Chaos is the equal and opposite of Order. Chaos is both physically and spiritually corrupting. In itself it is not always what most intelligent species would define as evil. Chaos is the emotional, psychic and spiritual energy that Warp Space is composed of. It is more often used to describe any force or influence of Chaos that makes up the universal and usually malign spiritual force embodied by the malevolent intelligent entities, comprised of psychic energy, that live in Warp Space.

Warpspace, or the Warp as it is more commonly known is also referred to as the Aether, the Empyrean, the Immaterium, the Realm of Chaos and the Sea of Souls. Although people will use certain phrases dependent on which game is being played. The Warp is more often used when referring to the Science Fiction genre of Warhammer 40K with the Realm of Chaos leaning more towards Warhammer Fantasy Battle (WHFB) game.

In the early days of time, the Warp was not the dangerous place it was to become. This was a time when the ancient and very powerful race of Old Ones influenced the primitive races of the Milky Way Galaxy and guided them. When the Necrons and their C'tan masters fought the Old Ones, the Old Ones created new psychic warrior races to fight and overcome them. These races had strong ties to the Warp and the most evolutionarily-advanced of them had psychic powers to assist them in destroying the Necron race. These races included the Eldar ancestors and the Krork, who might well have been the ancestors of the Ork race.

The Warp itself is made up of emotional and spiritual energy that ebbs and flows like an ocean, affecting mortal thoughts but in turn being affected by them. The Warp is the psychic mirror-reality of the material universe, a parallel dimension and without limits. It is a place of infinite possibilities, constantly changing, being unbound by the laws of time and space, a random, unstructured panorama of pure energy and unfocused consciousness, where raw emotion and belief hold sway. It is from this nature that it is dubbed Chaos, for it is Chaotic in the truest sense. Initially it was a calm and undisturbed place, but emotions, passions and desires of mortals gravitated to the Warp. Fear, greed, hatred, love and lust, amongst others, built up gradually over time, altering it forming creatures which gained sentience. Some of these waxed and waned, and were lost to time, but some became incredibly powerful entities.

These were the Dark Gods of Chaos, also known as the Ruinous Powers. The main four being:

Khorne the Blood God. The Lord of Slaughter, being the God of battle, war, murder and violent death. Khorne is the most active, potent and powerful of the Chaos Gods, as he is empowered by bloodshed, fighting, death, hate, rage and war, of which there is plenty in the Warhammer 40K universe. As God of Battle, Khorne is all about outward and overt attack, mindless violence using force in open and brutal attack, more likely in hand to hand close combat, rather than ranged weaponry. Due to this Khorne is utterly opposed to Slaanesh who takes strength from inward hidden pleasures. He also does not favour magic and sorcery, viewing it as cowardly. Khorne is a fearsome entity depicted as a massive heavily armoured figure. The armour plating will often show skulls and a helm having large wings. His followers are many, some with no true form are created by the Warp, others are made from flesh or machine. These include Juggernauts, which when ridden by a Bloodletter Daemon are called Bloodcrushers, or if by a Chaos Knight, then it is referred to as a Skullcrusher. 

Nurgle the Lord of Disease and Decay. Also known as the Fly Lord, the Great Corruptor, the Lord of All, and the Master of Pestilence takes pleasure in creating plagues and new diseases, then watching over their effect. Nurgles power increases and decreases over time because his diseases will be either cured or kill off those affected. Nurgles aims are decay, stagnation, lost hope and despair. This places him in direct opposition to Tzeentch, who embodies ambition, changing fortune and hope. The Lord of Pestilence is depicted as a huge overly bloated putrescent humanoid. His skin, covered with horrid sores and oozing wounds, will be split open in many places with his rotten organs sagging out. Truly disgusting to behold. Disease and death foreshadow Nurgle's armies, and many battles are already won before they even start. His followers, such as the Plague Marines, are disgusting to look upon. They are infected with horrific diseases which turn their bodies into bloated and rotting flesh, full of open sores, wounds and maggots. The Daemons of Nurgle are disturbingly jolly, which opposes their putrid and sickening appearance. They are many in number, from the most powerful Great Unclean Ones, to the Plaguebearers and down to the lowliest Nurglings.

Slaanesh the Prince of Pleasures, the God of Pleasure and Pain has many names. Humans refer to Slaanesh as a male, but the Eldar race refer to Slaanesh as female calling her She Who Thirsts or The Great Enemy. Others know Slaanesh as the Depraved One or the Great Serpent. The name Slaanesh is a corruption of the Elven term Slaaneth. Slaa meaning ecstasy or pleasure and Neth meaning Lord or Prince. 

The Prince of Pleasures is the youngest of the Chaos Gods and continues to grow in power. The other Ruinous Powers referring to Slaanesh as the Prince of Chaos. Slaanesh was brought into being by the decadence of the Eldar, and the Prince of Pleasures waking caused The Fall of the highly psychic Eldar (Space Elves) race. The Eldar created Slaanesh and on waking the new God let out a terrible psychic scream. The shock wave from this spread outward through the Warp destroying the Eldar empire, disintegrating their bodies and absorbing their souls. The death toll of Eldar was so incredibly massive that such energy usually kept within the Warp couldn’t be contained and spilled out into the physical realm. This creating a permanent gate where the centre of the Eldar empire once was. This was later to be known, by the Imperium of Man, as the Eye of Terror and can be found in the region of the Segmentum Obscurus. 

Slaanesh as the Lord of Pleasure takes pleasure in pleasure and all the sensations and experiences that life and death bring. Slaanesh is the Chaos God of art, indulgence, luxury, indulgence and passion being manifested from hidden vices, cruel passions, and the inward secret temptations from deep with people’s hearts. It is these dark thoughts and decadence that Slaanesh gains power from. Slaanesh becomes more powerful as time moves forward, with all mortal dark pleasures adding to the Gods spiritual strength. Slaanesh is all about hedonistic and carnal pleasures, a life of no constraint and is seductive and subtle by nature. This makes the Dark Prince completely opposed to the brutal, violently overt force that is Khorne and due to this, both these ruinous powers are mortal enemies. Slaanesh is weaker, so does not favour direct confrontation, instead using more subtle weapons.

Pictures or effigies of this Master of Delights will show an androgynous or hermaphroditic being of unearthly and disturbing beauty. Usually female on the right side and male on the left. Slaanesh can assume any form, be it male, female, hermaphroditic or sexless and will take on the form that is most pleasing to the viewer, usually a figure of unnatural and rather disturbing beauty. Whichever form, two pairs of slender horns rise from the god’s flowing golden hair. Slaanesh is often depicted wearing luxuriantly lined, form-fitting armour and bearing a jade sceptre that is said to be the Dark Gods greatest treasure. Slaanesh's hedonistic followers seek new experiences with ever greater need and in increasingly extreme and outrageous fashion. Becoming bored with an everyday existence, finding it banal, mundane and unimaginative, they instead seek moral, social and artistic decadence. They will wear clothing and armour that is brightly coloured excessively ornate and gaudy, with favourite pastime being to engage in orgies to praise their God.

The Greater Daemons of Slaanesh are called Keepers of Secrets, with the Lesser Daemons of Slaanesh being known as Daemonettes. Both possess some of the unnaturally seducive beauty of The Lord of Pleasure, all are terrifyingly sensuous. An awful dichotomy of beauty and the beast, something beguiling yet monstrous in nature.

