Why Epic Plays Well - Scale

Introduction
I was thinking about why i find Epic to be as playable as i do.

Sure, there are a couple of things that are frustrating as, but overall i like playing it.

The (two) easiest throwaway answers are:
i) alternating activations; keeps you interested, the game unfolds more fluidly, 
ii) the wide variety of armies/list/units means a plethora of interesting fluff and hobby stuff.

A more subtle reason is scale... not the one you're thinking of. Yes, it's nice that you can fit an army (perhaps two) in a shoe box, but it's more than that...


Origins
The origin of this thought was some pics from GW spruiking their latest Apocalypse rule set. 
The pics showed a host of model crammed shoulder to shoulder across the width of the board.

Ok, i get that its probably a staged setup, but it made me think.

Below is a 'real' one (not a gw photo shoot)...

When i see 28mm version being played it always feels... cramped to me, especially if someone's sporting a tank or two, or a stormraven sized flier etc. And there's little practical use for aircraft or titans.

Consider that both games (by default or at least local common convention) play on the same size game board -   1200 x 1800mm.

It of course seems obvious that 1200mm @6mm is not equivalent to 1200mm @28... but how do they actually stack up?


Comparison
Epic, to me, feels like there is far more scope for tactical manoeuvring: aka movement really counts.

You don't foot slog infantry, you have transports. Aircraft provide a wildcard for getting into inaccessible areas instantly. Lumbering titans can barely make it across the board with 3 turns of marches.  The setting is BIG and it's reflected in the units.

I think this is from the rule book (though sourced elsewhere)....
"Epic Armageddon is a game of mass combat set in the Nightmare future of the 41st Millennium... Epic Battles feature immense armies of infantry, dozens of tanks and giant war engines such as the Titans and super-heavy tanks."

The intended scale of combat is big. Intended for people wanting to use vehicle, titans and all the other trimmings.
28mm not so - and fair enough. There's much to be said for small-scale combat games too.

Surely the cramped feeling isn't just because the models are bigger...


Numbers and Pictures
Now, generally my math is craptastic (and hopefully i won't completely embarrass myself here)... 

Starting from this premise:
if a 6mm model represents a 1.8m person then 1 meter in real life = 3.3mm    and
if a 28mm model represents a 1.8m person then 1 meter in real life = 15.5mm.

excel, excel, excel...

Using these values, and drawing a comparison to a 1200 x 1800mm board then...
@6mm the real life battlefield is 360 x 540 meters
@28mm the real life battlefield is 77 x 115 meters (21% of @6mm)

...and pictures...
So if we were to play epic on an @28mm scale board then it would be 385 x 257mm 

Aside [20191213]: which is less than the size of a piece of A3 paper (@ 297mmx420mm).

yes, yes, when using 28mm version the scaling for movement speed and weapon ranges are altered as appropriate (and you're not tethered to a base with 4 of your mates) but everything is... much more in your face.
i won't bother working out how many mm a 6" movement distances takes you @6mm scale... but i can't see myself enjoying Epic on this shrunk-down scale.

As a reverse comparison, playing 28mm models on a @6mm scale board would require...
an 8.4 x 5.6 meter board. 

Not so practical... but there's your true Apocalypse size game!!


[Later 20200226]
Pic on fb showing some folks playing epic at 28mm. Kudos.

The board size doesn't look an eq of 1200x1800 but certain demonstrates a larger scale environment.  looks like about 4mx6m at a guess.  looks far more entertaining than the usual 28mm format to me. 


Conclusion
I like Epic   [ed: at 6mm].

Until next time...

Blackstone Sess and What happened to Warmonger?

Yesterday evening we had a Session of Blackstone fortress. Went very well and was highly enjoyable.

After doing mainly 'large scale' engagements (bfg epic) over the last month or so it was nice to be dungeon crawling for a change.

We reset the characters to where they were at the end of last session (thanks mobile phone cameras), and decided to spend our 4 accumulated clues to hit a stronghold... aiming for Deathmaze.

Unfortunately i left the precipice book (required for the stronghold map and prerequisite encounters etc) at home on the painting table, so was running from memory which is never the greatest option.

The improvised aim was to run the 6 (from memory) pre-cursor encounters, and see where that got us. Spoilers: we went very well and next session will his the actual stronghold based map with how our characters are now (2 grievous wounds, but otherwise shiny and even inspired).

Note: basically we're playing it for the fun of the dice rolls and story so if we stuff up the exact details a bit, too bad.  aka GM discretion to keep the story rolling.

These are the combats and challenges we played through...

The challenge cards were quite varied:
- The first gave the highest rolling explorer a discovery card and no penalties... nice!
- The second ended up giving the elf a grievous wound (1:2) but everyone else unscathed.
- The third we opted out entirely, risk v reward not worth it.
And one support ship was utilised somewhere along the line (i think combat 2).

Here we're about to do the first map...

The overall (wo)man of the match went to the missionary. Straight out of the gate she fried an entire squad of traitor guardsmen and only missed out on inspired by 1 pip (crit -> crit -> hit... noooooooooooo!!) which was unlucky.

The second map was a mixed bag. all three encounter cards were guardsmen so they were more or less half strength, which was lucky for us. However, the tight tunnels proved somewhat problematic (actually getting at the guardsmen before they were close enough to rush us).  But we got there in the end. From memory Missionary picked up a grievous wound (2:2) on this map. 

Gere's we're about to start the final map. Only two blobs of enemy and not heavy-hitters so a relatively easy finale.

Missionary hit the ur-ghuls and this time managed to inspire!!
As the ur-ghuls were higher up on the initiative track this meant we had two explorers to deal with the spindles lurking at point 2.

Not wanting to be totally off the podium the trader managed to bum rush a full (4 strength) reinforcement squad of spindles and stab-stab-stab took them out in one set of dice.
Stupidly leaving himself exposed to any reinforcements... but were were very lucky with enemy reinforcements (very few) on the night, so he was golden.
The other explorers were cut off and had to hoof it the long way round by some rather zealous trapping and flame bombing of the other corridor.

This then was our final disposition. elf and trader have their auto-inspire cards. missionary is inspired (hoping that holds between encounters but need to look that up). and gathering a tonne of archeotech (11 between us).

With only 1 clue (not enough to try for another stronghold immediately) and only 2 wounds between us we figure we're probably best off hitting the stronghold and seeing how that pans out.  next session.

The session energy was fast moving, the encounters quite story-like and immersive. Our general retained grasp of the rules was pretty good (or at least where to look things up), and though there were a few technical furfies (guards sometimes moving 3 hexes not their usual 2 = not good for us, but not picked up on until later) the games flowed really well.


Warmonger... whatever happened to that?
I don't know if 'stalled' is exactly the right term. He's guarding the paint table, but i'm not really inspired to paint (anything) at the moment.
The striation remains distracting (for me) but it's difficult to get out of little gothic recesses etc. The only option i can think of is pooling paint higher than the striations (which is not that high, but i'll need to restock on leadbelcher (agaaaaaaiiiin)).

Given he's not due on a game table any time in the imminent future, he's resigned to just hanging around.

Until next time...

Epic - New Templars - pt4 - Air Support - pt1

Not a finished product this time around, just a progress and build report.

Air Support - Part 1
2x complete Thunderhawks printed this weekend.

Had the 3D models all 'finalised' by Friday and managed to get these printed off.
The 3D model is a reworking of some existing models off thingiverse, combined with some original modelling too (took a couple of weeks from go to whoa).

Model here.

The weather was super-cold (not Canada cold... but still cold... for here).

My print technique leaves much to be desired (blurb below) and the prints are just barely usable.
Some areas will need to be bogged up with green stuff and other areas sanded a bit, but i'm confident that these'll be table-presentable.

The problem i'm getting is underside warping (drooping). Some misshaping can be seen under the cockpit and (not visible) the wide planes (especially winglets and under the cannon) are drooping.

