Mantics Warpath - The Ongoing News and Rumors Thread

Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:

No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.

If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

**Pacific**

And so finally, my space dwarf horde will become a reality..

**judgedoug**

warpath 1.0 beta tested for a year, now it's 2.0's turn for a year of beta testing. doubt warpath will have a KS until next June at the earliest. they'll need all this round of beta testing time and then formatting and printing hardcover books.

**Alpharius**

I think we'll be seeing a Warpath Kickstarter well before June 2013...

**Commander Cain**

My guess would be around Febuary/March time. They should have got a good portion of the fantasy and dreadball stuff done by then, at least enough to free some space up around the studio!

**Kroothawk**

Alpharius wrote:
I think we'll be seeing a Warpath Kickstarter well before June 2013...

I think we'll be seeing a Warpath Kickstarter exactly 6 weeks before release in Febr/March, to pay the printers

Worked with Kings of War.

**Dysartes**

Kroothawk wrote:
Alpharius wrote:
I think we'll be seeing a Warpath Kickstarter well before June 2013...

I think we'll be seeing a Warpath Kickstarter exactly 6 weeks before release in Febr/March, to pay the printers
Worked with Kings of War.

Classy, Kroothawk, classy...

**scarletsquig**

Some concept art for a corporation hover tank:

And a post by Ronnie about Warpath and where it's going, what is the broad plan for next year, including kickstarter discussion.

Ronnie Renton wrote:Well Warpath is one year old, and what a year it has been!

As we begin year 2 (of the 3 year plan) we can now look on the basic units for the Corporation, Veer-myn, Marauders and the fantastic new Enforcers. The Forge Fathers are a little more developed than the rest with several vehicles and a few more units (but then it seems I am not the only one with a fondness for Dwarfs in space!). This means we have achieved our first objective of 4 armies, it is my belief that no system is really a wargame until there are 4 army choices, but I do think each of these armies need more units and variety still.

With hindsight there are few things I wish we had done differently (and a couple better) but there are also many developments that bode very well for the future as we set about building a compelling, enjoyable gaming system. Most importantly the Warpath universe is starting to take shape, the worlds and major players are starting to take solid form (literally!) – and we are already at the stage where we know what sports games are played on Sunday afternoons and Monday evenings!!

DreadBall is set in the Warpath universe – and is also now available to pre-order ahead of next week’s DreadBall Week on the Mantic Blog

Looking back to the first rules set last year I think they were little too ambitious, including fliers and tank vehicles, when in reality simply getting the core units for the first 4 or 5 armies in the first year was going to be hard. Perhaps I should have asked Alessio to write a skirmish game – but I always had in mind huge armies clashing together, with off-world bombardments, strafing runs, and legions of troops piling over the battle field!

However, today we are sending out an 80 page digital rules set to our newsletter subscribers. They are based on a tighter set of rules (no fliers nor event cards at this point) and incorporate much of the feedback we have received from our play-testers, the community in general and our own gaming experience. I think Alessio has created much more cohesive, competitive rules and created a far more dynamic and involved experience. This is called ‘Warpath 2.0′ because these rules are not really a finesse of the last edition, they are an entirely new rules set, with new rules about how squads operate, how you arm your units and so on. From the open day the feeling generally was that they’re a far slicker and intuitive system and much more enjoyable to play, but again we welcome your comments.

Sneak peak – This is a Hover Tank APC concept to show off what a Corporation vehicle could look like. Affordable plastic vehicles are something we’re very keen on doing in the future.

I think these rules are great, and a major step in the right direction for the system, although losing the squad rules caused some major debate! But they are by no means the extent of our ambition (come on this is Mantic after all!), and as soon as these rules are printed Alessio will be starting to develop the final, complete rules for Warpath – as to whether it will be 2.1 or 3.0 will come down to your comments and feedback.

As to what type of game they will be – well I have always liked big battles – so now it is time for Big Battles in Space. In the next year our aim is to offer tanks and more units (all in plastic) for all of the main armies, and add at least another 2 (and preferably 3) completely new armies to the universe. This would bring us to 7 armies, all complete with a wide selection of units, elites, heroes and tanks – on battlefields with 100 – 200 figures per side, and the system will need to enable a game to resolution in less than 3 hours.

To achieve all of that we may well look again to the crowd funding, which has been so helpful for both Dreadball (3 seasons fully funded) and Kings of War (22 new units!!) but not until we have really finalised the main rules and polished them, and delivered our Dreadball and KoW commitments. This will ensure everyone can pick which army they want to get funded, and save some pennies to back it, and I will endeavour to offer the core units on hard sprues to bring the price down again. I also want our best sculptors available to work on this range, and take it to new heights (is it possible to beat the new Enforcers?). If we can achieve all of this, I think we’ll have a legendary gaming system, backed up with a superb range on sculpts, and I hope you agree.

I am really excited about what year 2 of Warpath might bring, and I hope you’ll join us on that journey.

So, looks like definitely a Warpath KS only after KoW has fully shipped and at least Dreadball season 2 has shipped. The "pick which army they want to get funded" possibly hints at multiple smaller Kickstarters for Warpath, with each army getting its own one.

