Aliens: This Time It's War, also known as Aliens: The Board Game, is a 1989 tabletop board game published by Leading Edge Games. The game allows players to recreate several key battles and sequences from the film Aliens. The game includes a 32-page rulebook, along with a rules summary booklet and associated player cards and counters. An expansion for the game was released in 1991.
The game was designed by Barry Nakazono and David McKenzie, who would go on to develop the Aliens Adventure Game role-playing game (RPG), also for Leading Edge Game. Aliens: This Time It's War was a far more stripped-down product than the later RPG, containing a level of detail well short of a full RPG module, with no role-playing system involved. It used maps and character icons to recreate three pivotal action scenes from the film.
Publisher's summary[]
One express elevator to Hell... going down!
Ripley is returning to the desolate world where she lost her first crew to the Alien horror. This time she is with a squad tough, experienced Marines. TOgether, their job is to determine the status of the colonial settlement. But it's too late for the colonists.
Now even the Marines will be lucky to get out alive.
Join Ripley, Hicks, Hudson, Vasquez, and the rest of the Colonial Marines in their struggle for survival against the deadly Aliens. From the first terrifyuing encounter to the climactic battle against the Alien Queen, the Aliens game contains everything you need to recreate all the excitement of the movie.
Gameplay[]
Aliens: This Time It's War[]
ALIENS is a game for one or more players; it recreates the major conflicts that take place in the movie from 20th Century Fox. There are several different battles, or Scenarios, in the game and in each case the players will take the roles of the various people from the movie (Ripley, the Colonial Marines, Burke and Newt) and attempt to survive their encounters with the Aliens. There are three Scenarios, which are be played independently or one after another, to simulate the entire movie. The Scenarios are:
The Reactor Room: The first encounter with the Aliens. A squad of nine Marines, led by Sgt. Apone enters the lair of the Aliens in search of the Colonists.
Operations and the Air Ducts: Barricaded into the Colony's command post the remaining Marines along with Ripley, Newt, and Burke, face a concentrated Alien assault. As they fall back, Newt leads the survivors through a maze of tunnels toward the Landing Pad and safety, with the Aliens in pursuit.
Ripley vs. The Queen: On board the ship, Ripley uses a Powerloader in her final battle with the Alien Queen.
There are a number of places in the rules where the term "Marine" is used. In all cases this term applies to all the humans, including Ripley, Burke, and Newt. Players may determine who controls which Marines by any method they wish; by dealing out Marines for the Scenario at random, by taking turns choosing Marines, or by mutual agreement. When the rules state that a Marine may make a choice, or roll a die, it obviously means that the controlling Player should act accordingly.
ALIENS Expansion[]
This supplement to the ALIENS Boardgame takes players deeper into the situations in the movie, and features new Scenarios and options.Included are:* An entirely new, full color Map, 17" x 33". * New Cards, to determine the inhabitants of Alien lairs. * Scenarios for the battle on board the Drop Ship, Ripley's rescue of Newt, an attempted rescue of Apone and Dietrich, and a complete Hunt for the Alien Queen. * Expansions for the Movie Scenario, allowing the Marines more options and greater challenges. * And a variety of new rules, including Ammunition Restrictions, Backup Weapons, and Tournament Rules.
Trivia[]
- In 2009, a fan-made flash adaptation of the game was released online.
Gallery[]
See Also[]
- Aliens Adventure Game — A tabletop RPG published by Leading Edge Games in 1989.
- Alien: The Roleplaying Game — A tabletop RPG published by Free League Publishing in 2019.