On Sunday I managed to score a demo game of the new re-release from Games Workshop of Space Hulk. For those of you who don’t know, Space Hulk was a boardgame developed and published by Games Workshop in the early nineties and has been out of print ever since. Copies of a complete, decent-quality version of Space Hulk have been selling on eBay for $150+! You can imagine how excited my geeky brain was when I heard GW was re-releasing the game as an entire new box set!
The Box of Space Hulk
Chris, from Games & Gizmos in Redmond, WA was kind enough to give me a demo of the game. They sold out of their stock pretty much instantly, but luckily for me they had reserved a store copy to give demos with all day. The components included in this re-release are absolutely gorgeous. The cardstock on which the corridors and blips are printed are heavy, heavy duty and will stand up to years of play. The art and colors are beautiful, and the cardstock even has little raised embellishments on the detailed work. The Space Marines and Genestealers are sculpted out of solid plastic with an incredible amount of intricate detail; the game just looks fantastic.
The Components in the Box. Limited Release!
The premise of the game is awesome. The Space Marines player is fighting through a series of corridors on a long abandoned ENORMOUS spaceship, in other words a “Space Hulk,” trying to complete some objective. The Genestealers player is sneaking up on the Space Marines from the sides of the corridors, doing everything he can to rip those Space Marines to shreds. In the game I played against Chris, I played as the Space Marines while he played as the Genestealers. My objective was to fight my way through the Space Hulk until I reached two rooms, which had to be burned to ash with my Heavy Flamer, or ripped to shreds by my Assault Cannon (both of which are special weapons available only on a certain Space Marine figure).
The Valiant Space Marine with Heavy Flamer
The game, I’m sure, is a bit more complicated than the way we played it (for example, the Space Marine player normally has only 3 minutes to complete all the actions on his turn), but what I did learn was easily graspable and immediately fun. The Space Marines have a special ability which allows them to go on “Overwatch” during the Genestealer’s turn, firing at will on any Genestealer who enters their line of sight. This proved immensely crucial to my survival, as Genestealers don’t carry guns…but rather very large claws; claws which are perfect for ripping through armor like paper.
The Evil Foul Genestealer Plague
Alas, my overwatch did not always prove successful, as I lost marine after marine to the vicious Genestealer plague. My commander stood valiantly at the edge of one corner however, with an activated ability which allowed him to re-roll any of his close combat dice. He was also carrying a giant weapon called a “Storm-Hammer” perfect for smashing faces. He held off wave after wave off the foul alien scum, but it didn’t really do me any good, as the Genestealers simply swarmed over me from the other side of the hulk.
I had lost my Assault Cannon-carrying Marine quite early in the game, so this left me forced to protect my Heavy Flamer at all costs, as he was the only way to complete the mission. The whole “ripping the room to shreds” with an Assault Cannon option was no longer available to me, I had only the “burning the room to ash” option. But of course as my commander was valiantly defending one corner, the noobish Space Marines tasked with defending the Heavy Flamer somehow kept rolling 1′s on all of their overwatch attack rolls…oops.
As the Genestealers ripped into the juicy heart of my Assault Cannon Marine, I shook Chris’ hand and thanked him for an enjoyable 35 minutes. The game was tons of fun, and I will be purchasing one to add to my nerdy-board-game collection here at home. If you’ve ever been into the Warhammer stuff, or just want an excuse to look at awesomely sculpted Space Marine figurines you should really check this out at http://www.games-workshop.com
