Space Hulk: Tactics

Just like the Terminator campaign, it's difficult to create a specific guide for this but I've made some notes as the Genestealers play much differently to the Terminators. I found it all very confusing - there's still plenty I didn't understand by the end but hopefully this helps. Definitely play at least some of the Terminator campaign to get the basics of the game down.

THE BASICS:
Almost all Genestealers start as "Blip's" - these are the markers you are familiar with from the Terminator campaign. Some missions have units that appear right from the beginning, but most need to be created in the form of Blip's.

At the start of the game, you will have a chance to place some Blip's in the Initial Phase (for most missions), which is similar to the Deployment phase for the Terminators. You choose the Blip's at the bottom of the screen with and .

There are different types of Blip's - some have a single Genestealer, some 2 or even 3 and some are just Decoys (which automatically disappear after 2 turns). I have no idea how the more advanced units work - they just appear at times in the campaign and changing the squad before each mission didn't seem to make any difference. (In Skirmish/multiplayer I believe they are created with cards.)

Blip's can only be placed on Spawn points, which are marked in red on the map. Hover over a Spawn Point, select the Blip and place it with . Each Spawn point can hold up to 3 Blip's.

Each Genestealer turn is broken up into two phases - the Conversion Phase and the Action Phase.

Conversion Phase:
In this phase, you will convert one of your cards, which creates Blip's. Press to see your cards and choose one to convert with . You can see which Blip's you'll get at the bottom of the card.

Once you have some Blip's to place, they work the same way as the above - select a Spawn Point and place them.

You don't have to convert a card and can press to get to the Action Phase whenever you are ready.

Action Phase:
This is where you control your Genestealers. To start with, select any Spawn Point that has an available Blip (for some reason, some units were locked for a turn after being placed but most were available right away - I never worked out why). Select the Spawn Point with , then use to select the Blip and again to deploy it.

You should now be able to move your Blip just like you did in the Terminator campaign. Notice that it is just a Blip for now - that means the enemy doesn't know what it is.

Blips cannot move into or past an enemies line of sight, interact or attack. To do so, they need to voluntarily reveal themselves. This is done by choosing "Reveal" in the menu at the bottom of the screen. If an enemy gets line-of-sight on a Blip, it will automatically be revealed.

Just like the Terminators, your available commands are shown at the bottom of the screen and selected with and .

When you have finished with a unit, hold to exit controlling them, called Disengaging. However, once you start you have to finish. If you move a Genestealer or Blip, only use up a couple of their Action Points and Disengage, you can't return and use up their remaining Action Points - for each unit it's once per Action Phase only. (Also, sometimes I automatically Disengaged...)

So with the basics covered, lets look at the campaign itself.

GENESTEALER CAMPAIGN:
- Classic is easier (I assume because it says so - I never tried Broodlord...)
- There are 9 missions and:

- There is no searching around the map like there was in the Terminator campaign - each mission is just a move to two away
- The campaign is significantly shorter than the Terminators, in the vicinity of 3-5 hours (roughly)
- All the mission-type specific achievements should appear during the campaign, but look out for the 3 action-specific achievements - Sneaky One, Target the Leader and Classic Move (these are all much easier to do in Skirmish/multiplayer with a boosting partner if the servers are still working.)

As for how to go about it, the only real advice I can give is to bide your time...

The A.I. Terminators showed me just how bad I was at this game. I blundered through the first campaign without too many problems, but here they made me feel like a fool. They will cover each other very well. Their Overwatch is much more deadly than mine ever was (no jams and very few misses). Their use of blocking (Force Wall and the Flamer) is frustrating efficient - I often had 1 of just 2 Spawn Points completely blocked off for half the game.

For me as least, the key was to wait and be patient. Try to move your Blips around the map as much as possible and wait for an opening. Generally don't just send your units charging into Overwatch (a few times I had to as there was just no other way - it occasionally worked but wasn't a reliable tactic).

Eventually the A.I. will give you a chance to race in and get a kill or two. Remember to use your cards when this happens to increase your odds of success. The more Blip's/units you have in range when an opening appears, the more chance you can capitalise on it.

Just as was noted in the solution for the Terminator campaign by PuritanSoul (thanks mate!), save at the start of every turn. Events will play out the same, so if you attack and fail, it will happen again if you reload and do the same thing. Try something different, be it using a different card or trying a different angle of approach.

Being a noob in this genre I initially thought this campaign was going to be horribly difficult. It has its moments but it isn't too bad overall. Be prepared to fail and to restart or reload a few times each mission as you work out how the Terminators are going to go about it. Certainly on Classic difficulty, they will make mistakes and give you an opening to attack.

So that's it. Hardly a detailed solution but hopefully enough to set you on the right path. If you've completed the Terminator Campaign, this should be entirely doable. Please comment or make suggestions because I'm clearly not great at this game, but without any other solution I though this might help.

Best of luck, xenos scum!