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So what do you feel it is that makes Space Hulk such a good game? Rather than discussing the models themselves, this is more about the actual gameplay factors.

I mean, the basic rules are now 20 years old, and yet the gaming community has rarely said a bad word about them. Nor are they particularly complex. Pick up your dice, roll them. Succeed or Fail, rinse and repeat.

To me, it's that the game lives up to it's tagline of 'desperate combat'. Space Hulk is not an easy game for the Marine player. Limited men versus unlimited opponents, and often those unlimited opponents need only eliminate a certain one of yours to win. This to me is the appeal. You (well, I) get a genuine sense of achievement with each mission completed, and yet even when facing yet another failed sortie into the Hulk, you are usually up for retrying it once more, seeing a duff move here and there.

What do you think it is?

It keeps the pressure up. Play moves quickly. Good tactics are visibly rewarded (marines gun down charging hordes of genestealers due to well placed fields of fire; genestealers spring an ambush and shred terminators like cabbage). It's fairly balanced so that a good player is rarely going to feel like the outcome of the game is soley based on the vagaries of the dice.

Every game you play both sides usually have a good time. The marines inflict horrendous casualties and genestealers usually win.

"Je ne sais quoi"

Didn't think I'd got that bit right!

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:Limited men versus unlimited opponents,

This and the fact that one side is all (mostly) shooty while the other is all HtH....

As to what the "Je Ne Sais quoi" is, I cannot say.

It is quite simply, a game in a box. You need only its contents to play and a tabletop (and an opponent - but older versions had single player rules).

chromedog wrote:
It is quite simply, a game in a box.

1: "Cut a hole in a box", 2: "Put your game in that box", 3: "Make her open the box... and that's the way you do it!"

For me it is because it is an immersive experience. I think the reason 2nd edition failed and they rolled back to a 1st edition style "turn timed" game with this new edition is because the time pressure really added to the feeling of "being up against it" as the marine player. It is almost role playing in its intensity at times. Its not just about cold, clinical, abstract analysis, like many boardgames can be. Instead its about a visceral struggle with inumerable foes, making snap judgements in real time. And that makes it sort of special.

It has an unavoidable narrative despite any knowledge of 40k fluff.
eg It's incredibly easy for anyone to imagine the comms transmissions as an important squad member is lost and stealers start to pour through!
'They're in the ceiling! Rark swoosh crump dakka dakka, argh, static hiss'
'tsss, Bethor what's your position?'
'Slurp, hiss, scuttle'
All marines be afraid

Constant gambling and decision making on both sides keeps things tense.

Also, who doesn't like solving problems???

Beautifully simple and elegant rules, coupled to a fantastic narrative that genuinely permeates and drives the game. As proof of the brilliance of the rules, I consider it to be just as much fun whichever side you play as, and thats speaking as a long term Space Marine fan