Retrospective: Space Crusade

Well, this is where it all began. The first GW game I played (I suppose it was Milton Bradley, but come on, the rules were GW, the figures were Citadel, the background was Warhammer) was Hero Quest, but the second was Space Crusade. Both of them made a huge impact; I blame the first for my interest in role-playing games, but the second is the one that probably also made me a wargamer. Certainly I reckon that Warhammer 40k sings closest to my heart at the moment. I played the hell out of this when I was a kid; I got the chance to play it again last year when Greg unearthed it from under a pile of games, and you know what...it's as much fun now as it was then!

OK, the basics of the game. Two to four players, one of which is playing the 'Aliens', the remainder get to command a squad of Space Marines. The three Chapters on offer are Ultramarines, Blood Angels and Imperial Fists; as I recall I always played the Ultramarines, which is probably subconsciously why I ended up choosing that army when I returned to 40k last year. Well, that, and that there are metric tons of them on eBay, and my painting skills are, frankly, poor. Interesting here that the Dark Angels and Space Wolves are not represented, and probably telling of the time; the Imperial Fists were being heavily pushed in the books being written around then, and the Ultramarines and Blood Angels seemed to be the other Chapters heavily featured – the Crimson Fists already descending from their Rogue Trader prominence. (Now that's another post, and potentially another army at some point – the 'Forgotten Chapters' of Rogue Trader that faded from view...I have the vague notion of a 'Crusade' army comprising Flesh Eaters, Flesh Tearers, Blood Drinkers and Rainbow Warriors – at least the Silver Skulls and the Crimson Fists still get some love.)

The goal is simple – purge the aliens from a drifting Space Hulk, the aliens consisting of a healthy mix of Gretchin, Orks, Chaos Marines, Genestealers, 'Androids' (Necrons in all but name, years before that army first hit the table) and a mighty Dreadnought. A five-man unit of Space Marines from one to three of the Chapters is sent in to complete twelve missions, strung together into a loose campaign, complete with promotions and bonus equipment for winning, either for the Alien or the Marine player. The Marines get a wide range of equipment, ranging from standard Bolters to Missile Launchers, Autocannon and Plasma Guns – essentially a rather oddly-equipped Tactical Squad, by modern standards. Certainly wish a Tactical Squad could take an Autocannon today! There was a choice of weapons for the Sergeant, as well – Bolt Pistol and Axe, still a pretty decent load-out, Heavy Bolter, or Combi-Weapon. Well, two out of three legal ain't bad.

Like Space Hulk, you didn't see the Aliens until they got into line-of-sight; before this, they were represented by blips moved across the board. The board itself was pretty good – lots of rooms and corridors, with a three-dimensional element as well representing bulkheads to traverse through. What appeals the most to me today – especially given what I am planning to do – is that there is a rather nice potted background in the books; the rule book essentially has a comic built into it outlining a mission that goes completely wrong (which I am using as my background starting point, about which more next week).

There were two expansions for this, as well as a couple of articles in White Dwarf. The first expansion, Mission: Dreadnought, added an additional, larger Chaos Dreadnought to fight, as well as adding some additional weaponry for the Marines to deploy – a Lascannon, a 'Fusion Gun' (actually a Multi-Melta) and a Conversion Beamer. Again, very Rogue Trader! There were also three 'Tarantula' support weapons and gunners for them; twin-Lascannon mounts, which in the 2^nd Edition games I played were always a core part of my force! Rather regret that they have been taken out of the Codex...I rather miss them. Not that I could get any for love or money... This book had three scenarios in it, which basically just bolt on to the twelve from the core box.

The second was Eldar Attack, which provided a squad of ten Eldar – Dire Avengers, though with an awful lot of weapon options beside the normal Shuriken Catapult – and a few scenarios to run them through. Only one of them included the Space Marines, intended as the culmination of the campaign; this one always seemed rather more disjointed to me. I had both of them, naturally!

The two White Dwarf articles – from 134 and 145...one was useful, one less so. The first I found less so, in that it simply added rules for Scouts and Terminators to the mix. What you would do with them was not explored, no scenarios or anything were added. I presume this was for some back-compatibility with Advanced Space Crusade, perhaps. 145 was much better, and still reads well now, consisting of a five-part campaign involving tracking down a rogue Adeptus Mechanicus researcher that had been exposed to Genestealer gene-seeds. Again, this is primarily back-compatibility, this time I suspect with Space Hulk, but it works because you get something to do with these rules and figures.

Fundamentally – this remains a good introduction for the setting. On eBay they seem to go for small fortunes as a rule, but if you see one in a Charity Shop for less than £15, buy it! If it isn't complete figures-wise, those aren't hard to find these days. Well, you might have trouble getting an Autocannon or a Conversion Beamer...