QSpaceHulk V1.4

Rules of the board game

- Introduction
- Marines turn
- Genestealers turn
- Strategys and winning

Interface of QSpacehulk

- Interface

Space Hulk is about the battles between heavy armoured Marine Squads and a deadly alien race, called the Genestealers. Aboard gigantic abandonned drifting spacecrafts, called space hulks, squads of space marines fight those deadly Aliens to protect colony worlds from invasion. While the Marines are protected in enhanced Dreadnought armour, called the Terminator, wielding modern firepower weaponry, there enemys move fast like giant insects and are furious foes in close combat.

Every side will use its special powers to win this deadly conflict.

The Game

SpaceHulk is a turn by turn game between the Genestealers and the Marines.

Each unit begins the turns with an amount of APs (Action Points). Those APs are spend to move around, turn, fire, open doors,etc... Genestealers and Blips have 6 APs. Marines have only 4 APs. When a creature (marine or genestealer) is selected, the previous selected creature lost the APs it has not used for this turn. As an exception, the Marine player also have command points (see below) which deplete only at the end of the marines turn and can be used as the APs.

As you see in the table Genestealers are far more maneuverable than the bulky marines in there Terminator Dreadnought Armors. The Genestealers should keep this in mind when planning his attacks.

This table shows the exact AP costs for each side and action. Also you see the Interface Symbols to perform the actions.

| Space Marine | Genestealer | Blip
Move Forward | 1 | 1 | 1
Move Backward | 2 | 2 | 1
Strafe | - | 1 | 1
Turn 90 | 1 | 0 | -
Turn 180 | 2 | 1 | -
Shoot with bolter | 1 | - | -
Overwatch | 2 | - | -
Unjam | 1 | - | -
Forward & Shoot | 1 | - | -
Turn 90 & Shoot | 1 | - | -
Backward & Shoot | 2 | - | -
Turn 180 & Shoot | 2 | - | -
Fire with flamethrower | 2 | - | -
Reload flamethrower | 4 | - | -
Attack (in short range) | 1 | 1 | -
Open/Close door | 1 | 1 | 1

Example:
A Genestealer has 6 APs. Down the floor it sees a Marine.Only 5 squares away. The Creature lurches forward and spends 5 APs to run toward the marine. The last AP he spend to Attack the Marine with its Claws.

The Marines Turn

Command Points:

At the start of his turn the Marine Player gets 1-6 Command Points. These CPd can be considered as additional APs usable anytime with any marine, even if the marine has been deselected and thus lost its own APs.

Firing:

The Marines normally carry Storm Bolters which fire explosive shells which detonate after impact. A fine weapon to fight creatures like the Genestealers at a safe distance. Note that if you have moved or turned you may fire for free! This counts as a move & fire action (see the AP table). When a Marine fires its Storm Bolter at a target, two dices are thrown. If one of them or both show a 6 the target is removed (destroyed). If the Marine shoots again at the same target, also a 5 on one (or both) of the dices would destroy the target. This "precise Fire Bonus" is only applied for each following shoot just after the first one, at the same target and during the same turn. To get this Bonus, the Marine must stand still and keep on firing. He may not move nor fire at another target, etc.

Example:
A marine turns around a corner and sees a Genestealer. The marine has 2 APs left so he starts to fire. He throws a 1 and a 2. Not good enaugh and now he got only 1 AP left. Desperatly he keeps on firing and throws now a 4 and another 4....missed again. Now the player spends one of the Command point for the marine to shoot one last time. He throws 1 and 5. 5 is enough to hit and he kills the Stealer.

Overwatch:

A marine with a stormbolter gun can prepare himself to fire at anything that moves in front of him during the following Genestealers Turn. He spends 2 APs and so puts himself into Overwatch. If anything enters or moves in his view during the following Genestealers Turn, he fires for free at it, but only if it is within a 12 square range. He wont get any bonuses for enduring fire at the same target. Another dice is rolled and if the value is 6, his bolter jams, leaving him helpless and unable to fire during the rest of the genestealer turn.
Weapons only jam in overwatch mode and not during normal fire!
If a marine in Overwatch gets in close combat he lost overwatch automaticly.
A Flamethrower cant be used to set up an Overwatch.

Example:
A marine looks down a long hallway. Knowing that Stealers are coming soon, he puts himself in Overwatch Mode. In the following Stealers turn an Alien appears in the Hallway and he gets his first shoot off. The dice shows 4 and 5. So the Genestealer evades the shoots continuing toward the marine. The marine rolls again and comes up with 5 and 5. A double!. His Bolter jams and the Genestealer can go now for an easy kill.

