Welcome back to another devblog for Space Hulk: Tactics, where today we’ll be going over the customisation system. We’ll be focusing on the cosmetic aspects of your units, but let’s start by talking about weapon and squad customisation from a gameplay standpoint.

How you build your squad or swarm is entirely up to you. On the Terminator side you select five Terminators to begin the battle with, and can decide which and how many of the five classes you wish to field. Obviously, a balanced team has its advantages, but so does a pair of autocannons, or a focus on melee, depending on the mission. For Genestealers, you select which special biomorphs you’ll have access to via the card system, which also governs the other cards in your deck, as weapon and class choice does for the Terminators.



Everything that changes how you might play the game - weapons, classes, chapters, and so on - is unlocked from the start for skirmish and multiplayer. In the campaigns, different options are unlocked over time, as well as through resources you find while exploring the Hulk. In this way you build your force naturally, and story events are tied to the different options you have available.

Cosmetic customisation has many more features. For the Terminators, each piece of armour has several options, sometimes as many as a dozen or more, to be selected. This includes the helm, pauldrons, and chest piece, as well as less obvious elements like shinpads, thigh adornments, and the exact look of a weapon. Each chapter also has unique versions of some or all of these, meaning the total number of options is far higher across every chapter. This allows you to theme squads or individual units if you wish, or make them a grab-bag of mismatched items, a squad who have undergone many repairs.



Speaking of which, the system goes deeper and allows you to change the wear and tear on a unit’s armour - how many scratches and marks does it have, how many layers of battle-dirt? On top of that you can customise colours, emblems, and patterns, letting you build a personalised version of each chapter using their colour scheme and markings. Want all-green Dark Angels covered in bumps or solid-black Blood Angels, wings on every surface? That’s possible here.

Genestealers have no armour pieces to play with, being armoured by bone structure and hardened flesh. However, their look can be altered across a variety of their body parts, again using the colour schemes of various hive fleets as a base. Blood-red or bone-white Genestealers are just a trip to the squad creation menu away, and of course you can match (or mismatch) this individually across the base Genestealers as well as the various biomorphs.



We’re exceptionally proud of the amount of customisation possible in Space Hulk: Tactics. For more options you can also pre-order on Steam and receive some additional colour schemes based on later founding chapters, the Angels Sanguine, Nova Marines, Disciples of Caliban, plus Bran Redmaw’s Great Company and the Heresy Grey colour scheme of the Space Wolves.

Stay tuned for news very soon about our pre-order beta, and we look forward to showing you the game in full on October 9th.

Welcome back to the Space Hulk: Tactics development blog. Today we’re going to talk purely about the two narrative campaigns that tell the story of the Forsaken Doom, the Genestealer swarm that breeds there, and the Blood Angel squad that comes to defeat them. Since last time we discussed the plot of those campaigns with writer James Swallow, this time it’s all about the mechanics.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/492230/announcements/detail/1699432286902802481

Playing the campaign follows your personalised squad or swarm as they make their way through the Space Hulk. On the Terminator side this starts simply, with a Sergeant and four of his best Terminators kitted out with powerfists and storm bolters. As you progress, picking paths through the winding corridors, you’ll acquire equipment and materials to upgrade your squad.



While in Skirmish and multiplayer all content is unlocked from the start, allowing you to build whatever squad you like and tailor them to specific missions, the campaign has a progression system that sees you spending resources on weapons and cards to change your squad. Story events also see new units join you, like the Librarian. For the Genestealers, new biomorphs are unlocked over time, while biomass collected from battles can be used to upgrade cards and customise your strategy.

On the Terminator side, every time you progress the threat of the swarm will build as new Genestealers move into the area, hunting you. This is represented by the meter on the left of the screenshot above, and has many effects as it reaches different milestones. It may spawn new missions as the situation changes, or make upcoming ones more difficult. These non-critical missions can be fought as normal, or Terminators can be left behind to defend against the swarm, making them unavailable for the next mission - and eventually, you won’t have enough men to do so.

Choosing how to customise your squad, which route to take, how to deal with optional missions, and managing the threat meter makes every campaign unique. There are also points of interest scattered throughout the Hulk. These could be as simple as a cache of long-forgotten components to help you upgrade your squad, or situations that require a decision. Will you salvage the armour or weapons of some fallen Terminators, or leave them be to keep ahead of the swarm? Do you collapse an entire section of the Hulk to halt the Genestealers, or leave it open for exploration by both sides?



The decisions you make and the way you explore the Hulk will change as you move between different ships. Ork and Aeldari vessels have been pulled into the wreck over time, with their own challenges. Ork ships are dangerously unstable, while some Aeldari webway technology is still functioning and can be used to teleport to unexplored and otherwise inaccessible locations.

