Epicstravaganza Five: Five is Alive!

[The Other Dave]

The event: The fifth Epicstravaganza, an all-day "borrow one of my many Epic armies if ain't got one" day of fightin' with tiny little guys and big stonkin' war machines, and trying to remember to use the centimeter edge of your tape measure.

The day: Sunday February 14th NEW DATE, from 9:30am 'til we're done.

The Place: Miyamae Community Center at 4 Chome-53 Kamiiida Higashimachi Kita Ward, Nagoya, Aichi (map here) - it's about a 10-minute walk from the Kami Iida subway station, or 20 minutes from JR Ozone. There's coin parking nearby now for those who want to come by car.

The plan: Since it went so well last time, I think I'll shoot for 1000-point Minigeddon "training missions" in the morning, so we can all learn / remember the rules, and full 3000-point battles in the afternoon. I'll make up lists for folks who want to borrow armies, but feel free to bring an army and list of your own if you've got 'em. Use any lists you're comfortable with. I happen to prefer the EpicUK lists, since they have put a lot of effort into keeping things simple, which was one of the guiding principles behind the original army lists, but if you like the lists from EpiComms better, knock yourself out. Do check out the Minigeddon rules either way, for the morning training games.
If you use your own army, I'll want to ask you to post your army list at some point - we're doing scenarios and I'll need to figure out who are attackers and defenders and such.

How many people can come? It's a nice big room, so the only limiters are terrain, mats and armies. I realistically have enough Epic terrain to cover 4 tables*, so we'll say 7 people plus me. Historically, that's about as many people as end up coming anyway.

How much'll it cost? Including the extra charge to use the heaters, the room is 4000 yen for the day, so however much 4000 divided by the number of participants ends up being.

The blurb:

So sell me. What's Epic?

Epic: Armageddon, GW's sadly kaputnik mass battles game in the 40K universe, in 6mm (1:300 or so) scale. In my opinion, it's the best iteration of the rules for the best game GW's ever made. Some don't agree, but that's the joy of opinions, yeah? You get to play out massive battles including everything that makes Apocalypse so popular - masses of troops, huge war engines, comprehensive aerospace support - without needing a gymnasium floor to play to allow for real maneuvering. Just to give you an idea, at the standard 3000 points a typical list for the IG might have something like 10 Leman Russes, 9 Basilisks, 3 Manticores and a Hydra, 3 Salamander Command Vehicles, 3 Shadowswords, 100 infantry in 10 Chimeras, and a couple Thunderbolt fighters for air support just for good measure. The Orks get even more. The Titan Legions could get 2 Warlords (You know, the titans that are one step up from Reavers? Yeah, them. Two.), 2 Warhounds, 6 Forge Knights and a couple Marauders to make bombing runs. The rules reward tactical thinking, and capture real, flavorful differences between armies with a minimum of fiddly special rules. There's a really nice set of rules for command-and-control, too, if that sort of thing excites you. (It does me.)

I dunno, huge sweeping battles with gigantic war machines and masses of troops? Where's the fun in that?

what.

Just doesn't sound fun to me.

Those words, individually I understand them, but when you put them together like that it makes no sense.

Well, It sounds fun to me, but...

But?

I don't really want to get into a new game right now, you know?

Fortunately, I'm not asking you to. These events are, frankly, a way I've figured out for me to get a chance to play my favorite game. I realize it's a niche game, and don't expect anyone else to buy into it.

But I don't know the rules.

No problem! It's pretty straightforward, and as I mention above has little in the way of fiddliness. I'll be hovering around to help with the rules, and will make up comprehensive rules cheat-sheets. Plus thanks to these events and my constant evangelism, more and more people are getting experience with the game. Yay!

I don't have an army, either.

I know you don't. I have, um, 8. I'll lend you one.

Eight?

*Don't judge me, man.

You can choose from Imperial Guard, Blood Angels, Titan Legions, Ork Warhorde, Ork Gargant Bigmob, Necrons, Eldar (your choice of Swordwind or Armored), or Tyranids. Something for everyone! I'll keep track of who's called dibs on what as people reply to the thread.

Who's Coming?
Me
job (Iron Warriors)
Mike the Pike (Squats)
Underdweller (borrowing Tyranids)
YellowStreak (borrowing Titan Legions)
Auxryn (borrowing Gargant Bigmob)
2 more spaces available!

Dave's Armies to Pick From

Imperial Guard
Blood Angels
Ork Warhorde
Necrons
Eldar

[job]

I guess I'll be first to confirm.

I'll be there with the Iron Warrior Chaos Space Marine list. If you could make a list for the 1k game that would be very kind of you. I figure you might want to control the relative balance and all that. If you are busy or prefer, I could write it up too.

