This article needs additional citations for verification .(October 2015) |
![]() Space Crusade box art (version by David Sque) | |
Manufacturers | Milton Bradley and Games Workshop |
---|---|
Designers | Stephen Baker |
Illustrators | Jim Burns and David Sque |
Publishers | Milton Bradley |
Years active | 1990 |
Players | 2 to 4 |
Chance | Dice |
Space Crusade is an adventure board game produced by Milton Bradley together with Games Workshop and was first made in 1990. It was produced in the UK and available in some other countries including Finland, Ireland, France, Spain, Denmark, Australia, Hellas and New Zealand. In Germany, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands, it is known as Star Quest.
It is a sister game to HeroQuest , which was also produced by Milton Bradley and Games Workshop. It uses many of the concepts of the Games Workshop's Space Hulk and Warhammer 40,000 games, but at a much simpler level of game play.
The game was designed by Steven Baker. The original box artwork was by Jim Burns, and the later edition had a cover by David Sque. [1]
The game is designed to be played with 2 to 4 players, taking turns until one wins. One player takes the role of the aliens, controlling all the aliens and monsters on the space hulk, which were a mixture of Chaos, Orks, Genestealers and other aliens from Warhammer 40,000. The alien player takes on a significantly reduced role compared with that of a Game Master in traditional role-playing games, with its sole role being to stop the marine players from accomplishing their missions.
The other players are marine players, and each controls a squad of 5 Space Marines in standard power armour, one of whom is a Commander. Each squad is further equipped with order commands as well as equipment cards. Marines can be armed with different weapons: light weapons allow marines to move faster at the cost of reduced firepower. Heavy weapons operate in special ways, such as being able to hit all units in a horizontal line, or attacking multiple targets.
The blue squad represents the Ultramarines, the red squad represents the Blood Angels, and the yellow squad represents the Imperial Fists. All three are founding chapters of the Space Marines, and the chapter can be recognized by the insignia on the slider board, and accurately represents the standard colors of the Warhammer 40,000 versions. Each of the chapters are identical, although the equipment cards for the Blood Angels are specialised in close combat, and the Imperial Fists in use of ranged heavy weapons.
Close range combat rules are enforced when two units engaging are next to each other; the controlling player of the two units in combat roll whatever number of dice allowed for that unit, and the highest wins. Otherwise, ranged combat rules are followed so long as there is line of sight between the two squares that each unit is occupying: the firing player rolls dice for the weapon being fired, and if the die total is above the armour value of the target, it is dealt hit points.
The squad-based system gives each player greater access for strategy and planning. Most of the game is careful calculations of avoiding line of sight, and rushing to attack either from around the corridor, through open doors, or close in with close combat. The mission based system sometimes allows a player to sacrifice units to score points in order to win.
The marine players have the advantage of heavy weapons, special equipment and high armour point values due to their power armour, while the alien player has the advantage of large numbers of pieces and random "Alien Event" cards which may be detrimental to his opponents. The marine Commanders have multiple hit points and special weapons, making them harder to kill.
Each game consists of the marine players receiving their primary mission, docking and entering the space hulk (and later dreadnought factories), completing their mission before the other marine players, and returning their team back to the docking claw. Points are scored for units killed and missions completed, deducted for units lost. Players with sufficient points at the end of the game (including the Alien Player) can be promoted to the next rank, which gives them access to additional order or equipments for the subsequent games.
![]() | This section possibly contains original research .(November 2008) |
The German version of the game was published under the name StarQuest to tie-in with Hero-Quest , which, at that time, was very popular amongst German children.
Due to the country's stricter censorship laws (see Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons), the translation tones down most of the violent game elements: The aliens are "chaos robots", not living creatures. A player does not kill a robot, the robot is merely removed from this dimension or gets caught by the effects of the weapons and is not harmed at all. Although for example the "Assault Cannon" can quite easily be recognized as a type of machine gun, in the German version it is called "Zero Time Gun" and its effect is explained as "time bubbles" slowing down the enemy.
Space Crusade had a large number of components. The list below is included as both a reference and as an indication of quite how comprehensive the game was.
- 3 Marine Commanders - 12 Space Marines, 8 Orks, 14 Gretchin, - 3 Genestealers - 1 Chaos Marine Commander, - 4 Chaos Space Marines, 4 Androids and - 1 Dreadnought
- Three sets of 12 Chapter cards and 28 Alien event cards
A boxed expansion set that introduced Eldar with special abilities including psychic powers.
