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Gentlemen... it has begun.
Let us take a journey if you will... into KTG17's past. Two decades ago, he was browsing a gaming store and stumbled upon a blue, Epic box set containing Space Marine, Eldar, and Ork figures and tanks. Knowing nothing of the game, the minis fascinated him, and not really having the cash to spring for the actual game, he settled on buying just this set and trying to come up with his own rules using some Battletech maps!
Ha I forgot all about that until now. What a fool...
It didnt work out.
Anyway, so back in the store another time, one of the clerks offers to sell KTG17 his (what he thought was the current rules) Adeptus Titanicus and Space Marine sets, with loads of minis, terrain, Codex Titanicus, and white dwarf articles for something he could afford. KTG17 was pretty stoked. And set out to try and organize this mass pile of stuff once he got home. By the time he was done, he realized this is the game he had waited his whole life for, and didnt even know it.
KTG17 was just starting college at the time, and had zero money. Luckily, the clerk gave him so many miniatures that he didnt have to not only spend alot on additional minis, but had so many extras that he could give them out to his friends for them to build their armies. And during many days during the freezing winter, they battled it out in the basement of one of their homes. Sons of Horus, Emperor's Children, Space Wolves, Ultramarines, Eldar, Orks, even Squats at one point, were repeatedly obliterated on a big foldout drafting table that served as the perfect battleground representing places like Istvann III.
After realizing that the ruleset that he had had been replaced by a newer, streamline edition known as Epic Space Marine, and not being able to just use those newer rules in the older system, he set out to mathematically convert new rules by spending endless hours comparing the stats of minis in both systems, to the point where he could reliable determine what a unit in the newer version would cost in the older one. Wasnt perfect, but it allowed them to play Eldar Aspect Warriors and Squat Land Trains.
Now, common logic would say, "Hey, just go buy the new box set" but KTG17 would have none of that. Plus he could see the newer system lacked the grit the older one had.
After a couple of years of this, KTG17 moved to a new city, and introduced some new friends to the older version of the game. These new players were even more rabid than the first. It wasnt uncommon to see 5-6 Warlord Titans per side, mixed in with loads of infantry. It was Epic as Epic was meant to be played.
Eventually, we caved into using the new system once Titan Legions came out, and we just had to play with those Mega Gargants and Imperators. I don't remember those games as fondly as I do the Adeptus/Titanicus ones.
Anyway, as I shift to first person here, I moved a few years after that and still chose to introduce AT/SM1 to friends, even though at this point Epic40k had just come out. I, like many others, at first gawked at the new system, and it wasnt until its demise and being able to buy a stater set for $17 on Ebay did I realize how cool the system was. I did buy a ton of minis though. As a matter of fact, I replaced all of my older infantry stands in my older armies with those from that system. They were, and still are, the best minis ever released for Epic.
But something happened. I grew out of it. And sold my AT/Sm1 collection on Ebay. As far as I was concerned, I still had plenty with SM2/TL, and Epic40k, but my gaming days seemed to be mostly behind me. Then one day Jervis posts he's going to open the development of a new version of Epic over the internets, and I take a chance and shoot him a huge email covering what I thought were the best and worsts of the previous editions. To my shock, he responded in detail. I couldnt believe I was exchanging emails with the guy who was responsible for 1000s of my hours spent reading/playing/painting miniatures.
So then I realized I missed my AT/Sm1 stuff, and scoured the internet to get it back. Before long, I had a brand new Adeptus Titanicus set, Space Marine set, and perfect Codex Titanicus (which made me realize the one I had gotten from that clerk was incomplete!). All was well with the world again.
Now, keep in mind during this time, my interest in gaming just took off again. I was buying everything under the sun. And after a few years of this, I lost interest in it just about as quickly as I got into it, and poured over my collection asking myself, "Ok, there is a fire, what would I grab?"
Believe it or not, AT/SM2 didnt make the list. As much as I loved it as a kid, it is just too far detailed and gritty to introduce to novice gamers, and when I did introduce a game of Epic to someone, it was always the simpler SM2/TL. So after weeding and weeding, eventually it came time to do something with my SECOND AT/SM2 collection, and it went up on Ebay.
Well, fast forward, and I live in a bigger house now and have plenty of space, and decided to sort of make my home office some kind of testament to everything I loved growing up with, which included Star Wars, GI Joe, Anime, japanese robots, and yes, gaming. So between the vintage 1978 Star Wars, vintage Battlestar Galactica, vintage Star Trek, and 1980s A-Team posters, the 1982 GI Joes, Gundam/Macross/Dougram/Crusher Joe/Ideon/Votoms/Mospeada/Orguss/Dorvack models, some Star Wars and Transformers figures, lies about a dozen of the games (mostly Games Workshop) that made the cut some time ago. How Adeptus Titanicus/Space Marine, isnt out on a shelf to be seen just didnt make sense. This room reflects everything that inspired my imagination growing up, and it just felt like a gaping hole without AT/SM1 representin'.
And I thought about it. The effort. The cost. Do I really want to do this a third time? Am I REALLY GOING TO DO THIS FOR A THIRD TIME? I mean, I will never play this game with anyone. It would only be for me. As a matter of fact, I am not sure I would let anyone even touch it if I did get it all again. And I am obsessed with keeping everything in near mint condition. So used, beat up boxes from old collections wouldnt do. I would need sealed, unused games I knew were complete. I wasnt just replacing, I was also re-living the excitement of tearing off the plastic wrap from a box and seeing all the goodies inside for the first time. I would have to build up armies painted in that style to never be played. But that didnt matter. If it all came together, I know I would be pretty happy.
And something in the warp smiled, and blessed me with an opportunity to get a Space Marine v1 set brand new still sealed.
Yes, I did it. Are doing it actually. I mean I have a ways to go to get all that I had before. Like all of the old White Dwarf articles, etc. But the die has been cast AND IT IS ON!
I will never play this game with anyone, I am well aware of that. That is what SM2/TL is really for anyway. This one is for me. Third time I am going through it yes, and its prob a safe Las Vegas bet to most that I would sell it all again eventually, but no. Not this time. I have learned my lesson. Like the nonsense I have on the walls of my home office, on the shelves, in the closet, that my girlfriend just blankly shakes her head at, there is no other gaming system that I spent more time on than this one. No other system lets me run across an open field on Charge orders, blazing away with my bolters with a -1 to hit, to try and reach a building overlooking a bridge where I can set up my missile launcher with krak AND frag missiles. In 6mm scale. When Rhinos actually meant something with armed with 2 bolters. And if Gil Gerard and Erin Gray figures and poster from 1980s Buck Rogers tv show has a place in my room, then so god damn it does AT/SM1.
I don't know how many sealed sets of Space Marine v1 are still out there. After 20 or so years I feel like I got the last one. I am really going to take care of it this time. To atone for my sins. So as I ask for things on the Wargaming Trading Post, you'll know its for this crusade!
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