Deciding whether to start Epic- Prospective AdMec list

[ThePov]

Okay, I'm thinking of starting an Epic army, seeing as I'm coming into some cash soon, but I wanted to ask some questions first.

1) Are the AdMec and Titan Legions army lists in the Epic Compendium tourney legal? I'm not sure, because on the one hand I've seen them refered to a lot in various blog posts about Epic, here and else where, but on the other hand, they are listed as "Expiremental" in the compendium, so I want to be sure.


2) If the answer to the above question is "AdMec and etc. are legal," how common are they as a tourney army? I ask because I've always been a big fan of the AdMec Fluff and so far haven't been able to get an army going in either 40K or BFG, my normal gaming systems (No AdMec in 40K, AdMec in BFg is all metal and thus horribly expensive), but I always like to be original and don't want to be just another n00b with an AdMec army

3) This is not really a question as much as an invitation to critque my first list, but will I get destroyed on a regular basis by established players if I run the following 3000 AdMec point army? I picked it based on what seemed cool (me likey Titans) and my first impressions of the rules, which may be way off, so let me know. (Disregard this part if AdMec are either not tourney legal or really common)

Reaver Titan
-Rocket Launcher, Laser Blaster, Volcano Cannon
-Veteran Princeps, Carapace Multi-lasers
-750 points

Warhound Titan
- Turbolaser, Megabolter
-300 points

Warhound Titan
- Turbolaser, Megabolter
-300 points

Skitarii Demi-Century
-Chimeras
-425 points

Skitarii Demi-Century
-Chimeras
-425 points

Cataphract Tank Company
-Vanquisher
-650 Points

Thunder Bolter Fighters
-150 Points


Total: 3000

I'm pretty sure tactics would change based on the opponent and the terrain, but in general, I have three strike forces, each based around a Titan. The Skitarii are paired with the Warhounds and do all the fancy flanking and manuevering and such, while the tank company is paired with the Reaver, providing a solid anvil. The Thunderbolts provide Aircover as needed. Is this a hopelessly naive, innocent n00b list, or does it have a chance?

[CrusherJoe]

First off, I wanted to say I'm sorry that I can't answer your question.

But you touched on something that I wanted to comment on: namely, the only negative that I've come across in my fledgling journey into Epic -- the proliferation of rules...most of which are unofficial.

At first I thought having the rules available for free as a PDF would be awesome...but it seems like what that has led to are WAY too many home-groan (misspelling intentional, there!) "compandiums" and "handbooks".

Playing a miniatures-based game should never start off like this:

"Hey, wanna play some Epic?"

"Yeah, sure, what rules?"


I say stick to the official Epic Armageddon rulebook and you can't go wrong.

[Jack_Hammer]

First off, I wanted to say I'm sorry that I can't answer your question.

But you touched on something that I wanted to comment on: namely, the only negative that I've come across in my fledgling journey into Epic -- the proliferation of rules...most of which are unofficial.

At first I thought having the rules available for free as a PDF would be awesome...but it seems like what that has led to are WAY too many home-groan (misspelling intentional, there!) "compandiums" and "handbooks".

Playing a miniatures-based game should never start off like this:

"Hey, wanna play some Epic?"

"Yeah, sure, what rules?"


I say stick to the official Epic Armageddon rulebook and you can't go wrong.

Yeah the waters can be a bit murky for a new player, its important to remember that the various tourney scenes (if you lucky enough to have one) are very localized so the army lists allowed etc.. can be different depending on area. Ive read of some areas allowing ad-mec and some areas not.
Wish i could give you a 100% answer..

While there is a ton of fan created material the core is not that crowded you have

Epic Armageddon rulebook (which is missing much of the offical "errata" and some of the lists need tweaking for balance.) To my knowledge the rules are the same though out the rulebooks.

Epic Armageddon HandBook (This is just the Epic rulebook with errata, additional armylists, and armylist improvements included. Marines for example get some properly needed love with this update)

Epic Armageddon Compendium (Just an extension of the Epic Armageddon handbook with army lists not included in the handbook necron for example)

Remember that much of the armylists are fan created to start with, GW has never come forward with rules for tyranids,necrons,dark eldar etc. so there is always work going on in the community to create further balance, another reason ive embraced the compendium etc.. for updated armylists instead of going with vanilla rule book lists.

[ThePov]

Okay, then screw it. I'm gonna build my army how I like, and since there aren't too many Epic players around here, I doubt they'll really make too much of a fuss..

[CrusherJoe]

Yeah ThePov, that's the sprit! Build what you want, how you want it.

[GR00V3R]

Don't forget, by the way, that the tournament-style games are only part of Epic:Armageddon. Scenario play is just as much fun, and offers a very different play experience.

In scenario play, your formations are limited only by what the scenario designers want you to have. A good rule of thumb for scenarios is to use the largest formation size available to a tournament army as an upper limit for formations in a scenario, and to further break this down by unit type, such as infantry, light vehicle or armoured vehicle (in the case of Marine infantry, this would be 13, from memory; for Guard infantry, it would be about 28).

[Chris]

I am always a bit baffled by this. 40k players seem to have no problems when it comes to what is official and whats not. They even realise that forgeworld isn't tourney legal and they have very nice books.
When it comes to epic though having all the 'legal' rules free to download off the GW website is somehow too confusing.

Anyway the titan legion list is being tested to try and get it to a state where it is balanced with those official lists that are free on the GW website. Good luck with it and your contributions are always welcome on the tactical command forum which is currently testing it.

[Evil & Chaos]

That list in the first post looks good, though it could possibly do with dropping an upgrade here or there, in order to make space in the points allocation for a scout formation to act as a skirmish screen.