The trouble with Tribbles

I pulled out my ear defenders, but I still couldn't hear in one ear. The eardrops and the little water squirter worked really well. My ear canal was solid with wax compacted by the earplugs. So I hereby recommend and endorse Murine.

The other ear:


Level 7: Omega Protocol as a Space Crusade Expansion


"Level 7: Omega Protocol" has 1" squares, so the rooms and corridors can be used for expanding Space Crusade. There are manhole covers, blast templates and a variety of tokens, as well as dice and miniatures. You could also play Omega Protocol with  Space Crusade rules, if you don't have Space Crusade.

Space Crusade - Squad Stances



Stance cards give the players tactical options, producing more thoughtful gameplay.
The card is placed face down beside a Space Marine squad at the end of the player turn, and is turned over at the start of the next player turn. So you have to decide your stance one turn in advance.
  • Caution: Move is limited to 3 spaces, the first miniature to be attacked gets to reroll 1 enemy attack die.
  • Reckless: Move is increased by 3 spaces, the first 2 miniatures to be attacked each suffer an attacker reroll.
  • Command: Move is limited to 3 spaces, 1 miniature gets an attack reroll and one miniature gets a defend reroll if they are within 1 space (diagonal OK) of their Commander. The Commander may use the reroll, 1 miniature may take boths rerolls.
  • Phalanx: None may move, the first 2 miniatures to be attacked each get to reroll 1 enemy attack die. 
Rerolls can be for shooting or Hand to Hand Combat. The player who rerolls may elect not to reroll.
The Alien player gets a Stance Card for each color group of his miniatures.
Only 1 Marine Stance Card and 1 Alien Stance Card may be in play at any one time, the Marine players must take turns.

The big tactical strategy in Space Crusade is to have 5 guys attacking 2 guys. "Phalanx" gives the 2 guys a chance. And now you have Reckless Dreadnoughts lurching across the battlefield, and the Chaos Commander actually commanding his marines.

I got the idea from Level 7 Omega Protocol, which should arrive in the mail next Monday. It does seem to be a 21st Century Space Crusade.

For H2H (modified by from a question by Paul Dale)

Space Crusade - Action Tokens

Capture key points! Overwatch! Race-specific abilities! Hardly any new rules!

You get 1 action Token per turn, plus one for holding the room with the fancy graphic that each board has.
You get an extra Token for each of these rooms you hold
You hold a room if your team occupy the room (blips don't count) and no other units are present at the end of the Game turn. The Alien player gets 1 Action Token for every Marine player each turn, and 1 for each room held.
A player may not hide her tokens, this is not a memory test. A miniature may not benefit from 2 Actions in one turn. You spend Action Tokens during you move only, even if they are to be used in the enemy's turn. Sometimes they may be wasted.

Action Tokens can be spent on the following Actions:

Cost Name Effect
1 Lookout 1 designated miniature gets to move their full move an the end of an enemy's miniature's turn if they saw the enemy move
2 Shoot n' Scoot Move 1 square, fire, move back to the original square during this turn.
4 Ambush Move 1 square, fire, move back to the original square,in the
enemy turn, after any enemy miniature completes its turn
2 Overwatch 1 designated miniature gets to fire an the end of an enemy miniature's turn if it is now in LOS
1 Revenge If one of your squad loses or draws in hand-to-hand, another of
your squad within 4 squares may take a free move and a free hand-to-hand attack on the enemy concerned.
2 Mark of Terror Enemy must roll a 1 or 2 to move a unit into your LOS
2 Leadership Any 2 Miniatures Adjacent to any friendly Commander may
re-roll one die of their choice when attacking.
2 Berserk 1 miniature gets +2 move, and 1 extra red die on  Hand-to-Hand attack
3 Swarm 2 miniatures may combine Hand-to-Hand rolls on the same target
1 Cover One reroll on any shooting attack against you.
2 Cover Fire If an enemy moves adjacent to one of your squad, another
squad member with LOS gets a free shot at him before Hand-To-Hand can occur

Optional Race rules:

Cost Race Name Effect
4 Dark Eldar Steal Soul Double points on your first kill this turn
2 Dark Eldar Combat Drugs 1 miniature gets +2 move, and 1 extra white die on any attack
2 Space Marine Apothecary If one of your squad loses a Life this turn, a white die 1 or a 2 restores him
2 Sisters Martyrdom 6 Action Tokens for every miniature you lose this turn
2 Sisters Prayer Commander misses a turn, rest of squad get a reroll each in
all their attack rolls
2 Gretchen  Run Away All of the Squad except Heavy Weapons may move 2 squares
away from a visible enemy at the end of their turn
2 Ork/Khorne Berserk 1 miniature gets +2 move, and 1 extra red die on  Hand-to-Hand attack
3 Tyranid Swarm Any number of miniatures may combine Hand-to-Hand rolls on the same target
4 Eldar Psychic Storm Attack any square on the board with a Missile Launcher attack. Any blips in the 3x3 square are revealed.
4 Eldar Farseer When you see the next Alien Event Card, you may chose to
double it's effect, or to ignore it.
3 Android/Dread EMP Pulse No Enemy Heavy Weapons may fire at you this turn
3 Tau Marker Light Place a marker on 1 enemy unit. At the start of your next turn,
they are attacked by 3 red dice
4 Ork WAAAAAGH! All Orks may move an extra 2 spaces this turn


