Space Hulk Deathwing Gameplay Video Review

"Inside the Sanctum Imperator these impious creatures will find much to conceal their whereabouts and movements. Be on your guard, brothers" 

The above is the opening line to the recently released 17ish minutes of gameplay footage taken from the Space Hulk: Deathwing PC game that will soon be released. The video of this gameplay can be found here and the image below is a screen capture of part of said video.

From the outset, the game comes across as a vast labyrinthine maze riddled with genestealers, genestealer hybrids and monstrous tyranid creatures. Almost from the outset the growls of the creatures can be heard in the background and that sets the ambience and purpose of the game straight from the word go.

The player appears to control a Deathwing Librarian. Initially, he is armed with a force sword and a storm bolter. But in later play, it becomes evident that he can trade these in for other armaments. Imagine, for instance, a Librarian armed with an assault cannon and a power fist. No problem for this computer game at all -- you get to have your cheese (and cake) and eat it here! Nice!

The video shows that as battle carries on, various portions of the terminator armour become more damages (see the centre right of the screenshot) and it is entirely possible for other members of the team (which in this video appear to be computer controlled, but can be given basic commands by the player characters) to get injured and even die during the missions. Luckily there is an apothecary with the main player character it seems!

Navigating the space hulk and twiddling doors open, closed and locked is all part of the tactics that can be employed here. But the thing is: given that you can execute pincer movement on the genestealers also means that they're going to try to do the same on you. I think this is evident at a number of critical junctures in the gameplay where the enemies come from multiple directions all at once.

The variety of bad guys is decent. Ranging from the hack and slash of the rapidly moving purestrain genestealers, through to the very ranged hybrids that tote missile launchers, and the large big bad guy tyranid monsters at the end of one of the levels (plus enemy psykers) makes for a potent mix. The space hulk itself is vast and almost more like a city than a spacecraft. I guess that's the point though!

The gameplay looks good with a nice combination of first person shooter style coupled with hack and slash of swords and power fists in addition to beautiful and potent psyker abilities employed by the main player character. The orders given to squad mates appear to be executed very nicely with the computer artificial intelligence appearing to do a rather good job of things. 

In terms of negatives, I thought that the repetitive nature of squad members declaring that there is a missile launcher up ahead was annoying. Very annoying. At least, I think it would get on my nerves a lot if I played this game for a while. If only they could have more and different dialogue recorded for the game it would not grate on me as much I think. 

There are some features that I don't quite fully understand either yet -- in terms of resource management and upgrading various bits and pieces. I guess that will become more apparent when the game gets fully released on Dec 9th 2016.

Overall, looks good, wish the dialogue was more, and more varied, and seems like it'll be decently challenging. 

Warhammer World: Space Hulk Classic

I'm sure I remember seeing this many, many years ago. It stirred something in the back of my mind at any rate and I certainly enjoyed seeing it on the shelves in the initial sections of Warhammer World.

This is a classic Space Hulk shot, with original miniatures of both terminators and genestealers, coupled with a custom, scratch built diorama set. The painting is good quality as well! Very impressed!

White Dwarf Number 122

A bit of a blast from the past today.  I'd like to feature White Dwarf volume 122 (UK; February 1990). 

On the front cover is a Death Wing Dark Angels marine (the artwork is curiously "eagle wing" -- the name of the terminator)  -- helping to support the sale of Genestealer / Space Hulk.  Also of interest is the prices in the top left: UKP1.50; USD3.95; AUD6.50; W.Germany DM 7.80.  How the exchange rates have changed!

The content features the usual round up of GW and citadel news and features a visit by Brian May (of Queen fame) to the design studio as well as a selection of works by 'eavy metal.

Konrad -- a WFRP character and series of novels -- features backgrounds and statistics of a number of characters including Anvila - a female dwarf with a hate of gobbos.  Yes -- female players and player characters were apparently rare.  Following this, the volume gives details about The Emperor Luitpold - a luxury liner in the warhammer world. 

Following up on the space hulk theme, rules are presented for traitor terminators, including rules for autocannons, missile launchers and conversion beam projectors.  Several new missions are also presented which give the traitors something to fight for.

Some blood bowl magic items appear next, followed by a series of Ork banners.  The stormboyz Khorne banners in particular are noteworthy -- those stormboyz did like Khorne a lot!

Excerpts from Realms of Chaos: Lost and the Damned follow, focusing on Tzeentch and a short advanced heroquest adventure about the "priests of pleasure".  Not sure if it is any good as I never truly got in to advanced heroquest. 

