Other Wargames Manufacturers News: Mantic is determined to beat GW at selling something

Yes, the duke of brionne. I have him buried somewhere

 

Wargames Atlantic has posted Matthews painted version of an atlantic digital grognard cavalryman.

 

Statum Atlanticum XXIII

https://wargamesatlantic.com/blogs/news/statum-atlanticum-anno-mmxxiii

 

On one hand I was not impressed at the idea of WA charging for votes for your favourite sets, but on the other, allowing these vote payments to become vouchers for use on their site is a nice gesture and effectively allows you to get a free box if you put enough votes in, either for another set on their online store or for the one you vote for when it comes out.

However it's only a good idea to use it if you really want a particular set - currently I'm not fully interested in most of their upcoming sets. Only the Decline and Fall ones are of potential interest to me and I'm not going to commit to buying any of them until I can see the sprues and work out if they'd be worth buying for my British/Welsh. The only current set I'm drawn to is the Goths but they've just arrived here in Britain so I'm going to see if I can get one from one of my favourite model shops to support them and to get the box in hand.

Shame they've got rid of the old release schedule in order to facilitate this, because you can't actually see the state of development of any of the sets anymore, including whether they've now been fast-tracked, although perhaps they will be removed from Vox Populi when this happens.

 

If they get fast tracked there will most likely be a section and updates.

Remember, this is v1.0 of this particular system, as far as looks and features go.

As to the squamata legionaries. I can guarantee you will want them for your British/Welsh.

 

Hmm, from what I've seen and read most British/Welsh heavy troops wore chainmail like their Saxon enemies - Squamata was only worn by the particularly Romanised units which disappeared as Roman Britannia broke up into the different British kingdoms with varying levels of pro/anti Roman attitude.

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, though.

 

I haven't done enough research into late Roman Britain to give you a definitive answer on that for my own research.

You asked about the decline in Fall kits in the vox populi system. This is of course one of the decline and fall kits available. I happen to have insider knowledge, hence why I said I can guarantee you it will be a good set for your decline and fall needs, although I completely understand if the historical authenticity makes one particular kit unusable.

 

New products coming in February to McDougall Designs

A small bit of news:

I have placed an order, which has shipped, with a new distributor carrying some favorite model lines. In short, this is what will be coming to the store around the beginning of February:

1. Gripping beast plastics
2. Gripping beast sprues
3. Conquest: Last argument of kings
4. Frostgrave (only the rulebook for now, but i can special order the range)
5. Perry Miniatures plastics
6. A limited selection of Perry miniatures sprues.

All of these ranges will be available for special orders as well.

All of the above ranges will be priced just under retail due to my margins being lower with this distributor.

Sprue options will be priced fairly and will be comparable with full-box rates.

 

Teasers from wargames atlantic digital

 

These are the Wargames Atlantic landskneckt ogres

 

Greg for scale

 

newest teaser from atlantic digital

 

Oh Gods, not a rip-off of Sisters of Battle!

WA really have shite priorities in what to make miniatures for.

I mean, they could have a use as Protoss-type aliens if they were given more appropriate heads and weapons and the wings taken off, but I'd much rather have seen WA go down that route to begin with, rather than attempt to rip-off bolter babes that already have a sizeable GW range that everyone likes.

 

Frankly these look nothing like sisters of battle.

 

Agreed. They look completely different from one another.

 

That's not entirely true:

• The unhelmeted heads have the same 'bob' haircuts adopted by Battle Sisters
• The wings on the jump packs are somewhat reminiscent of those employed by the Seraphim:

Not to mention that while the armour looks different, it doesn't get away from the fact that those are still WA's own attempt to riff off the 'power-armoured babe soldier' trope, and appeal to Sisters of Battle fans, which is a pointless waste of time, money and effort given the GW range is so popular.

If those models had been some sort of cool alien race instead, then I would have no issue with them at all. Hell I'd be in all favour of them if they were aliens with Protoss vibes (given there are no existing Protoss miniatures), but no, they are just an attempt to take a spin on an idea that already exists in miniature, something WA have been doing a lot with their Fantasy range as well.

Such great potential let down by futile attempts to compete with other companies at selling existing stuff, when they could be exploiting subjects that other companies haven't bothered to instead.

 

Outside of basic things like "woman in armour", they are extremely different in terms of aesthetics. The armour styles are utterly and completely distinct from one another and the non-GW sculpts are entirely lacking the religious overtones that makeup the trademark look of the Sisters of Battle.

 

As I said above, superficial aesthetics still don't get away from the fact that WA are still copying the trope, the idea, the concept, which is a waste of their time and effort.

The models are pointless and WA are wasting their potential, end of story.

 

By trope/idea you mean "woman in space armour"? That's a pretty broad and general idea.

 

No, the 'woman in power armour with cropped bob haircut and badass attitude' trope, which Sisters have dominated for years and these are now copying. They don't have to look exactly the same to copy the idea - if someone were encouraged to use these in 40K, what army would they use these in? Sisters of Battle, because these models are still women in some sort of elite heavy armour with futuristic firearms, short haircuts and aggressive, zealous attitudes.

I can't understand how you can't see these as anything other than an unnecessary rip-off of an existing concept, when they could have been something new and different, if tweaked only slightly (getting rid of the wings and making them some sort of alien).