Space Hulk (game)



Space Hulk was a board game by Games Workshop. The game was set in their Warhammer 40,000 universe and obviously draws at least some inspiration from the movie Aliens.

Tabletop games
The game was set on a board made up of various corridor and room tiles which could be arranged in different orders and locked together like a jigsaw puzzle to represent the interior of derelict space ships. One player controlled Space Marine Terminators, and the other controlled Genestealers and genestealer hybrids. This game was the first appearance of the genestealers before the Tyranid army was introduced into the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Two editions of the game were released.

In the basic versions of the game, playing the genestealers was often considered somewhat tedious since the strategy for playing them was simple and obvious. So simple in fact that Space Hulk made quite a playable solo game. Playing the marines on the other hand was engaging and tactically challenging. To overcome this shortfall, players were encouraged to play each game twice, swapping roles after the first play. The fairly fast play time made this a reasonable solution. The expansion packs in the first edition further solved the problem by introducing the hybrids, which added more depth to the genestealer game.

The game was notable for its hidden play mechanics, from which it derived much of its playability and tension. The real number of genestealers in play was hidden from the marines because they came into play as "blips" which could represent 1-3 creatures. Similarly, the marine player had a hidden number of extra "action points" available each turn which were only revealed to the genestealer player after they were used up.

Space Hulk won the Origins Award for Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Boardgame of 1989. Its first expansion, Genestealer, won Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Boardgame of 1990.

First edition
The first edition had two expansion packs; Deathwing which focused on additional Space Marine weapons and solo play and Genestealer, which introduced Genestealer hybrids (who carried weapons unlike pure strain genestealers that used their claws) and psychic combat.

Second edition
The second edition had no expansions and, while it featured better board artwork and terminator models, is generally considered the inferior version of the game.

Besides graphical changes, the game showed much lighter rules. This simplification, while making the starting box easier to play, prevented the addition of further rules to the basic game.

Space Crusade
The game Space Crusade by Milton Bradley was a simpler game also set on a Warhammer 40,000 space hulk which did use several of the concepts from the Space Hulk game. One of the main differences was that Space Crusade permitted up to four players to compete simultaneously (three taking a Space Marine squad each, one controlling the hulk's inhabitants), whereas Space Hulk was primarily designed for two players only.

Ultra Marines
The game Ultra Marines was another simpler game also set on a Warhammer 40,000 space hulk. The same board pieces were used, but each player controlled a Scout squad that was raiding the Hulk for artifacts. Players drew random event cards and used an odd method of rolling dice - the lid of the game box had a grid printed on the inside, with squares marked "HIT" or "MISS". Dice that land in the appropriate squares indicated if an attack was successful or not, while the number rolled was the degree of the wound. The game had enough models for 4 players, with no player limit if additional Scout models are added.

Computer games
Two computer games were made based on the board game, the first, Space Hulk, for the PC; and the second, Space Hulk: Vengeance of the Blood Angels for the PC, PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and 3DO consoles. Both of these were tactical action shooters based on the boardgame rather than reproductions of the boardgame.

In Warhammer 40,000
The term "Space Hulk", from which the game gets its name, is used within the Warhammer 40,000 universe for any masses of derelict ships, asteroids, and other assorted space junk that eventually merges into one massive form inside the Warp. These Hulks are usually infested with mutants (possible remnants of the past crew); Genestealers (as above, see also the entry on Tyranids); Orks, who like to mount guns on hulks and travel on them to invade new worlds, and sometimes worse.

Because a Hulk may contain bits of lost information or technology, the Imperium often sends teams of Space Marines to search for and recover these valuable items. Aside from the dangers of possible inhabitants, the Hulk may not stay in realspace for very long, eventually slipping back into the Warp.