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Post by Lew - Drake on Apr 14, 2014 10:26:41 GMT
Some of us where having a discussion about Mantic on the coach back from Salute and the direction they were going in and I have to say that on their stand they seem to be concentrating on their latest two games and scenery efforts to the exclusion of there earlier games it seemed what did other people think??
Are they still going to try and grow Kings of war etc or do you think they are just going to go with what is working now??
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Post by breccan on Apr 14, 2014 12:42:00 GMT
40k has always been bigger than fantasy, so the not-40k line will be their cash cow. I foresee a fantasy skirmish game in the pipeline...
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Post by Lew - Drake on Apr 14, 2014 14:29:32 GMT
Playing Devil's Advocate for a min here.
Thave a 40k style game but they just do not seem to be giving it the support that they are the quicker dreadball /dreadzone games also Fantasy is a massive sub section for them with a lot of effort poured in and to be honest in the gaming world overall it is usually the easier and bigger seller.
So what do you think made Mantic change to pushing the smaller games??
Also I mean the other games I would have thought have more growth potential but I could be wrong? As shown possiably by the Kickstarter for Dreadball xtreme.?
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Post by Paul Waters on Apr 14, 2014 14:53:24 GMT
I think skirmish games are an easier sell in the financial climate. £50-£60 for a viable team/guild/army including rules etc is possible for most to be able to achieve. Buying a full scale army is normally a large cash and time investement that can be more prohibative to new people.
As a personal choice I prefer smaller scale games as I like to have at least a couple of armies/teams to choose between.
With Mantic they seem to be building their range to cover both. Deadzone is a small skirmish game but my understanding is that the deadzone rules will be expanded to allow for larger games.
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Post by Lew - Drake on Apr 14, 2014 15:27:57 GMT
I think you are right I also think that in today's world everyone is looking at time and having a game that can be played in a half-hour or less at one end to several hours at the other end due to how involved is a major factor as many people just do not want or cannot afoard the time it takes to run a standard 40k sized game i.e. upto 3 hours plus.
But what are Mantic going to do with their Kings of War game as a lot of time and effort has gone into that and I think there are a lot of fans waiting for the next wave of that. Many of whom play Dreadball/Dreadzone and would not be happy if it lost the support from Mantic.
For me I am okay as I just play Dreadball but for others I could see that being a issue.
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Post by Alex McElhinney on Apr 15, 2014 10:49:40 GMT
From my pov, Mantic always came off as a GW wannabe, especially given the staff they've used. Kings of War is/was a range of well priced alternatives to GW models - the undead being a great example, but the game? No-one plays that. With Warpath it felt more like they were trying to rub GW's nose in it with the Space Dwarves and Space not-Skaven ranges.
I haven't really seen the Warpath range being adopted as 40k alternatives in the same way as teh Kings of War stuff has been for WFB.
When Dreadball showed up I though it was a case of "let's rip off BloodBowl, GW's most successful game that they stopped supporting", however, it is it's own thing and clearly Mantic's flagship product.
Concentrating on smaller 'skirmish' level games fits in with the Kickstarter modus operandi - but I do wonder why a seemingly large and successful company relies on such a thing. I don't think you'll see many, if any releases for Warpath or KoW in the future.
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Post by Lew - Drake on Apr 16, 2014 11:41:24 GMT
My only worry is that they will suffer a backlash if they do not support KoW and WP as these have had a lot of buy in from people. Now from the WP view that can be incoperated into the Dreadzone games as many of the figures match so that is easy.
Now like Breecan said if they incorperate a new fantsy game into their range what will allow KoW players to use their figures that might work.
I did notice that on their website they have removed the first of the dwarf kings boxsets the other is still there but the main box has just disappered of their website without from what I can tell explanation??
So it could be they are not backing that in plan for bringing out a combined game of KoW + DKF.
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Post by danstrahleo on Apr 21, 2014 20:29:42 GMT
As you guys know I have been keenly following mantic over the last couple of years and I think the business has changed direction a fair bit. I do think they started with huge ambitions an started as an 'alternative miniatures' company to GW with its own rule set more as a side option. Having played KoW I can say its a solid rule set but don't see we have players locally. After they hit a really big KickStarter for KoW they seemed to focus on new rule sets and games. Prior to this they had some other board games but these were older rules sets like the Dwarven King Holds. I think they have discontinued these lines as Mantic (in my eyes) seems to be producing simple rules sets with complex tactical game play. So now with KoW, Dreadball, Deadzone enigma really great games that are quick to pick up but have some serious longevity. Havin said that I think they are very heavily focused in the KickStarter and pre-order world and it does make me wonder how the company is really doing with kick starters often overlapping which makes me uneasy for what funds are going where. Also all of the focus on KickStarter seems to mean retailers loose out on a sudden release but I may be wrong. In terms of salute I saw that the mantic stall was heavily showing the latest releases but they had staff dotted around showing Dreadball & KoW demos too but these were cunning placed next too retail sellers that were sticking the specific games (KoW was by the troll trader store next to a huge row of KoW products but was manned by Mantic staff - very clever move I think). I'm hoping that Mantic keep focusing on supporting the older games and I think Deadzone is the latest focus to move towards a big Warzone release is my thinking. I hope they keep pushing some great games out as they are a cheap buy in an really good to play. So anyone fancy a game of KoW some time
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Post by danstrahleo on Apr 23, 2014 6:24:58 GMT
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Post by breccan on Jun 4, 2014 20:53:57 GMT
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Post by danstrahleo on Jun 6, 2014 17:08:40 GMT
Yep I really like the look of it but I have done KS a lot with Mantic and I think I'm going to I ally wait till it comes out and pay the full price (-20%) for it - but models look lovely!
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Post by Lew - Drake on Jun 25, 2014 7:22:26 GMT
I think I will have a look at the kickstart when it comes out and then decide personnally
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Post by danstrahleo on Jun 25, 2014 17:47:42 GMT
I will no doubt state at it lots but 2015 is all about getting my grey miniatures painted including my KoW army!
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