Space Hulk History

Below is a synopsis of the Games Workshop history surrounding products that either led up to or were influenced by Space Hulk. It will also have a few games that played in a similar fashion to Space Hulk as well.

Space Hulk is actually in its second edition release. A few rules have changed, but not many to radically alter the game. Originally, the first edition of Space Hulk also had supplements that could be purchased, which were released under the names of "Deathwing" and "Genestealer". The first and second editions of Space Hulk are quite similar except for a few changes - Space Marine Weaponry rules were changed and cosmetically, the second edition Space Hulk had better map sections and Terminator miniatures. However, the Genestealer and Deathwing supplements for the first edition were quite different in nature. Moreover, this section will also discuss other games that are not directly related to Space Hulk, but are similar enough in that they deserve to be mentioned. These games are "Ultramarine", "Space Crusade" and "Tyranid Attack".

Space Hulk Products

Deathwing: Space Hulk Supplement

Deathwing was the supplemental ruleset which expanded on the weaponry available to Space Marines in Terminator armor so that more miniatures could be used in the game. Originally, the only weapons available to space marines in this armor were guns referred to as "Storm Bolters", heavy flamethrowers often called "Heavy Flamers" and "Power Fists", large powered gauntlets used in hand-to-hand combat. In Deathwing, the new weapons introduced to the Terminator arsenal were grenades, autocannons, and the close combat weapons known as "Lightning Claws", "Thunder Hammers" and "Chainfists". Moreover, Deathwing also included a small storyline that gave extra background to the newly designed Terminator models of the Dark Angels Chapter (a space marine army), "Death Wing" that would be released during the introduction of this boxed set. Of course, it also introduced some new components to the game, such as barriers, and new board pieces. Thus, the Deathwing supplement acted as a nice way to introduce new rules into the Space Hulk game as well as introduce the new models available the gamer and hobbyist.

Genestealer: Space Hulk Supplement

Genestealer was the second boxed set of supplemental rules for Space Hulk. In contrast to Deathwing, which added weapons that strengthened Marine forces, this release offered additional rules and miniatures to both players. Genestealer introduced two new Genestealer models to the game: the Genestealer Hybrid and the Terminator Librarian, and Space Marine that specialized in psychic powers. While neither of these plastic miniatures were interesting sculpts, they were welcome additions to the game. In addition to these miniatures, the Genestealer expansion offered new rules Genestealer Patriarchs and Genestealer Maguses, lead miniatures widely available at the time. The Genestealer Patriarch and Magus represented the strongest psychic Genestealer pieces on the board, while the Genestealer hybrid (a part genestealer part human creature) might have psychic powers, or perhaps a heavy weapon for ranged combat. In this way, the Genestealer player was also able to produce a range of weapons to his or her arsenal as well. Originally, psychic powers were minimally introduced in the Deathwing supplement, but limited only to augmenting a Space Marine librarian. It was used in a totally different way, where psychic powers merely augmented hand-to-hand combat. However, in the Genestealer supplement, these rules were rewritten to create an extensive set of psychic rules - rules that became perhaps a little exhaustive and tedious to some players. Regardless they did greatly enhance the game to a point where it introduced a whole new way of planning strategies. In addition, this boxed supplement also added new gaming tiles as well.

Others

Ultramarine: A Space Hulk Spin-Off

While not directly affiliated with Space Hulk, this extremely short-lived game was produced as an introductory board game for people who may have not been familiar with the Games Workshop line of products. The rules were very simple and straightforward, and used similar tiles to the first edition Space Hulk board tiles. This game could support up to four players with their own squads of troops. The Ultramarine boxed set was important, because it was one of the first attempts for Games Workshop to introduce their new line of plastic space marine scout models. These models were, unfortunately, never to be introduced into the Space Hulk game. However, the scout models came with a newly designed version of the "Heavy Bolter", which also included an ammunition called "Hellfire" which was a new weapon to the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Sadly, this game had strong limitations, and did not fare so well or even attract much attention from gamers, even those loyal to Games Workshop products. Moreover, it provided a very poor introduction of background information that strongly conflicted with the Warhammer 40,000 universe's original theme. The most overt problem being the nature of the game: four space marine armies that similarly serve the Emperor race aboard a space hulk to retrieve technological artifacts. These armies want the artifacts so badly that they are willing to shoot each other over them. Now, in any normal game, perhaps this would seem logical, but this was a huge part of the Warhammer 40,000 history, that such actions were blasphemous and heinous. For more information on this matter, you should look into the Warhammer 40,000 history that discusses the Horus Heresy.

