Board Game Corner: Nemesis
Before I begin today's topic, a quick update on my hobby time in general. It has now been a year since we basically folded up my gaming group. Attendance was low enough that we could fit us in our living room and we were losing money paying for a larger room we just didn't need. My decision to accept our shrinking and become something of a private group rather than an open one has been vindicated - looking at attendances, we would have been broke and forced to wrap things up in the summer anyway. By making the decision 6 months earlier, we avoided wasting a lot of money. It HAS lead to me playing less 40k, but the money the club had previously invested in scenery has now been reinvested into a boardgame collection. As such, while I have less 40k to blog about, I can take the Boardgame Corner articles and try to make them into my regular update, and get in the habit of regular blogging once again.
So, on to today's game, and despite the introduction this isn't actually owned by the club, but one of the members, but it's an excellent game and was very recently played, so I'd like to write this up while I have an example fresh in my mind...
Normally in Boardgame Corner I give an explanation of how to play the game, but on this occasion I'm going to take a different approach, and explain HOW our last game played (with some basic gameplay mechanics explained so it all makes sense) from both an actions taken perspective and also snippets from a character perspective. As that's the brilliance of this game. It tells a story, a story you are a part of. And like all the best dramas, betrayal is never far away...
Basic Gist of the Game
This is a semi-co-operative game. You all wake up on a ship, there are alarms blaring, you're all groggy, and one of your crewmates is already dead... what is going on?
This (the base game) is very much inspired by Alien and Aliens, with just enough changed to avoid a lawsuit. This is perfect for the game setting and a big fan like me.
You all start with objectives, and to win you have to complete your objective and survive. Arguably you could ALL win. If Andy's objective is to find an Alien weakness, that helps the team. If Brendan objective is to make sure the ship reaches Earth, that helps too. If Charlie's objective is to make sure he gets our dead crewmember home for an official burial... well that's not that helpful, but if he wants to carry him around, it doesn't hurt my chances so... sure. We can all win together, no problem. As for Daniel, his mission is to make sure Andy dies... oh. That's a little problematic. Meanwhile Evie has to make sure the ship is destroyed. Ah. That's not as conducive to our team efforts guys... Of course, all these objectives are secret, so who can be trusted? Who knows...
As you explore the ship you start leaving more noise markers around, and the more noise markers there are the more likely you are to encounter an alien. And that's where problems ensue.
Each player has a semi unique deck of cards, the cards can be played as the actions ON the cards or as action points to pay for basic actions such as moving or shooting. As you explore the ship you can use the unique rooms and salvage equipment. Try to figure out what's going on while also making sure the ship doesn't fall apart around you. Once you've completed your objective, exit the game by returning to hypersleep, or using an escape pod. Once all players have exited by the methods mentioned above (or by more, permanent, methods) the game ends and win conditions are checked.
Saturday's Game
On Saturday I played with some friends. I started as a teacher/referee (though later took the place of a player who had to leave so will describe this shared role as my own from now on) before joining in as the Soldier. My mission was to send the signal and destroy the nest, or send the signal and destroy the ship. I did favour the latter option, as nuking the ship in orbit seemed to be the best way to be sure...
Leo was a mechanic, whose mission was to survive with at least one other survivor.
Dan was our captain, who had to survive with a collection of 7 items.
Lou was a scientist who had to analyse an alien carcass.
Simon was the scout who had to ensure the ship reached Earth.
Technically everyone had another one at the start, but I don't recall exactly what they were, and as they were the ones people chose not to work towards, I don't think it too relevant. I know Dan's other objective was to kill Lou, but he decided that was not the best idea for a happy home life (generally I find men to be cautious about such things in games with partners, the women can be utterly ruthless...)
The grizzled veteran wasn't so sure the civvies had a good grasp of the tactical situation. He'd follow along for now, explore the ship, try to make some more weapons and armour... but the threat had to be eliminated, one way or another...
In this game I played it cool. With 5 players I felt that if I did try to obviously blow up the ship I could quite easily have my actions undone by the rest of the team. I needed to act when there were less of them around, which meant I needed to plan for a long game... so my early plan was just to be generally helpful and try to equip myself as best I could for the long haul.
