the final boss might be a mystery.

Finally James and Sophie’s other key idea was the exploration mechanic. The Case File reveals the initial set-up but after that you’re on your own. Each time you enter a new room you’ll flip over an Encounter Card. Each room is split into four areas and the Encounter Card tells you what’s inside, e.g. some monsters, a clue or a piece of furniture to search. A little like the Deck of Doom cards, these are placed randomly so each game has the potential to play differently, even if you’ve completed the mission before.

To surmise all the above, James and Sophie have turned what we always thought would be a good game into an absolutely GREAT game. All the games we’ve played here at HQ have been fantastic fun – and no two (even the tutorial) have ever played quite the same.

Hellboy: The Board Game is available to order NOW from the Mantic website. Plus we’ve got less than 100 of the amazing Collector’s Editions available, which are perfect for those that missed out of the Kickstarter.

The post Developing Hellboy: The Board Game Part Two appeared first on Mantic Blog.

Today we’re kicking off a series of blogs about our exciting new project – Hellboy: The Board Game. In today’s entry, we thought we’d give a little bit of background on development and a brief overview of the game before delving deeper into gameplay mechanics over the days to come.

So, how did this all come about? Well, after the huge success of Mars Attacks and The Walking Dead: All Out War, we knew that we would like to produce another licensed game. After all, it’s a great opportunity to work closely with the creators of some of the best-known and iconic characters around. And who wouldn’t want to do that? When we drew up a list of potential licenses, Mike Mignola’s incredible Hellboy series was top of that list.

Hellboy has become a household name – thanks to the live action movies, videogame appearances and animated films – but we always loved the original graphic novels. The combination of folklore, huge monsters and, of course, Hellboy battling enemies with that famous Right Hand of Doom, has always been appealing. As a result we began talking to Dark Horse in late 2016 and we eventually signed the deal in late 2017 (that’s right, it does take quite a while to sort these things out).

Originally we saw the Hellboy game as a dungeon crawler with Hellboy and the other members of the BPRD setting off to a suitably spooky location and then battling minions before facing off against a big creature. In this original pitch we thought that – like Dungeon Saga – one player would be in charge of the bad guys, while four other players would take control of the BPRD.

However, if you’ve read the comics you’ll know there’s never really one entity in charge of all the evil minions Hellboy faces and there are different antagonists, each with their own wicked plots. As a result the first decision was to make sure Hellboy was a fully co-operative experience as the members of the BPRD work together to overcome adversity, rather than having one player take on the role of the dungeon master.

The next question was – which storyline should we base it on? There are actually so many great stories to choose from that this was rather a difficult one. What’s more, the cast of BPRD characters changes throughout the original Hellboy graphic novels and the subsequent BPRD series. So instead of being based solely on one particular story arc, Hellboy: The Board Game takes inspiration from a number of fantastic storylines to create something spectacular.

This gives us a great opportunity to bring in some of Hellboy’s most notorious adversaries, while also mixing up the members of the BPRD who work with each other. In fact, it was Mike Mignola himself who suggested having Johann join the team for the core game.

From here the pieces really started coming together quickly and we could immediately see how all the four main protagonists – Hellboy, Liz, Abe and Johann – would work together. We also wanted to ensure that the inexplicable and seemingly random events of the comic were portrayed as gameplay elements too.

DECK OF DOOM!

This led to the creation of the Deck of Doom! This is a deck of cards that triggers particular events as the BPRD agents explore the location. The event can be anything from a surprise attack by a monster to a spooky mist that rolls in to obscure line of sight. Due to the random nature of the Deck of Doom, you’ll never know what to expect when playing a mission and you can replay them for different experiences.

With the basics down, it was time to call in a top games designer and that’s where James M. Hewitt and Sophie Williams from Needy Cat Games enter the action. In tomorrow’s blog we’ll discuss how James and Sophie developed and shaped the game into what we have now.

Hellboy: The Board Game is available to order NOW from the Mantic website. Plus we’ve got less than 100 of the amazing Collector’s Editions available, which are perfect for those that missed out of the Kickstarter.

The post Developing Hellboy: The Board Game Part One appeared first on Mantic Blog.

Following our previous review of the Forces of Nature’s unique spells and warband abilities, today we’re highlighting some of their key units. As you might expect, the Forces of Nature are a diverse bunch – ranging from powerful Centaurs to magical druids and woodland animals.

