"Your favorite rules for Epic battles?" Topic

Hi gang,

What is your favorite rules for Sci-Fi Epic land
combined arms battles? (Epic in the sense of BIG battles)
I play BlitzKrieg Commander for ww2 and know about
the sci-fi version, but read that you could hardly play
battles the size of an Epic Armageddon (as far as unit
count is concerned).
I feel EpicA too complex for me.

So what is you favorite Epic rule then, and why…?

I like NetEpic:
simple Core mechanic, with enough 'flavor'
and about 12 army books,
so you can find a Proxy list for just about every type unit-
link
link

Having said that:
E:A is a Good Rules set: Great Community support, too (as does NetEpic)-
more abstract than NetEpic, so fewer models on the table,
but a Good 'Feel'. Hey, It's Free, too!!
link

3rd choice probably
DirtSide II:
being able to go Dirtside->StarGruntII->FullThrustII is very elegant.
Free,Too-
link

DirtSide would be Higher on the List,
but I gots me no opponents to play itwith…

Prophecy of War will allow mass battles. Free set and quite good.

Thanks,

John

The Blitzkrieg/Cold War/Future War commander series are highly recommended on this site. I've only played FWC once, but it was enjoyable.

In terms of GW products, I'm one of the strange people who preferred the 1997 edition (Epic 40k), with the blast markers, detachment cards, and simple Firepower charts. It's still used today as the Battlefleet Gothic engine… it's a great en-masse shoot-em-up game, but the objectives and morale system are a bit goofy.

I think you can do pretty large battles with Future War Commander. Although I'm not sure it is great for doing the 40K universe. We have played it with Orks and Marines and no matter what you do the marines pretty much clean the Ork's clocks. The orks can just never bring enough force to bear and even with terrain and some distance between them the orks still get chewed up in shooting and can barely make a dent in close combat.

That being said they are a pretty neat set of rules if you are doing other things with armies that are a little bit more shooty on each side, which, I would imagine, is what they are trying to accomplish anyway.

I can't wait until the 6mm androids come out from WF, then we will see some epic battles with FWC. I just bought a bunch of terrain, about $100 USD at Fall In, to do it with. Most of it is painted already.

In terms of GW products, I'm one of the strange people who preferred the 1997 edition (Epic 40k), with the blast markers, detachment cards, and simple Firepower charts. It's still used today as the Battlefleet Gothic engine… it's a great en-masse shoot-em-up game, but the objectives and morale system are a bit goofy.

Once you wrap your head around it being a strategic game instead of a tactical one, and build forces with that in mind, it improves quite a bit. The other editions of Epic are still 1-to-1 games; "tiny 40k" if you will. E40k really isn't.

The main thing that keeps FWC a little slow is the multiple hits on every unit. I guess if you did fixed commands and used non-regenerating hits it might speed things up.

I like and would recommend "Future War Commander".
If you already play the WW2 version of this rule-set I think you will like the sci-fi version too.
The unit building/creation part is fun and easy to use.

Thanks for all the replies guys,

Concerning me using BKC and probably liking Future War
Commander, i had the same dilemma regarding Big battles.

You can play BKC up to a certain amount of stands, and
this amount is usually below what i would use for a ww2
Massive battle. I was suggested Spearhead for this.
I end up playing BKC because i like the rule and couldn't
easily find spearhead in France and dropped the idea of
BIG ww2 battles.

I 'll probably face the same "problem" with FWC, hence
my question concerning other possible rules.

I didn't know that NetEpic and Epic Armageddon were two
different beasts, i'll check this.

I did download DSII and Prophecy of War am going to read
those soon. I actually went through Prophecy and found
that the actual Sci-fi part was just an added flavor.
I could be very wrong, and it's saying nothing about it's
quality as far as playing big battles is concerned.

Dirtside is a bit more fiddly than I like. NetEpic is damn good and the new "gold" rulebook is very very nice

Dirtside is our go-to game for 6mm and still my favorite.

I've wondered about Baccus' Event Horizon rules but have only partially read through them… I like the minis for the game a lot though.

I really enjoyed Space Marine back in the day but it's been a while since we've tabled it…

Just noticed that the few netEpic aar's ended
on turn 3 or 4…Is that the norm?

Are these gamable with 15mm models, or just 6mm? (I mean besides FWC, I know that's playable in 15mm).

"I play BlitzKrieg Commander for ww2 and know about
the sci-fi version, but read that you could hardly play
battles the size of an Epic Armageddon (as far as unit
count is concerned)."

"I 'll probably face the same "problem" with FWC, hence
my question concerning other possible rules."

Just how big are you thinking? We do 4000points of 6mm FWC in an evening and usually reach conlusion.

Steve P

Net Epic just like it's parent Space Marine rarely lasted more than 4 or 5 turns. The turns can last quite a long time.

Thanks,

John

@khurasanminiatures, can't really help as i've yet to
play any of those game…apart from BKC that is.
I guess you could play those in 15mm with fewer minis
per stand or bigger stand, as usual.

@stenicplus, i'm thinking 50t to 70 stands per side.
I think 50ish stands is the upper limit for BKC before
the game starts to slow down.

@John, thanks it looks quite short, i'm used to 8/10+
turns with my other games.

My vote goes for Epic Armageddon- the best compromise between all of the various Epic rulesets. I have played quite large games at the 6000-8000 points mark (normal sized tournament games being 2500-3000 points).

Cheers

James

While a big DS2 fan, Wessex Games Iron Cow ( which Brigade Models vehicles are supposedly 'for' ) are an ingenious fast-play system that is just perfect for large-scale tank battles, with soem nice ideas for artillery, air strikes and ECM/ECCM operations.

Most of our NetEpic battles ended in turn 3. Rather liked that, as it means you have to commit to a decisive plan to fight for the objectives, and "uber" units can't do all that much damage.

We used to enjoy 2nd Edition Space Marines. I still have all my old models, so if I ever get back into it, I'd probably use NetEpic.

I have played a LOT of Space Marine, DS2 and some Net Epic. More recently I have played Epic Armageddon. I had fun with all of them. But the least fiddily is definetly Epic A. You just need to own the figs. I started back when svsavory did. It was during Space Marine's heyday. For more generic scifi games I like POW. I own FWC but have yet to try it. I'd like to get Iron Cow but am waiting on the PDF.

Thanks,

John

Under DS2 rules, if you shoot down a medevac VTOL, you are required to buy all post-game beers.

Built-in booze support wins my vote.

Liked Space Marine, which is was just mini-40K, and it could handle some fairly large battles if you were familier with the rules, which I guess goes for pretty much any rules set. Epic streamlined it and the company cards handled army construction and moral quite well. Battle Force 2, though I only ever played it off the maps, can handle some nice large actions.

I like EpicA for getting a couple of games in of an evening using unit counts of around 100 bases and vehicles (more or less depending on list) per side (up to 150 at the typical GT tourny game size). What area do you feel are too complex or fiddly so we can get a better idea of what you are after?