Epic (game system)
From Lexicanum
Epic is a series of tabletop wargames set in the fictional Warhammer 40,000 universe. However, where Warhammer 40,000 involves small battles between forces of a few squads of troops and two or three vehicles, Epic features battles between armies consisting of dozens of tanks and hundreds of soldiers1. Consequently, the scale of Epic miniatures is far smaller than those in Warhammer 40,000, with a typical human being represented with a 6 mm high figure, as opposed to the 28 mm used in Warhammer 40,0002. They are available through both "Specialist Games", of Games Workshop2 and from Forge World3.
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Background
Gameplay-wise, the major difference between Epic and other Games Workshop games is that instead of a player moving and firing all of his forces in one massive turn, players take turns moving one or two units at a time, giving the feeling of a battlefield developing in real time. From a more practical point of view, the monetary commitment needed to play Epic is relatively small when compared with other Games Workshop products3.
The smaller version of the miniatures also allows the players to use some of the much larger vehicles and creatures called Titans or allow players to utilize many aircraft at once (which has become part of its own side project titled Aeronautica Imperialis.
Even though the models are much smaller than their traditional Warhammer 40,000 counterparts, they are still too large to accommodate Battlefleet Gothic space craft. As the 4th Edition rulebook states: "Even a small Lunar class Cruiser would be over 5 meters long if we made an Epic scale model of it"4.
Current Edition
There are three major rulebooks released for the current edition of Epic. The first is Epic: Armageddon, the second is Epic: Swordwind, and the third is
Playable Armies
Epic relies on pieces produced by Games Workshop and Forge World that fit in with other models used in the various Warhammer 40,000 based games, but on a much smaller scale. There are also many new pieces introduced exclusively for Epic, such as Titans, Bio Titans, and digging transport machines called Burrowers.
As of June 2006, there are many other army lists available as "experimental rules" from the Epic website[4], including the Adeptus Mechanicus Titan Legions, the Imperial Guard (including Catachan and Krieg Siege Regiment), Craftworld Eldar (Alaitoc, Saim Hann and Ulthwé), Chaos Space Marines (the Black Legion, the Emperor's Children, the Thousand Sons, and Death Guard), The Lost and the Damned Chaos cultists, the Necrons, the Orkimedes Gargant Big Mob (Ork equivalent of a Titan Legion), Space Marines (the Black Templars and the Blood Angels), the Tau Third Phase Expansion Force and the Tyranid Hamman's World Phase IV Subdual Army.
History of the game
These editions were all produced by Games Workshop before the existence of the Fanatic Games Studio. Models for Epic have also been produced by the Forge World division of Games Workshop.
1st Edition:
The rules for the 1st Edition of Epic came about in two parts. The Adeptus Titanicus (1988) rules and miniatures set, which dealt with battles between opposing Imperial Titans, was published first. Rules for infantry and vehicles (the troops and vehicles of the Heresy era Space Marines) followed in White Dwarf 109. The Space Marine game, another miniatures and rules set (for two opposing Space Marine armies), followed after (in 1989). They could be played as individual games or as a combined game.
Where Adeptus Titanicus included 6 plastic Titan models with swappable weapons and styrofoam buildings, Space Marine included alongside its sprues of infantry and vehicles folded card buildings with styrene roofs.
Numerous articles supporting the Adeptus Titanicus / Space Marine game were released in White Dwarf magazine including a variety of optional rules, army lists and organizational charts. The biggest supplement for the game was called Codex Titanicus, which provided a medium for linking the Titan-based (giant robot) combat of Adeptus Titanicus with the conventional units (vehicles and infantry) of Space Marine 1st Edition. The codex also properly introduced Eldar Titans
2nd Edition:
The second edition of Epic was again released as two compatible but stand-alone games, Space Marine which consisted of the core rules, and Titan Legions (1994) which contained the rules for Titans. Various supplements were produced, including Armies of the Imperium (1991), which gave rules for the Space Marines and Imperial Guard, Renegades (1992) which had rules for the forces of Chaos and the Eldar, Ork and Squat Warlords (1992), which featured the Orks and Squats[1], Hive War (1995), which featured the Tyranids[2] and White Dwarf Presents Space Marine Battles (1993) which was mostly reprints of Epic-related articles from White Dwarf.
