An Epic Double Header

No games of Epic Armageddon in ooh, three years, and then two within a fortnight.  What a rarity.

I was gifted a pile of Epic models well over a decade ago, and in the last two editions of the rules I've found it to be a rare treat to play a game, as it happens, arranging one led to an opportunity to bag another, though with mixed consequences...

Anyway.  First up was a game against Gav, using my Orks and Imperial Guard; Gav fancied learning the game and I took him through a basic scenario with small, friendly forces.

Ah, how I love my Orkses, sweeping across the battlefield in mass formations.  I would attest that only in Epic (and then only in the very largest games) can you evoke the grandeur of battle that Games Workshop's art so often represents.  Otherwise as a game, it makes a good fist of large scale armoured combat, in a simple but plausible form. 

I attempted to wipe out Gav's infantry forces first, sweeping around his flanks, His left recoiled, but the Right was well supported and hunkered down.

I tried to put on more pressure, but my Gargant failed to take any action on two out of four turns allowing Gav to gradually dominate the right.  However, behind this, the remnants of my Blitz Boys and a mob of infantry were turning on his rear echelon.

In the end the game was a dignified draw, with neither side gathering any outright objectives.

The same could not be said of my second encounter a week or so later with Mark.  To be fair it was a game carried out in excellent spirits, but it soon transpired I'd brought a Space Marine knife, to a gunfight.

A slightly larger game at 3,000 points, I rolled out my Space Marines for possibly only the second time (Orks are my first choice normally) to see what they could do.  Mark on the other hand had the Tau, a force I used to face a lot in 40k, but have never played against in Epic.

To be honest, it was pitiful.

I lacked a coordinated plan, whilst Mark knew his force well, and how to get the best out of it.  No disrespect to Mark either, but there was a sense of that old GW classic, 'List Creep' in his force; being the phenomena whereby the latest army list in any Games Workshop game is always better than all the others before it! 

Now, you may call that bias, but I would say as a result I was getting pasted everywhere.  Not helped when I found the supposed big hitter in my force, the Revenant Titan, was completely rubbish (every other Titan has a Macroweapon of some sort, it seems, except this grandiose statue to pointlessness!)

Still it was a pleasure to look at the beautiful Forgeworld resin models, as they stomped all over me.  My they must've cost a pretty penny.  Especially this monster...

I mean, my Titan, could've easily walked around on it's back.

By the end of the battle, only my Titan, dubbed 'Norbert', and my Terminators and Landraiders were still active.

To be fair, Space Marines really take a lot more damage than I realised, and were far more effective in the assault than holding back at range.  My tactics, such as they were, played into Marks hands.

Well, back to the Orks then, and hopefully in less than three more years...