Good Things

Games Day Baltimore has come and gone and the tournament was generally a success.  All the participants who showed were fantastic.  

Imperial Guard Steel Legion-playing-Aaron S. took first place in the tournament, besting the Space Marines in game one 4-0, and pushing through to a difficult victory against the Demiurg in game two (winning by 500 points).  He won a grab bag of Epic goodies from GW but I think he left his trophy there.  Hey Aaron, let me know if you got the trophy!  If not, I will get it shipped to you.

Dave Susco (a.k.a. Dave from here on Tactical Command) and his Space Marines arrived by plane to come to the tournament and he was rewarded by the Emperor by taking second place.  No trophies or prizes, but he does have bragging rights for placing and traveling the farthest.

Studdering Dave may have suffered heavy losses at the hands of the Dark Eldar in the Big Battle, but they looked good doing it.  Dave took 1st Place in Best Appearance and walked away with a trophy, prizes, and a big grin.

Speaking of which, my Dark Eldar punished a Minervan Legion / Biel-tan team, winning the Big Battle with Take-n-Hold, Blitz, and Defend the Flag.  

Cameron was our youngest participant by more than a decade at twelve years old.  He showed up with his dad, Ron, and put up a fantastic show.  While he may have lost both games, they were hard fought and he was definitely no push-over.  Great job!

Seven new Games Day Epic players participated in all.  That was very encouraging for me.  More so, I received exactly twelve more names & emails from people visiting the events who were interested in playing more Epic.  From DC to New York, Allentown to Gaithersburg, the tournament attracted a dozen people back to the game of Epic that were either old school players or new recruits.

At my request, Specialist-Games Direct Sales brought an entire shelf of Epic goodies to sell and we were set up 20 feet from their counter.  By the end of the day, all but five blister packs had sold.  Albeit, many people were purchasing these items to play Apocalypse in Epic scale (one such game was being played there across the hall), but many others had told the sales manager they were hoping to get back into Epic after seeing us play.  Either way, more sales will probably mean better things for Epic.

Dave Taylor (formerly of GW and the man who helped us set up the first tourney) was there as a civilian and we briefly chatted.  He looked well and was smiling the whole time.  I didn’t have much of a chance to talk with him, unfortunately; I was bouncing about quite a bit.

Chris ‘Go-Go’ was great, as usual.  He looked more flustered but his spirits were high.  He is a fun person to work with and manages to stay positive through a nutty event like Games Day.  

Trophies this year were the same as last; this was a good thing.  Sleek, simple, professional looking, and heavy.  Everybody wants their trophy to be heavy!     The prizes weren’t as good as last year, but given the economy nobody was expecting as much anyway.  The winners weren’t dissatisfied as far as I know.

Not-so-good Things

With all that said, this year wasn’t nearly as good as last year for me.

How many EPIC attendees were there in the end?

_________________
author of Syncing Forward and other stories...

It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I've got my Milkbone underwear on.

Well I had fun Mosc. If GD is going to be in June next year I will definitely try to stay the whole weekend. There's no graduations in June .

I'd be happy to volunteer to help run it next year too if it means you and Steve have more fun that way. There's no reason you guys should have to take the burden year after year.

_________________
Dave

Blog

NetEA Tournament Pack Website

Squats 2019-10-17

Epic tournament:

Game One:

Saim Hann (Kalpesh) vs Necron. (Matt)

Having never played against necrons and not played epic in several years.  This games was more of understanding the rules and game play.  

In turned one I found out about monoliths and troop teleportation and a Aspect Troupe was subsequently broken/destroyed.  Since most of his troops were teleported in by monoliths, there were not many targets.

I finally did send in my fighters and bombers (2 Vampire Hunters and 3 Phoenix Bombers) they did some damage but with not many targets and AA with TK I took my chances.  They did survive but I waited too long to use them.

By Turn 3 game was all but over.  He got the objectives as I expected and won.

No big deal.  I learned some things.

It’s about objectives and denying objectives.
AA is not too bad.  I feared so much the 2+ to hit and range that I was reluctant to use 900pts of aircraft to strike.  


Game Two:

Saim Hann (Kalpesh) vs Tau (Ron)

This game was more fun and I was beginning to understand the rules a little more.  Though I goofed on retaining the initiative and activating formations (ie played it wrong).

Turn one was taking out marker lights, I did not send in my fighters due to AA fire (however I misunderstood when he said each unit had 2 shots, in my mind a unit was equal to formation, that was not paying attention) I took my chance in turn two and then realized he did not have as many AA as I thought and now the damage was occurring with the aircraft.

On turn two he teleported some troops into a building/objective.  I ignored it and by the end of turn three.  He was able to use his pathfinders to spread out and take 2 objectives and contest a third.  He won based on the objectives (which is of course how the game is won).

