I’ve said it before, and I’ll doubtless say it again. “Epic Armageddon is the best damn wargame out there.” Its 11:30PM, we packed up ½ hour ago, and I’m still emotionally drained from the decisions, excitement, tension, outrageous fortune, laughter, and general fun of the game. In my 45 years of gaming, nothing else has ever even come close To Epic A.Tonight Greg & Trent came over for a 4000 points/side Epic game between his Space Dwarf Armor-smashers Titan army and my Ironclaw Space Marines. Trent mainly played the Armor-smashers and Greg assisted both sides an GM’d. Thanks for that Greg!
The Dwarf army has a large number of huge War Engines, all of which seemed to be shielded, reinforced armored and packing weapons dangerous anywhere on the board. The Cyclops by itself held off 4 Predator Units and a Warhound Titan, and never was killed. Very Tough. Both sides had their usual amount of good & bad luck, Trent doing some extreme saves but some unfortunate non-activations. I tried “maintaining the initiative” several times, & pulled it off. Unheard of!In general terms, the Marines were getting their asses kicked during the first part of the game. The Cyclops was putting large diameter holes in things from half way across the board. The Colossus and Land Trains routed several Ironclaw SM units as well.
While the Cyclops was eventually driven back, the body count of dead Predators & even Warhound Titans was far too high. Both flanks devolved into probes & skirmishes, and one very blood ambush by a Colossus on a Marine Tac, while the Land Train finished them off. In the centre things swayed back and forth, with the Predators finally achieving victory at a high price. Bloody excellent game. Thanks Trent & Greg. A great evening’s entertainment.
Forces
Iron claws
5 x Warhound Titans,
4 x Predator Annihilator platoons
3 x Tactical Marine platoons.
1 x Whirlwind units
2 x scout unit
ARMORBREAKER WAR ENGINE LIST
2 x Goliath Mega-Cannon Battery
1 x Iron Hawk unit
1 x Iron-breakers League + 3 Gorgon
2 x Colossus
2 x Merchant Service Journeymen
1 x Land Train with 3 Bezerker Battle Car and 2 Dragon Battle Car
1 x 1 Leviathan &1 Hearthguard & 8 Warriors
1 x Cyclops
Deployment
Turn one
The Iron claws won the initiative and fired the whirlwind battery at the Iron hawk unit, putting a blast marker on the unit. Then the ARMORBREAKER’s open fire with a Goliath Mega-Cannon Battery and targeted the whirlwind battery and by the time the smoked cleared the unit was broken and running back to base. Then the ARMORBREAKER’s Moved a Merchant Service Journeymen unit in to a clump of trees on the rights side of the board. The initiative goes back to the Iron Claws and so they move a predator unit up on the right flank and shoot at the Iron Hawk unit, killing one and breaking the unit. The Iron Claws pass the turn back to the ARMORBREAKER’s and so they open fire with their other Goliath Mega-Cannon Battery and target a tactical unit and manage to kill a rhino and infantry stand.Then the ARMORBREAKER’s Moved a Merchant Service Journeymen unit in to a clump of trees on the Left side of the board, to take a objective marker.The initiative goes back to the Iron Claws and so they double move a tactical unit into the woods on the left flank. The Iron Claws pass the turn back to the ARMORBREAKER’s. So they double move the The Iron claws on to the hill in the centre of the table and targeted the warhound unit on the right side of the hill on the other half of the table. So when the smoke cleared there were two legs of a warhound standing, with his mate running for cover, broken. The iron claws responded by sending in the other warhound unit and it fired very thing it had, to cause a blast marker and take down a couple of shields.Then the ARMORBREAKER’s Moved a Colossus and fired on the warhound unit that had just moved, stripping shields off and doing damage, so it thought. The opposing commander put off a brilliant reroll of double six to save his ass, after the first two failed.So the ARMORBREAKER’s retain the initiative and move the second Colossus and targeted the warhound unit that the other Colossus had fire at, causing a point of damage and adding another three blast markers which breaks the unit.The Iron claws double move a predator unit so that it can shot the Cyclops. Adding more blast markers and stripping shields off. The Iron claws retains the initiative and double moves another predator unit up and fires on the Cyclops, adding another blast marker and doing a point of damage, this gives its six blast markers and so breaks the unit.The initiative goes back to the ARMORBREAKER’s and so they move the Leviathan that's carrying warriors up on the right flank to take a objective marker. The ARMORBREAKER’s retain the initiative and roll to activate the Iron-breakers League + 3 Gorgon and roll a one. So they stay were they are.The Iron Claws then double move a predator unit and fire at the Colossus on the hill,stripping shields and adding a blast marker. The iron claws pass the turn back to the ARMORBREAKER’s and so they activate the land train and travel up the road to fire on the scouts, frying a scout unit and destroying a Rhino too. The rest of the run is taken up by the Iron claws, so they move the lone warhound first and target the Colossus on the hill, causing enough damage to break the unit and send it back over the hill. They send another tactical unit to shoot the Merchant Service Journeymen unit in the woods on the right side causing a blast marker. Then moves a tactical unit up behind the town to support the scouts and their last unit which is scouts move so they are in coherence. The end phase see’s the Iron claws rally all units except the whirlwind battery,which fails. The ARMORBREAKER’s rally all their units except the colossus that's near the Cyclops . Both side remove blast markers.
