Once More Into the Boarding Torpedo - Return to Space Hulk

Space Hulk was the first Games Workshop game I ever bought. I had circled around their miniature games like Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 but was hesitant due to the lack of a clear starting point.

Sometime in 1990, the computer retail store I was working at got in a copy of the PC version and we demo'd it on one of the Compaq machines on display. We were encouraged to familiarize ourselves with such games, and I spent a few quiet mornings trying it out.

A very faithful translation of the tabletop version, you controlled a squad of Space Marines in Terminator armour as they attempted to rout the fiendish Genestealers from a the narrow corridors  of  a derelict spacecraft, or space hulk. With limited time and a clever foe, the marine player tries to balance out a limited number of actions between moving and combat in order to achieve their objectives.

The gothic atmosphere of this game set in the 41st millennium was on full display in the computer version, and the vaguely monastic briefings (recorded by GW game designer Jervis Johnson) were a real treat, with the Dark Angel commander exhorting his brother marines to bless their weapons and "purge with flame".

Encouraged by this first encounter, I soon after bought the first edition of the boardgame. It wasn't long before I'd taken my first stab at painting the Terminators and Genestealers that came in the box. When the first boxed edition of Warhammer 40,000 came out a year later, Island Mike and I both bought a copy. I traded him the Orks from my set for the rank and file Space Marines in his, and we started playing and building onto our armies.

Within a couple of years I had gone to work for Games Workshop and spent over ten years with them, with many models and games coming along the way. After leaving GW in 2007, I dropped in for a visit a year later and ended up purchasing a copy of the third edition of Space Hulk, and last night might have been the first time I actually played it.

Part of the reason for this is because it is a two-player game, and with limited opportunities to play, most of my friends and I prefer multi-player games. But Totty and I were the only ones available last night, and when I told him of my hankering to dust off this classic, he was keen to try it. Sadly, my plan to sub in my nicely painted Deathwing Terminators for the yet unpainted Blood Angels was upended by the fact that their bases are far too big to fit on the board spaces. Thankfully my extensive collection of Genestealers, from my Tyranid army, worked just fine.

Despite the infrequency of my playing Space Hulk, I've participated in the first scenario, Suicide Mission, numerous times, on computers and tabletops alike. I explained  to Totty that the Blood Angels needed to make their way to the control room in the upper left of the map and flame it to prevent Genestealers escaping the ship.

The game is intrinsically asymmetric; the Marine Terminators have tremendous firepower but are slow and ponderous, while the Genestealers are fast and nimble but have no ranged attacks at all. The Blood Angels player is also hampered by an egg timer, which exerts an undue amount of haste upon their turn, while the Genestealer player can take all the time they like. For these reasons, the ideal way to play Space Hulk is in paired games, with each player alternating between sides.

These insidious aliens start the game as amorphous "blips", so until they enter the line of sight of a Blood Angel, you don't know for sure if you are looking at one, two or three Genestealers. Three blips down a hallway might represent anything from three to nine enemies, complicating the ability of the Marine player to make anything approximating a plan.

Despite having far more experience than Totty, I accidentally exposed the Blood Angel with a flamer to a flank attack, which he quickly capitalized on, winning the game only three turns in. The speed of my defeat prompted me to ask for a rematch, and this time around I did manage to make my objective.

We then switched sides, with my opponent getting much further than I had in my first game, but losing similarly after the heavy flamer trooper fell under a hail of claws and teeth while negotiating a corner.

Totty appreciated (well, mostly, same as me) the tactical decisions that faced the Marine player at every turn: push forward, or set overwatch to thin out the Genestealer numbers instead? Keep the squad together or divide and conquer? With the hallways of the hulk only permitting single file, the order in which you deploy your Terminators is critical as well, and all the while, the clock is ticking - or the sand falling, in this case.

By 10:00; we had run Suicide Mission 3-4 times, and were ready to try the next scenario: Exterminate. It took us almost half an hour to reset the map, and this one was far larger and more complicated. The Marines begin dispersed amongst the various rooms, and need to stem the flow of Genestealers by moving to within six squares of their entry points. Totty did this at one end fairly quickly, but couldn't prevent me from killing one of his Blood Angel troopers, leaving his sergeant isolated from the rest of the battle. Eventually I was able to overwhelm the Marines at the other end, but the resolution was anything but inevitable as the Blood Angels on overwatch continued to blast my 'Stealers with impunity - at least for a while.

I didn't start my game as the Space Marine commander until after midnight, but after all the work of setting up the map, I couldn't imagine turning in without trying out the scenario. Thanks to some hot dice on overwatch and some fortunate placement of the Terminator with assault cannon, I eventually manged to win by destroying the very last of the Genestealers after Totty's reinforcements finally ran out.

Eager to turn in before the clock hit 2:00 am, I left the clean-up for the following day, but was hampered in my efforts to retire in a timely fashion by another kind of inter-species incursion in my sleeping area:

Playing Space Hulk again and introducing it to a someone else was a tremendous experience. Totty and I both left the table intrigued about future scenarios, which include new weaponry, mission-specific rules and even a boss for the Genestealers called a Broodlord. Two-player game nights are kind of rare, and that's all right, plus we also want to return to Totty's Battle of Britain game int he future, but I am confident that the two of us return to the labyrinthine corridors of the derelict code-named "Sin of Damnation" at some point!

I guess it's time to dust off my paintbrushes so the Blood Angels look a bit more presentable next time around.