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!

Space Hulk – Game One - Beachhead

Having finished the Terminators last week, Finnegan and I sat down last Friday to finally PLAY a game of Space Hulk!


SCENARIO

We played the Beachhead Scenario – the first one in the mission book. I played the Marines and Finnegan played the Genestealers. My victory conditions were to have at least 7 (of 10) surviving marines and no Genestealers in any of the rooms at the end of the game. The game lasted 12 turns. The Genestealers victory conditions was to kill more than 5 Terminators. If either of these conditions were not met, it was a draw…


FORCES

The Marines had 10 Marine Terminators divided into two squads each with a Sergeant (one with a Power Sword and Stormbolter, the other with a Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield) and a heavy weapon (Assault Cannon or Heavy Flamer) the rest of the marines were armed with Stormbolters and Powerfists.

The Genestealers started with 10 blips? (2 in each room?) on the table and got an additional blips each turn from turn 4 to 10? I should have made note of this stuff before sitting down to hammer out this game report. Each blip represented 1-3 Genestealers.


THE GAME



Finnegan setting up and explainifying the rules to me.



All set up and ready to play – my Marines are loaded up into Boarding Torpedoes. One would arrive on the first turn, the other on the second, both in random locations.



There was the occasional rule-looking-up, but not much – it’s a pretty tight, simple, streamlined game.



Torpedo One arrives! The Terminators attempt to debus! They go pretty slow and it’s cramped quarters, so they don’t even all make it off the boarding torpedo on their first move.



Genestealers don’t wait! I’m not sure why they only moved this far…? The had six actions, they could have gotten in contact with the sergeant there… I think Finnegan was being clever and sat four spaces away so I’d have to use all his action points just to get to them and then have to spend command points to actually attack. He COULD have moved up, but then wouldn’t have had any actions to attack me and then Thunder Hammer Sergeant would have as many actions as he liked to hammer on the Genestealers… Also,  it was really cramped quarters and not easy to maneuver the Terminators around in there and I couldn’t shoot past any marines.



Second Turn – Second Boarding Torpedo arrives!



The game was pretty intense. The marine player has limited time to conduct his (or her) turn – this hourglass kept track of things. This is why I didn’t end up taking more detailed notes about how each turn went down – as I might have liked to for this first report. I guess I could have taken notes AFTER my turn was over… next time…



The Genestealers attack! BOOM! Two Terminators dead by the end of Turn Two! Things were NOT looking good!!



Finished off that first wave and cleared out the first room…



Sergeant waits by the door. Terminator with autocannon goes on overwatch to cover his back.



The Genestealers attack!



BZZZZZZZZZZZZT! Sustained fire from the autocannon wipes them out!



With the hall cleared of threats, the sergeant opened the door to face a line-up of Genestealers.

Unfortunately, the Sergeant died in this encounter leaving me with only seven marines… If I lost one more, I could not win the game. If I didn’t clear the rooms, though, I also would not win the game… Luckily at this point most of the initial blips had been cleared and Finnegan was just receiving one reinforcement per turn…



Elsewhere, Terminator with the Heavy Flamer lights up a passage roasting a couple more Genestealers.



Three of their number down, the marines press forward.



Rooms are cleared… but more blips are moving up!



Expecting trouble, the marines wait on overwatch. Though I did need to press forward to clear the rooms, Finnegan did also need to kill three more terminators for him to win.



Here they come!

The Assault Cannon took care of these…



More blips approaching from the flanks.



On the other flanks the Marines were pressing forward. If I got close enough to the Genestealer entry points, Finnegan would no longer be able to deploy from them. I got close enough to three (out of four) of them just in time for Finnegan to remind me that there were no more reinforcements coming out for the rest of the game. DOH!!!



In comes the attack – My marine was on overwatch – but his Stormbolter jammed!!!



He miraculously survived the onslaught, briefly, staggered back, cleared his jam and readied for the next attack.



Down he went. The Marine behind him finished off the Genestealer, but then HIS storm bolter jammed as the next Genestealer hurtled down the corridor!



That’s four down… I could not win this game! The best I could hope for was a draw, and for that I needed to prevent any further deaths….


Luckily there was only one or two turns left at this point and my heavy flamer still had a few bursts left in it, so I used it for area denial – filling the corridor with flame that prevented the Genestealers from moving through it.

Phew! What a nailbiter! Brought it to an less-than-satisfying draw…

Genestealers seem pretty bad-ass in this game. Regular terminator marines stormbolters seem pretty weak - and vulnerable. It was the assault cannon that really carried the day.

I had hoped to get in more games over the long weekend, but we ended up doing other things. We’d also hoped to get in a game today while The Girl was over at my folks doing stuff with Grandma today… but we ended up watching a movie and I got some painting done – the bases for the Space Marine doors – and some other stuff.

We are hoping to get in a game tomorrow afternoon! We may  play the same scenario, but switch things up and play the other side.


Coming Soon to Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Probably a game report of Space Hulk Game Two.

Later in the week some pics of some of the Kill Team terrain I’ve been working on, or reports of our first Kill Team games… No real NEED to finish up the new terrain – I have LOADS of totally useable terrain!

SPACE HULK!

Well, I FINALLY finished all the Terminators for Finnegan's Space Hulk game that we got him for his birthday three and a half years ago and I've been promising him I'd paint for him... (Worst gamer dad ever!). I finished the Genestealers back in April...

(or so I thought...)



Then I found one more that I hadn't finished up...



Here, finally, are all of the Terminators that came with the game.



These are the three commanders; Sergeant Gideon (with Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield), Lexicanium Callistarius (Chapter Librarian), Sergeant Lorenzo (with Storm Bolder and Power Sword).



Terminators with heavy weapons; Brother Zael (with the heavy flamer) and Brother Leon (with the assault cannon)



Three of the more dynamic looking terminators; Brother Goriel (brandishing the Genestealer head), Brother Scipio (tearing up the very floor of the space hulk), and Brother Claudio (with the Lightning Claws)



The remaining battle brothers; Brother Noctis, Brother Omnio, Brother Valencio, and Brother Deino.



Long lost battle brother/objective marker.



All ready to go!

(well.... almost...)

I was so happy - feeling like I was finally DONE - and then I remembered I haven't done the bases for all the doors, a little Cyber-Altered Task Unit, and a goblet/objective marker... Uggggghhhhh!  I'll Knock those off this weekend... But before that, we'll probably get a few games in this afternoon and/or tomorrow!!


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

The final elements of the Space Hulk game (bases for all the doors, a little Cyber-Altered Task Unit, and a goblet/objective marker) and some Space Hulk GAME REPORTS! Then it's on to Kill Team!!

(Well... I might try and finish off the Shadespire Orks for John that I've been sitting on, half-finished for far too long - not three-and-a-half-years too long, but long enough!