Epic Space Marine: The Imperial Guard

Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of The Chronicle, my podcast and I just want to wish you a happy New Year and 2021 and it's just unfortunate. We couldn't get a podcast out to you earlier to end off 20/20 but maybe it's for the better. Maybe we can sort of turn A leaf and start 2021 a fresh with a new podcast. And today, I'll be talking with John Web yet again about epic space money. And what about most loved games from the day and still now, we're sort of back into playing

Epic again. Periodically, of course because as men, John discussed, Off the podcast that, you know, it's hard to find players to play with and that's mainly the, the main motivation you need to paint armies and and that kind of thing. So that's where John is very lucky because he, his his partner can play with him in Epic, of course, at his home. Anytime they want to get have a game on and whatever game it might be.

So he's very fortunate. But for myself, it's a little All difficult because I don't have someone there in very close vicinity, especially now with all the covid reduction, and not so much restrictions, but just the just taking care of, you know, social distancing and that kind of thing, and especially with new people, it's not such a great time to, to find people playing Epic nowadays, but it will come, and it will happen. I'm sure. I'm sure it will. So I've got one person in mind. Paul.

That might be interested in playing and we just didn't get the opportunity to do it. We did have a chance to have a game and for me, to introduce him over the Christmas break, but unfortunately, just due to other circumstances, I had to cancel at the last minute, which is sad, but we're going to, we're going to try to make that happen through the year and I'm sure Paul's going to really like epic Space Marine and maybe a few other guys that I gained with, as well, In my gaming

group, but as of recent recent news, if you haven't heard that, we are now planning and going to release our very first kind of fanzine, if you like to coin it in that way.

But it's basically just like an online magazine that myself and a number of other people maybe 10 or 11 people, a sort of, like a Or contributors and editors people writing articles, writing stories doing part painting every metal articles doing scenery articles that are reports just like a white dwarf magazine, but we're sort of bringing you back with our own Community, Based input. So it's looking really amazing with what the guys have been doing in the background.

I've shared a little bit that of that. On the Facebook group where in a video and the last video that I had, just giving a sort of brief update on where we're at with the magazine. We do, we would like to see it release probably in the end of this month but just depending on how things are going, but I think things are shaping up

fairly well. It's just, it's just going to be a lot of work, and we've never done this before, where I've never done it before, but we got one person on our team who does this as part of his living? And he's an editor for a magazine. Oisin in his own country, the Netherlands. So we just got to play it by ear

and to see how it goes. It might be a bi-monthly, might be a quarterly release or something like that, but it's basically getting the community involved in our hobby that we love of 90s Games, Workshop games early 90s to probably, you know, late 90s, covering everything in though in that time frame during those years against Workshop. So The first issue will, look at the green schemes in the night.

Goblins will be the main in the main focus of all the Articles and painting battle reports and that kind of thing the stories and that kind of thing will be just on night goblins. I don't know who came up that? Well, I don't know what it was. It was me or somebody else I think was probably me. I'm a night Goblin fan. So maybe that was just like, okay, we're going to do night goblins and I think yep.

Are the guy who's in our painting challenge has done some Outstanding night, Goblin, Squig, herders and Hoppers and other stuff which is just mind-blowing. So yeah, I'm going to get yappy to do. Some get a ring us some nice photographs to put in the fanzine. We're going to have a battle

Port between myself and my cell. We've disorganized that for the 17th that I'm going to take photos or muscles going to write up a nice sort of battle report much in the same style, we want to try to, you know, Like encapsulate, that feeling and in design and layout and a textual layout and all that kind of thing of the early white orbs. So it's a big Venture where, you know, we're sort of unsure as to how big or you know how premature at this is going to be we don't know it's just going to

we're going to make it happen. This is an hell's baby you know he sent me a picture one day and said hey Josh about we make a magazine and show me this sort of a funk front cover mock-up. Of the fourth edition. Jeff Taylor artwork from the box set and he's on Logo and all that kind of thing. I was just like, wow, this looks amazing and yeah, of course we,

you know, would love to do that. So it's going to come at some point, you know, and if you're not a member of Facebook and out in our community group, at the crank, command podcast Community, I'll have links in the show notes or something or omegas like an external link. I'm sure we're going to have like an Page where people can go, that's not part of Facebook that they can go there to view the magazine and download it to read it for themselves. So yeah, it's pretty exciting

projects. I wanted to share with those people in the community at not a part of the other social networking sites that may have not known about it. But yeah, we're combining efforts to make something pretty special for the fans. And yeah, we're having we're having a lot of fun doing it too. So, that's the main thing. Let's See another news I've got after we talked with John about epic space, man, I got Owen State, and I'm going to record the podcast tomorrow night.

I'm talking like a with this is now, the actually it's well, it's going to be tonight sect. It's actually the third at the moment as it's actually 11 a.m. in the morning. So here in Japan, so yeah, I'll be talking to him in his afternoon and my late evening, talkin all that basement. So they be quite interesting in state and Don't know who he is. He is, you might know his voice from the early D6 generation podcasts when they had him on and he's a really lovely guy.

Amazing voice, great Storyteller. So yeah, I really like to know more about Owens background and history of when he got into the Hobby and you know, everything about it, basically how what you know what what miniature collections he has. I know he still has all his very early. Third Edition, armies Warhammer. So, yeah. And where his passions lie in the hobby. So really good to talk to him about that too. So I hope you look forward to

that. So that'll be coming in another another episode property in the week later, or so, or maybe two weeks later seeing how we go apart from that, guys, I don't think there's anything really major, just wanted to wish you all a Happy 2021. And I've got a good holiday in a break and you're sort of looking forward to going back to work. I'm not. But yeah, we got to do a day but been in the meantime, enjoy this podcast. Okay. And we'll see you on the other side. Take care.

Okay, so welcome back to the clinic and I podcast, we've had a bit of a break, but I'm back here with Jon Jon's. Please say hello. Hey, how's it going man? Yeah, good idea. Good, yeah, it's been a bit of a break between podcast, but I think we've come back at the right time. We've come back in the second hour of the new year and January 2021. So happy New Year to yourself and everybody out there. Yeah. You two met and yep.

All the listeners. Hope everyone had a pretty relaxed and calm and safe time, I think probably most of us were continuing to shelter in place, but I believe you had a bit of fun and maybe some some, some more Progressive countries have got it together and manage to bring normality somewhat back. Yeah, I think I think we're sort of deep in the countryside of Japan so it's not such a major major thing. I don't need, I don't even know if anybody are within our

prefecture. I think there's like a very low number of people, infected, but okay, it's not something that's sort of the if you live in Tokyo or something as much more concerning their restrictions are much higher, but, but yeah. I think we both had a fairly quiet, New Year's and Christmas, and that kind of thing. I just did a lot of painting, how about yourself and did you do? Yeah. But much the same, you know, two weeks of pretty, pretty packed, painting and gaming schedule,

which has been fantastic. Really. I'm, so of quite lucky in the me and my partner, my girlfriend, she she likes to paint, she likes to play. I like to paint. I like to play. So yeah, we just, we really, we really hope it in game that up, which is great. Perfect partnership will weaken. Yeah, I'm sure you'll be the Envy of most many, many All out there. Many men out there as well. Yeah, I think I'm in a very fortunate situation where.

Yeah, my girlfriend, like actively wants to participate, rather than his begrudgingly dragged into it. So, yeah, it's cool. I think my wife is sort of dragged and Kicking and Screaming. If I had to force her, to play some games, but I mean, it's it

starts with board games, right? That was always the Gateway for us was, you know, we met and, you know, she was aware of the ha because of her brothers and she She's of got to know me as the guy with the Miniatures, but we started with board games and not like what Hammer Ball games, but, you know, more traditional, you know, like, not Monopoly era but like the kind of the kind of the Ballgame Renaissance of the late 90s early 2000.

So you kind of, you know, yucatan's or your Carcassonne zombie, things like that and I think it's that. Yeah, you just, you find a fun broad topic that people can kind of glom onto and get the feel for for how gaming Works.

Conservatives, it's quiet. Imitating to just be like, oh yeah, we're going to, you know, it'll play this game with ten thousand, tiny little plastic models and 30 different colors of dice that you've never seen before and you're like, what is going on. So, you know, you know, even if you know you can't persuade your partner to war game, finding a really good board game that you can kind of meet on and at the

range is so good. Now, like, you know, we've got ball games about building up a bird sanctuary. We've got board games about being dwarves building a mountain Ford's like as you know, love letter. There's About Mining and crafting gems. There's so much range that you might find, you know, this is to to everyone really like, if you're thinking God, I wish I could game with my partner. Have a look you know, have a look at here, what a good introductory board games and

find some. Anything has a theme that my partner would like and you know talk to them about it and you know if they tell us it now just not interested, cool respect that because it's not a hobby for everyone but I do think we do live in the Golden Age of certainly board gaming and you'd be amazed. Yeah, I don't know, who knows but I think it's worth a try. If you think, you know, even if it's Monopoly. Like, you know, we all assumed the US in the Ballgame communities, or snare up

monopolies a little bit. And it's a tricky one, because there's a game that was very much created. For one thing, it has been kind of misappropriated something, like, it's supposed to be like a parody of capitalism. That's the whole point about monopolies is miserable and Evan has a bad time because capitalism sucks, but we've sort of forgotten that aspect of the game. And it's now is this like, yeah, this this crazy angry hateful, family game. So I would say not Monopoly but

even Monopoly is a board game. Yeah, they've got a game like that in Japan. I think it's called life at this very soon. Okay. Theme. And it's very similar, kind of concept. I've never I've never played it but I know that when I talk to people about Monopoly they go oh yeah. That's right. That's like game called life over here. Okay. But yeah that's a good. That's a good point. I think my wife, she will play or we have played before the dungeon Mayhem game.

That's a D&D card game. It's really fun. Okay great. Yeah, that's obvious. It's an excellent game and I played that with a load of different people who are not into gaming, and they really enjoy it. It's really fun and fast and really cool artwork and that kind of stuff, but it's just a fun game. But yeah. No that's good. That's a good point. But yeah, any any other kind of hobby news you've got to share? Yeah, so so I guess this was Titanic has Christmas.

So every year for the past couple of years, Sam and I have picked a game and been like, right? That's going to be our kind of a hobby and gaming Focus for the year. So we've Commander we've done tight. As we did epic last year. So this year we went back to well, for well, I suppose, if you think about it to the new version of the Titanic us and we played a couple of games and Sam had painted two of her War hounds and I'd pay it once. We all right, let's just really

focus on this. So I've managed to complete my second war hound with the magnetized weapon so I can sort of guns on and off. And I've done half of a half of a Reaver. So I've done is a his pants down, his trousers. So that's great. Sam's been working on her? ER, Reaver as well. She let me catch up. So she was painting some plague bearers, whilst I was doing my second war hound because she finished hers. So that's been really good fun. And then we've also paint played nine games.

So we're going to do one more game tomorrow. We're just friendly building some some warlord leg. So we can have a, like, a big blowout game, you know, five four or five times each. It's been really good actually. Like, it's some I don't know if you've played the new iteration of titanica so you know, it's still got that epic feel and it's kind of a resource management gaming with the, the wargaming which I was like, that's one of the things I liked

about war machine. It was this kind of resource management simulator as well as a conflict game. I think we need a few more Titans like is one of the things you can play it with. You know what, 212 tions. But it feels like we just run out of models too quickly. So if we had like five times each, it would really start to feel and I think that's the sweet spot if you get like a man up of time. Down in a couple of nights but I

think. Yeah, you know, hopefully people listen to this or into epic if you're not, I'm slightly confused why you're listening to it, but hopefully will make you into epic if you're not yet and I do think this is you know it is a really good spiritual kind of successor to the original Titanic us and it is a you know it's a real you know, maybe I'm biased. I know James the guy wrote it, he was the the guy who gave me my training on the job, okay?