Tzeentch the Changer of the Ways. Also known as the Architect of Fate, the Great Conspirator and the Master of Fortune. Tzeentch feeds upon sentient beings excitement and desire to bring change, taking strength in their ambitions and need for wealth and freedom. Tzeentch is incredibly wise and forever working unseen in dark corners to defeat his enemies. A great manipulator who is constantly twisting the many paths of destiny. He is involved in history, intrigue, political machinations, conspiracies and plots at all levels. The Architect of Fate is the master of so many Machiavellian schemes. His intended outcomes being so deeply hidden under many layers of interweaving plots, that are so complex, convoluted and long-term that it is impossible for any mortal to understand. Tzeentch also represents optimism, hope and the willingness to change, this makes Nurgle, and the hopeless despair that the Lord of Decay brings, his utter nemesis. 

Tzeentch is rarely shown in images. The few that do will often conflict each other, with some showing the God having the characteristics of birds or fish, but in the main the Great Conspirator is shown as a long armed, manlike figure. The face will be sunk low down between his shoulder blades and the shoulders will have a large pair of asymmetrically curved horns coming from them. Tzeentch is referred to as The Master of Magic, and with good reason as he is the most accomplished magician. The followers of Tzeentch manipulate the sorcery and psychic power of the Warp in the rawest form. The God of Dark Knowledge favours intelligence over brawn so his many worshipers tend to be powerful psykers, scholars, sorcerers and the educated elite. 

The Daemons of Tzeentch are highly magical in nature. His Greater Daemons are known as Lords of Change. These are huge birdlike entities that are surrounded by a bright shifting aura of sorcery. Their bodies and wings shimmer with a thousand iridescent colours. The Lesser Daemons of Tzeentch are the Flamers and horrors. Flamers of Tzeentch appear as a living flame, whereas the Pink and Blue Horrors are very different, having long gangling arms, ending in hands with sucker tipped fingers. Having no head, they will instead have a face that often appears on their body, but can shift position and when a Pink Horror is slain, then the body will magically transform into two Blue Horrors, which will continue to fight.

There are also the Screamers which are also referred to as Sky Sharks although they more resemble Manta Rays that swim in air. These can be bound into service and with dark knowledge turned into Discs of Tzeentch. These are then ridden as mounts by highly esteemed Champions and Daemons. Depending on the era, these vary in shape and size, will usually have spikes or teeth and resemble surfboards or large shields, with the rider stood upon them. They may well have a fungoid, technological or a tentacled look about them, possibly almost resembling a plush seat backrest. They may even trail flames behind them.

There are other Gods, although these are more related to Warhammer Fantasy Battle rather than the Warhammer 40,000 game. In the past you'll find Malal, the Renegade God. A God of Contention, Vengeance and Anarchy also called Malice, albeit a lost God now. Possibly due to copyright issues. There is also Hashut known as the Father of Darkness. Hashut is the God of the Chaos Dwarfs, or as they are also known, the Uzkul-Dhrazh-Zharr or Dawi Zharr. The Skaven, or Chaos Ratmen as they used to be known, have their God the Great Horned Rat, the Skaven God of blight and pestilence. His Greater Daemons are known as Verminlords.

Each of the Chaos Gods have their own followers, but the followers of Chaos Undivided view the four major Chaos Gods as a single pantheon, regarding them as different emanations of the same universal force. They may worship and honour them equally, favour one slightly over the others or view them all as a single God. The majority of the Traitor Legions of Chaos Space Marines serve Chaos Undivided and are rightly feared due to it.

The domains of the individual Chaos Gods are collectively called the Realm of Chaos by savants of the Inquisition. The Realm of Chaos is a fantastical landscape devoid of consistency and changes constantly, ebbing and flowing in different locales as it does so. 

As the mortal races grew in size, so did the power and influence of the Gods. It is with this power they were able to then influence the various races that had created them. The Gods being formed by the mortal emotions of sentient beings residing in the material universe. The minds of mortals creating the Gods, and in turn, the Gods then being able to affect the minds of mortals. 

The Daemonic servants to the Chaos Gods are formed from a part of a Chaos God's consciousness. The God creates a separate being from a part of their own psychic power. These Daemons have no true form or physical presence within the Warp, they merely take on an appearance of a physical body and this appearance will directly relate to their God. When a Daemons physical projection is slain in the realspace of the material universe, it is not actually killed. It just has its presence severed in reality and is either banished back to the Warp or simply re-absorbed by its creator.

Amongst the Chaos Gods myriad of servants there are also many mortals who turn to Chaos and pledge themselves to the ruinous powers of Chaos. The Imperiums scholars divide up the Forces of Chaos into three groups. These are:

Daemons. Daemonic entities that are native to the Warp and only rarely impinge upon the physical universe.

The Lost and the Damned. This includes peasants who become Chaos Cultists, and includes other degenerate humans such as renegades, mutants, Beastmen, Imperial nobles, Planetary Governors and their Militia, rogue psykers, and Traitor Guardsmen. 

The Traitor Legions. Chaos Space Marines and their counterparts amongst the Hereteks and Traitor Titan Legions of the Dark Mechanicus who followed the Warmaster Horus, rebelling against the Emperor in an interstellar civil war.

It is not only humans who have fallen to the darkness of Chaos though, there are other races and civilizations such as the Laer, Lok'kroll, Saruthi, Scaephylyds, Xenarch and Yu'vath.

Although other sentient races have contributed, it has been clearly noted that the appearance of the first three Chaos Gods, Khorne, Nurgle and Tzeentch, directly corresponds to the increase and development of humanity in the galaxy. Thus implying that mankind is, by very nature, inherently chaotic and unstable.

The Realm of Chaos and the Material Universe can overlap, often with devastating consequences for mortals. Warp Storms and Warp Rifts are such examples of a breach between these two realities. Psykers would not exist without the warp. Neither would interstellar travel or interplanetary communication. The Warp has become an essential necessity to the continuing survival of humanity. Massive spacecraft use it to travel thousands of light years in a fraction of the time that a journey using conventional reaction drives at sub-light speeds would take. It can be used to teleport objects or even send thoughts across space and time. The Warp is also an incredibly powerful force of change and power, and can physically and spiritually corrupt races. Some amongst these races can use the energy of the Warp. Locally they may be called exorcists, magicians, mediums, seers, shamans or witches but are collectively known as Psykers. They are incredibly powerful, having abilities that defy the normal laws of the universe, but in turn Chaos can slowly corrupt them, warping their body and mind, tainting them. 

Although they have to, each time a Psyker draws upon the Warp they disturb its natural flow and movement. This in turn can set in motion consequences that may lead to devastating consequences, such as Daemonic possession or a Warp rift opening into the material plane from which its denizens will travel through. Some races will respect and admire Psykers, but the Imperium encourages Loyalist Imperial worlds to hold witch hunts where many Psykers and mutants are hunted down. The human race is brought up from birth to be openly xenophobic, and Mutants are usually killed outright due to attitudes for genetic purity to be maintained. If the population of mutants is too great, or they are too vital to the economy and production of Imperial tithes, then they will instead be treated as an underclass, to be despised and feared. Any captured Psykers will eventually find their way onto ships to be taken to Terra for processing. Very few are ever heard from again. It is with reluctance that families give up loved ones, but if they do not, they will soon feel the Imperial boot bearing down on them forcefully.

Chaos is also referred to by the Imperium of man as the Archenemy. The servants of Chaos instead refer to it as the Primordial Annihilator or the Primordial Truth. This refers to the followers of the individual Ruinous Powers of Chaos and of the universal power of Chaos Undivided itself. You may ask why people would choose to follow chaos as it offers the likelihood of mutation, daemonic possession, and spiritual damnation. The reason being that it also offers the opportunity and possibility of extreme power and the respect, or fear, that comes with such power. Which is incredibly tempting to both lowly peasant or royalty alike.