And there's also a section on "battlelines" -- w40k tactics.  The features a good length article on the most overlooked weapon in the game: grenades.  One piece caught my eye: imagine being chased by a dreadnought, but the marines being chased lob several crack (note the spelling) grenades every turn as they flee, but the dreadnought can't respond in kind with its own grenades!  Nice.  The parting advice is to spend points on crack, fragmentation and blind grenades for all units.  Those heady days when such items were optional upgrades!

September Army List Challenge: Result

Voting has closed. And I can now reveal that the winner is.... (drum roll) ....FOLKERT! Congratulations mate - you polled 35 per cent of the votes. Chris wasn't far behind with 29 per cent. All of the entrants armies can be viewed here.

Hope that you all enjoyed this contest. I'll get thinking about another one for future months. Cheers!

September Army List Challenge: Poll Open

The entries have been closed and now it's time to vote! The challenge was to create a Space Hulk strike force of 1000 points to take on a psychic Broodlord, his genestealers and any other hybrid monstrosities lurking onboard (who may be able to use small arms) and recover a flight recorder. Full details of the rules were posted here. There are five entrants for the September Army List challenge: Folkert, Chris, Lord, Raptor1313, and Capitano. Their lists are as follows and the voting poll is now open for one week.

(1) Folkert:
OK so here is what I came up with.. IG list that will flame those nasty Xenos from the metal corridors of the Space Hulk, I hope

Basically I took a lot of flamers and grenade launchers, filling narrow corridors with flames is always good and the grenade launchers can blast the genestealers with blasts and nastier critters with krak grenades, while standing behind the others who are carrying flamers, the Veterans can take quite a lot of fire and and will return with a punishing rate of fire thanks to the shotguns, the primaris psyker is there for thematic reasons and his psychic power, which can fry whole squads. the Ogryns are, well a meatshield really, but those ripperguns are nice as well. the platoons are for body count and fluff reasons (hey no guard without footsloggers right?) so here is the list:

HQ
Company Command Squad, Vox-Caster, Heavy Flamer, Grenade Launcher,
Carapace Armour, 100

Primaris Psyker, 70

Elites
Le Soldat Marbo 65
Ogryns (5), 210

Troops
Platoon Command Squad, Grenade Launcher (2), Vox-Caster, 45
Infantry Squad, Vox-Caster, Flamer, 60
Infantry Squad, Vox-Caster, Flamer, 60
Infantry Squad, Grenade Launcher,55
Special Weapon Squad, Flamer, Grenade Launcher (2), 60

Veteran Squad, Heavy Flamer, Grenade Launcher (2), Vox-Caster,
Shotguns (7), Carapace Armour, 135

Veteran Squad, Heavy Flamer, Flamer, Grenade Launcher (2), Vox-Caster
Shotguns (7), Carapace Armour, 140

Total pts: 1000


(2) Chris:
Inquisitor Lord Praetus was old, even for an Inquisitor. For almost 300 years he had served the Holy Ordos, purging the heretic, the unsanctioned psyker and the mutant. Though he was now frail in body, his powerful mind was as sharp as ever. Twice in his long service, he had believed the arch-heretic Warch Tressen was dead. Twice he had been wrong.

On discovering Tressen still lived, Praetus' extensive network of agents swung into action and tracked him the hiveworld of Karvin IV. Tressen had fled Inquisitor Praetus' purge of the lower levels of Primaris hive, and Praetus had tracked and pursued him ruthlessly. Tressen escaped capture for two years, but in the last few days Praetus has received
intelligence to indicate Tressen had boarded a space hulk which had recently drifted into the sub-sector. Tressen wants something aboard that hulk, and whatever it is Praetus will stop him from getting it. Unfortunately, the hulk is not as lifeless as it seems....

Inquisitor Lord Ishmael Praetus, Divine Pronouncement, psychic hood
3 Warriors with flamers [140]

8 Inquisitorial Storm Troopers, including a Veteran with combi-flamer, 2 flamers [110]
8 Inquisitorial Storm Troopers, including a Veteran with combi-flamer, 2 flamers [110]
8 Inquisitorial Storm Troopers, including a Veteran with combi-flamer, 2 flamers [110]
7 Inquisitorial Storm Troopers, including a Veteran with combi-flamer, 2 flamers [100]
7 Inquisitorial Storm Troopers, including a Veteran with combi-flamer, 2 flamers [100]
7 Inquisitorial Storm Troopers, including a Veteran with combi-flamer, 2 flamers [100]


5 Retributors with 4 heavy bolters [115]
5 Retributors with 4 heavy bolters [115]

Total: 1000 points

As you can see my list uses Codex:Witch Hunters, and the theme is fairly obvious: flamers.
Reading some of the stuff in the new White Dwarf about Space Hulk it looks like the heavy flamer is a pretty devastating weapon as you would expect in the tight confines of a Space Hulk, so I've gone all out with them. I'd have liked Dominion squads as they can pack 4 in a 5 woman squad, but a vehicle is compulsory with them. As it stands the list has 15 flamers and 6 combi-flamers. The Retributors with heavy bolters are there to hold strong points and cover advances. I took Divine Pronouncment on the Inquisitor as it would be useful for breaking lower Ld Brood Brothers, and his psychic hood has a good chance of nullifying any enemy psychic powers.


