A mousterious package arrives...

So this package landed on my doorstep. Or in my mailbox, but you get the meaning.

Nice little Thank you sticker inside the lid, and lots of bubble wrap! Weeee!

It turned out to be that Oathsworn Burrows and Badgers kickstarter I backed. Oathsworn did a royal screw-up and delivered all the stuff one month before the planned completion date. Those guys must be amateurs. (Real pros like Flying Frog Production let their customers wait more than three years for their stuff.)

But what's inside?

Mantic actually delivers!

Well, I suppose I owe Mantic Games an apology, as I got a package from them recently.

I got stuff, I got stuff!!!

But first a little digression.

I backed their The Walking Dead: All Out War kickstarter this spring. Right after backing I received the stuff from their Deadzone 2 kickstarter from last year and was very disappointed. My main critique against Mantic's kickstarters have always been two-fold.

Battle of Britain on Kickstarter

Hi gang, just a quick one, I'm supposed to be on vacation.

PSC Games is doing a kickstarter campaign for a re-release of Richard Borg's classic Battle of Britain boardgame. With updated rules and new funky plastic planes in 1/300 scale this looks like a winner.

Box mock-up

Spitfire model render

Heinkel 111 render

The campaign is already funded and we are currently hunting a lot of stretch goals. There is also the opportunity of buying extra planes as add-ons to use in Bag the Hun or similar dogfight games.

In case you are not interested in funding the kickstarter but think it's a nice idea, please go to Boardgame Geek and become a fan of the game (by clicking on the little heart icon) -- one of the stretch goals is bound to the number of fans on Boardgame Geek, and we are ever so close now. 

Pretty please with sugar on top?

Kickstarter loot! W00t!

The thing with kickstarters is that when they arrive you hardly remember what you ordered or even what kickstarter you backed! I do know some big campaigns have longer production times and some kickstarters get delayed, but it's starting to get to the point where every little scrap you get feels like a victory! I'm looking at you, Shadows of Brimstone with your "Wave 1.5 shipping" shenanigans.

It's almost like opening christmas presents, except you know it's not socks.

Well, a package slip arrived a couple of days a go but I didn't have time to pick up the parcel until saturday. So, what is in it?

Horizon Wars and Polyversal stuff

Inspired by pictures in the Horizon Wars rulebook I decided to try out some of the new 6mm companies out there. Well, new since I last played any 6mm S/F game at least.

First I jumped onboard an order my mates Håkan and Mats placed to Vanguard Miniatures, sampling a couple of different ranges they carry. I ordered some vehicles and walkers from the Defeat in Detail range.

Top: Novan Scout buggies: Bottom Cybershadows Warcrabs.

I ordered some acrylic explosions and an MDF landing pad as well, but I don't have any good pictures of them yet.

In Horizon Wars the crabs will be P1 Mechs and the scout buggies will be Light Cavalry and Recon.

Size comparison with an EM-4 Mech

I then also placed a small order from Brigade Models to try out their stuff. I chose units from the Pacific Federation and the South African Confederation factions, because they looked very distinct from eachother. The PacFed uses gravtanks while the SAC uses lots of wheeled vehicles. I also ordered generic powered armour infantry.

PacFed infantry, 24 models, 6 diffrerent poses.

Power Armour infantry, 24 models, four different poses.

PacFed Cougar gravtank, Tanami SPG and Kakadu Rocket Artillery

SAC Wildebeest APC's. The middle has an AA turret and will function as a HQ element.

A closer shot of the Wildebeests.

If you compare the Defeat in Detail miniatures with the Brigade Models stuff, Defeat in Detail has more detailed sculpts. Yet I'm not sure that's a good thing, since it's 6mm after all and I want the models to be quick to paint. Lots of details will take more time. On the other hand, good relief will take washes better so it's a fine line to walk. But if we look at the wheels for example, I thought the Brigade Models APC's looked a bit boring with their smooth tires, but then I realised that at this scale you shouldn't be able to pick out any thread details. The scout cars also has a finely sculpted rear door with hinges and locks and stuff, but they are attached to the sprue right on that door, making it impossible to cut them loose from the sprue without damaging the details on the door.

