X COM Boardgame by FFG

Loved this computer game when I was a kid and I still play it occasionally, I know there has been life put back into it with the release of new video games over the past two years. This new board game will be an awesome addition to a fan favorite title.

News for August 2014

You Are Humanity's Last Hope The Alien Invasion Begins with XCOM: The Board Game

XCOM: The Board Game | Published 05 August 2014

Paris has fallen. New York is a pile of rubble spilling into the Atlantic. Alien attacks against Nanjing and Changzhou prompt widespread panic throughout the streets of Shanghai. Defense satellites detect UFOs in orbit over Mexico, Russia, and Brazil. Military responses have proven ineffectual. Fear and anxiety lead to widespread riots. Human civilization stands upon the brink of collapse…

You are humanity’s last hope.

In XCOM: The Board Game, you and up to three friends assume the roles of the leaders of the elite, international organization known as XCOM. It is your job to defend humanity, quell the rising panic, and turn back the alien invasion.

Where the world’s militaries have failed to stand against the alien invaders, you must succeed. To do so, you must make strategic use of the resources available to you. You must launch Interceptors to shoot down alien UFOs, assign soldiers to key missions, research alien technology, and use that technology to defend your base, all while you try to keep the world from collapsing just long enough that you can coordinate one final mission to repel the invaders for good.

Innovative Digital Enhancement

The most notable aspect of XCOM: The Board Game is the way that it incorporates a free and innovative digital app into the core of its gameplay, then uses the app to promote a unique play experience unlike anything you and your friends have previously encountered in a board game. This digital companion will be available both as a downloadable app and as an online tool.

The app’s primary function is to coordinate the escalating alien invasion, randomly selecting from one of five different invasion plans. Each invasion plan represents a general outline that the alien commanders will use to coordinate the arrival of new UFOs, plan strikes against your base, and respond to your successes or failures as it seeks to conquer Earth. The app manages all of these tasks and heighten’s the game’s tension as it forces you to respond in real-time. Then, after you move quickly to coordinate your response, you engage the enemy in the untimed resolution phase and feed the results to the app. Based upon these results, the app launches the invasion's next strikes.

Two UFOs appear over North and South America

Additionally, the app teaches you the rules, controls the information that your satellites provide you, and tracks the progress of your resistance efforts, even as it allows you to enjoy the game at any of three levels of difficulty: Easy, Normal, or Hard.

A crisis card

The use of this app does more than simply streamline your play experience and track your turns in real-time. It also permits a uniquely dynamic turn structure. While the variety of game phases remains the same from round to round, the order in which you and your friends must play through them may change, as may the number of a given phase.

As a result, while you’ll want to know where UFOs appear before you deploy your Interceptors, the alien invaders may be able to disrupt your satellite intel and force you to deploy your Interceptors on patrol with limited or no knowledge of the UFOs current whereabouts. Similarly, you may be forced to think about the costs of resolving the world’s crises before you know how many troops you’ll need to commit to your base defense.

The effect of the app, then, is to immerse you deep into the dramatic tension at the core of XCOM: The Board Game, and it ensures that the game presents a challenging and cooperative (or solo) experience like no other. Just like the XCOM department heads that you represent, you’ll need to keep cool heads in order to prevail.

Inside XCOM Strategic Command

XCOM’s resistance efforts are spearheaded by its four leaders, each of which is represented by one of the game’s player roles: Commander, Chief Scientist, Central Officer, and Squad Leader.

Commander

The Commander is responsible to manage XCOM’s budget and must be foresightful enough to know when best to access the organization’s emergency funding and how best to allocate it. Additionally, the Commander makes the tough decisions about where to assign XCOM’s limited number of Interceptors to global defense. Wherever you commit your Interceptors, you have a chance of destroying UFOs and slowing the spread of panic. Wherever you don’t commit your Interceptors, fear and anxiety are bound to run rampant.

The Commander is responsible for assigning Interceptors to global defense

Chief Scientist

If you and XCOM are to have any chance of successfully repelling the alien invaders, you’ll need better technology. The Chief Scientist’s responsibilities include studying advanced technology, learning how to harness it, manufacturing better weapons and armor, and equipping the rest of the organization with the tools they need to survive. Of course, only a limited number of scientists possess the necessary training and intellect to quickly dissect, analyze, and replicate alien technology. Part of your job as Chief Scientist, then, is not only to decide how best to direct the organization’s research efforts but also to prioritize between them, allocating more scientists to the projects you decide will best benefit the war effort.

