I havent played Epic all summer, unfortunately, due to a really busy schedule, but with enough peer pressure to actually teach the game I so vocally champion down at the FLGS, I am finally putting together a Demo Day at Game Kastle in Santa Clara, CA on Saturday, October 16, 2010.

The reason I am posting this is that I need recommendations. I am good at teaching people who already have a fundamental understanding of the game, but am not sure of a quick-and-concise way to relate important game facts to the uninitiated, or which components to gloss over and ignore for the tutorial games.

I am also interested in recommended forces to put on the table, in the 1000 to 1500 point range.

My biggest army is Eldar, which I really want to keep OFF the table because they can scare theose who dont know how to deal with them.

I have quite a few "basic" Space Marines (you know, Rhinos, Landraiders and Whirlwinds, a few bikes, some Tac/Dev and Assault squads) so they will be one force.

Ive got Orks (unpainted but oh well) from the same starter kit that the Marines came in, but I honestly havent even looked at them to see what I have. What would you build from the Epic 40K starter kit?

Setting this up makes me realize just how barren the IG and Sisters armies that Ive started to collect are Sadly, Im broker than a church mouse at this moment, so those will have to wait!

I'd go with the training scenarios for demos, they're great ways to introduce/reinforce the concepts in a very structured manner.

Epic 40k came with 3 sprues of Ork infantry and 2 of the tanks. You ought to be able to get 3 mobs out of that, a stompamob, 3 blitz brigades and a bunch of upgrades.

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Oh dear Lord, why didnt I remember that?

LOL so ignore my silly plea for help, and just show up and play

OK, so Ive been reading through the Intro scenarios. I think I will run 1.15 CORE Rules Scenarios with the following SM forces for one side:

[300] 6 Tac units with 3 Rhinos
[300] 6 Tac units with 3 Rhinos
[175] 4 Assault units
[300] 4 Whirlwinds

I dont have Predators so maybe 4 Land Raiders

This seems to come out to 1075 sans Predators or Land Raiders. This seems to be the force size I was looking for.

However, I dont want to play Marine on Marine. So now I delve into the Orks.

[270] "Normal" Ork Warband w/6 Boyz, 2 Nobz, 2 Grots, 4 Battlewagons
[270] "Normal" Ork Warband w/6 Boyz, 2 Nobz, 2 Grots, 4 Battlewagons
[150] 6 Stormboyz
[225] 3 Stompas

This is 915 pts but seems undergunned and underpowered. Since I dont have much in my collection for Ork shootiness, should I just beef up the Ork Warbands?

Looking at my collection, I could have sworn I had more models than Ive got sitting in front of my, but I only have 10 Battlewagons, so can add 1 more to each formation. And UGHH, I have all of 3 stands of Stormboyz. Yay. So that means proxies at a demo. Hmpf.

Let's revisit this with the models I have:

[365] "Normal" (augmented) Ork Warband w/7 Boyz, 3 Nobz, 3 Grots, 5 Battlewagons
[365] "Normal" (augmented) Ork Warband w/7 Boyz, 3 Nobz, 3 Grots, 5 Battlewagons
[150] 6 Stormboyz
[225] 3 Stompas
==
1105 pts

I have models that dont seem to exist in the Normal range anymore, like Shokk guns, Boar riders, etc, but thats it.

Does that seem like a reasonably equal force for a demo?

I think your math is off for the warbands. Battlewagons are 35 points each.

[340] "Normal" Ork Warband w/6 Boyz, 2 Nobz, 2 Grots, 4 Battlewagons
[340] "Normal" Ork Warband w/6 Boyz, 2 Nobz, 2 Grots, 4 Battlewagons
[150] 6 Stormboyz
[225] 3 Stompas

1055

That would work, but that Stompa formation is pretty fragile. Got any dreads to add to it?

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All of the old minis can be used as "count as" units. For example, the Boar Boyz can be used as Warbikes and the Shokk Attaks as Big Gunz. See page 167 of the E:A rulebook.

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"I don't believe in destiny or the guiding hand of fate." N. Peart

Ick, youre right. My bad. Thats what I get for doing that at work.

So the SM force comes to 1075.
The Orks come to 1055.

Looks close enough for government work. Of course, I could "sneak" one of the Whirlwinds out of the SM force to make them a splash less shooty? And sadly, no Dreads for the Orkies. I do have Warbikes (both bikes and boar riders) and 3 Big Guns (Shokk guns). Wouldnt that complicate things though?

Honestly, I don't recommend playing epic at anything lower than 2000 points; the strengths of the game only become apparent when they are quite a few activations on the table.

Thats really not the point though, I think. This is a demo in the main sales floor of a major gaming store, where we could have 2 to 20 people interested.

This will show people what Epic is, how neat it can look, and let them push a few models around and see how things work.

On a second table nearby I will have space for people to play an actual 3k game, and after demos are done I plan on joining them with my Eldar.

Besides, i apparently dont have 2k worth of Orks, and my Sisters use my SM vehicles, sot thats out...and I have no IG infantry...

...ergo, this is what I get to run

The demo happened today and was a blast. I used these forces:

Orks:
[340] "Normal" Ork Warband w/6 Boyz, 2 Nobz, 2 Grots, 4 Battlewagons
[340] "Normal" Ork Warband w/6 Boyz, 2 Nobz, 2 Grots, 4 Battlewagons
[150] 6 Stormboyz
[225] 3 Stompas

1055

Marines;
[300] 6 Tac units with 3 Rhinos
[300] 6 Tac units with 3 Rhinos
[175] 4 Assault units
[300*] 3 Whirlwinds
*fudged, only allowed 3 Whirlwinds

I set up and laid the trap, prepared to snare who I could:


It wasnt long before I had caught a pair! A father-and-son pair stepped up and really enjoyed the game:


Able to sneak in front of the lens once, here I am instructing on some of the finer points of Epic to the pair:


My lovely assistant, Bryan, who kindly provided the painted demo units, steps in here to teach when I called away at work to...*gasp* work...


Bryan, getting dividends from the karma of providing the awesome models, gets in a full-scale game with someone who had heard of the demo beforehand and brought a Space Marine force to battle with:


All in all, I felt this was very successful. We played the basic training mission of grabbing a single objective in the middle. The first demo pair went with a lot of sustaining fire actions, and only really had one Assault, at my urging. The Warbands really shot up the Marines in this one. Game two, which was me and another dedicated onlooker, was much bloodier because I explained the "Double tap" to the player, and also introduced support fire during assaults. He played well but I inadvertently smooshed him when he assaulted one of my formations that was solidly supported by 2 others...and I showed him how support fire really worked Nonetheless, he was hooked.

We also had a lot of people who knew about it, had played it, etc etc, so we got the word out quite a bit.

Such happy times down at the FLGS!

Glad to hear it came off well.

From the chatter on CA-EA-Gamers, it sounded like a few folks were going to try to make it into deepest, darkest San Jose for the demo.

Do you have a regularish group playing Epic there? I'll have to make the drive sometime.

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WAAARGH!!
The Lost & the Dipped

I'm not aware of that forum! Craig (I think? The Guy playing Bryan) had heard about it on here. Anyway there is now a push by a number of people to make a regular group, as there seems to be enough of us!

If you come up, we will make sure to welcome you!

It sounds like your demo day was a success.

_________________
"I don't believe in destiny or the guiding hand of fate." N. Peart