Since writing some material for the Nethulk FAQ a few weeks ago, I’ve been afforded a sneak peak into an upcoming release of Nethulk, and this one is packed with new content. Amber, the creator of Nethulk, has been busy programming and playtesting since the 1.57 release. She has added an additional playable faction, the Invaders. They’re a cybernetic race with advanced technological abilities. Foremost among these is the ability to ’summon’ units by playing cards similar to the psychic ability cards already in the game.
The Invaders are really something novel for the game, and I found them refreshing to play. Their leader unit uses the summoning abilities, and can summon whatever the player has drawn cards for and has the points to play. If that wasn’t unique enough, it can do this also by using ‘relays’, another type of unit that extends the summoning range of the leader. It can summon units to the relay, which is a highly mobile unit that can hide out and gather forces to whatever point on the map it can reach.
The Invaders aren’t the only new things coming with 1.58. Amber has also added additional high-point Valkyries. A elite force of 5 Valkyrie warriors worth 8 points each, and all with unique and interesting abilities. I won’t spoil too much about the abilities, as Amber says she’s still working on game balance issues and that they may change before 1.58 is official.
Be looking for the release early in 2009, it’ll be well worth the wait.
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Mission 5
Mission 5 Map
In mission 5, five marines start in each of two deployment areas. Of the starting ten, five have to escape alive. Its may sound easy, but there are long corridors and choke points that make this a very challenging map.
The blip faction may be played as orks or aliens, with any of the available starting configurations.
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Flame outs are about reaching an objective room and using a flame based weapon to burn all target squares. The blip faction tries to prevent the advancing troops from reaching this objective room, or to eliminate the flamers. The attacking team will lose if all of the flamers go down, or if they do not have enough flamer ammo to complete the mission.
Mission 1 Map
Mission 1 is a well balanced and quick flame-out mission, and can be an excellent first mission to try for new players. The typical point balance is 10 points for marines aganist a 2 exp blip alien. Game time is 10-15 minutes.
Variations include orks or ancients as the blip faction, with valyries available to stand in for the marines.
Added in 1.58 is an expanded selection of blips for the ork faction.
Skirmish 2 is longer than Mission 1 with a larger map that can lead to more varied strategies, but still has a single objective room. Its suggested for players that are comfortable with the game and can turn quickly.
Mission 4 is a two-squad advance down a set of double hallways with two objective rooms at the end. Marines start with two squads, so 20 points for marines will yield two squads at mission one balance, matched for 3 exp or 2 max blips.
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Orks aren’t cute, they aren’t good shots, but when there are a bunch of them running at you with shotguns, you’ll see how formidable they can be.
They’re usually deployed as blips, but can be predeployed on a map as well.
Specialty of the orks is dirtying the map with green puddles of ork running into enemy fire, shooting. Orks have notoriously bad aim, so don’t get too attached to them. They’re not that attached to their comerades either.
They come as packs of 1-4 shotguns, 1-2 blaster and grenade, 1 flamethrower, 1-2 blaster and knife, and 1-3 combat swords.
Expanded blips for orks offer an additional weapon, the shock rifle. It teleports a nearby ork at an enemy for a telefrag.
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