Central Officer

The Central Officer serves as the communications relay between XCOM and the outside world. This means you manage the organization’s satellite network, and it is your job to ensure that the organization remains alert to potential threats, communicates and coordinates its efforts effectively between branches, and scrambles as many alien transmissions as possible. Succeed, and you’ll reduce the number of UFOs in orbit. Fail, and you’ll suffer communications blackouts that will force you to act blindly in the midst of a war, the likes of which Earth has never known. Additionally, the Central Officer communicates all of the information provided by the game’s digital app to the players. The clock is always running, so it’s vital that you share all relevant information quickly and clearly.

Squad Leader

In the end, XCOM needs boots on the ground to confront the alien invaders, and it’s the Squad Leader’s job to ensure that the right troops are tackling the right missions. As the invasion escalates, you must assemble strike teams to meet the aliens in battle. Simultaneously, you must assign soldiers to defend the XCOM base, and you’ll need to strike an effective balance. If your base falls, so do you. So does the earth. Still, you need to succeed at missions to win. Each mission you complete brings you closer to uncovering a means of launching one final, fatal blow against the alien invaders.

The Squad Leader is responsible for assigning troops to missions

All four player roles are vital to XCOM’s success, and you and your friends must divide them among yourselves in every game. Your soldiers won’t succeed without the upgrades your scientists can research, nor will you be able to launch successful Interceptor strikes against UFOs unless you acquire good intel from your satellite network.

Can You Find a Way to Defeat the Unknown Foe?

With its free companion app and distinctive player roles, XCOM: The Board Game evokes all the fear, desperation, and heroism that lie at the heart of the popular and acclaimed XCOM computer games. All the while, it immerses you in a wholly unique play experience. For more about the game, including its push-your-luck dice system, you can visit the game’s description page. Also, keep your satellites in place for future transmissions, including a series of previews, in which we’ll explore the game and its components in greater detail, and if you're headed to Gen Con Indy 2014, be sure to stop by our booth in the exhibit hall where we'll be running demos all weekend long!

XCOM: The Board Game is scheduled to arrive at retailers in the fourth quarter of 2014. Until then, destroy UFOs. Research alien technology. Defend your base. Uncover the alien invasion plan. Should you fail, humanity is doomed.

XCOM: The Board Game is a cooperative board game of global defense for one to four players. As unknown alien invaders press their attack against the earth, you and up to three friends serve as the department heads of XCOM, an elite, international military organization. You must destroy UFOs, research alien technology, complete critical missions, and find some way to prevent the collapse of human civilization. You are humanity's last hope.

Star Wars X-Wing Wave 6

News for August 2014

Scum and Villainy Announcing the Introduction of the Third X-WING (TM) Faction

X-Wing | Published 16 August 2014

“This bounty hunter is my kind of scum, fearless and inventive.”
    –Jabba the Hutt
Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce that in the sixth wave of starship expansions for X-Wing™ the galaxy’s Scum and Villainy will join the game's fast-paced space battles as its third faction!
The ranks of the Scum and Villainy faction are filled with many of the Star Wars galaxy’s most notorious bounty hunters, pirates, and Black Sun agents. You’ll find such infamous figures as Boba Fett, IG-88, Greedo, and Prince Xizor. These Scum live outside the law, do their best to remain at the periphery of the ongoing Galactic Civil War, and allow no one – no one – to threaten their profits.
Whenever Rebel or Imperial forces dare to interfere with their illicit dealings, Scum head to battle, and they do so in some of the best starfighters that money can buy, such as Slave I, IG-2000, and the MandalMotors StarViper-class attack platform. These expensive and technologically advanced starships are further supported by a number of mainstays that have proven their efficiency over the course of numerous battles.

