This forced the player to pay attention to his units and what he intended to with them at the start of the turn. The orders did not have a huge impact on the units behavior, but failing to place them prevented the unit moving and left them shooting with reduced effect. Advance was a compromise with normal movement and shooting. Charge meant you couldn't shoot, but moved fast and could enter close combat. First Fire allowed units to shoot with increased effectiveness but prevented them moving. The choice of order determined the actions available to the formation. They were fairly basic with only three different types: First Fire, Charge and Advance. Players placed them face down next to formations at start of turn.

The games other innovation was order counters. The only additional complication was war machines, such as Titans, which used a targetting grid and damage charts depending on where you hit. Each player rolled 2 dice added CAF and highest score won. For close combat, every model had a close assault factor ( CAF). The whole formations barrage points were totaled up and the higher the score more templates used and the more damage done. Some weapons, referred to as Barrage weapons, used templates. Shooting generally consisted of a roll to hit and, if opponent was lucky, they got a saving throw modified by attackers weapon. Troops profile and weapons were all recorded on one stat line. It used an alternating activation system, still unusual in GW games, with players moving and shooting with whole formations at a time. Second edition Epic had deceptively simple rules. Warhammer 40,000 might see one or two tanks a side, in Epic there would be dozens and even the smallest game was huge in scope. Getting hundreds of models for the cost of a couple of weeks pocket money was hugely tempting. For a start, infantry was produced entirely in plastic at a time when vast majority of models were metal. The appeal of Epic to a teenager in the 1990s was obvious and diverse. Infantry were mounted five to a base and tanks appeared in squadrons of three or more. But the version of the game that made the most impression on me was the second edition.ДЄlso released as Space Marine ( GW knew what its audience liked even then), it was a game of infantry companies, tank divisions and vast war machines like the Titans. The first edition consisted of two games Adeptus Titanicus, a game of giant robot Titans and Space Marine which introduced infantry and tanks. A 6mm battle game set in Warhammer 40,000 universe, it went by different names, but generally referred to as Epic, a term used by Games Workshop to describe scale in a canny piece of marketing. Games Workshop players with long memories may remember that before Lord of the Rings came along, there was another 'third core game'. When they arrived I was slightly disappointed by their small size, but I quickly forgot this when I lined them up in ranks on the table (not very Orky, but I was new to the game). I was attracted by the promise of hundreds of Orks and dozens of battlewagons and hadn't fully realised the implications of the scale. My very first set of wargame miniatures for anything at all was a set of 6mm Ork Raiders purchased from Games Workshop mail order (as it was known back then) in 1990.

Epic space marine rules