Hadn't seen a thread for this, thought I'd start one here.
Gale Force 9 is producing a new Aliens board game. Does not have crossover (at this time) to the Predator universe, like the older Prodos Aliens vs. Predator KS. I haven't seen a street date for the game, but it looks like it is close. MSRP $60 USD
Game appears to have elements of Imperial Assault & Space Hulk - for example, Aliens are deployed as blips before revealing their true numbers. It's a co-op game, everyone plays as marines, the Aliens are NPC foes. The game appears to be for 1-6 players, but your group will always be 6 marines - those not played directly by players are given "grunt" statistics for easier play. The game has a campaign mode and uses an "endurance deck" that persists through the missions. As cards in the endurance deck are expended, the players have fewer access to resources and power-ups. Deck is somewhat replenished between missions, but it is possible to have cards permanently removed from the game.
Two expansions for the core game - "Ultimate Badasses" adds six additional marines and advancement cards. MSRP $30 USD. "Get Away from Her You B****h" adds the Alien Queen, Ripley in Powerloader, damaged Bishop and Ripley & Newt figure, as well as campaign expansions. MSRP $60 USD
A quick review of the game (starts at 9:44)
Personally, can't await to get a hold of this game.
I inquired about this a while back in another thread. Glad someone else is as excited for it as I am!
It was said recently that "Another glorious day in the corps" was up for release about now with the expansions due for Christmas, but according to Wayland Games its up for yet another 38 days for pre-order.
That review was good and certainly puts one's mind at ease, but its hard to put the money down for it when the release date keeps going back months at a time. My Brother and I absolutely worship ALIENS and it was that film and Space Crusade that got us into the hobby back in 1990 and was hoping to celebrate Halloween with the core game on Saturday, but sadly not to be.
Have you seen the model for Newt, giving a salute and wearing the marine helmet?
Have you seen the model for Newt, giving a salute and wearing the marine helmet?
A-firmative!
Automatically Appended Next Post: I'll have to say, pre-covid, Gale Force Nine has had issues getting things out in a timely fashion - I can only imagine how much drag current events have increased that lag time.
However, considering that the reviewer appears to have a production copy, I am crossing my fingers that they are very close to having this ready to ship.
Unfortunately, the place where I normally order - Miniature Market, appears to be "sold out" of preorders so this looks like it might be popular enough when it comes out it will be somewhat difficult to get a hold of (for me).
Some stores are offering a free terrain kit if you order the base game with both expansions -
I want to like Gale Force Nine but have been burnt a couple of times with them abandoning an IP shortly after release after promising expansions pre-release that never materialise. It's good that this one is getting decent support straight out the gate though as alleviates that somewhat.
Just received my info from Wayland that release is officially postponed until 04.12.2020...
Let's see if I have to cancel the order due to Brexit or if it will make contact this year still...
I mean, what am I going to do? Build a fire, sing a couple o' songs?
*Watches Hudson get pulled through the floor by the aliens*
Have to admit I was hesitant when this appeared on pre-order as I didn't know much about it (and especially after the AvP delays etc.) but after watching that video I have to say it looks absolutely awesome. Loved the bit about having to try and not exhaust your marines and the events that take place, the aliens carrying off marines (and then you can choose to have a separate mission to go and rescue them!) and just the general look of how they have captured the license. Co-opting bits of Space Hulk (which after all was influenced by Aliens) makes perfect sense too, I liked the look of the multiple miniature mechanic too.
So, pre-order it is! The Outpost has it listed for release on 7th November while Wayland games has early December. Dice & Decks have end of November.
Frustratingly, the actual Flames of War/GF9 website just has pre-order but not an actual date.
Huron black heart wrote: This is one of my all time favourite films but I wonder if it's too similar to Nemesis which I backed at Kickstarter, do I need both...
Oh, Nemesis looks cool, and it has the Diahoti tractor!
I'd say the two games are going to be quite different - Aliens is going to be more about kicking butt, while Nemesis looks like it is going to require more cautious play. You need both....especially so you can use the Alien minis in Nemesis
I'm crossing my fingers that the Alien game will have some sort of Ash/Burke betrayal factor that can kick in, making it not only the aliens you have to be worried about.
It's a co-op game, so solo play should be doable. Even if it's just running multiple characters. That said, all of the characters have a hero side and an NPC side.
Yes I believe that video says it does have solo mode. He remarked on the aliens having a relatively simple AI that they follow (assume they just run up and kill stuff, or drag you away if you are less fortunate..)
Will be brilliant with the current situation not having to set up teddy bears across from me on the table and not pretend I am playing against other real people!
I like that they have the rulebooks available for download; doesn't include the missions or cards, but but good for digging in before the game is out (and I keep copies to use on my ipad).
This game looks kinda decent, in some ways. But on the other hand i'm generally not a fan of games that reproduce scenarios from a movie. Like i'm not sure I want to experience a set of scenarios that just alternate happenings of certain events in the film.
Just having a quick flick through the rules. Like that it's clearly presented (ace photos from the film!) and not overly long - I found AvP really clunky in terms of rulebook and rules so this feels like a step up.
The idea of a 'hero' and 'grunt' for the characters you aren't playing is quite neat, will help speed up solo or small player count games.
'Newt cannot be armed with weapons' - glad they got that in, for that person that every one of us has in their gaming group "where it does say Newt can't be armed with twin smart guns?" The motion tracker/blip mechanic looks cool - you get a sense of approaching danger without knowing exact details, really cool component of the film
Barricades and the chance to have one last 'snap fire' lifesaver shot is cool - can imagine that getting tense! (as it was in Space Hulk)
Aliens are predictably horrible in melee - quite cool that there is a slim chance of the marines getting a 'defensive melee' kill against the Alien in melee. Thinking Hicks doing that roll and machine gunning the alien as it jumps over him - awesome You can survive the game but get face-huggered, meaning you die at the end of the campaign :(
All in all after having a look through there will be watching Aliens again this weekend
I've ordered the basic core game - the other expansions do look awesome but I'm mindful of the log of painting stuff I have waiting (although at least the Aliens will be super easy to do..)
Very reasonable £40. I've noticed Wayland Games have gone from 'pre-order' to 'out of stock' so would be wary if the initial stock levels are not that high.
I have a bunch of prodos AvP models and am needing some rules for them. This looks good for solo, has permadeath, has experience system, has equipment options, so it is on the shopping list. Lets see if I can get a squad of prodos marines painted up before this thing is released.
I'd find it very doubtful the minis will be made available seperately.
If you're just looking for the minis, I'd looks around for the Prodos AVP miniatures. I'm not sure they're available from Prodos directly, but should be able to find them at some FLGS or through E-bay.
Well, for those you worrying it was vapour-game... here are the four boxes here in my home the UK. Arrived this morning.
Minis are very similar if not spot on scale with Prodos ones....
WholeHazelNuts wrote: Well, for those you worrying it was vapour-game... here are the four boxes here in my home the UK. Arrived this morning.
Minis are very similar if not spot on scale with Prodos ones....
Thanks for the info. Looking great! Have fun with them. I hope they arrive in Germany, soon too.
Excellent, very useful. Can I ask about the level of detail. I doubt they are comparable to the Prodos AvP (which were excellent) but how comparable are they to typical hard plastics?
The marines are good detail - not resin standard, more along the lines with decent board game pieces - but the really bare no resemblance to the facial features of the characters... but that doesn't really matter. You get the feel of the character. The aliens are nicely detailed, again decent crisp detail, and they look like they'd come out well with minimum work.
There's some painted examples here - https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/256852/aliens-another-glorious-day-corps/images - that show you what I think would be perfectly capable of being achieved with them.
I tried to take a close up of the detail here -
I think I can easily work with a light undercoat layer and retain the details.
To anyone who now has the game - is Newt included in the main box? Also, how many minis are in the Powerloader/Queen expansion?
I ask this because throughout UK websites for this game there has been a lot of confusion with people advertising that the "Get away from her you b*tch" expansion only has two miniatures, whereas USA websites say there are more models than just the main pair. Also there's been different counts of what's in the main game and other expansions - the most obvious one being the lack of Newt. It's been so weird that I didn't preorder since I didn't want to get a set that was missing several of the minis.
