Review: Alien vs Predator

Introduction

My second boardgame review, although Alien vs Predator: The Hunt Begins is a halfway cross between wargame and boardgame. There is a list building element to it if you buy more miniatures and expansions, but once you get down to business, there is a gameboard with fixed length moves. I played a match with only the starter set, so the default lists for each player.

Setup

We had all three factions played. 

The Predators were only two, but had mimicry tokens which can't be distinguished from actual Predators until in line of sight. Their objective was to plant explosives in 3 of the 4 big rooms.

The Aliens were most numerous. Their only objective was to amass 5 kills.

The Marines were 5, but had good shooting capabilities. They had to destroy all 4 vents on the map.

Playing the game

I played the Marines - it was terrifying. All I had was a lot of blips all over the map, with the Aliens closing in and Predators walking in the distance. My friends, we are way to squishy for this galaxy!

I quickly destroyed the two closest vents and scored a kill on the Aliens, securing the nearest corridors, while the other players just positioned their forces.

Soon I was under siege and fighting for my life against the Aliens. The Flamethrower could have worked wonders, but I rolled poorly. Lesson of the day: always take a smartgunner. Those rerolls on to hit, combined with a healthy rate of fire, did a lot of work.

The Aliens spent all their forces trying to kill Marines, but only managed to frag one due to a combination of poor rolling and tactical cards played. This held me up in my starting position, and by the time I could start advancing towards the other side of the map, the Predators had already planted two bombs.

In the end, it came down to a single round. The Predator smashed its way through the door I closed in front of him and ran into the third large room. My Marines were on sentry duty and fired everything at him, but even the combined firepower of the smart gun and a pulse rifle were not enough to take down a Predator in one turn. With their objective completed, the Predators won.

Aftermath

A somewhat complex game, but easy to grasp if you have experience with wargames. The to hit rolls and armor saves modified by the strength of the weapon are all too familiar at this point.

As we discussed, the key to a balanced a game would be that the Alien player should hold off until he's in a good position to assault both of his opponents. It is also paramount to kill one Predator before they plant many bombs to avoid situations like our own where it's practically an auto-win for the Predators at a certain point.

The miniatures are of good quality and they look awesome with the right paintjob.

Expansions could alter the game dramatically by introducing new models, abilities and mechanics.

All in all, a fun game worth a look.