Epic Warpath – Tactics Series #1

Welcome to a new series of blogs kicking off this week where we deep dive (with the help of the Rules Committee) into the factions of Epic Warpath.  By now, most of our backers have started to receive packages of models and have started to create army lists and are diving fully into this immersive and brilliant game.  If like me though, you want to know a bit more about each army then this series is for you!

I think it's only right we start with the two armies in the Battle for Phrovox set!

Enforcers

Humanity’s elite, the Enforcer armies can move quickly to the right spot to carry out their task and given their anti-grav capability, terrain won’t slow them down either.

The other great thing about Enforcers concerns their movement, not the speed necessarily, though the Accuser Interceptor is the fastest thing in the game.  The main advantage really is that with the “Go, Go, Go” order you can still shoot effectively even after maximum movement. Combine this with the exceptional command and control they have, allowing commands to be given at any range, and it makes for the ability to concentrate force where it is needed.

Stand Out Units

Troops

Heavy Weapons Troops give you the best range available to any Troops in the game and have an AP value too.  Only Support and some Specialist units can outrange them.

Support

The Victor MkII Tank not only has the second-best range in the game after the Asterian Assassin, but also has a great defence making it one of the best defended tanks in the game.  Oh and it also has three shots with AP2.  It’s hard to see why you wouldn’t want some of these in your army.

The Persecutor Bomber has the Demolisher keyword which can really spoil the day for any enemy thinking they are safely hiding in the cover of a building, but watch out for enemy anti-aircraft capabilities, and remember they can’t take objectives.

Specialist

It’s hard not to like the Peacekeepers, these are an elite outfit within an elite army, and are the only ones with as good a shoot stat as the Asterians. They also get two dice for shoot and with their Energy Gauntlets get an AP2 in assault with good armour too.  You won’t go too far wrong to build your army around making sure these guys can get to the right place.

The Panther Missile Tank doesn’t have the same hitting power as the basic Panther Grav Tank but gives some extra flexibility in that it also has the anti-aircraft capability, so it’s worth taking one of these units as insurance in case your opponent has any flying units.

Plague

The plague wants to spread and spread fast.  This is the ultimate assault force, with all their strategic orders and the army special rule enhancing assaults.  So it follows that you need to gear your army around enabling your units to get into close combat.

For Plague armies it’s a numbers game.  The more dice you can roll in assaults the more potential there is to have your Contagion rule kick in and to replace casualties and keep the number of attacks going.

The Aura of Terror helps do this. Getting enemy units pinned means they shoot less well, and if they can’t clear pins then they can only use an Advance order next turn. Don’t forget also that while a unit has a pin marker it’s unit strength is only 1 no matter what it started as, so in the rounds that you want to score for objectives that could make the key difference.

Even though you want to get the bulk of your army into assault range, you will need to deal with the longest range enemy units that are often armoured units, so some ranged AP capability should be provided too.

Stand Out Units

Troops

Zombie units seem expensive at first, but given that they are 9 figure units, they work out cheaper per figure than other units.  With a potential 18 attacks and unflinching these are the troops you want to get in.  No Plague army is complete without at least some zombies.

Support

The Aberration has the best Assault stat in the game and with 4 attacks, and with a 7+ armour and never getting pinned these are scary units in assault.  They will therefore of course draw enemy fire, so you can potentially exploit this in that if the enemy are shooting these big dudes it might give you more time to get your more numerous other units into combat.

Specialist

Leapers are quite expensive, but also quite fast and have 3 assault dice and AP1, and remember it's always good to increase numbers in attacks for Plague armies.

Even though Plague Armies want to Assault, you will need to deal with enemy armoured units especially as often they are longer ranged units that will sit back and shoot you several times before you get into assault range.  So you will need units that can deal with them and your Tankbuster Striders are probably best for this with good AP and good range.  The weapons teams are cheaper and also have the Blast capability making them more flexible, but with their poor shoot stats.  If you just want to maximise assault capability then choose the Bursters even though they have to get in closer to be effective...

As part of the launch of Epic Warpath, the staff here at Mantic have been diving in too - and the whole team have been sending me pictures of projects and half completed paint jobs as they progress through their armies!

First up are my yellow Enforcers - normally I would shy away from yellow but at this scale it was just a really fun project to complete.  They won't win me many paint awards, but they look great on the tabletop!

Next up is the far more talented painter Stuart, who when he isn't locked in our print room actually making these models, he helps in our onsite gaming store and painted not just one army, but two! (nobody likes a show off, Stu!)

Join us tomorrow for the next tactics blog, featuring the Forge Fathers!