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Epic (game)
Encyclopedia
Epic is a tabletop wargame set in the fictional Warhammer 40,000
universe. 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 soldiers. Due to the comparatively larger size of the battles, Epic miniatures are smaller than those in Warhammer 40,000, with a typical human being represented with a 6 mm
high figure, as opposed to the 25 and 28 mm minis used in Warhammer 40,000.
Plastic and metal Epic miniatures are available through the Specialist Games
section of Games Workshop's online store. An additional lineup of resin models is available via GW's Forge World
subsidiary.
In the Warhammer Fantasy
universe, Warmaster
fills much the same "large-scale battle" role as Epic does in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, though the two systems do not share rules.
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 at once, players take turns moving one or two formations at a time, giving the feeling of a battlefield developing in real-time, and also resulting in a game that is more tactically complex than Warhammer 40,000.
The comparatively smaller size of the miniatures also allows players to use many of the larger vehicles and creatures of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, such as Titans and Super-Heavy Tanks, even in small games.
Epic's rule system incorporates Aircraft as well as ground units, and allows players to utilize many aircraft at once. Epic-scale aircraft are also used in the game Aeronautica Imperialis
.
The monetary commitment needed to play Epic is relatively small when compared with other Games Workshop products. The greater benefit is that Epic is comparable to W40K: Apocalypse in the sense that they both center around larger battlefields with a larger number of troops and vehicles in command, but the monetary investment is much smaller with Epic. GW and FW both still offer a line of troops and vehicles, as well as classic pieces being sold cheaply on eBay every day.
One interesting feature of Epic: Armageddon is that, unlike previous editions of the game and other games produced by Games Workshop, the development of the game was conducted in an open way with 'trial' rules published on the Epic 'Playtest Vault' and feedback solicited from gamers via the associated playtesters forum.
This collaboration with the community has continued with the development of further army lists. The Epic: Armageddon rulebook contains the core rules for the games, and army lists for Space Marines
, the Armageddon Steel Legion Imperial Guard regiment and Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka
's Ork
War Horde as they were fielded in the Third War for Armageddon.
The 4th edition also includes rules and charts for the classic line of Titan, including the Ork Mega-Gargant and the Imperator Titan. These were previously omitted from intermediate rulebook editions, although their use is difficult given the deliberate absence of a points value befitting a unit of such scale.
The second rulebook released for the fourth edition was Epic: Swordwind, which was released both as hardcopy and as a downloadable PDF from the game's official website. Epic: Swordwind contains army lists for the Biel-Tan Eldar
, the Baran Siegemasters Imperial Guard Army and Warlord Snagga-Snagga's Feral Ork Horde. There has been active involvement of players with playtesting the new armies for the game on the epic forums, with "army champions" co-ordinating playtesting and revision of the army lists. Unlike other Games Workshop games that use a generic army list for all deployments involving that army, Epic uses specific army lists that represent how an army was fielded in a specific military campaign. There have also been officially released army lists for Da Kult of Speed, an Ork army favouring bikes, the White Scars Space Marines, the Black Legion
Chaos Space Marines
, and The Lost and the Damned cult army.
, or have stalled in their development at the 'experimental' stage:
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. At the time of its release Adeptus Titanicus was GW's way to counter the increasing popularity of FASA
's Battletech
, a tabletop game based around mecha warfare (which eventually expanded to infantry and vehicular combat, and even to an aerospace fighters supplement).
However's FASA inexperience with the military models and miniatures market soon limited the appeal of this system, while GW was able to benefit from its greater savviness in the miniatures business; also, integrating "Titanicus" in the popular WH40K universe (instead of creating an ex-novo storyline to justify the massive wardroids' clashes central to its gameplay) proved a winning move.
Space Marine, 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 six 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 chart
s. 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.