The Emperor is the most powerful human psyker ever born and it is believed that he foresaw the birth of the God Slaanesh and the effects of this. Fearing that the power of Chaos would consume all of humanity he put in place plans to create the Primarchs. These were genetically advanced super humans with God like powers, being engineered for loyalty, strength and above all to have total immunity from the taint and corruption of Chaos. The Emperor wished to create an entire race from the Primarchs genetic template, but the ruinous powers of Chaos intervened and rather than destroy the Primarchs, they were instead scattered across the galaxy, well away from any human contact. The Primarchs developed independently of human influence and were to be later discovered during the Great Crusade. Prior to this the birth of Slaanesh had drawn closer and time was pressing. There was not enough time to create new Primarchs so instead the Emperor used the Primarchs genetic material to create organs that could then be implanted into humans. These were the Thunder Warriors and were the beginning of the Imperiums Space Marine legions. This was the birth of the Adeptus Astartes.

The awakening of the Prince of Chaos, Slaanesh, caused a psychic shock wave that destroyed planets, wiping out civilisations and created the Eye of Terror. Albeit close, Earth was relatively untouched, as the warp storms that had surrounded it for years absorbed most of the shock wave, which then dissipated them. With the warp storms gone, the Emperor and his forces were then free to spread out into the galaxy in a bid for unification of all mankind. He quested for the Primarchs, using his psychic powers, as the human race moved out into the galaxy in The Great Crusade. When located the Primarchs were fully grown and free from the taint of Chaos, or so was thought. Upon meeting the Emperor, many joined him, but others had to be beaten down in combat before they would follow him. 

Each Primarch was given a legion of Space Marines to command and many billions of lives were taken in the name of the Emperor. Aliens, Chaos forces, mutants and Psykers were mercilessly killed. Even human coalitions that tried to resist the Imperialist movement were brutally crushed as the Space Marine Legions who had initially fought the enemy, increasingly found themselves wiping out whole human populations whose only crime was their unwillingness to join the Imperium. The Emperors initial message had changed to that of domination and fear, especially towards anything alien. Control was imposed by the Imperium's hideously bureaucratic Administratum, whilst the Adeptus Arbites replaced judges and lawmakers, and Planetary Governors took control. Terra replaced the planetary societies differences with conformity, in an oppressive regime. Many worked with the Imperium and the forces of Chaos appeared subjugated and beaten, but oppression always breeds resistance. History has always shown that all great empires eventually fall from grace.

Chaos in itself is insidious by nature. As the Great Crusade continued, the Primarchs were to be tested by the Ruinous Powers, many were to fall short and succumb. The Primarchs were not the perfect beings first thought, they too had human flaws with half being seduced by Chaos. The most famous of these was Horus. He was the Emperors most trusted and given the title Warmaster, but over time, in the final decades of the 30th Millennium, he became disillusioned and began to doubt the Emperor. The idea of rebellion growing stronger in his mind he carefully tested the loyalties of the other Primarchs, gathering the Space Marine Legions that would fight for him, over the Emperor. 

Of the original 20 Legions that were created only 18 remained and Horus was to control half of them. They became the Traitor Legions of Chaos Marines, in what was to become known as the Horus Heresy. The nine Renegade Legions were the Alpha Legion (Chaos Undivided), Black Legion (Chaos Undivided), Death Guard (Nurgle), Emperor's Children (Slaanesh), Iron Warriors (Chaos Undivided), Night Lords (Chaos Undivided), Thousand Sons (Tzeentch), Word Bearers (Chaos Undivided) and the World Eaters (Khorne). 

During his preparations for conflict the Emperor instructed Horus to pacify the whole of the Istvaan System as Istvaan III had declared itself an independent principality. Horus instead chose to wipe out the planet, and many Space Marines that were loyal to the Emperor, using a virus bombs. No one survived and this became known as the Istvaan III Atrocity. During this attack loyalist Space Marines learned that all was not as it should be with the followers of Horus, and they took control of the frigate Eisenstein and fled into Warpspace to warn the Emperor of treachery. The Emperor was stunned that his loyal son, closest ally and most exceptional general had turned against him, but the seeds of rebellion were spreading. The Emperor had been denounced on Mars as a False Omnissiah, and the red planet duly rose up against his tyrannical rule. Ancient technology was used by the Fabricator-General of the Adeptus Mechanicus, in what was to later be known as the Schism of Mars, with Tech-priests and the Hereteks of the newborn Dark Mechanicus fighting alongside him.

As the Emperor delayed in his actions to deal with and control the problem, cracks appeared as dissent made its way through the Imperial Army. Many planetary leaders deciding to stand with Horus and whole star systems declared independence. The Imperium started to break apart. Confusion reigned with many seeing the conflict as a political one between Horus and the Emperor missing the fact that the overt resurgence of Chaos had begun.

The Ruinous powers are subtle, like sinews spreading out, affecting the forces of Horus and even his initial enemies. Wars erupted across the galaxy, and the Emperor eventually made a decision to deal with the now Galaxy wide situation. He realised that he needed to destroy the figurehead of all traitors to the Imperium making the decision to send seven Legions of Space Marines to carry out a retributive strike to kill Horus and his followers, where he was based at Istvaan V. This massive organisation and mobilisation took months. In this time The Warmaster Horus had declared himself the new Emperor and his rebel forces had control of hundreds of systems, with Chaos being quick to corrupt those who resided there. The attack on Istvaan V only added to the Emperors problems as it was a complete disaster. The Warmasters actions were later to become known as the Horus Heresy. The attack that was planned to destroy Horus, instead only strengthened his position. Four of the seven Astartes legions sent, sided with Horus and with his forces they wiped out the three loyalist legions. This was later known as the Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan V. 

Horus now had complete control of nine legions. Seven years of bitter fighting ensued, the Imperium faced destruction. Seeing that the Loyalist forces were beginning to turn the tide in their favour, and believing that the war would be won with the death off the Emperor, Horus attacked the Emperors palace on Terra. When the mighty war engines of the Legio Mortis breached the palace walls, and with the loyalist forces close to losing, the Emperor planned to counter attack using the Primarchs Rogal Dorn and Sanguinius. Depending on how it is told, as much has been lost to time and of course history is written by the victor. It is said that the Emperor, upon seeing a weakness in the void shields of Horus's orbiting Battleship, the Vengeful Spirit, took advantage of this to infiltrate it. Others say that it was Horus who actually offered invite and permitted the Emperor aboard. Either way a fight ensued between Loyalists and Traitors on board. Sanguinius was killed and the Emperor mortally wounded but Horus was slain. As I said, history is written by the victor, with facts usually being set aside. The Imperium perceives Horus as an unspeakable traitor, others as a dedicated soldier who fought the tyrannical Emperor for freedom and stood against what the Imperium of man was becoming. Of course if such words were spoken within the Imperium, this would be heretical.

The Emperors body was brought back to Earth and interred in the Golden Throne's cybernetic life support systems, where it is said he still rules from, albeit in a much more diminished capacity, if at all. The Imperium views him as a living God, who is known as the Emperor of Mankind, but many of his enemies refer to him as the Corpse-God of distant Terra. The death of the Warmaster Horus was a turning point, although many battles were still to be fought. Eventually the forces of Chaos were pushed back into the Eye of Terror, where most remain today. Chaos had lost, but had it? A  victory of sorts, but the cracks in the Imperium were never really filled. Gradually over the next ten thousand standard years those cracks have widened and it is said that the Imperium of Man, like all great dynasties and empires before it, is gradually crumbling away. The Imperium is the largest and currently most powerful political entity in the galaxy, consisting of at least 1,000,000 human-settled worlds dispersed across most of the Milky Way Galaxy, but it is now a war-torn empire, teetering on the brink of collapse.

