Space Hulk V1, mission 6

The last one.  Marines have deployed toxin gas to wipe out the Xenos.  Unfortunately, they did it using some dodgy plumbing.  They have to protect said plumbing for 16 turns.  Xenos win by destroying it.

Marines have to protect the single entry room at the RHS

The dodgy pipework the Marines are protecting.  Toxin gas hissing through it as we play.

Marines deploy where they like. The goal is to just hold back the Xenos as long as possible.

The swarm  begins...

Both sides are besieged

Too fast for overwatch

CHOMP.  Not a good start

14 more turns to go...

CLICK, an unfortunate jam

They are through, FIRE!

Uh, OK.

Messing with doors, trying to cut off LOS

Other Marine reacts and blows the door away

Flamer-marine advances and blocks the corridor with fire

And again

And again.  OK, so that was some terrible Xeno deployments

See, bad decision making.  This will hurt me in the end.

DAKKA, DAKKA

DAKKA, DAKKA, Xenos down

D, click.  Scuttle, oops.

Enjoy this Flamer-boy, that was you last shot.

Shuffling reinforcements to cover the potential for a breach

Flamer-marine advances to delay the Xeno tide

OK, not so much delay as act a speed bump

A nice reinforcement pool builds

Over on the other flank the jammed marine is in big trouble

Yup.

Reinforcements pour into the gap

Still holding...

Repositioning to counter the surge

Flames roast the Xeno that got through

Sgt faces a wall of tooth and claws

DAKKA

DAKKA

OK, so far, bring 'em on!

Flamer-marine catches another Xeno.  Getting low on ammo.

ALRRIIIIHT, lets see what yer made of!

DAKKA, DAKKA, DAKKA.  That would be splat and slime then.

Numbers are building nicely

Again!

Another one please, Sir!

Oh, maybe just the one more?

Click...

slither, MISS, MISS, MISS

Swoosh, JAM

GRRRRRRR, with its last AP the Xeno engages the Marine

WHAT!  Marine draws the HTH and turns

DAKKA, SPLAT

Turn, DAKKA

SPLAT!

WHOOSH, Flamer-marine sets out to delay the swarm

MORE, MORE!

Lets get it on!

Ooops, pushed his luck too far.

click, an unfortunate jam

Chaaaarge

5 turns to go, Xenos have to get a break through soon or they will have too far to go

Flamer-marine, just doing his thing

ready, aim

DAKKA, DAKKA

misses

HTH, the Marine draws, blocking access to the central corridor.

Xenos HAVE to push harder.  Now's the time I'm regretting my earlier deployment blunders

Marines fall back to the center, bugs rush to fill the gap. 

Dakka, MISS, HTH

CHOMP, overwatch jam!

Rushing the overwatch from behind too

CHOMP.  Three tuns, Xenos can still do it, but it will be VERY close

Ready?

One Xeno charges in, is gunned down

Second follows, chomps the Marine

Steps across the gap, SGT misses

Marine wins, turns

Third Xeno in from behind

CHOMP, Marine down

TWO TURNS! The Xenos can make it, only if...

CLICK, DOH!

BIG SCUTTLE, Xenos stack for the win.  Only the front three have enough APs to make it to HTH the duct panel

@#$%, 1 CP

DAKKA, DAKKA, DAKKA, DAKKA.  5 APs, 4 dead Xenos.  Marines WIN, Marines WIN!

Going for it, just because

That short.

Putting it out of my misery.

The Marines win the final game.  That was fun, perhaps if I'd not lost as many early in the game the Xenos could have made it. 

What a fun series, SH v1 was a great fun game. I really enjoyed this blast from the past.

While playing I did come across this in the box, my old lab time back from 1997

Oh yeah, 4 channels!  This used to be white too.

One of the issues with SHv1 campaign was that the games follow a story arc, however,  they are  unlinked.  Outcomes of one game don't affect the next.  This was addressed with some of the follow-on campaigns.  After packing up I poured a scotch and had a good leaf through my binder to see what we used to play.

DEATHWING
Opened with a decent narrative of Dark Angels rescuing their people from a Genestealer infestation.  Missions were hard.

GENESTEALER
Psychics and 'stealer hybrids.  Hybrids with guns were a good addition.  Psychics really unbalanced the game.  Lost too many Marines to a rogue Psycher.  The mechanism was kind of complicated too.  However, a good addition was the wide corridor/rooms, big enough to drive vehicles down!

WHITE DWARF-MISSIONS
Space Wolves.  Always were very silly to me.  A gaming friend loved them, so we played the missions

These missions all be kind of 'samey', toehold, defend, toxin/capture etc.  Just different forces

More Space Wolves - this had huge maps, needing 2 SH sets

Wash, rinse, repeat.  Played it all before

Finally, something new.  Auto-firing defense turrets.  By now we had discovered Legions of Steel and having an enemy that fired back and grenades/forcewalls was changing our perspective on how SH should be played. 

I think some of the GW guys had found LoS too,  there was definitely some idea crossover going on.  IIRC this one has forcewall-like powerfield generators.

SH v2.  Never bought it, but I did like the new gantry room in WD

And SH v: mission 7

Using new weapons from the newly released Terminator box

PITFALL, one of my all-time favourite missions

With my all-time favourite saved for last: DENZARK'S HAMMER
This. Was. Awesome.  We played this one a whole bunch of times.  It is tense, very close and a whole new way to play SH.  Its 'normal' marines vs Genestealers.  A true gem of a mission.

Maybe one day the boys and I will play this one...