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Using Mantic Armies for Warhammer
July 16, 2010 by lloyd
Ok people if you haven't seen any of the Mantic miniatures then you are truly an Ostrich! They have been hard at work on their ever expanding range and might I say this company is one of my absolute favourites. The minis look good, they’re cost effective and easy to build.
I’ll fess up when it comes to modeling minis I hate the time it can take to pull a regiment together but Mantic minis are easy to build so you can pull a regiment together really quickly that still looks fantastic, in-fact here’s a skeleton regiment being built in about 11 or 12 minutes.
Anyway to the point, we think they make a great set of alternative models for playing Warhammer so John and Darrell have a look to see how easy and cost effective it would be to use them as Warhammer Fantasy army!
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Nice, these are pretty good models, and the unit sizes are nice, gw has done it so you have to buy two or three boxes of the same unit to get a even amount. Sneaky!
is mantic going to come out with their own game system? they should.
Mantic’s latest “Whats in the box” suggests so. In the background it shows a hint of a possible game system.
If horses are from Mars, noblars are from Uranus. You could buy boxes of 16 from GW at one time, I know cause I got a box of 16 Orks. But they stopped -_-
Good models in good numbers in good boxes at a good price. Mantic, your doin’ it right!
And I hate the exclusivity in GW nowadays. If someone said to me “you can’t use that, it’s not the official kit”, he’d soon have a lot of official kits being thrown at him. And the shelves they happened to be on.
and you spelt ostrich wrong ^.^
I want Mantic Orcs SO BADLY!
I contacted Mantic last week asking if they had plans for zombies and in fact they DO!
This is the reply I got.
“Hey,
Zombies are coming. Lots of them 😉
September is looking suitably braindead, are we will be having some pretty big sets full of zombies. Dwarfs first though I’m afraid, but watch out for Zombie week coming, it’s going to be pretty fantastic.
Thanks”
So look forwards to lots of zombies in 2 months time (hopefully) 😀
I cant wait to see the hole line of dwarfs from mantic, they seem to be making much better models them GW.
I seriously hate walking into Games Workshop and getting pounced on “What army do you collect?”, “How many points is it worth?”, “Want to come to any clubs?”, “Why don’t you try buy this one *points to most expensive box on shelf* – I’ve already got one – Ah well you can always get more.” and so on and so forth, then if you say you’re fine by yourself, they give you a dirty look and storm off… atleast that’s what it’s like at my local store… Tis why i buy online or off ebay nowadays XD
GW employees get paid 13 k on avg a year, they an earn up to 21k with bonues based on their store, The more money their store makes the more Wages they get, and you have to see in this work now 13k is not alot :S so you would wnat to get that extra bit of money to feed mouths.
But i do agree i felt like i got mugged 🙁 i walked in the shop jus to look at the codex for warriors of choas and walked out with£18.50 less , and then saw the FREE PDF for it on the gw website *face palm* I under stand them doing it to new faces, but when you are the same person it is just like….. beep offf , m8 i ent got the cash .
For really good deals go here
http://www.darksphere.co.uk/
Yes, Darksphere do the best deals for GW products in the UK. And I always look online for what I can and buying the official codex if I can’t find it online and whatnot
to the defence of my local GW: the satff there are very good with me. we stand and chat and debate a lot. It was a lot different before they got their current manager who is a total star.
I have been to other GW’s where it was literally dodging sales pitches
Aye my Gw is like that, untill their main manager comes in, they will sit and talk about other gaming systems, chats about football, movies ,history, which tank would win in a battle, ect, as soon as that manager steps in the door it is ” if you are not talking about gw products then you can leave this is not a social site” erm…. is that not what the game is about? being social?
I am going down to warhammer world in novemember for a game i am hosting, I think i will take my great coats down their just to say a big stuff you to gw 🙂 maybe some mantic if i can afford them! even darksword minitures as my heroes…. plans many plans unfolding MUAHHAHAH. Hope when i be come a gw employee i do not get like that=(
Don’t do it, it’s a Trap! They will brainwash you to believe that GW is the only miniature company in the world. I was thinking about working there, but they suck so hard. Plus the pay is better at my local supermarket.
