Mantic Games

We’re pleased to be working with Topps on a new licensed Mars Attacks tabletop wargame, due for release in 2014! Here’s the full story:

Is your tabletop ready to be invaded?  The Topps Company and Mantic Games have joined forces to bring MARS ATTACKS to life as a miniature-based tabletop war-game!  Combining high quality sculpted figures with fast and fun tactical gameplay, Mantic will deliver an exciting new dimension to the resurgent sci-fi property.

Mantic Games, makers of the popular WARPATH and DREADBALL tabletop games, will make MARS ATTACKS their first license.  “MARS ATTACKS is a cult classic series that fans have been falling in love with generation after generation,” says Ronnie Renton, Mantic CEO. “Its oddball blend of retro sci-fi visuals, dark humor and over-the-top violence will make for a unique tabletop experience… our team can’t wait to bring the Martians to life in ways no one has ever seen before!”

Set against the backdrop of the new and expanding MARS ATTACKS universe, the game will feature all of the fun and thrill of the classic series, plus new characters and factions that will see action in upcoming comic books and toys.  It will also tie-in closely with Topps’ just-announced all-new trading card series, Mars Attacks: Invasion, releasing in October.

“MARS ATTACKS is a world where giant robots, mutated insects and hordes of Martian soldiers face off against Earth’s military and innocent civilians— how could you not want to see a game out of that?” says Topps’ Adam Levine. “Mantic has quickly become one of the best in the business, and they’re the perfect team to adapt our outrageous visuals into this exciting new form.”

Mantic plans an early 2014 release.

For more information on MARS ATTACKS, including regular updates on new products and cards, follow on facebook: www.facebook.com/MarsAttacks.

ABOUT MANTIC

Mantic Games is bringing fun to sci-fi and fantasy gaming.  In just 4 years, they have already released three complete gaming systems- Kings of War®, Warpath and Dreadball® and many supplementary products, such as Dwarf King’s Hold and Project Pandora.  Their obsession for detail, simple but challenging games, and great value- for money has made them a rising star in the hobby industry.

With sales offices in the USA, UK and Germany, a fully staffed studio and a global supply chain supporting a dedicated finance and production facility in Nottingham, England, they are well set for future growth.

To find out more, please visit www.manticgames.com

Or contact Ronnie Renton at ronnie.renton@manticgames.com

ABOUT TOPPS

Founded in 1938, The Topps Company is the preeminent creator and brand marketer of sports cards, entertainment products, and distinctive confectionery. Topps leading sports and entertainment products include Major League Baseball, National Football League, English Premiere League, Bundesliga, Indian Premiere League, WWE, UFC, Wacky Packages, Garbage Pail Kids and other trading cards, sticker album collections, and collectible games. The Company’s top confectionery brands include “Ring Pop,” “Push Pop,” “Baby Bottle Pop”, “Bazooka” bubble gum, “Sharkies” and “Juicy Drop Pop” products.

6 Comments | In: Uncategorized | |

After a short hiatus, we’re glad to announce that the Mantic Podcast is alive and well – here’s episode 8, for your listening pleasure! Kick back, get out the paints or the tools, and let our soothing tones fill you with hobby excitement!

Here’s what we’re talking about…

Intro (00:00:00 to 00:08:50)

• Ben and James chat about what’s going on in the world of Mantic. Such as:
  • The Mantic overview – what’s been happening, and what’s coming soon!
  • DreadBall! Season 2 has shipped to Kickstarter backers, and is now shipping to everyone else
  • The Mantic Open Day – It was a huge success and we found our first ManticBowl champion in Rich Jones
  • Kings of War! We’re gearing up for a massive summer…

Deadzone (00:08:50 to 00:49:55)

• Ben collars Ronnie and Jake to talk about Deadzone, Mantic’s latest Kickstarter success. Among the many topics they discuss are:
  • What Deadzone’s all about.
  • Another crazy Kickstarter success, even bigger than DreadBall!
  • Terrain… lovely, lovely plastic terrain.
  • What’s next for Deadzone.
  • What it means for the future of Warpath…
  • How people can get involved! (Hint: it involves going to the Kickstarter page!)

