An Epic Endeavour

Battalions of infantry. Companies of tanks. Massed artillery. Squadrons of aircraft. Titanic war engines. These are the components of Epic; the Warhammer 40,000 universe imagined on the tabletop, at a scale that makes sense.

6mm is a scale that I've never previously dabbled in, which, in all honesty, surprises me. Flames of War is one of my favourite mass battle games, and that's only 15mm.

I am a massive proponent of the separation of skirmish and mass battle games. Too often wargames attempt to blur the line between the two and ultimately fail in their depiction of conflict.

My issue is with scale creep; the ratio of model size and density relative to playing area.

Take the current iteration of Warhammer 40,000 (disregarding the rules, they are irrelevant) for example; game sizes have swollen in both model count and breadth, yet still remain on a 6'x4' board. Flyers fight for board space, both with other models and terrain pieces, while massive war engines (often in multiples) dwarf those around them. Entire companies of infantry compete for one tiny (in the grand scheme) patch of ground. It looks absurd.

This (admittedly excellent) 30k display at Salute 2016 perfectly demonstrates the issue.

Warmachine and Hordes is another prime example; the introduction of massive units, Colossals and Gargantuans. These models simply do not look right for the scope of the conflict that the game represents (which equates roughly to platoon level).

Sure it looks awesome, but should it even exist?

Mass battle games belong at smaller scales; 15mm, 10mm or 6mm. The larger the conflict you wish to represent, the smaller the scale should be, and vice versa.

Anyway, enough ranting. Let's talk about Epic.

I had looked at Epic Armageddon a few years ago when Games Workshop released the rulebook for free on their website. I really liked what I saw and decided that one day In the future I'd get around to actually playing it.

Wind the clock forward to about a month ago when one evening in Richard's game cave the subject was bought up; specifically Epic 30k (the Horus Heresy in 6mm). Epic 30k will be a future project (that will perhaps be chronicled over on Special Fried Dice), but I wanted to test the waters and put something together for Epic Armageddon (more speciifically Net Epic Armageddon, the fan produced update).

I chose to put together a Sisters of Battle army, using the excellent sculpts from Onslaught Miniatures.

Battle Sister Mission.

Why Sisters of Battle? Its an army that nigh impossible to play in Warhammer 40,000, it was never officially supported for Epic by Games Workshop, and the sculpts from Onslaught Miniatures really fit the bill.

Seraphim Choir

I painted these test models as members of the 'Order of the Argent Shroud', an order which played a role in the Third War for Armageddon, hence the desert bases. I'm really quite pleased with how this inital test purchase turned out and will certainly be turning it into a full army of at least 2000 points.

In future articles I'd like to discuss more about Epic as a rules set, I just need to learn how to play it first!