Games Workshop when I started in the store so we've got a friendship there and it's, you know, I'm always good to play. You know, a game by someone that you know, but yeah, I just I think yeah, Titanic us. It's quite fast. It's nice and focus because you can play with your 225 tight. And so, you know, managing hundreds and hundreds of Miniatures. The models are spectacular. I almost feel like they're too big. Like it sounds crazy like that they're in.

They're in, you know, Titanic s. Epic scale. Whatever we want to call it. I would argue. It's eight millimeter scale but there is some speculation there so they are accurately scaled to the kind of the, the Infantry that you and I know and love. It does make them feel really big. So like a warlord is a hell of a painting project. So they really do dwarf, you know, other epic scale Miniatures, but it's fun and, you know, we played a game, I had to score a convoy of the

table. So I grabbed a couple of super heavy out of my guard Army and threw them down. It was yeah, just cool. Like seeing that contrast between the the, you know, even the biggest of Tanks is this this tiny and in the in the kind of the the spectrum of all the Titan stomping around going to blow them up. So yeah that's been really good fun. How about yourself what you been up to? Well, I haven't Sally done in the Epic.

I had the opportunity to show somebody some epic space mean over the holidays, but I had to cancel sadly due to just time constraints and anything, other responsibilities, but hopefully, we'll get that sort of get to do that at some other point, but I did get some stuff in the mail. Someone sent some Dan and Australia. They kindly sent me. Some bits and pieces to help me support my awk horde. So I've What are they called again? The pulse of rockets. I've got a nice.

Yeah, Sam loves causing me like those guys. Yeah, yeah, definitely got those. And I've got the is at the brain crashes. Yep. That's the sort of the heaviest. So the brain crusher is the big kind of artillery style tank. The lung burst is a little evil sentence of like a medium tank. Okay cool. Yeah, so more for your vehicle speed of the cult speed, nice. And it's something else, but I

can't read what it was. I thought it, I got the bag and I thought it looked really cool that I sort of put them in a box and forgot about them kind of things. So I don't want to get to, I don't want to get too distracted. I do want to paint them and add them to my list and start painting epic again, but I don't know, man. I'm sort of just just sort of waiting for the right time to jump back into it because I need obviously people to game with and that kind of thing.

That's the biggest motivator. So what I'm doing now, I'm just painting up some skaven for my Warhammer fantasy battles games because I had a game with Justin here at my house, over the holidays, and we really enjoyed playing one of fantasy again and he's painting up some Empire and I wanted to get back into my skaven Army. So we can have some like, sort of a kind of like a mini Campaign Will like a link, but apples, and that kind of thing like, yeah, this year.

So we're sort of it, man. But motivating it. Hating each other so that, you know, I can paint maybe 52 points over the next three months, and you can do the same and we can get together and play another bigger battle. Next time we meet, so that's what are you guys playing 5th edition or for special edition? Yeah, fantastic.

We got, we sort of Swing between 5th edition and Weimer Renaissance, which is like a, yes, yeah, we're all set cool and Justins. Yeah, from his much-younger, he's a lot younger than me. So he's coming in looking like an eighth edition, 6th edition kind of ha ha ha. Shock to the system then. Yeah. So I've got him into the heroic age it dies it's really liking it. So great. Now that's really cool. It's interesting. So like we're one of the things we would do with Titanic.

S is trying to the other various difference of the clear different ways of playing and we played some sort of points balance, tournament style games and we were playing more kind of narrative scenarios and it's really interested. I've always thought of myself really as someone who's really into the points balance. So, you know, we sort of discussed before, I did a decade of war machine was a heavy

tournament player. And I don't know, it's just I'm getting old or I've just sort of done that phase of my life now. But like, we really start to find out the points balance games with the, you know, the fun, they're interesting. But they were very flavorless. And so then we started doing these, you know, these weird little stars. Like we did one scenario where I said, I had to escort the, the kind of the vehicles off the table.

We did one where Sam had a kind of a depths mechanicus corrupted facility and I had to try to break through her lines and blow it up and all of a sudden, it's like, you know, you're still getting the same kind of combat game, but there's just a Little bit extra flavor and I think that's really where campaigns will shine. And, you know, I've picked up all the, you know, the fifth edition fantasy campaign packs.

It in your garage of drawing and all of those, and I played through the the elf, the dockerfile for one with a friend years ago school and I really looking forward to getting back into them because it just I don't know what it is but it just gives them a little bit more excitement and and, you know, there's nothing wrong with tournament gaming and, you know, sometimes, You do just wanna play like, you know, 3,000 Point Fair balance pitched ballgame, but just having that kind of

that ongoing narrative and you get that with those fun situation of call, you know, you wiped out my unit and now you know they've got a garage or this Heroes survived miraculously to the end of the game and just there's a little things that carry between the games. It just really adds that extra like layer that extra point of flavor that I think is what, you know, elevates wargaming even

further. So yeah, look forward to hearing what you guys get up to with that because my life I wish I had the time like I'm I've got my plans for this year. We'll talk about plans in a minute, but like, I want to be playing more kind of 4th and 5th edition fantasy, but I also have other things that I want to be doing. So, it's just like a, how do you pick like, is crazy. That's it? Because liking it, because we play multiple systems, different games.

I mainly Playing Games Workshop stuff in the 90s, I've got epic, and I think for this year, I think I might have to bust open all those cows. Lovely, cows Miniatures that I've got sitting here and start doing that for 20. 21. I think that would be fantastic. My pledge for this year to having a third Army. I've got Elder as well, but I think I'll do cows first. I think they'll be my my next pick sounds good and you're gonna go mono. God or are you going to split your focus between all the

different flavors of chaos fun? I think what I might do first is like a pretty much what I can do with the the the aux and the squats is sort of focused around a battle report, there's one of the wind. Yeah, the Space Marines, a battles. Book as well with a head like a. I think it's called the, The Emperor's Children, they like a children, Legion and some corn 8, and some scissors inch demons. They got Magnus the red and they've got, yes, they've got the great demon of of disease,

as well. So, I've got most of the models. I just need a few extra bits and pieces. I'm going to center around that particular battle report. So collecting all the Miniatures, painting it in this very similar or exact Styles as that. Is like the basis of my things about 4,000 points there as well. Yeah. I feel like that was about where they tended to go when they were doing time lead and stuff. No, that sounds sounds like a

great great time. And, you know, I did my well, you know, talk about resolutions in a minute, but like the start of my chaos, this year 3000 points. And I did a thousand points of corn, a thousand points of Z 2,000 points of Mughal, it's quite fun. You know, fun way of doing it because it gives you that little bit of a little bit of taste of Everything's it's same with the Orcs. You know, whenever you large,

I'm tired of paying bad moves. I'll just go up and Gulfs because it changes up the color scheme and you know, so no that sounds that sounds like a really good really good time and I think yeah, I know, I did my three thousand points last year for me, my chaos and epic and I think I'm going to try and do at least 1,000 points of corn this year, because one of the things I've noticed is I've I've paid a lot of kind of support cards and

obviously that's one of the things with with chaos is, it's a Like you don't have companies in the way you do with the other, the other armies. You have lots of support you for coal around the great demon. So I've got a lot of like little like, you know, 33 vehicle units, or, you know, handful of models and it's it needs you struggle to hold objectives on my right. Let's do the, you know, the world eaters, they call them. There's not a company, it's a

legion or something like that. Anyway, yeah. So, you know, I'll do Angry Angry wrong, as I like to call him. I'm holding Grand and I'll do this. Do is Legion and then. I've also I've before Christmas I was cleaning up and primed and got ready. I've done controls and monitors and some beastmen. So I'll do some more sort of generic. The kind of the beastly troops the the chaotic monstrosity troops. So I've just got some disposable. Chaff, basically it's like, yeah.

You guys run screaming to the enemy and catch bullets for us? We do the, the serious work. So, yeah. Really. Looking forward to, to cracking up with that. Obviously, I've got this, this, this Reva tie-in for Atticus to finish up as well. And, you know, the thinking behind that is last year, I finished up, I did a Reaver and to war Hounds in traditional scale, and I'm now doing the Titanic as version.

So it's exactly the same, you know, the same markings and color scheme, so I can have them at both scales and it's just that sort of nice thing is, you know, these are the same times just viewed from two different, you know, Zoom levels on the camera as it were so be nice to get those finished in both scales. And you have like a A contrast between the two, two flavors of miniature and then maybe some some fantasy talks to cap the year off but we'll see how it

goes, really. You know, it's it's only January 2nd. So we've got a long way ahead, so I'm sure we'll revisit this conversation later down the line and see where we first got to do with it. So did you just a rapid? You met? Did you manage to complete any hobby goals in 2020? Yeah. I mean I think it was really, it was that think of how many, like, how many armies could I do. So, I mean, is anyone Lucky in 2020? I'm not sure. But I was lucky in the, my job completely converted.

I was always working from home. Some of the weekend, everybody completely converted to working from home and what that meant is instead of commuting, I could spend time painting. So my goal was really to actually get some some serious Army work done. And, you know, I'd set myself a target of, can I do 1,000 points of my goblins and 3000 points of Epic case? At I achieve both those which is fantastic and then also managed to get a war-cry warband on as well. So I completely full a time.

It's only eight models, but nonetheless, that's another another Force done. And then yeah, cap in the air off with that will hand tighten. So yeah, I think, you know, completing two armies was great and then doing some little bits and pieces for Skirmish and smaller. Scale games was a an added bonus, but yeah. How about you? What were your, what were your goals? I don't think I really had any set goals in mind. That sort of, you know, I sort of just, I paint quite regularly.

So, Sort of just either completing things that I've never finished in the past or starting things and never finishing them. So, it's kind of like she knows, I think it to play some games, which really good. I got to play, I got Manowar through the year.

Yeah, of course I did manage to complete painting the both the start of Fleet sets in the Box often tastic, all the additional and all the basically most of if not, all of the ships that I got when I bought the main game from this guy in Japan. And go to play at least three games. A better one. Really enjoyed that immensely. Just can't wait to Play It Again. Actually is all Sterling signal today.

Yeah. So I think that sort of the Manowar, you have the big, you know, you have a lot of tokens, you have a lot of cards with the kind of the boat so you can damage them and you know fill in the kind of damage levels of I think you'd find that reflects quite well in the new Titanic.

It's like I've solved all the salmon was like, Titanic has his kind of it. A naval battle game pretending not to be. So, you know, the way the unit's, UVA and the way you sort of chip away and, you know, you don't just look one shot at I and it's now have to chip away at it and, you know, kind of punch through the Shields and then punch through the hole and get to the kind of the, the juicy interior. So I think.

Yeah, if you enjoy manner, will maybe have a look at Titanic is because I think there will be like, you know, I'd almost feel like you could reskin Titanic us with boats and you could almost play the same game and have a really enjoyable sort of maddewar ask experience with that kind of, it's just got a slight extra level of detail. Right with Manowar, where you're like. I'm right.

You can sort of Breakaway bits of the ship and, you know, shoot masks out or hold them below the thus, the water line. So they sink and things like that. And yeah, I just I think it'd be interesting how you sort of experience Titanic is. And if you've got that same feel I'd always felt like you could quite easily. Use the old models for Titanic has like the scale is completely different. You know, I think a wall or Titan is about the size of the war hound in the new scale.

