Today we glance again over twenty years on the meanest – tiniest EPIC Craftworld Eldar to kick ass on the Horus Heresy tabletop.

EPIC scale’s 6mm vary had it’s origins method, method again in 1988’s Adeptus Titanicus – which was focussed solely on titan fight within the Horus Heresy.  In truth, it was Adeptus Titanicus that was the breeding floor for a lot of the unique Horus Heresy lore.  It began as titans solely, simply because the 2018 version has began, but it surely didn’t keep that method.  Before lengthy the tiny 6mm vary had expanded all through the Nineteen Nineties to incorporate all the Grimdark’s main factions – from their mighty Titans to primary infantry.

EPIC all the time makes us wax nostalgic, so right this moment we’re going again to 1996 to see what the Eldar appeared like again within the day – the primary xenos faction to point out up, and a significant participant within the Horus Heresy from its very inception.

This is the unique Eldar Phantom Titan, and its feared stablemate, the Warlock Titan. The Phantoms arrived method bay within the late Eighties in Adeptus Titanicus, and Eldar vary grew round them as EPIC developed into two editions of SPACE MARINE, and a later complete ill-fated EPIC 40,000 reboot.

Here is a full Eldar military from a battle report for SPACE MARINE. You can see all of the mature Craftworld components from the titans, to the Aspect Warriors, to the Avatar of Khaine, and quite a lot of Eldar tanks that might get radically redesigned years later after they arrived in 40K. What is fascinating is that throughout the very early Nineteen Nineties, EPIC was the actual beating coronary heart of military design for most of the Grimdark’s factions – together with Squats, errr… Leagues of Votann. These armies would have a completely fleshed-out combined-arms strategy in EPIC that GW would cherry-pick from so as to add items to 40K many years later.

This is the core pair of sprues for the Eldar military and is completely unbelievable.  The higher Tempest heavy tank was a Baneblade equal that might years later evolve into the Scorpion superheavy. The higher Eldar Legion sprue gave got here first and was the infantry core of your Eldar Warhost – offering Guardians and Falcons to hold them. Yes, THAT is what the Falcon initially appeared like!

 Here’s an previous 40K scale resin Eldar Falcon from Armorcast

The decrease Eldar War Host sprue arrived a number of years later and provides you the whole lot you could make each kind of EPIC infantry stand on your Craftworlders.  All the facets are in there, together with jetbikes, Vypers, Rangers, and quite a lot of help groups. The element is sort of spectacular for 20 years again and at 6mm scale.

Teensy Eldar tanks, now reborn in 40k! In EPIC these funky designs laid down the core of the Eldar’ excessive velocity hover armory. You get the extremely oddball design of the Wave Serpent which sure did have its vitality area that it may hearth off. Then you bought the Doom Weaver (now Night Spinner), Deathstalker (now Fire Prism), and the Warp Hunter (it took some time however Forge World bought round to it)

Modern Warp Hunter, you may sort of see the household resemblance.

Here we see all of the Eldar Knights that EPIC produced. By lore, these have been the area of the hardy Exodites, however have been referred to as to combat alongside their Craftworlder cousins in time of want. GW has not even scratched the floor with these, and has a deep back-catalog for future Eldar Knight enlargement in 40K.

Finally, we’ve the oddball EPIC Stompers sprue which mixed the “big guys” of all of the EPIC factions. This is the place you and your pals all chipped in to purchase a number of units and parted out the items you wanted. Here you see the Eldar Dreadnought (now Wraithlord), and the unique Ork Stompa, who does look sort of cute! Also, word the “Chaos Android” to the left and proper of the Stompa from SpaceQuest tiptoeing into EPIC. This is the sprue that created the Contemptor Dreadnought (center row, proper) which might return to 40K 20 years later.

On the tabletop the Eldar military was gorgeous (take a look at the Revenant titans)!

~Thanks for this journey down reminiscence lane people. Do you assume with Adeptus Titanicus and Aeronautica’s matching scale that EPIC could at some point return?

Dad, Gamer, Publisher, Pilot, Texan. All video games on a regular basis since junior-high.
I began BoLS Interactive in 2006. I’m a lifelong tabletop & RPG gaming fanatic, and web writer working to entertain and inform my readers daily.
I’ve been enjoying RPGs and Tabletop Games because the Nineteen Seventies. I’m been enjoying and masking Warhammer and Warhammer 40K for over 35 years.

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