Kickstarter update #48

Hi guys, as we promised in the last update, we can reveal some of the rules for both the AvP Boardgame and the Wargame. Some of these things are still being finalised and may be removed from the final print of the rules. Prepare yourself for a wall of text, we are still waiting for approval on more of the imagery, which we will show you next week with some information about Salute 2014!

We have experience from designing the Warzone Resurrection game rules and there will be some similarities between the two games which we will discuss today and many of the game’s fans will recognise. These include the ‘circular imbalance’ and also the force organisation charts which are used to aid the creation of a force of miniatures.

The factions for Alien versus Predator in both the wargame and boardgame are limited to 3, they are the Aliens, the Predators and the Colonial Marines (or Humans or Weyland-Yutani). Miniatures from different factions cannot be joined together, for example a squad of Predator Young Bloods cannot team up with a squad of Colonial Marines, but there will be exceptions depending on the scenario. For example, in the ‘At all costs’ mission from the Boardgame, Predators and Colonial Marines have to form an alliance to kill all of the Aliens that they can on the Theseus Freight Ship. There may also be characters released in the future which allow you to change the restrictions of the factions and the Offensive Force Organisation chart, which I will discuss now.

To design your force, the Offensive Force Organisation chart must be used, for the Wargame, it looks like this.

Boxes not marked as ‘Compulsory’ are optional and may be taken as long as the ‘Compulsory’ Squad is taken.

TROOP - Compulsory (Boardgame and Wargame)
TROOP – Compulsory (Wargame only)
TROOP
TROOP
SUPPORT
SUPPORT
SUPPORT
SUPPORT
MONSTER /VEHICLE
MONSTER/VEHICLE
MONSTER/VEHICLE
N/A

Within certain armies, certain needs must be met. For example, the Aliens must be led by a model with the ‘Primary Xenomorph’ Special Skill. This includes Alien Royal Guards and Alien Queens, but may include others in the future too. Another example would be the Colonial Marines, which at the moment must be led by either a Colonial Marines Sergeant (an upgrade to a Troop Choice) or Major Dutch Schaefer and Linn Kurosawa. Predators are slightly different. Due to their tribal nature, they do not need to have leaders, but having one often presents an advantage which will affect the whole army. At the moment, the only example is a Predator Berserker, who can choose to take Predator Dogs as Troops, rather than their usual Support option, but affects the other Predators in its army due to leading them with an iron fist, rather than in the usual, honourable, Yautja manner.

Here is how all of the current forces look:

Aliens:

Troop:
-Alien Warriors (5-10 Miniatures per Squad)
-Alien Lurkers (5-10 Miniatures per Squad)
-Infant Aliens (5-10 Miniatures per Squad)

Support:
-Royal Guard (1-3 Miniatures per Squad ‘Primary Xenomorph’ Special Skill)
-Facehuggers (5-15 Miniatures per Squad)
-Alien Eggs (3-8 Miniatures per Squad)
-Predalien (1-3 Miniatures per Squad ‘Primary Xenomorph’ Special Skill)

Monster/Vehicle:
-Alien Queen (1 Miniature per Squad ‘Primary Xenomorph’ Special Skill)

Predators:

Troop:
-Youngbloods (1-3 Miniatures per Squad ‘Independent’ Special Skill)
-Predator Warrior (1-3 Miniature per Squad ‘Independent’ Special Skill)
-Predator Hunter (1-3 Miniature per Squad ‘Independent’ Special Skill)

Support:
-Predator Dogs (2-6 Miniatures per Squad)
-Predator Berserker (1 Miniature per Squad ‘Tribal Leader’ Special Skill)

Monster/Vehicle
-N/A

Colonial Marines/Weyland-Yutani Corporation:

Troops:
-Colonial Marines Squad (5-10 Miniatures)
-Weyland-Yutani Commandos (5-10 Miniatures)

Support:
-Sentry Guns (2-4 Miniatures)
-Major Dutch Schaefer and Linn Kurosawa (2 Miniatures ‘Commanding Officer’ Special Skill)
-Colonial Marines Sergeant (1 Miniature upgrade for 1 Colonial Marines Squad, but takes up 1 Support Slot, ‘Commanding Officer’ Special Skill)

Monster/Vehicle:
-Power Loader (1 Miniature)

For the Boardgame, things are a little simpler. The Force Organisation remains the same, but you do not need to take leaders under any circumstance. They simply offer you certain advantages and special abilities whilst they are in play. For example, a Queen might be able to lay eggs on the battlefield, whilst she is unwounded and has not moved since being deployed. Once she moves or receives a wound, she gets angered and will go on a rampage, attacking any threat as soon as it comes nearby. There are also missions for the boardgame which require the use of certain model types, which break the Organisation chart.

Inside your copy of ‘Alien vs Predator: The Hunt Begins’, you will receive Standard Missions to use the miniatures within the box, but also some Expanded Missions to use other miniatures in the line. Among those extra missions there is a scenario called ‘Big Game Hunt’ where the Colonial Marines and/or Aliens players must take 1 Monster/Vehicle for every Troop Choice. However, they may also choose to take nothing but Monster/Vehicle Choices, whilst the Predators must continue using the standard Offensive Organisation chart.

Earlier, I mentioned ‘Circular Imbalance’, this is a phrase we used throughout the production of Warzone Resurrection to discuss our approach to games. Quite simply, it means that although most of the squads are balanced, they have special skills and abilities that simply cannot be balanced. Everything in the game has something special that only they, or perhaps a very small ‘pool’ of miniatures, can do. This means that players are constantly looking for the perfect combination, but no skill is too powerful. We have already seen this in Warzone Resurrection, where a player will find what they believe to be a completely devastating combination, only to find players are working out how to beat it within a few days or weeks. It’s an interesting approach to games design, but one which always brings players back to a point where they can look at the game with fresh eyes.

The more we expand the system, the more intricate it will become, with a huge variety of options available to you, the player and our valued fan. This is furthered by a levelling ability which we have taken from the realm of Roleplaying games. A completely optional function, certain models can enter the battlefield trained to a certain level. For example, a squad of completely green level 1 Colonial Marines will be pretty poor at well, everything! But they will not cost you many points. This means you can fill your force with cheap Pulse Rifle fire and overwhelm your foes with gunfire. Conversely, you could take a squad of fully tooled up veteran Marines, led by a sergeant, who have a little more survivability and can be relied on to hit their target every time, but you will need to sink a lot more points into them! The Predators are very focused on this system; every single one has options of level 1 to level 5, with each level offering a variety of special skills. Throughout the game, your Yautja will gain experience for their skills, much like the Predator Youngbloods do in the Alien vs Predator film, trophy hunting and making split second decisions that mean life or death suddenly become a little bit easier on them through experience in the field of battle!

So there you have it! We have been busy little bees, finalising the rules and background for both games and we will be revealing more and more as time goes on. This update should help you make some decisions for your armies and though we haven’t been able to reveal any points costs just yet, filling that Organisation chart should not be too hard for you!