Comment: This changes Space Crusade's "I-Go-You-Go" gameplay. The management of Action Tokens also adds skill to the game. A Dreadnought or Commander with Shoot n' Scoot can kill your most expensive unit before it has a chance to attack. But Mark of Terror can prevent this. A unit left exposed can defend itself if you have the Action Points. Eldar get to be Psychic, Tyranids get to swarm, Khorne go berserk and so on. With just one table and some tokens.




I'm thinking about simple bonuses,  2 tokens each:


  • Force Shield: One miniature gets +1 armor for the turn.
  • Combi-Plasma: One miniature gets a Plasma Rifle for the turn.
  • Combi-Flamer: One miniature gets a Flamer (4 squares 2 red dice per square. anyone entering the squares is attacked by 2 dice) for the turn.
  • Full Auto: One miniature may fire twice this turn.
  • Double or Nothing: When you see the next Alien Event Card, you may chose to double it's effect, or to ignore it.
Or draw an extra order card, 4 tokens.

Space Crusade - Quickie Mode

Space Crusade in Quickie mode is just one board with 2 opposing teams. There are no Equipment, Order or Event cards by default. Commanders have 3 life points.
They won't hear us coming until it's too late...
Solo Space crusade rules, a 1 in 6 of the enemy room opening its doors each turn. The door opens at a bad time. Kharn the Khone commander uses his Special weapon on Extra Danger mode killing a Space Wolf Missile launcher and a Plasma Rifle with one shot. The Chaos Conversion beam doesn't get to kill anybody, and is killed by the rocket launcher. One of the Berserkers takes 2 life points off the Space Wolf  Commander, but the Iron Priest Techmarine kills all the Berserkers. Kharn kills the Space Wolf  Commander and Iron Priest with Danger mode on the plasma pistol, with no harm to himself. Skulls for the Skull throne!
No overwatch rules, the Wolves get caught coming around the corner.
5 minutes to set up, 5-10 minutes play and a fair bit of fun. You can use a homemade board and whatever minis you have if you don't own Space Crusade.

Using magnets for dungeon tiles

On EBay, "100pcs 5mm x 1mm Disc Rare Earth Neodymium Super Strong Magnets N35 Craft Model" US $2.99. Superglue them into your foamboard terrain pieces to keep them together.
Space Hulk boards have nifty jigsaw cutouts, I decided not to bother when I made my own, but they do slip and slide more than one would like. Magnets easily solve the problem:


Since the magnets cost 0.3 cents each, you could probably afford to use twice as many to enhance the structural integrity of your Hulk. 

You could cut slots in the board to leave the magnets flush, which would not increase layout sizes, and would be more secure.

1x2mm magnets also work. Level 7: Omega Protocol had boards which fit together in different ways, so you need multiple magnets at 1" intervals. Superglue isn't good with paper, contact cement might be better:



Space Crusade - Improvements Overview

This is a big improvement Baldrick...

My 4 super suggestions for Space Crusade. Solo/Co-op play, Tech Research Labs, Actions tokens for fire and movement during the enemy turn, and the ability to use corners as cover.

Solo/Co-op  Space Crusade
EXplore, EXpand, EXploit and EXterminate
Action Tokens
Use of Cover

Random house rule, if the commander has a gun, if a member of his squad is killed by an enemy in his line of sight, he can fire a free shot immediately at that enemy. The improves the heavy bolter option, and helps out a player who is taking losses. Or, if a marine has a bolter, if a member of his squad is killed by an enemy in his line of sight in hand-to-hand, he can fire a free shot immediately at that enemy.

Space Crusade - Use of Cover



Here only A and B are in cover because: 1: The Red Circle Guy can't see the whole square. 2: A and B can move 1 non-diagonal square to be 100% out of sight.  So the A or B gets a saving roll, allowing them to duck around the corner.

Cover on Corners: If you get shot and you lose a life point, but you are "In Cover" (see above), roll a white die. If the result is 1 or 2, 1 lifepoint is instantly restored. (Corners provides protection. So skillful tactical planning is rewarded. You could outflank your opponent so he has no place to hide.)

Comment, this reduces the "A-Team" nature of Space Crusade, where everybody just lines up and shoots each other. Now you can win the firefight by careful placement of your troops.

Edit: "Hour of Glory" - Killing Time 3 (2008) has a similar cover rule, except that cover doubles the firing range. Hour of Glory isn't entirely unlike Space Crusade, especially the BunkerStorm expansion.
Great minds think alike.