The last Crusade

 

This box art was by the same artist who drew Roy Of The Rovers, David Sque.
You can really see his art style in the face of the space marine captain.

When you think of warhammer 40k spin offs most people think of the epic space marine or the suspense and strategy of the awesome Space Hulk. However there was also the often overlooked 1990 gem that is space crusade!

 

The second collaboration between Games Workshop and Milton Bradley games, Space Crusade takes place in the dark and distant future of mankind where aliens and the dark gods of chaos wage war on all humanity.

 

Much like space hulk, your task as the marine player is to lead a group of the empires finest into ancient start ships that have been lost in warp space, the void that sits between our space and the chaos of the warp. these wrecks carry with them lost tech and knowledge that is of huge value to the imperium.

 

The down side of the return of these ships is they don't come back empty, after thousands of years adrift in space they have become home to some really nasty new residents. This is where the alien player comes in.

 

The player who chooses not to take on one of the three squads of marines must take the role of the alien horrors that infest the corridors and rooms of the derelicts the marines raid.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The original Space Crusade advert from 1990

 

 

 

A selection of alien models from Games Workshop's citadel miniatures  

 

The creatures that inhabit the doomed spacecraft range from the usual Orks and Goblins (or Gritchens as they are called in 40k) to the more exotic cybernetic horror of Androids (possibly a precursor to the Necron race released years later) and the mighty dreadnoughts.

 

There is also the classic H R Geiger rip offs, the Gene Stealers- these "Xenomorphs" were the first wave of the Tyranid invasion that would sweep the galaxy  in later 40k editions.

 

Yes this is a Necron not an android- I like the model better.

 

This is the SC Android, yawn

 

 

finally there is the agents of Chaos- the chaos marines. these former space marines were lured and corrupted by the gods of the warp and now exist only to corrupt and destroy all life in our dimension. for further details of all the above check out the huge selection of literature and codexes created by GM over the last three decades.

 

Chaos space marine

 

Like Space Hulk, the Alien player uses a blip system to place alien figures on the board. each blip token represents where the monsters and creatures that appose the marine players are located- however as these blips are random and do not reveal the type and number of creatures till they are reached and flipped as the player enters the room, the players won't know the threat level until they are in range of attack from the alien player. This can lead to some tense moments as players decide if its worth the risk opening that bulk head or if they should pass it unexplored.

 

The board itself  differs from previous collaborations with MB as it now features a 3D element to it- it has walls that go across the board in a + shape, the walls have bulkheads cut into them limiting the access across the 4 board sections to these 8 points. These walls add variety to the flat board and make up for the lack of 3D furniture that was present in other GW MB games like heroquest.

 

The board design is quite sparse, but any more clutter would lead
to confusion as the battles rely on range and line of sight.

The marines have advantage of speed and fire power, however they are out numbered and at a disadvantage when it comes to positioning at the start of the game.

The alien player can flank them, circle them and with a little skilled play can split the squad in two for easier kills.

 

The marines have a primary mission and a secondary one that can be completed for additional honour and skill points to spend on more weapons  and equipment between missions.

 

Unlike heroquest- the alien player has mission objectives of his own and is not just tasked with killing the players off, this leads to the alien player being more than a simple DM role and takes the argument out of who has to play the role this time around.

 

After it's release there were two add-on pack released for it that added new figures, board pieces and missions to the original roster.

 

The first was Mission Dreadnaught.

 

Fun fact; all 12 foot high, bipedal killer robots wear lipstick.

ED209 was also a cross dresser.

 

This added a new 3D dreadnaught factory tile, extra androids and a selection of new parts for the dreadnaught model that allowed you to create several types of "mutated" dreadnaught (quite how you mutate a large killer robot with no living parts I don't know) each one with increasingly higher states and more weapons.

 

The second is the far rarer Eldar attack.

 

 When your entire race is eaten by a race of sentient insects, your going to have trust issues. 

 

This expansion added a new player type to the game, The Eldar (kind of space elves).

The box contained more board pieces, 9 Eldar figures and more missions and tokens for them.

I don't own this expansion myself, however I have played it and it adds a great deal to the original games as you now have to decide how to deal with this new race- do you open fire on them? offer a truce? or do you let them get on with it and hope you don't end up at cross purposes later in the game? 

 

There is also an advanced version that has you take the role of a squad of marine scouts on a mission aboard a tryranid hive ship- however I will look at this more closely in a future post.

 

Summing up

 

Having received this game for my 12th birthday it holds a special place for me and I still have my original copy.

 

Heroquest remains my favourite of the MB+GW co-productions, however this is a great game and if you like space hulk then this may be for you (however don't expect a huge challenge- this is not the hard as nails Terminator vs. Genestealer face off that is Hulk).