[Epic] The ages of Warhammer was mixing (long)

From: J. Michael Looney <mlooney_at_...>
Date: Fri, 29 Aug 1997 09:12:49 -0500

A. Allen McCarley wrote:
>
> > > There wasn't even a restriction on mixing chapters together. Examples
> > > in the Armies of the Imperium showed an Ultramarine Infantry company
> > > taking Blood Claws support cards.
> >
> > I'm pretty sure you couldn't do that. Sure you
> > could have bunches of chapters in the same army, but you
> > can't take Space Wolf support cards for a UM company.
>
> Well, here is the quote from _Armies_of_the_Imperium_. It's even more
> obscene than I remembered in my quote above:
>
> [AOI, page 7]
> Space Marine Chapters often fight together in armies of several
> Chapters. In large wars as many as twenty Chapaters might be
> banded together into one army. Usually such an army would also
> include Imperial Guard and TItans. Imperial Players may field
> a mixed force of Sparce Marines too; there is no need for your
> army to restrict itself to just one Chapter
>
> [snip how you might paint such a force]
>
> A mixed force might include any of the Chapters discussed in detail
> in this volume, those illustrated in the Warhammer 40,000 books,
> or Chapters you have invented yourself. So, for example, you might
> choose the Dark Angel Deathwing as a company card, and add support
> cards to represent two Blood Angel Devastator detatchments, a
> Space Wolf Blood Claws Pack, an Ultramarine tactical detatchment,
> and a squadron of Crimson Fists land speeders.
>
> In Epic 40,000 terms, this would represent using the WD marine special rules
> in the following way: Nine squads of DA Deathwing terminators in the main
> force. The support force slots would be three Blood Angel Devastator squads,
> three Space Wolf Blood Claws Squads, one Ultramarine tactical squad, and
> 5 Crimson Fists landspeeders. (Ah, hell with it. Make them Raven Wing
> landspeeders. No sense in half-measures.)

I think this would be 5 detachments not one detachment, at least if I
was going to design it. IIRC a "detachment" card (the little ones) had
6 stands on it, not 2. Also IIRC you can't take infantry as support in
infantry detachments (in E40K)

I would read it as:
The DA Termin company (x terminatior + 2 command grunts, I don't have
AoI with me at work, <duh>)
The UM tactical detachment (6 stands + 2 command grunts)
The SW Blood Claws (6 stands + 2 command grunts)
The BA devastators (10 stands + 2 command) (would be 12 but 10 is max
for legal sizes)
The CF/RW landspeeders. You might mix this with the Blood claws but
even then I am not real sure this is a good idea.

All of this brings up a point that has been hanging around in the back
of my head for the last couple of days. The WH40K world has had 3 ages,
each with it's own set of rules, which leads to some weird effects if
you mix the fluff from each age and try and apply it to current fluff
and rules.

Age one: The Horus Wars (AKA E30K)
        Rules: Space Marine 1st ed + supplements

Age two: The Age of Apostate
        Rules: Warhammer 40K (RT) + the supplements ("'Er We Go" etc)
                SM/TL + supplements (except Hive War, I'll get to that)

Age three: The 'Nid wars (Current)
        Rules: Current WH40K box set + codexs
                E40K

Hive war fits in the current era and was a "bolt on" to SM/TL that
didn't work real well. I.e. the army design system was not the normal
Company + 5 support + 1 special but closer to the current system where a
HQ unit controls up to x (6 in this case) other units and you MUST take
a "special" unit as the core of your army (The Dom then, now Hive
Tyrants or 'Nid Warriors) Many units had multiple hits (can you say "War
engines", sure, I knew you could) and last but not least the fluff in
Hive War is the same as the fluff in Codex:Trynids

At any rate one of my projects for the web site is to post sets of Army
List Rules to reflect the 2 "older" ages. I'll post them here first as
a RFC of course.

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Received on Fri Aug 29 1997 - 14:12:49 UTC

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