More News on X-COM the boardgame

News for September 2014

Alien Intelligence A Closer Look at XCOM: The Board Game's Unique Companion App

XCOM: The Board Game | Published 19 September 2014

The signal was already breaking up. UFOs over Europe, Africa, and… The early warning system went offline. Despite the limited intel, there was no time to lose. The Commander deployed the Interceptors, praying they were headed where they were needed most. There was another alert. The systems revealed an invasion force headed for the base, and then… nothing. The signal was dead. The satellite network was down. XCOM would have to fight blind…
The alien invasion has already begun!
The initial response to our announcement of XCOM: The Board Game has been positively overwhelming. Our demo tables were packed at Gen Con Indy, then again at PAX, and fan sites have since set the net abuzz with news and reviews about both the game and its use of a free digital companion app.
Why does XCOM make use of a digital companion, and what does it add to the game? These are the questions we’ll address today, as we launch headlong into the first of our series of previews.

Researching New Technology
In XCOM: The Board Game, one to four players work together as department heads of the elite military organization XCOM. It is up to you and your friends to thwart a full-scale alien invasion. This invasion is controlled by the app.
Our goal was that XCOM’s digital companion app would allow us to create a gameplay experience that would go well beyond what would be feasible without it. Accordingly, it is an integral part of the game and drives your play experience. It controls the alien invasion, coordinates hidden information, adds to the game’s tension, distinguishes player roles, and promotes a fully cooperative experience. Moreover, the app, which is available for free as both a downloadable app and an online tool, teaches you the game, guides you through each turn, and serves as your rules reference, one that is always immediately at hand.

XCOM’s digital app compresses a wealth of information into an easily digestible format. Furthermore, it keeps the game’s rules immediately at hand. You can learn about the active action simply by clicking on it, and the menu button allows you to access the full rules in just two quick clicks.

Coordinating the Alien Invasion
Each round is divided into two phases, the timed phase and the resolution phase. Throughout the timed phase, the app creates alerts that pop up onscreen and indicate which actions the players need to take. You may need to place UFOs on the board, assign scientists to research new technologies, or choose which global crisis your team will address.
Whenever an alert pops up, it is accompanied by a limited window of time within which your team can act.

The app alerts your team to an impending crisis.

After the app triggers the last of these real-time alerts in the timed phase, you enter the untimed resolution phase. In the resolution phase, you are no longer pressed by time limitations, but you face new tensions as you roll dice and push your luck to resolve your research, missions, and global defense. Even in the resolution phase, the app guides you through your turn sequence. Then, at the end of the phase, you input the results of your efforts, the app calculates the aliens’ next tactics, and the next timed phase begins.
By handling all the calculations for the alien invasion plan, the app greatly streamlines the game, and by serving as your timer, the app also helps to amplify the game’s tension. However, the app does far more than reduce your setup time and track the progress of each round’s timed phase. Those elements are useful, but they don’t truly indicate how the app characterizes your experience.
Promoting a Fully Cooperative Game Experience
XCOM: The Board Game is a fully cooperative (or solo) gameplay experience, and this is one important element of the gameplay experience that the app enables. XCOM’s app handles all of the hidden information for the aliens, directing the deployment of each round’s UFOs and enemies, as well as the number of crises that you and your team are forced to resolve. These decisions are made semi-randomly, based upon the game’s invasion plan, its difficulty level, and your ability to deal with the invasion from round to round. In fact, the app’s ability to respond to your actions means that XCOM permits an experience that’s more intelligent than a deck of cards, without requiring a player to assume the role of the aliens.
It’s thematically important that the players in XCOM are all working together to save humanity from the onslaught of a strange and unknown alien menace, but it’s also important for the game’s mechanics. The app introduces two innovative game elements that are critical to your XCOM experience: forecasts and scrambled communications.
Forecasts appear during the timed phase, flashing across your screen as yellow transmissions, and they give you advanced warning of the alien invasion plan for the round before UFOs appear in orbit or enemy strike teams arrive at your base. The information that these forecasts provide is almost always accurate, but the fullness of its intelligence depends upon how well you can maintain your satellite network. In fact, if too many aliens remain in orbit, your satellite network will deteriorate to the point where you might lose your forecasts altogether.

