I don’t mention every Kickstarter that catches my eye. Honest. But here’s another one I’ve pledged for and which might interest you too: Fallen Frontiers.
It’s a biggish scale SF skirmish game in a box, with some lovely looking models. So far we have a few interesting snippets about the rules, and the beta version is promised for this week.
They’re not quite at their £90k funding target yet, which is partly why I’m mentioning this now. They are offering a free extra model (above) to everyone who pledges at £65+ level before they hit their funding. That’s a nice way to reward early adopters and at the current rate you’ve got a couple of days to jump in before they make it.
Just sayin’
🙂
Quirkworthy 
I’m in on this one. Grabbed an EB when it launched.
Looks cool been in on it since day one. Waiting for gameplay video and then will decide if I stay in. Got loads of deadzone terrain which works ok with it even though it’s a different scale
You should check out the Dust Tactics one and their awesome walkers 🙂
I’ve already got 2 of the original DT starters and loads of expansions and for whatever reason I never get round to playing it. More for the Ebay pile.
As there is a Dust KS going on right now I am curious as to why yours sits ready for ebay? Not enough strategy or does it bog down? I know tactics is a skirmish game but with the battlefield soon to be released what does Warpath or KOW do better?
I think DT is a perfectly OK game. Unfortunately, “OK” is not enough for me to get it on the table very often – there’s just too much competition. It’s too light and too luck based to really satisfy as a main game for a session, and when I want a light filler I’ve got a large number of other games to pick from that don’t take up nearly as much of my limited shelf space. If I had infinite space then I’d happily keep it to play once a year (though I currently play it even less than that). As it stands I need the room more.
To me, it’s not a comparison with Warpath or KOW as I don’t play either of them regularly either. Even if I did, it’s not competing against them directly. It’s a board game, and has to find its space among them. Dust Warfare, which would be the direct competitor, wasn’t my cup of tea at all. Sold those rules a while back.
The issue here is of the general raising of standards in available games, my decreasing amount of playing time, and lack of storage space for all the many shiny toys 😉
I feel like we’re reaching a saturation point in the market for new 28mm Sci-Fi games. Here’s what I’m tracking as “up and coming” / in the works, in no particular order:
Fallen Frontiers
Last Saga
War Zone: Resurrection (ok, +1 for nostalgia)
War Prime
Total Extinction
Gates of Antares
Ruined Planet
Aliens vs. Predators
Thon
That’s not counting the lovely Deadzone / Warpath, or some of the other existing games (after the GW gorilla), like Infinity and Mercs. I am eager for a good contender to the GW throne, and love having a variety of choice, but I’m afraid that the 28mm tabletop market won’t support them all. I fear they will fracture the runner-up market, making it less likely that there will be a widespread alternative to 40k, instead just a whole bunch of games with small niche followings.
Jake, since this is your world, do you think all these games have a chance?
Fallen Frontiers isn’t 28mm. The prototypes are around 40mm, though as they’re 3D printed from a CAD sculpt they could be reduced if Scale Games wanted to.
That doesn’t seem like much of a distinction, considering most 28mm aren’t really 28mm. Here’s an image from their KS:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/002/084/080/582c6ac5c23c84e3804b99afae3f6bfc_large.jpg?1401631749
Their regular human is taller than a Terminator despite being on a slightly shorter base. Put him next to an Imperial Guardsmen and you’ll see a bigger difference. Even if a regular GW human comes in at 32mm, that still makes the FF equivalent 25% bigger.
I have to agree with Mike here. I don’t think the size difference is enough to set it apart. Put another way, it’s a very weak USP.
As to Mike’s original question, no I don’t think they’ll all be around in 3 years. There will, however, be another wave behind these, and more behind that.
This isn’t the new normal, it’s always been like this. There have always been loads more games than most people played, and it’s the internet and Kickstarter that are making them more noticeable. Looking back at 1980s game catalogue, there are all manner of games that almost nobody heard of. I think KS just makes it easier to get them out in the world. Keeping them supported, building a player base and keeping them going in the long run is another matter, which is why I said 3 years. Many will have faded by then.
The big difference is who is behind them. Do they have any marketing money and connections already? Any distribution network? Sadly, in many cases it’s more about that sort of thing than whether it’s a great game or not. So Wyrd’s Ruined Planet (dull name) should do well because they’ll have enough fanboys to get a big start. Gates of Antares will happen and will do fine as it’s by Rick and Warlord. They can support it for long enough for it to survive even if it doesn’t do brilliantly at the start because they have the money from other projects. And, of course, it might race out of the starting gate all on its own. They have done this sort of thing before…
AVP and Warzone will probably do OK because they’ve got known licenses, even though Prodos themselves are relatively new. On the other hand, I’d guess that Total Extinction and Last Saga might struggle in the long run with less than 300 backers each on their KS campaign. War Prime and THON are yet to run their KS, though the little they’ve said and shown so far doesn’t make them stand out to me.
