EPIC 40k on the Horizon!

Been a little slow on the blog with acyual painted work so I hope to remedy that this week. I seem to be back in the swing of things and had some great time to paint this weekend. So here is what I have been working on.

I have put the Spanish Drgoons on the shelf (they weren't vexing me, just not into them right now) and have pulled out an old favorite. EPIC.

I am going to revisit this old friend, rules and all, and have some fun.

First a discussion of rules.

I have played only the first two editions of Epic. I loved them and Second edition is one of those Top Ten games for me. It was always a lot of fun, the armies were bright and colorful and looked great on the table, and the rules were simple and playable. It could get slow with a lot of troops on the table, as always happened, but still a great game.

Adeptus, where it all started

SM 1st Edition Epic

2nd Edition

Titan Legions

I have gotten some differing opinions about using some of the newer rules.

3rd Edition

 Supposedly the best rules version of the game, at least by the designers. Simplified everything. It made a lot of moves to speed things up by making it much more generic. It also brought the glorious new sculpts of the Eldar and other updates of classic imperial and space marine armor. I will eventually play it, but my heart is still in Second Edition.

4th Edition

 The current set of the rules, available as a free download at the GW site. Gone are the Company Cards system, and again a much simpler game. The design aesthetic for some things in this version got away from GW. and Quite frankly this version of the Eldar and Imperial Titans are some of the worst models GW ever produced. that is why they quickly dumped the stiff and stupid looking Eldar ones and went back to the classic sleek and fast looking ones. There were major changes made to the army lists as well. One of my fellow BG's likes this version of the game.

Crowd Sourced Revised Second Edition

I have followed this version since its inception. A nice reaction by the internets to counter the game tat GW was putting out. This crowd sourced version is incredible. It has detail, heaps of army lists, crazy support on the message boards. Its really a great version of the game that tries to address some of the short comings of Second Edition. If you want to get the Old Skool vibe of Second Edition, but want a better tweak of those rules. Play these rules.

So After all of the thinking and talking to some folks, I am going to build and paint my armies according to the Second Edition Force Cards. This would give me maximum flexibility to use them since those forces tended to be bigger(except some SM detachments).

And since I kept, or traded or have bought off of ebay heaps of Epic stuff (It is one of my constant searches on ebay) they have been patiently waiting to be painted. I am pretty excited about this one. It is a pretty big part of my overall gaming collection. I am excited to dive right into it.

And I have. I'll post some picks of my Ultra Marine Army I am doing. It was partially Started by my Bro in Law and I traded my last remnants of Flames of War stuff for it. He had a Battle Company, With Supporting detachments of Predators, Razorbacks, and Whirlwinds and Old Skool Thunderhawks. He also had a Small Blood Angels Force. A Tactical Company with supporting Predators, Vindicators, Predators, Whirldwinds, and Thunderhawks. Beautiful.

I have forged ahead with Putting together an Ultramarines Tactical Company, Army Specials including Chapter Command, Librarian, Apothecary. Chaplain, and Tech Priest. I have A Battle company on sticks with their Rhinos. As well as a Terminator Company,  a couple of new Thunderhawks, a mix of old Skool Contemptor Dreads along with with Current Style Dreads, New and Old style Land Speeders, a New Style Bike Company, New Style Drop Pods, and more. Its been fun putting this all together. My Marines will be a mash up of all versions of the game. And this fits well with the Ultra Marines.

I am also doing a small force of Imperial Fists, since they are my favorite Marines. It will be entirely done with Old Skool components so it can double as a Heresy Era Force with the Blood Angels that are already done. I thought about doing a Heresy Era World Eater and Death Guard Force as well. We shall have to wait and see.

Now I know a bunch of you don't care about the 40k fluff and to be honest neither do I. But there is some great nostalgia associated with this fluff for me so bear with me.I will be putting pics of painted minis on the site soon. I have a bunch to show you.

After that, the Orks or Eldar sit patiently waiting. So count on sporadic posts about Epic this year to go with Nappies, Post Apoc and and 15mm Sci Fi and Fantasy.