It is no big news that Mantic Games is looking for the really big splash with their upcoming Warpath Kickstarter. First, to bring their game rules up to scratch with Warpath 2.0, Mantic Games hired former Games Workshop rules designer Alessio Cavatore. Now, to bring the miniature line up to speed, it seems they extended a full-time offer to Rémy Tremblay.
Rumours have it that Mr. Tremblay is working now for Mantic Games exclusively, assuring the overall visual coherency for Mantic’s flagship sci-fi miniatures line.
Via Scarletsquig of Dakkadakka:
Oh, btw, something else that will make a lot of people on here very happy which I forgot to mention earlier:
Remy Tremblay is not a freelancer anymore, he is now a full-time Mantic employee.
In addition to this, he is the *only* sculptor who is allowed to work on the Warpath range.
For anyone who doesn’t know who that guy is, click this link to his blog and start drooling. Basically if it’s from Mantic, was sculpted in the last year and looks amazing there’s good odds that it was one of his sculpts.
What is Warpath?
Warpath is Mantic Games’ science-fiction skirmish game. For better or worse, Mantic games has a reputation for producing the things Games Workshop let fall to the wayside. Warpath’s Forge Fathers are highly reminiscent of Games Workshop’s back-in-the-days Squats for Warhammer 40.000 (rumours have it the copyright for the Squats original concept art is now with Mantic) and the game’s Veer-Myn rat-race resembles Space-Skaven in many ways.
However, Mantic games worked to bring their games and miniatures more into their own. Once recent addition to Warpath (sculpted largely by Mr. Tremblay) were the elite Enforcers.
Mantic Games has also been very busy (and successful) on Kickstarter. Their latest Kickstarter-project, the futuristic sports-game DreadBall, clearly set the stage for Warpath by offering glimpses to many races and factions that may soon populate the Warpath sci-fi skirmish game.
DreadBall miniatures sculpted by Rémy Tremblay
Who is Rémy Tremblay?
Rémy Tremblay is a French (?) miniature sculptor who, not least, made quite a career from the recent Kickstarter madness. He has sculpted miniatures for Paolo Parente’s Dust Tactics/Warfare, for Mike McVey’s Sedition Wars and worked extensively with Mantic Games already, sculpting for both their fantasy game Kings of War and – extensively – the Warpath “teaser-game” DreadBall.
Sedition Wars miniatures sculpted by Rémy Tremblay
He also worked extensively on the current Warpath range already. Arguably, to the point where he was leading the art direction on the game already in many ways. So this particular rumour seems eminently plausible.
What Does It Mean?
Well, clearly Mantic Games is signing up a lot of big names for their Warpath Kickstarter.
The sci-fi miniatures skirmish game niche is easily the most coveted in tabletop miniature war-gaming. It is also the most profitable. So is Rémy Tremblay as sculptor-in-chief a good thing?
Pro
- It helps give the game visual coherence and distinctiveness
- He’s clearly a world-class sculptor with great range of work
- His work fits (going by DreadBall) the not-so-grimdark tone of Mantic
Contra
- Mantic might be crowding out some unique talent, especially for yet “un-visualized” factions
- The quality of Tremblay’s work might be strained by the sheer quantity of this project
- It risks feeling a bit too much like DreadBall re-loaded
What are your thoughts?
Z.