Towards the latter centuries of the 41st Millennium the End Times of mankind or the Time of Ending was predicted by various prophets and augurs. The latter term was first used by Taggarath, the Seer of Corrinto, who predicted mankind's twilight, when the Imperium and the Light of the Emperor would be swallowed by an approaching darkness. He was executed for heresy, even though he spoke the truth. 

This is due to the Imperium wishing to maintain secrecy and hide the existence of the Chaos Gods, their minions and followers, from what could be mainly classed as the general public. If knowledge is gained from those outside the military, sanctioned Psykers or the Inquisition, then they may be quarantined in forced labour camps, put to death, or if lucky suffer some form of memory modification or mind-wipe. 

Since Taggarath was executed instances of daemonic possession have risen and Warp rifts are more frequently opening up across the galaxy. For every one sealed, many more then occur. Many Psykers have seen a terrible future, where Chaos takes complete control and the Dark Gods unendingly torment the living. This coming disaster is known by many races and appears imminent, with even less intelligent races understanding that the future is dark. More knowledgeable races only have to look at The Fall of the Eldar to see what is looming.  

The Chaos Space Marines still strike at the Imperium. Either from the Eye of Terror or from Daemon Worlds elsewhere. Most of the Daemon Worlds are located within the Eye of Terror but there are planets elsewhere that have fallen to Chaos, likely due to Chaos cults worshipping their dark lords and opening a gate for Daemonic legions to come through. As the world falls, it becomes a realm neither of the material universe or of the Warp. Time runs differently on Daemon Worlds which means that veteran Space Marines who stood and fought beside Horus still live on a hundred centuries later. They continue to attack areas around the around the Eye of Terror on their Black Crusades and have destabilised huge areas elsewhere in the Imperium as well.

Chaos Space Marines are the elite shock troops and use a variety of vehicles, ranging from those that they had in use when they came under the Imperium's control to others, the Daemon Engines that are hellish mixes of mechanical war machine and part daemonic entity. Most of their armour, weapons and vehicles are archaic, but still very effective. Just like the Loyalist Space Marines they will use the Rhino Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) extensively and also the Land Raider heavy tank and troop carrier. This APC can be in the standard Phobos pattern, but the Achilles and Proteus are also available to them. They do not have the Crusader, or the Razorback variants, as these came out after they fled into the Eye of Terror. They have access to the Predator Battle Tank, Decimator Super-Heavy Tank, Fellblade Super-Heavy Tank, Predator Battle Tank, Spartan Assault Tank, Sicaran Battle Tank and Typhon Heavy Siege Tank. Chaos forces also have Dreadnoughts such as the Berserker Dreadnought, Contemptor Dreadnought, Ferrum Infernus Chaos Dreadnought, Helbrute and Sonic Dreadnought as well as Chaos Space Marine Bikes. They will of course use many other vehicles, such as anything looted off the battlefield.  

The Daemon Engines they use are many and varied. Some will be used by all Chaos forces, but others are specific to certain Gods. The main ones are the Death Wheel, Defiler (variants of which are the Debaser, Deceiver, Desecrator and Slaughterfiend, which are aligned to a specific Gods forces), Decimator, Forgefiend, Heldrake, Maulerfiend and Soul Grinder. Khorne will also use the Blood Reaper, Brass Scorpion, Cannon of Khorne, Cauldron of Blood, Death Dealer, Doom Blaster, Lord of Battles, Tower of Skulls, Skull Cannon, Blood Throne and Lord of Skulls. Slaanesh will also use the Hellflayer, Hell-Knight, Hell-Scourge, Hell-Strider, Seeker Chariot, Subjugator and Questor Scout Titans. Tzeentch will also use the Silver Tower of Tzeentch, Doom Wing, Fire Lord, Burning Chariot. Nurgle has the Blight Drone, Contagion and Plague Tower. Other Titans, not already mentioned are the Banelord Titan, Chaos Reaver Titan, Emperor Class Titan, Feral Titan and also the Daemon Knights.  

Chaos will also have various airpower available to it. The Chaos Fleet consists of smaller aircraft such as the Hell Blade Interceptor, Locust Fighter, Swiftdeath Fighter, Hell Talon Fighter-Bomber, Tormentor Fighter-Bomber up to the Harbinger Super-Heavy Bomber, and also the larger Fire Raptor, Storm Eagle and Thunderhawk Gunships. Chaos forces also have access to assault boats designed like the Space Marines Drop Pods. These are the Dreadclaw and Kharybdis Assault Claw. 

Although not equipped as well as the Loyalist Space Marines, who have all the latest gear, Chaos has warped what they use to make it very potent, and due to the Eye of Terror’s effects on them, they live a much longer lifespan than their Loyalist counterparts, thus have had more time to hone their deadly skills. A Chaos army will also have many Traitor Guard weapons, equipment, vehicles and aircraft at its disposal. 

Epic is a tabletop wargame set in Games Workshop’s science fictional Warhammer 40,000 (40K) universe. Warhammer 40K involves small to large scale tactical combat scenarios of 28mm figures. These can number only a few squads of troops, up to massed large creatures and sizeable vehicles of war. So it could be said that 40K covers the ground between a skirmish game up to a full wargame and is only limited to the size of table. There is a set table size for a standard game, but having large amounts of miniatures on the table, with scenery, tends to detract from the possible tactics and manoeuvrability of units within the game. Large scale battles with a lot of ground units and large vehicles can become more of a straight charge towards the enemy.

Citadel have used various scales in both their plastic and metal miniatures. The Epic game is considered to be in 6mm scale and is Warhammer 40K, albeit with different rules. GW also did 6mm scale miniatures for Warmaster, which was the equivalent of Warhammer Fantasy Battle (WHFB). 6mm is also referred to as 1/300th (1:300) scale, which is a US army scale introduced in the 1960’s, or 1/285 (1/285) scale, which is the NATO standard scale. I say referred to, as none of these three scales are actually the same size. 6mm is a nice round number and they are as close to that, for the purposes of a scaled down wargame, so no one is going to notice. Perspective wise, a squat trooper is 6mm tall with an imperial Guardsmen being 7mm. Ignoring the locating Epic base insert piece, these heights are taken to the top of the head. I only mention this as some manufacturers work out their scales to eye level, others to the actual head height. Eye level is used as some miniatures wear helmets or tall hats, so measuring to eye level actually gives a good idea of scale of the actual body proportions.

Due to the smaller 6mm scale models Epic allows for much larger scale mass battles using hundreds, or even thousands, of soldiers and huge amounts of vehicles. Humans are reduced to 6mm (ish) and a few are used on each base to represent the troops, so you can get much larger scale battles. Each model is just a representational indication of where the troops are located on the battlefield and what they look like, rather than showing their exact size. You will still see odd things, a few trees representing a whole woodland and troops being too large compared to the earlier vehicles that they come out of. GW did size up the later issued vehicle miniatures a little to deal with this, but still the actual troop figures would be hard pressed to squeeze into the vehicles. Most budding Generals overlook this for the purposes of a fair and workable game and understand that the laws of physics need to be bent and broken a little. Gamers suspend disbelief, perhaps with a little relief that the troops can be painted without a microscope!

An equivalent for Epic would be the Warhammer 40K Apocalypse game that GW brought out, as they both deal with larger battlefields and commanding a larger number of troops and vehicle units. Epic has a lot going for it, as it has more of a battle look with a more realistic ground scale.

