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That is great news! Hopefully I can pick up that box of assets and hazards!

That's interesting to know. Just as well I was advised not to get Ultimate Badasses as from looking around the expansion isn't available anywhere!

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.

Hey Jadenim,
Model looks great!

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!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 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.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 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!

Brasidas19004 wrote:
Automatically Appended Next Post:

 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:

Brasidas19004 wrote:
Automatically Appended Next Post:

 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).

and, so much for that item:

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".

If someone wants an APC, Papsikels' Patreon has one for the current month (you can still get it if you hurry!), presupported and ready for printing.

What’s the base sizes for the Queen and loader?

50mm

Trolltrader is selling off aliens, marines, ripley & the eggs etc cheap (sadly not the queen)

https://thetrolltrader.com/collections/sale?page=4&sort_by=created-descending

Queen is up now.

https://thetrolltrader.com/collections/sale/products/aliens-alien-queen

Man those are great prices.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Queen is up now.

https://thetrolltrader.com/collections/sale/products/aliens-alien-queen

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)

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
Trolltrader is selling off aliens, marines, ripley & the eggs etc cheap (sadly not the queen)

https://thetrolltrader.com/collections/sale?page=4&sort_by=created-descending

Thanks OTT. Snagged the big bundle plus the accessories for £45

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.

Nice, I'll try to catch that consoles and crates set this time

I opted for "Horrified: American Monsters" instead of this. What an idiot. Hope it's still in stock next pay day!

I saw mention of it in the Stargrave thread last week, and what do you know, on Saturday this strangely heavy parcel turned up...

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Nice, I'll try to catch that consoles and crates set this time

Me too! Looking now these are in stock everywhere, and this time I am not missing out

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.

https://www.gf9games.com/aliens/1710/five-by-five-expansion/



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.