First things first...it's been amazing to see so many of you diving into the Summer of Sci-Fi, checking out new factions, trying new games, and bringing the Warpath Universe to life on tabletops around the world.

We've been seeing your photos, watching your videos, listening to your podcasts, and it makes us happier than you'd believe to see so many gamers having brilliant fun with their mates.

At Mantic, this is why we do what we do - and things are going to just keep getting better!

The Summer of Sci-Fi isn't over yet, but before we give you some hints on what's coming next, let's take a little look at how far we've all come...

PRELUDE TO WAR

Let's take a little wander down memory lane...

We dropped a tantalisingly cryptic teaser video in May - hinting that big (scary) things were coming to the Warpath Universe. Did you spot all the strange creatures hiding in the trailer?

DEEP COVER

Next up: keen to try something new and staggeringly cool, we sent you virtually undercover within Mazon Labs - helping a mysterious operative to expose just what's been going on at their facility down on Pluton III. (Ed: Hmmm - who COULD that mysterious operative be?)

Well done to those of you who cracked all the fiendish puzzles buried within the site!

Pssst...it's still live and running now if you fancy a go: https://mazonlabs.com/ 

It looks a little....different now though. We wonder what's going on there?

EMBRACE THE DARKNESS

As our courageous spies within Mazon Labs correctly deduced, the Nightstalkers WERE coming to the Warpath Universe. There may be many terrifying alien entities in the spectrum of science-fiction, but these ones are ours! The knowledge of them alone is enough to make your home a target for a future incursion, with fear drawing them forth like moths to a flame...

Nightstalker forces crashed into real-space in June, tearing onto Firefight battlefields quicker than we could say 'how did they paint that so fast?'.

The Rules Committee and Studio Team have done a stellar job of bringing their alien and cosmic horror elements to life on the table, in a way that pays tribute to their Kings of War cousins, but is also totally fitting for a sci-fi setting.

If you missed their extremely cool entrance to the game you can check out the range HERE, and read all about their backstory HERE.

EDGE OF SANITY

Will somebody save us from this madness? Of course they will!

Enter stage left - the Asterian Empire - swooping in for yet another round of thrilling releases!

Despite widespread use of drone technology, the Asterians have discovered (at great cost) that the Nightstalker threat is even transmissible across the neural link their pilots use to operate their remote systems and drones.

Fortunately their cold-blooded and honourable Matsudan allies have proven surprisingly resilient to this new horror, and so Neo Matsudo's great Houses have been asked to deploy in greater numbers than ever before...

With sweet new sprues for both the Asterian Cyphers and Matsudan, this also meant the perfect time for our best-ever 2-player sci-fi starter set. The mighty Edge of Sanity box is crammed full of 70+ hard plastic miniatures that simply demand to be painted up, ready to march into the fires of war on your tabletop!

HIGHWAY TO THE DEADZONE

For those of you that prefer the cut and thrust of a skirmish game, you may have felt a little left out with all the grand, sweeping battles playing out across huge sci-fi warzones....

Well, we certainly hadn't forgotten the thrilling heroics that play out within the abandoned cities and Deadzones of the galaxy...and who better to be leading the charge than the Matsudan: our oh-so-Mantic, honourable, samurai-inspired space lizards?

Who wouldn't want to know their backstory? You can find all their lore for free right HERE.

A Ronin, Gravbikes, and a large new mech known as the Daidarabotchi (Ed: translating loosely as 'winning move in Scrabble') burst onto the scene, and will be in the hands of gamers very soon. We also brought the Nightstalkers into Deadzone (as if it's not terrifying enough fighting on a world under Containment Protocols), as well as a total refresh of our Asterian Starter and Booster boxes.

So that's 9 brand-new boxes this summer alone...and that wasn't all!

We've always been keen to welcome new players into our world, so starting through the Vault (and now on MyMiniFactory) we've been introducing fixed-list Strike Teams that the 3D-printing community can use to play seamlessly against our traditional physically-released factions in any 200-point game. Simply put: this means more opponents, more awareness, and more ways to hobby than ever before. It also lets us finally bring back some classic and much-loved Warpath Universe sculpts from Dreadball and Star Saga, and give these characters a new lease of life on the battlefield.

SO...WHAT NEXT?

Oh go on then, we can drop a couple of hints...why not...you've persuaded us...

ONE: In the second week of August we'll be kicking off this year's global sci-fi campaign: more news on that soon, and we have a thrilling narrative ride to take you all on as ground-breaking events begin to unfold on Tersia Prime....

You've got a couple more weeks to get your Strike Forces and Strike Teams battle-ready - let's do this!

TWO: A well-known character from Mantic's past (or present...or future...) will be returning very soon...

THREE: We still have one more BIG surprise for the Summer of Sci-Fi, which we'll be revealing in Andy's next 'This Month At Mantic' video on YouTube. If you're not already, jump over to our channel and subscribe - because you don't want to miss what's coming next!

Thanks everyone and see you next time. Signing off,