At the heart of the Forces of Nature warband is, of course, the druid! Although not a commander, the druid is a key aspect of the warband with a host of offensive and defensive spells – alongside access to the Barrier of Vines unique spell we covered earlier in the week. Keep your druid a safe distance from the enemy, but not too far away, so you can still take advantage of the druid’s Inspiring ability.

If you do want a druid with a bit more oomph, then consider the Gladewalker Druid. This is a command option (alongside a Spellcaster) but comes with a neat range of spells. In particular, it’s worth highlighting Tanglefoot, which would normally cost an additional 10pts because it’s from the Advanced Spellbook. Tanglefoot is great for slowing fast opponents down and reduces theiruu effectiveness in combat and defense. The Gladewalker Druid is also great for neutralising powerful enemy spellcasters, thanks to its Nature’s Defence ability.

Once you’ve entangled the enemy with Tanglefoot, it’s time to steam in with one of the Forces of Nature’s heavy hitters. The warband isn’t short of combat-heavy units, with the likes of the Earth Elemental, Water Elemental and Fire Elemental all packing quite a punch. You’ve also got access to the Forest Shambler too. Of course, you can only choose one Large model for your warband – so think about the theme of your list before making your selection.

Something that could influence your decision is your choice of Commander(s). We’ve already mentioned the Gladewalker Druid but another cool option is the Salamander Veteran. Cheaper than many other Command options in the game, the addition of the Salamander Veteran into your warband means you can spend more on Grunts or Warriors to try and overwhelm your enemy with sheer numbers – or have the Veteran to back up the Gladewalker Druid.

What’s more, once per game the Salamander Veteran can unleash an explosive flame attack (Ordeal of Fire) that targets all units within 2”. This will be particularly useful for clearing enemy models off objectives, as there’s the chance you could take multiple enemies out in one fell swoop. Oh, and don’t forget, you get a FREE miniature to use as your Salamander Veteran if you order the Forces of Nature Warband from the Mantic website.

So, that’s a quick look at some of the key units available in the Forces of Nature warband. There are plenty more options too, like the Centaurs, Wild Companions, Naiads and Salamanders – but hopefully this will get your warband creative juices flowing.

THE FORCES OF NATURE ARE NOW AVAILABLE TO ORDER FROM THE MANTIC WEBSITE. FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY, ALL FORCES OF NATURE WARBAND SETS COME WITH A FREE SALAMANDER VETERAN. CHECK THE WEBSITE HERE.

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The Forces of Nature are in the ascendency. Following the defeat of the denizens of the Abyss, the Green Lady’s power has spread throughout the land. The ancient powers of the Druids are more potent than ever and fierce Elementals flock to their command. Centaurs gallop through the forests, felling any foes that dare to enter their territory, while Naiads and Salamanders launch vicious attacks against those that threaten the will of the Green Lady. If you do not follow the way of Nature, it has never been more dangerous to roam the wilds of Mantica.

A new power has entered the fray in Vanguard! The Forces of Nature are the latest warband to get a Vanguard release. Choose from powerful Elementals, magical druids and vicious Salamanders to create a warband that excels in surprise attacks and ancient magic. Over the course of this week, we’ll be delving into the Forces of Nature warband by looking at their overall abilities and picking out key units. In today’s blog, we’ll look at their warband ability and unique spells.

SPECIAL ABILITIES

As you might expect, the Forces of Nature excel at moving through terrain. They have the Special Ability Forest Dwellers, which gives all models in the warband the Pathfinder rule and costs just 1 Power. This is particularly useful for getting to enemies that have hidden inside woods, as you’ll be able to move through the difficult terrain as though it was flat ground. As a result, you can easily get to enemies on the other side of terrain that would otherwise be unreachable.

Alongside this you’ve got two more abilities: Lurker and Ambush. These two work together so you can launch surprise attacks against enemies. During Deployment you can choose one of your Support models and hide them in a piece of terrain – just make a note of the terrain piece and place your model to one side.

During the game, you can then use the Ambush ability to spring a surprise attack against an enemy. When an enemy model ends its movement/action with 6” of the nominated terrain, the Lurker is revealed and placed in base to base contact with the foe. Once placed it can make a free Melee attack.

