Squat Thunderers, one of the most contentious units in the various Epic Armageddon Squat lists. One base with five heavy weapon armed Squats – how do you stat them?
40Kophiles
One camp, we’ll dub them the 40kophiles argue you base the stats exactly off what models are physically present on the base. Marine Tactical Squads have one heavy weapon and get one shot, Marine Devestator Squads have two heavy weapons and get two shots. This means Thunderers with five heavy weapons get five shots – which is obscene.
They’re called 40kophiles as this is a very 40k approach to stat design – where models are wysiwyg and have to be statted to slavishly match what their 40k counterparts would be holding. It’s straightforward, but misses the abstraction that you get in Epic Armageddon.
Conservative Abstractors
So let’s identify a second camp, aware of the abstraction in Epic Armageddon – the Abstractors. There’s not an exact match-up between models and stats. And the Marine Devestators example is misleading – it’s not two shots for two heavy weapons, it’s a second dice roll to represent the Devastator stand carrying more firepower than a Tactical stand. So this camp would stat Squat Thunderers with one more shot than Squat Warriors.
Relative Statters
However, then you’d have a perky chap pointing out how Squat Thunderers have five heavy weapons, yet pump out the same amount of shots as Marine Devastators. They’d argue three shots represents the higher number of Heavy Weapons. Problems come now you’re comparing Squats with Space Marines. As a Space Marine is a better shot (BS4 in 40K compared to a Squat’s BS3) does that need to be represented in Epic Armageddon? And therein lies a huge grey area. Are five Squat heavies worth two Marine heavies? Are three?
Precedential Election
So what we start doing is looking at similar troop types in other armies. Is there an established precedent for heavy weapon troopers?
Eldar Dark Reapers – 2
Ork Lootas, which count as Big Gunz – 1
Imperial Guard Fire Support – 2
Chaos Marine Havoks – 2
(NetEA) Space Wolf Long Fangs – 3
Argh, muddy waters. And this is even before you start working out what those weapons should be.
I must say, I am definitely in the ‘abstractors’ camp. I don’t consider shooting in 40k to reflect the actual number of shots fired but rather the overall effectiveness of the unit at shooting (rate and accuracy of fire, the destructiveness of weapons etc).
Also, the rules regarding which models are mounted on a base in Epic are rather loose and not intended to be a true representation of each individual in the squad. Therefore one base of devastators might be modelled with three heavy weapons and another with two and this would be perfectly legal. However, both would have the same number of shots.
Oops, that should read ‘shooting in E:A’ and not ’40k’