Four separate expansion packs introduce the galaxy’s Scum to X-Wing:

• Most Wanted Expansion Pack
• StarViper Expansion Pack
• M3-A Interceptor Expansion Pack
• IG-2000 Expansion Pack

These four Wave VI expansions establish the Scum and Villainy faction as a collection of individuals bound by common interests, but ultimately less interested in teamwork and collective victories than personal gain. Accordingly, the faction’s unique pilot abilities encourage different types of squadrons than those commonly employed by Rebel and Imperial players.
Moreover, while credits can buy ships, credits can also improve them, and many Scum upgrade their ships with expensive and illicit technologies, several of which are represented by a new type of upgrade, the illicit upgrade, . As far as the galaxy’s Scum are concerned, if the Empire bothered to make such technology illegal, it must be potent.
Most Wanted Expansion Pack
How does a new faction enter X-Wing with enough firepower to take the fight to Rebel and Imperial forces? It starts with the Most Wanted Expansion Pack and its slate of thugs, hired guns, pirates, and spice runners, as well as a new version of the galaxy’s most feared bounty hunter, Boba Fett.

Most Wanted is a collection of ship cards, upgrades, tokens, and dials that allow you to repurpose some of your existing starships for use within the Scum faction. You’ll find support for the Firespray-31, HWK-290, Y-wing, and Z-95 Headhunter. Additionally, you’ll find three starfighter miniatures that have been given alternative paint schemes and re-outfitted for use by the Scum faction: two Z-95 Headhunters and one Y-wing.

• One Y-wing miniature with an alternative, Scum-themed paint scheme
• Two Z-95 Headhunter miniatures with Black Sun paint schemes
• Four Scum faction Firespray-31 ship cards
• Four Scum faction HWK-290 ship cards
• Six Scum faction Y-wing ship cards
• Six Scum faction Z-95 Headhunter ship cards
• Nineteen upgrade cards
• Maneuver dials and tokens for your Scum Firespray-31, HWK-290, Y-wing, and Z-95 Headhunters

So that you can pilot your ships, Most Wanted introduces twenty ship cards, the most for any X-Wing release to-date. It also allows you to upgrade your starships by outfitting them with any of its nineteen upgrade cards, including a host of new Salvaged Astromech upgrades , modification and Title upgrades for your Y-wings, new secondary weapons (one of which is illicit), and a trio of Scum only crew members that includes the infamous Rodian bounty hunter, Greedo.
With all of its ships, pilots, upgrades, dials, and tokens, the Most Wanted Expansion Pack comes with everything that you need to send your Scum into battle and derive a profit from your illegal investments!
StarViper Expansion Pack
Designed by MandalMotors in direct collaboration with Prince Xizor, the StarViper-class attack platform was one of the most formidable fighters in the galaxy.

The StarViper Expansion Pack features one pre-painted StarViper miniature, sculpted at 1/270 scale and brought to life in X-Wing as a potent, well-balanced ship that can quickly destroy opposing ships even while evading enemy fire.
Dual laser cannons provide the StarViper a primary attack value of three, which is partnered with an agility value of three, shields of one, and a sturdy hull value of four. To these already impressive statistics, the StarViper adds a uniquely loaded maneuver dial and an action bar that features both the barrel roll and boost actions, allowing you to dart about the battlefield with ease.
Naturally, you’ll be able to field Prince Xizor in the Virago, the prototype StarViper that he helped design. Outfitted with even more advanced technology than standard StarVipers, the Virago Title allows you to make use of the various system and illicit upgrades, like the Accuracy Corrector and Inertial Dampeners, that appear among the expansion pack’s nine upgrade cards.
M3-A Interceptor Expansion Pack
The lightest starfighter designed by MandalMotors, the M3-A “Scyk” interceptor featured a weapon mount capable of handling nearly any weapon and a price tag low enough that the Hutt Cartel and Car’das smugglers were enticed to purchase it in large quantities and make it a mainstay of their fleets.

The M3-A Interceptor Expansion Pack includes one M3-A interceptor miniature, which comes pre-painted and sculpted at the game’s standard 1/270 scale.
A light and nimble vessel, the M3-A interceptor starts with two attack, three agility, two hull, and one shield. However, the expansion pack’s five upgrades include the “Heavy Scyk” Interceptor Title and no fewer than three cannons, meaning that you’ll find plenty of options for adapting your Scyk to fit the role you want it to play within your fleet.
Additionally, the M3-A Interceptor Expansion Pack introduces two unique and two non-unique ship cards, a maneuver dial, and all requisite tokens.
IG-2000 Expansion Pack
A heavily modified Aggressor assault fighter, IG-2000 was the signature vessel of one of the galaxy’s deadliest bounty hunters, the Assassin Droid IG-88.

