Warpath: Battle report and game review

At last week's club game night, Jon and I had a chance to try out the Warpath ruleset by Mantic Games. We completely forgot a few things (such as modifiers for shooting at units that have moved, etc), but in general we got a pretty good handle on the rules. After the game report, I'll review the rules.

Like Mantic's Kings of War fantasy game, the rules and force lists for Warpath are free! Our game pitted the Forgefathers (Mantic's space dwarves, represented in this game by my Blood Angels Space Marines) against the Corporation (represented by my Imperial Guard).

We found that the Forgefathers and Corporation army lists were a good fit for the Space Marines and Imperial Guard units in my collection. Each side had approximately 1,000 points.

Forge Fathers (Blood Angels Space Marines)

• Huscarl (Commander Tycho)
• Steel Warriors section with BFG and special melee weapon (10 marines with missile launcher)
• 2x Drakkarim teams each with flamer and special melee weapon (two 5 marine assault squads). We gave this unit jump packs at a cost of 20 points per figure. This is not a standard option in the rules, but we borrowed a similar upgrade from the Marauder Orx force list.
• Stormrage veterans team (5-marine devastator squad) with 4 BFGs (yes, this is how Warpath handles heavy weapons...they're all BFGs)
• Heavy Drakkar (Land Raider tank) with 3 BFGs

The Corporation (Imperial Guard)

• Commander (Commissar) with special melee weapon
• Sniper (Ratling)
• 3x Corporation marine sections each with BFG and special melee weapon (10 Guardsmen with autocannon)
• Heavy weapons section with light laser cannon (3 lascannon teams)
• Striders with burst lasers (3 Sentinel walkers)
• MBT-01 Pulverizer tank with heavy laser cannon and light laser cannon (Leman Russ Demolisher)

We each deployed our forces along a table edge and agreed to play a kill-em-all/meatgrinder scenario. Here's how the deployment looked for each side of the table.



We used our first moves to advance into cover, either in buildings or behind hills. However, two lucky rounds of fire killed off my Steel Warriors section and one of Jon's Marine sections before they even had a chance to get into combat. Our tanks fired away at each other with little effect. Jon's MBT-01 did a little damage, and I realized that my Heavy Drakkar did not have the firepower necessary to damage his Tank with anything other than a very lucky rear shot.

By the middle of turn 2, one of my Drakkarim teams (assault squad) had already leapt into close combat with Jon's Marine section. The other team would have done so as well, but Jon's heavy weapon section suppressed them and they dove for cover.

Realizing the futility of firing on Jon's MBT-01, my Heavy Drakkar moved to engage his right flank, where it destroyed his heavy weapons section in a barrage of fire from three Hailstorm Autocannons. The MBT-01 fired on the Stormrage Veterans (devastator squad) but somehow the tank missed with both weapons.


In turn 3 the Drakkarim team wiped out the marine section in close combat. However, the second marine section took up positions in a ruined rotunda and eliminated the second Drakkarim team before it had a chance to recover from suppression.


On the far flank, the Heavy Drakkar destroyed all three Striders (Sentinel walkers). The Stormrage Veterans and their commander advanced, but were now in full view of the MBT-01 tank. They managed to do some damage to the tank.


In turn 4, the MBT-01 drives over the Stormrage veterans (giving us a chance to try out the rules for running down pedestrians with vehicles) and then turns to chase the flank of the Heavy Drakkar. The veterans stay in the fight but only after sustaining heavy damage. The Corporation commander (commissar) charges into the remaining Draakkarim Team.


By turn 5, it was all over. The Corporation commander's fury routed the Drakkarim team, and the marine section in the rotunda finished off the Stormrage veteran squad. The commander of the Forgefather force and his remaining tank quit the field in defeat.


Warpath Reviewed

Warpath does little to conceal its roots as a Warhammer 40,000 knock-off game. In many ways, it is 40k stripped to the bare essentials and then modified even further with a few mechanics that speed up gameplay. Thus, I'll be making many of my observations by comparing it to 40k.

