Space Hulk - beyond the hype

[M'yen'shi]

The components for this game are indeed impressive, and not just the miniatures, which of course are amazing. The regular counters, board sections and markers are all top notch too. Look out Fantasy Flight if GW gets back into board games.

[chapterhousestudios]

I almost want to bet money GW will release a "Non-Limited Edition" version of Space Hulk next year. Or at least the book. Will this be a let down or not is the question for me...

Seems like a silly business decision to make a ton of money on a product and never release it again dont it?

[Shallowain]

My copy of Space Hulk just arrived today. I try to give you my first impression.

1: The miniatures

The Marines are just stunning, especially for monopose miniatures with not more than 4 parts. There are only minor mold lines and most of those are quite well hidden with well arranged details. The details are great and the go together close to perfect, especially the cloak on the sergeant where it fits so well (even without glue) that it is almost impossible to notice the connection.

The poses are simply great, very dynamic and they still have this feeling of lumbering monstrosities to them. There are no awkward poses or anything silly. You get a really great image of the mobility of such a heavy armour suit and especially the limitation thereof. All of them together convey IMHO the best image of a terminator unit in combat ever. I must say, that the multipose termitatores, while having the obviously the advantage of posability, pale in comparison to those. These are some of the most characterful miniatures GW has ever made, hands down.

I especially like the Psyker. To me it is the best Marine Psyker GW has ever made. Especially the pose and the whole optical composition of this model is a major improvement to the metal one IMHO (I never liked this "fighting monk" pose)

The genestealer are also very dynamic and impressive and the broodlord is actually quite a bit bigger than he looks in the images. I really like the ones that break through the ground and the ones that climb on the ruins/machine parts. These miniatures really convey the image of super agile extremely fast predators.

But, unlike the marines there are multiples of the same type and some are just "mirrored" variants of another (actually, there are only two different genestealer sprues, one is included twice. I really would have preferred them all to be unique and considering the limited run it wouldn't have been too much to ask for. To me, they somewhat lack variety.

One thing I noticed, there are some genestealers that only have three arms (excluding the one emerging from the ground). They kind off stand out and look "wrong". I suppose this was a casting issue (they are singlepart and in a very dynamic pose) but they should have made them two part then to include all arms.

The objectives also look great. the C.A.T. really looks over the top gothic but in a nice way, somewhat like a cross between a miniature gothic cathedral, a servo skull and bits and pieces from a 50's SF movie set. I really thik its kind off cute and like it. The Dead terminator on the other hand is absolutely stunning and total bad ***. It manages to show all the majesty this warrior must have shown while he was alive, simply stunning. Then there is this grail like thing. It has good surface detail, but I think it is somewhat small.

2:
The cardboard pieces.

These pieces are awesome although I would have preferred 3D plastic tiles as much as anyone else. The details of the printing are very good, much better than the tiles from 2nd Ed. SH. They are really thick and sturdy (about 1,5 times the thickness of the 1st Ed. tiles) and they have a bit of "surface detail". They actually have a bit of structure stamped in . If you take one of the deck plates you will see, that the recession has actually been stamped in it, sometimes only partially if the rest is filled with dirt and sometimes there are bullet holes and similar details also "stamped" in the surface. Makes those tiles really nice.

BUT, for many people the most important part, they are completely compatible with the 1st and 2nd Ed. tiles! They might be thicker but that is not much of an issue.

The Cardboard counters and doors are also very nice and detailed and they are made of the same sturdy cardboard. A nice touch IMHO is the addition of markers for genestealer entry points.

3:
The rules.

These are basically slightly modified 1st Ed. rules. No big experiments, no dumbing down, a bit streamlining and the addition of an overwatch equivalent for close combat. The Psyker rules are quite minimal and comparatively simple, but they look ok. The Broodlord is a Monster! It can only reliably killed by the psyker (if he has enough psi points left) or the assault cannon. If he gets in close combat the marine is most certainly toast. And he ignores the Flamer! good luck hunting it down...

All in all, If you know 1st Ed. you basically know this Edition. I dare to say, that all the optional rules from 1st Ed. can be easily incorporated in this edition, It should give a nice mix.

The only things I really miss is, a notion of how long the timer actually goes (in case it breaks or you lose it) and a Mission generator specifically adapted to this tile set. A "points" system to modify the terminator forces would have been nice also, but since I have 1st Ed. I don't mind to much.

The rule and mission booklets include some new artwork and some old, it looks great. In general both are full colour, but I noticed some artworks being black and white despite them originally being coloured.

There are 12 missions. These missions are from 1st Ed. and can be found in Space Hulk, Deathwing and Space Hulk Campaigns. Some have slightly modified layouts and obviously adapted Marine units.

1: Suicide mission, Space Hulk 1st Ed.
2: Exterminate, Space Hulk 1st Ed.
3: Rescue, same as 1st Ed.
4: Cleanse and Burn, Space Hulk 1st Ed.
5: Decoy, Space Hulk 1st Ed.
6: Alarm Call, Deathwing m.1
7: Artifact, Deathwing m. 2: The Ship's log
8: Delaying Action, Space Hulk Campaigns, p. 74/75
9: Regroup, Deathwing m. 4
10: Defend, Space Hulk 1st Ed. m. 6
11:The Unknown Lifeforms, Deathwing m. 6
12: Pitfall, Space Hulk Campaigns, p. 72/73

NOTE: Since I have only been able to get the german version of the new Space Hulk, some mission names are probably different different. I used mostly the 1st Ed. mission names.