Kings Of War (00:49:55 to 1:00:00)

• Ronnie and Ben talk about the incoming ‘Summer of Kings of War’ and what can be expected from the next few months of everyone’s favourite fast-paced fantasy battle wargame…
  • Summer of Kings of War – three months of amazing new releases!
  • Basileans, Ogres, new units for existing armies.
  • Expansion books, Kings and Legends and Basilea.
  • What to look forward to in the next podcast!

You can listen to the Podcast by clicking below, or keep it forever (or transfer it to an MP3 player!) it by right clicking the “Download” link and choosing the “Save link” option.

Please support Deadzone on Kickstarter!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

1 Comment | In: Deadzone, General, Podcast | tags: podcast. |

Okay, the weather’s still a bit grim (in Nottingham, anyway) but we’re already preparing to kick off our Summer of Kings of War!

With a massive range of releases for Kings of War over June, July and August, it’s never been a better time to get involved with the fastest, easiest-to-learn Fantasy Battle Game there is. Following a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign last year, we’re now starting to receive painted models at Mantic HQ, and we’re going to spend the next seven days providing you with photos of as many Kings of War miniatures as we can!

We’re starting today, with a first good look at the Trolls…

Trolls are large, feral humanoids of dim wits and insatiable appetite – perfect allies for the armies of Goblins, which use them as shock troops. Trolls can regenerate almost any wound and only fire can truly destroy them, while their crude war-clubs smash through armour and crush bones with terrifying ease.

Trolls are released in June 2013, and will be $25 for a set of 3, making a 120-point Troop in an Orc or Goblin army. Also, don’t forget that as long as you also take a solid unit of Orcs or Goblins, you can take them as allies for any other Evil army!

What do you think of the trolls? Will you be getting a box or two? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

14 Comments | In: Goblins, Kings of War, Orcs, Pre-release | |

Update from the frontlines! Thanks for Pathfinder Neil for this info:

The Mantic Pathfinders are running a series of Kings of War tournaments across the UK to raise money for charity. Entry is easy – your army doesn’t need to be painted and doesn’t even need to be Mantic models, which means almost anyone can play! 

Each event lasts a day and you’ll play 4 timed games of 1600 points (allies are permitted). The ticket price includes lunch and, as well as a winner’s trophy, Mantic have provided some great prize support: 

• 1st place – Winner’s trophy, signed copy of the Kings of War: Kings and Legends supplement and choice of an Ogre or Basilean army box when they’re released. The overall winner of the also chooses which charity receives the day’s proceeds! 
• 2nd place – Signed copy of the Kings of War: Kings and Legends supplement, plus an Ogre unit, when they’re released.
• 3rd place – Copy of the Kings of War: Kings and Legends supplement when it’s released. 

There are two regional Pathfinder Tournaments left (the first one, at Firestorm Games in Cardiff, was won by Chris Morris – well done, Chris!) followed by a national final later in the year. The remaining events are at: 

• Marauder Games, Stockport on 8th June 2013
• Tabletop Nation, Hockley on 29th June 2013. 

For more information, you can check the Mantic Forum, or download a tournament pack.  

There we have it! The Kings of War rules are ideally suited to tournament play, and they’re easy enough to master that even if you haven’t played many games yet, you could still learn them in time for either of these events! Whether you’re a serious Kings of War tournament fiend, a casual gamer who wants to raise some money for a good cause or someone with an existing fantasy army who wants to try a new set of rules, why not get involved?

No Comments | In: Events, Kings of War | |

We’ve unlocked not one but two brand new types of scenery over on the Deadzone Kickstarter, including:

Landing Pad BattleZone

Citizen Jael had read all of the reports – colossal abominations, mutated aliens and rumours of supersoldiers executing civilians. He had hoped that the Enforcers would quarantine the area in Nicorasi on the south coast but the disease was virulent and intel was coming in suggesting the outbreak was more widespread than first thought. Jael looked up at the Laser Cannon Engineer Talbot had installed and over to the defence lines being erected. He hoped it would be enough.

