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Okay, Space Hulk is sold out. It sold out 16 hours after preorders started. I thankfully got my copy, got plenty of experience by playing the steam version of it (bought that during a sale for a couple bucks) and have to say Space Hulk is an entertaining game, truly worth the money. The board is interesting (corridors, which path to take?), the game is strategic (which guy to put facing where?) and I like the theme and setting and everything about it. Hence why it is considered a classic.




Assassinorum: Execution Force costs just as much money, is still available (so obviously it didnt sell too well) but I also think it is worth the money: if you are an Imperial or Inquisition/Grey Knight player, and havent gotten any assassins, and want to include some in your army, each of them costs about 1/4 of the board game, so getting all four will cost as much as the board game itself and you wont get any of the Chaos stuff. As for the game itself...obviously the sculpts are overall of much lower quality than what you get in Space Hulk: basically the best sculpts are the Assassins, while all the Chaos stuff is reboxed vanilla cultists, CSMs and Sorceror. There's only 1 mission, so that can make the game get boring quick.The board itself isn't as strategic and fun (in terms of variety of layouts) as the Space Hulk board, but it is quite pretty to be honest, and still offers lots of tactical choices (arrows tell what direction you the Chaos guys can move, die roll to see how far you can move etc). And having to reach the Sorceror in time before Chaos wins the game gives the game a feel of tension, so I'd say the game is also good and worth the money.




Betrayal At Calth is kinda like a starter set for 30k. You get two large a largish army (30 tactical marines, 5 terminators 1 dreadnought 1 chaplain and 1 captain for each side). The downside is both armies are identical, so in terms of variety its meh (see Dark Vengeance for comparison where both sides look radically different). Also, if you already ARE a marine player, and have painted tactical marine after tactical marine after tactical marine, getting to paint 60 30 more tactical marines is just....ugh...ok, so they look SLIGHTLY different due to the older armor but still.....just....anyway, in terms of cash value though, I think getting two a largish army you can technically also use in 40k as counts as Space Marines (or even CSM) totaling at certainly over 1000 points and more in the range of 1250 means it is worth the money because youre really getting lots of stuff here. As for the game itself...I have no idea, and the board looks flat and uninteresting at first glance, but then you realize it is divided into hex tiles and the movement is on a tile by tile basis (and some tiles are marked impassable and others give cover bonuses but are also difficult terrain) and you can place upto three marines or 1 terminator and a marine or 1 dreadnought on a tile at once, making them a unit; you can choose what special weapons your guys will take before each mission etc. so there is some tactics involved here....and there's 4 physical boards in total and each is illustrated on both sides, so 8 board faces in total and 6 missions offer replayability....someone else giving me input here would be welcome.




Now finally, how does Deathwatch: Overkill compare to these three? In terms of price it is entry level three digits, so similar investment as the other three. In terms of content, you get lots of unique sculpts that remind me of Space Hulk or Dark Vengeance in terms of variety. So thats good stuff. Downside is, until the rules for Deathwatch and Genestealer Cults arrive, it will be difficult to use these models in your normal games of 40k as the Deathwatch are basically special character-level of detail sculpts with custom gear from a bunch of different chapters, and the stealer cult isnt in the main Nid codex. Regarding the board game itself, I have heard that its kinda frustrating for the Genestealer player because the game is LITERALLY OVERKILL as the Space Marines are the ones doing all the killing and the Nid player actually can barely kill anything, and when he does he wins the game so yeah...most of the time he will be doing nothing but removing models from the table which can be frustrating (unlike, say, the balanced Betrayal at Calth). The board also looks just as flat and uninteresting as Betrayal At Calth, with the added malus that it isnt a hex grid and therefore even less relevant tactically speaking and there's only one build. In terms of value it is hard to judge...if each plastic Deathwatch model is priced at a cheap €5 you already have €55 worth of minis from them alone. The 28 Genestealer hybrids could easily go for €30, the Broodlord and Patriarch for €15 in total, the rest for another €15. That being said, Deathwatch and Genestealer Cults are two tropes in the 40k lore that have been fan favorites for decades despite so little actual content offered by GW and having both of them now available in highly detailed plastic in one box is very tempting.

So my question is....is it worth buying? Is it a good game? Or meh? Or crap compared to the previously released ones by GW? Anybody owning these games please give me your impressions about any of the above so we can get a clear picture.

I've yet to try out Overkill, but I haven't heard any bad things about it.

also, you're a bit off on Calth. It comes with those models, but it's not those models for each side. the game itself is neat, but doesn't play quite like I'd want it to.
you're also wrong on the assassinorum game. the arrows control the 'ai' chaos pieces. Personally I love this game, it feels like metal gear: the board game. enemies follow a path untill one sees you, then they all home in onto where you last were and what not.

Yea, you confused total size with each side at calth.

The two sides are not the same, that model count is divided among the two armies (though nothing stops you from setting them as a single army)

I think Space Hulk is the only one that stands on its own. Even though many people would use its models in games of 40k I don't think that was most people's prime reason for purchasing it, I don't think you could say the same of any of the other three box sets.
The other sets all feel a bit thrown together, even though there are some very nice models or unique sculpts you still feel as though the actual accompanying game is both an forethought and a reason for them to bump up the price.
Space hulk is a classic game fondly remembered by many, few will remember the other games, if they play them at all.

I disagree I think Deathwatch has more depth if not more than SH in terms of model tactics, if not in terms of maps. I felt that SH was a bit boring from the Genestealer side and honestly was only an interesting challenge from the marine perspective. So far I feel the inclusion of the different hybrids and cultists gives the Xenos a more involved game and I like the way the marine player gets to draft his dudes for the mission.

Got some lets plays of some of the games off youtube that might help.







So far Calth seemed more interesting than Overkill due to the hexgrid's tactical nature

You can still get SH if your looking for it

http://www.discountgamesinc.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=Space+hulk&order=relevance&dir=asc

So tempted to get one as those Terminators were just beautiful, but I can't motivate it as a 30k WB player.

One thing I liked about Assassinorum was that it can be played by one person. It let me get familiar with the rules myself and then move to have other friends play.