I've been very impressed with Mantic's Kings of War game, so I'll have to keep an eye on this one. I love how they
are not only OK with you fielding models made by a different company, but actively encourage it (especially in those armies that they don't have out yet). I'm also happy with the lore they have established so far; it was refreshing to see a Dwarven Empire that isn't in its twilight years, but instead is aggressively expanding.
From the looks of things, Mantic will eventually have games similar to what GW has produced in the past (and has recently released many of them). It makes sense, since Mantic was started up by two former GW guys. A fair number of the WHFB crowd has been flocking over to Kings of War, but from what I understand their version of WH40K wasn't that popular, so they are reworking it. WH40k is still very popular though, so Mantic will have to put out something very good to compete with it. Having prices for an army at roughly 1/3 of what it costs for GW will help.
Looks like Mantic's Star Saga Is running the shadows in space, The Mantic Warpath universe id building up quite nicely with 6 (now 7) different hames need in the universe. Fans are starting to ask for an RPG nut Mantic smartly says they don't know how to write an RPG.
I like that not only can you use this games miniatures in their other SciFi products, but you will also be able to play this game with races from their other products. That will add a good amount of replay value to this one. I can't blame Mantic for knowing their limits, and not wanting to try their hand at a RPG. That being said, I could see them being willing to license out a RPG contract to an established company (say Green Ronin) down the road, if demand continues. That would still require a fair amount of work on Mantic's part though, so it would have to wait until they got their games more established.