Mars Attacks - Last Few Days

The Mars Attacks Kickstarter is entering it's last few days, and today's update adds another dollop of cool to an already overloaded wodge of amazeballs. Mantic have announced the long awaited giant mutant bug and handler will be unlocked at $500,000. The rather nice thing here is that they are adding it free the 'Invaders Arrive' pledge of $150 and 3 of them to the 'Alien Abduction' and 'Bloodshed on the Battlefield' pledges of $300, which is pretty great. Behold it's chittery glory below.

Mutant Ant

Science Division Bug Handler

This is in addition to the Martian supreme regent added free to the $100 pledge yesterday, and the Martian standard bearer added free to pledges of $300 up. From $500,000 through $550,000 they will add a heavy weapon option to the Novas Vira and more free figures to bulk out the units. After this Mantic have alluded to variations on the bug and the giant robot.

The first of the Novas Vira renders have also surfaced. Pretty sweet.

This broken pillar is so cool the way it moves when I do.

Mars Attacks Kickstarter - Final Push

At the time of writing there are 11 days left on the Mantic Games Mars Attacks kickstarter. I was in on day 1, but then, I do love the Mars Attacks universe. You don't get too many tongue in cheek pulp sci-fi games at the moment, especially set in modern day. There have been quite a few stretch goals broken, not the least of which is the 6.5" Martian robot complete with clear canopy so you can see the pilot and controls. You can get it for $20 in one of the deals, which for a miniature that size is peanuts.

There are saucers, Martian marines, a veritable pile of human heroes, burning cattle and a pile of other add ons and upgrades. Hopefully some giant mutant bugs will appear if the pledge level gets high enough. The thing about this particular game is it looks to function as either a boardgame or wargame, depending on what you want from it. The Escalation expansion increases the playing area and introduces new troop types and vehicles.

The various accessories include modern scenery as well. Dumpsters, trash cans, crashed cars, ruins etc, will work for a variety of games, as will the US marines included in the base game. I'm in for the hordes of Martians meself.

Certainly worth a look!

ACK ACK! Mantic Mars Attacks Kickstarter

After twenty minutes the Mars Attacks Kickstarter went live it's funded and as I write the first stretch goal is down. That's pretty fast work. The basic set contains a 2'x2' gaming matt, plastic ruins, eight Martian grunts and eight US soldiers as well as four special characters, 1 Martian, 3 human. Dice, rules, cards and counters finish off the boxed game. With the $100 pledge you also get $50 to spend on core add ons, more human or Martian troops, or more scenery. I imagine this will expand as the kickstarter goes on. I look forward to seeing saucers, giant robots, mutant bugs and more human forces, as well as hopefully more special characters.

More Martian News

Ack-ack!

I heard today Mantic have teamed up with Topps to produce a Mars Attacks wargame. A little out of leftfield, but being a fan of  Mars Attacks (I liked the movie, so there) I am cautiously intrigued by this development. From Mantic-

 “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!”

I bought a big pile of Mantic undead, and I was involved in the Kings of War kickstarter, but I missed the boat on Dreadball. By many accounts a great game, but it was a little too clean and shiny for my taste. I'm more rusty rivets than gleaming chrome. The retro sci-fi pulp look of the Martians is pretty appealing, so I'll have to see how it pans out. Mantic seem to have a lot of balls in the air, I hope they have enough hands to catch them all.

However, if Mantic are clever enough to make clear dome helmets to pop on the Martian soldiers after you paint their heads I would be hard pressed to resist picking some up.

Uuuuuuu-lllaaaaaa!

In other Martian news, the Alien Dungeon's All Quiet on the Martian Front kickstarter is heading toward the $150,000 stretch goal. It's been a little sluggish the last couple of days, but with the freebies being handed out at the next stretch it's getting to be a very nice proposition for all you Martian tripod fans.