The most obvious change from 40k is that squads take damage as a single unit, not as a collection of miniatures. When the squad takes damage, figures are not removed — instead, the damage is accumulated by making notes next to the squad's army roster sheet. Every turn that damage is taken, the squad makes a roll to see if the amount of damage accumulated thus far is enough to surpress the unit or take it out of the fight. This means that many games might not see any figures removed in the first turn or two, even though damage is being taken. Some 40k players might find this disconcerting, but testing for destruction only once a turn speeds up gameplay and forces the opposing player to judge how much firepower he or she wants to concentrate on a particular unit.

Like damage, combat is determined on a squad-versus-squad basis, with almost no emphasis on individual figures. The exceptions are heavy weapons (BFGs) that can fire separately from the rest of the squad. Warpath differs significantly from 40k in that unless suppressed, a squad's combat abilities do not degrade as it takes damage. This is a big abstraction compared to 40k, but as with other changes, it does massively speed up gameplay as the combat capabilities of the unit are contained in its statline and do not change from turn to turn.

I was pleasantly surprised that Warpath has a movement stat. This simple change provides a bit more variation between units and is a welcome change compared to 40k, which which has one baseline movement rate for most infantry.


Vehicles seem to be handled well, if somewhat simply. There are provisions for firing arcs, overunning enemy units, collisions, transport and ordinance weapons. Notably absent are differing armor ratings for side, front and rear. Vehicles take damage in the same manner as other units, but units with "penetrating" weapons get a bonus when firing at the rear and side arcs.

Other notable features of the rules:

• Pre-measuring is allowed at any time
• Rules are included for aircraft strafing runs
• A section of 25 special rules provides just enough variation to give units a bit of flavor. Many entries will be familiar to 40k players, such as rules for individual characters, jump jets, steadfastness, armor piercing, and crushing strength.

Warpath will not be my go-to ruleset for all sci-fi gaming, as I have a few major reservations about the game. First of all, calls for each player to field a very large army. After our game, 1,000 points seemed like the minimum amount necessary for an enjoyable match — Warpath is clearly made for gaming at 2,000 or more points per side. It's simply too abstract to function well for a small skirmish of just a few units per side.

I'm not entirely sure it has enough tactical possibilities to make it a game that I would play every week in the way some folks play 40k. Creative scenario generation could fix this, but it's not going to offer the kind of granularity and unit customizability that keep people forever re-reading their codices and tweaking their 40k army lists.

Warpath does not have a unit creation mechanic. Mantic has planned for 8 races (3 have been released so far) and they seem thus far to be extremely analagous to 40k races. However, if your sci-fi army doesn't fit one of those force lists, you will have to do a bit of adaptation on your own. I don't see this as a big downside, as the available army lists seem to have enough unit variation that only minor changes seem necessary.

Lastly, I feel obligated to compare Warpath to my favorite sci-fantasy game WarEngine. I see them both as fulfilling different roles. WarEngine offers more granularity and tactical options: it has a reaction/overwatch mechanic along with more customization. Like Warpath, WarEngine isn't well suited for very small battles, but unlike Warpath, it also isn't a good choice for very large battles with lots of vehicles and tanks. I would use WarEngine for battles with 5-7 squads and a small vehicle or two per side, whereas Warpath seems to work best with 8 squads or more and lots of vehicles.

Despite the reservations above, I really enjoyed this game. Having never played Warpath before, it took about 2 hours, but both Jon and I agreed that a game of this size would typically be completed in an hour or less. Our enjoyment of the game was probably colored by what we were hoping to get out of the game: a quick, enjoyable game of "40k lite" full of familiar rules, big armies and streamlined gameplay.

And of course, we were delighted to get our 40k armies on the table. Both of us have big 40k collections that we really like but just don't get much play anymore.

Warpath delivered on all counts. As a disaffected 40k player who still loves the miniatures and background — but who no longer has the desire to play games that take longer than an hour or so — I will definitely be using Warpath again to get my 40k figs back on the table.

So is Warpath for you? That depends. As mentioned before, the game is a streamlined 40k-clone that makes no pretentions about being realistic in scope, rules or background. According to Mantic, it's about "big battles," and if commanding a company of troops and a tank platoon on a battlefield the size of a soccer pitch (like 40k...) with a fast-playing and very streamlined ruleset (not like 40k) is your thing, then Warpath will probably deliver.

— Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

28mm on the cheap: Toy cars as wargames vehicles

Toy cars are a great source for vehicles for the 28mm gamer on a budget. For those gaming in near future, modern, 20th century, or post-apocalyptic settings, it is reltatively simple to convert and repaint them for use on the battlefield.

As part of our "28mm on a budget" series, this tutorial will offer some tips on turning toy cars into 28mm vehicles. In the article below, I will show both a simple repaint of a VW microbus as well as a more involved conversion of an SUV into a post-apocalyptic rambler.

What you will need:

• Toy cars — Anything from 1/56, 1/48, 1/43 and 1/32 scales can work if it has the right look. The toys used in this article are 1/32, which is about the maximum size that will look good with 28mm figures. In my opinion, 1/43 vehicles are ideal.
• Paints and brushes
• Washes — For a fast and dirty job like this, I simply use water to thin paint as necessary to wash models. If you have actual paint washes or want to use "wet water" (water with a bit of detergent to break the surface tension), this will only improve your results.
• Small craft hole puncher, 1/16 or smaller — We'll use this tool to emboss rivets on armor plates. I use this one.
• Plastic from blister packaging — To be used to make armor plates.
• Super glue
• Snips, razor saw and knives — If you plan on modifying the cars.

Here's a closer look at the toys I'll be converting.

The SUV is a 1/32 Mahindra Scorpio (an Indian SUV) by the Centy Toy brand. This particular toy may be a bit hard to find, as it appears to be only available in India. The picture below (not mine) shows it in good condition. I found mine in poor condition (missing a couple head and tail lights and a roof rail) at a resale shop for 50 cents.

The VW was a Kinsmart 1/32-scale toy that I found at an area train store. They are widely available for between $6 and $9 in the U.S.


Both toys were taken apart. Most toys of this type are assembled with screws and usually have a pull-back-and-go friction motor, which I usually remove.

I sawed off the rear roof of the Scorpio and cut it down to be used as the rear floor, and also cut the middle seats apart to be used as wheel well covers. The rear seats were set aside to be added later.


The VW bus was taken apart and the surfboard was removed. The window section was set aside as well.

After cutting out pieces of thin plastic from a standard minis blister to use as armor plating, I gently squeezed them with the hole punch to create the rivets and bolts — not hard enough to punch through the plastic, just hard enough to emboss the round shapes you see here. I applied about 13 pieces of armor plating including a front window piece. The curved edges of blister pack material can be usefull for covering corners.


After removing the pull-back motor from the VW, I used a piece of old credit card and super glue to keep the wheels in place.

The Scorpio was primed black.

Only the lower body of the VW was primed black.

Base colors were heavily drybrushed over the black sections. Then several very heavy washes of brown were applied and allowed to pool in the recesses and grooves. The brown adds grime, but also a nice rusty look to our wastelands vehicles. Also, the interior seats were painted contrasting colors.

At this point, the Scorpio was reassembled. The base color for the Scorpio was a very light tan for the body and metalic silver for the floor. In the pic below you can see where the roof has become the floor and he middle seats have been used to make wheel well covers.

I used the same process for the VW bus except that only the lower section was base coated in yellow (which later turned green after washes). The top white section was not basecoated but got some brush-on matte varnish to make it less slippery before the brown wash.

After this, I typically apply a second (and sometimes third) wash to the model. Keep applying washes until you get the look you like. Here are pics of the Scorpio and VW bus after receiving a second wash.



A final thicker wash was applied to areas that needed extra grime or — in the case of the VW — where the original paint or chrome was showing through too much. Then I finished the painting with a light drybrushing of tan and brush on matte varnish.

The VW was reassembled after the thick wash, but before the final drybrush and varnish. Some of the window hazing is from the superglue I used to reassemble the van, and some is a very light drybrushing of tan. I did not apply matte varnish to the windows. At this point I also realized I had forgoten to deal with the holes where the surfboard had been. Two 1x2 LEGO tiles covered them nicely.

As you can see from these comparison shots, the 1/32 scale is a bit large compared to a 28mm (1/56 supposedly) figure, but it looks good on the game table and the extra space for placement of miniatures in the rear of the scorpio is a real benefit.

