Blast from the Past: Space Hulk

I fancied a change of pace from my usual tabletop gaming so I arranged to play a board game at the club this week. After a bit of discussion Matt and I decided to give Space Hulk a run out. I think the last time I played Space Hulk must be 20 years ago or more. But I still remembered the horror of weapon jams and being eaten alive by Genestealers.

We decided to play a mission where you have to go collect a relic and then get back out. The layout of the board can be seen below.

Things started out ok for me as I got to grips with the rules again. I had a couple of guys doing sterling work on overwatch near the entrance and the rest were moving forward with no problems. Then I cocked things up and lost my Flamethrower guy. But I felt I was doing ok. I had my escape route sorted and my dice were doing well.

 

The board just before I grabbed the Chalice



I managed to grab the Chalice and started to head back out. That's when things started to go wrong. I rolled 6 pairs of dice for overwatch shooting without a single kill and lost my second Terminator. Now I had to watch for Genestealers coming from behind and in front. Gradually Matt whittled me down until I just had the Terminator with the Lightning claws left. He had to move over to the centre of the board to try and pick up the chalice dropped by the Librarian. I didn't hold out much hope at this point and nearly conceded.

 

The chalice has just been picked up and a horde of Genestealers
 blocks my way to the exit with more arriving all the time

But, miracle of miracles I managed to fight my way through waves of Genestealers and make it to the exit for a win! The two dice for the Lightning Claws and the +1 made all the difference.

The heroic moment of victory captured for posterity.

Needless to say Matt used his much greater experience of playing the game to give me a good stuffing in the return match. He used the flamethrower and Psychic powers of the Librarian much better than I did. Although it must be said he had some great die rolling as well. He was in a strong position until a jam let me in and he quickly lost two Terminators. Unfortunately for me he pulled a high command chit and managed to get his Termie carrying the chalice to the exit before I could reach him.

So a good night for both of us with one win each and more surprisingly two wins for the Marines. The game was just as good as I remembered and I look forward to playing it again.