The Mantic Vault STLs

[Kelly_]

This afternoon Mantic opened a new service called the Vault to offer 3D printing files from their older resin pieces.  The stls are unsupported so they do need some work to adapt them into one’s individual printer but the files are very high definition, and probably are the exact ones from Mantic’s resin production masters.
https://www.manticgames.com/news/mantic-vault-faqs/

The majority of the first month's release of stls are the Armada starter ships, but they also have Kings of War units and upgrade options, and it looks like their roadmap will be rotating between their different game ranges each month.

Mantic is the first major publisher that I am aware of that is embracing stls to this extent, but they have stated that hard plastic production is continuing separately, and the only Vault releases are from resin originals or add-on pieces... if the resins are all three years past release like the Armada starter ships included in launch, this could be a reasonable hybrid business model.

[Tactalvanic]

Its interesting to see, and will watch with interest.

As they say its primarily resin back catalogue so as such not their most "current" releases.

Add this to the mymini stl market and other sites, there is an ever increasing STL option out there.

[Elbows]

I think it was Privateer Press that talked about doing a print-to-order system a few years ago.  Their game 'Warmahordes' has been struggling big time.  They mentioned wanting to create a network of approved printers (individuals or small companies, I'm not sure) throughout the world.

Their plan was simple; you order something from their site...and the nearest (geographically) authorized printer would get the order, print the mini and ship.

It's smart for a small struggling company - probably not a strong enough base to work for companies the size of Games Workshop.  The benefits are pretty obvious (no need for warehousing, a 'nearby' shipper, etc.).  The risks would be controlling quality through approved printers.

While Games Workshop is too big for this, it baffles me that they still use old (read: ancient) resin methods for their Forgeworld stuff which is so stupendously expensive.  If anyone should be 3D printing large complex models, it's Forgeworld.

[Daeothar]

A very interesting development.

As a rule I'm not too keen on the whole subscription model, but since they will be offering everything later on in their webshop anyway, I feel this might just turn out to be a winning formula...

+++EDIT+++ And is Warmahordes struggling? I thought it had a pretty solid player base in the US. It never did as well over here in the EU simply because of geographical restraints, which local printing services could negate. How has their initiative worked out in the end?

[dwbullock]

Privateer has seen a mass exodus of their staff.  Many wound up making Marvel Crisis Protocol and now Star Wars Shatterpoint.  The players I know that love Warmahordes are true fans.  They buy almost anything Privateer makes.  But that's a small, albeit rabid, community.  Most tried it, played for a while, then gave up.

I gave up when I started seeing the giant walkers - colossals, or some such?  My little army of mercenaries with a few jacks couldn't do anything to those things, and I refused to shell out the (then) $200 for one model.

[Daeothar]

A couple of observations on my part in regards to Warmachine:

Myself and several others jumped on the game when it launched, as it was the first alternative to WH40K available to us back int he day (for some reason, Warzone didn't count). All of us bought a different starter box (I had Khador, and yes; this means that there were 4 of us at that time ) and for a while, we had great fun exploring the depths of the game.

All of this was fine for the first couple of years, but the whole system became way too munchkin/MtG for me. The ridiculous amount of gamebreaking combo's one could (should?) string, using abilities, feats, weapons, etc really put me off.

I loved the lore and the aesthetics (still do), but the game more and more became like this perpetual search for the best combo between units, and I just kind of abandoned the system. And I was not the only one.

The amount of people I've talked to over the years who agree with my above assessment is obviously not a fair representation of (former) Warmachine players, but I do feel there must have been a bit of a trend. I heard that the whole attitude of the marketing of the game also played a role here ('play like you have a pair'), which contrasted sharply with the actual gameplay, which favoured the most rules-savvy of players as opposed to the boldest.

On the other hand, a very interesting thing about the game is that its 2nd hand miniatures seem to remain very stable in value over the years, as opposed to, say, Warhammer miniatures, which have a tendency to drop sharply in value in the years after their release, and then slowly increase in value, until prices are even more over the top than GW's original tags.

Perhaps this has to do with the aforementioned geography? i.e. when all metal and resin minis were still produced in the US, transport costs also weighed in when estimating value for 2nd hand sale in Europe, combined with the relative dearth of Privateer's products when compared to GW's on this side of the pond.

And yes; the escalation of unit sizes was also a big nono for me. First Warjacks got bigger and bigger, then that horse-drawn Khador tank came out. And then they threw in those Colossals! A mate of mine actually bought one (2nd hand), but this was after the game had been all but abandoned over here, so it never even saw play


Anyway; back to Mantic and its STL's... 

[Robosmith]

A couple of observations on my part in regards to Warmachine:

Myself and several others jumped on the game when it launched, as it was the first alternative to WH40K available to us back int he day (for some reason, Warzone didn't count). All of us bought a different starter box (I had Khador, and yes; this means that there were 4 of us at that time ) and for a while, we had great fun exploring the depths of the game.

All of this was fine for the first couple of years, but the whole system became way too munchkin/MtG for me. The ridiculous amount of gamebreaking combo's one could (should?) string, using abilities, feats, weapons, etc really put me off.

I loved the lore and the aesthetics (still do), but the game more and more became like this perpetual search for the best combo between units, and I just kind of abandoned the system. And I was not the only one.

The amount of people I've talked to over the years who agree with my above assessment is obviously not a fair representation of (former) Warmachine players, but I do feel there must have been a bit of a trend. I heard that the whole attitude of the marketing of the game also played a role here ('play like you have a pair'), which contrasted sharply with the actual gameplay, which favoured the most rules-savvy of players as opposed to the boldest.

On the other hand, a very interesting thing about the game is that its 2nd hand miniatures seem to remain very stable in value over the years, as opposed to, say, Warhammer miniatures, which have a tendency to drop sharply in value in the years after their release, and then slowly increase in value, until prices are even more over the top than GW's original tags.

Perhaps this has to do with the aforementioned geography? i.e. when all metal and resin minis were still produced in the US, transport costs also weighed in when estimating value for 2nd hand sale in Europe, combined with the relative dearth of Privateer's products when compared to GW's on this side of the pond.

And yes; the escalation of unit sizes was also a big nono for me. First Warjacks got bigger and bigger, then that horse-drawn Khador tank came out. And then they threw in those Colossals! A mate of mine actually bought one (2nd hand), but this was after the game had been all but abandoned over here, so it never even saw play


Anyway; back to Mantic and its STL's... 

Warmachine outgrew it's game size and tried to keep up with GW making huge models. Than multiple bad design decisions and launches killed the game entirely. It crawls along now but it's barely alive. Models now sell on facebook groups for 10-20% retail at most. They're barely worth scrap.

Mantic STLs would have been nice but subscription models can get lost. I hate this 3d printing trend of trying to charge you a monthly fee for stuff instead of selling the actual product at a fair price. It just encourages piracy when you see you missed June's release of YOUR ARMY and it won't be on the stores for another 3 months. It's all so silly.