Hey guys,

Was after some advice/thoughts! A couple of friends and I are planning a reasonably big participation/expo game of Epic towards the end of this year. The idea is that a couple of big armies are on show, people who perhaps haven't seen Epic before can see the game in action, take control of some units so you in effect end up with a big multi-player game with myself and organisers helping things continue to move along.

We have settled on Epic Space Marine/Titan Legions as a system of choice as we think it will be reasonably fast to play, without being too granular (the orders system, of trying to predict in advance what your opponent will do with orders and planning your own gives a great feeling of 'overseeing' the battle and makes the most of the Epic scale I feel!) and we will also use Orks as one of the factions - I think Epic SM/Titan Legions represent a high-point of Orks in any wargame setting as they are just so much fun to play, while also suitable deadly! And definitely something that has been lost both in other versions of Epic and later editions of 40k IMO.

Now we are going to have some of the original rulebooks and things like that there for people to look through but wanted to know from experienced NetEpic players if any elements (I will say refinements!) of that system could be used without slowing the game down too much? I have already discounted the full NetEpic system as the alternative movement, while great for two players, will bog down the game too much - I know from experience of other large multiplayer games when people start walking off, looking at their phones not paying attention or going to the loo and you have to wait for them to return to move their unit, well it's much easier to have things in phases (I know firing is alternated but hopefully that should help hold attention!)

I am not sure about introducing the snap-fire rule from TL. Also, what are people's thoughts on Armour saves? One of the factions is Marines and so will more likely affect those - am I better off just going full Space Marine, where in 99% of cases infantry are just removed from the board when hit?
I also will use the NetEpic rule of 5cm movement costs to board or exit a transport (this is much less unwieldy than the rule in SM/TL)

Not being as familiar with the game, are there any other NetEpic rules that I could port across to help make the game perhaps a bit more fun, faster to play or easier to understand?
Very grateful for any advice!

If you want to run a demonstration game, it is imperative that you use a clear set of rules and not mix and match rules from different games. As such, I recommend that you choose either the original Space Marine (second edition) rules, Titan Legions rules, or Net Epic rules and play those rules as they are written and avoid the overly complicated approach that you have outlined above.

How many points are you thinking of playing? Anything more than 4,000 points is probably excessive for a demonstration game, as you want to keep it flowing as much as possible. While 6,000 point games of Space Marine/Titan Legions can be fast when you know the rules well, they also tend to allow the inclusion of more complex units that take longer to use and have more special rules, so this is another reason to keep the points limit at a lower level. You want to have enough points to showcase a reasonably wide range of units, but not so many as to make the game last for too long, hence 4,000 points seems to be sensible to me.

Which army will you use as the opposition to the Orks? Orks do have a few special rules and quirky units, so it would probably be best to use a simpler army as the opposition (e.g. Space Marines).

Finally, and I really cannot emphasise this enough, if you do go down the Titan Legions route, you must ensure that you don't use titan battle groups or the Imperator or Mega Gargants. They make for an unbalanced game that largely render infantry irrelevant and won't make for a good showcase as a result.

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Hi Irisado - thanks so much for the reply that is really useful!

I had definitely come to the same conclusion about Imperators/Mega-Gargants, as I remember them being almost a mini-game in of themselves. A shame as I wanted to use the Warmaster miniature as a stand in, but it would just bog things down too much.

Thanks yes I will be using Space Marines as an opposition to the Orks - I'm going to have print-out sheets with unit stats of only the things taking part in the game, for ease of use.

Thanks for the advice on which version to use and on reflection I think that probably makes sense - in that case I would lean towards using TL as the 'ultimate' version of Space Marine.

For the game itself my main priority is going to be 'spectacle'! I will hopefully have a couple of friends helping me (their time has been 'volunteered' haha) to help things moving along. So I will probably be going for 6000pts+ in a game that may last some hours, and people can come and go, take control of a few companies or a clan for a while, and then tap in or tap out at different points. I don't want to do a very small demo/intro game of the sort you get when learning a game in a GW store (there isn't a product sale at the end of it, although I hope people will like what they see and want to play Epic as a result!) But, I remember local GW stores doing similar to this on Saturday afternoons when I was a teenager of WH40k 2nd edition and Epic, and am trying to achieve the same sort of result (of spectacle!)
But we will do a trial game in the run up to the event and see exactly how feasible it is..

If you're going to play 6,000 points just be aware that this can take up to four hours for those who know the rules. For players who don't know anything and are trying to learn it will be a slow process. If you want the game to last all day 6,000 points is a viable total, but I would not suggest going beyond that, as the game was not really designed for larger games.

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Thanks Irisado - yes when I was a teenager my friends and I used to play massive games of about 15k pts or more, on about a 20ft board, that used to last an entire weekend (including sleepover!) I don't think I have that level of courage any more - at least not yet!

Thanks a lot for the feedback, really appreciated - I will let you know how it goes!

Great idea and good luck with it.

I agree with the points that Irisado makes above. If you have enough people helping, you could possibly have a second game going at the same time (or after the Infantry/Vehicle game) with Titans vs Titans, just to showcase them as well.

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Net Epic Coordinator

Thanks MangusIlluminus - and that's given me another idea now too, of having a separate BFG going on.. whoever wins and gets into orbit of the planet is able to bring down shots from orbit and affect the Epic game

Part of me thinks I should be sensible with this while the other that I should go down in a blaze of glory

Hey guys

I have put together an Event flier/2 page website to help advertise the event. Now finally have a date set for 4th March next year. I'll probably start advertising it in the new year once we have Xmas out of the way but wondered what people's thoughts are in the meantime?

https://sumocatretro.wixsite.com/greatcrusadeepic