Multy Player Spacehulk

[Morty]

I was going through My massive collection of space hulk articles and rules and I thought i would share.

It uses the boarding force lists from Space hulk and WD for each player (recommended 20 Pt's each) and is intended to pit any race Vs any race (well Space Marines, Chaos Marines, harlequins and Imperial Guard)

In case you are wondering the Space marines list is from Gene stealer and Death wing the 2 expansions for space hulk, the Chaos marines, Harlequins and Imperial Guard are all in Various WD and the Space Hulk Campaign book.

Natraly since the game is intended for multyplayer there are a few notes on how the games rules interact in the game.

[Morty]

Hear is how the rules are modified

and the suggested layout (requires 2 sets to make) for up to 8 players.

and the objective blip set (1 set required per 2 (or part off) players

[jack da greenskin]

One thing I was thinking about for 4 player space hulk was playing 2 1vs1 games, with the marine players going at the same time, and then rotating round so all players play nids and marines for both missions.

[Morty]

Yea i have done that 2 but some times it's just fun to unleash the carnage off a truly evil me Vs you Vs you and Vs you just for all the back stabing and dealmaking/breacking that goes on

[Destructorn]

A friend of mine wants to play a three-player game where all three players are opposed- one team controls Marines, one team controls Stealers, one team controls Chaos Space Marines. Could this work? Do ANY missions exist that could operate in this structure?

[Necanthrope]

As far as I know, no such missions exist, Destruction. To be honest it would be a difficult missions to balance right. My best suggestion would be to try mission 3 "Rescue" from space hulk 3e with the two space marine squads competing to retrieve the C.A.T.
It would probably give the genestealer player a big advantage to have the marines working against one another though.

It would throw up the problem of marines shooting at marines though, and the current rules have no solution to this. My best idea for a good fudge would be to give marines "hard to kill" against storm bolters like the genestealer broodlord.

For the C.A.T's movement roll a d6 each turn 1-2 it is controled by marine player a, 3-4 it is controlled by the genestealer player 5-6 it is controlled by marine player X.

Instead of taking the C.A.T off the board in the square marked on the mission map, the marine squads have to return it to the area they set up in.

Victory for the genestealers would be that both marine squads are wiped out, with second place being awarded to the marines that held the C.A.T for the longest time.

Victory for Marines would be to return the C.A.T to their own entry area, with second place going to the genestealers if they have wiped out over half of the other marine squad, and to the second marine squad if they have not.

Since I had nothing better to do, here is a map for the mission. with deployment areas, and a marked square for where I suggest placing the C.A.T at the start of the game.

[Destructorn]

Thanks Necanthrope, that is a great idea and I'll give it a try. I think a lot of missions, with the correct amount of tweaking, could be converted into 3-player missions, but this one certainly seem the best idea. You're right about it giving a huge advantage to the stealers, though- and it'd be very difficult to keep the balance without making major changes. A conundrum!

As for Chaos Space Marines- those rules already exist! Basically, Marines are treated as just as 'tough' as Stealers, so the rules for shooting and close combat remain exactly the same. These rules are available (for first edition) in the 'Space Hulk Campaigns' book- DM me for further details.

Anyway we're playing on Weds so I'll let you know how it goes!

[Necanthrope]

Your most welcome Destructorn. Let me know how the game goes. It's actually got me thinking quite a bit about three player space hulk. I'd love to write a campaign of three players misions. Blood angels against the Black legion on a Genestealer infested hulk, with opposing terminators racing against one another to recover Blood angels relics before the hulk vanishes back into the warp. Obviously the black legion wants them for it's sorcerers to defile, while the Blood angels want to retrieve them for safekeeping on Baal.

[Destructorn]

I think that's a great idea. If you have the time to playtest then I can definitely pitch some missions at you. I have plenty of time for writing missions but not much time for playtesting, which I think it a prerequisite for a balanced game.

[Destructorn]

Okay! The three-player game has been played and it was a HUGE success. All players agreed that it was some of the most tense, nail-bitingly close Space Hulk we'd ever played- and that is saying something for a game that is as generally tense and nail-bitingly close as Space Hulk!

So the first mission we played was the one your suggested, Necanthrope: 'Mission III: Rescue'. The Imperials deployed in area A and the Chaos marines deployed in area B, with the Cat deployed in the T-junction that was equidistant between them- the goal of both teams was to pick up the Cat and then escape the board via the OTHER team's deployment area. Because the Terminators were seen to be as a disadvantage, each team had the following squads:

One sergeant with Thunder Hammer
One Flamer
One Assault Cannon
Three Storm Bolters

The additional 'heavy' unit was because it was deemed unfair for EITHER team to lack a flamer or an assault cannon, since flamers are so tactically useful.

