Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hey,
Been hearing a bit about epic 40k, and i was wondering what's a general overview of how to play? What's it about, and how it compares to warhammer 40k? It sounds very interesting, but i really dont know that much about it.
Thanks!

It's Epic... especially when you field Imperator Titans!

I owned Titan Legions about 15 years ago which was an epic stand alone game and it was good fun. Can't remember how it played I'm afraid!

Its one of the best games that GW ever made and its a game that GW obviously really, really wants to die.

The current edition is Epic Armageddon (you can downlaod the rules for free here http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?catId=cat480006a&categoryId=6700004a§ion=&aId=21500019a. It is played with 6mm minatures and features, if not quite an army, a good chunk of one, including aircraft, super heavy tanks and titans. the game rules themselves are quite simple but provide a lot of tactical opportunities and depth.

The biggest problem with Epic is finding opponents as the game has been completely orphaned for about 4 or 5 years now and had been neglected for years before that.

Ebay is your friend for epic minis as GW prices are frankly astonishingly high given how small the miniatures are,even by GW standards. The cheapest army to start would be marines as you can buy all your basic troops for a couple of pounds if you look around and their armies tend to be small.

GW clocked onto how cheap it is to buy a full Epic army and raised the prices by about three million percent. Then they quietly shelved the game in favour of another one about Hobbits that no one plays.
The sad thing is that Epic is probably the best rule-set GW has put out in a long long time.

Still, it's easy enough to get into thanks to all the heavily-produced early models, and ebay. As a great example, I recently grabbed a fully playable 2500pt space marine army for about £10+P&P. Orks can be even cheaper.

If you're interested it's definitely working picking up some of those to learn the ropes. As the rules are free you can pick up everything needed for 2 players for way less than a copy of AoBR would cost you.

I got an entire chapter for £15 (including bikes, landspeeders, rhinos and landraiders). All I am missing are Dreadnoughts and Predators. I don't even want to think about how much that would have cost me direct from GW.

Some armies, notably Tyranids and Squats are very expensive though.

Epic, my favourite game system. I've been playing back since the launch of 2nd edition in 1992. Never did play 1st edition, but do have all the rules.

Epic: Armageddon is a vastly enjoyable and hugely tactical game. Far superior than 40k and the rules are so much tighter. The armies play exactly as they appear in the back story: Space Marines are a true rapid strike force, with an empty battlefield one minute and the next you've got thunderhawk strikes, drop pods landing, marines appearing everywhere and you're in a whole world of trouble. Imperial Guard are a proper lumbering shoot you to pieces. And Titans are as they should be - heavy death machines with weapon ranges in the kilometres.

The game is different to the you-go-I-go system of 40k and is an activation based system. This is where each player alternates activating one of their own detachments. Battlefields are much more fluid affairs where you launch counterstrikes, outmaneuvering becomes a possibility with the special crossfire rule and tactics are the order of the day. Not forgetting the blast marker mechanic which is pretty nifty in giving you a visual clue to which units are in trouble.

Also, the rules are free on the GW site. Inside they have training scenarios and instructions on how to make paper proxies so give it a try.

If you're interested, have a look at http://www.tacticalwargames.net is the biggest Epic community on the net and have loads of fan rules and expansions.

Completely agree with the sentiments listed by the guys above.

If you can get another couple of people to collect with you and give it a try, you won't regret it.

Where abouts are you located?

Tactical Command is the biggest Epic community on the internet:

http://www.tacticalwargames.net/taccmd/index.php

You'll probably be able to find an opponent there.

Unless I miss my mark, doesn't the current version of Epic not have official lists for Tyranids?

It definitely doesn't have a Dark eldar List as it was not included as it was completely unfluffy for them to engage on such a scale but I don't know about 'nids

I have to say I honestly preferred the Epic: 40,000 rules over the Epic: Armageddon rules. They were easier to use, and less complex than E:A's ruleset. Shame that it only had army rules for Orks, the Imperium (Sans sisters or GK), Chaos, Eldar, and Nids.

There are no offical rules for 'Nids as far as I am aware.

guess it was GW's idea of how to play a large scale battle before the concepted APOC ( I may be wrong about this).

I've played it once, land raiders are the size of a large mint, troops are the size of a grain of rice, you can field 4000 and fit it in your pocket.

I HATED it, was so boring. It's kind of a super dumb down version of the game with these movement tokens and such....it should go away. Garbage.

deggreg@yahoo.com wrote:guess it was GW's idea of how to play a large scale battle before the concepted APOC ( I may be wrong about this).

I've played it once, land raiders are the size of a large mint, troops are the size of a grain of rice, you can field 4000 and fit it in your pocket.

I HATED it, was so boring. It's kind of a super dumb down version of the game with these movement tokens and such....it should go away. Garbage.

deggreg@yahoo.com wrote:guess it was GW's idea of how to play a large scale battle before the concepted APOC ( I may be wrong about this).

I've played it once, land raiders are the size of a large mint, troops are the size of a grain of rice, you can field 4000 and fit it in your pocket.

I HATED it, was so boring. It's kind of a super dumb down version of the game with these movement tokens and such....it should go away. Garbage.

Are you entirely sure that you played it? A dumbed down version of Apocalypse? seriously?

That has to be one of the most astonishing things that I have read for a long time.

deggreg@yahoo.com wrote:guess it was GW's idea of how to play a large scale battle before the concepted APOC ( I may be wrong about this).