This is particularly useful when combined with the Naiad Ensnarer. Although the Ensnarer doesn’t hit particularly hard, it can Fatigue enemies with its Trident. This is great for disrupting the plans of your opponent. For example, if the enemy is walking before preparing to Shoot, you can leap out, hit them with the Trident and then they won’t be able to complete the rest of their activation. Likewise you could also stop them capturing an objective by engaging them once they’ve finished moving.

It’s important to note, that the Ambush ability will be updated on the warband cards, compared to the version that appears in the rulebook. We’ll also make sure this ability update is added to the FAQ and free downloadable rules.

FACTION SPECIFIC RULES

Barrier of Vines (long) – you can use one of your Spellcasters to create a 1” x 6” barrier that becomes height 10 impassable terrain and blocks line of sight. Although you can only have one Barrier of Vines per Spellcaster, this does mean you can block off charge lanes or protect units that have captured an objective.

You can really cause havoc if you’ve got a pair of Spellcasters. With the right positioning, you can block off a large portion of the battlefield for your opponent because both Spellcasters can create a Barrier of Vines. You could even pin non-Flying units in place with some clever shennagians.

Vengeful Flock (long) – this is a great spell for not only attacking an enemy, but also potentially moving them away from objectives or into a clear space ready to be charged/shot. The Vengeful Flock spell sends angry birds (not those ones) after their target and potentially all models within 2” suffer an attack too.

Before the spell hits, the player rolls a D8 to check the effect of the spell.

• 1-4: the target and all models within 2” suffer a 2D8 6+ Melee attack
• 5-6: the target and all models within 2” suffer a 2D8 5+ Melee attack
• 7-8: the target suffers a 3D8 3+ Melee attack, can be moved 6” in a direction of the casting player’s choice, and is placed Knocked-down and Fatigued.

If you get lucky, the Vengeful Flock spell is perfect for shifting enemies out of the way.

What’s more, as you can see from the Druid’s warband card, you’ve also got the opportunity to boost the range of your spells too. This means the Vengeful Flock can target an enemy up to 9” away, while the Barrier of Vines has a potential range of 15” – this is perfect for disrupting the enemy’s advance early in the game.

Anyway, hope today’s short look at the Forces of Nature has got your imagination firing about what sort of warband you want to create. Next time we’ll be looking in more detail at some of the key units in the Forces of Nature warband.

THE FORCES OF NATURE ARE NOW AVAILABLE TO ORDER FROM THE MANTIC WEBSITE. FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY, ALL FORCES OF NATURE WARBAND SETS COME WITH A FREE SALAMANDER VETERAN. CHECK THE WEBSITE HERE.

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Since we launched The Walking Dead: All Out War back in 2016, it’s safe to say it’s been a massive success. Thousands of Walking Dead fans have been playing through the adventures of Rick, as he wakes up in the hospital before trying to find his family and then facing off against the likes of The Governor and Negan.

While All Out War focuses on narrative play in each of the expansions and gave players a claustrophobic tale of survival, with Wave Five came a change in the storyline. Following Wave Five, as Rick and the gang settle in Alexandria, the story becomes less of a struggle to exist and more of a battle for domination.

With that in mind, the focus switches from small expeditions to gather supplies to pitched gunfights against other survivors. Of course, the Walkers are still an ever-present threat but now the real conflict is between the well-armed Survivors. We wanted to mirror this change in the comic storyline by giving All Out War players the opportunity to play much bigger games with more survivors, more equipment and, of course, more Walkers.

Obviously we still love All Out War and will be releasing more narrative-based expansions down the line but, just like we did with Here’s Negan: The Board Game, this is a chance for us to explore a different part of The Walking Dead. And who doesn’t want the opportunity to get even more of their amazing miniatures on the tabletop?!

Welcome to The Walking Dead: March to War (name TBC)! Designed once again by the hugely talented Mark Latham. This new game allows you to recreate the struggle for survival in a lawless new world. Groups of Survivors must face each other in a desperate fight for resources, all the while trying not to attract the attention of roaming packs of Walkers.

The game is best played with two players taking on the role of rival Survivor groups, while the Walkers are controlled by an innovative AI system that directs them around the board, spelling trouble for both sides!

The aim of the game is to eliminate rival groups, whilst scouring the bleak landscape for vital supplies and objectives. Do this, and your group will thrive – unless the Walkers get you first!

FOLLOW THE LEADER!

