Aliens Boardgame: In The Vents

The following mini-expansion for Leading Edge’s Aliens Boardgame is the result of several chats with awesome fellow fan of the game @Lasky on the Boardgamegeek forums. Huge thanks go out to him for all the ideas, suggestions, playtesting and prototyping. The material below would not exist without his fantastic input.

With the aid of a custom “In The Vents” sub-map, a set of Vent counters and new deck of Location cards, you can now use the colony’s air vents to take “shortcuts” around the board when playing any Scenario that uses the Expansion map. This includes official Scenarios such as Marine Assault and Hunt for the Queen, as well as unofficial ones such as Extermination (see HERE).

Set-Up

To use this mini-expansion, when setting up a Scenario on the Expansion map you must determine the location of Vent entrances before play begins. To do this, shuffle the Location Deck and draw a card to find which room where Vent 1 is located, then use the Scatter Table (found HERE) to determine the square to place the Vent 1 token in. Repeat this process to place all 9 Vent tokens.

Place the “In The Vents’ sub-map beside the Expansion map. You now play the Scenario as normal, with the following changes:

Entering/Exiting Vents

A Marine may enter the Vents by moving onto any Vent token. This transports them from the Expansion map to the “In The Vents” Map, on the Vent symbol that matches the number of the Vent they entered.

Vents are exited the same way, transporting a Marine from the “In The Vents” sub-map to the Expansion map on the Vent token that matches the number Vent they exited from.

Aliens can enter and exit Vents the same way as Marines.

Alien Appearance in the Vents

During the Alien Appearance phase, if there is one or more Marines in the Vents, roll the die; on a 5 or higher, an Alien appears. This roll is made regardless of any other Alien appearances this turn. If an Alien appears in the Vents, roll the die again to determine which Alien Appearance square (the blue numbers) on the “In The Vents” sub-map they appear on. Treat 0 as the square marked 0; the Bonus Bug rule does not apply in the Vents.

Intersection Squares

Movement is conducted normally inside the Vents with one major difference: when a Marine lands on an Intersection Square (marked with a compass symbol similar to the Decision Squares on the Air Ducts map), they must roll the die. If they roll equal to or lower than their Direction Sense skill (see below), they may keep moving in any valid direction they choose. If they roll higher than their Direction Sense skill, roll again for a random direction as marked on the Intersection Square; they must move in that direction instead and cannot change direction until they either reach another Intersection Square or exit the Vents. Rolling a 0 for random direction means that the Marine is frozen with confusion and may not move off that square; they may re-roll for Direction Sense next turn to resume moving.

Marines only roll on Intersection Squares when they have Actions left to move. For example, if Vasquez moves two squares and lands on an Intersection Square, she does not roll for Direction Sense. Instead, she would roll at the start of her next turn if she wishes to move from the square.

When a Marine reaches another Intersection Square, they must roll again; success or failure both allow them to move back in the direction they just came from.

Aliens pass through Intersection Squares normally; they never need to roll.

Direction Sense

The Direction Sense table shows the skill level for each Marine (this is the number they must roll equal or less than). All Marines included with the original game have a Direction Sense of 5, except for Bishop who has 7 and Newt who has 8. Custom Marines (those found on this site) who have a different Direction Sense are as follows: Anne, Simpson, Lydecker and Mary are Colonists and this have 6 (they know the Vent layout better than strangers), while Timmy and Billie are Kids and thus have 7 (they are small and used to playing in small spaces). For crossover characters, treat Robocop as a Synth (7) and Lewis as a Military (5) Marine type.

Ignoring Intersection Squares

Intersection Squares are meant to recreate the confusion and panic while crawling around in cramped, dark vents, however they also significantly slow down gameplay and increase difficulty. As such, you may prefer to ignore them altogether when using the “In The Vents” sub-map; in-universe, you can explain this as the Marines all having access to a map of the Vent system. Ignoring Intersection Squares will drastically increase the usefulness of travelling in Vents, making them a simpler shortcut around the board, however remember that Aliens may also use the Vents as a shortcut (and a way to flank the Marine players) too!

Objective/Cocooning Squares

There is a Cocooning Square (a large white number “8” within a black circle) located on the “In The Vents” sub-map. Normally, this square has no special effect, however you may optionally decide to use it in any Scenario requiring rescuing Cocooned Marines (such as Marine Assault). Note that using this square adds difficulty in the form of randomness to such Scenarios; you may be lucky and the Vent entrances near the Cocooning Square can be easily reached, or they may require an extended trip through the Vents (or across the Map) to reach.

As always, keep this in mind when deciding which Cocooning Squares to use when playing such Scenarios. Of course, if you are using the optional Objective Cards (found HERE) to determine which squares Cocooned Marines are located on (to include this new square, simply add the “8” card to your Location Deck before shuffling), this is less of a choice!

