Space Hulk Campaigns Book Playthrough

[miniroll171]

Hi me and a friend are playing through the old Space HulkCampaigns book. You can watch our progress below:

Mission 1: Break-In
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCgm2jwp098

Mission 2: The Generator
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6OjajvVZZg

Mission 3: The Chapel
https://youtu.be/Pi16Ex58GrM

Mission 4: The Last Stand
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUl0HACDxYw

[Commander Dante]

Looks like fun and I invite you to play a game anytime you are in the neighborhood of Grand Rapids, Michigan USA.

Couple comments on strategy if I may, which some players may find helpful. For instance:

at 06:30, the Marine player gets an awesome chance to get into fantastic position during this turn, especially as he has drawn 6 command points and has an Assault Cannon in point position. However, some strategic errors (rather than purely die rolls) led to the loss of this opportunity. I've included some notes on more effective strategy.

1. The Marine opens the door for 1 AP .
2. The Marine advanced 1 square forward 1 AP. {Instead the marine should have taken a Move and Shoot for 1 AP, potentially destroying the other door for free as he entered the room.}
3. The Marine advanced 1 square forward 1 AP to the center of the room. {The Marine should instead have taken a step forward to the diagonal right toward the far wall 1 AP, putting more 1 more square of space between him and the blip. If the marine had destroyed the door on the previous shot, this would have now granted Line of Sight to the Blip. This is because the Blip was only 2 squares back from the room.}

[An easy formula to remember about room LOS, 3 squares back in either corner = 3 squares or less LOS down the hallway. 2=2, 1=1. ]

4. The Marine now has to dig into reserves. Spent 1 CP to turn to his left . {This should have been a Turn and Shoot (which is counted the same as a Move and Shoot), again, potentially killing the door for 'free'.}
5. Another door shot but missing, 1 CP. (2 total). {The Marine should have taken a Move and Shoot stepping backwards for 2 CP cost, putting distance again, and maybe killing the door for 'free'.}
6. Another shot at the door, this time successful 1 CP. This reveals the Blip - a 3 piece - worst case but not futile. (3 total).
7. Marine stands and shoots at first Genestealer in line, miss 1 CP (4 total).
8. Marine shoots again, hit killing the first 'Stealer. (5 total).
9. Marine takes aim at 2nd Genestealer, also scoring a hit and kill, leaving 1 'Stealer, and no CP to react to it (6 total CP, 5 Assault Cannon ammo). {The Marine should have gone into Overwatch with it's remaining 2 CP, giving it some chance at defending itself at range. If the Marine had given itself the extra square of distance when stepping into the room, that's often all it takes to get that kill shot on Overwatch).

Next, at 08:00:

1. Marine in center position takes 2 steps forward. {These should be Move and Shoot actions which could potentially kill the doors for 'free'. Always and every time, as your DEFAULT move, declare Move and Shoot...i don't care if you're shooting the wall just get into the habit whenever you take a step forward or backward, or turn.)
2. Marine opens door.
3 Another step forward. {Here, since you hadn't killed the door for free earlier, maybe best not to shoot the door closest the 'Stealers, let them spend points to come through it. However a note on your calculation - the Marine player counted 6 squares from the blip to see if the Marine was in melee range, but remember that a multi-genestealer blip gets to place models adjacent to the blip, which may put them closer than you estimate.
Had the door been shot for free, this Marine would have been able to cover the room and hall in Overwatch. }

I wasn't sure where 'Fast Genestealer was coming from. It's not in the original mission text. Were you not using hybrids?

Now my 3 yr old is awake, around the 12 min mark or wherever the 'Fast Genestealer' got killed. But I hope the game turned out OK and maybe I'll get back around to watching more of your guy's games when opportunity allows.

[miniroll171]

Also one point that popped up in our second video is when a thunder hammer and storm shield parries. If the Genestealer for example rolls a 4 4 2, can you force them to re roll both fours or does a parry mean you can only force the to re roll 1 dice, so in this case one of the fours would still stand?

Sorry I did post a reply to your post but it has to be approved before it will show.

[Commander Dante]

According to the Deathwing manual, a Parry for Storm Shield has the same mechanic as it does for the Power Sword i.e. If engaged in close combat from the Front or Left side, the Marine player can force the Genestealer to re-roll one of the three dice, with the new result standing even if it was better than the original. No Parries are allowed from the Right or Rear close combat (Remember, if you do win a close combat being attacked from any side or rear, you may Turn to Face the attacking model but do not yet kill it.)

[miniroll171]

Thanks for the reply Commander. Yeah thats how we did it in the end so the parry was useless as the Genestealer player rolled 2 fours and the marine only rolled a 1!

My reply to your first comment has never shown up so Ill answer your points again.

Yes I (as the marine player) really should of made more use of the 'Move and Fire' action and when I watched it back I realised that the Assault Cannon marine should have moved to the opposite side of the room to the door amd also as I revealed the blip, I should have faced them looking away from me so they would have to pay 1 action to turn.

We made a few more mistakes such as hand to hand combat on a diagonal and paying two actions points to un-jam a storm bolter rather than 1! We are a bit rusty as we played it years ago when it first came out and am trying to remember all the rules but I think we are pretty much there now lol

As for the Expanded Blip table. As I say in the intro we are using our own custom one! It has 3 special Genestealers we made-up/painted a different colour to add a bit of fun to the Genestealer player. We have an Armoured Genestealer that has only 5 action points rather than 6 but saves on a 4, 5 or 6. A 'Fast Genestealer' that has 9 Action Points, but is 1 point easier to kill, and a 'Spit Acid' Genestealer that can well, you know, spit acid :-)

All in all though it was a great game and we had a good time doing it.

We have already recorded part two and I am just finishing off editing the video so should be able to post a link soon.

[Commander Dante]

If a blip is 'voluntarily' converted, the Genestealer player places the models and chooses their facing. In the case of 'Involuntary' conversion, the Marine places the models but the Genestealer player still choose their facing.

Yes, in Space Hulk close combat is straight forward only (whereas in Advanced Space Crusade, it is front 3 squares).

Yes, bolter unjam is only 1 CP.

I admit to skipping past the early minutes of the video to get into the action, so I missed your expanded blip explanation. I know many of the older hybrids are hard to find and expensive, but the new GW Hybrids box set has some pretty nice looking models...can find it around $30 on ebay.

I'll take a look at your next game when you post!

[miniroll171]

Mission 2 can be watched from the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6OjajvVZZg

[miniroll171]

Mission 3: The Chapel is now completed after a bit of a break for the summer holidays. Can the Space Marines finally win a game?

https://youtu.be/Pi16Ex58GrM

[miniroll171]

Mission 4: The Last Stand is now ready for viewing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUl0HACDxYw

[Johnnyboy]

Enjoyed these -Any more of these coming?!? I'm playing through Deathwing atm.