Dreadball Third Shipment - Mantic Drops The Ball

I've finally received my final package from the Dreadball Kickstarter run by Mantic Games, and well I'm afraid I have to report a lot of problems.

I received a letter with my package explaining that my season 3 rulebook and season two upgrades had been delayed due to them being more popular than expected.  Mantic seemed to imply it didn't matter as I had an electric copy of the rules that I could use, besides the fact that I had ordered the physical book right at the start of the campaign as I don't like electronic rulebooks.  It's a let down not to get something I ordered and paid for over a year ago.

My missing Z'zor jack.... 5 months later.

 

Then on top of this one of the extra MVP's that I'd ordered that wasn't highlighted as missing, in fact was missing.  I tried messaging mantic via kickstarter a couple of days ago and no-one has as yet bothered to respond.  I had missing pieces from my last shipment too and it's getting frustrating now.

A few of the new MVP's

 

In the end all this adds up to the fact that receiving the packing just left me feeling annoyed, and didn't leave me that that happy feeling that a large box of minis is supposed to leave you with.  I begrudge Mantic for taking this from me.

It's not all doom and gloom though, at least a lot of what I have got is very good.  First off the biggest item in the package is the new 'Ultimate' board which is a kind of giant mouse mat.  It looks and feel fantastic and I'm now very excited about the deadzone mat made from the same material. 

On the whole the miniatures are much better this time as well, sharpness has gone up and flash has gone down.  There's still a couple of duds but overall the sculpting quality has improved as well, with the Teratons easily stealing the show,  I can't wait to get them painted and playing Dreadball.  The nameless team are interesting as well, although their inability to stand unaided proves that the optional bases weren't really optional. 

Dreadball is still a great game, and I've got around 60 new figures to paint, I just wish Mantic would get their act together a bit more and actually send me what I've ordered.

Army Focus - Star Wars Miniatures Republic

 The Collection - Click to Enlarge

 

A quick look at another part of my star wars miniatures collection today, this time the army of the republic from the time of the prequel trilogy, concentrating mainly on the clone wars.  This is an army of three parts; The Jedi, the Clones and native troops (wookies, gungans, etc). 

 

The Jedi are clearly the coolest part, with many named Jedi all with unique special rules, but also some non-uniques you can field many of, including the awesome Jedi weapon masters.  The basic clones unfortunately are not good to play with, way overcosted for their 10HP and def13, which is a real shame.  Not all clones are created equal however and the clone commandoes are very powerful and for a while were a very successful tournament squad for me.

One disappointment with the Republic army is the lack of interesting large pieces, the couple of small skimmers are just dull and a bit ineffective.  In the end though it's really all about playing with the Jedi, and that's always fun.

 The many faces of the Jedi

Beware the Wookies

40K: Sternguard Veterans & Plague Marines

With all the new Space Marines goodies coming out I couldn't resist adding a new squad to my army.  After much deliberation I bought a box of the new Sternguard Veterans.  It's a really great box with lots and lots of extra pieces that you won't be able to use on this squad alone, but will be great for blinging up a lot of other squads in your army.  It's still a little bit overpriced, but the models are nice.

I've also got my hands on the new Codex: Space Marines, which I'm very, very, impressed with.  It's the best codex I've ever seen (and I have quite an extensive collection)  The background section really looks at the space marines as a whole for the first time and the new rules are interesting as well, I love the idea of chapter tactics and need to decide which of the first founding chapters my chapter will be descended from.

I've also finished a squad of 6 plague marines for my chaos space marine army.  These are older versions of the models I think and the squad comes with two plasma guns.  I've been a bit scared of painting them, but I think they've come out OK in the end.  These are also the first non-Alpha Legion troops in my chaos space marine army.