Salute 2021: Mantic Deadzone

 

One of the bigger companies at Salute was Mantic Games, who were showing off their new edition of Deadzone.

Deadzone is Mantic's sci fi skirmish game. It uses large squares as part of the mechanics. It looks quite fun, but I'm trying not to start any new games right now . . .

My painting review of 2014

It looks like I've been a bit more productive this year!

Finished models

Wicked Dolls for Malifaux

Adeptus Arbites Kitbash

20 Guardsmen

Collodi for Malifaux

MkI Thunder Armour

Commissar Lord

Imperial Priest

Leman Russ Tank

Bloodletter

An angry Squat

Codename: Oberon by Mantic

A mildly tipsy Squat

Anvil Industry Werewolf

Bonus: Stuff other people painted for me!

Imperial Beastmen, painted by Simlauren

Imperial Guard Bombard, painted by Golem Painting Studio

How did I do?

Well, that's certainly better than I managed last year. But if you scroll down that post, you'll see I set myself some goals. How well did I do with those?

Not include models I'm selling in my tracking systems next year
Well, that was an easy one.

Take part in the Independent Characters Hobby Progress Challenge
Well, I took part - but I sort of intended to complete it! I didn't complete the challenge, but I certainly got a lot more models painted as a result.

Finish the blasted Collodi crew
Oh dear. I got halfway there, but there's still four Marionettes to finish basing.

500 point Warriors of Chaos Army
Not started.

All of Salute 2012's purchases painted
Nope. The Storm Troopers were done last year, but there's still a female Commissar, the show Mayan and all the Sarissa Precision stuff that's not finished yet.

No new systems (Infinity, this means you) until I've fully painted one of my other skirmish games up
Abject failure. You'll notice my posts about lovely Infinity stuff, and you will notice above no skirmish games completed...

Future Plans

I think that trying to plan a full year is a mistake. I have projects I want to progress, but I may get distracted by a different project. Y'all understand that, right? So, I'll separate out "what I'm interested in at the moment" and "what I'm committing to".

I've taken to listing my projects on a project page of the blog. It's not fully written out yet - I do it as and when, as I get inspired by different projects. The eternal project of the Imperial Guard is written up, as is the Cypher project.

My big drive at the moment is Infinity - I've found deadlines are good for me getting things done, so being booked onto two Infinity events (one in January, one in February) will help me get my Infinity stuff sorted.

Otherwise, I'd like to get some Guard stuff done, enough Inquisition done to field a small allied contingent, and get some Malifaux in.

Commitments

So, important things with commitments is to be realistic, so lets start by setting some realistic ground rules. Any Kickstarter projects, either arriving or backing, don't count to the wider restrictions, because, well, I just get sad otherwise. Presents (Christmas, Birthday, etc) don't count. Salute most definitely doesn't count.

I have just over 16 years of painting mountain if I keep painting and modelling at the rate I did last year. It'd be probably be better if I got it down to around a decade.

That really means that as a base minimum, I should be finishing two projects a month - 24 a year. That's going to be the basic rule. There's some "stretch goals" to work for too.

- Finish more than two projects in a month, and limit purchases the following month to however much I beat the target by

- Finish "Operation: Complete Other People's Stuff". (only 3 items left!)

- Clear the Hall of Shame of anything started before 2014. (5 items)

- Finish anything I started before the start of 2015. (20 items)

These ones are all aspirational - which means that unlike "finish 2 things in a month", I can aim for them if I'm doing well, but don't feel so bad if I miss them. I'm also very keen to focus a lot of effort on things I've been given as presents, because, you know, it's not cool to have things people gave you sitting in boxes. I don't just want to be resting on my mint plastic/resin/metal treasure like a geek Smaug. It's not comfy, for starters.

Rainy bank holidays: helping me be a less terrible person

This bank holiday weekend, I decided to try and do at least some of the things I have sitting in my queue for other people.

Codename: Oberon is not for other people, but I've found I get more done if I don't focus on a single project at once. Oberon was finished in between the main project of the weekend.

And here's the the big job from this weekend. These are five Runtherd kit-bashes for Sim's Ork army, as one of her second hand purchases included many Gretchin, but no Runtherds to push them into battle. A recent bits sale at one of the sites I used provided me with five Freebooter bodies and an assortment of gun arms and heads to make them into full models.

As a cautionary tale for those doing Ork conversions - if you're buying bits separately, you need to buy the neck component as well as the body, or you're going to have problems. I found that non Freebooter heads went on just find, using the bottom of what should be the throat as an Adam's apple instead. They do end up a little long necked, but I think they turned out fine.

I intend to continue on with Operation: Finish Off Everyone Else's Stuff over the coming weeks.

Are Mantic figures all completely terrible?

Nothing like a low starting point with a product review! I know a lot of people really enjoy Mantic products, but I have been put off by being near someone trying to put together one of the first Orx Marauder Raptors. They are so bad that I would not accept a free one, and not only would you have to pay me to assemble one, I would be charging you around the cost of the model purely for assembly. Probably more. And then I'd be seriously thinking about it.

One of the Mantic demo chaps was tolerant enough to hear my . . . 'reservations' about Mantic's product quality back in May when I had a demo game of Deadzone. He kindly gave me one of the limited edition Kickstarter minis "Codename: Oberon" to try out and see if things have improved.