One of the key concepts for March to War is the huge influence different leaders have on their group of Survivors. From the heroic Rick, to the tyrannical Governor, each leader has a different method of leading their gang into battle.

March to War is based around different groups (Atlanta Camp, Woodbury Army, Greene Family, Abraham’s Group, Tyreese’s Group, Prisoners, Marauders, Scavengers and The Hunters). Some of these are full factions, whereas others are smaller groups to ally together.

At the heart of each faction is the leader. Something totally new for March to War is the idea of Strategy Points! At the start of each turn your leader will generate Strategy Points that can be used to trigger special abilities or synergies between your gang members. It’s a really exciting new way to play The Walking Dead and we’re sure you’ll all start cooking up some lethal combinations!

GET INVOLVED

But enough talk, we want YOU to get involved with testing March to War. The game is due out later this year and we want to get some feedback on the playtest rules. You can download the rules from here and get a feel for how the game will play. The layout for the playtest document is extremely simple because we just want you to get to grips with the core gameplay, without getting distracted by lots of pretty pictures!

Please play some games and then email any feedback to playtestfeedback@manticgames.com Make sure the subject of your email is ‘March to War feedback’ and give feedback in the following format:
• Factions played (please list survivors and any equipment taken)
• Scenario played
• Time taken
• Feedback

All those that provide useful playtest feedback will be listed in the upcoming March to War book! So you will be a part of The Walking Dead history. The cut off for playtest feedback is 22nd April, 2019. We hope you enjoy the game and stay tuned for more details about March to War as we approach the launch!

The post Playtest Mantic’s new Walking Dead game! appeared first on Mantic Blog.

Allright, allright, allright! We are closing in on AdeptiCon! We’re just over a week away to a great weekend of fun and games. Just wanted to drop a quick rundown that will be happening next weekend.

Let’s start with the bread and butter baby. Thursday starts the fun and games with the How You Use It tournament. This is a long standing standard at AdpetiCon. All armies stay at the table. Only you, the General, moves so each round you are commanding a new army. This is a great way to test your ability to lead whatever is in front of you.

Finishing out the night is a Speed Touranment. Are you able to move an army with a limited amount of time to grab victory. This is a three round tournament that decreases in time each round. Times for each round are 25 minutes, 20 minutes, 15 minutes total.

Friday has the Kings of War Big Game being played all day. This is a giant eight foot board with TEN THOUSAND POINTS a side! That’s right TEN THOUSAND! No experience needed. This is a great fun way to learn the game in a casual setting.

Finally at last Saturday brings us the North American Clash of Kings! The winner of this tournament will be crowned the National Champion as well as grab a free ride to the United Kingdom to challenge the Brits at the UK National Championship. Standing in your way will be the UK Clash of Kings Champion Dom Goodacre. Fan favorite Nick Williams will also be making an attempt to stop the North Americans from getting a ride to the UK. Who will bring the title home!

This year at AdeptiCon we have our first annual Vanguard National Championship. Vanguard has been a stellar hit and we look forward to this tournament. One of fastest tournament to sell out at the Con, we are eager to see everyone Warbands. Special thanks and shout out to Game Matz for hooking us up with play mats for the tournament.

One of the most exciting sports game around makes and appearance at AdeptiCon again this year. Thursday evening has League in a Night happening. This is a hard core, play a league season in one night. Play your games, advance your player skills and stats and see if you can finish first in the league.

Saturday bring the 6th annual AdeptiCorp Cup which crowns the National Championship. Will the number 1 rank Geoff Burbidge take home the crown of National Champion? To do so, he has to go through all the NADC regional champions who are in attendance to represent their regions as well as take the title back to their own Corporation.

We haven’t forgotten about the Walkers! They’ll be about Friday and Saturday in the Walker Challenge. Play hero against hero fighting over the limited supply sacks, all the while surrounded by an overwhelming horde. This is a hop on hop off event. Play a round, step away for a bit and then come back and try out another hero and see if you can do better. On a side contest, the participant who kills the most zombies over the weekend will receive a special Walker 3up.

Not to be forgotten, the greatest game will have plenty to do also. Friday and Saturday has version 3 of Mechzone and will hosted by Rob and Jack from Deadzone the Podcast fame….or infamy…you decide. In Mechzone you will pilot one of the six unique mechs and in a battle royal decide who will be The Chosen One!