There you have it: quick and easy transformations from toys to gaming models. These took a few days to complete, but the actual time not spent waiting for washes to dry was probably only a couple hours.

As for uses, the Scorpio is pretty tied to the post-apocalyptic genre, but the VW could be used in a range of settings from the 60s to modern to post-apocalyptic, either as a working vehicle or as a nice worn-out bit of terrain almost anywhere in the world.

Be on the lookout for an upcoming article where I'll dispense with the step-by-step and just show before-and-after pictures for several more toy vehicles to that became wargaming models in the same way as the models shown here.

— Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

Two back-to-back games of Tomorrow's War

Tim and I got together for a game of Tomorrow's War using a scenario we'd come up with, but the game was over so quickly that we were able to squeeze in another game. So read on for two after-action reports from Tomorrow's War. Both illustrate the unpredictable nature of the game itself — something we quite enjoyed, I must say.

Ambush on Saltpan Road
Colony World: Fornacis V
Area: Saltpan Salient 64-Alpha

Mercenary squads from Markham’s Skybolts completed their mission to find and extract a downed pilot from Neo-Soviet territory, but that victory came at a cost: 4 prisoners of war were captured by Neo-Soviet troops.

Now, in the hours immediately following the raid, the Skybolts have mobilized to recapture their comrades. Three Skybolt mercenary recon teams operating in the area have been re-tasked with intercepting the Neo-Soviet convoy that is escorting the POWs back to a fire base. The recon team has been in the field for six days and is low on supplies, but the mission must be carried out. The Neo-Soviets suspect an attack, but they must move carefully because their POWs are severely wounded.

As the Neo-Soviet escort closes in on its forward firebase, the hard-bitten mercenaries spring their ambush...

(This scenario was a follow-up to a game we played in October that saw Colonel Wade Markham's Skybolts (my mercenary company, made up of Pig Iron's Heavy Infantry figures) win a pyrrhic victory against Tim's Neo-Soviet forces.)

The game began with Tim's light APC (carrying wounded POWs) moving down a lonely, windswept road, escorted by a squad of Neo-Soviet regulars on foot. The commie troops weren't alone, though — they had brought several horrid, vat-grown mutants to the fight, as evidenced in this photo.


We treated the mutants as "dogs" as per the Tomorrow's War rules. As it happened, they turned out to be very effective at detecting the Skybolt mercenary troopers, who were equipped with stealth recon armor and suppressed weapons. You can see the three mercenary fireteams in ambush positions in the photo above.

The game opened with the APC zooming forward, trying to get across the table as fast as possible (as per the scenario victory conditions). In response, the ambushing mercenary teams opened fire with their heavy laser cannon and shoulder-mounted missile launcher. But because the Skybolts had done a forced march to get to their ambush positions after several days of in-country combat ops, they received the "Poor Suppies" penalty and suffered from reduced firepower for the entire game. Again, this was part of the scenario design...the mercenaries were exhausted and operating with depleted ammo as a result of their frantic overland hustle to intercept the convoy.

In any case, Tim's Neo-Soviet troopers and mutants surged up the ridge to root out the first fire team. During the ensuing combat, I rolled a "1" on my Troop Quality dice, which meant I had to draw a Fog of War card! The results was an atmospheric storm that whipped across the battlefield, reducing visibility and combat effectiveness of all units. Cool! Here are my sad little men getting harassed by the Neo-Soviets and their ghastly creations. Later in the game this fireteam suffered another Fog of War card that further diminished their fighting spirit...brutal, just brutal.


By this point, the APC containing the POWs had zipped down the highway, shrugging off the firepower that I was able to muster from my other two fireteams. It reached the Neo-Soviet firebase at the end of the table and zoomed off to victory. Game over! Tim and I agreed that the Skybolts mercenary squads were at a severe disadvantage because of the "Poorly Supplied" rule, although it was narratively appropriate for the scenario.


On to game two! We re-oriented the terrain and set up a scenario where Tim's Neo-Soviets were attacking a "thin green line" of Skybolts mercenaries defending a supply depot. I took just one photo of the game, which shows a mercenary weapon team perched atop a silo. I call it "The Calm Before the Storm." That green wall makes for a pretty cool-looking "sky" for this photo.


