madmagician wrote:
That seems awful small to me for average game size, I was used to 5000-7500 point SM2 games being typical, 3k points is barely any models on a 4x6 board!
That's pretty big for SM2, isn't it? I seem to recall it was intended for the 2000-5000 point range as well. The league we played was 3050 (50 points over to bump over into more objective markers). I'm pretty sure we rarely went over about 4000 unless people wanted to bring lots of titans and superheavies.
In any case, the point totals are within ~10% between EA and SM/TL, with SM/TL being a bit cheaper. They shift, with some units being more or less expensive relative to others, obviously, but overall stick to that ratio pretty closely. For example, an 850 point battle company is 19 units in SM/TL, while a comparable force in EA is 775 points for 14 units (tacs + devs + assault + commander). That's ~45 points per unit versus ~55 points per unit. Likewise, 1000 points/19 stands of Devs in SM/TL would be 1050/16 stands in EA.
As far as filling the board, there is a lot more maneuver in EA than in SM/TL. Speeds are faster and ranges are shorter. The extra space gives good maneuver choices.
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As far as your translation, it looks like a direct conversion from SM/TL to EA. That's fine but due to differences in mechanics there are some sub-optimal results.
For example, Dreadnoughts don't combine well with Terminators. They can't teleport or be transported in Land Raiders. They push the formation over the limit for deploying in a Thunderhawk. In fact, due to the mis-match of Dread capabilities with most of the army, their functional roles are pretty limited. If you want to do 1st Veterans + Dreads for style reasons, there are two decent choices:
Tacs + Dreads + Hunter - This formation can garrison. That puts AA in a better position to cover the battlefield, and as Armored Vehicles with good armor, the Dreads make for a good "meat shield" for the Hunter.
Tacs + Dread - This is a Thawk load (6 units + the Dread counts as 2). With an assault Dread it gives a pretty strong air assault. It's not as much of a hammer as other combinations, but with one shot per unit it remains pretty flexible for follow-on actions.
There are various tricks and tips like this in all of the conversions. If you want to go through all of it, I would suggest you take them block by block. That way you're tuning a couple thousand points at a pop. 20,000 all at once is going to be nearly impossible.
