Space Crusade
Encyclopedia
Space Crusade is an adventure board game
produced by Milton Bradley
in conjunction with Games Workshop
and was first made in 1990. While produced in the UK
and available in some other countries including Finland
, Ireland
, France
, Denmark
, Australia
and New Zealand
, it was never sold in North America
. In Germany
, Italy
, Belgium
and the Netherlands
, it is known as Star Quest.
It is a sister game to HeroQuest
, which was also produced by Milton Bradley and Games Workshop. It uses many of the concepts of the Games Workshop's Space Hulk
and Warhammer 40,000
games, but at a much simpler level of game play.
The game was designed by Steven Baker. The original box artwork was by Jim Burns
, and the later edition had a cover by David Sque , who is best known for illustrating Roy of the Rovers
and, more recently, the Scorer strip in the Daily Mirror.
s, controlling all the aliens and monsters on the space hulk, which were a mixture of Chaos
, Orks
, Genestealer
s and other aliens from Warhammer 40,000. The alien player takes on a significantly reduced role compared with that of a Game Master in traditional role-playing game
s, with its sole role being to stop the marine players from accomplishing their missions.
The other players are marine players, and each controls a squad of 5 Space Marines
in standard power armour, one of whom is a Commander. Each squad is further equipped with order commands as well as equipment cards. Marines can be armed with different weapons: light weapons allow marines to move faster at the cost of reduced firepower. Heavy weapons are represented by specialised red "Heavy Weapons dice" where the usual die numbers have been replaced; 4, 5 and 6 score 1, 2 and 3 damage points respectively. The white Light Weapons dice are similar, except that only 5 and 6 can score 1 and 2 points. Heavy weapons operate in special ways, such as being able to hitting all units in a horizontal line or attacking multiple targets.
The blue squad represents the Ultramarines, the red squad represents the Blood Angels, and the yellow squad represents the Imperial Fists. All three are founding chapters of the Space Marines, and the chapter can be recognized by the insignia on the slider board, and accurately represents the standard colors of the Warhammer 40,000
versions. Each of the chapters are identical, although the equipment cards for the Blood Angels are specialised in close combat, and the Imperial Fists in use of ranged heavy weapons.
Close range combat rules are enforced when two units engaging are next to each other; the controlling player of the two units in combat roll whatever number of dice allowed for that unit, and the highest wins. Otherwise, ranged combat rules are followed so long as there is line of sight between the two squares that each unit is occupying: the firing player rolls dice for the weapon being fired, and if the die total is above the armour value of the target, it is dealt hit points.
The squad-based system gives each player greater access for strategy and planning. Most of the game is careful calculations of avoiding line of sight, and rushing to attack either from around the corridor, through open doors, or close in with close combat. The mission based system sometimes allows a player to sacrifice units to score points in order to win.
The marine players have the advantage of heavy weapons, special equipment and high armour point values due to their power armour, while the alien player has the advantage of large numbers of pieces and random "Alien Event" cards which may be detrimental to his opponents. The marine Commanders have multiple Hit Points and special weapons, making them harder to kill.
Each game consists of the marine players receiving their primary mission, docking and entering the space hulk (and later dreadnought factories), completing their mission before the other marine players, and returning their team back to the docking claw. Points are scored for units killed and missions completed, deducted for units lost. Players with sufficient points at the end of the game (including the Alien Player) can be promoted to the next rank, which gives them access to additional order or equipments for the subsequent games.
Most names are translated more or less directly into Danish.
Chaos Marines = Kaos Mariner, Genestealers = Genrøvere, Imperial Fists = Imperiets Næve (The Fist of the Empire/Imperium), Ultramarines = Ultramarinerne, Blood Angels = Blodengle
marines). The three space marine chapter names were Donderkoppen ("Thunderheads", blue), Vuistmeesters ("Fist Masters", yellow) and Bloedproevers ("Blood Tasters", red). The aliens were known as "Ruimtelingen", meaning something like "space-beings" or more literally; "spacelings".
with special abilities including psychic
powers.