I really want to see more dwarfs from Mantic. I may actually find a better alternative for my Hammerers
I’ve been recently thinking of getting into Warhammer Fantasy and Elves were a possible starter army for me, so I may well go with Mantic and save some money (when I get round to it).
GW may end up having to re-look at their pricing/manufacturing policies if they continue to be undercut this way, and at no reduction in quality it seems.
High Elves will be in the Isle of Blood Starter box (there’s unofficial pictures out today on the GW “black box” contents of the new starter box high elves) but then you do get the box full worth of high elves and then the worth again of skavens (which you can switch with some one else or sell online I guess). Think it’ll be out in September? Heard a few rumblings about GW and that they will change their future priceing tactics (but, who knows for sure).
Thanks, I’ve just looked at those pictures and they do indeed look pretty awesome – although in terms of building a proper higher-point army I’d still need to fork out a lot for the extra GW figures.
In terms of tentatively getting into the hobby, I’ll need to decide if I like the Mantic elves enough – compared to the new GW range – since I still think it would work out a lot cheaper than GWStarter+extras.
I know what you mean about forceful GW employees, I was in the other day and felt like if I didn’t buy anything I’d look a complete bastard. I man’d up and left and bought what I needed and half the cost else where
Is that a large SM statue I spy on top of the display stand to the left?
Excellent ! Its about time games workshop had some good competition…
@manuscelerdei @arkantos117 I know what you mean there. Luckily my local store guy is not one of those guys. The shop isn’t a GW, it’s just a small games shop with Warhammer supplies, so he knows how expensive it is. He also knows me because I’m a regular there so he never pressures me and I usually end up buying more because of it.
I really don’t like the GW dwarf models, they have put me off ever doing dwarfs but the ones Mantic are coming out with look great so far. I can’t wait to see the rest they come out with in that line, I’m going to buy a few dwarfs anyway I think but I’d love to be able to do a whole army with them.
Hmm, i like the original Dark Elf Bolt Thrower, but that Dragon looks nice. I might have to look into that.
Another Company where you can get really awesome Models for Warhammer is Gamezone.
Gamezone, some beautiful Orc Boars and other great minis. Bit bummed that they’re all metal though (getting spoiled with all the plastics now a days).
let’s be honest, a fantasy world without undead and/or elves wouldn’t be one ,
undead are just awesome, and elves…. well dwarves need someone to hate,
but let’s put that aside, Mantic Games miniatures are soooooo nice, I don’t like elves but the Mantic ones atleast LOOK like elves are supposed to, it’s the same with dwarves,
and Johns damn right about the Undead range being great, the cavalry units are a bit expensive but look A. super and B. are still cheaper then the GW ones,
and yeah the Mantic range is about 30% cheaper, especially the deals are pretty nice
I only started with Warhammer Fantasy now, because of the very cool manticundead. I fell in love with them and so i bought the army deal last month 😉 I will use them as vampirecounts and iam looking forward to my first games at the 8th Edition.
greetings
Canislupus
About playing mantic figures: Yes, I would like to play against an army, but would prefer if it was using only Mantic or only GW miniatures, since the elves and the dwarfs at least don’t seem to match up. I actually thought about starting a dwarf army with mantic releasing them, but the models were a huge disappoitment. They look hunchbacked, their rifles and crossbows appear ugly, though the heroes and the warmachines seem fine. Currently the greatest range seems to be the undead, though thinking as a warhammer player, VC don’t have any stone throwers that I know of… Wonder if I could use those catapults as bretonnian trebuchets…
But thats just my two cents. Hope the next army will be either humans or orcs!
But dwarfs have always been based on grumpy little old men ? who drank to much and loved a fight? I think they are a much better image of a dwarf then gw, though i like the gw minis more then the mantic dwarfs i feel that i could use them very easly as a choas dwarf unit. This role would suit these minis more.
