Mantic Universe Podcast

Podcasts, Videos, other Media
21

HUGE MUP week this week, with something for everyone and a big Kings of War Champions Info Dump!

Here is the schedule for this week!

TUESDAY : Planet Lore: Adriana! Launches at 17. März 2025 um 11:00
Wiki Dave and Claudio jump to Adriana and discuss what we call, The Adriana Incident. We tried not to talk about Planet Licences…we failed…They explore what Plague Artefacts are, how the GCPS handles Containment Protocols while the Asterians have their watchful eye on the humans - and much more!

WEDNESDAY : MUP Halo: New Alexandria! Launches at 18. März 2025 um 11:00
James and Wiki Dave talk about the recent information drops for the War Games expansion plus an exclusive interview with Gonders, the painter for the new Wave 2 fireteams including Fireteam Cerberus!

YT link - TBC

No Thursday show however on Friday…

FRIDAY : MUP Champions: Kings of War Champions w/ Mantic Games Rob and Andy! Launches at Freitag, 21. März 2025 um 11:00
Mark and Chris talk with Mantic Games Rob Burman and Andy Burdis to get an information dump finally on Kings of War Champions. We finally find out what Mantic has been cooking with the first MUP Champions episode.

Make sure you select NOTIFY ME on YT if you want a reminder when it drops but as it will drop as normal as a podcast and on YT at the same time.

Remember you can listen to all the MUP episodes on YT or on Spotify, Amazon & Podbean


https://music.amazon.de/podcasts/458fdf5a-676c-444d-8fb5-53b6ef5d3132/mantic-universe-podcast-mup

Phew…and next week we have Adepticon and some book releases…might even have some interviews to help with that…

[…]

Wow, what a week we had. Everyone wanted to hear about Champions!
We had out biggest watched week ever in watched hours (over double our previous record), thank you all for the support and we are hoping MUP Champions keeps people listening which Mark Z will be hosting

Anyway…AdeptiCon is upon us and we have been cooking up a couple of pods for it…remember, you can chat live on YT when the episode drops, starting to see regular faces on there

Here is the schedule for this week!

TUESDAY : MUP Armada: Through Thick and Thin w/ Mark Barber! Launches at Dienstag, 25. März 2025 um 11:00
Wiki Dave and Matthias take over MUP Armada for an episode and rope author Mark Barber to talk about the Pious Sequel, Through Thick and Thin.

WEDNESDAY : MUP Lore Warpath: First Strike: Alpha Strike Edition w/ Chris Verspeak! Launches at Mittwoch, 26. März 2025 um 11:00
Claudio, Matthias and Wiki Dave warp in Chris Verspeak to talk about the re-release of his book First Strike and get hyped while finding out what is. They also take advantage of the opportunity and talk all things Warpath Universe with the creator of most of it’s background.

4 Likes
22

Good stuff! :+1::sunglasses:

1 Like
23

This week we have special guests coming from everywhere and a MASSIVE Champions lore episode.

TUESDAY : MUP Pannithor Lore: Claws of the Plain w/ James Dunbar!

Mark and Wiki Dave journey across Upper Mantica and talk with James Dunbar about his new Pannithor book, Claws of the Plain. Contains a lots of Human, Orc and Barking Dog talk. The book comes out today, 15th of April.

WEDNESDAY : MUP Pannithor Lore: Kings of War Champions Lore Review w/ Mantic Games Rob Burman!
Wiki Dave and Mark are joined by Kings of War Champion Lore Writer Rob Burman and they breakdown every champion backstory. Spoilers ahead but these are some good spoilers!! Axel is the best.

THURSDAY : MUP Halo : The Pillar of Autumn w/ Forging Flashpoint Shea!
Wiki Dave and James-005 manage to finally track down Forging Flashpoint’s Shea to get an inside scoop of his experience with Adepticon. We dive into Shae’s experience with Halo and he landed up in the universe of Halo: Flashpoint. Terrain talk though audio…lets see how that works out.

Make sure you select NOTIFY ME on YT if you want a reminder when it drops but as it will drop as normal as a podcast and on YT at the same time. Chat with listeners LIVE on YT too!

Remember you can listen to all the MUP episodes on YT, Amazon Music, Podbean, Apple or on Spotify
https://music.amazon.de/podcasts/458fdf5a-676c-444d-8fb5-53b6ef5d3132/mantic-universe-podcast-mup?ref=dm_sh_GIc8S4pdW0VoO7Dw23WBVZoJm

Next week, we have more champions coming for ya!