This expansion pack allowed one extra player to control the Eldar miniatures, thus allowing the game to be played by 2-5 people.
Of note, one of the alien events allows the player to select a game board and rotate it to any degree. While this has interesting gameplay due to the line of sight required for range attacks, in practice it usually ends up with players knocking over doors and miniatures in the process, leading to many players simply ignoring this particular event.
This expansion pack gives the marine player access to additional space marine miniatures, boosting the squad to 6 space marines and the commander. Space marines may carry extra heavy weapons or the tarantula mobile turret.
The alien player gains extra heavy dreadnoughts, which are extremely powerful and capable of wiping out an entire squad. The last mission in the additional mission book allows the alien player to continuously construct additional dreadnoughts for more firepower from the dreadnought factory board.
The additional bulkhead doors and corridor tiles allows players to build more interesting board constructions, whereas the initial game is quite limited to either the square 2x2 mode or the long 4x1 mode.
: one for using Terminators, Space Marine Scouts, Ork Mobs, Tyranids and Genestealer Hybrids (White Dwarf, 1991), allowing players to use Warhammer 40,000 miniatures, and one campaign called 'Renegade' (White Dwarf, 1992).
a Tyranid ship in order to sabotage its delicate internal "organs". The game is superficially similar to Space Hulk
in that it uses 28 mm plastic Citadel Miniatures
as play pieces, uses modular board pieces to represent the innards of the Hive ship, and has one player controlling the Marines while the other controls waves of Tyranids, but has no greater relationship to Space Crusade than any other game set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Without the license from Milton Bradley, many of the components of Advanced Space Crusade were released in 1993's Tyranid Attack, a substantially different game.
released a computer version of the game in early 1992. It was available on Atari ST
, IBM PC
(MS-DOS
), Amiga
, ZX Spectrum
, Commodore 64
and Amstrad
and later received an expansion, The Voyage Beyond. It is a faithful conversion of the boardgame, with a board that could be viewed in 2D or isometric projection
views (Barker, 1992).
Adventure board game
An adventure board game is a board game in which a player plays as a unique individual character that improves through gameplay. This improvement is commonly reflected in terms of increasing character attributes, but also in receiving new abilities or equipment.Adventure board games often...
produced by Milton Bradley
Milton Bradley Company
The Milton Bradley Company is an American game company established by Milton Bradley in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1860. In 1920, it absorbed the game production of McLoughlin Brothers, formerly the largest game manufacturer in the United States, and in 1987, it purchased Selchow and Righter,...
in conjunction with Games Workshop
Games Workshop
Games Workshop Group plc is a British game production and retailing company. Games Workshop has published the tabletop wargames Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000...
and was first made in 1990. While produced in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and available in some other countries including Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, it was never sold in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. In Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
and the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, it is known as Star Quest.
It is a sister game to HeroQuest
HeroQuest (board game)
HeroQuest, sometimes also written as Hero Quest, is an adventure board game that was created by Milton Bradley in conjunction with the British company Games Workshop and set in the latter's Warhammer Fantasy fictional universe, as shown by a map of the Warhammer 'Old World' being printed on the...
, which was also produced by Milton Bradley and Games Workshop. It uses many of the concepts of the Games Workshop's Space Hulk
Space Hulk
Space Hulk is a board game by Games Workshop, first released in 1989 and re-released in 2009. The game is set in their Warhammer 40,000 universe and draws a certain degree of inspiration from the Alien movies....
and Warhammer 40,000
Warhammer 40,000
Warhammer 40,000 is a tabletop miniature wargame produced by Games Workshop, set in a dystopian science fantasy universe. Warhammer 40,000 was created by Rick Priestley in 1987 as the futuristic companion to Warhammer Fantasy Battle, sharing many game mechanics...
games, but at a much simpler level of game play.
