Unboxing: Mantic Games Crazy Box (Sci fi/Fantasy 20014 edition)

Hi there, this video unboxing has been long overdue because of several things, mainly problems transferring the movie clips from my camera which is isn't working as it should right now.

But... even if this is kind of late, and you can't purchase the 2014 ed version anymore, it's still a hint on how this years Crazy Box could look. As I said, I did a video unboxing of this one. So hope you enjoy and over too.... myself!

If you also purchased one of these boxes, either this one or the sci fi only one, please share what you got in it. Always interesting too hear how random they are.

Deadzone KS Wave 2

Hey there guys, sorry I haven't been posting anything lately. Have a rough time at the moment with family and stuff so haven't been doing much hoybbing at all the last two weeks.

Hopefully things will work out soon and I will be back as usual, but until then I won't do as many posts as I usually do.

But enough of that, I got a big package last week, and it's some of the last things to arrive from the Deadzone Kickstarter (some items comes in Wave 3) wave 2!

Here you can see all the goodies, there's bags with miniatures and parts, books, scenery sprues, the new zombie sprues for DZ (will do an unboxing of these soon) and some other goodies like cards, dice and what not.

Will go a little more in depth on some things that I got, like the books and some of the miniatures. But overall I think the quality have gone up since wave 1 and I'm very pleased with what I got. 

WIP Wednesday: Deadzone Battlezone Watchtower/Outpost

A little unusual WIP photo this time as I don't paint much terrain or buildings. I need to however and I have plenty of building materials from my Deadzone Kickstarter so here's some WIP:s of the first building I have built and started to paint.

Did a camo paint job here with my airbrush, I will use this mostly for my Warzone games and on my Venusian Jungle board I'm building so this camo looks really nice and fitting for that setting, as well as working for any future Deadzone games. 

I actually glued this building together even if you don't need to. It's to make it hold better and I want to keep this building as it looks anyway. I did want to have the option to play inside it as well so I magnetized one wall for easy taking it on and off. That's all for now, just some weathering and stuff and this building is finished. 

Review: Deadzone Kickstarter

It may sound strange with an review of a Kickstarter campaign but as I got my first wave of stuff from the Deadzone KS a week before Christmas I have now looked trough it all and built some things so I thought a Review of the actual content is a good idea.

Picture by Mantic Games

On time
During the KS campaign Mantic said December 2013, and I think most of us did get their first batch of stuff in Dec so that is great. I have pledged on two other KS (Warzone: Resurrection and Robotech RPG Tactics ) both which are long over due since their initial promised releases. I have also heard that most miniature based games on KS have been delayed. So good job by Mantic for delivering on time.

The box
I got a big box filled with the main game box and a lot of sprues. I think I got all that was to get from the initial wave accept the T-shirt, acrylic counters etc. but every model and building sprue. At first it was quite intimidating to check that everything was there which I where supposed to get in this delivery. (KS update 124 and update 125 helped a lot in this regard) There was just so much models and part in there and it took an evening to go trough it all. All was there though (accept some dice but I already knew this as Mantic stated the missing ones will arrive in next wave) and that was just fantastic, I thought at least some small parts would be missing but no, everything was there. So good job yet again Mantic.

Some of the rebs I have built so far

The models
I haven't bought models from Mantic since they released their Zombies so I didn't really know what to expect quality wise on these. And what is the verdict? Well they are quite nice sculpts, but the plastic they use (the same as their other ranges?) isn't the best and you have quite a lot of mold lines and until I cut that away I was even a bit disappointed. But when I did fix them up and put them together they do look nice. The details are there but it's far from as sharp as for example GW plastics, and because of this I think you need to put some more effort to painting these. I will not go any further into detail about this as I will do either a review for each faction released or for all the first wave instead where I got more into detail about the actual models. But I can say so far that they look as I thought they would and I like most of the sculpt designs.

Not completely done, and yes this building is quite large

The scenery
This will have an own Review in the future as I do have much to say about them but I also want to try out all the different parts and combinations before I do a full review. But for short, I do like them and they work as intended. BUT. They do snap sometimes (the connectors not any walls they are hard as nails) if you aren't really careful. I have built a quite big building so far and It took quite some time to build so I don't think I will take this apart and build something else from the parts used, which takes away the modular ability of the kit. Smaller buildings and scenery however I don't see any problem taking it apart and build something else from it. Other than that they look good when built and I can see that you get great diversity from all the bits, more about this in the Scenery review.

