Star Wars Rogue One Review- minor spoilers.

I went to Star Wars Rogue One last night. And I need to nerd out about it.

Going in I was a little afraid of what I would get. I still feel violated by the prequels and this is another kind of prequel. I’m still dreading that Disney will incorporate musical numbers into the films. But gladly that has yet to happen.

I am also quite done with death stars. Yeah they are cool and all but there has been enough for one universe. At least going in to this film I knew it was a central plot element for a Death Star that already existed in the Universe. And I didn’t have a “bigger badder” death star surprise. So I wasn’t really bothered by it.

Having said that; I loved the movie. Unlike the prequels the film was character driven. While it is rife with political themes they fit in more as undertones to drive the narrative. The lines between “good guy” and “bad guy” are blurred. Some good guy rebels do some nasty things, while some bad guy imperials do good things. It comes across as a maturing of the Star Wars universe. War and heroics aren’t simplistic; they are depicted more realistically dirty and complex. These concepts are delved into quite deeply but in a way that doesn’t take away from the flow of the story.

There is something that sets this prequel apart from Episodes I, II, an III. While a few characters (like Vader, Tarkin, and Mon Mothma) have obvious plot armour protecting them from harm, they aren’t central figures in the story. They merely act as supporting characters that move the plot towards pivotal moments. The central figures in Rogue One are characters you have not heard of. This places them at risk, making action moments more interesting.

What I like most are the little moments in the film. Such as the humourous one liner by Chirrut Îmwe in an abduction scene. Or when Bhodi Rook flinches at Saw Gerrera’s respirator noise. You know this is an imperial that has reason to fear that sound. It’s such a minor thing that really defined the character and his motivations. At least in my mind.

While overall I liked the visuals, from massive planet shaking explosions to walker assaults to ship battles, there is one thing that bothered me: Tarkin. The CGI is just that wrong amount off of what a human should look like. He made my brain squirm every time he showed up on screen. Which I hate because this villain is perfect in every other way: duplicitous, devious, cold, methodical, and driven. Every line had a purpose and dripped with conceited malice. A man who has been dead for over 20 years could still steal every scene he was in.

Finally this film does an amazing job at expanding the universe. New characters, new interactions, space feels big again in Star Wars. While there is the Erso family in this film they have no relation to the Skywalkers. There is no “I am your father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate” moment. Nobody married a Skywalker, nor was built by one, nor was a secret sibling. It truly was a universe building film.

And guess what: Vader is a badass again!

Until next time… I’m going to be humming the imperial march often.

Legendary Encounters: Alien- Strategy and Tips for movie scenarios- Part four: Alien Resurrection Movie Scenario

This week I will be covering the final movie scenario in the game Legendary Encounters: Alien.

I find that this final scenario is the hardest in the game. It will take focus, memory, and a tonne of cooperation and teamwork to have even a chance at beating it. You will probably hate this scenario as much as you hated the movie. There is a very specific combo of avatars I feel best suited for beating this scenario: Player one Scout, Player 2 Synthetic, Player 3 Mercenary, Player 4 Medic. There are no leadership cards so there will be nothing to work with either the Commander or the Executive. Take the Synthetic over either of these avatars.

Be a better team than these morons were.

For the high value cards the "Monster's Mother" is the card to get. The massive damage potential makes this the best card in the game. If you can, try to couple it with the "Grown in the lab" cards, cloning it's power for obscene damage levels. Or combine it with "Thermos gun" for a massive damage wave. "Thermos gun" slides to second favorite card because it's ability doesn't always do much, unless there are enough revealed enemies. But it can really save you when things are going bad. Get it into the hand of the player with the highest damage potential. While "Interface with FA-TH-UR" seems like an ideal card for the scout, this player will actually have a good array of cards that do the exact same thing. In fact the Scout may find they have more scanning ability than there are rooms to scan. Its best to get this into another players hands and spread out that scanning action. Gun for hire is an okay card for the high value. The high damage is mostly what you are going for. The ability to trigger a mobilize ability is nice but won't always be available as it relies on the HQ contents. If you have an option of any other high value card buy the other one first. Having said that I would still get this above any combo of lesser value cards.

