Legendary Encounters: Alien- Strategy and Tips for movie scenarios- Part two: Aliens Movie

For the second instalment of my movie scenario strategy guide for Legendary Encounters: Alien, I will be focusing on the scenario for Aliens. This is both my favourite and first film I watched in the franchise.

My top recommendations for avatar selection are: Mercenary, Synthetic, Medic, Executive and Scout.

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: there is no way to kill off starter cards included in this scenario. Since purging your deck of low value cards is an integral part of deck builders this is really going to throw off your game. Hopefully this will get fixed in an expansion because it really throws me off.

The high value cards for this scenario are actually more avatar specific than for other ones. If at all possible get Power loader into the hands of the Mercenary player. This will vastly improve the teams damage output, especially since it stays in play if the player has played any other strength cards that turn. "Split in two" should go to the Synthetic player. Many players turn their noses up at it but it has the potential for a huge return on investment if purchased early on. It does lose value if it doesn't show up until later in the game. "Let's go Marines" is very valuable since there is no mechanic in this scenario for killing off the starter cards. Since it is vigilant that means it can be saved for when you get a hand dense in starter cards. Anyone can use this card, but it can be slightly more useful for the Executive If this player doesn't get it that's okay. The most important card is "This Ain't Happening Man!" This is another vigilant card. Why is it so important? It blocks Event or Hazard cards. Seeing as the hazard cards (and to a lesser extent the event cards) in this scenario are massively hurtful this card will really save your butts. Anybody should get it at the first opportunity. Seriously it is THE card to get.

The medic is one of the most important characters in this scenario. “Get him to medical” are nice and cheap cards. However, since you will need the med bay clear you need to make sure to buy the combat cards. I prefer “close encounters” because Hicks is a badass and you really want to bust heads in the combat zone. The “knife games” cards seem scary due to them causing a strike but that gets cancelled either if you play another med card first or if you can get the med bay clear and heal your strikes. It can also be offset with the “body armor” cards. They may not have the medic icon to go well with your deck but that does not matter, get them to protect yourself from strikes.

The Executive is going to be playing like a coach in this scenario. You won’t be doing much in the way of directly affecting the game, but you will be giving huge amounts of help to the other players. The main reason being the “stay frosty” cards. They deal some damage but the ability to get any number of other players to draw an extra card means you are fattening the hands of everyone at the table. Trust me everyone will love you for this. Just don’t give extra cards to people with chestbursters in their deck. Also remember you are one of the "any number" of players so grab more cards (which you can play right away). The “She’s here as a consultant cards” are very valuable, if you can resist the temptation to spend them too fast. These are vigilant cards, meaning you can save them for later turns and add them to your purchase pool. Saving them for a turn or two can allow you to get those high value cards instead of a fat deck of cheap cards. “Weapons training” cards are really versatile. Depending on what’s in the store or how combat is going you can decide on buying high value cards or help other players do more damage.You should be talking to all of the players and keeping things organized like a good corporate Executive drone. Since your health is low grab body armor too!

The mercenary is going to be dealing a huge amount of damage this scenario. “You want some of this” cards are nice and cheap and do better damage in combos. Get the “I will never leave you cards” and make sure to use the vigilant power to keep them for more powerful combos on later turns. You will want to combo them with the “Ripley enraged” cards for huge damage bonuses. This is the one scenario where you definitely want the high value card of your class. “Power loader” does massive damage and stays in front of you if you have played other strength cards that turn. The powerloader rules!
The main draw back to this character is the lack of purchase power on the strength cards. So be sure to buy sergeants or some of the leadership purchase power cards. Don’t worry Executive you can spare them. Oh and don't forget to nab some body armor!

For the Synthetic player, if it is at all possible get the “split in two” card. I know many players turn up their nose at this card but I love it. This is mainly due to the fact the cards are gained directly into the hand. You and another player get to use them right away. It is also vigilant which means you can hang on to it until it works. Other than that focus on the technical cards. Everyone will be buying the “body armor cards” so don’t get upset about that. Everyone needs them. “Critical analysis” cards are helpful for purchase power. Also using these to discard a starter card to get two new cards in your hand is fantastic. The “they’re all around us” cards are great because of the combined coordinate and scanning abilities. The cost is more than worth it.

Only use the scout if there is a fifth player in the game. There are no cards that work directly with your ability card. Don’t buy anything to screw over the medic. Focus on sergeant cards and other coordinate cards. Think of yourself as the expendable guy who is there to help. Scan as much as possible, coordinate to help others, and kill every enemy you can.

As it was in the film the first objective can go sideways very quickly. While searching for some colonists seems like a cakewalk you can find yourself overwhelmed fast. First off the colonists are really easy to kill lulling you in to a sense of confidence, but if they are revealed when an event card is turned over then they die and a hive card is added to the complex. Err on the side of caution and kill the colonists before revealing more cards, even if it means not using some attack power. While the event cards make it so you have low visibility (more costly scans) they don't make the game too much harder because they are thankfully discarded once you complete the first objective. The hazard card is where you become screwed royally. All players discard all of their attack cards. This means you can have up to 5 players doing a turn without attacking... with 5 new cards added to the complex. Then the xenomorph swarmers come in adding more cards to the complex and next thing you know...

For the second objective you will be placing the sentry guns, because the directors cut has more Aliens so it's better. Placement of the first sentry gun should be in the med bay, for the sake of the medic needing the med bay clear. Place the other one in the weapons locker to prevent enemies from moving in to the med bay. Thankfully these remain for the rest of the game so they are fantastic. There is a good card in the Hive deck, "Newt." She's a decent addition to any players deck. If anyone hasn't got body armor yet give her to them. The main enemies in this objective are either facehuggers or acid-blood xenomorphs. Be wary of revealing cards, make sure you or the next player can kill facehuggers. The events cause a player to get two strikes. So again, body armor is everyone's friend, and keep your medic alive. The hazard fills the complex then hides all of the cards, shuffles and redistributes them. Depending on when this happens you may find yourself overwhelmed and facing endgame cards before completing the objective.

For the final objective you need to kill the queen, but she cannot be killed if there are captives in operations. The problem being there are Xenomorph snatchers who add captives to operations and the queen adds more if an event comes up while she is revealed. Top that off with the event card causing a player to become a captive in operations. This player cannot buy cards, scan, or combat. At this point spend everything on getting captives out of operations despite deck compatibility. These cards are gained like regular HQ cards. Of course Carter Burke comes into this objective like the huge jerk he is. He kills all of the characters in the HQ which doesn't refill while he is in play. Pray none of the better cards are in the HQ when he screws you over.

Such a douche

Check back soon when I go over the other films.
Until next time, remember this film has the best life advice: nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure