Space Hulk Re-Release (and discussion)

[Moose Fisher]

In the grim darkness of the 41st millennium, there is only war. In the winding corridors of derelict space hulks, the finest soldiers of the Imperium face the savage Genestealers. The Genestealers possess superior numbers, speed, and combat ability. The Space Marines have only their faith in the Emperor and his firepower.

This is: Space Hulk


Space Hulk takes a lot of pages from Alien. Two players face off against each other using Space Marine Terminators and Genestealers. The Space Marine player focuses on survival and completing missions, while the Genestealer player works to kill or obstruct the Space Marines.

I wasn't around when this game was first released, but luckily I have an uncle and pair of brothers that saved their copy and shared the experience with me when I got older. Now I can get my own copy.:smallbiggrin:

Take a look for yourself. (http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat180016a&prodId=prod210009a)

note: This re-release is sadly going to be a limited print run:smallfrown:

If you're a veteran Terminator or bright-eyed newbie, discuss.

[Storm Bringer]

those termie models look absolutely incredible!


someone really worked hard on sculpting those.

I've never played the game, but I think now might be a goof time to start....

[Colmarr]

Judging from the round flamer markers, it will use the original rules, too... Good news.

And yes, those Terminator miniatures are some of the best-looking plastics I've ever seen. Might be worth buying the game just to own them.

Pity some of the genestealers look so goofy.

[Moose Fisher]

Games Workshop seems to be using the "give them lots of pre-made stuff at a cheaper cost" marketing plan very effectively.:smallbiggrin:

Hopefully putting the Terminators on medium bases won't prevent them from fitting on the board squares. It shouldn't be too hard to convert them, unless you'll be trying to remove the Blood Angel insignias.

[Zorg]

Saw the set in my local GW last week - the miniatures are beautiful, multi part and just as good as the previews make them look. One of the guys there plays Blood Angels and counter 40-odd BA icons on one mini alone! The mission book has a bio for many (maybe all - it was a quick glance) of the terminators (who are all named at least). The tiles and counters are around 4mm thick, so easy to pick up and the board won't curl (also why it weighs so much!). Squares are 30mm x 30mm, so small bases only - regular termies won't fit properly.

Some of the Genestealers do look a little goofy, I've got a 4L ice-cream tub filled with plastic originals, so I'll probably stick to using them.

The CAT is very goofy, think a tracked gazebo with a servo skull attached. I'll stick to my scratchbuilt one I think.

Each Marine is an individual, and has his own bio and portrait (bald & angry looking :smallwink:)


I got to flick through the rules, and it is quite faithful to 1st ed & Deathwing:

Basic costs in APs are the same as 1st ed for moving shooting etc.

CPs can be spent in the stealer's phase, reverting back to 1st over 2nd.

Flamers affect whole rooms (6 shots - no reloading though as far as I could see).

Assault cannons only seemed to have one fire mode, can be reloaded and may malfunction. I didn't get an in-depth look.

Lightning Claws give a re-roll to the marine's assault dice (and a bonus die - may be a bit off on this).

Storm Shields give the marine the option to force the stealer to discard a dice in assault.

A new form of overwatch 'Guard' - gives the marine the ability to re-roll their dice in assault.

Sustained fire caps at 5/6, rather than 3-6, but you get the bonus in overwatch now.

The Librarian uses psi-points like in Deathwing, but also has three powers. I remember Force Dome, and I think it was Psychic Blast and The Quickening, but I'm not too sure on those two.

The Broodlord has beefier stats and can ignore the Librarians blast power (the model is a beast! It looks very nasty - well worth it for any Nid player). IIRC you can only kill him with shooting on a double 6!

Looking at the tile sets it seems like it has all the original pieces and the Deathwing tiles without the big rooms.

The limited edition is a certainty - my store is only getting 50 copies, and has a 25 pre-order limit on them (I got one through them and one through the web-store). If you want it I'd say find a way to get it as they're going to move faster than a termie with a stealer up his rear :smalltongue:



As a game Space Hulk is brilliant - easy to learn, difficult to master, and very very replayable. It's also easy to make your own scenarios and missions with a little effort.


Also, a sound file I made for ambient hulk noise: http://www.box.net/shared/klv13e3t9o

[Matthew]

Sounds interesting; the game was pretty close to perfect, so I am a little worried about the rules changes, but am cautiously optimistic. At £60 it is probably too rich for my blood, but that does seem to be the way all "designer" board games are heading these days. I have been holding off buying Age of Conan (http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite.asp?eidm=70&enmi=Age%20of%20Conan) for the same reason, but the components for Space Hulk make it a more palatable purchase.