On top of these benefits, financially Epic was a good game to get into. You could get started quickly from a boxed set, but as with any hobby, it depends how far you want to go with it. I would have to say that the overall outlay would be less than both Warhammer 40K and Warhammer 40,000 Apocalypse. Games Workshop has had scale creep over some ranges, but even without that once you start adding Titans, Super-Heavy Tanks and Aircraft onto the table for the larger scale 28mm games, things can get a bit too crowded. Warhammer 40K Apocalypse offers rules to field even larger armies which would be way too impractical using the basic Warhammer 40,000 rules. It needs a sizeable battlefield as GW has made some really large models for it, great models, but some are nearly a foot tall. Personally I’ve seen 40K gaming tables pretty overcrowded, and the Apocalypse rules only add to this.

Epic players can easily utilize many aircraft at once, which adds another level to the game. Other than the cost benefit of the 6mm scale the amount of space needed to store your armies and the gaming terrain is less. Add in the fact that this size of miniature is much quicker to build and paint, then you are onto a winner.

Plus, larger scale games cannot use artillery ranges effectively, or as realistically as the smaller scale game pieces can. The longer ranged weapons are effectively capped. In any wargame the miniatures are only really to show where the troops and vehicles are on the battlefield. They are there so it can be seen what they actually look like. 6mm Epic models are no different. Realistically even the scaled down 6mm futuristic weapon ranges would still be way off the board, but I think that this scale ensures that discrepancies are less noticeable in game.

Initially Epic had both plastic and metal miniatures to play it with, which were improved on over time and later moved into the Specialist Games section of Games Workshop's online store. It was a sad day for many when GW ceased their Specialist Game range, in 2013, to focus on their core games. Forge World, a separate division of Games Workshop, also produced some very nice specialist resin gaming pieces, both ground and air units. The aircraft could also be used for Forgeworld's Aeronautica Imperialis game. Prior to Forge World being set up there were other companies, such as armorcast and Epicast, producing miniatures under licence. Details on them can be found here:

http://www.collecting-citadel-miniatures.com/wiki/index.php/Resin_Vehicles_%26_Titans

The Specialist Games section was set up by GW around ten years earlier. GW grouped together their non-core games (40K and WHFB were the main earners), to market and develop the games, create additional rules regards them and come up with new ideas. GW basically reached out to its market and the very dedicated player community responded. That same player community were very unhappy when the decision came to close it down, as there was, and still is, a very hardcore following of the game. You’ll find a very loyal fan base across the world for Epic as well as a few of the other Specialist Games, such as Battlefleet Gothic, Bloodbowl and Mordheim to be a few. So much so, that the game actually developed even after Games Workshop moved on from it. There are various forums where you’ll find beautifully painted armies and detailed battle reports on the game from very dedicated players.

The highly playable rules that were developed by GW throughout were great, although some will argue towards one edition over another, due to the games mechanics changing, but then such opinions are nothing new. In my opinion certain things put this game amongst the best of the genre. Various Games Workshop games will have a player moving all his units and doing all the firing at once, but raises the bar with regard to this. Instead players take turns moving formations and can give them a choice of different orders, so they will react differently in the game to whatever engages them. This really adds to the tactics of the game and although simplistic in gameplay, makes the game more tactically complex. Leading to a much more fluid battlefield. There’s a wide variety of different Epic armies out there to choose from. Plus there are the official GW rules, of the varying eras, and of course unofficial rules as well. Players are spoilt for choice.

1988 showed the release of the 1st edition of Epic. It was designed by Jervis Johnson and initially consisted of the Adeptus Titanicus (AT) boxed set. Epic has had various editions over the years, gradually changing over the period and it was not even called Epic originally. That term did not appear on a boxed set, as the name of the game, until 1994. The Adeptus Titanicus game contained the rules, Styrofoam buildings and plastic miniatures to play the game. Although the first edition background fluff in the rulebook was perhaps a bit light on the ground (yeah I know, it was filled full of rules. Shocker!), it was a great game that involved tabletop battles between opposing groups of Imperial and Chaos Titans (Loyalists or Traitors). The game was set amidst the galaxy wide war that was to later become known as the Horus Heresy. Basically human civilization at war with itself with the Adeptus Titanicus rules being used to recreate the greatest Titan battles of Imperial history.

You had the stats for Warlord, Reaver, Warhound, Emperor (Imperator or Warmonger) and the Shadowsword and Baneblade super-heavy tanks. I don’t think miniatures for these tanks came out until much later though. A White Dwarf advert appeared in February 1989 (WD 110) for an Eldar Titan and Eldar and Imperial Dreadnoughts but a lot of the smaller metal miniatures only started to appear late 1990, and many can be seen in the 1991 Blue catalogue.

The Titan models had different guns and close combat weapon arms to add some detail to the models and retain interest in the game. You could easily customize your Titans and there were also campaign rules. The FASA Corporation had launched their 6mm scale BattleTech mecha warfare boardgame earlier in 1984. That was also a military science fiction wargame. You controlled large robot looking war machines (Mechs) and due to it being a very good game it was becoming very popular. I believe Games Workshop put out the Adeptus Titanicus boxed set to counter this, as at that point, if there was any market or niche for miniatures, then GW was on it.

The original Adeptus Titanicus rules were then followed by various White Dwarf expansion articles. The first being in the White Dwarf 108 December 1988 issue which discussed Titan colour schemes with Honour Banners in a nice Eavy Metal article. The following WD 109 January 1989 had rules for Armoured Vehicles, such as Land Raiders and Rhinos, and also Reavers and Warhounds. There was also an advert for Jes Goodwin’s Reaver and Warhound class Titans. Over a prolonged period, all the way up to WD 197 May 1996. White Dwarf produced various expansion articles giving various optional rules, army lists and the games organizational charts. Epic is going to be revisited by GW, but you can see a list of all the articles for the early editions on this page here:

https://www.hiveworldterra.co.uk/clanbertram_archive/GW/Epic_SM_TLart.htm

1989 showed further development of the genre with the release of Space Marine (SM). The box was actually titled: Space Marine Epic Battles in the Age of Heresy. So I assume this phrase is where the name, that everyone refers to this game as, starts to come from. Both the Adeptus Titanicus and Space Marine games could be combined or played on their own. Space Marine added plastic sprues of infantry and small vehicles and also had folded card buildings with styrene roofs, which packed down easier unlike the prior ones sold. Epic became more of a mass combat system and started to form into the game that it is today.

The Space Marine game was designed by both Jervis Johnson and Rick Priestley. I believe that it was set in the 30th millennium (30K) and this box actually had the term Heresy on it. SM featured warring factions of Space Marines in the civil war which was a clever move, as the costs to machine the moulds for two separate factions with different troops and vehicles would have been substantial. That investment may not have paid off, if the game did not sell, but to have the same miniatures representing each side kept the costs down for only a few words in the background storyline. This early version of Epic was a bit complex, perhaps leaning towards a Warhammer 40K attitude, with individual models on a 5 man infantry base having multiple weapons and firing repeatedly. Rather than them being dealt with as a single squad.

1989 gave players the Codex Titanicus supplement book which contained rules for the Ork and Eldar (Space Elves). Codex Titanicus corrected minor issues with incompatibility between the previous Adeptus Titanicus and Space Marine games. It brought together various rules that had been published in White Dwarf magazine. Such as the refined rules for Epic scale infantry, by Jervis Johnson and Mike Brunton, shown in WD 110. It also included some new rules as well, such as a campaign system and had various full colour data counters, order cards and templates. This compilation was advertised in WD 116 August 1989 with plastic miniatures for the Orc and Eldar models.