This expansion pack allowed one extra player to control the Eldar miniatures, thus allowing the game to be played by 2-5 people.
A boxed expansion set.
This expansion pack gives the marine player access to additional space marine miniatures, boosting the squad to 6 space marines and the commander. Space marines may carry extra heavy weapons or the tarantula mobile turret.
The alien player gains extra heavy dreadnoughts, which are extremely powerful and capable of wiping out an entire squad. The last mission in the additional mission book allows the alien player to continuously construct additional dreadnoughts for more firepower from the dreadnought factory board.
The additional bulkhead doors and corridor tiles allow players to build more interesting board constructions, whereas the initial game is quite limited to either the square 2x2 mode or the long 4x1 mode.
Two articles about Space Crusade were published in White Dwarf : one for using Terminators, Space Marine Scouts, Ork Mobs, Tyranids and Genestealer Hybrids (White Dwarf 134, 1991), allowing players to use Warhammer 40,000 miniatures, and one campaign called 'Renegade' (White Dwarf 145, 1992).
Advanced Space Crusade was a modular board game published in 1990 by Games Workshop. The premise of the game is that a number of Space Marine scout squads are boarding a Tyranid ship in order to sabotage its delicate internal "organs". The game is superficially similar to Space Hulk in that it uses 28 mm plastic Citadel Miniatures as play pieces, uses modular board pieces to represent the innards of the Hive ship, and has one player controlling the Marines while the other controls waves of Tyranids, but has no greater relationship to Space Crusade than any other game set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Without the license from Milton Bradley, many of the components of Advanced Space Crusade were released in 1993's Tyranid Attack, a substantially different game.
Gremlin Graphics Software Ltd. released the Space Crusade video game version of the game in early 1992. It was available on Atari ST, IBM PC (MS-DOS), Amiga, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amstrad and later received an expansion, The Voyage Beyond. It is considered a faithful conversion of the boardgame, with a board that could be viewed in 2D or isometric projection views (Barker, 1992). The ZX Spectrum version was voted number 24 in the Your Sinclair Readers' Top 100 Games of All Time. [2]
Warhammer 40,000 is a miniature wargame produced by Games Workshop. It is the most popular miniature wargame in the world, and is particularly popular in the United Kingdom. The first edition of the rulebook was published in September 1987, and the 10th and current edition was released in June 2023.
Games Workshop Group is a British manufacturer of miniature wargames, based in Nottingham, England. Its best-known products are Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000.
In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000, the Space Marines, also known as the Adeptus Astartes, are superhuman warrior-monks who fight for the Imperium of Man. They wear mechanised suits of armour and have modified genomes that grant them superhuman strength and endurance. Some Space Marines have betrayed the Imperium and serve the Gods of Chaos, and are thus known as Chaos Space Marines.
Epic is a series of tabletop wargames set in the fictional Horus Heresy and Warhammer 40,000 universes. Whereas Warhammer 40,000 involves small battles between forces of a few squads of troops and two or three vehicles, Epic features battles between armies consisting of dozens of tanks and hundreds of soldiers. Due to the comparatively larger size of the battles, Epic miniatures are smaller than those in Warhammer 40,000, with a typical human being represented with a 6mm high figure, as opposed to the 28mm minis used in Warhammer 40,000. Since being first released in 1988 as Adeptus Titanicus, it has gone through various editions with varying names.
Space Hulk is a board game for two players by Games Workshop. It was released in 1989. The game is set in the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000. In the game, a "space hulk" is a mass of ancient, derelict space ships, asteroids, and other assorted space debris. One player takes the role of Space Marine Terminators, superhuman elite soldiers who have been sent to investigate such a space hulk. The other player takes the role of Tyranid Genestealers, an aggressive alien species which have made their home aboard such masses.
Space Hulk is a 1993 real-time tactical video game for MS-DOS, Amiga and PC-98. The game was based on Games Workshop's 1989 board game of the same name. Set in the fictional Warhammer 40,000 universe, the player directs squads of Space Marines, genetically enhanced armoured soldiers, in their missions to protect the human race from deadly aliens. Space Hulk was developed and published by Electronic Arts, with support from Games Workshop.
Ultra Marines is one of a series of 4 "introductory" board games released by Games Workshop in 1991. Set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, it is effectively a 'scaled-down' version of Space Hulk and Tyranid Attack, using plastic Marine Scouts from the Ultramarines, Space Wolves, Dark Angels and Blood Angels chapters. Other components include event cards, a simple ruleset, as well as corridor and room tiles from the game Space Hulk.