**Pacific**

Really interesting! In particular...

To achieve all of that we may well look again to the crowd funding, which has been so helpful for both Dreadball (3 seasons fully funded) and Kings of War (22 new units!!) but not until we have really finalised the main rules and polished them, and delivered our Dreadball and KoW commitments. This will ensure everyone can pick which army they want to get funded, and save some pennies to back it, and I will endeavour to offer the core units on hard sprues to bring the price down again. I also want our best sculptors available to work on this range, and take it to new heights (is it possible to beat the new Enforcers?). If we can achieve all of this, I think we’ll have a legendary gaming system, backed up with a superb range on sculpts, and I hope you agree.

Very excited about the prospect of plastic vehicles as well actually, especially if they are priced similarly to the new Iron Ancestor!

**RoninXiC**

Honestly, I think the "ONe Player Battle Sets" for 30 pounds are the bigger news:

http://www.manticblog.com/?p=6639 for the news
&
http://www.manticgames.com/Shop-Home/Warpath/Getting-Started.html for the shop

**Rolt**

Looks cool Squig, good to hear Mantic are working hard on warpath still, liking the look of the hover tank kinda remaids me of the Helghast hover tanks/dropships from the first Killzone game.
I know its a while off but have you seen any hints/concepts for Veer-Myn, Enforcers or Astrain stuff squig?

Hey look they have a juinor miniature scuplter job going, if I had more work under my belt I'd apply fot that, but alas maybe next time.

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

The Mantic Newsletter has arrived with a download link for the new Warpath 2.0 rules

worth a look to see if you like it

**Eilif**

Could you post the link please?

I'd like to see the new rules.

**Azazelx**

Well, Ronnie is saying all the right things in the update, particularly in regard to my biggest bugbear which was to finish delivering on the existing commitments before asking for more money.

**scarletsquig**

@Rolt: Nothing that isn't already publicly and widely available.

Current rumours from the podcast ep 5 for Warpath are:

- Next army - Plague.
- Possibility of the Teratons being a unit in Warpath.
- Possibility of the Nameless being *an entire army* in Warpath (these guys were super-popular in the Dreadball KS).
- Lots of mumuring about the Warpath KS, but nothing solid, sounds like they're still brewing up a plan on the best way to go about it.

Oh, and I've posted a link to the rules over in the Mantic forum.

**frozenwastes**

Newsletter:

http://us1.campaign-archive2.com/

[Edited by moderator for privacy]

**scarletsquig**

^ Nathan, you do know that by sharing that link anyone can see your email and unsubscribe you from the Mantic newsletter, don't you? :p

I'm not going to do that because I'm not mean, but I was able to change something else which you'll probably notice in due course.

**AlexHolker**

Pretty much anything but a hover vehicle would be better (except a boat). A wheeled, tracked, legged or VTOL vehicle must, by default, include an obvious drive train that sells it as a vehicle capable of moving under its own power. A hover vehicle moves only by authorial fiat, so it lacks this advantage.

**CURNOW**

AlexHolker wrote:
Pretty much anything but a hover vehicle would be better (except a boat). A wheeled, tracked, legged or VTOL vehicle must, by default, include an obvious drive train that sells it as a vehicle capable of moving under its own power. A hover vehicle moves only by authorial fiat, so it lacks this advantage.

It's a cool little toy

**Eilif**

Hey Frozenwastes,
I appreciate the attempt. Could you post just the link to the new rules?

Edit:
Nevermind, looks like the link is already posted here:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/485146.page

**frozenwastes**

Looks like I had some brain damage there. Good thing I use a throw away email address for stuff like gaming newsletters and not my actual email address.

**scarletsquig**

Some information/quick summary for those who are interested:

- Warpath 2.0 game size is very much exactly the same kind of scale, size and points value that you'll see in 40k.

- 1500 for a good casual game, 1750/1850 for tournament play. The closest thing the game has to a basic tactical marine (Forgefather steel warrior) costs 15 points.

- The alternative activation system allows you to activate 1-3 units per activation. First unit is automatically activated, second on a 3+, third on a 5+. As soon as you fail a roll, play passes to the opponent, and back and forth until all units have activated. "Spare" units on one side at the end require a 3+ to activate.

- Nearby commanders can give one re-roll per turn to a nearby unit making an activation test.

- Morale works by forcing a 2d6 Nerve check by killing half of the remaining models in the unit. This check will either have no effect, or suppress, or destroy what's left of the unit.

- Suppressed units go to ground (-1 for enemies shooting at them), and require an additional 4+ roll after a successful activation to remove their suppression.

Basically think of the original Command & Conquer games where your soldiers hit the dirt when shot at, giving them a defensive bonus, at the expense of them not being as effective at moving or shooting. Warpath is exactly like that as far as suppression goes.

So, the game revolves a lot around the activation/ suppression dynamic, where you ideally want to suppress an enemy unit before it has a chance to shoot at you, and your opponent will be trying to do the same to you.

Combine that with the element of "gambling" that the activation system has where activations get increasingly harder as you try to push your luck, and it makes for an extremely fun system with a really strong shooting vs. shooting focus.

