Space Crusade Eldar Attack Battle Report Playthrough | Mission 1, Find the Macguffin | Star Quest

[@SnakeWorksStudio]

I have been waiting patiently for more space crusade! thank you very much.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Well at some point I'm going to have to give the Eldar a chance to redeem themselves.

[@hyrulen]

YEEEEEES!! New Space Crusade playthrough! Thank you!

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Don't thank me. The ABNB club members voted on it. I was just very happy with their choice!

[@rossithomas2415]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Hoping to see more Space Crusade goodness ^_^

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

@@rossithomas2415 You can count on it.

[@rossithomas2415]

Amazing, so happy to see you doing a playthrough of Eldar Attack! Funny enough, I tend to get the same curse when I play: Gretchins keep throwing double-twos, killing my helpless Eldars who are still trying to figure out where the trigger of their shuriken catapults is and throw buckets of zeros in return... This extension is cursed, but I love it so much (and I don't even play with the reinforcements... it's hard enough without them!)

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

The gretchin always seem to end up hurting me more than anything else!

[@5ynthesizerpatel]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring volume of dice - tabletop staple. The best tactic in SC was always to bog down the marines with small numbers of high quality troops and build up a gretchen swarm to overwhelm them at the end

[@davidk6269]

Thanks for uploading this really fun first play through! Man, those Eldar really got swamped in a tide of chaos at the end. ; )

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks for watching. The Eldar really struggled. I think they were in need of a few Howling Banshee or Fire Dragons.

[@ATOMTAYLOR]

I have the two expansions, have to break em out soon. Sorry your boys came a cropper. They always preform better when painted. ;)

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

@@ATOMTAYLOR People can have playthroughs in a timely manner, or they can have have painted playthroughs years later.

[@ATOMTAYLOR]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Agreed. ;)

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

@@ATOMTAYLOR It's definitely a constant struggle. I would love to be able to present every playthrough painted, but it's simply not possible. I also have an issue of refusing to do playthroughs with half-painted miniatures - it has to be all or nothing. So once I start painting a game, I have to know I'm going to be able to get it finished before I need to do another playthrough on camera!

[@dominicskelton3031]

So it's true what they say - the Eldar *are* a dying race.... 😂

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Ouch. Too soon. I haven't even had a chance to burn the dice and scatter the ashes in a ceremonial burial yet.

[@fusoya6544]

You're Space Crusade videos are the best! I wish MB / GW included more joint marine / eldar missions for this expansion.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks. I'm really pleased you like them.

[@zombiedad]

Ouch! Slaanesh must be happy. Thanks ABNB

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

It was certainly a bad day for the Eldar. I think they must have been out drinking the night before. They weren’t match ready.

[@quakeSanchez]

This is awesome. You bring Oldhammer to life like nobody else. P.S. The runes were not with Eldar that day.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thank you. I'm really pleased you enjoyed it. The Eldar definitely had a tough time. They will get a chance for redemption eventually though, once I am done with the Renegade series.

[@jameswhitehouse5706]

It was a dark day for Craftworld Alaitoc but I really enjoyed it. We need more Space Crusade content please because this video was a classic

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Glad you liked the video. I am sure there will be more Space Crusade content soon(ish). The Eldar need a shot at redemption, at least.

[@Archaeonomy]

Awesome, I am so happy to see an Eldar Attack playthrough. I am currently working on a complete rework of the Eldar Attack rules to bring it closer to my 40k understanding of Eldar, for example: guardians being squishier, using anti grav platforms for heavy weapons, and a system to exchange guardians for various aspect warriors depending on the Exarch's reputation value.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks for watching. Space Crusade was still the Rogue Trader era, and a lot of the lore was still formative to what we have now. Eldar lore only really started being established in 1990 while Eldar Attack came out in 1991. And of course, on top of that they had to keep things relatively simple. I think they did a decent job in capturing the essence of the Eldar and making them feel different from the space marines, but as you say, it's pretty far removed from what Eldar have become. Have fun with the homebrews!

[@Archaeonomy]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Cheers! Yeah, I am bringing the rules forward in time to 1994's Codex Eldar. My knowledge of 40k starts and ends with 2nd edition.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Nice. That makes perfect sense. In my youth I remember being fascinated by the Howling Banshees. I thought they were the coolest damned things. I never bought any, because I didn't have a reason to, but I reckon if I had ever dived into 40K back then, rather than running multiple massive armies for Fantasy Battle, I would have ended up with an Eldar army.

