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Joined: Wed Jan 15, 2003 6:42 pm
Posts: 2412
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Here it is from the GW Website:
Welcome to the second Epic newsletter. Until we get Epic Magazine back in print at the end of 2003 I’ll be sending out this newsletter instead. You can subscribe to the newsletter by visiting the Epic website at. Alternatively you can send a large SSAE to Fanatic, Games Workshop Ltd, Willow Road, Nottingham, NG7 2WS and we’ll send you the next newsletter in the post.
The aim of the newsletter is to keep Epic players in the loop with regards the development of the new Epic game system, and also any other Epic related activity that is going on in the Fanatic office. If you are new to Epic then I recommend visiting the Epic website at www.epic40000.com, where you’ll find files you can download explaining what is happening with the game system and why these things are going on.
The newsletter is split into three sections. The first section is called Armageddon Update, and gives an overview of what is happening with the Epic Armageddon rules system. Secondly there is In Production, which lets you know about any new models we are planning to bring out to coincide with the new rules. And thirdly there is Feedback, and chance for me to print some of the emails I’ve had about Epic along with my replies.
Armageddon Update
Every time I do an update of the Epic Armageddon rules I change the version number on the file. We’re now up to version 9.1. Amongst the Armageddon playtesters the version number is often used to describe the game, for example, we might say “I had a game of v9.1 last night”, so that is what I’ll call it below.
The v9.1 rules represent, as far as I’m concerned, pretty much the final version of the core game rules and Grand Tournament army lists and scenario. Up until now changes to these sections of the Epic Armageddon system have been frequent and often drastic, but I am now pretty happy with the way they work and don’t envisage any major changes in the future. This is NOT to say that there won’t be some minor tweaks and twiddles to the rules and army lists in the coming months, just that these will mainly be confined to editing the rules to make them as easy to understand as possible.
This said v9.1 does represent a major step forward from v9.0. Here are some of the more important changes:
? I’ve modified the crossfire rule to make it easier for a formation to receive the crossfire bonus. To claim the crossfire bonus under the new rule you simply draw a straight line from any of the units in the shooting formation to a target unit in the enemy formation, and then draw a second line from the target unit to a unit in another friendly formation. If the angle between these two lines is over 90 degrees then you have flanked the enemy formation and may claim the crossfire bonus (you may find having a simple plastic protractor useful for working out crossfire attacks). In effect this means that you get the bonus by ‘flanking’ the enemy, rather than for encircling them as used to be the case.
? I've tried to make the flyer rules more straight-forward to use by adding in a ‘aerospace’ phase between the strategy phase and the action phase. Separating the flyer rules off like this makes it easier to give them their own sequence, and clearer that a special set of rules apply, at least to my eye it does! I've also gone for a more straightforward and simple method of placing flyer units, where players basically take it in turn to set up flyers on their own table edge, without the need for an initiative test. Last but by no means least I’ve decided to drop the term ‘flyer’ and use ‘aircraft’ instead, as it just sounds more ‘military-sounding’ to me!
? Linked to the above, I have added in rules for orbital bombardments. I’m especially proud of these because they will allow players to use BFG space-ship models in their games, which I think is rather cool. The rules are also structured in such a way that we can provide Epic stats for BFG ships, allowing cross-over between the two systems to be handled easily and straight-forwardly. I have also added rules that allow players to use spacecraft to land drop pods.
? I've come up with a really quite radical new set of victory conditions for the Grand Tournament (GT) scenario. The v9.0 GT scenario used rules that dated back pretty much all the way to 2nd edition Space Marine, and tended to produce very predictable results and 'set' tactics. I want to come up with something that gave players a greater variety of ways to win (and therefore strategies to follow) and which could also allow for dynamic 'all or nothing' last gasp wins. I think the new GT scenario allows both these things - read it you'll see what I mean. It's going to need careful play-testing though!
? After much pondering I have decided to come down very harshly on broken formations. Under the v9.0 rules they rallied to quickly, and this meant players were willing to 'withdraw' forward, safe in the knowledge that the formation would probably rally. To stop this tactic dead in its tracks I have changed the modifier for rallying broken formation from -1 (under v9.0) to -2 in v9.1. In addition, and this is a MAJOR change, I have said that broken formations take an extra hit with no save allowed for each blast marker they would normally pick up, which represents troops routing and running off. This means just being able to shoot at a broken formation guarantees at least one hit, which should 'encourage' players to pull broken formations out of the fighting and hide them away until they rally.
? Linked to the above, withdrawals have been changed to a double move (i.e. the formation makes two normal moves), rather than being a 'flat' 20cm move. This increases the distance that broken formations can move and will help them get under cover, and just makes more sense.
