Hi,

I have just popped on to give everyone a quick update of what we have been working on and what’s happening in the Mantic bunker right now. Internally we are all hunkered down working on getting all the fantastic new product ready for summer. We are tying up all the loose ends for Dreadball and getting KoW and Dungeon Saga into states of pure beauty! Outwardly we are in the middle of Martians making a mess of Earth with a big stompy robot and the World War book – that allows you to take customised armies of marines and Martians and have at it on a battlefield near you.

The end of 2014 and early 2015 saw us shipping the last of the Mars Attacks Kickstarter, wave 2 of Dreadball Xtreme and hard plastic Enforcers and Peacekeepers – the final bits of Deadzone 1. We have recruited Rich to help Dave out on customer service and we are now at the bottom of all the various inboxes and missing items – except for the few unfortunate people whose postmen clearly love Mantic product and despite repeated shippings we have not been able to get it there!!

This means that for the next few months we can spend our customer service time sharing hobby activity, sorting out all those things we have been promising for a while – like a site that manages Dreadball rankings, and some assembly guides, Dave’s hobby tips and other useful hobby info. We also feel our hobby stores need some love and we are working a few retailer exclusives especially for them, and we are looking to move to new releases for each gaming system every month or two, rather than the big occasional waves as we have them now.

Otherwise, we have been working very hard on getting everything ready for the grand shipping events unfolding in a couple of months’ time.

In mid-May we will have a week of reveals, gossip, toys and surprises. The studio have been producing some incredible product and we will have day after day of exclusives, competitions, and sneak peeks. We will try and get over to those splendid chaps at Beast of War so we can get some videos done too.

That will be kicking off right after the Open Day – so those of you that cannot be there will still get the inside track. (p.s. if you are anywhere close to Nottingham on Saturday 16th May come and see us – tickets can be found here and get at least double the ticket value back as store credit!!) Details here.

The pages of Dungeon Saga are being laid out as we speak and sent over to the printers. The tiles are already there, as are the Character sheets. We have also seen the test shots of the game plastics – and I think you’ll love what you see. We are just getting them photographed and will share them with you (along with the printed material). The studio are working long, long hours (and we have many talented extra people working on the layout too) so that you’ll be seeing Dungeon Saga (unless there are any horrible issues) as originally forecast in August.

Dungeon Saga will be sandwiched between our Kings of War second edition – an updated version of our very popular fantasy wargame. Again we have received massive help from the community – this time not just in the form of funding but also via the rules committee, who have worked with Alessio through every stage of the redevelopment to create a slicker, more balanced rules set that not just stays true to the original game design but in fact even builds closer to it. If mass battles of fantasy armies is your bag then this is the summer for you!

To tie both these games together we will be designing a campaign book that starts where Dungeon Saga ends – with Mortibris launching his attack on the empire of Basilea, the Elves and the Dwarfs. Once the book comes out we will run a website with updates on what’s happening and space for you to enter the results of your games – with victories for either the forces of good, or the evil hordes. The results will all be tracked and the outcome will shape the Mantica map permanently. If you want to have a say in the development of the world start building your army soon – I am still working on my dwarfs 4 years after they were released!

The beta rules are up if you need guidance to unit composition but any of our existing army deals will form the core of any force. If you need inspiration watch out for the 4 gamers here at work who are all starting new armies ready for a summer of War!

Ok, now I am Nottingham based for a while – and no KS distractions – we can get back to some good old fashioned hobby time – and the usual leaks, so watch out for more in the coming weeks.

Thanks for reading,

Ronnie