I've played it once, land raiders are the size of a large mint, troops are the size of a grain of rice, you can field 4000 and fit it in your pocket.

I HATED it, was so boring. It's kind of a super dumb down version of the game with these movement tokens and such....it should go away. Garbage.

I was always told that everyone can have their opinion, and that unlike facts, opinions cannot be right or wrong.

Thank you for disproving that theory.

xttz.. haha yes quite, I was going to write something far more derogatory, but your reply is far more eloquent.

Note: I've never played Epic. Nothing against it, though.

Is it possible it might seem, at first glance, to be more 'bland' because it by necessity abstracts a lot of details that games like 40k go nuts with?

I.E. a Librarian in 40k has (potentially) unique abilities from powers and special equipment that make it far more than a normal trooper. In Epic, those abilities might boil down to a bonus to damage or defense, or maybe one weird rule, and the Librarian is considered an attachment to a squad or similar?

The issue here, what I think deggreg may be missing is that a game may lose some details liek that but add better details in... For example, I've heard good tings about Epic and it seems like a way to represent a massive action that is far above Apocalypse. Apocalypse is "add a Titan or flyer or two, maybe bring out all the tanks we've got" while Epic is "Standard game we're seeing a squad of Titans. Each ahs a small army as support. One of those armies is an IG Armored Company.

Balance wrote:Is it possible it might seem, at first glance, to be more 'bland' because it by necessity abstracts a lot of details that games like 40k go nuts with?

The issue here, what I think deggreg may be missing is that a game may lose some details liek that but add better details in... For example, I've heard good tings about Epic and it seems like a way to represent a massive action that is far above Apocalypse. Apocalypse is "add a Titan or flyer or two, maybe bring out all the tanks we've got" while Epic is "Standard game we're seeing a squad of Titans. Each ahs a small army as support. One of those armies is an IG Armored Company.

Epic is more concerned with the 'grand strategy' than minutiae of which specific troopers have which weapons. It's rather like chess, in that each piece (formation) can do certain things, and the trick is to outmaneuver your opponent with them while preventing him from doing the same to you. Special abilities tend to be formation- or army-wide rather than applying to a single unit. This is easier to learn but still very flexible.

Also my latest ebay purchase arrived today... an eldar army with 12 surprise Wraithguard stands inside I wasn't expecting

I am seriously sad: I got gifted a full army of (unpainted) epic nids, including one of each titan-equivalent and a ton of metal minis (and an absolute boatload of every variety of the plastics). Only thing is no-one in my area plays...

zedmeister wrote:If you're interested, have a look at http://www.tacticalwargames.net is the biggest Epic community on the net and have loads of fan rules and expansions.

Well, thank you.

Just to give a little background on list availability.....

Initially Epic Armageddon was set up as a community effort (in the same way as the other Specialist Games). This meant that the steering group for the game consisted of three players to represent the community, along with Jervis and Andy. GW being GW managed to get the core rule book released, which included Marines, Imperial Guard and Orks, one suppliment with Eldar, Ferral Orks and Siege IG and almost had the Chaos Cult and Chaos Marines lists done when the wind changed direction again.

Since that point, the Epic community have simply carried on. The only real difference is that Jervis and Andy are no longer a part of the development, but the community reviews core rules, playetests and develops army lists and even puts out suppliments.

We have lists in the works for Tau, Tyranids, Necrons, Squats, various Marine Chapters, various IG regiments, various Ork tribes, different Eldar Craftworlds, Dark Eldar, Adeptus Mechanicus and Inquisition forces. These are at various stages of 'readiness', but feedback and playtesting and being a part of the process is always welcomed.

In terms of an overview of the game, it shares a background with 40K but is a very different game. A standard infantry figure is 6mm tall and they are grouped into units of five on a base. This scale allows you to field entire Companies (and a Chapter!) of Marines, groups of Baneblades and a couple of Warlord Titans. The formation is the basic building block and consists of around 8-10 infantry stands or vehicles and is activated as a unit. The game is alternate activation - I activate a formation, then you, etc. Weapons are broadly anti-infantry (attacks infantry stands), anti-armour (attacks vehicles), macro (attacks both) or blast tempate (attacks both, a little weaker but area effect). Central is the concept of blast markers (explosion counters). These are gathered when a formation is shot at, suffers casualties or fails to follow orders. The more of these you get, the worse your formation performs as it is affected by battlefield conditions, until it gains enough to turn tail and run.

Overall, Epic is a tactical game where the way that the forces work is closely alligned to the background. I would recommend that you read a couple of battle reports here:

http://www.taccmd.tacticalwargames.net/viewforum.php?f=84

This should give you a good idea of the game.

My friends used to love Epic. It is supposed to be a great game. I never got into it myself but it looked like it would be fun.

It's a fantastic system and I still regret selling my epic SM army a few years ago. Ahh, all the hours spent painting lil red rhinos and tactical arrow markings on the top hatches... good times.

Best game GW ever produced.

Space Marine 2nd ed. was a great game I used to playand gave us hours of fun!!!

I also played Epic WH40k and gave us some interesting, challenging nailbeating battles!!!

I think epic is amazing......I go all misty eyed thinking about my squat land train, cyclops and overlord armoured airship.....those were the days

Epic is like 40k but for adults instead of teens.