We played a nice big game of Epic at the weekend - 6,500 points per side. Space marines versus an ork horde, two players on each team. Thanks to the other players (Mephiston, Enri, McMullet) for a great game, I had a lot of fun.
As it was a big one-off battle, I wanted to do something a bit different to a normal tournament game. Add a bit of a theme and use some more unusual terrain. However, I wimped out of writing a scenario from scratch as it would be shame to get all the players together and then find that the scenario turned out to be rubbish.
So I came up with the following – heavily based on the tournament scenario to make sure we had an enjoyable game, but with a couple of twists to add a bit of spice.
The Battle of Vardan
It is the war for Armageddon. The orks have won a victory at Acheron hive and Ghazghkull rushes reinforcements towards the front line to capitalise on the position. The massive ork horde advances along a road which narrows to a single carriageway around the city of Vardan.
Vardan is a bottleneck and whoever holds it will control the route towards Acheron. Commissar Yarrick knows exactly what must be done. He must block up this bottleneck with the mother of all corks: a task force of the Adeptus Astartes.
Terrain
This game is played on an 8’ by 4’ table. The large city of Vardan is at the centre of the table. A road runs from north to south, through the middle of Vardan. At the centre of the city is a Temple of the Ecclesiarchy. All other terrain is placed in any pleasing manner.
Scenario
The game is played using the standard Tournament Scenario, deployment and victory conditions, with the following exceptions:
1) Neither side places a blitz objective. Instead, the Temple of the Ecclesiarchy at the centre of the table counts as the blitz objective for both sides when working out victory conditions. Other objectives are placed as normal.
2) Garrisons are set up as normal, but the Temple of the Ecclesiarchy cannot be garrisoned.
Forces
Each army is 6,500 points in total. As there are four players, this means that each player should bring 3,250 points. Forces should be selected from Epic UK army lists, with the following restrictions:
1) Each army (ie 6,500 points) can only have one Supreme Commander in total.
2) Each army (ie 6,500 points) must have at least one War Engine of Reaver Titan size or larger. If we’re going to play a big game, it’d be a shame not to have some huge stuff stomping about!
Here are a few shots of the table, before the game began.
The city of Vardan. At the centre is the Temple of the Ecclesiarchy that counts as the Blitz objective for both sides.
A wide river running through a canyon on the marine right flank.
The other flank, heavily wooded. And some big stone things.
A lovely cottage by the river. Pity about the titans stomping through the back garden.
One of the objectives we were fighting for. A marine captain makes a last stand by his wrecked landraider.
The whole battlefield
Right. Ready to go...