A face only a mother could love... or blow out a tiny hole into space

Scout Player: This should be the player with the best memory. Buy all of the "I can smell it" cards as you can. Think of these cards as giving you the ability to pre-scan cards in the complex. Using this card you can figure out where hazard and event cards are without revealing them. You can warn the team and avoid revealing any cards until you are best prepared to handle their consequences. Couple these cards with the "secret mission" cards and you can efficiently scan the complex while keeping danger to a minimum. Trust me this is very important.

Synthetic: You will be taking on a role much like the leader in other scenarios. Buy as many "Play the angles" cards as you can. Use these to add cards to the hand of the player with the best chance of card combos. The only way to keep this class effective is to make sure the weapons locker is clear. The "incinerator flamer" will do significant damage and coupling it with the "thermos gun" can do huge damage. Position yourself after the Scout Player to have enemies already revealed when you deploy this combo. For purchase power cards either buy sergeants or "Sleep when you die" cards. BUT The Kawlang maneuver cards are great, if you can afford them. This is partly for the extra damage, however it's more for acquiring the other cards you need for free.

The players in this scenario

Medic: By far this is the most strike heavy scenario in the game. As a medic you will be very busy trying to keep strikes healed. Get the healing power of "Full of surprises," as much as you can. Use it's purchase power to load up on "Grown in a lab" which works as a clone of a card you've already played. It becomes super powerful when you can finally afford "The Monsters Mother" because that combo stacks you with huge damage potential. Grab "new and improved" only if you can't get any other survival card.

Mercenary: Most of the strength cards have a Mobilize ability that triggers as soon as you purchase them. I feel the best cards for you are the three "I mostly just hurt people" which let you kill cards in a players discard pile. This helps with purging the starter cards, strengthening your teams decks by making combos appear more often. They also have 3 attack making them decent for your role. The "concealed pistol" cards are your early priority as they will help you afford the other cards you need. The "sleep when you die" cards should be bought by other players to co-ordinate with you.

5th player: I don't recommend having a 5th player as 4 is the ideal number for the scenario. However if you do insist on a 5th use the Commander. Focus on the co-ordinate cards and work at being as helpful to the team that way. His special will allow him to have a large amount of sergeant and other coordinate cards. Placing him between the medic and the mercenary is a great idea. Getting this player the "Interface with FA-TH-UR" card will help keep rooms scanned more. He can also work as the expendable target of the events and hazard cards.

In the first objective, "breakout," you are tasked with killing the three Xenomorph clones. Since they have a strength of 10 you will not be able to kill them with your starter attack cards. Use all of your attack for scanning, and do so before purchasing cards. You need "containment cell" cards to come up, which cost 3 purchase power, to kill the clones. The Event cards cause the clones to move to the complex so you will be drawing strikes early on. The first event card is gained by a player who then receives a strike each time it comes up through their deck, then it goes back into a selected players discard pile... to come up again. Make sure to get the "I mostly just hurt people" card as soon as possible and use it's ability to kill the event card. Get your medic stocked with "Full of surprises" cards to start healing strikes or you will be facing early player deaths.

In the second objective "You're a thing, a construct" remember to draw 3 characters from the barracks for the "failed clones." Hope for cheaper cards because you will be killing these in order to move ahead. Event cards cause strikes from each failed clone still in the combat zone, so you want to start killing them ASAP. The second hazard card causes more hive cards to be added to the complex. Using the "I can smell it" card ability you can put this off until the synthetic can show his avatar special card, which has all 5 class icons on it, completely negating the effect. For the flooded rooms cards, make sure to clear them ASAP, since the xenomorph swimmers jump directly in to the combat zone from flooded rooms. But more-so because xenomorphs in these rooms cannot be attacked.

