Aliens Vs Predator (AVP) Trial

Another week and another new game to try. This week Kev had been busy previously and had signed up for the Kickstarter for the AVP game and although there's been lots of disgruntlement about the lateness of the issuing of the game after funding, things appear to be rolling now (although Kev still hasn't got everything) and had enough of the bits to have a game. 

So myself, John E and Tim all had a shot of playing the game and Kev gamemastered. With myself taking the easy option and going the horde of Aliens, Tim the Marine's and John the Predators.

Though there appeared to be some dubiety over some of the rules, mainly in the clarity department, we all had a ball playing through the scenario which saw the Marines having to download some stuff from a location opposite their start point, the Predators had to scan three area's again far from their starting point, and the Aliens just had to kill five bodies worth, (the Predators counting as two).

The fun part of the game appears to be the random initiative each turn and the Environmental cards giving random effects around the 'ship' drawn by the player with initiative that turn. The first turn for example I drew a card which sealed all the doors on the ship for that turn 'due to a malfunction' and effectively sealed the Marine's in their starting point for the first turn. Other examples were the sprinklers going off, the doors randomly opening on a through of 1-4, gravity being 'suspended and so on.

We all had a hoot playing the game as we all didn't take it too seriously which I think suits the game immensely. John consistently threw high on the D20's, especially for Armour saves so his mega-powerful Predators didn't perform as well as they should, my Aliens on their headless charges into battle caused most of their damage by being eviscerated by some form of high tech weaponry from one enemy or another but managing to spray acidic blood on their hapless foe's in the moment of departure, and Tim's Marine's moved about the ship in a purposeful SWAT huddle and managed to avoid most of the mayhem.

Long of the short of it the Predators went down ignominiously and got bogged down by wading through puddles of acidic blood and died to an extraterrestrial but both the Aliens and the Marine's achieved their objectives.

The hard plastic playing pieces are very nice all round and although a bit on the gangly side for my tastes, are all exceedingly eye catching, (except the Flamethrower Marine who looks to be skipping).

A few things in the rules did seem a bit odd but most were down to the 'first play' of the game with a few clarifications being sought afterwards. The biggest thing to cause a bit of concern was the turn about initiative which meant that due to numbers the Aliens could move about the board unhindered and en-masse which did seem to give a fair bit of an advantage.

That said, we all had a fun game and look forward to play AVP again. Think that says all that needs to be said..