Size comparisons. The Tamami gravtank is on a 40mm base, while the Warcrab is on a 60mm base!

By coincidence, right after I placed these orders the new Polyversal Kickstarter came live, and one of the battlegroups featured in the Kickstarter game uses models from the PacFed faction, but not any of the ones I ordered. The powered infantry is the same though, but that's ok, I was probably going to order more someday anyway.

One of the battlegroups in the Polyversal Kickstarter. Anything look familiar?

 Furthermore, a couple of freebies exclusive to the kickstarter are small walkers not yet relased from Brigade Models, and a Spaceport terrain piece that will go along nicely with the landing pad I ordered... it's almost as if I'm psychic.

A nice big chunk of resin... excellent. Looks big enough to hide a mech behind too!

I'm glad to say the kickstarter has funded now, so I will be able to slot those models right into my existing collection when they arrive sometime next year. (And if I don't like the game I can use the miniatures for Horizon Wars.)

Go check it out if you haven't done so yet, at the time of writing it's eight days left so plenty of time to throw some money at it. What are you waiting for?

Heroines in Sensible Shoes review

Ok, so this is the second kickstarter from Oathsworn I pledged to, and boy do they not know how to run a kickstarter.

• They included an extra figure and a resin Dragon's nest as a "Thank You" to the backers -- not a stretch goal, but just as extras. Ok, functionally it's the same as a stretch goal but they didn't have to include them since they never said "Everyone gets extra stuff when we reach so and so much money."
• Despite the extra stuff included I recieved my pledge in time. Unacceptable. The first time they were a month late, even that was ridiculous. It's simply not how Kickstarters are done.
• The figures looked exactly like the pictures we were shown during the kickstarter. No change of design, no change of material. Surprise!
• Clear communications during the casting and sending out processes so everyone knew what was going on.

I'm joking of course, but it's refreshing to see a company using Kickstarter as it was originally intended and then actually delivering what was promised and on time.

For those of you who don't know what it's all about the figures are depicting female adventurers wearing sensible and practical adventuring gear. No chainmail bikinis, no high heeled boots, no slashed dresses revealing shapely thighs... just what women would wear if they had to go explore a dungeon and fight monsters. I don't want to make this into a feminist debate, but the thing is that these figures are needed. Have you ever roleplayed with a bunch of your male friends and suddenly a girl wants to join? Yay, you think! Awesome! But the only female figures you have are a half-naked barbarian and an evil elf sorcess with high heels striking that Angelina Jolie at the Oscars 2012 pose?

Yes that pose.

Sure, I like a bit of eye-candy. But there has to be ordinary figures too. And there are, they are coming, but those cheese-cake pin-up models are still the majority of female figures out there. So the Oathsworn Heroines in Sensible Shoes kickstarter was very welcome and fills a niche that's not yet full. Which about a 1000 backers also thought, as they backed the project. Compare that to their earlier kickstarters which gathered the interests of about 300 backers at most -- 207 for the Dwarf Brewers that I backed previously.

Enough soap-boxing, on to the miniatures.

Basius 2 review

Another Kickstarter pledge that finally arrived. Kickstarter is a bit like getting Christmas or birthday presents -- sometimes it takes so long that you have forgot that you backed the project in the first place. Even if you do remember you are not sure exactly what you plegdged for, how much money did you sink into the project and what options did you finally choose? Exactly like opening Christmas presents, you sort of know what you wished for but not exactly what you are getting. And since it was so long ago that you paid for your pledge, it feels like you are getting the stuff for free...

"BASIUS 2 - Deluxe Miniature Wargame Base Stamp Pad System" is the full name, and as it implies it's a sort of stamp that you can use to imprint a detailed texture onto a base using green stuff. It sounds more complicated than it is, at least in theory. The Stamps themselves are big chunky squares of resin, textured on both sides.

The two pads used to impress the texture. As you can tell by my glasses in the picture they are big.

Kickstarter report

Hi gang!

Last year was a crazy year, crowdfunding-wise. I pledged on a bunch of kickstarters, both on Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Well, stuff are starting to drop in. It began last year with Shadows of Brimstone, which I have covered in a previous post.

