You know, I would love to see an in depth battle report using the epic 40k system. This thread has got me very intrigued about it.

Breaking away, say the fast attack, parts of formations mid-battle to flank the enemy sounds fiddly but satisfying. I'd like to see someone showcase these kind of details cause I never saw this kind of thing in white dwarf.

Mind you I was under 10 when epic40k came out so I probably only skim read the bat reps while looking at the pretty pictures...

Well, if you are of a particularly long term mindset, I'd suggest that ultimately that's what having kids are for. Lol. Otherwise what's the point?

I don't know about "in depth" but I've got a few Epic40K reports on my old pre-2004 archived website:
http://www.geocities.ws/markconz/epic.html

Even a report done before I had a digital camera... using paint to do maps!
http://www.geocities.ws/markconz/epicbattle1.html

_________________
http://hordesofthings.blogspot.co.nz/

Like the titan hit tables from 2nd edition? Like 3rd edition? Know this: In 2000 Gav Thorpe wrote new titan rules for 3rd ed, called Adeptus Titanicus II... I can't say I remember anything about it, but here it is:

(I have PDFs for units and mission cards too)

_________________
Kyrt's Battle Result Tracker (forum post is here)
Kyrt's trade list

@elsmore, I am in Boston and don't know of any local gamers. I've become a real gamer shut-in over the last few years, though, after some bad experiences playing with strangers. I mostly play my huge library of games with my brother these days, although my wife will get in on it sometimes as well. I do have a new daughter, however, so fingers crossed that I can make her into as big a geek as myself! We'll start with some Warhammer Quest and work our way up!

@Sayrewolf, the ability for different elements of a detachment to "break away" and accomplish other tasks is definitely a cool selling point for me. That said, I am not sure how common this strategy was, and I often find advice to the contrary (i.e., that one should tailor each detachment to a single, specialized mission on the battlefield). However, if you're not "playing to win" (or if you are playing historical scenarios), then the mixed detachments seem like a ton of fun. Some possible uses might include sending land speeders out to contest an objective, sending cavalry to intercept enemy movement (you cannot move past or through a detachment, even if the parts are far apart), encircling an enemy so they get wiped out when they flee an assault or firefight (so they cannot get the minimum 15cm away) or outflanking an enemy so that you have more choice when "removing closest casualties" from shooting. And of course you can detach elements of your detachment in order to counter these moves by the enemy.

If the enemy is spread out, it might even be useful sallying forth with a vanguard unit or two and assaulting into melee. The risk is very low, since the rest of the detachment is far enough back that they will not "flee" if you are defeated, and if you send in a couple of assault 3 or 4 units against a single enemy unit, you can very quickly get the 3x or 4x assault bonus to melee. You won't be able to add much in the way of supporting fire bonuses, but if the enemy is very spread out then neither will they!

@Markconz, your Dawn Assault battle is one of the nicest games I have seen! Very cool! I think when Angelfire and Geocities went down, we lost a ton of cool fan pages with tactics articles, house rules and battle reports. Thank you for keeping yours online!

@Kyrt, very interesting! I would love to see the unit and mission card PDFs too, if you have a moment to upload them!

You might want to hit Dave and the NEAT crew up as they're located in the NE (actually IIRC Dave's IN Beantown)

Don't forget to stick yourself on the Miniwars map too http://miniwars.co.uk/

_________________
He's a lawyer and a super-villian. That's like having a shark with a bazooka!

-I HAVE NO POINT
-Penal Legion-Fan list
-Help me make Whitescars not suck!

_________________
Kyrt's Battle Result Tracker (forum post is here)
Kyrt's trade list

Warhammer 40,000 2nd Edition (1993) - This is probably GW's best game from the 90's.[/quote]

I agree, 2nd edition was a beautiful thing. Rogue Trader was a mess. So much color and humor in the game too.



Not entirely true. Rules were made for all the races at the time, however, the Eldar never got updated with their Aspect Warriors even though the models were released for them.

I am not sure how much you know about this system, but I grew up with it, and have everything ever released for it, including all of the White Dwarf articles - binded together as a spiral notebook.

AT was released first, and articles in WD followed expanding that game. They also started releasing rules for marines, imperial guard, and land raiders, rhinos, robots, and so on. I kind of call this the experimental phase, as the rules were really deep in detail, and some were dropped later on. It was actually in these rules that the stats for the Flamer were released, which never appeared again even though they continued to release models that used the Flamer.

Then Space Marine came out, which refined all the rules previously released in White Dwarf. I love this game. The only issue I have is with the rules for Morale, or really the lack thereof. Space Marine did include some rules on how to incorporate AT and SM together.

But then the Codex Titanicus was released, which sort of refined Imperial Titans, close combat, and introduced Orks and Eldar. Most of the minis were basically smaller versions of what had been developed for Rogue Trader.