Citadel brought out various Epic Battles boxed sets of plastic miniatures for the game from this year through 1990 and 1991 running into the 2nd edition. These sets consisted of the Warlord Battle Titans, Epic Chaos Horde, Eldar Legion, Epic Eldar War Host, Epic Imperial Guard, Ork Horde, Epic Ork Invasion, Epic Stompers, Epic Space Marines, and Squat Warriors.

1991 showed the release of the 2nd edition of Epic, which was titled: Space Marine Epic Conflict in the War-Torn Universe of the 41st Millennium. A bit of a mouthful so I can see why people ended up just calling it Epic. The game (Space Marine 2, SM2) was developing, with revisions to the rules that removed a lot of the complexity from the prior basic system but added substantial special abilities. This set included the ever popular Space Marines with Land Raiders MKI, Rhinos and an Imperial Warlord Titan MKI. It also included Ork Battlewagons and Eldar Falcon Grav-Tanks. Players had to wait a few years for the Titan Legions boxed set though, as that didn’t come out until 1994. The boxed sets full title was Epic Titan legions Gigantic War Machines Clash in Epic Conflict, and the rules (Codex Titanicus) were written by Andy Chambers.This contained enhanced rules for Titans, an Imperial Emperor-class Imperator Titan miniature, 10 Imperial Knights, 2 Ork Mega-Gargants, and 12 Ork Bonebreaka tanks.

The Imperator and Orc Mega-Gargants were totally overpowered and could take on an entire army on their own. You’d need a sizeable game to utilise this Mega-class army choice fairly and only two races had the availability of this size of vehicles. I’d see these as unbalancing for a fair game but you’d have a lot of fun with them. GW moved away from them later on but did put in stats for them in the later 4th Edition Armageddon rulebook in 2003. These were not included in the army lists in that book, with good reason, but were shown in the Collectors model section in the appendices. You find the Imperator with a long list of weapons, damage capacity 18. and 8 void shields. Hmnnnn, I can see why GW edged away from this class of vehicle. 

There were also some excellent supplements for the Space Marine second edition game that were brought out throughout this period, which greatly expanded the other factions forces. These were the boxed expansion sets, Armies of the Imperium (released in 1991), Ork and Squat Warlords (released in 1992), Renegades, for the forces of Chaos and the Eldar (released in 1992) and the Hive War Tyranid supplement (released in 1995). These included all the rules, tokens, Epic army cards and templates needed. In 1993 there was also the White Dwarf Presents Space Marine Battles source book. This full colour publication was mostly a collection of reprinted White Dwarf articles all in one book but still worth the money to have it all collated in one place. 

Space Marine 2nd edition was one of Games Workshop’s most popular gaming systems in the 1990s, and I can fully understand why. The amount of miniatures available expanded massively for this edition of Epic, with a huge wealth of choice to arm your preferred faction. Excellent page here, showing a huge amount of the models available:

http://www.galactic-intrigue.com/epicollector/Pages/2-Catalog/Catalog-Overview-Frames.html

Resin vehicles and Titan miniatures can be found on this page here:

http://www.collecting-citadel-miniatures.com/wiki/index.php/Resin_Vehicles_%26_Titans#Monolith

The 2nd edition rules were later expanded on by the diehard fans and this created the unofficial NetEpic rules, but more on that later.

1997 brought the 3rd edition of Epic. This was designed by Jervis Johnson and Andy Chambers. It was released as a boxed set and was titled: Epic 40,000 Massive Armies Clash in the 41st Millennium, but unlike all the prior editions it was released as a single set of rules. The name clearly set it 10,000 years after the prior editions Horus Heresy era. I assume the third edition game was not as popular with the original fans of the game and I guess was not taken up by new players, as it was only supported by Games Workshop for about 6 months before being withdrawn. The designers believe that this edition’s rule set was the best they ever came up with, as this simpler edition leaned more towards use of good tactics rather than luck and special abilities.

There were three books, the Armies Book, the Battles Book and the Rulebook. Although they were in colour they were pretty thin compared to what had come prior, being close on A5 size, so I can imagine people thinking that they had been shortchanged. The available detachments were also thinned down in detail and perhaps oversimplified. For many players, Epic was all about the different unit types and choice of weapons available for them. This streamlined ruleset, greatly reduced special abilities that were now available but being simpler, did lead to faster gameplay though, which was clearly the overall aim of the games designers.

Third edition did introduce the blast markers though, which was a stroke of genius. These were very simple but effective little explosion tokens that looked really great on the battlefield. They were placed near units to show how that formation was doing in the game. These units were affected depending on how much firepower was directed at them, which denoted how many they received. These markers then proportionally reduced that units combat effectiveness. The rules referred to them being used to show the combined effects of heavy suppressive fire, infantry units being forced to take cover, damage to vehicles, confusion on the battlefield, explosions, mayhem and all the other calling cards of war. This really added to the game mechanic.

Another notable change was the troop base size. Up to this point the infantry were on 20mm by 20mm Epic square plastic bases, but the third edition then changed them to 12mm by 40mm. These later plastic bases were much slimmer and longer. This did raise more than an eyebrow for people who already had a square based army. It looks odd if you’ve got half and half in your army, and once the troops were glued in with plastic glue, there was just no way you could rebase them. Both bases could be played in game, but it is said that you’ll find there was a minimal in game advantage with the slimmer longer bases.

Both base sizes have advantages and disadvantages other than this though. The square bases can be aesthetically turned easily in gameplay, where the slimmer and longer ones tend to look odd when they needed to move and were shunted to the left or right. The square bases were sometimes a tight squeeze to push in the troopers, where the slimmer longer plastic bases had properly sized positions with slightly larger holes than the plug that filled them. The square bases had the troop positions bunched together in an X shape, which made it difficult to paint certain troops. Where as the slimmer longer bases had them all virtually in a straight line, so were easier to paint, and it has to be said these bases look nicer when ranked up. The square bases also had little room for the larger troop types who did not fit on there as well, as the positions were too close together. The longer bases didn’t have this issue as the positions where the troops were placed in them was more random, giving each representative trooper more room. GW did a slight positional variation in these later bases which made them look better when they were all lined up, rather than going into battle in perfect regimented lines. The square bases always had the exact same points of entry for each trooper to be put in.

The boxed set also included plastic Space Marines, Rhinos, Land Raiders MkII, and Whirlwinds. It also had the opposing force of Orks and included the Battlewagons, Stompas and a cardboard Gargant for them. The boxed set also had some really great damaged Gothic buildings scenery, that had multiple levels. Which up to this point was the best that Games Workshop had done in this scale. 

Various diehard fans of Epic were not over enthused with changes made for the third edition Epic rules. Due to this they got together and expanded on the 2nd edition rules which created the unofficial NetEpic rules, not to be confused with Net Epic Armageddon (Net EA). NetEpic was, and is, a collaborative non-profit work. This is a work only intended for personal use and cannot be distributed with any intention of profit. It was done through the NetEpic discussion group which was founded in January 1997. There have been various updated versions of the NeteEpic rules and they are available for free at the Epicentre website here:

http://www.netepic.org/

You’ll see the NetEpic 5.0 Core Rules which I believe are from around the 2005 year. Don’t quote me on that though! The work for this project was Coordinated by the founder of NetEpic Peter Ramos. You’ll also find the NetEpic Gold (NEGold) rules on there, which is the later colour version of the 5.0 Core Rules and NetEpic. This updated version is a Nexus publication and dated 2009. It comes with artwork, improved layout and spellchecking (the prior version mentioned the Slaan, but for a free resource, there’s no complaints here). A worthy resource and well worth a read. These rules have been solidly built by the hard core fans who have a loyal dedication to the game. You’ll find various information but none of it is endorsed by Games Workshop Limited and it is completely unofficial. Armies in these rules include the:

Adeptus Astartes Space Marines.

