Review of Mantic's Skeletons and Ghouls by Disciple of Nagash

[Lord Reginer]

The Vampire is on a GW base

the bases are the same size from Mantic, and i'll agree with every thing Vlad said minus the ghouls. I prefer Gw's however they have to be easier to rank up

 

[Xaret]

They look impressive, anyone looked into the wraiths or cavalry or anything else like that?

 

[IvorTangrean]

anyone looked into the wraiths or cavalry or anything else like that?

They are just pre-order stuff at the moment but I want them as the skeletons are awesome.

 

[Xaret]

Ah ok cool... Cheers

I'm currently painting over my Tomb kings cavalry's sand bases. It's horribly painstaking but there is no way I'm buying the black knight models when I have heavy cavalry lying around doing nothing.

So I figured the cavalry would fit nicely as black knights. The art for them seems to indicate they will be

 

[IvorTangrean]

So I figured the cavalry would fit nicely as black knights. The art for them seems to indicate they will be

Yeah with the exception of the catapult they seem to be making an entire alternate model range for Vampire Counts.

 

[Xaret]

Wooo go Mantic

And I should think if they do pretty much create an entire VC range they might get a few willing customers from CN :L

 

[Belly]

Mantic stuff is more fun than GW's I think as well... And the pricing rocks, I have 60 skellies and 50 ghouls from them
Zombies are out soon as well

 

[Santawraith]

ohhh zombies I cant wait for some of those. thanks for the heads up belly

 

[VvC]

I really like their idea, sell reasonably priced models for a game system that "happens" to have pretty expensive models, while still maintain some quality. Albeit, GW does their minis incredibly well, some of them are missing an air of individuality or action that a model range that pricey (and for a game system as intense as theirs) should have. o_o

That's why I love companies like Mantic, Rackham, and Reaper. They propose alternatives to us that have sooo much more character and are cheaper then GW.

Go Go Mantic!

 

[ater]

Just started to open my batch from Mantic Games & the figures look good. The metal figures are a little bent from poor handling from some angry postal worker but the plastics are fine.

The line up includes,
10 wraiths
20 ghouls
30 skeletons
10 Revenants
1 Undead BSB
pic here

My comment about this purchase is the Revenants are quite tiny with their mounts but it'll give my opponents a laugh.

Going to start building them now.

Ater

 

[VvC]

I just wish they had more models, though I want to see some human models...

 

[IvorTangrean]

I think they said that they have no plans to make a human army at this time, sorry

 

[Santawraith]

But ivor humans make such great victums.

 

[Axel Slice]

I'm unsure looking at the sprues, but is it possible to model all of the skeleton unit (bar the command group) with Spears, or do the couple of torso's with hand weapons make this impossible? how easy would it be to cut those weapons away and replace them?

 

[Dogmar]

Axel, I dont know about the mantic skeletons being convertable that much, but the ghouls are. There are some bits in the sprue looking like meat cleavers and kind of fist-weapons that can easily replace the hands that are already attached to the body to give the unit a little more variety. Maybe something similar can be done to the skeletons, I dont know. I dont have those.

As many others said before, great review DoN! Although I dont like ghouls as my main infantry (skeletons are simply fluffier imo) I definitely want a unit of those in my army. According to 8th rules as they currently are I wont have much of a choice anyway but to include at least one unit next to my skeletons who will carry banners and deny steadfast, since they are unarguably better at killing stuff.

What I would really like to see is a review of the revenant knights and the new zombies as soon as they are out. Im sure many others would appreciate that as well because it makes the decision on which models to purchase a lot easier. So if you have the time, DoN, keep up the good work!

What Im a little worried about is, if the assistants in the GW shops (from time to time I jump in there to play some guys other than the ones in my gaming group) will deny me to bring mantic minis to the table. Im currently planning on mixing the GW ghouls (as I already own about 20) and the mantic ones in my army. What do you think, would that lead to problems?

 

[The Red Warden]

I mix mine in with my GW Skeleton units to bulk em up.

No one has noticed yet

of course I never mention I mix em either.

 

[Mioum]

I'm unsure looking at the sprues, but is it possible to model all of the skeleton unit (bar the command group) with Spears, or do the couple of torso's with hand weapons make this impossible? how easy would it be to cut those weapons away and replace them?

It's not possible to arm every Skeletons with spears. You have 7 speas on a sprue with 10 models. But to me it would be enough spears to make the unit clearly armed with spears, a sword here and a axe there would be fine, especially for Skeletons. There's only 1 torso per sprue that would be hard to convert with a different weapon, he's wielding his axe against his body. All other are either open handed or it's just a matter of cutting and swaping. There's also a broken spear that you could use if you really need to.