As months passed by Adeptus Titanicus more or less stagnated apart from the introduction of smaller war machines called "Knights" (both Imperial and Exodite Eldar ones) and later for the appearance of the mutated Chaos Titans. While Space Marine prospered with the release of a new army list system heavily based in semi-realistic orders of battle with support attachment, multi-tiered command structure and regimental/battalion levels. Imperial guard, Orks, Eldar, Squats, Chaos and Tyranid sprues of 6mm figures, artillery and support weapons were released while vehicles came in white metal and were sold in blisters containing most often two apiece (single units appearing only in the case of larger models such as Shadowsword or Baneblade tanks).
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 Ork
s and Squats
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/15355, Hive War (1995), which featured the Tyranids http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/15351 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). The Marines were depicted the same as their Warhammer 40,000 Second Edition counterparts. There was also the plastic Imperial Warlord Titan MkI (nicknamed the "Beetle" due to its curves, while later Warlord Titans have a more angular design) with interchangeable weapons. The Games Workshop studio army was the Blood Angels Space Marines and Eldar from the Alaitoc Craftworld.
Titan Legions was notable for introducing the Imperial Emperor-class Imperator Titan and the Ork Mega-Gargants, all of which were immensely powerful and could constitute small armies in their own right. These 'Mega' class vehicles could only be used in large games and none of the other races had such an equivalent. They were gradually phased out in later editions, though the current 4th edition has optional rules for them. The Imperator and Mega-Gargant are considered collectors' items today (the only other time that Games Workshop released them was as a "reward" in return for getting a yearly subscription to White Dwarf
in the November 1997 issue). Besides one Imperator and two Mega-Gargants, the boxed set also contained ten Imperial Knights (these "mini-Titans" are also collectors' items) and twelve Ork Battlewagons.
The second edition of Epic was vastly popular and supported a huge range of miniatures.
A series of sculpts of Eldar Exodites, a Space Marine drop ship and other designs were made around the time of the Titan Legions debut, but were never officially released.
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 withdrawn. Epic 40,000 never enjoyed the popularity of the previous two editions, and after support was reduced many of the miniatures planned for Epic 40,000 were never released.
Though it was a failure for the company, designers Jervis Johnson and Andy Chambers still maintain that 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. This was achieved by streamlining the game mechanics and abstracting many of the areas which the previous editions had dealt with in specific detail. The current 4th edition of Epic still retains some of the third edition's streamlined game mechanics.
As noted above, Epic became more streamlined during the third edition, 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.
Collectively, this increased the speed of gameplay significantly, which was Games Workshop's stated aim, but it received a mixed reaction, in part because it was considered too 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 during this period was the Imperial Fists chapter, a departure from previous feature armies which usually depicted the Ultramarines or Blood Angels. Armies for other races included the Imperial Guard, Eldar (studio armies are the Biel-Tan and Iyanden Craftworlds), and Tyranids.
game for the PC in 1997.
An additional rule set called Adeptus Titanicus II (AT-II) came out as a free download on the Fanatic website, 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.
Warhammer 40,000
Warhammer 40,000 is a tabletop miniature wargame produced by Games Workshop, set in a dystopian science fantasy universe. Warhammer 40,000 was created by Rick Priestley in 1987 as the futuristic companion to Warhammer Fantasy Battle, sharing many game mechanics...
universe. 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 soldiers. Due to the comparatively larger size of the battles, Epic miniatures are smaller than those in Warhammer 40,000, with a typical human being represented with a 6 mm
1:285 scale
1:285 scale or 6 mm figure size is a US Army scale introduced in the late 1960s, and used for wargames and some scale model dioramas. It is used in miniature wargaming to depict large battles in a relatively small gaming area...
high figure, as opposed to the 25 and 28 mm minis used in Warhammer 40,000.
Plastic and metal Epic miniatures are available through the Specialist Games
Specialist Games
Specialist Games is division of Games Workshop which sells tabletop wargames that are no longer part of Games Workshop's core market ....
section of Games Workshop's online store. An additional lineup of resin models is available via GW's Forge World
Forge World
Forge World is the name of a subsidiary company of Games Workshop run by Tony Cottrell, which designs, moulds, and sells resin models for various Games Workshop games....
subsidiary.
