EpicFeast: Epic 40,000 meets Ravenfeast

I’ve always loved the look of Epic (Space Marine, Epic 40k, Armageddon… all of it). There’s something about lots of models involved in a large-scale battle that is so evocative of the 40k art that adorned the rulebooks I grew up with. I’ve played Epic Armageddon and Epic 40,000 recently and they are really nice, albeit a little dated, rulesets. Recently, I was looking for something smaller scale, but still epic in feel, to play through games that involve mostly infantry and their light support, i.e. nothing heavier than a Dreadnaught.

Enter Ravenfeast (free download available here; be sure to check out the Myth & Magic supplement too for more options), a ruleset designed for Dark Ages/Age of Vikings combat. You might ask how that relates to epic combat in the 41st millennium… so let me explain. Ravenfeast offers model-by-model activations, with one player moving everything in their force and then the other player moves everything. From then the shooting and melee alternates between models. As models don’t ‘die’ until the end of the turn, this works rather elegantly. Ravenfeast also has an open pointing system, allowing players to spec up individual models and work out their points.

Before I show how I pointed up some Space Marine and Eldar units, let me talk about some rule modifications I made:

1. All movement and ranges are converted from inches to centimetres. Shooting (Missile) range numbers are rounded up (8″ becomes 10cm, 18″ becomes 20cm).
2. Models can make a ‘March’ move. To do so they must pass a Leadership test. If passed, they may move at double rate (and may engage in melee). If failed they may only move their standard move distance. Either way they may not shoot.
3. A Leaders Leadership stat may be used by models within 10cm of it. However, once a failed Leadership test occurs, their Leadership may no longer be used during that phase.
4. Models may make a full move and still shoot.
5. There is a 30cm range option when statting up models with missile and point values of: 4 (25pts) / 3 (18pts) / 2 (12pts) / 1 (6 pts)
6. Add a Fly option for models for 5pts. They may ignore intervening friendly models and terrain when moving.

The main aims of these adjustments are to allow for small scale games (10-20 models per side), played on small surfaces (e.g. the Kill Team board size of 30″ x 22″) and to allow for more dynamism in movement. I’m not sure about the fly option yet. I need to playtest it some more.

Here are some stats for Space Marines and Eldar:

I hope the above are useful. Another ruleset that might be a good basis for Epic is Open Combat, but it’s not free. It does include an open points system, so, like Ravenfeast, allows players to design their own models.

Until next time,

Owen