“Aliens: Metamorphosis” Optional Rules

If you are using the optional “rules “Aliens: Metamorphosis” rules (found HERE), then firing a Grenade inside the Vents doubles their range. Grenades used in Vents also “destroys” the target square so that it requires 3 Actions to enter from now on.

Location Deck

You may include or omit the “Room 0” card if you wish. This can place a Vent in the starting area near the elevators, rather than one of the Rooms.

Print at 72 DPI

Vent Tokens

If you wish, you may prefer to trim these tokens to just keep the inner part (cutting around the “hazard lines”), rather than retaining the whole token; this will make them smaller than a standard square on the map and thus prevent them from fully obscuring details below (such as walls).

Print at 300 DPI

Maps

Use whichever version of the sub-map you prefer: the one with movie images (better matches the original maps), or the one without movie images (cleaner and uses less ink for printing).

Print at 300 DPI

Direction Sense Table

Print at 300 DPI

Aliens Boardgame: Aliens Vs RoboCop

I made this last year to celebrate the launch of the surprisingly awesome RoboCop: Rogue City videogame (it’s the RoboCop 3 I always wanted), but couldn’t post them until I had also posted my new Extermination scenario, since the cards and tiles were designed for use with that scenario specifically.

If you want to use these new “crossover” characters in the Extermination Scenario, they are intended to be used alone in Hero Mode (i.e. either with both characters controlled by one player, or with two players; one controlling each character).

My imagined backstory is that this is set in the 2040’s (see here for when RoboCop is likely set) rather than the “present day” Aliens universe (the events of Aliens takes place in the year 2179). Somehow, an Alien has gotten to Earth and created a hive in an abandoned warehouse in old Detroit. So far, the infestation is in the early stages and is contained, but unless the hive is eradicated, it could overrun the city, and eventually the whole country if not the world! Fortunately for humanity, cyborg police officer Alex Murphy (aka RoboCop) and his partner Anne Lewis are the ones sent in to find out why people have been disappearing around the warehouse district, and clean up the mess of who – or what – is responsible.

Warehouse Entrance tile placement guide

Optionally, you can use the new Warehouse Entrance tile when playing Extermination in any mode. The tile is designed to be laid over the Expansion map, covering the elevators and providing a new entry point to the Scenario better suited to any scenario where the map represents a single-story facility rather than the Hadley’s Hope Atmosphere Processor of the movie.

When playing with RoboCop and Lewis, you can also place the Police Car tile on top of the Warehouse Entrance as shown, to indicate the starting point for Detroit’s police forces.

When using this tile as a staring point instead of the Elevators, place your Marines on the white diagonal striped area during setup.

The reverse of the Warehouse Entrance tile has Alien Appearance numbers on it. This allows you to use the tile in other ways, such as custom Scenarios, where it can be treated as a normal Room, with Aliens appearing here via Room Cards and Sentry Cards.

Note that while Lewis is quite a powerful character in her own right (on par with Apone and Hicks from the original Aliens Boardgame), RoboCop is even more powerful and arguably one of the toughest Marines so far. Not only does he have a high Melee value and innate resistance to explosions (grenades) and Acid Spray, but unlike other Marines he can sustain multiple Wounded/Incapacitated results enabling him to stay on the board well past attacks that would disable or kill any other Marine. His biggest disadvantage is having only 2 Actions and thus moving slowly (especially compared to Lewis), however this is somewhat compensated for by his unique Auto-9 weapon that gives him a good chance to kill Aliens with every shot, even with just 1 Action of Aim.

Again, keep in mind that RoboCop and Lewis are designed for use with the Extermination Scenario in Hero Mode, meaning that including them in a larger ground of Marines (such as in Squad Mode, or in Scenarios like the Hunt for the Queen) will drastically tip game balance in the Marines’ favor and thus should be avoided.

For an exciting challenge, you may wish to play Extermination (Hero Mode) using just RoboCop and without even Lewis for backup!

Special Rule: Unsuitable Host

There is one special rule that applies to RoboCop alone: he is much too heavy for an Alien to drag him away to be cocooned, not to mention totally unsuited to impregnation by Facehugger. Because of this RoboCop will never be dragged away once Grabbed. Instead, whenever RoboCop is Grabbed by an Alien, instead treat the result as In Combat.

Special Rule: Machine Man

Despite being a cyborg (a fusion of organic and machine parts), treat RoboCop as a “Synthetic” for any rules that specifically differentiate that type of Marine from normal human ones. Lewis should be treated as a regular human Marine in such cases.

Special Rule: Combat Shotgun

Lewis carries a full-size Combat Shotgun rather than the sawn-off backup Shotgun used by Hicks in the original game. As a result, she has 16 Ammo for the weapon rather than 8.

Marine Cards:

Print at 72 DPI.

Note: The “PV” on RoboCop’s Auto-9 weapon indicates Penetration Value; i.e. the damage this weapon does to the Reactor when using this weapon in any Scenario that tracks Reactor Damage (such as Marine Assault).