But like if you just made your own luck, Autumn turn templates, like you could totally play tight Atticus with the with the original models, which was my initial plan if only cuz they're faster to pain. You know, I think, I think there's a lot of design principles that sort of carried over between epic, and Man, O'War maybe because the guys who wrote it, we're just in two men-of-war.

Uh, so into epic story and they had their well, a lot of the design Core Design principles could work in this. I am as well and it's in a sort of a much smaller scale, so you don't need that many ships. You may only need, maybe I'd say about six or seven on that sure decent size Fleet and yeah, no, it's a really fun game. I've really enjoyed it. So I have to play a lot more of that in the in this, in this new

year. And I've just got some new ships to complete my door, Fleet and high off Fleet so and add those and hopefully hopefully collect. Just let all the fleet's for the game. Actually, I've enjoyed it so much and it's interesting. I don't know you've not got yourself a 3D printer, have, you know, I haven't no. So, again, I've no, I've not made the leap, you either. I feel like I'm getting closer and closer to the day when I

admit defeat and by one. But like there's a lot of fantastic were going on in the matter. What community a lot of people doing really good like, you know, alter sculpts or you know perhaps slightly recreating the original Scopes if you lower to look like. So I think even if you're someone who's listening to, this is like I wish I could, you know, get it. I will, but you go on eBay and your, the prices and kind of

wince a bit. I think, you know, there's there's a kind of a print and play Fan Edition of the game as far as I'm aware. And you can get those, you know, 3D prints or people doing, you know, whether it's commercially like. So, man, take of just on a fantasy, flea based game, which I think you could quite easily, you know, switch the models over or as I say a lot of fan bases is kind of making print and play versions or print a home

version. So even if you can you know find the the stock or you can't stump up the cash, I think you Can get into Manowar like easier than ever. And to notice this was how I got back into epic in a big way as I friend and me start playing net, epic gold and all of a sudden it was like everything you need is actually just available to kind of print. You know. It's abandom we're really in the eyes of g.w.

The, you know, they're moving on to their newer games and, you know, you have to play the game a little bit until the line a little bit. But yeah, I think, you know the the the ability to play 90s games never been Right. Which is why we're both here. So that's it. Yeah. So let's let's get on with the show. Yep. Yep. I brought you back again, John. So we can talk about the the armies of Imperial.

This is the second part that we're looking at now, the Imperial Guard. So if you're thinking about Space, Marines, listen to part one. Where we spoke about Space Marines, and we also covered the kind of the bits that work for both. So, one of the interesting things with arm is the Imperium, is this was at the, the kind of the tail end of Rogue Trader. Start of second edition. 40K, where there weren't many

vehicles. So you find a lot of people use rhinos, your squirrels use rhinos Imperial Guard use rhinos Space Marines use rhinos, same with the Predators and you know, bikes and land speed as there's a lot, of course, compatibility. So if we cover a lot of that in the last episode but we'll talk about is the empirical chain of command and how that would

affect some of those units. So I think it's worth listening to both parts, but if you're more of a guard play, this Be the one for you if you're more of a marine player, the first

part will be for you. But I think one of the other great things about this is this is, you know of all the expansion boxes that are available for epic, this one is kind of one Army, so you can build an army that is, you know, part Space Marine Park Imperial Guard, part Titan Legion and have that nice, you know, mixed approach, the kind of a, you know, it's called, like a old soup in the current parlance of

40K. But it's that, you know, that as 40K is presented in the books where the the Imperial Guard is, The the Anvil on which the enemy is kind of held and then the Space Marines of the hammer that, you know, cracks that not of the enemy after they've been bogged down and and tied up by the guards, you can really represent that style of Imperial tactics, which is really cool. So let's let's do it.

All right, let's get on to it. So we're on page 44 and it sort of, gives a brief sort of background to the Imperial Guard and their place in the universe and then it goes into some kind of guard command structure. So yeah, the guard like I've never played Imperial Guard, but I know you played them John. You you're quite fond of them. So yeah. How differently do they play two other?

Armies. Sure. So I think the thing with the Imperial Guard is they are sort of was just saying they're the the Anvil of the Imperium. So what they are is numbers more than anything. It's quite a quantity over quality like 100% of the complete antithesis of Space Marines. And the thing that is so you know, integrals that are so key to that. Is that they're very slow, so they're not a mobile faction, they don't have a lot of transports, they don't move around particularly quickly.

Either always carry out, you know, there are some support causes such as you can, but like as a whole as a core, they are a defensive, they dig in, they throw numbers at the enemy, they grind the enemy down through sheer, you know, you know, modern determination and part of that kind of the key structure around that is the command structure. So we'll go through it. So because the Imperial Guard is

so huge. Its command structure as formally organized the entire regiment falls under the command of Colonel who together with other senior officers and his personal bodyguard for the regimental HQ, which is the nerve center of the entire regimen talk about numbers. And it's interesting, the, a debate with someone where they were asking, how big is a company and the size of a company has changed multiple times in classic GW history.

So, you know, at 2nd edition it was a very different size to Epic to, you know, so these are all slightly woolly but I think the air We'll treat it as is now. So company consists of three platoons of 50, men in the case of a Tactical Unit, plus a company HQ of 10 men and a transport vehicle for the HQ. So and then within those each platoon has a five-man command s HQ and then the remainder of the Detachment is comprised of the Infantry.

So you're looking at 160 a Guardsman in a tactical company. So, it's a huge amount of models, obviously / 5 because we using epic basing, but, you know, if you look at the The Imperial Guard company card, you can see, it's a lot of of infantry. It's where is my card? Was a guard company, gone. It w as I've just, I've laid them all out and the one I haven't got. There we go. The title company.

So you get your command HQ and then you get three platoons or three detachments, each comprised of ten stands. So, it's 32 stands in a rhino. That's a, that's a huge amount of meat to catch the enemy. So, what does that mean? In terms of the chain of command? So the type structure of the Imperial Guard is reflected, on the table, by the chain of command rule, this represents the way in which orders are passed from regimental, HQ use to company hqs, down to individual units.

If the chain of command is broken, then troops further down the chain received no orders and become bogged down while they wait for further instructions. So that's that really interesting. Mechanic Nick, you know, reflects, I think of Space Marines are independent there, you know, tactical quick, on their feet. They're able to, you know, Uh, situation respond to it and behave. Accordingly Imperial Guard.

Don't have that luxury there. You know, they are, you know, Ground, Pounders, your average human there. You know, they believe in that Ministry structure of, you know, you do what you're told. And if you're, if you're in command officers, not about to tell you what to do, you do nothing, you know. So chain of command is a rule and it's about proximity. So, Imperial Guard units can only be given orders if they're in the chain of command and you

are in the chain of command. If the Living situation is true essentially. So a unit is automatically connected to his chain of command. If it's company, HQ is within 25 centimeters. So when you have your three detachments, unlike other company cards, those all have to remain not next to each other, but within 25 cm of their company HQ. So, you'll often see the company HQ will be kind of Central, and then you'll have the three different attachments spread

around them. But always within that 25 centimeters Only one model from the Detachment has to be within 25 and it doesn't have to be the the Detachment HQ it could be any of the ten stands in that Detachment.

But obviously you know, the more that nearby the less chance you've got of having the company command broken and you just don't want to spread them out too far chain of command has been broken in the following ways so if the HQ is further than 25 cm from its company HQ, so if the Detachment is for the 25 foot is coming HQ, so do not spread out if the company's hey

Hugh has been destroyed. So don't put your company HQ out the front, you know with its bum in the wind because it's going to, you know, get destroyed and break your entire company, which is bad news because then they can't get orders. Which means I can't do anything or if the unit's HQ has been destroyed. So you've got your company HQ if they die bad luck and then your unit HQ says, your Detachment command stand. If they're destroyed that

Detachment is out of command. So you've got, you know, to command stands to think about plus proximity. If the company HQ consists of two command stands and Rhino, the Rhino was only transport vehicle and your basic. What that means is you can't use the Rhino as a command stand. So the Rhinos there to move the command stands around, it is not able to give come on itself. So if both of the command HQ standard destroyed, the right of doesn't take over in command

because it's merely a transport. So if your company HQ is sorry, if your command chain of command is broken. What that means is that, you know, platoon or that entire company, depending on how it's broken, cannot get orders, which is bad news because they go on to the standard. No orders routine. May not move. I can only fire in the Advanced Fire section of the phase of the game. So it completely takes away your ability to maneuver. It completely takes away your

ability to capture territory. It takes away your ability to go into your first fire orders and seized the initiative, so it is bad news. Keep your company HQ Safe, Keep Your platoon hq's at the back of the unit. So they're the last to die. Essentially, there are some units that have specific rules that can't a man that which is

useful. If you do want to, you know, maintain initiative, mainly things that are kind of a scouting or a kind of an outflanking role so things like Rowling's or Roughriders or Or the bike squads, and we did touch on this briefly in the last episode. What's interesting about those support cards or company cards is, they don't need to be in chain of command. But if they're not in chain of command, it's bad news.

When it comes to morale and you may end up losing a lot of troops when they when they lose morale, because they go or not in chain of command, I don't know what to do. We're you know, we're on our own in the middle of nowhere. Let's just panic and take the entire. Let's just booked it off the table essentially. So, You can play around it with, with you kind of your outflanking units in your light units.

But the the kind of counterbalance to that is you are then exposing yourself to the ability to have your army broken. So that's the kind of the really important rule, take the time to read it because it's, there's a few little wrinkles in there, but the main thing is, make sure all of your detachments of within 25 cm of their command HQ and your command HQ is in a safe sensible position. So they're not obliterated if you're going forward.

I think that's going to be difficult if you're you know if you're digging in and playing the shooting game I think as long as you keep your company HQ behind everything else and not too close to anything so it can't be clipped with blast templates. You should be okay because the section HQ. Doesn't have the command rule but the company HQ does what. But again, there's a wrinkle.

So, the cloned rule is the thing where you can, you know, you can double speed move, you can charge, you was shooting the first five phase and you can't be targeted unless you're the closest model of that type section hqs. Don't get the movement and shooting benefits but they do get the cannot be shot benefit. So that's why I say if you keep your section hq's to the back of the unit, they will be the last

died. So You know, and because they also important if they die that whole Detachment its outcome and you know, better that I might as well. So your company's cues, keep them safe. You s HQ scheme with the back of the unit that will hopefully buy you enough time to enact your plans with your with your big old companies and I think the other part of that that's important is you know you can always put up 25 support cards onto a company. I think with the Imperial Guard,

you don't want to go too heavy. Because of course, if the company HQ is Roid, all the sport cars are out of commanders well. So whereas with a you know, an oil company want to put as many walks in there as possible to put up a huge break point with an Imperial Guard, I think you should be selective about how much you bulk that that company out because if you add a huge amount of extra stuff and then it's broken, you have suddenly lost access to a vast chunk of

your army. So, you know, one or two support cards rather than the kind of the four to five that I think you'd often see with an orc Army is kind of my advice there. So that's cool. The The even bigger wrinkling. And, you know, I had a kind of a conversation about, this is leviathans. So what's interesting about Leviathan? It's one of the two special cards you can get and with the Imperial Guard, it kind of plays

that like top-end command roll. So this is potentially where your company Colonel is sitting with his with his boys and I would describe it, kind of as a trap. So, you know, you and I have played squats, we've used leviathans in Squaw me. And I don't know that there is survival as you'd think they're not a survivable as a Titan, they've only got four Shields. And they don't have a damaged Grid in the way that Ian does. So it doesn't take a huge amount

to take a live eye for now. And if a leviathan is destroyed, it basically obliterate, your entire chain of command for a turn, which is bad news. That's not just, you know, it's it's, it's and every single company in your army, cannot be given order, so nothing in your army. There's no independent cannot be given orders for a turn. So I think in spite Games. I would be very, very wary of taking a leviathan and bigger games.