The Landing Pad is an awesome new kit that contains 135 degree connectors (allowing you to build angled connectors), triangular pieces for diagonal walkways and deflector pads. This kit can build a standalone landing pad and is fully compatible with the main Core Worlds Buildings Sprue.

Fortified Defence Line – Fortifications BattleZone

//91-Urilla on starting drop run.
//Eyes-on landing zone.
//Anti-air units sighted.
//Requesting instructions.
\\91-Urilla: Re-route to Outpost Epsilon.
\\Advance units secured an operational landing pad.
\\Drop at Epsilon and advance on foot.

//Acknowledged, command.
//91-Urilla out.

The Fortified Defence Line contains reinforcements for your buildings allowing you to secure your military compound with fortified walls, strengthened barricades, reinforced defence walls with a large blast gate and a mighty laser cannon. Once again this kit is fully compatible with the Core Words Buildings Sprue allowing you to customise your terrain further.

On BattleZones

Each type of scenery comes supplied in bundle packs known as BattleZones, each containing 3 sprues of approximately 6 tiles and 1 Connector Sprue.

Scenery Only Pledges

The One-Click Battlefield ($100) and One-Click Wargames Table ($285) pledge levels contain no miniatures and no rules – just the new terrain. They allow you to pick a number of BattleZones from the themes available, in any combination you want. For instance, the One-click Battlefield pledge allows you to choose 4 Battlezones, of which you could have all of the same BattleZone or a mixture of Core Worlds, Landing Pads and Fortifications.

Scenery Add-ons

Already got a pledge or wanting to pledge for the game? If you want extra scenery, we have 4 scenery packs available starting at $25, each allowing you a number of BattleZones in any combination you want.

What’s next?

We’ve still got more BattleZones to unlock including ideas such as Ruined Buildings, Alien Worlds and Industrial Sector.

There are still some scenery-only Early Birds available so please be quick and help us fund Deadzone on Kickstarter

No Comments | In: Deadzone | |

The Open Day at the weekend was a very special day for DreadBall fans – it marked the very first ManticBowl! This is going to be a yearly competition run by Mantic, and we hope that it will one day grow to be a fully international event. For now, we’re more than happy with the 30 entrants that we had!

Picture courtesy of Robert Smythe Sinclair on the Mantic Forums

It was an interesting day for everyone involved, as it was the first time that Season 2 teams appeared at a tournament. All eight teams were represented, with a definite bias towards the Corporation (11 teams out of 30). Whether this is because people prefer their play style, or because they’re in the main boxed game, remains to be seen!

The tournament consisted of four games, with teams starting fresh for each one – in effect, each one was a separate exhibition match. Each coach had to take a basic team, and was then given 20mc to spend on advancements, coaching dice, DreadBall cards, Coaches, Cheerleaders or extra players. Advancements were paid for in advance but rolled for (choosing from either the Season 1 or Season 2 table) at the start of each game. The games got underway with surprisingly few hitches, and there followed a great day of gaming fun!

Of course, at the end there could only be one winner (plus two runners up and two special prizes, of course!) It is my great pleasure to announce the ManticBowl 2013 DreadBall Champion to be Rich Jones with his Judwan team, The Wailers. Rich will be receiving an astonishingly pretty metal DreadBall pitch, engraved with his name and ManticBowl 2013; better than a trophy any day! He was followed up by Steve Wallace in second place, with his own Judwan team the Roswell Rangers. Third place was also taken by the Judwan – this time by Brian Clarke and the Pelgar Punchbags! (Looks like those bandy-limbed alien types are the one to beat in 2014…) We also awarded a prize for Most Bloody Coach, which went to Jona Littler, whose Marauder team the Hyson Green Smack Fiends managed to kill seven players across four games. Impressive work! Finally, the “Maybe You Should Try This Instead…” award (and a copy of Dwarf King’s Hold!) went to Jennifer Fullergreen, for her valiant efforts in clinging to the bottom table. Here are those of them that didn’t flee from my camera, along with some people who won prizes our Help for Heroes raffle (in which we raised £160)…

I said “hold up your prizes; “Rich Jones (centre) pointed out that he hasn’t got his yet!

