Interview with Matt Gilbert Of Mantic Games..Lets Talk Vanguard

Last weekend at the Vanguard launch day I managed to sit down with Matt Gilbert for a quick chat about all things Vanguard and what we can expect in the future.

Shaggy: Hello Matt thanks for your time today. Can you tell me bit about yourself and your role at mantic games.

Matt: Sure I have been gaming since I was around the age of 11/12 I picked up Fighting Fantasy books and then White Dwarf, Warhammer, Heroquest, Space crusade so lots of Games Workshop based games early on.
Then I went on to University and worked for Games Workshop in Brighton. Then a few of the people who worked in the store as I did moved on to open their own store so I played card games and dice games as well as battle tech and I got into 40k and Fantasy again which was my first love.

Then we found Kings of War which we all loved even the guys that did not play Warhammer started to play Kings of War as it was more accessible to them.

From there I started to get to know everyone at Mantic and started to do some work for them such as writing some books and Mars attacks stuff and I become a pathfinder and wrote stuff for Kings of War. I become the first persons to run the KOW rules committee and be chairman of that.

My job up until now has been in IT and my company was a telecoms company.  We bought a business up in Nottingham and once a month I would come up and the in the evenings I would go out for a beer with Ronnie or play games round his house. I introduced him to X wing..

We started to talk about possible jobs in the future and what Mantic might need as the company grew and then at one Clash of Kings event he came over and said “do you remember that job we talked about. its open and do you want it”

So after discussing moving the family up to Nottingham we decided it was worth doing and now I’m here.

When I started at Mantic I was operations but this last year I have moved away from the warehouse side and now focus on new products and the studio so I take it all the way up to the logistics side  then thats where I leave that to them.

S: So your quite involved with the company

M: Yeah. I spent 18 years in IT and thought this was my chance to move away but my first day Ronnie says “we used to out source our IT but now your here..” ha ha

S: So todays is the official launch of Kings of War Vanguard and you have had a successful Kickstarter can you explain the process from conception of the game to the final product and has it all gone smoothly.

M: Yes it has gone remarkably smoothly. We have always wanted to do a fantasy skirmish game. The easy way would have been to use the existing KOW rules with Individuals  as it caters to that but that would have been a bit boring. I wanted to make a independent game that was still very much part of the KOW universe.

What we like to do with our own games is to take elements from our other games and make them feel like a Mantic game but then make them unique.

This is why I started with Deadzone as the basis for Vanguard as it was a similar scale but remove the grid but we looked at the command dice but that was not going to work they way I wanted special abilities to work in Vanguard.

We had constant play testing of a couple of evenings a week with the war bands being tested were Dwarfs, Goblins and the Undead so most of the game was devolved with those 3 war bands.

Once we had something I felt was good enough Ronnie had a play and we tinkered with a few things and came up with the power dice which resolved the problem I have been having with the command dice idea. Ronnie is a good person to bounce ideas off of and can come out with something from left filed but fixes a problem.

From there Ronnie endorsed the concept and then from that point the hard work of developing a retail range and a Kickstarter and how they are tied together as well as how they are going to flow. There is also how does it integrate with your other game systems and where does it sit in the release schedule etc.

S: Its interesting with the Kickstarter as few people did not know what to make of the game at first. It was sort of seen as a KOW skirmish game but now it seems over the last few months as backers are getting their pledges and as gamers are learning more about the game it seems they feel they have missed out.

M: I think its a couple of things one could be that I don't think we really pushed and explained what it was. This may be down to new team members just starting to get their feet under the table and learning how to market this size of project and what we do to market for others etc

For example Hellboy markets its self as its Hellboy a well known IP where as a new game like Vanguard we have to tell everyone about it and explain what it is which they have nailed going into the retail launch of the game as there is lots of Vanguard and thats what has got people very excited.

I think also some of the KOW players missed it completely as they may have thought its was just a free game to get new models and was not a thing in its own right.

Now people can see this is a game in its own right and its part of the KOW universe and its a big part of their KOW experience.

Its great to see that people are hyping up the game now and playing it and loving it.

