It’s time for war!

Thanks to everyone for the feedback on Friday’s blog post. Moving Deadzone back to early next year seems to be the popular choice and there were some great recommendations for new factions. We’ll have some chats here at the bunker and work up some ideas and drawings.

We also have confirmation that DBX is on the sea and on the way to us. I flew in a copy of the box and a couple of the minis to take with me to Crisis this weekend. It is all looking spot on, particularly the plastics. I will have a ‘DreadBall – the future of the sports game of the future’ (what a mouthful!) blog post in a couple of weeks, but those of you that backed this will have some lovely toys with you in a few weeks’ time!

The above is one half of the scenery you’ll get in DreadBall Xtreme.

As I said last time, pushing Deadzone back has implications for Kings of War – there are already a couple of the campaign books (with army lists and rules in them) that are out of print and this is causing concern (rightly so). These have been OOP for a while. I have a number of European (and South American!) distributors all very keen on translating Kings of War into their own language. I don’t really want them to translate the old version, only to see it superseded within a few months – and I am not sure you’d be ok with the translations being the new version and you still being over a year away from print!

We are now running short of the hardback rulebook and the two-player set as well. If the Kickstarter goes after Deadzone it will not come in before the end of 2015 and I think that’s just too late.

Alessio and a team of KoW fanatics have been working for the last 3 months on updating the rules. By combining a refreshed rule set with a far more complete background and all the army lists – updated with new units and rebalanced – then putting all of it in one book and I think and we have the foundations of a fantastic 2nd edition.

Big Armies, Big Battles

I know Kickstarters have the potential to become a burden, and I am aware of this.

So did I consider just pre-releasing the 2nd Edition of KoW? Yes, I thought long and hard about it. But I think our fans have come to expect the amazing. Piles of plastics at great prices and any extra cash we generate being spent on new models to support their game, and more cool expansion books and background. If I put it up for pre-release we both lose the urgency that makes us get on and get things made and a deadline that sees it released soon.

I think it also undervalues just how much Kickstarter brings to the party. Over ½ the money we raise in any campaign now comes from people who have never backed a Mantic kickstarter before. I think there are a growing number of gamers in the world who are looking for a reasonably priced, well-made, fantasy Tabletop war game. We have that in KoW, but from the discussions I’ve had everyone who plays it thinks the rulebook needs both a freshen up, and for everything to be in one place. I think it also needs some publicity – a well-run campaign that raises its modest funding goal and goes past it, and allows us to get a new edition out in 2015 in 4 languages will do that.

That said, I am aware it is coming up to the time of year when our hobby money goes elsewhere, and while the argument for a Kickstarter is overwhelming, that doesn’t help the wallet!

We’ll have a low buy in pledge. It will get you a hard cover book, with rules, lots of background about the world and the armies and updated army lists. This would be a limited edition print. You also get the battle book – a soft cover book (it will come with just the army lists and rules) for taking with you to games nights and tournaments. If you just want the book, or to pay after Christmas just drop in a dollar and pick up what you want in the survey. Finally I would open a pledge for new players that gives them the rules pledge and an army to get going with it would also be a handy way for existing players the opportunity to start a new army, (or an Abyssal one 🙂 )

The funding goal would be relatively low for just the book and we would only open the kickstarter for a couple of weeks, but we’d leave the pledge manager open well into the new year so everyone has as long as they need to get themselves sorted – and we’d use that time to keep the total going up and use the funds for tooling new miniatures if we overshoot the goal.

This means you get the new 2nd Edition Hardback Kings of War rulebook printed and into your hands mid-2015. Mantic will have 3 months focusing on this game, with the new rules, ahead of the release of Dungeon Saga too. And as always any funds we raise goes directly in to making the Kings of War universe better, through more background and new miniatures. The translated versions will be using the same rules as the English version, allowing international tournaments and cross border play from the outset. It also cleans up the printed range and puts everything in one place!

And IF you want it, and by that I mean if you run around with your arms above your head yelling ‘more, I want more’ and we sprint past the funding level we need for the book and some cool extra bits then I will use the extra funds to fill in some of the gaps in the existing armies and to tool the Abyssal army for Kings of War (which we’ve already sculpted most of). We would still keep the pledge manager open so you could add them on anytime too.

We intend to start the campaign next week and end it right at the start of December – as you can see it is a mini-kick in every sense of the word!

Let us have your ideas for what we should add to the plan below and we will try and get them made!