Clear Jam:

If a marine luckily survives the consequences of a Weapons Jam, he can try to clean his weapon in the following round for 2 APs.

Fire Flamethrower:

Flamethrowers can be used to slow down Genestealer Attacks or to secure Areas. A marine which carries a flamethrower may shoot at any visible square but not farther than 12 cases. Fire cost 2 APs but you can continue to fire on any visible adjacent cases for free (flame are considered transparent during the fire). At the end of the fire, flames are too big and nobody can see through them nor enter in a flamed case. For each flamed case, a flame counter is put on the case. The flamer marine can fire twice at the same place, and the case gets two flames. If a genestealer is on a flamed case, the player rolls 1 dice and the genestealer is killed on a throw of 2-6. At the end of the marine turn, one counter is removed in each case. At the end of the genestealer turn, if a creature is still in a flamed case (because the first flame didn't kill it), another roll is done and the genestealer is killed for a throw of 2-6. Usually the flamer marine gets 12 ammunitions per charger. It can reload its flamethrower for 4 APs any time.

Close Assault:

Marines should avoid close assault with Genestealers. If it happens dices are thrown to determine who survives the struggle. One dice is thrown for the Marine and three(!) for the Genestealer. The Genestealer picks the highest number and compares it with the marine dice. The winner kills the loser. Tie means both survive this round. Marine Sergants add +1 to there roll and can also force the genestealer player to reroll one dice. The second dice is taken even if it's better than the first one.

Example:
A Sergant is attacked by a Stealer. Dices are thrown. The Sergant throws a 5 and adds +1 and ends up with a 6. The Stealer throws 2,2 and 6. Means its a Tie. But the Sergant forces the Genestealer to reroll the 6. He comes up with a 2 and the Sergant kills off the Genestealer.
If the Sergant would have been a normal Marine, who wouldn have the +1 Bonus and the chance to force a reroll, he would have been killed by the Stealer.

The Genestealers Turn

At the beginning of the Turn you will be prompted to choose Entrance Zones for the Reinforcements you get this turn.

Entry zones
The entry zones are not real cases. They are just an unknown space near the entry point. When creatures are in an entry zone, they can only enter the board with the "enter" command, Blips can also revert. Entering the board does not cost any AP but this is a movement. So blips can't be reverted just after entering (remember that blips can only be reverted at the beginning of their turn before any movement). Be careful when you count how far a genestealer can go from the entry zone : the first movement (entering the board) does not cost any AP...
Blips have the right to wait in an entry zone as long as they want. But you can't have more than 3 blips in an entry zone. This rules applies only for blips. So genestealer can't wait in an enry zone and they will be discarded at the end of the turn. There is also no limit to the number of genestealers in an entry zone.
When a marine is less than six squares away from an entry zone at the beginning of the genestealer player turn, he blocks the entry and no genestealer or blip unit placed during this turn can enter during this turn. The block still holds for the end of the turn even if the marine is killed during the turn. If a unit has been blocked during one turn, it can't blocked more and has the right to enter even if there is still a marine less than six squares away.

Blips:

Blips are lifesigns picked up by the space marines' scanners. It could be a bunch of Genestealers or a just single one roaming through the Hulk. The exact number is only known to the Genestealer player himself. A blip can "contain" from 0 to 6 genestealers. A blip with 0 genestealer is a false alarm.
The Genestealer turn starts with getting reinforcements in form of Blips. Every Blip must be put on an entry zone from where the Blips will enter the Map.
When a marine spots a Blip it is converted in the number of genestealer it stands for. They are placed around the square the Blip was, as he was spotted. The Genestealer Player can not move a blip into a square visible by a marine. It must conert the Blip voluntarilly instead of moving it and it has to be done before any movement of the blip. If the conversion is unvoluntary, placement is done by marine player, otherwise, it is done by the genestealer player. In the case of a voluntary conversion, no genestealer can be placed in a square visible by a marine even if this square is empty. Note that if there is not enough space to place all the genestealer, the unplaced ones are lost. (But they are not considered as killed ... rather as never existed).

Example:
A Marine spots a Blip. The Blip was moving down a Hallway and stood for a group of 6 Genestealers. Now the Marine player has to convert the Blip. He places one Genestealer in the Square the Blip occupied. Now he places one Genestealer on front of that Square and another one behind it. The Corridor is too small to set the 3 other Genestealers around the Blips position and so they can not be placed at all.