(3) Lord:
My list is based on the Eisenhorn trilogy, with several strike teams moving to take out important targets, often in relation with each other!

Inquisitor Lord, Force Weapon, Scourging (because the idea of lightening in a hulk is awesome!)=105
3 Close Combat Warriors, Familiar=81

3 Deamonhosts=255

Everesor Assassin=95

3 Deathcult Assassins=120


5 Storm Troopers, 2 Flamers, Veteren, Power Weapon, Bolt Pistol, Melta Bomb=91

5 Storm Troopers, 2 Flamers, Veteren, Power Weapon, Bolt Pistol, Melta Bomb=91

5 Storm Troopers, 2 Flamers, Veteren, Power Weapon, Bolt Pistol, Melta Bomb=91

5 Storm Troopers, 2 Melta Guns=70
=999

The idea is that the Inquisitor, and three storm trooper squads advance in one direction, with the heavy ST squad providing support, and cutting through walls with their melta. The Deamonhosts materialize where-ever, basically providing a distraction, while the extremely compact force works its way forward. The Everesor would seek out the head of the clan (broodlord, but should I take a Culuxes instead?) and the deathcult provide support.

This list would be demolished on a normal battle, but in the confines of a hulk, where shooting is minimal, it would be devestating!


(4) Raptor1313:
There is always the chance that a call about a fanged, multi-limbed, nightmarish horror will be confused for a call about Daemons. This is the story all about how an Ordo Malleus strike force got called in to take out...a bunch of genestealers. Sure, it's not daemons, but there might still be some proscribed artefact onboard the hulk, yes? Or, perhaps that's exactly why the OM got called in the first place.

Inquisitor Lord (45)
-Psychic Hood (20)
-Psycannon (30)
-3x Heavy Bolter Servitors (75)
170

Eversor Assassin
95

5 Imperial Stormtroopers w/ 2 flamers
60

Grey Knight Squad
-Justicar w/ Meltabombs
-6 Knights
-2 Incinerators
225

Grey Knight Squad
-Justicar w/ Meltabombs
-6 Knights
-2 Incinerators
225

Grey Knight Squad
-Justicar w/ Meltabombs
-6 Knights
-2 Incinerators
225

Total: 1000

What's the strategy? The Inquisitor and his Storm Trooper buddies basically serve as the mobile 'home base.' They find a place, secure it, and it's your fall-back point. While moving, the Inquisitor and the storm troopers can still lay down some fire, though the heavy bolters take time to actually deploy. (gotta brace, all that jazz).

The Grey Knights are your hunter teams. Each Justicar carries their own meltabomb supply, so there's plenty of demolitions love to go around. The knights also carry plenty of fire; and in close combat they're WS5, I4, S6 guys, which surely counts for something. They carry storm bolters for anti-troop work at range, in a pinch.

The Eversor is the guided missile/backup punch; once a high-priority target (IE: Patriarch) is located, the Eversor goes that-a-way. And, even if it dies? It explodes. One more chance to get that target.

Once the hulk is (reasonably) clear, the Inquisitor can then look for that proscribed artefect/daemon/macguffin that may or may not actually be there.


(5) Capitano:
Well then here is my 1k list of DOOOM...haha I am kidding...but this list works pretty well on the field...just take out that 3 man terminator squad and throw in some rhinos and icons...haha

HQ:
Chaos Lord w/Terminator Armour, Combi-flamer - 125

Elites:
3 Man Terminator Squad w/Terminator Champion, 2 Combi-Flamers, Heavy Flamer - 115
5 Man Terminator Squad w/Terminator Champion, 4 Combi-Flamers, Heavy Flamer - 185

Troops:
10 Man Chaos Squad w/Aspiring Champion, 2 Flamers, Power Weapon - 190
10 Man Chaos Squad w/Aspiring Champion, 2 Flamers, Power Weapon - 190
10 Man Chaos Squad w/Aspiring Champion, 2 Flamers, Power Weapon - 190

This list here is similar to what I use on the field but I use meltas instead of so many flamers...in the field I would use a 2:1 ratio for melta:flamers...but in the confinds on a ship I will just stick with the flamers...as there will not be any armour to deal with that soe power weapons cannot deal with and that is 12 power weapons right there 9 combi-flamers and 6 regular flamers on top of 24 bolters to fire into the hordes with the other 9 combi-flamers which are bolters as well...that and the flamers have a bolt pistol side arm if it gets that close as a last ditch effort to help out the firing range or if flamers become ineffective...