Cowboys, tentacles and strange glowing rocks, what's not to like?

I also funded the Oathsworn Miniatures' dwarf brewers kickstarter. I got all the minis already but I haven't been in the mood to paint them or review them on the blog yet. The sculpting is good and delivery was on time, so keep an eye out for future kickstarters from Oathsworn Miniatures. Oh, and you can order the brewers from their website if you missed the kickstarter. Hint, hint, Jocke.

"The beautiful, colourful, mathematical game" according to the box.

I also funded Prime Climb, an educational math game which I thought was going to make an excellent christmas gift for my kids, he he... Well, it just recently arrived much too late for Christmas but the kids like it, maybe they will learn something eventually too.

But what of the future?

Shadows of Brimstone unboxing and first look.

So on Wednesday the mailman had tried to drop something off at my place when I wasn't at home. He left a note saying I could get it at the local post office the day after on thursday. Strange, I hadn't ordered anything large, or had I? I did some thinking and thought that maybe... just maybe it could be my Shadows of Brimstone kickstarter finally being delivered. (If you have no idea what Shadows of Brimstone is about, in short it's a co-operative dungeon crawl boardgame, with a cross-over Wild West and Cthulhu theme. If you follow the link you can watch the nice intro video, then come back here.)

Maybe "S...ws B...stone... C... of the Ancients" could be a clue?

Come Thursday I rushed home from work (after picking up my wife at her work, shopping some winter clothes for the kids, shopping food for me and wifey) to get the package. It was BIG and HEAVY.

Still can't really make out the text...

And yes it was the first delivery from Flying Frog Productions! Would the games be as good and as shiney as the kickstarter promised? Click to see more, but beware, lots of pictures after the break.

Kickstarter thoughts, part 2

I'm continuing a post from yesterday about kickstarters. I will talk a lot about the Mars Attacks kickstarter from Mantic games in this post, but if you want the background then read my previous post here.

Mars Attacks! This picture is what initially attracted me to the Kickstarter campaign.

For those who haven't heard about it, Mars Attacks - The Miniatures Game is based on the classic Topps trading cards. It's not based on the Tim Burton movie by the same name, rather it's the movie that's based on the trading cards as well. So while the Martians look the same, don't expect to see miniature versions of the movie characters. I love the movie and the miniatures look awesome, so I jumped on it immediately, thinking that if the game was crap I could use other rulesets for the miniatures, and the terrain and human heroes could do service in zombie games too.

Brandy, Buddy and Joe, ready to kick Martian butt. Or zombies.

I was lucky and bagged an "Early Bird" pledge, meaning my $100 level would only cost $90. This would net me the boxed game and $50 worth of "add-ons". So what are they, you wonder? Well, it's a bit sketchy, and I will come to that in a little while, but basically you get free credits to add stuff to your game. If I had pledged for the $150 level I would have recieved the game and $125 worth of stuff to add. I didn't see any reason to pledge that high as the only thing available then was extra figures and extra terrain sets for $20 and $25 respectively.

Everything included in the base game, so far. I think. It's not very clear.

What about stretch goals? I hear you cry. Well, when the campaign started, and through-out, we have been kept in the dark. We only know WHEN a stretch goal will be reached, not exactly what it is. Early on Mantic released some teasers in form of a free comic that you could download. It featured lots of stuff like Giant Stompy Robots, a Mad Scientist on a Giant Flee (yuck!), Giant Insectoids, Martian Special Troops and what-not. So when the first stretch goal was reached everyone was on their toes, eager to see what it would be. It was... *drum roll* 6 exclusive Topps trading cards. Say what??? And they weren't even included free with the pledges, you had to spend extra credits to get them. Mantic defended themselves saying that not everyone would want trading cards, so including them in the game wasn't fair, selling them extra was better, that way only those who wanted them would have to pay (or use credits) would get them. Fair enough. At the same time they announced the next stretch goal, which would be an upgrade to the boxed set. A fourth hero would be added, free of charge to all core sets regardless of pledge level.

Nice Creepy-Crawly. Too bad nobody knows when he's arriving...