Because IG-88 had no need for life support systems and no reason to fear the gravitational effects of maneuvers that would kill organic pilots, the majority of the space within the IG-2000 was devoted to engines and weapon systems, making the starfighter every bit as fearsome as its ruthless pilot.
In X-Wing, the IG-2000 is a powerful, large-base starfighter with three attack, three agility, four shields, and four hull. It can boost, it can evade, it can target lock, it can equip two cannons simultaneously, and it can whip through space at high speeds while performing the demanding Segnor’s Loop maneuver.
The IG-2000 Expansion Pack features one carefully detailed and pre-painted IG-2000 miniature at 1/270 scale, along with four ship cards, twelve upgrade cards, a maneuver dial, and all the tokens you need to hunt down your prey and obliterate it.
Notably, the IG-2000 Expansion Pack is the first X-Wing expansion that doesn’t feature any non-unique ship cards. Instead, each of its four ship cards represents one of the four identical IG-88 models that share a single mind. They all share the same pilot skill value of “6,” and the non-unique IG-2000 Title upgrade allows you to link their abilities. The more IG-88s you bring into battle, the more lethal they become.
Strike from the Shadows
“You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.”
    –Obi-Wan Kenobi
Throughout the classic Star Wars trilogy, we catch several glimpses of the galaxy’s Scum and Villainy. We see them in Mos Eisley, gathered aboard the command deck of the Executor, and amassed at Jabba’s palace on Tatooine. They may do their best to remain outside the conflicts of the Galactic Civil War, but they form an integral part of the Star Wars universe, exerting profound influence over the lives of millions, including many of the Rebel Alliance’s greatest heroes.
Likewise, the galaxy’s Scum and Villainy will soon form an integral part of your X-Wing experiences, exerting a profound effect upon the game’s evolving metagame. How will TIE swarms fare against squads led by IG-88 and the Virago? How will X-wing and B-wing pilots used to the TIE’s limited firepower cope with Scum squads that equip the nimble Scyk with potent laser cannons? What will happen when the Black Sun outbids the Empire for the services of Boba Fett, the galaxy’s deadliest bounty hunter?
You’ll soon have the opportunity to explore these situations in your games of X-Wing. The Most Wanted, StarViper, M3-A Interceptor, and IG-2000 Expansion Packs are all scheduled to arrive at retailers in the fourth quarter of 2014. In the meantime, keep your eyes open for previews of these new Wave VI expansions and other X-Wing news!

X-Wing is a tactical ship-to-ship combat game in which players take control of powerful rebel X-wings and nimble Imperial TIE Fighters, facing them against each other in fast-paced space combat. Featuring stunningly detailed and painted miniatures, X-Wing recreates Star Wars’ exciting space battles. Select your crew, plan your maneuvers, and complete your mission!

© & TM Lucasfilm Ltd.

Star Wars Armada

Here is the news from Fantasy Flight Games:

STAR WARS (TM): Armada A Miniatures Game of Tactical Fleet Battles in the STAR WARS Galaxy

Star Wars: Armada | Published 08 August 2014

Product image not final. Pending Licensor approval.

“General, there’s a fleet of Star Destroyers coming out of hyperspace in sector four.”
    –The Empire Strikes Back

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce the upcoming release of Star Wars™: Armada, a two-player miniatures game of epic fleet battles in the Star Wars galaxy!

Massive Star Destroyers fly to battle against Rebel corvettes and frigates. Banks of turbolasers unleash torrential volleys of fire against squadrons of X-wings and TIEs. Engineering teams race to route additional power to failing shields. Laser blasts and explosions flare across the battlefield. Even a single ship can change the tide of battle.

In Star Wars: Armada, you assume the role of fleet admiral, serving with either the Imperial Navy or Rebel Alliance. You assemble your fleet and engage the enemy. Using the game’s unique maneuver tool, you steer your capital ships across the battlefield, even while squadrons of starfighters buzz around them. Then, as these ships exchange fire, it’s your job to issue the tactical commands that will decide the course of battle and, perhaps, the fate of the galaxy.

