Hello Reader!
“Stay a while and listen”… yep I could begin today’s article quoting Deckard Cain’s famous words as I believe you’re about to join me in an incredible adventure after hearing reading what I have to say today. I’ve already drunk the Kool-Aid when it comes to Mantic Games’ newest project on Kickstarter, “Dungeon Saga: The Dwarf King’s Quest”, so you might as well join me in a quest for high adventure (cue in the “Anvil of Crom” theme).
If you’re one of my few regular readers you’ll know I’ve taken a renewed interest in Mantic’s products ever since the infamous GW Embargo episode which made it a lot harder for us Brazilians to source out their kits (and their increased prices which are even more expensive here given that one pound is worth four of our Brazilian Reais – and one dollar is worth 2.80 of our currency – making it aluxury hobby these days). That and the fact that Mantic’s products are looking nicer and nicer as each new release is rolled out made me want to visit them back in January 2014, to find out more about them and their products.
I’ve recently published an article about that visit in which I mentioned Mantic had plans to roll out another KS campaign this year which not only they have already done, but it was also funded in incredible 4 minutes and has accrued at the moment I’m writing this over two hundred and twenty six thousand dollars, smashing new strecth goals even as I am writing this.
Different from the other wargaming genre products from Mantic Games the “Dungeon Saga: The Dwarf King’s Quest” game is yet another Board Game developed by the company, more specifically a “dungeon crawler” (a kind of game in which the players get to explore a dungeons fighting and, hopefully, defeating monsters and accruing treasures and rewards) with a fantastic new line of miniatures. As I had mentioned this new game revisits an older intellectual property of the company, the “Dwarf King’s Hold” game.
The heroes of the game ready themselves to face the undead.
The original “Dwarf King’s Hold” had a modest origin as a derivate product of Mantic’s original miniature line. At the time of its development, Mantic needed new products which used the miniature line they already produced for Kings of War (increasing their revenue and cutting down their costs – they’re a company after all and need to turn profit by the end of the day) and so they came up with a dungeon exploring game which pitted two races agains each other. The game had two versions “Dwarf King’s Hold: Green Menace”, featuring orcs against elves, and “Dwarf King’s Hold: Dead Rising”, which pitted dwarves against undead (and marked the evil Mortibris first appearance).
Despite its origin the original game was a big success and now receives a fresh look (or a new chapter) with new rules, new fleshed out background, gorgeous newly designed miniatures and Mantic’s increasing know how in board games, “Dungeon Saga: The Dwarf King’s Quest” has all the hallmarks of a success in the making (and a villain making a comeback).
Some of the brand new sculpts for this new game.
The necromancer Mortibris and his retinue of undead.
Written by the same Jake Thornton who authored the original game, “Dungeon Saga: The Dwarf King’s Quest” is a two to five player game featuring the classic combat of good against evil, giving one of the players the opportunity to don Mortibris mantle while the other players incarnate one of the heroes in their quest to vanquish evil and thwart the necromancer’s plans. There are four available heroes to begin with but there’s surely more to come in the days ahead.
The “Dungeon Saga: The Dwarf King’s Quest” prototype.
The campaign is being held once more on Kickstarter and has a fixed pledge value of 100 dollars which entitles backers access to the basic game featuring pre-assembled colored plastic miniatures (not pre-painted ones mind you) and colored board tiles (ensuring you’re ready to play right out of the box), some neat Kickstarter extras and all the unlocked stretch goals (that if we judge from previous Mantic campaigns are going to be plenty,easily doubling that value over the course of the funding period). Shipping is free in the United States and the UK, with separate values to the rest of the world depending on where in the globe you live (it is a whopping40 dollars for those of us in Africa and South America).
As I’ve mentioned on this article I’ve already taken the plunge and pledged (even with the expensive shipping) as this game looks too good to miss. Some might complain this is yet another take on what is a saturated genre, but the miniatures once more did it for me. Mantic is also famed by now for adding great value to their KS campaigns and I can see a LOT of great stuff coming in the future as the campaign develops (and Ronnie Renton, Mantic’s owner, has already assured us there’s plenty to be unlocked). By now we already got another two extra adventurers, twelve extra monster miniatures, and an extra monster villain with another soon to be unlocked.
The unlocked content thus far.
So if you’ve also interested in exploring the ruined dwarven hold in search of the Tome of Valandor and defying the evil Mortibris and his hordes of undead, waste no time and go check out Mantic’s new campaign on Kickstarter and also their neat video for the campaign (available here for your convenience):
Over and out.
The Painting Frog 