From: Peter Ramos <pramos1@i...>
Date: Sat, 16 May 1998 18:09:30 +0000
Subject: Conversions to DSII complete
Good day! After 3 weeks of ardous work I have completed conversions of the entire epic line to DSII stats. Due to recent upgrading and formatting I no longer have the initial requests for a copy. Those who wish one please let me know (or re-send your request if you did so before), and please state what format you would like it in. The file is about 200k zipped and 1.45 MB after unzipping. I made this in Wordperfect 8, but am converting it to Word. I am happy to send it in any other format so long as it supports tables (a lot of them). The file printed to 153 pages using wordperfect, but since its organized by army its simple to print what you need without printing the whole thing. I will offer a synopsis of what this file contains: Full conversions of all epic units (new and old) in form of tables (I used Andy Cowell's generator for this). These tables have all the pertinent data regarding each vehicle including weapons. Infantry is also catalogued in ready to use tables with appropriate stats (using Mr.Gibson's alternate infantry rules) Full morale rules adapted for each "race" of the epic universe with recommended command and control structures. Optional section which includes rules for units or game mechanics that normally are not a part of DSII rules (titans, shields and psychics). Here's a little more detail... At the simplest level you can use the conversions and ignore all the adaptations. I separated the units by army type and then into vehicles, infantry, artillery, heavy tanks and VTOL's/aerospace vehicles. I find ironic that GW spends so much effeort to recreate thier background in their games and always fall short. The DSII system proved to me its innate strength and facility in adapting any background into concrete stats. I firmly believe that using the DSII conversion system I captured each armies "character" without the use of silly "gimmicks" and rules. Forces of Humanity IG and marines, both follow standard DSII morale rules, although marines have some advntages in this regard. Technology is on the low side with marines getting slightly better "tech". Army organization and cost of IG suit it better for attritional warfare, marines are better suited for "specialist missions" since they are fewer and costlier. Squats, I envisiond them as an army of engineer types with technology that even impresses the Eldar at times although on the whole Eldar are far more advanced. Morale and army structure is molded to represent their background, stoic on defense, haters of orcs and close knit with their leaders. Eldar, simply put the best of the best. They have technologies others only dream of. of course this means they are usually heavily outnumbered. Eldar infantry its is saviour since most are relatively cheap with some more expensive specialist types. Stealth is very prevalent. Morale and command structure reflect the hate toward choas and the oneness of purpose when an eldar takes a certain warrior path (aspects). Orks, the other end of the spectrum. Cheap, very cheap. This is their stength though the massive amounts of cheap vehicles and troops they can bring can easily overwhelm less cautious opponents. They do however have some "perks" in the form of mechaniac vehicles that mount weapons systems other than the usual HVC that is the orc stamp. Morale and command structure reflect their "attitude" towards war as their favorite pastime. Chaos, this list permits the construction of many "types" of chaos forces, from the purely demonic to the rogue planetary defense force or the ancient chaos marine legions. Thier tech is a curious blend of archaic and adavnced weapons and vehicles. The so called "magic" has been bended into DSII terms (magical screens = stealth, hellfire= DFFG, etc). Morale and command structure have the patron demon at the core, I used a very unusual approach with the morale system to recreate the army levels morale directly depending on the "health" of their patron demons. As they die so does their fanatical courage. Tyranids, they possess the cheapest most effective infantry elements and on the whole are more numerous than orcs. Their vehicles are very specialized but still very low prices compared to what they are capable. Their best (worst if your on the receiving end) is that simply put they are immune to morale! Casualites, death and wounds are ignored due to their tremendous drive. Command structure simulates the "hive" heirarchy where swarm masters control and lead their swarms. As these swarm masters are slain more and more of them lapse into instinctive behavior making concerted organized attacks immpossible. In a very real sense you don't destroy the swarm, you just incapacitate it to such a degree that they no longer pose organize resistance. The optional section was included for the sake of completeness. With whats in the lists most players will be satisfied and need not include whats in this section. On the other hand some do enjoy battles with titans and huge modular vehicles on each side. These rules are an extension of the multi-modular rules as seen on page 15 of the DSII rulebook. There are rules for shields and there is a lot of room for customization (I used an old 1st edition epic idea where you select a titan hull and then select weapons from a list and then add up all the costs). More importantly I tried to keep all the weapons and rules to non-silly levels. Be advised these units are extremely expensive (a standard titan with shields is around 3500 pioints). In all likelihood if you aren't playing a titan versus titan battle of an extremely large conventional battle, the price alone of these units will keep them very, very, rare. Morale rules for multi-modular vehicles and titans are also included. A simple psychic system was also included, again steming from concepts found in DSII and stargrunt II. Of paramount imoortance to keep these effects very local (a unit of element), these powers are helpful but not war winning. Finally I included at the very end all the knight units from epic (including eldar knights), they do use some shield technology so thats why I left them in the optional segment, but you can strip them of that and use them as combat walker (the costs of most of them are very good). Although I tried to efficiently edit this work no doubt there will be mistakes and rules that are not clear. I would really appreciate those who use it to contact me on these mistakes. Of course I would really be interested in comments and or ideas about the conversions, please feel free to contact me or post to this list (if deemed appropriate). Also if anyone with webspace would like to have them available for download at their page let me know. Thank you for your time,