Bearing in mind I ordered mine direct from Gale Force/Battlefront - yeah she comes in the main box - in her "Ay-firmative" pose. Heard a rumour that the second print run would have a different pose...? Not sure how true that is..so I guess we'll see. I can't imagine they'd change the content though between US and rest of the world?
The Get Away from her box has more than two - it has Alien Queen, Ripley in Powerloader, Bishop, Squishy bishop (well top half at least!) and "Enraged" Ripley - basically her with her sellotaped gun loadout for her rescue mission and Newt on one hip..ready to battle the Queen.You also get more boards, more blips, an APC board, more cards, more dice.
Whilst we're at it -
Main box contains - Ripley, Hicks, Hudson, Vasquez, Gorman and Frost as well as Newt.
Badasses box has - Apone, Wierzbowski, Dietrich, Burke, Crowe, Drake
So we're missing Ferro and Spunkmeyer from any of the boxes.
Nostromodamus wrote: Maybe Ferro and Spunkmeyer will show up in a dropship expansion?
Nah. A dropship expansion will be announced, will be shipped out to distributors, then inexplicably every copy will be irreparably destroyed in transit, also taking out the nearby APC expansion pack and every marine weapon except four drone guns and a couple of flamethrowers.
Eventually we'll have to send Bishop to run a remote-controlled Kickstarter for a second dropship expansion. That one will arrive just in time to save the game.
Nostromodamus wrote: Maybe Ferro and Spunkmeyer will show up in a dropship expansion?
Nah. A dropship expansion will be announced, will be shipped out to distributors, then inexplicably every copy will be irreparably destroyed in transit, also taking out the nearby APC expansion pack and every marine weapon except four drone guns and a couple of flamethrowers.
Eventually we'll have to send Bishop to run a remote-controlled Kickstarter for a second dropship expansion. That one will arrive just in time to save the game.
Nostromodamus wrote: Maybe Ferro and Spunkmeyer will show up in a dropship expansion?
Nah. A dropship expansion will be announced, will be shipped out to distributors, then inexplicably every copy will be irreparably destroyed in transit, also taking out the nearby APC expansion pack and every marine weapon except four drone guns and a couple of flamethrowers.
Eventually we'll have to send Bishop to run a remote-controlled Kickstarter for a second dropship expansion. That one will arrive just in time to save the game.
Throughout human history, any time the Aliens dropship is announced as part of a video game, board game, card game or as a miniature, you can always rely on me to warn that the first version released will crash and burn.
People should always buy/sell them in pairs to avoid disappointment.
Yup, and I didn't know it was hard plastic kits. I expected boardgame PVC minis. Very nice!
Looking tiny compared to the old Prodos ones though. Compared a GF9 marine to a WY Commando and the latter is a head taller.
Materials all look very nice, the dials are a nice touch. Hope the gameplay doesn't suck!
Garfield666 wrote: Yup, and I didn't know it was hard plastic kits. I expected boardgame PVC minis. Very nice!
Looking tiny compared to the old Prodos ones though. Compared a GF9 marine to a WY Commando and the latter is a head taller.
Materials all look very nice, the dials are a nice touch. Hope the gameplay doesn't suck!
Ah that's great I didn't realise the minis would be hard plastic!
Hopefully there will be enough detail so I can paint some motifs on the armour, will have to look at some film set photos for inspiration!
Then get the black spray and some gloss varnish out for the aliens
The gameplay vid reviews I have seen make it look great. I don't know who has designed it, looks like it was designed by someone who loves Aliens and also Space Hulk (which is kind of funny thinking how/when Space Hulk was first released).
I love some of the scenario ideas - being able to choose to go and rescue people that have been carried away by the aliens etc
First impressions of looking through the set are very positive.
Miniatures are definitely nicely designed - not up to the detail level of AvP and are smaller (although they are in hard plastic), but I will take that if the game is better to play!
This has definitely been designed more for ease of use and the board-game crowd, really in the black plastic the Aliens are usable straight from the box.
What I will say is that for anyone who is a fan of the film you will love the components in the box. Packed with imagery and quotes from the film, even with little things like the sentry guns having a graphic which matches the one used in the film.
Really looks like GF9 have made full use of the license which is great to see !
Only had a quick flick through of the rulebook so far but it looks well laid out and again tons of imagery from the film which really makes you want to play.
Is getting some excellent reviews on BGG, can't wait to give it a spin!
The minis are significantly better than my original expectations and even better in person than the online previews made them out to be.
I believe the Colonial Marines are manufactured by the company that does Victrix plastics. The aliens sprue is manufactured by Archon/Prodos amazingly enough. You can see USCM sprue is even labeled UK whilst alien sprue is labeled Poland.
I'm almost wondering if the delay was a decision to switch from gakky boardgame plastics to true hips and therefore had to wait for the lead time required for 2 companies to make them.
It's pretty interesting as the uscm appear to be the springier plastic which victrix uses so as to allow for less breakage on historical plastics but we have the typical victrix soft mold lines. whereas the archon aliens are much stiffer - but gosh, almost no mold lines - only ones I can detect are some on the smooth alien forehead.
...if they don't sell sprues separately i may be forced to buy another bundle. At the very least another Ultimate Badasses set to make some generic marines (as it's got 2 Pulse, 2 Incinerator, and 1 Smart, so enough to do a Fireteam with an extra Incinerator. Plus another Burke/"company man") Since we're obviously missing Spunkmeyer and Ferro I can only hope for an eventual Dropship expansion along with an M577 APC. Especially as the Power Loader sprue is almost a proof of concept that they can do extremely detailed multipart vehicles. There's tons of places where I think they could have taken some shortcuts but chose not to: for example, Ripley's strapped together Pule Rifle and Incinerator from the expansion could have easily been a single piece but they made sure to manufacture the Incinerator separately so that the tiny amount of void space between the two weapons was accurately reflected.
For anyone interested, they are 100% truescale, and appear to be 1/56, as in, Burke is standing upright at 32-33mm tall from bottom of shoes to top of head, and Paul Reiser is 5'10", same with Gorman/William Hope, same height. Wierzbowski is at a slight walking cant so would be roughly 34mm tall, and Trevor Steedman is 6'. Hudson appears to be 33 at a slight cant as well, so 34 straight up, and Bill Paxton is also 6'. Pretty accurate.
There seems to be some conflicting accounts of how they scale with AvP prodos models. It is worth bearing in mind that prodos (somehow) managed to produce colonial marines in three different scales! First edition box set marines were very thin 32mm, first edition multipart marines were noticeably more bulky 32mm and second edition marines were smaller (28mm I believe but do not own any).
Hi Samsonov, I measured what I have at hand, an old Prodos WY Commando (35mm to the eyes) und GF9 Hudson (28mm to the eyes). The difference is immense, even without the base.
I do not own any of the newer Prodos unicast stuff, which seemed very ugly to me. I believe these were a bit smaller than the original resin figures.
The unicast stuff comes with huge integral bases though.
In the end it always depends on how picky one is. People differ in heights and sizes and the equipment looks rather similar.
Some really interesting observations on scale there Judgedoug. I agree they do definitely look like a 'truescale', very small heads and hands (well, they are in proportion for the size of the miniature rather).
Did you go for the full set with the expansions then I take it? I didn't know there was a Burke model I will have to buy it on those grounds
As for scale - yes compared to the first/original KS edition they are very different. The AvP marines are significantly larger and I don't think they would line up next to each other well, unless you wanted the guys from this boxset to be child soldiers or something.
For Aliens I'm not sure I haven't compared them - I guess it would be less of an issue, you could use the AvP ones as a 'royal guard' or something like that if they were slightly bigger.
Oh well, if they are out of scale with prodos first edition stuff then I am out for now. Thanks everyone for the information though. I will, however, see if people start selling the boxed game minus the minatures on ebay for a knockdown price, since I would like to give the game a go.
Ok, I managed to find a box of old Prodos marines. They too, are about a head taller. You might be still ok with it though, as the proportions (head, chest, limbs etc.) are the same.
The Aliens are fine.
If you are interested in the game, I would say: give it a go anyway!
