I suspect they won’t expand that one much if at all. They already covered all four Alien movies. They could do AvP or Prometheus, I suppose, but god why. Best bet would be the Dark Horse comics, some of which are quite good, but they aren’t movies and hardly anyone knows them.
That said, it’s Legendary Encounters: Alien, suggesting there may be more Legendary Encounters games in the works, perhaps taking on other beloved franchises.
Legendary Encounters: Air Bud
Aren’t they doing a Predators version? I thought I read that somewhere.
Yup, that’s coming. And in July, I believe. So it’s right around the corner.
As for Alien, I don’t think they should be limited by existing films or stories. The way the objectives are used in the game means that they could create their own tales from that universe with ease.
I grabbed the Alien game as well after the glowing reports from you guys, and after managing to track down one of the few local copies in circulation…
I’m predominantly a solo player but should be able to swing a few 2 or 3 player games as well. And I’m a long-time Alien fan. :)
First impressions are that it’s quite similar to Thunderstone.
I had my first solo run yesterday afternoon with the gunner avatar, playing the first film. It was pretty easy up until the end. I pulled Perfect Organism practically first up, followed straight away by an event, which put him in the combat zone. :P
Then almost immediately I got Ash (can’t kill him in the solo game) and the hazard. I was doing okay, juggling cards back to the Complex using the prod card, I emptied the hive deck and was on the way to a win, but in the end I failed to gather the buying power to defuse the bomb which ended up finishing me off once it detonated.
It was great fun and i’m looking forward to another go. The breakdown at the end wasn’t too bad either. Is anyone using card sleeves?
Ah, good call on the Thunderstone comparison! I knew the scanning reminded me of another game! Of course, playing the full game – multiple players with a possible traitor agenda in play – is further removed from Thunderstone and even closer to the movies.
There’s no need to play the solitaire game with only one character! In fact, as you discovered, it’s a bad idea because it means a significant gameplay concept is rendered moot. Next time, give it a shot with three characters. You’re simultaneously more vulnerable and more powerful.
-Tom
I wanted to start by controlling a single deck for my first game. I’m not sure it’s really a bad idea per se to use only one deck, since I believe the designers actually included the co-ordinate mechanic as a system to mitigate the increasing difficulty you get from adding more players (along with the ‘drone’ mechanic to space out the hive progression). So not having access to that is fully intended.
The game does give you ways to control Ash, such as fending him off with the prod, and I thought it was kind of cool that I couldn’t kill him by myself (as in the movie it takes a couple of crew to disable him). And you don’t need to kill him to win.
I do fully intend to try it with multiple decks though! I’m just initially concerned about increasing the play time too much. And I definitely want to give the agendas a go as well, not to mention the possibility of having alien players. I just need to see if I can rope in a few others.
Well, I’d argue it’s a bad ides – i.e. a lesser version of the game – because a lot of the cards and especially the sergeants are tuned with coordinate in mind. And not just in terms of the card cost (coordinate cards are more expensive, so you’re paying more for no additional benefit if there’s only one hand in play). But in terms of the class prerequisites!
For instance, if you have a scanning cards that requires tech – I think Lambert’s motion detector requires tech – you’re only going to be able to use its ability if one of the other five cards in your hand has a tech class. But with X players, you have X times 6 chances of getting a tech class icon from someone’s coordinate. That’s how we play the game (“Does anyone have a tech they can coordinate to me?”), and that’s one the things that makes this a collaborative deck builder. You buy cards based not just on what you have in your deck, but what others have in their decks. It’s also what makes the traitor agenda such a danger. Are important assets going into the traitor’s deck? It’s such a relief when you expose a few non-traitor agendas.
Sure, you can play solitaire with one hand. But the measures that you say the designers put in to “mitigate the increasing difficulty” have become core gameplay mechanics. They’re a fundamental part of what makes this game unique.
-Tom
Hmm I didn’t buy a single sergeant card in my game, I think the chance of getting a desired class from them is 1 in 5 so I just bought multiple Lamberts to use the scan. Not sure if many Tech class cards from those four characters actually have the Coordinate ability on them.
