Back to the Club

 I was dithering about going to the club last night, after months of sitting on my bum on a Tuesday night I was curiously loathe to get off it. Mate Stuart then put a post up that he was bringing 'Aliens: Another Glorious Day In The Corps' and had three slots, now this is one of my favourite movies and I had read an interesting review on the game so I was in.

On arrival we all wore masks but these were very quickly dispensed with as the two tables in use were more than the required 3.28 feet apart, which I was very pleased about, plus I suspect we had all had two jabs. The game comes in one of those nice new boxes boardgames come in, with nice art and the contents were all of a very high standard, mountains of cards and tokens along with the superb figures, I noticed two boxes and quickly found out that Stuart as normal now has the original plus all the expansions.

We set up the first scenario which is easy and only comprises four game boards. I will be making references to the movie which I suspect most readers will be familiar with. Anyway, Newt, the annoying little girl was in hiding in the complex and a small team of Marines and Ripley had to find her and get her to safety. I played Jenette Vasquez armed with my M56 smart gun, badass I think is the word in the Corps, alongside her was Gorman, Hicks, Hudson, Ripley and Frost. You choose different weapons and equipment before the mission starts and then each character has their turn, non player characters can be controlled through the chain of command, after this the Aliens get their chance.

 We had a good idea which part of the complex the child was in so we quickly made our way there, Hudson hacked into the computer system and with a stroke of luck identified the girl's location almost immediately, we let Ripley go in first as the Marines would have spooked Newt and she would be off. Again we did well and Newt bonded with Ripley and we then headed for the exit. Now, three turns in think of those hand held scanners in the movie, I couldn't help myself hearing pings as the bug's cards were turned over and I looked nervously at the ceiling, another sound effect we could not help making was when the sliding doors opened, someone would give us a 'pssssshhhh', I think we are stuck with that one. Anyway, the first Aliens died very quickly but as we progressed down the corridor more and more tried to block our way, we tried welding some of the doors shut but they did not hold and the horrors broke through. It was Vasquez's turn to shine, the brrrrrrrpp of the M56 filled the corridor and the bugs hit the gratings. More and more turned up as we arrived within arms reach of safety, but again our favourite Latino saved the day, even Gorman took one down with his pistol. Psssshhhh, as the door closed behind us and the mission was over.

 A good first night back at the club, we had a good laugh mixing the movie with the game and yes, the team had it easy this time but the potential to be overwhelmed in larger games is certainly there, we are continuing next week with the second game of the campaign. The game is run by cards and if you cannot complete your mission before the main deck runs out you fail, you can at times replenish the main deck but of course you then may miss out on something else, it seems complex at first but we all understood it by the end, even me. For the movie buffs, I managed to draw a card which was made for Vasquez, it recreates the scene where she and Gorman set off the explosive and kill themselves and a swarm of bugs, I was desperate and tempted to play the card as the clock ticked down, I could have killed almost everyone on the board, but, maybe next time.

 I have got a PzII and StuH 42 coming from Blitzkrieg, one for 1940-42 and one for '42 on. I was going to add Dragons Portes and Colonials to my French but they only come in platoons, and suffering an attack of commonsense I have ordered some extra LMG's to turn the bog standard infantry into motorised if I want to, oh, and an extra MMG.

And lastly, which is appropriate, I have a little used football shirt for sale.