The problem is slightly catch-22.

Normally a(n easy - i.e. imagine a regular cube) print will let the bottom couple of layers set harder with a longer exposure time. This theoretically creates a stronger bond with the build plate and also, consequently stops the warping.

However if you have indents and details on the bottom surface this can screw your plans up. If you have a cube that has a little bump in the middle of the bottom surface then only the little bump connects the entire model to the build plate. This is not good as the model is likely to detach from that single stress point.

So i printed all of these with supports (which raises the entire model off the build plate, and off the bottom level). The supports also provide a raft which creates an excellent connection to the build plate (so less misprinting due to failure to attach).

However, as the raft is now the bottom layer (getting the strong exposure) and the underside of the model gets 'regular' exposure time. which is fine for the inner and top layers (which print fine), however the bottom layers get the droops.

Need to work out how to able to put the model 'directly' on the build plate, and attach rafts without or with bare minimum supports. Alternately i could use longer exposure for more layers until the bottom is definitely done...

[later] I have since found a video of someone doing what i think i'm trying to achieve (bit thin on the ground with the how-tos). Will have to play around with the software a bit more there don't seem to be many other software options available (unlike the filament sphere).


Chemicals
The new, clear state of the recently filtered 'dirty iso' didn't last long. After the first clean up it had returned to murky (no 'custard' though... yet).

The 'clean iso' doesn't suffer from this at all. That's the point of 2 washes of course but you'd think that some of the murk would migrate from tank to tank. Perhaps it's there, just not observable.

My working theory is that the raw (uncured) resin causes the effect and perhaps the dilution in the dirty tank stops the effect passing to the clean tank   [shrug]


[UPDATE 20190729]
spoiler: landing craft.

finally managed to get some green stuff (both varieties) and patch up the thunderhawks 'enough'. they're ugly but it works. 

they've had first coats of matt spray and i'll start of the washes presently. 

 over all, pretty happy with the results. don't look too close and they're perfectly acceptable.

In other air support news, 2 landers underway - but also not moving past this stage in the immediate future.

this is precisely where they're at. 1/2 of 1 lander and 3/4 of another. i possibly have just enough resin to print the wings out and finish one but i'm not going to.

had to order more resin and the sobs have doubled the price. unsure how this will affect my enthusiasm for churning out army after army now. maybe it's just a temporary bump due to more printers sold and thence higher demand. i'm sure demand will decrease again before too long.

additionally: i don't want to complete a single lander. i want them both batch completed at the same time. coming back to jobs is boring. *

additionally: i want my garage bench space back to work on other projects and while the print was sitting front and centre that wasn't happening. 

* landers. printing the landers i experimented with print times and got some better results, and also worked out some raft and support stuff. far from perfect, but better.
generally the underside (attached to the build plate) was warped to some extent. however the way i chopped these models up these surfaces will be sitting 'inside' the model and can be sanded or bogged up without having to see it. the connections/edges will need some filling and cleaning work (hence wanting to batch it).

these things are big. i'm not sure if they're going to be too big. even for out-of-scale epic even though they actually make sense (compared to the the thawks and my print infantry). 
a lander is supposed to be able to carry: 12 infantry units + 6 armoured vehices... so my usual posse of crusaders, neophytes plus a squad of landspeeders makes sense in this.
by comparison the thunderhawk carries 8 infantry sticks, and my new ones make it look like that might vaguely be possible.
the size comparison works.
however compared to i.e. the old, old gw warhounds (which are undersize imo) these things are the size of an apartment building.
see how they turn out i guess.


[Later: 20190801]
The Thunderhawks crawl toward completion...

left side is drybrushed with a light grey. right side to be done, just to demonstrate the difference. 

Starting to add detail colours...

Engines, first blue layer. Windscreen, first gold layer, Detail white here and there.



[Later: 20190802]
Done... enough...

From the top...

Engines got a bit of colour, fired up...

And now with some support cast. reasonably happy with the scale too...

Until next time...

