Armor Reinforcements for Warpath and 40k

I finally brush-dipped and varnished the Leman Russ tanks I painted up for our mega-apocalypse Warpath game from last month. You can read all about it right here.

These vehicles are mostly stock with a couple of modifications, and they received a quick paint job of base colors, drybrush and brush-dip with Minwax Polyshades Tudor. One of these was a kit that I've had sitting around for about a decade and the other is a rescue of a very poorly painted (Testors gloss enamels, ugh) tank I got from Tim.

I lengthened barrel on the this cannon.

And I added a classic metal Imperial Guard tank commander figure -- something I've always wanted to paint one up. Here he is, with a small gas-mask bit from the Imperial Guard command sprue.

This one has a couple of metal plasma cannons from the old Demolisher kit. I'm not sure plasma cannons are an option for standard Leman Russ tanks at the moment, but I'm quite certain I don't care.

The head on the commander is from Pig Iron Productions. Every human figure in my Imperial Guard force has a gas mask.

The mud is Sheetrock brand paint texture mixed into brown paint.

All in all, these were a fun couple of tanks to build and paint.

I can't imagine anyone ponying up the $50 each that Leman Russ tanks cost nowadays, but I've got a soft spot for these ungainly sci-fi-meets-WWI behemoths and was glad to add them to my army.

I don't play 40k anymore, but Warpath is always an inspiration to paint up a unit or two. So, expect the army to continue to slowly grow...I've still got a Valkyrie VTOL, some Ogryns, a small platoon of infantry and a few Chimera transports waiting for the brush.

-- Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

It's My Birthday And I'll Play Warpath If I Want To

Taking a page from hardball Chicago politics, I used my influence as club organizer earlier this month (and my birthday!) to push for a big game of Warpath in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. We typically play skirmish games here at CSW, but plenty of members have entire legions of 40k figures carefully packed away in foam trays, and this was the perfect excuse to get them all onto the table! Here's how it all went down. (Skip to Parts II and III if you just want the battle.)

Part I. 40k Apocalypse via Warpath 1.0
For those unfamiliar with Warpath 1.0, it is the predecessor to the current Warpath rules, and is essentially the fantasy version of Kings of War with a few sci-fi bits bolted on. Even though they have been supplanted by the current iteration of Warpath, you can download the 1.0 rules for free on Warseer.

The current Warpath 2.0 rules have moved the game beyond simple "Kings of War in Spaaaace!" I still prefer the more streamlined and abstract 1.0 rules, though.

I like giant battles in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, but I don't like the 40k rules. Games Workshop's well-known sci-fi battle game is, in my opinion, a serviceable platoon-level game, good for 25 to 35 figures and a vehicle per player, but over the years it has been unfortunately been scaled up to the company level, resulting in battles featuring 80+ figures and multiple vehicles and without the necessary streamlining of mechanics.

If that weren't enough, over the last three editions 40k has become bogged down with almost RPG-like levels of granularity and complexity, with the addition of layer upon layer of special rules. Even the 40k "Apocalypse" rules for battles at the battalion level don't actually reduce the complexity of the system -- they just pile on more special rules. The result is that a game of "Apocalypse" 40k can take -- no exaggeration here -- a day or more to play out.

Enter Warpath, which -- despite what it's creators will say -- is essentially just a skillfully executed and heavily streamlined version of Warhammer 40k. Most of the army lists for Warpath have direct unit-for-unit analogues in 40k, and even the points values and abilities of the comparable units are similar.

Warpath 1.0 is not supported any more, but the four army lists provide enough stat-lines to represent most 40k units with a little tweaking. Of course, that wasn't going to be quite enough, as we also decided we wanted to have titans and superheavy tanks in our battle.

Jon was brave enough to take this on! Check out his custom rules supplement below.

• Titan and Superheavy Tanks in Warpath 1.0

Part II. Game Setup
Each player was assigned a certain number of points and allowed one superheavy unit beyond that, resulting in about 6,000 points per side. Here is the order of battle (Warpath army list used in parentheses).

Forces of Evil

• Karl - 2,500 points of Rebel Imperial Guard (Corporation) and a Wolfhound Titan
• Jon - 2,500 points of Orks (Marauders) and a Stompa

Forces of the Imperium

• Mike - 1,750 Points of Imperial Guard (Corporation) and a Baneblade Superheavy Tank
• Tim - 1,750 Points of Imperial Guard (Corporation) and a Baneblade 
• Josh - 2,000 points of Dark Angel Space Marines (Forgefathers) 

We scored the battle based on a combination of enemies killed and objectives seized. Mike's beleaguered Imperial Guard defenders set up in the central complex (fortress, chapel and mining building) in the middle.