? Also linked to the above, some units (Titans mainly) are now 'immune to panic', and don't loose extra units for loosing an assault or picking up BM when broken. I've added this rule in as otherwise broken war engines - which are rather hard to hide! - can be too vulnerable to enemy fire under the new rules.
? Speaking of war engines, I've re-introduced weapon arcs for the weapons fitted to Titans and aircraft. The v9.0 rules (where you basically drew a LOF from the weapon) simply didn't work all that well, so I had to replace them with a new set of very simple weapon arc rules in v9.1.
? And while still speaking of war engines, I've dropped the rules that limit them to one change of facing per move. The rules for this were fiddly to use at best, and to be honest their (usually) low speed covers their lack of manoeuvrability perfectly well, IMO anyway.
? The Space Marine and Ork army lists have been tidied up somewhat, the most important change being the deletion of the Marine 'diverse and varied' rule. The Guard have had a more major update. Basically I've done away with most of the independent formations in the Guard army list. At the scale of Epic I feel that the basic manoeuvre unit for the Guard should be a company, and so the Guard lists now pretty much force players to field their units in large company sized formations. The exceptions are formations that I felt it made real sense to allow to operate on their own, like Storm Troopers, Sentinels and Rough Riders. On the other hand I've loosened up the rules for what upgrades you can take for a company, so now if you ant to field an infantry company reinforced by some Leman Russ tanks, then you can do so.
? Last but not least I've added an appendix to the army lists covering the Guard models made by Forge World, and also some of the older 'back-catalogue' Guard models like the old Storm Hammer (and what a horrible model it was... what were we thinking ; )) The appendix also includes stats for all of the Imperial Titan weapons we've ever made. Writing up this section led me to make a couple of very important decisions that have important implications for the structure of the Epic rules, and which I will discuss in more depth below (See ‘Points Values Are the Work Of The Devil’ later on)
Unfortunately the sweeping changes made in the v9.1 rules meant that a number of annoying and quite horrendous gaffs managed to creep into the Epic rules. Rather than post a whole new version of the rules to fix these fairly minor errors, I have decided instead to post a set of v9.1 errata on the website at the same time that this newsletter goes out. You can find the errata at www.
Points Values Are The Work Of The Devil
Now how’s that for a contentious title?!? As already noted, one of the things I’ve done in the v9.1 rules is add a section with stats for hard to get hold of models. However, while I have provided game stats, I haven’t given any points values for the units. Here’s the introduction to this section that briefly explains how this works:
“Over the years we’ve produced a wide range of Epic scale models that are no longer included in Epic Range. Entire races have been dropped (the infamous Squats), and most armies include one or two vehicles that, while they seemed quite a good idea at the time, haven’t been able to stand the test of time and have therefore been quietly dropped from the range. In addition the Forge World design studio has a growing range of superb resin Epic scale models, which are available from their website at www.forgeworld.com.
Both of these sets of models are quite hard to track down, and because of this I have not included them in the Grand Tournament army lists in case players become frustrated by a perceived need to use these ‘hard-to-get-hold of’ models to ‘make their army competitive’. On the other hand I have absolutely no desire to ban their use in games. Because of this I have included this appendix in order to allow players who have any of these models in their collection to use them in their games of Epic Armageddon.
I have provided two ways of using the models. The data sheets are designed primarily for players that are interested in creating their own scenarios and/or who want to run campaigns, and because of this they may not be used in the Grand Tournament scenario. For tournament players each data sheet also notes what each unit can ‘counts as’ in Grand Tournament games. For example, if you have any of Forge World’s resin Leman Russ Conqueror’s in your collection you can simply ‘count them as’ Leman Russ (Mars Pattern) tanks if you want to use them in tournament games.
Note that I have deliberately not included points values of any kind for these units; to do so would only encourage players to use the datasheets in Grand Tournament games, and that is something I really don’t want to see happening. Epic players with the experience and dedication to devise their own scenarios or campaign games should have no trouble incorporating the new units into their games without the need for points values, and as that is why the datasheets are included I can’t see any good reason for providing points values.”
The decision not to include points values for these units was not one that I took lightly, but once I had done so I found it to be very liberating, as it meant that writing the rules for designing your own vehicles or formations in would be a lot more straight-forward.
The biggest problem with vehicle/formation design systems is coming up with a way of generating a points values that can’t be exploited by beardy players looking for some kind of an advantage in tournament play. I’ve tried to come up with such systems in the past, both for Epic and 40K, and every time I have done it a small handful of players has simply seen the rules as an opportunity to steal. In actual fact these systems are included in our games for one reason and one reason only, and that is to allow players to add character and interesting new units to the games that they play, and to enable them to use any scratch-built models they may have made. Speaking personally I love coming up with ideas for new vehicles or formations, not as a sterile exercise in gamesmanship, but as a way of really ‘burrowing in’ to the 40K background, and of exploring new ideas. In other words the rules are there to encourage creativity rather than gamesmanship.
