Another Alien Game!

Wow, there are a lot of tabletop games based on the Alien franchise. My boys and I love this universe, however, so if companies keep makin' 'em, we'll keep buyin' 'em. 

Today we picked up Alien: Fate of the Nostromo. With Amy and Matthew in San Francisco at a swim meet, Nathaniel and I ventured out to Target. I had intended on buying the Gargoyles board game, but we were both intrigued by another take on the Alien mythos, especially since this one gets right back to the roots of this franchise. 

More akin to Forbidden Island and games of that ilk than skirmish games like AVP, this Alien game features virtually no combat. Instead, you move around iconic locations from the Nostromo, gathering resources, accomplishing objectives, and working toward an escape plan, all the while doing your best to avoid the xenomorph. Sometimes you know where it is and can plan accordingly, while other times you only think you know where it is and then it appears exactly where you don't want it to!

On our first try, Nathaniel was Dallas and I was Parker. We had some bad luck on card draws and only managed to win on the last-possible turn when I remembered that Parker had an item that could clear the xenomorph out of our escape path. The second time, I tried Dallas and Nathaniel opted for Lambert, whose ability to see the next encounter card (essentially, the next action taken by the alien) proved to be incredibly useful.

Here's a pic of the game board from early in our second adventure.

And now here's a shot of the game's final turn, when Dallas obliterated the xenomorph with an incinerator unit.

We won that second game handily. When Matthew and Amy get back, we'll try a four-player game. I'm sure Lambert will be among the character choices, and I'd be surprised if Nathaniel didn't want to use her again. And what about Ripley? In our opinion, she's actually the least effective character in the game!

Holiday Fun

We're enjoying some downtime this week, basically just bumming around and playing with Christmas presents. One one of the kids' big gifts this year was Hockey Sauce, and although Matthew and I both consider ourselves pretty accurate shooters, I have to admit that we need to hone our skillz!

On the indoor gaming front, we've enjoyed a few memorable rounds of Butts in Space and are now poring over the contents of Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps. It's a bit like AVP, but without the "P". I suspect we'll mainly use the components to enhance our Alien RPG gameplay experience in the next campaign. I've also tried introducing the boys to the second edition of Pathfinder, without much success; they're ho-hum about a system that's like D&D but not actually D&D. 

Finally, Nathaniel got a full set of fencing gear for Christmas, so here are a couple of photos of us in action!

Alien Assault

Tonight, at last, I got around to building the map for the climactic final chapter of our first Alien RPG storyline. Using tiles from the super-awesome AVP miniatures game, I set up the floor plan for Sycorax -- a base deep in the heart of the jungle where scientists of the United Americas concocted the nefarious Project Caliban. I think the boys are really going to dig it!

Unfortunately, with the lighting in the ceiling of our game room, just about every photo I took had a terrible glare coming off of the tiles. I salvaged two pictures, but neither of them shows the map from a good angle...

I'll direct your attention to the green tile in the center of the map in the image below. I had an extra jungle tile that didn't seem to fit anywhere, so I decided to give Sycorax a botanical research lab inside the base!

Once we get the mission underway and we have minis populating the tiles, I'll get some close-up shots that, hopefully, will be glare-free. 

Project Caliban

With things starting to calm down a bit at work, the boys and I have been able to jump into the Alien RPG. I have two storylines mapped out -- one a brief, Aliens-like tale of colonial marines against overwhelming odds, and the second a more exploration-focused homage to the Prometheus films. I'm leveraging the miniatures and tiles from the AVP game for the first campaign, but I suspect I'll need a bit more variety for the second. I doubt if we'll begin that bit for a couple of months, so at least I have some time to get my stuff together. The first one, at least, is off to a good start after our first couple of sessions. In Project Caliban, the boys are playing fellow privates in a marines unit that has been betrayed by the government of the United Americas. They're finding it genuinely nerve-wracking and stressful. Mission accomplished!

Won't You Play With Me?

Soon, my darling, soon...

The board and components are all set up for the first campaign mission of AVP: The Hunt Begins. No forces have been deployed yet, as you can see, but we at least know who will control each faction: Matthew is taking the Predators, Nathaniel will run the Marines, and I will control the vast hordes of Aliens.

We haven't even played our first game yet, but I've already ordered the expansion set to get more tiles and minis. I expect we'll play this game until we've gone through all the missions and then use the components for the Alien RPG.

"We're on an express elevator to Hell! Goin' down!"

AVP: The Hunt Begins arrived a day of ahead of schedule. It's gorgeous. The map tiles are moody and evocative, and they fit together perfectly to make all sorts of labyrinthine corridors. The images below depict only a fraction of the tiles included in the base set, and they also don't show the doors that stand upright and add a bit of three-dimensionality to the game board. As for the minis, they're beautiful, combat-posed sculpts with awesome terrain elements built right in. The plastic is a bit brittle -- one poor alien had the end of his tail snap off, but I remedied the situation easily with some Citadel glue. Helpfully, the box includes a foam storage area with cutouts for each model; it's a snug fit, however, so there's a risk of breakage any time you're removing minis from the foam. I may want to think differently about long-term storage for these guys.

I haven't had a chance to delve into the rules, cards, or other components yet -- this box is packed! -- but I wanted to share some preliminary photos of the amazing miniatures and tiles.

"A xenomorph may be involved..."

I introduced Matthew and Nathaniel to Alien and Aliens over the weekend. I've had this series on my mind lately as Alien: The Roleplaying Game has received rave reviews. At some point, perhaps post-quarantine, I'll need to check it out. It might give the boys a fun change of pace from our usual D&D stuff, as the vast majority of our roleplaying action is set in the Shattered Realm world -- and even our sci-fi Shattered Realm campaign is a science-fantasy that's more akin to Starfinder than the gritty Alien franchise.

But given that I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Ameritrash guy, I need minis. I don't see anything on the horizon for the new Alien RPG, but fortunately a defunct board game can get me my plastic fix. Last night I ordered a copy of Alien vs. Predator: The Hunt Begins, which features gorgeous miniatures as well as modular terrain tiles. We can give this game a whirl and then maybe re-purpose the components for the Alien RPG down the road.