If you take multiple leviathans, theoretically your opponent Caleb, also, you do keep chain of command, tell that funnel of life and is popped. So it's a real, it's a real risk. And I'm not sure like, I'd probably take a Titan over Leviathan, but, you know, your mileage may vary. Maybe the Leviathan is easier to hide because it's a little bit smaller, but it's very slow. It doesn't have a huge amount of guns.

And one thing I think will come on, to the Imperial Guard is they have very easy access to a A lot of heavy Firepower. So I feel like the Leviathan is a bit of a trap card. Same really for me with the cattle, imperialis, you a, they're ridiculously expensive and hard to get hold of and be that, you know, the joke for me about the academy and paralysis is transport vehicle, that's as slow as your infantry, and if it's destroyed everything in, it is killed.

So it's not moving your troops at the table. Any faster than if they just let go on forever and years ago. I'll put them in there for safety and of course if it's destroyed, they all died. So it's not any Same Force as again, it's a bit of a like a, it's cute.

But I'm not sure I'd be rushing to throw a couple in perilous in my Army either and it especially because that for me is so undergunned as a you know, vehicle the size of really a small City blog and all its got is a for VAR H Point gun. And then some boas which got range 15 cm. So it's a really as a ten-centimeter model with one fairly average Barrel to weapon on it and then a bunch of powers which have a 15 cm range six void Shields?

Yeah, sure, 1 plus save around sure but it just hmm for me, not sure that's beware. My my special card spending would be would be going, first of all, but as ever, I'm sure, there are people out there who do wonderful things with them. Send your hate mail. L 2 etc etc. But so then the other wrinkle so kind of counteract that that inflexibility in that real risk factor of the HQ in the chain of

command is commissars. So every single company that you buy comes with a free Commerce are and what's cool about the commissar is a is a hero and he's got his own personal transport. So we can just beam around all over the place snatching objectives and causing Mischief if you want to. But probably the more important thing with the commissar is If chain of command is broken the common stock and essentially drive up in his tank and take command of one of the Detachment.

So it doesn't take over the whole company. So you're of the three, you know, platoons if they're all still alive. Yeah. Two of them will still be out of orders doing their own thing but he can then put one company. That's right, one platoon 1 Detachment back into command and regain control and give them all

as again. So, that's that's kind of, you know, that that fun, you know, the thing of the commissar, being there to take over /, you know, if the commanding officer dies or fails in their Duty and gets shot in the head and and so you know with with kind of clever use of your Commerce as you can kind of pull the important parts of your army back together and and you know, make sure that they are doing

what you need them to do to win. So that's that's that's it basically so you know stay within 25, cm of your commanding officers they'll see you, right? Keep your commercials on hand to kind of patch the gaps as the the cavities keep coming here. And and don't take leviathans and capital Imperial. That's my advice on handled way. Yeah.

Yeah. It's just I mean, it's amazing how little Weaponry is on the Catalan period and you know, you always read about them in the in the kind of in the books. And, you know, Dan Harmon has written about them.

And, you know, the idea of like the for Catalan Paradise of backing into like a kind of a star shape or a cross and being like, the kind of the command center of the entire Natori wide, you know, battle and they're they're all there you know doing you know orders and coming up with strategy and whatever and you're like I'd put a few more guns on the front if that's gonna be the base for the important guys but they say looks cool. Looks really fun.

It's huge. It's got you can put all the troops up on the roof of their you know, it's like a castle on time tracks. It's fantastic but it's surprisingly. Restrained, for Imperial Guard or imperial. Technology. Think that are welded a few more decent guns on the side. Out of it when they were concocting it, but there you go. What can you do? So that's, that's it. Yeah. Welcome. It's ahead. How does one choose an Imperial Guard? Sure. So you know it's like it's like your standard epic.

So you by your company's you got to have at least one company and each company can have up to five support cards. But as I was saying is that the more support cause you put on there, the more exposed, you risk your chain of command for coming and for every company you get, you get your one for e-commerce or so. You know, I tend to work around that kind of one company per thousand points.

A record companies are fairly cheap on the whole, you know, looking at that 6, 600 500 points, depending on what you buy. They do have tank and super heavy companies as well, so that's quite good fun. And again, those do come with commissars. So if you buy a, you know, a blob of three main blades, you do get your comments are off that as well. So if you like tanks, you can run a very tank, heavy Army you.

And I have discussed in the past about how the risk with tanks is they struggle to kind of take a nap. Detectives, they can take objectives. They can't necessarily keep objectives. So I think a good balance, you know, for every infantry company, maybe have a tank company. I think you could do really well there and it really is about

numbers as well. You know, if you look at the, the title company, if you look at the Roughrider company, you know, Rough Rider company is the same as the title company, but with Horsemen instead of footman, so it's a huge amount of troops. You know, your throw 30 stands at the enemy. Beastmen 30 stands, bikers 15 stands. Its it can overwhelm I'm through sheer quantity and, you know, we've discussed how infantry 10

or to get armor save. So if it is, you know, even a Space Marine in terms of survivability is the same as Imperial Guardsmen, and you're paying, you know, two-thirds of

the points give or take. But you always have that, that that counter pull of a chain of command and be lack of Transport. So, where the spacer is Excel is they can jump in there rhinos and, you know, go forward and capture the Imperial Guard after, you know foots, lock it up there, you know, through the mud and the blood and they will struggle to be that kind of reactive Force.

Think you you want to make sure that you're going to pick units, that probably don't have to move too far and then support them with a bit of artillery, be that tank artillery or the kind of gun emplacement artillery. And then maybe have, you know, a third of your army. For the sake of argument is more tanks or Roughriders or bike companies that they are the ones that are going to, you know, Leap Forward and take the initiative and capture the enemy territory.

But yeah, it's your classic. You know? If you've ever watched Kelly's, Heroes, or if you ever, you know, if you're a fan of World War Two, Two fairies had strange to her, but you know what I mean? It's that, if you want to play with, with men and armor, the Imperial Guard is really where you want to be. And if you just want to grind your opponent down with with mass wave of these, you know, Brave foolhardy Troopers who have got flashlights for weapons and faith in the emperor and not

a lot else to protect her. I really think they are a fantastic for sand and that's always been, you know, you'll also say to people when you're getting them into the hobby or asking about armies, is that we are, what is it was the All spectacle was the thing you associate with. And for me, I've always associated with that kind of. Yeah, the, the mud and the blood, the, the basic Trooper whose faithful protect him over any special armor or fantastic

weaponry. And you know, it's a dog's life in the Imperial Guard. Your survivability is measured in minutes not days but they still had go out and do it. And you know, every planet raises these armies and sends them off into the Galaxy to kind of die horribly for the emperor. Like it's, it's that. Yeah, it's a tragic Noble. Tell for me. And I just, yeah, I just think that you got to love tanks and nobody those tanks better than a. Oh God.

So really, really cool. So let's talk about the troops, I guess. So we'll start with inventory because it's a good place to start so much. Like the Space Marines, they they come in a couple of flavors. You got your Tactical your assault, and your heavy and very very similar to Space.

Marines in many respects and the one notable difference is very very low to non-existent closer, sole Factor, so tactical troops, they got 50 centimeter With the last guns, hang on fives, but they've got no, throw a saving throw. No closest all Factor. So don't expect them to win many fights, but they will certainly, you know, you think you're throwing 30 dice, something's going to stick when you throw three dice at your enemy. So you know love's gun is

nothing special. All of a sudden, three Lads guns. Now we're talking the assault troops like you saw Space Marines, little bit faster, they got the 15 cm move with jump acts, then kind of leap into combat. They've only got close sole factor of 1. So So, you are going to have to

use your numbers. You know, that the first, maybe the second stand that go in a probably gonna die horribly by the third stand, when you're getting those bonus dice in melee, all of a sudden, you're starting to do the damage. So like you can't be subtle with the Imperial Guard but it's a numbers game is yeah squads wanted to die bravely screaming for the emperor. Squad three wins the day so never be in squad one or two I guess.

And then the the the heavy Troopers 75 cm kicking out two dice with the Once a that's, you know, similar to Devastators again. No clothes. Sole factor to run a stiff or heavy weapons troops are in combat. Something's gone wrong anyway. But you know, looking at the, you know, the company of each of those, your Tactical is your 3 detachments of ten troops. So three men, your assault and your heavy are only five stands so they're smaller companies smaller detachments.

It's half the size essentially but they you know, they make up for that flexibility. So heavy platoon kicking out. Two shots per stand. You've got 35 turn? Yeah. 30 shots here, my mouth is good. So that's, you know, that's a huge amount of Firepower to be kicking out 75 cm a pretty decent range and that, you know, that - 1 save mod is going to make people think twice about charging into the the face of the Imperial Guard. So yeah beyond that. They really are your basic

troop. You got your company HQ. You and your section HQ, as we've discussed there to basically not die and make sure that commands continue to be given an order can be continue to be followed up through and the company HQ is the the only way you'll have transport because they've got the Rhino, but obviously, you don't want to stand and Rhino to be trying to do anything too spectacular.

So, again, I think the Rhino is more to allow you to redeploy as your detachments were wiped out than to do anything clever in terms of advancing. So, Don't see two trips in a rhino think. Oh, they're gonna go and steal objectives that they're not. Because if you're doing that you're your Detachment of falling behind and losing chain of command and then you have failed as a, an Imperial Guard officer and your console be long to execute you shortly. So. Well, I mean, it's one way out.

I guess it's kind of a dishonorable discharge isn't it, but I guess at the end of day, something's going to get you when you're in the guard. So is it better to know know his name and his face as you you get shot in the head? I don't know, what are the pressing thought? So then, the other great thing about Imperial Guard is this was back in the days when I think the the Imperium is a little bit more liberal. So they allowed humans in and obviously we've still got Rowling's and all grins.

I think these men tend not to be seen so much in the Contemporary 40K goodies factions. Yeah, I mean, there's, there's one in a crime under but beyond that we haven't seen a, you know, a company of beastmen for a long time, which is a shame, really? Because I do like the idea that they're not necessarily creative chaos, in the traditional sense, it's there just mutated. Omens.

So, so you can take beastmen as a company, which is very similar to a world Title Company. Same points the difference being, they've actually got a decent clothes, assault Factor so closed off by 3, which is cool, but they have no ranged attacks whatsoever. So if you are more of a mellow person and you want to use basements, kind of capture your, your nearby objective. So again, the lack of Transport means, they're not going to be racing anywhere anytime soon.