The captain seemed to be trying to take as much equipment as he possibly could, pocketing every conceivable useful item like a kleptomaniac with a hoarding problem. The mechanic was doing his job, checking the engines, while the scientist was trying to get the chemicals she needed to set up a mobile lab. The pilot meanwhile went to check where the ship was headed.
So naturally with the mechanic heading to the rear and the pilot to the front everyone scattered to the four winds (as per usual for this game) meaning we had lots of noise markers all over the place. The soldier went towards the rear of the ship and found the generator room (where the self destruct mechanism is, good to know) and not far away I found the comms room (used to send the signal) The nest was found right next to the cockpit, about as far away from me as possible. My hope of destroying the nest itself seemed incredibly unlikely to be feasible. So I just aided my time and helped fix an engine in the meantime.
Over the next few turns, we killed a few aliens, allowing the scientist to examine a corpse and find a weakness. The Mechanic found the Hatch Control system (a way to open the escape pods without the usual requirements of an imminent explosion or a character death) and we explored the ship. A few of us picked up some contamination from slime, so needed to pop to the surgery if we wanted to be sure of our survival. I still had time so was happy to do this.
The scientist was adamant that with her studies the aliens could be dealt with, and it was safe to return to hypersleep and deal with the last of the infestation when back in earth orbit. The soldier was not convinced, but had a plan. In the meantime, he had to ensure he lived to enact the plan. He'd come into contact with some alien goo, and was feeling worried....
Meanwhile mechanic, seemingly also unsure of the ships integrity after a trip through the vents, unlocked an escape hatch and got into the pod. But he didn't flee immediately as expected... he was waiting.
The scientist, critical research in hand, was making for the open pod too. This information had to get out.
The captain and pilot had both felt some strange sensations in their chest, and were on a race against time to get to the surgery.
As the Scientist finally made the escape pod chamber, an alien tracked in on the weakest team member. But the heroic mechanic came bursting back out of the escape pod and dealt with the threat. The two of them then re-entered the pod, and jettisoned to safety.
Now mission objectives, ship survival and character survival is all played out in a specific order at the end, but I am going to take a slight liberty with this as I weave my tale...
All three remaining crew went through surgical procedures to ensure they were clean and safe, and then they started making their way to either the escape pods or the hypersleep chamber.
As the chamber closed on the pilot, the Soldier was alone on the ship. Unconvinced by the research the scientist had carried away, he put his plan into motion, knowing there was no one left on board in a position to stop him. The ship was overrun, every other step seemed to attract a scrabbling noise through the technical corridors. Despite this, he made his way to the generator room.
As he entered the room, he encountered an alien lifeform. While he despatched the alien swiftly, the delay had proven costly.
The way the self destruct works is, once activated, it counts down to destruction. Once past the halfway mark, it cannot be undone, and the escape pods unlock. If the ship jumps to hyperspace while the countdown is still active, the ship will still be destroyed.
Now my plan had been to set the self destruct, then stroll to the escape pods. The halfway point should be reached just as I get there, giving me one turn to get into a freshly opened pod. Perfect! However, the presence of an alien, while a hastily despatched distraction, did delay me. I set the bomb off a turn later. This meant the ship would jump to hyperspace BEFORE the escape pods opened. Not good. I would now have to go to the escape pod VIA the Hatch release room. It was still possible, but things were gonna be tight.
With the countdown blaring through the ship and alarms going off everywhere, the time for stealth was long gone. The soldier ran hell for leather for the Hatch Control room. He encountered a couple aliens on the way, but only en route. A quick burst of covering fire an move on, no time to stay and fight the menace right now. He unlocked the pod, and ran for the access room...
The mechanic and the scientist looked back towards the ship they had fled, wondering if their colleagues would be safe. The information in the scientists head was too vital to trust to an infested ship, and the mechanic knew he couldn't face the deep void alone. A flare of light appeared thrthrough the window. Had the ship lost integrity? Been overrun? Was it a last desperate act by the crew? What had happened since they left?
