The Ongoing [Warpath] News Thread

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**scarletsquig**

Well, the bow and glaive thing is done more for cultural reasons rather than battlefield effectiveness.

If the Kalyshi wanted to be efficient, they wouldn't be on the battlefield at all, they'd be piloting cyphers and drones from orbit like the rest of the Asterians, the unit wouldn't even exist.

Overall, the Asterians work quite well in terms of background, I really like the fact that they are advanced enough to almost 100% make use of robotic constructs rather than putting their own lives on the line.. with the Kalyshi being the exception that do it more for religious/ cultural reasons rather than any real need to.

Makes a bit more sense than swarms of critically-endangered, thousands-of-years-old 40k Eldar housewives, gardeners and poets carrying peashooter guns and tinfoil armour dying in droves because they're too angsty to put their dead grandpa in a (massively well armed and armoured) ghost bot.

**BobtheInquisitor**

Only a bit more sense.

I wonder if the spare weapons from the HIPS drones will fit on the Khaleesi wrist stumps...

**scarletsquig**

^ Probably. I'm personally thinking of converting the Dreadball figures with some melee weapons (basilean men-at-arms spears) and counting the dreadball glove as a wrist-mounted energy weapon.

The sculpts are better than the renders for the metal ones and the thongs just don't look quite as good on the ripped abs dudes. Dark Eldar Wych mankinis all over again.

Also, they're plastic and I already have 16 of them that I wasn't doing anything with. Will use the metals in the battlegroup as team leaders to get a unit of 20.

**Vermis**

lord_blackfang wrote:Asterians have cloaked planetkiller ships littered throughout the galaxy. They have man-portable fission and dark matter weaponry. I don't see why it would be a problem for them to pack a highly advanced form of weapon into the shape of a bow and arrow simple because they like the shape. You know, just like 300 years from now, human nerds will glue cogs and brass pipes all over their laser rifles, right?

I'll just quote my edit here.

Vermis wrote:

lord_blackfang wrote:I quite like bows on the Asterians. They're "tech so advanced it's indistinguishable from magic" tier, so it doesn't really matter if they look like bows.

Being bothered by them because they're anachronistic is about the same as a person from 200 years ago being bothered by a car because it mostly looks like a carriage.

And the carriage-to-car comparison is a bit false. A better one might be the transition from horse-drawn vehicles to steam to the internal combustion engine. Our old friend the wheel is still grand, the basic principle is recognisable, it's that the purely biological power and exertion has been replaced with a lot of technological developments. You might say the same about firearms from crossbows to arquebusses to semi automatic rifles, with the stock/sighting/trigger combo. With these space elves and their space bows, it's the throwback to something even earlier and less efficient that's the consternation. The space bows might be firing energy bolts or something (which is nothing like fantasy at all, right?) but they're still dependent on the space elves holding the whole thing out at arm's length to aim and fire, and using a wide motion of their other arm to draw... something back between the limbs.

A different comparison might be someone from two hundred years ago wondering why we developed the internal combustion engine to propel our vehicles, then decided to get rid of wheels and go back to the good old drag-along-the-ground sled...

... because we 'liked' the shape.

Basically what MLaw said, only taking a bit longer to get there. I especially agree that the rationalisation of the space bows boils down to:

MLaw wrote:Mantic has made a campy "spaaaace elves" decision and I think it's really as simple as that.

I'm gonna be honest, 'modern steampunk nerds that might exist 300 years in the future and be allowed anywhere near a real gun is a sound basis for a society's military R&D' is not one of the more convincing of those rationalisations I've heard.

Thinking about it, if these space elves have to be on the ground with a thing shaped like a bow, why not go with the remotely-operated drone thing that asterians already have? Each space elf has a wee short-range mind-impulse unit or something hooked up to their head, somehow, and connected to a personal, crescent-shaped, antigrav gun-bot. It'd up the model count and it might be a bit reminiscent of Tau drones, among other things, but it might look a fair bit less obvious and goofy.

**overtyrant**

I like this because blah blah blah, well I don't like this because of blah blah blah, seriously people everyone has opinions and expressing it is fine and all but trying to force your opinions on others is....well.....dull....

**CptJake**

overtyrant wrote:
I like this because blah blah blah, well I don't like this because of blah blah blah, seriously people everyone has opinions and expressing it is fine and all but trying to force your opinions on others is....well.....dull....

I don't think anyone was 'forcing' anything. Folks just gave the reasons they held their opinion.

**warboss**

scarletsquig wrote:
Makes a bit more sense than swarms of critically-endangered, thousands-of-years-old 40k Eldar housewives, gardeners and poets carrying peashooter guns and tinfoil armour dying in droves because they're too angsty to put their dead grandpa in a (massively well armed and armoured) ghost bot.

One flavor of unimaginative space elves doesn't excuse another... especially if the second is much newer and should know better.

**lord_blackfang**

warboss wrote:
unimaginative

The main antagonist of the setting are zombies.

**GrimDork**

Mutants! Only one unit type is zombies.

**BobtheInquisitor**

scarletsquig wrote:
^ Probably. I'm personally thinking of converting the Dreadball figures with some melee weapons (basilean men-at-arms spears) and counting the dreadball glove as a wrist-mounted energy weapon.

