Wargaming with Barks: Space Hulk

Showing posts with label Space Hulk. Show all posts

Friday, 8 November 2024

Space Hulk: reflections

I recently finished all the 'campaign' from Space Hulk (2014), including the 'Disable the shields' game from White Dwarf #33 (Sep 2014). The photos of this scenario are below. I've dragged this out over several years against the same opponent, knocking off a few games each year. I'm very glad to have completed all these games, which I have never done despite owning Space Hulk (1989) since the 90s.

The boarding torpedo screams across the void.

The Terminators break into the hulk.

Contact! A long corridor provides no cover.

The squad advances with mutual cover...

Jammed! A genestealer rips the heavy flamer marine apart.

As the plan falls apart, the far marine makes a slow break for the objective.

The genestealers swarm!

Jammed! The sergeant goes down.

The terminator sacrifices himself to buy time.

The sole survivor lumbers toward the objective.

He holds off the xenos long enough to disable the shields.
Victory! But at what cost?

I have long appreciated the elegant simplicity of SH: the tension of blips moving on the board, and everything swinging on single die rolls. 6s to hit in shooting with minimal modifiers; simple action points, line of sight, and square grid-based movement. There have been some changes from the 1989 original but the core experience is the same*. While the Terminator player gets D6 'Command Points' to spend every turn to give them a little action flexibility, the only surprises the Genestealer player has are how many xenos each blip represents. This does sadly lead to some predictable situations where you know exactly that you are unreachable this turn.

I can't help but try to improve this venerable classic- give the 'Stealer some random cards which maybe they pay for in blips, that they could use to move extra squares or appear in unexpected places.

I put quotation marks around 'campaign' because the games are not linked in any meaningful way. Win or lose has no effect on upcoming missions, and your deaths are miraculously healed. This is another area that could be improved.

I'm tempted to dig up the Deathwing (1990) expansion which, IIRC, had a mini solo campaign.

Is it time for a refresh of this venerable game, or should it be left at peace? Can you recommend a similar game?

* I cannot recommend the Genestealer expansion (1990), the psychic and shooting rules are clunky.

Friday, 30 November 2018

Space Hulk- Broodlord and genestealers

Phew! That's the end of my Space Hulk project!

I was very proud of myself in 2009 when I held off getting this, despite GW stating this game would never be reprinted.

Photo from Blood of Kittens

In 2014 when they reprinted it, I folded like a wet paper bag. It still took me four years to paint, and I guess we're due for another edition?!

So here's all 22 genestealers, on my Necromundan Zone Mortalis tiles with the Battlefield Accessories walls. I rebased the stealers on 32mm bases with my generic indoor/ desert basing. There are still some little details to be done, but if I'm honest, who's looking?

Space Hulk genestealers

The Broodlord, on a 40mm base.

Space Hulk Genestealer Broodlord

And, as a final bonus, here's the C.A.T. and a relic.

I couldn't get the Skullometer™ to read all the skullz on the stealers, but the C.A.T. and relic read 13.

Sunday, 18 November 2018

Space Hulk- all terminators painted!

I've finally finished all the terminators for Space Hulk. It only took me four years! I was getting a bit fatigued toward the end, and I left out some detail painting. Here are all their pics- note that I rebased them halfway through!

Space Hulk Blood Angel Terminators- painted and in the Detolf!

Sergeant Lorenzo

Sergeant Gideon

Librarian Calistarius

Brother Leon

Brother Zael

Brother Claudio

Brother Deino

Brother Noctis

Brother Omnio

Brother Valencio

Brother Goriel

Brother Scipio

Bonus dead dude

Phew!

Some thoughts:

Red is a challenging colour that I felt I had to master before I could commence this project, and I'm happy with the outcome. Army Painter Pure Red spray was excellent.
I'm glad I rebased them on 32mm sculpted bases, but wish I'd done it before I started.
I drilled out the barrels with a 1mm pin vice, which is such an improvement.
Most skulls: Librarian 26 and Dead Dude 27, but that's mostly from their scenery, so the winner is Sergeant Lorenzo with 15.