An example of how the app can forecast the arrival of UFOs. The forecast on the left indicates the future arrival of four UFOs (marked in yellow): two in orbit, one in Europe, and one in Australia. The alert on the right shows the arrival of three of these UFOs. Because forecasts rarely lie, we can generally expect that the UFO forecasted to arrive in Europe will arrive later in the round.

This brings us to the idea of scrambled transmissions, which contribute to one of the most remarkable aspects of the XCOM experience. In XCOM: The Board Game, the app doesn’t just play the role of your rival, it’s also your “game manager.” It teaches you the rules in its tutorial mode and then continues to serve as your one-touch rules reference. However, it also prompts you to act. In fact, there is no turn sequence listed in a rulebook because the app manages your turns, and while you’ll recognize the basic patterns of your turns – receiving forecasts, deploying resources, tracking alien movements, and responding to global crises – there is no one, single turn sequence.
Instead, the app tracks the order in which events occur and weighs your team’s actions each turn, and if the aliens are outpacing your satellite network, the app will start scrambling your transmissions, forcing you to deploy your Interceptors before you know where the UFOs are appearing in orbit. You may even have to deploy soldiers to your mission and base before you have any idea what the aliens have planned for the turn.

Here, we see an example of how scrambled transmissions can impact your ability to successfully resist the alien invaders. The screenshot on the left depicts the sort of information you should receive while your satellite network is doing its job; we see that our alert history twice detected UFOs before we had to deploy our Interceptors. The screenshot on the right, however, introduces a nightmarish situation; we are forced to deploy our Interceptors near the very beginning of the round, well before we have any idea where the aliens intend to land their UFOs. We are fighting blind.

The Central Officer

The Central Officer is responsible for four different aspects of the game. Two of these relate directly to the quality of information that your team receives from the app.

The threat of scrambled transmissions, once again, is another element that adds to the game’s uniquely satisfying cooperative play. XCOM: The Board Game features four asymmetric roles, which players divide between themselves at the beginning of each game. One of these roles is the Central Officer, the XCOM department head responsible to manage both the app and XCOM’s satellite network.
Managing the App
The first of the Central Officer’s listed duties reads:
“Communication – relay information from the app”
At first glance, this duty may appear deceptively straight-forward, but the app isn’t just a digital hourglass. It’s a resource that the Central Officer can manage, and the fact that scrambled transmissions can quickly devastate your efforts means that his role is absolutely vital.
The app has a pause function, and your group has a limited amount of pause time that it can spend each round. This pause time varies according to the game’s difficulty, but it’s also a resource that you can manage carefully in order to ensure that it’s available when you need it most. You can use it to check forecasts or discuss strategies, but if you overuse your pause time, it will run out. Then, you’ll be forced to make your future decisions in shorter windows of time. However, if you complete your earlier, simpler tasks more quickly, the Central Officer can start to bank your pause time for when the invasion hits in full force later in the game.
The fact that the Central Officer controls this pause function means, then, that he’s largely responsible for how much time your group can spend deliberating the merits of different strategic choices. Since each alert opens a limited action window, players can’t spend a long period of time to reach a group consensus about the optimal response, and this means that the multi-player format for XCOM truly encourages each member of the group to carry his or her full weight and focus on a limited set of tasks, rather than trying to manage the whole organization. In turn, the fact that you’re asked to focus so closely on your own tasks and tactics means that you better appreciate your role’s specific challenges, and you gain a greater replay value when you switch roles and tackle another whole set of challenges.
Of course, you’re still a team, and the app’s pause function will let you work together in those moments when you really need to craft your strategies as a group, but the timer and the Central Officer help to ensure that those moments merely punctuate your game experience. They don’t define it.

Your pause time is a variable resource that you will want to manage carefully in order to buy the time you need for your group to reach a consensus during the game’s most critical decisions.

Managing XCOM’s Satellite Network
In addition to managing the app, your Central Officer must also manage XCOM’s network of satellites. He can focus on attacking UFOs in orbit in order to keep your signals strong and your forecasts clear. Or he can jam the invaders’ signals to confuse UFOs hovering over the earth’s continents. When these efforts succeed, the UFOs leave the continents but return to orbit. Of course, once they’re in orbit, those UFOs then threaten to scramble your transmissions. Thus, the Central Officer must constantly weigh the importance of maintaining clear transmissions against the importance of luring alien UFOs away from the Earth.