Random Task - Isopropyl Filtering

So i haven't done any printing of late.

Have been modelling up the Thunderhawk reboot which is taking quite a while. Should be worth the effort though.

I did make it down into the garage on the weekend, and random, spur of the moment thing filtered the isopropyl.

Year 7 (or less) chemistry. Nothing but homebrew lab equipment here. Funnel + paper towels.

The first cleanup ('dirty') bath had somehow developed a chemical 'custard'; hanging from the liquid surface, on the container surface. Basically a suspension in the liquid.

Managed to filter out the sludge pretty decently. Bit of wastage but better than having to chuck the entire container. The orange juice (picture) is pretty much the final parse, and it turned out very clear, minimal sludge.

Previously i had placed a different 'dirty' bath directly in the sun (when i was using the smaller containers - to evaporate the iso and cure the residue for disposal) and a similar suspension and custard skin formed.

Interestingly the 'clean' bath didn't form the suspension - it was sitting right beside the 'dirty' container so subject to all the same environmental conditions, except less resin. The 'clean' iso also got a parse through the filter - just because.

So ready to print.

Until next time...

Terrain - Features

Terrain Contemplations
Terrain came to mind during the hours driving to and from Saturday's event. I'm thinking of making some.

Firstly, i still don't want more than one box of terrain. 

Ideally, on game day i'd like to take 1 box of terrain (which can make up 2 tables easily) and my army box (just 1).

While there's still a bit of wriggle-room in the current terrain box, i'm not just looking to fill it for the sake of it. 

I'm thinking more along the lines of 'feature pieces'.  I saw a nice terrain piece a week or two ago which brought all these thoughts back to light as well.

Obviously ship = feature piece. Ship has it's own box (immediately violating the 1 box rule - but it goes out infrequently).


An aside... So i was thinking about the fluff of my terrain... What?

The tables i can currently put together are set on an 'agriworld';  the majority of usable surface is covered in 'crops' then pick it, pack it, fire it up... into space and send to other worlds that can't grow their own crops (forge worlds, mining worlds, hive worlds, etc etc). 

While crops cover the surface from horizon to horizon there would still probably be small (relatively minuscule compared to hives cities etc) admin settlements, shipping ports, fuel or water distribution line stations etc etc.

The 'ship table' is a small dock for restocking or refitting an orbital defence monitor [wow, really threw everything at that table hahaha].

The terrain can can alternately make an administration 'settlement' with apartments as the main feature...

There's also also the forests and chapels table...

 And of course customise to taste on the day...

Back to the point...
i was contemplating the settlement table could have a single, larger apartment complex/hub/(mini-)hive as a centrepiece. Perhaps using a 'placemat' sized structure (rather than the standard smaller 'coaster'). This might be 4 tiles high in places. Not sure. Just contemplating.

  Placemat

 Coaster

Could also emphasise the industrial stuff a bit more (has fallen out of use), so do a few more of the container 'coasters' and perhaps a container mega-stack on a 'placemat' piece.

Additionally or alternately for industrial i was thinking of running a big 'pipeline' pieces across the table. 4" pvc tube spruced up suitably and dividing the table into interesting segments.  Fits with the fuel or water pipe network theme, and on a planetary scale.

...something like that perhaps. so just 40mm pvc with themed 'blocks' for stability etc. would be a cinch making those with the filament but would bother on the resin. might look at wooden blocks with holes cut by a forstner bit... dunno.
The design has changed a little since the original draft... am looking to make the entire thing out of 'connectors'. easier than cutting wood blocks. The pipe will just slot into the connector and done. 
will epoxy the connector to a coaster with a downward angle piece as appropriate, then build up around the sides with wall plaster. will probably add some gubbins and widgets at the connector points to add some interest.   should be easy.

I guess the bottom line is i'd like central, megalithic pieces to provide a thematic focus and tie the board together thematically - and also help break up the space, rather than relying on numberous smaller terrain pieces quite as much.

All just contemplation at this stage... we'll see what we see.