The soldier charged down the corridor as the countdown neared it's end. The escape pod was in sight.
The pilot slept in his had chamber, blissfully unaware of the faint scrabbling inside his abdomen. Thus it was probably a blissful reprieve for him when he was atomised in his slumber.
As the mechanic looked out at the devastation, the scientist started to convulse. She had been infected, and died in the escape pod. The mechanic was alone. He was contemplating ending things, unable to face the failure of being alone. Then the radio crackled... another escape pod have into view.
"I picked up your beacon... let's stick together." Came the gruff tones of the Captain.
I was SO close! I literally ran out of time IN the escape pod room with only one action card remaining, needing two cards to try to get in. Now admittedly, I probably only had about a 20% chance of getting in without attracting the attention of an Alien, but I was SO close.
The real kicker is that in my last two turns, 9 action cards from two hands of 5 was all I needed. Contamination cards are dead action cards you cannot use. I had one in my deck, so should be fine. Except it came at the wrong time. I needed to move to hatch control (3 cards total) activate it (2) move to escape pods (2 total) activate it (2) Unfortunately my dead card came in my first hand. Meaning I had 3 to get the Hatch Control room. But then only 1 and a dead card, so couldn't do hatch control. This meant I had to use the first two cards of the next hand of 5 for the Hatch, leaving 2 to move to the pod... and 1... NOT enough to enter. And that was the game end, I was dead.
Post match cleanup killed Lou the scientist, so despite Leo's best efforts to save her he failed. Luckily for him Dan chose to go for an escape pod rather than going into hypersleep. If it hadn't been for that decision, leo would have been the sole survivor, and thus would have lost the mission along with everyone else. The ship was going to earth, on working engines... but it was detonated. Simon would have died either way so I didn't feel too bad for blowing him up.
This was actually the first game (the 11th) that I had lost to someone else, so I can't feel too bad. So far I'd been sole winner or shared winner on half, and on the other half we'd all died together. It was a great fun game and as I said, you spend ages afterwards just discussing what you were trying to do, revelling in the cinematic moments, and throwing memorable quotes from the film Aliens at each other. "Oh he likes you Burke... looks like love at first sight to me"
This is an absolutely fantastic game, and if you get the chance to play it, do so. I can't speak for the expansions yet, but the core game is well worth looking into.
So, on to today's game, and despite the introduction this isn't actually owned by the club, but one of the members, but it's an excellent game and was very recently played, so I'd like to write this up while I have an example fresh in my mind...
Normally in Boardgame Corner I give an explanation of how to play the game, but on this occasion I'm going to take a different approach, and explain HOW our last game played (with some basic gameplay mechanics explained so it all makes sense) from both an actions taken perspective and also snippets from a character perspective. As that's the brilliance of this game. It tells a story, a story you are a part of. And like all the best dramas, betrayal is never far away...
Basic Gist of the Game
This is a semi-co-operative game. You all wake up on a ship, there are alarms blaring, you're all groggy, and one of your crewmates is already dead... what is going on?
This (the base game) is very much inspired by Alien and Aliens, with just enough changed to avoid a lawsuit. This is perfect for the game setting and a big fan like me.
You all start with objectives, and to win you have to complete your objective and survive. Arguably you could ALL win. If Andy's objective is to find an Alien weakness, that helps the team. If Brendan objective is to make sure the ship reaches Earth, that helps too. If Charlie's objective is to make sure he gets our dead crewmember home for an official burial... well that's not that helpful, but if he wants to carry him around, it doesn't hurt my chances so... sure. We can all win together, no problem. As for Daniel, his mission is to make sure Andy dies... oh. That's a little problematic. Meanwhile Evie has to make sure the ship is destroyed. Ah. That's not as conducive to our team efforts guys... Of course, all these objectives are secret, so who can be trusted? Who knows...
As you explore the ship you start leaving more noise markers around, and the more noise markers there are the more likely you are to encounter an alien. And that's where problems ensue.