Then what follows in White Dwarf is really essential... everything from rules for Baneblades to Bonecrunchas to Squats and Covens summoning Chaos demons. Really some amazing stuff. And some White Dwarf issues might only dedicate half a page to new rules for SM. And in some cases, they never finished them, such as the rules for Chaos were meant to be in 3 parts, but they only released the first two. But even still, very elaborte rules were released for Space Marines, Imperial Guard, Orks, Squats, Chaos, and some for Eldar. Its just tracking down all these issues off Ebay will take some time and money.

But this is the system I grew up with, and I loved it. Its 40k in its infancy, and the level of detail is just so unique to the other versions. The problem is though, big games can take a long time to play out. We used to leave our games out overnight, and some of our large games took 2-3 nights to play out.

But like Epic 40k, while detachments are suggested, every unit has its own battle rating and the rules say you can develop your own detachments (with some guidelines of course), which makes it really flexible today.

I am just not sure I can recommend a newbie to go after this. The SM1 set is pretty available on Ebay, but its Space Marine vs Space Marines. To get everything else, including AT, is going to take a lot of $$$ and effort. But in this system, a Rhino meant something, Land Raiders were awesome, and there was a lot you could do with a single infantry stand. Very rich game.



These are great games, and when I introduce someone to Epic, its through this ruleset. The rules are so simple that you can start playing as you are reading the rulebook for the first time. The biggest problem is hunting down the minis to make up the right detachments. Looking for 15 Ork Boyz and 8 Nobz stands to make up a mob? Good luck. However, there is a lot of color to this game, and if you have the patience, you'll love it. I would start with trying to get the SM2 box set. There is a lot of game in there. Then go with the expansion sets. A complete Titan Legions set that is in great condition might as well be as hard as finding a unicorn tho. But you really have so much to play way before you get to that.



I talked alot about this game in your other thread, but let me just say that if you wanted to start getting in Epic with limited resources, this is your box set. The problem is, they have been selling for a lot on Ebay lately. The minis, the terrain, the army lists, makes this one heck of a box set. If you can stomach the rules than you will have far more fun collecting and making armies for this system than any other.



I actually are not a fan of Armageddon for reasons too numerous to name. I hate the ridiculous amount of army lists too. Just so unnecessary. But it has its fans, but so does all the editions. Finding the main rulebook isnt so hard, but it covers 3 armies. And getting a copy of Swordwind isnt anywhere near as gratifying as you think despite the effort you make to find it.



1) Probably SM2/TL. Its the game you will have the most fun playing with friends.
2) AT/SM1. It the original, and that makes it hard to beat. Might be a little cheesy today, but I love it.
3) Epic 40k. Its just a complete game.
4) Never played NetEpic
5) Armageddon. Will never, ever, like this game.

Ah I just saw this, and I agree with your choice if you are able to nail down the Epic 40k box set. You'll have a much easier time buying bitz here and there off Ebay and actually finding use for them.

While playing is obviously important, I think actually reading and building gets overlooked, and its really how we spend most of our time. If you like the mood and atmosphere the game set brings, you'll be more excited and motivated building up armies for it, and I think the flexibility of that set brings a lot of that out.

I started with 2nd edition, added Titan Legions, and moved to Epic 40K. I was working with a bunch of folks on an old Epic email list to spruce it up a bit (The Titan Project), when Epic A got started, and I got to playtest. It was pretty neat in a lot of ways, but for me, the detail just went the wrong way. I love E40K's abstraction level. I felt Titans were too restricted (if I remember correctly, only firing at one target), while smaller units were too detailed (I don't care what kind of Land Speeder it is).

I'm in Framingham, MA, and have played a game with Dave mentioned above, and he has got a sizable Epic contingent between here and Connecticut. He seems very organized and enthusiastic and helpful. I just don't care for Epic A as much.

andy

I have your titans project file and you had some good ideas there it's a pity it was never finished i'd have like to see where you ended up with it.

_________________
Vanguard Miniatures

Link, http://vanguardminiatures.co.uk/

Stockist of:

Vanguard Miniatures
BattleGroup Helios
Onslaught Miniatures
Pyrkol Gaming Markers
Gregster's Lab
Microworld Games
Troublemaker Games

jI think the Titan Project didn't need much beyond rules for super heavy weapons for other armies.

I didn't want to change Epic 40K, just spike up the titans.

andy

Cool, I'm only about a half hour from you. Let me know if you ever want to get an E40k game on!

I would like to play sometime. But I only actually play every now and then, so I probably won't soon. And my wife said I had to play a game with her soon, so she won't forget the rules.

Let me know if you would like to try my hex version, but I'll brush up on the real rules, too. And whether you'd like me to connect you with the Epic crowd around here that play Epic A. I know at least one of them is in Boston.

andy