I must say, that I am a bit disappointed about the lack of entirely new missions, but the selection of missions is good and diverse. And in the end, There is only so much you can do without drastically altering rules or expanding the tileset. I am interested to see if GW releases new (or maybe old) missions in white dwarf. But honestly, I expect to find the best support in the community.


German Translation:

Not that bad, but I don't like the translated versions So I usually get the english original. This translation looks quite good but I expect to get severely disappointed once I get my hands on an untranslated one. This time I got the german version because I didn't want to take the risk in not getting my hands on this game.

But I have to admit, ruleswise there is nothing noteworthy wrong except that at one place the refer to "inches" where they clearly meant squares.

Genral Advice to the GW translations department:
Please, stop translating names, especially if they are well established for over a decade (Leman Russ Belagerer err, Demolisher, I'm looking at you...)

Conclusion:

Well worth it.

GW really managed to make a quality game here. Except some minor downsides (lack of diversity of genestealers, 3 armed genestealers, no new missions) The made everything right. The miniatures are great and so are the tiles. The rules are as good as 1st Ed. and include a wide variety of marine equipment and old expansions can still be used if someone wants to. There where no bold experiments that went wrong. I did'nt expect such a good product from GW and (especially ruleswise) I consider Space Hulk one of the best products they ever made.

[Chris*ta]

I don't understand the OP at all.

It seems to me that:
a) Space Hulk was a fantastic game.
b) They've done a fine job of NOT messing with the original rules
c) They've made some great minis and other pieces
d) This is a fantastic way to convince people who might not usually play a wargame (or those who never had a chance to play it with either of the previous two editions) to play a game

I'm looking forward to getting my copies from my FLGS (when they come in).

And as for the argument that you could ebay a copy of the 1st ed Space Hulk for £150 -- isn't this notably more than they're selling this version for -- which has much nicer pieces to boot!

Perhaps he's jealous that some new people will get a chance to enjoy Space hulk?

[Jive Tyrant]

Genral Advice to the GW translations department:
Please, stop translating names, especially if they are well established for over a decade (Leman Russ Belagerer err, Demolisher, I'm looking at you...)

In my RL job, I have to work with various translations, and I can tell you that nothing annoys non-English speakers more than having original English words stay in the product. It's fine for you, who speaks both languages well, but a lot of non-English people are actually offended.

Okay, it's mainly the French who are overly proud about their language, but the principle is the same. So I totally get why GW does this.

Oh, and what about non-English alphabets? Cyrillic and Japanese spring to mind - they could only ever sound the same, not read the same, so there's even less point to keeping the original name.

[Ma'rk]

I wouldn't be surprised if the miniatures were available separately in the regular line later on. With the Chapters slowly being refreshed with new source books and miniatures, it seems inevitable that the Blood Angels are going to come around eventually. It would make sense to make use of these figures in the regular line since they've spent time and resource developing them.

I might go and check out Space Hulk in the flesh today, but I don't think I'm going to buy it. At $168 it's a bit steep. Mind you a lot of the releases lately have been pretty pricey in Aus - $86 for the new Leman Russ, $96 for the Valkyrie... ouch! Hmm wonder how long it will take for the Space Hulk minis to show up on eBay? Apparently there have been people placing bulk orders, so if it's anything like the Black Reach Starter, it's probably bound to turn up in pieces too.

[grail]

things seem to be getting out of control on ebay

[url]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Space-Hulk_W0QQitemZ220476564198QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_To ys_Wargames_RL?hash=item33556d62e6&_trksid=p3286.c 0.m14[/url]

at least they are offering free postage

so glad i pre ordered mine from Gw had it since wedensday hopfully get a few games in tomorrow

[RocketRollRebel]

things seem to be getting out of control on ebay

[url]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Space-Hulk_W0QQitemZ220476564198QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_To ys_Wargames_RL?hash=item33556d62e6&_trksid=p3286.c 0.m14[/url]

at least they are offering free postage

so glad i pre ordered mine from Gw had it since wedensday hopfully get a few games in tomorrow

wow thats nuts! I was going to get it but I ended up not spending the money on it. It is a very fun game tho and I do play Blood Angels but I'm over the initial "OMGZ Space Hulkz!" and I'm content with playing with my friends copy.

[Prometheus]

I just finished playing my first game of Space Hulk. I have been trying to get my hands on a copy of the old one for years now but never could, or if I could find it people were selling old used copies that thier dog had chewed on and where missing pieces for like $150-$200. So excuse me but I was excited to get one of the new ones. Also although I believe the hype was a bit out of proportion (but so is all hype... that actually might be the definete of the term especially when used in relation to GW gamers) it doesn't make the product any less cool. Its a fun game, the models are nicely designed and its a good deal for the models, since that many Termies will set you back about $100 anyway, and that doesn't include the Genestealers of the tiles/gameboard/rules.

In the end all I can say is that my buddy and I split the game and so far are really enjoying it. I'm sure at some point in the future we will put it away as we grow bored with it, but that is true with video games, other board games, TV shows, kittens, and loads of other things.

[thewickedworm]

I bought a copy at the store on Saturday. The Readshirt told me that GW had already destroyed the molds. Anyone hear about it?