In the confinds of a ship I would max out the wounds you would have to take in a heart beat to make sure more of my men surivived...

Reminder: September Army List Challenge

A quick reminder that the May Army List Challenge is still open for entries! Follow this link for more details.

September Army List Challenge: Space Hulk

Well, it has been far too long since I've had a challenge on Warpstone Flux, so I've got a new one for you today!

You'll notice that I haven't mentioned Space Hulk in a very long time, but with all the new buzz about it, I got thinking about some old scenarios and re-read the old rule books (Yes - I've got the old edition of the game, as can be seen here). Whilst I'm yet to give in and purchase the re-vamped version of the game, I wanted to issue a Space Hulk related challenge. So, here it is.

Overview of the Challenge.
Space Hulk Eridanus IV has suddenly materialized on the radar screen in Segmentum Pacificus after almost 600 years of going missing - last seen heading away from the doomed (genestealer cult infested) colony on Raxus-5. You have strong reason to believe that genestealers lurk on board the Hulk. They might have hybrids with them (think: imperial guard with sharper fingernails) and your psykers suggest that there's a malevolent and very old Patriarch (think: broodlord psyker) alongside them. Your mission is to launch a swift strike on the Space Hulk to recover the flight recorder and determine what is on board.

Rules.
(1) Design a 1000 points (standard mission) strike-force army from any codex to take on a numerically larger, combined force of broodlord plus genestealer (tyranid codex) contingent that can also weather small arms fire from any additional hybrids (codex: imperial guard).
(2) The action takes place on board a space hulk. There's just about room for terminators to get down the eerie corridors (in single file). Dreadnoughts simply won't fit and rhino sized tanks are well over-sized!
(3) Think about your arms: you're going to need a balance of ranged weapons and close combat items to help you out in the confined fighting space on board the Space Hulk.
(4) Post your army lists as a comment to this posting and suggest why they're well suited to the mission.
(5) On Sep 14th 2009, I'll start a voting poll that will be open for 1 week to vote for what Warpstone Flux readers consider to be the "most effective army list that also best articulates the theme" (whatever readers interpret that to mean) out of all entrants.
(6) Winner will be tallied and announced on September 21st.

Extra kudos will go to unusual entries that don't use armies that are notorious for
Space Hulk boarding actions (e.g. Imperial Terminators; Death Wing and the like).

Remember, the real aim of these challenges is to help others design effective army lists that are both themed and effective. The theme here is Space Hulk. There are no prizes beyond honour and kudos!

Ork Hybrid

Not too far removed from Octavius, there is a remote M-class star, around which orbits a solitary Jovian type planet. In turn, a large natural Moon supporting its own atmosphere and biosphere orbits said Jovian. For millennia, little had disturbed the Moon. Little that is, until the arrival of a battered and stolen rogue trader's vessel. On board were chaos renegades, both astartes and humans fleeing from imperial space. It was on this Moon that their vessel set-down to carry out essential and critical repairs. And to evade both the chasing agents of the false emperor and the true owners of the vessel for a time.

Sadly for the unwitting renegades, they carried with them dormant ork spores: in the airlocks, under the soles of their shoes, and in a plethora of other nooks and crannies of the rogue trader's ship. They either had no time to follow standard biosecurity procedures or didn't know how to fully operate the vessel - no surprise given their lack of techpriests. The result was the same in either case.

On the Moon, the renegades were forced to stay marooned for weeks as repairs progressed painfully slowly. The weeks developed in to months. And the vessel came no closer to getting fixed despite the beseeching of the pantheon of chaos. The renegades had truly lost track of the amount of time they'd been there when they sighted the first ork and took their first casualties.

Resources were redirected into defending the stricken vessel; their home. Scouting parties were sent out. Repairs were halted. But it wasn't enough. The time between each wave of greenskin raid was perhaps over a year to begin with. Then months. Then days. They didn't hold out long after that.

In control of the Moon, the orks set about the old vessel with a new waaaaaaa in mind. With a more intuitive feel for the vessel's systems, they made quicker progress to repairing it than the humies ever did. It was then that the Great Devourer came.

