I'm currently planning a modular Epic scale board... And apart from the usual "grass with some buildings", I suddenly had the idea of a crashed spaceship on that field.

Now, I searched for some indications of measurements for BFG ships and came across this nice deviantArt scale chart for BFG ships and this site about spaceship sizes in general. Those state that even the lowly Cobra class destroyer would be 1.5 km in length. Even in Epic's ~1:300 scale, that'd mean a massive 5 metres, much longer than any gaming table.

Is that really the case or am I somehow mistaken? Shouldn't there be something in between a Tau Manta and some small BFG destroyer (ie some ship no longer than 500 metres, which would then at least fit onto the 180 cm of a tournament table)?

In BFG you got smaller "system ships" that bridges that gap (available in the "system monitor" blister). Lackig Warp drives these ships fulfill roles pretty similar to those container freighters and oil tankers do today. These ships range from a few hundred meters up to about half the size of a Cobra. They'd still make fairly large terrain pieces, but much more reasonable in size compared to a Cobra. A good sized ship could be somehting like 1m long but smaller "tugboats" or orbit patrolships 1-2 feet long would probably exist as well. They's just too small to hold any significance in BFG compared to the firepower of a cruiser or a battleship.

Acutally I think I remember seeing a pic somewhere of a GW store gaming table that had the bottom of a Cobra sticking from the ceiling above the gaming table.

Anyway: I say use your imagination. I think a really nice ship could probably be made using a mix of Necromunda bulkheads, industrial pipes and 40k City of Death pieces.

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Sofa General

Nobody expects the Inquisition!!!
http://theepiclounge.wordpress.com/

The scales in Epic are a bit wonky.

Most importantly for your purposes, the model and terrain scales in epic are not the same.  Epic models are about 1:300.  The terrain/weapon/movement scale is actually 30cm = 1km, or about 10x smaller.

Your 1.5 km ship should be ~45cm long.  That would be perfect for a 2 foot/60cm square module.  It will, however, look a bit off compared to the models.

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Neal

I seem to recall reading some GW source material that suggested a ship would be 3 feet long on an Epic table, although I can't remember where or even if they mentioned which ship.

It would be big though.  Besides, something like that would most likely not crash but create a massive crater (or several large craters).  Perhaps you can get away with making just parts of the surviving ship poking out of an old, weathered crater?

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author of Syncing Forward and other stories...

It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I've got my Milkbone underwear on.

Depends if it's descent was part powered or not though - if the ships engines were still semi-functioning it might slow it's descent to crash rather than burn up in the atmosphere or be destroyed completely.

I think scenery needs to be roughly in scale with the models or it looks silly, the 5 metres scale sounds about right from what I know of BFG. If you want a spaceship you can use in epic just make it a smaller ship than any units in BFG, but base the design on the same look and principles.

This had got me thinking that a heavily scratchbuilt epic gaming table set entirely on board a spaceship could be cool - perhaps raiders board a ship and encounter a transported imperial guard army, who have got combat ready in a hurry and are ready to put up a fight. Or a ship designed to resemble the insides of a craftworld would be very cool. Either would just have to make sure there were some bigger spaces and that the corridors were at least 40mm wide to allow troops through. Wonder is such a table would be playable in EpicA?

The "EPIC: Total War" advanced rules and scenario project I'm working on will actually have rules allowing players to use such a battlefield!

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

Now living in Boston... any EPIC players want to meet up?

Based on what the others have said about scale, the converted Iron Warriors armed transport I made could be the sort of thing you're after.

LINK - about half way down the page.

I think that model could easily be made to look crash landed.
Looking forward to seeing what you come up with mate.

Cheers,
Steve.

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Just call me Steve.

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My Hobby site.

I remember an oooooooold WD article (something like TL era days) of a 40k scale scrashed spaceship. Like Moscovian also suggested, the ship had been broken into wreckage pieces (a cargo hold, engines, an escape pod) to make it practically usable on the table. Saves you the trouble of buildig an entire ship and also means that you could just use individual pieces if ou don't want to cram the table.

Ideas could be:

1: front end: Prow with Imperial aquila to tie in visually with the BFG ships. This piece could be built into a large hill to represent the crater this thing would create as it ploughs into the ground.

2: Engines. Just a load of tubes and techy-looking bits

3: Bridge: This part would have some gothic features so using pits from the ruins spure/Cities of Death might be a good idea.

4: Turrets: Perhaps your ship was eqipped with turrets that have been scattered over a wide area following the impact. 40k, 1:72 or even 1:32 scale tank turrets with some modifications could be used.

5: Cargo hold: use a mix of gothic looking components and industrial girders etc. to represent a large deck that has been ripped open by the esplosion. Heck: You could blow up some kind of container(like a soda can) to get a realistic looking blast effect. Remember to leave lots of scattered remnants of the cargo (boxes, containers, pressure tanks, or even troops or vehicles)

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Sofa General

Nobody expects the Inquisition!!!
http://theepiclounge.wordpress.com/

Heck: You could blow up some kind of container(like a soda can) to get a realistic looking blast effect.

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author of Syncing Forward and other stories...

It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I've got my Milkbone underwear on.

Hehe. Forgot that there might be kids reading this. Of course use the proper protection and make sure to use moderate ammounts of firepower Just enough to blow a hole. Not to completely atomize it. I'm wondering if there might be other more suitable containers availale (like a semi-soft plastic) but I guess that might vary from country to country. The safest is probably still to hack away using more conventional hobby tools. (Although a blister pack with official GW "Explosives" for terrain building would be an interesting sight)

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Sofa General

Nobody expects the Inquisition!!!
http://theepiclounge.wordpress.com/

i would like to see the result but you dont need starships you could use shuttle craft the big starcraft would not land ordinary on a planet and if they crash on one they would make a crater at least the size of the Loma Priator crater that wiped out the dinosaurs but shuttle,landing or other serfis to orbit craft would be a much more manageable size

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you must be willing to pay the price for fighting in cities to do battle there
sun tsu the art of war

Try ordering that by mail...


I'd outgrown my pyro stage before trips to New Hampshire seemed convenient.... otherwise far fewer of my 1/72 tanks would have survived.

Of course it also helped that my step-father had tales of mixing his own -- how do you rebel against that?

For those of you who don't understand this reference, since about the early 80's, firecrackers and anything bigger have been illegal in Connecticut. Those who want to partake in such items have to travel out-of-state to buy them.

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"I don't believe in destiny or the guiding hand of fate." N. Peart

You cant be serious! Does this mean you can buy a gun but not a fire cracker!?! Or is this the one state in the US with gun control?

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"We are the sword of fire with which the Traitors shall be cut down."

Sadly it is one of many.  Even in the Capitol it is unlawful to carry a handgun.  The laws are changing gradually here and people with 500 rounds of ammunition are considered fringe whacko extremists.  Of course Pennsylvania, Texas, Arizona, and about twenty other States are quite nice for buying guns and fireworks.

500... I will fire off 500 rounds at the range this WEEKEND.   I'll shut up now.

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author of Syncing Forward and other stories...

It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I've got my Milkbone underwear on.