House rules, frequently asked questions and other nonsense

The Epic 40,000 rulebook was written to be as clutter-free as possible and occasionally sacrifices absolute clarity in favour of brevity. This section of the rules is intended to assist players with the spirit/intent of the rules, and to suggest some house rules and general conventions you may want to adopt.

A house rule is a rule which is mutually agreed by the players to cover a particular circumstance or situation. A convention is a way players choose to do something, like where to measure ranges to or from for example. Most players unconsciously adopt conventions almost immediately and we feel this is to be encouraged where strict rules contribute nothing to the game itself. This section also offers us an opportunity to explain at greater length why some things are the way they are in Epic 40,000, so it's sort of the designer's notes really.

Anyway, enough prattle and on with the show. We've organised the commentaries into the same sort of order you would find them in the rulebook to make bits easier to locate.

The Hand of Fate

Long speech here, skip it if you want: (Ahem) Miniatures gaming isn't chess or draughts or even Drach nach Osten (an old board wargame), it isn't played on a strictly delineated playing area with a set number of pre-defined pieces. Miniatures gaming is all about colour, movement and breathing life into the armies you lovingly amass and then drive headlong into your opponent. The number of variables in a normal miniatures game is simply staggering if you consider the vagaries of terrain, armies, playing area, dice rolls, points values and all the rest of it.

This means that occasionally (just occasionally if we've done our jobs right) you'll run into situations which simply aren't covered by the rules, or (even worse) are hinted at in an ambiguous way. At the time it'll be critical, no doubt, the whole game will be hanging on the situation and you and your opponent simply can't agree on an interpretation which favours one or the other of you — I should add that both of you will be absolutely, totally and utterly convinced that you are right. At these times, rather than allow the game to degenerate into an extended argubate (a cross between an argument and a debate) we advise you to resort to the Hand of Fate rule clarification technique...

Roll a D6 for it.

You may indeed splutter with outrage at the randomness of this process (especially because you know you're right) but the chances are that you've encountered a situation which has never happened before and that we never even thought about. There simply isn't a right or wrong answer, so let Fate sort it out. Besides, don't you think great martial heroes have bemoaned the randomness of uncaring Fate — Why was the weather bad? Where were my reinforcements? They'll never hit us from way over th...

Once the game is over you'll be able to view the situation philosophically from the warm, rosy bower of victory or the slimy oubliette of defeat. Talk the problem over with your opponent and reach an amicable agreement about what to rule if the situation occurs again.

The bottom line is that if you and your fellow gamers want to change, adapt, complicate, simplify or modify any part of these rules because you prefer them that way then go for it! While we've tried to explore as many avenues as we can it's ultimately you, the player, who knows best what you want from a set of miniatures rules.

History of Epic

The Epic game began with Adeptus Titanicus, a game involving Titans — just Warlord Titans at that!) battling in the Horus Heresy. Later came first edition Space Marine with vehicle and infantry rules for, you guessed it, Space Marines in the Horus Heresy. Orks and Eldar were eventually covered in a later compilation called Codex Titanicus. After that came second edition Space Marine and supplements covering Space Marines and Imperial Guard, Eldar and Chaos, Orks and Squats and eventually Tyranids. Last in the line of old style Epic games was Titan Legions.

Epic 40,000 started out as a system called Heresy which was penned by Jervis Johnson just after he had written Adeptus Titanicus. I played Heresy when I joined the Studio in 1990 and rather liked it in spite of being initially horrified by its apparent simplicity. We spent the following six years developing Adeptus Titanicus instead before realising that the Titanicus system was simply too detailed to handle large scale battles. Some streamlining went on in Space Marine second edition but the game still lumbered like the Titans it was designed to portray and the increasing number of unit types (all with their own special rules) slowed the game down further and further with each successive supplement.

Titan Legions attempted to clarify the game on the one hand while trying to wedge in even bigger Titans on the other. But with a vast number of supplements and an even bigger selection of special rules and exceptions to learn the original Titanicus game had become too much of a quagmire for new players to tackle. When the opportunity arose to do a new Epic game we decided to totally revise the game using the old Heresy rules as a starting point. Old Titanicus will doubtless keep its adherents and I salute them for their dedication and feedback over the years. Personally I feel that the new game is a better, cleaner, faster and more satisfying one (but I would say that, wouldn't I!). All the best and happy gaming!