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I have made my own 3rd edition 3d board for Space Hulk and I came up with some experimental rules to use Demons in place of Genestealers. Mostly only because I had the models already, but partly because I thought it would add an interesting twist to the game. I wanted to make each Demon unique without overpowering them. I was hoping to get some feedback on the rules I have, so they are below. I have thick skin with this kind of thing, so be honest. Thanks in advance and sorry for how long some of them are.

--------------------Using Demons in Space Hulk--------------------

Demonic Alignment – Blips MUST be revealed as all the same alignment if possible. If there are not enough Demons of the same alignment available, they may be mixed using the smallest number of different alignments possible. The following pairs MAY NEVER be revealed together: Tzeentch and Nurgle, Slaanesh and Khorne.

--------------------'rank and file' Demons--------------------

Bloodletters of Khorne – Hellblade: This demon will kill Marines on a tied roll in close combat.

Demonettes of Slaanesh – Fleet of Foot: This demon has 7 action points instead of 6, but may not attack on the turn it enters play. Note: blips will only ever have 6 action points.

Plaguebearers of Nurgle ¬– Feel no Pain: Each player turn, the first single shooting die roll that scores a kill result is re-rolled. Only 1 die is re-rolled, so if two killing rolls are scored the first time out, the Demon dies (unless it is a Herald, in which case, the re-roll will have to score a killing result as well). The second result always stands.

Horrors of Tzeentch – Mutating Touch: In close combat, if this Demon rolls any double, it receives a +1 to its highest roll. If this Demon rolls any triple, the Marine is killed outright regardless of what other numbers were rolled.

--------------------Generic Herald Special rules--------------------

Herald of the Gods: The Heralds may only be used on missions that allow them and can be revealed in place of any 3 blip once per game. Only 1 Herald may be used each game, and which one used can be selected at the time of reveal.

Demonic Summoning: On the turn a Herald enters play, upon activation of any Demon of any alignment other than that of the Herald, the Demon player may replace this Demon with one of the Herald’s alignment. This replacement must happen before the Demon takes any action and cannot take the number of incoming Demons above the number of models for that type of Demon. The replaced Demons cannot be in the line of sight of any Marine. [Example – A Herald of Khorne enters play and there are 3 Bloodletters, 4 Demonettes, and 2 Horrors on the board. The Demon player may replace any combination of Demonettes and Horrors with up to 3 Bloodletters, bringing the total number of Bloodletters up to anywhere between 3 (the current number) and 6 (the total number allowed).]

Hard to Kill: Shooting attacks will only kill the demon if 2 killing numbers are rolled. This demon is also immune to the flamer and the Psychic Storm power, though still cannot move from an open square to a square that is on fire.

Chosen of the Gods: Heralds with this special rule get a +1 to their highest roll in close combat actions.

--------------------Heralds--------------------

Herald of Khorne: Demonic Summoning, Hellblade, Hard to Kill, Chosen of Khorne: This Demon adds its lowest roll to its highest in close combat. Demonic Locus – Fury: As long as the Herald of Khorne is on the board, 1 Bloodletter of the Demon player’s choice a +1 to its highest roll in a single close combat action.

Herald of Slaanesh: Demonic Summoning, Chosen of the Gods, Fleet of Foot, Hard to Kill, Demonic Locus - Enrapturing Gaze: This power can be used once per Demon turn as long as the Herald of Slaanesh is alive and on the board. The Demon player nominates either the Herald or a Demonette to enrapture 1 Marine. The target Marine must be able to draw line of sight to the model nominated above. This Marine is forced to move 1 space directly toward the nominated Demon (this may only be diagonal if this brings the Marine DIRECTLY TOWARD the nominated model). The use of this power does not force the Marine to lose Overwatch or Guard. The Marine player may attempt to negate the power by rolling a D6. A result of 6 negates the power, Sergeants receive +1 to this roll. The Librarian is immune.

Herald of Nurgle – Demonic Summoning, Chosen of the Gods, Feel no Pain, Hard to Kill, Nurglings: Once per Demon turn, as long as the Herald of Nurgle is on the board, The Herald or a single Plaguebearer may spawn 1 Nurgling during its activation for no action points. The Nurgling is placed in an adjacent square, if there are no open spaces adjacent (may be diagonal), no Nurgling can be spawned. Nurglings move like any other Demon but do not block line of sight, cannot open doors, and CAN move diagonally between blocked spaces. Due to their small size, Nurglings will not be hit on any shooting attempt that includes at least a single 1 or 2, regardless of what other numbers were rolled. Nurglings do not attack in close combat; instead, if they ever occupy a square adjacent, (this may be diagonal) to any number of Marines, they immediately latch onto a Marine of the Demon player’s choosing. This MUST happen, the Demon player MAY NOT choose not to make this action. Place the Nurgling model on the same space as the Marine. Before making any other actions, including clearing a Jam, this Marine must spend one action or command point to remove the Nurgling, killing it and removing the marker. To use a command point to remove it in the Demon turn requires the Marine to witness an action taken by a different Demon as normal; if the Marine was on Overwatch before the Nurgling attaches, he may not shoot until the Nurgling is removed, at which point his Overwatch status returns. Only 1 Nurgling can be attached to a Marine at a time, further Nurglings will ignore the Marine who already has one attached. If there is a Nurgling adjacent to a Marine who removes a Nurgling, the new Nurgling immediately attaches. The total number of Nurglings active is 5 (attached or not). If the number of active Nurglings drops below 5 on the Demon turn before a new Nurgling has been spawned, then the Demon player may spawn one this turn.