I wonder how hard it would be to make the catapults into corpse carts
also, you had the flail wraith with the elves lolz
Actually, they put the female Necromancer with the elves as well 😛
Neptune (posiden) gave us horses, not Mars! come on guys, you should now you roman mythology 😛 if i remember correctly, the reason GW has boxes of 16 is because they back in 6th edition a rank used to be 4 models wide, not 5. so the boxes of 16 were good for the time they came out, but now they are just stupid!
i love these mantic models! i hope they start to make orcs and goblins for us orc players!
While I’m hoping for Skaven 😉 but part of me doubts they ever will 🙁
Don’t feel too bad I’m hoping for Lizardmen.
Back in the 5ed there were metal parts for the CG and movement trays. In the 6ed GW dropped it and they also increased their prices. Then, came 7th ed and new rules for rank bonus so the players needed more models. What did GW do? Repacked the models to 10 and 5mand boxes (Greatswords as an example) and told (lied) that it will be cheaper to buy the minis. But it’s easy to see that 10man metal GS is (was) way cheaper than 2x5man metal GS boxes (and a hell lot cheaper than the plastic Goldswords boxes)
Thanks God we have eBay, Allegro, Mantic, Maelstrom and others!
Regards
Maybe now they will bring out boxes of 20 with new releases?
As I was looking to start up a dwarf army after a long stay away from fantasy, I saw Mantic’s name on your website and went over to have a look…
I am in love.. They look awesome, the cost is perfect, and I can’t wait to see the rest of the range.
Though my one gripe is.. the Dwarf Cannons.. they are… they are on the annorexic side I feel. They should be big and ornate death spewers, not something that looks like it was taking out tanks in ww2, the organ gun looks like a rack of pistols.. So I may be getting GW for those.
But other than that, the rest of it all looks awesome!
I think the Organ Gun looks great. Many small pistols would be the way it would be designed first, as a prototype idea, which is great.
The centre cannon, Ironbelcher I believe, I think, looks like a big rifle, so i’ll agree. It should carry huge slugs as big as a Dwarf, not rifle shots.
However, I do love the Rifles on the Ironwatch. It’s like, beyond the Blunderbuss step, beyond the rifle step, into the advanced rifle with sight and all. Looks pretty damned cool.
These are excellent models and it’s great to see some of the other guys getting air play/promotion. I was recently thinking about doing a Bretonnian force of large blocks of men at arms using Perry Miniatures’ War of the Roses infantry… lots of good models in 1 box and can be built up as Men at arms or archers… unfortunately limited selection but that’s where Mantic comes in don’t it. 😀
thanks for the vid guys I just went over to mantic and bought some of there skeletens for my VC’s 🙂
I hate to disagree with you guys, but I really am a fan of the big dragon models. I don’t own any but I’ve always wanted a High Elf army for the majestic dragons they can field.
To point to the fluff, in any of the Warhammer paintings of fantasy battles, the dragons are huge, gigantic creatures that dominate the battlefield. I love the Mantic line, but I keep thinking baby dragon every time I see that model.
I liked the video, but would have liked to have seen the two armies from different angles.
While I’m very familiar with Mantics models, since I already own them, however I believe newbies to Mantic would have benefited from some additional views of the two armies featured. In my opinion anyways. ; )
And for those interested in the upcoming zombies, there are some WIP pics of a 3up floating around. Check out the Mantic News and Rumour Roundup over in the Mantic Forum over at Warseer.
Darrell, why don’t you buy Forge World’s cavalry? This is the link:
This is the Thunderlord http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer/Warhammer_Monsters/OGRE-RHINOX-THUNDERLORD.html
And the “usuall” ….beasty thingy http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer/Warhammer_Monsters/OGRE-RHINOX-CAVALRY-1.html
http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer/Warhammer_Monsters/OGRE-RHINOX-CAVALRY-2.html
the dragon is awsome it is correct in size as they should be about 12 ft and a rivet ciunter is james from top gear there is a place for everything and everything is in its place
I agree that the GW dragons are a bit big, but for the sheer “OMFG KILL IT NOW” factor, it’s good. And I also thing the Mantic one is a bit small, but not by much.