Interspersed with all this are the story missions, which play out as unique Space Hulk games using your specific squad. Cutscenes and communications during these battles will tell the story, while numerous side objectives will expand upon the importance of this particular Hulk and why so many squads have found their doom there over the millenia.

Whether you’re playing as the Terminators or Genestealers, there’s a long campaign for you to embark on, and it will be an experience individual to you. Next time we’ll dive into the customisation systems that define your playstyle as well as the look of your forces.

Space Hulk: Tactics releases for PS4, Xbox One and PC on October 9.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/492230/Space_Hulk_Tactics/

Space Hulk: Tactics is a faithful adaptation of the board game Space Hulk, set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, bringing unique twists to the cult classic formula. The game will release October 9.

We’re happy to unveil a new Gameplay Trailer pitting mankind versus alien in desperate, turn-based battle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOhJbyriFek
On the side of humanity stand the Space Marine Terminators, genetically modified super soldiers clad in heavy armour and equipped with extraordinary firepower that turns them into effective walking tanks.

Opposing them are the Genestealers, insidious inhabitants of the floating amalgamations of smashed-together starships called space hulks, hiding inside every pipe and duct, prepared to rend anything that comes close to pieces with glistening claws.



An innovative new card system gives players greater control over their forces, while two non-linear, narrative-driven campaigns tell a new, terrifying story in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. A full customisation system is available across four Space Marine chapters and four Genestealer Hive Fleets, letting you design your force down to the last shoulder plate or weapon hilt.

A robust mission editor, inspired by the clip-together nature of building scenarios in the board game, means you can design, share, and play your own maps quickly and easily.

Space Hulk: Tactics releases on October 9. Pre-order today and get special bonuses, including a 10% discount, beta access, and unique colour and emblem for each chapter and other variants.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/492230/Space_Hulk_Tactics/

Welcome to the latest Space Hulk: Tactics devblog, which this time will be focusing on story.

Unlike past adaptions of Space Hulk, in Tactics we've implemented two, full narrative campaigns - including one that tells the story of the Genestealer infestation of the Forsaken Doom hulk.

Rather than give you our interpretation of creating that, we contacted lead writer James Swallow. A Black Library author and long-time writer of videogames, he gave us his thoughts on writing the game as well as a preview of what to expect within his plot.




Now it can be told! Over the last few months, I’ve been working secretly with Maxime, Antoine and the talented folks at Cyanide Studio on the narrative elements of Space Hulk: Tactics, and today they pitched me a few questions to answer as a way to announce my involvement to the world...

So who am I and what is my connection to the Grim Dark Future of Warhammer 40,000? I’m James Swallow and I’m a writer of stuff; I’m the author of over forty-five novels, including several New York Times and Sunday Times bestsellers – many of them set in the worlds of the 41st Millennium and the galaxy-spanning conflicts of the Horus Heresy.

I’ve been writing fiction for Black Library for nearly fifteen years, including several books about the Blood Angels Space Marines, the Sisters of Battle, Horus Heresy novels such as The Flight of the Eisenstein, Nemesis, Fear to Tread and Garro: Weapon of Fate, as well as numerous short stories and audio dramas!

I’m also an experienced creator of narratives for videogames, having worked on titles including Killzone 2, the Deus Ex series, Fable: The Journey, Disney Infinity: Star Wars and Ghost Recon Wildlands.

Writing for videogames is a very different process from writing novels, but I love the challenge. People ask me what a “games writer” actually does, and that’s a big question. Some games have a lot of narrative in them, and a games writer’s job can be creating the world of the game, creating characters and factions, writing in-game dialogue, scripting cut-scenes, writing text for in-game items, localizing the translation of a game script, designing quests and missions...and much more.

Games writers have to work as part of a team, which adds an interesting dynamic to the process – and when you’re collaborating with talented designers, artists and programmers, it is very rewarding! It’s an interesting job, and because it is so multi-faceted, it’s never boring.

With Space Hulk: Tactics, our vision for the two narrative campaigns was very much built around recreating the atmosphere and tension of the original Space Hulk – my strongest memories of playing those games was the sense of time running against you and the ready threat of the enemy units at your back! So we looked to that tone and built the storyline into the dense, gothic lore of the Warhammer 40,000 world, to create something we hope players will find compelling.



One thing that makes Space Hulk: Tactics distinctive is that there are two narrative-driven campaigns from totally different perspectives for players to experience – one from the point of view of a Blood Angels Space Marine squad, and the other from the vantage of the lethal Genestealers.

Each campaign connects to the other; the Genestealer storyline is set a century earlier, building up an episodic account of these xenos creatures growing and spreading through the Space Hulk known as The Forsaken Doom, and it sets up events and plot elements that reappear in the Space Marines storyline, when the Adeptus Astartes of the IX Legion board the leviathan intent on eradicating the alien threat.

