Recently, I resumed collecting, painting, and occasionally playing E:A after a few years' absence. Part of the reason for this has been the increased availability of 6mm minis over the past year or so, making beginning new forces viable for perhaps the first time since GW and FW abandoned the system.

However, in my corner of the world there are almost no Epic players. As I'd like to have a few more opponents to face, I've decided to start a new army that can be lent out to potentially interested future converts. As such, it need to be functional, interesting, and a good representative of the E:A system as a whole. The question is: what's the best fit for these criteria? My first and only collection so far is Saim-Hann: it's a great army to paint and play, but a jetbike swarm with no titans and few superheavies that relies on special rules to function is hardly representative of Epic as a whole.

So, which list should it be? Some general criteria:
-Few, if any, army-specific special rules
-Somewhat forgiving tactically
-Capable of fielding units that demonstrate all E:A's rules: infantry, mounted units, transports, tanks, flyers, ground AA, artillery, War Engines etc. A reasonably flexible force that can access multiple playstyles.
-Titans! Or some other equally impressive centerpiece units.
-Ideally, an iconic 40k army represented on a different scale. Lists like the Siegemasters or Squats are cool, but perhaps best avoided here.

Finally, this list would ideally have currently available miniatures. The first question I always get about Epic is "But isn't that a dead system? Where do you get the models?". If the answer is a mix of proxies, ebay scouring, models bought from GW in the old days, and recasters who don't want to be advertised, it's a hard sell. Being able to point to a single source (perhaps with a few minimal conversions) that would allow you to build the army tomorrow would certainly be a plus.

With all that out of the way, which army would *you* use to illustrate to an interested part that E:A is alive, worthy of interest, and still accessible? My current inclination is towards a Krieg force using Troublemaker's models, but I'm not sure how impressive an infantry horde army will look to the uninitiated. Onslaught's minis would be great, but I feel that they aren't quite as iconic as an IG or SM force (but could well be wrong).
So: when demoing E:A, what's the best way to do it?

I've done demo games with two different persons in the last year. I've used orks and imperial guard (steel legion) in both. I think theses armies are well suited.

IG are good in that they have really only one special rule (commissars). They are also an army that has to combine the use of shooting (supporting elements) and engagements (inf companies). They illustrate the basic mechanics of the game well.

Orks have a few more special rules, but these are easy to understand and are mostly just bonuses to activating so I think the above argument still stands for them. They are pretty straight forward they're mostly about closing in and assaulting.

Both armies are rather iconic to GW players in general and old time epic players in particular, so tend to have great appeal. Units are now easy to get a hold of. Troublemakers games comes to mind as the greatest source for current stuff in production for orks, while IG proxies can be bought in many places. Both armies are also still prevelant on eBay.

All the three core races (Marines, Orks, IG) are good for introducing the game - Marines have a list of special rules, but they mostly boil down to 1 Marine = 2 men. Used against IG or Orks they provide a great contrast between a small, elite force and a larger regular force.

Having said that, I'd agree that IG vs Orks is the best matchup.

Ya, there's definitely a higher learning curve to figuring out Marines. You can't throw them into a horde of Orks and expect them to come out like the fluff. IG and Orks are definitely easier to work with as you're learning as both are more forgiving forces.

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Dave

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Squats 2019-10-17

If you don't select demons for the army, chaos are very basic/follow core game rules.

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AFK with real life, still checking PMs

For models, Onslaught Sisterhood vehicles should work well for Marine vehicles. For infantry Troublemaker Games Novan Elites look promising.

I'd suggest looking at a mix of Onslaught, Troublemaker, Exodus Wars and Dark Realm Miniatures.

I introduced a number of players last year - mainly imperial guard, but some Orks too. Worked great.

one guy insisted on using his marines that he'd had from sm1/2. - all tacticals and landraiders - I expected him to get smashed, and loose interest but interestingly, as he was playing others who didn't know all the tricks and rules they couldn't exploit his mistakes as well (particularly at small point values where the lack of marine heavy armour/artillery doesn't show as much.) He did fine and has generally grown his tactics at the same speed others learnt to beat marines.

I agree that a one-stop shop is ideal. To me that makes Tau and Dark Eldar the easiest armies to get, through Onslaught. The minis look very close to the real thing and should translate well to the NetEA lists. Tyranids might work the same way. Onslaught Sisterhood minis are lovely, but they fit Space Marine lists and not Sisters of Battle lists. Funny how the easiest way to start a SM army is to make a female one. Do Tau work for introducing the game? It’s more likely to than Dark Eldar or Tyranids.

At the moment the most complete army you can get from Troublemaker Games is the Adeptus Mechanicus PDF list, which probably isn’t ideal for beginners.

Exodus Wars minis should be ideal for Squats, but they’re not that big a draw. And sure, you can make a good IG list with EW minis, but there’s a lot of proxying involved. I’m still not too comfortable thinking of those tanks as anything the Imperium would make.

For IG there’s also the Czech “Trolls” store, who knows for how long.

DRM also has a lot of interesting minis that can be used in a number of ways. I'm using Andrayadas as SM in my latest project, but they will do nicely as Necrons also. The other DRM races holds a lot of potential, and the miniature quality is top notch too!