Hulk-A-Mania

We played the new Space Hulk yesterday and we were all big fans of the original.

It was incredible. Moreover, it was beautiful. Where I play is a place that has a lot of non-gamers coming in and out. Friends, pizza people, friends of friends, etc., and we set up the board (mission 4) up in a place where anyone coming into the house would pass us up to see it. We had people oggling it, and not the miniatures which are phenomenal, but as per usual with GW, need to be painted (that's really a drawback in my opinion).

The game played smoothly. I found the time limit dynamic to be immaterial (on no turn did it ever actually matter), but I believe they resolved some of the issues of the original game and made it a heck of a lot better. I really like the on-guard dynamic, especially with the Storm Hammer sergeant who puts the fear of the Emperor into genestealers but who ends up not being able to move much. The game provides real tactical choices for game play and can be played in about an hour easilly.

I have, however, two major complaints. It seems to me that the doors are still a major problem in the game as it's far more easy to open them to break them (so why break them?). Genestealers end up spending far all their forward momentum closing doors behind them so as to keep up their shields. As a result, in both games, the marine players won (though in both games, they won with 3 out of 10 marines left!).

My second complaint has to do with the assault cannon which has all these strange rules associated with it once it has fired ten times. You'll probably never fire it more than three. We fired it twice in our game to take the objective. It is highly possible that this was mission contingent, but I just can't imagine a space hulk game going for ten turns, much less more. Part of the game's fun is that it doesn't take very long to play. Having said that, I'm sure I will run into a giant space hulk battlefield at some Con where the game takes forty turns, and the assault cannon's maximum of 20 shots will come into play, but for my money, games of that size are better played using the 40k rules (or even Apocalypse--yes, I did say that).

Regardless, though, I think the game is a great occassional alternative to 40k. It is beautifully constructed, and with more than 10 missions, has great replayablility. I'm sure that some people will flinch at the $100 price tag, but it's well worth it (though don't count on using the genestealers in a regular game, they're poses would prove innefficient for purposes of cover and line of sight).

New Rules, Old Codexes

When the new rules came out, I had just finished painting enough Thousand Sons to host an army, and a rather, inconceivably awesome armada it was. I had converted Rhinos to look amazing, I had decorated terminators and defilers with headdresses, I had found appropriatly crazy spawn...

And then I lost for about 6 months straight. I've moved on. I tried Orks, which admittedly makes me the worst player imaginable because I lost with them. My defense is that I didn't play them for long enough until I moved on. I've met with failure, likewise, with Necron, and have had some success with Eldar. I have felt in no position to offer advice, but here it is anyways.

The new rules are entirely unforgiving. You simply can't pick up an old codex and make your army any fool way you want. At one time, grinding out a point or two here and there gave you a slight advantage. This is simply no longer the case. If you are playing the necron and you are buying anything but phalanxes (monolith/lord/20 warriors), you are wasting points that will end up costing you the game. Thousand Sons are simply cost inneffective and an army of them cannot win. CANNOT.

Now, obviously, someone may play badly, but equally matched, rolling well, you simply paid twice as much for your army than you should have. Invulnerable saves aren't worth it except on guys with powerfists and lightening claws. Moreover, you pay for that force weapon and it can't kill anything anymore.

What's more, I find that cheat armies can stand up in the new rules with greater impunity. Feel No Pain means that you should always play Nurgle if you play Chaos. If you aren't, you aren't doing the math. Deathwing terminators as troops choices make them win, and win big, because you can't get them off an objective across a board.

Now, the good points. The truth is the newer armies are a hell of a lot more powerful than the previous editions which means that the game becomes more interesting. Cheat armies from the previous edition are as good as the normal armies for the new edition.

Lastly, and I think this is the most important thing--game play in the new edition is much better. Tactics really matter more than they did before, and mobility is key, even more than 3+ invulnerable saves. I think the Eldar and Dark Eldar are very good armies right now, but that means that they're evenly matched with the Marines--making it a good battle.

So, the problem is that you have to wait for your codex, but the good news is that, as it stands right now, once the new rules make you even with everyone else, the battles offer far more options for scoring a win.

My two cents anyways. When are they making the Necron Codex anyways?