Rivet counter… well, at least it’s original. Rather that than a nut counter.
I can’t find the undead cavalry in the mantic store?
Also do you always have to use Gw models in there tournaments?
tournament rules for GW events are basically: GW models must be used. In conversions 80% of the model must be of GW origin and under no circumstances can any lord of the rings models be used outside of the LoTR game due to copyrights and IP Protection by New Line Cinema
Which is a shame, about LotR, as there is probably the best looking Dorf miniatures you can get (even if the scale is off a bit). I’m not a big LotR fan but alot of the minis are just great.
Beasts of war, i love you for THIS video alone. THIS video has gotten me into wargaming. I have been into warhammer for a long time, but the thing is im a bit of a stickler for prices. compaired to GW Mantic is outstanding! and the range is beautiful!!! i just ordered the elves set just because of your video!!! thank you for not catering to only ONE company and presenting the hobby as a whole.
nice models, good prices – way to go Mantic!
I think what we’ve got to remember is that at the end of the day GW staff have got to make a living. But i do agree they are very pushy and the problem is my local stor is only about 10 fet long so you can’t escape them.
I’m a GW rent and i’m not afraid to sayI think we all are I like mantic but i wouldn’t use them for a whole armour. But before i get booed off let me explain i go to alot of tournaments so it’s not really possible for me to have a whole mantic army.
Plus hopefully now GW have got a competitior they make rethink there prices. GW woulod probably do better if they had monthly deals like 3 for 2 and things like that. We know wargaming isn’t a cheap hobby butthere starting to price themselves out of the market.
I’m a big fan of dwarves. But Mantic dwarves? Cheap they may be. But i would use them as a leprachaun army only. ;o)
The undead, on the other hand, look really nice!
All in all i don’t really like this video (i love BOW in general). Somehow, it has the flavour of an advertising video. If you compare the Mantic miniatures to the GW stuff and talk about the prices, you should talk about the quality and looks of both as well. So, put the GW stuff on the table and the Mantic stuff next to it and show the stuff in comparison. Then it would be much easier for the audience to compare both. True, you can alway look at some pictures, but a comparison on the table is just so much better.
As a guy who never really got into WHFB because of the ridiculous prices GW has, this is just… Fantastic. Their models are very cheap and look good so I’ll definately have to pick up some of their models I think 🙂
Empire players should, as mentioned look, at the Perry brothers (who did most of the earlier Empire minis, so if you miss that old multi part box of plastics you should be right at home) plastics and you Bretonnian players should probably mail spam them asking them about making a bit more regal knights (they have some but they might not fit the current style to well). Not to forget Avatars of War for your character needs (love Felix greenskins characters).Gamezone with some great undead minis (vampire knights, corpse cart, wolves), Greenskins (amazing orcs on boars, boar chariot and some crazy crazy goblins, just take a look at their bolt thrower, take a good look), Elves/Wood Elves (crazy dymanic poses on eagle riders and thinsg to use as wardancers), and more (the more recent stuff has some greatly improved sculpts to their earlier stuff).
A friend made his entire chaos army out of random barbarian and vinking minis he found from any company he just stumbled up on, it looked like a right proper unruly hord of savage scum (brought together in a some what coherent color scheme). It was awesome.
And never forget that you can play things as.. So your two Ogres are pulling around a giant arbalest that they load with big load of random arrows they’ve had their little gnoblars collect after the battle fields.. Easy to convert.. Play as Scraplauncha. Experiment and get creative!
I think GW have began to forget their own routes . They don’t realise the hobby is about doing what you like best not what you [GW] want people to like . The game is supposed to be fun thus who cares what models are used as long they work with the game system. Same with rules old rulebooks encourage improvisation. Still you only have to worry about GW tournaments as they will only chastise you for not having their product otherwise. Independent shouldn’t care if Mantic models are used.
Thanks a lot for another excellent video guys! The miniatures in this video are really amazing and I’d love to have some for vikings/barbarians in my Warriors of Chaos army since… the current box of Marauders is a bit naff.
