My wife and I played the first Epic 40K game I've had for years. The * in the Subject is because I tweaked it for 6" hexes. Figures this small should be picked up and plunked down. I remember positioning figures for range, movement, separation between units, cover, LOS, barrage templates, and who is closer to the enemy. I'm still using LOS and cover to some extent (though abstracting some, too), and still removing units by who is closest to enemy. But we really enjoyed not doing any measurement in this game.
Here's a very loose report from TMP.
A while ago my son and I played a game of Chain of Command with our 15mm Quar collection. A good GeoHex setup takes some time, so I figured I'd get another game in on it. After all this time, I finally played on it last night. Now my other son will get to get the ping-pong table back.
Anyway, my wife and I played Epic 40K for the first time in years. She'd helped me play out battles while playtesting Epic Armageddon. (The only thing I remember from that is how our figures would rush up to the front to not shoot, because originally blast markers in EA canceled nearest firing units. That got changed, but I decided I still prefer Epic 40K.)
Pictures here:
https://goo.gl/photos/5dPdPUcQsEuGtmW36
She played the Space Marines, I played Eldar. I used detachments from years ago, without a lot of thought. We played 1000 points, since this was the first time in a long time, and I'd made some tweaks. The washers across the table are 6" hex centers. Gun ranges got converted to hexes directly, and speeds got converted to 1, 1+, 2-, 2, 2+, 3-, 3, 3+. A number with a plus moves the number with regular move in Move phase, and +1 in Assault Phase or when marching. A – means you subtract one from march move. So a Land Raider (2-) can keep up with Rhinos(2+) except when they march. I'd like to clean this up a bit, but don't really know how. Most infantry move 1, fast ones like Guardians move 1+.
We both put our 2 objectives each on the same end of the field, my right, her left. My first show, with 2 falcons, a fire prism, and a spinner, took out 2 or 3 Marine tanks and left lots of blast markers. It gave me hope when I'd been staring at those marines and thinking how tough they were.
We each sent a detachment of jetbikes / speeders around the other end. Mine was much bigger than hers, and I shot them up and then assaulted. I'd hoped I could wipe them out, as much as I outnumbered them, but one got away. I figured I should ignore the one and sent my bikes to add their firepower on the flanks of the marines, but she sent her lone speed (after rallying) over to claim an objective. I'd assumed that when it came close I'd just shoot it, but then I forgot and moved those units away. Duh.
While I was able to get a bunch of swooping hawks in wave serpents over to assault a flank, with jetbikes following up, it ended up being costly. I did manage to temporarily break a large marine detachment by assaulting one end, but the blast markers didn't last long (fate cards).
After a bunch of shooting, and some careful assaults, we'd both been reduced a bit, but I had several turns of a unit sitting on a Take and Hold objective. Maybe I could have tried to do a bit more damage and get some more objective points, but she had two untouched detachments in cover, and I didn't have anything I felt was strong enough to assault them. My largest remaining group was all on foot, so I acknowledged her win, which was closer in points than it looked on the field.
I admit that the assault rules are a bit odd, and there are some gamey things you can do with how to "soak up" blast markers when shooting. But this game has a simplicity that I really like, and is at the abstraction layer I like. I actually picked it up again because of Nordic Weasel's new 6mm game, which talked about being fast, but made me think how elegant (IMO) the Epic 40K rules were.
My wife says we should play again before she forgets the rules again, and that's got to be a win. Thanks, NW, for letting me see your rules, inspiring me to pick up this old favorite!
andy