I've still got a dozen genestealers to go... and a C.A.T. ...

Friday, 16 November 2018

Space Hulk- Sergeants

I find it really hard to finish projects without a deadline. I've powered through and finished off the last of my Space Hulk terminators!

Bang! Bang! Gideon's thunder hammer came down upon her head. I quite like the details on his storm shield.

Sergeant Gideon

Storm Shield

Sergeant Lorenzo was a bit of a hassle to paint with all those gems, and I kept rubbing off the paint on his cloak. The winged grail on his back snapped off due to getting repeatedly snagged on the custom foam case (fail), and I had to carefully pin it to fix it. I'm happy with his power sword, it is a simple and quick technique that I think is effective.

Sergeant Lorenzo

Power sword

So many gems...

This weekend I will put up some squad shots and some thoughts.

Skullometer™:

Gideon 9
Lorenzo 15

Friday, 5 October 2018

Space Hulk- Heavy Weapons

Giving that little extra offensive edge, the Heavy Flamer and Assault Cannon give the marines some iconic firepower.

I had a practice game while these were not fully painted- in desperation, a surrounded Brother Zael immolated himself to try and save the day- and survived! A classic Space Hulk moment.

Heavy Flamer

Everybody's favourite gun- the Assault Cannon. I tried to give a heat bloom effect with graduated pale brown, purple, and blue washes- I didn't want to overdo it and it is a little subtle, but I'll be doing this in the future on other similar weapons.

Assault Cannon

Assault Cannon- heat bloom

Skullometer™:
Zael 8
Leon 8

Friday, 28 September 2018

Space Hulk- the rebasing commences

I just can't help myself leaving well enough alone- inspired by Tim from Saskatoon's excellent work, I've started to rebase my Terminators. I got some 32mm GW Sector Mechanicus bases off eBay, and crudely carved the existing base off Brother Claudio. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

I also added a rare earth magnet underneath with cyanoacrylate superglue, as part of a bigger basing effort underway at the Barks Bunker. And I'm putting the genestealers on 32mm bases as well. The Space Hulk board squares are about 31mm, so they don't cause serious problems with overlapping.

Claudio Skullometer™: 9

Thursday, 20 September 2018

Space Hulk- more Terminators

Here are the remaining Terminators with Stormbolters. For faceless grimdark warriors, they've really been able to give each figure character.

Valencio has a Chainfist, which I didn't hesitate to paint in hazard stripes. I like the crisp whites on his bolter wing thing, which is also reproduced on his right pauldron.

I love Goriel- sometimes in Space Hulk hand-to-hand fighting, the dice come up your way and you win the fight against overwhelming odds. He's clearly had a brutal fight and suffered damage to his armour and lost an eye, but he's very happy with himself. "I beat one of you in hand-to-hand! How many more to go? Oh- bugger..."

Omnio is the squad geek. I'm not sure if he's checking his social media feed or taking a selfie.

Scipio is the lateral thinker, who has clearly decided that remodelling is better than shooting.

(I didn't come up with the names.)

Skullometer™:

Valencio 7
Goriel 12
Omnio 5
Scipio 4

Do you have a favourite marine?

Friday, 14 September 2018

Space Hulk- first Terminators

I've finished my first two 'proper' Terminators. I keep finding new cables, gems, skullz etc that I have to paint... but I think I've nailed the reds and am making strong progress with the rest of the squad. It is just the plethora of details now.

Brother Deino

Brother Noctis

I regret choosing to paint all the gems as gems...

Skullometer™:

Deino 9

Noctis 3

Friday, 24 August 2018

Space Hulk- Librarian

After getting started on Space Hulk, I still wasn’t confident with my reds. So the first figure I painted was the Librarian- I find blue a very forgiving colour.

Space Hulk: Blood Angel Terminator Librarian Calistarius

I painted his robe and stormbolter red to tie him in a bit more with his battle brothers, but don’t know if that was really necessary. I like painting psykers' eyes because I don't paint the pupils. I’m not happy with his force axe. I had to freehand the emblem on his right pauldron. I do like the writing on his book and scrolls.

Skullometer: 26, mostly from the base.