Hello!
?Well, since the middle of last week my fiancee's 9 year-old son had been asking if we can have a game. ?Having spent about 7 months languishing in a storage box, last week he finally decided to get out his Marines (both Epic & 40k versions) and paint some more of them.So Saturday I decided to put terrain building to one side and have a battle. ?'What do you want to play? Epic or 40k' I asked him. ?'40k', he replies. ?'I'll have to use my Tyranid army then...' I state, knowing that he won't play against them (I think I've built up the abilities of the Carnifex too well, to the extend he says he'll never play against my 40k 'Nids
). ?'Okay, we'll play Epic then' he concedes.This would be our second game of Epic, my having set up a small (1,500 per side) game about 7-8 months ago. ?I decided to let him use a mix of his own Space Marines (the ones he's finished painting) and my own Iron Hands Marines; I used Guard. ?I totted up what he had, and worked out two 2,900 point armies.
So we started playing, at 1pm.
Come 6pm, we still hadn't finished turn 3. ?
?
Now, I was trying to explain the rules as I went, and it didn't help that, being a 9 year-old boy, my fiancee's son got bored and easily distracted when I was taking my turns.
But by the time I was finished, I was struck by how tired I was and how much of a headache I had - just from playing Epic for 4-5 hours!
That evening I went up to bed, my fiancee saw the look on my face and asked 'what's the matter?' ?'Oh, I've just got a head-ache, that's all', I replied.
Should playing Epic really have this effect on me, I pondered?
Anyway, we finished the game yesterday, and my fiancee's son won (probably a good thing, he's at that age where if he didn't he probably wouldn't want to play ever again!
And that's the second lesson: either, I am really, really bad at playing Epic - or I need to paint some more stuff for my Guard army. ?The game ended with the Marines pretty much engulfing the Guard, with only 3 of their formations destroyed and one broken. ?The guard, on the otherhand, only had one intact formation, and two other formations not broken.
I know I'm not the greatest Epic player, but I've been reflecting on this game and realise I need to paint some more Guard stuff to make that army better. ?I used:
- Supreme Commander formation
- Infantry company, w/Ogryns & Snipers
- Tank Company
- Sentinels
- Rough Riders
- Artillery Battery
- Hydra Detachment
- 2 Thunderbolt squadrons
- Warhound Titan
The Marines had:
- 2 Tactical Detachments (1 w/Supreme Commander, both with Hunters)
- Devestators w/Razorbacks
- Assault Marines w/Captain
- Terminators w/Captain
- Predators
- Land Raiders
- Whirlwinds w/Hunter
- Thunderhawk
I think I'd have been better taking more Infantry/Mech infantry companies, for more resiliance, than all the little formations which ended up being cannon fodder, basically.
So that was my weekend of Epic gaming! ?It was nice to have a game, and to 'christen' some of the terrain I've been building
- but, by heck, Epic doesn't half give me a headache!
) is better suited to kids' attention spans than the 40k turn sequnce- last time I went through a game of 40k between him and his sister they kept wondering off during each others goes... 
