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I am about to overdose on marines soon, and I don't think I can stomach the prices for another GW army any time soon. I was wanting to try Guard and then I saw the corporation figurines and realised many of them are in fact much better imo. I showed a friend of mine and he seemed interested enough to try it by just proxying his orks. As well a few friends of mine want to try wargaming and mantic seems much friendlier on the wallet.
So my questions follow as:
1: How are the rules compared to 40k
2: Is gameplay fun (I am not a WAACer, I use DA codex)
3: How has the company been for price hikes and whatnot(I would rather not hop into another GW type company)

EDIT:
4: Does the current Meta show much favoritism for any factions
5: What are the bad things about this game (every game has its bad points)

1. Some similarities, some differences - download the new beta rules for 2.0 from the other thread, and see for yourself! New version of the rules has individual casualty removal (like 40k) and an Alternate Activation turn sequence (not like 40k, more like Infinity).

2. Just as fun as 40k, if you want a crazy list, the Veer-myn are all kinds of fun with burrowing units and giant shreddy drills and chemical weapons. Marauders are fast and melee-based, Forgefathers are tough and focus on short-ranged firepower, Corporation focus on long-range shooting.

3. No price hikes, in fact quite the opposite, Mantic constantly does stuff like converting a metal unit to resin plastic, and then cutting the price by half - the exact opposite of what GW does with finecast.

Mantic is very good at doing really good bulk-buy deals on its stuff - for example, with the £50 Corporation army box, you get £75 worth of models, a much larger discount than what you get with GW battleforces.

Also. Mantic is pretty much the exact opposite of GW in every possible way when it comes to price hikes/ not listening to customers/ not engaging with the internet. Mantic does all of this, it goes to loads of conventions, listens to customer feedback and acts on it.. there's even a monthly podcast where you can ask questions and have the CEO or rules writers answer them if you want. The company is *that* good. Sign up to their newsletter, you won't regret it - it often comes with preview rules, sneak peeks of new models and all sorts of things.

4. No, the army lists are all totally balanced against each other. They are all written at the same time whenever a new edition comes out, and are constantly updated online as free downloads. Mantic takes balancing army lsits very seriously, there are no unist that aren't worth taking in the lists, and there are no overpowered or underpowered armies. The rules and army lists will always be free to download.

5. Limited range of models to choose from currently, the game has only existed for less than a year at this point, so you'll have to accept that a lot of unit entries haven't been filled yet or be willing to convert or use minis from other companies to fill the gaps. If you go on the Mantic forums, it is filled with suggestions for suitable miniatures, and Mantic is totally fine with you using minis from other companies. If there's anything you don't like about the rules, now is the time to offer feedback, Mantic is currently running an open public beta for the 2.0 Warpath rules over on its forums.

Hmm, I think I'll give it a shot, the company sounds promising if nothing else

Awesome, let us know how you get on.

I agree with almost everything that scarletsquig has said, but I do think there's a small amount of power creep between army lists, although it's much less significant than GW's where the new bling is king.

In my 1.0 game, I took a 795 Corp list that was fairly well balanced and played against an 850ish Forgefathers list that had more ordinance than was legal, but we wanted to use all the models we had available. In our experience, there was definitely a divide in point costs/effectiveness between the FF Ord and the Corp Ord. However, this being said, it's very likely to be addressed as lists and rules are updated and eventually released as a complete publication.

The rules are free and you can proxy models, what are you going to lose?

If you do like well there's nothing stopping you starting a new army.

Wardragoon wrote:So my questions follow as:
1: How are the rules compared to 40k

Much more streamlined, though you'll not find it too different to understand. The new version (out last week) has alternating unit activation.

Wardragoon wrote:2: Is gameplay fun (I am not a WAACer, I use DA codex)

I think so. I'm also very much not a WAACer, and I found the rules quite enjoyable

Wardragoon wrote:
3: How has the company been for price hikes and whatnot(I would rather not hop into another GW type company)

This one is a bit touchy. There are some great army deals, and the price per fig isn't bad in the larger packs. However, the 10 packs aren't as great a deal. Also, there's quite a few charachters that are not large, but cost $15 bucks each, which is pretty much GW pricing, and the only real reason they seem to be that expensive is because of their use in-game. Pricing based on game stats is very-GW and leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Overall, however, they've don't seem to be on the GW-ish price-raise plan, and they are less expensive.

Wardragoon wrote:4: Does the current Meta show much favoritism for any factions

This is impossible to say yet. The factions seem to be quite balanced, but the new version came out last week, and only 2 of the factions have been updated for the new rules. Also, even with the previous edition, only 3.5 armies had army lists. Still, Mantic seems to be relying on new models to drive sales, rather than codex creep or faction favoritism.

Wardragoon wrote:5: What are the bad things about this game (every game has its bad points)

I haven't had a chance to play the new ruleset yet, but the original ruleset seemed most suitable for really big battles. We tried 1000 points and 2000 points. My opponent and I both agreed that the game was so streamlined that games under 1000 points just didn't have enough tactical options to be terribly enjoyable. You really need 1000 points or more, and 2000 is where the game really gets fun. This is tough, when -depending on your army- just getting to 1000 points might mean 50-80 figures.

I strongly recommend you checking out my AAR and review of the game here...
http://chicagoskirmish.blogspot.com/2011/12/warpath-battle-report-and-game-review.html
...Then grab your space marines (proxy them for forgefathers) and try the game out for yourself. I would never recommend buying into a game of this size without trying it first. If you're looking for something streamlined and fast-playing, but with a flavor that is still very similar to 40k, then this could be right up your alley.

Well I will probably buy corp due to the fact that they look better than cadians imo, and I live in a GW deadzone, so its just me and a scarce handful that play and they don't care if I proxy them as IG(god knows they look close enough) But I figured that if I liked the game I could change it up between 40k and warpath

I think you'll thoroughly enjoy the game.
Like you said, you will definitely be able to proxy the Corporation minis for Imperial Guard. I know I will use Corporation Marines for a cheaper alternative for an Elysian Drop Troopers army I've been wanting to build (but just couldn't afford).
Let us know if you like it!

Yes I was thinking of doing the same thing.. very cheap 'Air Recon' style IG (with a couple of Valkyries and transports from Antenociti's), then use them for Warpath 2.0 as well.

Pacific wrote:Yes I was thinking of doing the same thing.. very cheap 'Air Recon' style IG (with a couple of Valkyries and transports from Antenociti's), then use them for Warpath 2.0 as well.

You must be my good twin.....seriously, Air Guard, mine are just going to be heavy air infantry instead of recon

What's the average point sized game?

 ExNoctemNacimur wrote:
What's the average point sized game?

Anywhere from 1500 to 2,000 would be an average sized game.

On the prices, most are good deals. 10 men kinda suck, but once you get 20 or an army starter, it's much more attractive. $70 for 3 heavy weapon teams, 20 marines, 10 recon rangers and 10 veterans (which includes another HWT) is a pretty damn good deal. I haven't found the characters too bad in price-only one that's really expensive ($20) is the Orx captain, and I got 2 at $10 a piece: those things are a LOT of metal. And heavy. $20 isn't so bad-deals are better. And, if you buy a bunch of mantic stuff, you get points which can be used to get free huscurls and captains from the rewards section. So you don't even really need to 'buy' those characters.

To answer the original question if you should try it: why not? The rules are currently free, and Mantic tells you that any models can be used to play-what are you waiting for? Free game with models you already own? It's a pretty damn easy call, I'd say.