With news of new factions and special characters such as the red Martian and war machines like the Thunderchild 2 land ironclad, it's evident Alien Dungeon are in for the long haul. Being a HUGE Jeff Wayne's musical fan (I detest musicals, but this one, this one has me) I am all over this like a rash. The fact the Rick Priestley and Alessio Cavatore are involved doesn't hurt none either. Check it out.

New Goblins and a Trombone

There's been a bit of a dearth of fantasy releases from Games Workshop of late with all the 40k, so when some new Forgeworld goblins showed up I was as happy as a starving man given a spam sandwich - far from ideal, but hell, it's a sandwich.

All spam-related comparisons aside, (for now) these gobbos look very nice indeed. The armoured squig and the shaman are superb, and if I played orcs and goblins I'd be super happy. Plus, this means that the Blackfire Pass book is getting closer to release.

Also, from Mantic comes the goblin war trombone. I don't know what the hell this thing is, or does, but damn, what a great idea. I may pick one up and figure out what the hell to do with it later on down the line. Every goblin army should have a war trombone.

Chaos Dwarves Knits & Mantic Monsters

I'm a big chaos dwarf fan. More so the old school spiky stunties though, truth be told. However, when a good friend offered to knit something chaos dwarfy for me, I couldn't resist but go big hat. Never in my wildest dreams, however, did I think she would produce such a tall-hatted thing of beauty.

Behold. (It's not me modelling, I'll have to wait a few more days for that.) Is it not glorious? The photo wasn't great, so I've jigged it a bit. My next outing with the Dawi Zharr will be most interesting.

In other news, Mantic have released work in progress shots for more of the kickstarter models. I saw the ogres a while ago, and I was impressed, they look cool. More pictures went up more recently, of the abyssal dwarf golem and the werewolf. I was eagerly anticipating both of these as a unit of werewolves would make a nice addition to my vampire counts army, and the golems for k'daai fireborn. Looking at the shots though, (and I know they are wip) I was deeply disappointed.

I'm a fan of Mantic. Their zombies are just great, I'm using them on my current project. But these two images do not fill me with joy. What's the werewolf doing? I mean, the physiology is good, if maybe slightly cartoony, but the pose is terrible. He looks like he's trying to catch his breath after doing the 100 metres. "AaaAAach.....Fffff! Stitch! Hang on, be with you in a minute....aarroooowwwcchh!!"

The golem. I hope it looks better down the road, as it looks pretty awful here. Maybe it's the photo, but it just looks terrible in this shot. I don't want to be too damning as it's still wip, but I'm worried. It is Bob Naismith sculpting it though, so there's hope yet.

Come on Mantic, you can do it guys.

Mantic - Ogres Incoming

Mantic's ogres are on the way. Mantic had some of the new sculpts from their kickstarter on display at their open day. I have to say, they look good. The heads are very good indeed, I wonder if they'll be available as bits? I could see them selling very nicely. It might be the angle, but the ogre with the great axe looks like he needs a wee. Apart from that though, he looks like a nice sculpt. I have high hopes for the werewolves. If they are as good as the ogres look like they are going to be I'll be having some for certain.

Kings of War - Rulebook Arrives!

My Mantic pledge goodies arrived today, the hardback rules, small rulebook and dice. A nice haul. I've only thumbed through the rules, but it's very nice quality, plenty of photos of miniatures of armies clashing and such, and lots of illustrations. A beefy background section, and the rules look great fun. I'm looking forward to reading it in more depth, maybe on the holidays...

Mantic - Kings of War Kickstarter

The Mantic Kickstarter has been amazing to watch go totally nuts. I backed them a few days ago, and I'm looking forward to seeing the new hardcover rulebook, I must say. With three days to go, it looks like it will hit the $200,000 mark, which means a whole lot of upcoming groove from Mantic. I'm delighted to see them do so well, as I like the company and I like what they are doing. I'll be keeping an eye out for the werewolves and mummies among others things, and the new army, the Celestians, looks interesting.

Also, kudos to Mantic for putting out concept artwork of fantasy women in proportion, wearing clothing appropriate to actually fighting someone.

They are nuns though, I guess.