Alternate Marine Cards:

For use with the Hasty Shot optional rules.

Print at 72 DPI.

Wound Tokens:

Print at 300 DPI.

Marine Deck cards:

For use with this deck here.

Print at 96 DPI.

Overlay Tiles:

Print at 300 DPI.

You may wish to Print the two Warehouse Entrance tiles below as a single double-sided tile.

Print at 300 DPI.

Aliens Boardgame: Extermination Scenario

This is a new Scenario for Aliens, designed to played on the Expansion Map. You will need my new Room and Sentry cards (found here) and optionally my new Alien Variant cards (found here).

There are several Play Modes that let you start with different Marines (either a full squad, a smaller group of eclectic survivors, or 1-3 “hero” characters) and face different levels of threat. Optionally, you can also include the Queen for an extremely difficult challenge!

I do feel that this Scenario needs more testing, and I would welcome feedback from anyone who tries it. I intend to write it up properly and post it on my blog but I wanted to get some opinions on it as it stands first.

It is also designed to be later built upon by other optional rules (such as Explosives) and using new custom characters (such as this festive Squad Mode alternative). have already designed some sets of alternate custom characters suitable for Hero Mode and allowing it to be played with two or even just one Marine… to be posted soon!

Note: While Spitters are mentioned as a possible Alien Variant, I haven’t posted their new cards and rules yet; this is just to “future proof” the Scenario.

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SCENARIO: EXTERMINATION

When an Alien hive is discovered, it is imperative to wipe it out before it spreads. Entire worlds can quickly be lost if prompt action isn’t taken. The following Scenario represents a typical “sweep and clear” mission to clear out a small facility in the early stages of Alien infestation.

This Scenario uses the Expansion Map, Room Cards and Sentry Cards from the Aliens Expansion.

Weapon Options

Marines may be considered to be carrying either of their weapons on their Character Card, with the exception that Frost can also choose to use a Flame Unit.

It is recommended that you also use the Backup Weapon optional rules as found in section 6.2 of the Expansion rulebook, except that Drake does not have a Flame Unit as a backup weapon (this was an error on the part of the original game designers; he just picked one up during the Reactor Room battle) and Frost may choose to carry a Flame Unit with a Pistol as his backup (as seen in the movie).

Set-Up

The first step is to determine the Play Mode desired, which determines how many Marines you start with and what threat level you will face (see Room and Sentry Decks).

Squad: Apone, Hicks, Vasquez, Drake, Hudson, Dietrich, Frost, Crowe, and Wierzbowski.
Survivor: Hicks, Vasquez, Hudson, Gorman, Burke, Bishop and Ripley.
Hero: Ripley, Hicks and Bishop 2.0.

Note that in this Scenario, Burke is considered a normal Marine with no special rules, and may be armed with either a Pistol or Pulse Rifle. Bishop 2.0 sees the android reprogrammed for combat; he may now use weapons, as detailed on his card.

All Marines begin the game at the Elevator.

Room and Sentry Decks

Create Room Card and Sentry Card decks based on the Play Mode chosen.

Squad:
Room Deck: x2 Alien, x3 2 Aliens, x2 3 Aliens, x1 4 Aliens, x2 Eggs, x1 Empty.
Sentry Deck: x4 Alien, x2 2 Aliens, x1 3 Aliens, x3 Empty.

Survivor:
Room Deck: x3 Alien, x2 2 Aliens, x1 3 Aliens, x2 Eggs, x1 Empty.
Sentry Deck: x4 Alien, x1 2 Aliens, x3 Empty.

Hero:
Room Deck: x3 Alien, x2 2 Aliens, x1 3 Aliens, x2 Eggs, x2 Empty.
Sentry Deck: x4 Alien, x3 Empty.

Additionally, you may choose whether to include the Queen or not. Including the Queen makes this Scenario a lot harder, and almost impossible on Solo Play Mode, so it is advised that you play through it a few times without her first. If you choose to include the Queen, add her Room Card to the Room Card deck. Otherwise, omit the card.

Alien Appearance

Because this is a hive in its early stage, there are not as many Aliens present as in the Marine Assault or Hunt for the Queen Scenarios. Thus, Aliens only appear on the map via Room Cards and Sentry Cards.

The rules for Room and Sentry Cards are the same as in the Rescue of Newt (see section 5.3 of the Expansion rulebook).

Alien Eggs

When a Room Card reveals Eggs, roll the die to see how many are present, then roll for each and place on the Alien Appearance squares rolled. Treat 0 as a Bonus Bug, adding an additional Egg.

Any turn where a Marine moves through or is adjacent to an Egg, roll the die: on a 0-2, the Egg opens and should be replaced with a Facehugger.

Marines armed with a Pistol, Pulse Rifle, Machinegun or Shotgun may spend one Action to shoot a single Egg in line of sight before it opens (no roll is required). This removes that Egg (and the threat of the Facehugger) however it also means immediately drawing a Sentry Card to see if an Alien is alerted.