[The Other Dave]

Nah, you can go ahead and make a list up - the only balance constraints on 1000 points will be those imposed by EpicUK's Minigeddon rules, to wit:
-No formations costing more than 400 points.
-No fliers or spacecraft.

Feel free to jigger your list for 3000 points as well! Edit: Just as a for-example, something I might think of doing after seeing the list in play is combining a couple of the Chosen formations into a regular Retinue on foot. Just about the same points, twice as big, and it's still a garrison formation - trading off an activation for some resilience.

[Auxryn]

February 21st should be no problem. Do you still have the Ork Gargant force?

[The Underdweller]

That day should be OK for me.

[Mike the Pike]

I'll be there like the Jackson 5.
I'll be bringing my Squats.

[The Other Dave]

February 21st should be no problem. Do you still have the Ork Gargant force?

I found I wasn't too fond of the army list last time, actually, especially for people newer to the game - it has some "traps" in it. If you're interested in using them, though, I could draw a list up!

Edit to add: looked at the new version of the gargant bigmob, make up a list, looks good. It's in!

[The Other Dave]

Shall we pimp some armies? Why not! This event is always a good excuse to take some pictures of my epic stuff.

Aggressive forces: These are quite likely to be attacking in our little scenario. They're mobile, flexibile forces (each in their own way) and good at dictating location and pacing of fights if used well.

Blood Angels

You've got a solid core of tactical marines in rhinos, supported by the death company. For speedy attacks you've got a whole mess of assault marines in a thunderhawk and some terminators teleporting in, and in armored support there are the always-loved-by-their-opponent land raiders and some whirlwinds. Add some land speeders for speedy multi-melta harrassment and you're done!

Necrons

Necrons are a bit weird because they're simultaneously very fast (teleporting and hopping in and out of portals all over the place) and quite slow (once on the ground, nothing can take a triple-move order, and if you start losing portals you're in Trouble). But you've got some big, solid infantry formations that are very hard to shift, and a literal sun in a box for support in the back.

Balanced forces: Whether they attack or defend will depend on their opponent, as these forces have a balance of more-static and quicker formations.

Eldar

You'd think the Eldar would be a quick attacking formation, and even on the defensive they are, but the rangers give them a bit of an anchor and their infantry, deploying via the webway, are pretty static once they hit the ground. Rangers, aspect warriors and guardians will grab and hold objectives with wind riders in support, and falcons, scorpions, fire prisms and the ever-popular revenants will harrass the enemy from afar.

Guard

Typical steel legion, this force is heavily mechanized. You have an infantry company on foot to garrison, then the regimental HQ in chimeras and stormtroopers in valkyries to be a bit more flexible. Vultures in support as well, along with a couple of more-traditional manticore batteries and the de rigeur superheavy tanks.

Ork Warhorde

Lots of little mans! You've got three solid infantry formations - one on foot to garrison and two mounted up, with a couple big blitz brigades of gunwagons for speedy and shooty (but rather flimsy) backup. Note the mekboy gunwagons as well! A kult of speed and stormboyz korps give some more speedy harrassment ability, and a gargant gives that last bit of war engine punch.

Tyranids

I didn't really realize until I took the picture how light on infantry this force is. You've got three solid assault formations - two infantry and one of brutes - to do the bulk of your attacking, with a spore-mine-spewing nest swarm in the back and a couple big beasties to scare the living daylights out of anything they get close to. Sadly, while the dominatrix and heirophant are both extremely scary in hand to hand, they're only as durable as a big war engine can be without any sort of energy shields - but they're cheap at least. Finally you have some sneaky lictors and a tunneling trygon / ravener formation to pop out just where they'll do the most damage.

Defensive armies: These forces are quite slow, and will be heavily outnumbered to boot, but well... You'll see! A canny opponent will be able to use your numbers against you and dominate objectives, but both these forces will give anyone a run for their money.

Titan Legions

Yup. The warlord will basically make any formation it looks at evaporate, and the reaver is only a bit behind in terms of firepower. Warhounds to harrass the flanks, and a couple formations of robots to sit on objectives. Note that I've fiddled with this list a bit, throwing caution to the wind and replacing one formation of robots with another warhound, 'cause more titans equals more fun!

Gargant Bigmob

This too! You've got three extremely fragile formation of infantry and armor that will not hold up to much sustained fire, and three big old gargants that your enemy will need to pour lots of sustained fire into to remove from the board.

[YellowStreak]

As long as I don't end up on a business trip, I'm interested. Titan Legion ftw!

[Auxryn]

Gargant Bigmob! Waaaagh!