Stats:
No. of players: 2
Amount of time to play: 60+ min (depending on army points and time limit)
Age requirements: 8+
Set-up time: 15-20 minutes

Warpath: Fate of the Forgestar Rules Description:

Warpath: Fate of the Forgestar is a sci-fi skirmish game for two players. You play as either the Marauders (orxs) or Forge Fathers (dwarves) and must eliminate your opponent.

Warpath: Fate of the Forgestar is like a starter set for the Warpath battle system. It contains everything you need to play but can also be expanded with more figures and factions. This starter set comes with rules, a demo scenario, 57 miniatures and 10 six-sided dice.

First you must assemble (and paint) the figures. You get the following miniatures in this box: 10 Steel Warriors; 5 Stormrage Vets, 1 Hailstorm Cannon; 40 Orx Marauder Grunts and 1 Raptor vehicle.

The Warpath battle system is based on units. Units may be made up of one, five or even ten or more miniatures. Each unit has its own stats. But unlike some other war games individual miniatures are not removed from the map (unless there is only one miniature in the unit). Nor does getting hit reduce your stats. That means is you have a unit of ten infantry miniatures they all stay on the map until they are all destroyed.

On your turn you may simply move, move and shoot or move and make melee attacks. Your ranged attacks take place before melee but both follow the same basic combat sequence.

Combat is fast-paced and pretty simple. You roll a certain number of six-sided dice based on your unit’s Fire or Attack stat (depending on if the attack is ranged or melee). Each result that is above their Hit stat, hits the enemy unit. Now you take the dice that hit and roll them. Each result that is higher than the defending unit’s Defense value does a point of damage to the unit.

After all your units move and/or attack any units that were damaged must test their nerve. You roll two dice and the result plus the unit’s current damage is compared to their Nerve stat. The Nerve stat is split (ex: 14/16). If you roll under the first number nothing happens, equal to the first number or between both numbers results in a unit being Suppressed. Suppressed units cannot take an action on your next turn. If the result is equal to or greater than the higher number, the unit is eliminated. Nerve Tests that result from melee attacks ignore the Suppressed result.

There may be modifiers to your rolls because of terrain, range, or special abilities. Units can be given special weapons. These help make each unit different and customizable.

You and your opponent alternate taking turns until one of you are eliminated. You can also create your own victory conditions and scenarios. If you want an added challenge you can time the turns with each player getting a set number of minutes per turn.

A Quick Warpath: Fate of the Forgestar Review:

Warpath: Fate of the Forgestar gets you into Warpath quickly and contains all you need for many games. Warpath is fast-paced and lends itself to the timed gameplay the creators suggest. The rules are streamlined to aid this style of play.

Warpath: Fate of the Forgestar is simple to learn and teach. You can begin playing and understand the basic tactics of this game quickly. You will need to look at different special abilities from time to time. But once you know what your units’ abilities are you will rarely have to refer to the rules after the first few games.

This game is also a good value. You get 57 plastic miniatures for a decent price and once assembled and painted Warpath: Fate of the Forgestar looks pretty impressive. Since units stay on the battlefield until totally destroyed there tends to be lots of miniatures on the map which helps it look even more impressive.

Warpath: Fate of the Forgestar is super flexible. You can create custom scenarios and maps for different levels of complexity. If you do not like to make up scenarios you may not like Warpath: Fate of the Forgestar. It comes with only a base demo scenario that is very straight forward.

There also is little back story to the world of Warpath. Again this allows you to create the world, but if you want these out of the box, you will be disappointed.

I also wish there were more dice included as well as a tape measure. Most veteran miniatures gamers have a tape measure but not all do (I as someone not so veteran, I didn’t). The box is also flimsy but non of these are deal-breakers.

Warpath: Fate of the Forgestar is a great for introducing kids to skirmish games. The quick, easy-to-learn rules make is easy for them to understand and be competitive. The variety and flexibility of the Warpath system make it great for most anyone looking to try out a miniatures war game. That same flexibility allows long-time war gamers to create a world and scenarios to their tastes.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 4 out of 6
Luck 4 out of 6
Player Interaction 6 out of 6
Replay Value 5 out of 6
Complexity 3 out of 6
Fun 5 out of 6
Overall 5 out of 6