This brings up the question about add-ons and stretch goals. There are three kinds of stretch goals. The first is called Upgrades. These upgrade the boxed set with extra figures or terrain or similar. Nothing complicated, they do what they sound like. The second kind of stretch goal is called Add-ons. They have to be bought either with extra money or the credit included in your pledge, and include stuff like more figures, or more terrain and what-not. The third kind is called Pledge Boosters. They include stuff that Mantic does not produce themselves, so have to be added using real money. They are not included in any pledge levels and they can't be bought with credits included in the pledge levels. Examples are a comic book, Mars Attacks themed memory sticks and terrain items made for Mantic by Antenociti's Workshop. Confused yet? As the icing on the cake, some of the "Upgrade" stretch goals don't upgrade the basic game, but instead they upgrade an add-on...  Confusing as hell, and I think it's a bit cheating to upgrade expansions that you have to pay extra for.

Overpriced USB Sticks and T-shirts? For extra money? How is this a stretch goal?

So, besides the confusion over exactly what would be in the game, when certain thing would become unlocked, I feel a bit cheated by all the add-ons revealed about half-way through the campaign. Elite Martian troops, new scenery, Flying Saucers, gun-trucks and a deluxe gaming mat. Had I known about those things beforehand I could better have calculated how much to pledge. As it stands now I want extra stuff for about $70, which means I have to add $20 to my pledge. What I'm thinking of is extra terrain pieces, the deluxe mat, and some extra heroes (I want that giant flea). Personally I think the deluxe mat is essential as the paper mat included in the game will not stand up to much abuse.

However, adding $50 at the beginning would have bagged me $125 worth of credit which I could use to buy lots of terrain and four mats, turning the board game into a fully fledged miniatures game. Now, since all the Early Bird pledges are gone I need to raise my pledge at least $60, which is no big deal moneywise, but I do feel cheated of the reward for pledging early. Somewhere along the line Mantic also added a $75 pledge level which would get you only the core game and no extra credits in response to backers not wishing to buy extra stuff. But the thing is, the main complaint about the game is that you don't know exactly how much is needed to get a good scenario from it. From the beginning the core set would have 8 human soldiers, 10 martian soldiers, 3 heroes and 1 martian general, as well as some terrain. A lot of the backers (me included) was planning to get some more terrain and a few extra figures for our credits. Now the core set contains 10 human soldiers, 20 martian soldiers, 9 heroes and 1 martian general. So what is needed for the scenarios included? Do we need extra heroes? Human soldiers? What?

What the hell Mantic? A stretch goal only useful to some backers?

Furthermore, some of the tasty stretch goals hinted at the beginning -- Giant Bugs -- haven't been unlocked yet. Instead we have got stuff like a Martian Dreadball team, a crossover with Deadzone featuring an Alien hunter character and card decks for humans and martians, sprung from nowhere. That would be like GW including a Genestealer Blood Bowl Team in Space Hulk! With just five days left this could be a disaster. I think people feel cheated by the way Mantic has set up the stretch goals. Personally I feel like they are trying to lure people to spend more money, drawing them in not just to unlock a stretch goal, but to reveal that sweet upgrade that's never coming. In a desperate last minute response, Mantic has stated that the Giant Bugs will be included in the next stretch goal -- if the total reaches $500.000 -- despite the bugs earlier slated for the stretch goal AFTER half a million. However I think people that wanted the bugs already have given up as some backers are starting to cancel.

This is what we want! Hear that Mantic?

The number of backers has dropped from 2509 yesterday to 2480 right now. So, 29 has left, big deal you say. But the amount pledged has at the same time dropped some 10.000 dollars. This means that not only are backers dropping out, the ones that are left are lowering their pledges -- at a guess I would say people are dropping from $150 (or more) down to the $100 level or just the basic game at $75. (And while writing this paragraph I saw the number of backers tick down to 2479 before my eyes.) As one backer stated: "If I pay $150 for a boardgame I expect all components to be miniatures, not tokens or cardboard markers." This was prompted by the fact that some of the pieces (like a flying car) would be Pledge Boosters, not upgrades, meaning backers have to pay extra for them. Mantic responded by suggesting a $225 level which would include the base game and all 3D terrain extras like burning cattle, crashed cars, piles of bodies and more, but not including any extra credits. So that's $225 for a pretty but basic board game with miniatures. That's not cheap. And yes, I get it, we are funding the development of the game. Except we are not, since Mantic always run their kickstarters like giant pre-ordering systems for games they would be doing anyway.