But I’m not really in any position to argue the point after a single game, so I’ll give it a go with two or more decks. :)
There’s really no reason to buy sergeants if you’re just playing one hand because there’s no reason to use coordinate! Although I guess it depends on which movie you’re playing and what cards show up in the barracks.
We kind of have a running debate in our group about the sergeants. Some of us feel – and I waver on this but usually think it’s a good idea – that you pretty much want to get all ten sergeants into play as soon as you can. Because the real value of a coordinate card is that it doesn’t take up a slot in your hand! You immediately replace it, so it’s a way to cycle your deck faster while adding a seventh card to another player’s hand. And the sooner you get those seventh cards into play, the earlier you benefit from their effects. Of course, the more players, the more coordinate cards. In our five-player games when we’re all grabbing sergeants and coordinate cards, you sometimes get to play an eight-, nine-, or ten-card hand!
By the way, our interface mod for coordinating cards is that you put the card on the table so that it’s partially lying on the mat. All other cards should be entirely on the mat or entirely on the table. That doesn’t quite work when you’re playing solitaire and you have multiple hands lined up in front of you, so I used numbered tokens.
-Tom
I don’t know if this is really big enough info to get its own thread or not, it’s certainly big to me: looks like the folks at Victory Point Games have decided to kick development of the second edition of Nemo’s War out of house and fund development through Kickstarter. I have been wanting this game for the longest time, but around the time it caught my attention it was already being considered for an updated version two. I’ll definitely be “kicking in” for this version.
Speaking of Victory Point, they’re killing me a little bit with the ongoing Darkest Night expansions – they already replaced Arkham Horror for me in terms of a thematic solo dice-chucking experience but do they have to replace it from a retail strategy perspective as well? Really on the fence about grabbing the latest expansion, especially as they’re already beginning playtesting on the next expansion. Anyone play Expansion #4 yet and have thoughts?
That said, I did back Dawn of the Zeds on KS and am really looking forward to getting that.
I just learned about Victory Point Games pretty recently and was thinking of getting into Darkest Night. I didn’t realize until now that I had actually played a VP game when I drove up to Tom’s house for a board game night. Villainous Vikings was fun!
Talk to Tom about DN - he posted a favorable review and I wonder if his thoughts on it have evolved at all. I liked it a lot (through the first three expansions) but have slowed down on playing it over the past year so I don’t know if I’ll keep buying from the line but it’s very solid and simple to pick up.
I dig Darkest Night a lot and am absolutely on board for as many expansions as they want to do. That said, I hadn’t heard expansion 4 even existed until a couple weeks ago and have not seen a good source for it until today (when VPG themselves finally put up a few Prime-eligible copies through Amazon Marketplace). So I haven’t played it.
Must not buy another board game until I play the billions I already have…must not…
DN is a fantastic game. The base game is fun but lacking in flavor (in my opinion). However, once I started adding in expansions, that complaint was quickly forgotten. Quest cards are a great addition that I felt made my game all that much more meaningful by adding additional decisions beyond “should I stay or should I go”. The latest expansion replaces keys with mysteries, a nice little optional touch that can extend the life of the game by changing things up, if you so desire.
I’m a bit obsessive so I’ve purchased every promo character I can find. So I have over two dozen characters to play with. The real fun for me comes from blindly selecting my heroes and then trying to figure out the synergy that will make them work as a team. But you can play it any way you want.
Anyway, two very big thumbs up for Darkest Night. It’s a gem of a game!
I’ll just caveat that I’m likely to collapse and buy the newest expansion and promo as well (I’ve bought every other bit of DN merchandise to date). I do feel like it’s teetering very close to Arkham bloat but I do really admire what Jeremy has done with the game. It’s VP’s biggest seller for a reason.
Waaaaaaaahhhhhh! I want VPG stuff easily available in Oz!
Can’t seem to find anyone that carries a decent range of their product and freight from US is damn killer, particularly with our FX on the slide.
I’ll be all over a Nemo’s War KS though, for sure!
Ouch, I’ve always heard that shipping costs for import games (well…imports in general) can be a killer for Australian gamers. Sorry to hear that. Local game shops don’t get a break on shipping for stuff like that? Or is it because VPG is so small they don’t go through a distributor that can give retailers a break in that area?