[Moose Fisher]

Squares are 30mm x 30mm, so small bases only - regular termies won't fit properly.


Using magnets to attach and detach the termies for Space Hulk and 40k might work.


Each Marine is an individual, and has his own bio and portrait (bald & angry looking :smallwink:)

As opposed to bald & stoic looking?:smalltongue:


I got to flick through the rules, and it is quite faithful to 1st ed & Deathwing...


'Guard' overwatch sounds great, now I don't have to spend command points on my assault termies.

Does the power sword still give bonuses to combat rolls?



I've already pre-ordered a copy for myself. I've got a friend that likes 40k but doesn't have the money for a lot of models.

Zorg, do you think you could make a sound file with creaking ship sounds?:smallbiggrin:

[Zorg]

Zorg, do you think you could make a sound file with creaking ship sounds?:smallbiggrin:

Not mine but it should do the trick: http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=31574

http://www.soundsnap.com/taxonomy/term/347/popular


I do think most of them were stoic on the portraits, or maybe surly, it's hard to tell sometimes.

The Sgt gets his +1 to his roll still I believe, but it was only a quick look so I'm not 100% on that. I'm just going to go with blu-tac for the bases, or morel likely not worry about it.

[Brother Oni]

Cool, it looks like they've re-instated the timelimit for the marine player.

I'm curious to see how they've changed the rules in this edition compared to the second or first. I spotted purple arrows on the stealer entry areas in the GW site promo, so maybe you can close off entry areas by default, rather than it just being in the special rules for a particular mission?
The Ladder up/down markers seem to mean they're going for multi-layer maps from the start.

I remember from the first edition, hybrids made for a fun expansion to the stealer player's options, as did normal power armor marines.
Never did get the hang of traitor versus loyalist marine battles though...

[Brother Oni]

Managed to have a look at a copy a GW store had out, so further to Zorg's comments:

Fluff-wise, it's the Blood Angels attacking the Sin of Damnation hulk like the previous games. I'd like to reiterate Zorg's comment about the models - they are really nice and well worth stealing for a 40K army.

Hidden CP draw for the marines. All ammo, psi points, CP usage is now on a separate printed board, where you can shuffle counters about instead of using pen and paper. Timer is back (looks to be a 3 minute timer), although the marine player doesn't lose time for getting sergeants killed.

The mission book includes the standard 6 from the first game, plus 3-4 more which involves multi-level stuff and facing off against the broodlord.

Lightning claws roll 2d6, pick the best one and +1 to that (makes lightning claws killable compared to their old version of 2d6, +2 to both, pick best one...)
Thunder hammers are d6+1, while storm shields allowed a reroll.
I can't remember which weapon had which re-roll mechanic. One allows the marine to reroll a single die, while the other forced the stealer to reroll.

Sergeants still get their +1 for being sergeants.
A power sword just allows the marine to force a stealer re-roll. They never added a bonus in 1st ed (captains get their +2 for being captains despite being equipped with power swords).
I think there was a sergeant running around with a thunder hammer, so he rolls a d6+2 in melee, with a reroll available.

Broodlord can only be killed by shooting with a double 6. The heavy flamer won't touch him as it only rolls 1d6. In melee, he rolls 3d6, takes the lowest and highest and adds them together (sounds like a job for the librarian).

Assault cannons roll 3d6, kill on a 5-6 and their sustained fire bonus caps out at 4-6. I think they also malfunction off the bat now (rather than after a reload) on a triple. I think they've lost their multikill ability though (which was given to storm bolters in the 2nd ed) and they've lost their full auto fire mode.

The assistant mentioned that of the 24,000 sets made, they've apparently managed to sell about a thousand already on pre-orders alone, so if you're planning to get a set, do it sooner rather than later.

[Pilum]

Aye it does (60 QUID!!!) look nice, and Space Hulk (60 QUID!!!) was always one of my favourite games to just have a (60 QUID!!!) blast with, though the ratio of 22 'Stealers to 12 Termies seems a bit (60 QUID!!!) thin; doesn't seem to allow for some of the more (60 QUID!!!) intense situations that I remember the Marines getting into (60 QUID!!!), but given that there is a lot of talking about SM characters and a "Patriarch" type for the 'stealers perhaps the thinking is for (60 QUID!!!) more 'heroic' actions and even faster combat...

There's just one little thing that will probably stop me buying it though, nice though it looks... :smallwink: Heh, I know, I know, I am officially becoming a grumpy old man, perhaps even proper "You Are Now Your Dad" status :smallbiggrin:

[Brother Oni]

Just do what I did and keep the excess stealers as unconverted blips well away from any marine LOS.