Because what's a spaceship without a waterpark?

For the final objective, "She'll breed, you'll die" you will have so much going on. This is the most complicated and difficult objective in the box. You have to kill both the Queen and the Newborn. While you can use the Newborn to kill other Xenomorphs in the combat zone it is by no means a good idea to rely on this. The only player who is really gaining Ripley cards (which are needed to trigger the effect) is the Medic. Kill the Newborn ASAP. This objective is made more deadly by Xenomorph spitters causing strikes as soon as they are revealed. Cloned facehuggers with 5 health (as opposed to 3 for regular ones) are going to keep players scared. Make sure the next player has that 5 attack power to save you before potentially revealing a facehugger. The Larry Purvis card is great with 3 attack. Anyone who has low attack value can gain him. By all means sacrifice him when Dr. Wren shows up, but don't wait for this card combo to kill Dr. Wren because he prevents you from being able to win the game. Event cards from this objective kill a card in the HQ then fill that place. This limits how many cards are available for purchase. Depending on how many event cards are left this can completely block the HQ store at some point so beware. The hazard card is the biggest threat. It causes purchase power cards to be killed. While you may think this shouldn't matter, you will have gained many cards by this point, the problem is most of the purchase cards are the ones with the abilities you need; Like healing strikes and free scanning rooms. If you can, make sure you use the scout to keep the hazard from being revealed.

Until next time I hope my advice helps you to have a slam dunk on this scenario.

Why the fuck was this in the movie?

Coming Soon, Expansion to Betrayal at House on the Hill

There is an expansion coming out soon for Betrayal at House on the Hill. Even though it hasn’t come out yet I feel the need to talk about it. Because I love this game! (my review)

From Avalon Hill

I am excited that the house will finally be getting a bathroom, as well as other rooms. I feel that more rooms with help with the variety of the beginning exploration phase. As I have yet to go through the 50 original haunts, and only once repeating a haunt, I feel like more haunts weren’t totally necessary. I’m not complaining here, extra haunts does significantly increase the replay value.

I’m not overly interested in most of the new tokens as keeping track of who has used which room ability is relatively easy for me to do. So this isn’t a selling feature for me.

The new cards are a big selling feature for me. I find that the events and items are what make the beginning exploration phase of the game more interesting. I feel like a greater of variety in the events and items available would make the start of the game feel fresher each time. I think if there is another expansion a simple deck of items and events would be an ideal option for players on a budget; and players who would buy both expansions. I don’t think a card expansion needs new omens because they would need to coincide with haunts. I feel like creating omens would be better suited for a full expansion with newer haunts, and new rooms, etc. If I were to do that big of an expansion I might include a tunnel to a guest house (which would be one floor.) Maybe a garage or carriage house or stables.

I would have liked to see new characters introduced. Balance for some scenarios could be thrown off with too many players but some people don’t want to play the same characters every time. A nod to some horror movies would be easy to do with these characters. A licensed Scoobie Doo pack could bring in some new players by giving a rationale for going into the haunted house. Since each card is two characters a “hitchhiker” type could double with Shaggy, in case players don’t want to play as the same characters. The dog could be one side like Scoobie, the other a more typical dog.

Although a Stranger Things expansion may be more topical (and easier to license)

Anyway, I’m definitely buying the Widow’s Walk expansion when I get the chance.

Until next time, I will be working on expansions to my blog.

Legendary Encounters: Alien- Strategy and Tips for movie scenarios- Part three: Alien 3 Movie

Today I will be continuing on with the movie scenarios for Legendary Encounters: Alien; I will be talking about the Alien 3 scenario.

The best characters for this scenario are: Scout, Mercenary, Medic, Executive, Synthetic.

There are some very important notes for all players to keep in mind.

1) This is the first scenario with “sacrifice” cards. These cards are “killed” to use a special ability. This is only for using the special ability, it can be just a basic card otherwise.

