Here we go then, Hena's great article in English.
When men are not small enough and there isn't even enough of them.
© Specialist Games
Epic is a mass scale wargame set in the universe of Warhammer 40,000. Instead of the player moving single characters, the game has companies and tank squadrons in addition to huge war engines and titans. A tournament-sized army has depending of setup and army, 50 to 100 miniature stands. Also, the scale of miniatures is different: one human is about 6mm tall (almost 1/4").
The current version of Epic is the 4th edition. The first version of the game was released as a 2nd edition to a game named "Titan Legions". Titan Legions was about the titans of Imperium fighting each other during the Horus Heresy. To it's side was released Space Marine, which expanded the war to the level of Imperial and heretic Space Marines. The 2nd edition was already more like an independent game, and this was the golden age of Epic. As the expansions came for other races as well, like the Eldar, the Orks and the Tyranids. The 3rd edition was released at the mid 90's, but it didn't sell enough and was quickly removed from GW's production. [1] Epic also differs from GW's other main games, by that it uses centimeters instead of inches. Centimeters fit better to the small scale of Epic.
Epic:Armageddon (http://www.specialist-games.com/epic) differs greatly from the previous editions by it's rules, and also by it's means of development: E:A is partially made by it's fans. Jervis Johnson (the game's main creator) made the original rules that were distributed to the players through Specialist Games website to be developed forward. This was followed by many changes to the rules and revisions that cause the game to have many different characteristics compared to GW's "normal" games. At this moment (at the end of year 2006) the game is still partially in development. This is a good thing, because things in the rules can still be corrected and made better when needed. Development can be followed in the Specialist Games website's forum [2] (http://forum.specialist-games.com), where rule questions can also be asked.
Epic is battle between proper sized armies. The player can move single tanks or units of infantry on a small stand. They then belong to bigger, 5 to 20 unit formations. All different armies have their own names for their own formations, for example Space Marines have Detachment and Orks usually have Warband or Mob. In addition armies have huge war engines like super heavy tanks (ie. Baneblade) or titans (ie. Warhound).
The biggest difference is the lack of player-turn based game turns. Instead the players take turns to activate formations of their own army. An order is chosen for the formation, which dictates what it can do. After this an activation roll measuring organisation and motivation is made. A successful roll
means that the order is carried out properly. Most of the orders consist of movement and shooting, which balance the effictiveness of firing
based on how much you want to move. When one formation has acted, the player can try to order another of his own formations or let the other player do the same. This is repeated until all formations have acted. Then comes the end phase. In the end phase morale is checked and many other things between turns are done. This change causes the game to have more importance in strategy. Meaning that one can't win by just doing the right things but one also must do them in the right order.
Another major difference is that weapons are divided to classes. Epic:Armageddon divides the weapons to following classes
AP - Anti Personnel (used against infantry)
AT - Anti Tank (used against vehicles)
MW - Macro Weapon (very heavy weapons)
TK - Titan Killer (heaviest weapon class)
AA - Anti Aircraft (used against aircraft)
All of the game's forces are divided as follows
Inf - Infantry
LV - Light Vehicle
AV - Armoured Vehicle
WE - War Engine
AC - Aircraft
SC - Spacecraft
This causes the fact, that not all weapons can harm all enemy classes. Spacecraft can't be harmed with anything and MW and TK weapons can damage all ground units. AA weapons can only shoot at aircraft, which other weapons cannot. This classification causes more strategic thinking, since you can position your troops so that the opponent can't do anything to them.
The last big change are Blast Markers (BM). Formations get these when they are shot at or when units die. Formation's morale is inversionaly proportional to the number of BMs. Meaning that when there are enough markers, the formation is broken and loses it's will to fight and becomes more vulnerable against firing. BMs also cripple the formation's firepower by preventing some of the units from firing.
Epic also differs from many of GW's games since it doesn't have the so-called "Hero-Hammer". The game doesn't actually have any single character, squad or war engine that could easily destroy the enemy. Closest to this are the titans but even their actions are limited by the basic rules. Because the shooting is limited to one target at a time and there are usually 3 or 4 turns, no single formation can destroy everything the enemy has. Although the biggest titans can be difficult to remove during a normal game.
Normal Epic game is based on the Grand Tournament scenario. It has 5 different victory conditions of which two must be fullfilled to win. Example victory conditions are keeping one's own table half clear of enemies or destroying the most expensive enemy formation or capturing the objective near the enemy table end. The victory conditions are checked at the end of turn 3 and at the end of all the turns after it. If the other player has at least 2 of the conditions and the opponent has less of them, the game has ended. If not, turns will go on. After the 4th turn a die is rolled to see if the game continues. If the game ends without the objectives completed, points are counted for destroyed formations and they settle the game. Epic tournamentlists are designed for 2000 to 5000 point games. Normal games are 2700 or 3000 points, of these 3000 points is more often used in our games.
Epic:Armageddon's bad side is also that it is still in development. So not every 40K army have their own lists and/or figures available. Also part of the armies are developed completely after the previous editions, so for an example Necrons don't have any figures at all. Fortunately for Tau players the Forge World has done almost all miniatures required for a Tau army [3]. Armies, that have their final, official lists released (IG Steel Legion, Baran Siegemasters, Orks, Feral Orks, Space Marines, Eldar, Black Legion, Lost and the Damned) can be bought from GW's Mail Order or through stores that allow GW Mail Orders (translator's edit). Lists of figures and prices can be found from internet [4]. However the Chaos has only infantry available for sale.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_(game), 9th August 2006
[2] Specialist Games used to have much bigger forums. These are now locked but there is still much information. Epic-pages are in address http://forums.specialist-games.com/epic ... efault.asp
[3] http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/acatalo....14.html
[4] http://uk.games-workshop.com/storefr....=300808
The main writer of the article is Hena. The figures in pictures are also his.
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Edited 31st May 2007 at the time of Chaos-release.
Translated 27th January 2008 by Commissar Rudolf.
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