Marines armed with a Flame Unit may spend one action to shoot up to three adjacent Eggs in the same manner (again, no roll is required), but this only triggers a single extra Sentry Card (not one per Egg).

Grenades will destroy any Eggs in the target and surrounding adjacent squares, and also triggers only a single extra Sentry Card draw.

Clearing Rooms

Once the Room and Sentry cards have been drawn for a specific Room and those Aliens have been killed, that Room is considered Cleared. No more Aliens will Appear here. You may track the progress of Cleared Rooms on a Room Clearing Tracker sheet or on any scrap of paper.

A Room with remaining Eggs is not considered Cleared until they have all been destroyed.

If you used the Queen and she is killed, she counts for Clearing 6 Rooms for the sake of Victory Conditions (so killing the Queen and Clearing 6 Rooms counts as a Win).

Victory Conditions

The Marines Win if they Clear every Room and there are no Aliens remaining on the map, regardless of how many survivors there are. The Scenario is a Draw if they Clear half (six) of the Rooms on the map. They lose if they only Clear a quarter (3) or less of the Rooms on the map.

Optional Rule: Alien Variants

For an extra challenge, you can include Alien Variants in your Room Card and Sentry Card decks when playing this Scenario. These Variant Aliens have different abilities to regular Aliens, and will add a new level of unpredictability and difficulty to the Scenario. The following cards are suggested to be added to your decks according to Play Mode.

Squad:
Room Deck: x2 Runner, x1 2 Runners, x2 Boiler, x2 Spitter, x1 Crusher.
Sentry Deck: x2 Runner, x1 Boiler, x1 Spitter.

Survivor:
Room Deck: x1 Runner, x1 2 Runners, x1 Boiler, x1 Spitter, x1 Crusher.
Sentry Deck: x2 Runner, x1 Boiler, x1 Spitter.

Hero:
Room Deck: x1 Runner, x1 Boiler, x1 Spitter, x1 Crusher.
Sentry Deck: x1 Runner, x1 Boiler.

New Marine Cards:

Below is a new Marine Card for Bishop, allowing him to use weapons. This represents a “reprogrammed” version of the character with combat programming enabled (in story terms, he still would be unable to harm humans, but Aliens are now fair game!).

Use the regular non-combat Bishop for Survivor Mode, and Bishop 2.0 with weapon abilities in Hero Mode.

Included is an alternate version of the card for use with the optional Hasty Shot rules (see here).

Print at 72 DPI.

Room Clearing Tracker Sheet

Prints 4 sheets per A5 page.

Aliens Boardgame: Christmas Marines

Although HeroQuest is my favourite boardgame of all time, Leading Edge’s Aliens Boardgame is probably my second-favourite.

I’ve done a lot of Aliens Boardgame posts here on my blog this past year, so although I am currently doing a “12 Days of HeroQuest” countdown, I also wanted to do something with a Christmas theme as a thanks-you to my fellow Aliens Boardgame fans who visit here.

Thus, below, you will find a set of alternate Christmas Marines; alternative characters to use in whichever Scenario you wish to make more “festive”.

I have at least two new Scenarios almost completely designed and ready to post (hopefully soon after Christmas), but for now you can test these Christmas Marines out in the Reactor Room or Hunt For The Queen official Scenarios.

There are nine new Marines here (the same number of Marines used in the Reactor Room, not co-incidentally). You should feel free to pick either weapon on their card for them to use before the game begins. This obviously makes them a lot more capable than the original Marines (given the prevalence of Flame Units, particularly) but this is intentional; these Elves come prepared and aren’t messing around! It also means you can probably take on Hunt For The Queen with just these nine Marines rather than needing extras to pad out your numbers to the official sixteen Marine headcount for that and similar Scenarios.

Designer’s Notes

I wanted to pick just one memorable “elf” character from some of the most beloved Christmas movies, which is why you might see some favourite missing (i.e. either I don’t know the movie or I already included a different elf from that one).

For those interested, the movies, characters and actors depicted are as follows:

• Patch – Santa Claus: The Movie (1985), played by Dudley Moore.
• Bernard – The Santa Clause (1994), played by David Krumholtz.
• Buddy – Elf (2003), played by Will Ferrell.
• Jingle & Jangle – The Year Without Santa Claus (2006, a remake of the stop-motion 1974 movie), played by Ethan Suplee & Eddie Griffin.
• Willie – Fred Claus (2007), played by John Michael Higgins.
• Eli – Santa Paws (2010), played by Danny Woodburn.
• Santa Claus – The Christmas Chronicles (2018), played by Kurt Russell.
• Missus Claus – The Christmas Chronicles: Part 2 (2020), played by Goldie Hawn.