2) There are several coordinate cards in the deck that should be purchased by the other players not focused on that card type. These are “The company’s orders” and “Whatever it takes” The reason for other players getting them is so they can coordinate with the player. For instance on the medics turn other players coordinating with the “Whatever it takes” cards can make it so the medic has up to 9 cards to play with, triggering whatever specials their cards can do. The medic and scout should be buying sergeants in place of their own type cards (or the other player’s type card.) All players should be coordinating to buy cards.

3) There are no technical cards in this deck so don't even bother looking at the Technician Avatar for this scenario.

Tywin Lanister is in this!

4) The high value cards are of varying usefulness. “Buying time” should be bought at first availability by any player. Being able to push cards back on to the Hive deck is so important at keeping the higher powered threats back until you can more easily handle them. It is pretty much vital in the last objective. “Ultimate Sacrifice” is going to mostly be used as a high value attack card since its special doesn’t have to be used. BUT it’s a great nuclear option to keep in case things go completely wrong for your team. Since it is a coordinate card it doesn’t matter who purchases it, you can have any player take one for the team when the time comes. “Emergency surgery” is the cheapest of the high value cards and one of the best. Its high purchase power helps but the ability to heal 3 strikes will keep players in the game. While it's preferred for the medic to get it, that's not actually necessary. I'd rather get it in a deck ASAP. “Remember the dead” is massively powerful in the hands of the Mercenary or Medic. Since these two will have a lot of cards with the “sacrifice” power this card will really up their usefulness. Make sure one of these two have this card. (I prefer it in the hands of the mercenary)

Scout player you should be the first player. Buy sergeants and “Whatever it takes” cards. “The company’s orders” should be purchased by other players to coordinate with you on your turn. Your best cards are “Bar code” because you absolutely must keep scanning rooms! “Autopsy” becomes very valuable later in the game because players will be constantly killing character cards.

Badass badass

Mercenary should be right after the Scout. You will be following up on the scanned rooms with massive amounts of damage against the xenomorphs. None of your cards have purchase power so buy the cards mentioned in the important player point #2 above. "Reeducation" is super important. Use it to kill off your starter cards (remember to include your discard pile.) “Bait for the beast” cards are important for the high damage capacity and you will need to use the sacrifice ability late in the game. These can be amazing if you can get the “Remember the dead” card too. “I wanna get this thing” cards are why you go after the scout, since you cannot use them to scan. You will be putting out high damage so you can take care of any facehuggers and other xenomorphs that come up.

The Medic is very important to have. Focus on getting as many “medical attention” cards as possible. “Part of the family” are the cards to get for dealing damage. Out of all the players you will be most likely to purchase the high value cards (7 to 9 purchase power.) Do so!

The Executive will mostly want to buy the “Internal exam” cards. These will help purge starter cards from the player’s decks. The mercenary will be doing this for himself with his cards so focus on the remaining players (including yourself.) “Eulogy” is a decent card but the cards in important point 2 above are better. Only buy "Eulogy" if the other cards are not available or to get other cards into the HQ for the other players. “It’s his IQ” is decent since early on in the game you can opt to discard any starter cards to get the attack value. Once you get a good enough deck you can begin triggering the ignore ability.

The Synthetic should only be used as a 5^th player. Buy all of the coordinate cards you can and work at building the other players up. Be the supportive synthetic role the Alien movies feature.

The first objective “Where are the brothers” is surprisingly hard. The event cards cause strikes to be drawn (extra if revealed in the combat zone) meaning the medic is very important very quickly. The xenomorph threats are runners which can enter the combat zone very quickly (they move ahead an extra space when revealed) and the first event shuffles three facehuggers into the Barracks (the card store.) This adds a new dimension of threats into the game. The two "brothers" you need to find are best purchased by the Medic and Mercenary but don’t be too upset if they die. They are just basic 2 attack value cards.