Pacific wrote: Did you go for the full set with the expansions then I take it? I didn't know there was a Burke model I will have to buy it on those grounds
Yeah, the full experience with the free bonus set of accessories, which are amazing.
Automatically Appended Next Post: RE: Compatibility with AVP1 or AVP2 games;
While I am not here to convince you of anything, I'd like to point out that the GF9 Aliens is commercially available and also seems to be a significantly better game. As it is apparently doing gangbusters sales for GF9 right now I imagine it will continue to be supported as well.
The fact that the xenos are on a differently sized sprue/manufacturer/plastics composition and are multipart with multiple head options smacks of miniatures wargame to me. Perhaps GF9 will outdo Prodos not only in the board game department but also the miniatures wargame department.
judgedoug, I wonder if the separate manufacturers issue might also be evidence of a miniatures game around the corner (with generic marines without names on bases to be produced by Prodos later?)
As for the game itself,
It’s a very interesting design, There is a deck of cards called the Endurance Deck which essentially powers everything. It is comprised of Weapons, Equipment, Events, and Hazards. You outfit your characters from this deck. You draw cards from this deck when your characters use their weapons. Your characters have abilities that allow/force them to draw cards from the deck and, sometimes, to recycle cards back into this deck. And if you succeed in a mission during campaign play, you remove about half of the cards discarded during that mission (minus any Hazards) from the rest of that campaign! This represents the dwindling resources available. About the only thing your characters can do without using the Endurance Deck is move but even some forms of movement (standing up after being thrown down by a xenomorph, out of normal sequence) requires discarding Endurance cards. Campaign play does not seem like a walk in the park.
Manchu wrote: judgedoug, I wonder if the separate manufacturers issue might also be evidence of a miniatures game around the corner (with generic marines without names on bases to be produced by Prodos later?)
That is my hope. I am assembling the xenos and they are phenomenal. It's literally what I dreamt about when I first got into minis wargaming in the very early 90's: my favorite IP with great plastic miniatures. Even if a possible eventual wargame has terrible rules it would mean at least more new plastics. As much as I love the Prodos APC and Dropship that I got, I would much prefer plastic kits. It makes me wonder if Prodos (err, Archon, now, technically) had these ready to be tooled before losing the license, or at least, prototypes done. The plastic Predators they released right at the end are great and of similar quality.
You guys need to stop......my poor wallet....At least my printer will make lovely terrain for me. The models look good. better than my old Leading Edge miniatures from waaaaaaaaay back.
Wouldn't Archon / Prodos have some sort of a agreement / requirement from Paramount not to produce the AvP miniatures since they no longer have the license?
Anyway, during the D&L3 campaign, I asked Archon about sprues of the Chronicle X miniatures as an add-on in Rampart 3 KS or something, and they were open to it. (AFAIK, Archon owns the rights to Chronicle X, and makes the plastic sprues and assembles the miniatures in-house. CX had production problems with their paper and cardboard components, Made in China.)
So, with the possibility that they can produce the miniatures, send 'em a note suggesting they sell them in one way or another.
ced1106 wrote: Wouldn't Archon / Prodos have some sort of a agreement / requirement from Paramount not to produce the AvP miniatures since they no longer have the license?
That could prevent them producing AvP miniatures but that might not preclude them making Aliens miniatures? I seem to remember from discussions about the AvP kickstarter that the two were different intellectual properties. If so, then I guess that someone making miniatures for the Aliens franchise might also be able to make generic marines since the USCM is part of the Aliens background.
Anyway, I would be very interested if these became a line of multipart plastic miniatures. I do not need any more marines, having 30 plus prodos unmade ones stashed away, but more aliens would be fantastic, whilst one can only dream of a plastic APC and dropship.
ced1106 wrote: Wouldn't Archon / Prodos have some sort of a agreement / requirement from Paramount not to produce the AvP miniatures since they no longer have the license?
Can you explain your thought process here? We know anything AVP from Prodos is gone so there will never be any more Prodos AVP stuff.
Do you mean the Aliens sprues manufactured by Archon for GF9? They are produced under license by a valid licensee. GF9 sells them.
Several UK stores didn't get their full allocation / order. This is the announcement from The Outpost:
**ALIENS announcement**
Earlier this month we received around 70% of our ALIENS pre-order numbers from Battlefront/GF9.
We reached out to them last week for further information on the remaining items and received this information around an hour ago.
"Dear Customers,
Due to circumstances out of our control, we received damaged boxes on some of our ALIENS and the expansions, which we are not happy to send to you as a finished product, representative of the quality you have come to expect.
This means that your current pre-order which we expected for December, has been delayed whilst we await acceptable outer box replacements. These should arrive at the end of December, and will be ready to ship them in the New Year."
We reached out to other suppliers and retailers to see if they were able/willing to supply additional stock but were unable to source any.
As such we will be unable to complete several orders containing the core game or bundles. If you have an outstanding order there are 2 options:
1. We will continue to wait for the restock, this is in the new year unfortunately.
2. Your order can be cancelled for a full refund.
If you prefer option 1 then there is nothing more needed, we will be making further announcements once we have news.
If you are looking to receive a refund please email custserv@the-outpost.co.uk with your order number and request a refund to payment method or voucher.
We're incredibly sorry for the news and especially for it being so late.
Chris & The Outpost team
The Prodos imvolvement is really interesting... and disturbing...
I checked the AvP Rulebook and the Alien queen is the same as the new plastic GF9 one.
Found my box of old Prodos stuff and compared the figures. Old Prodos is very inconsistent in size. I compared a new marine to an old one and they were almost the same height. Vasquez however is almost 1cm smaller then the old Smartgunner... The WY commandos I had for comparison first are bigger in general.
As it was asked for pics, here's my base boardgame painted. It was only two evenings of speedpainting, so don't expect anything fancy. Boardgamegeek shows some stunning immages from a professional.
Anyways, I am very pleased and they were easy and fun to paint. The Aliens will be very much at risk during gaming as they are so delicate, the rest is fine. Now on to paint the expansions the next days.
So those aliens in the game look basically identical to the prodos ones. This does indeed look like there has been a bit of change, which might explain the delay. Compare the eventual ones in the game with how the earlier prototypes looked:
(from this page, posted April 2019: https://www.gf9.com/Default.aspx?tabid=225&art_id=6458)
Anyway, if anyone wishes to wargames the Aliens setting then it is difficult to exaggerate how important having a new source of prodos xenomorphs is!
Hm not identical, the body poses and tail poses, are minimum, are different than the multipart resin warriors and of course the unicast. But since they had the cad files it only makes sense to repose them for hips production.
Looked at my old Prodos Alien-Warriors and they are the same sculpt. Not the same parts, but some heads or tails for example are identical. They have been re-posed, split in different parts and turned into HIPS models.
Interestingly, the powerlifter is also the same pose as the old one, just with Ripley inside.
Guess GF9 bought all (?) the Prodos 3D files.
Dang, now I even feel tempted to paint up all the unused Prodos stuff too...
So are those the same marines as come in the box? I had not realised they are multipart. Anyway, I think I need some of those Aliens!
As much as all this is very welcome, I am unsure why they are doing this. For example, I imagine that plenty of people would pay £50 for main box and £25 for the six extra marines just for the models, yet within a week of those models actually being released you can now buy all 13 humans for £20. Seems a strange business strategy to me, unless something else is going on.
Probably would not have ordered the game if I had known this, though. Anyway... the game will be waiting under the christmas tree and since it's there it will also be played...
Samsonov wrote: So are those the same marines as come in the box? I had not realised they are multipart. Anyway, I think I need some of those Aliens!
As much as all this is very welcome, I am unsure why they are doing this. For example, I imagine that plenty of people would pay £50 for main box and £25 for the six extra marines just for the models, yet within a week of those models actually being released you can now buy all 13 humans for £20. Seems a strange business strategy to me, unless something else is going on.
The marines are multipart but not many parts, and fit together in a limited way.
Yes that is very cheap pricing wise. I suppose you would pay more for the rules & expansion if you want to use them with the game (as I think the expansions come with extra unit and event cards etc?) These are here if you just want the minis.
