Space Hulk

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.

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.

• First, in that the two players have different forces to begin with.
• Second, in that the two players may have different objectives to fulfil during a "mission" (the in-game term for a particular scenario of the game).
  • The Terminator player may have the objective of destroying a specified area of the board or a specified Genestealer piece or some other objective; and the Genestealer player may have the objective of destroying a specified Terminator piece or all of the Terminator pieces or some other objective.
• Third, in that the pieces of the two players move differently.
  • The Terminator pieces move slowly; the Genestealer pieces move quickly.
• Fourth, in that with regard to combat, the Terminator pieces excel at ranged combat, but they are weak in close combat; the Genestealer pieces excel at close combat, but they 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 amount 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.

On the one hand, the Terminator player has a variable number of "command points" available each turn which are only revealed to the Genestealer player after they are used up; these command points may be used to move the Terminator pieces either during the Terminator player's own turn or during the Genestealer player's turn. (In the second edition, the extra points were not hidden from the Genestealer player.) On the other hand, the actual number of Genestealer pieces in play is hidden from the Terminator player, because the Genestealer pieces come into play as "blips" which may represent multiple creatures. (1-3 creatures in the 1st 3rd and 4th editions; 0-6 in the 2nd edition; 0-3 in the Deathwing expansion; and 1-6 in the Genestealer expansion.)

In the basic version of the game, playing as the Terminators can be engaging and tactically challenging, partly because the Terminator player is constrained by a time limit for their turn, while playing as the Genestealers can be very straightforward. To overcome this asymmetry, players are encouraged to play each mission of the game twice, swapping between playing with Terminators and playing with Genestealers. The fairly fast play time (around half an hour per mission), driven by the Terminator player's time limitation, makes this feasible.

The Deathwing expansion pack for the first edition included rules for playing the game as a one-player game—that is, playing the game as Terminators using different mechanics for moving the Genestealer pieces. The Genestealer expansion pack for the first edition included rules for human-genestealer hybrids, which could carry weapons and equipment, and for a Magus and for a Patriarch, adding more depth for the Genestealer player. However, these additions were not carried over in the second or the third or the fourth editions, although the third and the fourth editions did include rules for a Broodlord.

Two types of spin-offs of the board game have been released - video game and card game.

In the August 1989 edition of Games International (Issue #8), Brian Walker admired the professional production quality of this game. However, he found the game lacked play balance, since the space marines nearly always lost badly. He concluded by giving the game a poor rating of only 2 out of 5, saying, "There are some great ideas buried deep in the bowels of Space Hulk, but at the moment ideas is all they are."[16]

Two issues later, in the November 1989 edition of Games International (Issue 10), Space Hulk's rating was raised to 3 out of 5, with the comment "Upgraded one star since our original review [...] as subsequent scenarios proved to be more balanced."[17]

In the April 1991 edition of Dragon (Issue 168), Ken Rolston called the 1st edition of the game "excellent", commenting on the "Expensive and elegant components, lovely alien Genestealer and Space Marine models, simple systems, and exceptionally clear rules with lots of helpful diagrams." He also complimented the "fast pace of play and lots of action and mayhem."[18]

In the May 1996 edition of Arcane (Issue 6), Mark Donald questioned its replayability and rated the 2nd Edition of Space Hulk a 7 out of 10, saying, "It's a fun game, a doddle to play, but it'll probably fade away to nothing once the initial playing frenzy is spent and all the missions have been played through to completion."[19]

Space Hulk was chosen for inclusion in the 2007 book Hobby Games: The 100 Best. Matt Forbeck commented, "Space Hulk taught me more about elegance in design than any other game. It's an icon of well-nested mechanics that build a system far greater than its parts. Better yet, every part of the game works to support not only each other but the game's underlying metaphor, giving a united play experience that's unmatched."[20]

• Space Hulk won the Origins Award for Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Boardgame of 1989.[21]
• One of its first expansions, Genestealers, won the Origins Awards the following year for Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Boardgame of 1990.[22]
• Space Hulk won the 2009 Origins Award for Best Board Game.[23]

• Challenge #43 (1990)

• Space Crusade

• Space Hulk at BoardGameGeek
• Space Hulk webring