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When last we left our intrepid hero...
Well, it's going on 15 months now since I started diving back into the world of Epic. ?I'm really glad I found EpiComms, as you folks have been a great source on inspiration. ?Before I begin on my progress in my Epic quest, allow me to introduce myself.
I'm 33 years old and live in Washington State. ?I have a master's degree from Cornell University. ?I spent six years in the US Army prior to college. ?I have two beautiful little boys and wife who is at least gracious about my habit of playing with little toy soldiers. ?
I started playing RPG's in 1980 at the side of my 10-years-my-senior sister. ?My first minis games were Starfleet Battles and micro-armor games at the local club. ?In 1988, I discovered 40K, and was thrilled by it, but GW didn't fire up my passion until I discovered two games: ?Space Hulk and Space Marine. ?I'll skip going into my deep and lasting love affair with Space Hulk, as it's a sad and sordid tale.
I bought Space Marine off a friend with some of Scout Camp money. ?For $25, I got the entire first boxed set (with the two Marine forces fighting it out during the Horus Heresy) and a box of the Squat forces. ?Later I picked up the boxed set that had the four different forces (Marine, Eldar, Chaos, and IG, IIRC), Adeptus Titanicus, and assorted blisters. ?It was heaven! ?
My friends and I bounced back and forth between RPG's, Battletech, and SM/AT. ?40K was in there somewhere, but mostly we played SM/AT and Space Hulk. ?Four years of bliss ensued, but high school was coming to an end, and I realized that adulthood was calling.
I joined the Army and left the week after I graduated high school. ?Missouri, Korea, New Jeresy, California, Louisiana, then finally Washington State... there was no time to game, and I had no room for my collections. ?I missed it, but I was An Adult now. ?No time for games. ?Right? ?Bullpucky -- I still wanted to play.
It was while I was home on leave one Christmas that I found out that my entire gaming collection had disappeared. ?My parents had let a friend of mine live at our house for a while as he got his life back in order. ?When he left... so did my collection. ?Space Marine. ?Titanicus. ?Space Hulk (with expansions). ?Fortress America. ?Shogun. ?Conquest of the Empire. ?Axis & Allies. ?Dark Tower. ?Talisman. ?40K. ?All my RPG stuff. ?And a .22 rifle.
Grrrr... ?so I let it go. ?I was An Adult now. ?Didn't need that stuff. ?I was leaving the Army soon to go to college in Seattle, so I put my games out of my mind. ?Minis didn't even occur to me again until about 1999, when I found Epic 40,000: Final Liberation in the $5 bin of DOS games down at CompUSA. ?What's this? I mused. ?A PC game of Space Marine? ?Excellent!
I played the heck out of Final Lib. ?And through that I realized I wanted to play again. ?Sadly, I was on my way to grad school in New York, so minis would have to wait. ?And wait they did, until 2002, when I finally graduated and got a corporate job. ?Time to start looking into minis!
Needless to say, I was appalled by the changes that had happened to GW, 40K, and my beloved Space Marine. ?Epic appeared to be dead, so I focused my attention on Dirtside, Starmada, Combat Zone, etc., as well as participating in RPG?s. ?And yet I still had a soft spot in my heart for my little plastic Beakies and their enemies. ?
And so, in late 2005, I found myself drawn back to Epic. ?I also found a guy selling the entire Epic 40K boxed set (somewhat pre-assembled) for $35, so I scored it and began to revel in rehabbing the minis inside. ?What great timing! ?Since then, I have continued to build my collections of Orks, Marines, and Imperial Guardsmen, and have scored some very good deals. ?Following herein I will begin to outline what 15 months of collecting and around $350 can do for a person bent on becoming an Epic-head.
And let?s start with?
Da Orks
Let?s face it. ?Orks have to be one of the easiest armies to get off the ground with, when it comes to Epic. ?This is due in no small part to the huge numbers of Epic 40K starter boxes that hit the market in the late 90?s, all of which were chock full of Orky goodness. ?On top of that is the fact that Orks are not nearly as sexy as Marines or IG, meaning that those forces will be snapped up first with Orks trailing the way. ?
I had two wonderful windfalls of Orks during the last 15 months. ?The first was my opening foray into modern Epic, which was an almost-complete (if used) Epic 40K boxed set, which had all the Orks and Marines (although none of the ruins, markers, dice, or books). ?With piles of infantry and a decent contingent of basic vehicles (wagonz and bikez, especially), I found myself in possession of a good starting force worth a couple thousand points. ?
Then, around last summer, I was participating in a thread about Epic on the RPGNet forums, when a fellow asked me if I could use some of his old stuff. ?Well, why not? ?I thought. ?So money changed hands, and lo and behold, Orks were borne unto me in a FedEx box that exceeded my expectations. ?The parcel contained a wealth of the little plastic Cads, including six battlefortresses, a dozen OOP metal Mekaniak creations (bubblechukkas, rokkit speedstas, etc.), over a hundred stands of infantry, at least 80 battlewagons, 20 Stompaz, and all sorts of little niche things such as Pulsa Rokkits and Big Gunz.
For the last few months, therefore, I have been furiously painting and basing, and am finally approaching completion with these basic forces. ?I still have some things waiting in the wings, but starting this week I?ll begin posting pics of my Ork forces.
But first, a tally. ?Last night I counted up everything I have painted and based, and came up with this:
Warlord..................5
Nobz.....................29
Boyz.....................66
Shootyboyz..........15
Grotz....................40
Stormboyz............16
Kommandoz.........15
Bikez....................18
Warbuggiez.........29
Boarboyz.............19
Skorchaz...............3
Battlewagonz......42 ?(old-style with the skull on the front)
Gunwagonz.........92 ?(Epic 40K style)
Squiggoths............4
Battlefortresses.....3
Gunfortresses.......4 (one scratchbuilt)
Dreadnoughts.......6
Big Gunz..............37 (including Pulsa Rokkits)
Stompaz..............29
Mega-Gargantz.....3 (one scratchbuilt)
Landaz..................4 (proxies using Mechwarrior minis)
I figure that this would give me somewhere around 14,000 points, and could be arranged roughly into the following:
3x ?Uge Warbands: ?Six Nobz, eighteen Ork Boyz, six Gretchin, one Battlefortress, one Gunfortress, six Battlewagons
8x ?Uge Blitz Brigades: ?Twelve Gunwagons
9x Mekboy Stompamobs: ?Three Stompas
2x ?Uge Kults Of Speed: ?Twenty-four of the following: Buggies, Warbikes, Skorchas
3x ?Uge Mekboy Gunzmobs: ?Fifteen Big Gunz
1x ?Uge Boarboyz Horde: ?Fifteen Boarboyz
3x Stormboyz Hordes: ?One Landa, Six Stormboyz stands, two Dreadnoughts
1x Kommando Horde: ?Fifteen Kommandos, eight Battlewagons
3x Great Gargants
Obviously not the optimal force compositions, but I?m still just playing around with it. ?During the coming week I?ll start posting pictures of the JavWaaagh for your viewing pleasure, after which I'll move on to my Marine chapter. ?Stay tuned!
Thanks!
Jav98
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Set phasers on "fun"!
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Nice work ! 