Black Templars Epic 40k (3rd Edition) Force

 I've been building up my Epic Black Templar force, The Anatolikan Crusade, for the last two months, and have now got them to the point where I feel like they're 'Crusade' strength.

The Anatolikan Crusade

The force now numbers a mighty 60 Black Templar Initiates, 4 Rhinos, 2 Land Raiders, 3 Predators and 2 Vindicators- a huge force for 40k, but in Epic terms, a starter army.

I had initially intended to use the rules for Epic Armageddon, the 'Current' edition- which although very much unsupported by Games Workshop, very much is still supported by the Community. The earlier 'Space Marine' and 'Adeptus Titanicus' games in the First and Second edition seemed a little more 'clunky' from what I read, and I was after something a little more abstract.

In my reading, however, I came across the 3rd Edition of Epic, known as Epic 40k. Released back in 1997 (way before I joined the Hobby in 2010), from what I've read online, it was not very popular, and criticised for taking some of the 'flavour' out of the armies. From my reading though, Epic 40k seems very appealing. The rules are straight forward, and seem to scale well- ideal therefore for various sizes of games. I also liked the army selection- building mixed detachments in their own self contained formations, feeling like each is a 'smaller' 40k army that is now part of the wider force.* With this in mind then, I decided to create a 600 point list- quite small for Epic 40k, but this would give me a starting point to aim for- and could be played on a smaller table size. I also decided to make the possible detachment sizes only 50% of the regular sizes for such a low points level- to avoid creating detachments with too much power.

Detachment 1



Packing some heavy firepower, the first Detachment has the Land Raider Excelsior with the bones of Marshal Osseus in a Sarcophagus to represent the Detachment HQ. Though the Land Raiders aren't transporting any Marines, they pack some good firepower with Anti-Tank shots- and will provide room in the future to hold some Devastators or Terminators when the force expands.

Detachment 2


Led by Castellan Tancred, this is the largest Detachment in the force, representing the bulk of the fighting force. The Space Marines represent very solid troops, and pack quite a punch in an Assault in the Game for 'regular' Tactical Marines. With this in mind, the Rhino's are intended to help speed this Detachment forward to get into the face of the opposing force, and to deliver the Marines to strategic locations. To support the Detachment, 2 Vindicators are attached. Whilst they slow the Detachment down a small amount (5cm slower than the Rhinos), their Fire Power, combined with the special rules 'Close Support' lends the Vindicators to providing very effective support to the units of Marines.

The Rhino Primaris is being represented by a Razorback for the Captain.

Detachment 3


Led by the Sword Brother Amalric, the 3rd Detachment is intended as a Strike Force which can rapidly deploy to anywhere on the battlefield- and so has been kept fairly simple. The Marines carry with them the Crusade Banner, carried into battle by the Sword Brethren, representing the Detachment HQ.

A very small free-handed sword and scroll painted onto the Crusade Banner.

Detachment 4


The final Detachment consists of a Thunderhawk- which pack a huge amount of Fire Power and Transport into a single package. The Thunderhawk can be responsible for deploying the 3rd Detachment, or could be used to supply supporting fire or Anti-air support, and the Marines can be deployed by Drop-Pod. This will be the final piece to the 600 point force, and one which I'm hoping to get soon- and will make a great centrepiece to the force.

The Plastic Thunderhawk will be flying its way over soon!

That's the full force- and after the Thunderhawk, I will be halting the Crusade for now to focus on their opponents- the Orks- which I'm going to be going for a slightly more infantry-focussed force to contrast the armoured feel to the Black Templars!

Thanks for reading!






*The beauty of OOP games is that, I can of course use the same miniatures for any edition if I want to try them out later!




Comments

Post a Comment

The Hobby Breakfast Show

The Hobby Breakfast Show Youtube

Popular posts from this blog

Aeronautica Imperialis: Thunderhawk Review

Image
  The Thunderhawk Gunship I had been waiting to get one of these since it was announced last year! Despite a bit of a delay in actually getting my hands on it (out of stock for a while), its finally here- so what is the plastic Thunderhawk like? Value- 2/5 This one was tricky to rate. I have to admit, I had been slightly put off when the kit came out to see a single Thunderhawk for £26 (as of writing, it is about to see a price increase in March 2022). In a way, I view the Aeronautica range a little more like an Airfix kit- part of the joy is seeing the details of the larger aircraft recreated in such a small scale, but the cost of this is vastly higher than an Airfix kit.  Perhaps this is an unfair comparison- how does the Thunderhawk compare to another Aeronautica kit? The Thunderhawk compared with the Grot Bommer The Thunderhawk is large, and if it weren't for the wingspan, is starting to dwarf the Grot Bommers. However, I think the Thunderhawk feels like slightly worse value. F
Read more

