Re: SGII, Points and Epic

["Alan and Carmel Brain" <aebrain@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

From: "Karl A. Bergman" <karlbergman@charter.net>

> I used to play their Epic rules, and even enjoyed it some.  I finally gave
> up the game though after about a year because I got tired of their "buy our
> newest models this month or never win another game because these new models
> can easily beat the old ones" sales model.

They stopped doing this in Epic about 5 years ago.

What they didn't do was stop producing a complete new rules system every
5 years... which could be really, really good, or really, really bad.

I myself *like* the Epic 40k ( Epic version 3) rules best, but the new
Epic Armageddon (Epic version 4) set looks like a reasonable compromise
between the (very good IMHO) reserves/mutual support/combined arms of E40k
and the detail of the original Space Marine( Epic version 1).

For example, it gives stats for all (well, nearly all) the old models, but
*no points values* for them, a la SGII. In Competitive games, the army
lists are simplified, and only stats for models currently in production and
available are permitted - *but you can use any model you want* as long as
the opponent is informed what corersponds to what. The only rule is that
you must be consistent. 

The emphasis is on scenario design, and interesting battles, rather than
competitive play.

I consider Jervis Johnson to be one of the truly great miniatures games designers, 
but in the blurb in the E:A rulebook he freely admits taking inspiration from more
conventional miniatures rules sets. He play historical miniatures, and I strongly 
suspect SG2 and DS2 as well. But IMHO he sells himself short: there is at least as
much truly original work as "flattery", as in "imitation is the sincerest form of...",
and no-one should be ashamed of borrowing a good mechanic if it's the best
available - and conversely, originality that leads to a worse way of doing
things is no virtue.

The "crossfire" and "rally/blast marker" rules would not be out of place in
any good WW2 or modern miniatures simulation. Or even DS3...

Not that there aren't things in E:A which I'm not keen on, and think could
have been done better. 

I know the design process reasonably well, as I played a small part in 
formulating the E:A rules, along with many other people. Much the same role that
I play on the GZG development list. 

OH YES... like a certain other wargames company, the rules are available on
the web as Word (rather than PDF) files, free gratis and for nowt. 
see http://www.specialist-games.com/epic40k/Vault.htm