A more enjoyable game and saw the firepower of aircraft.  However I realized 900pts of troops that cant take objectives is not such a good thing sometimes.  

I do need more Jetbikes/troopes. Possibly a Storm Serpent for the traveling web portal.
Replace the aircraft with 2 Revenants and a Scorpion or Storm Serpent.

Keep the objectives in mind and teleportation and portals are necessary it seems.

I will definitely add to may Saim Hann.  What I do need though are Wave Serpents, Shining spears and a Storm Serpent.

I might even start a new IG army.

All in all several good games on nicely made terrain.  A good group of players in a friendly atmosphere always helps.  I liked the siege works terrain and hope to get some.  Thanks to William for hosting this event and I look for more in the future.  How about doing them at historicon, coldwars or fall-in?

I will definitely play more and look for players in the Delaware, MD and Southern PA area.
A couple places that might work:

Days of Knights in Newark, DE
GW shop in Bel Air, MD
Showcase Comics, Media PA
GW Bunker in Glen Burnie, MD
Renaissance Games, Fallston MD

PM if interested in playing some games.

Thanks
Kalpesh

props on the ass whoopin you gave our side bill. im amped to get more epic going in eastern PA if anyone out there wants to throw down. im still new to the game but i have 5000+ points of Minervan/ATML painted and ready to roll.

if this happens next year it will be one of my sole reasons for going to gamesday.

I have to say great props to Bill and Steve for organising. I can say that for me, too, the tournament was 95% of the reason I drove 5 hours each way to get there, make no mistake I would NOT have bothered if it weren't for the tournie - 2-week baby and family in tow no less! I had a truly terrific time and I can tell you that I'll pester you all year to encourage you to run it next year!

just wanted to say what a great time it was. since epic is my only GW game this was my first gamesday. great meeting new people and people i've only known from the forums.
i lost a heartbeaker to dave but was a lot of fun. great guy and a beautiful army. was also great meeting kalpesh, who just got back into epic. one of the highlights had to of been cameron (the 12 year old) who took the over all winner into a 4th turn until he lost.
i'll agree w/ bill it did suck having some no shows. but by the end of the day, who cares, it was a lot of fun. i will also be pestering bill to have another next year. great job done by bill and steve.

one thing that could be added next year (already pestering you bill), some type of sign similiar to the ones that the gaming groups had. maybe add some contact info and this web sight address. there was a lot of genuine interest in epic. there seemed to be people like me who got out after 3rd edition and just didn't realize E:A was out. i must of had at least 20 people come up and say, "wow, didn't realize necrons were in epic" and in case you didn't see the above picture, i have absolutely no artistic talent. so it wasn't my paint jobs that were drawing them in.
basically what i'm trying to say is, there seemed to be a lot of people that had tons of questions but were too polite to ask them during them tourney. so if we had something that could point them in the right direction we might pull in more players.
again great job and can't wait till bill and steve get next years going (pester)

Bill and Steve - thank you VERY much for organizing a superbly well-run event. I know it was a bummer for you guys to have no-shows, but I think everyone there had a great time - I know I did!

Cameron (Marines) and Steve (Demi-Urge) were both fantastic opponents and sportsmen, whose dice failed them, not their armies or tactics.

I think every army was painted that I saw, which is quite a testament to the players involved.

Thanks to everyone for showing up and making the tournament!



Aaron

have to say i had alot of fun and will be comming next year as well.Yes i played the TAU and i did ok for the most part. Daves SM drop army ripped me up, i never played against a drop army so it was a lesson learned.Than i played against Kalpesh saim hann, well i won it by being alittle cheesy. on turn 3 i spread out my stealth suits to take all 3 objectives on his side. he was leary to use his planes but when he  did my units vanished to say the least.all players were a good bunch well all had a good time.Cameron will be comming as well BUT with a differant army. SM are kinda hard to play. he played a ground pounder army with tanks. he did good through. he didnt roll over a die.he had alot of fun.Moscovian well see you in 2 weeks RON

Sounds like a good time!

Hope there's more pictures!  

_________________
"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

Now living in Boston... any EPIC players want to meet up?

the big game was great, even though our side was beaten by the dark eldar, i still enjoy this shot of Bill's Tormentor Titan feeling the rath of my Imperator:

Was any Otterware present?

Angry robot bugs attacked my marines and several points during my second game.

_________________
Dave

Blog

NetEA Tournament Pack Website

Squats 2019-10-17

And the Necron-like terrain adorned my desert table (it is a distant shot, but you can see the pieces).

_________________
author of Syncing Forward and other stories...

It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I've got my Milkbone underwear on.

speaking of terrain, hopefully we'll get more pictures on here. the trenches made by chroma were gorgeous (plug) and i will certainly be buying some soon. and otterman thanks for the angry robot bugs, they got to work out some aggression on eldar and SM. also the custom necron board was very nice. and steve that was quite the collection of forgeworld stuff.