Mantic SciFi Games News and Rumours Roundup

[MGS_Snake]

Maybe a little premature, but here is my work in progress for a Space Marines Army List. It is hardly close to being finished, but please feel free to edit it. I haven't even had a chance to play a game of Warpath, but I am dying to use my Space Marines for something else other than 40k.

I really want to see what Mantic comes up with for their miniature range for Warpath. If they go by their army lists, it looks like there will be plenty of variation, including at least a couple vehicles and one aircraft per army. The inclusion of air units (along with they way they work) surprised me.

[Llew]

Bah! Ponied up for a month to get the alpha.


And just in the stat profiles I see one change that could go a long way towards helping to balance Elven shooting a bit.

[AlexHolker]

Well, I've since had the opportunity to look at the alpha rules, and to answer my own questions:

- Yes, they've given most vehicles higher Defense values (up to De 11+ for one of the Space Dwarf tanks), and a Nerve table that works slightly differently to the normal one.

- They've replaced the separate "to hit" stats with separate "# of attacks" stats.

However, I do have a new complaint: like WH40k 3rd Edition, they've removed the Sp stat and replaced it with a special rule. This does not make the game simpler, it just makes it less capable. It was a bad idea when 40k did it, and it's a bad idea now.

[Darsc Zacal]

I've just updated the News and Rumour Roundup in the first post. For anyone new here, please check it out as it'll have the latest info on Warpath.

For the regulars here, especially those who viewed the BoW video, I'd appreciate it if you would take a quick look at the First Post Roundup as well. Just to make sure I haven't missed anything of importance or gotten something wrong, as I couldn't watch the video myself.

Thanks.

[Llew]

I don't see any indication (at a glance) that units are formed into ranks. It appears that they have to stay within a radius of the leader, and movement seems to be based on moving the leader first, then reassembling his unit around him. The radius means you won't see ridiculously broad firing lines of a single unit.

[AlexHolker]

I don't see any indication (at a glance) that units are formed into ranks. It appears that they have to stay within a radius of the leader, and movement seems to be based on moving the leader first, then reassembling his unit around him. The radius means you won't see ridiculously broad firing lines of a single unit.

Yes, it says they must remain within 5" of the leader and 1" of another squad member.

Something else I would change: at the moment, Individuals have a chunky salsa rule like Instant Death in 40k - if it takes a wound from an attack with a Crushing Strength or Piercing value of 4+, it dies. Instead, I'd make it so that the Crushing Strength (n) or Piercing (n) ability also grants the Blast (n) ability when attacking an Individual. This would mean that a Heat-cannon, for example, would cause 6 points of damage instead of being a straight insta-kill.

[lord marcus]

Gah! Has the ruleset been leaked yet? I don't have power over the paypal credit card in the family and I want to see what all the fuss is about and clear up confusion of what you all are talking about.

[scarletsquig]

Well,the beta will be released in the fall, so we only have to wait 3 months or so. /:

[Darsc Zacal]

Well,the beta will be released in the fall, so we only have to wait 3 months or so. /:

Really?!?

Shoot. I must have misread or misunderstood something somewhere, as I thought the Beta was being made available in just a few weeks.

[scarletsquig]

Ah, wait a second. Reading into it a bit more, it turns out that BoW will in fact be releasing their alpha (or whatever they're calling their preview version) in a few weeks to registered BoW users... possibly at the end of this month.

Then the beta following the alpha comes out later in the fall.

[AlexHolker]

Ah, wait a second. Reading into it a bit more, it turns out that BoW will in fact be releasing their alpha (or whatever they're calling their preview version) in a few weeks to registered BoW users... possibly at the end of this month.

Then the beta following the alpha comes out later in the fall.

The Alpha version of the rules have already been released (and, according to a quick online search, has already been leaked). The Beta, IIRC, will be starting in 1-2 weeks.

[Nightsword]

The free-to-download closed beta will be available on our site very soon - the game and miniatures come out in the fall Technically, the rules for KOW that are for download and found in the Mhorgoth's Revenge set are actually Open Beta, so maybe the terminology is getting a bit confused.

[scarletsquig]

Cool, thanks for the info, that's much sooner than I was expecting.

[Darkover]

Just checked out the rules and I must say they look very nice. Fast and simple like KoW, but with some details that have the potential to make quite a difference.

KoW-players will feel right at home, I think this is going to be big! :-)

[André]

Rules are nice and the lessons from KoW have been learned. Now let`s see whether the minis are as good as well.

[stonehorse]

I'm wanting to try it out, but I'm not going to pay Beast of War to get the alpha, when Mantic will be releasing it for free in a short while. Seems to me that Beasts of War are trying to cash in on this.

When I have the Alpha I'll be trying to get plenty of games in, I'm a big fan of Mantic's approach to their games, fast, easy, and loads of fun.

[Llew]

Yes, BoW are trying to cash in on this. Only pay if the curiosity is killing you. Otherwise, you'll have it in hand soon enough.

I plunked down for the preview, but it's only for the people who just hate not knowing. I think you guys will be pleased with the beta version, and it should have the biggest flaws taken care of by then. (Mostly typos or text confusion...rules look pretty good overall.)

[Nightsword]

The free beta requires sign-up to the newsletter - don't forget that!

[Darsc Zacal]

Check out the Beasts of War site for a NEW On The Table video featuring, amongst other things, a little feature on Mantic right at the start with new concept art of the space dwarfs.

I know I've been giving the boys over at BoW a hard time lately, but these On The Table videos are something they do really well, and at only ten to fifteen minutes in length are very watchable and informative. I strongly recommend giving it a view as each episode features a wide variety of companies and miniatures. Sounds like they will be running an episode every other week.

And if one of our techmages is able to capture a few screenshots of this new concept art from the video, I'd be able to update the first post roundup.

Once again, this video caught me at work without my headphones, so I haven't been able to watch the whole thing, and was able to hear even less, so there might be other points of interest in it.

[Llew]

OH HOLY POO THOSE FORGEFATHER CONCEPTS LOOK COOL!

Wait. Stop. I gotta calm down. But I really dig those. They've got the feel of the KoW Dwarves, but with a nice, future-y update. Very nice!