30k Epic Battle Report - The Clash for Heraclitus VI

Epic!

Having fallen hook line and sinker for the new Forge World 30k range and commiserating with myself about how much money it’s all going to cost, it struck me that rather than shelling out £500 for a 28mm titan and what have you, there was a game that covered the same period of fluff, allowed you to field hundreds of marines and loads of titans at relatively little cost and really caught the grand sweep of the age – Epic!

I was always a fan of the original Adeptus Titanicus and Space Marine games and had plenty of the figures hiding out in my attic!


The ultimate dream (although unlikely, knowing us) would be for a narrative campaign that spanned across BFG, epic and 30k/40k rules to get that full grand sweep.



Epic Rules

After a re-read of the rules I have (AT, SM 1st & 2nd ed and the Codex Titanicus book), it became clear that the games, although supposed to be synchronised to one another, were a bit disjointed.

I decided that although there is a current living (4th ed-ish) living rulebook that does good things (especially with barrages and pinning) over at Netepic, I still have a love for the original AT game and 2nd Ed Space Marine (which is a really smooth flowing and easy game to play – the rules from the boxed set are about 8 pages long!). Also, AT has a sweet campaign system for titan pilots, salvaging captured titans and what not that might be of use (while we’re here, 3rd edition Epic was shite…).

Eventually it became obvious that I’d need to tweak the rules of AT and 2nd ed Space Marine to make them fit together, so I’ve had a bash at mashing them up. I'll pop the rules up at some time when I finally get round to making them all legible.


In the meantime - Our first fight -


The Battle of Heraclitus VI:


I had fancy plans drawn up for a multi-game epic campaign of linking scenarios, when it dawned on me we might need to get a grip with the rules first, so I stripped it all out, down to just one battle. I’ll save all those twists and turns for another day.

Because of this, it might seem a bit verbose. This is mainly because it is all drawn from a few different scenario games I had planned.

The event cards are something I hoped would make the game a bit more interesting than just a straight up battle – there should be some events in the cards that gives the other side something to think about tactically now and then and hopefully throw a spanner in the works!

Also, I wanted these cards and army composition of the sides to reflect a little bit of the character of the legion that they represent. Rather than having extra rules for say, Imperial Fists, that just result in having more things to remember when playing, the flavour of a specific legion can be incorporated easily into the event cards – it becomes far quicker to play the game then. Having the cards also adds a little bit of the unexpected into a turn!

Anyway, I'll shut up now....

The scenario pack (it may need to be enlarged x1 or x2 to read properly). The Main Narrative (mental note - orange writing is not good):




And the pack for The Imperial Fists (Don & Sam):













One event card (above) could be played each turn by each side. At the end of the batrep, I'll also pop up the reference sheets for the units and explanations of what the cards do.

The Battle

The battle lines are drawn up - deployment at the start of the game:




A close up of the Loyalist battle line:




And that of the traitors:




Below: Initial phases - part of the Iron Warrior's left flank, where dreadnoughts and Land Raiders vie to utilise the long field of vision the roads of the city provide.




Below: The Imperial fists begin to move, overshadowed by the bulwarked might of the Legio Astorum, who opted to deploy en masse on the right, covered by a maze of buildings:

Early Phases

Below: The Iron Warriors begin surging forward with charge orders, eager to bring their hated foe to battle:



Below: ...and their speed allows 1st platoon of 4th company to seize the first objective (objective 5), on the right flank - a government building facility used to co-ordinate the defence of the planet. In the far-ground, the 114th Land Raider Company of the Imperial Fists rumbles down the open road towards the traitors:



Below: The Iron Warriors consolidate their forward push by also securing the Legatum Building (objective 3 in the very middle), housing Imperial dignitaries. It is also one of the largest structures in the city, affording the traitors a commanding view for indirect fire. Iron Warrior tactical squads also pour across the open plaza. The Imperial Fists tactical squads can be seen, just past the Legatum, occupying the low-rise Telepathica Building, thereby securing an objective.

On the right flank, at the bottom of the picture, the Loyalist Land Raider company form up as a battlegroup. Interestingly, the Iron Warriors adopt a similar formation to counter this threat and an almighty tank shoot-out ensues across the park:




Below: First Blood! The Imperial Fists, anticipating the Iron Warriors assault, trigger minefields they had placed prior to the battle, destroying a number of traitor tactical squads and their rhinos. The Warhound titan Velox Venator is untouched:



Below: The tank battle on the far eastern flank hots up - the loyalists get lucky in their shooting and take out a number of the traitor's Land Raiders. Nevertheless, the Imperial Fists' position on that wing starts to look precarious as the Legio Argentum move to support their armour with The Autarch Reaver titan and The Furtim Warhound:






Above: Despite the overwhelming fire superiority, the engagement does not go well for the Iron Warriors Land Raider company (bad dice!) and they are gradually whittled down by the more disciplined aggression of the loyalist tanks. However, it can be seen on the far right of the picture that by tying up the loyalist armour, it has allowed a detachment of the traitor Astartes tactical company to push across the open central plaza in an attempt to take the broadcasting towers objective.