The dragon might seem a bit small compared to the dragons from Games Workshop but I like it a lot more. It isn’t like those snake-like Dragons that has infested the Games Workshop armies, but it’s more like a real sturdy creature that actually looks strong. I like the size, much easier to transport and it is a lot cheaper as well.
Hope to see a lot more stuff from Mantic games because they sure as hell have made an amazing job with these!
looking awesome! although on the fence on what to buy lol. coincidentally wargames factory, the creators of the greatcoat shocktroops, have said to us they are also dipping into fantasy!
too much stuff for me to buy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTUAkqn_A7E&feature=related mantics bif stuff you to gw XD
Haha. To bad I’m not a fan of their sculpts (except some of the undead which are quite great looking). But I’m sure they’ll get beter with time.
went to my local gw with my wife not long after getting back in to the hobby. my wife come out saying she felt like we was being brainwashed. The member of staff there was so pushy. i could not belive it. i only shop online now.
Very nice vid, I agree with most that John and Darell said. I’m also sloooowly entering the world of FaBa (been collecting since 200..1. Or 3. Can’t remember anymore), since I’ve been mostly on the 40k side of the game untill now. I already have a nice start on Empire but I also intend to get some Elves, Dwarfs and maybe even Chaos (radiacal move, since I hate Chaos…but Malal is okay :p ), and the Mantic Games definately give an alternative to the GW models. And you can get almost three war hosts the price of one GW battalion.
Though I do have a problem with the Mantic dwarfs. Their beards. I mean look at them! Proper dwarf beards are long and…well, look like bushes. Not short cylinder thingies!…woah now, let’s not get carried away with this. Just put that axe down, and I’ll apologize to your mother for saying that about her beard. Really!…*inhale, exhale* Anyway, other then that, I agree with John that the Mantic Dwarfs are better then GW’s.
And just to give my say on the Gamezone Miniatures, if your looking for good looking champions, banner bearers or chareters (Lords and Heroes), I highly recomend you check them out.Their all metal models, so trying to get a full unit of Gamezone minis will make most peoples knees shake and wallets ache. Still, most of the single miniatures are from 6€ to 20€ depeneding if its infantry or cavalry. Plus, if you don’t want to direct order them, Maelstrom Games also sell them.
I like Mantic’s minis so this is not on rant on them but I am sorry GW’s Elf lord on a Dragon kit is far superior to Mantic’s and it is plastic to boot. I have no problem getting my dragon to line up against units it charges. I also think that Mantics’s Dwarf line is ugly so I guess we will have to agree to disagree.
Now as far as their undead, they are superior to GWs and I am considering replacing my GW skeletons with Mantic’s. I think their Elf army is on par with GW’s Elves and would make an excellent substitute for it.
Now with the rules going back to olden percentages for “force organisation” – what would you think about ditching the Vampire Counts crap (yes, I call it crap… I want to play UNDEAD not Vampires, bring me Necromancers and -nomicons, Klaatu Verata Nic*cough* and all that) and going back 1-2 army books before it, the blackish one from 5th simply called “UNDEAD”
) could probably work out (maybe a bit of fiddling here and there, points adjusting and all that).
Long live the Skull Chucker!
Three races I’ve never had any interest in, Elves, Undead and Dwarves – until the Mantic release 🙂
I honestly can’t see why no company hadn’t thought of selling the models in a safe transport case before this point. It’s an excellent idea and a huge selling point for them. Other giant selling points are that (as you said) they come in more appropriate sizes for units, they are generally more detailed than GW models and the kicker is that they are not only cheaper or even just at a reasonable price, I think that they are VERY cheap and some of the finest quality stuff being produced. I’m not a fan of ALL of the style of the models, but the business ethic is clear and brilliant.
John, if you ever need to get away from a GW staffer, all you need to do is mention Chaos Dwarfs and they panic and get scared. If not, starting talking about the forbidden squats (I may get abducted for mentioning their name 😀 ).
Revenants = Grave Guard, essentially? By the description, they are and visually, I would say that they can easily be used as them.
