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EPIC ARMAGEDDON GAMING AIDS
I have found over the
past twenty years that how you game is almost as individual as
how you paint or field an army. I have played against some
gamers who meticulously use special counters as aide’s to memory
for everything from casualties to how many wounds a model has
left. Others simply jot everything down on a scrap of paper or
use a certain coloured dice to indicate which dice roll is for
the ‘Space Marine with Plasma gun etc. All of these things are
referred to as gaming aid’s and include the basics such as dice
and a method of measuring distance. Ok, all of this is pretty
obvious I know and by now you must be wondering why I am
rambling on about such gaming fundamentals as dice and tape
measures. The reason is every gaming system introduces its own
kind of aids, or to be more accurate ‘need for aids’. In the
case of Epic the most obvious is Blast Markers. There are others
however, such as objective markers, hidden set-up tiles, turn
markers and so on, all important to some and irrelevant to
others. I am not going to give examples showing how to produce
most of these kinds of gaming aids, most gamers will have their
own preferred methods and can do so just fine by themselves (its
actually part of the fun of the hobby coming up with your own).
What I am going to look at however is a few ideas for more
common items such as Blast Markers which can add a whole new
element to your games.
Having a blast!
 When Epic 40,000 was
released in 1997 it introduced the concept of the Blast Marker
and even provided some in the box in the form of pre-cut card
little explosions. Personally I thought they were one of the
most inspired gaming ideas ever; their simplicity conveying at a
glance the state of the battle and the effect of formations
coming under fire. Following a similar approach to what was in
the Epic 40,000 rule book, I created my own blast markers and
found them to to be both cheap and easy to make. If you want to
find out how, read on.
You will need: A big bag
of wire wool, some super glue, scissors, Warhammer 40,000 round
infantry bases (20mm and a few 40mm), PVA glue, sand and gravel
mix, a can of black spray primer and paints (bestial brown,
bleached bone, blood red, blazing orange, bad moon yellow)
Pour a large blob of
super glue onto an infantry base and stick down a medium sized
clump of iron wool (taking care not to stick your fingers to
either the wool or plastic base). Using the scissors to trim any
loose strands, twist clumps of the stuck down wire wool between
your thumb and forefinger ‘teasing’ them out into a spiky shape
similar to the one shown in the picture. Paint some watered down
PVA glue onto the base ensuring it is well covered (even the
rim), then dip into the sand and gravel mix, shaking off any
excess back into the bag. Repeat this process with as many of
the bases as you want to make into blast markers. With the
larger bases use a little more wire wool or multiple clumps as
these will represent 5x Blast Markers, so you want them to look
larger and easily identifiable at a glance from the individual
Blast Markers. Once finished leave them all to set.
 Once the PVA has set,
liberally spray all of them with the chaos black primer so that
none of the wire wool shows. Leave for a while for the primer to
dry then dry brush the bases with bestial brown and bleached
bone in that order. Dab the red, orange and yellow paint onto
the wire wool towards the base of each plume or explosion to
help create the effect and then once dry spray varnish the
finished Blast Markers. Its that easy and even though they
initially look flimsy they are actually remarkably resilient;
the ones shown here having survived the part two years of
regular use and storage in an old box.
Alternatives.
If you don’t fancy
making your own out of wire wool, you could also use the ones
supplied by Fanatic for Epic Armageddon, the card ones that came
with the previous edition if you have them, or even others of
your own design. Whatever you choose, have fun. |