Friday will also have Deadzone: The Movie. Command an elite force of Enforcers led by a flat top Capt, a gun happy heavy weapon enforcer, the good looking Enforcer who always save a damsel in distress no matter where they are and many more. Can you get your squad to the Hornet before you’re overwhelmed by a horde of Veer-myn.

If that’s not enough on Saturday we have Doomwheel. This Veer-myn pastime pits you against other Doomwheels in an effort to get an oversized ball into the goal. The Veer-myn find this enjoyable, so feel free to form your own opinion.

Lastly, Friday evening is the Deadzone National Championship. Andrew Sharp, from Weight of Fire has decided to come to the US and try and wrest the title from the US. I’m sure he’ll find the competition to a little stiffer than the watered down martini he was drinking in his challenge acceptance video.

We finally come to Mantic Open Night. The yearly event that has Ronnie singing Simply Red songs and spilling too much info. Tickets are on sale but not for long and space is limited. For your fee, you’ll get a limited pint glass, free drink tickets, nice little items from Ironheart Artisand and Outrider Hobbies as well as a few other surprises.

After the Q&A with Ronnie, Chopper and Rob, the room will be open to gaming from games of Hellboy, Here’s Negan and Dreadball Ultimate. There will be challenge game of Deadzone and Dreadball with Andrew Sharp and Rob Burman respecitively. Andrew hoping to regain confidence after losing in the National Championship and Rob looking to see what it’s like to play with big league coaches.

All joking aside, Mantic Night is a great time of camaraderie with the Mantic Community and we are glad that some of the UK can be a part of it.

That’s the fun filled weekend for AdeptiCon. If you have gotten your tickets, get on it! It’ll be another year before this will happen again! See you in a couple of days!

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We’ve got a guest blog today from Four Foot Snake’s Paul Welsh about their recent Kings of War tournament. Over to you Paul…

For those of you who don’t know, ‘Four Foot Snake’ (or FFS as it’s also known as) is a UK based Kings of War Podcast (although the last episode posted was actually back in May 2018), originally consisting of hosts Jonathan Faulkes, Dan King, Nick Williams and Matt Gilbert. After Matt was appointed COO of Mantic, his time became much harder to steal and the guys recruited Paul Welsh to the team for a (slightly) more regular foursome on the cast.

On top of podcasting, the team were a regular sight in the Kings of War tournament scene, both at home and abroad (the pinnacle being FFS crowned ‘Best Team Overall’ at Lonewolf 2018 in Texas, USA). It was this travelling that allowed the team to experience different approaches to event organisation… which brings us to the FFS GT.

The UK tournament scene mainly focuses on ‘Battle’ (results of games) to score its events, while in the USA use an ‘Overall’ approach that combines ‘Battle’ with ‘Hobby/Painting and Sportsmanship’ (otherwise known as ‘Soft Scores’). After the team experienced Lonewolf (The USA’s largest Kings of War GT) in 2017 and 2018, they decided they wanted the UK tournament scene to bring their experiences back to the UK.

And so was formed the first FFS GT in February 2018, which turned out to be the largest attended tournament in the UK outside Mantic’s Clash of Kings event.

The Event

Fast forward a year and we’ve just wrapped up ‘Another Four Foot Snake Thing 2019’. It was held over two days, February 23rd-24th, at Element Games in Stockport. A really successful weekend with 40 players attending (which is pretty big for the UK considering the entire nation is only about a ⅓ the size of Texas). There was also an after-party on the Saturday night where most the players took over a local pub and its Karaoke machine (evidence of this still exists on Kings of War Fanatics if you’d like to find it – Ed’s note: or not, of course).

The event offered points based on ‘Battle, Hobby and Sportsmanship’. The gaming score was based a player’s results over five games, while hobby scores were based on a self-scored rubric (view the rubric here) and extra points awarded by judge’s vote (three-judge vote averaged score). Sportsmanship points were gained by, two or more, accumulated votes at the end of the tournament (check out the website for full details on scoring)

As part of the weekend, players were also allowed to take a free Monster (themed around the FFS hosts) as part of their army.

This also made up a side-competition to the event; Best FFS Monster, awarded to each ‘Character’ (Jon, Paul, Nick and Dan) based on the judge’s favourite conversions (judged on the theme, painting and just general cool factor).

