SPACE HULK: Space Hulk unboxed

It's a wet and windy day up here in North East England, so much so that a ridge tile blew off the roof and hit the windscreen of my car earlier. Once I'd moved the car - the windscreen was miraculously unmarked - and took a look at the weather I decided I'd spend the rest of the day indoors, earning brownie points with my girlfriend by not hiding out in my games room painting my AI models (I plan to paint them on Tuesday night and possibly take a day off work next week). We curled up on the sofa and watch some telly but it wasn't long before I felt the urge to scratch my gaming itch. But what to do?

I sneaked off to my games room and brought Space Hulk back into the living room. For an hour or two while I watched Life and In Treatment I clipped the models from their sprues and popped the card components out.

The game is every bit as impressive as I've heard. The card corridors and rooms are the thickest I've ever seen in a board game and the graphics are superb and very atmospheric. The models are excellent, dripping with detail. I'd heard a few complaints that some of the Genestealer models were fragile and broke easily when removed from their sprue so I was extra careful. They all came free in one piece.

I timed my egg timer to check how close it was to three minutes. It came out at 2:47 which puts a bit more pressure on the Marines!

I plan to paint all of the models for Space Hulk at some point in the future - the Terminators slotting into my Blood Angels army and the Tyranids into a Cities of Death themed 40k force. I'll have to check out other blogs and forum message boards to see if anyone has successfully managed to incorporate the non standard bases onto 40k sized ones.

So I'll pack Space Hulk away for now and watch a bit more telly, perhaps leafing through a copy of the latest White Dwarf magazine.

Lazy Sunday afternoon indeed...

GENERAL: Back to the Post Office

In a continuation of my bad luck with the Post Office I returned home tonight to find that they had tried and failed to deliver a parcel during the day. This will definitely be my Siege of Vraks book which I thought ended up at the sorting office on Friday, but after I picked up the small box on Monday night found was my Cadian Blood book, which I had won in a competition.

I'm actually off work on Wednesday and I have a bad back which I wrenched at the gym this morning, so it would have been an ideal opportunity to laze about and read, but the parcel won't be back at the sorting office for another 48 hours, so I'll have to wait until Thursday night. Champion.

I've mail ordered Space Hulk, so there will be another parcel being driven around Newcastle for a couple of days at the start of next week.

At least Space Hulk looks great. I'm reading the latest White Dwarf at the moment and the models look fantastic. Lingering over the battle report made me feel proper nostalgic and even some of my long forgotten tactics came flooding back to me.

Anyway, I'm off for a long soak in the bath to loosen up my back, so I thought I'd direct you towards the ninth game of my Destroy the Gargant campaign. Again my Daemonhunters took on Gary's Orks and after suffering two defeats in a row I had to win to stay in the campaign. Find out what happened here.

NEWS AND RUMOURS: Space Hulk

There were two big Games Workshop related news stories over the past week.

The biggest as far as I'm concerned was the announcement that the mystery box did indeed contain an updated version of Space Hulk. Here's the blurb from GW:

From the depths of space an ancient vessel drifts slowly towards the Imperium of Mankind - a space hulk. Within its confines, untold thousands of Genestealers slowly emerge from hibernation. The Space Marines must enter the cramped corridors and tomb-like chambers of the ancient ship to defeat this alien menace.

Space Hulk is a board game for two players, recreating the battles fought between the Space Marines and Genestealers. One player commands the Space Marines as they carry out deadly missions in the ancient Space Hulk, and the other commands the horde of Genestealers opposing them. Space Hulk's fast-paced rules simulate the tense atmosphere of a mission deep inside the cramped confines of a derelict space hulk, where split-second decisions are needed for victory.

This boxed game contains: a 23-page Rulebook, a 47-page Mission book and 35 finely-detailed, plastic Citadel miniatures, including: 11 Space Marine Terminators, one Space Marine Terminator Librarian, 22 Genestealers, and one Broodlord.

Also included are: 105 gaming counters, 24 corridors, 10 rooms, eight crossroads, eight T-junctions, six corner sections, four dead ends, four end pieces, 20 doors with plastic stands, one mission status display, and three plastic mission objectives, including: a dead Space Marine on throne, a Blood Angels artefact and a Cyber-Altered Task Unit. Plus a sand timer and five bone-coloured dice unique to this game.

My first impression is wow!

There is a lot of stuff in the box. I think it represents decent value for money. Given that a box of Terminators now costs £25 for five models, the eleven Terminators in Space Hulk pretty much accounts for the whole £58 game price. Then you get the twenty two Genestealer models, Broodlord, objective models, map tiles and counters on top.

It's particularly great for me personally as the Terminator models are Blood Angels, dripping with Blood Angel iconography. Talk about good timing!

I do however understand that making generic models for an unspecified chapter would have given them a wider appeal - I still have ten models from the Assault on Black Reach set that I'm wondering how to fit into my Blood Angel army.

The models look superb. The Terminators in particular are wonderfully sculpted with very fine detail. The Genestealer are very dynamic, crawling all over terrain and even bursting through the floor. This, coupled with the fact they are not mounted on slotta-bases, means it might make it tricky to fit the models into a standard 40k army. Still, with a little creativity I'm sure I can make them work.

The rules sound like they are largely based upon the first edition of the game, rather than the second (which I never played), including rules for a timer, large flamer templates, regular six-sided dice and even a C.A.T. There have obviously been some changes though - there is a Librarian and a Broodlord for a start. I just hope the psychic rules are balanced unlike the Genestealer expansion for first edition.

Overall then, I am stoked about this release. It stands alone as a stellar game in it's own right and with a little work could prove very good value for players of Blood Angels and Tyranids in 40k. It pushes the nostalgia button in me too, as Space Hulk is one of my favourite ever games and it shows some love for the Blood Angels. I just hope the rumours of a 2010 codex release for the Blood Angels are true (Tyranids are also rumoured to get a codex update next year).

Soon after the Space Hulk game announcement Black Library advertised their tie-in novel, written by Gav Thorpe. At just £3 it seems like it will be a novella in the same vein as the Assault on Black Reach book.

The other meagre news came out of Gamesday Germany. Rather like Baltimore this sounded like a bit of a let down on the news and rumours front.

The Forge World Chaos Reaver Titan was on display as was the Ork Big Trakk with a giant Kill Kannon. Presumably the Ork vehicle will feature in the forthcoming Elysian v Ork IA book.

Nothing exciting was spotted regarding Space Wolves despite them having an October release date.