Re: [Epic] Space Marine Chapters

From: David Lado <lado_at_...>
Date: Mon, 5 May 1997 17:08:48 -0400 (EDT)

>> Actually, if you get a chance to play the boardgame "Battle for Armagedon",
>> you can get a feel for the fluff of the SMs. At the height of the battle,
>> the IG may have about 30 regiment sized units representing militia, regular,
>> and armor units as well as a few specialized units, such as a titan legion
>> and assault regiment.
>
>...If you keep those two alive. They're kinda hard to rebuild.... ^_^;;

We found the only way to keep them alive ws to hide them until the
marines showed up...

>>During the game, 3 legions of SMs arrive, each
>> represented by a single counter. Their stats are good, but they are not
>> even the best in the IG army.
>
>Um... beg y'pardon? IIRC, the only unit which beats the Marines on a
>one-to-one basis is the Titan Legion. The first tank division has the
>same attack, and ahe Assault regiment has a better attack but piddly
>defense. Now, combined IG counters can certainly do better, but then
>all three Marine chapters together are *really* stompy....

I don't own the game, so my memory might be hazy, but if I recall
correctly, the marines were the best all-around unit, being 6-6-4?
(that's attack str - defense str - movement). The Titan legion was
the best offensive unit in the game at 12-4-2, while the assault
regiment weighed in as the second shootiest IG unit at 8-1-1. Then
I think they also had a couple of 6 stregnth armor units and maybe
even a 7 stregnth armor unit (I'm not sure, it might have been a
couple of 5 str armor units and one 6 stregnth), but their defensive
stregnths were generally 2 pts below their offensive str. The ork units
generally wieghed in with stats between 6 and 4, with generally having
better offensive scores than defensive, and they also had 3 gargant mobz
with a stregnth of 10. Their vehicles were weaker but faster.

The problems the IG faced was (1) a shortage of powerfull offensive units,
and (2) because of the way the counter mixes and rules work out, when the
IG took a hex, they ended up occupying it with high offense, low defense
units which could be routed in a counter attack. The marines, on the other
hand, had the offensive punch to take a hex, the defensive stregnth to
hold it, and the speed to redeploy to another battle the next turn. As
an offensive tool, they were far more usefull than just the sum of their
stats (much as the the fluff portrays in the 40k universe).


>Actually, the thing that recently annoyed me... I read the "Battle for
>Armageddon" blurb in the Army book (pp.42-43), and von Strab has become
>an "overconfident Planetary Governor" instead of the bumbling moron he
>was originally. <sigh> At least the three Marine chapters are still the
>same, unlike their near-constant revision of who was with the Emperor
>when he fought Horus....

That's typical GW water-down. One thing about the Ghazgkull fluff that
never made any sense was how Ghazgkhull was supposed to be one of the
greatest warlords ever and Waa-Ghazgkull was such a great invasion,
yet it only involved the orks from Ghaz's planet (admittedly, it was
all of them), and he got his ass kicked on the first planet he
invaded. Not very impressive if you ask me.

Oh well, the humies *always* have to win in the end.

David
Received on Mon May 05 1997 - 21:08:48 UTC