Hey Rob, Kyle from Mantic here. We really appreciate the kind words here and a recognition of the effort we're trying to make. You're spot on that we're just a bunch of gamers who really care about the product and games we make. We want to constantly improve and make an effort to produce the kind of games and minis that people want to buy and enjoy for years. We listen to all of it and always work to do what's best for the customers. I'd love to help you get some more support from us so please feel free to reach out to me anytime!
Thank you so much and I promise you this I am putting the full power of this little channel behind your product. I really believe I can push the message and I think it needs to be heard because in my heart I really believe it I don’t know what I could do for you guys when I’m a try my best and if you’d like to talk, here’s my email novaprime860@hotmail.com
Kyle, thank you so much for the amazing games. The hardest part of adopting the games was moving away from the rich lore behind GW products that I had invested all of my adult life into. I'm looking forward to finishing painting up my undead and getting them onto the table after 2 years of borrowing troops to play with.
Hi Rob, Pat from Mantic. Just want to thank you for your kind words and acknowledgement of our efforts from where we were to where we are today. If you happen to be at AdeptiCon this year please come by the booth, say hi and have a chat! Love to see you.
What I have bought from Mantic has always impressed me. Their Giants in Kings of War are nice and modular and waaaaaaaay more affordable than the Mega Gargants from GW. Plus, their sets of infantry are usually 20 models vs the GW 10 count. And, yeah, they cost less. Mantic gets a big Thumbs up from me.
We’re playing Deadzone at miniature market cave spring twice a month. We’ve also dipped our feet in firefight. Deadzone is the best system for fast and fun games. They also sponsored our store championship. That shows how much they care. I’ve dropped well over $1000 in mantic last year and that’s over 3 games, Multiple full armies for each. I love mantic.
I was about to get the new kill team from games workshop today as I speak and I decided to wait for the newest dead zone release which comes on Monday. I think I’m actually going to enjoy it a lot more so you are dead on my friend
That's what I love about your channel Rob. You bring games to the table that wouldn't normally be on my radar. You hit the nail on the head, when gaming companies get so big that they are ran by people who don't play them it becomes all about the money instead of the love of the game. Magic the Gathering is another great example of the greed in the industry. I always try to support those that support the game's.
I always been a scale modeller, until i want to start try on table top miniature. my first box of tabletop miniatures was the first Mantic Army Box - Mhorgoth Rising! there are so affordable for me (i almost bought the Warhammer: The Island of Blood). Luckily i did a search and visited the Wolfgame Shop nearby my house and immediately caught by the nice scalped figures with proper scaled (i not a fan of GW's Heroic scale styling). two fully plastic armies of Undead and Dwarfs, a 56-page full colour 2nd edition Kings of War Rulebook including nearly 100 new units which such affordable price! i like those undead especially the zombie and ghoul! After that i learn more that Mantic is gamers friendly company, you can download rule book to start a games, no problem for gamers to use minis from other companies, and they contantly listen to the customers and keep improving. From there i started to put my support on Mantic.
There's nothing wrong in calling out a company for poor quality control, but good for you for doing another video when you are happier with that company. I'm also being steadily sucked into Mantic's orbit, due to the quality of their products and services, and their good attitude generally. I have all their Dungeon Saga, all their Walking Dead (sadly no longer available), most of their Armada (like you, after being fed up of waiting for a new Man O'War), although I play that in the Warhammer Old World, which I will always love more than anything else. Now, after vowing not to get any sci-fi minis, due to the size of my fantasy mini mountain, I have just cracked and ordered their Deadzone, which has had very good reviews.
Mantic really has been quietly doing the Lord's work for quite some time. Really like Dungeon saga (and wish it would get an update) and kings of War looks pretty spicy too.
@@crt82 That is amazing news! Dungeon saga is still my favorite Heroquest derivative dungeon crawler. The rules are a nice step up in complexity from Heroquest without being overly complicated (looking at you Swords and Sorcery).