An honourable mention should go to Steven Pretlove, who came and found me just before the winners were announced. In a stunning display of sportsmanship, he pointed out that he’d been using Coaches wrong throughout the day, giving himself a slight advantage. He suggested that his opponents should be retroactively awarded a Landslide victory in each case; this caused a bit of last-minute reworking, but I think he should be applauded for his honesty! That sort of behaviour is what DreadBall tournaments are made of!

If you’d like to know more details, here’s a full rundown of the final scores. I apologise in advance if anyone’s names or teams are spelt wrong…

If you’d like to run your own DreadBall event, drop us a line as we have plenty of resources you can use. If you want to see the full tournament rules that were used, they are available here as a download: DreadBall One-Day Tournament Pack V4.0.

1 Comment | In: DreadBall, Events | |

Phew! The Mantic Open Day 2013 has been and gone, and what a day it was! Over 150 people arrived in sunny* Nottingham to play games, see previews of new models and press Ronnie for all sorts of information that we were planning to keep under wraps for a while**. There was a great atmosphere on the day, especially at the ManticBowl tournament, and the studio room was constantly packed with people trying to get a good look at Deadzone and the new releases cabinet!

The ManticBowl was a huge success – roll on 2014!

The Mantic Seminars have always been a key part of our Open Days, and this year was no different. Ronnie, Jake and Alessio took turns chatting about all things Mantic and answering questions from the audience, and the experience was only enhanced by the mood lighting***! If you couldn’t make it, the Mantic Forums are brimming with information, photos and even the occasional video of what you missed!

Ronnie chose this moment to level up and become a being of pure light. (Possibly.)

Keep watching the blog today for more information about what happened this weekend – and if you were there let us know what you thought of the day in the comments below!

*Until the afternoon, when the heavens opened and the torrential downpour started! Yay, England. 
**It’s okay, we generally expect three out of every four Mantic secrets to get Ronnied at some point…
***Don’t worry – future Mantic events will have much more reliable lighting! 

No Comments | In: Events | |

Phew! After a couple of weeks of solid work in the warehouse, we’re proud to say that the last Kickstarter orders for DreadBall Season 2 shipped yesterday!

What a pile! This was less than half the bags…

This was an all-hands-to-pumps affair, with several of us heading to the warehouse from the office to help out. (Orcy was nowhere to be seen, but we’re fairly certain we haven’t accidentally posted him to Malaysia or anything…) Now that Kickstarter orders have gone, we can start shipping non-Kickstarter orders for DreadBall Season 2, so if you’ve ordered through our website you should expect your order to arrive very soon!

Here’s Ronnie, proudly displaying one of the boxes he packed!

In other news, tomorrow is the Mantic Open Day! I’ve posted about it repeatedly, so if you want to know more just scroll back through my previous posts – but the most important thing to know is that tickets will be available on the door! It’s going to be an awesome day, and it’ll be great to see the lot of you!

Head to the Facebook Event Page for full details!

No Comments | In: DreadBall, Events | |

By popular demand, Ronnie’s back in front of the camera – and this time he’s talking all about Deadzone terrain!

In this video, he shows some of the pieces that will be available, how they fit together, and shows off just how versatile the kit is. Check it out and let us know what you think in the comments below!

1 Comment | In: Deadzone, Terrain | |

If you’re not heading along to the Mantic Open Day this weekend, and you’re in the Chicago area, why not head down to Chicagoland Games on Saturday? They’re running a DreadBall tournament from 13:00 to 17:00, and will be running open games of DreadBall until they close! This is a great chance to try the game out if you haven’t already, or just check it out and watch some games in action.

If you want more information, check out the website!

No Comments | In: DreadBall | |