The game was designed by Steven Baker. The original box artwork was by Jim Burns
Jim Burns
Jim Burns is a Welsh artist born in Cardiff, Wales.In 1966 he joined the Royal Air Force, but soon thereafter he left and signed up at the Newport School of Art for a year's foundation course....
, and the later edition had a cover by David Sque , who is best known for illustrating Roy of the Rovers
Roy of the Rovers
Roy of the Rovers is a British comic strip about the life and times of a fictional footballer named Roy Race, who played for Melchester Rovers...
and, more recently, the Scorer strip in the Daily Mirror.
Gameplay
The game is designed to be played with 2 to 4 players, taking turns until one wins. One player takes the role of the alienExtraterrestrial life in popular culture
In popular cultures, "extraterrestrials" are life forms — especially intelligent life forms— that are of extraterrestrial origin .-Historical ideas:-Pre-modern:...
s, controlling all the aliens and monsters on the space hulk, which were a mixture of Chaos
Chaos (Warhammer)
In Games Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000 fictional universes, Chaos refers to the often stereotypically malevolent entities which live in a different timespace, known as the Warp in Warhammer 40,000 and as the Realm of Chaos in Warhammer Fantasy...
, Orks
Ork (Warhammer 40,000)
The Orks are a race from the fictional Warhammer 40,000 universe. They are described as being tall, muscular humanoids, with green skin and a penchant for violence. the orks live for war and constantly fight anything in sight, including each other...
, Genestealer
Genestealer
Genestealers are a fictional alien species in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, and the opponents of the marines in the Space Hulk board game...
s and other aliens from Warhammer 40,000. The alien player takes on a significantly reduced role compared with that of a Game Master in traditional role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
s, with its sole role being to stop the marine players from accomplishing their missions.
The other players are marine players, and each controls a squad of 5 Space Marines
Space Marines (Warhammer 40,000)
In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000 setting created by Games Workshop, Space Marines are genetically modified "super human" soldiers created by the Emperor to conquer the galaxy and defend mankind. According to Games Workshop, there are over a thousand recorded chapters of Space Marines,...
in standard power armour, one of whom is a Commander. Each squad is further equipped with order commands as well as equipment cards. Marines can be armed with different weapons: light weapons allow marines to move faster at the cost of reduced firepower. Heavy weapons are represented by specialised red "Heavy Weapons dice" where the usual die numbers have been replaced; 4, 5 and 6 score 1, 2 and 3 damage points respectively. The white Light Weapons dice are similar, except that only 5 and 6 can score 1 and 2 points. Heavy weapons operate in special ways, such as being able to hitting all units in a horizontal line or attacking multiple targets.
The blue squad represents the Ultramarines, the red squad represents the Blood Angels, and the yellow squad represents the Imperial Fists. All three are founding chapters of the Space Marines, and the chapter can be recognized by the insignia on the slider board, and accurately represents the standard colors of the Warhammer 40,000
Warhammer 40,000
Warhammer 40,000 is a tabletop miniature wargame produced by Games Workshop, set in a dystopian science fantasy universe. Warhammer 40,000 was created by Rick Priestley in 1987 as the futuristic companion to Warhammer Fantasy Battle, sharing many game mechanics...
versions. Each of the chapters are identical, although the equipment cards for the Blood Angels are specialised in close combat, and the Imperial Fists in use of ranged heavy weapons.
Close range combat rules are enforced when two units engaging are next to each other; the controlling player of the two units in combat roll whatever number of dice allowed for that unit, and the highest wins. Otherwise, ranged combat rules are followed so long as there is line of sight between the two squares that each unit is occupying: the firing player rolls dice for the weapon being fired, and if the die total is above the armour value of the target, it is dealt hit points.
The squad-based system gives each player greater access for strategy and planning. Most of the game is careful calculations of avoiding line of sight, and rushing to attack either from around the corridor, through open doors, or close in with close combat. The mission based system sometimes allows a player to sacrifice units to score points in order to win.
