My little current project to read and discuss 40K 2nd edition is also leading me to make a Something Awful Oldhammer 40K thread and of course the board games are going to come up. So why not share some pictures and a little bit of info on three of them?
The games I own are Space Crusade, Advanced Space Crusade, and Tyranid Attack.
Space Crusade was my board game "holy grail" for many years until Ebay and a bit of money finally netted me a mostly complete and in decent condition copy of it. I first learned of the game in Dragon Magazine when it and its' sister game (Hero Quest) were reviewed. I am not sure I really even knew anything about 40K at that point but all the bits and gubbins in the box plus what the game was about sounded SO AWESOME OH SO AWESOME. Sadly it never got released in the US nor did the two expansions bringing Eldar and Space Marine Heavy Weapons Platforms into it. Which is honestly a tragedy because this game is great. Not too complicated but with a lot of atmosphere and tension as your squad of Space Marines have to complete a mission and the Sergeant can level up and advance while doing so. Unlike Hero Quest you control one of three squads of Space Marines. The Ultramarines, Blood Angels, or Imperial Fists get to get stuck in and you can outfit your unit with various weapons that can be easily plugged into the models to fit your play style.
And of course another player takes control of the aliens on board the derelict space ship. (A Space Hulk for you story nerds.) And unlike that more famous board game, this one gives you Orks, Chaos Marines, Genestealers, and Necron units to fight against including a Dreadnought. With more units to help and hinder in a couple issues of White Dwarf of course! (And thanks to the Internet these rules are relatively easy to find now. The expansions not so much. Kind of like my efforts to get to play this game more than once every other year or so.)
(Click for bigger and apologies for the flash glare. Detail over a bright spot.)
One of the two English language box covers. It had a couple of different names depending on where it was released with of course Germany being a killjoy and taking out the killing somehow kind of like an anime edited for US TV in the 70-90s. (HFIL anyone?)
LOOK AT THIS PILE OF RADNESS. A massive board with doors and the like to make the ship variable in layout! 3d elements like bulkheads and said doors! Hidden blip counters to keep you guessing! Control tablets to record damage and battle honors!
One day I really do plan on giving this game a full review. It is just so good!
And much like Hero Quest it got an Advanced cousin from GW themselves that used D12s and was a LOT more complicated of a game. I passed this one up back in the day because it didn't have the toy value of what Space Crusade was. The same with 1st edition Space Hulk. Because I am stupid.
Rogue Trader Tyranids and those silly poofy sleeve mohawked Marine Scouts!
More of that Oldhammer 40K art and the box back. It has a simpler and funner game called Tyranid Attack which actually had a better variety of models in the box but both games have the same basic concept: Squads of Space Marines (usually Scouts but both have rules for other forces. GW gotta make that paper! Except in a way where you want to give them money to make your game more fun and varied as opposed to obvious money grabs. Also this is the kind of thing that got people playing the proper 40K game. I mean you already have some models, why not go all the way?) enter a Tyranid ship in space and try to blow up critical elements of the ship that will break it so it is effectively crippled. Both ASC and TA share map boards and some component pieces. I have both games in the box as my TA was just the non minis components I got off someone in the mid 90s which means I could make mega hive layouts if I wanted to.
On the left of each group of three scouts is the ones that came with these two games. The middle metal guys are the late 90s metal scout models with the fellows on the right being the current plastics. I think the metals are the coolest ones personally. Sure they don't have the weapons loadout flexibility of the modern guys but they just look nicer to me. I even modded two of them to carry the Heavy Bolters from their poofy sleeved ancestors so my set will be better looking. (I am more than happy with the classic Tyranid Warriors though. I love those models.)
Using the same jigsaw styled lock on board connectors as Space Hulk (as far as I can tell my second and third edition copies of the game work with them. Again, I don't have first ed SH. Yet.) the board sections are generally geomorphic and can attach in a number of different ways to make different layouts. The board art on the six layouts (with a 7th you could get from White Dwarf and glue to cardboard) are honestly a bit garish but it makes for some nice ooky corridors and rooms. Sadly the designs can only be attached on correct side to side formations but a little finagling could maybe even split them into double corridors. You just need to make a 1" or so connecting piece to fill in a gap. There is quite a bit of flexibility though!
Even some info and paint advice on the sides of the box bottom.
And a glamour shot of some of the other models available at the time, some of which I have never seen before like the Ancestor Lord and the Arbite with Power Maul! I am loving that Chaos Squat in Power Armor too!
I even have some of their electronic ports because my first experience with Space Crusade was a demo disk on a 1992 Amiga games magazine from the UK at a store that imported such things. It is why I chose that issue! Yet again it never got a US release but I did eventually get the PC DOS version imported on CDROM with Hero Quest's translation. Have both of the PC Space Hulk ports of the old days though!
Not a bad game in the bunch here! A couple that weren't perfect mind you but not a single bad title!
If you would like to see the Amiga port and maybe learn more about Space Crusade in a manner you can more easily play it well just go here and you can even see the other ports of the game:
(It doesn't seem as if the PC port got the expansion pack either. Poopie!)
Here is an emulator screenshot of the Atari ST port. The 68000 machine with normally 16 colors to the Amiga's 32 to the Genesis' 64 to the PC VGA's 256. But ST emulation is generally easier than Amiga. Also I wouldn't want to blind you all with the rather bright colors much of the DOS version I own uses.
Here is an emulator screenshot of the Atari ST port. The 68000 machine with normally 16 colors to the Amiga's 32 to the Genesis' 64 to the PC VGA's 256. But ST emulation is generally easier than Amiga. Also I wouldn't want to blind you all with the rather bright colors much of the DOS version I own uses.
Isometric view is mostly just for the limited animations in combat resolution. Normally it plays top down.
Now these are just some of the 40K boardgames made in the classic era. I haven't shown 2nd edition Space Hulk here and sadly I don't own the hex and chit wargames they made, Space Fleet, Ultra Marines, or Lost Patrol even though I would love to own them. I have the remake of Horus Heresy but I really don't count that as a classic era game even if it is a remake. Much like 3rd edition Space Hulk even if it is an amazing game.
35 bucks for a 100 dollar game? YES.
The back of the box. Sexy!
If you would like to see the same mission played in both of the editions of Space Hulk I own however, I have you covered:
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