Epic (tabletop game)

Epic is a collective term for a series of tabletop wargames by Games Workshop set in their fictional Warhammer 40,000 universe. Whereas Warhammer 40,000 involves small battles between forces of a few squads of troops and two or three vehicles, Epic features battles between armies consisting of hundreds of soldiers, dozens of tanks, and giant war machines. Due to the larger size of the battles, and particularly the involvement of the Titan war machines, Epic miniatures conform to a smaller scale than those in Warhammer 40,000. It is roughly one quarter, with a typical human being represented with a 6mm high figure, as opposed to the 'heroic' 28mm miniature used in Warhammer 40,000.

In recent years other companies most notably Warlord Games and Mantic Games have also begun to release games branded as "Epic" to denote a smaller scale. All three companies produce smaller sized miniatures with modern Epic from Games Workshop being approximately 8mm, with 12mm from Mantic Games and 15mm from Warlord Games.

In the Warhammer Fantasy universe, Warmaster fills much the same "large scale battle" role as Epic does in Warhammer 40,000, though the two systems do not share rules, and Epic is intended for slightly smaller 6 mm miniatures.

Since its initial release in 1988, the series has gone through a number of incarnations with varying names and rule systems:

• 1988-1991: 1st Edition, Adeptus Titanicus (1988) and Space Marine, Epic Battles in the Age of Heresy (1st Edition) (1989).
• 1991-1997: 2nd Edition, Space Marine (2nd Edition) (1991) and Titan Legions (1994).
• 1997-2003: 3rd Edition, Epic 40,000 (1997).
• 2003-2023: 4th Edition, Epic Armageddon (2003).
• 2023: 5th Edition, Legions Imperialis (2023).

The 2nd, 3rd and 4th Editions are still played around the world, using the original rule set or fan-edited ones (see below).