2 Likes
24

Another big week gone by, not only did we surpass 1000 hours on our YT channel but had our 2nd Most Watched Week ever and our Most Viewed! So awesome seeing people continue to watch our shows and engage along the way.

This week we have some Champion action!

TUESDAY : MUP Champions: Champions, Adepticon and More! Launches at on 22. April
Mark sits down with Blake Shrode from Mantic games to get a look at AdeptiCon and the premier of Champions at the show.

THURSDAY : MUP Shorts : Growing the KoW-munity! Launches at 24. April
Clem and Sarah recap the latest Berlin gaming day and discuss women and girls in tabletop. They reflect on ways to expand the KoW community, including by making it more diverse.

Next week, we have EVEN more champions coming for ya and maybe the monthly!

2 Likes
25

Really enjoyed episode 119… Good job guys.

The dynamic between Sarah and Clem was very natural and had a good flow to it
Great to hear Sarah on the pod and covering off so many good points about the organisation and running of this event.

The KOW community is obviously very male, although there are quite a number of very involved and visible trans women, but I think this is only the second time I’ve heard a woman on a KOW podcast, in the past couple of years.

I do think KOW seems to have very low female participation… Even compared to some of the other male-dominated hobbies I am involved in, or have been involved in.

Part of that is about visibility, it’s true. If a woman comes in, or logs on, and sees no other women, then she’s a lot less likely than if it is already a mixed space.

Fascinating to hear about this 11 year old girl who came from D&D and pretty much organised her own entry into KOW… Collecting and painting her army, learning the rules etc. Very “old school” in terms of the willingness to do the work to get involved in the hobby. Of course a lower barrier to entry is always better, but it sounds like this young lady has a long future in tabletop gaming.

The challenge - in terms of incorporating kids - into an organised event is that child protection requirements are important and should be taken seriously.

I would go as far as to say that if it is an all-ages event where there are a variety of adults attending, then there is probably no alternative to requiring a child is accompanied by a parent or other responsible adult carer, and they are in their care for the duration.

You can’t really have a situation where a child is not accompanied, and is at an all-ages event where there are various adults around.

If you wanted to have a space or an event which does operate for kids who are dropped off by parents, and then picked up, you would still need to tick a lot of safeguarding and child protection boxes, like any club or youth scheme.

  • Appropriate safeguarding statements and plans
  • A person responsible and appropriately trained and vetted
  • Parental consent form
  • An appropriate ratio of vetted organisers / volunteers to child attendees

There is a bit of work in it, but when you look at where all of these child protection measures have arisen from, in terms of historical scandal and abuse, it is sadly necessary.

Not to end on a dour note…

I think gaming clubs for kids, particular after-school clubs, could be great options to grow wargaming / tabletop gaming in general!

5 Likes
26

:poland: TUESDAY 29.04: Kings of War in Poland and Kings of WarSaw GT!

In this episode, Clem is joined by Kacper and Łukasz from Warsaw, Poland. They talk about the state of Kings of War and Mantic games in Poland, and also about the upcoming Kings of War Grand Tournament on the 7th and 8th of June that they organize in Warsaw! Join us to hear more about playing Mantic games in that region, and come to Warsaw in June to continue the discussion in person and share a good time playing the game we love!

1 Like
27

MUP Monthly Samurai Vampires!
Chris, Mark & Gerry talk all things Mantic (and report from Salute)

2 Likes
28

Enjoyed this episode.

The two named offscreen factions/races that the guys were struggling to name… The Xirkaali and the Tetsumo Shogunate. Some connection exists between the two, I think?

Anyway, Chris made an observation that a decision to have the Tetsumo Shogunate as a faction would mean a “third undead faction”, as we know this shogunate is vampiric (Or perhaps just the bosses…).

I think if I were Mantic, and doing the Tetsumo shogunate, I’d make sure that the while this was undoubtedly an empire run by vampiric overlords, perhaps the rest of the faction could be a more generic pan-asian or fantasy Japanese blend of fantasy ashigaru, samurai, ninja, tengu, giant oni and whatever…

It does occur to me that there’s a chance to tie the Tetsumo shogunate into the Warpath Universe very neatly… Surely it has occurred to people that the easy way to do it would just to be to have a fantasy equivalent of the Matsudan? Except… Oh yeah… Vampiric …

By the by, I like that the current zeitgeist seems to have moved away from asian-style factions being accused of being “cultural appropriation”, I think now the vibe is more “Asian players want to see Asian culture represented on the tabletop”, which seems intuitively more reasonable to me.