We played only two turns of this game before a Fog of War card ended things for us. Tim rolled a "1" for his Troop Quality while skirmishing with my defenders and promptly drew a Fog of War card. It stipulated that his units, fearing a gas attack by the opposing force, were forced to quickly don chem gear, thus reducing their Troop Quality by one dice for the rest of the game.

Now, Tim's Neo-Soviets were only Troop Quality d6, which is the lowest in the game. Any further reductions means the troops are removed from the table as they retire to the rear or lose their nerve to fight. And that's exactly what happened! I was victorious because Tim's entire force melted away at the threat of a gas attack.

Of course, they didn't actually die in combat...they just lost their nerve and fled. This may have repercussions as we continue this mini-campaign.

As far as rules comprehension, game one was pretty damn tough. Tim and I managed to forget pretty much everything we thought we had internalized about the rules. We blundered a bit and probably made some mistakes. By game two things were humming along smoothly...and of course the game ended prematurely!

There's no arguing the fact that both games were quite short: less than an hour for the first scenario and less than 30 minutes for the second scenario. Some players might be put off by the fact that the two games were so brief. The first game ended because the mercenaries were really outclassed, and the second game ended because of a random Fog of War card. Luckily, Tim and I are "story" players so we don't really mind the abrupt endings as long as they fit into the narrative of the game. And they did!

We'll certainly play Tomorrow's War again. I've already got some ideas for a follow-up scenario. Those POWs are still out there, waiting to be rescued.

— PatrickWR, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

Fully painted: Pledge photos from November

After a long November spent painting (and procrastinating), the club has prepared photos of our painting pledge. To recap, a few of us assembled a pile of unpainted figures last month and pledged to work on them through November, with the goal of completing the figures by Nov. 30.

Here's a blog post from last month showing our mountains of unpainted lead and plastic.

How did we do? You be the judge. Here are the finished products.

Jon's pledge - a squad of Japanese sci-fi warriors. 4 were completed in November.



Karl's pledge - a squad of Void Junkers, some assorted fantasy miniatures and a 28mm mech pilot. The Junkers and fantasy elves were completed in November.



Pat's pledge - a handful of small terrain pieces, plus 2 mounted warriors and 2 fantasy monsters. Everything was completed in November.




Tim's Pledge - a collection of fun monsters, dragons and beasties

28mm on the cheap: Mega Miniatures

Though not as cheap as the dollar-per-miniature goal that we strive for, a few companies today make quality metal 28mm miniatures that range from $1.50 to $3 a piece. Building a 100-figure, Warhammer 40k-style army can be expensive even at this low price — though less so than with Games Workshop products — but warband and platoon skirmishes are quite manageable, and being able to choose exactly what you need is a definite benefit.

One of my favorite companies in this price range is Mega Miniatures, aka MegaMinis.

Mega is owned by Johnny Lauck and produces a large selection of fantasy, modern and sci-fi miniatures. MegaMinis has some proprietary figure lines, some of which are as low as $1.89 a piece!

In the opinion of the author, however, Mega's best offerings are the defunct figure lines it has acquired and rereleased. This includes ranges of figures from Grenadier, Metal Magic, Demonblade Games and Alpha Forge.

This review will give you a brief look at some figures from the Demon Blade and Alpha Forge lines as well as a couple of Mega Minis' proprietary designs. Though they have been selling off the molds to many of their older fantasy ranges, Johnny has been re-releasing Demonblade figures at a rapid rate and assures us that he plans to keep releasing nearly the entire line in the near future.

Demonblade Re-Releases

Among other games, Demonblade was the producer of Shockforce, the game that originated the club-favorite ruleset WarEngine — as well as a massive line of figures, a few of which are described in detail below. Note that the figures are exactly as they came from Mega. No flash has been trimmed and no mold lines have been removed.

