Epic Proportions Army Pitch

Assembling The Legions...

Not bad for having ridden unused in some boxes through twenty-five years and several moves through a few states...

I am dropping some quick WIP pictures of my Epic sorting and repair work in anticipation of Dr The Viking posting an update on the Epic Army Challenge for month's end.  For the last two weeks I have been sorting tiny miniatures and studying NetEpicGold army cards in order to figure out the best disposition of my forces.  In an ideal world I would be pooling all my space marine epic miniatures into one giant Legion.  However since I'm jumping headfirst into a long discontinued game and planning to play with fan generated rules I have to be pragmatic about how many opponents I am initially going to be able to find.  Especially since we haven't left our house in six weeks and who knows when I'll be back to playing games in person.  For now, I am very fortunate to have a gaming apprentice in my son so I am shaping up this prospective army to be two separate army groups from two different chapters.





There is already a sizable painted Salamanders force in my possession that was my first GW army of any kind.  There is a story behind them and they were not painted by me but I'm saving that tale for a post next month.  I'm planning on painting some more of the unpainted marines shown in the picture to match my old Salamanders, as well as painting a balanced opposition force of Ultramarines to square off against them.  Usually narrative is my key concern with army building but in this case practicality is going to win out in the choice of Ultramarines for the opposing force.  After gaming in the Warhammer 40,000 universe for thirty years, I think I've always wanted to at least dip my toe in painting the space marine army most featured over the long history of the grimdark.  Also, more practically, after decades of buying space marine boxes I have a truckload of Ultramarines transfers, the smallest of which will come in very handy with my planned army painting project.  The greatest challenge will be to figure out a story as to why the Ultramarines and Salamanders are locked in combat, head canon manufactorum shift into overdrive!

The bounty of a my first trade on a FB trading group.

Besides the miniatures pictured here, I have also recently completed an awesome trade with a member of the 2nd edition 40k group on Facebook.  Winding their way through the cross country mail is a box of vehicles, troops, and one Warlord Titan who will be swelling this fledgling battle group to two armies of space marines who can face off with lots of tactical options at their disposal.  My plan is to sort out the armies into two forces and balance the support units to provide some parity in game play.  A detachment of Whirlwinds for each side, space marine bikes for one faction and Land Speeders for the other and so on.  I don't have a fancy way to lay out my plans in table form with points just yet, but for the purpose of interest and my own memory this is what I'm thinking so far:

Salamanders Chapter

Warlord Titan
Chaplain
Space Marine Veteran Company
Space Marine Battle Company
Land Raider Detachment
Predator Detachment 
Whirlwind Detachment x 2
Vindicator Detachment
Space Marine Bike Detachment
Punisher Dreadnought Detachment
Thudd Gun Battery
Mole Mortar Battery
Robot Squad


Ultramarines Chapter

Warlord Titan
Chaplain or Apothecary? not sure yet
Space Marine Battle Company
Space Marine Tactical Company (on foot, no rhinos)
Land Raider Company
Terminator Detachment
Space Marine Veteran Detachment mounted in Razorbacks
Whirlwind Detachment 
Vindicator Detachment
Land Speeder Detachment
Punisher Dreadnought Detachment
Thudd Gun Battery
Robot Squad

Soon this sadly one armed Titan with be fitted with a new arm so he may rejoin the field of battle...

The Warlord on its way will be key to balance  between the forces because the cream of my space marine army I bought when I was 15 is a classic "beetle-back" Warlord Titan that has been missing an arm for at least two decades.  Not only is another Titan on its way here, but also several weapons options and extra arms so I can repair my classic Titan.  That will enable my son and I to face off not only with large armies but also a Titan on each side which, from what I remember of many games of 2nd edition Space Marine as a teen, was one of the best parts.  Now the real challenge will to be figure out if I paint my Titans to be from two different houses.

I'm excited to be part of this ongoing blog project and if you are a fan of Epic you should check out the blog that is coordinating the whole thing: Dr the Viking's Miniatures Games Hell