The Black Library is a division of Games Workshop which is devoted to publishing novels and audiobooks set in the Warhammer Fantasy Battle, Warhammer Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40,000 fictional universes. Some of Black Library's best known titles include the Gaunt's Ghosts and Eisenhorn series of novels by Dan Abnett and the Gotrek and Felix series by William King and Nathan Long.
A codex, in the Warhammer 40,000 tabletop wargame, is a rules supplement containing information concerning a particular army, environment, or worldwide campaign.
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Winter Assault is the first expansion to Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War for the PC developed by Relic Entertainment and published by THQ. Based on Games Workshop's tabletop wargame, Warhammer 40,000, Dawn of War: Winter Assault was released on September 23, 2005. Some time after its initial release, Winter Assault and Dawn of War were coupled together in a double pack which featured some art on a fold out cover, an Ork with a flamethrower, or a group of Imperial Guard tanks lined up for attack. Though Winter Assault required the base game to play, its follow-up expansions, Dark Crusade and Soulstorm were stand-alone, not requiring the base game.
Space Hulk: Vengeance of the Blood Angels is a video game published by Electronic Arts in 1995 for the 3DO, which was later ported to PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and Microsoft Windows. It is based on Games Workshop's board game Space Hulk and is the sequel to the 1993 video game Space Hulk. Like its predecessor, Vengeance of the Blood Angels combines first-person shooter gameplay with real-time tactical elements. Space Hulk: Vengeance of the Blood Angels is part of the Warhammer 40,000 universe.
Warhammer 40,000 comics are spin-offs and tie-ins based in the Warhammer 40,000 fictional universe. Over the years these have been published by different sources. Originally appearing in Inferno! and Warhammer Monthly, the initial series of stories have been released as trade paperbacks by Black Library, who have also released original graphic novels and shorter prestige format comics.
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II is a real-time strategy-tactical role-playing video game developed by Relic Entertainment and published by THQ for Microsoft Windows based on the fictional Warhammer 40,000 universe. It is the sequel to the Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War video game series. Dawn of War II was released in North America on February 19, 2009 and in Europe on February 20, 2009. A sequel, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III, was released in April 2017.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine is a third-person shooter hack-n-slash video game developed by Relic Entertainment and published by THQ. The game was released for PlayStation 3, Windows, and Xbox 360 in North America, Australia, and Europe in September 2011. It was released in Japan and published by CyberFront on October 27, 2011.
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II – Chaos Rising is a real-time strategy video game developed by Relic Entertainment and published by THQ, and the sequel expansion of Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II. The game was released on March 11, 2010 for Games for Windows.
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II – Retribution is the stand-alone second expansion to Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II, part of the Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War series of real-time strategy video games. Set in Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000 fictional universe, the single player campaign is playable with multiple races.
Space Hulk: Deathwing is a first-person shooter developed by Streum On Studio with assistance from Cyanide and published by Focus Home Interactive. The game is set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe and based upon the turn-based strategy tabletop miniatures board game Space Hulk. It expands the gameplay environment, beyond the narrow maze-like corridors of the original board game and earlier video games, to include massive space ship interiors such as a cathedral. The story is co-written by Gav Thorpe, a longtime Games Workshop author and games designer. The game was released on December 14, 2016, while the console version was released on March 28, 2018.
Warhammer 40,000: Conquest was a Living Card Game (LCG) produced by Fantasy Flight Games, set in Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000 universe. It was announced in March 2014 and was released October 3, 2014. The game featured two players competing to win a series of battles on a different planets while simultaneously securing the resources of other planets that will have battles on subsequent turns. Fans of the game praised the strategic element of having multiple distinct battle fields as a feature that distinguished it from other card games. On September 9, 2016, Games Workshop announced that Conquest would be discontinued in February 2017, as a result of Games Workshop's failure to renew Fantasy Flight Games' contract because of a conflict between Games Workshop and Fantasy Flight Games' parent company, Asmodee. The game still has a small community of players who play with the cards that were printed before the game's discontinuation in 2017, and some fans have made unofficial expansions to expand the small card pool.
Deathwing is an expansion set published by Games Workshop (GW) in 1990 for the board game Space Hulk.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II is an upcoming third-person shooter hack-n-slash video game developed by Saber Interactive and published by Focus Entertainment. A sequel to Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine (2011), the game is scheduled to release for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X and Series S on September 9, 2024.