In the second objective “The beast is out there” you need to find Bishops head and set it up in the complex. The higher up in the complex you can get him the better but since it changes scanning to purchase power it can be added anywhere and be useful. The event cards for this objective are disruptive but not too bad. Causing the next player to discard a 1+ value card from their hand. The second hazard on the other hand causes 2 random dead enemies to jump back into action directly into the combat zone. Depending on their strike value this can be deadly.

The third and final objective “Nobody can stop it” is extremely hard. First of all the big bad adds all revealed event cards under it. This is the number of times he must be killed. Since there are at least 2 events per objective he will be around for a very long time. Remember to kill other threats to ensure this guy doesn’t end up in the combat zone. If he does the Xenomorph guardians in this objective make things pretty much impossible (adding +3 combat strength to all other aliens in the combat zone.) If Micheal Weyland shows up in the combat zone he adds chestbursters to your deck instead of strikes. Kill this guy mercilessly, his threat potential is massive. The final hazard causes all of the characters in the HQ to be killed. Then the hazard is added back into the hive. Now this can be devastating depending on what cards were in the HQ but if you remember the facehuggers that were added to the barracks in objective one; you will realize how big of a threat this is. And it just keeps on happening. The one saving grace is the leadworks. It kills all enemies in the combat zone. Save it for when things are going really badly in the combat zone. This is the hardest objective in the game thus far.

Check back soon for the fourth and final installment of the Legendary Encounters: Alien strategies when I go over the Alien Resurrection movie theme.

Until next time, remember when you start this game you’ll play… you’ll die.

Pokemon Go

Pokemon Go is now out in Canada. So guess which nerd and wife duo have gotten in to it?

This is the first Pokemon game I played. Yeah, that might kill some nerd cred but it's true. The wife has been teaching me everything about this game and it's a bit odd for me but I'm enjoying it.

Pokemon Go is essentially the marriage of geocaching with video gaming. You wander the real world looking for Pokemon to catch. It's that simple. The game uses your GPS, as you approach Pokemon you get an alert. Then it uses the camera function so you can see the Pokemon. Swipe the screen to toss Pokeballs to catch 'em all.

The other part of the game involves visiting Pokestops, these are usually tied to points of interest: artworks, churches, monuments etc. When near one of these locations there will be a blue icon on the screen. Tap it to bring up the display. Swipe to spin the icon and it will release useful items.

Finally there are gyms. This is where you can battle with your Pokemon. I've only taken one gym so far. Oddly I ran in to a group of other players from the same team I chose and we took the gym easily. I chose team Valor because I always choose red when I can in games (it's the colour of the blood of my enemies)

I like how the game has got me off my backside and walking. I've become something of a fatty fatty fat Matt. I'm working getting healthier. For example I've switched from regular to grape NOS because that's got more fruit... right?

My work seems to be a dead zone. There are never Pokemon, Pokestops, or gyms nearby so I have to leave on my breaks. It's nice to have little breaks in the soul crushing monotony of my job. And with a kids hospital relatively near I can actually walk somewhere I can effectively catch Pokemon.

The game has done wonders for socialization as well. There are locations with significant density of Pokestops that draw in the crowds. You can go hang out and socialize with like minded people there. It's easy to spot other players (staring at their phones and yelling squirtle) and you can talk about what you've caught. My sickly cave tan is being slowly burned away by angry sky fire (the sun) because of this. As a note on these locations please take care of these places, they are nearby peoples homes. So please keep them clean and safe. Also these tend to be places of significance so take time to find out what the monuments the Pokestops are tied to mean.

Until next time, check out the rest of my posts. Gotta read 'em all.

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

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

Originally I intended to follow up with this post after the original one for Legendary Encounters: Alien. I apologize but this ended up being a huge undertaking. For the next few posts I will be posting my strategies for the film scenarios included in the game, starting with the original alien film. I'm a traditionalist when it comes to the Alien saga so I've adhered to the Film themes and haven't done any mix and match. Hopefully this explains why I'm formatting my advice this way. As always feel free to debate/critique my post below.