The Armada Core Set contains ten unpainted squadrons, three pre-painted capital ships, nearly one hundred cards, an innovative maneuver tool, a range ruler, six command dials, nine custom attack dice, and all the tokens that you need to engage the enemy and battle for the fate of the galaxy!

Space Battles on a Galactic Scale

Winning a battle between capital starships requires more than raw firepower. It requires the coordinated activity of hundreds – even thousands – of crew. As a ship’s commanders belt out orders, gunners rain fire upon enemy ships, and engineering teams race to keep their ship’s shields and hull intact, often rerouting power where it’s needed most.

Armada allows you to bring one or more of these massive ships to battle, along with whole squadrons of starfighters. To win, you must issue commands, direct your fleet’s movement, coordinate its fire, sustain its defenses, and do all of this while remaining mindful of your battle objective.

More than that, you’ll need to master every aspect of the ships in your fleet. You need to become intimately familiar with your ship’s design, its firing arcs, its attacks and defenses, and the way that it uses the game’s unique maneuver tool to set its course.

The game’s unique maneuver tool. (Product image not final. Pending Licensor approval.)

This maneuver tool is one of the game’s most innovative features and adds a unique feel to the way your capital ships must accommodate for inertia as they maneuver through the stars.

Using the game’s unique maneuver tool, a Rebel player plots a “3” speed maneuver for his Nebulon-B escort frigate

Capital ships can’t easily vary their speeds or execute hairpin turns like the starfighters that buzz around them. Accordingly, you only use the maneuver tool to maneuver your capital ships. Then, even as it makes it easy for you to set a ship’s course, the game’s maneuver tool lends an element of realism to its pitch and yaw.

As an example of how Armada uses its maneuver tool to realistically portray the different ways its capital ships can maneuver, we can consider the differences between the CR90 and the Victory-class Star Destroyer.

The speed chart for the CR90 (left) alongside that of the Victory-class Star Destroyer (right).

The CR90 is both capable of tighter turns and faster, with a maximum speed of "4" versus the Star Destroyer's maximum speed of "2." At speed "2," while the Star Destroyer can adjust the maneuver tool only one click at the second joint, the CR90 can adjust its course one click at the first join and two clicks at the second. Still, the faster the CR90 flies, the fewer clicks it can adjust its course through the initial range increments.

Another important consideration is that capital ships in Star Wars: Armada fire before they move, so when you set your ship’s course, you’re always trying to set yourself up for a good shot in the next round. However, the more powerful your ship, the less nimble it is, and the harder it is to adjust your actions on the fly.

Altogether, the maneuver tool and the rules for ship movement work in tandem to force you to always look ahead. Successful fleet admirals excel at planning their attack strategies well in advance of their initial engagements.

Capital Ships in Combat

Armada balances the awesome scale of the Star Wars galaxy’s ships and space warfare with intuitive ship designs and accessible rules for issuing commands and resolving combat that make for rich, engaging, and highly tactical play experiences.

Capital ships are extremely powerful war machines, but they’re also massive and sophisticated vessels that can’t swiftly react to every development in the heat of battle. Accordingly, the key to flying these vessels effectively is learning how to plan ahead. You want to issue your commands in such a way that your crews will be ready to execute them at just the right times.

Each of your pre-painted capital ships has a command value, which determines how many commands it will have in its stack at any given point in time. During setup, you secretly build your initial command stack, selecting from any of four different commands, each of which provides a different advantage. Once you have locked your selections, you place the commands in your stack in the order of your choice. Then, during each round of game play, you secretly select and assign a new command to your ship, placing it at the bottom of your command stack, before you reveal the command at the top of your stack and gain its benefits.

A Rebel player selects a command for his Nebulon-B escort frigate by framing it within his command dial’s fastener (1). Then, he places it at the bottom of his command stack, to be revealed in a future round (2).

You might launch a screen of TIEs to intercept incoming X-wings. You might concentrate your fire on an incoming capital ship. You might scramble to repair your shields. Or if you reveal a command that doesn’t offer an immediate benefit, you can place a token on your ship and save a lesser version of that command’s benefits for later use.

