This was the year that Mantic Games finally came into its own. Sort of. In the past it was easy for me to look at their products and see nothing but knockoff GW, and with King of War and especially Warpath I think that the accusation rang true (that is changing, though).
- The Prodigal Player
- The Prodigal Player
What I find quite astonishing is that rather than abandon this copycat mentality as they found their bearings as a company, they have utterly doubled down on it, adding not one but two additional ersatz GW games to their stable: Dreadball (Bloodbowl) and Deadzone (Necromunda).
So far this is all sounding rather damning, so why do I find myself ranking their achievements in 2013 so highly? Because while nearly all of what they have created is highly derivative, they have finally started to give the community access to styles of games and utility for our hobby that GW, as the industry leader, has long abandoned. In a few cases, they have even innovated upon GW's foundation in savvy ways.
It is easy to take aim at game systems like Warpath that offer little to distinguish it from its obvious inspiration, but games like Deadzone step up and offer an in-depth skirmish game with campaign progress to fill the void where Necromumda used to be. True, there are already some other excellent skirmish games that occupy that space, but Deadzone gives players all of the tools they need to start playing up-front, which separates it quite dramatically from other skirmish games on the market like Infinity, Mercs, and Dark Age, where factions, terrain, rules, and even dice must be purchased or assembled separately by the dedicated gamer.
While such a piecemeal approach on the road to playing the actual game is now par for the course to the dedicated war gamer, there is still something vital and important about all inclusive entry level miniature game products like Deadzone and Dreadball, and quality ones have been absent from the shelves of our FLGS for too long. The only other company with a comparable approach at the moment is Hawk Wargames with their excellent, excellent Dropzone Commander starter set which reinvented cardboard terrain as a viable and attractive option for gamers at the 15mm level.
Mantic has taken a similar approach much farther with their plastic 28mm modular wargaming terrain included with Deadzone and offered separately as well. For myself, and I would imagine a host of other hobbyists out there, this is one of the most significant and potentially transformative developments for tabletop gaming that there has been in recent memory.
While there have never been more options to purchase attractive pre-built terrain, much of it is quite expensive. Likewise, the proliferation of brilliant do-it-yourself projects you can find on blogs and YouTube are a real boon, but for many of us whose hobby time is already limited, this can be too time consuming to fully solve the problem of an empty gaming table. In short, inexpensive quality solutions for terrain has remained an elusive goal for many gamers, myself included.
With that in mind, Mantic's modular terrain has been nothing short of a godsend for me. It is highly flexible in terms of the sort of structures you can build, and the vaguely modern style of the buildings lack any obvious features that would be out of place in most modern or sci-fi settings, lending an incredible range of utility outside of Deadzone itself. Will I be using this terrain to play Deadzone? Of course. Will I use it to play 40k? Yes. Will I use it to play Infinity? Yes. Will I use it to play Dark Age? Yes. It's a rather clever way of promoting Mantic's own game systems while enticing players of other systems to see the dual utility of their products.
Meanwhile, the quality of Mantic's miniatures has continued to improve, and while there are still drawbacks to their production techniques, the affordability of much of their product line should be commended in what is sometimes an extravagantly expensive hobby to the point of being somewhat exclusionary. And if other market leaders want to position themselves more as prestige brands rather than as affordable entry points to the hobby, Mantic will continue to carve out a valuable and distinct hobby niche that we can all benefit from and be grateful for.
--prodigal
