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Forming the narrative in combat in AT/SM1

 Post subject: Re: Forming the narrative in combat in AT/SM1
PostPosted: Thu Jan 12, 2017 6:18 pm 
Brood Brother
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Joined: Wed Aug 21, 2013 6:45 pm
Posts: 455
Thinking Stone wrote:
On the topic of AT/SM1/Epic 1E, I've heard that in the end the rules became a bit unmanageable through the large number of documents they were in (as oft happens!). Is there some kind of compilation? Are those bits beyond the original AT book worth having?


Yeah the early days of Epic and 40k Rogue Trader were a bit of a mess. Typically GW would release a game/rulebook, use White Dwarf to release new rules, and then some of those rules would be complied in a new rulebook, or sometimes parts of the rulebook would be published in White Dwarf. What was worse is that a WD might post a previous rule revision, or refer to a previous article that you might not even have. :{[]

I came into AT/SM1 at the end of its life as SM2 was just being released, and I was handed a whole collection with all sorts of lose rules and articles in one big pile, and it took a while to make sense of. Essentially Adeptus Titanicus was released first, and for about a year, new rules for Titans (Eldar and Orks too) and the introduction of vehicles, infantry, and dreadnoughts and robots were published in White Dwarf. These were kind of SM.5 really, and there was some differences in them compared to what was eventually released in the SM1 set, and it was all Space Marines and a few Imperial Guard stuff.

After Space Marine v1 was released (which focused on just Marines vs Marines), soon after Codex Titanicus came out, introducing a newer 'Epic' system than no one I know ever used, and re-introducing or in some cases revising, rules for Eldar and Ork titans. It also published a whole bunch of new vehicles and infantry for the Imperium, Eldar, and Orks too. Super important book.

But then over the next couple of years, newer rules were published in White Dwarf, mostly as GW was producing new minis for SM without the rules. Like literally, there were box sets and minis coming out that didnt have any rules to go with them. As I understand it, Jervis was on sabbatical, and that's when Andy Chambers jumped on board. He did some amazing stuff, even though a lot of the rules were wordy, complicated, but they certainly had a lot of flavor. I thought he did a great job with the Orks and especially Chaos. The only problem was, while producing revised rules for the Space Marines, Imperial Guard, Knights, Orks, Squats, and Chaos, they never got around to the Eldar which by this point had the Aspect Warriors in 40k (again yet still selling the models in the stores). It was one of the things that actually got our gaming group to move to SM2/TL, because we saw all these cool Eldar models coming out but here were no rules for them in AT/SM1. I actually chatted with Andy over email once after he left GW and asked him about the Eldar, and he said they didnt get around to them because the system was going to be revised anyway :/. I would have probably paid him money to come up with some 'official rules' for them even after all these years.

So its pretty remarkable that if you missed out on a White Dwarf, and for years we had no idea about the rules for Squats for example, then you literally had no rules for the minis that were for sale in the stores. of course now there is the internet but back then we were just blind.

So today if you wanted to learn more about the system, I would start with buying the Space Marine v1 rulebook (black cover) if not the set. The game box is a great set, even if only marine vs marine, and the rulebook has a lot of rules and ideas as well as scenarios. Not to mention some great original fluff on the Heresy.

After that, you could do the Codex Titanicus, and if you had the minis, not even spring for the Adeptus Titanicus set. But I do prefer the Adeptus Titanicus rulebook and the variety of Titan variants. Codex basically streamlined them.

There are lists here of White Dwarf articles and the rules they have. Just remember anything regarding Infantry and tanks before SM1 is really SM.5, and the system AT/SM1 is probably better represented by SM1/CodexTitanicus. And every WD article after that supports that version of rules.

Some of the early rules have some interesting things in them tho.


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