In the Warhammer Fantasy
Warhammer Fantasy
Warhammer Fantasy is a fantasy setting, created by Games Workshop, which is used by many of the company's games. Some of the best-known games set in this world are: the table top wargame Warhammer Fantasy Battle, the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay pen-and-paper role-playing game, and the MMORPG...
universe, Warmaster
Warmaster
Warmaster is a ruleset for tabletop wargames written by Rick Priestley, published by Specialist Games , and set in the Warhammer Fantasy setting. It is different from Warhammer Fantasy Battles in both appearance and gameplay. It is intended for 10 –12 mm miniatures. Basic troops are based on...
fills much the same "large-scale battle" role as Epic does in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, though the two systems do not share rules.
Overview
A game of Epic will normally take around two hours to play.Gameplay-wise, the major difference between Epic and other Games Workshop
Games Workshop
Games Workshop Group plc is a British game production and retailing company. Games Workshop has published the tabletop wargames Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000...
games is that instead of a player moving and firing all of his forces at once, players take turns moving one or two formations at a time, giving the feeling of a battlefield developing in real-time, and also resulting in a game that is more tactically complex than Warhammer 40,000.
The comparatively smaller size of the miniatures also allows players to use many of the larger vehicles and creatures of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, such as Titans and Super-Heavy Tanks, even in small games.
Epic's rule system incorporates Aircraft as well as ground units, and allows players to utilize many aircraft at once. Epic-scale aircraft are also used in the game Aeronautica Imperialis
Aeronautica Imperialis
Aeronautica Imperialis is a tabletop miniature wargame set within the Warhammer 40,000 universe. The game focuses on aerial combat between the different races of the Warhammer 40,000 universe...
.
The monetary commitment needed to play Epic is relatively small when compared with other Games Workshop products. The greater benefit is that Epic is comparable to W40K: Apocalypse in the sense that they both center around larger battlefields with a larger number of troops and vehicles in command, but the monetary investment is much smaller with Epic. GW and FW both still offer a line of troops and vehicles, as well as classic pieces being sold cheaply on eBay every day.
Current (4th) edition
The current, fourth edition of Epic is often referred to as Epic: Armageddon after the first rulebook released for this edition.One interesting feature of Epic: Armageddon is that, unlike previous editions of the game and other games produced by Games Workshop, the development of the game was conducted in an open way with 'trial' rules published on the Epic 'Playtest Vault' and feedback solicited from gamers via the associated playtesters forum.
This collaboration with the community has continued with the development of further army lists. The Epic: Armageddon rulebook contains the core rules for the games, and army lists for Space Marines
Space Marines (Warhammer 40,000)
In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000 setting created by Games Workshop, Space Marines are genetically modified "super human" soldiers created by the Emperor to conquer the galaxy and defend mankind. According to Games Workshop, there are over a thousand recorded chapters of Space Marines,...
, the Armageddon Steel Legion Imperial Guard regiment and Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka
Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka
Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka is a fictional character from the table top miniature game Warhammer 40,000. He featured heavily in the Armageddon campaigns in which he led a huge Ork horde to try to take the planet...
's Ork
Ork (Warhammer 40,000)
The Orks are a race from the fictional Warhammer 40,000 universe. They are described as being tall, muscular humanoids, with green skin and a penchant for violence. the orks live for war and constantly fight anything in sight, including each other...
War Horde as they were fielded in the Third War for Armageddon.
The 4th edition also includes rules and charts for the classic line of Titan, including the Ork Mega-Gargant and the Imperator Titan. These were previously omitted from intermediate rulebook editions, although their use is difficult given the deliberate absence of a points value befitting a unit of such scale.
The second rulebook released for the fourth edition was Epic: Swordwind, which was released both as hardcopy and as a downloadable PDF from the game's official website. Epic: Swordwind contains army lists for the Biel-Tan Eldar
Eldar (Warhammer 40,000)
In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000, the Eldar are a race of elf-like humanoids who look into the future via psychic powers. They are one of the most ancient and advanced races in the universe's history, though younger than the Necrons, the C'tan, and the Old Ones...
