Dirty Ratmen Edition
Discuss games set in the Mantic's Warpath universe: Mass Battles, Firefight, Deadzone, and Dreadball
What is Warpath?
https://warpathuniverse.com/
Mass Battles: Large scale battles with big blocks of troops and vehicles (think 40k Apocalypse) - Open Beta
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dwkk5x5ooszx0zu/Warpath%20Beta%2014-03-16.pdf?dl=0
Firefight: Focused a little more on big battles, but not as big as above (think 1000-1500 pt games of 40k) - Open Beta
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hyc72fvva6e3dmf/Firefight%20V%201.3.pdf?dl=0
Deadzone: Small scale skirmish on boards with lots of terrain (think Infinity, but simpler) - 2nd edition, some preorders up, release in May
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/woayb5yb9fke1/deadzone
(Link also includes Containment Protocols, an anthology of short stories set in the Warpath universe, and 1st edition rulebook and expansions)
How to play videos:
https://youtu.be/OyeTtVgJPFY
https://youtu.be/inuJFLv89-k
Dreadball: Galactic and brutal sports game set in the universe (think bloodbowl, but scifi) - Available
(No links to rules, yet)
Here's a little something. Mantic posted this on their FB page today. These are the new Asterian Marionette models and some test paint schemes.
And I'll go ahead and repost the images from salute that were posted here on the last big mantic thread
So has Deadzone 2.0 been officially released yet?
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>>46943308
It's currently up for preorder right now. The rulebooks are linked in the OP
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>>46943636
Those vultures are nice, I'm sure I could use them in KoW.
Is there a reason to take a Thor Pattern Iron Ancestor? Frenzy 1 and an extra space on sprinting is nice, but are they 13 pts. and 1 VP nice?
>>46945655
I've been wondering this myself. It remains to be THE most expensive model you can get for the game, but it has one big advantage over the regular iron ancestor i've found. It has a move of 1-2. While that may not seem like much, it can be aggravating for models with only a 1-1 move. That run is vital a lot of times. So look at it this way, combined with a free move command dice, it has a 3 cube threat range. And since melee attacks are free as soon as you get in combat, that can be devastating. The frenzy I see is just icing on the cake.
(3 dice base, +1 for bigger size, +1 for moving into combat, and frenzy(1) with ap2 will wreck anyone's day)
The only thing I don't like about it really is the 5+ fight score, but on a d8 that's 50/50, so it's not bad.
Pic related is my thor pattern iron ancestor i built out of a dreadball iron ancestor. I'm pretty proud of this conversion
Definitely been worth the work.
You would think the most expensive unit in the game would have a better than 50% chance of hitting per attack though. Haven't checked, but I think the 1A plague chap is better than that. Probably doesn't have the survivability though.
>>46946053
I'd still rather take a regular one over the Thor. I think the advantage of taking a ranged weapon makes up for the slower speed, and its still cheaper. I think if it had a Fight of 4+, the Thor would be a lot more attractive.
That's a nice conversion, though.
>>46946204
Yeah the aberration is better in combat because he has a 3+ fight and knockback, but i find in this game, anything with a good survivability will tend to have its price jacked up a bunch. The aberration only has an armour of 1 and no tough. This means that even the troop basic guns can whittle it down, whereas the iron ancestors are armour 4, where the only real hope a player has to dealing any damage is a weapon with at least ap3+. The iron ancestors are the only models in the game I've found with armour 4. That's a pretty big deal.
>>46946408
Armour 4 is indeed a big deal, come to think of it, my Enforcers have nothing that can handle that. Perhaps I'd better dig out the Deadzone 1.0 one and paint it after all...
>>46946745
If you havent had a chance to play 2.0 yet, I would recomend it. The game has improved A LOT from 1.0.
1.0 had its charm and innovative ideas but ruleswise it was kindof a mess.
>>46946408
Oh, there's no doubt that they are worth the high cost for their survivability. That Armor 4 and Size 4 means its not going anywhere fast. I just think the internal balance of the list could've been worked a little better.
Honestly, looking at the DZ 2.0 FAQ thread on the official forums and the amount editing errors in the book makes me a little suspicious of the actual balance in some parts.
>>46946745
The way enforcers would deal with it are the big laser rifle on the strider (r12 ap4), the missile launcher (r8 ap5, but heavy (but hey, that's what free shoot actions are for), and thermal mines(rf ap3)
>>46947002
Yeah there are issues with the book so far and it's going to need a decent FAQ to fix a lot of it, but in playing this game some, I have to say even with the imbalances it's still pretty damn fun and a big improvement over the last edition.
