We’ve made it to 400 followers on Twitter!
To celebrate, today, we’re launching a Retweet competition – One lucky winner will be able to claim either a Kings of War Starter, Warpath Starter, Project Pandora: Grim Cargo, Dwarf Kings Hold or Dreadball box set.
All you have to do is simply follow the Spinning Dice Games twitter profile and retweet the message:
Competition ends on 14th February 2013 and a winner will be selected at random and informed by Twitter Direct Message where we can exchange address details to send you the box set of your choice.
As the saying goes: “You’ve got to be in it to win it!” Best of luck!
A few points:
Don’t RT multiple times (not a cool look appearing desperate) – one RT per account counts as your entry:)
A single winner is chosen and we’ll be in touch. The winner will be announced on this page only after we have made contact with him or her.
The prize will be sent out via courier/Royal mail and we’ll provide details of tracking where appropriate
Our own employees are barred from entering
The competition has now ended. Thank you to all those who retweeted and followed. The Prize will be sent within 28 days of competition end to one lucky winner.
It came as a bit of a surprise that Mantic had been working on a sci-fi table-top game to try to rival the likes of the well established Warhammer 40k. Well, someone has to start somewhere and November sees the wide release of Warpath. Mantics effort is certainly commendable but no means a game with all the finesse of its closest rival. I’ll naturally draw some comparisons between the two but Warpath stands up on its own fairly well. Let’s see what’s inside…
Cover Art
The goodies inside
What strikes you straightaway is the box artwork which is very cool and represents the action orientated nature of the game very well. Certainly, the branding works very well avoiding the some of the traditional Games Workshop painterly styling of artwork. The reverse of the box reveals an image of the two armies (Orx and ForgeFathers) in combat. Overall, you get 10 Steel Warriors; 5 Stormrage Vets, 1 Hailstorm Cannon; 40 Orx Marauder Grunts and 1 Raptor vehicle. By far the best looking minis are the Orx and fall into the tendency that Orc species will always attack in a horde!
Let’s look at the sprues and there are plenty of them!
Mantic deserve a congratulatory slap on the back for providing alternate heads, arms and weapons for all their plastic sprues. The miniatures are straightforward to put together with a bit of plastic glue and novices won’t have much trouble at all constructing these. Moulding is good also with no visible lines and minimal flash to trim off. The two vehicles are easy to assemble although no instructions are provided on how these two are constructed so you’ll have to look at pictures for reference. The last part are five bagged additional Forge Father Dwarf figures to top off the miniature selection. There are plenty of minis here to keep you busy for a good while.
The Warpath rules are written by Alessio Cavatore, a former games writer for the big GW but since turned his hand at writing for the likes of Mantic, both on Warpath and Kings of War. Unsurprisingly there are a few nods to Warhammer 40k in the rules but Cavtore and Mantic Games have always stressed that these games are about flow and reference to stats and numbers are kept to a minimum unlike 40k. Those familiar with 40k will certainly recognise Nerve (Morale) and Line of Sight. However, those more used to 40k would probably be unimpressed with the flimsy rule pamphlet that comes in the box! What’s also clearly lacking is the history and ‘universe’ which the Orx and ForgeFathers exist in which does detract slightly from the hardcore gamer’s game in my opinion. Some of the best tabletop games can be played with missions but this Warpath set doesn’t even hint at any of these elements. It may make the game a little more interesting rather than beating the opposition to a pulp everytime. Oh well, I eagerly await the first bits of flesh put on this sci-fi game.
Rules, reference sheet and Green Dice (10)
Overall, this starter set is certainly what it says on the box. It gets the players set up for the first and hopefully there are many more different encounters yet to come in the Warpath world. We certainly eagerly await the next new army or expansion for what could turn out to be a 40k beater in years to come. But it’s crowded out there and Mantic’s new addition is certainly worth a try to anyone wishing to dip their toes in table-top war gaming for the first time.
You can buy Warpath: Fate of the ForgeStar here
Game: 7/10
Presentation: 6/10
Miniatures: 8/10
Value: 8/10
Overall: 7/10
UPDATE: Some new rules information and lists can be found on the Mantic site here