, the Baran Siegemasters Imperial Guard Army and Warlord Snagga-Snagga's Feral Ork Horde. There has been active involvement of players with playtesting the new armies for the game on the epic forums, with "army champions" co-ordinating playtesting and revision of the army lists. Unlike other Games Workshop games that use a generic army list for all deployments involving that army, Epic uses specific army lists that represent how an army was fielded in a specific military campaign. There have also been officially released army lists for Da Kult of Speed, an Ork army favouring bikes, the White Scars Space Marines, the Black Legion
Black Legion
Black Legion may refer to:*Black Army of Hungary, an army of the Kingdom of Hungary in the 15th century*Légion Noire, an army of French criminals raised for the last invasion of Britain in 1797...
Chaos Space Marines
Chaos Space Marines
In the table-top wargame Warhammer 40,000, the Chaos Space Marines or Chaos Marines, are Space Marines who serve the Chaos Gods. They are also referred to as the Traitor Legions, primarily in background material written from the perspective of the Imperium.-History:The background shown in both...
, and The Lost and the Damned cult army.
Official Armies
These armies are fully official:- 'Codex' Space MarinesSpace Marines (Warhammer 40,000)In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000 setting created by Games Workshop, Space Marines are genetically modified "super human" soldiers created by the Emperor to conquer the galaxy and defend mankind. According to Games Workshop, there are over a thousand recorded chapters of Space Marines,...
- White Scars Space Marines
- Imperial Guard Armageddon Steel Legion Mechanised RegimentImperial Guard (Warhammer 40,000)The Imperial Guard are a specific army or faction in the Warhammer 40,000 and Epic tabletop games and universe. The army itself is characterised by being capable of fielding a multitude of lightly armoured, average infantry in combination with some of the toughest and most powerful tanks in the game...
- Imperial Guard Baran Siegemasters Regiment
- OrksOrk (Warhammer 40,000)The Orks are a race from the fictional Warhammer 40,000 universe. They are described as being tall, muscular humanoids, with green skin and a penchant for violence. the orks live for war and constantly fight anything in sight, including each other...
- Feral Orks
- 'Speed Freek' Orks
- Eldar (Biel Tan Craftworld)Eldar (Warhammer 40,000)In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000, the Eldar are a race of elf-like humanoids who look into the future via psychic powers. They are one of the most ancient and advanced races in the universe's history, though younger than the Necrons, the C'tan, and the Old Ones...
- Chaos Space Marines (The Black Legion)Chaos Space MarinesIn the table-top wargame Warhammer 40,000, the Chaos Space Marines or Chaos Marines, are Space Marines who serve the Chaos Gods. They are also referred to as the Traitor Legions, primarily in background material written from the perspective of the Imperium.-History:The background shown in both...
- Chaos mortals (The Lost and the Damned)
Experimental Armies
These armies are currently in development by teams appointed by Specialist GamesSpecialist Games
Specialist Games is division of Games Workshop which sells tabletop wargames that are no longer part of Games Workshop's core market ....
, or have stalled in their development at the 'experimental' stage:
- Adeptus Mechanicus Titan Legions
- Necrons
- TyranidsTyranidsThe Tyranids are a fictional race from the Warhammer 40000 tabletop game and its spin-off media. They are known to the Imperium generally as Tyranids, because Tyran is the first known planet they devoured and where they were first encountered...
- Tau EmpireTau (Warhammer 40,000)In the universe of Games Workshop's table-top wargame Warhammer 40,000, the Tau Empire is an alien race, inhabiting a small but dense region of space on the eastern edge of the Galaxy, roughly 300 light years in diameter...
