Space Hulk: Death Angel

Arctic Blast · January 26, 2014, 05:41:25 PM

^Yep, I hear ya on that. I think that's part of the reason I've been so impressed with Savage Worlds whenever we run a campaign using that system. Everything is so clean and streamlined. Your character sheet is just that...one sheet. Everything you need is there. Sure, you need to detail what your Hindrances and Edges do, but that's typical of any RPG system. Also, the fact that character building actively encourages you to take Hindrances (Nerfs to your character, basically), because only by taking a few of those do you get points for Edges (Buffs), is a lot of fun.

Nefaro · January 29, 2014, 06:05:33 PM

I got Space Hulk and Mission Pack 1 in yesterday.

Played solo this afternoon using the Librarian, Assault Bolter, and Power Sword teams. I had picked them randomly. Turns out I got all the more ranged-oriented ones and none of the beefier short-ranged teams.

I had been doing pretty good until the next to last location in the space hulk, where I lost a couple of my basic Brothers. I actually started off in the final (victory) location with no genestealers the first round and I got pretty cocky. After issuing Move and Support orders to prepare for this final showdown, a nasty spawn followed by a nastier Event next turn that splooged out a massive amount of genestealers AND some were spawned behind every one of my space marines. Oh the humanity!

In the end, it was down to my single Librarian with 3 genestealers on his backside and 6 in the direction he was facing. Luckily I had managed to place 1 Activation token on the location's Control Panel and rolled exactly a one to win the game at the very last do-or-die roll of the last turn! I almost jumped when I rolled that lucky shit. Talk about hairy!

;D

Just got the Tyranid Pack in about an hour ago. Hrmm..

Between this and Marvel Legendary, I'll have plenty of solo card gaming to do.

JasonPratt · January 30, 2014, 09:05:17 AM

There's a pretty good chance I'll get to see Bro and the nieces this weekend for a few days -- not the best game for the girls, of course, and I'd rather Bro look at the LotR/Hobbit 1 LCG instead since the girls might take better to that (though they're still a little young to play it).

Still, I unpacked all my decks last week when they came in, and was happy with them. :)

Nefaro · February 01, 2014, 01:23:15 PM

I dunno.. Space Hulk Death Angel didn't strike me as a good multiplayer card game. There are probably plenty more that have better group mechanics. But the solitaire game I played the other day was nail-bitingly brutal and came right down to the wire. :D

I'd suggest giving it the one-player treatment the first time.

Arctic Blast · February 01, 2014, 05:11:50 PM

Yeah, it's a really good solo game, but a fairly lackluster one for multiple players. There are far too many superior co-op games out there to really recommend Death Angel for that type of game experience.

smittyohio · February 09, 2016, 11:09:34 AM

I've been on a solo game kick lately, and this was one of the top solo games as voted on at BGG:

https://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/200265/2015-peoples-choice-top-100-solo-games?titlesonly=1

Note that the list is in reverse order, so the #1 rated solo game (Mage Knight) is #100 in the list.

I picked up Death Angel recently, and have had a blast with it after reading the rules and watching some youtube videos. Last night I made it to the last location with 5 of 6 marines still alive, and thought I was home free. The location card said that whenever I activated the Control Panel, I had to make a choice: add 1 token to the location, or roll a die. If the die was < the number of tokens, my Space Marines win. Otherwise I have to keep going.

So the trick is to get enough tokens to have a reasonable shot of winning before getting overwhelmed. I got 2 tokens on it, and was doing ok... but then things went nuts, and by the time I got the 3rd (for a 50/50 shot), I was in trouble - 3 marines left and too many Genestealers. On the next round, I was pretty sure I had to try to escape the ship or be overwhelmed. I cringed, rolled the die, and couldn't bring myself to look... when I did, I saw a magical zero!!! Just for kicks I decided to see if my remaining 3 marines could last through the round. They couldn't... not even close. I love this game... So much tension and theme.

Note: This last second win took some of the frustration out of rolling 5 straight misses for attacks, which is part of the reason things got so desperate.

Nefaro · February 09, 2016, 05:56:56 PM

It's very die roll dependent.

Not necessarily a bad thing by itself but I recall you're only rolling one die (?) much of the time. So there can be stretches of good or bad rolls. The game is pretty punishing, which is good for solitaire/co-op.

PanzersEast · February 10, 2016, 11:54:28 AM

It is a brutal but very enjoyable game for me. Wild swings with the die rolls, but there are some tactics involved and special abilities.... I love killing the Heretics, but they are relentless.... Recommended by me.

PE

Nefaro · February 10, 2016, 01:56:16 PM

I like that it takes up less space than most of my games. Could probably even play it on something the size of a large End Table. Hotel room mobility.