I did manage to get some of the old space hulk spruces before they were discontinued (they were dirt cheap and each had 2 stealers and a marine), so I have somewhere in the region of 80-odd stealer models from all the various versions over the years.

Which means I have enough models to play this custom map based off the colonial marines escape from the film Aliens: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/40547. :smallbiggrin:

Or the Last Stand combined supermap listed in the campaigns book - now if only I had another 5-6 players... :smallsigh:

[Pilum]

You know... between this, the Mechwarrior thread and one or two others, I'm getting pretty sad. All those 'classic' games I used to have - Judge Dredd (RPG & boardgame), Star Warriors, Mighty Empires to name but a few - and they've all gone. Car boot sales, ebay, donating to others "because I'll never play it any more, and I need the space", sheer carelessness in losing vital bits...

And now I've found a regular group again, mainly youngsters and "gaming=40k" types (often the same!), and all those old methods I could have had to show them a wider world have been scattered to time... Sure, I still have the memories, but memories can't be reopened, shown and demonstrated to someone who (maybe only politely!) expresses an interest when you're reminiscing.

That said, great that a lot of them are being re-released, and yes there's always ebay - but I could have saved myself SO much money and hassle (and also not got married, but that's another story!). Heh, like I said, guess I'm getting old. Eeeeh, I remember when we had to carve our own d20's out of the living rock... :smallwink:

[Brother Oni]

I find boardgame geek (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/) a great site for all those missing pieces.
While you can substitue for lost models, you can't always do the same for chits, counters, reference sheets or rule books.

I remember nicking the marines from Space Crusade to represent power armour marines for Space Hulk, and as they were moulded from coloured plastic, I didn't have to paint them to define them as different squads. :smallbiggrin:


@Pilum: Well since you're getting old, you can start looking forward to teaching your (future) children the joys of board games. I firmly intend to start teaching mine, although I might get into trouble when they start playing 'purge the xeno' instead of 'house'...

[Pilum]

:smallbiggrin:
No dear, don't know where they picked that up from, must be this year's school craze...

Oddly enough my eldest is pretty tasty with a (plastic) sword, though I think that may have more to do with the likes of Power Rangers and Clone Wars than watching daddy's toy soldiers WHICH ARE NOT TO BE TOUCHED ON PAIN OF DEATH.

I think I'll leave "Be Pure. Be Vigilant. Behave." until he mentions he's having some sort of citizenship class just to mess with his teacher :smallwink:

This may be old news, but I've just spent a happy hour or two with this A downloadable Space Hulk (http://www.strategyinformer.com/news/375/space-hulk-10-released). Quite fun, even if the text is sometimes a bit English As She Is Spoked.

[Matthew]

This may be old news, but I've just spent a happy hour or two with this A downloadable Space Hulk (http://www.strategyinformer.com/news/375/space-hulk-10-released). Quite fun, even if the text is sometimes a bit English As She Is Spoked.

Interesting!

[Brother Oni]

My copy arrived in the post today! :smallbiggrin:

And the first thing my son tried to do was to eat the broodlord.:smallsigh:
Can I stand to wait another 10 or so years before trying to teach him the game?

[YPU]

@^
People still play chess don't they?

[blueblade]

Curious, for those that played both, which did you prefer, this game or Space Crusade? And which was closer the true game (I suspect the answer is neither, but just curious) in playing style, not factions.

I played my Space Crusade game to death, usually on the side of chaos. I remember a fantastic summer long campaign where we had all gained so many marks and tokens that just about every extra card was in play!

[Brother Oni]

Curious, for those that played both, which did you prefer, this game or Space Crusade? And which was closer the true game (I suspect the answer is neither, but just curious) in playing style, not factions.

I played my Space Crusade game to death, usually on the side of chaos. I remember a fantastic summer long campaign where we had all gained so many marks and tokens that just about every extra card was in play!

Space Crusade I found was more fun, especially with multiple players. Space Hulk was far more tactical and indepth.

I enjoyed both as they give different gaming experiences. As for which is closer to 40K, I'm guessing Space Crusade is closer as units had an armour value which had to be defeated, while Space Hulk is very much a hit is a kill.

I do remember that in a Space Crusade campaign that if you reached the highest rank and won another game, you got 'promoted' and had to start the next game at the bottom with a new 'character'.
Did you ever try it with some of the White Dwarf alternate rules? Space Marine Terminators were evil to kill...

[Matthew]

Curious, for those that played both, which did you prefer, this game or Space Crusade? And which was closer the true game (I suspect the answer is neither, but just curious) in playing style, not factions.

