A HOTT Epic 40K Epic

Last night we played a game of Epic 40K HOTT, which is just like normal HOTT but with Epic 40K figures. I hadn't been sure how many players we would have, so I settled on 72AP armies, with an option for an additional 24AP if we had enough players. We got four, so the full 96AP was great, giving each player two commands each.

Orks faced Eldar. Each side consisted of 72AP of troop, with three elements on each side being designated as generals. In addition each side had a 24AP ally force. the Orks were teamed with some renegade Imperial Guard, whilst a force of Space Marines assisted the Eldar. Whilst the 72AP could be divided up into three commands as the players wished, the allies had to be fielded as a discrete 24AP command. They couldn't provide overlap support to their allies, either, to represent their unreliability and general lack of trust.

Caesar and Peter took the Orks, whilst Geoff and I ran the Eldar. The Orks defended, and we set up like this:

Both armies had a command consisting of twelve Riders (light tanks, buggies and vehicles), and these ended up at opposite ends of the battlefield on the respective left flanks.

Here's the rest of the armies deployed and ready.

The Marines and Imperial Guard actually ended up opposite each other in the centre, and pretty much fought a private battle throughout the game.

Opening moves.

The Eldar went for a wide sweep with the Falcon grav-tanks. The Orks opposed them with Hordes.

Meanwhile more grav-tanks fought Ork Behemoths and Warband.

On the other flank, heavier Eldar units fought the Ork buggies and bikes.

Eldar heavy infantry supported their grav-tanks.

The Eldar turned the Ork flank, but really only managed to kill easily replaced Hordes and couldn't exploit their advantage.

Here's the private war between the Imperial Guard and the Space Marines. Casualties were relatively light, however. I apologise for the unattractive crease in the cloth.

The Eldar left came under extreme pressure from the Orks.

Meanwhile Ork Warband assaulted the Eldar centre.

The Eldar still couldn't exploit their advantage on the flank.

This Behemoth survived turn after turn, despite being outflanked. meanwhile the Ork's Warband general was single-handedly destroying grav-tanks; I seem to recall that he accounted for four elements of Eldar Riders.

Casualties proved too much for the Eldar, and the right flank went demoralised.

At the same time the Eldar left also went demoralised. In a few bounds casualties mounted and the Eldar army collapsed.

Ork losses were relatively light, and losses for both ally commands were very light indeed - the Imperial Guard lost a couple of Riders, whilst the Marines lost their Hero.

We used march-moves as described in previous posts, but they only really had an effect in the opening stages of the game as the armies closed. In addition I tried running the Eldar heavy infantry (certain Aspect Warriors, Wraithguard and Dreadnaughts) as Spears rather than Blades, just to give the army a slightly different character. They seemed to work OK, and I shall try them again in some smaller, more conventional, games.

It took about 45 minutes to organise the armies, set up the terrain and deploy. It then took just under two hours to play.