The marine players have the advantage of heavy weapons, special equipment and high armour point values due to their power armour, while the alien player has the advantage of large numbers of pieces and random "Alien Event" cards which may be detrimental to his opponents. The marine Commanders have multiple Hit Points and special weapons, making them harder to kill.
Each game consists of the marine players receiving their primary mission, docking and entering the space hulk (and later dreadnought factories), completing their mission before the other marine players, and returning their team back to the docking claw. Points are scored for units killed and missions completed, deducted for units lost. Players with sufficient points at the end of the game (including the Alien Player) can be promoted to the next rank, which gives them access to additional order or equipments for the subsequent games.
Danish
The game was also translated into a Danish version and released by the company 'MB Spil'. While most units had Danish names, the name of the game itself remained unchanged.Most names are translated more or less directly into Danish.
Chaos Marines = Kaos Mariner, Genestealers = Genrøvere, Imperial Fists = Imperiets Næve (The Fist of the Empire/Imperium), Ultramarines = Ultramarinerne, Blood Angels = Blodengle
Dutch
The Dutch translation of the game was titled "Star Quest", and featured fairly liberal translations of both the space marines and many of the aliens' names. For example, gretchin were translated as "mutanten" (mutants), "Dreadnought" as "Durfal" (roughly meaning "one who dares to do anything" — in other words, who dreads nothing) and space marines as "Melkwegmariniers" (lit. milky wayMilky Way
The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains the Solar System. This name derives from its appearance as a dim un-resolved "milky" glowing band arching across the night sky...
marines). The three space marine chapter names were Donderkoppen ("Thunderheads", blue), Vuistmeesters ("Fist Masters", yellow) and Bloedproevers ("Blood Tasters", red). The aliens were known as "Ruimtelingen", meaning something like "space-beings" or more literally; "spacelings".
Finnish
The Finnish translation calls the aliens "clones" collectively, but this is given no further explanation. Some different terminology, in English, is used: the three factions are named Blood Angels (red), Space Judges (yellow) and Sky Terminators (blue).German
As in the Netherlands, the German version of the game was published under the name Star Quest to tie-in with HeroQuest, which, at that time, was very popular amongst German children. The translation tones down most of the violent game elements: The aliens are "robots", not living creatures. A player does not kill a robot, the robot is merely removed from this dimension or gets caught by the effects of the weapons and is not harmed at all. Although for example the "Assault Cannon" can quite easily be recognized as a type of machine gun, in the German version it is called "Zero Time Gun" and its effect is explained as "time bubbles" slowing down the enemy.Greek
The Greek translation is called "Σταυροφορία στο Διάστημα" which is a translation of the original name (literally "Crusade in Space").Italian
The Italian version of the game is called Starquest, often written Star Quest, just like the Dutch and the German ones. Most of the aliens' names are literally translated (with the exceptions of "Dreadnought" and "Gretchin"). One of these translations is contested: "genestealer" becomes "ladro genetico", literally meaning "genetic thief". Also two of the three space marine chapter names are translated, with the exception of the Ultramarines: the red one becomes "Angeli Sanguinari" (something similar to "Bloodthirsty Angels") and the yellow one becomes "Pugno d'Acciaio" ("Steel Fist").Spanish
The Spanish translation is called Cruzada Estelar, because of the difficulty in a literal translation of "Starquest". The Spanish version also suffered a mis-translation of armour as "armamento" (weaponry) instead of "armadura", meaning that the Marines' armour value was not explicitly given. The translation of "genestealers" to "robagenes" is also a contested translation, literally meaning "thief of genes".Eldar Attack
A boxed expansion set that introduced EldarEldar (Warhammer 40,000)
In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000, the Eldar are a race of elf-like humanoids who look into the future via psychic powers. They are one of the most ancient and advanced races in the universe's history, though younger than the Necrons, the C'tan, and the Old Ones...
with special abilities including psychic
Psychic
A psychic is a person who professes an ability to perceive information hidden from the normal senses through extrasensory perception , or is said by others to have such abilities. It is also used to describe theatrical performers who use techniques such as prestidigitation, cold reading, and hot...
powers.