The attackers -- me and Jon -- set up on one side and the rescuers -- Josh and Tim -- setup on the other side. This pic shows Mike's Guardsmen in the middle with Tim's rescuing tank company on the way and Jon's rampaging Orks on the other side.

And here we see my traitor Guardsmen invading the city. Pay no attention to the lack of shading on nearest two tanks. I built and painted them for this game and hadn't quite finished them yet…

Josh brought a jaw-dropping 35 Dark Angels Terminators!

Part III. The Game

The first turns were largely uneventful, consisting mostly of movement with some long range firing to and from the Imperial Guard defenders in the center of the field. Like many games, Warpath is designed for a 4x8 foot table, and the ranges reflect this. Our table measured 6x10 feet, so it was some time before the majority of the forces came in range.

The game quickly seemed to separate into the Orks vs Imperial Guard and Traitor Guard vs Dark Angels.

The trio of Rebel Basilisks, however, used their long range and indirect fire to pour devastation into the troops on the tower and would continue to do so for most of the game. With three shots coming down per turn, it was reliably deadly.

By the second turn, Valkyrie gunships swept onto the field, doing some serious damage to the Ork rear guard.

 The Dark Angel Nephilim wreaked similar havoc on the Rebel Guardsmen.

By this time, the Imperial Guard armor had presented itself in force and was savaging the Ork line. Mike had wisely included a lot of armor in his Imperial Guard army.

In addition, he skipped most of his infantry options in order to include a Knight Titan. His prudent choices paid off as the combatants drew near.

In the city, the Knight Titan moved close enough to fire on the Dark Angels. Return fire immobilized its legs, but the weapons remained deadly and functional.

In the third turn, two Rebel tanks emerged from reserves. Per the rules in Warpath 1.0, I brought them in on the flank, 36 inches forward (one foot per turn).

By this time, Rebel armor, heavy weapons and walkers were close enough to deal some serious damage to the Dark Angels, destroying several units in a single turn.

On the opposite flank however, the Orks were suffering under the Imperial advance.

The Stompa's head was blown off, and though that didn't destroy the giant war machine, it drastically reduced its effectiveness as the crew struggled to control it.

Concentrated fire from the Imperial Guard armor caused further casualties across the Ork line and to the Traitor Guardsmen holding the center.

At this point we called the game. It was only turn 3, but we had started about an hour late and had run out of time. (Editor's note: It appears Warpath 1.0 gives a complete 40k experience, right down to being unable to finish the game!)

In the end, despite doing serious damage and holding three of the five objectives, the Orks and Traitor Guardsmen came up short to the forces of the Imperium.

Part IV. Observations

Reaction to this game was mixed. Two of us absolutely loved it, two of the players liked it with some reservations, and one player reported that we have other games in our stable capable of giving a better game experience.

Though we only made it to turn three, each player turn took less than 30 minutes, which is not bad for a game featuring three players who had never played before, and two players who had only played a couple of times over the last year.

With more games under our belt, I think we could eliminate most rulebook flipping and cut the playing time nearly in half. One major lesson we learned is the importance of making sure that all players have some anti-armor weapons in their force. Josh's force lacked a way to handle tanks and titans, and it proved to be a major disadvantage. I think this will be solved in the future by changing the heavy weapons selections for some of the vehicles and troops and making use of some of the anti-armor close combat and short-ranged weapons available to many units.

For my part, I really enjoyed the whole experience. It is not a complicated game, but for those times when you just want a massive, somewhat ridiculous battle, it fits the bill. Warpath certainly captures the spirit of 40k: cramming an insane number of troops and vehicles onto a comparatively small battlefield. I have no patience for the 40k rules anymore, but I still have a soft spot in my heart for the minis and the background, and this definitely scratches that itch.

Also, I've still got quite a number of 40k kits in storage, and a game like this is just the excuse I need to get them painted up. All of this is to say: I definitely hope we'll be playing this again. It fits my personal preferences for fun and streamlined rules that don't get in the way of my favorite part of wargaming: the spectacle of painted armies clashing on the tabletop, which drew me and so many others into the hobby years ago. That is something we certainly delivered in this game.

-- Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member
-- Photos by Josh, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

Thanks to Josh for providing the massive central fortress, Jon for providing the Stompa and Warhound, and Mike for bringing a metric ton of tanks to the game.

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