Game:

Space Hulk: Deathwing (2016)

Duration: 27:36

11 views

2

Space Hulk (Metacritic 58%)

is a board game for two players by Games Workshop. It was released in 1989. The game is set in the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000. In the game, a "space hulk" is a mass of ancient, derelict space ships, asteroids, and other assorted space debris. One player takes the role of Space Marine Terminators, superhuman elite soldiers who have been sent to investigate such a space hulk. The other player takes the role of Tyranid Genestealers, an aggressive alien species which have made their home aboard such masses.



In Warhammer 40,000, the term "space hulk" is used to refer to any massive derelict space ship. Due to the shifting, immaterial nature of the Warp, an otherworldly realm through which space ships may travel between the stars far quicker than they would be able to through real space, some space hulks are jumbled and twisted agglomerations of multiple vessels lost to the Warp throughout centuries or millennia. Space hulks may house more than just Genestealers; other threats aboard can include human followers of the dark gods of Chaos, nightmarish Warp Daemons, and Orks who use space hulks as their "standard" method of interstellar travel.

Genestealers were described in an entry of the "Aliens and monsters" section of the first edition of Warhammer 40,000 (the "WH40K - Rogue Trader" manual), but they were very different from their Space Hulk incarnation, which was more influenced by the xenomorphs depicted in the Alien franchise. Since the 1990s, subsequent games like Warhammer 40,000 and Epic have absorbed them as part of the overall Tyranid army where they serve as the shock troops, although their origins are not related to any other Tyranid broods. A force composed purely of Genestealers can still be fielded as a sub-type of the Tyranid army, in what is known as a Genestealer Cult. The Cult is described in the in-game background as an infiltration force that weakens a target planet, infecting the local population and causing civil unrest in advance of the arrival of the main Tyranid hive fleet.

Space Marine Terminators are described in game lore as first company veterans in each Space Marine Chapter, having earned the right to don the sacred Tactical Dreadnought Armour or Terminator Armour. Space Marine Terminators were originally only used in Space Hulk-type scenarios and not the open battlefield, but rules were added in White Dwarf magazine and subsequent releases of Warhammer 40,000 and Epic for their deployment in conventional battles. Most Warhammer 40,000 army list game rules restrict the deployment of Terminators to a small part (1-2 squads of 5 men each) of a player's Space Marine army since they are considered elite troops. The Dark Angels' Deathwing Company is unique among Marine first companies in being composed of only Terminators. The Dark Angels can field a Deathwing army which features an all-Terminator force, along with including Land Raider tanks as transports and Dreadnought walkers for support.[1]

Besides a space hulk, similar skirmishes between Space Marine Terminators and Genestealers can also be set in other environments. One such notable engagement was during the Second Tyrannic War, underneath a Brotherhood cathedral in the city Lomas on the planet on Ichar IV, when Ultramarine Terminators cleansed a Genestealer Cult. The Ichar IV uprising was a harbinger of Hive Fleet Kraken, the second major Tyranid invasion of the galaxy.

Gameplay
The game is set on a modular board made up of various board sections which represent corridors and rooms and which can be freely arranged and locked together like a jigsaw puzzle to represent the interior of a space hulk. One player controls the Space Marine Terminators, and the other player controls the Tyranid Genestealers.

It is an asymmetric game in the following respects:

The two players have different force.
The players have different objectives to fulfill during a "mission" (the in-game term for a particular scenario). For example, the Terminator player may have the objective of destroying a specified area of the board or a specified Genestealer piece or some other objective; while the Genestealer player may have the objective of destroying a specified Terminator piece or all of the Terminator pieces or some other objective.
The pieces of the two players move at different rates (Terminators move slowly, Genestealers rapidly
Terminator pieces excel at ranged combat, but are weak in close combat; the Genestealer pieces excel at close combat, but cannot perform ranged combat at all.
The pieces are moved by the players through a system of "action points", where each piece has a certain number specified for it. A Terminator piece has few action points; a Genestealer piece has many action points.

The game is notable for its hidden play mechanics, from which it derives much of its playability and tension.

Other Statistics