So where am I getting with all this? I don't know. I think the game will rock, the miniatures look awesome. But the devious kickstarter with many meaningless goals has left a sour after-taste. Combine that with the hit-and-miss experience I have had with other crowdfunding campaigns and I think I will wait a long time before supporting another project. I will at least see this one out as I do want the game. I hope that Mantic learns a lesson and do not bite over too much in their next project. So what do you think?

Kickstarter thoughts and a giveaway heads up

First I want to mention a splendid giveaway over at Loki's Great Hall. Andrew is celebrating 200 followers, and you have until 6 pm today (5th of november) to sign up.

You can win this figure!!!

Second, I want to talk a bit about kickstarter and other crowd funding campaigns. This will be a bit of a rant though, be be warned.

Kickstarter frenzy, sponsorship and give-away

A bit of mixed bag today. Let's get the elephant in the room done with first.

Some of you might have noticed that I have a banner for Wayland Games now -- it should be visible on the left, please let me know if it doesn't show. This is simply a click-through to try and generate some hobby money for me. The way it works is if someone places an order with Wayland by going through the link here on my blog, I get a small percentage as a kick-back. So if you are going to order from Wayland, please consider going there through my link. Besides, I do shop from Wayland Games myself and am very happy with their service and goods. They have Games Workshop, Fantasy Flight Games, Vallejo... ok, I'll stop the sales pitch. But they are really good. Did I mention they have X-wing?



Yeah, ok, that was the last one in this post. I promise.

So, Kickstarter next. There's a ton of interesting Kickstarters out there, and I wish I could have supported them all. The most interesting is the Winter War project from Baker Company. They are doing 28mm figures for the Finnish-Soviet Winter War in 1939, which as far as I know is a first in this scale. There's three days left and they have blown past their goal by a mile, meaning you get an awful lot of stretch goals. For one platoon you need to pledge £60 but you will get more than double that amount's worth. Just take a look at the graphic on the right. There's just three days left, so hurry up and pledge now! Sadly I do not have any splash money right now, so I will have to sit this one out. Two of my mates are supporting it though, so I look forward to playing with their toys. (Hi Thomas and Jocke!)

A spanking brand new kickstarter that I have pledged to is the Mars Attacks! kickstarter from Mantic Games. It is based not on the Tim Burton film by the same name, but on the Topps trading cards that the film was also based on. It started today and achieved funding in about 90 minutes, currently it's on about $168.000 with a $50.000 goal, so it will be produced and there will be stretch goals. The question is how high will it go? $100 is the minimum pledge to give you the game with miniatures, board and some add-ons, although you can pledge for just a digital rulebook should you wish. The game includes martian and human soldiers as well as a couple of civilan survivors and the evil Martian General Tor, and some nifty looking brick ruins which I bet will find their way into various zombie games.

"Nak! Nak! Nak!" Although the crater is not included, the brick ruins and the martians are from the game.

Lastly, this is my 195th post. I missed celebrating my 100th post simply because I didn't think I had written that many, but I'm thinking of having something of a give-away when I reach 200. I have too much crap anyway, might as well shift some of the lead mountain on someone else.

So watch this space.

Heroes of Normandie

Just a quick note. I noticed this project on Kickstarter and I have backed it. It sounds good, looks like a ton of fun and tactical enough: Heroes of Normandie.

According to the project page it's "A game of heroic tactical warfare inspired by Hollywood world war II movies (with blood, guts and devil pigs...)." The project team is French, btw.

I have no affiliation with the kickstarter or company, other than I'm a backer and if a lot of you out there also back it, I will get more goodies in my box due to the stretch goals. You can pledge as low as £45 (plus postage) for the basic game and you will still get some of the stretch goals. As always with Kickstarter you are not charged any money until the project ends, which is on saturday april 27th.

So go pledge now: Heroes of Normandy.