Let’s start off with a full disclosure… I am not a Warhammer 40K player, just does not flip my boat. However, many years ago, I was an avid Titan Legions and Epic Space Marine player. Ever since GW release Apocayplse last summer, I have been intrigued that this might be the set of rules to get my old Epic miniature collection back on the table. Having found a copy on sale, I finally pulled the plug and gave it a try. Now that I have had the rules for a little while and even managed some playtesting, it’s time to give you the scoop from an Epic player perspective. So with that disclosure in mind, think of this as a Warhammer 40K “Epic” Apocalypse review!
OK, let’s start with the game contents. You get a box! In that box you get Twelve D6, Twelve D12, a stack of Command Cards (with variations for all the armies in the 40K universe), some counter sheets with all the required game markers and a rule book. You do not get a quick reference guide (not necessary, but would be helpful), a measuring tool (most people own a tape measure) or miniatures (since I wanted the rules for Epic, this was not an issue. A stack of card board for the low price of $100. Did I mention, you get a box? Considering other GW offerings, this one does seem to have missed the mark by a wide margin on pricing. Fortunately, you can find it well discounted from various online resellers. On a positive, you can download the data card sets (unit cards for each army) for free from the GW website (no pdf rules unfortunately). A subset of cards is also available for sale for a number of the popular armies, if you do not want to print out the cards yourself. So, you can get into the game a bit cheaper if you spend a little time looking for sales (I got mine for 50% off).
OK, now that I have the bad news out of the way, let’s cover happier topics and talk about the game itself!
First we have how you build your armies. Everything in Apocalypse works off fielding Detachments. Similar to 40K, you will find Detachment organization charts in the main rule book. You basically pick the types of detachments you want to field and choose the data cards for the units that match the detachments. Each card included the unit price, so this can go quite quickly (or slowly if you are into going with a lot of options). Each army has it’s own unit cards and the choices are huge (much more than the old Epic days). Once you get over the shock of so much choice, buildig an army is quite straight forward.
Once you have all your detachments organized, you have to organize your command deck. You basically choose 30 cards from either the generic deck and your army deck. These are shuffled and put to the side. Next you need to pick a scenario, of which there are many in the rule book. This gives a great deal of variation in play, which is always welcome. The unit cards and scenario choices really make getting your game organized quite straight forward.
That brings us to the rules themselves. Warhammer Apocalypse follows the current design philosophy GW follows for most of the newer rules. The rules themselves are short and have very simple mechanics. The subtlety is in the units that you choose to field and how the mechanics interact with one another. This is definitely the case here. While the rule book is 120 pages of glossy photo goodness, only 16 pages (which are chocked full of photos) are the actual game rules! You also get a few pages for organization charts, multi-player games, a section on campaigns, ten pages of fluff army pictures and a whopping 36 pages of scenarios.
Game play is divided into , four phases (Initiative, Orders, Action and Damage Phases). In the Initiative Phase, you pull a number of Command Cards equal to your army ratings, plus one (You always get at least one, but this could be much more, depending on what leaders you take in your detachments). Both players then toll a D12, with the higher rolling player having the initiative.
Once you move to the Orders phase, both players choose one of three orders (Advance, Assault or Aimed Fire) for each detachment in their force. These order markers are placed face down next to their detachments. Advance allows you to move at normal speed and then shoot for fight. Assault allows you to move at double speed then fight and Aimed Fire allows you to fight or shoot (shoot at an advantage and fight at a disadvantage). Once all orders a placed, the phase is done.
The player with initiative then picks one of their detachments, flips their orders and moves, shoots and/or fights with all the units in the detachment. Once the detachment is done, the opposing player does the same with one of their detachments. You go back and forth until all the detachments have finished.
Movement is simple, you measure and move your piece freely. If you can drive through an area you do. If you cannot fit or are blocked, you have to move around. Straight WYSIWYG.
Fire and Fight combat is performed the exact same way (one is in contact, while the other is at range). You cross reference the hit number on the unit card, along with the number of D6 attack dice. You roll that number or higher and you have a hit. The roll is only modified by cover or if the unit is damaged, so easy peasy lemon squeezy. Once know the number of hits, you have to roll to cause blast markers using a D12. To do this, you have to roll above the damage number for the given weapon on your unit card. The result is the placing of blast markers for each successful roll. The fist blast marker is small and the second is always large. You stack these up as a unit takes hits. Fortunately, they give you a lot of blast counters, because you need them by the end of the Action Phase.
Once everyone has done their thing in the Action Phase, you move onto the Damage Phase. Here, each player has to roll to see what the impact of all those blast marker are. Each unit is rolled for. For every small blast marker, the player has to roll a D12 and for every large blast marker they have to roll a D6. This is compared to the unit’s save number. For every failed roll, place a damage marker on the unit. Once all saves are done, you then have to roll morale for the unit. The die roll is modified by the number of blast markers. If you fail, you add another damage. Once a unit has suffered damage equal to the unit number, it is removed from play. Units vary in size, with infantry usually having only one hit per base and vehicles having two or three (super heavy tanks and titans are of coarse another story! Once the rolls are all done, you remove all the blast markers and start over with the next turn!
The rules are easy and clear (except the pile in rule that is not explained). Once you have played one turn, you totally have the hang of how game play works. If your looking for a mass army set of rules to push those old Epic figures, this is it!
Overall, I cannot overstate how much I like the rules. Simple, with a lot of subtlety. The price point is the only down side and it is a big one. However, you can find plenty of sale prices around if you look for them. As of the typing of this article, I see the box set is no longer showing up on the GW site (all the pdf downloads are). Hopefully, GW will post the rules as a pdf. If they do, it is a no brainer.
- Manteuffel