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On Friday night LordInquisitor and I met up at a local game shop in Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA for a game of Epic: Armageddon.
Although both of our wives had warned us not to go and meet "internet stalkers" in person, we braved the risk.
LordInquisitor, as might be expected, brought his homegrown forces of the Inquisisition list ( and a nice collection of ForgeWorld Grey Knights). I brought an ill-conceived Black Legion list, including forces loyal to Tzeentch, Khorne, and Nurgle. Having originally organized my Chaos collection around the Space Marine era rules (with the army cards and other silliness), the transition to E:A was a bit tricky.
We played a warmup 1,000 point game, in which LordInquisitor brought me up to date on the rules.
Then, we played a proper 3,000 point game.
The Inquistors came in force, with Grey Knights, henchmen, a Thunderhawk, gun cutter, orbital artillery support and a pair of warhound titans.
Chaos poured out from the warp around the ruins of the inperial palace. Tzeentch marines, swiftdeath fighters, six landraiders, dreadnoughts, nurgle marines, a mighty decimator, and a Banelord Titan lumbered across the scorched battlefield.
Turn 1:
On the Tzeentchian left flank, a grey knight thunderhawk dropped low from the clouds in support of a close assault. Swiftdeath fighters on CAP put some harrassing fire on it, but to no real effect. On the ground below, the entire marine contingent was scattered into the warp with its demon prince before the God of Change could even blink. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth. So much for that objective.
In the center, Khornes landraiders and dreadnoughts held sway, supported from behind by the hulking Banelord titan. Two warhounds made the mistake of wandering out around the ruins into a withering array of lascannon, autocannon, and other gunfire. Their void shields held, at first.
To the right, the forces of nurgle spewed forward toward a solitary hill. A decimator clattered alongside, keeping watch over the center of the battlefied, in case the Warhounds decided to turn. Imperial stormtroopers in Chimerae swung far right around them. The dance had begun, but the battle not yet joined.
TURN 2:
The landraiders and dreadnoughts unleashed Khorne's fury on the Warhounds in the center of the battlefied. Both were cutdown almost instantaneously. Blood for the blood god! On the left, Chaos flyers harrassed grey knights on the ground, but to little effect. The Banelord let loose a few rockets, but, with the fall of the Warhounds, little remained in its effective range or Line of Sight. Not so, however, for the Imperial fleet in low orbit. A burst of pinpoint strikes rained down. The banelord, perhaps protected in unspoken ways by the Bloodgod himself, hardly noticed the array of munitions dropped around him. All 6 voidshields rmained intact. The tense action on the right continued. Nurgles marines surged forward, bolstered by the appearance of several plaguebearers and the superheavy decimator. Contact was made with an Inquisitor and his retinue. Nurgle got the initial upperhand, and a handful of Imperial Henchmen and supporting rhinos were destroyed. [photos to follow] But the battle remained joined.
TURN 3: Note: Taking objectives is more important than taking skulls for the throne of Khorne.
With the left flank gone, and most of my forces out of reach of key objectives, it became clear that Chaos would not win the day. The conflict on the hill turned ugly, and most of Nurgle's forces were banished to the warp. The stormtroopers (remember them?) swarmed in from the wings to take the far objective. Orther Imperials easily claimed the landscape by simply staying out of reach of my landraiders.
In all, I had a rude awakening into the new world of Epic:Armageddon. As an old Space Marine player, I need to unthink a lot of old strategies and expectations. Three turns and diferrent objectives make for a very strategic game. My thanks to the good Lord Inquisitor for showing me the ropes, and patiently enduring my page-shuffling and mis-steps. I will revise my lists, revise my strategies, and venture out from the Eye of Terror again sometime soon.
_________________ Designer of Polyversal, currently in development with Collins Epic Wargames. Twitter: @Weeklywargamer
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