The turn order we played was: Imperials, Chaos, Stealers. Both marine players drew CPs from the same pot (so they never drew the same amount of CPs). This was another advantage for the marines, as each SQUAD had their own CPs, rather than all Marines.

Anyway, it went really well. The great thing about it was that, because the marines were hopelessly outnumbered by Stealers, a sort of co-op mentality started to evolve, in that the two marines forces had to work together just to survive. Indeed, one hilarious moment had the two Thunder-Hammer marines, one Chaos and one Imperial, standing back to back with each other, with no time to turn around and attack each other because they both had massive amounts of stealers to deal with!

That's not to say there was no marine-on-marine action, however, probably the funniest part of the battle was when the two assault cannon marines had a mexican standoff with a door between them- one on overwatch and the other blazing away, so everytime one fired, the other fired as well! The Imperial Marine took down the Chaos marine, but while his attention was distracted a genestealer took the opportunity to run in and take down the Imperial assault cannon.

Incredibly, for a game that was so stacked against either of the marine forces, the Chaos marines eventually won! Eventually the Imperial Thunder-Hammer was taken down, but the Chaos Thunder Hammer was seemingly unstoppable in CC, and smashed his way through to the CAT as it trundled merrilly (oblivious to the carnage all around it) through the hulk. Thanks to two very good CP draws, the final CSM picked up the Cat and plunged like a linebacker into the two stealers between him and the escape route, before running like a bastard to escape. He had a dozen stealers nipping on his toes but just made it out of the exit on his last CP. VERY tense and a victory that went right down to the line. Perfect Space Hulk, I couldn't have planned it better!

The second mission we played was 'Mission IV: Decoy', again with six marines on each team (same squad config as above). The winner for this match was the player who got the MOST of their marines to the exit point. Things got very hilarious very quickly when the Imperial player decided to trust the Chaos player not to flame a room in which most of his marines were standing. Chaos being Chaos, however, that is exactly what he did and the Imperial player lost half of his force in one fiery conflagration! In a fit of pique, the Imperial player took revenge by using his Assault Cannon to gun down two of the Chaos marines!

As the genestealer player I found all this infighting very amusing and I think the marines realized they'd never get past the first room if they all killed each other in it. In an incredible display of trusting someone who has just immolated half your men, the Imperial player AGAIN turned his back on the Chaos player (to provide him with covering overwatch, no less) and this time his trust was validated as the Chaos player realized they'd never make it on their own.

My stealer army had been gathering all this time and so now the collective Chaos/Imperial players realized they had to fight through quite a swarm to reach the exit, all the while being dogged at their heels by stealers from the other direction- they were literally surrounded. Through careful placement of Assault cannons (both flamers were lost during the infighting) they made their way to the final corridor, but by this stage both corners had giant conga lines of `stealers literally queuing up to get at them (although with three squares between them and the assault cannons, anyone who made a run for it got gunned down pretty smartly.

Finally, the Imperial assault cannon (and last imperial standing) was a mere three squares from the exit. He had to make a call- run for the exit or stand there holding it for the two Chaos marines still two corridors away? The Chaos player told him to run for it. The Imperial player wanted to hold the corridor and get at least one Chaos marine out (and call the game a draw). But there was no tactical way for the Chaos player, beset on all sides, to make it. The last assault cannon marine ran for the exit and made it out! The two last Chaos marines, standing back-to-back, held out valiantly for another two turns- but as soon as the assault cannon clicked out of ammo, the stealers quickly moved in for the kill from all directions and took them both out. The Imperial player, having trusted Chaos and been betrayed, and then trusted Chaos AGAIN... had his trust validated and as a result won the game. I guess the lesson you can take from three-player Space Hulk is that sometimes you have to work with your enemy in order to prevail.

As you can see both games were literally right down to the final few moments- a VERY close victory in both matches- which is amazing as I was sure the `stealers had a HUGE advantage in taking on two opposed forces. The great thing is how the system encouraged a sort of fragile alliance between the two teams, with both players knowing that they needed each other but also that they couldn't BOTH win, so that betrayal would eventually have to be necessary.

Here is a photo from the first match- you can see the Imperial marines in the far background. Unfortunately my Chaos Marines are not fully-painted yet so apologies for some of the ugliness on display:



All in all two VERY cool matches that actually balanced out really well and were both very worthwhile matches that I'd highly recommend playing!

[Morty]

Wow! Sounds like you had a great game. never thought the 'Resque' mishion would work as a multy player game myself bucuss of the degree of co-op needed betweennthe 2 forces.
and as for terminator's I agree that giving them 'Hard to Kill' makes up for the fact that they are now being shot back at