The Rules
I haven't played a game yetm but the actual rules looks solid and fun. The rulebook is soft cover and on ?? pages and looks nice with nice pictures and clear easy to read rules. Nothing spectacular though, it does what it's supposed. The same goes for the rest of the gaming stuff you get in the box, the card tokens, gaming mats (both 'deluxe' and paper variant), faction decks and dice looks nice and does what it's supposed to, but nothing spectacular.

All the stuff in all it's glory

Overall
It may not be the best quality miniatures/books/cards etc youv'e seen in a wargame but all in all I really like this box and the contents. You get so much stuff in this box that you almost get overwhelmed and the quality is good enough in my opinion. The overall feel I get over the box is that it's nice and worth it's money and I must say that I'm really happy that I did participate in this Kickstarter. For you who missed out on the KS there will be a retail version as well (have already sold out on pre order versions) but I think it will be a little bit smaller and with less content, even then I think it's great deal for any wargamer.

As I said I will do more in depth reviews of the models and scenery later until then I hope someone found this somewhat useful, and if you want to find out more about Deadzone or Mantic Games, check out their webpage here.

Deadzone is here!

Yeah I got my long awaited package today full with plastic crack, and damn that was a lot of terrain and models. Have just went through everything in my order (this is only the first wave and I will get more goodies in the second one as well) and nothing was missing, good job there Mantic! This took a while but I can recommend using Update #125 and Update #124 on their KS page so you know what should get in this wave.

Great job Mantic and I'm looking forward putting these together (but not removing mold lines :/, will comment this in a review kind of posts later on).

A LOT of stuff

Last hours of Deadzone Kickstarter!

As I'm typing there's just 29 hours left of the Deadzone KS and this KS is already the most successful KS from Mantic games yet, with $837,844 in pledge total at the moment and rising fast now. Myself have been thinking if I wanted to participate in this KS or not, I don't really need more minis to paint in Dec this year (the Robotech RPG miniatures arrives this date too). But yesterday I made up my mind, and I will participate in this KS as well, going with sweet spot lvl of Strike Team with quite a deal of add-ons as well. The Strike Team lvl is just a too good deal to miss out on, with a lot of miniatures and even a quite lot of scenery to make awesome terrain for both this game and other Sci-fi games (like Warszone).

If you have checked this KS out yet, you can find it here. Go and look if you can find anything of interest.

Deadzone: Another Kickstarter from Mantic Games

Yea Mantic continue to do Kickstarter and here's their fourth one, and in my opinion the best looking KS from Mantic so far. Down below are what info we got in the mail on what we can expect from this KS. Check it out, also as Im typing this we are already at $120k of the initial of $50k so this KS looks to be a great success already. You find the Kickstarter here:



From the e-mail from Mantic:

The Counter has hit zero, now lead your faction to victory in this new 3D futuristic skirmish game!

Deadzone is a two-player tabletop miniatures skirmish game set in the Warpath universe where players control one of four unique factions, battling it out over scarce resources by combining deadly actions to lethal effect.



There will be four initial factions for Deadzone including the Enforcers, the Marauders, the Rebs and the horrific Plague!

We’re launching Deadzone through Kickstarter where with the help of the community we hope to be able to expand the range of unit types in the core box as well as fund the tooling for these miniatures. In addition we hope to be able to great new additions to the scenery range, introduce new factions and create a strong community so you’re always supported!
We’ve got a great range of rewards including Strike Team ($150) where you get all four factions, a heap of scenery sprues, game mat, Rulebook and loads more besides!

Not only this but we’ve created a number of limited edition “Early Bird” specials just for you guys allowing you to get Strike Team at a reduced rate – a little thank you from us for getting in early!

Those of you who supported the DreadBall and Kings of War Kickstarters – of which DreadBall Season 2 is now shipping and the second wave of Kings of War miniatures are in tooling and have been nearly completed - know that we pack our rewards full of goodies and this Kickstarter will not be any different. If we can surpass our goal then Recon and Strike Team will be getting very tasty indeed!

We hope that together we can make the best miniatures skirmish game possible. Please pledge your support and spread the word - we appreciate any help we can get!

The sci-fi backdrop of Deadzone is brought to life using the new plastic modular Mantic Scenery Range adding a vertical dimension to your games and incredible customisation to your battlefield. No game need ever look the same!

In addition to the band new miniatures and stunning new scenery, the game also features a high quality Deadzone Rulebook, a grid-based gaming mat (removing the need for a tape measure and speeding up core gameplay mechanics like movement and line of sight!), Faction Card Decks, Dice and Counters – all packed in a beautiful high-quality box!