Adeptus Mechanicus covering Imperial Knights and Titan Legions

Adeptus Militaris which covers the Imperial Guard who form the bulk of the Adeptus Terra.

Adeptus Ministorum which is the the Sisters of Battle and the Frateris Militia.

Chaos known as the Excommunicate Traitoris.

Eldar, Space Elves by any other name.

Exodites, non industrialised native Space Elves. 

Dark Eldar, the evil ones.

Eldar Knights, armed walking machines.

Orks, the greenskins, basically anything Orkoid from Snotlings up to the big Orks themselves. 

Squats, Space Dwarfs as they were once known, were Human settlers on high gravity planets who adapted, either that or they were genetically tampered with.

Slann, an ancient race who first seeded humanoid life to the galaxy.

Tau, high tech but weak in close combat, their alliance with the savage mercenary Kroot add muscle to their faction.

Tyranids, Bugs that will strip planets of all resources.

Various changes were made from SM2, which include a full alternating system for players having their go. A snapfire option which fits in well with this alternating system. Titans being more effective with regards to enemy infantry units and a cost system for them so the more gear your field them with, the more expensive they’ll be. The revealing of orders only being done as that unit activates. So they are hidden until that point, which adds to the fog of war, rather than the enemy having advance knowledge of what’s going to happen and thus planning accordingly. A Superheavy damage table and also revised pinning rules, which stops huge Titans being pinned by a single unit that just would never have that kind of firepower.

1998 saw the Epic 40,000 Firepower magazine. This only ran for four A5 sized issues, the first of which contained previous articles that had been in the Citadel Journal and White Dwarf magazines. Firepower was followed by The Official Warhammer Epic 40,000 magazine. This ran for ten A4 sized issues. These magazines came out under Fanatic Press. This was the label which published various hobby magazines that were dedicated to the games that Games Workshop had put under the Fanatic games Division. This division was the precursor for the Specialist Games Range.

2000 (June) saw the release of the Adeptus Titanicus II (AT-II) rules. They were designed by Gav Thorpe and completely replaced the rules for Titans. Jervis Johnson wrote the introduction for this redux of the ruleset and said, of this latest system, that it would restore Imperial Titans to their rightful place as the kings of the Epic battlefield. He believed that these newer rules were much better than what he had produced earlier, making Titans more interesting to use and hard as nails! I could be wrong but I think you'll find that these AT2 rules appeared in the Epic 40,000 Magazine (and were later shown in the Fanatic magazine issue 85).

The well respected Jervis Johnson is credited with the game design and the development of this edition of the game was conducted in an open way. This was done with what could be classed as a Beta version of the rules being published on the Epic Playtest Vault and feedback then being garnered from gamers via the playtesters forum. This allowed substantial involvement of gamers. Army champions co-ordinated playtesting and revision of the army lists which was discussed on the Epic forums. Unlike previous editions and many other GW games this edition of Epic uses specific army lists that represent how an army was fielded in a specific military campaign. There are official datasheets and Epic tournament game army lists for Speed Freak Orks (Da Kult of Speed), which is an Ork army favouring bikes, the White Scar Space Marines, the Black Legion Chaos Space Marines, and The Lost and the Damned Chaos Cultist army. Clearly the fourth edition of the rules relied heavily on feedback from the fans during its development and the living rulebook was made available for free via GW's Fanatic Games Division website.

The second rulebook released for the fourth edition was the Epic Swordwind supplement. This was released as both a physical book and a PDF. Swordwind contained the full army lists for an Imperial Guard Seige regiment (the Baran Siegemasters Imperial Guard Army), the most warlike Biel-Tan Eldar (Biel-Tan means the rebirth of ancient days), and Warlord Snagga-Snagga's Feral Ork Horde. Due to the different rules produced over the years various vehicles no longer fitted in properly with the latest list. Cleverly Games Workshop got around this by putting in the Swordwind expansion rulebook a section regards the classic miniatures of the past, entitling it the Collectors models section. This was rather good of them to think of their older gamers, who’d already invested a lot of time, money and effort into their Epic armies. The rules in this section explained how you could use older models with the fourth edition rules, informing that the actual aesthetic design and look of the vehicles had changed but the actual function was the same. It did actually refer to Imperial scholars giving different names to Eldar vehicles when in fact they were just from a different school of design. A clever way of saying that the Death Stalker was now a Fire Prism, a Doom Weaver was now a Night Spinner, a Tempest was now a Scorpion and a Warp Hunter was now a Cobra. Other models were not included in the Biel-Tan army list but GW gave a full chart as to what they could count as and also some weapon types were allowed for in this section as well.

The official rulebook and the Swordwind supplement were made available for free by Games Workshop on their site. Initially the rules were kept updated for a period and errata and FAQ’s were published, but later the PDFs were taken down along with everything else regards the game. Which is a shame, but if you look about on the internet you’ll still find them on some fan sites. At the time of writing this, it’s not an IP issue, as they were freely available, and GW just chose to not host them anymore. Unlike some other stuff you might find on salubrious sites, which just leaves me thinking, take the time to buy the rules and support the game. To own an original book, just has so much more value. Not the cost issue, but more the physical touch and interaction with it. There’s a difference between value and cost, and that only becomes more apparent with time. The age of the book, and the age of its reader.

2004 saw the release of the aformentioned Fanatic magazine. This combined the various previous games specific magazines, such as the Battlefleet Gothic Magazine, Exterminatus (Inquisitor), Necromunda and The Official Warhammer Epic 40,000 magazine, into one publication. This only had ten issues as it was then distributed digitally as Fanatic Online. Fanatic Online was understandably where paper magazines were headed (although you can't beat paper in my eyes) and was a free online magazine with articles on Games Workshops Specialist games division. It ceased in 2008 (at around issue 98) and information related to the Specialist Games was moved over to Games Workshop's official website.

Clearly Epic is a great game judging by its popularity even after the cessation of miniature production and all official support for it. Some good sites out there. Be sure to check out the Specialist games forum that can be accessed from this site here:

http://www.specialist-arms.com/

That site has links to the Specialist Games Fanatic Magazine. They were given special permission by Andy Hall to host all content that first appeared in Specialist Games Fanatic Magazine that, at the time, had not already been transferred over to the main Games Workshop site. As I mentioned earlier, information has since been removed from GW's site, but who knows what the future brings,....

There are also the Net Epic Armageddon (Net EA) fan rules. Don’t confuse these with the NetEpic rules. The Net EA rules can be seen here:

http://www.net-armageddon.org/

Net Epic Armageddon is the ongoing development of the game and has grown out of the fans input. The 4th edition Epic Armageddon rules utilised a lot of feedback from players in the development process and the rules, which are often referred to as a living rulebook, were made available for free via GW's Fanatic Games Division website, prior to it all being removed. Anyway, these rules are still available, and developed as the fans from the Tactical Command site will continue to add to them to balance army lists and include rule updates and errata. This as a whole is now referred to as Net Epic Armageddon, so a lot of gameplay and further discussion on feedback has resulted in this rule sets game balance, as it stands at the moment.