Cover is quite interesting and is handled in the same way as 2nd edition 40k: -1 for soft cover, -2 for hard cover, with a significant amount of weapons ignoring cover (artillery, flamethrowers etc). So, there's a lot of bunkering and "flush out the building" tactics to consider as well, it's something you need to plan for when writing a list, how well will it cope if there's a tough building on the table.

There are melee units and transports but every army has a lot of shooting options, and that is the main focus.

I've played a few games, and it is really good stuff, very quick and streamlined and doesn't have any of the problems with 1.0, all of the KoW-lite stuff has been completely removed. Mantic heard the complaints and 2.0 is pretty much a complete re-write from the ground up with more in common with Infinity or historical rulesets like Bolt Action than anything else. Strongly encourage everyone to download the rules and maybe give it a go!

Just needs the Kickstarter to flesh out all the missing units and tanks now, and we've got ourselves a damn good game.

**scarletsquig**

Some new info for 2013:

Ronnie Renton wrote:We will be helping some of the great people we work with get funding for some of their incredible projects. We hope to work on our first licenced property later in the year and will also be looking to push on our own gaming systems to new heights. Specifically I would love to see a skirmish based game set in the Warpath universe hit the shelves in a big way (with all new sculpts, lots of elite units, simple but challenging game play and one or two very exciting game developments – ones I think missing from current war-game offerings).

I would like us to push DreadBall on perhaps beyond season 3, and of course Warpath will benefit hugely from a range of plastic vehicles, more units and a couple more armies.

**Bolognesus**

You forget the most important part, though:

we might have chocolate ForgeFathers at Gencon to

An impulse buy which doesn't add to the Great Grey pile of Guilt

Also,

We hope to work on our first licenced property later in the year and will also be looking to push on our own gaming systems to new heights.

Not warpath per se but still, interesting

**Rolt**

Yeah saw that update on the manitc blog sounds like there could be secret Mordheim/Necromunda style game in the works from mantic, could be cool just hope they differentiate
it by a good degree from those games. Seems with the last email update we could be getting a Project Pandora expansion (PP: Deadzone) and the Warpath kickstarter is coming
soon as well, so it could be a good year for Warpath as a whole.

Its cool were going to see a full release of Warpath, but on a slightly negative note Mantic really needs to pick up the slack elsewere, the forgefathers are still a mix of fantasy and sci-fi bits, the orx are'nt much better, most of the model range are annoying as hell resin/metal hybrid kits, the fluff is good in some places but largly forgettable everywhere else (Veer-Myn fluff.....) and although Mantics sculpts have improved a lot they still have alot of lack-luster sculpts as a well (Just look at some of the Dreadball MVPs), they really need to control thier model "standerds" a bit better.

Oh and one thing, I'm going to be a little bit of a jerk here and say the Astrainas (spelling?) they previewed during the dreadball kickstarter were unbelieveably disapointing they looked like a bunch of not-eldar in my personal opintion, so much can be done with the idea of space elves, stop playing it so safe all the time Mantic., I hope Mantic improves these guys alot, they are one race I really want to like, but I already own a bunch of eldar models.......

But with that said a kickstarter could change this and I really hope the Warpath universe and game expands to new heights, I wish Mantic the best of luck and can't wait for the kickstarter.

**kenshin620**

Posted already on the mantic forum of dakka, but I dont think everyone goes there

More space zombies. A character for them, Captain Mortis

However this is just a remake of their Veer Myn Character

(also not pointing any fingers, but its interesting they decided to go for the triple lens visor. I know they do exist outside of 40k, like splinter cell, but it is a "plague" like being they put it on.)

The original

Spoiler:

**Dysartes**

I thought I recognised the body, kenshin, but I couldn't place it - thanks!

**Kroothawk**

Will the whole new race be slightly modified sprues of the previous race release?
And will all Space Zombies feature the characteristic single Nurgle terminator horn like the Captain Mortarion character?

**scarletsquig**

As I mentioned in the other thread - these are nothing to do with the Plague race that is being released.

This and the Z-corps are not a Warpath release, and will have no Warpath rules.

The Mortis pictured above is simply being released because the Z-corps conversion kit sold last halloween was really popular, so Mantic made a hero mini to go with them. It's just a random release that customers wanted.

The Plague have an entirely different design and theme and will not re-use any fantasy components.

Sorry Kroothawk, I know you were super eager for another 8 pages of mocking fantasy sprue rehashes, but it ain't gonna happen.

**Kroothawk**

When this Space Plague Zombie shown as an upcoming release in the Warpath thread has nothing to do with the Space Plague Zombies of Warpath, then it was justified to ask, I guess

And I would never imply that Mantic would reuse a Vermyn sprue for the above character, as they certainly have learned their lesson.

**scarletsquig**

Yeah, that's fair enough.

This is one of the reasons why we'd both prefer it if all the Mantic news was kept in one/two threads, since all the talk about the actual Warpath Space Plague Zombies, as opposed to these other, non-Warpath Space Plague Zombies is in some other thread.

I'm hoping to convince the mods that Dreadball discussion should go in this thread as well, to make it into a Mantic sci-fi thread rather than just a Warpath thread.