The Dungeon Saga KS really soured me on Mantic. Specifically, they oversold what it was going to be able to do, with all kinds of claims about self generated dungeons and such that the game designer clearly had no interest in All the grand claims turned into a damp squib of half thought out rules that didn't actually work out of the box. I've heard good things since, but I am yet to feel well if inclined given the lack of any kind of contrition with regards how far short they fell from what they were promising I accept a lot of that was on me for falling for the hype, but even so, once bitten...
I bought my first box of mantic miniatures to get ready for the old world. Some goblin flea bags riders. The are great models. I've been priced out by GW and Lately I've been dwelling in other miniatures companies that deserve support.
I have played dozens, dozens of miniature games. Now I almost exclusively play Mantic. Kings of War (2 huge armies), Deadzone (2 warbands), Armada (orc fleet + waiting for new, amazing Trident). I also have FF army... Man those are great games.
@@seahawk8601 which army You plan to build? I have a trident realm. Great army but model rangers still need some rework. Too many metal minis. But we get there soon.
Yip, agreed. Mantic have come a long way and continue to make progress - especially in the quality of their miniatures. Most importantly for me, Ronnie from Mantic always comes across as incredibly enthusiastic and invested in what they are trying to do… and there seems to be a real ‘genuineness’ in his approach. I haven’t played the other games mentioned, but have got Armada, and KOW is a great game - my go-to for old school fantasy battles. Take care.
Rob, my Mantic journey started 4 years ago. Got some gcps troopers and loved them. Then I got a copy of Vanguard. Great models, however the PVC models do require a great deal of moldline cleanup. Their resin stuff has been terrific. Fast forward to this past Xmas, and I got a KOW starter. Wow, those models are great! I especially like the Halfling army! I now have a healthy backlog to complete. Keep up the videos, man!
Forgot to day. One of the coolest things I find about Mantic. All the si fi stuff plays with the sci fi stuff. For example I can use the factions in Star Saga set in Dead Zone. Wanna go bigger? You can use the same and just add more.
Rob, yet another great commentary. I have said in the past, and will continue to say, that 2015 was the year WFB was killed and I started to discover other game companies. I owe GW a huge thank you for that. Mantic was one of the first game companies that came to my attention with Kings of War. Yes, I use my old Empire and Dwarf armies in KoW. What endeared them to me is their customer service. I received the 'Here's Negan!' game (I wish they had been able to keep the license, oh well) without half the walkers. I had a full set within a week and they followed up to make sure I was satisfied.
Deadzone is amazing. I absolutely adore that game. I adore how Mantic makes all their games' content playable across other games in the universe. Mantic truly reminds me of golden-era GW of late 90s-early 2000s. Sadly, finding games and getting traction with new players just isn't moving.
Welcome to the club Rob! I made the jump to KoW a couple of years ago and am planning on shifting my 40K to Firefight now. Miniatures agnostic rules that update all armies to be balanced annually? Yes please!
Deadzone is probably the best skirmish game I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing. Kings of War is a full army game that plays as quickly as a skirmish game, I absolutely love multibasing. The introduction of Mantic Vault has been a game changer as well.
You're too late, Rob. I already love Mantic, especially their terrain sets. Also, they're the only ones who showed my beloved Sp'Dwarves any love after GW cancelled the Squats.
Rob, I am looking forward to your thoughts on Deadzone. It is my favorite skirmish game by far, and the starter box is a great value. Thanks for your work on this awesome channel!
Just saw someone share this on Twitter & I love to hear more people get excited for Mantic. I’m always looking for more KoW channels and I’ll be checking back in for more!
Best evidence Mantic cares about their community is how they run their game rules. They have most enthusiastic community members forming rules commity working WITH Mantic on their games.
Mantic has swung and missed a couple times, but overall they put out great products. And they learn from their misses and do better all the time. I have been rocking an Enforcer for my profile picture for years. My favorites in order are Deadzone, Hellboy, Walking Dead All Out War (oop now), Star Saga, Dungeon Saga and Dreadball. Still want to pickup Firefight. They also put out awesome Terrain Packs too!