An important thing to note is: each of the film scenarios is missing one of the card categories which changes the overall strategies for play.

For this scenario players will be on the Nostromo ship. The HQ cards will all have the Weyland Yutani symbol on the top left of the card. There are no "strength" cards to work directly with either the Mercenary or the Gunner characters. For this reason I would recommend playing the following: Synthetic, Medic, and Scout with the option between Commander or Executive as 4th player. A 5th player can be the other leader, Technician, or Researcher. See my post about Avatar selection for some more advice.

For all players, the high value cards (7, 8 or 9 cost) need to be purchased as soon as possible. Any character that can afford them should by them ASAP no matter the deck compatibility. The exception to this rule is any character close to being eliminated should never buy these cards. These need to remain available to those still in the game.

The Scout player will likely look at the "You have your orders" cards for purchase power. They are okay and can be picked up whenever you have purchase power to spare. Actually anyone who has some purchasing power to spare should grab them, using them to bury expensive (5 or 6 cost) cards and getting affordable cards in to play may be better for the team early on while later in the game using them to pump through the deck to get the more powerful cards out. They are cheaper than the sergeants and give the same purchase power. However the sergeant coordinate ability really helps make the powerful cards affordable. It comes down to if you have the high value cards in the store early get the sergeants so they can be purchased. "Review the Nav data" is a massively helpful card, especially in the end game. The high damage and coordinate ability are the perfect combo for this scenario. Grab the "expert navigator cards" if the others aren't available because the damage and ability to draw extra cards are going to help out in the end game.


The Medic will obviously buy as many "first aid kits" as possible. This will help keep players in the game and provide much needed purchase power. This should all be spent on the "find it and kill it" cards. The high damage and coordinate power on these cards will be vital later in the game. These are way more important than the "you are my lucky star" cards. So if you have the option between the two pick the "find it and kill it."

There should be a player focusing on buying the leadership cards, be it the executive, the commander or the synthetic: someone needs to be a leader. "Quarantine Procedure" will be your main focus here. These cards will help you thin out the starter cards from the players decks, increasing the chances of better card combinations. These are the only cards in this scenario that let you do this so make sure you do this much as possible. "Captain of the ship" is your next priority. These will really stack the damage up. While the power on "teams of three" seems powerful it won't be effective until the late game when you have thinned your deck of starter cards. There are no leadership cards with purchase power so remember to buy either the "Sergeant" cards or "you have your orders" cards.

Whoever is left over should be focusing on the intel cards, meaning the Synthetic if there is a leader in play. Pick up as many "motion detector" cards as possible. These will help with purchasing better cards and help with getting rooms scanned without sacrificing attack power. This purchase power will be well spent on the "Repair the ship" cards. If you can keep the power station clear this will help you have large hands of cards. However the "Electric Prod" cards will be very valuable when it comes to the end scenario. The main big bad at the end needs to be in a specific room and these cards will ensure you can make that happen, the sooner you can get these the better.

This scenario's first objective, "The S.O.S." seems pretty easy, just find the two parts of the S.O.S. signal. It can be easy if you plan properly. The big problem will be the alien egg cards. They don't seem to be a big threat at first, they do not strike or move, however this means the blind cards feeding in to the facility move to the next available space. This means new blind cards can enter the combat zone fast. The other HUGE threat for the eggs are when the event cards come up. Any revealed egg hatches a face-hugger. You can end up with the threat of early game chestburster(s?) in play and that will spell certain doom. Event cards also trigger the current and next player to draw strikes. The first hazard card adds two cards to the complex. Couple this with spaces blocked by eggs and you can find yourself suddenly overrun. Kill the eggs ASAP.