Turn Two
The Iron claws won the initiative again and so Marshals are warhound unit and move it normally. The ARMORBREAKER’s try and open fire with a Goliath Mega-Cannon Battery, but roll a one and so the turn goes back to the Iron claws. The Iron claws moves the predator unit on the right flank to do a fire fight with the Merchant Service Journeymen unit in the clump of trees. So this draws in the tactical unit nest door and the fight that follows, ensure that the Predator unit is broken along with the Merchant Service Journeymen. The ironclaws pass the turn back to the ARMORBREAKER’s Double move the Iron-breakers League + 3 Gorgon over the hill deploy and shoot the blue predator unit that the close to the road in front of them. They cause a blast marker for the trouble. So they pass the turn back to the Iron Claws, they active a predator unit and fire at the Iron-breakers League doing a blast marker. So they they activate another predator unit and fire at the Iron-breakers League, killing a gorgon. So the ARMORBREAKER’s then open fire with a Goliath Mega-Cannon Battery,and manage to hit two of the Predator units, each lost a predator and gain three blast markers each. So the ARMORBREAKER’s retain the initiative and fire with the Colossus at the light blue predator squad in front of the red one. It fired its 6BP barrage and manages to get the red predator squad behind the blue one and this kills another predator and breaks the unit due to the number of blast markers, the other predator squad does better and is mist by the barrage. That's more then made up by the fact, that its takes 8 hits from direct fire and saves none of them, wiping the unit out. The Iron claws then open fire with their Predator unit and shoot the Iron-breakers League and causing a blast marker on the units. So the Ironclaws retain the initiative and fire the single warhound into the Iron-breakers League. It manages to kill two gorgons and a infantry stand. The units holds. The ARMORBREAKER’s place the Leviathan on overwatch and then try and retained the initiative and so roll for the Cyclops and roll a one. The Iron Claws then move the tactical unit on the right flank to engage the broken Merchant Service Journeymen unit and in doing so trip the over watch on the Leviathan, this manages to kill a rhino and a infantry unit, but doesn’t break them. They fire on the Merchant Service Journeymen and do nothing to them. The ARMORBREAKER’s use the land train to attack the tactical unit that has just moved on the left side, causing more units to die. Which breaks the unit and making it move back into its own half. The initiative is retain by the ARMORBREAKER’s and so they move the iron hawks down the base line and cover the Goliath Mega-Cannon Batteries. The rest of the turn is back to the Iron Claws they marshal the other warhound and manage to get full shields back and move it normal.They move the scout unit forward that was in the town, so that they had a unit in the other half of the table. Then they moved the tactical unit into the town so that they may fire on the Iron-breakers League, causing a few hits, but the ARMORBREAKER’s commander makes the saves and so only take one hit. The other scout unit for the Iron claws digs in deep in the forest near the cross roads. The end phase the Iron claws failed to rally the whirlwind battery and so its destroyed, all other units are rallied. The ARMORBREAKER’s rally all units except Merchant Service Journeymen unit and so it move down the base line. The phase for removing blast markers sees the Iron claws fail three rolls in a row. The ARMORBREAKER’s manage to make all rolls.
Turn Three
The Iron claws won the initiative again(no surprise there), so they move a warhound unit into shooting range of the Iron-breakers League and fire with full effect and only manage to kill one stand and add a blast marker. The ARMORBREAKER’s try and use the Cyclops and fail to active it. The Iron claws active the tactical unit in the town and target the Iron-breakers League, causing a blast marker for the effort. The Iron claws actives a warhound unit sending across to the left flank so its in from of the woods were the tactical units is and only manages to kill two bikers. The ARMORBREAKER’s try and use their Goliath Mega-Cannon Battery and target the warhound unit in front of the Iron-breakers. They manage to strip the shields off one of the bests and as a bonus manages to knock down a shield on the single warhound. The ARMORBREAKER’s retain the initiative and use the colossus to target the warhound unit that had been shot by the Goliaths. after the smoke cleared there was a dead warhound and the other had broken and run behind the hill. The iron claws then move the tactical unit out of the woods on the left flank, so that it was in front of the warhound and shot the Merchant Service Journeymen and only manage to add a blast marker. The Iron claws pass the turn back to the ARMORBREAKER’s, so they attempted to active the colossus behind the hill near the Cyclops and failed to active it, rolling a one. The iron claws then active the tactical unit in the town to shoot the Iron-breakers League and again only killing one and adding a blast marker. So the turn passes back to the ARMORBREAKER’s, who fire the other Goliath Mega-Cannon Battery at the tactical unit in front of the warhound, managing to kill two stands of marines and a rhino. So the ARMORBREAKER’s retain the initiative and move the Iron hawks to be in front of the woods and touching to get the bonus for been shot at. So they fire on the tactical unit adding a blast marker, for the trouble.The iron claws move a predator unit onto the hill and fire at the Iron-breakers League and manage to kill one and add a blast marker. The ARMORBREAKER’s do a marshal action on the ARMORBREAKER’s removing all but two of the blast markers and move them into the woods on their right side. The iron claws then move a tactical unit on the right flank to claim a objective marker. The ARMORBREAKER’s try and move the land train so that its in the opponents half and also to target the tactical that’s just moved, but roll a one. The Iron claws then move the single warhound so that can shoot the Merchant Service Journeymen unit in the woods, so it breaks the unit and kills two stands.The ARMORBREAKER’s try and move the Leviathan so that its in the opponents half and also to target the tactical that’s just moved, but roll a one. The iron claw move the last two units had since the ARMORBREAKER’s had no left. the double move the Predators units up onto the hill in front of them so they could shoot the Cyclops, when the smoke cleared the Cyclops was still there. The game was called then due to time.
Victory Conditions
| Victory Condition | Iron Claws | ARMORBREAKER WAR ENGINE LIST |
| 1. Blitz | no | no |
| 2. Break their sprit | no | no |
| 3. Defend the Flag | Yes | Yes |
| 4. Take and Hold | no | no |
| 5. They Shall not Pass | Yes | no |
| Total | 2 | 1 |
Very nice game was play and the extra turn could have seen a different result. Any ways may the dices roll high for you.
Regards
Greg
