Space Hulk: Just Keep it Simple...

I posted in May an article reference our approach to the way we play Space Hulk (going back to the beginning) and the affect of slight rule changes to missions that were created before we made them. 

I mentioned not being able to complete a mission that we were able to when that mission was created but neglected to say what the exact changes were.  Turns out, it was actually a single change that made everything go to crap.  That rule change was to give the Genestealer player D3 command points.  What an impact that turned out to be!

Enabling the GS player to have up to 3 command points per turn meant that the Marine player could no longer just count squares to see how far a particular bug could go and still be safe.  Yes, that is part of the strategy when playing normal Space Hulk which we refer to as "gaming" the game.  We wanted to add a bit more uncertainty (and stress) for the Marine player and limit the ability to "game" the game. 

We decided to go back and play our custom 5 mission campaign using the new GS mechanic.  As mentioned in May, neither of us could complete the first mission.  The mission is difficult as is using our normal rules so we decided to play the second mission with the new mechanic.

We played the second mission yesterday.  Ron started as the Marine player.  The game started out as expected with him moving smartly down the corridor towards the objective.  Ron is an extremely smart player and positions his models in such a way as to provide maximum support to all models in his squad.  But the addition of CP's for me meant he couldn't know if my bugs could make an additional move or not or react to his moves.  That ability for the bugs eventually resulted in a near wipe out of his squad.

Mission 2: Activate the Reactor

Looks ok so far

Things start to fall apart from here.

So we decided to play it again without bug command points.  We haven't played this campaign since we finished it over a year ago so the tricks to winning it were not fresh in our minds.  As I said above, Ron is a very good player and easily won this mission without losing a single Marine.  So the GS command points was a definite game changer and completely unbalances the game for us.  So that mechanic was ejected.

We normally end our gaming sessions debating keeping or eliminating a certain mechanic, discussion of adding a type of model (i.e. the Lictor), etc.   What we discussed this time was....

We always go back to the simple game.  We have been playing regularly now for over 3 years and during that time, we've tried out different mechanics in the game in an attempt to mix it up and keep the game from getting stale (sort of).  We've played using Harlequins in the place of bugs, hybrids with shooting abilities (ugh), put ambush counters on the board, tunnels, duct work, Librarian, Magus, Missile Launcher dude, etc.  And at the end of the day (yesterday to be exact) and using our core home rule set, we realized that it is our basic, simple 5 Marine squad vs. straight up bugs that is the most fun.  All the other things I mentioned above added either too much complexity or completely threw the game out of whack.

The great thing about our games is we are not afraid to try new things to enhance our enjoyment of this already awesome game.