Each player has a semi unique deck of cards, the cards can be played as the actions ON the cards or as action points to pay for basic actions such as moving or shooting. As you explore the ship you can use the unique rooms and salvage equipment. Try to figure out what's going on while also making sure the ship doesn't fall apart around you. Once you've completed your objective, exit the game by returning to hypersleep, or using an escape pod. Once all players have exited by the methods mentioned above (or by more, permanent, methods) the game ends and win conditions are checked.
Saturday's Game
On Saturday I played with some friends. I started as a teacher/referee (though later took the place of a player who had to leave so will describe this shared role as my own from now on) before joining in as the Soldier. My mission was to send the signal and destroy the nest, or send the signal and destroy the ship. I did favour the latter option, as nuking the ship in orbit seemed to be the best way to be sure...
Leo was a mechanic, whose mission was to survive with at least one other survivor.
Dan was our captain, who had to survive with a collection of 7 items.
Lou was a scientist who had to analyse an alien carcass.
Simon was the scout who had to ensure the ship reached Earth.
Technically everyone had another one at the start, but I don't recall exactly what they were, and as they were the ones people chose not to work towards, I don't think it too relevant. I know Dan's other objective was to kill Lou, but he decided that was not the best idea for a happy home life (generally I find men to be cautious about such things in games with partners, the women can be utterly ruthless...)
The grizzled veteran wasn't so sure the civvies had a good grasp of the tactical situation. He'd follow along for now, explore the ship, try to make some more weapons and armour... but the threat had to be eliminated, one way or another...
In this game I played it cool. With 5 players I felt that if I did try to obviously blow up the ship I could quite easily have my actions undone by the rest of the team. I needed to act when there were less of them around, which meant I needed to plan for a long game... so my early plan was just to be generally helpful and try to equip myself as best I could for the long haul.
The captain seemed to be trying to take as much equipment as he possibly could, pocketing every conceivable useful item like a kleptomaniac with a hoarding problem. The mechanic was doing his job, checking the engines, while the scientist was trying to get the chemicals she needed to set up a mobile lab. The pilot meanwhile went to check where the ship was headed.
So naturally with the mechanic heading to the rear and the pilot to the front everyone scattered to the four winds (as per usual for this game) meaning we had lots of noise markers all over the place. The soldier went towards the rear of the ship and found the generator room (where the self destruct mechanism is, good to know) and not far away I found the comms room (used to send the signal) The nest was found right next to the cockpit, about as far away from me as possible. My hope of destroying the nest itself seemed incredibly unlikely to be feasible. So I just aided my time and helped fix an engine in the meantime.
Over the next few turns, we killed a few aliens, allowing the scientist to examine a corpse and find a weakness. The Mechanic found the Hatch Control system (a way to open the escape pods without the usual requirements of an imminent explosion or a character death) and we explored the ship. A few of us picked up some contamination from slime, so needed to pop to the surgery if we wanted to be sure of our survival. I still had time so was happy to do this.
The scientist was adamant that with her studies the aliens could be dealt with, and it was safe to return to hypersleep and deal with the last of the infestation when back in earth orbit. The soldier was not convinced, but had a plan. In the meantime, he had to ensure he lived to enact the plan. He'd come into contact with some alien goo, and was feeling worried....
Meanwhile mechanic, seemingly also unsure of the ships integrity after a trip through the vents, unlocked an escape hatch and got into the pod. But he didn't flee immediately as expected... he was waiting.
The scientist, critical research in hand, was making for the open pod too. This information had to get out.
The captain and pilot had both felt some strange sensations in their chest, and were on a race against time to get to the surgery.
As the Scientist finally made the escape pod chamber, an alien tracked in on the weakest team member. But the heroic mechanic came bursting back out of the escape pod and dealt with the threat. The two of them then re-entered the pod, and jettisoned to safety.
Now mission objectives, ship survival and character survival is all played out in a specific order at the end, but I am going to take a slight liberty with this as I weave my tale...
All three remaining crew went through surgical procedures to ensure they were clean and safe, and then they started making their way to either the escape pods or the hypersleep chamber.