I seem to remember that Prodos were working on a second edition of their game, one that replaced the resin minis with hard plastic for the mass market. If that rumour was true, I'd bet these are the same CAD files that they were working on before they lost the license / ran out of money for tooling.
Samsonov wrote: As much as all this is very welcome, I am unsure why they are doing this. For example, I imagine that plenty of people would pay £50 for main box and £25 for the six extra marines just for the models, yet within a week of those models actually being released you can now buy all 13 humans for £20. Seems a strange business strategy to me, unless something else is going on.
The primary cost is the game. You buy the game, to play the game.
If you are like me, and want lots more figures, you go from "maybe I should buy another copy" to "How many sets of miniatures can I afford before I can't pay my bills anymore".
There's also the Alien RPG from FL, and it's pretty damn smart to cater to those RPG gamers who simply cannot fathom playing an RPG without minis (and there's a lot of them). Especially as the RPG continues to sell out of it's print runs because it's actually really damn good.
Considering the Colonial Marine supplement from FL is coming out very soon, it's either strategic or actually done in partnership (either unofficially/conversationally or officially).
Just putting some miniatures together and the marines are lovely! Super easy to build, very limited flash. I think they are built in such a way that they should be fairly solid, and not break too easily for the board game crowd.
Aliens are a little more finickity - not sure how many of those tails might break off if care isn't taken, although I think they will always be a bit difficult just because of how the Aliens are (lots of spindly bits sticking out everywhere!)
Pacific wrote: Just putting some miniatures together and the marines are lovely! Super easy to build, very limited flash. I think they are built in such a way that they should be fairly solid, and not break too easily for the board game crowd.
Aliens are a little more finickity - not sure how many of those tails might break off if care isn't taken, although I think they will always be a bit difficult just because of how the Aliens are (lots of spindly bits sticking out everywhere!)
I'm honestly less impressed with the UK sprues than the Poland sprues. The USCM feel a little 'soft'. But yeah, very easy to assemble and pretty robust. Looking forward to buying a squad box and converting them a little bit, perhaps seeing if someone makes alternate bases! The xenomorphs are just a treat. I've done half of mine so far, making sure I pose them all individually and mixing/matching the various head/tail/arm options to get the widest visual variety.
I'm pretty shocked at the price of those other sets. The Outpost (UK) has pre-order on the terrain pack (boxes, terminals, face huggers and face hugger eggs) for less than £9 which is mental.
Pacific wrote: Just putting some miniatures together and the marines are lovely! Super easy to build, very limited flash. I think they are built in such a way that they should be fairly solid, and not break too easily for the board game crowd.
Aliens are a little more finickity - not sure how many of those tails might break off if care isn't taken, although I think they will always be a bit difficult just because of how the Aliens are (lots of spindly bits sticking out everywhere!)
I'm honestly less impressed with the UK sprues than the Poland sprues. The USCM feel a little 'soft'. But yeah, very easy to assemble and pretty robust. Looking forward to buying a squad box and converting them a little bit, perhaps seeing if someone makes alternate bases! The xenomorphs are just a treat. I've done half of mine so far, making sure I pose them all individually and mixing/matching the various head/tail/arm options to get the widest visual variety.
Ah that's interesting, can you actually swap the bits of the Aliens around without too much trouble?
I didn't know if they were tied by each miniature and letter designation (as there seem to be 'A's, B's, C's etc.)
Ah that's interesting, can you actually swap the bits of the Aliens around without too much trouble?
I didn't know if they were tied by each miniature and letter designation (as there seem to be 'A's, B's, C's etc.)
each body has a choice of two heads - so the two "A" heads can be used on the "A" body. The arms are all completely modular. As are the tails. I've also noticed the back ribbing smartly seems to extend to four "cardinal" points on the tails so you can rotate tails 90/180/270 and they still work - it helps create a sense of motion as if the xeno just leapt up or just turned left/right, etc. iirc the warrior alien suits in Aliens '86 also had a shorter tail (for practical filming reasons) so I am considering shortening the tails by 25% on the eventual box of Xenos I'll buy. edit: maybe more than 25%. I'm looking at my NECA 1/4 alien warrior based on the "hero" suits in the film and it has a much shorter tail
Been watching some reviews on this an it seems really cool (not to mention the Alien IP being my favorite Sci-Fi IP). The game looks much better than the monstrosity thrown together by Prodos, and the minis look pretty decent.
If GF9 got the rights to all the Prodos files, I really hope they do some extended universe packs with some different missions and make some HIPS Generic Marines, Weyland Commandos, Alien Royal Guards/ Stalkers, etc.
Sabotage! wrote: If GF9 got the rights to all the Prodos files, I really hope they do some extended universe packs with some different missions and make some HIPS Generic Marines, Weyland Commandos, Alien Royal Guards/ Stalkers, etc.
Not sure of any of the legal aspects. I do see from the GF9/Aliens press kit that the only reference is specifically to the _ALIENS_ film trademark, so GF9 might only have the 1986 film.
Sabotage! wrote: If GF9 got the rights to all the Prodos files, I really hope they do some extended universe packs with some different missions and make some HIPS Generic Marines, Weyland Commandos, Alien Royal Guards/ Stalkers, etc.
Not sure of any of the legal aspects. I do see from the GF9/Aliens press kit that the only reference is specifically to the _ALIENS_ film trademark, so GF9 might only have the 1986 film.
Ah, that's a bit of a bummer. Those Prodos sculpts were really nice and it would a shame to see them not in production.
Sabotage! wrote: If GF9 got the rights to all the Prodos files, I really hope they do some extended universe packs with some different missions and make some HIPS Generic Marines, Weyland Commandos, Alien Royal Guards/ Stalkers, etc.
Not sure of any of the legal aspects. I do see from the GF9/Aliens press kit that the only reference is specifically to the _ALIENS_ film trademark, so GF9 might only have the 1986 film.
Ah, that's a bit of a bummer. Those Prodos sculpts were really nice and it would a shame to see them not in production.
Who knows what the entirety of the licensing picture is. Heck, if it sells like gangbusters then perhaps GF9 has the ability to widen it. TBH a board game on Fiorina 161 with a single ai controlled xenomorph hunting down prisoners and Ripley while they are trying to trap/kill it sounds like it could also be super exciting.
From what we have so far, it seems like a license narrowly tailored to Aliens (1986).
Board games that recreate the scenes from Alien and Alien 3 in the same way that this one recreates scenes from Aliens would call for their own substantially different rule sets. I’d certainly be down to play them.
Of course the Alien movie that would probably make the best board game is also one of the least liked — Resurrection.
In the meantime, does anyone have some spare alien heads they would be willing to mail to me for a few bucks? I’m itching to use some on a Medge Broken, Einherjar, or Mantic Abyssal for that Freeza transformation look.
Anyone in the US should be able to help you with that one Bob, have got a pile of those heads left over and now just have to think what to do with them!
Sabotage! wrote: If GF9 got the rights to all the Prodos files, I really hope they do some extended universe packs with some different missions and make some HIPS Generic Marines, Weyland Commandos, Alien Royal Guards/ Stalkers, etc.
Not sure of any of the legal aspects. I do see from the GF9/Aliens press kit that the only reference is specifically to the _ALIENS_ film trademark, so GF9 might only have the 1986 film.
Ah, that's a bit of a bummer. Those Prodos sculpts were really nice and it would a shame to see them not in production.
Yes very true! Although it feels like part of what makes this game a good package is it's narrow focus. The rule designers have been able to make a game that has a relatively simple concept (Marines trying to survive and do stuff while being attacked by Aliens) and the mechanics work very well in that scenario. So a bit like Space Hulk in that regard.
I felt part of what went wrong with AvP was that it tried to do too much at once (marines vs. aliens vs predators) but then the rule mechanics felt all over the place and it didn't do any one part of it particularly well.
I enjoyed The Hunt Begins. I think the way Prodos (mis)handled the KS precluded some people giving (that version of) their game a fair chance, similar to how many people could not look past Palladium’s absurd antics to give RoboTech RPG Tactics a chance.
Nevertheless, Another Glorious Day is a very narrowly focused game. It is exclusively about the tone/pace/themes of Aliens (1986).
