Sunday 27 October 2013

Epic Plans

Now then,

I thought I'd share my thoughts on the Games Workshop game "EPIC".  Im no fan of GW, but in the past I was. I really started gaming around 1989 - 90 when still at boarding school in Somerset. The first game I collected a playable, painted force for was Space Marine (epic). So when still at school, instead of doing homework, I painted 6mm Blood Angels, and my older Brother collected Orks.

Many battles were fought on the dining room table, or the living room floor, when my parents were out, as my dad was in the army, we had loads of green army towels, which when placed together, with socks etc underneath served as our battlefield, complete with hills!  Im still not sure if we actually played the game properly, but we had fun non the less.

A few years later, Space marine II (EPIC) was released. I obviously bought the game immediately. It was great, much less fiddly and complicated than the first edition. Many more games were played, and by this time id moved out and got my first flat, so a proper gaming table was the order of the day. Not long after supplements started to appear, then Titan Legions, which ill be honest, i didn't like, as the  big Imperator Titan and the Mega Gargant just looked...well... crap...

















Years passed. I joined the Army in 1996. Unknown to me, as I was far too busy with my first tour of N Ireland and a new wife, a new edition of Epic was released. I had sort of lost touch with the hobby, and completely missed the 3rd edition.  The 3rd edition (Epic 40,000) was heavily criticized by the GW fans for being too simple, unrealistic and bland.













The Epic 40,000 game was only supported by GW for about 6 months, then it was pretty much dropped. A shame really.

In 2004 ish Epic Armageddon was released. The game shares many of the streamlined mechanics of Epic 40k, but has some of the detail from Spacemarine 2. It is a good game, but not really that successful either, probably because GW decided to change all the models, and make them mail order only and they are obviously so way overpriced that only a few could afford them. Combined with poor marketing and hardly any exposure in white dwarf....

So, even after all these years there is still a large community of epic players, but, as people like different things its very fragmented, and there are fan made rules as well such as netepic, and even netepic Armageddon.  There is also another ruleset being developed called Netepic evolution! Not to mention the rumours of a new game from GW itself.....

So all in all a confusing game to get into, not helped by the fact that none of the games are currently supported by GW. My plan is to playtest netepic, Epic Armageddon and epic 40000. Having read all 3 rulesets, I actually like Epic 40000 the most, because of its simplicity and the way that armies are put together.

So, plenty of epic-ness on the blog in the future, but fear not the historical stuff hasnt been forgotten, my bolt action Germans are nearly finished as well as the 15mm Persian army. I also have grand plans for my 6mm WOTR armies and of course the 6mm Napoleonics.

Cheers for reading
Steve

5 comments:

  1. Looking forward to seeing this future Epicness!

    I started with Adeptus Titanicus, but never bought the first edition of Space Marine. I think I was giving up on GW at that point and sold off my AT stuff.

    A few years later some friends bought into some friends bought into the second edition of SM and I played with them and picked up an Eldar Force. None of them ever painted any of their stuff. Then they all moved away... and the Eldar force...? I have no idea where it got to... though I still have a Tempest tank - without it's turret!

    Over the years I've picked up bits here and there when I found something in a bargain bin or happened across a good deal on ebay - thinking I might use stuff with Dirtside and later Future War Commander - or even a Hordes of the Things variant - but never really got around to painting enough stuff to play. Occasionally I get the urge to try something and get them out and paint a unit or two, but haven't gotten very far with them.

    I'm hoping following your progress will inspire me to get two forces done and play... something!?

    I have

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  2. Still got a drawer of the painted bastards somewhere around here, good luck!

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  3. I've been playing a lot of Future War Commander lately, and one of my friends used that as an excuse to pull out all his Epic figures. FWC is a fantastic game for this. Its mechanics are inspired in part by Warmaster -- ie; the rolling under CO's leadership to see if units go through with their commands. And there are some army lists included in the core FWC book that will allow you to play any Epic armies.

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    Replies
    1. Ive played alot of FWC too, good game. But Epic is a good game too, and ill be able to use the figures for both.

      Steve

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  4. Hello Steve,
    Nice write up :-)

    Jason

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