As the chamber closed on the pilot, the Soldier was alone on the ship. Unconvinced by the research the scientist had carried away, he put his plan into motion, knowing there was no one left on board in a position to stop him. The ship was overrun, every other step seemed to attract a scrabbling noise through the technical corridors. Despite this, he made his way to the generator room.
As he entered the room, he encountered an alien lifeform. While he despatched the alien swiftly, the delay had proven costly.
The way the self destruct works is, once activated, it counts down to destruction. Once past the halfway mark, it cannot be undone, and the escape pods unlock. If the ship jumps to hyperspace while the countdown is still active, the ship will still be destroyed.
Now my plan had been to set the self destruct, then stroll to the escape pods. The halfway point should be reached just as I get there, giving me one turn to get into a freshly opened pod. Perfect! However, the presence of an alien, while a hastily despatched distraction, did delay me. I set the bomb off a turn later. This meant the ship would jump to hyperspace BEFORE the escape pods opened. Not good. I would now have to go to the escape pod VIA the Hatch release room. It was still possible, but things were gonna be tight.
With the countdown blaring through the ship and alarms going off everywhere, the time for stealth was long gone. The soldier ran hell for leather for the Hatch Control room. He encountered a couple aliens on the way, but only en route. A quick burst of covering fire an move on, no time to stay and fight the menace right now. He unlocked the pod, and ran for the access room...
The mechanic and the scientist looked back towards the ship they had fled, wondering if their colleagues would be safe. The information in the scientists head was too vital to trust to an infested ship, and the mechanic knew he couldn't face the deep void alone. A flare of light appeared thrthrough the window. Had the ship lost integrity? Been overrun? Was it a last desperate act by the crew? What had happened since they left?
The soldier charged down the corridor as the countdown neared it's end. The escape pod was in sight.
The pilot slept in his had chamber, blissfully unaware of the faint scrabbling inside his abdomen. Thus it was probably a blissful reprieve for him when he was atomised in his slumber.
As the mechanic looked out at the devastation, the scientist started to convulse. She had been infected, and died in the escape pod. The mechanic was alone. He was contemplating ending things, unable to face the failure of being alone. Then the radio crackled... another escape pod have into view.
"I picked up your beacon... let's stick together." Came the gruff tones of the Captain.
I was SO close! I literally ran out of time IN the escape pod room with only one action card remaining, needing two cards to try to get in. Now admittedly, I probably only had about a 20% chance of getting in without attracting the attention of an Alien, but I was SO close.
The real kicker is that in my last two turns, 9 action cards from two hands of 5 was all I needed. Contamination cards are dead action cards you cannot use. I had one in my deck, so should be fine. Except it came at the wrong time. I needed to move to hatch control (3 cards total) activate it (2) move to escape pods (2 total) activate it (2) Unfortunately my dead card came in my first hand. Meaning I had 3 to get the Hatch Control room. But then only 1 and a dead card, so couldn't do hatch control. This meant I had to use the first two cards of the next hand of 5 for the Hatch, leaving 2 to move to the pod... and 1... NOT enough to enter. And that was the game end, I was dead.
Post match cleanup killed Lou the scientist, so despite Leo's best efforts to save her he failed. Luckily for him Dan chose to go for an escape pod rather than going into hypersleep. If it hadn't been for that decision, leo would have been the sole survivor, and thus would have lost the mission along with everyone else. The ship was going to earth, on working engines... but it was detonated. Simon would have died either way so I didn't feel too bad for blowing him up.
This was actually the first game (the 11th) that I had lost to someone else, so I can't feel too bad. So far I'd been sole winner or shared winner on half, and on the other half we'd all died together. It was a great fun game and as I said, you spend ages afterwards just discussing what you were trying to do, revelling in the cinematic moments, and throwing memorable quotes from the film Aliens at each other. "Oh he likes you Burke... looks like love at first sight to me"
This is an absolutely fantastic game, and if you get the chance to play it, do so. I can't speak for the expansions yet, but the core game is well worth looking into.
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