Ok, I'm done with a first reading of the rules. Everything seems more or less clear (still, I think they could have been written in a clearer way, but anyway), but a point keeps on slipping through my mind: let's say I draw an Event card and have to spawn the Genestealers. The colours istruct me which terrains I have to spawn the Genestealers to. And I'm fine with that. Then (pag 23 of the rules) they say "the current player takes three cards from that side's blip pile and places them on the position containing the yellow Terrain card" . How am I suppose to know which side ? I mean, how do I choose to draw cards from the right or left blip pile?

Thanks for help

JULIA

You draw them from the blip pile on the side of the formation containing the terrain card

loken14 said:

Ok, then! So, it's the terrain conditioning the choice over the blip pile, not the Event. Thanks!

the event tells you if its a major spawn or a minor spawn which then correlates to number of people playing

loken14 said:

Sorry, would you mind referencing this in the rules? The example on pag 21 says "A major spawn on each yellow Terrain card AND a minor spawn on each red Terrain card". So both are resolved, and I don't see anything relating major / minor to the number of players ::confused::

Depending on the number of spacemarines in play, you have to use the proper void lock card. Example : if you are using 12 spacemarines, you use the void lock with 9 genestealers on both the initial left and right blip piles. Between these numbers are two triangles with numbers in them: a yellow triangle (major spawn number, in this case : 5) and a white triangle (minor spawn number, in this case : 3).

So if a event card says : major spawn on red terrain cards and minor spawn on orange terrain cards, you add 5 genestealers (from the appropriate blip pile) on any red terrain card (ex. : spore chimney) and 3 genestealers on any orange terrain (ex.: promethium tank).

Hope this helps

Julia said:

A little lengthy, as are most of my posts, but I hope this answers your questions fully, Julia.

I think maybe some examples would be best to explain: let's say you are playing a game involving 6 teams. You will need the Voidlock card that says so, and it will instruct you to use 1A, 2, 3, and 4 level cards. At the bottom of this Voidlock card for this allotment of players is a yellow triangle with a 5, and next to it also is a white triangle with a 3. The yellow triangle is major spawn; the white is minor. Also on each bottom corner of this specific Voidlock card are two 9s. These corner numbers specify how many cards start off in the location's blips. On the left will have cards according to Voidlock's left corner, and on the right will have cards according to Voidlock's right corner. These blips be directly above both the left and right side of the formation respectively while Voidlock should be directly over the space marine formation.

Now on every event card towards the bottom will be a spawn color seen on the terrain cards you set according to instructions on the Voidlock card (i.e. Door, Ventilation Duct, Corner Hallway, and Corridor) as well one of the two triangles without the numbers. Each side should also have received two of these terrain cards. Let's say you draw the event card "Gun Jam". "Gun Jam" instructs that wherever in the formation a yellow spawn terrain is you spawn major because the yellow triangle is attached to the spawn color. There is also a red spawn color with a white triangle; therefore, any terrain with a red spawn symbol will spawn minor. Our Voidlock card tells us that major spawns are 5, and minor spawns are 3. Assuming we are starting the game, we have two blip piles each with 9 cards. On one side of the formation is a Door with the yellow spawn symbol. We take from the blip pile directly above the Door's side of the formation 5 cards because "Gun Jam" and Voidlock cooperatively state that the yellow terrain receives 5 spawns. At the Ventilation Duct, where the color is red, we spawn 3 gene-stealers from its side of the formation from its respective blip.

Sometimes both sides have terrains that spawn gene-stealers. Sometimes only one terrain is present to spawn with as directed by the event card and what terrain colors are available. Sometimes both terrains are on the same side of the formation. Sometimes, there is more than one terrain with the same color (i.e. Corner Hallway and Promethean Tank, both orange). Regardless, you must spawn when instructed unless you run out of cards from one of the two blip piles. If this happens, you continue spawning from the other side of the formation until all possible spawns have been commenced. If one of the two blips at this point still has cards, you discard those cards into the gene-stealer discard pile. After you kill gene-stealers if you have tokens on the Door, you then travel to the next room (which in this example would be from Voidlock to location 1A).

This new location follows the same rules as the Voidlock's major and minor spawning instructions, but the blip amounts in the corners and the terrain set-up are almost always different. Otherwise, continue to play by spawning major and minor when instructed by the event card toward the end of every turn and continue to travel when one or both blips are gone at the end of spawning (i.e. you travel pretty fast in this game, especially when starting with a lot of space marines).

If you have any more questions, just ask. Regards, and hope you enjoy Space Hulk.

Tromdial said:

To clarify, NEVER take the left blip and use it to spawn gene-stealers on the right side of the formation, or vice-versa. Always, the left blip spawns on the left side, and the right blip on the right.

If you watch this youtube video by Phiveball, it will help you immensely. This is how I learned to play because, yes, the rule booklet is a mess.