Balance, however is very much a rock-paper-scissors i have found. I played my forgefathers twice against my brother's marauders, and my army strengths is dealing with enemies' high AP, and dealing with enemy high armour. But his list was always bringing dudes with no AP and no armour, but a lot of them. So my strengths I was paying for in points really only made my model count smaller, which made the game hard-mode for me. But I do really well against enforcers though.
>>46946745
Enforcers generally have a hard time with armor. Hell, out of the 5 weapons total they have with any AP, 2 are melee only weapons.
>>46947137
That just means you need to bring more fire.
>>46947304
Ideally yes, but unless I'm spamming militia, that can be very difficult. The challenge with forgefather players is it's very easy to be outnumbered because our stuff is generally more expensive. Our advantage is we have some good survivability and our basic rifle has ap1 and rapid fire, something most other armies need to buy.
>>46946890
Oh I will be, just got an entire tables worth of scenery I didn't bother painting in the first version.
Pic related, it's my Enforcers (again).
>>46942084
Question; Would you guys play against a person using 40k minis as a proxy?
>>46947833
Sure.
>>46947790
Oh hey its you. I love those guys. I am going to paint my enforcers something similar.
>>46947833
Sure, why not. Especially if they are just trying the game out. Since this game does use TLoS, what models you proxy with kindof matter, mostly just so its easy for your opponent to tell what is what and the sizes arent too crazy
What's a good base for a Veer-myn team? I'm thinking of expanding into a Warpath army with it, so probably go Crawler heavy, though I doubt anyone will mind mixing some Stalkers into the Crawler bases.
>>46948066
Brood mother+crawler spam and a few night terrors would be a strong start.
Unfortunately right now Mantic only has starter kits for 2 of the armies, but they said over the next couple months they will release starters 2 at a time for the other armies. So that could mean in may we might see the starters for veermyn and plague. Id be interested to see the contents of those starters
>>46948172
Looking at the other starters, I'd say Crawlers, Stalkers, Maligni, and maybe Creepers, with probably the Brood Mother.
And its not a problem, going to be a while until money's not tight, anyway. Plus there's still another month for the Warpath playtesting, so I'd have to wait to see how that turns out anyway.
On that note, the fact that there's only a month left and no word has been heard from Mantic is scary. Especially with what shape the beta rules are in now.
>>46948413
Playtesting is over, bro. Its up for preorders and kickstarter backers got their digitals of the rulebook and they are shipping backer rewards out now. The rulebook in the OP is the final version.
>>46948413
I'm talking about Warpath's playtesting, which is marked to end in May with the current schedule (that might be pushed back, though).
What material are the Progenitors going to be for Veermyn, they were down for being metal in the Kickstarter, so I gave them a miss as is my habit, but someone mentioned in passing there'd been a material change and they were now "plastic". I assume that's PVC like the Dungeon Saga stuff, which would be great.
Does mean my Kickstarter Veermyn will -have- to be from The Piper's list, which is a double edge sword, nice rules and a cool model, but his list is a bit more lacking in options. Those Nightmares are fearsome expensive too.
>>46948621
From what's been posted for order now, it looks like only the Mercs are metal. All the Enforcer and Forge Father starters and boosters are plastic.
>>46942106
"Chappie no crimes!"
>>46950890
fuck i hated that movie
What's a good weapon for a Brood Mother? Also, are items that useful, or should they be used as point fillers?
>>46948706
Well they are working on replacing some of the kits with new plastic sculpts, like GW is doing, but there are still some minis that are restic and resin. They havent released all the enforcers and forge fathers range, for example, because they are getting repackaged. I'm waiting for the pic related kit to be released again because i have a conversion planned.
>>46953145
Kindof on the same note, I bought an enforcers starter on ebay when someone had it up for really cheap, then I had an idea for something to expand it, but I need to wait until this kit >>46953145
goes back up on sale on mantics site.
According to the enforcers list, the monowheel scout bike is treated as a purchaseable item with the only restriction being one per strike team. Meaning any model that can carry an item, can be equipped with the monowheel scout bike, not just the pathfinder specialist.
So from the enforcers starter, I built everything but one of the assault enforcers (the one that is in a leaping pose) because I can see him being mounted on a monowheel. The monowheel does turn the model into a vehicle, but he then has a movement of 1-5, which would be really cool. Have this guy rush up and melee something with an ap1 weapon, or even buy for him a thermal mine for vehicle hunting.
>>46953100
Havent looked at the veermyn much yet, but be wary of equipping her with an expensive weapon that could raise her VP value and make her too expensive. She could be equipped with one of the special weapons, but why would you when the malignus is cheaper, worth less VP, and has the same shooting as her. Thats one of the tradeoffs with the new rules, you can make a guy super badass but he would also draw a lot of fire from your opponent because he would be worth a lot of VP to take down. Kindof an 'eggs in one basket' dilemma.