Patch, played by Dudley Moore, comes from my childhood favourite Christmas movie and was the first one I made. I have a soft spot for the Santa Paws (and all the Buddies) movies and also love Danny Woodburn as an actor, so he was next (I had to fight temptation to make a card for his movie companion Eddy, a Jack Russell voiced by Richard Kind, but couldn’t bear the thought of him getting killed in the game!). Fred Claus and The Santa Clause are Christmas classics, so I included the standout elf from each of those. Everyone love’s Will Ferrell’s Buddy in Elf, even though it’s technically cheating to include him as he’s not really an “elf” (hence his Melee Value of 1, being a big guy next to his tiny elf brethren). Finally, I wanted to include at least one elf from the Rankin-Bass stop-motion classics, and the 2006 remake provided me with live action recastings to solve that problem (Jingle’s size also gave him Melee 1).

Settling on the perfect Santa (and Mrs Claus) was the toughest part, but in the end I had to go with Kurt Russell’s version (with his screen/real-life partner Goldie Hawn as Mrs Claus). Honestly, is there any other Santa in the *long* history of live action Santa performances that you’d better imagine fighting xenomorphs than Kurt?

Obviously, a lot of beloved elves and various alternate Santa/Mrs Claus versions got left out. Is there someone you *really* wished I’d included? Leave me a comment and I might even add them if possible.

And yes, Santa and Mrs Claus are *very* powerful characters; Santa can beat up Aliens with his bare hands! It’s Christmas magic.

REGULAR CARDS

Cards to match those included with the original game, albeit with a festive flair.

Print at 72 DPI

ALTERNATE CARDS

These include a highlight on the values for each weapon’s Hasty Shot value, when used with the optional Metamorphosis rules here.

Print at 72 DPI

VARIANT CARDS

A few alternate versions of the above cards, with different weapon choices, should you prefer these load-outs.

Print at 72 DPI

PAWNS

Pawns to use when including these new Christmas Marines in your game.

Print at 300 DPI

Aliens Boardgame: Objective Cards

This is another custom card deck I made for Leading Edge’s Aliens Boardgame.

It is designed for use with Scenarios like the official Marine Rescue (included in the Expansion), where there are several possible numbered location squares to choose from when placing cocooned Marines.

Rather than having free choice over the Cocoon Square to use, instead you can shuffle and draw a card from this deck for each Marine needing to be rescued. This serves to randomize the difficulty of such Scenarios.

Note that there are more cards (10 in total, numbered 0 to 9) than there are Cocoon Squares (5) on the official Expansion Map. This is so that the deck can be used with custom Maps and homebrew Scenarios (of which I have several in the works). Thus, when using this deck with the original Expansion Map, only include the Objective Cards numbered 1-5 before shuffling and drawing.

I have also made a set of Objective Markers (each takes up one square) that can be used with other Maps (such as the Reactor Room), or for adding new Objective/Cocoon Squares to the Expansion Map. Again, I have several custom Scenarios in development that will make use of these, but I include them here in advance.

One example of use is that you could place any number of these Objective Markers during the setup for a Marine Rescue Scenario (using the Scatter Table and rules for Explosive placement HERE) for even more random Cocoon Square placement! Now those Marines you need to save could be almost anywhere on the Map!

Objective Cards

Print at 72 DPI

Print at 72 DPI

Objective Markers

Print at 300 DPI

Aliens Boardgame: Marine Card Deck

I made this new deck of cards for Leading Edge’s Alien Boardgame, featuring every playable Marine (the game refers to all playable characters as such, even civilians like Burke and Ripley) as well as the custom characters I’ve made (such as HERE, HERE and HERE).

The use for this deck is simple: whenever you need to randomly pick from several Marines, simply shuffle those cards together and pick one. Note that this cannot be done easily with the original Marine Character Cards, because they are double-sided with the Marine’s name/stats on both sides.

The main example for using this new Marine Card deck would be if multiple players are playing and want to determine who controls which character (since some are more powerful and useful than others); shuffle together all the Marines used in the scenario being played, then take turns drawing cards until all the Marines are allocated.

Another way to use this deck would be in cases where you need to determine which Marine an Alien attacks (when there are two or more possible targets); just shuffle the two (or more) Marines’ cards and draw one.

Yet another example of use is when playing the Marine Rescue scenario; you can use the new Marine Card deck to randomly determine which Cocoon Space each captured Marine to be rescued is in.

You may even want to use this deck with custom scenarios which could involve rescuing civilian colonists (shuffle the Hadley’s Hope survivors and draw) or when using my new Room Cards (see HERE) and draw a “Cocooned” or “Survivor” card.

In future, whenever I made a new Marine character, I will try to include a Marine Card for them to match this deck too.

Marine Cards

Card Back

Print at 96 DPI.

Original Characters

Print at 96 DPI.

Custom: Hadley’s Hope Characters

Print at 96 DPI.

Custom: Dark Horse Characters

Print at 96 DPI.

