In December I messaged a friend who’s a Space Hulk aficionado to ask for recommendation for a two-game campaign. He recommended Duty and Honour, an app released with a three-mission campaign for Space Hulk, suggesting that missions two and three make for some fun gaming. The Ultramarines are the chapter Duty and Honour is designed for, but with minimal adaptation it works well for Blood Angels.
I managed to play each of the two games twice: game 1 (well, 2 in the original campaign) with Ciarán (Genestealers) and Gavin (Blood and Angels) and game 2, both with Gavin with us swapping sides.
Mission 1: To Kill The Beast
In this mission the Blood Angels need to drop powerful explosives down a shaft to set off a cascade of explosions in the space hulk Hunter of the Void. The twist to this mission is that a Broodlord will be hunting them down too, entering behind them at a variable turn from turn five onwards!
In the first go through of this mission, Ciarán whittled my Blood Angels down and the Broodlord proved to be the ultimate hunter, taking down several.
In the second running, Gavin’s Blood Angels managed to achieve the mission with two brothers remaining. He gunned down the Broodlord with an Assault Cannon-armed marine, who was one of the survivors.
Mission 2: Back From Darkness
This mission is AMAZING! The Blood Angels are trying to get two of their number to a turbo-lift to carry them closer to the surface of the space hulk, where it’ll be possible to teleport them away from the imploding Hunter in the Void. This mission simulates the destruction of the hulk by having sections of the ship being progressively destroyed behind the advancing Blood Angels. So cinematic! This exposes the ship to the void, decreasing the combat effectiveness of the Genestealers.
The first play through saw Gavin’s Blood Angels get to about the mid-point in the mission, where new Genestealers were entering, but the stealers pounced on him there.
There was very little difference between how Gavin and I approached this mission. My run through was more successful, but I was lucky (really lucky!) several times. One sergeant in particular was living a charmed existence, relying heavily on his +1 in close combat and the Powersword’s ability to force a re-roll on the opponent’s highest dice! He prevailed in several combats that way.
Big thanks to Tom for recommending these missions. They are excellent fun.
Until next time,
Owen