First Play: Space Marine Adventures

The Space Marines Adventures game lands on the dining table

This is the second post about the "Space Marines Adventures: Labyrinth of the Necrons" game that I'm using to bust out of my long painting funk. In the first [HERE], I gained initial momentum using several simple principles, and have been continuing to progress.

Below, the progress made in time for the first game. 

A step above how they arrived, but plenty of room for little highlights and details to continue. My son likes the models, said they "look cool" and "the little details are amazing!" so that's good. At the base cost of plastic Space Marines being $6 each, the game is basically 5 Space marines [that could be painted however you like] with a free set of rules, cards, game boards, and storage box!

Below, the game set up. Mr. Winkie chose Bros. Frostclaw and Grimm of the Space Wolves and Imperial Fists, respectively. I chose Sgt Cassius of the Ultramarines and Bro. Infernus of the Salamanders. Each comes with a matching colored D6.

We randomly grabbed a tile, placed the entry stairwell, the minions and the three exit points - we don't know which one is actually an exit until we accomplish the objective at center, which is to roll a '6' on an action at the control panel. This is just discernable at board center. We accidentally kept two special cards a character - actually, you DRAW 2 / pick 1 to keep per character.

Mr. Winkie - almost as tall as me, and at 12 he is considerably faster and has already scored more tries in one Junior Skills rugby season than I did in my entire career!  The question is will he enjoy the game?

Necron reinforcement arrives while Sgt Cassius leads Bro Grimm along the path of least resistance to the console to the left of him. Bros Infernus and Frostclaw await their activations to enter the board. Necron is from my circa 1990s army, which is about halfway done - I stopped work on it after I realized that Warhammer 40K doesn't make for fun games, and the project languished.

So right off the bat, I made one error, which upon re-reading the rules today, I figured out. Necron reinforcements arrive at the translocation squares, but if the square is occupied, 2-3 arrive on the orthogonal squares - so it pays to keep the squares clear! This isn't terribly difficult with four Space Marines.

Game play in the RAW [Rules As Written] has the Necrons in essence acting as tar pits. You want to stay away from the translocation points as the only way they can Wound a SM is to arrive in their square. They do not shoot, and they do not move.

This is a bit outside the fluff of the pictured Necrons, all of which have guns, but we will work on that later.

A bit further into the game, all SM have arrived, and been shooting up the Necrons on sight, which has kept their numbers manageable. Sgt Cassius is making a mistake standing on a portal, however...but he's almost at the console!

Unfortunately, Necrons arrive right on top of us. We manage to beat off the attack. Bro Grimm shoots one down and then advances.

However, he also errs in advancing onto a portal!

Sgt Cassius finally rolls a '6'! The exits are flipped, and the actual exit has the stairs down to level two place there. While he has been trying [and failing] to roll the '6', the other brothers have been wasting Necrons and keeping the paths clear.

All head at top speed for the exit as more Necrons arrive!

...and more, and more... Bro Infernus guards the rear.

The brothers are now stacked in the stairwell to level two.

Mr. Winkie arranged the heraldry for a final pic.

Well, that was fun, and Mr. Winkie definitely enjoyed himself!

We gave it another go, and this time allowed Necrons to shoot on a 5+ when they arrived. But even without this, they got Sgt Cassius who was probably a bit overconfident. Bro Grimm did get shot, however.

This second game had us escape with two SM, a marginal victory.

We tried another board, and this time found ourselves crammed in among some portals. Spreading out with good fields of fire is actually better than close mutual support - makes sense in real life, also, I might add.

We played 3-4 times, and enjoyed tweaking the rules a bit. Mr. Winkie looks forward to another go soon!

As stated, the game is a no-brainer to purchase at $25.

1. You get 5 nice models that have interesting weapon variations. As they are plastic, you can modify them to any five in your Kill Team or growing army.
2. Alternately, you can give them a basic paint job and a heavily shaded dip, some decals, and they are very nice game pieces or your kid's first models.
3. The game plays quickly and easily, and is suspenseful. We found that having Necrons shoot or move and attack at a 5+ adds some tension. I'd say that a shot that is not clear should be penalized by -1, so only hitting on a '6'.
4. You can easily add a few simple rules to make the game more tactical, like terrain, etc. 

If you think of the game as 5 models and some nice terrain tiles and card decks, you are heading in the right direction, just like GW is heading in the right direction with these games.

While the games may not satisfy everyone, it is so easy to tweak the rules that your level of tactical play is easily accommodated.  Go buy this game, whether you like Warhammer or not!