The more UFOs in orbit, the greater the chance they will scramble your transmissions.

All told, the Central Officer serves your XCOM team as the head of military intelligence, and he’s the member of your group who is most responsible for ensuring that your team can collect the information that you need to formulate a winning plan.
Confronting the Alien Menace
As you can see, the digital companion app for XCOM: The Board Game is an integral part of the game. It streamlines your game experience, coordinates hidden information, serves as your timer, helps to distinguish player roles, and allows you and your friends to enjoy a truly cooperative experience. Additionally, it keeps the game’s rules close at hand, manages your turn sequence, permits variable difficulty levels, and challenges you to maintain a strong satellite network and clear transmissions. Moreover, the app also includes a tutorial that teaches you the game, meaning that you can dive immediately into the action. All in all, this free digital app is far more than a convenient addition to XCOM: The Board Game, it’s the slimy, green, pulsating heart of the alien invasion.
How will you respond to this alien threat? In our upcoming previews, we’ll look at the different roles you can assume as an XCOM department head and the choices with which you’ll have to wrestle as you try to plan your final mission and force the invaders back off our world.

News on Rebel Aces for X Wing

News for September 2014

Jump to Subspace A Preview of the Rebel Aces Expansion Pack for X-Wing (TM)

X-Wing | Published 15 September 2014

Hunched over inside an escape pod, a Rebel operative holds a high-ranking Moff at gunpoint. “I know it’s cramped in here; quit complaining. I don’t have much faith in this thing’s life support, so stop using up all the oxygen.” The Rebel operative tries the comms again. “Come in Dagger Squadron, do you read me? Dagger Squadron?”
    –from the “Jump to Subspace” mission
The Rebel Aces Expansion Pack for X-Wing™ is scheduled to arrive at retailers late next week!
In our previous previews, we have focused on what its new A-wing and B-wing pilots and upgrades bring to X-Wing.
We’ve seen how the expansion has increased the A-wing’s versatility, granting Rebel commanders the choice to use their A-wings as lightning-quick missile platforms or treat them with Chardaan Refits in order to make them more efficient, ship-to-ship dogfighters.

A 360-degree view of the Rebel Aces A-wing.

We’ve also see how the expansion’s ace B-wing pilots may encourage commanders to fly their B-wings out of formation and explore all-new uses of this powerful starfighter.

A 360-degree view of the Rebel Aces B-wing.

Today, we’ll turn our attention away from the different options that the Rebel Aces Expansion Pack makes possible and look at the challenges that confront its ace pilots in the expansion’s new mission, Jump to Subspace.
Mission Briefing
Jump to Subspace offers you a golden opportunity to test all the new options available to your A-wings and B-wings.
In this new mission, the Rebel Alliance must move quickly to rescue an operative that has captured a high-ranking Imperial Moff. However, it won’t be an easy task. They’re both cramped inside a damaged escape pod that has gone adrift inside an asteroid belt, and its thrusters are failing.
As you head into the mission’s setup, the Rebellion’s situation gets even worse. Its starships arrive on the scene, deployed at opposite edges of the asteroid belt, and find that Imperial forces have also arrived and are ready for battle. Accordingly, your Rebel pilots must coordinate their efforts carefully to withstand the Imperial assault even as they work to jump-start the escape pod’s thrusters and guide it safely away from the asteroid field.

If the Rebels can successfully shepherd the escape pod off the Rebel edge of the map, they win. It won’t be easy, though, because even while the Rebels begin the scenario with more available squad points than the Imperials, the Imperial player can call reinforcements to continue pressing the attack. As a result, the Rebellion’s aces find themselves battling against the clock and a limitless swarm of Imperial TIEs, and the mission gains a sense of tremendous urgency.
Finally, the mission demands that you learn how to fly your A-wing and B-wing. Its unique rules require the Rebel player to field both an A-wing and a B-wing, at least one of which must be unique, so you’ll be guaranteed plenty of chances to make great use of the A-wing’s tremendous speed and to have your B-wing launch brutal volleys of laser fire at Imperial forces.
Fly with the Rebellion’s Finest!
Only ace pilots were granted the right to fly prototypes for the Rebel fleet, but their efforts benefitted everyone dedicated to the cause of galactic freedom.
Soon, you’ll be among those benefitting from their efforts when you fly the A-wing and B-wing from Rebel Aces. You can learn how best to pilot them and put them through their paces in the new mission, Jump to Subspace. Then you can outfit them for Standard Play with the expansion’s new upgrades and continue to fight for the fate of the galaxy.
You’ll soon have your chance to fly with the best, so it’s time to start mastering these challenging starfighters… The Rebel Aces Expansion Pack arrives at retailers late next week!