Tromdial, Berf,

thank you for your exhaustive explanations. Yeah, everything was pretty clear, my original doubt was kind of "ok, I have a yellow terrain, and the Event instructs me to major spawn on yellow. Is there something saying I spawn on yellow only if it's on the right side of the formation?" (this question arouse because of the oddly worded example on pag 23: "since there is no red Terrain cards ON THE RIGHT side of the formation, then..." It was a natural consequence asking "what if I had a red Terrain on the left? Should I spawn or not?)
From your answers, it seems to me pretty clear that you spawn on the Terrain whose colour matches the ones on the Event card, regardless they are on the right or on the left of the formation, as long as you have enough cads on the blip pile laying on the same side of the terrain.

The other point I didn't get was the one touched by Loken, who said "the event tells you if it's a major or minor spawning". The "or" was a problem, since it seemed to me that you had to resolve both spawning on the event cards, since all Void Locks have BOTH the yellow (major) and white (minor) triangles!

I guess everything's clear. And a really big thank you to Tromdial who created a perfect example to let me check if I get it properly.

Here is kinda late (2.24 AM, sigh), tomorrow after work I'll give the game the firs try!

Thanks everybody for the help :-)

JULIA

Julia said:

np. Least I could do for a lot of my Fury of Dracula questions answered.

Also it seems you read exclusively the rules booklet on how to play, and that makes me wonder if you are going to consider playing with team cards revealed or not. The booklet tells you not to reveal, but truly there is no point of not revealing to your allies what actions are available and what you can contribute to the campaign. Your allies are not your opponents and the game is exceedingly hard enough. We play with hands revealed in my group but it could depend how your play group feels sharing tactics cards as a whole.

Group synergy is fundamental in surviving this game but I can also see some people liking the idea of "owning" a team and letting their decisions be their own. My advice is especially for your first game to play with hands revealed so that everyone understands what each member is capable of contributing and give thumbs up and pats on the back when a plan comes together, and cry sarcastically as zeros foil and maim your beloved team members.

One last thing: don't be afraid of throwing "low-bies" under the gene-stealer bus. When you have a swarm of 5 or more gene-stealers and no way to deal with the swarm; sometimes the best thing to do is move+activate a generic space marine into the way to save a bigger named space marine (i.e. Lexicanium Calistarius or Brother Zael, vs low-bies Brother Valencio and Brother Goriel). As you play, you'll see exactly who are expendable for a successful mission.

Yes, you're right, I've only been through the rules booklet by now. The game had a lot of appeal to me, it was time to strt playing. Plus, I really like Silver line games, they seem to be quick paced, and it's a good time, especially because it's not that easy to find that often 3-4 hours to enjoy longer games (maybe, if I were younger, but that's another story ::laughter:

As for "telling or not telling"... 90% of the times I'll be playing, I play solo, so I guess there is no real issue. But yeah, I guess that after some games people know exctly what the Action cards of every team are, so really no sense in not telling them. Plus, I suppose they trained together, so they should be aware of what others can do

And sure, meat for cannon needs to be sacrificed, don't worry. I'm familiar with the idea of "strategical murder of somebody in your team in order to win the game". After all, they're going to war. Casualties are part of the game :-)

And thanks also for the suggestions!

Julia said:

Cool. Yeah, if you're going to play this game solo a lot, then you bought an excellent game. If anything, this game feels most like a large puzzle with some chance involved in solving it. I assumed though you were going out to play it with others and I only have one buddy who loves this game as much as I do, another who will play it if I bring it, others who would rather play something else, and one who will burn it if it crosses his threshold again. Different strokes for different folks, I believe this game is more appreciated for its solo logic and appeal. If people want to do independent actions from the group and "run and gun", they will be sorrily disappointed. My friend who enjoys this game as much as I do, we loom over the table like its a war game for the survival of the universe, becoming like-minded on how to confront the merciless threat.

If you can find a friend who you and s/he can agree on tactics and appreciate the extra eye, it doubles the value of the game

Oh, and I finally found your Friend Request as I perused my hotmail. Yay! I now have 1 friend on FFG. *claps hands excitedly

Tromdial said:

Good to know :-) And yep... originally I didn't pay attention to this game that much, but then, I've noticed many people I'm in contact with playing this a lot. Thanks to Saint Amazon, I was able to recover a copy for something like 12 euro. Seems like I did a good investment :-)

Tromdial said:

:-D Thanks to you for accepting my request :-)

Played the first game tonight. I soloed 4 teams (yellow, grey, purple, blue) and had a great time :-) 2 casualties, and mission accomplished. I must say that, even if quite rudimental, the combat system works, thanks to the cards forcing you to spot different strategies every time. Very, very interesting (and addictive) game :-)

Because of the quick set-up and decent playtime, it definitely is the most played solo game in my collection.

Tromdial said:

Yeah, I can see why. At the moment, for me is (and I think it will be for a long time) Elder Sign, but this is a great second choice :-)

Plus, it's a very peculiar game, with good mecahnics and a lot of strategy. Simple, yet effective