Herald of Tzeentch – Demonic Summoning, Chosen of the Gods, Mutating Touch, Hard to Kill, Psychic Power: Warpsight – This power can be used once during the Demon turn as long as the Herald of Tzeentch is alive and on the board. Either the Herald or a nominated Horror can use this power at any point during their activation for no action points. Warpsight has unlimited range, requires line of sight, and affects one Marine. The marine is affected during the current Demon turn and the following Marine turn. The shooting range of the affected Marine is reduced to 12 and the Overwatch range is reduced to 8. The Marine player may attempt to negate the power by rolling a D6. A result of 6 negates the power, Sergeants receive +1 to this roll. The Librarian is immune.

I love the idea.

I do have a couple of comments, as i feel that this makes the demons a bit too strong.

Demonic Alignment: i would stick with "all blips revealed on a single turn must be of the same alignment, any excess models are lost" if having enough minis (~10?) of each alignment is truly an issue, then i would introduce rules for undivided Furies to fill in the excess.

Rank and File Demons:
i assume that you are using the generic genestealer stats?
If so i would drop the number of attack dice of the khorn/tzeentch/nurgle demonic alignment to two.

I would reduce the movement of revealed plague bearers to 3 and have each model be able to take an extra shooting wound from bolters.

I also like the idea of demonettes remaining at three dice for attacks instead of an extra action point.

i would also scrap the demonic summoning rule from the heralds, and boost them all up to 3 attacks (4 for slan)

Herald of khorn: scrap the chosen of khorn, fury can be placed on herald as well (for a total of +2)
herald of slan: enrapture is herald only, negates overwatch (but not guard). SM can deny the witch on 4+ (sarge gets +1), lib immune,
herald of nurg: scrap nurgling spawning, instead spawn d3+2 nurglings when killed.
herald of tz: scrap warpsight; give him psychic blast (SM can deny the witch on 5+ (+1 if sarge is targetted), +2 if librarian is targeted.

jsut my two cents.

Love the idea too! Must admit I'm conflicted as I always lose as the space marine player. I like the change in flavor, but would be wary of boosting the "xenos" players chances.

Btw why are you even messing with those other powers. You know papa nurgle is the best.

I appreciate the input and it has given me a lot to think about.

Kiwidru -

I agree with your alignment comment and I think I will adopt that, with only 1, 2 and 3 blips I doubt I would need more than the 6 of each that I have (which puts the total at 24, only 2 more than the genestealers in the standard game).

I think that reducing the number of attack dice to 2 may be hitting them a bit too hard, but I may run a test game with 2 dice and see how it plays out.

I think I will keep the re-roll on the plaguebearers as it would be easier to keep track of than 2 wounds. I will try to reduce their movement to 5 (I think 3, being slower than a marine is too much).

Demonettes I will try leaving them like they are BUT have them always die on the sustained fire roll (5+ for storm bolters and 4+ for assault cannon) as they normally have a low toughness in 40K/WHFB. I fear 7 action points may be too much, but I want to give it a fair test, making them easier to kill may be the difference.

For the horrors I may add in that double 1s or 2s give a -1, and trip 1s and 2s kill the demon outright. This would bring in some of that 'gods are fickle' rule that the warp flame rule from 40K/WHFB has.

The reason I had enrapture be through the eyes of any demonette is for the same reason I had warpsight through any horror - I wanted to toy with the idea of having a 'support herald' or one that doesn't have to fight, but sit in the backfield and help out the demons of its alignment. Hence the demonic summoning rule, which would bring in more demons to be supported.

I at least want to have the tzeentchians be able to use some kind of power through the eyes of any horror if the herald is on the table, warpsight or otherwise.

Another thought on nurlglings is to have any plaguebearer spawn one upon death when the herald of nurgle is on the board.

So again, thanks for the input!

Im glad to be a part of the discussion, and now that i understand your intent on the support-lords, they make more sense! Space Hulk is kind of a strange beast to construct rules for, because you want it to be challenging, but not impossible, and there seems to be a very narrow margin between victory and defeat in most games that i play.

Keep us posted with your results/findings/opinions!

So far I only played two games with the original, unmodified demon rules I posted at first. The space marines lost both times. One was a brutal massacre and the other a narrow victory. I look forward to playing with the new rules I have to give them more tests. None of the games I played yet involved the Heralds, so I have no clue how they will play.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh and one of the things I changed was I reduced the number of action points of the demonettes back to 6, but I gave them 1 free attack. This way they can reach further than the others, but they are no faster movement-wise.