Aliens Boardgame: Exploding Barrels

A common element found in many video games, especially first-person shooters (such as the original Doom) is the environmental element of “barrels” that explode when shot, causing damage to everything (player and enemy alike) who are standing too close to them. These may be fuel barrels, toxic waste containers, energy cells, bombs, or whatever, but the effect is basically universal.

A talented fellow fan of Leading Edge’s Aliens Boardgame named Joshua Oram added such a mechanic to that tabletop game as part of a custom scenario he designed many years ago and shared on his website. The site is sadly since gone, as is the original version of that scenario, but parts of it survived as a digital addon for the commercial program Battlegrounds (see HERE). Since I’ve been unable to contact Joshua for several years, I am hoping to recreate his scenario here for everyone to play on the original boardgame, however this post is just about my own interpretation of his “exploding barrels” idea.

Joshua’s version was as follows: 9 spaces on the Reactor Room board have their obstructions replaced with Explosives (see image below for which squares). These functioned like normal obstruction squares in that no Alien or Marine can move through these squares, and they block line of sight and shooting. However, additionally, they may be shot (costs 1 Action) and exploded by any armed Marine. When an Explosive explodes, any Alien or Marine in an adjacent square is Dead, and any Marine up to 2 squares away is Wounded. Mark detonated Explosives with a Fire pawn (included with the original game) to indicate they cannot be exploded again (or flip them over if using my custom tokens). Exploded Explosive squares still cannot be moved or shot through due the height and intensity of the flames. Also, in any scenario using the Reactor Countown tracker, detonating an Explosive automatically decreases the counter by 1.

Explosive placement (for Joshua’s original rules)

My own reinterpretation is similar, but with a few changes to make them available in other scenarios and have their placement be less predictable. You can find my rules (and custom counters and pawns to use with them or Joshua’s version) as follows.

Feel free to mix and match both sets of rules (if you prefer Joshua’s simpler placement rules but my damage rules, for example).

New Rule: Explosives

Squares marked with an Explosive counter or pawn contain highly flammable and/or volatile substance (drums of quinitricetyline, as featured in Alien 3, perhaps?) which poses a hazard to anyone nearby should they be shot during combat.

Explosive Placement: Reactor Room Map

Start with 9 Explosive counters or pawns.

These Explosives are placed during setup (after Marines have been placed) using the Alien Appearance mechanics; that is, for each Explosive, roll the die twice to find the placement square. On a roll of a “0”, treat as per the Bonus Bug rule and add an extra Explosive!

However, once the initial Appearance square is determined, roll the die again and consult the Direction part of the Scatter Table (below), with the original placement square being “5”. Then , unless you rolled “5” (same space), roll the die one more time, consult the Distance part of the table – column refers to the Map being used; RR is Reactor Room, Ops is Operations, Exp is Expansion Map – and move the Explosive that may squares in the direction previously rolled.

You may “move” through obstructions when setting up Explosives, and may even place an Explosive in an obstructed square, however you may never place one outside the “walls” of a map (that is, in a solid black square); if a roll would ever move an Explosive into such a square, re-roll a new direction (but not distance) on the Scatter Table and continue moving the Explosive. In any cases of confusion or conflict, simply stop moving the Explosive closest to the solid black square and move on to placing the next one (if any).

Scatter Table (print at 300 DPI)

Explosive Placement: Operations & Air Ducts Map

If you wish to use Explosives in the Operations & Air Ducts scenario, place all Explosives during setup in the same way as for the Reactor Room, with the following changes:

• Due the the smaller size of the map, start with only 3 Explosive counters or pawns (instead of 9).

• Because there are three sets of Alien Appearance squares in the starting room of the Operations map, instead of rolling for “row” as per the Reactor Room map’s Alien Appearance rules, here the first roll of the die determine which “set” of Appearance numbers to use: a roll of 1-3 is blue, a roll of 4-6 is grey, and a roll of 7-9 is red. Again, treat “0” as a Bonus Explosive.

Otherwise, follow the setup rules for the Reactor Room.

Explosive Placement: Expansion Map

If you wish to use Explosives while playing an Expansion scenario (Rescue of Newt, Marine Rescue, Marine Assault) or any custom scenario that uses the Expansion map, Explosives are not placed during setup but rather as the map is explored.

Whenever a Marine enters a Room for the first time, before placing Aliens, roll the die to see if there are any Explosives in the room. On a 0 there are three Explosives, on 1-2 there are two Explosives, on a 3-4 there is one Explosive, and on a 5 or greater there are no Explosives.

Place each Explosive immediately by rolling for the Alien Appearance square as you normally would for that Room, then use the Scatter Table as explained for the Reactor Room Explosive placement.

Detonating Explosives

Any armed Marine may shoot an Explosive they can see using 1 Action.

If you are using my Alternate Grenade rules (see HERE), use the tables below.

