oMAD

So, to my Epic madness I have included 40K now. It´s been a while since I got interested in the universe. This year saw the release of the Dark Heresy rpg but it´s so horrible that I got disheartened.

However I found about Warseer´s 40K free online magazine called Firebase. It´s so nice, and covers the whole of the 40K universe (including Epic, Necromunda, BFG and Inquisitor) that got me going again. And it´s a coincidence that I´m so excited about Epic, so I got a hold of the new 40K rulebook and gave it a read.

It´s really streamlined. In fact I think that apart from the stupid “realistic LoS” system, it finally embraced some much needed abstraction to many of its rules. Shooting and assaults seem a lot faster now and many of the more twisted procedures of the older edition have been made simple. I kind of like the Run and Go to Ground rules. I just wish someone would design an easy overwatch system in the future.

Guess I´ll have to get me a Black Reach box for Christmas to add to my marines and start some ork forces (and to get the small ruleset).

Hey! I am selling a few 28mm figures, all nicely painted.

First is the complete Conquistadores range from Foundry. You can see the details here.

And then I have some Russian WW2 figures on ebay. Check them out! They are not auctions, so you can buy them immediately.

Cheers!

In my Epic fever I had a few eBay purchases made, specially for infantry. I´ve got two good news and one bad.

I won a very cheap auction with about 60 tactical marines, about ten rhinos, a command stand, a terminator stand and a few old model land raiders.

On another auction for 200 tactical marines my bids were cancelled because the seller wouldn´t ship to south america. It seems we little animals from down here do not deserve the joys of wargaming, even though the auction did say it shipped internationally.

That´s one good and one bad. The last good news is that it looks like the seller who cancelled my bids will probably get a lot less money for the figures (I was winning the bid). I know it´s kind of lame, but I´m a little amused 🙂

Oh yeah, just to update, I´m finishing painting lots and lots of marines and will probably leave the orks unpainted till next year. But I will probably play a lot of games in between with the painted marines against the unpainted masses.

I said earlier about my new found love with Epic Armageddon.

The thing is some months ago I bought a messed up Epic boxed set. It had almost all of the Ork figures, but not all of the Marines. It has rulebooks, some counters and tokes and cards. It had some extras though, like an Ork Gargant which is a separate set altogether.

Before that I received a complete Squats box set from a trade with someone from abroad. They look really good and the army has lots of figures. This also included some extras, like some Tyranids figures and machines.

I am painting the Marines, like I said before, and I love the new rules. Epic Armageddon is a fine set of rules. But today I was checking the three little rulebooks that came with the big boxed set, and they are full of ideas. Due to my basing system I have to make some minor amendments to the Armageddon rules. I will try and post them here as an article once I get a few games under the belt. I also developed little mechanics to make solo gaming more enjoyable, and I think Epic lends itself to this well. But I was really surprised today while going through the old rulebooks.

First of all, the rules have changed drastically. They are really different. Epic has somewhat of and old school flavor with it´s clear differentiation between organization charts and tournament army lists. The tournament lists are what is now the standard method for all GW games. Limited lists with points and clear organization. However in Epic this is just one way to play, and not really the most interesting. There are lots of notes and paragraphs telling you how to write interesting scenarios, how to create the forces, and how important is to let go and forget about point totals and such. Just get some figures on the table, make a nice backstory for the battle, improvise some interesting scenario specific special rules (most fun part) and roll the dice.

I really like that, and you can see it in the free Armageddon rulebook that´s available on GW´s site. But these old rulebooks have so much more ideas. Rules for random objectives, changing morale through the battle, and tons of scenarios with and without specific forces.

You get the feeling you are getting into the setting, and not into a game system waiting to be exploited. And that´s what I plan to do.

I´m completing my first Marines company, from a chapter I created (this will also be in this site soon). Once I finish that I´ll put together some Ork warbands, hopefully right on time before going to the country for the holidays. Epic´s nature (size-wise) will let me pack two forces, dice, some scenery and accessories in a small bag, giving me some quality 41st Century warfare in the middle of the Pampa.

Work has been hell this month. However I did get some painting done.

I painted 7 20mm metal german paratroopers. I experimented with camouflage and that was nice. I also painted 8 Tyranid sporebombs or whatever they are called. Add to that my four Epic bases I just painted, and let´s consider them 2 PPs each (they have many figures). So I guess the total would be 23, which actually is not that bad. Half of the month passed, and about half of the 50 PP quota painted.

Thought I had it worse.