Received my copy of Another Glorious Day in the Corps for Christmas. Really looking forward to gettingnit to the table. Luckily it can be played as a single player, so may get some gaming in during these Covid-19 times.
Managed to get a copy of the main game. Quick review of the models: The Aliens are excellent. They have a good variety of poses, admittedly less than the prodos resin ones, but enough of them. The detail is good. They are easy to assemble. They allow plenty of combinations since the arms and tails can be used on any of them. As for the marines, I would be tempted to say that they are the least detailed 28mm plastic models I have bought in the last decade (granted, this is the first board game I have bought), but at the same time they are really not all that bad. The detail is present and they take paint relatively well (you can easily get 'tabletop standard' with these). Whilst the level of detail is not ideal, they convincing come across as the characters in the film. As for scaling with Prodos marines, they are far from an exact match but you could probably get away with it. Personally, I will be using them separately.
Anyway, a question. How you would paint the metal on the guns? It is sort of a shiny black in the pictures online. I was thinking black (vallejo black) with a highlight of dark silver (gw leadblecher). Any thoughts?
It’s funny to read a mini gamer’s review, praising the xenomorph figs and being criticl about the marines. This is the exact opposite of board gamers’ reviews, where they say the marines are great and the aliens are an absolute nightmare (because of ease/difficulty of assembly).
The problem with the alien minis is you can easily glue the two halves of a body together before adding the head/spine, which then prevents you from adding the head/spine
You then havve to file down the inner side of the spine to fit the head on properly.
I love all the minis, the Prodos xenos look fine with the marines in this game.
A (badly lit) comparison pic of various 32mm xenomorphs.
From left to right: GF9, Prodos AvP Kickstarter, Prodos AvP 2nd edition box, Prodos AvP 1st edition, Horrorclix
The ones by GF9 are about the size of the 1st edition Prodos. It's the base or the pic that make them appear slightly smaller I believe.
I think they are all compatible and like the early ones by Prodos the most. The ones by GF9 are also great, AvP 2nd edition (box) and Horrorclix are still very ok.
morganfreeman wrote: Any word on if the box-miniature releases, or the game itself, is a limited run sort of thing?
To gauge whether it's a "must buy now," or "should still be here in 6-12 months" sort of thing.
Very hard to tell, nothing is called out as LE, and if your paying for a licence you'd want at least a couple of years just so that if something went wrong in production you'd still have a decent sales window
but if Galeforce 9 treats this like a boardgame (as opposed to a minis line) we may be looking at a single print run which will be allowed to sell out before they decide whether to reprint it. Hopefully sales numbers are good enough that there will be at least one reprint if not more,
but I know that some of their licenced D&D stuff spent so much time unavailable after the initial release I gave up on ever getting hold of them
so if you really want it sooner rather than later may be the best choice
morganfreeman wrote: Any word on if the box-miniature releases, or the game itself, is a limited run sort of thing?
To gauge whether it's a "must buy now," or "should still be here in 6-12 months" sort of thing.
Very hard to tell, nothing is called out as LE, and if your paying for a licence you'd want at least a couple of years just so that if something went wrong in production you'd still have a decent sales window
but if Galeforce 9 treats this like a boardgame (as opposed to a minis line) we may be looking at a single print run which will be allowed to sell out before they decide whether to reprint it. Hopefully sales numbers are good enough that there will be at least one reprint if not more,
but I know that some of their licenced D&D stuff spent so much time unavailable after the initial release I gave up on ever getting hold of them
so if you really want it sooner rather than later may be the best choice
Considering that non-US distros didn't get their full orders, signs point to buy it if you can find it.
judgedoug wrote: I am considering shortening the tails by 25% on the eventual box of Xenos I'll buy. edit: maybe more than 25%. I'm looking at my NECA 1/4 alien warrior based on the "hero" suits in the film and it has a much shorter tail
Seems like a fair bit of effort given that the re-used Prodos designs aren't based on the Aliens suits in the first place. Very much their own take on the creatures, with more of an AvP: Requiem bent than anything else.
Some UK stores are listing dates when new stock will be available. Whether those dates are accurate, who knows, but it suggests an intention that there will be more available.
Samsonov wrote: Managed to get a copy of the main game. Quick review of the models: The Aliens are excellent. They have a good variety of poses, admittedly less than the prodos resin ones, but enough of them. The detail is good. They are easy to assemble. They allow plenty of combinations since the arms and tails can be used on any of them. As for the marines, I would be tempted to say that they are the least detailed 28mm plastic models I have bought in the last decade (granted, this is the first board game I have bought), but at the same time they are really not all that bad. The detail is present and they take paint relatively well (you can easily get 'tabletop standard' with these). Whilst the level of detail is not ideal, they convincing come across as the characters in the film.
It's good that you added the clarification about board games, because I think it's a good distinction to make. The marines aren't up to the detail level of something like say a new GW or FFG/Legion release. But, I would say by comparison with other board games they are pretty good and better than a lot of other comparable board game releases.
My standalone marines and aliums turned up at the weekend. I've built the marines, they're nicely detailed but yes, the realistic proportions at this scale have resulted in quite shallow detail, will need careful painting to get good results.
Just stumbled on these. Very cool. Might have to buy.
Never would have thought GF9 would sell ALIENS figures as cheap as the classic Chub Pearson sculpted Denizen not-colonial-marines.
http://www.denizenminiatures.co.uk/ Actually much better figs than the catalog scan would indicate.
I'm a bit late to the party on this, does anyone know the best place to pick any of this stock up in the UK, main game or the individual boxes of models?
Slipstream wrote: As far as I know Element Games, The Outpost and Marionville Models sell the range.
I noticed Gale Force 9 sell through Amazon too so picked up the Heroes of Hadleys Hope set, 20quid delivered sounded good to me. I would have got the core set had they had any in stock.
Well, if that is what they look like with a legend like dwartist doing the painting they aren't worth my time. Dwartist's paint job looks good of course, but they won't look good with someone like me slapping paint on them.
I think only Gale Force 9 sell the models on their own, except the assets and hazards box which other retailers seem to have as well. They send from the UK (you just need to click on the flag where it says 'select price region')
So, ordered yesterday day using standard shipping, they arrived today. And must say, I'm seriously impressed with the models, and I'm more of a painter/collector than a boardgamer. Detail is crisp, the Carter Burke model looks like Paul Reiser. The marines have helmets, and equipment covering eyes/mouths so you can't see their facial features as much.
I'm certain an average painter will get these looking nice, I'm nothing special and will post my efforts when done.
Slipstream wrote: As far as I know Element Games, The Outpost and Marionville Models sell the range.
I noticed Gale Force 9 sell through Amazon too so picked up the Heroes of Hadleys Hope set, 20quid delivered sounded good to me. I would have got the core set had they had any in stock.
Good spot. Didn’t know they were on amazon. Now to order the aliens or heroes?
Well, my pre-order (made through the store) finally arrived in my neck of Woods. Will be picking it up later today.
Then I'll see what they are like myself. (ordered the whole game - four boxes).
Still mourning the missing Ferro and Spunkmeyer figures though - the collection remains incomplete. My FOMO sense is tingling.
No idea if this means the end of the line or temporarily going out of stock. I have the main game and the expansions but would like about 5 boxes of aliens if these things are going to disappear forever...
Acually, this is quite good. It has a feeling of more advanced Space Hulk, with a little hand management - there is a deck of cards with some equipment, hazard and events.
You always play full team, but each character has two versions - hero (controlled by player) and grunt (NPC let's say). Hero version is a little better. First is hero phase, then grunt, then aliens. I was a little surprised that you can equip heroes at the beginning but aliens spawn quickly and there is not much actions for marines.
There is a few neat mechanics:
Dynamic shooting. There is no just shoot action. You can do it as many times as you want - each character has its own dial and this is to hit stat. But with each shot you go one point lower. First shot - 7+ (on D10), next one - 6+, next 5+.... You missed? Your action stops. At the end on your phase you are resettin dial.
There are special weapons - you need to discard a card from your hand, or Pistol which is always hitting on 3+.
Second thing is endurance deck - you are drafting cards there for various reasons, sometimes discarding it. One thing - it my never be empty. Empty deck means you are all dead. As one action you might rest and add some discarded cards to endurance deck.
