Three weeks ago Warpath returned, with a set of alpha rules released exclusively to Beasts of War backstage pass holders. However, we couldn’t hold them back from the masses forever, so today we are putting the alpha rules on general release!

This is the new iteration of the Warpath mass-battle sci-fi game – a game that has been nearly five years in the making. To get an understanding of what we are trying to achieve, please read the previous blog here.

The alpha period so far has been fantastic, with over 150 comments on the feedback thread, and lots of games going on, and I’m really looking forward to a new wave of players entering the fold and letting us know what they think. To be clear, the game is still very much in an alpha stage – we’re still playing around with things to improve the game, as you’ll see later. We’ll keep the game at this stage for another month or two, and then we’ll pool together all of the feedback and polish it into a beta version, to start fine-tuning the detail.

So, without further ado:

Download: Warpath Alpha Rules and Army Lists

Please post all feedback here.

For those of you who have already read and played through the Beasts of War version, you’ll want to know what’s changed. All of the changes have been listed here. There were some excellent suggestions and comments from the community, so you may see some of your own influence in there.

Vehicular Combat

Last time we talked about Warpath, we showed off the Enforcer Interceptor, which went down a storm! This time around we’ve got concept art of the Forge Father Tank for your feedback – an assault variant and an APC. There will be additional weapons too.

Warpath Firefight

One of the biggest areas for discussion has been about the general scope of Warpath, and what people are actually looking for in a sci-fi battle game. Opinion has been divided between those who are excited about playing big battles with whole units, and those who are looking for something with fewer models and more granularity and detail for the individual figures. This is addressed in the discussion on Warpath ‘Firefight’ – which you can find in the changes document. Have a read and let us know what you think.

Essentially, we want to create an alternate version of the game, scaling down the same mechanics to provide the individual casualty removal and detail that people are looking for, while keeping the game as slick and fast as possible. This game will have a sweet spot of 30-50 models, so smaller than the core Warpath rules, but closer to some of the other games on the market – hopefully providing a viable alternative for those who are looking for it. We haven’t fully developed this alternate version yet, but I have made some comments on the original rules to explain how it would work.

Check out the initial thoughts here: Download Warpath Firefight

Note that this document is a copy of the core rules pdfs, with comments added to show where the changes would be made.

That should give you plenty to digest for now – I’m really looking forward to hearing what you think. Over the next few weeks we’ll put out more army lists, and we’ll be on the forums to answer your questions.

All feedback should be posted here.

Thanks guys,

Stew