MORE Space Hulk - Three More Games.

Having had so much fun the other day, we knew we needed to play some MORE! WE'd hoped to play on Tuesday, but it didn't work out. So, I made sure I found some time on Wednesday to play a few games!

GAME ONE

The Beachhead

This is the same scenario we played last time - but we switched it around so that I played the Genestealers and Finnegan played the Marines. The Marines had ten terminators split into two squads of five, each squad arrived on each of the first two turns via boarding torpedo in a random area. The Genestealers started with 10 "blips" on the table representing between one and three actual Genestealers - two were placed in each room.



All my Blips set up ready for the Marines to arrive!



Finnegan organizing his forces and trying to decide which squad to send in first.


TURN ONE



The Terminators arrive and begin to de-bus from the boarding torpedo. I think Finnegan was realizing at this point how very hard it is to play the Terminators - only getting four action points each - the actions they can do are move forward for one point, turn 90° for one point, take one shot for one point (unless it's the heavy flamer, that one takes two points to shoot!). Backing up on square takes two points and going on overwatch takes two points as well... so you see those four points can be eaten up rather quickly. By contrast the genestealers get SIX action points! The Marines to get between one and six command points, which they can split up and use to give any marine extra actions (one command point = one action point). Terminators did get a free shooting action with moves forward, I believe. Genestealers got a free 90° turn with a move forward.



On my part of the turn, I started moving up the Blips in the three central rooms. I decided to keep the ones in the flanking rooms at the end of the long open corridors right where they were - the Terminators could come to THEM. I noticed straight off in the first game that the Terminators had an advantage in shooting and it worked best if they could be set up at the end of a long hallway and just shoot... The central rooms were off the main corridor and afforded a career around which I could hide Genestealers ready to ambush - where Genestealers had an advantage. If they could get into close combat with a minimum of overwatch fire - that is where they shone!


TURN TWO



Squad Two on the way.



Squad Two arrived right beside the first squad.

One my part of the turn I continued to move blips up in the centre.


TURN THREE



The sergeant with the Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield charged into action! He hustled down the corridor, opened the door - revealing the Genestealers and smashed one into goo with his mighty hammer!



The rest of the Marines tried to spread themselves out down the corridor....



Behind the Sergeant, he set up two marines on overwatch...



On my half of the turn I started over on the flank where the action was already underway. One Genestealer charged in and took down the sergeant....



That same Genestealer went on to kill the next Terminator in line - after his gun jammed. The third terminator in the line killed that Genestealer and the one that followed him, but after his gun finally jammed the third Genestealer took him down!

Three marines down... one more and the best Finnegan could hope for was a draw...



Moving down the corridor, the Genestealers stacked on the other side of the door burst through! One got through and killed the first terminator - ending Finnegan's hoped of WINNING this game. He could potentially bring it to a draw if at least five of his remaining terminators managed to survive the next nine rounds...

The Terminator with the assault cannon managed to kill that first Genestealer getting through - though he actually killed it in close assault and lost his overwatch status!



The next Genestealer through killed the Terminator with the Assault Cannon. Things were looking grim at this point - it was the Assault Cannon that had done all the "heavy lifting" when I played. The loss of the Assault Cannon was a major blow...



It didn't drag on much longer as the next Genestealer through the door went the other way down the corridor and killed a terminator who had his back turned... and that was the end of the game.

He had some INCREDIBLY bad luck with the Sergeant's dice rolls. When I had played the Sergeant with the Thunder Hammer had just crushed all that had come before him (which is probably what Finnegan had, sensibly, lead with him...). The loss of the Assault Cannon was pretty bad too...

In the comments to the previous report I did a break down of the differences between Space Hulk Terminators vs Genestealers and Regular 40K Terminators vs. Genestealers....

Well, since that was so quick we set up Scenario Two....


GAME TWO

The Suicide Mission



Now THIS one I remember from the original Space Hulk! I played it a number of times with my friend Todd who had the game. I don't think I ever won it. I'm not sure I ever actually played any other scenarios. I think we got stuck on trying to win this one... which is really, REALLY hard. I may have played one other scenario, once...

In this scenario, the Marines have one squad of five terminators and have to destroy the control room for all the escape pods to prevent any Genestealers from escaping the Hulk as the Marines take it down, room by room, floor by floor... The Marines win by getting their Heavy Flamer to the room off to the left and blast some flame in there. The Genestealers win if the Heavy Flamer dies or runs out of  fuel... The Genestealer starts with two blips and gets two more EVERY TURN for the entire game!