So in general - Space hulk with a little bit more action and hand management.
And it has some replayability - two kind of missions - from movie (save Newt) - which are alway the same you just an change heroes. Bug hunt - this is more generic shooting to the Aliens, which is always fun.
One thing - Core set is like helf of the game or less. Finishing it gets you through half of the movie. To get to the end is the next expansion (Powerloader!). And in core set you get only half of the marines, second half is in small expansion, which also provides some campaign options, not yet explored by me.
Dynamic shooting. There is no just shoot action. You can do it as many times as you want - each character has its own dial and this is to hit stat. But with each shot you go one point lower. First shot - 7+ (on D10), next one - 6+, next 5+.... You missed? Your action stops. At the end on your phase you are resettin dial.
There are special weapons - you need to discard a card from your hand, or Pistol which is always hitting on 3+.
Just wanted to clarify, there is an "Attack" action (you can do two actions per turn), but certain weapons have Full Auto which means you can keep exhausting a card to keep firing as long as you keep hitting. You need to roll your aim dial number or lower (so a pistol always hits on a 3 or less), with a "1" (which is the USCM star) always being a hit. Some weapons like the Smart Gun allow you to roll two dice each time and choose the lowest, so it's insanely good. The Incinerator attacks a square and has a flat value to kill each alien model/swarm token in an area.
Second thing is endurance deck - you are drafting cards there for various reasons, sometimes discarding it. One thing - it my never be empty. Empty deck means you are all dead. As one action you might rest and add some discarded cards to endurance deck.
As per the Endurance deck, there's Endurance, Exhaust, and Discard. You draw from Endurance and place in Exhaust. If you ever run out of Endurance, you being discarding cards, which have a good chance of being removed from the campaign at end of mission. Several mechanics allow a Recycle (the Rest action, for one), which moves Exhaust to under the Endurance pile. If you cannot discard any Endurance or Exhausted cards, then it's game over.
Surprisingly, it is quite fun game.
Totally agree. It feels like the film and can be very tense!
Originally I was just going to pick up the characters/aliens and use the space hulk tiles and rules. But having watched a couple of play through’s and seen the card detail better I think that the game is worth picking up. Especially as I will be playing with mates outside of the hobby mostly. So having that better connection to the film will make it easier to get on board and enjoy.
Played the second scenario tonight (with judgedoug and the other regulars in our game group). The difficulty level is no joke and you can get very unlucky. It’s really rewarding when you’re making good decisions and your plan is working. We had fo play the first scenario twice but made it through the second on the first attempt but I’ll admit it was a combination between smart play and good luck.
Played the second scenario tonight (with judgedoug and the other regulars in our game group). The difficulty level is no joke and you can get very unlucky. It’s really rewarding when you’re making good decisions and your plan is working. We had fo play the first scenario twice but made it through the second on the first attempt but I’ll admit it was a combination between smart play and good luck.
An interesting feature I’ve noticed is that all of the figures I’ve built so far stand at approximately 45 degrees to the deck plating moulded into the base, which effectively gives them an automatic front vision arc; could be useful if you want to use them in a skirmish rule set (assuming it’s not just for the board game rules I haven’t read yet...)
MDF? Nah...This might be a prototype - would explain the lack of detailed information. Most likely resin but given the time span it could be planned as a plastic model. There is a garage kit available of the APC designed to fit the playing board (the interior of the 3D model matches the board).
My first thought was MDF too because it has that look to it - but I don't think a few of the component shapes would be possible with MDF (the ladder on the back for instance).
It looks like mdf to me too in the pics. The top looks removable, but if that was the case they'd show off interior details surely.
Seeing as figures need to go in the model in fixed spaces in the game, I wonder if this is an open or sealed model.
I don't fancy spending £40 on a model and not know what it's made of either.
Apparently GF9 have posted on their fb page that it doesn't have an interior.
So, other than a piece of terrain to replace the image on the board, it's fairly useless.
Wish they'd made one like the one on the right in this pic that someone posted in the fb group. Now that would be useful.
It's resin. No interior. Not designed for gameplay. Shaun Allen's is a better bet if you want one for gameplay (message him on FB) but I will buy one anyway as it's another Aliens APC to add to my small collection and I'll only regret not getting one when it ceases production!. A couple more pics of Shaun's below (I'm buying one of Shaun's too although I may have to replace the too small front turret - reduced in size to match the APC on the card I suspect)...
Hah! I was looking at the specified spaces inside the APC - looking like it was for some other rule system, is that one of the other missions in this game?
Placed an order with GF9 in January, but I never received an email and have not been charged. Now that I look at my account, it shows no order history either.
Ktulhut wrote: Placed an order with GF9 in January, but I never received an email and have not been charged. Now that I look at my account, it shows no order history either.
Anyone else ever had this issue?
Here's my recent experience ordering from the US.
I placed an order Feb. 19 directly with GF9, with no confirmation email from them. My credit card got charged a week later, so I sent customer service a request for tracking number on Feb. 26. There was an auto-response, but no tracking information until Mar. 3rd, which was two days after the package arrived.
All transactions came from "Battlefront" instead of GF9.
Everything came as ordered in good condition, but odd experience that no order confirmation was sent and they took so long to process payment.
Went onto the GF9 website and saw that the two expansions are either sold out or almost sold out. I'd been on the fence about getting the game but seeing this totally spooked me out into buying the game plus expansions from Amazon.
It was money that I can't really afford, but Tomorrow ULM can worry about that.
Ktulhut wrote: Placed an order with GF9 in January, but I never received an email and have not been charged. Now that I look at my account, it shows no order history either.
Anyone else ever had this issue?
yes, I ordered in January, got confirmation email and then nothing
GF9 claimed they'd tried to take payment and It had bounced so they'd tried emailing and got no response and eventually cancelled the order.
When I checked here was no record of my transaction on my credit card (and I would have been charged a penalty for a bounced transaction), and even on rechecking my spam no email from them either. So I think it's much more likely they had an it problem and never tried to process the order
I've had serious problems in the past with G9/Battlefront (nearly a year to get D&D spell cards from them - site indicated they were in stock but found out they were waiting on reprints, and three rounds of packages to finally get the right cards for my Arcane set) and never order directly from them. Quite frankly, their customer service is abysmal.
Unfortunate that you've all had trouble with them too, but good to know I'm not alone. I'll try to find somewhere local who can get it for me, but otherwise I'll have to just wear the cost of shipping to NZ from Amazon or Ebay, since it doesn't seem to be worth bothering with the company directly.
It's a'ight. Mechanically it works, with a bit of resource management due to the Endurance deck As a simple little tactical shooter, it's fun. You can break this out with 1-2 friends and have a good time quoting lines from the movie and rolling dice.
But there was a lot of polish needed.
The difficulty is really wonky. The designers seemed to think Heroes made the game easier, so make you draw more Motion Tracker cards as you add players. But the advantage a Hero gives is not directly proportional to the difficulty increase of drawing more cards. Some of the Heroes actually make the game harder. Because of this, it isn't a game you can just pull out with your 5 buddies. A 6 player game requires a lot of coordination and experience to win. To put it in video game terms, a 3 Hero game is playing at Easy difficulty. A 6 Hero game is Nightmare. Not every Hero gets significantly better like Vasquez, Drake, and Ripley do. Most have only a modest boost. On average, Heroes only get about 10% increase to their success chances (some hardly change, like Hudson or Apone) stats-wise, and possibly gain a useful ability. But they also tend to draw Endurance cards, which adds to the rate of Hazards and diminishes the Endurance deck. If every Hero was as good as the four or five strongest Heroes, it would work. But even in the base game, you're stuck with Gorman, who is very mediocre, and highly likely to draw one or more Hazards over the course of a game. Adding Hero Gorman isn't the same as adding Hero Vasquez, but the game treats him like it is. Same with Wierzbowski, Crowe and Burke from UB. They aren't making the game significantly easier by being Heroes; in many ways, they (especially Burke who is awful) actually make it harder. Bishop has a great Tech and a solid ability, but he can't fight, and almost indistinguishable as a Grunt. So he's clearly not balanced against drawing an additional MT card if he is played as a Hero.