This is the first time we have seen a solo campaign from the perspective of the Genestealers in a Space Hulk videogame, and I’m hoping that players will respond strongly to the challenge of playing these rapacious and deadly creatures. For anyone familiar with the traditional Space Hulk mode of fighting as an Astartes Terminator, changing places with the xenos scum will be a fresh experience that requires new strategy and new tactics to make the most of your alien units. Controlling a swarm of deadly predators is very different from being inside the armour of a Space Marine!

Of course, my personal allegiance will always be to the faction that first brought me into the world of Warhammer 40,000, the chapter I’ve always been proud to write for – the Blood Angels! For Sanguinius and the Emperor! Death! Death to the Xenos!

Today marks the beginning of Games Workshop's 'Skulls for the Skull Throne' event, a weekend-long event during which games from the Warhammer world and the Warhammer 40,000 universe are enjoying time-limited discount offers on Steam. Plus, new content themed around the Blood God, Khorne, the legendary Warhammer figure sitting upon his Skull Throne in the Realm of Chaos!



On this special occasion, hotly anticipated sequel Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2, which puts players in command of epic real-time space battles, and Space Hulk: Tactics, adapted from the iconic board game, are both available for pre-order on Steam with exclusive content, Beta Access before the release of the games, and -10% discount!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/573100/Battlefleet_Gothic_Armada_2/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/492230/Space_Hulk_Tactics/

Returning Battlefleet Gothic: Armada players on Steam can benefit from a -25% discount on the preorder of Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2.

Space Hulk: Tactics is a faithful adaptation of the board game Space Hulk, set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, bringing unique twists to the cult classic formula.

Discover the new Overview Trailer showcasing the game’s battle system, team management, customisation and unique card system, so you’re ready for glorious combat when Space Hulk: Tactics releases for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC in 2018.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XDVDCCgguM

First twist is the innovative new card system, giving players greater control and more options than ever before. Grizzled veterans and Space Hulk newcomers alike will find the cards add a new layer of depth, replayability and customization, as explained in the trailer.



Also showcased are the two non-linear, narrative-driven campaigns, offering hours of epic single-player entertainment. One campaign sees you commanding the stalwart Blood Angels Space Marine Terminators, while the other puts you in control of the alien Genestealer forces for the first time in a Space Hulk game.

The game also provides an intuitive but powerful community tool in the form of the map maker, with dozens of varied objectives and endless possible combinations of layouts, objects and tilesets. Once completed, share your maps with others for the community to play and rate.



Finally, Space Hulk: Tactics offers a deep customisation system affecting both gameplay and the appearance of your squad. Hand-craft your forces from one of four Space Marine Chapters or four Genestealer Hive Fleets. A host of cosmetic customization options for every limb, joint, and weapon allow you to choose the exact look of the units in your roster. All multiplayer cosmetics are unlocked from the very start, along with all multiplayer cards.

Space Hulk: Tactics comes to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC in 2018. Pre-order Space Hulk: Tactics on Steam now and get special bonuses.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/492230/Space_Hulk_Tactics/

Space Hulk: Tactics is a brand new take on the Space Hulk experience!

After successfully bringing Blood Bowl 2, the classic board game by Games Workshop, to consoles and PC with two faithful adaptations, Cyanide Studio is proud to take on another fan favourite from the Warhammer 40,000 universe with their turn-based tactical game, Space Hulk: Tactics!

Engage in bloody battles through an immense Space Hulk - a twisted mass of asteroids, wrecked ships and debris – as either a squad of Terminator Space Marines or the deadly alien Genestealers. Which side will you choose?



Battle through two distinct, narrative-driven campaigns, from the points of view of two different factions: one campaign puts you in control of a Blood Angels squad, which you will customise and upgrade as you progress, while the other puts you in control of the Genestealers for the first time in a Space Hulk game!

Space Hulk: Tactics is based on the rules of the popular board game, given a fresh new spin in the form of the unique Card system. Cards give more ways to customize your squad before a match, and allow you to turn the tides of battle with abilities that trigger game-changing effects when used at the right moment.



Test your skills against other players in the expansive online competitive multiplayer, letting you command a swarm of Genestealers or a custom squad of different unit types from one of four Space Marine Chapters – the Blood Angels, the Space Wolves, the Ultramarines, and the Dark Angels.

Multiplayer modes and tools offer a rich and deep online experience, and include an intuitive map creation tool, which gives players everything they need to create original maps with custom objective, and share them with other players to play either online or against the AI, all from within the game!

Space Hulk: Tactics comes to PC in 2018!