Space Hulk 22 September

As Luke managed to get off work earlier than he expected we decided I would pop round to his, meet the new puppy, and play some Space Hulk. As I have said earlier, I was never a great fan of this game, and had only played it a couple of times, but bought the new edition solely on the strength of the Blood Angels to add to my Sons of Sanguinius. and how glad am I that I got this game!

Luke and I played the first two missions from both sides and it was fantastic. The rules are so simple, but the timer for the Marines mean you really have to think quickly and act fast. Once we start to manage two squads it will be a real challenge.

Mission 1 was a good learning mission, not too complex, but enough of a challenge. Luke played the Marines first and really looked like he was going to succeed until he jammed at an inopportune moment and the Marine was dragged down by a 'stealer. This opened up his forces and I killed another marine and the flamer carrier, ending with victory. All I needed to win Mission 1 was to have 3 marines alive when I lost the flamer and I was doing better than Luke. I adopted a less deliberate and quicker approach and it looked like it was working until, much like for Luke, a bolter jammed and a marine went down and all your careful fields of fire count for nought! But by using the flamer to cover one approach by burning zones, and the Sergeant fighting through the other I managed to get the show into the objective room and win the mission.

Mission 2 starts with the forces much more scatted and involves the marines closing off the entrances, or just killing all the genestealers. Again Luke took the marines first, and I proceeded to through 'stealers at the assault cannon. They may have died in droves, but they made him chew through his limited ammo. As he quickly closed the other entrances, I added more and more stealers to the mix until he ran out of ammo and started falling back, his comrades dragged down by weight of numbers. But then I can across the sergeant with his Thunder hammer and Storm shield and he held a door way and heroically killed all my remaining 'stealers. Victory for the marines. Roles then reversed, and I tried for a similar approach to Luke in closing off one entrance quickly and killing the stelaers at the other. But Luke was wise to this, and took down the Sergeant. Although on guard, he was cleverly attacked from alternating sides, forcing him to turn when he won rather than kill, and he was eventually dragged down as my luck ran out. At the other entrance I was holding on ok, until, yet again, a jammed bolter let a 'stealer in and that was it. As the hordes attacked it was just a matter of time, and when the assault cannon blew up on its last shot taking its user with it, you knew my marines were not going to get out!

So a mission each, bring on mission 3, and 10 marines to control!