This expansion pack allowed one extra player to control the Eldar miniatures, thus allowing the game to be played by 2-5 people.
Of note, one of the alien events allows the player to select a game board and rotate it to any degree. While this has interesting gameplay due to the line of sight required for range attacks, in practice it usually ends up with players knocking over doors and miniatures in the process, leading to many players simply ignoring this particular event.
Mission Dreadnought
A boxed expansion set.This expansion pack gives the marine player access to additional space marine miniatures, boosting the squad to 6 space marines and the commander. Space marines may carry extra heavy weapons or the tarantula mobile turret.
The alien player gains extra heavy dreadnoughts, which are extremely powerful and capable of wiping out an entire squad. The last mission in the additional mission book allows the alien player to continuously construct additional dreadnoughts for more firepower from the dreadnought factory board.
The additional bulkhead doors and corridor tiles allows players to build more interesting board constructions, whereas the initial game is quite limited to either the square 2x2 mode or the long 4x1 mode.
White Dwarf
Two articles about Space Crusade were published in White DwarfWhite Dwarf (magazine)
White Dwarf is a magazine published by British games manufacturer Games Workshop. Initially covering a wide variety of fantasy and science-fiction role-playing and board games, particularly the role playing games Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest and Traveller...
: one for using Terminators, Space Marine Scouts, Ork Mobs, Tyranids and Genestealer Hybrids (White Dwarf, 1991), allowing players to use Warhammer 40,000 miniatures, and one campaign called 'Renegade' (White Dwarf, 1992).
Advanced Space Crusade
Advanced Space Crusade was a modular board game published in 1990 by Games Workshop and Milton Bradley. The premise of the game is that a number of Space Marine scout squads are boardingBoarding (attack)
Boarding, in its simplest sense, refers to the insertion on to a ship's deck of individuals. However, when it is classified as an attack, in most contexts, it refers to the forcible insertion of personnel that are not members of the crew by another party without the consent of the captain or crew...
a Tyranid ship in order to sabotage its delicate internal "organs". The game is superficially similar to Space Hulk
Space Hulk
Space Hulk is a board game by Games Workshop, first released in 1989 and re-released in 2009. The game is set in their Warhammer 40,000 universe and draws a certain degree of inspiration from the Alien movies....
in that it uses 28 mm plastic Citadel Miniatures
Citadel Miniatures
Citadel Miniatures Limited is a company which produces metal, resin and plastic miniature figures for tabletop wargames such as Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000....
as play pieces, uses modular board pieces to represent the innards of the Hive ship, and has one player controlling the Marines while the other controls waves of Tyranids, but has no greater relationship to Space Crusade than any other game set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Without the license from Milton Bradley, many of the components of Advanced Space Crusade were released in 1993's Tyranid Attack, a substantially different game.
Computer game
Gremlin Graphics Software Ltd.Gremlin Interactive
Gremlin Interactive was a British software house based in Sheffield and working mostly in the home computer market.- History :...
released a computer version of the game in early 1992. It was available on Atari ST
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
, IBM PC
IBM PC
The IBM Personal Computer, commonly known as the IBM PC, is the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform. It is IBM model number 5150, and was introduced on August 12, 1981...
(MS-DOS
MS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
), Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
, ZX Spectrum
ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...
, Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
and Amstrad
Amstrad
Amstrad is a British electronics company, now wholly owned by BSkyB. As of 2006, Amstrad's main business is manufacturing Sky Digital interactive boxes....
and later received an expansion, The Voyage Beyond. It is a faithful conversion of the boardgame, with a board that could be viewed in 2D or isometric projection
Isometric projection
Isometric projection is a method for visually representing three-dimensional objects in two dimensions in technical and engineering drawings...
views (Barker, 1992).