4 Likes
29

It is always tricky to hit the right theme with non western european themes for armies if there is no one with a deeper knowledge about those cultures avoiding the problem of having several detailed factions based on Europe, but than throw all of Asia or all of South America into a single one)

So if Mantic really goes into that direction it will be interesting what their take on this is and hopefully those aren’t human based ones (its a fantasy world after all)

PS:
Chris sits down with Ronnie Renton to talk all things Mantic

2 Likes
30

Mantic refreshing the undead range with an East Asian theme is also an option…

1 Like
31

The main undead range? Certainly would be a pivot away from a more western hammer horror generic undead theme. Although… The new zombie dragon rider is a continuation of before

For Tetsumo - if they did them - the mention of it being a shogunate suggests Japanese styling I guess.

1 Like
32

This week, we have some Champions, Halo and the start of the first non-english series on MUP

MUP Champions: Gameplay and Rules Review!

Mark and Mathias discuss early test games and take a deep dive into the rules and scenarios in the new Champions rulebook.

WEDNESDAY - MUP Halo: Halo!

Wiki Dave and James-005 are back again to talk about the new Halo: Flashpoint App and recent rule changes while James sits at the top of the world rankings (as of recording). James talks about his list building technique and runs through a recent list he played with while Dave tries to seem like he knows things too.

:de: THURSDAY - MUP D-A-CH: Folge 1 Interview mit Christian Schlumpberger!

Matthias and Claudio break the line and speak German instead of English

In dieser Episode möchten wir kurz die DACH Community ansprechen und haben uns dafür einen Gast geholt. Christian Schlumpberger Chefredakteur vom Brueckenkopf-Online Tabletop Magazin, Übersetzer diverser Mantic Produkte und Designer von Summoners bei Neverrealm Industry.

1 Like
33

We have some Warpath Lore and a hypothetical this week

TUESDAY - MUP Planet Lore: Exham IV !

Wiki Dave and Claudio examine everything going on on Exham IV, the Priory Station, Veer-Myn and all the factions involved. And of course start with some planet licencing!

THURSDAY - MUP Short: 10mm Kings of War Discussion!

Mark and Clem talk about Chris’s favorite thing in the world: playing Kings of War in small scale! This as of now unofficial way to play kings has several advantages, and is very easy to get started with. So give it a listen, and come chat with us about it on our facebook group and on discord!

3 Likes
34

Another new Series starting this week. Get ready for some Deadzone gameplay discussions and Champions unboxing

:ringer_planet: TUESDAY - MUP Deadzone: The Beginning (New Companion Additions)

Matthias and Claudio start a new journey with the MUP Deadzone Podcast! They go through the new profiles added to the Companion from March to May and Matthias tries to squeeze some information out of Claudio regarding DZ overall!

:military_helmet: THURSDAY - MUP Champions: Chris’ Champions Unboxing

Chris’ recieves a gift from Mantic Studio and records his live reaction to the unboxing of the new Champions 2-player box set, Faith and Fury

Next week, we have a breakdown of the Pannithor Timeline to look forward to!

35

Exciting!

36

Another week of exciting content ahead and adding the links from last week

we have a Pannithor Timeline, Some insight into the Kings of War French Community and a monthly wrap up with MUP Monthly on the weekend.

https://youtu.be/NRHhwQt03Sw

KoWmunity in France with Nico! Launches

Chris & Clem celebrate 3 years of MUP by going searching for the Loch Ness Monster.

This week we have something exciting planned at the end, bit of a lighter week in the middle

MUP Halo: The Silent Cartographer!

We are going to be releasing exclusive YouTube content on Saturday’s going foward. We have the next 4 weeks lined up, all unboxing videos, however we are going to be experimenting with other types of videos in the future…stay tuned.

:date: SATURDAY- The Void Talon Company Box Unboxing!

Mark finally gets his hands on some Kings of War Champions Boxes, begin his journey with him as he unboxes and discovers whats inside

Next week we have another unboxing and some Warpath lore to look forward to!

3 Likes
37

Just listened to Episode 132- MUP Monthly: The Xirkaali Empire & the Loch Ness Monster

Enjoyable episode.

I thought the listener question relating to tabletop games which might not be wargames was interesting.

I think Clem’s discussion of sheepherding games, a racing game etc. was on the money. I can’t find any tabletop model-based sheepherding game that he might have been referring to, but it makes absolutely sense to me that you could have a tabletop game (whether on 4x4 or larger) with herds of sheep, and little model sheepdogs and shepherds. There could be terrain, adverse weather rules, predators… It doesn’t necessary appeal to me personally, but I can imagine a relaxing, co-operative game which is based on controlling shepherds and semi-dependable sheepdogs, and having sheep which move according to semi-random mechanics.