The main awards available over the weekend were:

Best Sportsman – Player with the most sports scores
Best General – Player with the highest gaming points
Best Army – Best painted army as voted by the judges
Best Overall – The player with the highest combined scoring

There were other prizes given away for things such as 2nd and 3rd and even a £50 voucher, donated by Mantic, was raffled off at random to the attendees.

The Results

After a fun two days, the final results were in (see below for the full standings) and Chris Cowburn was crowned the Overall Champion! Chris is both an excellent gamer and painter, having scored the highest battle score as well as a high hobby score. His Mantic Orge army also netted him a free ticket to Clash of Kings 2019 as Mantic had made the event their ‘Northern Clash of Kings Qualifier’ for this year (Chris sent us a picture of his army below).

One of the main highlights of the weekend was the incredible effort from all the attendees with added extras like display boards, special conversions and even booklets of stories based on player’s armies! A shoutout needs to go to The Brotherhood army built by Nick Williams. The effort that went into his army is ridiculous and it’s easy to say he fully deserved his award for Best Army. See his display board below. Insane!

It could be said that hobby events have a feeling of being more inclusive than your average ‘Battle’ event, as it rewards all facets of the hobby rather than just one. Where some may think tournaments are for power gamers (which they absolutely aren’t… Check out Nick Williams’ blog on attending Kings of War events) and have no chance of winning anything. Hobby events give all-comers something to aim for!

The FFS GT’s may be the first ‘Hobby’ style events the UK Kings of War tournament scene, but judging by the player response, keep a lookout, as there will be more popping up going forward.

The post Another Year, Another Four Foot Snake Thing – Kings of War tournament report appeared first on Mantic Blog.

Unless you’ve been under a rock for the past year, you’ll know that last year we ran rather a big Kickstarter. Hellboy: The Board was our biggest Kickstarter ever, with more than 12,000 backers all wanting to become a member of a B.P.R.D.

Thanks to the huge success of Hellboy, it means our warehouse is due to get very full, very quickly in a few weeks as we prepare to deliver the Kickstarter. So that means we need to clear some space. In fact, we need to clear a LOT of space. The good news for you, is that to help generate that space, we’re holding a warehouse clearance sale! Until 9am (GMT) on Monday, March 18th you can grab a host of frankly ridiculous bargains!

We’ve got everything from rulebooks, to sci-fi miniatures, Dungeon Saga expansions, terrain and fantasy miniatures. No matter what your gaming tastes, you’re bound to find something of interest in the sale! Just take a look at some of the highlights below!

FREE SHIPPING BONUS!

No only that but we’re also halving the minimum spend for free shipping! So until March 18th you’ll only need to spend £25, €35 or $40! Just remember to make sure you’re paying in the correct currency for your country. See the delivery details section for more info. Anyway, let’s take a look at some of those sweet, sweet clearance sale items!

KINGS OF WAR!

We’ve got of host of fantasy miniatures, books and scenery in the warehouse clearance. Including:

• Resin heroes! Your chance to get Artakl, Jarvis, Magnilde, Mau’ti-bu-su and Eckter for just £7.99 each (while stocks last)
• Books! Need to round-off your Kings of War collection? Perhaps you’re missing a bit of fluff to inspire your army. Well, Uncharted Empires, Kings of War Historical and more are all in the sale
• Battlefield Cards! Bring some variety to your games of Kings of War with the Battlefield Cards!
• And more!

DEADZONE & WARPATH!

Prefer sci-fi? Not a problem, we’ve got you covered. Take a look at what’s on offer:

• Half price Warpath rulebook collection!
• Veer-myn! Grab some leaders and specialists for your Deadzone strike team
• Scenery! Prepare for the upcoming interactive scenery rules for Deadzone with the Starship Scenery sets
• Fiction! First Strike and Containment Protocols are both available for a crazy price

DUNGEON SAGA

Need some expansions for Dungeon Saga? We’ve got your back!

• Adventurer’s Companion! Create your own adventures
• Return of Valandor! Perfect for starting an Undead Vanguard warband too
• Infernal Crypts! Don’t tell anyone but is handy for starting out your Forces of the Abyss warband too

THE WALKING DEAD

Mats galore! Need some lovely, high quality neoprene mats for your Walking Dead games (or any skirmish game, for that matter)? Then make sure you check out the half price mats.

There’s plenty more in the Warehouse Clearance Sale. Make sure you check it out over on the Mantic website.

