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How do?

I recently received a copy of an old book for Epic, to add to my growing library of rules from the olden days. The book in question is “White Dwarf Presents Space Marine Battles” from 1993.

It’s an interesting book for retrospectives, as it’s ancillary gubbins gathered from various White Dwarfs. And much of the content are greatly enjoyable battle reports. And it’s those battle reports that got me thinking. Which is always dangerous.

See, there’s no doubt that over the years, the model count of 40K has increased. Now, the ins and outs why’s and wherefores of that are a different topic. Because what I want do is present two of the armies fielded in those reports, and see how they translate into modern 40K points limits. And that is where you come in, dear reader.

Do feel free to frame them in terms of Formations too - and Command Points.

I don’t have many of the current Codexes, so can’t really do it myself. There’ll also need to be some extrapolation, as not all of the units will have current day direct translations. And being Epic scale, a squad was a squad, with no equipment upgrades. What you might want to substitute, or allow for in terms of equipment I’ll leave solely to you - at least where I can’t be precise, such as Titan weapons.

So, if you’re sitting comfortably, I’ll begin. And being the first of potentially many, here’s a classic Andy Chambers vs Jervis Johnson on, featuring Alaitoc Craftworld against The Blood Angels.

Jervis took Eldar, and of course lost as he always did. His army was comprised off....

1 Avatar and 4 stands of Exarchs (4 stands of 5)
1 Harlequin Troops (4 stands of 5, so twenty in total)
2 Warlocks (one stand of five and a Falcon Grav Tank each)
1 Striking Scorpions (4 stands of 5, so twenty total)
1 Dark Reapers (4 stands of 5, so twenty total)
1 Howling Banshees (4 stands of 5, so twenty total)
1 Swooping Hawks (4 stands of 5, so twenty total)
1 Dire Avengers (4 stands of 5, so twenty total)
1 Tempest Squadron (3 Tempest Heavy Grav Tanks, Scorpion being the closest modern equivalent)
1 Warp Hunter Squadron (2 tanks)
1 Wave Serpent Squadron (2 tanks)
1 Wraithguard Detachment (4 stand of 5, so 20 total)
2 Dreadnought Detachments (Wraithlords, four to each detachment)
1 Anti-Grav Laser detachment (3 weapon platforms)
2 Prism Tank Detachments (1 Prism tank, 3 weapon platforms)*
3 Vibro Cannon Batteries (3 x 3 Vibro Cannons)
1 Guardian detachment (6 stands of 5, no heavy weapons)
2 Vyper Squadrons (5 in each squadron)
3 Vyper Jetbikes (5 stands of 2, so 30 in total)
4 Guardian Detachment (6 stands of 5 and 3 Falcons in each)
1 Phantom Titan (Powerfist and Pulsar)

Epic points total 5,950.

Andy Chambers took Blood Angels Space Marines. His force was....

1 Chaplain (1 Chaplain stand 1 Rhino)
1 Medic (1 Medic stand 1 Rhino)
1 HQ Landraider
3 HQ units (1 Command stand, 1 Rhino each)
1 Terminator Detachment (4 stands of 5, two Landraiders)
2 Assault Stands (6 stands of 5, 3 Rhinos each)
4 Tactical Detachments (6 stands of 5, 3 Rhinos each)
4 Devastator Deatchments (6 stands of 5, 3 Rhinos each)
1 Dreadnought Detachment (4 Dreads. Original models closest to Contemptor Class)
2 Robot Detachments (each of 5 Robots)
1 Vindicator Squadron (three Vindies)
1 Whirlwind Squadron (three Whirlies)
3 Land Raider squadrons (three LR in each)
1 Landspeeder Squdron (5 Speeders)
2 Bike Squadrons (5 stands of 2 bikes each, so 20 total. No attack bikes)
1 Warlord Class Titan (Powerfist, Gatling Cannon, Volcano Cannon, Warp Missile)

Total 6,000 points.

Well....that’s a wall of text, but unavoidable.

As you can see, some units will need interpretation. Rules wise, I don’t recall Eldar having the option to field units of Anti-Grav Brightlances (closest equivalent to the LasCannons. Marines will have to dip into the Ad-Mech book to field the Robots etc.

Likewise, the command stands (Warlocks, Medics etc) don’t have a direct equivalent. I’ll leave it you to decide whether you just want to field the single dude, or perhaps 5 of them.

No particular agenda to this thread, just figured it’d be an interesting thought exercise.

*This must’ve come before the Eldar expansion. That’s because when it came out, Prisms could link shots, but only to each other. But here, it seems each came with its own LasCannons for charging purposes. I think that’s an interesting tidbit of info!

Right, over to you. Price away!

I make it just short of 16000pts for the Eldar. There's no equivelant for the Exarch stands as current Exarchs are a definite step down on what they used to be so I've left those out. The Warlock stands I've counted as Warlock Conclaves (units of 2-10 Warlocks) and the Laser Plateforms I've taken as the standard weapon platform with the D-Cannon instead as the closest equivelant.

Loadouts obviously make a huge difference, but five minutes in Battlescribe (and a little interpretation on the stands) tells me that the Imperial force is somewhere in the region of 18,000 - 20,000 points. 5,500 of that is the Warlord Titan.