Head’s Up:
The Players Act Each member of your Combat Team may:
Be Mindful of these 2 Conditions
During the game when certain conditions
are met the flow of play is interrupted while you
change either the Space Marine formation or its
current location within the hulk. These interrupts are
triggered by either condition detailed below.
When a Space Marine is slain... SHIFT
When a Marine is killed, immediately remove his
card and shift the Space Marine formation to close
the gap: move all the cards belonging to the smaller
portion of the formation (including all terrain and
swarm piles beside them) to restore the formation to
an unbroken line, then continue with the next phase
before you were interrupted to shift.
When a Blip pile is empty... TRAVEL
Check the Blip piles at the end of each phase. If one
is empty, or both are empty, the formation travels to
a new Location. note: Genestealer swarms stay with
the formation! Use Support tokens (if you have any
on the Door Terrain card) now to reduce Genestealer
numbers before the Location change.
change the terrain
a. Collect all Terrain cards beside the formation.
b. Draw a new Location card and redistribute the
Terrain cards as directed.
reset the blip piles
c. Discard any remaining Blip cards.
d. Re-stock the Blip piles from the Genestealer draw
deck (reshuffle discarded cards as needed).
check the location card text
e. If the card has an ability titled Upon Entering, carry
it out now.
f. Continue with the next phase before you were
interrupted for travel.
Phase 1.
Move out and draw fire
a. Players secretly select, then reveal, one of three
possible Actions for their combat team. No action
may be repeated two turns in a row (you may wish
to use the Combat Team tokens as markers to keep
track of the action card you played last). The lowest-
numbered Action card is the current player for
the round, and goes first. Other players follow in
turn from low to high.
i. Support – This Action gives the Marine team
one Support token, to place on any Marine in
the formation. note: This action generates one
token only, whether the combat team consists of
one or two Marines.
ii. Attack – Each member of a combat team
may attack a swarm that they are facing, and
that is within the range (0–3, up or down the
formation) shown on the Space Marine’s card.
Range Example
range 3
With a range of 2,
the right-facing range 2
Marine in this
formation may range 1
choose to attack
range 0
either swarm on
the right (x). The range 1
top right swarm
is out of range. range 2
Name your target and roll the battle die. Any
roll showing a skull (1, 2, or 3) is a hit that kills
one Genestealer. A 0, 4 or 5 is a miss and has no
effect. note 1: If the Marine has Support tokens,
you may spend one per re-roll and attempt to roll
a fatal attack. note 2: Remember to check your
Marine card to take advantage of any special
ability when attacking.
Hit Miss
iii. Move + Activate – Perform any combination
of the three steps that follow, as long as you
maintain their order.
[a] swap positions with any adjacent Marine,
and/or
[b] change the direction they face;
and/or: 1 member of your Combat Team may
[c] activate a Terrain card in front of him
note 1: A Terrain card cannot be activated more
than once per round. note 2: Each time a Control
Panel Terrain card is activated, check the current
Location card. If it shows an Activate Control Panel
ability, resolve it now.
b. After all players have resolved their Actions: check
the Blip piles. If one is empty, or both are empty,
go to Travel. Otherwise, continue.
Phase 2. The Genestealers Respond
And so it begins
Genestealer swarms will attack at every position.
a. For each swarm that attacks roll the battle die:
If the result that is greater than the number of
Genestealer cards in the attacking swarm, the
Marine survives. If equal or lesser, he is slain.
note 1: If the marine has Support tokens, you may
spend 1 per re-roll and attempt to roll a saving result.
note 2: When swarms attack from behind, Support
tokens may not be used. The Marine may get lucky
or be slain depending on the single die roll.
b. When a Marine is slain: shift the formation.
c. After all Genestealer attacks have been resolved:
check the Blip piles. If one is empty, or both are
empty, go to Travel. Otherwise, continue.
Phase 3. The Battlefield Changes
Where events take a turn for the worse
Drawing an Event card may cause 3 things to happen:
an event occurs (sometimes with deadly results,
causing a formation shift), more Genestealers may
spawn; and swarms may change position.
a. Event: the current player draws the topmost
Event card.
 i. If “Instinct” is indicated: the current player
chooses their response secretly and resolves
it, then reveals the card to the other players.
If “Instinct” is not present, the current player
reveals the card and follows its directions.
b. Spawn: Resolve the Genestealer spawn icons
found the Event card (bottom left and center).
i. The triangle color (yellow or white) indicates
the number of Genestealers to spawn. See
the original Setup Location card “VOID LOCK,”
match the color and you’ll know the number.
ii. The bar display color (red, orange, yellow, or
green) behind each triangle indicates all of
the matching Terrain cards that will spawn
Genestealers, regardless whether they are
on the left or the right side of the formation.
Draw spawned Genestealer cards from the
blip pile on the same side of the formation as
the Terrain cards that receive them, however.
c. Move: Resolve the Genestealer movement icons
on the bottom right of the Event card.
i. The swarm symbol means: any Genestealer
card with this symbol in a swarm causes the
entire swarm to move. Otherwise it shall
remain in position. note: Brood Lords have two
symbols, so if either symbol matches, then its
swarm will move. Brood Lords are nasty.
ii. The direction symbol tells you how to move
activated swarms.
a. up/down chevrons: swarm(s) on the left
side of the formation move down one
position; swarm(s) on the right side move
up one position; a swarm at either end
remains in the same position but jumps to
the opposite side of the formation.
b. curved arrow : a swarm moves behind the
Marine at the current position (if they are
already behind him, leave them there).
End of Phase: Check the blip piles. If one
is empty, or both are empty, go to Travel.
Otherwise, return to Phase 1 and continue
the game.
Winning the Game
There are two ways to win. Kill Them All – reach the
final Location card and slay all Genestealers from
both the formation and the two Blip piles. The Hard
Way – Fulfill the winning conditions on the final
Location card. Along the way, you may actually fulfill
the first requirements for winning. Hang in there.
Condensed Rules
Thanks for
To regex and jgatkinsn for these BGG threads:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/577108/
what-am-i-doing-wrong-the-list-of-possible-
mistake and http://www.boardgamegeek.com/
thread/578383/space-hulk-death-angel-a-mans-
kind-of-solitaire. And to zeb Ulon for proofing and
rules input.
A Note about this Rule Set
I wanted to clarify, and ended up making a
change in the process.
I believe Death Angel’s definition of Phase 1 can
be combined with Phase 2 to streamline the game a
bit. During any phase, when a Space Marine is slain,
you immediately shift the formation. But no Marine- v2.8
endangering activity occurs within Phase 1; hence
a shift cannot happen. After every phase you check
the Blip piles. If one is empty, you Travel to a new
Location. But no Blip pile activity occurs in Phase 1; Setup
therefore travel cannot occur afterward. Setup Rules to come by v.3
Since having a phase for the act of choosing your
team’s next move is unneeded, I have merged it with
Phase 2 and titled the phases a bit differently for this
reason. If you encounter a valid reason to return to
the manual’s way, let me know. And if you just prefer
to play it by the book, feel free to do so.
–jmh