I've been bangin that Mantic drum for ages, I have no intention of stopping. KoW is my favourite wargame of all time and Armada is just awesome. I've got most of the game lines they produce I just wish I had more time to play them. Anyway, I look forward to seeing your Mantic content.
And you get the rule book and a full army book in Fire Fight and Deadzone starter sets. Not to mention all the minis. I’m still building my Firefight set. I still have Deadzone and then Armada to go.
DEADZONE is really a fantastic game. Easy to learn but so many things in it make it fun to play! No rulers needed, exploding 8 (when you roll an 8 it is a succes and you get to roll another die) and special activation dice!
Yes Rob. I am totally on you side about Mantic. I am a huge Mantic fan as well, because of all the reasons you mention. But I also grew up with GW and their fantastic games of the past. So I get distracted, when they release a new Warhammer Quest game or other stuff that reminds me of these great old games. But after the recent price increase, the Cursed City disaster, and the way they keep coming out with new big starter sets for Warcry and Kill team every third month, I just can't keep up. GW doesn't deserve my attention anymore. I will just keep to Mantic and OPR (onepagerules) for my miniature games. I will be looking forward to all the great content you are going to make about Mantic games in the future. Count me in.
Thanks for the post. I really enjoy Star Saga as a different take on the Space Opera genre, and I back their recent terrain crate campaign for alien world plants (and could be used as strange plants from different dimensions in Cthulhu adjacent games.
If I remember right Project Pandora was there take on Space Hulk, with the Vermyn taken the place of the Gene Stealers? love there terrain creates, and Dreadball, Overdrive looks Interesting too, great video Rob.
I love Mantic I've a Kings of War dwarf army and a giant i love the models they look great and you can mix and match models there cheaper and you get more for your money. I like GW but it's the price that puts me off. I want Mantic to keep going.
Hi Rob, I think you need to let GW go. Their “non-core” games are never going to be a priority for them, while their main concern is $$$ over customers. And this will remain the case, while they are under their current management, and held accountable by shareholders. Make the jump to OPR, and continue to champion them. Use your existing GW models in OPR, and print OPR’s minis to fill any gaps. I am confident that they will have their own versions of Space Hulk, etc, one day, possibly in the not-to-distant future. As for Mantic, they remind me of GW in their early days, which is a good thing. I have worried that they would lose their customer focus, and go the way of GW, but years have passed, and this has not happened. So, yes, I agree it is worth giving Mantic a second go, especially for their more niche games, which, as you point out, are very similar to GW’s. Take care, all the best, and cheers,
What do I have? Walking Dead All Out War, Star Saga, Dungeon Saga, Deadzone 3e, Hellboy, Here's Negan, and the sublime Mars Attacks. The tepid reception Mantic sometimes seems to get puzzles me - at least on BGG which is my primary portal to the gaming universe. Lots of "yeah it's OK (or worse) ...but..." sort of comments. There are pockets of enthusiasts which is great - but they are usually brushed off by the seemingly more knowlegable and experienced commenters. The DS rollout is always regurgitated - long long after the game settled down. A good example of kickstarter vs personal temperment mismatch. Mantic is affordable, settings are cool and well fleshed out (but not over-fleshed out; they aren't a lore factory), components are decent, minis are good and plentiful (a bit more throwback compared to the "feathery" and "swishy facbrics" look currently in favor), rules are simple, tight and well presented with just the right amount of chrome to make for fun and engaging sessions and world building. I like the Mantic art style as well. They seem to stay focused on a dynamic streamlined experience - which is nice. My only beef? The square bases for Dungeon Saga! Don't like square bases haha...
Mantic has definitely had qc issues in the past but I never had problems getting them resolved. They are definitely gamers. The studio head started as a mantic pathfinder (volunteer demo guy). The biggest issue is really how small they are so they are not pumping out the releases like gw so people ignore them but who can keep up with all of gw's stuff. I only do Blood bowl stuff from gw now unless I am getting some models to use in another game.