I've assembled 20 Skeletons and 20 Revenants so far, and I'm in the middle of my 20 Ghouls, and I must say I quite like Mantic undead so far!

Skeletons are nice and easy to build. Nicely posed, some static poses but that's perfect for regiment, I hate to have overly dynamic models all around. Much less piece than GW Skeletons thus less mould line to remove and it makes the model sturdier in the end! The Skeletons rising from the ground and the undead dog are very nice 'extra' piece, actually making extra models for the unit!

Revenants (or Grave Guard ) are equally nice. Only small dissapointement is that there's only 6 'real' Revenants per sprue of 10, the other 4 are the same body as Skeletons. There's a few armour pieces to glue over them wich is a nice touch, but it's still not the same. Not a deal breaker though. But I really like the design of those, the runic armour look is quite nice.

Ghouls are what caught my eyes the most at first, as I was not a fan of the monsters-looking Ghouls from GW. Now these Ghouls looks more like humans cannibals. The Ghouls are only 2 per spue, so will repeat much more than the other units, but a few conversion or extra pieces from your bitz box should be enough. Vary the paint scheme a bit and they should look just fine in the end

Also, all models are much more stable, due to the solid base giving them more weight, and the models standing more centered on the base and more upright. I have 20 models on a movement tray, and moving it around a bit carelessly and it's hard to make them fall or topple. I can angle the whole tray more than 45 degrees and still standing fine there!

And finally there's the price, half of GW price means you have double the models you would get from GW, and comming from a new company that just started up versus a well established company just make GW looks like fools really. I wonder if GW will continue to raise their price every 6 month to "fight back", but I wish them luck because everything I can replace with Mantic will get my vote! Only those that don't like the style or design might be turned off, but otherwise it just add variety, wich is something that fit well with undead!

 

[Count Lasombra]

My armies going to be almost entirely Mantic,and other alternative mini's.I doubt it will ever see the inside of a GW store.
Good thing I have a battlefield in my livingroom .

 

[Master Vampire]

My armies going to be almost entirely Mantic,and other alternative mini's.I doubt it will ever see the inside of a GW store.
Good thing I have a battlefield in my livingroom .

So you drink coffee every morning with the zombies?

 

[Count Lasombra]

Every night, I'm nocturnal.
I actually haven't got any zombies yet.I was about to get the GW battalion,but now mantic is coming out w/zombies.I like mantic's better,and since I'm already getting my ghouls from them there's no reason to get it anymore.
I've been playing with borrowed dead :zombie:
Until now

 

[TobinRoss89]

I dont know maybe im weird but I like then games workshop ones way better. I got a few free mantic sprues from Bols con and I just didnt like the skeletons anywhere near as much. Though I will give mantic this, there bone bags dont make me want to kill off all my thralls after having to build 10 of them.

 

[Count Lasombra]

I don't really like the mantic skellies either.I'll probably forgoe them altogether and just use gravegaurd as my skeletal infantry and ghouls as zombies on steroids.

 

[Mioum]

It's understandable that some might not like them as much, they are going for a different visual style from what GW is doing, like the angry looking skull instead of a more realistic one. I personally think that some variety with the undead is a good thing, having one kind of skeletons can get boring! Something that most other race can't easily do (like using some Mantic Elves with GW Elves might look wrong), so undead can get away with it more easily and field more than one style of design without much problem!

 

[TobinRoss89]

It's understandable that some might not like them as much, they are going for a different visual style from what GW is doing, like the angry looking skull instead of a more realistic one. I personally think that some variety with the undead is a good thing, having one kind of skeletons can get boring! Something that most other race can't easily do (like using some Mantic Elves with GW Elves might look wrong), so undead can get away with it more easily and field more than one style of design without much problem!

I have seen some armies that use both and they look alright together it does change things up. But lets not forget the pricesof mantic. There amazing! If I didnt get at least 30% of gw at my store then I would be sold at mantic.

 

[Santawraith]

Im with you tobin But I personaly love the new mantic models Especially the ghouls they fit in better with all my old old ghouls. I got 10 mantic skeletons now they are intresting a nice change, but I like the old skeletons of gw better. (not the new edition) But as a collector I found more undead to buy with mantic and they are not that bad. easy assembly, lots of extra's. I love this little dog who matches my old chainmail skeleton dog so well. I look forward to seeing how the rest of there undead look.