Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps

Sorry for the long silence - things have been busy lately. My family is in Tucson for the next month and I went out to visit for the 4th of July.  Had a great time and now I'm home! Got to see Tombstone, AZ which was awesome!

Since I have some time on my hands now, I'm trying to play some of these games I've let stare at me for a long while, and some of them have solo modes! So, instead of sitting on the couch and watching TV, I have the TV on (usually WWE, NXT, or Dateline as of late) and I've taken over the dining room table for some fun times rolling some dice.

Last night, I broke out Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps from Gale Force Nine.

There was a lot of contention about this game amongst fans, much of which I don't really get. I'm a fan of the Alien franchise - it's probably one of my favorite movies of all time (that list fluctuates) - and when they announced this game back in 2018, I was on board. I pre-ordered the game right after Gen Con 2018 and then waited ... and waited ... and waited ...

Why was the game delayed for so long? Well, I have a theory on that. The game was originally announced back in 2018, and I saw prototypes of it at Gen Con that year. Everything pointed to a relatively soon release and the game appeared ready to go ... then my thought is that Disney happened.

Disney acquired 20th Century Fox in March of 2019, and I'm certain this threw a monkey-wrench into any and all licensing deals. When you're working with a license, any license, you have an extra layer of approvals that you have to go through before you can release a product, or even continue on development of a product. As far as I understand it, you get the license, develop a game, and have to work in tandem with the license-holder to develop the mechanics and design of the product. Some companies are very involved in this process and can be collaborative in many ways, while others can simply put a stamp of approval on a piece of paper and call it good.

What I think happened was Disney was hip-deep in acquiring 20th Century Fox when this game was scheduled to come out, and they put a hold on all licenses pending review by their people - a reasonable step, no doubt. Things like a hobby board game probably weren't as high on the list as things like action figures, apparel, comic books, and more mainstream things like that, and when Disney got around to looking at this game, they most likely had some notes on what they wanted to see. They were probably still obligated to any existing agreements with GF9, and the game was already soliciting pre-orders. GF9 most likely had to go back and revise a number of things, change elements, etc. to make Das Mouse happy with the final product.

Regardless, the game eventually came out last year, much to the consternation of board game lovers and BGG users everywhere, and it had mixed reactions.

I should mention that there was an Aliens game that came out back in the 1980's from Leading Edge Games that I used to own and played a few times. The components of that game were (compared to now) sub-par and very economical, but the game was solid and hard as Hell to win. This GF9 game is not a remake of that game, but it certainly shows as an influence to it.

First and foremost, people were annoyed that you had to assemble the miniatures for the game, and this really wasn't advertised. Now, I've played things like Warhammer, Warmachine, and Marvel Crisis Protocol before, and those being a miniatures games, there's a lot of snipping bits off sprues and gluing small pieces together that something like this wasn't too much of a challenge to me. I didn't realize, however, that there are a lot of board game lovers out there who absolutely hate assembling miniatures and it dawned on me that not all board game enthusiasts are fluent in the world of miniatures games.

It reminded me of my brief time playing World of Warcraft and asking folks on there if they ever played Dungeons & Dragons. I got a chorus of, "No," and "What's Dungeons & Dragons?" It was enlightening. I can understand the aversion to assembling miniatures as a board gamer - the amount of time from unboxing to play should be the shortest possible amount of time as possible, and requiring the assembly of miniatures is just ... well, counterproductive.

I put the minis together, and overall, they're okay. I've seen better minis, and better detail - I have a copy of the Prodos Games AVP: The Hunt Begins, and the minis in that thing are absolutely gorgeous in detail, and I didn't have to assemble anything.

That all being said, the game itself works fine. I played the first campaign mission and had a good time. There were times while I was playing that I thought maybe the game was too easy, then, of course, I realized I was doing something wrong, stopped doing that, and then the game got a little more difficult. I was still skeptical about it for a bit, and then it happened - holy crap the game can go from, "We got this," to, "Holy crap we're gonna die," in a single round. I like that kind of back-and-forth, to be honest.

For example, take the game Pandemic for instance. It's a great game, but the last four times I've played it over the course of many years, my wife and I have handedly beaten it each and every time. We're playing it correctly, and it is a difficult game, but we seem to have found the rhythm of the game and we just get it. We've got playing it down to a science and because of that it's lost some of it's appeal to us.

This game certainly didn't do that. I was conservative with my choices and my tactics, thinking my squad should stick close together so they can collectively deal with the aliens as they came up, and this worked for a time ... then we got overrun and in a single turn three of my people were knocked down and it was pretty much done.

I'm not going to get into the mechanics of the game too much - they were all solid and I have no issues with them. I will play this game again and I in no way regret purchasing it. It's a good representation of the IP and it's replaced the Legendary Aliens game for me. It's scratching my colonial marine itch just fine and I would recommend it to anyone who likes a good mission-based, squad, tactical game in this vein.