I played my Space Crusade game to death, usually on the side of chaos. I remember a fantastic summer long campaign where we had all gained so many marks and tokens that just about every extra card was in play!

I enjoyed both, though Space Hulk was a much less forgiving game than Space Crusade. Neither are particularly close to War Hammer in terms of rules, though in broad probabilities I would say that Space Hulk was closest. Both games had rules inspired by War Hammer, however.

[Pilum]

Turns out a couple of guys in the club bought it. Thoughts:

Presentation is excellent. The miniatures are of a high standard, as are the components. Was surprised at how game-specific the Stealers are though. Lovely, atmospheric sculpts, but not very transferable in terms of Space Hulk's traditional secondary function of forming the core to a Tyranid army :smallwink:

The rulebook still suffers some of the typical GW layout problems, viz hiding some important information in small, easily missed paragraphs and a lack of explanation of some concepts, but in such a small rulebook that is more solveable than in the 'big' games.

Sergeant's 'sole' function being to re-draw command points feels a bit less harsh than flat out losing time when/if they die. That said, I have memories of getting the calculations wrong or forgetting to deduct the 30 seconds, so it's an understandable change. Especially as it's easier to put in an egg timer than a stopwatch.

Combat feels a bit more lenient on the marine player, oddly enough. Granted, sustained fire being scaled back means longer, more drawn out firing and seems to promote greater Marine movement, and should encourage genestealers to feel a bit safer away from corners, but this is hampered by the changes to Overwatch.

Giving sustained fire to overwatch didn't feel right. It seemed to make overwatch just another combat option for the marines, rather than the tense, where-the-hell-are-those-6's blaze that I recall. And not losing overwatch on a jam meant that rather than a great break for the 'stealers, seeing double felt a bit "ho hum".

That said, it may have been a bit harsh on the stealer player (both of them - they swapped, naturally!) as the number of 6's they rolled as Marines would have got them both run out of Las Vegas :smallwink:

Overall, it's still Space Hulk, just a bit different. I will say I'd feel a bit more comfortable about dropping £60 on it now, although I won't - need the money for other things and besides, sounds like its sold out anyway. If the miniatures had been pre-painted, I reckon they'd have sold even faster :smalltongue:

[Brother Oni]

Presentation is excellent. The miniatures are of a high standard, as are the components. Was surprised at how game-specific the Stealers are though. Lovely, atmospheric sculpts, but not very transferable in terms of Space Hulk's traditional secondary function of forming the core to a Tyranid army :smallwink:


There's only a couple that are Space Hulk specific (the one crawling down the sides of the wall and the one bursting out of the floor), but who plays with a 'stealer only army these days, since they removed the rule of allowing 'stealer psykers to draw LOS from any 'stealer model to reflect their hive mind? :smalltongue:



Combat feels a bit more lenient on the marine player, oddly enough.

Really? They've toned down the Thunder Hammer and Lightning Claws, and they've removed the 'stealers only roll 2d6 when attacked from the side or rear (unless I missed it due to GW layout problems :smalltongue:).
I did miss the jamming not losing overwatch though - I'll have to double check the rules before I play any games.

[Breltar]

Now if they only bring back heroquest as well...

[Brother Oni]

Heroquest was a different company (Milton Bradly).
Advanced Heroquest was a GW game, but considerably different from the MB game.

Ah, Heroquest, Space Crusade and Space Hulk, many wasted well spent hours of my youth...

[Zorg]

But you can download the rules for Heroquest for free for some nostalgia:

http://www.hasbro.com/customer-service/toy-game-instructions.cfm?page=&per_page=50&order_by=H (down the bottom of the page)

[Pilum]

There's only a couple that are Space Hulk specific (the one crawling down the sides of the wall and the one bursting out of the floor), but who plays with a 'stealer only army these days, since they removed the rule of allowing 'stealer psykers to draw LOS from any 'stealer model to reflect their hive mind? :smalltongue:
Fair enough, I'll take your word for it, perhaps they're just the ones that stick in the memory? I'll concede the point about Nids, though a) I did say "core", not "only" (though I have fond memories of ye olde Genestealer Cults and their limousines...) and b) I've no idea what the nids are like these days as I don't do 40k any more. Just got a bit fed up with the ruleset and feeling constantly done over with my guard. This isn't the thread for it, so let's leave it at them needing a more thorough workover than I had the inclination to do. Love the imagery and the background, but a game that has you bouncing dice off the walls is one to leave alone for a while... :smalleek:


Really? They've toned down the Thunder Hammer and Lightning Claws, and they've removed the 'stealers only roll 2d6 when attacked from the side or rear (unless I missed it due to GW layout problems :smalltongue:).
Never saw much close combat - these two both put faith in firepower and led with bolter and flame. I can't really remember the rules for hammers and claws, though now you mention it didn't claws used to be the equal of a stealer? I suppose with the addition of "Guard", it was felt that they needed a slight downgrade?