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.

 

Dropzone Commander UCM Painted

Nick took some pics of his most recent foray into painting up some recently purchased Dropzone Commander United Colonies of Mankind (UCM) units. Nick used a tiger stripe pattern that uses some greens and browns.

 

So we have two Galdius Heavy tanks and both versions of the Wolverine scout vehicle on display. Nick is also working on some Scourge units as well and he just got his two player starter set so expect some more UCM and Scourge pics soon.

Dropzone Commander Reviews and Updates

Well a while back we talked about following this game and how great their starter set was. Hawk Wargames has recently unveiled a ton of releases for their new faction The Resistance and they have released their new expansion book: Dropzone Commander Reconquest Phase 1. These releases should have been enough to overwhelm the average gamer but on top of all of it they also dropped another big surprise and announced the pre-order of plastic starter kits for the four core factions. These kits have been reduced in price and are a great new chapter for everyone that was sitting on the fence about which faction to pick. So lets take a look at some of the new products and what is going on with Dropzone Commander.....

First up is The Resistance:

This faction is the newest addition to the Dropzone Commander line and it does not disappoint. Think about John Connor from the Terminator movies leading his human troops and you kind of get a feel for the army. You get hovercraft, pick up trucks, motorcycle infantry, helicopter gunships, drilling vehicles and tons of other unique units. The Resistance splits itself into two army types, Allies or Feral and depending on which approach you choose it allows access to different units and commanders. I do not intend to do a full faction review but I will talk about some of the new units so lets start with the infantry since they lead the way.

The Resistance infantry are similar to UCM infantry and even share some of the same models. The highlight unit for this group is the motorcycle infantry called "Freeriders". This guys are cool and as you would assume fast. I like the idea and the feel of these units. They also have more infantry options than any other faction right now.

In terms of land vehicles, they have a lot of options as well. Everything from pick up trucks with guns and rockets to heavy tanks and school buses. The cool unit here is definitely the Breach Drill which can allow for some sneaky  infiltration options.

I have always loved the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II also known as the Warthog , this has become an iconic close air support aircraft and it has personally saved me in combat. The Resistance get access to its futuristic cousin the J-19 Hellhog which just looks great. It has the look of something that will chew up armor and infantry units and it looks like a close air support option. The addition of helicopters is a different approach and I welcome it.

The Resistance would not be complete without the dropship options that make this game work. They have somewhat a traditional option in the form of the Lifthawk but there are rules that govern its use. There are also some new options via hovercraft. Yup, all of you Marines that used to be on LCACs can get excited and pick up some Resistance hovercraft to sprint your troops to their objectives.

Overall the Resistance is full of new units that offer some very unique play styles to the game. The faction is a welcomed addition and I think Hawk always does a good job of balancing out their new stuff with the old. Hopefully more factions will come out with the same thought and care that was put into this faction. To get a hold of the rules for the Resistance you need to pick up a copy of their next product we will take a look at.

Reconquest Phase 1

At 152 pages this book is a great buy and the artwork is wonderful to look at. This book is full of the background shaping the UCM and its goal to take back the cradle worlds and eventually Earth. The book has the rules for the Resistance faction and it also has the rules for all the units that are not in the core rulebook that have been added to the game since its release. In addition to all of this it has new commander options for every race that can add some new flavor to your games and increase the options for your army. The price is the same as the core book so once again a great buy.

Last but not least the four original factions will all get a plastic starter set that has dropped in price and is extremely reasonable to purchase. I found some sets as low as $25-$45 online for pre order or you can simply get it direct from Hawk. These sets really allow new players to jump in and grab a faction that they were not sure about. One of the great things about DZC is that their starters are fully playable within the force organization and the skirmish style of play allows you to get going right away. So if you were on the fence before now is a great time to jump into Dropzone Commander and get started on your army.

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.