Monday, May 28, 2007
Space Hulk After Action Report
Miniatures Games
Genestealers mass for a final assault. More photos here.
We recently played a game of Space Hulk, the excellent Games Workshop miniatures/board game that sadly went out of print a decade ago. The game’s basic premise has squads of Space Marines conducting operations on board huge space “hulks” that are unfortunately infested by an alien race of “Genestealers.” The playing surface consists of a bunch of interchangeable, interlocking corridors and rooms, all of which are marked with a square grid. The pieces are plastic (and in some cases, lead) miniatures that represent individual Marines and GeneStealers.
During the game, each figure expends action points to accomplish tasks. In addition to moving and firing, the Marines also can expend points to go on “overwatch”, or to attempt other special tasks. The Marines typically get four action points each, plus additional command points allocated by the leader. The ‘stealers get six.
Another key element of the game is that the GeneStealers make their appearance on the boards as “blips.” Each turn, the GeneStealer player(s) draw round cardboard chits from a cup. On the one side is a radar “blip” illustration; on the other is a number showing how many GeneStealers are represented by that blip. Once drawn, the blips are placed on the board number side down and moved toward the Marines. The Stealer players can convert the blips to figures at any time, but MUST convert them when they come into the Marines line of sight.
The blips add to the tension of the game in two ways. First, the GeneStealer players never really know how many figures they’re going to get to deploy. The Marines, on the other hand, can’t be sure whether a blip represents one ‘stealer or five.
Combat is fairly simple, with participants rolling different numbers of six sided dice, mostly trying to score a “6”.
The games are always tense, and full of decision-making. There are never enough points to do everything you want, whether you are a Space Marine or a Genestealer. Its generally tougher on the Marines, for they must make good decisions about the placement of overwatch and how best to deploy troops to control corridors. The GeneStealers, on the other hand.
In this past weekend’s game, two groups of Space Marines were deployed at opposite ends of a mapboard. The one group had vital information, and the other was tasked with linking up with them, and then aiding them in escaping the hulk. In between them were, of course, unknown numbers of Genestealers. The Marine units were led by Sergeants, and each had a Marine with a “flamer.”
In the first game, the Marines were seriously lacking in firepower, and were quickly overwhelmed by large numbers of GeneStealers. So we added a Marine with “Lightening Claws” to each group, a Captain to the one, and a marine with a chain gun to the other.
Now things became a lot more tense. The Marines set up the chain gun in a position where it denied the Hulk’s exit to the GeneStealers, while the other members of the squads moved to hook up. Each squad led with their Lightening Claw marines, since they are nearly unstoppable in close combat. Indeed, when you do the numbers, the Claws are going to win 90 percent of their combats against the ‘Stealers. The GeneStealers, in the meantime were drawing low numbers on their blips and were unable to get enough together for a mass attack.
It looked like an easy Marine victory.
Then things went horribly wrong for the Space Marines. First one, and then the other Lightening claw marines died, giving the ‘Stealers an opening. Meanwhile, the GeneStealer tactic of throwing bodies in front of the chaingun to make him expend ammo was having its effect. The chain gun ran out of reloads just as the ‘Stealers started drawing chits with larger numbers.
The two flamer marines tried to hold off the hordes and let the others escape, but there were just too many ‘stealers. and the Marine players were rolling poorly. They’d flame a room, but fail to get all of its occupants. Marines on overwatch would jam their weapons on the first roll.
It was too much. With the exit corridor in sight, the Marines were buried under a wave of ravenous GeneStealers.
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