Deck the Hulk... Christmas with the Blood Angels

It has become a habit when our sons are home over Christmas to play a Games Workshop game. While we still have all our figures and rulebooks, this is about the only time we get them onto the table these days. Last year we played some 40K so our first plan this time was to fight a Warhammer Fantasy battle. However, we soon realised that we lacked the time to relearn the rules, create our army lists, drag the figures out from their various hiding places and play a game to its conclusion. So instead we decided on a game of Space Hulk.

We have a copy of the 3rd edition, which includes some lovely animated figures and high quality components but is basically still the original game. We selected the Decoy scenario in which the Space Marines has to pass through the map and exit as many figures as possible from the far side. When no more terminators are left on the map alive, the Space Marine player rolls one D6 and must score less than or equal to the number of terminators successfully exited. Easy.

The start was indeed easy for my terminators, with the help of overwatch and some good fields of fire. Nick’s initial approach was to charge at me down the corridors, hoping my overwatching defenders would eventually jam their weapons and allow his surviving genestealers to make it to close combat. He abandoned this after a few turns, however, as I was able to blow his models away long before they got near. His next tactic was to lurk out of sight and position his genestealers behind doors that I would have to pass through to complete my mission. This was far more effective and forced me to attacks at very close range. This time, the consequences of a bolt pistol jamming were messy, especially when Nick attacked from several places in his turn, leaving me with too few of my precious command points left to clear every jam.

As my squad approached the exit square, the number of genestealers in their path racked up and my losses began to rise. By the end, five brothers had been sliced and diced by alien claws. But Nick had refined his tactics too late and I got four terminators off the table. The final turn saw one last Marine a single move away from the exit square, but exposed to an assault from the rear. A genestealer reached him with one action point left and made its attack, with the odds in its favour. However, the terminator rolled a six, which meant he survived and could turn to fight back next turn. But he decided, not unreasonably, that rather than turn to face the alien, he would hightail it off the board. So the game ended with five terminator survivors. I rolled my victory die, needing anything but a 6, and took the win.

The game was great fun and reminded us of the strengths of these clean, well-designed rules. The choices facing both players are challenging and the sense of jeapordy is really strong, especially for the Space Marine player.

While I did a basic paint job on the terminators when we bought this game, I could never get around to the genestealers. With the availability of GW’s contrast paints I might give it a go in 2020.

Meanwhile, Nick has taken the Orc army book home to devise a 2000 point Warhammer army, while I will produce one for the Empire, and we will get together in the New Year for our Warhammer fix.