The competition between 10mm games part one: Intro

 In a pretty short span of time we suddenly have three main games of 10mm games on the market. Dropzone commander will be on a third iteration within (rumour says) a year. And with a new faction as well. Legion Imperialis was a pretty successful release from GW and have just gotten a balance-pass. And just released is the new Epic Warpath-ruleset with a good amount of factions already released and obvious other future factions coming if successful enough. So I thought to make a competition between them. Split up on a five part "review" style of competition between the games. 

While my favorite is Dropzone Commander (first ed), all the games have things that are interesting and I thought to give a comparison and highly subjective opinion on the games and various aspects of them. I include Epic Armageddon as it is a classic game and have a valid support from fans. And is one of the main if not The Main Base for all modern small scale games. Also I have models for it so there is that too. 

My only Epic Armageddon Tyranids-base painted. This game is very responsible for my small scale addiction. 

Intro

So as my thoughts below will be highly subjective, I wanted to present myself so you know what experience I have in wargaming. I started when I was 14 with second edition 40k. That means I actually celebrate 30 years of gaming this year which is kind of... cool (not the word my wife used though). I have played various editions of Warhammer 40k (both casual and competitive) which has been the main experience until Dropzone commander (the only other game I have played competitively as well) but I have collected and played Warhammer fantasy, Epic Armageddon, Mordheim, Necromunda, Space Hulk, DBA, Onepage Grimdark Future, Lord of the Rings and various more games from conventions visited over the years. I have written different versions of games, house rules and missions for a long time and when testing (both for Tournaments and casual games) I have found stuff that really works impressively well and other things that...didn't. 

I established several "Egge-rules" over the years in competitive 40k in Sweden (Egge being my nickname). Egge-KP was killpoints but you got a KP for each started 100 points a unit was (in contrast to Games Workshop's pretty lousy version of that rule). It became a mainstay in Swedish tournaments. People could optimize to 99pts to minimize but several good stuff was like 320 points and so it worked really well and was much faster than calculating victory points.  I had a version of Escalation in one edition of 40k (where units besides infantry arrived randomly from turn 2) called Eggscalation. The base was you always got half units rounded up unto the table though it randomized which units. This was a rule later used in a ETC tournament (then called Swedish Escalation) which I think was cool. 

So I think I am fairly experienced in judging game systems as well as understand tactical fine points and ideas. Still, not a pro in any way and you should remember everything I write is highly subjective.   

So let's get started. 

Introduction of each game

Released in 2012, Dropzone Commander is a 10mm game focusing on getting infantry into buildings and extracting objectives. You need infantry to find those objectives but with only 2" movement they need flying transports to get there. Flying transports can only be shot at from Anti-Aircraft weapons and you need Anti-tank weapons to discourage those AA tanks to roam free. You use commanders and command cards to handle initiative and sort your army both as individuals, squads but also in larger battlegroups as well. It took the world by storm (in comparison to what they expected) when it arrived due to it's fantastic models and love and care from it's creator. The second edition is much weaker but works on the same basic premise. 

Epic Armageddon is of a smaller scale, 6mm, and is a game with so sound roots that it still possible to find players today in most areas. The game only last 3 or 4 turns but is highly action packed from first activation to the last. The fans have created lists for most 40k armies and is considered a pretty balanced game. Released in 2003 it is now quite dated but that isn't felt in the game's rules. In fact the morale system with blast markers is considered some of the most interesting and important morale system in any game system ever created. 

Epic Warpath is just released 2025 and should be considered the main competitor to Legion Imperialis and it kind of shows in the rules. It is quite cheap for a wargame and have a good flora of factions at the go. Written by (among others) Alessio Cavatore (Warmaster, GW Lord of the rings, Mordheim, Kings of war, Bolt action, lots of Games workshop supplement and so on) and a few others it stand on a pretty solid ruleset with a D8 base instead of D6. Knowing how to use commanders extra abilities is very crucial and you have a alternate activation system. 10mm in scale. 

All Mantics pictures are selfishsly stolen from Mantic's Epic Warpath page. 

Last is Legion Imperialis. Games workshop's new Epic version (but 8mm instead of the old 6mm) is set in the 30k-era of the well known universe. While there were Eldar and Orcs running around (as well as some races that was destroyed during this era) the game have focused mostly on "human" armies. It has a pretty descent following, the miniatures look great and have just gotten a complete balance overhaul addressing a lot of the player's concerns. It sports alternate activation that goes really fast to the action.

So this is the first post on the Blog. If you feel my expertise is lacking, or language sucks then I suggest you start a blog yourself. Not video - there are a million of those - something I... I mean someone else can read.