(Third Phase Expansion Force) - Imperial Guard Catachan Regiment
- Orkimedes' Gargant Big Mob
- Black Templars Space Marines
- Blood Angels Space Marines
- Daemon Hunters (Grey Knights)
- Eldar (Saim-Hann Craftworld)
- Eldar (Ulthwë Craftworld)
- Eldar (Alaitoc Craftworld)
- Chaos Space Marines (Thousand Sons)
- Chaos Space Marines (Death Guard)
- Chaos Space Marines (Emperor's Children)
1st edition
The rules for the first edition of Epic came 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
Space Marines (Warhammer 40,000)
In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000 setting created by Games Workshop, Space Marines are genetically modified "super human" soldiers created by the Emperor to conquer the galaxy and defend mankind. According to Games Workshop, there are over a thousand recorded chapters of Space Marines,...
) followed in White Dwarf 109. At the time of its release Adeptus Titanicus was GW's way to counter the increasing popularity of FASA
FASA
FASA Corporation was an American publisher of role-playing games, wargames and board games between 1980 and 2001. Originally the name FASA was an acronym for "Freedonian Aeronautics and Space Administration", a joking allusion to the Marx Brothers film Duck Soup. This tongue-in-cheek attitude was...
's Battletech
BattleTech
BattleTech is a wargaming and science fiction franchise launched by FASA Corporation in 1984, acquired by WizKids in 2000, and owned since 2003 by Topps. The series began with FASA's debut of the board game BattleTech by Jordan Weisman and L...
, a tabletop game based around mecha warfare (which eventually expanded to infantry and vehicular combat, and even to an aerospace fighters supplement).
However's FASA inexperience with the military models and miniatures market soon limited the appeal of this system, while GW was able to benefit from its greater savviness in the miniatures business; also, integrating "Titanicus" in the popular WH40K universe (instead of creating an ex-novo storyline to justify the massive wardroids' clashes central to its gameplay) proved a winning move.
Space Marine, 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 six 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 chart
Organizational chart
An organizational chart is a diagram that shows the structure of an organization and the relationships and relative ranks of its parts and positions/jobs...
s. 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.
As months passed by Adeptus Titanicus more or less stagnated apart from the introduction of smaller war machines called "Knights" (both Imperial and Exodite Eldar ones) and later for the appearance of the mutated Chaos Titans. While Space Marine prospered with the release of a new army list system heavily based in semi-realistic orders of battle with support attachment, multi-tiered command structure and regimental/battalion levels. Imperial guard, Orks, Eldar, Squats, Chaos and Tyranid sprues of 6mm figures, artillery and support weapons were released while vehicles came in white metal and were sold in blisters containing most often two apiece (single units appearing only in the case of larger models such as Shadowsword or Baneblade tanks).
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 enhanced rules for Titans.Various supplements were produced, including Armies of the Imperium (1991), which gave rules for the Space Marines
Space Marines (Warhammer 40,000)
In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000 setting created by Games Workshop, Space Marines are genetically modified "super human" soldiers created by the Emperor to conquer the galaxy and defend mankind. According to Games Workshop, there are over a thousand recorded chapters of Space Marines,...
and Imperial Guard, Renegades (1992) which had rules for the forces of Chaos
Chaos (Warhammer)
In Games Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000 fictional universes, Chaos refers to the often stereotypically malevolent entities which live in a different timespace, known as the Warp in Warhammer 40,000 and as the Realm of Chaos in Warhammer Fantasy...
and the Eldar
Eldar (Warhammer 40,000)
In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000, the Eldar are a race of elf-like humanoids who look into the future via psychic powers. They are one of the most ancient and advanced races in the universe's history, though younger than the Necrons, the C'tan, and the Old Ones...
, Ork and Squat Warlords (1992), which featured the Ork
Ork (Warhammer 40,000)
The Orks are a race from the fictional Warhammer 40,000 universe. They are described as being tall, muscular humanoids, with green skin and a penchant for violence. the orks live for war and constantly fight anything in sight, including each other...
s and Squats
Squats (Warhammer 40,000)
In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000, the Squats are a dwarf-like race descended from the humans that colonised high gravity worlds. Separated from the rest of humanity over the millennia they evolved their own distinct morphology and culture...