Frontier Defense Force
These figures were originally released as Shockforce Megacom Troopers. They're well sculpted, though perhaps with not quite the same level of clarity as the classic Games Workshop Cadian troopers that they are fairly obviously based on. So far there are 15 to 20 sculpts released for this line, covering all manner of troopers armed with a basic lasgun and a selection of special weapons such as grenade launchers, missile launchers and flamethrowers.

These figures were originally scupted by the great Bobby Jackson to supplement the K-Force troopers that Demonblade had acquired from Grenadier. These earlier troopers are similar in style, but a bit bulkier and not quite as crisp (I have almost the entire line) but have not yet been reissued by Mega.

Here's a trooper leader and a kneeling trooper.

Here's a trooper with a plasma gun (called a heat gun by Mega) and a flamethower. The flamethrower is called a "Heavy Machine gunner" by Mega.

Despite its similarities to the smart gun from Aliens, this long-barreled weapon has a hose on the bottom of the barrel and is attached to a set of tanks on the back of the model, all of which strongly suggests that it's a flame weapon. That said, with a magazine and removal of the tanks, this would make a great SAW.

Mega also makes a flamethrower trooper with a more traditional GW-style Flamethrower that they call a vaporizer.

As a nice touch, these figures come with separate backpacks. I liked the backpacks so much that I contacted Johnny, who sold me some separately.

Here's a pair of scouts. There are four of these in the figure line. Each is armed with a sniper/assault rifle and is posed in a crouching or kneeling position. The backpacks for these figures are cast-on.

The treads on the boots seemed like a nice touch and the detail overall is good.

All in all, I'm very pleased with these figures. I ordered about 10 of the Demon Blade trooper miniatures

Moonshiners

These figures are a rather goofy range of cartoony rednecks previously released as Brethren models for Shockforce. The figures below are the only ones I purchased from this line and I chose them because they looked more like post-apocalyptic survivors than the rest of the range, which is a delightfully wierd mix of cartoony inbred redneck men and Daisy Duke-looking women.

The overall sculpting is a bit softer than the troopers, but the look is well excecuted and they will fit right in with my other post-apoc figures.

Alpha Forge

Alpha Forge was best known for it's Star Mogul game. Mega has released all these figures, which includes two races of aliens, human troopers and salvage crew, androids, robots and even a vehicle or two. They also had a line of zombie survivors, two of which I purchased.

Salvage Crew

I've purchased most of the Alpha Forge Salvage Crew figures. The link above has them, as well as quite a few Demonblade figures, mixed in the same section. The Salvage Crew models come with 2 random heads from a selection of 10 to 12.

The heads are hit or miss, some are quite nice, some are just OK.


Zombie Survivors

These are really nice figures with lots of character. They are mixed into the "Modern Civilian" section of the MegaMinis website. You can tell them apart as they are the figures that are shown unpainted.

I liked all the figures that I reviewed, but these had the sharpest detail and were the best sculpted.

MegaMinis' Designs

Here's a couple of examples of scupts that Mega has commissioned for itself.

Robot Small is a really cute fig, and the model is notable because he may have use in a 15mm as a full-sized robot or 10mm as a hard suit.

I picked these animals from a few different product codes and packs just to give you an idea of the size and sculpting of Mega's animals. Even though many of the larger animal molds have been sold, at 166 different codes, Mega still has what is probably the largest selection of 28mm animal figures on the market today. The cat and dogs pictured are all only $1.43 each!

Overall, I'm very pleased with these figures. No one is going to confuse them with the hyper-detailed high-end figures from companies like Infinity or Privateer Press, but they are all well sculpted figs that are a good representation of their subject matter.

While many of Mega's propriety sci-fi and designs and reissues of classic fantasy figures are somewhat dated in scale and style, the ranges they have acquired from Demonblade and Alpha Forege are mostly from the late 90s and early 2000s and still compare very well with current styled figures in size, style and proportion.

It is also worth noting that the casts are very clean. Mold lines are no more than you would expect from the major brands, which is surprising when you consider that Mega does their own casting!

I do have to mention that one of my troopers did have a very small miscast hole in the side of his boot that will have to be filled with putty, but it was not a major issue.

I highly recommend these figures to anyone seeking sci-fi figures on a budget. Mega Miniatures has done the hobby a great service by making these great figures available again and at such a low cost.

— Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member