Many people have a love/hate relationship with Games Workshop and I’m no exception. Starting with 3rd edition Warhammer it formed a huge part of my earlier life and then I got involved again in my early 20’s with renewed vigour. Finding myself in need of employment I ended up working for the company for 4 year in both the Guildford shop and (mainly) the Woking shop. I can’t lie, it was probably the best job I’ve ever had but I eventually I had to move on to something else. Fun doesn’t always pay the rent!
I carried on playing Warhammer, occasionally 40k and invested heavily in the Horus Heresy. Once Warhammer was cruelly taken from us I realised how much I missed it and I went looking for alternatives. AoS started badly and got a lot worse, X-wing lasted about 5 minutes, 9th Age looked like, and still looks like, an embarrassing mess. And then I had a go at Kings of War. I was unsure with it to start with because, let’s face it, it just wasn’t Warhammer. It was a chance to get my Brettonians back on the table though and at that point I was desperate and I have to admit I had a had a lot of fun. My first little tournament I even won 2 out of 3 games! I was back in business. After painting so many bloody Space Marines I wanted something radically different so got myself a Trident Realms mega army box set painted up and headed to my first Clash of Kings! And guess who was there signing people in? None other than my old cell manager from Games Workshop Zak Gucklehorn! Turns out Ronnie had been a bigjob in GW too and with 2nd edition a huge swathe of old Warhammer players like me had found refuge as well! The more I played and got involved in the community I found it was like the good old days of GW before the lawyers tore it a new one. Mantic had a sense of personality and it gave me nearly all the things I was missing. And then with extra games and books they filled in the gaps. It’s been a second golden age of Wargaming for me! And one day at a tournament I got chatting to one of the Mantic guys, Clive Stone, who was running one of his Angry Grot events and it turns out he’d been working for GW at the same time as me but at the High Wycombe store! I’d probably met him but I used to drink a lot more in those days so I can’t be expected to remember. So, like my last blog I thought I’d carry on my new tradition of getting people to write my blog for me and interview the plucky little fellow so you can hear his story too!
Take it away Clive…..
Because I’m lazy I shall go with the customary first question; How did you get into Wargaming? Tell us about yourself and your hobby history!
I actually got into wargaming at the ripe old age of 13/14 – I was young, bullied and bored. A friend of mine at the time took me along to a local GW where they had a massed game going on, I got to join in and that was it – hooked ever since. I then played every single game GW made til I was 18, worked as a key timer for a bit for both my local (HW, then Slough til it closed) and moved onto more “grown up” types of jobs. I was weekly attendee though, often 3 times a week playing with the store regulars and just immersing myself into the hobby – so much so that whenever the hobby has dimmed a bit and I have moved onto other hobbies (League of Legends, WoW, 3D Printing) I have always kept a bit of hobby going. Now I have older kids who enjoy it too, start roughly when I did so I get to relive it all again, but at home!
Tell us about how you ended up working for Mantic. What’s your role and what do you do?
I actually just pestered Ronnie to give me a job. I came from out of the industry and was looking to move on from my career in Recruitment and Sales Consultancy – and luck would have it my role I have now opened up at roughly the same timeframe. I’m now in charge of selling to the UK market and selected Retail outlets further afield. I help with some of Mantic’s Recruitment (obviously using those skills I had previously) and generally have too much of every product we sell.
What are your favourite Mantic Games? What factions are your favourites?
Hard one, but I think top spot is Here’s Negan – I even wrote an expansion for it! In terms of faction favourite, it’s probably going to be Northern Alliance. Just something about “almost” vikings and mixed race armies appeals to me.
What are your top 5 favourite Mantic models?
Ice Queen
Mutant Rat Fiend
Armada Dictator
Asterian Spectra
Lekelidon (In fact almost all the new Salamander stuff is going to be incredible)
Angry Grot events! What is it? Why did you start it? And what events have you run so far?
Another one of those hobbies – I actually started it to help with my work. It was a way of holding KoW/other games events in retail stores to show demand in a way that was mostly risk free for the retailer – a great example of this is Tabletop Republic who picked up that demand and carried on with it – they have their own established events now where I didn’t need to continue (largely because I moved to Nottingham!). I’ve run a few events now and my biggest is probably the Vanguard “Masters” event I held last year at Mantic HQ. I invited the top players of the year plus anyone else who fancied a try to battle out on custom scenarios that were made for a more competitive Vanguard match. It was brilliant, so much so that I have booked Mantic out for a 3 day event in May (the last Bank Holiday in May) for another Vanguard, KoW, Armada and Deadzone bash.
I was really looking forward to the one you had planned where games of Vanguard preceded and influenced games of Kings of War. I do most of my gaming at tournaments so really miss out on fun stuff like this, but people seemed to be more in favour of an actual tournament. What was the plan and idea for it and what actually happened?
I really wanted this to happen, but for reasons I won’t go into it didn’t. I am confident it will happen again in the future, as I really think it will be fun and engaging in a way that a solo tournament just cannot compete. Maybe over a weekend with beer at Mantic – I haven’t stopped planning for it…
Do you have any other ideas for future events? Obviously the pandemic has violently shat on anything and everything but what have you got in the works for the future?
When the world is more predictable and safer, I plan on doing GrotCon (end of May currently) and another event just for Armada. After those two, quite possibly it will be 2022 and I can schedule in 1 event every 2 months – tackling The Walking Dead, Deadzone, Dreadball and Armada as well as the obvious Kings of War and Vanguard. I’d like to throw at least 2 events into the mix that aren’t about rankings so I can do some wacky stuff and just let people play for fun not just for points.
I’m not expecting any sneaky reveals as that’s Ronnie’s job, but what’s your wish list? What games, models ranges etc would you personally want to see Mantic produce in the future?
Tremors. I know it’s a long shot… but Man who can’t resist Kevin Bacon as a mini and some awesome looking Ass blasters.
I’ve just seen all the cool stuff you’ve done for Armada! Whats the next army planned?
I will be printing a ton of stuff to kit out a few boards, then it’s just tackling my growing pile of armies. I have Ratkin on the way (half built), an Elf army I haven’t finished, plus tons more for everything else)
And finally…… the big question! Who is the sexiest Mantic employee?
No contest, has to be the new 3D Printer Ricky received….
Thanks Clive for coming and having a chat! I’m fully appreciative of how Mantic engages with the community, they’re always on Facebook answering questions personally, I’ve listened to plenty of podcast interviews and seen them at open days and seminars. You really get a sense that they love the games and what they do. Clive’s Angry Grot tournaments are just another example of them choosing to be involved. Yeah they’re trying to sell us stuff, but it’s not easy getting rich off toy soldiers so it also involves a good deal of loving what you do and wanting to share it. Having worked in that situation myself it’s a good feeling when a customer gets excited about what you’re working on!
And I would also like to give much respect to Clive’s last answer. No reason to make things slightly awkward at work. Plus with that husky seductive voice, we all know it’s Ronnie…..x
Get older. Don't grow up. 