Hi, I've been on this list for about a month and I'm just so impressed
with Netepic I can't resist having a short rave.
I'm an old player who never had time to play as much as I wanted even
before I had to stop playing for many years.
I was very passionate about AT and 1st ed when they first came out, even
though I never got to play it all that much. When 2nd ed came out I
became a bit dissolusioned though (I couldn't handle Space Marines not
getting a save for example).
More recently I got back into playing 1st ed. (Infact I drafted but
never sent a post about the virtues of 1st ed on the other Epic list
where it gets a good trashing). But, as I played 1st ed alot more, many
of the rules that I liked on paper started to become irritating in
practice. For example, I liked the firing arcs of 1st ed vehicles. They
were truer to 40k and helped give each vehicle a distinct individual
character. But in practice it didn't always work out as I'd imagined.
For example, because the land Raider and Predator las cannons fire
either left or right arc, you had to aim the vehicle exactly at the
target to fire both sides.I'm not a rules lawyer and I didn't feel that
exact placing of vehicles should really be the focus of the game. So
there were times, particularly in bigger battles, when both sides wanted
to fudge this rule. Finally I understood 2nd eds forward arc for all
vehicles rule.(though I like the Netepic rule for vehicle bolter arcs)
Also, though short and long range did add tactical nuance, it certainly
took time to look up those extra stats. There was the same problem with
the separate stats for shooting vehicles and infantry, though I did like
this in principal. A las cannon could destroy a Leman Russ with one
shot, but if it is not an area weapon surely it would take five shots
to kill five imperial guardsmen? Three killed to remove the stand?
Inpractice though all the extra saving rolls for infantry made the games
frustratingly longer - because they just took longer to die.
Anyway, I still like 1st edition (I still think a big part of its
percieved complexity came from very badly laid out reference sheets),
but Netepic has won me over. Any slight abstractions work well, and the
game achieves something I could never do by tooling around with the
rules myself, something only extensive play testing can achieve - game
balance.
An early turning point was when I dug out the spectacular battle report
in my old WD 179 and I couldn't believe that I didn't get Titan Legions
when it came out! So much more my style than 3rd editon - and I had
completely missed the boat! By many years infact! I walked around for
days unable to believe I had screwed up and the game had gone forever.
Those glossy ads from the past looked beautiful showing the smorgasboard
of bits from the box I could never get. They were mocking me!
Then - happiness! I found you guys and it was too good to be true that I
could not only download all the templates from TL - but those great
looking buildings too! Plus it is better than TL. Netepic rules really
have made improvements over 2nd ed that I love (like giving space
marines a save. It gives them their space marine feel back).
My only comment is that at first I found the Epicenter, and it's
mirrors, very confusing. I found the site through Fanatic who still link
to the old Tzeench site at
www.geocities.com/BourbonStreet/1353/epicentre.htm even the mailgroup
links to this old site. It would be great if this old site linked to
other sites, becase for a long time I didn't even know they were there!
The Google search engine only turns up this old site too.
I've printed out all the Netepic 4.0 PDF's from the old site, but it
now appears the newer sites may have Netepic 4.1? (my mac can't read
DOCs yet). Also all the army cards were a very welcome discovery. Even
the play aids site could use a pointer to the download section for all
the Empirator/Mega-gargant stuff, because not being familiar with news
groups I didn't realise these strangely missing files could be tucked
away in yet another download section.
One question. Does anyone play scenarios for Netepic? Or do you just lay
down objective counters as per normal? I've found some scenarios for 2nd
ed in an old WD and wondered if they/& or others have made their way
into the system? I don't have 3rd ed, but it looks like its Battles Book
is full of them and, infact the variety of scenarios is a big part of
the game - is it not? I haven't found any mention of the subject yet
in Netepic.
Anyway it's so great to see this group keeping the game alive as it
should be kept alive! And long live the Squats!
Molerom
Received on Thu Oct 11 2001 - 20:04:23 UTC
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