With the immanent release of Space Hulk fast approaching I thought I'd take a moment to look back on the game and how it influenced my path into "geeky war gaming".
For me Space Hulk was my first introduction into Games Workshop and the Warhammer 40,000 universe. When I was at secondary school one of my friends at the time had an older brother who, for whatever reason, owned a copy of Space Hulk (1st edition). My friend and I would often get the game out not to play but to look at how cool the models were and how awesome the game board was (you have to understand I was about 11 or 12 at the time). For me it was unlike any board game I had ever seen before.
As it would happen, a few month later my friends brother decided that he no longer wanted Space Hulk as he hardly ever played it (I think he had moved on to playing computer games as he recently purchased a new console all the kids were talking about called a Saga Megadrive). As such he gave me his copy of the game.
Now I have to admit I didn't play the game once I had it (the rules were way beyond me!) but I loved the models and as I read over the books that came with the game I was instantly drawn into the 40K universe. Reading about the Emperor, the Horus Heresy, the Space Marines and the Xeno threat that they had to encounter sparked my imagination. I wanted to know more!
Shortly after that I started to discover another game called Space Crusade which was similar to Space Hulk, was produced by the same company and had Space Marines in it, as well as Genestealers and a whole host of other alien races! Unlike Space Hulk though, Space Crusade was much easier to learn how to play and so that was the game that truly started my wargaming hobby as it led me onto collecting 40K.
Several years latter Games Workshop re-released Space Hulk as a new edition. By this time I was well and truly into my hobby and couldn't wait to get the new edition (I still have a copy of it). When it finally came out I played it frequently and even used the Terminators in my 40k games. By now I had the experience to properly appreciate the game play and design of the game. I loved it.
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| My copy of 2nd edition Space Hulk |
When the third edition came out I was no longer playing 40K. I had fallen out of the hobby in my late teens (Due to rising costs and a change in the atmosphere of my local GW store due to a new manager who only wanted to sell products and not deal with the hobbyists!) so I missed the boat on that release. However a few years later I had gotten back into the hobby and was surprised that GW no longer supported specialist games. The release of 3rd edition Space Hulk was a limited run, aimed more to collectors rather than trying to draw in new gamers.
With this new release of Space Hulk looming I really hope that Games Workshop go back to having it as a regular release, that anyone can go into the store, pick up from the shelf and get playing straight away. I would love to see Space Hulk bringing the same joy and wonder to people today that the 1st edition of the game did for me. It works so well as an introduction into the hobby and the 40K universe. However it looks like this will be yet another limited run, which is a shame, and if it is true then I think Games Workshop are truly missing a trick.
Anyway all will be revealed on Friday. I for one will be placing an order!
Happy gaming.
NB: What do you think about the re-release of Space Hulk? Leave a comment below.
UPDATE
Orders just went live!
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