The Space Marine boxed game included three armies; the Space Marines (with their Land Raiders MkI and Rhinos), Orks (with their Battlewagons), and Eldar (with their Falcon Grav-Tanks). There was also the plastic Imperial Warlord Titan MkI (nicknamed the "Beetleback") with several interchangeable weapons.
Titan Legions was notable for including the Imperial Emperor-class Imperator Titan and two Ork Mega-Gargants, each which was immensely powerful and could constitute an army in its own right. They could only be used in large games and none of the other races had such an equivalent, so they were gradually phased out in later additions, though the current 4th edition has optional rules for them. The Imperator and Mega-Gargant are considered collectors' items today (the only other time Games Workshop released them was as a "reward" in return for getting a yearly subscription to White Dwarf in the November 1997 issue). There were also Imperial Knights (these "mini-Titans" are also collectors' items) and Ork Bonebreakas.
Space Marine 2nd Edition was vastly popular and supported a huge range of miniatures. A series of sculptures of Eldar Exodites, a Space Marine drop ship and other designs were made around the time of the Titan Legions début, but were never officially released.
3rd Edition:
The third edition of Epic was released as Epic 40,000 in 1997. In contrast to previous editions, this was released as just one set of rules. The game had a very short period of support (six months) from the company before it was abandoned. As such, it never really caught on and many of the miniatures planned for Epic 40,000 were never released. Though it was a failure for the company, one of the worst selling sets of miniatures rules in the company's history, the designers, Jervis Johnson and Andy Chambers, still say it was the best set of rules they ever conceived, as it was the game that most rewarded good tactics over luck and special abilities. The current 4th edition of Epic still retains the third edition's streamlined game mechanics.
This edition of the game marked a departure from the previous two; Epic became far more streamlined in order to fit entirely within three (relatively thin) A5 rulebooks (the Rulebook, the Armies Book and the Battles Book). Army and Company Cards were eliminated and detachments were picked from largely unrestricted detachment rosters of a very general type (Imperial Guard Infantry, Space Marine Armour and so on, in the case of the Imperial army list). Titans and Super-Heavies (now collectively War Engines) were simplified to the point that their rules were contained entirely within six pages of the new small-format rulebook.
This also speeded up gameplay significantly, which was Games Workshops stated aim, but it received a mixed reaction since it was considered more abstract and no longer accounted for unique features of certain units.
The boxed set contained the armies of Space Marines (including Rhinos, Land Raiders MkII, and Whirlwinds) and Orks (with their Battlewagons and Stompas). The cover art showed a Blood Angels Space Marine advance pushing away the Orks. Games Workshop's studio army was the Imperial Fists chapter, a departure from previous feature armies which usually depicted the Ultramarines or Blood Angels.
Spin-offs:
Spin-offs from this edition included the Epic Firepower magazine, an A5 magazine started in 1998 which ran for 8 issues (the first of which was reprints from Citadel Journal and White Dwarf), the Epic 40,000 magazine, an A4 magazine which picked up where Epic Firepower left off for 20 issues, and Final Liberation: Warhammer 40,000 Epic, a turn-based strategy game for the PC in 1997.
An additional game called Adeptus Titanicus II (AT-II) came out as a free download on the Fanatic web site, which is now the Specialist Games web site. AT-II put a new twist on the original Adeptus Titanicus game and articles for it were also printed in the various Epic magazines until they were canceled and later became a free webzine on the Specialist Games web site.
References
- 1Specialist Games Retrieved on 2007-05-29
- 2Games-Workshop Online Store Retrieved on 2007-05-29
- 3Forge World 2007 Catalogue Retrieved on 2007-05-29
- 4Epic Rulebook Retrieved on 2007-05-29
- Official Epic site