For racing, I think Chris got hung up on the idea of ‘but wouldn’t it be better if there was shooting’ (This would basically be Gaslands, I guess), but of course you could have a racing game on a 7x4 “track” tabletop which had sophisticated racing mechanics and where the danger / conflict element came not from shooting, but from just from the interaction of speed, vehicles and the track. In an F1 type version of the game there could be no real contact between vehicles that wasn’t fatal, but I guess you could also do a more rough-and-ready stock-car type game where there was bumping off roads.

Speaking of which, what about a tabeltop game called “Pursuit”, where players co-operatively controlled police interceptors and were trying to bring an errant stolen car to a halt? :wink:

Anyway, I would have loved if Chris let this run a little longer, but he seemed to want to move on to the next topic. If I have feedback for him as a host, I feel like at times he is too dogmatic about following the agenda he has for the show (All topics must be covered, must get to all topics etc).

The other listener question that struck me, “what do you want from 4th edition”… Well, it was actually Clem’s observation that he wanted lists taken out of the Big Red Book.

At first I was like “What! That’s crazy talk, in fact I want the lists plus a little description of the unit back again”.

But Clem’s question about “When did you last open the Big Red Book and use the lists” is really really well made. As a beginner… Yes, I did. But it’s probably been months since I looked at the lists now, I’m 100% using the companion.

So, yeah, on reflection I actually think it would be a brave but possibly ingenious step from Mantic to make the new Big Red Book just (1) Rules (2) Artwork / Model images and inspiration and (3) Fiction, history and non-fiction lore.

3 Likes
38

The game is called Herding28.
Rules here.

I agree.
I’m not sure that I would go so far, though.
I’d want the rules and lists in there, even if just to read the new rules and lists for the first time. The content of most books is only read once, you know. :stuck_out_tongue:
I definitely agree that the focus and priority should be lore though. It’s the best thing about old Warhammer books and the Green Rulebook. Especially with rules available in the Mantic Companion.

I suspect that Mantic already realise this.
The two Clash of Kings books since the Companion launched have been mostly about the lore of the armies getting updates that year.

I gave my thoughts on the upcoming army in Facebook, which was essentially:
YES Greek mythology Herd, but Undead (probably Samurai Vampires) sounds more likely.

2 Likes
39

On the Xirkaali discussion in the last MUP —

I really think Clem can’t be right about the Xirkaali being based off Mongols. I think (as Chris observed) that niche is already filled by the Ogres, who don’t just hail from the steppes, but also have vaguely Mongol-like topknots.

I think the supposition that they’ll be Eastern-themed does make sense though, the question is – what will be the real world culture they draw on? China? Burma? Siam?

Seems to me that if they opt for a kind of generic fantasy Celestial Empire (Whether the Qing or one of the other dynasties) then there’s the potential to undercut GW by offering proxy-able models that would work for Cathay, at a lower price point.

The downside, the IP would be less unique.

Personally, I think I’d like to see something losely based on the Khmer Empire, with a kind of sophisticated tribal aesthetic. Maybe throw some flesh-eating apes in there, for some reason.

But, I think a clue could be hiding in plain sight…

The X in Xirkaali is an unusually choice, maybe someone can correct me, but in Chinese this is a ‘sh’ sound, and the only other culture I can think of who use an X with some kind of sound like this is old Spanish or Latin American?

3 Likes
40

From the lore point what we know is that the Salamander ships were developed to counter and/or inspired by the Xirkaali Empire
So something from chinese folklore would be possible but than there is me who played too much path of exile and therefore has spider is mind because of the similar boss name from said game (Arakaali the mother of spiders)

Yet a possibility that is discussed in the pod is that slightly based on the Huns, as a people that was driven west which may or may not be the evil version of the Herd

Overall I hope that it isn’t just a chinese themed human faction, even without GW releasing one this would be kind of boring and Warhammer already has the spot of historical fantasy so taking the chance for more non-human factions would be good

PS: This weeks Episodes, another Warpath Week! We have some Lore first then some Deadzone talk for dinner.

Planet Lore: Cabot III!
Wiki Dave and Claudio land on Cabot III to talk about all things Green, Marauder and Radioactive.

MUP Deadzone: Episode 2 Command Protocol

Matthias talks to Claudio from the Deadzone Rules Committee about the upcoming releases for Deadzone, balance changes and the next big update coming in summer 2025.

YOUTUBE EXCLUSIVE

Grunk Blackclaw Company Box Unboxing!
Mark gets his hands on the Grunk Blackclaw Company Box and gets goblins all over him.

Next week, we learn more about La’Theal Voidheart in the first Pannithor Character deep dive!

2 Likes