[@Archaeonomy]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring I have been able to find free stls to print of guardians, the heavy weapons, the exarch, striking scorpions, howling banshees, warp spiders, and wraithguard, but no dark reapers or flame dragons, looks like I will have to suck it up and buy them. I have kept the cards largely as is, though I changed the lascannon rules to match my changed lascannon rule for Mission Dread, I did rework the vortex grenade and renamed the 'explosive shuriken' cards, the idea of explosive monomolecular thick shuriken just makes no sense to me lol.

[@Geerdie]

Oooh those wacky space elfs... its been over 20 years that i have played this game. Never got this expansion, so i am very happy to see youre playthrough. This game and heroquest where my first time to know the warhammer and 40k universe. Thank you for this grim dark video

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks for watching. I'm glad you liked it.

[@josephwiley5880]

I love your let's plays, thanks for all the hard work!

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks. This one was a huge amount of work. I'm disappointed with a few of the mistakes that slipped in - I cropped out one of the most significant dice rolls in the game, which I am kicking myself about! - but overall I am happy with it. I hope you like it.

[@cjanquart]

Whoa, never seen those Guardian sculpts before; so chunky! I have the older two-part metal/plastic Guardians and always had a soft spot for the drum-fed shurkien catapults.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Yeah, the miniature are really cool, but they were only available in this expansion. The fact Space Crusade never got a North American release, and that this was the second expansion, released at the tail end of the game's relatively short lifespan, means it's probably something a lot of people may not have seen or know a lot about.

[@chriscreativecontent]

Thanks for the nostalgia trip. I remember buying my copy of this expansion. Such a fun game. Nice and simple.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Space Crusade is pure class. I love the run-and-gun skirmish gameplay, which moves it away from a dungeoncrawling experience.

[@chriscreativecontent]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring it’s just a shame that unlike heroquest a reprint is very unlikely as it has too many ties to GW’s copyrighted characters.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Yes, Avalon Hill have said they don't have any plans to touch it for that reason. They could remake it as generic sci-fi, but I think it would lose a lot of what makes it awesome if you cut all those ties. The old Rogue Trader charm is just a part of the whole deal.

[@chriscreativecontent]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring I absolutely agree. The modern heroquest has enough charm remaining from the original but space crusade is a difficult beast to tackle. At least my brother still has his original copy, so I can still play it 😁

[@Toltly.Equine]

How have I only just seen this! This is rather tremendous !

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

It was certainly tremendous... maybe not for the Eldar. Thanks for watching.

[@JeffWittyArt]

SWEET! Thank you for this! Even though I’m an HQ fan first - it’s great seeing these play throughs as well!

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks. I'm sure it won't be long until there is more HeroQuest content on the channel, but I'm glad you are enjoying this too. It was great to get back to Space Crusade after quite a long break from it.

[@Upyours99xs]

That was a awesome game! So glad you uploaded this content. I am so jealous, I want to own this game so badly. Can’t wait to see the other missions!

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks. I'm glad you liked it. There will be more Eldar Attack on the channel at some point.

[@jamesmorgan3623]

Great video. As a kid playing the aliens, I always thought of close combat as generally more effective than shooting.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Often it is. Close combat is deadly, and you can get a kill with a single success where you would need three success when shooting. With the alien player having so many more units, they can play the odds and it doesn't matter so much when the dice don't go their way. Gretchin I tend to shoot with, as they have around eight percent chance of getting a kill that way, while only rolling a single white dice in close combat means they have a very hard time. Orks and space marines with bolters I will usually use in close assault. Genestealers are obviously only for close combat. Missile launchers, commanders, and dreadnoughts are always used at range, while androids usually end up shooting because they are so slow, but will make close assault attacks whenever they get the chance.

[@phildevey6302]

Great playthrough, thank you. Having never owned this expansion, or seen a playthrough of it, it was really nice to see it in action. Would love to see some more. I found the result ...... surprising - well it was to me at least, as I didn't expect it to turn out that way. Some very underwhelming dice throwing on one side, and very good ones on the other side. Just the way it goes some days, I guess.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

The Eldar shouldn't have done anywhere near this badly. They actually have distinct advantages across the board. But sometimes the dice won't go your way. They will get another chance on the channel soon.

[@stevenray8737]

Its great to see this one in action, as I too missed out on the expansion. That said, it did inspire me to whip up an Eldar-themed homebrew of Space Crusade a few years ago, which threw in a bit of Hero Quest as well. It was basically a lone warlock exploring a Maiden World that was inhabitated by Orks and other things. But this is the real thing. Kewl!

