Space Hulk (game)



Space Hulk is an out of print board game by Games Workshop. The game was set in their Warhammer 40,000 universe and draws a certain degree of inspiration from the Alien movies.

The term "Space Hulk", from which the game gets its name, is used within the Warhammer 40,000 universe for any masses of ancient, derelict starships, asteroids, and other assorted space junk that eventually merges into one massive form, ranging from the size of a small moon to a large planet, which drift through the territory of the Imperium. Because a hulk may contain bits of lost information or technology, the Imperium often sends teams of Space Marine Terminators to search for and recover these valuable items. The hulk may not stay in real space for very long, eventually slipping back into the Warp, so retrieval operations must be rapid and efficient.

Genestealers often make homes of these hulks, attacking those who come aboard in order to spread their genetic code further afield. The game pits an investigative force of Space Marines against such a coven.

Gameplay
The game was set on a board made up of various corridor and room tiles which could be arranged in different order and locked together like a jigsaw puzzle to represent the interior of derelict space ships. One player controlled the Space Marines, and the other controlled Genestealers. Two editions of the game were released.

The game was notable for its hidden play mechanics, from which it derived much of its playability and tension. The actual number of genestealers in play was hidden from the Marines because they came into play as "blips" which could represent 1-3 creatures (or 0-6 in the Deathwing expansion and second edition). Similarly, the Marine player had a number of extra "action points" available each turn which were only revealed to the genestealer player after they were used up. (In the second edition, the extra points were no longer hidden from the genestealer player.)

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

In the basic versions of the game, playing the genestealers was unchallenging; so simple, in fact, that Space Hulk was quite a playable solo game. Playing the marines on the other hand was engaging and tactically challenging - part of the challenge was the fact that the Space Marines player was constrained by a time limit for his turn. To overcome this shortfall, players were encouraged to play each game twice, swapping roles after the first play. The fairly fast play time (around half an hour per game), driven by the Space Marines time limitation, made this a reasonable solution. The expansion packs for the First edition added human-genestealer hybrids, which could carry weapons and equipment, to the Genestealer player's forces, adding more depth to the genestealer game.

Editions


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 and could use ranged combat unlike the "purestrain" genestealers who fought close combat only with their claws) and psychic combat. Further scenarios and rules were released in the White Dwarf and Citadel Journal magazines. A hardback book, Space Hulk Campaigns, was released in 1991 and later reprinted as a paperback. It contained much of the magazine material, including rules for Traitor Terminators and Space Marines in Power Armour and some new board sections.

The second edition had no expansion packs, although additional scenarios and board sections were released in White Dwarf magazine. While it featured better board artwork and Terminator models, it was significantly simplified from the original rules and offered less opportunity for expansion. A critical change was made to the Command Point system, no longer allowing them to be used in the enemy turn altering the game's strategic complexity. The flamer rules were also changed and the difference between the standard weapons and the area effect flamer was reduced.

Derivatives
Two computer games were made based on the board game, the first, Space Hulk, for the PC and Amiga; 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 2005, a mobile phone version of the Space Hulk boardgame was released. This game replicates the board game's play mechanics and allows play as either Space Marines or Genestealers.

An open source fan conversion of Space Hulk based on the second edition rules can be found at SourceForge