First, I used a scalpel to clean off the mould lines. This wasn't too bad - there weren't too many of them (apart from the super obvious one on the base), and they came off pretty easily.

I'm not convinced by the Mantic bases, though. Look at these awkward gaps! As you'll soon see, they're pretty easily fixable, but the clever design on this figure needed a little more precision to pull off well.

I then decided it was time to experiment with basing, because my current bases are pretty dull and samey. So, I glued a few of the most expensive rocks on the planet (I have tons left over from GW basing kits) onto the base to break it up a bit.

I then covered the base with Vallejo Sandy Paste. This was a bit of a pig, so I'd highly recommend doing this before painting. The paste neatly covers up the gaps in the base from the smaller circle fitting into the weird doughnut base, so I'll probably continue this method if I ever pick up some more Mantic figures.

Thoughts

From my limited experience, I'd say that Mantic figures aren't an automatic "avoid". You need to be picky. I'd certainly be cautious around their old Warpath Orx, for example, but some of the newer stuff seems to be OK.

I've heard mixed reviews about their newer stuff. I suspect some of it is about taste and preference - some people don't like their material or casting method. Other people I know who've bought the newer Mantic stuff have said that they've found the quality variable - some tending towards the level of the older figures, others much improved, like our friend Oberon here. All in all, this worries me more than consistent known flaws - will it always be a gamble to buy a Mantic figure?

Mantic tag themselves as being about "Building Big Armies" and talk about "Affordable Fantasy and sci-fi tabletop miniatures and wargames scenery". If you are looking for cheap - sure, look at Mantic. They are unashamedly pitching to that point in the market, and that's fine.

From my point of view, if I buy Mantic, it won't be to substitute their figures into other games - it will be because of their games. From that point of view, Deadzone and Mars Attacks are the only two that really hold any interest for me.

Mantic have had some issues with being seen as rather derivative. Kings of War and Warpath obviously get compared to Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000. Dreadball isn't just sci-fi Blood Bowl, but the similarities have left a lot of people cynical. The first factions for Deadzone left me somewhat indignant on behalf of Studio McVey due to the similarities to Sedition Wars. Eventually, I've just grown to accept that some concepts have been in sci-fi for a while, and similarities sometimes happen. The other factions, in particular the Rebs, have helped build on that feeling, too.

And really, that's where I'm at with Mantic. It's their games which will carry their success or failure - whether through licensed lines, like Mars Attacks, or their own creations, like the growing Warpath / Deadzone universe.

Beyond that, what will gain and maintain my custom is ironing out their remaining quality issues and becoming consistent and reliable in their quality. Mediocre or downright terrible models (especially around assembly) will mean I decide its not worth the hassle, and I'll put my time and money elsewhere. It doesn't have to be excellent, given their pitch to the affordable market - but it needs to be "OK". That's pretty much where I'd place Oberon. I had a niggle about his feet and the base, but I'd not be upset about assembling a box of miniatures like him.

Has anyone else had experience with Mantic miniatures, either good or bad? Is anyone tempted to use some of their figures for other systems? I'm curious how my somewhat limited readership feels on this one...

Trying out Deadzone

So, I was watching Beasts of War the other day, and they were talking about Deadzone. Now, I saw Deadzone when it was on Kickstarter, and I didn't back it. Why not? Well, a bit of me felt that it was a little too close to Sedition Wars for my liking, and I already a massive Studio McVey fan. I'd also seen some early Marauder Orx figures and vehicles from the preview packs - and the preparation and assembly was an absolute pain - horrible material, horrible mould lines, and assembly that just, well, didn't fit.

What made me change my mind? Well, the Beasts of War videos explained just enough of the background and mechanics to get me curious. The mechanics were nice and simple, and the darling wife's attention span is . . . limited, so a nice quick game is a good choice for something we can do of an evening. So when my local store arranged a demo day over the Easter weekend, I pottered on down.

This is a limited version of the gaming board for demo purposes. The demo is heavily weighted towards the Plague due to the smaller space, but it gives a good idea of the game. The basic mechanics are nice and simple - your stats tell you what number you're trying to roll on your D8, you roll 3 as a standard thing, and modifiers add or take away dice.

I quickly found out that the system was simple to get the hang of. I was already making moves without having to ask questions by the second turn.This was the point, with four of my five models down, I thought I was done for!

I shouldn't have worried! It turns out that once Plague get into combat and start swarming people, they start pulling Enforcers down. One on one, over a normal gaming distance, the Enforcers will definitely have the edge.

My problem right now is that I am still a bit of a cynic about Mantic's quality. I'm not hugely interested in their figures, and the only way of getting the stat cards for Deadzone are in the miniature boxes. You can buy the rulebook and the mat separately - and I already want the terrain... But that's close to the box cost anyway. That means I'm probably adding the Deadzone core box to my 'to buy' list, to be fair. But really, rather than getting, say, the Marauder starter set, I'd far rather be looking at making some out of MaxMini and Kromlech parts without having to buy Deadzone figure expansion sets and selling the figures!

So, I leave you on that little dilemma, and wonder if anyone has any ideas or suggestions...