Notably, the larger and more powerful your ship, the less quickly it can react to your commands. Most of the more powerful ships, like the Victory-class Star Destroyer, feature higher command values that force you to plan your actions two or more rounds ahead of time. In this way, the command stack doesn't just reflect the various actions your ships can take; it also reflects how swiftly they can adjust to the changing tides of battle.

After your ship resolves its command, it can perform up to two attacks. These can be directed against the same target or against different targets. However, these attacks must originate from two different hull sections and can only target ships or squadrons within range of those hull sections’ firing arcs.

Ships are all divided into four sections, each of which has its own firing arc, shield rating, and attack value. Here, we see a Victory-class Star Destroyer presented next to its base.

The number and type of dice you roll for your attacks depend upon the ship, the hull section from which its attack originates, and the range of the attack.

Each of the game’s attack dice presents a different effective range and spread of possible results

Meanwhile, each ship offers a number of defenses from enemy fire. Each ship’s hull is reinforced to withstand enemy fire, though larger ships like the Victory-class Star Destroyer can withstand much more than smaller ships like the Corellian corvette. Meanwhile, each section of your ship’s hull has a shield rating, indicating how many hits its shields can absorb before enemy fire damages the hull directly. Moreover, in the heat of battle, you need to decide when and how to make use of your ship’s defense tokens. With these, you can angle your deflector shields and perform evasive maneuvers to reduce the amount of damage your ship suffers.

Squadrons of Starfighters

Although Star Wars: Armada is built around the galaxy’s many capital ships, you’ll almost certainly want to fly one or more squadrons of starfighters in your fleet, both to threaten enemy ships and to defend your ships from enemy squadrons.

An X-wing squadron is shown connected to its base which tracks its remaining hit points (shown here at "5") and whether or not it has activated. Here, the blue tab on the left of the base indicates that the squadron has not yet activated. Once the squadron has activated, the tab is pushed through to the other side and displays its orange end.

Your squadrons are highly adaptable and flexible collections of starfighters, and only a foolish fleet admiral would overlook the tactical options that they can bring to a battle. While squadrons don’t pack the raw power or resilience of the capital ships they accompany, they come with their own rules for movement and combat that make them far more capable of occupying and threatening the exact portion of the battlefield that you choose.

If left unchecked, a swarm of starfighters can tear down even the most massive of capital ships, and while capital ships can return their fire, any shot directed at squadrons is a shot not taken at a larger ship. Furthermore, capital ships don’t use their primary weapons while attacking squadrons; they have to use their anti-squadron armament, which is typically much less effective.

Add to this the fact that some squadrons are led by such skilled pilots as Luke Skywalker, who can bypass a capital ship’s shields when he attacks, and you’ll find that squadrons are far more than an afterthought. They’re powerful weapons that skilled fleet admirals will be able to integrate into their larger strategies.

Meanwhile, even though the squadrons in Armada aren't pre-painted like the capital ships, they are presented in colors intended to complement their fleets.

Winning the Battle to Win the War

In addition to its ships and squadrons, Armada shapes your Star Wars battles with twelve different objective cards. Each game uses one of these objectives, which introduces special rules and helps to define the narrative of your battle. Are you tracking down a specific target? Are you contesting a key outpost? Are you trying to intercept key intel?

Objective cards challenge you to adapt your tactics in each battle

Importantly, the game’s objectives change the ways that you’ll score points in each battle, and they force you and your opponent to adapt your strategies, leading to tremendous replayability.

The Enemy Fleet Is Coming into Firing Range

Star Wars: Armada is due to arrive at retailers in early 2015, and Rebel and Imperial fleets will then battle for the fate of the galaxy!

An Imperial fleet heads to battle, led by a pre-painted Victory-class Star Destroyer

In the meantime, you can visit the game’s description page to find more information and keep your eyes open for our upcoming series of previews, announcements of future expansions, and other news. Plus, if you’re headed to Gen Con Indy, you can stop by our booth for a free demo of its epic fleet battles!

Star Wars: Armada is an epic two-player game of tactical fleet battles in the Star Wars universe. Massive Star Destroyers fly to battle against Rebel corvettes and frigates. Banks of turbolasers unleash torrential volleys of fire against squadrons of X-wing and TIEs. As Rebel and Imperial fleets collide, it is your job to issue the commands that will decide the course of battle and, ultimately, the fate of the galaxy.

© and ™ Lucasfilm Ltd.