The round bit that fits into the Mantic plastic bases.
Like on elves, dwarfs, skeletons and zombies.
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Huscarls possibly covered by this?
“Mantic looking at stls for upgrade kits and models that are not viable for them to produce commercially (resin models are expensive to make). Buying physical plastic kits are expected to remain more appealing than 3D printing your own.”
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It didn’t come up, but it’s not like Ronnie gave an exhaustive list either.
With Northern Alliance getting attention, plastic butchers mentioned and the next narritive “event” involving NA, NS and TK; it seems likely that both NA and NS will be getting some issues addressed.
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Flying Free dwarfs and Norther Alliance cross over works for me, but i have a good amount of NA and Free Dwarfs, and a big Raven too, so i might be a tiny bit biased.
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Oh yeah STLs, the solution to models not being available in plastic! I hope by that time there’ll be a print service in my country that isn’t 1: industrial scale only or 2: just some guy in basement. Hell I would rather buy the Vanguard PVCs if Mantic would just sell the bastards.
And Ronnie did mention how doing a kit with resin upgrades would be economically unviable, as a reason why some sets just won’t happen. Maybe he didn’t mean Huscarls, but what else could he mean? Half-elves? Same story! Seems to me like making a plastic kit happen would be the most reasonable but given that we’re now seeing even more new armies planned and spoiled…
Yeah. Maybe they’ll finish NA. Maybe Huscarls just get to live in limbo forever. Who knows at this point!
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As Vanguard RC lead, I’m personally pretty biased towards how Vanguard plays now. I love the game. The fact that some aspects are a bit complicated/convoluted is acknowledged though, and if I get the opportunity to contribute to a V2 will certainly be something I’d want to help shape into a bit leaner/smoother mechanics. What I wouldn’t want though is a “fantasy deadzone”. That’s probably too streamlined for my tastes, as I love the tension of meaningful decisions from a range of “no one best option” that you can get in Vanguard.
The narrative aspect is my favourite, really. Building up your characters over multiple missions, getting those emotional attachments. The histories of their escapades. The in jokes and grudges. I played all of Rangers of Shadowdeep over the last 18 months or so with a few friends, and while co-op rather than versus, it was the shared narrative with some friends, good times had together, that really made the experience shine. If Vanguard can get a group of friends together regularly, share adventures, laugh as the dice gods send their 8-train into the station, and get those players eager for the next session to roll around, I’ll be a happy camper.
There’s a ton of feedback the past and current RC have collected from the community, and discussed with ourselves, playtesters, and Mantic. When V2 does find space in the Mantic development cycle I’m pretty confident it’ll be able to step up from a good game loved by some, to a great game loved by many.
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With Ambush filling the “introductory version of KoW” role, I think that there will be less reason the make Vanguard something simple.
Having Vanguard as game in it’s own right is much more sensible.
I’m personally growing less keen on crunchy games though and would love a KoW derived game in the vein of One Page Rules’ “Age of Fantasy; Skirmish”.
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What? Necromunda having simple rules? Have you ever knocked a model off of a building with a scattering grenade throw? Lot’s of dice rolls for little to no effect.
Vanguard isn’t very clean, but plays way more fluid than Necromunda or Mortheim.
I hope they don’t change too much. It needs an overhaul, but I hope they leave the core mechanics mostly intact. Give it it’s deserved place. Vanguard is a game for KoW players, already owning lot’s of models, not for new players. And as Ronnie mentions, it excells in narrative play.
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Uh, no, just no! DS is a dungeon crawling boardgame. Leave it there and improve it further. You posted it before, I thought you were joking😳
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What is a “sci-fi tree” and how does it compare to a fantasy or contemporary tree?
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Sci Fi Trees may have teeth and may try to eat you? 
(Heard something along those lines in the pod as well. There s some venus fly trap lole thingy supposedly amongst other things 
)
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Great summary. Though you missed the talk about the historical book. 
Keep in mind that there is a podcast and a video of the conversation. So if you watch the video Ronnie actually shows the trees. There were some “jungle” style trees, including one which has a giant Venus fly trap in it. The trees are part of a larger project to bring out a large set of sci fi scatter terrain
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Thanks Rob!
The historical talk had a bit too much maybe to present as news IMO and not something that I am personally excited about.
There was talk of people writing a fan made historical supplement for 3rd edition here, if you’re keen.
Lots of stuff about legendary units and silly spells for big games
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Good for Rebs, it’s nice to see they’re getting some more attention.
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it is a crawler, but the DZ rules are a better base to start with as those can be a crawler wit 2D terrain as well a skirmish game
the base rules for Deadzone are a good mix between boardgame and miniature skirmish, they work well as solo/coop game against an “AI” and also as a player vs player game
Dungeon SAGA/Star SAGA/LoI are ok/good board games, but compete against better ones while at the same time the setting can be easily replaced (except for LoI it the generic one you get with every other boardgame)
going with a Deadzone like game and you can add Scenarios/Adventures to play like a Crawler but still can do a normal Skirmish game
and give it a focus on less models/heroes without grunts, so it does not compete with Vanguard and you can play Villains VS Heroes
No, I can’t agree. DS in it’s simplicity does a lot other crawlers don’t do. Yes, it’s pretty generic, which is actually what appealed to me.
I’m building a Dungeon Saga campaign atm, with a finale in Vanguard. It’s easy rules allow for houseruling and customization on an fairly easy level.
I’ve been looking through quite a lot of crawlers (Dungeoneers, DUN,etc.), most are overly complex compared with DS.
Still, DS is a story/quest driven boardgame, not a mission based skirmisher.
If you like to play Deadzone so much (and who wouldn’t, it’s great!), play Deadzone!
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I think that they dropped the ball with Vanguard in general. It doesn’t do a lot of the things that KoW proper does well. Army boxes coming with actual lists will be great for getting new people into the game.
3D printable models will be nice. I think that their plastics are a good deal, but some like the $80 hellstriker boxes when running 3-4 boxes isn’t unheard of is untenable. I am surprised that even Mantic is losing money on them. I have pretty much stopped buying actual models due to inflation hitting everything but 3D resin prices, but it is nice to hear that Mantic will be moving into that space so I can support them that way.
Perhaps the most exciting thing is the idea of the app having rankings on the horizon. I love Infinity’s ITS ranking system+army app+slick wiki which no other game does, so seeing KoW going in that direction will be great.
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Rambling vanguard chat alert! You were warned…
I’m mainly just happy to hear vanguard mentioned at all!
I love the game as it is, though I do think it can be improved, i will second the voices on here saying to keep the core mechanics.
- Mantic planning to revisit Vanguard in the long term.
- Halfling and Rift Forged Orcs coming for Vanguard.
These two items… number 1 I am ambivalent about, mainly good, but revisit soon please! I know they have a lot of games and are not huge, but i can dream right?! Most of all though, what does “long term” mean?
Number 2: at last! They should have come ages ago! No decent orcs and no decent elves in vanguard just now seems weird given they are the most common fantasy tropes, and I love the halflings, a really well executed faction in terms of models. Could elves be done using the league of infamy sculpts as a starter? Make sure the new starter sets are like the Basilean one: one starter set all that’s needed for entry level, command set completes the faction. Not like the goblins, where the starter set barely gets you a warband.
A bit of balancing for vanguard here and there would do wonders, could this be done more short term (probably not)
Ambush is the right way to get folk into kings, Vanguard should be (I would argue already is!) a great skirmish game in the Panithor universe.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=615&v=iaHte2PTePU&feature=emb_logo
The Sci-Fi Tree. On the right.
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