¡Bitzkrieg!

Well, I am more or less back to acceptable health again (though I am definitely still somewhat ill with that cold), but somehow there still isn’t any hobby time to come anytime soon… you do know christmas is approaching when all kinds of household chores are coming to get you and your time is full with wrapping gifts, cleaning the house or just going to that terrible fight club that is known as “buying something when christmas is just a few days away”… don’t think I will produce anything good until next week…

Ah, better talk about something else… Mantic is feeding us hobbyists with loads of concept pictures for their next faction for Warpath – the human Corporation, something like the “bad guys” in the Warpath universe (and, merely by chance, perfect substitutes for Games Workshop’s Imperial Guard). While the first drawings of the basic troops left me relatively cold, the elite “Rangers” are quite sweet indeed…  and they say they will provide quite a lot of weapon options:

What’s really great is the kit is loaded with bits too – the commander gets a pistol and energy fist whilst the troops get the choice between a rifle or special weapon, of which there are nine in the kit, 3 of each design.

Unfortunately no word on additional heads or something, but I do think the design of the Ranger and its weapons are flawless, no doubt about that. If I understood it correctly, Studio McVey is involved in the designs and for sure Mantic couldn’t choose a better parter to come up with some original and cool design… around Christmas, Mantic is going to send out the first picture(s) of the actual Corporation miniatures and I am sure I will take a good look on those.

Still, for me (and yes, I know I am pesky there) it will all come down to the way the sprues will be designed. If they choose the way they already did their Undead range for Kings of War – mostly seperate legs, torsi, arms and heads – I will be very tempted to  get a box or two (if only to flesh out my fledgling Imperial Guardsmen force – but to be honest, I do think 99 % of Mantics sellings are by people looking for surrogate miniatures für other games, as Kings of War and Warpath are too abstract to attract miniature gamers – or at least it doesn’t attract most of the people I know). But if they go the way of their other miniature ranges – mostly fixed legs, torsi and heads in one piece, few additional head options and so on – I am quite sure I will pass them, no matter how good they will look. I’d rather be even more eager to send some money over to Defiance Games – or just stay with my Games Workshop armies…

Meanwhile, Bell of Lost Souls has posted an unboxing video of the starter set for Warpath, “Fate of the Forge Star“… I cannot help but applaud and loathe Mantic at the same time. Sure, it does include a lot of miniatures, but not even the two leader miniatures, the Huscarl and the Warlord,  are included (which for a long time I thought they would – and surely they should…)… and I still feel somehow cheated as a customer to buy a Science Fiction game and find the same (and not too well-designed) fantasy dwarfs and orcs with just some new weaponry…

But at least I do take from this review that the Forge Father Jotunn Heavy Hailstorm Cannon is a vehicle I should definitely keep in mind. At 16.99 Euro it might not be the cheapest of miniature, but it does beat a certain Space Marine cannon… even if you count in the additional costs for providing your own Techmarine – but then, if it saves you the trouble with pewter (or some future Finecast), I won’t mind…

It is a shame (from Mantic’s viewpoint, at least) that Privateer Press also released a starter set for their Warmachine game this year. Sure, there’s a lot less miniatures in there (and almost no plastic to speak of, Privateer Press preferring some kind of resin/plastic mix, as far as I know), but let’s face it: even though miniatures for Warmachine offer few options and relatively few possibilities for different poses, they are of a great and original design… while Mantic more or less couldn’t come up with anything but a variation of the “generic” S/F that Games Workshop has established with its Warhammer 40.000 game.

It will be interesting to see how Mantic will develop in the next year… as some of their releases are great, many are good and many are just average and below, I wouldn’t be surprised to either see them grow a lot – or folding completely. After all, even though many websites hail and applaud to everything they do (like Bell of Lost Souls, Beasts of War or the German Brückenkopf, which by definition loves everything that is not Games Workshop), I can only find relatively few Blogs and postings by people actually buying, painting, using those miniatures…  well, we’ll see. As for myself, I do hope they will succeed in becoming a major player – and, on the way, they will start making better miniatures in general.