Now, I want Epic players to be able to ‘burrow in’ to the background too, and come up with interesting new units, formations and scenarios. However I really, really don’t want to have to spend a lot of my time stopping beardy w*****s exploiting the rules I have come up with to their own ends. What I’ve finally come to realise is that the easiest way of doing this is simply NOT, under any circumstances, to give points values for units or formations that players devise themselves. This automatically limits the use of such things to scenario and campaign play, which is what they are really meant or in the first place.
By now some of you may be saying “Well that’s all good and fine Johnson, but I prefer tournament play and I would really like to be able to use all of the models in my collection when I play, including the old scratch-built models and conversions I have made.” My answer to this is “You can use those models – that’s why the ‘counts as’ rule is included in the Grand Tournament scenario.” As already noted I have no desire at all to stop players from using every single model in their collection, and the current rules allow you to do just that. What’s more it is the only method I can think of which guarantees that the rules can’t be exploited by the tiny percentage of players that consider winning to be more important than anything else. ‘Nuff said, I hope…
In Production
Work carries on apace with the commissioning and delivery of new Epic scale models. Unfortunately none of these models will all come out when Epic is re-launched at the end of next year (why not? I’ll explain below), but I thought you’d like to know what’s in the pipeline. Here are some of the highlights from the last few weeks:
? Mark Bedford has been doing a lot of ‘test pieces’ for the metal infantry strips. We’ve just cast up a row of Terminators on a thinner version of the stand than we used for the first Space Marine strip. The good news is that the models cast perfectly, and the weight was almost half that of the first strip we made. This lower weight pretty much guarantees that we’ll be able to include at least 8-10 strips/stands in a pack for the same price as a Warmaster unit (hoorah!)
? Mark has also made a really nice Guard fire support team. These come on a round ‘dioramic base, with the weapons team behind a set of sandbags. It looks very nice – hopefully we’ll have pictures of the stand up on the website soon.
? Shane Hoyle has delivered a lovely Ork trukk model. Chunky and very characterful, this model is going to set the pattern for the new versions of the smaller Ork vehicles we will release with Epic Armageddon.
? While on the subject of Ork vehicles, John Manders has delivered the master for a new metal version of the Ork stomper. It really is a superb piece, John’s best work for us so far I’d say, and I would imagine that every Ork player will want one of two of these models in their army.
? 40K Developer and Epic aficionado Pete Haines came up with a great idea for a new Space Marine vehicle. “Jervis,” he said “the Marines could really use something that would allow them to drop vehicles directly onto a planet from their battlebarges. You know, a sort of giant landing craft that could hold a detachment of tanks…” I’ve never been one that was loath to steal a good idea, so I’ve nicked this one and we’ll be including just such a vehicle in the Epic Armageddon range.
? Writing the section of the v9.1 rules about our Back Catalogue models reminded just what a lovely model the Capital Imperialis was. Sadly the model can’t be made any more as it uses plastic tracks that are no longer available… so I’ve decided to have a new version made with metal tracks!
I could go on, but I’d like to save up some stuff for the next newsletter. I’m also running out of time to write an important ‘stop press’ announcement…
* STOP PRESS * STOP PRESS * STOP PRESS * STOP PRESS * STOP PRESS *
Quite a few Epic players have written to me saying they want to buy Epic scale models right now, but are finding it very difficult to get hold of them.
The good s news is that we’ve managed to track down limited stocks of pretty much the entire Epic 40,000 range, including some stocks of the old plastic sprues. The bad news is that when this stock is gone, no Epic models will be available until the game is released next year.
The stock we’ve managed to track down is being stock-checked at the moment. Once this work has been done and the models are available I will send out a special additional copy of the Epic newsletter listing exactly what is available and how you can get hold of it. Unfortunately I can’t say exactly when this newsletter will go out, other than it should be this side of Christmas.
As already noted, once this stock has gone no Epic models will be available until the end of next year. This is because we’ll be spending the time in between producing moulds for the new models we’re making, and making sure that we have working moulds for all of the other models in the range. Doing something like this is surprisingly hard work, and so I’ve decided not to complicate matters by allowing the old moulds to be used. Instead I’ve decided to make a clean break and stop all production of Epic models until we’re ready to launch a full coherent range with no gaps in it… and that will take until the end of next year to accomplish.
* STOP PRESS * STOP PRESS * STOP PRESS * STOP PRESS * STOP PRESS *
Cheers
Chris
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Chris
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hehe