I’m gonna do everything in my power to promote this no I don’t have the biggest channel on the planet but I do have people that will at least listen and I feel I can help in any small way I can
Wow, Rob, you really earned my respect with that one! There is just such a difference between the companies who and those who don`t. I am looking forward to your videos now more than ever as you explore the many great games not made by you know who.
Thanks for the video, Rob! Mantic is putting out some great games and working really hard. GW resting on laurels, quality miniatures, but gameplay not as big a priority to them, it seems. Had a hard time deciding between Deadzone and Kill Team, only because of fan base here. In the end, because Kill Team has a bigger following (only because of 40K), I got that, PLUS I had a demo and it was fun, and they improved the rule set for Kill Team. Had all things been equal, I would have gone with Deadzone instead, though. Looking forward to getting Kings of War some time, esp. since I can proxy old painted minis! That looks like a great game, too! Thanks, Rob!
I am really going to push the envelope here and make sure everybody gets a fair shake at Manticore. We will be covering a bunch of their games and I will let the people decide. As far as I’m concerned, I’m sold.
Hellboy is just outstanding. I have everything gameplay wise they've released so far. If they will be bring anything more to Gamefound they have my attention.
I've just properly bought into Kings of War, I had the Battle for IronHold set but I recently ordered The Sands of Ahmun and looking forward to the new plastics, I miss that Mantic doesn't have The Walking Dead anymore, I'm scrounging and scouring to find all the bits I'm missing. In the wake of 10th edition 40K, I am buying Mantic stuff.
I am so glad I have convinced several of my gaming friends to play Kings of war. It is simply the best ruleset for rank and file fantasy games out there. The models look great from Mantic and are so much cheaper than Games Workshop. My Abyssal Dwarfs are letting me finally play Chaos Dwarfs again and I couldn't be happier.
Brilliant video, very true and you have convinced me to take another look. I have subscribed to see what you do in the future. I wish you all the best.
Hey Rob. This is a good one. Makes me think about some of my fleet games, the one I'm thinking of in particular, is from games workshop. I have a 3.5 X copy of dreadfleet. Have you played it? I haven't gotten to it yet?
There kings of war starter sets are awesome. There mega army sets are crazy value. They don't even care if you use other companies models in your games
Great video, I think the price point as you say, is amazing for what you get, I got all dungeon saga stuff just because I could afford it lol Gonna look into star saga now😉
I used to be a big advocate of Mantic but then they started to pull "bait and switches" with some of their kickstarters so I gave up on them That was several years ago though so after watching this I might have to have another look at their stuff.
Gonna give them a look. GW has been dead to me for a while now, and I've been lured back into the market by the proliferation of game lines leaning into 3D printing, but it sounds like Mantic's stuff is affordable enough and high enough quality to give a look.
50/ 50. Mantic is hit or miss. They are like your drunk uncle. Some days, they have some great war stories, and give you some good snacks and drinks. Other times, you can't get them woke up from the night before when they put one on. Dungeon Saga, Kings of War figures were ... meh, back in the day. They have gone through a couple of iterations, and improved, but their distribution is garbage. Walking Dead.... I'll just leave it at... Walking Dead. SMH They could have actually had a winner with this one, alone, but pushed it away. I have Mars Attacks from Mantic. (It's my secretest addition to Walking Dad, but it's there.) Too bad that it took me about 5 minutes to come up with the best crossover that could have been, ever. They don't get the love, because they don't think they need to earn it.
Sadly haven't heard of them. Maybe they got low distribution around here. Distribution and the lack of any real advertising now does not help. Be interesting to see Rob.
I got to say Rob- I agree: Mantic dont have the best quality all the time, its not the most slick looking operation, it does not have the same quality of lore built up, maybe they dont manufacture everything domestically- but they are company with a lot of heart and they are constantly improving - Their Dungeon dead are 100x times better that what they put in dungeon saga (Constant improvement) They seem like a genuinely decent company who are really trying their best for their customers.