As for items, they are purely points fillers from my perspective. Giving every single model an ammo item is not worth the additional models you are giving up to do that.
Ill dump a few deadzone minis paintings I am a fan of.
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Now for his plague. I just love the way this guy paints his minis, so striking
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And this conversion he did cracks me up
I wish they had also resculpted the 2nd Gens in the Kickstarters.
Now his marauders
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and ill post his rebs minis tomorrow
Nice to see some painted stuff for a change, Shame it's none of the posters in the actual threads stuff though...
You do paint figures don't you Anons?
>>46961129
I do, and I do plan on painting mine, but right now I am balls deep in another painting project that has a deadline. It's just what it is
the rebs
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Also wondering what's going on with Warpath right now. The dev for Warpath has been posting on the forums but hasn't updated the Warpath rules. The Firefight dev is nowhere to be seen. They're both well overdue on their fortnightly updates.
>>46965866
Probably serious discussions about extending the playtesting perhaps? That'd be better for the game, but Kickstarter types don't like delays.
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>>46965991
Well i do know right now it's all hands on deck for getting the deadzone 2.0 kickstarters shipped out. They did a small video on their FB page showing a warehouse of boxes ready to go out. Also they are prepping for the official release of deadzone 2, as it is up for preorders right now. The company is not very big so they dont have dedicated staff for certain things, most employees would share jobs and responsibilities. I just noticed feedback from the warpaths stopped right around the time of getting deadzone up and ready. Also they may be working on the deadzone FAQ and errata too
>>46966060
Ah good point there. Bit worrying given the looming Warpath deadline, but that's the thing with a small company. Worth mentioning they've had production delays on this shipping, so the pressure to get it all out the door must be pretty huge.
>>46966169
And expect delays. Just expect them. This deadzone stuff was supposed to get shipped to backers in January.
Because warpath is a bigger scale project, I wouldnt expect stuff to start going to backers until at least early 2017
Quick Gameplay video for Deadzone 2.0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al7r68CumPQ
>>46967015
Eh, this is not a very good how-to play video. The ones in the OP are better.
>>46943334
It's beautiful. ;_;
>>46967561
It really is. I really wish I backed the warpath kickstarter even just for that model.
>>46967629
How much do they cost per model?
Or should I say how much are they going to cost, when they start producing them for non-backers?
>>46967015
Not convinced any of them are that good really. The guys in OP are just using proxy or unpainted shite and both come across as a bit stilted.
I find almost all "battle report" videos to be god awful though, at least in the main
"Top of four"
Fuck off!
>>46965140
>open cockpit
Why
>>46967731
Because it's a weaponized construction/cargo handling mech?
>>46967015
Although it does answer a dilemma that the people on the forums have been having. There was a debate on whether or not knockback will knock something if it just hits or if you have to damage the model. From the video it looks like if your knockback attack hits, even if it doesnt do any damage, the target still gets knocked back.
Definitely makes me consider knockback a little more on some of my models.
>>46967672
I have no idea. They were doing it as a backer upgrade for $30 for one, so I would probably assume the final one would be about $45 when t goes on sale.
>>46967731
Thats the reb strider, which is a looted or noncenventional strider, not military grade. So it was likely used for construction crews or a warehouse.
IF you notice the plague strider has the glass broke, which is because the plague doesn't care about the maintenance or repair of their stuff, nor the safety of their dudes.
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>>46967823
I think anon means why are the crossbar/rollcage bar things raised up?
I tend to agree, I think it would look better with them lowered.
>>46967856
I assume you can build it with it down, may just have been easier to paint with the cage up.
>>46967730
Well the one in OP are better demonstrative of the gameplay. The mantic one doesnt show the moves very well and doesnt zoom in to what is happening.
I do wish the guys in the OP had more painted and official models though.
>>46967475
Its a good demo video, but yeah, its not good at actually teaching rules.
https://youtu.be/9tc0TyD2TyY
This was an interesting video to watch. It's an interview with Ronnie Renton. The first 10 minutes he talks about non-deadzone stuff and even the rumored dreadball 2.0 (going to d8s instead of d6s could be good for the game)
Then the rest of the interview was all about deadzone. About the design process and reasoning behind some of the decisions. I'm still watching the video now, havent gotten through it all yet.
>>46968799
Lots of good stuff there.
Not convinced Dreadball needs D8s though, there's 24 teams and they all feel pretty different, even with the limits created by D6s.