Side Note - Forest Terrain
[later 20190819: this has now happened]

am giving some consideration to modifying the forest area terrain. so creating cut-out/recesses on the area terrain plate that the tree pieces will slot into. (not that it specifically needs it) but it will make the piece more stable.
a possible downside is that the tree will need to slot into the correct hole... and the scatter-anywhere option is decreased/removed.
a plus side is that it might make the piece look a little more unified rather than a plate with stuff clearly sitting onatop.

probably wont both making an mdf top piece with pieces cut out. more likely to build up the top of the plates with plaster, moulding around the tree pieces, then re-basing the plates. 

recesses with tree floating over...

the recesses would still be painted the same colour as the rest of the plate (not pink), but with less grit and texture. The plates currently have some pretty course grit on there which will need scraping off.

This is the desired result...

So when not in use the tree fit smoothly into the base plate.

The forest terrain has seen a bit of use over the last few sessions, not just as a space filler but dudes hiding in it.
Being able to remove the trees is a definite must have. 
Will just need to work out the best positions for the inserts.
[later: am also considering adding a fourth base plate. along with this the plates will have a mixture of rock inserts and tree inserts. not sure if this will be too sparse. will try and find out.]

Until next time...

Epic - New Templars - pt3 - Termis and Tanks

Had an Game session on Saturday in the more southern suburbs.

3 tables worth of Epic games !!  simultaneously, and in sydney !!  unprecedented in recent times.

Unfortunately i had to leave early but managed to get a full, single game in. And from the reports "one and done" was the order of the day.  Still, pretty cool.


On Sunday i managed to finish off painting the latest batch of stuff for the new army.  Took a while but 'winter', plus i was out for a week with flu (like real flu this time with antibiotics and everything).

These...

...were the last things i printed off before giving the printer a spell.

This...

...is all the newest prints painted.
1x Whirlwinds, 2x Predator Annihilators, 1x Predator Destructors, 3 Rhinos, 2x Stalkers, 2x Terminators + Chaplains. 

And this...

...is everything i've done from the new project so far.

In all, i rough calculate that there's about 3,400 points there. So enough for a standard game if required.

However there's probably on 2 or 3 formations that i'd actually use given my play style. And there's definitely not the minimum requirements for my true Templar list.

So time to fire up the printer again... however i need to do some work on the models i'm going to be using i think... so no rush. 

On all these models i've finished them with 2 coats of 'storm shield' which is a clear matt 'varnish'. Not that they take a beating but thought i'd try it out. doesn't seem to have affected the colour too much so am happy. Perhaps the basing looks a little glossier and mono-chrome that without it, but [shrug].

I'm kind of at a stage where i need to start thinking about storage too. I'm not sure whether i'll go down the magnetic sheet route.
Magnets will be involved, but i'm not sure i want to be cutting up big sheets of magnets again.
i'm thinking perhaps cutting blocks off a strip-roll if possible and perhaps magnetising to just a metal plate rather than magnet on magnet... dunno.

Anyway, progress has been made. I guess i'm probably a third of the way into the project. Am keen to start on others (but will refrain) having played Eldar on the weekend (was fun) so inspired to get them happen... plus tyranids still... plus everything else.

Until next time...

A Fun One - Custom Funko

Geedubs brought out a selection of funko pops a few weeks back.   And yes i got a couple; not a huge of pops specifically but if they're a character i like then... sometimes...

So i was picking up some paint pots on the weekend and noticed they also have unpainted ones.

Why not?   Not like i have a butt-tonne of stuff awaiting paint already [cough cough cough]...

As they're my chosen faction and as all the Black Templar colours are already out, this one got done.

It sometimes helps paint motivation to throw something irregular into the queue and break the monotony of batch painting tiny, fiddly things. 

Turned out better than i'd anticipated. Hard to make black contrasts pop spectacularly, but in real light it looks decent enough. 

Even the freehand icons turns out bearable. Was thinking of using decal transfers but didn't have anything suitable.

So new 'table-totem' complete.

Until next time...