RANGE FROM BLAST	ALIEN	MARINE
0-1	Dead	Dead
2	Roll	Roll -1
3	–	Roll
4+	–	–

DAMAGE ROLL	ALIEN	MARINE
0	Dead	Dead
1	Dead	Incapacitated
2-5	Stunned	Wounded
6+	–	–

When rolling for damage, roll separately for each Alien or Marine within range.

If you are using the original Grenade rules, any Marine or Alien 0-1 squares from the blast is Dead, any Marine 2 squares away is Wounded and any Alien 2 squares away is Stunned.

In either case, Marines who are Grabbed or Incapacitated yet are still within range of the Explosive detonation are equally subject to Explosive detonations.

Once detonated, either flip the Explosive token to show the “burning” side or – if using pawns – replace the Explosive pawn with an Inferno pawn.

Explosives and Movement

Aliens may move through squares containing an Explosive (unless that square also contains an obstruction), so long as they have not been exploded. Marines may never move through squares containing an Explosive, exploded or not.

Infernos

Infernos are intense flames. They act like regular Fires except that once placed, they are never removed; the square is permanently blocked for the rest of the scenario.

No Marine or Alien may ever move through a square containing an Inferno. If either an Alien or Marine are ever forced to enter the same square as an Inferno (such as due to being Stunned), they are instantly rendered Dead and removed from the board. Aliens may Appear in a square containing an Inferno but only if they are then able to move to an adjacent square as per their usual “move after appearance” rule. If they are unable to move out of the Inferno, they are instantly killed and removed.

Note: you may also wish to use the Inferno pawns below to represent the blocking fire above Stairwell 7 in the Rescue of Newt scenario, since according to the original rules, those two squares also contain fires that remains for the entire scenario.

Explosives and Reactor Damage

In any scenario that uses the Reactor Countown tracker (such as the Rescue of Newt or Marine Assault scenarios), detonating an Explosive automatically decreases the counter by 0-4 (roll the die and halve the result, rounding down).

Optional Rule: Nothing Burns Forever

If you prefer to not have every Explosive detonation create a permanent Inferno that blocks the way, you can roll for each Inferno (or “burning” counter) at the end of every Turn. On a roll of 0-1, the fire goes out (remove the Inferno or replace the counter with a “charred” one). Aliens and Marines may now move freely through this square.

Note that using this optional rule may allow obstructed squares to be “cleared” if an Explosive is placed on one during setup.

Optional Rule: Through The Flames

Another optional rule is as follows: any Marine may attempt to move through a Fire or Inferno as long as they have enough Actions to cover the distance (including the Fire/Inferno square). This represents them desperately diving through the flames and is very dangerous indeed. Roll the die for a Marine doing this, add their Melee value and subtract 1 if they are Wounded. On a result of 0-1, they are consumed by the flames and are Dead. On a 2-4, they make it but suffer burns and are Wounded (or Incapacitated if already Wounded). On a 5 or higher, they pass through unharmed.

Aliens will never attempt to leap through flames, due to their inherent fear of fire.

Explosive Counters & Pawns

Reference cards are included below for use with either the original or alternate Grenade rules. Counters can be printed single-sided or for folding into double-sided ones. Pawns can use plastic clips as per the original game or folded and cut-slotted as shown HERE.

Reference Cards

Print at 72 DPI

Single-Sided Counters

Print at 300 DPI

Double-Sided Counters

Print at 300 DPI and fold in half to make double-sided

Standee Pawns

Print at 300 DPI

Aliens Boardgame: Boiler Aliens

The Aliens video games Colonial Marines and Fireteam Elite both introduce a similar new Alien type that explode in a huge gout of acid – far more than regular Aliens – on death, thus proving a huge danger for anyone close enough and making keeping them at a distance a priority.

In the Colonial Marines game, these are called Boilers; resembling crippled Warriors, they are blind and stagger towards the player and commit suicide when close enough, showering the player with acid. In the game Fireteam Elite, they are called Bursters and are quadrupeds like Runners, fast-moving and only explode in a blast of acid when killed normally.

For my new Alien variant type here, for use with Leading Edge’s Aliens: The Boardgame, I’ve taken inspiration from both and combined them somewhat. Using the name Boilers (which I prefer, especially since Bursters could easily be confused with the Chestburster life-cycle stage of the Alien), they are bipedal Alien Warriors except somehow mutated to be covered with acid-filled pustules. Maybe they are natural evolutions (like Crushers or Spitters), maybe they were mutated by their environment (i.e. exposed to toxic chemicals or radiation) or maybe they are W-Y experiments? Regardless, these Alien variants, with their pustules and thinner skin are slightly easier to kill but produce a much greater volume of acid spray when slain.

NEW ALIEN VARIANT: BOILER

Boiler Appearance

When the Turn Chart indicates an Alien Appearance number in red and a 0 is rolled for that Alien’s placement, place a Boiler instead of a regular Alien. Only four Boilers may ever be on the board at once; reroll the Alien Appearance if a fifth Boiler would ever be placed as a result. If you are using the Bonus Bug rule, it doesn’t apply for “red Aliens” anymore, since the 0 is now used to spawn Boilers on those turns.

