Join Mike as he takes a look at Epic Warpath, a brand new Kickstarter from Mantic Games.
Epic Warpath exists within a universe first created in 2011 by Mantic Games and has been the setting for a range of sci-fi tabletop games. Everything from skirmish games such as Project Pandora and Deadzone, all the way up to their mass battle game Warpath. The series isn’t just about violent sci-fi conflicts with futuristic sports titles Dreadball and Overdrive bringing another perspective to the Warpath Universe.
You can find all the campaign details, and follow the exciting developments over on the game’s Kickstarter page.
The Setting
Aggressive human expansion throughout the galaxy, driven by the resource-hungry corporations making up the Galactic Co-Prosperity Sphere or GCPS, has led them in to conflicts with other civilizations. They have a choice, either join the GCPS or a make a stand.
The first four factions set to launch with Epic Warpath are the Asterians, Plague, Forge Fathers and Enforcers. The other factions within the Warpath universe will be stretch goals unlocked through the campaign.
The Enforcers are the superhuman army of the Council of Seven, a secretive ruling body made up of the richest and most powerful corporations. An elite force deployed with devastating effect used as a last resort, unless of course a colony has sent a distress signal as the Plague consumes them.
The Plague rising in the wake of infections, the Plague are an army of horrors with an unknown origin. While mostly contained to a region of space known as the ‘death arc’, Plague vessels occasionally punch through the Asterian blockade and new infections begin.
The Asterians act as guardians of balance across the universe, and have built their society around this. Their disdain for warfare has led them to deploying advanced drone armies and high-tech violence to maintain peace.
The Forge Fathers might be the first advanced civilization to emerge in the galaxy, if you ask them. Being the first, they believe that the universe, and it’s resources, are rightfully theirs to use. The Forge Fathers are one of the few civilizations to operate independently of the GCPS, and have instead forged a temporary alliance.
Rules overview
There’s a series of blogs covering each phase of the game over on Mantic’s site, and you can see the game in action over on their YouTube channel. I’ve really enjoyed keeping up with the blogs over the past couple of months, and seeing things take shape has only made me more excited about the final product.
The game is broken up in to a set of phases with alternating activations. I’ve always really enjoyed games with alternating activations as it helps to keep the pace of the game up and sustain engagement when you’re not the active player. You’ll be allocating action tokens in secret during the Command Phase, and then resolving them in the Movement, Overwatch and Combat phase. Alessio Cavatore and Matt Gilbert have worked their usual magic to keep the game clean, so even though you might be putting lots of tokens down during the Command Phase, by the end of the round the battlefield is clean and you’re ready to move on. The use of tokens also lets you easily see if there’s anything that still needs to be activated between phases, keeping the overall mental load light. Command Points, generated during the Command Phase, allow players to issue faction specific Strategic Orders. These orders help to give each faction additional character, alongside the combination of keywords and the unit profiles themselves.
Campaign details
Mantic Games have created an affordable set of Pledge levels, matching the approachable gameplay and rules style. It’s not often you see everything two people need to play for under £100, so at £89 it’s fantastic value. The 2-Army Starter Pledge gets you the game essentials and 2 core army boxes. Game essentials covers your softback rulebook, dice and punchboard token sheets, and each core army box comes with over 160 hard plastic miniatures depending on faction. There’s also Reinforcements and Super-heavy options available in resin and as STLs to bolster your chosen faction.
With stretch goals to unlock the tooling to support additional factions, backers will be able to customise their pledge at the end of the campaign in the pledge manager. If you’ve been following along with Mantic’s article series, or watched their videos, you’ll have also seen the modular plastic terrain kits on offer.
The delivery estimate is March 2025, so you’ll have plenty of time to clear some space in your backlog before everything arrives.
Pledge levels
- 1-Army Starter Pledge – £59, Game essentials + 1 core army box
- 2-Army Starter Pledge – £89, Game essentials + 2 core army boxes
- 4-Army Starter Pledge – £149, Game essentials + 4 core army boxes
- High Command Pledge – £475, Game essentials, XL terrain pack, 4 core army boxes, 4 reinforcement boxes, and 4 super-heavy boxes.
If you’d like to back Epic Warpath, or follow along for daily updates, head over to their Kickstarter page now!
