Mantic Kickstarter (deadzone) - wave 2 update

Mantic has put out an update on the Deadzone kickstarter and it sounds like people are getting pissed. Here is the latest update from Mantic on the Deadzone kickstarter page.  Mantic had issues like this with dreadball, with folks seeing the product in stores before receiving their kickstarter pledges in some instances. Sounds like there will be more of the same happening here.  The comments from Mantic on the kickstarter page/updates are drying up really quick now that these issues are cropping up again. This was my problem with Mantic a long time ago is their communication is crap! I'm reading now they made a bunch of changes to what was included in certain pledges - but only bothered to tell people once they started deliveries.  It's not rocket science that early communication is better.  Plenty of communication happens while they are drumming up the funds - quickly dissolves once all hands are on deck.  It's a bit understandable but just seems like they could really use a permanent customer service officer or something.

The Bad (Mantic as a company, meeting customer demand, customer service, etc.)

This is how my deadzone kickstarter box arrived.  It was very banged up and I consider it fortunate that only 3 miniatures and the rulebook were damaged.  Quite easily the counters and any other restic bits could have been damaged.

piles of unlabeled stuff

Here is an unboxing review on another blog.  I would have appreciated getting my items packed inside the box like that, instead of having most of my stuff just thrown loosely into the cardboard mailing box.  The only stuff that was actually inside my deadzone game box was the fold up mat and one half of the terrain sprues. Everything else was loose in the box, including baggies of figures, all the counters and even the rulebook.  In this unboxing post you can see he laid out everything on the table.  It is a ton of stuff, it really would have been nice for mine to get that extra protection from actually being in the gaming box.  Look at the damage on my rulebook (usually it takes a few years of use to be this damaged)

look at the damage

Compare this to a post by Joel @ Mordian 7th for his Bug Hunt corridors kickstarter.  First - look how lovely it would be to have all the baggies labeled with what they are/should include.  It's crazy they even took the time to punch out all the bits. Some labels would have been nice for Deadzone, I had to reference 3 different URLs to do all my double-checking to make sure I had everything.

Now checking the update from Mantic, you have until January 31st to fill out the form for missing bits.  A shame if you haven't had several hours to document everything you have vs. everything you should have.  I am going to double check the enforcer bits because I assumed I got everything since a lot of the enforcer stuff was delayed to wave 2 to use their new plastics - but now I'm hearing baggies aren't even properly filled so best to check.  It will have been close to 3 months the form has been up, but they weren't actually doing anything with that info until the end of this month.  Then they will have to order stock since it's more likely stuff missing from your order went into someone elses' package than they have stock sitting around.

At the same time, they have now been selling the product so if I was one of the unlucky one's to get nothing - and have to wait for more stock to be ordered because they'd sold stock through retail already I would be flaming mad.

The Good (The game itself, the value of the figures, definitely the terrain)

Jake has written a very cool game, I really like how elegant it is, allowing the game to flow and at the same time offering a lot of room for tactics & strategy.  What is a bit disappointing is the fact that with all the changes via the FAQ @ quirkworthy - I don't know if the rulebook is even a good starting point anymore. There are rules that have no description yet, etc. so for a printed rulebook it's a bit poor form.  However with today's shift towards living rulebooks, I am ok with having updated PDFs, it would be great if they would highlight changes they made so it would be easy to hunt down, but I don't think that's going to happen.

A lot of people are complaining about the figures, and I understand they are nowhere near as nice as GW figures or some other stuff out there.  But you need to consider the price, thinking that these probably ended up costing you around the $1 per figure range - it's hard to complain.  Jake Thornton wrote a piece about cleaning restic - where he "dispels" all the issues with it.  He tries hard to avoid bias, but I think he has failed. He mentions it's no harder than cleaning metal or plastic and I heartily disagree.  It is much more difficult than plastic and different to metal though probably about the same amount of effort.  He also says he hunted through hundreds of pieces to find the worst flash and I again cannot believe that - it seems much more likely to have gone the other way.  Many people find the models difficult so it can't just be everyone else is wrong. Also find it a shame he cleaned one of the "sprue" bits rather than a big piece as part of his post.  I am not looking forward to cleaning my plague big guy, the flashing is terrible and will make getting the detail right a pain.

The terrain is quite nice - though again I hear conflicting reports.  Mantic states it's easy to put the terrain together and take it apart again, but other reports deem it not so easy. Fortunately for me I plan to glue it together, I have so much necromunda terrain that this will just add to it, and I have no need for it to be modular.  There are already a great couple articles up about painting the deadzone terrain - I've gone with zenithal technique, incorporating some salt masking to do some battle damage/weathering.  Then after gluing them into small buildings I will have a go with the weathering powders from secret weapon miniatures.

I should have pics of the terrain up soon, I got too far along too quick to do a step-by-step but there are plenty of tutorials out there.  Hope to get a game in soon.

HeroQuest KickStarter

I so far have managed to be spend fairly sparingly on kickstarter projects.  Instead of jumping on every new shiny I have really tried to focus on the one's I can see myself making a lot of use of, or that I really like the look of.  Up until today I had only backed two kickstarters;

- the first being Tablescapes - by Secret Weapon Miniatures (I have a fold out grass field 8'x4' polystyrene table and couldn't resist getting something a little more urban to use for skirmish and sci-fi games) - it was moderately expensive but for the apparent quality and truly impressive level of planning & ingenuity it felt very worthwhile.

- the second being Deadzone - by Mantic (yes, some astute of you will know that I am not a huge Mantic fan after this event - but with recent events prompting me to finally branch out from GW products + the fact Jake Thornton is the creator I decided to have a serious look.  The ruleset is what really pulled me in - I am pretty sure I will not be hugely impressed with the miniatures, and the cut & paste/quirkworthy nature of the rules PDF & cards I find to be annoying and somewhat unprofessional - regardless the thought of a small skirmish game that doesn't use rulers and is meant to play very quickly did appeal)

Yesterday the HeroQuest 25th anniversary kickstarter released and today it is already 565% funded.  Their simple pledge levels appealed to me and with a new baby I decided to bite the bullet but chalk this one up for him to open in the future.  I still remember opening my HeroQuest box and loving looking through all the miniatures and rules, playing with my brother and eventually starting my painting hobby by painting those figures.  I wish I knew where it had gone, since I have no recollection of ever trading it away - but I want to give my son that same feeling so today I pledged.  I also foresee a lot of stretch goals being met at this rate - there are already NINE unlocked.  Check out the video and consider it.