The post Mantic March Warehouse Clearance appeared first on Mantic Blog.

We’re entering the final days for the TerrainCrate 2 Kickstarter. Since the project launched less than two weeks ago, we’ve funded a huge amount of plastic, pre-assembled and wonderfully detailed scenery for a wide range of gaming genres, such as:

• RPGS
• Historical wargames
• Post-apocalyptic
• Fantasy
• Cthulhu-esque mystery
• Zombie survival
• Skirmish wargames
• Anything else you can think of really!

THE WALKING DEAD

The Campbell Heights Crate is perfect for using alongside our All Out War range or Here’s Negan: The Board Game. In fact, it’s great for any modern skirmish game and can be combined with the existing scenery booster. You can even just pick up the Survivor’s Stronghold set for only £18 to use with Here’s Negan, should you wish.

COMBINE WITH TERRAINCRATE 1

The Bleakwood Manor crate is the perfect companion for our existing TerrainCrate fantasy range and scales up perfectly with the current pieces. Bring some glamour to your fantasy games with a luxurious boudoir for a vampire (as seen here with a couple of 3D prints) or a king’s castle complete with splendid furniture. 

WARGAMING!

We worked with our pals over at Warlord Games on the Morneville Ruins Crate. In here you’ll find a great selection of wargaming scatter from semi-destroyed houses to ruined furniture and a military checkpoint. A few of the pieces wouldn’t even look out of place as obstacles in Vanguard either! Also, it will most certainly come in handy for the upcoming The Walking Dead large-scale wargame too.

The TerrainCrate 2: Crate Expectations Kickstarter ends at 8pm (GMT) on March 7th, so make sure you check it out here.

The post TerrainCrate 2 Kickstarter – just 3 days left! appeared first on Mantic Blog.

With TerrainCrate 2 we want to fund an even wider range of affordable, plastic and ready built scenery/terrain for a selection of tabletop games. With TerrainCrate 1 we ticked a huge amount of fantasy boxes and with this campaign we’re aiming to fill the gaps for other genres. So far, we’ve got gothic fantasy for RPGs, post-apocalyptic, modern skirmish, spooky woods, quaint villages, market squares… in fact, whatever your imagination allows!

However, there was another genre that we felt needed that TerrainCrate love: historical wargaming. With this in mind, we teamed up with our friends over at Warlord Games to create a selection of pieces that are perfectly compatible with their 28mm tabletop World War II game, Bolt Action. We wanted to ensure wargamers had big, chunky scenery pieces they could quickly throw onto their battlefield, so they can get onto the serious business of rolling dice.

Today, we’re delighted to introduce the much-rumoured fourth Crate: Morneville Ruins. Inspired by the pieces available in Bellevue Square, Morneville includes ruined versions of elements like the impressive statue and barricades using the café chairs/tables. It also has brand new items like the military checkpoint and church interior. All of these are big pieces that provide perfect cover or obstacles for 28mm-32mm scale figures. Take a look at the pieces below…

 Of course, these items aren’t only designed for historical wargaming and they fit perfectly with our own The Walking Dead: All Out War miniatures game and many other post-apocalyptic themed games. There’s nothing to stop you using many of pieces as barricades in your RPGs either!

As well as unlocking the Morneville Ruins Crate, you can also pick and choose any of the new individual sets as part of the Pick ‘n’ Mix pledge. Therefore, if you want to combine Wrecks and Ruins with Gloomy Wood, Two Trees Mall and Crystal Peaks Campsite, you absolutely can! We’ll be updating the main page shortly with all the new graphics.

NEW ALL-IN PLEDGE

The introduction of the 4th Crate also brings with it a brand-new pledge level: FOUR CRATES OF YOUR CHOICE. This is the all-in pledge for you hardcore, dedicated Terrainspotters. For £200 you can select four Crates, which is just £50 per Crate! And it can be any combination of Crates you want, you’re not restricted to only ordering one each of the four Crates available.

If you want to switch your pledge to the new FOUR CRATES OF YOUR CHOICE pledge, simply click on ‘manage my pledge’ and then switch to the new pledge level. 

Exciting times ahead Terrainspotters!

The TerrainCrate 2: Crate Expectations Kickstarter ends at 8pm (GMT) on March 7th, so make sure you check it out here.

The post New TerrainCrate 2 crate: Morneville Ruins appeared first on Mantic Blog.