Epic Warpath The beginner mission

With a new game it is worth taking the game in portions instead of all rules at one time. We had a 1000 pts introductory battle (still proxied Legion Imperialis as I haven't finished that army yet). And it worked really well in how we played the game. 

So this is Egge's ideas on how a suitable introduction battle looks. 

Army list

First of all the armies. When introducing a game or testing it the first time it is worth keeping the rules down or taking it step by step. This is important when picking a army to use. 

I think that for Epic Warpath you will get a good feel for the rules if playing about 1000 pts. I did a demo-round with about 600 pts at a library where it clearly showed that to few units gives a few lucky die rolls to much power. Especially when I then only had one squad of vehicles per side. 

For this game I would suggest you build a army with receptiveness. It minimize the units' special rules to keep track of and is easier to remember. 

1. One HQ a side. Only one formation. 

2. 2-4 basic infantry squads. The same type. And the most standard you can use. Operators for Enforces and Marines for GCPS. 

3. 1-2 Walkers

4. 2 Squads of the same basic vehicles. 

5. If suitable you can use another basic squad if you feel. 

This gives you the same type of army on both sides and balance it out. For a experienced player it might be missing fast units, flying units, transports and heavy. But to introduce a beginner or when going into the game to learn the rules you get the same style of army without anything going "into you face" nor need special care. Everything can technically kill everything. 

The armies we used were:

Enforcers [ 970 / 1000 (30 Remaining) ]
~ List Valid ~
Company 1
- LIEUTENANT (Command) [40]
- OPERATIVES (Troop) [160]
- OPERATIVES (Troop) [160]
- HEAVY WEAPONS (Troop) [160]
- ENFORCER STRIDER (Specialist) [130]
- VICTOR-MKII TANK (Support) [160]
- VICTOR-MKII TANK (Support) [160]

and 

GCPS [ 980 / 1000 (20 Remaining) ]
~ List Valid ~
<u>Company 1</u>
 - LIEUTENANT (Command) [35]
 - MARINES (Troop) [110]
 - MARINES (Troop) [110]
 - MARINES (Troop) [110]
 - HEAVY WEAPON TEAMS (Specialist) [95]
 - GCPS STRIDER (Specialist) [120]
 - GCPS AJAX STRIDER (Specialist) [140]
 - WOLVERINE TANK (Support) [130]
 - WOLVERINE TANK (Support) [130]

A experienced player will note we have Command, standard units, heavy, striders and 2 squads tanks but no accessories like assets. Since I have played the game a few times before I felt it was ok to take another type of strider squad for the beginner who played GCPS. We also included Blast weapons (Wolverines) as I have played it a few times and could easily explain it.  

The rules used

Using these armies we get to test the basic rules. We use a lot of buildings as I have the Dropzone paper-terrain. So we included the rules for buildings. We ignored any complicated units except some Blast and the HQ. We included Command die and Tactical orders but ignored the Strategic orders as well as the Army special rules. We always try to include morale as early as possible as well. 

Thus we end up with a game where one who have read the book once will be able to play the game fairly well. If you do any mistake in the order of things and other details - ignore it and just play. It will run fairly well and you will only look at a reference sheet and the special rules. So in our case we needed to read up on buildings, blasts and command die and be reminded of the pinning rules. Rest is fairly logical without any reference and taking from memory. If you makes some mistakes - ignore it and keep the game flowing. 

The Mission

We used corner/triangle set-up and one Static objectives in each player's deployment zone. Then diagional over the table we had 3 Dynamic objectives. Each objective awarded 3 points each turn. 

I am not a fan of the 5-6 turn as we usually see the game end at turn 4 so we changed it to 4 turn and 5+ roll to see if it becomes turn 5. Works well I think. 

We ignored the reserve rules though I really like the idea. 

Conclusion

With the army choice, ignoring some rules and picking a fairly standard mission we get a game that will most likely end up fairly close, showing off how it generally works and we have several finer tactical issues to be discovered and discussed. I played with a friend who is well used to a competitive game and I really enjoy discussing options during a game when we learn it. Even with this simple type of game one really get to know the game options and strategy. It was real fun.