Dreadball - Z'zor Team

 

 

This is a quick look at my latest painted dreadball team, the Z'zor, which are mantic's take on space bugs.  this is also the last of the season 2 teams to be painted, which still does leave all 4 season 3 teams and a bunch of MVP's to be completed at some point.  I've gone for a very basic colour scheme here, I just didn't have as much time as I'd have liked to get them done, still I think they look OK and will do their job.

Dreadball has been sidelined recently due to our burgeoning obsession with Deadzone.  This is part of the problem with Kickstarters, you order a lot of stuff on what is admittedly a good deal, but by the time it comes you can easily have moved onto something else.  The painting queue is growing rather large as well.

The kickstarter package also included upgrade packs for many of the teams in the last delivery.  As below shows this contains a alternatively posed striker, 2 jacks and a prone mini.

Mantic Crazy Christmas Box 2013

Another year and another random box of assorted goodies from mantic for a cheap price, a mere £20.  As it's still avaliable as I write this I thought some of you might like to see what the box contains.  Well at least what my box contains as mantic do say contents will very. 

This seems to have been put together as a sort of 'sampler' of mantics range with a bit of everything thrown in, so broken down by game system we have:

Kings of War:
- 10 x elf bowmen
- 10 x human spearmen/swordsmen
- 3 x ogres

Warpath:
- 5 x forgefather stormrage veterans
- 2 x marauders

Dreadball
- dozer, giant
- helder, MVP

Deadzone
- sorak
- yindi

Loka
- earth elemental

And I also got a copy of mantic journal 4 which includes a mantic point. 

The only thing to note is that no bases are included, but I have plenty of spares kicking around so it's no issue to me.

 

That's 35 mins for £20, really not a bad deal.  I don't have much use for the elves, but everything else will be useful, I'm particulary chuffed with the deadzone minis and the ogres.

Dreadball - Female Corporation Team, Helder and Rico

Another Dreadball team is now finished, this time the Female Corp team, which represent a different 'style' of human team, which has less guards and relies more on the jacks.  I've yet to have a game with them, but on paper the standard male team looks more to my liking, but we will see.  As always with my Dreadball figures these have been given a coat of varnish to help them survive being handled during play.

Also I've finished the last two MVP's from the season two package, Rico van Dien and Anne-Marie Helder.

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.

Dreadball: Robot Team, MVP's and Coaches

With season 3 of Dreadball due to drop through the mailbox any day now I decided it was about time I got a move on and did some more work on some of the season 2 teams.  What we have here is the robot team which I'm looking forward to playing.  The team starts the game as 6 jacks, but can transform into strikers and guards as the game goes on, it's an interesting sounding mechanic.  I've painted the team in a basic bronze scheme that was quick and easy to do and I think gives a nice almost 'steampunky' feel.

Below we have two of the MVP's from season 2, on the left is 'Gabe' who is from penny arcade and the robot 'Firewall'.

 

 

And finally 4 coaches.  This is a great pack with 4 really characterful models, 'Orcy' is my favourite.  Unfortunately the coat of varnish that I apply to all my Dreadball minis to help them survive the rigours of play has spoilt the paint job's slightly.

 

Dreadball - Judwan Team & Season 1 MVP's

A lot of painted Dreadball minis to show off today.  Starting with the first of my season 2 teams, the Judwan.  I love both the look and gaming concept of these guys (all strikers, so no punching at all, but super quick and skilled) and will definitely be using them in my next game.  Included in the pics below is the Judwan star player Mee-kel Judwan (awesome pun!), I've decided that I may as well paint team specific MVP's in the colours of said team so from now on will be painting them at the same time as the teams.

The next batch of pictures contains The season one MVP's.  A bit of a mixed bunch, Buzzcut, the Enforcer and John Doe are all brilliant, but Gorim Ironstone and Number 88 are not.  Surprisingly my new favourite MVP is Wildcard and her Tron styling, it's amazing how a paint job can change so drastically my opinion of a model.

Buzzcut, The Enforcer & Reek Rolat

 

Number 88, Wildcard & John Doe

 

Gorim Ironstone, Lucky Logan & Slippery Joe

 

Finally I've also painted the Kickstarter trophy....

If you read my last Dreadball post you'll remember that there were a couple of issues with my delivery, mantic quickly got back to me and my female corp guard is no longer headless!  On top of that a z'zor jack will also be heading my way, I have to be patient on that front, but will end up with a free guard model for my trouble, I can live with that.

On other mantic related news deadzone did rather well in the end reaching over $1.2million!  Which means I will have another huge pile of models to paint come the winter, brilliant!  I'm really looking forward to the game as well and after loving dreadball have no worries that mantic will be able to deliver on their promises.

Dreadball - Season 2 Arrives

 

I have only 3 models left to paint from my Dreadball season 1 shipment and what do you know season 2 shows up on the doorstep!  This time we have the season 2 book, 4 new teams (robots, female corp, judwan and Z'zor), some new MVP's and the pack of 4 coaches.  The book is of the same style and format as the first one, and contains a mismash of bits as well as rules for all the new models.

 

The models are much better this time round, both in sculpting, conception and production.  One thing that didn't sit well with me with season one was the reliance on fantasy sterotypes for what is supposed to be a science fiction game, thankfully all of the new teams move away from that and add a nice bit of extra complexity.

 

 

 

It's not all sweetless and light though, I've got two problems with my package (as the picture above shows).  The first is a headless 'bonus' female corp guard, this is actually only a small disapointment as the female corp are my least favorite team and I'm unlikely to run them in a league and still have enough for a starting team for one off games.  The second issuse is with the Z'zor team which came with 3 guards and 4 jacks, and as a starting team has 5 jacks and only 1 guard, which means a third gaurd can never be used and you don't get enough jacks to even start playing with them!  Well I've e-mailed mantic and await to see how they deal with these issuses.

 

Below are a few examples of the 50+ models that have been added to the painting queue! 

 

Dreadball - Marauder Team

I've managed to finish painting the last of the season one teams ahead of season two arriving, this time it's the marauders, or as they are more obviously called the Orx and Goblins.

I've left them till last as although I like the models I find them hard to play with.  It's always fun to bash people with the orx guards, but trying to score with the goblin jacks is not fun.  That's balance for you though.  As will all my dreadball figures they've been given a coat of gloss varnish to help them survive the rigours of play

I've still got the 8 MVP's from season one to paint, but as I've not even used one yet they're not a priority.

Dreadball: Forgefather Team

Team no. 3 rolls off the painting line, this time the forgefathers.  These are lovely models and by far my favorite looking of the season one teams.  I've played only a single game with these so far and they also provided an interesting challenge, a little bit slow, but rock hard and in contrast to the marauder team you thankfully still get a couple of strikers.  These guys are my current favorite.  As with all my dreadball stuff these have been given a coat of gloss varnish.

And finally here we have 'coach renton' a kickstarter exclusive model based on mantic games CEO.

Dreadball: Ver-myn Team

 

 

Another couple of games under the belt, and the surveys have been sent out for season 2, which has made me realise that I'd better get on with painting season 1!  So team no. 2 has been painted, these 'ver-myn' (not skaven oh no definatly not).  As with the corporation team I've given them a coat of gloss varnish to help them survive the rigours of play.

 

Below are the two guards, in a team with no jacks the couple of guards you do have take on quite a significant role, nice models as well these.

 

Next are the strikers that make up the bulk of the team.  The top 4 are nice models that I like, however the second variant (in the bottom picture) I don't like so I've given them numbers at the end of the roster so when the extra ones come in the next package I'll barely have to use them.

 

And finally I've also painted up the refbot!