<rant>
Over the course of the last couple of days there has been a lot of talk
about the "level" of game that Epic is, and what level of weapon detail
is "correct" for something of "epic sweep". The problem is with all of
these arguments is that NO version of Epic has "Epic Sweep".
Space Marine (1st ed), Epic SM/TL and Epic 40,000 are all Battalion
level games. For those of you that recall when I posted the old USSR
Motor Rifle Regiment in Imperial Guard terms, the regiment works out to
be 10,000 points (9,974 to be exact). That is one third of one
division. That means a divisions is over 30,000 points in Epic
40,000. Most likely closer to 40,000 point after the non regimental
support stuff is taken into account. The Soviets had over 200 Motor
Rifle Divisions. 8,000,000+ points THAT'S EPIC SCALE. This messing
around with at most five or six hundred guys on a side is hardly "Grand
Tactical", in fact its rather micro scale tactics.
At Battalion level, the commander damn sure does know the difference
between a machine gun, an anti-tank weapon, an indirect fire weapon and
squad/platoon level small arms fire, and know damn good and well that
you can't just use them all the same way. At this level the difference
between an 90 mm, 105 mm and 120 mm main gun on your tanks matters.
How many men are in a Space Marine Tactical Squad? 10. How many mini's
does it take to make up an Epic 40,000 version of this? 10. Some people
have compared E40K with DBM and other "grand tactical" games. This
doesn't quite fit, in that in those types of games a single figure
represents 50 or more "real" men. Before Epic 40,000 can out I was
working on a set of rule (Imperial Space) that was based on the idea
that a single stand was a platoon of men (read a detachment card in
SM/TL "the little cards") or 3-5 AFV. Sort of a SF version of
"Spearhead" or other "micro armor" game. My real job sent me on the
road for 3 months, so that died, and then E40K came out, which, as a set
of rules for a tactical wargame, is just fine. It, however, is NOT a
good set of rules for "Grand Epic Sweeps of Battle", at least at it's
current level.
Space Marine 1st ed went into to much weapon detail. In the "beta"
version, (WD 110, I think) what kind of grenade a stand had mattered.
In some cases a 5 man stand could make 3 attacks, each at different
target. If you used the WD articles for army design it had a rather
complex set of rules for doing so, other wise it just said "This unit is
worth X points", with no guidance as to how to make up you army. This
made for very slow play and slow set-up
SM/TL hit about the right level of detail as far as weapons went,
however the lack of a simple set of rules for weapon effects made it a
bit twitchy to play, in that every weapon in the game beyond simple
small arms fire had it's own "special" set of rules, not all of which
was well thought out. Then of course there was "pinning" and all the
oddness that went with that. It however has a very simple set of rules
for army design, in the "Card" system. This made for slow play, but
rather fast setup.
Epic 40,000 has a simple set of rules for weapon effects and a some what
complex set of rules for army design. This makes for fast play, but
slow setup.
Given that the "setup/army design" stage can be done before hand (weeks
before hand if need be) this is not important. Adding levels of
complexity to an all ready complex system that is NOT used DURING (vs
before) play is NOT a bad thing. Adding levels of complexity that take
effect during game play needs to be done with some care. And yes, I am
guilty of making some some what complex house rules (my Engineering
rules spring to mind). I am working on changing them so that the
complex part is done before game play, not during.
If you have problems looking down at the game table and telling 2 weapon
systems apart (for that matter telling 10+ weapon systems apart) you
really should not be war gaming. The argument that having more than one
kind of support weapon makes the game "to complex" really is missing the
point.
</rant>
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Received on Mon Nov 10 1997 - 12:00:04 UTC