>>46968799
K i just got done watching and it was encouraging. Deadzone is more than just a mere kickoff for players getting into warpath, it's going to be the kickoff for the entire gaming range and setting. Lots to look forward to in the future for it.
>>46970304
Only problem I can see (because it's how I feel at the moment) is that Deadzone scratches the Sci-fi 28mm itch right now and is there any reason people would want to sink loads of money into a Warpath army.
In my case I now have or will soon have:
An Enforcers Strike team
A Plague Strike Team
A Veermyn Strike Team
A Forge Fathers Strike Team
A Rebs Strike Team
A Marauders Strike Team
Some are just 100 points, some will get well over 200. Enforcers could probably go over a 1000 so there's a Firefight army already. Plus enough scenery to do two complete 2'x2' tables pretty densely.
I for one, probably have all the Mantic Sci-fi stuff I'll ever need. I guess I'm not representative though, and to succeed, they'll need to recruit outside of the Kickstarter backers.
>>46970634
I get that. I really have no interest in either warpath right now, at all. I like 40k and it fulfills that itch for mass battle games, and I already have a few large armies for that.
But deadzone is great at its small skirmishes and I want to see more of it. I will buy maybe one set of the models that interest me, but I have no desire to expand, say, my brokkrs beyond the 5 i have, or the forge guard.
I saw a battrep of warpath and it just looked too weird to me. I couldnt wrap my head around it.
>>46970757
Well it looks like Deadzone has plenty of expandability (is that a word? It is now) if the Infestation book is anything to go by. Really like the variant lists in there and custom commanders with different special abilities. Actually can see myself buying the odd new commander, particularly if they're all as nice as the ones up and coming. That Sphyr Lancer is a fantastic sculpt.
>>46970823
Yes expandability is a word.
But yeah it does. Whenever they introduce a new faction into warpath, its getting in deadzone first.
now for his mercs
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Anyone know how good the psychic jellyfish are? Pretty sweet models.
>>46976504
I haven't had a chance to play with them, but looking at their stuff, the psychic powers can be powerful tools. Stun marks an enemy model as activated, and invigorate removes an activation token from one of your activated models. It could mess up anyone's game.
Man, the Forge Father special orders seem a bit weak. Except for the Forge Guard Huscarl's. The Steel Warrior's is ok, but would be better if it needed 2 successes instead of 3, and the Brokkr Chief's is meh. Which is shame, since the FG is 40+ pts. in an already expensive army.
>>46942084
Ok, two questions before I decide if I should start reading. First, is the game divided into player turns or do players take turns activating units ? Second, what not-40k armies are playable in case I want to advertise this to my 40k group that's a bit frustrated with the current rules ?
>>46979133
Alternating activation.
So far, there's not!Marines, not!Orks, not!Eldar, and not!Guard. The other armies Space Skaven, Space Dwarves, and sorta Genestealer Cult.
>>46979181
And the notElder use lots of robots that you can use Necrons for.
>>46978537
Yeah the steel warrior one is controversial on the forums. And it is a shame that all forge fathers are so expensive. Numerous armies generally have a big advantage over low numbered ones. Forge fathers send kind of nerfed this edition. Last edition they were the most powerful
>>46982380
It is nice that you get the option to reroll command dice of your army is at 50 percent. Even the forge guard one is useless of you're up against an army with no ap at all
>>46979181
Eh, the only race that plays like its 40k counterpart are the marauders. The not space Marines are OK in melee and all have jet packs. As far as play style the forge fathers play more like space Marines.
>>46982380
I think you ended up paying a bit of a too high premium for the AP on standard weapons.
>>46984516
I'd say the not!Guard do to.
>>46986900
I get that. I find my army underpowered against an army with zero armour, like marauders.
>>46987719
I agree, its a lot for a situational rule. Compare the Steel Warrior to an Enforcer. You trade a point of Fight and the AP1 on your gun for a jump pack and a 5 pts. discount. I can't even figure out where that 5 pts. comes from, since the cost difference between the laser rifle and hailstorm is 1 point.
>>46987978
Yeah the balance is very much rock-paper-scissors. I do terrible against high numbers and low armour, like maraiders, but pretty well against enforcers because they tend to be a little more expensive and i ignore most of their armour
>>46988041
I think an Iron Ancestor with a power claw and flamer would do well against Marauders. Frag grenades, while expensive, would also be useful. Get them close and BBQ them.
Bumping with a question
I'm late to the Warpath/ Deadzone party, and I'm confused. When do the Plague minis come out, or the Reb ones? I can't wait to get an army of crazed space mutant zombies.
>>46990992
They will be releasing the other factions over the course of the next couple months. Veermyn and plague will be up for preorder in May, i think.