Below: On the flank, Iron Warriors and Imperial Fists infantry clash in fierce fighting for the double objectives that are the Telepathica and Navigatum buildings. As an aside, it is these objectives that the Iron Warriors need to get to to allow them to shut off the loyalist teleport jamming to allow them to play their event card to bring in Tyrant terminators.

The fight for the building involves a torrid, internecine assault. The building is first taken by a traitor Astartes outrider bike detachment, who are then assaulted by a loyalist assault detachment led by a chaplain. In turn the traitors support their position with their own assault detachment and chaplain led by the HQ stand of the tactical company:





Below: As the melee for the all-important Telepathica complex rages, the traitor titan Blood of Horus rushes forward in support, backed by whirlwind armour and rapier artillery:



Below x2: The view facing the Blood of Horus. Unsupported by its Legio, the titan bravely stands firm against The Wrathful Storm and the Nox Sanguis. Miraculously, the Blood of Horus sustains extremely heavy damage but refuses to be bowed. With the aid of dreadnoughts, the Horus strips its foes of void shields and manages to detonate the reactor of the Nox Sangius. In return, the Blood of Horus is eventually felled by the sheer weight of fire against it as the two loyalist titans are reinforced by the Imperial Flagship, The Emperor's Grace - ultimately, the overload of energy taken by the Traitor titan's hull causes a huge EMP that fries the minds of its brave crew, leaving the smoking hull standing motionless as a wreck amongst the city's ruins.

To the left and centre of the picture can be seen the drop pods of the Iron Warriors' Tyrant Terminators, who were able to make a deep strike after traitor forces succeeded in bringing down the loyalist teleport jammer. One pod falls astray of the landing zone and into the middle of the titan crossfire, but this does not assuage the Tyrants relentless purpose of capturing the Legatum Building. They easily dispatch the Imperial Fist defenders.








Below: Moments before the fall of the Blood of Horus. The titan can be seen in the top middle. The Imperial Flagship titan The Emperor's Gracecan be seen on the left of the shot, about to fill the gap left by the exploded Sanguis Nox. Also discernible just above the Loyalist titan are the whirlwind detachments of the Imperial Fists. Their precision indirect fire caused horrendous infantry losses amongst the Iron Warriors.

In the centre, the assault of the Tyrant terminators in the Legatum Building is clearly visible.






Above: Too late, the Legio Argentum titans move over to the right flank in an attempt to support the Blood of Horus.

Below: The ebb of the battle starts to swing in favour of the Loyalists, who have all but eliminated the Iron Warriors' Land Raider company on their far left flank. This allows them, supported by the Warhound Vizsla to transfer their fire base onto the enemy titans, who are diverting to the right flank in a vain attempt to save the doomed Blood of Horus.

Also visible in the centre of the picture are the Imperial Fists Devastators detachment, who are also well positioned to lay down fire into the enemy titans.




The Iron Warriors attack begins to falter as the loyalist Astartes finally drive them from the Telepathica building.

Below: The battle truly becomes lost for the traitors when the first detachment of the Iron Warriors' tactical company (who had not fired a shot all game) choose an opportune moment to turn their colours and reveal themselves as still loyal to the Emperor. This then, the final irony as traitors experience treachery themselves and the first objective taken in the battle becomes the last.....

Not the best of starts for the Iron Warriors..

Forget how much fun epic can be, even when getting thrashed!

Really good setup Gilly, loads of fun and a bit different. Cheers for all the hard work!

We will have to give you some slack with the painting grief after putting in so much time on that. Make a change from the grief for slack painting!

Real shame that GW don't still make epic, I had a bit of a look on ebay and you can spot the old, old epic stuff easily - some of the newer epic is frikin terrible

Bump for finally finishing that bloody report! Took almost as long as the battle itself!

Yeah I can understand that GW/FW don't want to make epic as it detracts sales from their core games, but especially with the Horus Heresy becoming popular, you think it wouldn't take much to make it a core game!

As for the minis - yeah, early stuff is decent and FW stuff is good, but in between them, the epic range really went downhill to the point where some of their tanks were basically just square boxes. Awful.


We'll have to have another game sometime soon! Now I've got a board and some stuff painted, it should be fairly easy to get a game going if we're ever stuck for something to do....