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Kenneth Howe
United States
Massachusetts
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My son Kenny ( age 21 )and I played space hulk. We played Mission 2:1 BREAK THROUGH. This mission calls for the marine player to traverse the map and make it to a room with a computer console in it. Once there he is to spend 2 action points to open a set of cargo bay doors. The Genestealers mission is to wipe out the Space Marines before they can achieve their objective. The order of battle for the Marines are one squad of 5 Marines. This squad consist of one Sergeant, one Marine with a Heavy Flamer and, 3 Marines armed with Storm Bolters. The Genestealers start with one blip outside of each entry area ( there are four entry areas ) and one reinforcement blip per a turn. I chose to play the marines and set my squad up with the Sergeant in the lead followed by a marine then the heavy flamer followed by the two remaining Marines. We were set to play.
On the first turn I rolled a three for command points and, chose to spend them all on my Sergeant to make a blitz for a good firring position for him to cover my squad. This in hindsight was not the best use of these points. I should have spent them evenly among my squad because the tail end of my squad was jammed up in the rear. I sent my squad to the right side of the map with the intent of leaving a lone Marine as a rear guard. My son's turn was more or less straight forward. He sent all five of his blips racing as fast as they could towards their targets. The end of turn one I thought to myself. This shouldn't be too hard. Oh how wrong I was.
On turn two I moved towards the right side of the map down the first corridor available to me. I set over watch with the point man and, tail end Charlie. On the Genestealers turn Kenny took advantage of my Sergeant being so far ahead of the squad. His first Stealer Bee lined it to my Sergeant with the intent of ripping his head off! The Sergeant fired on overwatch and click his Storm Bolter Jammed! The Genestealer closed the gap whilst the Sergeant prepared to defend himself in close combat. As I rolled my die and, added his plus one modifier I discovered quickly that this was not going to be easy. It was not worth asking my son to re roll one of his die for a parry. My modified three was easily beaten by his six, five and, four. The Sergeant went down like a ton of bricks as I let out a sigh. Kenny gleamed across the table as if to say take that. Mean while the other blips in Kenny's Genestealer Horde were moving ever so closely.
Turn three presented me with the problem of my troops barely being out of the first corridor with the Genestealers almost on top of them. The point Marine lead the Heavy Flamer towards the right side of the map. Out of the four Genestealers in front of the point Marine he managed to kill three of the Stealers before he too joined the fate of Sergeant. On the left side of the map Kenny's Genestealers were there in overwhelming force. The first Marine manage to take out one Stealer before his bolter jammed and, he was slain. The second Marine was sliced and, diced with a pitiful die roll of one. My goodness, it was only turn three and, I had suffered 80% casualties. I said aloud " I used to think I was a pretty good general. The truth be told I was having a great time! My son was showing Dad who was boss on the game board. This was a far cry from fifteen years prior when I was just teaching him to play some basic games.
Turn four was looking pretty grim for the Marines. One Marine armed with a Heavy Flamer facing a Genestealer in the very next space. Behind the Marine about eight spaces away was a line of Stealers numbering close to a dozen. My Marine was still in the first corridor with the whole map still ahead. I considered throwing in the towel and, congratulating my son on a job well done. In true Space Marine game spirit I decided to play on. I figured my fate on the board would soon be revealed. If I used my Flamer to kill the stealer in front of me it would in effect be a road block to me as well. There was only one stealer in the way of my lone Marine. No guts, No glory. I would have to engage the stealer in hand to hand combat. In game terms suicide for my Marine. One Marine die to three Genestealer's dice. As fate would have it the marine won the close combat struggle. I was also lucky that turn because I rolled a six for command points. Using the command points I was able to turn around and put up a flame block to buy some time for my sole hope of wining the game. It was at that point Kenny said " that would be pretty funny if you won just using that ( lone ) guy."
Turn five I rolled high again on the command points ( a five ) and, used this to my advantage. This burst of speed made my Marine run faster then a Geanestealer. With half the map behind and, half to go I started to wonder. Can I make it? Kenny had steallers closing in on my lone Marine in all directions.
Turn six I needed another high command point roll to put victory within reach. I managed to roll a one. I was also running low on ammo. Kenny on his part of the turn pushed his pieces ever so closely to my sole remaining piece. Each turn his Genestealers were getting greater in number and, my chances of a win ever so slimmer. Ken grinned with anticipation.
Turn seven was looking more like a suicide charge then anything else. I could tell my son was getting ready to finish me off. I had one more corner to make it to the home stretch to the victory objective. Ahead at least ten Stealer await my arrival. Behind me at least the same number was closing the gap behind. I only had three ammo markers left. The Marine fired at the closest Stealer and, it survived the the blast of flame forcing the use of more juice to fry it's target. Kenny sent his stealers into the flame trying to reach the lone Marine to no avail.
Turn eight I asked Kenny if reloads were allowed? In true good gamesmanship he said yes why not. I am sure he thought as I did that I had a slim chance of pulling this off. I rolled my command points and, received the a game gift of a six. If this was a movie it sure would have played like one. The lone hero against dozens of bad guys. The last Marine with it's fresh supply of ammo unleashed a wall of flame using ten out of twelve flame markers to kill all the enemy before my last Marine. Using the rest of my command points I managed to get into the victory objective and, open the cargo bay doors. Unbelievable victory ! Truth be told Kenny usually wins most of our Space Hulk contest but in this one I guess you can say Father knows best. ( or was lucky! )
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The neutral evil villain known as
United States
Brownsburg
Indiana
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You better remember that game, because he sure as heck won't allow you reloads again!
P
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Kenneth Howe
United States
Massachusetts
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Yes your right. That was the first thing he mentioned was the reload.
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GÜNSTLING
New Zealand
Christchurch
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Nice session report. Any marine plan that relies on hand to hand combat is either going to be a quick loss or a memorable game.
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Kenneth Howe
United States
Massachusetts
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Thank-you. I didn't mention above but the Heavy Flamer survived two hand to hands that he started. One ended in a victory the other was a tie. The first one that started him down the hall for the victory was the best though!
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Posted Sun Mar 13, 2011 3:14 am
