Space Marine
Space Marine is a tabletop game released in 1989 that , against the backdrop of Warhammer , was supposed to make 40,000 epic battles playable on a 6mm (1: 285) scale.
Game and scale
Space Marine originally played at the time of the Horus Heresy , when almost half of the Space Marine legions defected from the Empire to the warlord Horus and thus to chaos. As a result, a civil war broke out in the empire, in which all types of troops of the empire fought against each other. The Horus heresy takes place around 10,000 years before WH40K, i.e. around the year 30,000. The loyalists ultimately won the war with horrific sacrifices, but the emperor was seriously injured, so that to this day he is only embedded in the golden throne (life support machine) can exist.
With the scale of approx. 1: 300 (6 mm) and the resulting small size, Space Marine made tank battles in the WH40K universe playable for the first time. Infantry is always moved in groups as a so-called troop position. Individual figures only have their own values in exceptional cases; the combat values usually always refer to groups of five infantrymen or one, sometimes two vehicles.
Space Marine - first edition
In the original game, both sides only had the same types of troops at their disposal, namely loyalists against traitors. This made the games very exciting, because it actually came down to the troop leadership, so the accusation that one side had “better” troops could not be drawn. The rules allowed the inclusion of titans from Adeptus Titanicus from the start .
Technically , the rules were very much based on WH40K: Rogue Trader , so weapon ranges , modes etc. were often adopted, only the unit of measurement was changed from inches to centimeters. Bolter shot 61 cm wide (WH40K: 24 inches), gun ranges were generally rather short, but sufficient (72 cm was the usual maximum range).
Space Marine was constantly expanded and gradually merged with Adeptus Titanicus , so rules for other army types and troop types were added, and some armies were only now properly developed, for example the regular army of the empire, whose heavy tanks hardly in WH40K battles could be used, but were feared at Space Marine if they had some field of fire.
The most important expansion for Space Marine and Adeptus Titanicus besides the White Dwarf additions was CODEX TITANICUS , which introduced rules for Titans and Infantry from Orcs and Eldar and revised the Titan rules, especially for close combat Titan against Titan and Titan against Infantry. Further expansions were the introduction of so-called "Knights", knights, small titans of humans and eldar as well as large combat vehicles such as the Leviathan, the Hellbore and the Capitol Imperialis.
Infantry targets were fired on according to different rules than "hard" targets, i.e. vehicles, which resulted in a very high, if not too high, resistance of the infantry.
Space Marine - second edition
The second edition of Space Marine (EPIC Battles) in the mid-1990s then introduced fundamental changes. The infantry was measured on the same vulnerability scale as the tanks (which made them much more vulnerable), the ranges of the weapons were increased drastically and the individual races were more differentiated. The army card system was groundbreaking and fundamentally changed the procedure for selecting an army. Psi (magic) was also introduced in a way that could be controlled on the battlefield. The EPIC 2nd edition system went furthest with the introduction of the Tyranids at the end of the 1990s, who brought with them special rules and psi skills and army cards with a completely different structure.
Rule extensions
In addition to various White Dwarf articles for the second edition, several rule extensions came out as boxes. In addition to the rules, these included templates and new army cards. The following extensions were made:
- Armies Of The Imperium : Rule extensions and army cards for Space Marines & Imperial Guard
- Renegades : rule expansions and army cards for Eldar & Chaos
- Warlords : rule extensions and army cards for orcs
- Hive War : rule expansions and army cards for Tyranids
- Epic Battles : Wasn't a box like the expansions mentioned above, but a book. Only a few rule extensions were included here, but many battle reports and rules for sieges.
The next expansion was the game Titan Legions , which technically dealt with more titans and knights. It could be played on its own, but also together with the second edition of Space Marine (EPIC Battles).
Now the change to the new EPIC 40,000 system followed . However, this was not particularly well received, as many EPIC players continued to prefer the now highly detailed system of the second edition of Space Marine (EPIC Battles). This "old" system was and is still being further developed by the NetEpic group , which provides the rules free of charge. Meanwhile, NetEpic is also officially working on the rules for the latest EPIC version Epic Armageddon (E: A).
See also
Web links
- Lexicanum article on Space Marine
- Space Marine in the game database BoardGameGeek (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated December 14, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
