Space Hulk

So anyway... first real post, how bout that....

You will never guess what I got in the mail today....thats right, SPACE HULK!!!!!

WOOOO HOOOOO!!!!!!!

Well because this is my blog (or at least 1/2 my blog....where is ansel that lazy bugger) I am going to give you my opinion on it because as someone more clever than I said, "opinions are like buttholes, everyone has one." 

So let me describe to you my butthole.... i mean opinion.

Well, the models are fantastic, and I am not going to waste time on that part of the box, as we all know that they are great. What I will say is that the terminators have more blood angels iconography than is healthy so unless you are willing to go through tons of work or you play bloodangels, these models are not worth buying just for 40k. 

Onto the game...

Maybe my opinions were set a bit high by the older guys that I play with who were ALIVE and playing warhammer when the original space hulk was released, but I did not find it to be the golden ball of solid awesome it was supposed to be. My first (and only) 2 experiences were playing with the genestealers once and the space marines once. I must say that as someone who played a fair amount of kill teams and very much enjoyed being the grunts or the kill team itself, I was disappointed in Space Hulk. I just really found no flair in playing as the genestealers, as they require the tactical know how of an inspired 3 year old to claim victory. "Hide round corner, smash marine on sight!" (apparently genestealers talk like cyborg-cavemen....thats what I just imagined when I typed that....its late) However this problem of under-complexity for the genestealers was reversed for space marines, as in my second game, my space marine kill team was quickly and efficiently overwhelmed by the combination of about 5 to 8 genestealers and some mildly inconvenient door placement. Basically after 2 games I found both sides unable to inspire me to want to continue playing, or paint the models for that matter, and as someone who never played the original game, some might say that I am not getting the full experience of spacehulk's 3rd edition release. In response, I say that I am just not biased and that all of your (assuming you are an upset reader who thoroughly enjoyed space hulk and played the original as a child) opinions are just too forgiving.

I was thinking about why I liked kill teams and yet was not fond of space hulk, and I am still quite surprised, given their incredible similarity. My verdict is that I liked kill teams not just because it was a smooth system (which is was) but more because it was everything space hulk tried to be, but less dumbed down. Space hulk at its core is meant to be a strategic expedition into enemy territory, in other words, stealthy. Kill teams represented this well with random grunt movement etc... Even outside of the system being less complex due to less random movement and such, kill teams and space hulk are both low model count games and as a result instead of an army theme to customize a 40k army, they are meant to give the player a chance to really customize his army, give his men backstories and invent his own characters. Space hulk strikes out here as it gives us awesome models that no one (including me) wants to touch to convert and bestow any extra character or uniqueness on. Then the stories and missions are all preset, unlike that of kill teams. So instead of a system that can be applied to many missions, space hulk is just a board game, like monopoly or chess. Relatively un-customizable, or rather equally customizable as painting your chess pieces red to be different.

I suppose that the reason that I didnt like it is that it strove to make each of its games have meaning by giving us cool models and backstory, but gw failed to realize that in the most basic sense, cool models and backstory don't mean half as much to the average hobbyist (me) as an averagely converted model with our own ridiculously silly backstory. Do ya feel me?

Anyway this all really makes me want to get my modestly converted all wulfen 13th company kill team out...

So I think I mapped out my butthole really well for y'all but if I failed to describe anything well I am sure you will be proactive and tell me about it in a polite comment right?

But anyway, CONGRATULATIONS!! You have made it to the end of one of my famous marathon posts.... WOOOO HOOOO now i can go to sleep.....