But if you want to kind of, you know, secure control those those one or two objectives near to You up, you know, a Big Blob, 30 basement stands sitting on the on an objective or two is going to be Nas, easy to shift as the Imperial Guard stands. So that's kind of fun and then the auger ins our support card rather than a company card. You can take a company of All Greens which is kind of a shame that could be fun. So you get your four stands and they are essentially you're real

close. This old boys. So they got six up Save which is not fall if nothing else. I mean there's so little that doesn't have A modifier on it, but you never know. You won and everyone every so often they'll survive a shot. But the main thing for them is their clothes. So factor of 6, which is fantastic, they will be doing any kind of heavy lifting. So maybe supporting the baseman coming in to pick off those more Elite targets, maybe just patching up holes in your in

your lines where you're like. Oh there's some assault boys? Come again. I'll send in the organs try and buy myself some time. They've also got, you know, it's a perfect range of 10, cm range gun but hang on for size. Of the best ballistic skills. I think you'll see in Epic, I guess it's just wait of fire rather than ability to shoes. So it's yeah, it's not so much their really crack shots. It's more those guns, kick out so much. That something will stick and it's got a minus 1/2 here as

well. So pretty fun and then the rattling Czar quite interesting because so you buy Rowling's as a support card becomes a sport kind of for rattling stands but they actually deployers individual stand. So rather than have you know for rattling stands tucked away somewhere. Where they can be deployed anywhere, you know individually. So what's fun about that is it obviously lets you spread that kind of opportunity shot so they are an exception to formation Dennis and formation.

There are exceptions chain of command. I don't think they're even aware what the chain of command is let alone. Whether it's broken or not, because they are so, you know, there's they're out, they're scouting, they probably aren't even aware that the other armies turn. Up here, which is really cool. So don't need to be given orders. They always move up to 10 cm and always considered to have first fire for shooting but they can't move and shoot.

So the idea with these really is you you tuck them in to some decent terrain and you wait for your moment to kind of pick off key command stands or key shots, which is cool. The other interesting thing with them is if they're within cover, they cannot be seen from more than 25 cm a way. So there, you know, No, they are the true invisible.

Sniper Scout get em, get em into some Forest, getting into some trouble, getting into a ruin and just, you know, dig in and wait to cause trouble, which is really good fun. Very short. They Roost, what exactly is? Yeah, you can't see him over there, the cover can be broken or rooted. So even if you know, half-assed and is destroyed, they don't give up any points. You have to wipe out the entire company card to school. Points and I think they're ready with one Victory Point anyway.

So yeah, like I wouldn't build my Army around them, but I think if you got 100 points to spend, you could do worse than grab yourself, a couple of snipers downs and just just use them to cause Mischief, you know, one dice 50 cm range, hit on 5. So again, it's nothing to really write home about but it's just that little bit of extra fire but people aren't expecting from from, you know, the Unseen shot essentially.

So that's kind of the a human side of the Army's is that kind of classic makes of you know, basic Infantry.

Yeah. And then Super Elite combat guys and super Elite shooting guys so a little bit, a little bit of flavor and then the other kind of infantry in inverted commas that you can get for the Imperial Guard is the Rough Rider. So these are Cavalry a Guardsman 20. Cm piece of this is where if you're looking to capture territory, I'd be looking at my Rough Riders clothes, so factor of plus 3 which is not too bad. Shooting is nothing to write home about 25.

Cm, hang on 6s. So they are not a ranged unit but they've got a little bit of range if you must, you know, do it. And then what's interesting is, as we sort of hinted at earlier, they are outside of the chain of command. So they basically make their own decisions. He give them orders as per normal. You don't have to be in chain of command, you, you know, they can't be removed from the chain of command by killing their officers, Etc.

However, if they are out of chain of command, I'm a break, then they Roost, that's what I was alluding to earlier. So once once their chain of command is broken, once their command stand is destroyed or if they're not near their command strand. As the casualties Mount out, there will come a point where they go. You know what? We've had enough, we're out of here and so the breakpoint is 17. So once you've lost 17, you know, stands from the unit then if they're actually come out, they go.

So that's that kind of risk factor of like, yeah, it's great, you've got a bit flexible. Ability, you're able to work around the chain of command rules. However, they are likely to panic and flee once they start to, you know, once those casualty stack up but again, you know, 30 stands enforcement, that's, that's nothing to sneeze out.

That's a nice chunk of fast-moving decent hitting troops that you can parlay into a kind of expose flanks or you can, you know, maybe get into your enemy's kind of real. Like, if they've got artillery that you want to go in Duff up, maybe sending the Roughriders. Your foots lovers are never going to get there, but your Rough Riders might just make it and, you know, really really mix it up. So that's, you know, what kind of player you are.

It's the classic thing. How you like to play, you can reflect that in your army. I think traditionally you'll tend to see tactical companies and heavy weapons companies being to the for of Imperial Guard, kind of army backed up by super, he's backed up by artillery. But if you like to be a more kind of Pacey player, you can take Rough Riders. You can take by companies.

Yeah, try it out. See I think, oh yeah, an army of lemur us companies and Roughriders and bias could be really interesting because I think it would catch people kind of off guard. They wouldn't expect off guard. Haha funny. Like yeah. Dear oh dear. And then I suppose the final thing to talk about companies wise is, if you do like to reach across the table and throw your opponent, you can take the the the transport companies for the God said the moles and the hell

bores. And these are, these are unusual because their transport vehicles to go underground not over ground like The Wombles their fiddly. I won't lie. But if you want to, if you want to catch your opponent out, drop in a tactical company, from underneath his troops, it's quite interesting. So we'll go through the rules of those.

Now we've jumped ahead slightly in the book but because their infantry companies earnings with doing so they all follow roughly the The same rules with some slight wrinkle. So, we'll go through the hell ball and how that works. So, the whole bar is the largest of the tunneling. Troop Transporters known collectively as tunnel as or miners these Subterranean Vehicles tunnel the way underground bypassing enemy troops fortifications and emerging Behind Enemy Lines. So it's really cool.

So let's start the game. Your tunnel has are positioned on their transport. So the, the, the vehicle comes as like a kind of a detachable if you've ever seen Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Thunderbirds like a big drill basically, it's like a big tube with a drill. From and I start on that transports and then sort of dig underground, transports, don't have any weapons, they can't move but you have to keep them on the table because they kind of guide. The the the underground tunnel

is to the enemy. So if your opponent is able to reach out and destroy your transporter, that will have a negative effect on your ability, to get your guys to where they need to be. So, The hell book, an attempt to surface of any time during your turn. The the empirical players turn your over the six and on the score of one the hell balls basically got tied up on trying to drill through some space. Particularly difficult terrain and cannot emerge on a two or more to help or emerges.

And the trip starts come out, so breaks through the surface does not move further during the turn, but it can move along the surface from the next turn. So you literally place your hair ball. Digger on the table where you expect it to be. So you are going to, you know, bring out such a space on the table, put the model down, and then you scatter it to see how accurate you've been. So if you're on the hit, on the scattered ice. Congratulations. They're right.

Where they wanted to be draw an arrow then, they've slightly diverged, and they scattered e 6, x 5 cm away, so 5 to 30 cm is an interesting range. If the transporter doesn't have line of sight to where the hell boar is going to emerge, or if the transport has been destroyed, then the scatter is actually D 6 times, 10, so, that could be huge. You know? That could be 60 cm. That's a massive chunk of fur. We've gone the wrong way, sir.

So, you want to make sure that you've got a decent line of sight with where you deploy a Transporters, they can see where you're expecting to get your elbows to but also they have to be protected so that your opponent can't come along and scratch them and send your guys. As the wrong way. Troops may not disembark from the turn that the helper emerges. So, that's interesting as well.

You have to have a turn of the hell while being kind of on the surface potentially quite exposed before, you can get the troops out. So again, maybe don't throw the he'll bore right into the middle of the enemy because then your enemy has a ton of just lining up and shooting the Hellboy. It's got a one plus save but we all know one plus saves, the only lasts for so long. One stroke, Get, it can disembark, then they follow normal rules, need three sets of

orders and you. Again, you have a company HQ in the actually, how you do the Hellboy is the company HQ. Sorry, it's the moles have the company HQ, which is interesting. So if you're using the hell ball which is the biggest of the three, you have to stay near where the the kind of the whole war ends to remain in the Command structure. So that's interesting, that's, that's going to be a kind of a flood, the area and hold it in or use this as a Launchpad to kind of you know, Advanced up

the table. Whereas the the moles who are the smaller ones. They actually have their company HQ in them in a mold themselves and they all get to kind of travel across the table together. So if you want to take and hold a position, I'd say you go for the help or if you want to use it as a Launchpad to maybe Advanced elsewhere, the mall company would be. Better. Alternatively, the help organize

you drive around. Once, it surfaces doesn't move massively, but 15 cm is not the end of the world, it can never. So it doesn't move double if it charges. And once you've moved it, you can rotate it by up to 45 degrees. So it's basically, you know, driving around on the surface, trying to get to a better position. If you've really scattered badly, I think it's rare that you'll see them do that. But again, actually that does what the hell ball.

Keep up with it, some with this company as well. So maybe you can use them to to kind of move forward. It can emerge on the building's. So this is also quite novel. If you're feeling kind of a bit risky, you can actually deliberately try and take out buildings while driving your tunnel is into it. So see if the building survive. So she basically deploy the hell ball onto a building or if it scatters into a building. You roll, a basic saving throw

for the the he'll bore. If it's filled the failed, the building collapse is nature of society, kill killed. So that's a bad thing. If the building does collapse, then the hell ball may also be sorry. You take the savings for of the building and if it's failed the building collapses and any troops inside the building a killed however it then collapses onto the he'll bore and the Hub or maybe traps and destroyed own of a 6.

So that's not too bad mol destroyed on a five or six termites which are the really small ones for five or six. So the bigger the vehicle, the less likely it is to be destroyed by driving into a building but there is always that risk. Can't be pinned in close combat because it's just so big, which is cool other than, by Titans and super-heavy. So similar to a super-heavy tank. That's yeah, that's kind of it. What's interesting is, you can only include moles or termites

to support units for helpers. So if you really are into this idea of the kind of the underground a soul, you can take your help or company and then you can tack some, some termites, and some moles on to the side and get Really flood a specific area of the town of town with a bunch of technical stands and hopefully they will do well for you. It's not a tactic. I've used, I've got a mole, I don't have a hairball, I've never tried it.

I've actually, I've got a, my squats rather than my God but I'm sure there are underground tunneling, art aficionados out there who can make good use of it. It's risky and I'm not sure the guard is an army that likes to take risks, but it's, yeah, it's fun, right? It's something. I think we see so much in 40K anymore, the kind of the underground assault, kind of

more of a Siege weapon, I think. Yeah, you could you could use it that way, definitely cuz you know, your opponents are going to be kind of stuck in place and you're maybe they've got a really nice kind of, you know, would it be a shame if somebody drove a giant drill through your your bunkers over there? So yeah, maybe if your enemy is dug into some some nasty bunkers. I think one of the tricky things is there's no armor save modifier on the drill.

So one of the hardest Parts of killing buildings. Is they take their saves on two dice? Not one. So if it's a, you know, a kind of a heavily armored reinforced concrete building. Yeah, I don't know that the hell balls gonna gonna be able to take it down but for the light, you know, if there's some Orcs and they've decided to build one of their crazy little Shanty towns, I think it quite comfortable driver help or through and stand a pretty decent chance of making them

fall down a hole but yeah. It's fun to kind of see the variety that used to exist in the program. You know, a lot of this stuff has gone away from a contemporary Imperial Guard. Army is very much infantry. You still got wrappings and all Grins and and then tanks like

rough riders. Haven't been a thing for a while which is a shame, all the little, um, you know, single artillery pieces are gone and you don't get tunnel is so it's a fun, you know, it's fun to see what the Imperial Guard used to be capable of and you know, like all things do W, it all comes

around. Again, I'm sure there will come a time when people are running their basement in their Imperial Guard, on the, on the, the 40K battlefields, but in the meanwhile, if that's your jam, I think epic is is where you can

do that kind of thing. So then we move on to the tanks, which I think really, is, honestly, the true appeal of the Imperial Guard. I think it's if, if you, if you are at redhead, if you like, you know, big slabs of armor crushing all the before them, the Imperial Guard does it? Well, and what's good? As well as they've got that kind of mix. So they've got the artillery and then also the The kind of the battle tank, the leader us and

then the the super-heavy tank. So on the artillery front, they've got a couple different options. So we've already mentioned that some of the Space Marine equivalent tanks that they can use, so they can take wool wins as part of their rocket batteries, they then also have a couple of their own flavors on top of that. So we've got the Manticore which is a rocket launcher. Ironically, you know, this book predates, The Chimera. So there are no chimeras in this book.

