Reilly2040's Blog

When it comes to Space Hulk, I established two things this weekend:

1. I suck at Space Hulk
2. Space Hulk rocks

I got the chance to break in my set, and me and a friend sat down for a good couple of hours of gaming.  With both of us having read about the game extensively in White Dwarf a couple of months ago, we were both keen to try it out.

We decided the best thing to do would be to just start at the beginning, setup mission 1 and play through it twice, swapping sides.  After flicking through the rulebook we also decided to ditch the egg timer for the Space Marine turn while we were feeling our way with the game (although as it turned out, with just one unit of Marines and a small map, the timer wasn’t really an issue).

What followed was a play through of the first two missions, allowing us to try out most of the marines.  The second mission especially made good use of the corridor and room pieces, building up to quite a large map.  Sadly, I also discovered my tactics suck, resulting in a 4-nil kicking

It was quite interesting seeing how the game mechanics vary to the main game.  The use of action points and squares on the boards makes many aspects easier.  With combat, while initially strange-looking,  the rules worked really well in practice, removing complex details like armour-saves, and providing something a lot more straight-forward.  The game boards also really help to build up the atmosphere and establish the scene of the mission, especially when coupled with the mission book detailing the overall story that’s unfolding.

It all made for a great fun afternoon.  Despite the kicking I took, we were definitely getting the hang of the rules quickly, and the pace allowed us to fit in all four games in an afternoon.  I’m now really looking forward to my next chance to get a game.

As I’ve come quite late to the hobby, the significance of the re-release of Space Hulk by Games Workshop is slightly lost on me.  However, despite this, I still found myself drawn to the set when reading through last month’s issue of White Dwarf.

Designed as a subset of 40K, Space Hulk focuses on a simplified rule set and specially designed game boards that represent a seemingly deserted ship, boarded by a group of Space Marine Terminators who then find themselves under attack from the Genestealer hoardes infesting the ship (think Aliens and you’re pretty much there).  On reading about the game, it reminded me very much of the old Space Crusade set which I did play when I was younger, which similarly bridged Warhammer and traditional board games.  Space Hulk seems to sit between the two in terms of complexity and with this latest release, is very much aimed at the collectors market, rather than the mass market that Space Crusade targetted.

I originally had been trying to resist the set, having only just bought Assault on Black Reach, but the White Dwarf issue had done a really good job selling it, and with it in my hands the other week, I couldn’t resist caving and buying it, under the tenuous reasoning that it was probably going to be my only shot at actually owning it.

Its an incredibly nice set.  There’s a large collection of Space Marine Terminators and Genestealers in the set, but Games Workshop have ensured these models have a lot of character.  Whereas they could’ve just thrown in some standard Terminators, each of the models is distinct containing their own identifying details and a unique pose.   The Genestealers do have some duplication, but that’s understandable given the number of them, and even then there’s various different poses available, and care has been taken to ensure each type of Genestealer has been given a suitable dramatic pose (the Genestealers bursting out of the floor plates are a particular favourite).

The other game pieces have had similar attention.  The cardboard game boards are all very high quality.  They feel very thick and sturdy, and have the nice debossing effect to them.

I must admit, the set is currently sitting low down on my “to paint” list though.   Obviously, I’m still working through the Black Reach set anyway, and I just bought the Aegis Defense Line for some extra scenery, and another bike unit (this time the one with a sidecar).  However its also largely down to the detail of the figures.  I’m not brilliant at detail painting at all, and these miniatures (especially the Terminators) are very detailed.  So I’m left feeling that I’d rather leave them unpainted until I’m confident enough that I can do them a level of justice.

In the meantime though, I’m keen to get started gaming with this set.  From what I’ve read both in the rule book and in White Dwarf, it seems like it’ll be a very different feel to the main 40K game, likely much faster.  The addition of the time limit to the Space Marines’ turn should make things very interesting and more tense, helping capture the atmosphere of the setting.