Choose armies
To play a scenario, you and your opponent need to decide what armies you will use — that is, which factions you will play, how big the armies will be, and the composition of each army.
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Some terms that we use a lot in relation to scenarios and army-building can be confusing, because we use them in multiple ways that sometimes overlap. For example, 'army' can mean a faction or sub-faction — such as the Imperial army or Space Marines — or it can mean the army that you built before a scenario, or it can mean the sum total of forces that you use in a scenario (which may or may not be exactly the same as the army you built). This problem stems from the original Epic 40,000 texts (although this type of issue is not unique to Epic 40,000 of course). We try to disambiguate through context, and through additional terms. So, for example: You choose the army (or faction) that you want to play, along with a corresponding army list that you wish to use to guide you as you build your army. When you build your army, you record its composition, and this record is your army roster. |
How to choose your army
If you’ve decided to play a Refight scenario with the pre-determined 'historical forces', then you and your opponent need only decide who will control each army.
Otherwise, you each need to choose your army. You can do this any way you like, but most of the time players agree to use the standard army lists and a Maximum points value limit.
For most scenarios, it is usual to agree these things in advance, as you need time to:
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Gather your miniatures — and perhaps finish some assembly and paint jobs.
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Document your army build, so you have all your roster sheets and unit data sheets ready to use in your game session.
Be sure to read the details of the scenario that you intend to play before you choose your army — they might specify restrictions or requirements for the composition of your army, or they might imply a need for tactics that make some choices particularly weak or unsuitable.
Maximum points value limit
Points values are a rough measure of the overall power of units in your army, in comparison to other units. Each army list defines points values for the units that you can choose for an army that you build with that list. This helps us to balance games — two armies of similar total points value should be roughly equivalent in overall power, if all else is equal.
The maximum points value limit that you agree with your opponent sets the upper limit to the total points value of all the elements in each of your respective armies.
Epic Remastered scales well to a wide range of maximum points value limits.
As a rough guide, once you are familiar with the rules:
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A limit in the range of 1,500 to 2,000 points is common for a typical game that you can easily complete within a few hours. This is ideal for the 120x180 cm playing area that we consider to be standard for Epic Remastered.
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A limit in the range of 3,000 to 5,000 points will likely take most of a day to play. You might like to have two or more players on each side, to handle the forces more quickly. (That said, bickering over tactics might offset the gains — but that’s part of the fun too!) Such a limit will also require a bigger playing area — perhaps 120x240 cm.
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A limit in excess of 5,000 points will likely take a whole day or more to play, and you’ll need a correspondingly bigger playing area.