This way, everyone's driving around and rhinos. So, whereas we would Say oh, these are all being built off the Chimera chassis. I think they actually originally, it was the Chimera was built off the Basilisk chassis. So it's going to lose one of those weird historical artifacts, whereas these days that we consider the other way around. So the man's core is one what I would call a chimera chassis. It's a 15 cm move 5 up saving throw.

So this is not a Frontline tank, it very much hangs around at the back because it flies rockets and it fires Rockets up to 200 CM. So that is a huge amount of distance and it kicks out six barrels. Points as well. So it's fantastic. The downside is it takes a turn to reload. So someone woke up on the roof and we have slot the new rockets

in after his kicked off. So basically it fires every other turn far as a barrage six Powers points per barrel aged and I'll see if you've got three of them you have them up in the traditional manner so they can kick out a really hard hitting you hit Solid 2 plus barrage. No save mode, which is interesting. So it's not the most devastating in terms of damage. But if you want A clear, you know, vast chunks of inventory out. I think the man's core is really really good.

As long as you remember that you have to fire every other turn. It's available as a support card so if you want to just tuck it into some infantry and got to use them that way, that's fine. That is enough. Hmm. You know I think I'm lying I don't think it is available support card how funny it was. Okay now it's only available in the rocket battery. So there you go. So the rocket battery then is a company. It's six months of calls and three whirlwinds. So a mixed mixed artillery battery.

That's really must I tell you what that came in, in tight Legions and because I know you can buy them as support us because I've seen them in in what wolf articles and stuff. So, yeah, I unless I've stopped my cards are wrong. Oh no, I'm being mad, it's fine. They can absolutely be spores as support God's good. I was losing the plot for a minute now. Um, so yeah. So if you, if you really like your artillery by yourself a rocket company, you got to do. Ausmus of them.

So you can either fire them every other turn or, you know, find them both at the same time and really Rain Devastation down on the enemy, and you got the whirlwinds so slightly left damaging, but they don't have the the every other turn thing, very exciting, super Heavies far cooler than those nonsense leviathans. So there's this three flavors in this box. There was another one, was that in later, but we'll talk about that another day.

So these can be the borders companies, which is three soup. Tanks or they can be bought as individual tanks as a support. So this is this is kind of fun. You can either buy a company to kind of reach out or if you're just looking to add some support and kind of bulk up, one of your companies, it's a so they're expensive, but they are good. The Beyblade is the, to me, the kind of the, the quintessential, super-heavy tank. It's huge. And it's covering guns.

It's funny. They put all the guns on the main blade. So I guess they ran out for when it came. Into the capital Imperial this. So it's only ten centimeters. So it's not, it's not a fast tank but that kind of makes it good for supporting infantry maneuvering. I guess they move at the same speed, close so factor of 8, so bizarrely.

Good in close combat is one of the interesting things about super-heavy is they're quite good at driving over people at its got like twin battle Cannon. So to, to 75, cm range hitting on fours - to save mod cannons. That's one of the better. Guns in the game and you kick it out to return is fantastic. And then to last cannons to back that up. So very, very good versus Armor kicking out for fairly accurate.

Pretty hard hitting shots each turn and then your classic bolt is for kind of close close support. So if any infantry due to random orbit, it can kind of d'accord away with its 10 bolters. So I think the the you know, the main blade is the one that I'd have kicking around with my infantry. It's not really fast enough to spearpoint assaults, but it can take a bit of a kicking it. Got the old one up save, although not one up around.

Sadly, the shadow sword, then is the second flavor, and this one's a Titan. Killer it all honesty. The this, this, this tanks job is to wait for a, you know, Tyler Shields to drop, and then take it out with this volcano Cannon. So similar stats say against enemy is speed only a crucial factor of six this time. So not quite as good in melee but it's not really supposed to be in l.a. It's got a volcano kind of with a range of 100 cm hits on a 3 -4 and as Rita damage Rose versus

tie. And so this, this tank literally is there to execute tie and so send in your, you know, your your Heavies, sending your tanks chip, those Shields away and then open up your shadows old company and just, you know, execute that Port iron. Yeah. - for with plaster and damage rolls very, very few on short irons are going to get a survive that it's just brutal. Couple of loose cannons on the

side as well. So if you did need to chip a shield or to a way, you can use your large cannons, first just to bring Those heels down, and then they're getting the Bolton's for close ranged support. And then the, the final of the, the classic three is the storm Hammer, very similar to the Beyblade, in many respects, I

guess. If you think about it, the traditional way, the, the shadow sword is the the Devastator style tank, the the range combat tank, the Beyblade is the one that kind of goes in between the two, the Tactical tank and then the storm Hammer is more of the assault e-tanks 0 plus 10 closest. All Factor that's insane cause it's all fainter and Kicks out for 50 cm cannons, hang on Falls with -2 and in 14 bolt has so bolt is one of those weird things where because their range is so limited.

You often don't make great use of it but it, you know, it doesn't have the speeds to really spearpoint tank assaults, but if you're if you want to spare point a kind of an infantry, a rolling infantry assault. The storm Hammer is good or if you want something that will protect your objectives from infantry assaults. The storm Hammer will just sit there kicking out 40 and I said, Anything that tries to kind of mix it up in melee and actually that's got thicker armor as well.

So that's, that's, you know, further reinforcing. That's so unlike the other two, it's got the one up save, but it's side armor counts as one up save as well and only suffers - one in the rear. So it's it's it's a it's a bunker, it's a bunker on tracks and I think it's everything. The capital in Paris all his wishes, it could be in a much

more sleek and efficient packet. I'll stop ragging on the poor Capital. But yeah, I just think that the storm had Is that that be, you know, that the, the classic land Fortress is just going to sit there and take everything. The enemy can throw at it, and spit it back, back to the artillery. So we've got the bombard, again, similar chassis to the Manticore. This one is kicks out three barrage points, but it has got a

minimum range. So, it can only shoot from 50 to 150. This is got a minus three on it, though. So, that's really, really cool. So this is a, your classic Siege mortar. This is again, system. The back of Your army trying not to be noticed by anything with speed or guns that can reach out to it and it just sits there, pounding away with this huge, your mortar shells, bringing rack, and ruin down.

So if you've got the enemy, if they're dug into two bunkers or the dug into terrain and you need to dig them out, I think the bombard is really good for that. Absolutely useless up close though. So if you know, if your opponents are racing towards your mortars, maybe think about deploying something to intervene, because they ain't going to fight their way out of

trouble. And you want them just dug in shooting reaching out across the table, so It's just, you know, that classic that multi-pronged approach of the Imperial Garden of the artillery of the back, reaching out the the Infantry dog and kind of, you know, buying time and then the tanks racing forward to kind of spear point tactical assassination runs or taking objectives as just is the best Army in my mind for for kind of flexibility. And it just looks cool because

it's just so much armor. So the last of the, the, the typical artillery Is the Basilisk, and I think this is, this is the one I would consider the vanilla day of the three. What's exciting about? This 157 is range. So, again, reaches reaches out across table really nicely to barrage per tank. So, you know, the classic we come in three, so you can connect six barrels, which I believe is hanging on for. So I want to say - to save mode so can you know can make its Mark.

What's interesting about them is it can fire twice per turn. So fires once in Sorry farzin, same combat section. So if you put them on first fire, the fire twice in first five if you put them on your standard standard combat phase, The Flash twice then and they don't have to shoot the same Target either. So you can either buy them as

support card of three. Or again, there is a second artillery company, which is the artillery company as opposed to the rocket company, six basilisks and three manticores. Sorry three bombards. So if you're if you're someone who likes consistency, I think you go for the artillery. Free company because I can kick out a lot of shots.

If you slide someone who likes, you know, that stop-start, very, very high heavy Firepower in that stops are the rocket is the kind of the, the less flexible book, but more powerful version of that both interesting in their own ways.

You do have the, The Vindicator Squadron, which we spoke about previously with Space Marines, 94 Decatur's, or a sport, kind of three if you're just looking for, you know, even more Firepower, I think of indicators are Are they tried that line between a kind of a battle tank and artillery pce kind of is an artillery piece but it's not it's not the same kind of reach out and you know touch people from the Baseline, needs a lot

of sights on and so forth. So some interesting kind of tactical choices there, then we get on to the kind of the more combat focused tanks. I guess the closest all tanks. You got the Predator company. So again, we spoke. Well as with Space Marines or to me the truth, tank of the Imperial Guard, the the tank around which all other tanks are built the Lumen rust so you can have rosters in a company or

again as a support card. If you want to maybe support your Roughriders with something Russell's or something like that so the lemongrass is quite a flexible. Angrily it packs and a number of different guns. It's in some respects is kind of a almost a mini vein blade in some, you know, in terms of that that kind of mix of guns. So it's got a battle Cannon. 75 cm 1, dice hits on a five but -

to save more. So that's really good for punching Vehicles. It's gotta last Cannon which similar but only hits for a - 1 save. So again, you know, between those two weapons, you can reach out quite a ways and consistently do damage. Two armored. And then again it's got to sorry, a Bolter as well, for kind of Point defense, close defense against infantry speed, 20 cm and a 3 up. Save so many clothes so factor to.

So it's not super combat. I think you want to try and avoid it getting kind of bogged down by by assault troops. But if you want to, you know, get engaged in some fun, you're rolling tank battles and pick off those awk, crazy all

vehicles. I just think, you know the LIE, me Russ, it's the Mainstay, you know, the Classic a got images is the Lemur rust in the, the Infantry Trooper kind of supporting each other in a rolling assault, you can then give that some some assistance with a hellhound. So the her hand is a flamethrower tank. It's got the, a dragon fire flower on it, which is cool. And that he uses the flame template, which comes in this

box. So, we we mentioned before, there is no flame template in the classic Space Marine box. The frame template is provided in the armies of the Imperium. So use the frame template you put Which then next the front of the hellhound and shoot, you know, within its normal hundred eighty degree frontal Arc, which is cool all Targets within the area are here on a five or a six. No, modifiers are applied for cover.

So that's really quite exciting. If you've got, you know, get those those infantry dug into buildings or heavy terrain, you know, a couple of helpful hounds rolling up alongside your tanks to kind of burnout that infantry will We'll help you wrinkle. Those, there's difficult troops out the final tank. I think we've covered all the tanks now. Yeah. So the final tank is an artillery piece but it's slightly different. It's the Deathstrike tactical missile launcher.

