Continuing through my favorites, I am reasonably certain that this was a game developed only for home computers, and probably only in Europe. That was supposed to be the plan from the start with this Atari ST feature: to focus on those games that were exclusive to, if not the Atari ST (they and the Amiga shared everything, pretty much), then for UK home computers in general. I'm usually fighting between wanting to cover something people have heard of, engendering some discussion in the comments as people convey their own history with and opinions on the game in question, or introducing something most of you haven't seen before in an elucidating and hopefully not-too-hipstery fashion. Then again, I'm not sure "I was into this before it was cool" is going to necessarily fly with a Warhammer 40k game.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Space Crusade
The original Space Crusade was actually a board game: Games Workshop put it together as a sister product for HeroQuest, and is meant to be a gateway to the considerably more in-depth world of Warhammer 40k. This game doesn't quite have as many rules as its famous wargaming older brother, but introduces franchise concepts like SPOICE MAREENS, orks, heavy hit dice, the Imperium of Man, and the enigmatic and destructive force of Chaos.
In a nutshell, it allows up to three players (and an additional player would be in control of the enemy units, like a DM) to each take one of three Space Marine chapters - the Blood Angels (red), the Imperial Fist (yellow) and the Ultra Marines (blue) - and complete missions for the Imperium. There wasn't any big connecting tissue, and each of the missions took place on a different "space hulk", which simply amounted to different configurations of the same board.
The 1992 computer game adaptation by Gremlin Graphics is remarkably faithful, allowing up to three players to pass-and-play at home, either cooperating with or competing against each other for the primary and secondary mission objectives as well as the highest kill count and other score boosting requirements. If your squad scores highest, your commander gets a promotion. Score too low and he'll kill himself in shame. As to the core rules of the game, we'll get into that as soon as the screenshots start coming. Like now. (As always, check out its spooky (and bloopy) theme.)
Welcome to Space Crusade! Commander Buzzcut actually yells and starts shooting in this intro. It's badass! The whole game's badass! SPOIIIICE MA-Before we get started, we need to do some prep work. Essentially, we need to choose a mission and then choose which space marine chapter we're taking into the belly of the beast.While the first mission, and the most straightforward, it's actually one of the most difficult. The dreadnought is the most powerful enemy creature in the game, and this is the only mission where you absolutely have to destroy one to succeed.Our three space marine groups. While identical in many ways, they have slightly different equipment loadouts. Blood Angels get all the best offensive equipment, so I'll be taking those.The equipment you can take with you is determined by two factors: the rank of your commanding officer, and the particular chapter you've chosen. This bionic arm, for instance, can only be used by the Blood Angels. It's also incredibly useful for the commander build I'm going with.Anyway, we didn't come here to see a bunch of menus. It's ork-smashing time!You can switch between this top-down view or an isometric view which is far more limiting but looks more impressive. The game automatically switches to the isometric view whenever combat occurs, so we'll be seeing plenty of it.The sensor sweep can be a point of contention: it is able to pick up any alien lifeforms within range, but as soon as they've been "blipped", they also know where you are. If you're not careful, you might aggro more than you can deal with.When I say "blipped", this is the only thing you know about any enemy that hasn't entered line of sight. It's tricky to build strategies around enemies you don't know enough about.After you've moved all five of your units, you end the turn and allow the next space marine chapter to move. If there's no more chapters, the forces of chaos get to move their units around. That includes every "blip" in the vicinity. Sometimes it's best to just go in blind.That blip was this ork, by the way. These guys are basic footsoldiers, and are unlikely to give the commander any issues. You can see the white "dice" over there, that randomly assign a value of 0, 1 or 2. With my commander's shields, he'll need to roll two 2s to do any damage whatsoever, and that's basically as likely as rolling double sixes. Most enemies aren't quite as weak, however...My commander is in his melee build, which sacrifices all ranged attack for an extremely powerful close-range melee attack. Because of his shielding and ability to reroll melee dice, it's his best bet of staying alive, not to mention destroying the dreadnought when we find it.Ordellen here is