funded Dungeon Saga Origins – The Game of Classic Fantasy Adventure (Mantic)

[Guyra]

Mantic's releasing a new game based on their Dungeon Saga IP. I don't really know much about the game itself, aside from that it seems to be a dungeon crawler. Of more interest are the minis, and the price you get them at!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/manticgames/dungeon-saga-origins-your-adventures-start-here

The "all in" pledge is at £129 / $159, which gives you the game, cardstock dungeon tiles, and(most importantly) over 80 miniatures of various sizes, and a bunch of terrain(though mostly older Terrain Crate stuff, but also some new pieces)! And stretch goals are adding more minis and other stuff!

For anyone not familiar, Mantic's a decent size company, and they've been around for a while. They're known for their Terrain Crate sets of affordable miniature terrain, the Kings of War wargame/skirmish game, and a bunch of other stuff.
 

Edited April 15 by Guyra
Funded!

[Arkady]

I do not think I can facepalm hard enough to truly express my bewilderment at the fact that in 2023, they're running a campaign where of the first 6 heores released, only one is female (and of course it's the elf). Still, 🤦‍♂️

 

But hey, at least the "Daughters of Doom" seem to be mostly gender-indefinite armored and helmeted sculpts. Well, the bearded spellcasters aside. 🙄

[ced1106]

Supposedly it's a legacy reason, since the original characters were male. The SG's include a gender-binary elf, so there's that. OTOH, The bases are round, while the original DS bases are square (as are the Kings of War bases), and the game system is different from the original DS. Mantic could have just started over with a different name, even, to dissociated themselves from the cluster of the previous Dungeon Saga. Also, even HQ way back when had alternative gender sculpts. I suppose you could use your Reaper Bones for whatever character you want. 😕

 

Seems from today's comments that they can't add additional sculpts for the KS. I was browsing their miniature skirmish game, Vanguard, and didn't notice many female sculpts, either. At least at retail, Mantic could put out a "Dungeon Saga Warband" that had additional heroes, including female, you could play in *both* Dungeon Saga and Vanguard.

 

EDIT: "Hey Rebecca, we do indeed have more female characters to show off before the campaign ends, it's important to us too that we see all genders represented best we can.

 

Might as well plug the Maladum KS, even though it's more of a dungeon-themed miniature skirmish game, which is about half-female for the human characters. (Also the dungeon-terrain pledge has 3D terrain you can use with any 2D dungeoncrawler, including DS.)

 

Edited April 5 by ced1106

[ced1106]

Speaking of Vanguard, I think there was a missed opportunity here to add a Vanguard crossover to the KS. You'd pick up anything from the full physical kit (eg. physical rules, physical warband lists, stat cards, special combat dice, d8, and tape measure) to the bare bones (free PDFs, special combat dice). You can already get the free PDFs from Mantic (although I guess the army lists would need to fit at least most of the DS miniatures, and you'd want more scenarios or even campaigns to play alongside the DS quests).

 

Not impossible for this KS to be for both DS and Vanguard. Purchase only the boardgame miniatures, Dungeon Saga physical, Vanguard physical, and/or ala carte. Free PDFs for every backer. Maybe even future retail warband product supporting both Vanguard and DS.

 

The Vanguard human Basilean Starter Set warband, btw, has an entire sisterhood, and their starter set has female human and enemy figures. The second picture is the Sisterhood warband set. Other warbands (eg. dwarf, Northern Alliance) have females as well.

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

[Bloodwild]

I am all in on this one, I love the quick setup time, and streamlined rules. As much as my main two gaming groups enjoy the first one, this is already replacing it.

They did say there would be at least 10 heroes by the end of the campaign so I'm hoping to see some new classes such as a Salamander Corsair, Dwarf Stone Priest etc.

Also, no more bendy mini's, though my leaning skeleton from the first D.S. Kickstarter has a certain charm and oddly enough is rarely taken down by the heroes on the first go.

 

[ced1106]

Just got some Mantic Crazy Boxes from their Spring sale, some still available.

 

The plastic is from previous KS, so not as good as DS promises. Supposedly, the plastic got better with Hellboy, but I can't tell vs its older plastic boardgames.

 

https://www.beastsofwar.com/forums/topic/mantic-crazy-mystery-boxes/

[Guyra]

Quote

4,021 backers pledged £402,000 to help bring this project to life.

 

It's funded! I'm still only in for $1. Not super excited about the daily reveals, especially since there was also lots of non miniatures. (Hey, it's a board game KS, not a minis KS.) But also, stuff like the "Counter Thickness Upgrade" or "Dice Finish and Size Upgrade" daily reveals doesn't feel like bonuses. They weren't stretch goals, so they were obviously things they were gonna include from the start, making their presentation as some extra value feel disingenuous. I don't know, it just irks me the wrong way, I guess.

 

A couple more women or androgynes as hero minis would've also been nice, though. 

 

Anyway, gonna see what'll be available when the PM goes live. Not sure I'll get the full set, but maybe. We'll see.

Edited April 15 by Guyra

[ManvsMini]

The PM went out today. I went for the fully loaded pledge. Hopefully they can meet or get near their target date for fulfillment.

[Guyra]

I've not quite yet decided on what to get, though I've concluded that I'm not getting everything. I'm mainly interested in the set of dwarves, and a bit interested in the player characters. 

 

As for the other stuff, I just don't need them, and they're not unique enough for me to see any value in having them in addition to what I already have. They all look great, but I just have way too many skeletons, goblins, ghosts, and elf like fighters already.

[Guyra]

The pledge manager is live, which means you should also be able to late pledge if you want in on this.

 

I've not yet decided if I will get anything at all from this, but there are two addons I do consider:

1. Extra Heroes: There are some interesting hero minis in this set, particularly the rogue, archer, cleric, and monk. The rest are also quite nice.

 

2. Extra Undead Pack: Having had a closer look at it, I'm actually kind of interested in this set as well. While I don't need more human skeletons at all, I don't have anywhere near as many human zombies. And this set also comes with two different undead dwarves, and two different undead ogres! The spectres are also interesting.

 

Edited May 10 by Guyra