Play as the baddies for once: KS League of Infamy by Mantic, last 24 hours!

[eldarveteran 249xp 1]

Last 24 hours of the Kickstarter for a great game by Mantic. Played this at the Open Day and had a blast! Some sweet minis as well, crazed gunslinging dwarf one of my favourites. Evil characters will be getting rules to cross over into the Kings of War games.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/leagueofinfamy/league-of-infamy/description

Las

[eldarveteran 249xp 1]

Of course there is also this mini ready for my orc war band…

[kantor72 4854xp 1]

I was lucky enough to get invited to a playtest back in May.It was the funniest time i’ve ever spent gaming,getting into the scenario,stealing from the pointy ears only to have everyone turn on each other,stealing each others stuff and getting off the board.Favourite character for me is Sharpclaw the Ratkin Brute,but there are several running close now.I thoroughly recommend checking this out,you’ll have an absolute blast.

Edit:Shreddin’ Bhetee,the Ogre Bard in the post above is one of the Villains running Sharpclaw close for top favourite.

[phaidknott 7023xp 1]

Sorry but after my experience with Star Saga (and the poor quality of the expansions), I’ll not touch another Mantic KS again. Looks like this one has been going backwards of late (more an issue with timing with the Definace KS as well as the Bones KS going on at the same time). Not saying this will be a bad game (heard many positives about TWD and HB), but Mantic can be a bit erratic at times, and seeing as this one isn’t going to hit big, got a gut feeling this one is going to end up on the “backburner” like Star Saga did (with Mantic fulfilling the Terrain Crate KS BEFORE Star Saga, even tho the Terrain Crate KS was launched AFTER the Star Saga one) 🙁

[osbad 4278xp 0]

Seems to be going backwards now.  Bit of a shame but I can understand why.  I was thinking about backing it, but frankly it just seems rather underwhelming.   There’s one basic story – “Who’s going to be the first traitor?” and the mechanics are disappointingly mundane.  It’s a game that feels like it has been written to hire rather than for passion.  Even the models are just ok rather than epic.  I really wanted to like it, but it was not to be.

[ced1106Participant 6224xp 0]

I’d like to know how Mantic’s supporting Dungeon Saga, myself. I’m sure Mantic will continue to support Walking Dead and Kings of War, but dunno about them having two duneoncrawler lines.

Anyway, Gloomhaven is enough semi-coop for me. The game doesn’t really have any backstabbing, but don’t you dare pick up the Loot token I had my eye on! (:

[fightcitymayorParticipant 2104xp 0]

Mantic has said they consider Dungeon Saga to be complete.  They took some new ideas into Star Saga (their sci-fi dungeon crawl) but League Of Infamy was meant to be “the new hotness” but judging by the Kickstarter that might not be the case.  I wouldn’t put it past them to maybe release a Dungeon Saga Version 2.0 proper with upgraded minis and some of the new ideas they baked into the Star Saga line.  It seems like a lot of folks would have preferred that simple update instead of the new ideas presented in League Of Infamy.

[phaidknott 7023xp 0]

Well they didn’t support Star Saga after release (rather treated it as the red headed stepchild). a lot of backers weren’t happy with the second wave minis (those in the expansions) that had soft detail. Even Mantic themselves weren’t happy and said they wouldn’t use that factory again (although this didn’t stop them shipping the “bad” miniatures to backers as fulfilled). Was really let down with Star Saga, and Mantic’s continual rolling KickStarters means they don’t tend to support games continually as they do with Kings of War. On the games with a bought in IP they have to move fast (for example the one with Topps for Mars Attacks timed out, and other than the remnants of stuff in the warehouse you’ll not see them being produced again). So with TWD and Hellboy they tend to prioritise them on releasing stuff (from past experience), stuff that’s their own IP they might let slide….

But wondering if the KS bubble has finally started to burst, no longer are we seeing multi-million pound KS schemes funding as much as we used to……perhaps companies (such as Mantic) that rely on KS (hard to believe they’ve done 18 KS schemes so far) might need to look elsewhere for generating interest and marketing AND restoring customers faith that the game will be supported down the road (and players who were not around at the time of a KS can still buy into the game).

 

[maledrakhParticipant 11996xp 0]

There might also be a case that this is a really bad time to have such a kickstarter, seeing as several other big miniatures KSes such as Oathsworn, Zombicide 2nd ed and Bones 5 ran during the same period, meaning many of the regular KS whales might be tapped out or choosing other KSs as more value for money. Also the run up to the holiday season might be seen as not the best of times.

This on top of a general sense of Mantics earlier KS’s having an array of issues (true or not, it gets mentioned often), coupled with the recent release of Kings of War 3rd ed taking the attention of the fantasy crowd.

A typical complaint I heard was that the minis included in LofI were not too interesting neither for KoW nor Dungeon Saga use.

full disclosure, I went all in on LofI.

 

[phaidknott 7023xp 0]

Don’t get me wrong, Mantics first KS Dreadball is still a firm favourite (and was a runaway success on KS for the time) and is still played regularly. But they do seem to skip between projects and you have to treat them as a “flash in the pan release” when it comes to their own IP (although I do feel they support bought in IPs as it’s such an investment for them they HAVE to keep the ball rolling). But recently with Mantics own IPs it’s risky if they continue to support it past the KS releases (Dungeon Saga could have been SO much more). I’ve got Dungeon Saga, and Star Saga, but these weren’t really supported past the initial launch (which made me wary of going in for another Mantic Dungeon crawler).

The competition from other KS schemes is probably the primary reason why this one struggled (rather than the product itself), but then there’s so many KS schemes launching these days that the “big boys” of KS schemes are always going to be stomping all over the little guys (although Reaper surprises me with their Bones line as they are a small company).

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