Review: Space Hulk

Let's summarise the post already: SPACE HULK IS AWESOME!

Today, my local GW opened up their copy of the game, and let me tell you that it is easily worth it. There's a single red sprue - containing ALL of the Space Marine Terminators. That might sound like they're not detailled, but this contains 11 Terminators (including a captain and librarian). These are obviously all uniquely modelled, and even get named at the end of the Mission book

The other 3 sprues (I think) contain the Genestealers. The Objectives (the mech thing, the dead marine, and artefact) are all on one of the sprues, along with the Broodlord and some awesomely posed 'stealers. The other 2 sprues are identical, so you get a pair of genestealers bursting through the floor, for example

The mission book contains a fairly large amount of missions - these start small with small amounts of blips per turn, and then increase in awesome 'till you have to take down a Broodlord and loads more Genies

But the game? The store began by demonstrating Mission 9 - aka: get across a labyrinth of tunnels to escape. All of the marines bar the Captain (aka: Power Sword + Bolter) and 1 other terminator are involved. These are split into 3 waves, and a wave comes in each turn on a 4+ (command points may modify this). This means that the Marien player has a load of guys moving on fairly close to eachother if lucky. Game obviously ends immediately if all the marines are removed

There are 2 blips placed per turn

In my game, I was playing Tyranids with 1 other partner - who left early on, but was fairly successful with Blips thankfully =P. I was playing initially 2 people, and then they were joined by 3 more. This meant both teams didn't need much time per turn. Each controlled a wave, plus me and my Nid buddy happened to half the board (for control) and take a Blip each. I focussed on filling the lower area of the board with Stealers for the first few turns, and moving them to block off any corridors. My buddy swarmed too - aiming to rip apart the upper corridors while the Mariens were still entering. Both of us had little success at first, but the thing is that Space Hulk is a battle of time... and time is always on the Tyranid's side

Anyway, here's some highlights:
- The Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield guy was DEADLY! Literally he tore through more stealers than actually come in the box (always in groups of 10, of course) and took advantage of the Guard order and his shield (though for the first few turns of combat we did forget that the Shield only works at the front and possibly side - this meant nothing as we still failed!)
- I rolled a Triple 6 in combat against the Librarian, and he needed to use his last 4 Psi-Points to guard it. I still had an attack left over... I then promptly rolled low, and well died.
- Literally 2 dozen blips in the lower levels, all of either 2 or 3. Dammit that the marines never got there in the end!
- I guess the last one was the Assault Cannon termie. Turn 1, he has Overwatch on the guy. There's 3 blips nearby. He's facing in the right direction. Space Marine Turn 2, he turns in the other direction (expecting me to move the 3 stealers up there, instead of the blips.) I promptly use one of the blips (only 1 Stealer) to rip him apart. THE ASSAULT CANNON NEVER FIRES IN THE WHOLE GAME!!!
- The Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield guy above dying in the end to about 20 stealers going all the way to his position. He dies right next to the Dead Space Marine places there for climactic-ness.

Well, Space Hulk Review?
FIVE OUT OF FIVE AND THEN SOME!