Fallen Frontiers is another newish company, so they’ve got that against them surviving. On the plus side, they are only a week into their campaign and already have more backers than both TE and LS combined. That bodes well. When the GoA KS was cancelled they had 1008 backers (FF currently have 632), but asked for more than 3 times the funding. I get the feeling that Scale Games are on the cusp between being reasonably safe and having a hard time. It’ll depend on the guys running it, their long term commitment, and what they want out of it.
I’m holding my breath, honestly.
I pledged for FF but the more I watch it the less I’m enthusd. The rules will mkae or break for me.
I’m waiting for rules too. Their last comment on this is that they’ll upload the beta version over the weekend. Not long now.
Speaking of rules, when did DZ drop their rulebook? Like a month before delivery?
What do you mean? There were beta rules up during the KS IIRC.
I mean the full rulebook. I just wanted to know for Mars Attacks since the first book was already done IIRC.
Full rules are likely to come after a KS finishes. After all, getting all that sorted is usually part of why the KS is there in the first place. There could be pdfs to the backers in advance of the physical copies. I can’t recall what was promised.
The printed MA stuff is just behind the next DZ wave, which is almost upon us. Lots of containers of interesting goodies bobbing about on the briny at the moment 😉
I sure hope so. I want to debate you on rule decisions and interaction of game mechanics. DZ has been an absolute joy to play these last few months. I only played it to get a feel for MA but I really do love the complexity of the game more so than any game of 40k. I can safely say you’re an awesome rules designer, Jake.
We’re having a new player (to wargaming period) join us tomorrow for a game so we’ll see how newbie friendly DZ is, I’ll let you know the litmus test.
Thanks Anthony.
MA is quite a bit simpler than DZ, with a higher body count. Then again, you’d expect that. MA is a “comic book” universe (compared to DZ’s slightly more serious tone), and the job of the non-heroes on both sides is mainly to get killed in droves to make the heroes look good 😉
Of course, simple doesn’t mean simplistic.
Of course. I was hoping to homebrew some vehicles into the game based off the Patriot’s stat line. Empress Miniatures makes an amazing Humvee/Stryker model and those are reasonably expected to survive a Martian attack as opposed to a proper tank. Feels weird that the only suitable deterent to a giant robot is a time-travelling knight and possibly the Dish Weapon employed by the NV.
Don’t forget the missile launchers. That’s quite tasty against the big guy too.
Oh I forgotten about our missile toting friend. That does seem a little more reasonable. How does he fare against the bugs? They’re essentially gooey vehicles as well, right?
Missile launchers are designed to take out vehicles, and will merrily ignore bug armour too. Particularly useful against heavily armoured vehicles though.
Cheers. Were there any significant difference between the Ants and Spiders?
I was sad to see the Wasp Crawdaddy didn’t make the list.
I’ve just done one stat for giant mutant bug as that was all that was on my to do list. Dunno how many different types they made in the end. I’ve only seen a single 3D print in passing. That doesn’t mean much though, as I’ve not seen a fair bit of the range in its final form.
Missing all the bugs was a shame. That’s the nature of Kickstarter though – you never know how far it’ll go.
Hi, I just got this link, did you contact Mantic about the bugs and their stats? It would be sad if they have really only togeher the same stats.
Ah. Perhaps that’s something to look into if the range exapnds, it’d be nice to see some diversity within the set. Does the sculpts such a disservice if they’re all interchangable.
I was looking at picking some warzone stuff up.. now looking at this i’m not so sure. Dam you mr Thornton.
Knowing you Nathan, you’ll get both. You’re almost as bad as me 😉
I picked up some of the Warzone stuff at the Game Expo, and I’ll be doing some unboxings soon.
Cool looking forward to that mate. 🙂 And yeah i too find it hard to say No.. to shiny new toys. I’ve just pre-ordered All quiet on the martian front. 🙂
Love the Tri pods.
Beta rules are up 🙂
Wow when i last looked they were on 93.000 plus and funded. Now its under 89.000 funding at 90.000 why have so many backers droped out ?
The lack of transparency over the material the minis will be in caused a loss of confidence and these things have a tendency to snowball. Itm’s reaching the stage where cancelling and returning with a more developed pitch might be the best course of action.
Oh dear 😦 … but then if your not 100% sure on the product your trying to sell. Gamers will be discouraged and move on.