Space Crusade
A simplified board game set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.
Space Crusade is a board game that blends adventure and strategy, first released in 1990. It was a joint project between Milton Bradley and Games Workshop, manufactured in the UK, and sold in places like Finland, Ireland, France, Spain, Denmark, Australia, Hellas, and New Zealand. In Germany, Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands, the game goes by the name Star Quest. It shares a lineage with HeroQuest, another Milton Bradley and Games Workshop title, and borrows ideas from Games Workshop’s Space Hulk and Warhammer 40,000, though it keeps the rules much simpler.
The game is built for two to four players, who take turns until someone wins. One player controls the aliens—a mix of Chaos forces, Orks, Genestealers, and other Warhammer 40,000 creatures—all of which inhabit a space hulk. This alien player has a limited role compared to a traditional Game Master, focused solely on stopping the marine players from finishing their missions. The other players each command a squad of five Space Marines in standard Power armour, led by a Commander. Each squad also gets order commands and equipment cards. Marines can choose light weapons, which let them move faster but hit less hard, or heavy weapons, which have special effects like striking every unit in a straight line or hitting multiple targets at once.
The blue squad represents the Ultramarines, the red squad the Blood Angels, and the yellow squad the Imperial Fists—all founding chapters of the Space Marines. Their chapter insignia appears on the slider board, matching the standard Warhammer 40,000 colors. The squads are identical in stats, but the Blood Angels’ equipment cards focus on close combat, while the Imperial Fists’ cards emphasize ranged heavy weapons. In close combat, when two units are adjacent, each player rolls dice for their unit, and the higher total wins. For ranged combat, the firing player rolls dice for their weapon; if the total beats the target’s armor value, the target takes hit points, provided there’s line of sight between the two squares.
The squad system encourages strategic planning. Much of the game involves carefully avoiding line of sight, then rushing to attack from corridors, through open doors, or in close combat. Mission-based scoring sometimes lets players sacrifice units to earn points. Marine players benefit from heavy weapons, special gear, and high armor from their Power arm
- Year first published
- 1990
- Designer
- Steven Baker
- Original box artist
- Jim Burns
- Later edition cover artist
- David Sque
- Number of players
- 2 to 4
- Genre
- Adventure board game
- Publisher
- Milton Bradley together with Games Workshop
Lore & Background
The game was designed by Steven Baker. One player takes the role of the aliens, controlling all aliens and monsters on the space hulk, which include Chaos, Orks, Genestealers, and other aliens from Warhammer 40,000. The other players are marine players, each controlling a squad of five Space Marines in standard Power armour, one of whom is a Commander. The blue squad represents the Ultramarines, the red squad the Blood Angels, and the yellow squad the Imperial Fists. Each chapter is identical, though the Blood Angels equipment cards are specialised in close combat and the Imperial Fists in ranged heavy weapons.
Reader's Guide
Space Crusade is significant as a mass-market entry point into the Warhammer 40,000 setting, simplifying the complex rules of Space Hulk and Warhammer 40,000 for a broader audience. Its squad-based system and mission-based scoring allowed for strategic play, with marine players using heavy weapons and high armour values while the alien player relied on numbers and event cards. The game was supported by two boxed expansions, Eldar Attack and Mission Dreadnought, and articles in White Dwarf magazine added rules for Terminators, Scouts, Ork Mobs, Tyranids, and psychic combat. A video game adaptation by Gremlin Graphics Software Ltd. was released in early 1992 on multiple platforms and was considered a faithful conversion. The German edition, Star Quest, toned down violent elements due to censorship laws, renaming weapons and describing aliens as 'Chaos robots' removed from this dimension rather than killed. Advanced Space Crusade, published in 1990 by Games Workshop, is a separate game using a D12 system and is not directly related beyond the Warhammer 40,000 setting.
Did You Know?
- The game was known as Star Quest in Germany, Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
- The German edition renamed the 'Assault Cannon' as the 'Zero Time Gun' and described its effect as time bubbles slowing enemies.
- The box contained 50 figures, including 3 Marine Commanders, 12 Space Marines, 8 Orks, 14 Gretchin, 3 Genestealers, and a Dreadnought.
- The ZX Spectrum video game version was voted number 24 in the Your Sinclair Readers' Top 100 Games of All Time.
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