Solo Players can just choose their level of difficulty by just choosing their number of Heroes to use, which makes the RAW "fine." People trying to have a casual game with their buddies are in for a rude awakening trying to play a 6 player game unless they're all dedicated wargames already, lol. And that is the problem. I usually play board games with 4 or 5 people. We have a well ventilated outdoor space (and everyone works from home) so we have actually played real life 5 player games, and it is brutal. Never finished the first mission without losing at least one character, and that's stacking the team with the best characters. When I just played with my neighbor, we had an entirely different experience where clever tactics make it a breeze to finish games without casualties. I played Extended Mission 1 with the Movie Cast (Ripley, Hicks, Drake, Frost, Gorman and Bishop), using 2 Heroes and drawing 3 cards, and it was a solid win with no losses despite having one character who can't fight (Bishop), and another is among the poorest characters in the game (Gorman). Replaying it drawing 5 MT cards but with Vasquez instead of Gorman and Hudson instead of Frost, and we had two characters captured. The lack of a steady difficulty level is one of this game's biggest flaws.
It also isn't a great value. Just buying the Core Set, it doesn't feel like a complete game. The $60 price tag is a bit misleading. You need all three to actually feel like a complete experience, so this is a $150 game. But quality and sophistication-wise, it doesn't feel like a $150 game. Ultimate Badasses is way overpriced. It should have been $15, not $30. It really shouldn't even exist, and those characters should have been split between the Core Set and the GAFYHB expansion. So that part isn't good. Given the fact that the models bought separately are $2 each, paying $18 for the cardboard and some tiny cardstock is a total scam. But playing the game without those characters kinda sucks. Especially if you have Get Away and the expanded missions, you will need the extra manpower for replacement characters.
The Experience Cards in the Ultimate Badasses expansion don't seem very well tested, and in general make the game much easier. You also accumulate them much faster than makes much sense. These guys are quick learners. If they were more smartly implemented, or limited to one card per character for a customizable feel, I think I would like them more.
At the $150 price point for the whole game, the miniatures aren't great. They are soft on detail, the Aliens have effectively 2 body poses, and all their arms are in "invisible gift box" pose. If this was a $60 game, they would be fine. With another $90 hidden in the price tag with the expansions, they're not great. Look at the quality of Nemesis or the Prodos AvP models, it's not even close. Since I already had the far superior AvP models, I literally only used Ripley and Bishop from this game. The others got sold off.
Stacking tokens is dumb, and the models often tip over. I moved to using small dice for the 3-5 token swams, and the Stalker (dog/ox) Aliens from the Prodos game for the 1-2 token ones.
The biggest knock is that thematically, the only thing that feels "Aliens" are the pieces, and the pictures/words on cards. As a game, it is basically a Zombie Game. You could replace the Aliens with zombies, wolves, demons, squigs, genestealers, whatever, and the game would feel the exact same. The Aliens aren't clever, there isn't any effect of acid blood, etc. Aliens run at you, and you shoot them.
It's a co-op Space Hulk without the balance and the elegant simplicity. One of the market-full of zombie games, but with models that have long tails that will catch on all the other alien tails around them, The difficulty is wonky as hell, because it scales with player count.
Just painting up the marines for this game. Has quite a few people have commented, they aren't as good as the Prodos marines (smaller scale and lighter on detail) but I think as board game pieces they are fine.
The Aliens are excellent. I actually kept a few of the AvP aliens previously after I sold the rest of that set (I couldn't get on with the game itself) and you would be hard pressed to tell the difference - those aliens have now been press-ganged into AGDITC!
Looking forward to getting a first game in. In terms of the expansion packs, would people recommend the Ultimate Badass expansion as the first one to get?
The boxset with the computers, face hugger eggs etc. looks like a good buy for that value too.
The computer box is excellent value. As for the game itself and expansions, I would recommend trying the main game first. Personally, I was not all that impressed with it.
I'll add one thing to Veteran Sergeant's list. I think the game would be much better with an overwatch command. As things stand, there is nothing you can do to harm an alien when it moves closer to you. As such, it does not matter if an alien is one square away or five squares away at the end of the marine turn, the result is the same, namely the alien can move into base contact and attack once. Instead of having overwatch as an action, each model automatically (no need to spend action points) has a passive overwatch. They can automatically make an attack once the alien move adjacent to them but before the alien can attack. This gives good reason to bunch up your models, so that every time an alien gets close you can passively overwatch attack with three or four models. So I find the game is much less about positioning models across a map and is more about slowly moving one big group of models across the map.
By the way, has anyone who ordered the APC received it yet? I had an email a couple of weeks ago that sort of looked like a dispatch email, but not entirely. Didn’t know if it was a confirmation at the end of the pre-order period or if I should be chasing a missing package?
Thanks for the replies guys. I'll make sure I play the core game then before expanding it. I take it I won't be losing out in terms of the mission order/narrative by not getting Ultimate Badasses? Just thinking there are a number of characters in the UB set (Apone etc.) that get killed in the first 'encounter' in the film, have no idea if this has any bearing on the game structure!
Interesting comments Veteran Sergeant on the difficulty level. What would a sweet spot be for play, do you think 4 crap/prone to mistakes and lack of concentration players could get on with the game with that number?
GF9 announced yesterday that they’re doing a big restock of the game (as it was starting hard to get). Hoping to pick up the queen/power lifter expansion now.
Hey guys - just as an update, it looks like there has been a big restock of the main game and expansions for anyone that was still trying to get hold of it.
I'm not sure of any new releases? Were 'Heroes of Hadley's hope', which looks like the marine and civilian component of the main game and 'Ultimate badasses' available previously?
Have played the main game a few times now and thoroughly enjoyed it. The best way I could describe it as a combination of Zombicide with Space Hulk, although there is a lot more strategy involved than the former, with the resource management and trying to use the complementary characteristics of characters with each other.
The game seems to really swing from "I'm in control, all is fine", suddenly Vasquz misses that smart gun shot you had been banking on, a '3' blip of aliens appears and you are being over-run. Can get really tense, a single dice roll can spell doom in certain situations.
You have to keep your characters together (they can provide defensive fire for each other) - take a risk with one person going out on their own to do something and there's a chance they get pounced on and carried away - awesome, just like the movie.
I really like it. AvP I thought suffered from trying to 'do everything' but didn't do any of it particularly well, or rather all the time it felt like I was playing a wargame. Aliens: AGDITC is a lot simpler in scope, the mechanics are a lot more basic, but I think it manages to capture the character of the film really well. There is enough depth to the rules and resource management to keep your attention on the game, and you have the pressing countdown of cards being used which adds an element of stress (which again feeds in well with the setting).
Here's the GF9 APC I received just over a week ago. I have had to do a fair bit of repair /correction work as some of the minor details were damaged and one of the turret gun barrels was broken in a couple of places. The ladder was warped too (hence the lowered turret in the photo of the rear!). Decent enough model if not perfect.
It's a direct copy of the stl files available on Gambody so they either had permission from the designer to reproduce the model or they're ripping him off! I hope it's the former! Questions?
Ah Pacific's writeup of the board game makes it sound really good, might have to try and sniff out a copy now. I bought the standalone miniatures just to paint (and the xenomorphs will likely turn up in Stargrave)
dwartist wrote: Here's the GF9 APC I received just over a week ago. I have had to do a fair bit of repair /correction work as some of the minor details were damaged and one of the turret gun barrels was broken in a couple of places. The ladder was warped too (hence the lowered turret in the photo of the rear!). Decent enough model if not perfect.
It's a direct copy of the stl files available on Gambody so they either had permission from the designer to reproduce the model or they're ripping him off! I hope it's the former! Questions?
Looks neat! Is the rear gun on the rails moveable or somehow poseable? Or did you just not attach it to take all the cool action pics?
Fully poseable if you put a magnet between the turret and the trunnion; they’ve done a clever thing with the rails, making them slotted, so that the whole thing can slide back and forth, but with a fair degree of friction to hold it in place.
Where did you get it? I am not finding it at GF9 or at the on line game stores.
Any info for the rest of us?
Thanks!
