Greetings my fellow SWM enthusiasts!!!

First of all, let me start off by saying that the introduction of Epics, was (IMHO) one of the best additions to SWM! My play group pretty much incorporates Epics into our games every week. We love them! Not only are the cards a cool design, the stats are amazing and fantastic and absolutely belong in SWM. They are so fun to use and bring such a new fresh element to the game that brings out an extra level of excitement back to SWM. We never have games that are completely lopsided or dominant by one team or another. One perfectly placed Epic on the battlefield, can turn the complexion of a game, and make it a close, fun, and exciting game!

With this being said, I don't see much talk about them, except for Epic Duos, which seems very light? This year for GenCon, my personal favorite event was left out, 500pt Epic Skirmish, and another one that was fun last year, Epic Duos Sealed, is also gone. I participated in both of those. One argument is that the attendence was light, which it was, but afterall, it's difficult to judge a format that is played on Sunday. The day that most people are recovering, sleeping in, going to the dealer hall, checking off everything on the "need to do and everything I want to see list" before going home, and of course there's that actually leaving and going home thing, which people do at different times during the day, sometimes first thing Sunday morning. Are Epics just novelty type of thing that the designers added to have people stare at and only dream of having in a game, or do they actually have a place in our game? Is it that it caused too much debate and argument amongst the designers and loyalists to Wizards, that it just died out, or that it just fell out of popularity because of the idea of having a "God-like" character on the battlefield, is not realistic? Are the cards to difficult to preserve and protect, because of no sleeve protectors (hehe)???? But seriously though, my group here in SoCal, love them, want to see more of them, and I for one, would like to see more competitive play for them at GenCon :)


An Imperial credit for everyone's thoughts, please..............................................

The Epic events were underplayed at Gencon, as well, so that is a factor.

While I like the idea of epics, it's more for the novelty than anything else. I don't play enough minis to get tired of standard minis, so epics basically never hit the table.

After the first epic set, from most reports the Vong were way overpowered for Duos and the Old Republic was way overpowered for Epic 500. That lessened my desire to try it out, though I guess the 2nd set may have balanced things considerably.

I did pull out epic Boba for one scenario match and that was fun.

+1. And this goes without saying, count me in for donations for a new Epic Set!


Thanks guys for your thoughts. I absolutely agree 100% that the Epics bring a more fun and relaxed atmosphere to the game! They showcase cool new special abilitities and commander effects, and really pave the way for more fun and exciting gameplay. They even inspire design elements into the standard minis, ie; Darth's "No Disentegrations" and Palps' "The Phantom Menance". Love both of those abilities, by the way, and with both of those new minis from "Command of the Galaxy" getting 10's from a few of the reviewers on Bloomilk, I suspect some others in the community really like what Epics bring to the game as well!

Credits are in the mail.........................................

i generally Like the 500 point 16 max activations, Limit on commander effects of like 5 and no activation limiting( you can activate more not less.) or even the 300 point Match with them is fun.

Personally, Epic is my absolute favorite format ever. I was all pumped to play in the Epic tourney on Sunday morning last year, but I got pulled into another tournament against my will.... :) Because of that, though, Greg Sutton was able to play my squad (Mandos) and he had a great time with it.

I do think there are two main problems with OR at 500 though.

1. Bastilla. Boardwide CE negation in a format where CEs can be hugely important...this is just too much. When we play on Vassal, we either agree to not use her, or else decide that ABM only gives a Damage-boost but doesn't negate CEs.

2. Lord Hoth's Furious Assault CE is also troublesome, but not as bad as ABM. If you're expecting to face OR, use an Energy Shield character (Republic or Separatist, ideally with a bodyguard). The new Czerka Shield Tech may help a bit, but you've still gotta keep her alive. Mandos have a couple of options, with Battle Ready and/or a bunch of good cloaked figs. Another option is to play OR yourself (to negate his Hoth CE) and use Revan, who is a beast and whose Camaraderie boosts cannot be disrupted. Still, Hoth's CE does restrict the meta. Vong are deadly if they can get close, but they don't stand a chance against a half-decently-played OR Epic FA squad. NR is pretty much helpless against Lord Hoth, unless you can trade Epic Mara for Epic Hoth...but until then (usually a couple of rounds in) the NR will already have taken a few FAs to the face and it will be an up hill battle...assuming that her assault can kill him right away, which is iffy.

IMHO, as a person who's played as much 500pt Epic SWM as possible, there's no question that Lord Hoth has been (and probably still is) the gatekeeper of 500pt epic skirmishes--and it's a lock if he's got Bastilla's ABM working for him too. So if you can do something to somehow get around the OR in that format, I think it can be a really fun way to play. When I play on Vassal, we've just agreed to stop using OR, and we have a blast. The other factions all have a lot of fun possibilities.


Of course, as mentioned, other formats can be really fun with the Epic figs too. We've done a bit of 300pt, 8-10 activation games, and those have always been fun--and exciting!


As for the Gencon schedule, it is hard to fit 500pt Epic in there, since the games need at least 90 minutes (rather than the normal 60), which means that a regular 4-round tournament takes a minimum of 6 hours.