What KICKSTARTER(S) are you BACKING and WHY?

Greg, I forgot about that trick! There are two problems with that approach:

1) I have to eat the bread afterwards to not waste it and I'd sooner fill up on something other than a salty piece of sliced bread

2) The motion you go through when you butter the cob that way....well...it's just.....it's sort of gay

Dogmatix wrote: That said, Mantic is basically a company of former Games Workshop employees that is making its name more or less recreating Games Workshop (particularly GW Specialist) products of the early- to mid-1990s--they've recently done Necromunda- and Mordheim-like product; their take on Blood Bowl made a pretty good splash on Kickstarter a while back; and I suspect their Kings of War is probably something in a similar vein to somewhere between the 4th and 6th edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battles (never played WHFB, so dunno what edition the GW-grogs consider "the glory years"). (I'm sort of surprised they haven't done a naval/fleet action game of some sort as that's about the last thing they haven't tapped into.)

I'm a little familiar with Mantic, but hadn't heard of these. Please elaborate. Well, I've heard of Dread Ball but not other games.

The thing about Mantic's releases thus far is that they're exceedingly dull (Deadzone looks cool though). I played Dwarf King's Hold and it was boring, crappy dungeon tiles, and so bland.

I've played about 10 games of Kings of War (due to a buddy loving it) and it's not bad, but it's not exciting at all. All of their titles seem very safe and uninspired. They don't take any chances, the color and background is pretty stale, and nothing reaches out and grabs you.

metalface13 wrote:

Dogmatix wrote: That said, Mantic is basically a company of former Games Workshop employees that is making its name more or less recreating Games Workshop (particularly GW Specialist) products of the early- to mid-1990s--they've recently done Necromunda- and Mordheim-like product; their take on Blood Bowl made a pretty good splash on Kickstarter a while back; and I suspect their Kings of War is probably something in a similar vein to somewhere between the 4th and 6th edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battles (never played WHFB, so dunno what edition the GW-grogs consider "the glory years"). (I'm sort of surprised they haven't done a naval/fleet action game of some sort as that's about the last thing they haven't tapped into.)

I'm a little familiar with Mantic, but hadn't heard of these. Please elaborate. Well, I've heard of Dread Ball but not other games.

Deadzone is the game that made me think "Necromunda" the minute I saw it. You can see it here:
www.kickstarter.com/projects/1744629938/...-game?ref=nav_search

I've not played it.

As for Mordheim, I thought they packaged a skirmish-sized game based around the Kings of War line, too, but apparently I'm wrong there. I know I've seen skirmish rules for KoW, so I'm guessing it was a "Mantic Journal" production rather than a full-fledged new game.

I picked up a bunch of minis from Mantic in a holiday grab bag thing ["we've got spare sprues; no telling what's in there, but they're dirt cheap..."] because I thought Dwarf King's Hold was a little better than Charlest did.

I will say that Char' is right on the money about the blandness of the fluff. I think they're still kind of hunting for an identity of their own; although Dreadball, if they can really get some traction with that, and Deadzone may end up providing it going down the road.

I'll be backing the Reaper Cav kickstarter

www.kickstarter.com/projects/1513061270/...av-strike-operations

I liked the old rules and am interested in seeing what they changed. And I like their mechs.

True Americans take a bite of a stick of butter and then a bite of corn from the cob. Chew. Repeat.

True Americans do not chew.

I, Spy looks moderately interesting, relatively inexpensive, and underfunded with fewer than three days to go.

www.kickstarter.com/projects/2050264427/...isdirection-and-mend

I just got my payment notification from Amazon. I've supported Mantic's "Dungeon Saga' KS.

Three paragraph digression:

I'm a Heroquest NUT, owning every God damn boxed expansion (sans the Adventuring Kit (? Whatever the book was that included stickers and blank maps) and the British copy of 'Heroquest Advanced Quest'). I even own Advanced Heroquest, but not it's elusive offspring, 'Terror in the Dark.'

Anyway, I was grossly disappointed in that Spanish nightmare 'Heroquest 25th Anniversary Edition.' So I dug out my good old copy of HQ and painted it. I was too scared to do so as a teenager, but now that I'm a pro - nostalgic fun!
Played a 1/2 dozen games with my buddies, and we've had a good bit of 'beer and pretzel fun.' Prior to this year, I have not played Heroquest since 1993.

###

The same chaps I played Heroquest with this year are part of my Dreadball league. So when Mantic wanted to make a pastiche of Heroquest with their own IP, I thought it could be okay.

Since the campaign has wrapped, I can make the following observations:
1) Mantic continues to mine from the Mountains of GW.
2) 'Dungeon Saga' was originally going to be called 'Dwarf King's Hold IV.' I believe they changed it because of stronger marketing/branding with a new title, vs. a sequel.
3) There appears to be a lot of cross branding with their Warhammer line. I mean, "Kings of War."
4) Agreeing with others - it still looks a wee bit bland.
5) Mantic now seems to be taking a two prong mini attack: the game comes with plenty of plastic, but you can pay a little bit more for resin models if you wish.
6) The KS was pretty darn successful for Mantic. I think it's their 2nd best. Anyway, I think part of that is because they started with ONE funding level. They eventually expanded, but things were still pretty tight. Enough "stretch goals" were met that they are producing three expansions. Referring to my first point, one of them is ostensibly 'Kellar's Keep' (i.e. lots of orcs and goblins), a second expansion of hell spawn demons or something in flames, and a third which features a big freaking dragon. The main boxed game seems to be against the 'Witch Lord.' I mean, a necromancer.
6a) I plan on buying none of the expansions until I can prove to myself that I will play the original box set's scenarios.
7) Jake Thronton did pretty well with Dreadball, and I'm waiting to see if Mars Attacks! will pan out. Dungeon Saga should be fine with it's advance rules. It seems as though he's completely cognizant of both Advanced Heroquest & Warhammer Quest's perceived failings and how 'Shadow of Brimstone' is now (soon) to be in the marketplace.
7a) I regret not supporting 'Shadows of Brimstone.' Looking forward to a daily sale for those sets!
8) The rules will be both 4 vs. 1 and co-op.

9) God damn. I do not need another Dungeon Crawler, but here I go again!

Designers and Dragons, A History of the Roleplaying Game Industry. So far it is an interesting read.

www.kickstarter.com/projects/evilhat/designers-and-dragons