Compared to Space Hulk, it featured plastic scouts who fought against each other, thinner card stock for all pieces, extremely simplified rules (even compared to Space Hulk), and the worst facet of all, the gaming tray. Attempting to integrate the top of the box into the game, the underside featured a tic-tac-toe design where players could throw the dice into the box. If the dice landed a correct number AND landed in the right spaces could a player be killed or wounded. Players attempted to vie for relics and other items, while fighting against each other and random events. Perhaps fun for the simplest gamer, it attracted no attention from Space Hulk players at all, and due to a weak publicity effort, was not able to attract a new audience either.

Space Crusade: The Early Games Workshop Spaceship Boardgame

For those of you who even know what Space Crusade is you must be pretty old and may already have children. Most likely many of you have not seen it or never will. This was an early game prior to even the first edition of Space Hulk, and was difficult to find in the United States, produced in conjunction with Milton Bradley. The current street value of this game is roughly $80 to $100 USD. This game was also supported by its own supplements as well, and thus has its own cult of loyal followers. This game was much different from Space Hulk, but it was included in this list because of the fact that it's a Warhammer 40k spaceship type game on a board. But that was precisely the difference. Unlike Space Hulk which offers puzzle-like pieces to map out corridors and mazes, Space Crusade was on a single square board with four corner areas to enter each with their own smaller spaces. The layout is very similar to the original Games Workshop HeroQuest game, which is more readily accessible, even given its age. This game had some interesting miniatures, given that Space marines were also able to wield assault cannons, and less of the fighting was done by aliens such as Genestealers, and more often by random creatures aboard the hulk, such as androids, out-of-control Dreadnoughts, Chaos Marines, and every once in a while an ork. Other supplements were later added for this game, but I'm not very familiar with them, so I'm not going to tell you about them, so there.

Tyranid Attack/Advanced Space Crusade: The Second Space Hulk Spin-Off

Advanced Space Crusade was a game also reboxed as "Tyranid Attack". It was titled "Advanced" given the fact that there was an original Space Crusade game that was made in conjunction with Milton Bradley, but very different from it's sequel, most likely trying to live off of the original Space Crusade's good name. Essentially, the game boards were very different, in fact, they don't really resemble each other at all. The premise of this game was that fighting now took place in the bellies of giant, organic Tyranid spacecraft. Tyranid are an alien race that are brethren to Genestealers. In this game, space marine troops, would now be able to forge through the insides of the living craft, and hope to successfully destroy vital organs within the ship to effectively "kill" it, as well as it's hibernating inhabitants inside, the various troops in the Genestealer army. This game successfully introduced Tyranids into the realms of board gaming. Although Tyranid Attack had vastly different rules from Space Hulk, it's most unique quality is that it offered rules for many different troop types in the game: space marines in power armor, space marines in Terminator armor, space marine scouts, Tyranids, Dreadnoughts, Carnifexes, Genestealers, and a smattering of mind-controlled Chaos Space Marines and Orks. Later on, the Games Workshop periodical, White Dwarf, would also release further rules so that a full Ork force would be able to take part in Tyranid Attack as well.

In this sense, Tyranid Attack/Advanced Space Crusade had many components that could have made it a success. Unfortunately, it's largest problem was the fact that that the game was so linear. Unlike Space Hulk, which offered a maze-like quality that offered predetermined strategy, Tyranid Attack instead had a few large board pieces rather than many small interconnecting pieces. This greatly stifled the game, because it forced players to "react" in a game, rather than plan an attack. Granted, if the Space Marine force was going to attack a Tyranid ship, this is most likely how it would happen. However, what it implicated was that marine forces could not spread out on a game board and explore. Players were forced to run a group of models through the same single set of corridors, which often led to miniature "bottlenecking" on the table, and thus made it difficult to use their range of models available to the space marine player. It was practically impossible to move much needed troops that were at the back of a squad to the forefront, because of the lack of moving space. Thus, many models went unused that were in the rear, until the front end of the squad had been neutralized. However, for those who owned this game and Space Hulk, new scenarios could be imagined and improvised so that many different pieces could be introduced, and the Tyranid Attack board pieces played in a more useful fashion.