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/15355, Hive War (1995), which featured the Tyranids http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/15351 and White Dwarf Presents Space Marine Battles (1993) which was mostly reprints of Epic-related articles from White Dwarf
White Dwarf (magazine)
White Dwarf is a magazine published by British games manufacturer Games Workshop. Initially covering a wide variety of fantasy and science-fiction role-playing and board games, particularly the role playing games Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest and Traveller...
.
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). The Marines were depicted the same as their Warhammer 40,000 Second Edition counterparts. There was also the plastic Imperial Warlord Titan MkI (nicknamed the "Beetle" due to its curves, while later Warlord Titans have a more angular design) with interchangeable weapons. The Games Workshop studio army was the Blood Angels Space Marines and Eldar from the Alaitoc Craftworld.
Titan Legions was notable for introducing the Imperial Emperor-class Imperator Titan and the Ork Mega-Gargants, all of which were immensely powerful and could constitute small armies in their own right. These 'Mega' class vehicles could only be used in large games and none of the other races had such an equivalent. They were gradually phased out in later editions, though the current 4th edition has optional rules for them. The Imperator and Mega-Gargant are considered collectors' items today (the only other time that Games Workshop released them was as a "reward" in return for getting a yearly subscription to White Dwarf
White Dwarf (magazine)
White Dwarf is a magazine published by British games manufacturer Games Workshop. Initially covering a wide variety of fantasy and science-fiction role-playing and board games, particularly the role playing games Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest and Traveller...
in the November 1997 issue). Besides one Imperator and two Mega-Gargants, the boxed set also contained ten Imperial Knights (these "mini-Titans" are also collectors' items) and twelve Ork Battlewagons.
The second edition of Epic was vastly popular and supported a huge range of miniatures.
A series of sculpts of Eldar Exodites, a Space Marine drop ship and other designs were made around the time of the Titan Legions debut, 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 withdrawn. Epic 40,000 never enjoyed the popularity of the previous two editions, and after support was reduced many of the miniatures planned for Epic 40,000 were never released.
Though it was a failure for the company, designers Jervis Johnson and Andy Chambers still maintain that 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. This was achieved by streamlining the game mechanics and abstracting many of the areas which the previous editions had dealt with in specific detail. The current 4th edition of Epic still retains some of the third edition's streamlined game mechanics.
As noted above, Epic became more streamlined during the third edition, 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.
Collectively, this increased the speed of gameplay significantly, which was Games Workshop's stated aim, but it received a mixed reaction, in part because it was considered too 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 during this period was the Imperial Fists chapter, a departure from previous feature armies which usually depicted the Ultramarines or Blood Angels. Armies for other races included the Imperial Guard, Eldar (studio armies are the Biel-Tan and Iyanden Craftworlds), and Tyranids.
Spin-offs
Spin-offs from this edition included the Epic Firepower magazine, an A5 magazine started in 1998 which ran for eight issues (the first of which contained 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 strategyTurn-based strategy
A turn-based strategy game is a strategy game where players take turns when playing...
game for the PC in 1997.
An additional rule set called Adeptus Titanicus II (AT-II) came out as a free download on the Fanatic website, 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.
NetEpic
NetEpic is an unofficial but popular fan version of the game derived from the 2nd Edition rules, started originally because many players did not like the changes made for the third edition. NetEpic is a collaborative effort, with work being coordinated through the NetEpic website. It includes a broad range of armies based on models from all the other editions, as well as some created especially for NetEpic itself. As of March 2006, the NetEpic rules are currently at version 5.0.Heresy
In the context of Epic, Heresy can refer to either a Games Workshop in-house game that was abandoned before the first edition of Epic was created but later used as a basis for the third edition, or to a more "gritty" game mechanics version of Epic which was produced by Peter Ramos, co-ordinator of the NetEpic project (Ramos, 2005).External links
- Official Epic Rules
- NetEpic home page
- Tactical Command/EpiComms One of the largest forums for Epic where rules development continues.
- epic40k.fr The French portal for and about all forms of epic games.
- epic_fr the largest forums for French Epic community, including French list development team aka FERC.