S: It all seems to be coming together at all the perfect time as people are getting their pledges and people who did not back the Kickstarter want in you now have all the products ready to fill the demand for the game.

S: My next question is if someone was completely new to tabletop gaming or is interested in playing Vanguard how would you descried the game play and where is the best place to start.

M: Probably start with the free rules on the Mantic website we do that with most of our games so people can have a look have play and get a feel of our games so it means theres no commitment other then a bit of time to some reading.

The theme of the Vanguard is very much black ops set in our fantasy world but you can set it where you want as its the players imagination really but its the battle between the bigger battles so its the guys doing all the dirty work.

The game uses small war bands so a small set of miniatures so its easy to get into so good if your a painter or not you can just stick them on the table and play.  

A game lasts around 60-90 minutes once you get familiar with the rules which won't take many games and plays on a 3x3 which can fit on a dining room table so you don’t need a big 6x4 table. You can also scale it down and use smaller then the recommended size limits if your looking for a quick 30 minute game. 

S: Personally I have found the game very quick to pick up. My only other time playing then today was a demo at Tabletop Gaming Live and I got to grips with the main rules thanks to the cards with all the stats. The refrance sheet helps as well but by three turns you get the feel.

I think when anyone starts to play a war game they have to consider the scale and the time investment needed to play. If you can buy a box of miniatures for £25 which won't take long to paint and only need a small area to play this will hook most people into Vanguard as we seem to be time poor so being able to get hobby time quickly is great.

I also feel you have hit an area thats not been represented much in terms of a free flowing small scale fantasy skirmish games. Having unique factions with new miniatures will hook people in but being able to use races of miniatures that people may already have is great as it feeds into the free rules which will allow people as you said just pick this up play and may even get people back into fantasy gaming.

S: My next question is what can we expect for the future of Vanguard.

M: Over the next month the basic war band lists will be put up online with a couple of more units and the other KOW armies such as Ratkin, Brotherhood etc will get their basic army lists.

Next year roughly every quarter there will be a new war band releases on a similler scale to the ones that we have launched right now so starter, booster and support/reinforcement packs. Each time we do this it will flesh out the war bands and will expand on the basic list and will add some cool new model ideas and rules.

Theres also going to be an equipment card deck coming out in February along with the new Dwarfs. This deck will give you the equipment thats in the book as well as new ones and you can use the deck to shuffle the equipment randomly rather then rolling on the table in the rule book.

Also there will be a supplement book with a new campign with alternative list and new scenarios and possibly with more KOW integration which should be seen in the KOW books as well.

Vanguard is going to be a feeder systems model wise in to KOW  obviously there will be ideas that will go straight to KOW but stuff that looks cool in Vanguard will flow through to KOW as well.

S: Talking of more scenarios will these be just in the supplement books or will there be some available free as a download on the Mantic website?

M: Yeah we might do as we have tons of ideas so we may see some put up on line but some will be saved for the supplement books and they maybe themed for a campaign of a spaecific area. Like the Clash of Kings we may say that these are the 12 Scenarios for this year for competitive play.

S: So as these 12 Scenarios could be used for competitive play this could later down the line be used to effect a future Clash of Kings tournament?

M: Could do..

S: As we are coming up to Christmas any possibility of making a frost giant scenario that could be put up online for free?

M: Yeah we could do or maybe a version of capture the giant but with the frost giant with new rules...

S: That would be great to see that.

S: Thank you for covering a lot about Vanguard today but I have one final question. In a few words can you sum up Vanguard.

M: I would say “fantasy black ops” is one of the tag lines we have been using and 'your war band, your story” this covers the two elements. The fantasy black ops covers the story driven scenario and narrative play behind enemy lines sort of thing and its your war band your story alludes to two things one that they are individual models and characters your are collecting and painting.
So its your war band and with the campaign and the development of the characters thats the other side of it as you play games you watch you guys gain skills and abilities.

So between those two it gives you a good picture and a flavour to what the game is like.

S: Well thank you Matt for your time today and giving me a sneak peek at whats to come for Vanguard. 

Kings of War Vanguard free rules and products are now available on the Mantic web store now.