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Samsonov wrote: The computer box is excellent value. As for the game itself and expansions, I would recommend trying the main game first. Personally, I was not all that impressed with it.
I'll add one thing to Veteran Sergeant's list. I think the game would be much better with an overwatch command.
Instead of having overwatch as an action, each model automatically (no need to spend action points) has a passive overwatch.
Hey found quote a bit confusing... So there IS overwatch, but you have to spend an action to do it?
And you're recommending that the overwatch be automatic?
My quick thought, if that's the case, is that there may be other soldier tasks that need to be balanced out against the cost of being "ready" and covering a lane of fire. Not always, but sometimes. That may affect game play.
I will find out, since I have ordered both the "Another Day" basic and the "GAFHYB" expansion games!
I will add that I introduced an overwatch in my Terminator Genesys game - you could save unexpended action dice to shoot Terminators that moved into your field of vision. However, this did make the game easier, if not less fun.
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Max Moray wrote: A (badly lit) comparison pic of various 32mm xenomorphs.
I think they are all compatible and like the early ones by Prodos the most. The ones by GF9 are also great, AvP 2nd edition (box) and Horrorclix are still very ok.
Plus...are they all the exact same size in - fictional - "real life"? Aren't they in different stages of development, adapting to various climates, etc...?
If the sculpting style wasn't way off, I'd use any of them. However, I wouldn't mix Tyranids in with them, most likely. Hope that makes sense!
Samsonov wrote: The computer box is excellent value. As for the game itself and expansions, I would recommend trying the main game first. Personally, I was not all that impressed with it.
I'll add one thing to Veteran Sergeant's list. I think the game would be much better with an overwatch command.
Instead of having overwatch as an action, each model automatically (no need to spend action points) has a passive overwatch.
Hey found quote a bit confusing... So there IS overwatch, but you have to spend an action to do it?
And you're recommending that the overwatch be automatic?
Effectively, every model has a passive overwatch which automatically activates when an Alien is in an adjacent square (or something like that). This means that there is nothing you can do except group your models together to increase your overwatch power. I think the game would be more tactical if you could use action points to give you models a space hulk style overwatch which extended to line of vision.
FWIW, I'd say that once it is "a certain distance away" probably 40-50 feet, the area in which they can overwatch should be smaller. At least it should be narrowed to the front 180 degree "field of vision".
Due to "tunnel vision" under stress [and being stalked by Aliens is stressful] I'd consider making it as small as 45 degrees to front [lining up on the sight, covering a room / doorway whatever].
In game terms, this may mean they can cover one tunnel or room or something. I'll have more to say when I get the game!
Samsonov wrote: The computer box is excellent value. As for the game itself and expansions, I would recommend trying the main game first. Personally, I was not all that impressed with it.
I'll add one thing to Veteran Sergeant's list. I think the game would be much better with an overwatch command.
Instead of having overwatch as an action, each model automatically (no need to spend action points) has a passive overwatch.
Hey found quote a bit confusing... So there IS overwatch, but you have to spend an action to do it?
And you're recommending that the overwatch be automatic?
Effectively, every model has a passive overwatch which automatically activates when an Alien is in an adjacent square (or something like that). This means that there is nothing you can do except group your models together to increase your overwatch power. I think the game would be more tactical if you could use action points to give you models a space hulk style overwatch which extended to line of vision.
Having played a few games now I actually wonder if this was a deliberate design decision. Like in the film (or any kind of horror film really!) the person that goes off on their own tends to become monster food. Keep your characters together to help give each other supportive fire, but then sometimes you need to split them to carry out different tasks depending on the mission, so it's a balancing act on behalf of the player. The characters do always have a chance to defend themselves, but if they're on their own and get hit by a bug swarm then there is every chance they will go down (just like in the films).
That's my take on it at least anyone, the game isn't Space Hulk in that regard (although they do share some similarities).
Battlefront Customer Service Mon, May 24, 4:14 AM (4 days ago)
Hi, Thanks for the email,
Unfortunately the APC Aliens has been released and the stock has sold out. Currently there are no plans to restock this item.
Best Regards, Emily Brooks
So...they paid for plastic / resin setup sold out the item, and won't restock it. Sometimes when hobby businesses fail I feel sorry for them. Sometimes I don't, and it's decisions like this that make me "don't".
cheers for that i'd be sad to have missed her, i guess i'll pay a bit of extra postage (oh why didn't they have it up when i checked out first time round)
Hey folks - just as a heads-up it looks like this game is being republished as a 'v2' - no massive differences (more of a fine-tune of the rules from what I have read), but it does mean that it should be possible to get some of the boxed sets for anyone that missed first time around as there has been a new production run.
There is also a new expansion, "in the pipe 5x5" which has a drop-ship board. I haven't looked at this one yet, so not sure if any good - I assume there is a very short part for the guy saying "what is this stuff?" as he picks up some goop, and then becomes alien food
Finally a few pics of my own set - if anyone needs convincing to play this game, honestly I cannot recommend it enough. Tremendous fun, and should be an auto-purchase if you are a fan of the film.
Seems cool, but I am the only fan of Aliens in my circle. I put the game on my Amazon list and we will see if there are any great sales. It does look pretty cool.
I will say if you enjoy space hulk (perhaps mixed with Zombicide?) you will enjoy this game. Although there is more to this one; the deck management becomes an important part of the campaign as you progress, and the dread of turning over a motion tracker card to see what approaches.
Obviously if you like the film you will get more from it as your imagination fills in the blanks of moving little pieces around a board..in our last game, we had Dietrich (the female medic I think?) die immediately from the first alien ambush, exactly the same as the movie, which was pretty funny!
So the next new Expansion is out now for this game (has been out a little while) and I've got hold of it and had a chance to look through, as well as demo a few of the components.
I will say this is probably the first 'proper' expansion (really the other two should be thought of as components of the core game, as they make it a complete experience).
My impressions of it are:
The Good:
- You get two new members of the Sulaco crew in the form of the pilot Ferro and Spunkmeyer - the latter a bit more of a tenuous inclusion as I think literally his only line in the film is "hey what is this gunk?" before he gets killed off camera. But, it's the final two crew members for those want the complete set.
- The best part of the expansion for me is the 'air duct' additional set which you can add to 'mission 3 - survive' (basically the bit where Burke tries to get Ripley and Newt face-huggered and then the Aliens attack en masse, and the marines are trying to escape). You get some new rules for using air ducts in bug hunts as well, if those are your thing, and you don't already find the tunnels make it difficult enough! - New Alien designs/rules - this borders on adding too much crunch to the game for me, but you get some new types of Aliens based on ones which may (or not) have been in the films: Brute, Scout, Guard and Skulker. We included the Guard as the type encountered near the Alien quees - they are a bit harder to finish off, which is quite thematic. The Skulker looks like the Alien from Alien 3, and is in quite a cool pose. You also get a bunch of new cards and blips for those who are used to running out of them in the game!
The Bad:
- New Experience and Alien player cards. I'll be honest we don't use an Alien player as think the game is so much fun in co-op, but there are some extra hivemind cards for those that do play it. Similarly we found the experience cards added too much crunch and slowed the game down, and the game difficulty was fine without them, but again they are there if you wanted to use the full campaign details.
- Fireteam rules. Apparently now you can play the six characters in your active squad and then can sub in replacements as you go through the campaign. This is news to us as we were doing this anyway! (and it worked quite well in the campaign as you had replacement characters on each mission if some got killed or captured).
Overall I would say the expansion is worth getting if you have all of the others, but I don't think is strictly necessary to play or enjoy the game - and certainly with the extra alien types, experience cards etc there is a possibility of making the game too heavy to play (and takes away from one of the main strengths of the game, which IMO is the speed of play when your guys are being chased by the Aliens!) It's good for completionists as you have the full Sulaco crew, and there are a few nice alien variant sculpts even if you don't use the rules for them. Finally, we found the extra tunnel ducts made the escape mission a lot more fun. £25 is RRP, but I think if you shop around and find it for £20 it is definitely worth it. Would be interested to see how everyone else gets on!
Hmmm looking at an online store listing, these new minis are already present in 2023 boxings of Aliens Warriors / Heroes of Hadley's Hope, so watch out you don't buy doubles.
and too.