The sculpts are better than the renders for the metal ones and the thongs just don't look quite as good on the ripped abs dudes. Dark Eldar Wych mankinis all over again.

Also, they're plastic and I already have 16 of them that I wasn't doing anything with. Will use the metals in the battlegroup as team leaders to get a unit of 20.

Wait. Are the Kahlesses metal? I thought they were restic.

If they're metal, I'll just sneak them into any outgoing mail I can.

And I agree that the Dreadball gloves make for great sci fi weapons, something along the lines of a Goa'uld hand device, or a Lens, or a Green Lantern ring at the upper end of the tech scale.

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

Mantic's not doing any new restic (at the moment), so any new stuff is HIPS or metal or resin

**BobtheInquisitor**

OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
Mantic's not doing any new restic (at the moment), so any new stuff is HIPS or metal or resin

The Katnisses are from a previous DZ campaign, when restic was still a thing, though. Right?

I mean, they'd have to be crazy to make their worst design in the most expensive medium.

**DaveC**

The BoW article also has a scale image for the Mule next to a current corp trooper

**Nostromodamus**

BobtheInquisitor wrote:
OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
Mantic's not doing any new restic (at the moment), so any new stuff is HIPS or metal or resin

The Katnisses are from a previous DZ campaign, when restic was still a thing, though. Right?

I mean, they'd have to be crazy to make their worst design in the most expensive medium.

They were done in DZ2 and are metal models.

**CptJake**

DaveC wrote:
The BoW article also has a scale image for the Mule next to a current corp trooper

Spoiler:

Thanks.

So kind of a cross between a technical and a SOF Polaris variant. I'm not sure why they would have the cargo compartment sloped towards the cab like that. It would make loading/securing the cargo/unloading it a bitch and a half, but I can see getting one or two.

**BobtheInquisitor**

So, the corp troops sit in the back of the space pick-up?

**Nostromodamus**

BobtheInquisitor wrote:
So, the corp troops sit in the back of the space pick-up?

Yup, and apparently it has Transport (2), so can fit 10 guys on there clown-car style.

**GrimDork**

Yeah doesn't look quite big enough unless 3-4 guys are in the cab or something. I still want a few, but if they aren't bigger I'll just house it to hold 5 guys or something.

**highlord tamburlaine**

It reminded me of an ATV for giants when I first saw it. Thought the machine gun on top were the handlebars. Still can't unsee it.

**Compel**

GrimDork wrote:
Yeah doesn't look quite big enough unless 3-4 guys are in the cab or something. I still want a few, but if they aren't bigger I'll just house it to hold 5 guys or something.

3 or 4 guys in the cab doesn't seem unreasonable. 6 guys in the back, seems a bit over done, but not too much... - I mean, that is only 3 lines of two

**Alpharius**

That scale shot makes it look too tiny!

It is supposed to fit up to...11 troopers?

**Nostromodamus**

Alpharius wrote:
That scale shot makes it look too tiny!

It is supposed to fit up to...11 troopers?

Transport capacity is 10 models, so if you count a driver and possibly a gunner, 11-12 total dudesmen.

**Necros**

You could easily fit 20 or so in an average sized pickup

**Riquende**

How am I going to fit my multibased units on the back of that?

Seriously though, I'm not sold on it from the pictures so far. It might turn out okay, but I wouldn't pledge on it unseen.

Resin is a bit of an odd choice as well (not odd overall, just in the context of this plastic-filled KS). Antenociti making it? Sort of reminiscent of their designs, and they've worked with Mantic before.

**CptJake**

Compel wrote:
GrimDork wrote:
Yeah doesn't look quite big enough unless 3-4 guys are in the cab or something. I still want a few, but if they aren't bigger I'll just house it to hold 5 guys or something.

3 or 4 guys in the cab doesn't seem unreasonable. 6 guys in the back, seems a bit over done, but not too much... - I mean, that is only 3 lines of two

You're not fitting 6 guys in the back of that, especially without seats to secure them on that sloped floor. Not if that picture with the trooper is actually to scale.

**Nostromodamus**

Necros wrote:
You could easily fit 20 or so in an average sized pickup

"GCPS Marines: Doing the work nobody else wants to do"

**lord_blackfang**

Well, that's why there's a tilt to the deck, innit? The front row of guys leans on the back of the cabin, the next row leans on the first row, and so on. You could pack 20 on there and they would be very stable.

**MLaw**

Wow.. that thing is tiny.. hopefully that's just a case of the person doing the scale shot being daft.

**CptJake**

MLaw wrote:
Wow.. that thing is tiny.. hopefully that's just a case of the person doing the scale shot being daft.

If you look at the pintle mounted weapon, and assume it is meant to be fired by so hero standing in the bed, the scaling he used seems to be pretty close.

Again, I like it as a small SF Polaris/DPV type vehicle(though the down tilted bed is dumb). It just does not work as a transport vehicle for a whole squad of guys/10 man transport thing. Since I am not likely to use it in WarPath anyway, a couple may come in handy for other things.

It reminds me of my daughter's Polaris ACE, but with an armored cab.

**DaveC**

New Alpha rules with Asterian and GCPS lists (including GCPS Marauders). GCPS has a Battle Tank as well as the Mule and Dropship

http://manticblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Warpath-KS-Alpha-06-101.pdf

change log

http://manticblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/WP-Change-Log.pdf