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Your lone warlock mission sounds like fun. Thanks for checking out the video.

[@gordonbrown5641]

Always wished to have played Eldar Attack back in the day, great to see it them in (in)action here lol don't think I've ever such unlucky dice

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks for watching. I'm glad someone in the comments made use of the ABNB club fumble emoji. This is exactly why I made it!

[@CarlToonist]

I had no idea this existed. Very cool!

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

There's a full unboxing and detailed rundown of the Eldar Attack expansion on my channel in the Space Crusade playlist if you're interested in knowing more about it.

[@CarlToonist]

I was referring to the whole Space Crusade system. I will definitely check out the play list. Thank you

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Oh, even better - there is quite a lot of content on the channel for the core system as well, including playthroughs for all the different factions! Thanks for checking it out.

[@wabwabwab2262]

I really enjoyed that playthrough, I'll have to get Space Crusade one day. Still waiting on that Advanced Space Crusade playthrough hint hint 😊

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

There should be a closer look at the rules of Advanced Space Crusade soon, but the playthrough will be a while off due to the level of work necessary to do it.

[@spacedock873]

Unbelievable number of zeros on those dice! 😯 I think the writing was on the wall when your last player was outnumbered 25 to 1! 😂

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

It's amazing how quickly it went from looking like the Eldar were going to make a decent comeback to being absolutely destroyed.

[@MM-io7pr]

That was great, I wondered if GW ever did an Imperial Guard expansion for Space Crusade but tbh they probably would've been squishier than the Eldar and slower than the Space Marines

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

The only two boxed expansions were Mission Dreadnought and Eldar Attack, but there was a White Dwarf article that added rules for running terminators, scouts, and ork mobs, and adding tyranids and genestealer hybrids as additional enemies.

[@bigbangerz5856]

I think I actually heard in my head ‘Adagio for strings’ playing when the Exarch took that mega close assault damage 😂

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

He knew that was game over, for sure. Possibly the worst exarch performance ever. I think he managed to kill one orc, one gretchin, and a commander in the whole game!

[@HeroQuestFans]

I love the eldar attack expansion. I admit I haven't played the missions yet though, have only tested them in the regular campaign (and not yet with another human!)

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

It's an amazing expansion. I'm very happy to have it in my collection after missing out on owning it as a child.

[@Foxomatic]

Great to see EA getting played. Completed my SC collection last year but not had a chance to play the add on packs yet. Enjoyed playinf again so much, but mucked about with some custom dice with less 0's. A lot more fun. Also thinking about making sone scenery pieces to brig it inline with Heroquest.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks for watching. I personally think the balance of hits and misses on the dice is about right (although it didn't look like it in this video). The marines and Eldar are robust enough to shake off a lot of attacks, but there's still always a risk; and an attack with three white dice is a 70 percent chance of killing a gretchin or 48 percent chance of killing an orc, with the odds improving dramatically with a reroll. In other words, the Eldar should have done much better in this game!

[@Foxomatic]

@Always Board Never Boring There were more O's than a two Ronnies sketch. Joking aside, I know what you mean, but couldn't help a fiddle after playing with some chums who gave feedback on the lavk luster tolls we were making. Did a quick custom Photoshop version and got some dice made up with spicier odds on them. But... here is the kicker, they still didn't pack the punch as was expecting. Games did have a tad more spice though. Might get a blog up to share the findings. Would love to make some custom content for SC. Noticed a cracking spanish video where a guy made a new board with some slick updated textures for the floors with a lovely lighting treatment. Instantly brought it up to date. Have you seen the 3d wall divider thats floating around as a you tube video? Looks amazing.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

I've seen people selling STLs for 3D Space Crusade elements. Some of it looked pretty neat. I personally like to restore and use original components (as much as possible), but it's great that there are so many options now for people to upgrade, repair, replace, or even build old classics like this.

[@Foxomatic]

@Always Board Never Boring Oh, ok, I will take a look around. Nice one for the info! Yeah, I had to do some work too. The set, some missing bits, and paint stripping needed. Only one item remains, the original MD box. Rare as hens teeth as a stand-alone item.

[@vikinggamerdad742]

Cool video. You should do a paint tutorial with these minis. Great content. Uses these with Advance Space Crusade.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks. All of my Space Crusade stuff gets used with Advanced Space Crusade as it's all period accurate and helps to flesh out the much larger rosters that Advanced Space Crusade requires. The plan is to paint everything eventually, and most of my painting ends up on the channel, but I have so many projects lined up!