A tiny splinter fleet, possibly from Octavius, perhaps elsewhere hungered for the biomass of the Moon. A remarkable thing happened, though. The orks repulsed the invading species. But somewhere along the line, a new species was created. Part ork, part tyranid. New orks emerged from the flora. The older orks saw them for the unorky creatures that they were and set about exterminating them. But no new purebreed orks were being created. All their spores were turning into hybrids. The hybrids came to replace the old order of the orks. They took over the repairs of the vessel and succeeded.

Aims and Model.
Rummaging around my bits box, I came across a very old plastic ork body and head. Originally, I had thought to create an ork-genestealer hybrid as I had also found an old space hulk plastic genestealer arm that had long since snapped off its original model. But I also found an old tyranid bone sword arm. Could I possibly use all of them in one model? You bet. Add in to the mix a chaos marine bolter (slugga?!), a khorne berzerker scabbard, a space marine shoulder pad, and I had all the parts for an interesting conversion!

The only parts that needed a bit of greenstuff was where the arms attached to the shoulder parts - they were the wrong size. The marine shoulder pad disguises this on one side of the miniature, but on the other side pure greenstuff was used to bulk out the shoulder joint.

Painting.
There was one rule here: the skin was to be something other than green! I chose purple in the end as it seemed fitting for a hybrid model. After undercoating in black, the basecoat was worm purple over the exposed ork and tyranid flesh areas. This was followed up with a purple ink and highlighting by mixing the purple with bleached bone in a number of layers.

The leather armour was coated in brown, inked brown / black, and highlighted with bleach bone. The bolter (slugga) was drybrushed in silver along with the shoulder pad and the scabbard on the ork's back. Red was applied on the lower portions of the scabbard, the bolter, and across the shoulder pad. However, when I painted this miniature it was a very warm day (some 30 deg C with high humidity) and the red didn't dry evenly on the shoulder pad. As it dried, it cracked over. At first I was very bothered by this. But then I thought: wouldn't the original renegade's equipment be remarkably damaged by this point in the narrative? More than likely. So, I left it as is and painted Khorne's symbol over the top of it.

The bone sword was painted in sunburst yellow, progressing to white toward the tip. Brown and bleached bone was applied to the lower portions of the sword and a similar prescription was done with the genestealer claw arm. Several streaks of brown were carefully drawn upward on the bonesword to make it look old and well used. Final details (eyes, teeth) were completed in bleached bone and white.

Evaluation:
Positives: A most unusual miniature! I like how this has turned out on the whole; especially given how many different spare parts make up the creature and the various painting styles (genestealer, Khorne, ork) that were used.
Negatives: I got worried by the cracked red paint on the shoulder pad, but grew to like it. Further, I'm genuinely worried I might start a chaos-worshipping ork-hyrbid army now. Can I resist?

Space Hulk Genestealers

Although my main W40k interest certainly lies in the various forces of chaos, I remember fondly the days of Space Hulk. My wife and I played a few games of Space Hulk a couple of months ago (which I lost pitifully, for the record), at which point I dusted off the old genestealer models and re-evaluated them.

Comparison.
The old genestealer model is pictured here side by side with the newer version; both unpainted. Ignoring the different plastic technologies, it is readily clear that the newer version is much more dynamic and can be posed in a varitey of ways. The sculpts are also subtly different: the new version's exoskeleton appears stronger with fewer weak-spots compared to the older counterpart that (for example) has exposed flesh in the centre of the back.

The new model's rending claws are also better looking, but the more human, rear pair of hands are broadly similar. I might go as far as to say that the older genestealer's human-like hands are preferable given their dynamic look; the newer one can appear like it is about to slip on a pair of mitten gloves before venturing out in to the dank, chilly service tunnels of the Space Hulk.

The odd older model genestealer can provide variety within a brood of genestealers on the tabletop, but I don't think it looks as good as mixing in a Rogue Trader era plaguebearer with modern counterparts: older genestealers simply look out of place and ... less evolved. Moreover, I think making any biomorphs look consistent between the older and newer models would be very tough to do. But how about an entire brood of older models?

Pictured here are two broods, a ten strong brood in classic Space Hulk colours (Hive Fleet Behemoth vanguards?) and a five strong brood (non-viable in the current codex since they're below the minimum brood size) in green exoskeletons and purple flesh. These models are over 15 years old now and my painting style has evolved a long way since they were painted. A painting scheme will not be provided for them because of that reason, but perhaps their look might inspire a new paint scheme?
Looking back, they are certainly dated and not as well painted as my newer miniatures, but I wouldn't be too ashamed to field them on a tabletop despite the uniformity of their pose (apart from one model which used a hybrid's arm set, if you look closely).