Boiler Movement

Runners move just like regular Aliens, with 4 Actions allowing them to move 4 squares on their Turn.

Boiler Attacks

Boilers are slightly weaker than regular Alien Warriors. Thus, when attacking with a Boiler or when a Marine performs a Melee attack against one, use the Alien Attack table on the new Boiler card (below) instead of the regular Alien Attack table.

Killing a Boiler

Boilers can be killed exactly the same way as regular Aliens, including the use of Grenades. The only difference is that their thinner skin and tendency to explode gives any Marine shooting at them a -1 Aim Modifier, making them slightly easier to hit.

Boilers and Acid Spray

Boilers have their own Acid Spray table on their new card (below); use this table instead of the standard Acid Spray table. Due to the larger volume of acid killing a Boiler produces, a Marine hit by their acid spray is more likely to be hurt or killed!

Boilers in Expansion Scenarios

If you are playing an Expansion Scenario that uses Room/Sentry cards for Alien Appearance rather than the Turn Chart, you can include Boiler Aliens by printing out the card below and using it with the rules HERE. In conjunction with my other cards, I suggest the following additions:

• Room Deck
  • x1 Boiler card

• Sentry Deck
  • x1 Boiler card

BOILER
Roll and place a single Boiler.
Treat 0 as a Bonus Bug if that rule is being used, adding an additional Boiler.

Optional Rule: Increased Acid Spray Radius

To make Boilers even more dangerous to kill, you can make their Acid Spray affect Marines up to 2 squares away, instead of just 1 (like normal Alien Warriors). Combined with the increased danger of their custom Acid Spray table, this makes killing a Boiler before they get close an even bigger priority!

An alternate version of the Boiler card is provided below to use with the above optional rule.

Boiler Cards & Pawns

See HERE for an explanation of the stat card values and terminology.

Print at 72 DPI

Print at 72 DPI

Print at 300 DPI

Aliens Boardgame: Some Updates

Thanks to some fantastic playtesting by fellow Aliens Boardgame players Lasky and Ronald (on Boardgame Geek; see HERE and HERE) and Alex on this blog, I’ve tweaked and updated the cards and some of the rules for my various new Alien variants.

The following pages have new card versions to print, along with some minor changes to the rules given for them:

• Alien Queen
• Alien Warriors
• Alien Runners
• Alien Crushers

I have added pawns (paper miniatures) for the following:

• Hadley’s Hope Survivors
• Timmy Jordan
• Wilks & Billie

I also fixed an error with Apone’s cards all being the wrong colour:

• Alternate Marine Card Replacements
• Original Marine Card Replacements

I replaced my custom Survivor card with a different image:

• New Room and Sentry Cards

Finally, I have changed Bishop’s portrait on all his cards to a better match for the original card picture (sadly I still can’t find the full original image used).

If you prefer the older versions of the cards I have replaced, they can be found below:

Apologies for the errors and making folks having to reprint some of these, but hopefully this provides a better experience when playing.

Many thanks again to Lasky, Ronald and Alex for their feedback and playtesting.

I will be posting the alternate Alien variant spawning rules Lasky and Ronald helped come up with shortly.

Aliens Boardgame: Alien Queen (Stat Card & Pawn)

To match my previous Alien variants and default Warrior cards and pawns, here is one for the mighty Alien Queen, as featured in the official Expansion for Leading Edge’s Aliens Boardgame.

Note that as per the original rules, the Queen’s Alien Attack Table is different to normal Aliens, in that she can attack in multiple ways and against multiple targets!

As with my Alien Warrior pawns, there are two versions: one without a text label (like the original pawn) and one with the “Alien Queen” label to help easily identify the piece on the map. As always, use whichever one you prefer. You can use plastic clips or the instructions HERE to make the pawns stand up.

See HERE for an explanation of the stat card values and terminology.

Optional Rule: One Big Mother

The Alien Queen pawn in the default game only occupies a single space, just like regular Aliens (i.e. Warriors) and Marines. If you prefer, you could use a miniature or pawn that occupies 2×2 squares, making for a much larger and imposing presence on the table, but keep in mind that this may make the Queen even more dangerous as she will now be able to move into (and through, using her Ram attack) multiple Marines’ squares at the same time. This may affect game balance, so be prepared!

Moving in any direction still counts as 1 Action per square moved. Despite taking up four (2×2) squares on the board, the Queen may move through any obstructed square as long as she *never* ends her turn with one or more such squares under her pawn. This allows her to pass through most (but not all) narrow spaces and doorways, providing she has enough Actions to cover the distance, however it also allows Marines to use such narrow areas of the Map as “choke points” to slow her down while engaging her with weapons fire.

Print at 72 DPI

Print at 300 DPI