Now, my issues with the game are more-or-less entirely component-based. The components of the game are great, for the most part - the cards, the boards, the dials, and the tokens are all great. The rulebook leaves a bit to be desired and after going back-and-forth with it for 30 minutes, I loaded up a YouTube video playthrough of the first mission and learned way more about setting up and playing the game with that than by reading the rulebook.

The minis, though ... I have a problem with some of them. The good guys are fine, nothing incredibly awesome about any of them, and the aliens look okay, but I found that the alien minis pose a problem - they're pointy and take up a lot of space on the map.

While having the minis are nice, it gets annoying when, due to appendages, tails, and poses, you can't fit all the minis on the map. Additionally, it's irritating when I need to move one of these minis, tokens and all, and because of the pointy bits, they drag half the group with them, or knock over minis, and it quickly becomes a mess in some cases. I also ran out of minis and tokens at one point, and I couldn't find in the rules anywhere that indicated what I should do in this case. It may be in there, but the rules weren't exactly the easiest to navigate (but I've seen worse).

It got to the point where I thought that the alien minis were just in the way, and tokens would have been a better option. That's unfortunate, as I love minis and want all the minis I can fit onto a map. I even am contemplating looking at 3d printed alternatives for the aliens that might work out a bit better. Also, the assembly of the aliens was aggravating and tedious, and frankly unnecessary.

That's really the problem with the miniature assembly thing, to be honest. It's fine and I don't mind putting minis together, but it's just unnecessary. The result is that you have multiple weak-points on the aliens minis and they'll break easily, and their pointy-bits get stuck together like a barrel of monkeys toy. Also, the minis just feel ... cheap. Their plastic quality is not the best. I know it's nitpicky, but I've just seen ... better.

It's annoying.

Overall, I liked the game, and will play it again. I need to see what other options there are for the aliens minis themselves, however, whether it be more tokens or ... something, anything else that I can use in the game for their representation.

Fun times, though. Fun times.

The Daily Rumble: Oh, Captain, My Captain, Round 7: Gate v. Trek

 

It's another clash of the franchises when two spinoffs go head-to-head.

Colonel John Speppard from Stargate: Atlantis was an experienced and a talented US Air Force Officer in Afghanistan, though his reputation was somewhat tarnished when he disobeyed a direct order in an unsuccessful attempt to save the lives of several US servicemen. When called upon to transport Brigadier General Jack O'Neill to the research base that had been established at the nearby Ancient defense facility, he inadvertently discovered that he not only had the ATA gene (the genetic factor necessary to activate Ancient technology), but that he was naturally proficient at using it. John is one of the more laid-back, easy-going personalities on the Atlantis Expedition. He is capable under pressure, an excellent marksman, and outstanding pilot. He is very instinctual and frequently is able to come up with ingenious solutions to complicated problems. Some put this ability down to his being a closet mathematical genius, despite little scientific training (from the Wikipedia entry).

Captain Benjamin Sisko from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was a jarring step away from the diplomacy-savvy Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation. When he first appeared, he was in direct opposition to Picard's Locutus of Borg, and lost his wife at the Battle of Wolf 359. In 2369, Sisko is assigned to the Bajoran sector to command Deep Space Nine and to help Bajor's recovery from the recently concluded Cardassian occupation, shepherding them toward possible membership in the Federation. Sisko plays a critical role in the intrigue of the Alpha Quadrant and the ongoing Dominion War. His actions prove key in the security of Earth and the whole Alpha Quadrant. Additionally, and probably one of the coolest things he's done, he punched the cosmic entity known as "Q" being sure to remind him that he's "not Picard." Sisko isn't afraid of bending the truth or regulations to get done what needs to get done.

Whatcha Doin'?

 If you read the title of today's post in the voice of Isabella from Phineas & Ferb, then you get 1,000,000 bonus points, but I digress.

To answer the question, I can say I haven't been writing or reading much. I did read through the Prowlers & Paragons Ultimate Edition core book PDF from Evil Beagle Games - and I liked what I read. It was actually the first RPG book I've read all the way through in ... well, a few years probably since the new edition of Savage Worlds came out. Before that, I can't even remember a new RPG I read all the way through.

No, I've been doing other things, up to and including painting up some miniatures.

One thing this pandemic did was give me some time to get back into painting (and writing, and reading, etc.), and starting about this time last year, I was churning out painted miniatures by a handful a day. One thing I was able to do was work and paint at the same time, more or less. I started making my way through the loose miniatures I had - a bunch of wild west minis I'd had for over a decade.

This was compounded by me getting a 3-d resin printer last year for Father's Day. I was a printing and painting machine for about seven or eight months, until I got a promotion at work and my duties changed. I don't paint as much any more, and haven't done it in several weeks. I got back to it over this last weekend.

I mentioned that I started painting those loose minis that I would normally use for Deadlands, but when those ran out, I went into the copious amount of miniatures that I have in my board game collection. I made it about half-way through all those minis before my promotion, and I've gotten/printed more minis since then.

