Thursday, May 17, 2012

40K Space Hulk Rules Beta 1.0

Posted by Ranillon on 26. February 2009 22:12

Here is my first run at the rules for the Warhammer 40K Space Hulk game.  Please give it a read and post your thoughts and criticisms. 

1)      The standard 40K rules will be used

2)      There are 2-6 players

3)      Every player controls 1 squad that has been given the task of investigating a space hulk and retrieving anything they find that is of value

4)      Each player squad will be approximately 300 points.  Players will be able to choose playing 5 Terminators or a full squad of 10 regular Space Marines.  One member of the squad will be a hero model.  Squad composition will be slightly altered from the standard Marine codex in order to allow greater variation of models.  For example, terminator squads can include a mix of regular and assault troops.  Note that for the most part squads will be pre-configured to speed up beginning the game.

5)      Facing them will be an assortment of possible enemies, most notably Tyranids, Orks, and Eldar (yes, this is a nod to the recently released Dawn of War 2 game.  It also represents most of the non-imperial forces I have painted).

6)      Throughout the hulk are placed encounter tokens.  Whenever a player squad approaches within 12” of the token it becomes activated.  At that point the activating player gets to choose randomly from either normal encounters or advanced encounters.  The former are equal to ~150 points while the latter are ~250-350 points.  Successfully defeating a normal encounter gains you one victory point.  Successfully defeating an advanced encounter gains you from 2-5 victory points.  “Defeating” an enemy squad requires destroying it or causing it to break and run (at which time the squad is removed).  In the case that somehow two or more player squads engage in the same combat the victory points go to the player who originally activated the token.  Likewise, the enemy troopers will advance and shoot toward that player’s men whenever possible.

7)      Players cannot fight one another, but then again they are under no obligation to aid another player.

8)      At the start of every turn a player gets to roll one dice for each dead trooper.  One a roll of 5-6 that marine returns to the battle (the Emperor’s marines are tough hombres).  However, should the player’s entire squad be lost he is out of the game (such is the fate of those who fail the eternal Emperor!).

9)      The player with the most victory points at the end of the game is the winner.

10)   All material to play will be provided

Comments: 4

Filed Under: Planning

Tags:

Comments (4) -

  • bG

    bG said,

    Those sound pretty cool, very fun 40k skirmish style, I'll have to try that one out some time.  One thought, perhaps you could place it on a corridor system with doors, then tokens are activated either when in line of sight of a marine, or if there is weapons fire or CC within 6" (inc through walls and doors) which would add an element of stealth to movement of models through the corridor system.  You could also add an element of random (say D6") movement to the encounter tokens.


  • eriochrome

    eriochrome said,

    I think the encounter scale should be random either (1) big, (2-5)little, or (6) nothing.  The player should not have control of this since you find what you find inside the hulk.  I would also make the big encounters while being twice the points of enemies also being worth 3 times the victory points of the small encounter.  

    You should also have tech recovery points which just require you to get to a point and not fight anything to get some number of points. Probably the same as a small encounter. That way there are multiple was to win and not just try to kill stuff.


  • Gamers World

    Gamers World said,

    Why not add some counters that roll on a table some thing like this:

    1-3. Find random pice of tech (1 point)
    4-5. Infested (take on 2 small encounters in a row).
    6. Healing tech (rolls for suvival next turn are incresed to 4+ for that player).

    This would add some randomness to the game. I also agree that you should make the encounters random.


  • Ranillon

    Ranillon said,

    Here's my think when it comes to encounters:

    40K Space Hulk is meant to be an intro level game, meaning all material will be provided AND that there may be complete novices playing.  Also, the games are listed as being 2 hours long.  As such I think it's important to be to-the-point.

    My worry is that if you randomize encounters you could end up with one player skating through gathering tokens without real opposition while another may be struggling to hack through waves upon waves of bad guys.  By making every encounter one involving combat you "smooth" out the playing experience for everyone.  It also helps make sure that players get straight-away into the action.

    Also, if you have more random encounters where some might require no combat then to ensure a proper amount of action you'd need to place more tokens.  But, that could make things pretty complicated.  Imagine a player(s) activating 2 or 3 tokens at once and having all of them be heavy-duty opposition.  Not only might it be too much for them to handle, but it would also be difficult to gamemaster effectively.

    This is just my current thinking on this.  Rebuttles are welcome.


Add comment




  Country flag
biuquote
  • Comment
  • Preview
Loading