Noob impressions of this game compared to HQ

[Kurgan]

I'll need to wait until I can do more of an in-depth study, but already the pieces are shifting around in my mind as far as a possible epic cross-over adventure with HeroQuest.

[Anderas]

What heroquest values would a Space Marine from Space Crusade have?

[HispaZargon]

I guess basic stats similar to a Chaos Warrior?

[Kurgan]

The Space Marines all have one "life point," while the Space Marine Commander has six life points. The enemy Chaos Space Marines also have one life point. There's also a commander of the Chaos Space Marines, but I think he might have one life point also. I think the only multi-life point Alien (monster) is the Dreadnought which has 3 (and with each hit it loses a weapon). This is similar to the "Eldar Exarch" (commander of the space elves in the Eldar Attack expansion) where he has 1 life point but loses a power (psyker) card every time he's hit and has only 1 life point, somewhat like the Ogre Champion in Battlemasters.

So yeah, making them like Chaos Warriors makes some sense. Either 1 BP (EU) or 4 (NA).

[Anderas]

Yes, that's a speciality they reserved for EU Heroquest and Space Crusade.

Everytime someone loses a Body Point, you have to give something away, physically.
Ogres were the one exception, because you had to cross off the squares in the quest book.

Dreadnoughts would lose weapons. Eldars would lose cards. BM Ogres lose cards. They didn't trust us with the bookkeeping, didn't they? But I like the mechanics, somehow!

[Kurgan]

Yeah, what he said above...

The Eldar commander is a bit like that, but still only 1 BP... so do you keep your psyker cards and stay alive, or use them to win and risk dying like one of your men?

I see that you lose your "campaign progress" if your 6 Life point commander dies.

I guess you could mod the game and play it more "Heroquest Style" by having three commanders and no marines to command vs. the Alien (Zargon) player. The Eldar Exarch could be the fourth "hero" player (their faction adds a fifth player, normally, but could also be used as the sole good guy combatants, or could fight along-side the Space Marine players).

I like how they implement a form of competition here as the Space Marine teams are competing for points/ranks even while working together to defeat the aliens. At first I thought this game would be boring for a HeroQuest fan, seeming to just be pure combat (one skirmish after another).

No corridors [correction: there are corridors, not sure why I wrote that], no searching for things, no buying, etc. but an "evil wizard deck" and "combat cards" as well as "magic spells" in another form, plus customizable weapons.

A crossover game would either combine both sorts of rules, or it would be more like a story connection (the HQ heroes enter the new universe and disguise themselves as parts of the military to gain the Emperor's trust, etc). I already assumed a kind of Chaos incursion into the "De-Magicified world" of aliens that were highly destructive not just for their advanced technology but also their superior durability (think of a milder version of Superman coming from Krypton to earth). The heroes entering the Space Crusade version of the 40K world would gain strength to make them equivalent to their high tech counterparts. The Wizard would be mistaken for a psyker and the Elf for an Eldar, etc.

Aren't you a little short for a Space Marine? Don't ya think you'd better rephrase that laddie?

[Village]

My best ever Christmas I got both HQ and SC and loved them both dearly. As others have mentioned SC was less balanced and hence has not endured as HQ did, but it's still a fun game and there is still a lot of scope for homebrew. My kids are now the age I was when I got it so I'm currently trying to get them into it with some homebrew to beef it up. I like to differentiate the marine chapters by adding a Medic to Ultramarines (roll to save a dying teammate if within 2 squares), a techmarine to the Imperial Fists (who can seal doors shut to limit the alien's movement) and Librarian to the Blood Angels (simpler than your cards I just let him negate 2 alien even cards per mission). I also swap out the equipment available, so the IFs are basically heavy weapon only squad and the Blood Angels are almost all bolter carrying with much better hand to hand (automatic re-roll 1 dice).
To beef the aliens I give the Chaos Commander 3 body points and encourage the alien player to keep them as a squad. Also I gave the Gretchins the ability to split their move around firing (so they can scoot, shoot and disappear again around corners. Another idea I got from a good blog was explosive furniture (red barrels) which the alien player can place at the start of a board scan. They are like missile launchers when hit- so those Gretchins can set ambush traps.

[Kurgan]

Those are some very cool ideas! Are there any other limitations to the Medic? What are his stats? I imagine the bad guys targeting him so he can stop saving all the guys...

[Village]

He's just an ordinary bolter Ultramarine that we painted up with medic colours (white shoulder pad an a decal). So his stats are like any other. Yes, he should be targeted by the Alien. Today I played with my kids and stuck a genestealer on him but he survived.

We also tried a new variant of the techmarine for the Imperial Fists, where any heavy weapon marine within 2 squares gets to re-roll 1 dice if he rolls double zero (which we class as a gun jam). Unfortunately a lucky Gretchin took him out before he could be of much use.

Finally we upped the Ork hand to hand to 3 white attack dice to try and make them a bit scarier and also gave the Chaos Commander 3 body points, but the Marines still prevailed in their mission, much to my son's delight.

[Kurgan]

Neat. I am curious about his healing ability. Can he use it infinitely? Who many can he heal per turn? I'm assuming it's not like a piece of equipment that is single use...