packing the Assault Cannon. Each of the game's "heavy weapons" has a different special ability, though the downside is that it weighs the marine down, which means they're usually lagging behind. With the Assault Cannon, you can keep firing as long as you have dice numbers left: it's the best way of clearing a room of weak enemies.Of course, you could just let them walk up to the commander and try melee-ing him, like this Chaos Marine tried to. Unlike ranged combat which requires rolling above the target's shield rating (a bit like rolling to hit in D&D), when in melee all you need to defeat the opponent is to be a single die roll higher. It's considerably more tense as a result.The Plasma Gun's special ability is that it can fire a powerful laser in a single direction. This laser will keep moving until it hits a wall, allowing the marine to hit several enemies in a straight line. It's better used in corridors like this than in wide open rooms, like the below.I just wanted a shot of this adorable gretchin. While easily the weakest unit, gretchins can surprise you in unexpected ways when backed into a corner.Our first casualty. The light bolter marine took a shot that just went over his shield rating. Our expendable little friends only have a single hit point each, but will miraculously come back to life after every mission. Their real job is to defend the commander, who must not be lost.This son-of-a-Gunderson has a Missile Launcher. The key to this one is splash damage: you can target any square, and anything standing on it or adjacent to it will get the full damage. That also includes diagonals, like this poor gretchin here.Soulsucker, better known as Genestealers, are this game's equivalent of xenomorphs and extremely bad news if they pop out of the ceiling like this.Bananas in Pajamas over there only needs to get close to regular marines to carve them up like a power-armored Christmas goose. I can't tell you how often my missions have gone astray due to one of these spawning from the random events that occur between each round.Meanwhile, my remaining marine gets ganked by the T-800. There are days when nothing seems to go right.Fortunately, my commander with his six hit points and considerable martial prowess can finish this mission on his own if need be. He'll no doubt get worn down by all this fighting though. Can't stay lucky forever.And there is the small matter of the Dreadnought. The big clunker takes up four spaces and has more weaponry than Charlton Heston's mansion.Even so, the dreadnought's still powerful melee skills are an even match for the commander's, so it came down to who was the luckiest (it also helped that I could reroll a die I didn't like).Talking of lucky, I was also given "Master Controls" in a random event. This allows me to close or open any door on the map. Sounds useless, right? Tell it to this soon-to-be-squished ork.Alas, my luck couldn't hold out forever. Jumped by a gretchin bomber, a random event that gives a single gretchin a pair of heavy hit die rather than the usual white light hit die, the commander dies yards away from the evacuation pod. Such is the heartbreak of space opera.While the game is happy to roll you up another commander to join the revitalized marines, the fact is that the commander is the only constant between missions. By keeping him alive, you make progress. If he dies, you get this sad little death scene (the Imperial Fist equivalent is horrifying) which amounts to a game over and a forced restart. Still, the commander is the only marine whose survival is compulsory. Trying an easier mission will no doubt prove more fruitful, and the additional equipment and commands (single-turn buffs, like forcing everyone to move twice) will make revisiting this one less harrowing.
Without exaggeration, Space Crusade is my favorite game for the Atari ST and the chief reason I still enjoy squad-based SRPGs to this day, especially ones where I only have to worry about the protagonist dying. It's perfectly balanced: while you can get to grips with the rules within a few minutes, as its 40k rules were deliberately simplified to proper befit a board game, it's still as challenging as hell and prone to all sorts of mishaps. Yet, even if you were to crash and burn towards the end like I did, a single mission usually takes at most thirty minutes to an hour. While its limitations are unlikely to hook hardcore TBS fans for too long, it was a perfect primer for a younger me, and probably still to anyone who is put off by Fire Emblem or Final Fantasy Tactics's complexity.
While not the most gregarious child, I did also appreciate Space Crusade's multiplayer options, though things could get awfully heated if it looked like one of the space marine chapters was going to go home empty-handed. If push came to shove, you could always start gunning down each other marines like some turn-based strategy Bomberman.
Were I any more suggestible, I'd probably have a huge collection of 40k miniatures because of this game too. Glad I dodged a plasma ray there.