Or you are screwed

In the second objective "No one can hear you scream" the game can go sideways quickly. Hopefully a player will have the "Electric prod" because there are enemies that gain health in the combat zone. Pushing them back may be more effective then direct combat. Sealing the ventilation shaft will be a challenge. First the shaft controls need to be found, then you will need to clear the ventilation shaft and afford to spend purchase power all at once. The problem is the high cost of revealing what is in the room (4) followed by the damage rating of whatever is in the room, then the (2) purchase power. Most characters won't have that all together at once so coordinating will probably be the only thing to help the characters, this is why you should buy any coordinate cards as soon as possible. The event cards will really hinder you because they cause the next player to discard 2 cards. The hazard card is a bigger threat because the top card of the enemy deck goes directly in to the combat zone. You may find yourself facing end game threats very early on because of this. There is a positive card in this objective: "Jonesy" the cat. He allows a player to heal a flesh wound from any number of players. While flesh wounds aren't as bad with 1 damage, they can add up. These are also a more common strike card. I would give this card to the medic character. He can use it as the first card from his hand, triggering the first aid kits. Healing the flesh wounds with this card saves the first aid kits for the more serious strikes.

The final objective "A perfect organism" will be very hard. Since the previous objective blocked the ventilation shaft it means there is one less space in the complex and enemies are always one space closer to the combat zone. Threats will be coming faster and they are stronger now. Especially since event cards cause the leftmost enemy or hidden card to jump directly into the combat zone. Hopefully you will have thinned your decks of starters and bought some stronger cards by now. Almost all of the enemies in this objective have double strikes or unavoidable strikes. The one thing you absolutely need in this scenario will be the airlock controls, with this card in play you can use purchase power to move an enemy to the airlock. This is the only way to kill the big bad Perfect Organism, but it could also help pull enemies out of the combat zone to prevent strikes. Scan as much as possible and coordinate to eliminate threats. A special threat is the enemy Ash. This synthetic from the movie has 8 damage but cannot be killed without a player coordinating. Yet another reason to buy up all the coordinate cards. The final hazard is a self destruct. When revealed it moves toward the combat zone as an enemy. Think of this as your timer. Once it arrives in the combat zone every player draws 3 strikes. Pretty much a potential total party kill moment. This can be prevented by spending 8 purchase power so hopefully someone will be able to coordinate with sergeant cards to make this happen.

For most Alien movie buffs this kind of doesn't really fit with the first film. It helps to think of the enemy cards more as one of a number of attacks from the main enemy rather than individual enemies.

Come back soon for the Aliens scenario post.

Until next time: on the internet no-one will read your blog.

Exploding Kittens game review

My wife is a cat lover. I grew up with a cat despising parent. I never knew what it was like to have cats until my wife and I got into a house where we could have pets. We got in to a debate where I wanted a dog, she wanted a cat. “We” compromised and got a cat. This has nothing to do with my review but it may explain why we got the game Exploding Kittens.

Exploding Kittens is a player elimination card drawing game. Hidden somewhere in the draw pile are Exploding Kittens cards. When a player draws one the player is eliminated, unless they have a defuse card which allows the player to place the exploding kitten back in to the deck anywhere they feel like.

I enjoy the simplicity of the rules for the game. They can be picked up quickly in just a couple of minutes and have players in to the fun right away. On each turn players play as many cards as they like (even none) then they draw a card. The artwork and humorous writing on the cards brings as much fun as the actual play.

I’m not usually a fan of player elimination games but the game is very quick to play (under 15 minutes.) Each round features just enough exploding kittens in order to eliminate players quickly and efficiently ensuring eliminated players don’t get bored. There will never be a need to shuffle the discard pile back into the draw pile so there is a defined limit to the game. Even if the last card in the draw pile is an exploding kitten, if a player then plays the defuse card only that last exploding kitten is replaced into the draw pile. Making the game end in a Russian roulette style playoff on who has the most defuse cards.

To sum up I think Exploding Kittens is a fun, easy to learn game that should be a lot of fun for anyone who gets cat jokes. Now that I have 2 cats who wake me up by smelling my eyeballs, claw up my furniture, or just insist on watching me shower I can understand why Exploding Kittens is such a relatable idea.

Until next time, I think Exploding Kittens is a blast.