I did miss the jamming not losing overwatch though - I'll have to double check the rules before I play any games.
It was somewhere in the overwatch section (obviously!), if that helps. I seem to remember it being in a paragraph under a picture...

Miss games like Heroquest et al, heh, it felt like fantasy was going to break through and go mainstream and that we'd all be playing Blood Bowl now. The mere speculation of a teenager, huh?

[Breltar]

But you can download the rules for Heroquest for free for some nostalgia:

http://www.hasbro.com/customer-service/toy-game-instructions.cfm?page=&per_page=50&order_by=H (down the bottom of the page)

Wow thanks! I have the original heroquest game still but always wanted to see what the expansions were about (had kellars keep at one point, but I also had two hero quest packs as well). Now I might be able to emulate them with some warhammer fantasy figures and some simple cardstock.

When I was growing up (middle of Kentucky) there were no GW stores and only one hobby store within 20 miles. Fortunately it carried a bit of 40k and Fantasy GW as well as other RPG games and ral partha figs.

When Heroquest came out I could suddenly buy my hobby figures from wal mart and toys r us. It was a great occasion and I remember the whole base game was $20.00 US and the expansions were $15.00. They only had the witch king and kellars keep and liking dwarves so much I chose kellars keep.

Space Hulk I ended up buying from the local store not long after with Christmas money. The store is still around though it has changed location twice and has always been called 'The Rusty Scabbard' which I continue to believe is a great name.

[Brother Oni]

I can't really remember the rules for hammers and claws, though now you mention it didn't claws used to be the equal of a stealer? I suppose with the addition of "Guard", it was felt that they needed a slight downgrade?
Hammers used to roll 1d6+2 with a parry (force the 'stealer to reroll 1 die) to the front or left of the model
LCs used to roll 2d6, add 2 to both, pick the best.

LCs used to be a nightmare to get past in narrow corridors - somebody crunched the numbers and a 'stealer attacking from the front only had 16.5% chance of winning (72.1% of the time, the 'stealer just died).

Adding the ability to reroll one of their die would make LCs even more unstoppable, especially without the wide corridors in Deathwing/Genestealer to make flank or rear attacks possible.


It was somewhere in the overwatch section (obviously!), if that helps. I seem to remember it being in a paragraph under a picture...
I found it in the Wargear section under storm bolters.
I concede the point about GW layout issues. :smallbiggrin:




Now I might be able to emulate them with some warhammer fantasy figures and some simple cardstock.
At the risk of thread derailment, Boardgame Geek has files with all the necessary cards as well: URL="http://http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/699"]http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/699[/URL]

They also have links to all the expansion sets, including some of the single player only ones (Barbarian's quest and the Elf quest).

[YPU]

Jup, they had one last one left at the only game store in the region. And I couldn’t help it. So now I also own a copy of space hulk.

I can only guess at how long it will take before mods for other races, heck there are already for the older editions.

Anyhow, the pieces are indeed awesome, tough some of the marine shoulder for the two heavy weapons seemed a bit snug a fit, with the pegs bending etz.

[Brother Oni]

Jup, they had one last one left at the only game store in the region. And I couldn’t help it. So now I also own a copy of space hulk.

I can only guess at how long it will take before mods for other races, heck there are already for the older editions.


Well done you. :smallbiggrin:

Out of curiousity, what mods for other races? The only alternate rules I know of are the offical GW ones with power armour marines and traitor marines.

[YPU]

The old edition also had expansions for eldar and harlequins. Plus indeed traitor marines and power armor. Also imperial guard. All of those were official or at least semi official white dwarf. Plus of course hybrid stealers we no longer have in current edition.

I still miss orks tough, to me space hulks mean orks. It’s the most impressive ork ship in battle fleet gothic.

[Brother Oni]

Do you have a link to the rules for the other races? I'd like to have a look.

'Stealer hybrids wouldn't be too hard to squeeze into this edition of space hulk, just rejig the weapon rules a little.
I remember white dwarf having the rules for ork 'stealer hybrids before they got retconned into ambulatory space fungi.

[YPU]

Google around, i think the space hulk bible has the rules in it. Other then that I wouldn’t know besides getting the actual white dwarfs that have the rules in them.

[Zorg]

Have a poke around here:

http://spacehulk.barsoom.cc/mirrors/shc/

Has all the 1st ed missions and expansions, mirrored by: http://spacehulk.barsoom.cc/