Nothing says, you know, armies of the Imperium like, well what if we just put a intercontinental ballistic missile with nuclear warheads on it? And then fire had some people just on the other side of this hill. Like that is pure 40K isn't, it's ludicrous? So it's basically it's a One-Shot missile to all intents and purposes. You can you'll find these on Titans and I guess somebody thought well ties are expensive and you know, they're a pain in

the ass to deploy. What if we just stuck on a tank and Roll It Forward. So thus the Deathstroke was born, can only fire if it's on first fire orders. So, that's, you have to have to pick your moment, to shoot your Deathstrike and Is it just one person poor card? This is where I get in trouble because of course, I played different versions of Epic and it's one thing in one and something very different in something else. Goodness, me, I can't see the card, I don't know, I don't have

the card for this. Um, yeah, I've laid all my cards out and I've lost me death strikes, how funny we'll figure that out later. Not important, but it's definitely a One-Shot weapon. So The district can only be found on forest fires? It can only be fired once. So the way you work through is as follows you, you place a counter to show that the missile has been filed in. You remove the missile from the back of the launcher and it

travels in an arc. Like I said, this is a, you know, an intercontinental ballistic missile, it goes up and then it comes down. So you place the missile And then you move it D 6 times, 10 in front of the death strike missile. So, that's where it sort of goes up and then that's where it's coming down again. So it could be 10 to 60 cm away from the front of the vehicle will fly over the heads of friendly troops.

And if not the enemy you want to Target and it also avoid buildings Hills and terrain features. So it is self piloting. If it lands on an enemy Target, you can explode it immediately. So, You know, if there's something within 60 cm, you can try and drop a missile on it, alternatively, it can kind of continue to move. Turn off to turn until it gets to where you want it to be or it runs out of fuel. They can move and explode in the

first five phase. So, you have to basically work out how many missiles are live and then resolve all of them at the same time, they move until they reach Target or explode. So again it's each turn they move D6 + 10. Has however, if you're on a six, the missile runs out of fuel or it malfunctions explodes, you roll, one more movement and then

it kind of explodes there. So it's an interesting thing where you can keep risk flying at Ford flying it forward until it gets to the right target or you can try and shoot something a bit closer and blow it up. If it flies over anything that you want to hit, you can detonate it you know as part of that hit so it doesn't you know, doesn't miss the target if it skips over the top interestingly, Whilst and fly your opponent can shoot them down.

So you're going to be shot from 25 centimeters or less a way and you can only shoot at them with first fire. They do come in threes, in this version of the game. They come in ones in Epic 40K. So three kinds of Miss on, which is interesting. You have a barrage missile, a harpoon missile or a walk, Miss also very similar to Titans.

The barrels missile is your standard kind of high explosive essentially, so multiple plasma Warheads capable of vaporizing, a large Target or area of ground, particularly useful, for defeating the pleading voice chips on a Titan. So it's you Basically, you place a blast template and then you roll a D6 and you get that many extra templates and they must be placed touching the original template or one other template. So, you can either do kind of a Big Blob of templates or stagger

them out in a line. Anything. Under the template is hit by a barrage points with the -2 so hitting on twos and Mana to see Rama save. So pretty nasty. The Harpoon. This is one of those Classic Bits of Titanic, as that's just

so So strange and bewildering. So this is a missile that's designed to penetrate the outer casing of the Titan and short out its Control Systems. Because, of course, that's what you do. Once control of the target has been removed from the crew, the missiles own computer brain control it to some extent. So you are literally firing a missile into an enemy Titan so that you can start driving that Titan if it hits a vehicle or infantry.

They must make a saving throw with the - to modifier or destroyed. If they hit a Titan, which is their intended Yet, if it's got Shields, they lose a shield. You would never shoot us on it. Which shows you want to take the show's out? So you you aim it at a time. With no Shields. Select a location Rob head.

Lice is normal to tighten that has to make a saving modifier with - to if that locations hit and if they failed us save the Harpoon has lodged in the Titan. So strange, the Harpoon Titan must roll a D6 in each, subsequent orders phase on a roll of one, the missile stops, working falls out. And the time is under control as normal on a 22-6. The Imperial Guard player, controls the tire iron.

So you literally get to have a One-Shot chance of taking over your opponent's tighten and driving around the battlefield at shooting your own your their troops with it. So like I said basically the same as the Harpoon missile that's on the the wall or tighten just in in Deployable tactical form it's an adorable 90s concept of. Yeah I fired a harpoon and got to take over the tire iron. Yeah. The crisper hysterical and then the final is the walk missile. And again this is a Titan Killer

really. So if you're if you're going against talks, you'd probably be taking barrels missiles if you're going against, you know, chaos or other Imperials who are bringing tie-ins you'd think about the wall missile in the Harpoon. So the walk missile, the missile contains a miniature warp drive which skips the missile in and out of the warp space allowing it to bypass Shields and thick armor to manure materialize directly inside the target where

explodes so you know Titans are protected by By inches and inches of steel armor that protected by their voice. She'll bubble. The walk missile is deliberately designed to counteract that. So what? Miss, I can strike any Target is path hits. Automatically the vehicle building or troops down hit by the missile is destroyed automatically with no saving throws. So that's, that's mean you, you drop a warp bubble onto something and it just pops away.

Obviously was supposed to be shooting Titans if the tide of Stroke by the walk missile. You'd ignore any Shields. It's got so skip straight through the void Shields and then you you roll against our location as normal.

However you have to roll twice with the scattered ice the the up-down left-right, the ice to represent possibly the missile goes into wall space, and never comes back or it veers off course and doesn't quite hit the target as long as you land on the time as long as you land somewhere on its lower Target. Is the area here is you ignore the armor. Save you go straight to the damage chart and you roll twice

on the damage chart. So as long as you're on Target and you don't get lost in the warp, you're doing two hits two to one area of the tire and rolling twice on that damage chart, which is pretty mean. So again, it's a Titan killer, a little bit of luck involved is that classic kind of nice GW?

Thing of, you know, the most powerful stuff often has a chance to go horribly wrong, but When it works, you know, if that appears in the head of a wall or tighten and just completely, you know, evaporates the the head and you know, carves the entire a warp bubble out of that Thailand and sends the the poor princeps off into the wall. It's it's a miserable way to go. So yeah, really, really fun. Interesting Little Weapon there.

And then the final, the final tank that we haven't discussed is should have, discussed it with a, the termites, really? But the golden. So in a For chimeras, we had Gorgons. The Gorgon is, is the the one kind of troop transport. It's actually bigger than your standard troop transport, because it actually carries five stance. It's quite bulky tank, this one and again, this is that kind of that.

That see just salt tank. So it's got a giant bulldozer on the front and it's therefore it basically digs its way through terrain. So ignores all penalties and can move through, you know, woods and Rocky ground, unlike other tanks which would get Kind of bogged down in there and what's interesting as well as they actually kind of dig a hole

through terrain. So you can, you know, you can use Gorgons to its kind of manipulate the Train on the board and kind of move for us out of the way also, because it's got this giant giant slab of metal on the front. It's allowed to make to saving throws. If shots come from its front, so it's got a 1-up Save, which is cool. Now, you get to one-up saves if you're being targeted from the front so it is a difficult tank to kill. It's got some Boulders on the

front. So again, it's a close-range, tank 15 cm on those Boulders for dice. As also got a mine thrower, which is cool. So, again, it just Chuck's High explosives essentially, to kind of clear out any troops or get them reeling. And then, the Infantry will will pour out and assault the position. So carries five troops. Only 10 cm speed again, so much like the other kind of transport options in the Imperial Guard. You move as fast as the Infantry

move. Anyway, so you're not Not you're not racing anywhere but stickum on charge orders for Eternal to a company of Gorgons is kind of fun, you get yourself. Oops, five infantry, purple tune, unfortunately tactical, platoons not assault platoons, it would be better if they result in there but never mind. I guess the jump facts don't

fit. But yeah, so for Gorgons, 15 infantry and then your to command HQ stands as well, 500 points, that's kind of A fun fun way of taking objectives, or digging into an enemy's lines if they've, if they've got a more of a defensive Army and, and yeah, it's that as I kind of again, much like the he'll bore and the malls, it's slightly different during this era. Imperial Guard are not racing running chimeras. They're kind of going underground or they going in these drawers.

Siege tanks. All the really unfortunate ones are going right in their Capital imperialis. Just yeah, just It's a different flavor and that's kind of fun. Really, it gives you that distinction from you. No more traditional. You know, a Space Marines in rhinos or aux in their buggies, the Imperial Guard, do it a little bit differently. Perhaps a little bit less efficiently because there's a chance you can go wrong, but they certainly do it, you know, en masse and, you know, it's

yeah. It's just a cool visual image. This, this kind of giant drill emerges from the ground and the bunker that you're in collapses into a hole. And then this kind of Of screaming horde of Brave troops race out of the ground. It's just our laser cutting everyone down. So that's, that's it really. That's the entirety of worms. You Imperium we touched on the other sport cards before because they're the ones that kind of work for Space. Marines or Imperial Guard.

You've got your classic, your moles, your rapiers, your third guns. If you want some more points support, you've got your land real, and Speeders, and your bikes. If you want to reach out and steal objectives. I think, if you play a will guard, you were going to A lot of painting like aux, you have a lot of troops, so it's going to be a quite a painting project, but the fun you can, you know, you can see me or tanks around different worlds, different regiments.

You know, there's such a good range of infantry on the market now. So if you did want to represent a, you know, traditional Imperial Guard regiment. Like, you know, you can get valhallen desk models, you can get tell arnessk models. And, you know, you can get, you can have your desert tanks or your snow tanks or your jungle tanks. Really, really cool. And I just think. Yeah, it's that for me.

It's That, you know, if you've ever watched a WWII film, oh, Kelly's Heroes, Dirty, Dozen things like that. The Imperial Guard really represents that and lets you build a very mixed Army. A mixed approach of Armour and infantry. They don't do anything brilliantly, they don't do anything fast but they do it in numbers and yeah, you know, they're the they're the most relatable Army of all because they're like us are just poor humans thrust into a universe that cares, not for them and

wants to eradicate. Locate them in the most horrific manner possible. So yeah, really, really a big fan of Imperial Guard. I think they were my first epic Army and they kind of the one I return to that my true love. You know. I kind of I love, I love them all but the Imperial Guard of the one that I feel true kinship for I guess. Cool me, that's nice. But did you forget to talk about the capital Imperials?

You want me to go over the captain perilous again and what a, what a wonderful know we spoke about at the start. It's the it's the embarrassing transport vehicle that achieves nothing. Yeah. But doesn't have a special Cannon. Oh okay sure, sure. Alright well, we'll talk about his gun fine will will will save the best for last It's so difficult because it can carry two companies worth of

troops. It carries, you can carry it, you can carry a tactical company and a Lehman, Russ company or a, you know, a company of super-heavy Tanks or whatever. It's crazy. It packs a lot in. So we'll talk about that that gun because actually I was I was a bit forgot that it isn't quite as simple as I'd laid out. So yes, the four bars points is nothing to write home about. However, it puts for templates down a turn, as part of that

barrage. Like, I'd forgotten that that ring Cold. So you take the, the barracks markers and sort of similar to the destruct missile. You can put them, so they each one touches the one before. So you can build a kind of a line or a cluster to kind of barrage an area, anything under the the marker will suffer for Barrett points which means they have on a five or six and they've got a - 1 save mode on that, so it's only 25 cm range. So this is not going to be sad, you know?

Sat in your lines, Throwing Fire out. This is more of a defensive tool and I think. Yeah, it's difficult really like, I think what this is really good for is for, you know, campaign and narrative

scenario play. So you could have, you know, one or two, be almost the objective of about like, oh, you know, the cow Space Marines have broken through the Imperial lines and they're racing to try and take out the captain imperialists and, you know, brakes are that command structure and destroy the, you know, the, the the nobility Seal the important officers kind of taking shower with them.

It has got a 1-up save around, so you need AMA modifiers to try and damage it. So light infantry can't touch it. It's got a closer factor of 10 so it's, yeah, it's pretty good in combat. It just, it just lacks the ability to relate to me. The Imperial Guard is all about reaching out and touching your opponent in their lines, you know, hammering them with mass Firepower and mass tanks and mass artillery.

