Space Hulk Review

Posted by Ranillon on 13. September 2009 21:14

Yes, yes, I know that Space Hulk has been out for a week now, but I was off visiting Washington D.C. and then making up for lost time at work.  So, I had to wait until Friday to even grab my copy.

The first thing you notice picking up the game is that it is heavy.  This is all the more impressive given that it is also a big box.  Try wiggling it and you won't hear a lot of jiggling.  At the very least you get a lot of stuff for your $99.

Next thing I noticed upon opening it that the interior box sides have pictures of all the space marines models found inside.  This is actually fairly handy as it shows you how the finished models should look like.  It also gives you a template for a possible paint job.

The material inside is both extensive and of high quality.  The two pictures above are of some of the counters and some of the hallway sections.  All are made of thick, sealed cardboard that is apt to last a long time.  It also gives you a lot of different sections to make a wide variety of board designs.  Besides the models (which I will get to in a moment), there are the two rulebooks, dice, and a hourglass (well, a "few minutes" glass I guess).  All this just screams "high quality game".

I made the mistake of not buying Space Hulk when it came out in 1996 (in my defense it was just a few years into my GW habit) and had only played the game once or twice way-back-when.  So, I didn't know much about the game mechanics.  Looking through them now they seem solid, yet straightforward.  Think of it as a tactical version of 40K where you play a single squad, not an army.  As such there is more detail involved, although not as much as you might think.  Unlike regular 40K here you need to keep track of things like facing, how much ammunition you have left, or just how many different actions you can take during a turn.  Fortunately, Space Hulk otherwise jettisons a bunch of unnecessary rules when compared to 40K in order to keep the action coming.

The rulebook is surprisingly thin, a testiment to the emphasis on playability.  It includes many visual explanations of various basic concepts.  So, happily, it shouldn't take more than five minutes to teach someone the basics and get playing. 

The scenario book is much thicker and full of material to use to provide a variety of settings for your Space Hulk games.  It also includes a fair amount of fluff describing the story basis of the game and even bios of the individual marines making the assault.  Of course, the heart of this book are the scenarios themselves.  Twelve are included using various board and squad designs.  The back page is a visual listing of each space marine figure gloriously painted. In particular, I like Brother Claudio (even if his catch phrase should obviously be, "Hey, bub.")

Then there are the models themselves, the true jewels of the set.  There are 12 Space Marine terminators (in 40K terms two squads, a "commander" figure, and a librarian) and 22 genestealers including a new Brood Lord (who is really just a genestealer on steroids).  All of them are just beautiful, with the marines being easily (IMHO) the most expressive terminator models as a set that Games Workshop has ever done.  While the 'stealers are fairly cookie-cutter (what do you expect from bugs?) each marine is unique.  They are two or three piece plastics so you won't be able to pose them differently without a lot of effort, but why bother?  They look great already.

The marines are mostly standard powerfist and storm bolter troopers, but there is one heavy flamer, one assault cannon (which in this game can blow up), one lightning clawed dude doing his best Wolverine impression, and one fellow with thunder hammer and storm shield.  The commander comes with storm bolter and power sword while the librarian has a force axe and SB.  As I feared they are positively dripping with Blood Angel regalia, but as they are plastic working the stuff off or converting it into something more to your liking will only require elbow grease.  Of course, if you are a BA player already congratulations -- you've hit the jackpot.  By comparison the genestealers are just like the ones you are used to, but their unique poses will still make sure they stand out even in the middle of a huge Tyranid horde.

How well will they convert over to 40K?  Well, you'll have to buy some bases for them, but they will usually fit on one without problem.  At most you may have to do a little choice shaving.  The genestealers and brood lord will fit nicely into any current 'Nid army (hopefully that will remain so when the new codex arrives), but the terminators will be more problematic.  Unless you are playing Dark Angels (at least so far) and can mix-and-match termy types as you please you won't be able to legally take all the marines at once.  There are 9 "standard" terminators you could bring (if you are playing vanilla marines) as one large squad, but your close-combat termies will have to stay home unless you buy them some buddies in order to finish off a complete assault group.  The presence of only one "sergeant" figure also limits you to a single unit without any additions.

Still, the models look great and are worth the $99 all by themselves (a similar amount of standard terminators and genestealers would set you back over $200).  So, at worst you can think of the extra marines as being available to load out your squads as you please.

My overall assessment is that getting the new Space Hulk game is a must for anyone who thinks they can use the models or play the game with friends on a regular basis.  It is pricey I suppose, but then again so is everything when it comes to miniatures gaming.  If nothing else I plan on having a lot of fun painting up my new models -- I'm 12 more terminators closer to having a complete terminator company!