The problem with Mantic Games is that they aren't as popular as the GW Stuff which everyone seems to automatically go for and they don't seem willing to try anything new. I bought into Deadzone, Warpath, Firefight, and could never find people interested.
we keep growing and the more fans we get the more games you'll be able to play. thanks for trying MAntic - I am sure we will get to the place where you can get games locally.
Hey Rob, nothing against you but I hate the term "disposable income".... To me, it sounds like flushing money down the toilet. I much prefer discretionary expenditure", I think it is closer to the mark - something we can chose to spend our money on, rather than what we have to spend money on - shelter, food, heat, lights, etc. Thanks for the great content.
Sorry to hear that. We will have a big focus in the coming months, please have another look, it really is a great game. best wishes, and thanks for looking. R
I bought a couple Mantic army sets years ago and was really interested in Deadzone when it came out, and watched the Dungeon Saga Kickststarter pretty closely too. But they just don't design models that interest me. When I look at the new stuff GW is putting out for Kill Team and then I compare it to the sci-fi stuff Mantic is making, the artistic design is generations apart. Kings of War is no better. They have everything they need to challenge GW, but they don't do what it takes both with their models or with innovative game designs.
While I totally respect your perspective and point of view, I totally disagree, I have no time for mantic, I invested a LOT of money into them and was utterly let down every time. If they are doing things better now, that's good but me I got burnt to many times from them, its cheap but for me personally the quality isn't there. Games Workshop is the devil I know, they are shit in many many ways, but you do get great quality from them. I'm not a GW fanboi by a long shot, I play Bloodbowl and Necromunda and that's it currently, I'm watching Warhammer the Old world like a hawk as Warhammer was always my game of choice, but I'm being patient and waiting.. If I want Skirmish board game hybrids I go Corespace/Firstborn, and very soon Maladum. If I want a Sci-Fi wargame I went to Legion, if I wanted fleet combat I'd go with Drop Fleet Commander - its excellent and beautiful. I gave mantic not just one shot, but 4 or 5 shots, Dreadball, Deadzone, Dungeon Saga, Dreadball Exteme, Firefight.. Nope Nope Nope Nope Nope, I'd rather pay more and get quality. I'm very sorry I totally disagree but that's fine as well. We can like and support different things. For me I've no interest in giving Mantic more money, it seems a stupid risk when there are SO SO many great companies out there, that aren't GW and haven't burnt my bridges and made me waste so much money.. I've never brought something from GW no matter the cost that I was like, this is totally **** and a waste of money.. That was mantic not once or twice but 5 times and more than a thousand $$
@@ERBarratt Maybe, if I see someone with some in hand, I'll take a look, but I won't be gambling on online pictures etc.. I disliked their previous ogres so I will take a peak.
@@ERBarratt They do look okay, I def wouldn't put them above GW plastics but def servicable however they aren't for the UK market that cheap. £75 for a box, I can get about a equal amount of GW stuff if I buy start collecting box type products from them for the same price region (well they are between £40-50 for me, but have less content) so about £75 is about the same price making me only consider them because they have square bases and I'm really only looking at stuff for Warhammer's return (tried Kings of War, doesn't come close for me, to simple not enough stuff going on or depth to the lists clearly totally subjective however so I've got nothing against those who prefer KoW, I'm intrested in checking out conquest but its expensive to get over in the UK). But really while they do look better, and to be fair to them their hips stuff was never the problem, it was always the supporting ranges other plastic ranges which were always a HUGE part of their range, larger than hips was, I'm still not seeing them being better than GW, or even close to better (again subjective) for around the same price, for me to purchase anyway.
If that’s what you believe, then believe it and stand by it if it’s not for you then don’t worry about this video move on. It’s fine to disagree. I just think they’ve come a long way from those cheap little games that they were putting out and with things going a certain way with the bigger companies I feel this is a very good option, but if you don’t, that’s OK too it’s just a video at the end of the day with an opinion from a old fart nothing more
I am sorry we let you down, after you sjupported us many times. I am saddened we could not get you sorted, but glad you have opther games that scratch those itches for you. keep gaming. R