It doesn't like I just I don't quite see the The niche that the capsule imperialist fills in that structure, you'd think it'd be good for transport because it's hard to kill and it can carry two companies, but it is only speed 10. So, and I think it's one of those ones as well where it.

Yeah. So the immense weight and size of a kind of mirror in Paris music so so it's very slow and it's move raised only 1072. So even if you put it on charge orders, it cannot move faster than 10 centimeters. I don't know man like it's cute. It is an impressive model, you're correct. Like it's Widgets is built on those massive classic tracks, same as the, the he'll bore.

So it is this this intimidating towering structure, Until you realize that you stay more than 25 centimeters away from it. And they all it can do is shout, boo, it, you essentially with my squats and I did the same thing. I put like my entire Brotherhood in it, and And I was going and I can only move 10. 10 cm Max. Yeah, yeah, it did protect my trips, the hallway. But boy. Oh boy, was sweating over it because I thought it this thing but it's a good boy. Yeah. Les, I think.

What's the what's the because General? Yeah. So troops can move 10 so they can Mark. Yeah, charge. They can they can charge 20, whereas the, the Leviathan and the and the captain imperialis can only move 10 even on charge orders. So I do get, I do get your gripe with him. I think they're there, I can be on the table but whether they're really doing. I mean, I like him for the squats.

Weirdly like, I like, I love Leviathan in the squirrels and I said they've got a couple of different, you know. Essentially variant chassis you know they've got they've got the one with the huge volcano Cannon. They've got the one with the helicopter pad on the back. I think if you use them as more artillery like the Leviathan has got that, you know, it's got 200 CM range on his doomsday. It's got the last counters, it's got the balconies that one can

be part of your artillery. And I think that's where it will shine. It's just that. Yeah, yeah. For for voice chills and a 1-up save. It's okay. It'll you know, it'll hang around as a survivable as a Riva tight and I guess, I think the difference for me is the Leviathan. I've got time for because it's got a lot of punch to it. The capsule Imperial. Like I say where were they when they were handing out the guns? Like somebody just forgot to burn a kick-ass gun on it.

And yeah. And for me, it's more, you know, in a in a squat on with life and doesn't have the command HQ rules. So it you can use it as an assault vehicle or as an artillery piece. It's only specifically because the Leviathan breaks chain of command when it dies in The Imperial Guard that it's problematic. But I guess that's just a reason to take two or three, isn't it? They're not, they're not Mega expensive, 250 points is not tragic and obviously because

you're Guard Army is cheap. You can kind of soak up those points with with a couple of special pieces. So yeah, I think I think I'll try, you know, maybe taking two or three leviathans and all of a sudden you're not as worried about chain of command breaking. I think if you've only got one, that's a huge gamble. So in a small, you know, 2000-3000 point game, I'd struggle to feel comfortable field in leviathans. I think in a kind of a four to

six thousand point game. If I could take two or three, all of a sudden, I'd be way more into that and I think, yeah, that would be really, really cool. And again that Really fun. You know, scenario the idea of the, of these. These three come on tanks. You know, it's the kind of the the co emulation of the bottle and they've got a risk rolling the commands in, or it's the

kind of the end of the campaign. And the Imperial guards on the back foot was this, this last desperate attempt to, to win the day by risking all and rolling your Command Staff into battle? And yeah, it's about time the officer class. Get their hands dirty here. I like the poor Guardsmen dying face down in the mud Left Right Center. I think it's only fair that the Colonel's expected to participate. It does make love like a look.

A lot better actually on paper. Yeah, yeah, y'all of the to I think I'm way more team. Leviathan. Just taking one is a huge risk. Take two or three now we can talk. Yeah. Well that's good. Wait, I'm glad you. I'm glad you can give such a good breakdown and I thought I'd just leave on a high note for. You may talk about the don't care about my favorite favorite model. Yeah, if you'd say John, what's your favorite model in the God I miss ask captain Perry Ellis every time.

Yeah, maybe it's maybe it's just cause I don't own one. It's one of the very very few. Yeah. Just cause they're hard to come by man. They're so like they go for silly money for what is essentially a box with a set of time. Franks on the bottom, but could be a fun. Maybe a fun modeling project, maybe I'll build one myself at some point. Yeah, pretty much well Are you go? Absolutely. Absolutely July and then they will shine I'll definitely

yes. Yeah, it's great that you put it In the first thing you do is take the he'll bore off the bag and then that the the sort of the the deployment vehicle just sits there for the rest of the game. So this amazing model and straight away, you just take it apart. I go, that's all it's doing this game. It's it's fun. It's a different, it's a very different approach. And I think I'm like I said, I'm sure there are people out there who can make it, work for them and do incredible things.

I'm a traditionalist. I take my artillery and I'd say my infantry companies and I just batter the enemy with artillery was mine. Infantry kind of, you know, by Time by dying screaming but yeah, that's how we did it in the old days, right? Dying's, meaning facing the sea a away, if you like that stuff, Oh God, that's a classic fight.

Yeah that's yeah. That's a lot of dice being thrown around because that's a lot of infantry and a lot of fun things happening well to enter in the podcast Jersey for we go. What's the next supplement? We're going to tackle. Do you think well we've got a choice. Have we? We can either go Renegades or Warlords and I feel like Warlords maybe should be where we go. Because we've both played both the Army's within it I mean yeah fairly consistently I say like

it works. We'll really how I got back into second edition and Epic. You and I have bonded over our kind of mutual love of squats, and we both got quite a nice little group of squats going. So I think that's the the sensible choice. But it depends if you want to save the best to last. Or if you want to, you want to jump into what we both know. Yeah. I think I think, I think I'm having to go all Lords next mate, and we'll go Renegades after that.

So to wrap it up when we've had a bit of time with our cows armies, and then we'll just look at the older and go Elder. I don't know. They've got pointy ears and go fast. I've played against Elder. Again, I've got an elder Army, it's just time. The enemy not have time to do much with them, but I've certainly played against them, and they are an interesting challenge, we say, because of the whole skimmer rules and just everything in their army, seems to be able to just ignore being

stuck in combat. So yeah, I think we'll save them till the end gives us time to both work on our cows list. So hopefully by the time that wraps around will of, would have done some fun things. And and I mean, I think they all the walls box is the best box, right? Because it's got the best. Two armies in it. There are a oh God I love them all. What can you do? That's right. But you know it's an exciting box it but yeah I hope everybody

enjoyed. John's review of the Amazon Imperium book and if that's hasn't encouraged you to go out and start your own sort of Epic Force, I don't know what will you can always check out the Facebook group. It's the Epic middle Hammer group. I think it's called I don't know the exact title but if you look if you just go to The face. If you go, if you're on Facebook, just go to Facebook. Just search epic middle.

Hammer, it will come up and you can see, you know, you can meet people who are put, maybe part of your country or in your communities, who are playing Epic. If you're learning to wanting to look more into it, and maybe find some kind of people playing locally that you can come and join in at their games or what have you or just be part of that Community there then please do. Yes, it's a commute, all I'd say maybe Over the Chrono come and escort group would you say?

Yeah, we do have quite a few guys. And now getting into the Epic scene of what? Yeah, and he'll he's got some epic stuff. We've got Marcel. He just bought some epic stuff. So it's catching what we've got with a hmm, you know, people grabbing you and I are both. We're both on both. So, you know, you can, you can keep an eye out for both of us and text posts, you know, as far as regular as we can, you know, soon as something new gets painted, we throw it up there.

Let's face it. So yeah, I think, you know, between those two groups It's a really good crowd. I, you know, I sort of posted the end of the year, like the Epic Community has been a Volver. Kind of the, the old Hammer e middlee hamre communities, that we're all part of. I feel like the Epic Community is just may be the most chill. I don't know. I don't, that's fair to say. But like they just, I feel like

we're quite welcoming. There's maybe, because FX a game that's been through various basing, you know, whether it's Square. Basing round basing hexagonal basing long basing strip basing like and and Cuz there's so much third-party Miniatures as well. Like, I feel like it's a very welcoming group and, you know, the main thing is we all love epic and we just want other people to love epic to.

So it shouldn't be intimidating. Like no matter what, your kind of level of whether you're like, you know, you've played every version of Epic from a depth of Titanic has right up to new adepts tight like us or if you've never played a game but you like tiny, tiny Warhammer. Like between those two groups come and, you know, join in and check out to us and people are really, really friendly and giving and, you know, you and I

met because we train some stuff. Often people will help each other out with with fitting out, cars, or giving our me suggestions or pointing out where you might be able to buy Miniatures, for a decent price. Or if they've got a good you know, good sad Miniatures, they're looking to shift, it's just yeah, it's kind of some of the most fun I've had in the kind of the online sphere with, with the hobby for for a good while, really cool. That's good to hear, man.

Yeah, I don't I do engage in there sometimes. I just don't do it enough because if I'm doing, if I'm painting epic or playing Epic, I'll probably Engage with The Morbid. Ivory from the history that I've had with that group, it's been excellent. I've had no nothing but good things to say about it. So yeah maybe twenty twenty twenty one will be the year that I launched back into epic and away either playing remotely or hopefully with some guys here in Japan.

Hmm I know there's one guy who I know. There's a couple guys here who came to play it. So yeah, but you you've you've promised you're going to do more work, you build our beautiful squats. Hold the new and you promised more kind of more work on that. So it'd be really good to see you. Yeah. Take that table even for the build, build some more, and recreate that that battle for Armageddon. I'd love to meet.

I would love to do it with me and Gordon, two swings in Scotland. So we're going to play that remotely at some point. Fantastic. It's just, it's just a matter of time as all of call these, the end of time. I wish I could just give up my job, my full-time job. Yeah, yeah, who needs a job? And just I mean that's the same thing. My job is literally wargaming. Being and even on my God, I wish I could give it my job to do more wargaming. Even if that is literally what I do for my job.

Yeah, it's crazy. I'll definitely do something that I so shouldn't see. That's why. I shouldn't. I shouldn't I shouldn't start. My cows are me. I should finish the tough, isn't it? This is because it's also good. Yeah, that's also because I've read. Yeah. Yeah, cows has been. Yeah, is haunting my dreams at the seductive Whispers of chaos. Yeah, we'll get to it. Well, we'll talk about it in the next one. Yes, but we'll save that moment.

And anyhow, might thanks again. John for you, do always a pleasure, always a pleasure, another people appreciate it. And I think the series of podcasts we've done so far been really well received. Yeah, and I think joining it, It. So we'll probably split each one into two. I think it's a sensible way of approaching because there's a, there's a lot for me to Waffle on about and you to desperately. Try to interject with wherever I'm letting you have a breath. So yeah.

She's like I said, just go for it. I think it's the next one. Pull the course. The next one is especially for both of us. I think that's gonna be a fun one because we, I mean, we met and bonded over squats and aux and I think it's going to be a yeah, you you, Up to talk tactics and strategy and passion. So, it was gonna be good. All right, I wasn't wrong about the art because the artwork in that book, is my favorite so good. Yeah. Bonner, and yes, and squat,

artwork is just incredible. It's and Adrian Smith and all the great artists of that time. John was well, yeah, some outstanding outward artworks gone to that book. So yeah. Well, lots of talked about lots of talk about, I don't know when I'm going to do a probably end of the month or so, yeah, sounds good gives you a couple of weeks. To break a painting. I'll be good. Nice one until then. Take care of yourself. Yeah, you too man. Take it easy? Okay, do teammate. Take care. Bye, bye.

See you later.