Over the weekend, I got around to painting four minis, and started on a few others. I printed and painted up a Juggernaut and Hulk, scaled for use in the quite fun Marvel Crisis Protocol game. I have several minis from that line now, and while expensive, they're a lot of fun to paint up. In that same vein, I painted the Ultron miniature from the core set. The other mini I got around to painting was the Alien Queen from Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps.

Now, probably the most complex mini I painted was Juggernaut, the others were pretty basic, but I like what I ended up with, for the most part.

I don't have any "formal training" in painting miniatures. I just kind of figured it out. By no means am I a great painter, but I get by, and I have a handful of minis that I've painted that I'm really quite proud of.

In progress would be another Hulk (gray this time), Spider-Man, some bits of the Marvel Crisis Protocol game, and a few others that I can't quite remember.

Here's a gallery of all the minis I've painted since the start of this pandemic.

The Daily Rumble: Oh, Captain, My Captain, Round 6: Comedy is Hard

 

In today's Daily Rumble, we go a little lighter on the content with two notoriously funny captains, although one is more a straight-uh-alien than the other.

Captain Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce from M*A*S*H

As played by Alan Alda, a long-time TV actor, M*A*S*H set the bar for comedies in the early 1980's. He's the wisecracking, womanizing, carousing, prankster doctor in the MASH unit. Pierce has little tolerance for military red tape and customs, feeling they get in the way of his doing his job, and has little respect for most Regular Army personnel. He never wears rank insignia on his fatigues, never polishes his combat boots, and only wears his Class A uniform when he believes appearance can achieve greater good – but does not wear any of the decorations to which he is entitled. (from the Wikipedia entry).

Captain Turanga Leela from Futurama

Captain, pilot, and pretty much the grown-up at Planet Express, Leela is the one who you can count on in any situation. No, really, she's the ONLY one. The character, voiced by Katey Sagal, is named after the Turangalîla-Symphonie by Olivier Messiaen. She is one of the few characters in the cast to routinely display competence and the ability to command, and routinely saves the rest of the cast from disaster. However, she suffers extreme self-doubt because she has only one eye and grew up as a bullied orphan. She first believes herself an alien, but later finds out she is the least-mutated sewer mutant in the history of 31st-century Earth (from the Wikipedia entry).

The Daily Rumble: Oh, Captain, My Captain, Round 5: Stargate or Jumpgate?

 

In this round we have yet another Captain of Babylon 5 going up against a veteran of television in general, a guy who originally could smarts his way out of anything, but took a dramatic turn when he went all military and started going to other planets. We have beauty and the beast this time around.

Captain Elizabeth Lochley (Babylon 5)

Taking over from the departing Captain-to-President Sheridan, Captain Lochley has a rigid set of morals that put her at odds with other, long-time crew-members. Hers was a time of adjustment and a rather unexpected addition to the station. She was certainly different than her predecessors, but it was nice to see that Earthforce uniform return to C&C.

Regularly known for being the guy who can solve any problem ... was not Colonel O'Neill. Not always quick on the uptake, he got the job done and wasn't afraid to break rules in order to do it. Hey, he had  a planet to protect! He went on to become General O'Neill and then ... I stopped watching the show, and I don't want to spoil things.

The Daily Rumble: Oh, Captain, My Captain, Round 4: The One

 

In Round 4 we have the somewhat stiff, but loved going up against a potential powerhouse in this tournament.

Commander Jeffrey Sinclair (Babylon 5)

One of three captains of the eponymous last of the Babylon stations. Veteran of the Minbari War and fought at the Battle of the Line when all seemed lost, Sinclair served one year as Commander of Babylon 5, and then was called on to greater things. He went on to lead the Rangers and serve as the first Earth ambassador to Minbar. He is the One Who Was, Entil Za, in Valen's Name.

Captain Malcolm Reynolds (Firefly)

A potential powerhouse in the competition, Mal Reynolds definitely looks out for his crew. He'll do whatever it takes to keep his people safe, and he aims to misbehave on a regular occasion - up to and including kicking someone through their ship's engine and wearing a pretty little bonnet. Mercy is the sign of a great man, but he's alright. Veteran of his own battles and the browncoat of all browncoats.

The Daily Rumble: Oh, Captain, My Captain, Round 3: Gumshoe Science

 

While there were no surprises in the first round, this round is an interesting and somewhat obscure one.

Commissioner James Gordon (Batman: The Animated Series)

That's right, we got a little animation in the mix here! Jim Gordon, the only good cop in the city of corruption ,Gotham. He's a staunch ally of the Dark Knight, but he brings a level-head and code of honor to the role of Police Commissioner.

Captain Nathan Bridger (SeaQuest DSV)

Ah, vintage 1990's network Science Fiction television. Roy Scheider (from Jaws, amongst others), is the underwater captain of the large submarine, SeaQuest. This show came about because of the popularity and resurgence of Star Trek and other genre shows like Lois & Clark. The show took on a science-centered nature and had a very schizophrenic run.  Scheider was unforgiving about the show in interviews during the second season.