I have been following Mantic's rise from the beginning, even before I started playing my beloved Skaven. I found them quite by accident while surfing for Dungeons and Dragons miniatures for a skeleton heavy encounter I was running. I ordered a box, and even though I never managed to build them until about a year later, I was impressed. The models were well constructed and were full of character. The skeletons had a comical look to them, not Saturday morning cartoony, more like the skeletons from the old Sinbad movies I used to watch on Saturday afternoon.
Since this initial purchase I have built up a sizable collection of both Undead and Dwarves. I had hoped these miniatures would supplement my meager Dwarven and Vampire Kings forces if I ever decide to leave my Skaven behind for a day.
Aside from the actual models, Mantic has done an amazing job trying to build the game as a whole. Not only are the rules and army lists freely available on their website, they encourage the community to create army lists for other armies their competitors produce. I have an excellent Skaven army list created by the community.
I should mention two things about the rules, the current rulebook is about 56 pages or so, including 8 army lists, and second, the rules are written by Alessio Cavatore, for those that don't know who that is, he is the man who wrote the current versions of Warhammer and 40K. Oh, and even though the rulebook is going to be released in hardcover, Mantic is going to provide all the subscribers of their newsletter with an electronic copy! I hope this is an indication that the rules will continue to be freely available, I suspect it will.
I am going to be writing more about Mantic Games, and Kings of War in the very near future but for now I am just happy bringing the message that Mantic has finally arrived! Now hopefully I will be able to find a player on this side of the ocean!
