Space Hulk: Introducing Customization to the Game

Making the game a bit more personal

From the beginning of our Space Hulk adventures, we introduced customization into our games.  Everything from the armies we used, creating house rules, bases they stand on and the extra details we put on our models indicating distinguished accomplishments, honoring the other player’s army or taunting it.  My friend (Ron) has always had an affinity for the Deathwing so a beautiful Deathwing squad and placed them on square, recessed bases.  The recesses were filled with a cutout from a knitting grid that, when painted, resembled grating.  I was fortunate enough to pick up 5 Salamander Terminators at a swap meet for a measly 5 bucks! I re-painted them and, using Ron’s method, placed them on square bases as well.  While the miniatures that come with the boxed set are certainly amazing, having the army that you want to play with makes for, what I feel anyway, a bit more ownership in the game.  

Adding a bit of "flavor" after extraordinary play

For about a half year after the 4^th edition of Space Hulk was released, Ron and I would get together and play a few missions randomly selected from the accompanying mission book.  Then in July of 2015 we decided to play all 16 missions in order and record each player’s results to include the ratio of bugs killed against Space Marines killed in each mission.  The campaign lasted over a year and was greatly entertaining.  Full disclosure, Ron won the majority of the missions with an excellent kill ratio.  During this campaign, there were several awesome moments where a Space Marine would do something extraordinarily amazing.  We used these events to give a boost to that model for future play.  These were:

• Ron had a mission where a Space Marine (who he named Carl) armed with a Storm Bolter and Power Fist stood on overwatch and managed to mow down an inordinate amount of bugs while never jamming.  And I mean I threw a ton of bugs at him and not one set of doubles was rolled.  So we decided that Carl should get a special ability that he never jams.   
• On a separate mission, my Space Marine armed with a chainfist (named Fred) went toe to toe with a conga line of bugs and defeated every single one of them in hand to hand combat.  After raising a glass to his accomplishments, Fred was bestowed with a +1 bonus in close combat. 

 

Fred - +1 in Close Combat

We mutually decided that we should limit these bonuses to just these two models and haven’t looked back.  Yes they can be game changers in critical moments but not in a way that makes the game unbalanced.  It adds for a bit of extra strategizing when each of us is playing the bug side. When playing the Space Marine side, we need to strategize where Carl or Fred are in the formation in order to maximize their bonuses. 

Examples of customizations we have done

This post isn’t going to cover the rule changes we use since that is covered elsewhere so I will finish with the visual customizations we have introduced to the game.  These are:

• Model modification – specifically the assault cannon.  The cannon that come with the GW released model doesn’t really lend itself to being an overpowering weapon.  So cutting the barrels off and replacing them with longer ones makes for a more impressive weapon.  

 

Assault Cannon ala Predator!

• Honor markings – Ron uses feathers to designate certain honorifics on his models.  I use dragon (salamander) teeth on braids.  All are fashioned from green stuff.

Feather for Deathwing

Braid and tooth for Salamander

• Tokens and templates.  The bug tokens have been replaced with wooden tokens bought at a local hobby store.  These are painted black and numbered (by hand) on one side and artwork placed on the other side.  These are more durable and just “feel” right when moving them around the board.  Flamer templates have been replaced with templates that follow our rule modifications and look and feel like a blast of flame has engulfed an area. 

Bug blips (Ron)

Flamer templates

I think that about covers it.  We do create extras like barriers, consoles and other stuff but I think the above hits the main customization that has been introduced into our playing the game of Space Hulk.  I personally feel that these easy modifications add that much more to the enjoyment of the game and really give me an ownership feel in it.