Creating Middle Earth SBG Crebain out of AoS Miniatures

Image
  For my Isengard army that I'm currently building, I'm going to be including some Crebain- flocks of crows which Saruman uses as his spies. The first point of call would of course be the official models made by Games Workshop. However, the official models are Forge World- and a little on the pricey side... £27.50 for 2 Crebain flocks... I looked at reviews, which do suggest these are good models- but as I needed 3, I didn't feel I could justify £55 for 2 packs- especially as the rest of the army didn't cost much more than this...  I therefore had a look for some alternatives to make Crebain with- although there weren't a massive amount of crow models out there. I found some individual crow miniatures, but would have had to completely construct a base for them. This was perhaps a bit too much effort for what aren't something that I want to become a time sink. In the end, I circled back to Games Workshop, for some other miniatures they make for Age of Sigmar. The
Read more

Dead Man's Hand Plastic Gunfighters Review

Image
  Welcome back to the blog with my next review: Dead Man's Hand Plastic Gunfighters from Great Escape Games. I picked this box up as a small project for some skirmish gaming in the Wild West (I'd been watching a few Western's recently and wanted to scratch an itch). I'm intending to use the Ruthless rules, which I saw on the LittleWarsTV Youtube channel, and loved the look of these- I generally try to get plastic miniatures where possible (personal preference) and these appeared like good value (£15). So, what are my thoughts on the kit? Value- 5/5 You can't fault the value on this kit- 10 miniatures for £15 is already fairly reasonable, but with the options you get in the kit, this could form the basis for many different kinds of miniatures for miniature games in the West- you could just buy this box and be ready to play a game. The sprues contain twice as many heads as needed, and about twice as many weapons and extras needed too. The only note I would make in reg
Read more

Blood Bowl Sevens- Old World Alliance vs Halflings (S01GW01)

Image
Here it is, the second match of Game Week 1, the Old World Alliance team, the Altdorf Commanders face off against the Halflings team, the Mighty Mootland Mice . As always, punditry and highlights are brought to you by our ex-player commentary team, Brokk Frorson and Thistle Hedgehill. Pre-Game The weather is perfect for Blood Bowl, and with both teams starting undervalued- neither has brought any inducements to play. The Halflings win the coin toss, and elect to receive, and with that the game is off. First Half The Halflings receive the ball, bouncing just in-front of their line, and start to charge up to create an offensive line at the mid-point of the pitch. The initial stages are cagey- the Treeman and Ogre immediately clash, but nothing but a push-back is rolled. Midway through the Half, Dwarf Runner, Thrar Frondison, Blocks a Halfling Hopeful, and Badly Hurts the Hopeful. Brokk: 'With all the heavy hitters on the pitch, you'd never have guessed the Runner would get the fi
Read more

Middle Earth SBG: Saruman and Grima Review

Image
  As part of the Tale of Three Wargamers that I'm doing along with two friends on the Blog ( here's a link if you're interested ), I picked up the Saruman and Grima plastic kit that was released a couple of years back now. I've got a couple of these new kits for Middle Earth SBG now, and have been impressed with them all, so how does Saruman stack up? As always, I'll be breaking my thoughts down into value, quality, build and looks: Value: 3/5 As with all Games Workshop kits, you are paying a premium. All 3 miniatures (and the palantir) are squeezed onto a single sprue- which is impressive, but in terms of sheer quantity of plastic- it's not much for £26 if you buy straight from Games Workshop (you can get a discount from a FLGS for this though!) What saves this for me is that you're getting 3 miniatures, and a nice token/scenery piece in the palantir. When you compare this to a Warhammer 40k character sprue, for example, there you are getting just a single
Read more

Blood Bowl Sevens- High Elves vs Porklings (S01GW01)

Image
Welcome to the first game of the Sevens Blood Bowl League. Our first fixture today is going to see the High Elf Home Team, the Ellyrion Eagles face off against the visitors, The Blue Reach Boars (Goblins/Porklings). Lets have a look at the Match Highlights, and punditry from ex-players, Brokk Frorson and Thistle Hedgehill. Pre-Game With Perfect conditions for Blood Bowl, both teams arrive fully prepared for the upcoming fixture. The Porklings use the opportunity of some available petty cash to buy a bribe for the referee, and with that- it's time for Kick-Off. Brilliant Coaching is rolled on the Kick-Off table- but a resulting draw leaves neither team with an extra Re-Roll. First Half With a well placed Kick, the Porklings deftly aim the ball into the centre of the pitch- forcing the Elves to come towards them, and the Boar (Troll) straight out of the gate. This immediately paid off for the Porklings, as in their first turn, they were able to Blitz the Boar into an Elf Blitzer, KO
Read more