Happy Nerd Year!

First pun of the year goes to Norm! Yes!

Sorry for the lack of posts on my end, dear readers. Things get crazy with finals, double shifts at work, and of course friends and family coming to visit. But you didn't come to this blog to read about my personal life! (Or did you?)

No, you come to this fine blog to read about tabletop games. Speaking of both tabletop games and visitors, I have a bit of both to report on today: The Space Hulk Grudge Match was won by yours truly, sweeping the best-of-three match playing Tyranids!* We played two missions: Frank Sucks (Suicide Mission) and Frank Cries (The Artifact), which seem like odd choices, but I wasn't going to argue. Not to rub it in anyone's face (except Frank's), but I feel like the reason I won was a thorough understanding of the main principle of Space Hulk: It's a race. For the novice Space Hulkamaniacs (like Frank) in our readership, I feel it's appropriate to go over some of the basics, and give the game a quick-and-dirty review.

Though it uses a 40k setting and 40k models, it is not 40k. It's a board game, and for the Space Marines, it's a race. Everything in the rules pushes the Space Marine player to rush towards the finish line: limited ammo, limited psychic powers, and -most importantly- unlimited 'Nids. This, to the seasoned 40k player, is counter-intuitive. Tyranids are the eat-em-first and ask questions later types, while Marines -though they shall show no fear- tend to have better heads on their shoulders. Fortunately for me, I'm awful at 40k, which makes it much easier to adapt to a not-like-40k-at-all board game.

The game's missions tend to be variations of capture the flag, in that the marines start at point A, have to get to point B, at which point they have to come back, do some third thing (like destroy a room with a flamethrower), or simply win. Tyranids enter the board as 'blips' - cardboard tokens representing 1-3 'nids each. One of the key strategy points in the game is who sees whom first. Blips are not allowed to cross into a Marine's field of vision (an infinite straight line in front of him) without being revealed first. Unfortunately for the Tyranids, not only does revealing a blip eliminate an element of surprise, but it wastes a whole turn, as a blip that reveals itself can't do anything else that turn.

The combat is pretty straightforward: Marines are good at shooting, Genestealers are good at fighting. It's set up so that marines can still win combat if they get lucky, and successful shooting requires a decent investment of resources to be effective. Special weapons and psychic powers can alter the odds in the marines' favor, but these are limited in both number of uses and effectiveness.

Everything done in the game requires an 'action point'. Each Tyranid model has 6 action points per turn, and can rotate for free. Space Marines get 4 points per turn, and pay dearly for their abilities, such as being on guard or overwatch, but they can move and shoot for a single point, and they get a pool of extra points at the beginning of each turn that can be used by any or all of the models as the marine player sees fit.

In terms of value, it's hard to go wrong with Space Hulk. The board pieces are thick, sturdy cardboard, and they're beautifully designed. They fit together like puzzle pieces, allowing the missions to each have a unique map. The Genestealer models are some of the best one-piece plastics I've seen from GW. You could easily paint these and put them on a 40k table. I've never seen the marine models, as Frank has turned them into some kind of hat, but let's assume they're neat-looking too. The mission book contains enough scenarios to keep avid gamers satisfied, and there's enough dice-rolling and strategy that they're still a blast to play through a second (and third, and fourth) time. Replay value is not an issue for Space Hulk.

Now, let's talk strategy. Remember: It's a race!

The maps all contain multiple routes to victory, and in the early turns the Tyranid player may feel that he can't possibly cover all the exits. The marine player, with all his special powers and weapons, may feel that some heavy tactics are in order. Post a guard, loop around, flank, that sort of thing. Here's the thing, though: Don't do that. No matter how clever you are, you're just going to run out of guys before your maneuvers are going to pay off.

If you're playing Tyranids, the most important thing to do is to identify the objective, and put a pile of bugs on it. Start with the most easy/obvious access points, and branch into connecting hallways when you have the resources. Avoid detection. It's generally beneficial to make the marine find your blips rather than revealing them yourself. Your goal is to delay the marine player for enough turns to amass an army of bugs that simply can't be overcome.

That's Space Hulk in a nutshell, folks. If you can get your hands on a copy, I'd recommend doing so. It's a great big game that never fails to entertain.

Oh, and happy NewYear from the Just a Rhino crew! We look forward to another great year of blogging, gaming, hobbying, and making fun of Frank! So stay frosty, keep your stick on the ice, and remember: it's Just a Rhino!


*I'm not tech savvy enough to post a video, and Frank has all the pictures. So, sorry for the lack of multimedia content here. If Frank is man enough, he'll post pictures when he's finished crying over them.