Purple Fire guy: Very beautiful model, in my opinion, but I think you can only get it by spending 50 Mantic Points.
Wraiths: Again, beautiful. I feel I have to get some and I don’t even collect undead.
Ghouls: You could get a pair of ghouls by applying for the newsletter of Wayland Games. My girlfriend got some as well and I was surprised at how thin some of the parts (such as fingers and bolts) were and the models were so clean with practically no flash.
Darrell: A very quick army per model as you can spray, respray, drybrush, maybe wash and maybe add colour to cloth and they’re done, but when you’re doing 5 models to every one of your opponent’s, you will take just as long.
Re cavalry: I think I’d prefer them in plastic as it would make them cheaper, but I know that people like metal models and that because they will sell less of them compared to infantry. Also, Ogre cavalry sit atop rhinoxes. It’s nice to have semi-zombie steeds rather than plain skeletal ones as skeletal are a little overdone and I like to see something holding bones together beyond assuming there is still cartiledge and leaving the rest up to magic (the magic should be making them animated, not glued together, but that’s just me 😀 ). A lack of tails is good as well: the coccyx isn’t on any of the skeletons, so why should it be on the skeleton horses?
The catapaults (mangonels by the look of design) are incredibly cheap! Any army that needs one, you buy the box and can convert each a little and then you have one for two armies compared to GW’s one for the same price. Not sure if I like the shields on the front parts, but that can be changed if I dislike it that much.
I’ve already spoken about my thoughts on the dragon in the “What’s in the box?” episode, but that one is one of the best that I’ve ever seen.
Regarding the elves, I think they’re well done, but I find that they may be a little too thin and spindly for me (but I dislike the pany elves anyhow: [evil] dwarf player at heart). I dislike “larger” elves, but I think these are a little too much like the woman that always wears corsets and has ended up with a 12″ waist. It amuses me that you’re comparing Michael Jordan to an elf 😀
I love the bolt thrower, but would prefer the crossbar to be turned 90 degrees (so that it’s like a crossbow). I have no idea why, but the wheels look really odd, so spoked versions would be nice, but it’d generally a really nice piece.
I can see some models hidden behind some trees by Darrell and some models in the watch tower by John, what are they? I think the ones by John are elves and I would imagine that the ones by Darrell are undead.
A last mention: zombies are apparently in the works now as well!
I can’t wait to see their take on more armies too…
Revenants are sword and shield Grave Guard. The currently lack the flexability to be Great Weapon users as most have their shield attached.
My Vampire Counts army is almost all Mantic models. The skeletons/revenants are easy to build, the torso / leg joint is in the middle of the chest so lots of contact. They are a great price and look great on the table, even with multiple units at the same time.
Proud owner of 80 Mantic skeletons, 25 Revenants, Vampire on Winged Horse and skeletal BSB.
Good review, I’ve picked up an undead army from Mantic and I really like it. The detail is good, the models are properly scary looking. They go together easy but there’s a very good selection of options on the sprues to mix things up and create a pretty unique regiment. There’s some other great undead alternatives out there for WHFB players too.
Thanks for looking at that guys. I started my Revenants watching. And John is a rivet counter. I won’t apologise for that cause it’s cool.
Thanks for the vid guys mantic plastics look stunning
Skeleton caterpults throw sculls so they can see what the anemy is doing behind walls 🙂
You guys didnt make any real mention of there bases; there like rounded with a square base slot.
I wanted to know if you could just use these models alone to make a fantasy army, i like the way they look and their detail much better than the GW ones.
Makes sense I’m Using the Ghoul’s For a D&D game that needs. I’m waiting for Mantic Orcs army to be realised 😀 plus there cheep 😀
Random thought – John’s comment about Dwarfs having legs reminded me of B.C. comic stripe and Clams having legs!
Anyway, I am glad to have other miniatures available to compete with GW. Their pricing makes the hobby tough to get into and tough to stay in. There are much cheaper hobbies and games out their. That being the case, it is exciting to see a competitors models be so good.