On the 11th Day of Xmas: EPIC WARPATH

Hi everyone,

As most of you know, the setting for our sci-fi games is the Warpath Universe. It’s showcased some brilliant games such as DreadBall, OverDrive and Star Saga, and of course it provides the worlds and battlefields for the incomparable Deadzone and the award-winning Firefight.

The History of Warpath

Once upon a time it also hosted the original game of Warpath, from which it derives its name. Some of you will remember where it all started back in 2011…hands up everyone who had this classic box!

Warpath saw a couple of iterations as a 28mm mass-battle wargame, and the second edition had an alternative play mode called ‘Firefight’ for platoon-level combat. This eventually became the most popular format for the game, and evolved into Firefight as it stands (proudly on its own two feet) today.

As Firefight rose in prominence, Warpath (for a few years) became a very fond memory of wonderful futuristic mass-battles, simply resting but never truly forgotten…

With Deadzone claiming the skirmish spot and Firefight filling the 28mm wargame space, the concept of mass-sci-fi-battles was ready to be reborn – it just felt like it needed a different approach. And perhaps…a different scale. This really was the ‘eureka’ moment, and gave us a clear way forward.

So, a while ago the studio began to formulate how to bring Warpath to the table again, not with the 28mm models but something much smaller that would better represent the feeling we were after. We wanted gamers to really feel like they were commanding truly VAST armies in open warfare across massive battlefield landscapes, with lots of vehicles, explosive artillery, multiple changing objectives and cunning tactical orders.

We wanted the game to play out on an epic scale, and indeed with epic-scale miniatures. And so, EPIC WARPATH was born.

Wait…they’re launching WHAT?

Having already planned out the first few armies and a working draft of the rules, we were just about to step things up a gear when our ‘friends from down the road’ announced they too were about to be visiting the world of small scale sci-fi gaming.

Rather than just ignore this surprise plot twist, we presented where we had got to with our fans and asked them if and how they wanted us to continue. We ran a public survey and got an amazing response – thousands of you got in touch, and we were quite overwhelmed by the reaction.

Should we continue? The answer was a resounding YES!

Would people want us to go all-in and try for as much hard plastic as possible via KS? Again YES!

Okay then…let’s do this.

Back On Track!

Rules development immediately started back up, as did sculpting, art and all the other moving pieces it takes to launch a new game system. The whole team is really looking forward to this one, and having some competition in the category is simply encouraging us to push things to new heights across the board!

For some time now the studio have been working with legendary game designer Alessio Cavatore to help test and polish the rules and army lists, and the game is already looking very slick, fun and intuitive. Exactly what you expect from a true Mantic tabletop experience!

We’ve also run a public playtest day at Mantic HQ with some very useful feedback. We then have another one already booked in, with twice as many players, in late January.

Sculpting for the first four armies is well underway and the next potential ones are being conceived and planned ready for testing and sculpting should they be unlocked during the KS campaign. There’s a real art to packing the right character and proportions into epic-scale miniatures. They need to be easy to differentiate on the table, practical for real hobbyists to paint (not just Brush with Death winners!), and feature some cool recognisable details from their 28mm counterparts. The early sculpts are coming in thick and fast now, and we’re very happy with how things are shaping up.

EPIC WARPATH is going to be amazing and we can’t wait for what is going to be a super-exciting campaign.

Click below (and hit the notify button) for a reminder on launch day, and even better – go and ask your gaming buddies (i.e. future opponents!) to do the same.

There is SO MUCH we can do with this system if enough people jump in for the crowdfunding launch, and the 4 starting factions really could be just the beginning…

Would You Like to Know More?

To read all about the development of the game, there is an ongoing series of blogs you can read HERE to whet your appetite for all the excitement ahead.

Let’s get EPIC WARPATH into our early 2024 roadmap then:

That just leaves one slot in the roadmap…and we’ve (naturally) left something amazing and ultra-secret until last. What could it possibly be?

Come back tomorrow to find out,

Matt