Strategys and Winning

In your first games of Space Hulk, the marine player usually will lose big time. The Genestealer will over run him and tear his team apart before he can achieve any of his Goals. This will change when the marine player earned some experience and can start giving the genestealers a hard time.
Here some hints to help you with your first games:

Marines

- Shoot doors! Doors are a good hiding place for Genestealers. As they can operate them like humans they will try to hide behind them or use them as cover. Also they will try to close them to force the marines to spend valuable APs to open them.

- Set Overwatch. Find good spots to control long corridors with it. Secure a Overwatching marine with a secound one also in overwatch.

- Avoid corridors with many crossings. Genestealers can outrun your marines and attack from behind.

Genestealers

- Collect large groups of Genestealers to make big assaults at the marines. Sacrifice Genestealers to Overwatching marines to provoke a weapon jams. If it Jams go for it! Try to set you Opponent under pressure.

- Use you speed. Lurk at corners and wait for marines to come in range for a close assault.

Interface for QSpacehulk

The interface of qspacehulk is almost self-explainatory. But there is some hidden useful features.

Game modes
We're planning to have four different modes for the game : solo with AI, HotSeat (multiplayer on the same computer), PBEM (asynchronous multiplayer by email), Network (synchronous or real-time multiplayer). Currently only HotSeat and PBEM are usable. The game mode must be chosen at the beginning of the game and it can't be changed during the game.

1. Hot Seat : Useful if you want to play with some friends in the same room. Each user plays his turn. At the end of the turn, the user just leaves the computer for the other one.
2. PBEM : Useful if you want to play with someone but you don't have the same free time. The first user plays his turn, then saves the file and send it via email as an attachment. The second player gets the email and run the file by loading it in qspacehulk and so on. In this mode, you can't save or load wherever you want. If you begin a turn, you MUST finish it or you will no more be able to continue this game. You can't save a PBEM during the turn, the save is only done at the end of the turn. The player who begins the game will automatically play the marines.

About the shoot and fire command
When you used the shoot or the fire command, you usually want to shoot or fire more than once (you want to shoot to one or more targets until they die, or you want to flame a whole corridor). So, in the interface, you just have to click the shoot or fire button once and then click on the targets as you want. The APs are deleted at each click as normal. To stop shooting or firing, you just have to click another button command. If you want to select a creature, you must click on the "stop" button first.

Selection of creature
When you left-click on a square of the map, all the objects in the square are displayed on the "on view" panel. There is usually no more than one selectable creature per square. The button "Select" is available if one of the object of the square is selectable. In the Entry Zones, you can have more than one selectable creature. When you left-click one time, the "On view" panel displays the first creature of the zone. You can left-click more to cycle through the list of creatures, to select the one you want.
You can also select more easily a creature by right-clicking on a square. The first selectable creature of the zone will automatically be selected. In the Entry Zone, right-click will usually select the creature with the lowest id.
If you deselect a unit (by selecting another one) when this unit has not done any action, its APs will not be deleted.

Smart right-click
If you right-click on a square, the game will try to find the most useful action and execute it. If a unit is already selected and you click on an empty near square, the action will be a movement, move or turn depending on positioning. If there is a friendly unit on the square, the action will be to select it (be careful because this will unselect the previous one and drop its remaining APs). If there is an enemy unit on the square, the action will be a shoot or an attack. If there is a closed door, the action will be to open the door.
Some actions cannot be done with the right-click, so you must rely on the button panel on the left for them : you can't close a door with the right-click, because the default action will be to move on the square. You can't turn 180 because the default action is to move backward. You can't revert your blip by right-clicking either.

End of game
The winning conditions are only check at the end of each turn. Whenever you think you have won the game, you must click on next turn button to activate the check. If your condition is to spend some APs on a specific computer or something like that, you just have to keep a marine in the correct square and leave him with the correspondent APs.

Options and preferences
Currently there is only few graphical options. When you click on the button "File->Save Preferences", this will save your the graphical preferences with the values you currently have. These values are those taken by default at the beginning of the game.

- Graphical theme or skin (default : Deathwing)
- Zoom level (default : small)
- Window size (default : 800x600)
- Window is maximised (default : no)
- Use random ground if available in the theme (default : yes)

Heuristics Spacehulk (2nd edition) is an almost fully turn-based game. There is only one conditions where a player must take a decision during the turn of its opponent : after an unsucessfull attack, the defenser can choose to turn its unit toward the attacker if it is not currently facing it.
To be able to play the game fully turn-based, qspacehulk provides a heuristic which can be used in order to avoid the decision of the opponent player. This heuristic is : the defenser is turned only if the attacker has at least one more AP.
At the beginning of the game, you can decide to use the heuristic or not. This decision cannot be changed during the game to avoid cheating. For PBEM game, the heuristic is obligatory.