Space Hulk - Gameplay

Gameplay

The game is set on a board made up of various board sections which represent corridors and rooms and which can be freely arranged and locked together like a jigsaw puzzle to represent the interior of derelict space ships. One player controls the Space Marines, and the other player controls the Genestealers.

The game is notable for its hidden play mechanics, from which it derives much of its playability and tension. The actual number of Genestealers in play is hidden from the Marine player, because the Genestealers come into play as "blips" which can represent: 1-3 creatures - or 0-6 in the Deathwing and Genestealer expansions - in the 1st edition; 0-6 creatures in the 2nd edition; and 1-3 creatures in the 3rd edition. On the other hand, the Marine player has a number of "command points" available each turn which are only revealed to the Genestealer player after they are used up. (In the second edition, the extra points were not hidden from the Genestealer player.)

Space Hulk won the Origins Award for Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Boardgame of 1989. Its first expansion, Deathwing, won Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Boardgame of 1990.

In the basic versions of the game, playing the Genestealers is very straightforward; so simple, in fact, that Space Hulk is quite playable as a solo game. Playing the marines on the other hand is engaging and tactically challenging - partly because the Space Marines player is constrained by a time limit for his turn. To overcome this shortfall, players are encouraged to play each game twice, swapping roles after the first play. The fairly fast play time (around half an hour per game), driven by the Space Marines time limitation, makes this a reasonable solution. The expansion packs for the First edition add human-genestealer hybrids, which can carry weapons and equipment, to the Genestealer player's forces, adding more depth for the Genestealer side.