Welcome to my blog, the story of my continuing journey into the World of Zombie Wargames.

Monday 18 July 2022

Space Hulk

 Whilst not having anything to do with wargames or wargamng, after thirty-plus years this is still a great game even if GW did try and break it (IMHO) with the supplements "Genestealers" and "Deathwing" .
For those unfamiliar with this game (is there reallyvanyonevwho hasn't heard of this game?), it consists of  geomorphic tiles as the playing surface for one player to use his marines in completing a task opposed by the other player's "Genestealers". In the box your get ten marines and twenty genestealers. Somehwere down the line I seemed to have gained another set of ten marines.
A game in progress - hence its claim of being '3D' ! (-Doors and figures I guess.)
Initially the game was bought by me to play with my eldest son, as he was into 'Fantasy' and of course he wanted all the pieces to be painted, which I duly did whilst we both learned the rules.
 The game itself I found intriugingly easy to play, but hard to master, the initial mission "Suicide" run was difficult, but not impossible to win as he marines  and it still remains my favourite  scenario to date. 
The new supplements came with new rules, new Marine weapons and new Marine models, most of which I disliked but still made the equivaent conversions with both the original and subsequent models.
Finally I got  a second mortgage and paid for five metal Marine figures with the new kit.
Here's the photographs:
The original plastic Marines - some still with their aerials.
Second style of Marine, wiht home-made 'lightning claws' on the right.
More conversions, gatling cannon thing, chainsaw thing and a sword!
The very superior metal figures, with the new weapons.
A selection of Genestealers, painted in one night iirc, using inks.
All three dozen-plus  marines and two dozen or more genestealers carefully packed away !
So why all this and why now I hear you ask ?
Two things, firstly it shows I do have some fantasty /sci-fi figures and secondly I am getting more and more desperate for things to post about, (these have also been staring at me across the room where we played our gladiator games too !)
 
So that's it then for another week, hopefully there's something of interest in this post and of course, as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated. 

24 comments:

  1. Well that was a total blast from the past Joe, remember running intro games at GW of second edition Space Hulk, the Terminator models were more like the metal ones, but the Genestealers were exactly the same, and remember it was a fun game, always thought it would be cool to have proper 3D corridors to make it more atmospheric, and one of my friends actually did just that with Hirst moulds

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    1. Dave, there's a whole industry on sites like Shapeways and Etsy of people selling 3D-printed 3D corridors for Space Hulk and Aliens.

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    2. When we used to discuss this, it was long before 3D printers mate ! LOL

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    3. Thanks Dave (and Matt), this was my go to game for a quick one-off (and could still be) I too was one of those that wanted 'proper' corridors and so on, lookng at using guttering was the closest I ever got.

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    4. The friend who made our 40k scenery tried to make 3D corridors from polystyrene foam but gave up in frustration.

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    5. Thick card was our alternative effort, lso given upin frustration.

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    1. Thanks you Michal, it is indeed very old game now, but still as good as it ever was.

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  3. Oh man, this is a classic! My friend bought Space Hulk and was furious that the plastic Terminators were so crap compared to the metal ones LOL! But we had a lot of fun playing it, although I could never work out why, after being told in White Dwarf how tough Termie armour is, genestealer claws went through it like a hot knife through butter :-)

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    1. Thanks Matt, the crap Terinators didn;t bother me, (they were just tokens to me), but my then young son thought they were great. Of coure everyone wanted the metal ones, but not evryone was a Lottery winner.

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  4. It's good fun digging out old stuff and realising how much work you'd put into it!

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    1. Thanks MJT, old stuff is just about all I've got these days and Space Hulk was sitting on the side as it was a game I played some seven or so years ago with a visiting fellow blogger !

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  5. Although I have heard of Space Hulk, I have never acyually played it. I do like the idea though, effectively a dungeon crawl?

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  6. Haha, Michael,you really spotted the obvious, that I quoted to my son back when. Everyone was taken in though, as it's a very atmospheric game and the film "Aliens" had just been released a couple or so years before the game. As the Marine players you're on a limited time each turn and it does get nail-biting at times.
    It's a great game and you should get yourself a game of it, someone you know will have a copy.

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  7. I bought this game when it first came out, well designed and great fun to play. I liked the Marines in the box as they were easy to paint.
    Sold it on years age, now wishing I hadn't.
    Fantastic post.

    Willz.

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    1. Thanks Willz, it's a classic game that I'm pleased to stil have and occassionally still play (even ifonly once a decade)

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  8. I just gave my 2nd edition game away, unplayed( although I had pinched the terminators for another army) yours looks good though!
    Best Iain ( caveadsum1471)

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    1. Thanks Iain, the second edition is the most recent one ? The only hting tht attracted me to it would have been the rules !

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  9. This game never ages! It even keeps seeming to get reprinted & still brings in plenty of sales. I have 2 of the newer sets on my shelf, likely unpunched & unpainted. I did sell my 2nd ed set at a swap meet a couple of years ago.

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    1. Thanks Terry, I agree wholeheartedly, one of the best games GW produced and never really supported. I didn't particularly like the latest version at all -the boards and materils are not of the same quality as the original.

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  10. I really liked Space Hulk. But some missions I never won as a marine.
    And I admit, I liked the Psychic Combat System. Yes, if there are Psykers in the 40k Universe and in the Marine chapters then they should also be included in the rules and in the game.
    Alex Lund

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    1. Haha, thanks Alex, I'm pretty sure I won occassionally as the marines, but mots ot the time not,. I didn't like the psykers and never used them (nor the half-breed genestealers either).

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  11. Hi Joe it's John Vagabond blogger doesn't seem to like me! Anyway I was just checking you are ok.
    Cheers

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    1. Thanks John, I'm still recuperating, slowly but steadily, with the occassional hospital/clinic visit thrown in for good measure. Gaming has sadly been none existent for a while now too.

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