New Poll: Your Thoughts on Apocalypse

I voted for “They’re great fun. I try to play them a couple of times per year.”   Although…   I’ve never actually played an official Apocalypse game.   By that, I mean I’ve never played a game with the Apocalypse rules.

However…   The point isn’t really the rules (which you are officially encouraged to amend and/or ignore to your heart’s content) – it’s the spirit of the game.   i.e. getting your buddies together for something you’ll not only remember but appreciate doing as a group.   If you’re someone who doesn’t get time to play very often, and/or you’re not as young, student-y and blessed with as much free time as you once had, the social aspect of the game is probably very important.

That might be another reason why you look forward to these and make time for them despite not getting a regular game.   They are occasions.   They’re rare social events.   At which you get to play a game which has brought you and your friends together for many years.

These days I probably enjoy board games more than I do 40K, and it’s mainly because on the rare occasions I get to meet up with my friends as a group, I want to do something that includes all of us.   If we had the time, organisation, scenery, space and motivation to actually stick a lot of un-built models together, then I’m sure we’d enjoy playing a game of Apocalypse.

Oh, another reason would be that the competitiveness of 40K kind of puts me off these days.   I’m much more attracted to GM-run multiplayer games with a story.

I voted “they could be cool . . .”  

This is not because of lack of balance though, I couldn’t care less about that.  I just get bored when any game goes for too long, and I really don’t think the 40k rules adapt well at that level.  I much prefer smaller than average games to monster games.  There’s too much micro-management for a game to really be fun for me above maybe 2000 points.They should have just re-released Epic, then I could have heaps of Titans!

You’re right: the social event aspect is the underlying driving force behind what makes them more appealing to me.

I’m sure it’ll come around again. They already redid Space Hulk & Man O War (sort of), so it’s only a matter of time before Epic comes back with a vengeance.

Someone somewhere was theorizing that the re-release of such games was timed along with IP law, in that the trademarks/patents were expiring, so they were forced to renew to keep the license. I don’t know how true any of that is, but if it is, we might be able to guess a date.

They were saying that space hulk was released after 20 years, and Man-O-War is pretty close to that. With those numbers, and the fact that Epic was last released in ’97, you can expect a re-release of this within 6 years.
Think there’s any science to this?

No.   I’m not sure how old the current edition is, but Wikipedia says 1997 was when 3rd edition came out.   4th (Epic Armageddon) came out presumably several years later and is still officially in print and receiving a minimal amount of support.   So I don’t think there can be any substance to the idea that they’ll lose the rights to it after 20 years.

Also; how could they?   The game would be nothing without the various armies – all of whom are still protected as much as is possible (marines, etc) by being supported in 40K.   If the armies are being protected, then the game is protected.   6mm is not unique to GW/Epic either.

Although Space Hulk was rereleased, I really don’t think Dreadfleet is a re-release of Man O War.   The rules have virtually nothing in common, the name is changed and even the concept has changed.   Man O War was a game of two fleets fighting each other.   Dreadfleet is almost a roleplaying game; it’s closer to being a board game with it’s scenarios, lack of player options for customising ‘army lists’, etc.   I can’t see how this game would in any way protect the Man O War IP.   I honestly think Battlefleet Gothic is closer to Man O War than dreadfleet is.

Back on the subject of Epic though, although it doesn’t receive much coverage, the current rules are still being used by some player communities, with continual development of new army lists, etc.   I would highly recommend checking out some of the Epic posts at Bell of Lost Souls (whatever your opinion of the blog).   I think the guest writer’s name is Gr00ver, or something like that.   Not only are his articles (introductions to the game, the modelling and the community) really good; he has plenty of information about how to find and get involved with the global Epic community.