TURN ONE



My marines charged forward. The Sarge went a little further and opened the door. I didn't have enough command point to put him on overwatch, but there was no way the Genestealers could get that far down the corridor in one turn. Having "Eyes On", Finnegan wouldn't be able to move his blips past that corridor without revealing them. Not sure if that would make any difference... but it game him something to worry about.

Thinking back to the original Space Hulk - I don't think the Sergeant had a power sword. I'm not sure there was even a "sergeant" all the marines were identical and there was a little plastic bit that you put on over top of the stormbolter to make a marine into a flamer.  There wouldn't have been Thunder Hammers or Assault Cannons or Lightning Claws in that original box set either. GW DID release all those things in metal not too long after it came out...


TURN TWO



Marines move a little further up the corridor. This time I slowed the sergeant down to let the others catch up and saved enough command points to put him on overwatch. Two of the Terminators remained behind as a rearguard.


TURN THREE



Pushing further up  the corridor 0 I actually decided to light the intersection ahead, hoping to kill the blip at the corner and deny passage to any Genestealers there. The blip turned out to be only one Genestealer and I rolled a one in my attempt to road it.... I killed it on a 2+ and rolled a 1... damn...



On the Genestealers end of the turn they attacked the rearguard. I'd opened the door at my end of the tunnel and back up and put two terminators on overwatch. The first Terminator rolled double sixes - the six killed the first Genestealer, but also jammed his stormbolter!!



Others rushed down the corridor while the marine fumbled with his stormbolter! Luckily he was just out of reach - the Genestealers had enough action points to get there, but none left to actually attack!



Elsewhere the Genestealers stacked up behind the door down the side corridor.


TURN FOUR



The Sergeant barged ahead, around the corner and opened the door. He spent a command point to bash on then went On Guard (the melee version of overwatch... it gives some advantage when charged in the Genestealer turn...? maybe an extra die...? I can't remember now...)



The rearguard marines backed up, cleared his jam, blew away the closest Genestealer and then went on overwatch (I was getting CrAzY amounts of command points! I think I got 6 two turns in a row!)



Then it was the Genestealers turn... all four of these came hurtling down the hall towards the rearguard. One after the other the Marine Terminator blew them into small chunks of viscera and goo!



Until the last one got there.... and took him down.



and then ran out of action points so he just stared down the other marine on overwatch...



Further down the corridor, another marine on overwatch was blasting away at charging genestealers.

Then theones down the side corridor attacked...

Down went the Sergeant - though he sold himself dearly....

 

The remaining Genestealers rounded the corner and charged the marine with the flamer (who cannot go on overwatch...)



And killed him...

We'll... the scenario lived up to it's name...

I have no idea how you could win this - without a HUGE helping of Luck on your side and a huge dose of bad luck for the Genestealers...

So we cleared the board and tried it again!


GAME THREE



Same scenario, except this time Finnegan took the Marines and I took the Genestealers.


TURN ONE



The Marines enter the area of operations.

I moved up some blips...


TURN TWO



The marines barged ahead, leaving only one behind as a rearguard.



My little blips moved up...


TURN THREE



marines moving forward a little more cautiously (I think he drew low command points and wanted to keep the lead guy on overwatch - so only able to creep ahead at a rate of two squares a turn...



I decided to GO FOR IT this turn. His dice were on fire! Overwatch killed six of my Genestealers and I didn't even get into contact! Yikes!!


TURN FOUR



The Marines decide to put up parallel corridors.

AT the end of his move, however, Finnegan said "Wait, I think I've seen THIS before!!"



It was kind of Deja Vu-ey - the Genstealers swung around the corner... first they took out the sergeant...



Then they took out the Terminator with the Heavy Flamer....

Game Over.

Fun was had. I don't think we're going to keep playing this scenario until someone wins. Next time we play we'll push on with the third scenario.

So far we haven't been able to talk The Girl into playing with us...? Maybe we'll take a break from this and finally have a go at Kill Team!!!


Coming Next on Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog!

Could be a painting update with some new minis or terrain for Kill Team... or it could be a game report of our first game of Kill Team... Not that we've played yet, and I don't think we're getting to that tonight... or tomorrow... Maybe on the weekend!