Myself and redben went down to Maelstorm games two weekends ago to play one or two games, check out Maelstrom games and see the guys at Mantic games (oh and redben had an order placed)

Mantic are probably known to most readers of this website for their extremely well priced figures like- http://www.manticgames.com/Shop-Home/Elves/Army-Deals/Product/Elven-Kings-Cohort.html Yes thats just 70 quid for

• 5 x metal Hero figures, including a mighty Elven King, his royal Standard Bearer, the Mage-Queen and her pet cat, and the proud Prince Nuadalor
• 2 x units of 20 Spearmen, including command group
• 2 x units of 20 Bowmen, including command group
• 20 x Scouts
• 2 x Bolt Throwers, and crew.

Games workshop would give you 32 spearmen, 32 archers for £70.20 So you’d get 8 more spearmen, 8 more archers, twenty scouts, two repeater bolt throwers and five metal figures for less money. Not forgetting Mantic’s innovative self-contained carry case system where each boxed set essentially comes with its own carry case. Of course there are one or two (minor) issues like not being able to use them at official GW tournaments and the design of the figures is not to everybody’s liking. That is some people are used to and prefer games workshops more heroic scale elves and it’s a matter of opinion whether you prefer the heroic style of games workshop or the the more I guess realistic proportions of the mantic elves. For the record I can see both sides but I don’t think anyone could doubt mantics quality of minatures and certainly you can’t doubt their prices- I make it Mantic games builds you an army for your generic fantasy game half the price of games workshop.

Anyways enough of what you already know, for me the real plus point was seeing the Mantic guys, their new race (undead) and chatting about their design philosophy. It’s clear Ronnie (head honcho at Mantic games) has a great love for the hobby and has a particular goal to see big armies clashing on the battlefield. Now I’m not that big a fan of 5,000 point mash ups on the battlefield but even I think warhammer is too much about the Big gribblies and special unit’s and too less about core. Core is often now seen as the must take 3 units and less as the the core of your army. The real core these days is the special unit’s. I’m not sure I like that and I certainly agree with Ronnie’s desire to see more troops on the battlefield. Their army design philosophy certainly facilitates building large armies at a cheap price- great news too for those wishing to build that sort of army for an affordable price.

We saw the new undead (alas no pics) and I’m pretty sure both tomb king and vampire counts players could use stuff from their releases, or the old school undead army from yester-year or indeed an army for another game. Ronnie also got a nasty cough and revealed the next few armies coming. You can probably find out the next one coming if you do any digging yourself.

I recomend anyone who can to attend one of Mantic games demo’s as they are all a great bunch of guys with drive and enthusiasm for the hobby and Ronnie can’t help himself talk about the new releases as he’s so excited about them, it appeared to myself and Ben. Personally I’m very looking forward to their third army release and Mantic are an excellent source for your ‘other army’ you know your second or third (or more!)army that you you always liked the idea of but didn’t want to make it your main army, well with Mantic you can collect it cheaply and play at your gaming club/friends.

I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on the Mantic guys and quite possibly be parting cash for some of their (censored) figures. It will also be nice to see whether they manage to hold a mantic figures tournament, though that won’t be for a couple of years yet. Still it sounds a great idea, with lots of core and an army that doesn’t cost the earth to collect.

P.S I did try to convice them to do a Dogs of War army but suprisingly they were less than enthralled about the idea of losing thousands of pounds, sadly.