Games Workshops Official Armies for Armageddon would be the Chaos Space Marines (The Black Legion), Chaos mortals (The Lost and the Damned), Eldar (Biel Tan Craftworld), Imperial Guard Armageddon Steel Legion Mechanised Regiment, Imperial Guard Baran Siegemasters Regiment, Orks, Orks (Feral), Orks (Speed Freek), Space Marines, Space Marines (White Scars), Tau Taros Campaign (found on page 282 of the Imperial Armour volume 3 book which deals with the industrial world of Taros Campaign).

The Net EA site then has its own Army list Compendium (at time of writing version 2014-01-14). This includes army lists for Epic which cover various factions from the Warhammer 40K universe that are not in any official Games Workshop publications. It is well laid out with General special rules, that can relate to various armies, and Common special rules that specifically relate to a certain faction. Also the army lists are split up into three categories which are: 

Approved lists. These are tournament ready and should be balanced against any other army in the General Tournament scenario. These armies have been fully playtested with substantial game time and input from a large number of players. They are considered to be very fairly balanced against the others on the Approved list.

Developmental lists. These should be balanced for a good tournament game, but have not had as many playtest games. There may be the opportunity for a certain type of player to work out a combination or specific set up that might far outweigh other armies or give an unfair advantage in game. Research is still being done on these.

Experimental lists. These are armies that are still being worked through and even lesser researched than the Developmental lists. They are not for tournament play and may well have issues with game balance and fairness. Many more games, and player input, will be needed to move them up through to the Approved lists. If they make it to the Approved Lists, they may well be radically changed to ensure a fair game for all involved.

Approved Epic Army Lists would be the:

Chaos armies (13th Black Crusade Black Legion Army, Stigmatus Covenant Cultist Army).

Dark Eldar army (Kabal of Pain's Way).

Eldar armies (Biel-Tan Craftworld and Alaitoc Craftworld).

Imperial Guard armies (Steel Legion, Baran Siegemasters, Death Korps of Krieg, and Minervan Tank Legion Armoured Regiment).

Necron army (Scarab Conflict).

Orks armies (Ghazgkhull Mag Uruk Thraka’s War Horde, Burning DeathSpeed Freeks and Warlord Snagga Snagga’s Feral Ork Horde).

Space Marine armies (Codex Astartes, Salamanders, Scions of Iron and White Scars).

Tau army (Tau Third Phase Expansion Force).

Developmental Epic Army Lists would be:

Adeptus Mechanicus armies (War Gryphons Titan Legion, Adeptus Mechanicus Planetary Defense and House Hyperion Knightworld).

Chaos armies (Vraksian Traitors, Death Guard, Emperor’s Children, Thousand Sons, World Eaters and Red Corsairs).

Eldar armies (Ulthwé Craftworld, Iyanden Craftworld, Saim-Hann Craftworld, Iybraesil Craftworld Crone World Raiders, Yme-Loc Craftworld and Fir Iolarion Titan Clan).

Imperial Guard army (Cadian Shock Troops).

Inquisition army (Adeptus Ministorum). 

Ork armies (Blood Axe Kommandant Ug Skragga Morkrump’s Korps, Kolonel Rommelz’s Blood Axe Mercenary Ork Warhorde and Albork Orkstein’s Gargant Big Mob).

Space Marine armies (Black Templars, Blood Angels, Raven Guard and Space Wolves).

Experimental Epic Army Lists would be:

Chaos armies (Alpha Legion, Daemon World, Khorne Renegades, The Bloody Hand).

Eldar armies (Biel-Tan Great Court of the Young King).

Inquisition army (Ordo Hereticus).

Imperial Guard armies (Catachan Death World Veterans, Elysian Drop Troops Regiment, Harakoni Warhawks, Saranes Expanse Imperial Crusade).

Necron armies (Nalsaran Incident Necron Attack and Dyrrachium III Necron Tomb World)

Ork armies (Gobgutz Badfang’s Stompy Onslaught, Sun-Tzork’s Grotling Waaaaaagh! Grommelz’s Furst Affta-dem Korps and Kolonel Sandork’s Blood Axe Clan). 

Space Marines armies (Apocrypha of Skaros, Dark Angels, Grey Knights, Imperial Fists, Siege Assault Vanguard).

Squats / Space Dwarfs armies (Thurgrimm’s Stronghold and Demiurg Consortium).

Tau armies (Farsight Enclave Eradication Force and Fio’Ka Armoured Strike Force).

Tyranid armies (Hive Fleet Onachus, Hive Fleet Leviathan and Genestealer Cult).

I have to say thank you and full respect from all those that were involved in putting all those details together. Much appreciated by many, and definitely not time wasted. So if you are interested in playing Epic, and why wouldn’t you be, then there are various rule systems for you to try and there are likely to be more in the future.

Another system is the Heresy Epic Battles in the 40K universe version 2.0 (updated March 26th, 2005) rules, that were created by Peter Ramos. It’s a simplistic system which a game needs to be, else you’ll get bogged down in details with the rulebook weighing you down. These rules have a simple core but give detail on differences between units and there is a unit formula and skills cost points calculator document for you to create your own units. The Heresy rules cover most GW Epic scale armies and were created as a pet project by Peter Ramos and operate using a D10, which personally I think is a great idea. Personally I believe that some sort of percentage system in any wargame gives a wider scope for fairer differences between different units, and their capabilities. Rather than converting to another table, although I don't know how the multiple dice rolling would go! This D10 system was a step in the right direction as wargames appear to be knee deep in D6’s! It was initiated mainly to give a platform to try new things without trying to change the Net Epic rules too much. At time of writing the Heresy rules are in the process of being updated, and quite a bit of them will change. Heresy does not belong to the Net Epic family of games as the mechanics are quite different and there may be even more differences once any changes take effect. It is not a widely used rule set, but who’s to say how popular it may become. Well worth a look.

If you are looking for a really great site for discussion on everything Epical, from rule queries, forces available, miniatures, painting, anything at all, then go to the Tactical Wargames forum here:

http://www.tacticalwargames.net/taccmd/index.php

That about sums it up at the time of writing for the different rule sets out there, but Games Workshop are revisiting their Specialist Games so likely you'll be seeing a new edition edging its way into GW's Warhammer shops. I'm sure that there will also be many new Games Workshop Citadel or Forge World miniatures and larger models for the game. I believe these will be scaled down from the Warhammer 40K and perhaps 30K universe. As GW has already spent the time necessary in developing these designs already, to produce them in a smaller size will be easy. Perhaps some subtle differences in the smaller details, such as weapon barrels which might be too weak if not oversized slightly. A good way around this would be to have the weapon barrels made of steel or brass rod. That way Forgeworld and Games Workshop could just produce the end pieces of the guns, such as the flash eliminators. Resin has a tendency to bend, and this can be addressed with a hairdryer and patience, but personally I can see myself down the local model shop for various sized bar with a modelling drill in hand.

Time saved in the development of the miniatures will hopefully see full resources put into the rules and army lists so that players get a fair, proportionate and highly playable game experience. As I said earlier, the whole game for me is the movement and tactics. The inherent draw for me to Epic is the fact that you can have huge armies on the table, yet weapon firing distances are more realistic. Scenery and movement in the game becomes so much more and the overall tactics of the game (dependant on what rule system you use), really make it what it is. GW are well known to gradually size up miniatures over time. Warhammer and Warhammer 40K are clear proof of this. Personally I thought the last issue of metal miniatures was the perfect size, just right for great detail, and you could get masses on the table. I could go on, but likely very few people are reading this far down the page. I’ll just add that likely the new miniatures will be produced in both plastic and resin so that war can continue, as it always has!

Regards the above links, thank you to the individuals involved for taking the time to make that information available for people. An excellent and detailed resource.

SHOP LINK:  Hygienic Porridge Miniature Emporium  Thanks for looking.

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