[@jeffdave8884]

Lol yes that is how I remember Eldar attack going for me too 🤣🤣, sadly I have somehow lost my copy of it and only have the miniatures left, so watching this play-through brought back a lot of memories

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

It's a tough campaign for the Eldar, but it sure doesn't help when somebody has rubbed all the 1s and 2s off the dice. Sorry to hear you have lost your copy. At least you still have the cool minis!

[@walt_man]

Rewatching your SC stuff, this one starte3d out me thinking 'Wow, Eldar are OP." Then.. well they got whomped!

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

They went downhill fast. Absolute chaos at the end.

[@rodgertoner5705]

Another great video! Thanks!!

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thank you for the kind words. I appreciate it.

[@gridash645]

Very enjoyable, more of this kind of content ;)

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks. These playthroughs are incredibly time consuming - this one was over two full days of work. I do them when I can, but it's not always feasible.

[@gridash645]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring I can imagine, thank you for the effort.

[@xyonblade]

I've heard that the Eldar are a dying race, but this takes the cats pajamas.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

But at least they are dying spectacularly!

[@Polysixchick]

Love this, I don't have this expansion but it looks good, would be great if you could do a play through of Mission dreadnought as well or Advanced space crusade :)

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

All of that will end up on the channel eventually. Can't guarantee when, though.

[@daviddupont517]

It was a lot of fun. The first time you place blips you put some in line of sight, but nothing serious.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Yes, as I explained in the video description and also pointed out in the video.

[@daviddupont517]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring I should have read it first 😅. Still a enjoyable video

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Just one of those things that happens when you are looking at the board through a camera lens. I meant to stick them behind the top right door, but when it came to placing them they got put behind the next door down (a move the Eldar had clearly moved to prevent, which was pretty funny). Still, no harm done. All the harm came a bit later... Thanks for watching.

[@daviddupont517]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring eldar did lost some arm too

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Ha. Arms, legs, couple of heads...

[@hispazargon]

Thanks for the video, your playthroughs are always interesting. One question: Those four blips placed together during the first Alien turn, were correctly placed there? Are not in the Line of Sight of the Eldar placed in the passageway? Thanks!

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Check the video description

[@hispazargon]

Ok, now clarified. Thanks for the explanation!

[@hispazargon]

Please, do you have your homebrew rules for solo playing written somewhere? It would be great to have them. Thanks.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Sorry for the short response before. I was away from my computer but didn't want to leave your question hanging. I'm sat down now. Yes - those blips are incorrectly placed. One of those things were I meant to place them behind the top right door, but then when I was sorting things out I placed them behind the other door instead. I did catch it and mention it in the video in passing, but it didn't really matter all that much so I just let it slide. My solo rules are pretty basic. Generally I just take all the blips that are necessary for the mission, divide them into four stacks, and allocate one stack to each of the four boards. If there is an important blip, like the equipment token or a boss you need to kill, I make sure that blip isn't in the stack I allocate to the first board, to avoid a quick, easy game. If you want to make sure your game goes the distance, always place the target blip in the final blip stack. For reinforcements I generally start with the green tokens, then normally go through blue, and then black. However, if I am short on necessary miniatures or I think I need to give myself a harder time, I may change that up. For moving aliens, I just try to do what I think is the worst thing for the heroes. So I prioritise targeting heavy weapons, and will engage the things I am most likely to kill. I play a lot of games solo that aren't really designed for it, and can partition my brain to a certain degree, but my overall approach is always just to play both sides to the best of my ability, and play narratively when needed.

[@hispazargon]

Perfect! Thanks a lot.

[@ATOMTAYLOR]

Excellent Stuff.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks.

[@blackraptor311]

Okay so we are shooting at both side but hardly hit anybody...you just re-created a G.I. Joe cartoon!!!

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Ha, yeah. Space Crusade has some of that Saturday morning cartoon aesthetic, and the action in this video matched perfectly!

[@davidjacovelli5986]

Any chance, do you suppose, of Hasbro rereleasing Space Crusade again in some form a la Heroquest? Appreciating that the GW connection is likely to be problematic, of course.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

The folks at Avalon Hill said before in a live stream that they wouldn't do it. They talked about how the IP is such a big part of the game (unlike with HeroQuest). However, I think another reason they didn't mention is the game was never released in North America so they may feel there won't be a lot of demand for the game in their biggest market. They did say they had talked about the idea of a remake of Battle Masters though.

[@davidjacovelli5986]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring I see, so they'd be looking at a full build for marketing purposes too, rather than the leg-up that HQ offered. Basically, a new release from cold. Battle Masters would be interesting, but the size of the game mat is going to add a lot to the cost, should they go ahead. Also, was it as popular?

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Yeah, Space Crusade would be an uphill struggle. Releasing in territories with no nostalgia for the original, and stripping out all the things that people who did play it before are nostalgic about. If the original had a wider release Battle Masters could easily be made on a slightly smaller scale (it would need to be, really, due to cost factors these days), and the old vinyl mat could be swapped for a paper one. The game did well with the younger crowd, I believe, and was distributed widely; and one would assume Avalon Hill know the units sold and would understand what kind of market there would be for it. I think it has the draw of being a very accessible tabletop war game suitable for much younger children - you get the feel of playing Warhammer Fantasy Battle, but with the simplicity of something like HeroQuest. You don't get that often.

[@tinyhazard4276]

wow i love using the eldar when i cant pick imp.fists in space crusade but never have i seen them die this easy before unless the 3 dreads where included

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Yeah, they had a rough time.

[@mjolasgard2533]

Orc vs Elder - Slapfighting and hairpulling...

[@mikebazil1]

Disgraced! This made me laugh. Great video!

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thanks for watching. The Eldar had a really bad day. They will get a chance for redemption at some point though.

[@johnmiddleton4291]

That looks about typical for how the Eldar usually play, imo. For some reason the background music made it seem like this fight was taking place in a shopping mall....in space.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Ha. One day they will be competitive. It was more like a chopping mall (crap horror movie reference), and they had all ordered an ass-kicking.

[@johnmiddleton4291]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Is that the one that has the murder robots in it or is that a different chopping mall?

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Yea, its the robot security guards that go crazy.

[@Mailed-Knight]

It was a great vid.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

Thank you.

[@godofzombi]

White dice gonna roll zeros. It's just teh way of things. That's why I played Imperial Fists with as much heavy weapons as I could carry.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

That is true to an extent, but doesn't really account for the craziness of the dice rolling in this playthrough. A single white dice has a 33% chance of killing a gretchin. I was rolling four white dice against gretchin and still failing to hit. And when the Exarch was in hand-to-hand he was getting zero hits on four white dice while his opponents were getting four hits on two white dice. They really were just doomed - some playthroughs go that way. There's always next time though! Of course, the Imperial First faction is designed to take maximum heavy weapons. Their gear and orders favour that play style. I would also give them all the heavies they could take (and did in their playthrough on the channel).

[@godofzombi]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring To quote Han Solo: Never tell me the odds! 😄 But yeah, you are correct. Slaanesh didn't doom the Eldar. the dice did.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

The question is, as I was playing both sides, do dice hate me or not? I'm getting mixed messages.

[@godofzombi]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Nah It's just Gork and Mork are wiv da greenskins.

[@HivisoftheScale]

Okay everyone, stay frosty...

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

I should try to do an AvP playthrough on the channel at some point but it's such a muddled game I think it would end up a disaster. It's one of those games where you play it and just accept that you will make mistakes and forget rules sometimes and you try not to worry about it.

[@HivisoftheScale]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring if I'm going to be brutally honest, I was rooting for the Orcs the whole time... 😁 Waaaaagh!!

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

It's only right and proper. I am a greenskin at heart.

[@jesternario]

Is it a rule that you can't add figures to the game? Because that seems like a waste of sales.

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

The game is balanced around the miniatures in the box. If you reveal a blip and the miniature isn't available, then you can't spawn it. Do remember, this isn't a Games Workshop game. MB Games had no other miniatures to push the sale of. If you wanted an endlessly expandable game, you bought Advanced Space Crusade instead (which I have, and requires a lot of extra purchases to run well).

[@frankatronx8041]

Dishonour on your space cow.

[@eldritchmorgasm4018]

What happens now to that poor disgraced Eldar who has to life a lesser demanding way of life? Oh, I see, he has to become a Disney-Chill, writing scripts for the MSHEU, starting with "The Eternals 2", or maybe the chooses to become a plumber...

[@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring]

They have to start making reaction videos on TikTok.

[@eldritchmorgasm4018]

@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Well, you either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become a TikTok villain...