I was searching the internet for board game related news one day, when I came across a small message board. On the message board there was talk of a new gaming company -– Immersion Games. I went to their website and found that they currently make three games, and so I decided to try them out. Alien Invasion USA (Immersion Games, 2002 – no designer credited) was the first of the three that we played. And how did Immersion games do with this game? The answer is that Alien Invasion, USA is one of the best thematic games I've ever played, with fun rules, and nice scalability from two to three players. The game is certainly built around the theme, and still has some fun, interesting game mechanics. Let me explain those mechanics to you . The theme of the game is that of aliens invading people in a small town, taking over the townspeople and trying to control all of them. (like many a "B" movie horror flick) Depending on the number of players, the game can play quite differently. In a two-player game, one play controls the townspeople, while the other controls the aliens. In a three- player game, the third player plays another group of aliens who are hostile to both the townspeople and the other aliens. In a four-player game, the fourth player controls the government agents, who are hostile to the aliens, and not quite friends with the townspeople, either. At the start of the game, the board is set up. There are sixteen map tiles that are placed randomly in a four by four grid. Each tile is composed of two "streets". Each street is a rectangle, containing buildings, etc. – but the whole thing is one space, and any townsperson in that space is considered to be in the whole thing, etc. Once the board is set up, the twenty characters are set up on the board, according to a chart in the rulebook. For example, Buck – the town handyman- is placed at the hardware store. If the agents are playing, they place a small plastic black van in the corner of the grid that closest faces them, with two government agents in it. There are several item cards, such as flashlights, syringes, etc. Similar item cards are grouped together, and each put in a clear plastic card sleeve. Two groups of chips are put on the table. One group is 24 chips, numbered 1-12 twice, and the other group are chips that say either "no effect" or "alien reaction." Each player is given a summary card for their side, and the aliens are given silver card sleeves and black rubber bands, or green card sleeves and green rubber bands. An eight-sided die is placed within reach of all players. Two decks of cards come with the game. One of them, the townspeople card deck, with a card for each townsperson, is shuffled and dealt out to all players face down (except the agent player). The townsperson player now turns over three of his cards and picks one to be the "star". The "star" is placed in a plastic card sleeve with a +1 sticker on it. All players then turn over the cards in front of them. The action card deck, with a card for each townsperson and agent, is then shuffled (with the "star's" card removed.) Each alien player draws five of these action cards and chooses three (cannot be the sheriff, deputy, or agents). One of these townspeople is chosen to be the "Master alien", and is placed in a silver or green card sleeve (two different alien colors) with a +1 sticker on it. Two more aliens are also picked and slid into a card sleeve. These three card sleeves are placed in a little rack, so that the owner can see them, but no one else. Each player then takes their turn in clockwise order. On a player's turn, they follow four phases: Spend three movement points (in a three-player game – the townspeople player gets four movement points) Use their special action Fight Take a townsperson card from another player (the townspeople player may spend unused movement points to take extra cards from other players) When moving, each player can move any character for whom they have the townsperson card. It is possible for the townsperson to move aliens, etc., as long as they have the townsperson card. If a player who does not control an alien moves that alien, and the alien' s owner does not want that alien moved, the alien player may "reveal" (put the alien card down so that all may see it, and put a rubber band of their color on the alien token on the board.) the alien, preventing the opponent from moving it. They also take that townsperson card and place it in front of them, and only they can move it from now on. Townspeople and agents can only be moved orthogonally, and only one movement point may be used per character. The agent player can also drive their van around. Each player's special action is different. The aliens can sneak attack by drawing one card from the action card deck. If the alien still has an unrevealed alien, and the townsperson is alone, they may sneak attack that townsperson. Every character has a number on them – a strength value. The alien draws one of the numbered chips. If that chip is higher than the value of the character, the alien captures them, puts them in a sleeve, and places it on their rack. If they fail, the alien must reveal one of their unrevealed aliens. If the alien draws an agent card, the agent cannot be sneak attacked, and the agent comes on the board as a reinforcement for the agent player. The townspeople's special action is to check for aliens. On the board are many places marked with red. (i.e. The gas station says "Chemical" in red). If there are two or more townspeople at any of these red locations, the townspeople player can check for aliens. The alien player(s) draws a chip and looks at it. If the chip says "alien reaction", and one of the townspeople there is an alien, the aliens must immediately reveal that alien. If the chips says "no reaction", or says "alien reaction" and there are no aliens in that square, the chip is slid into the plastic card holder of the associated items, and placed face down. If on future turns, the townspeople player moves different folk into that square, they can test again. Once a test has proven successful, the townspeople player may pick up these items from different locations on the map, and move townspeople around with the items, trying to find other aliens. The agents may try to recruit townspeople to help the agents fight the aliens. The GA (government agent) player must roll a die and get a number equal or higher to that character's value. The townsperson player may try to recruit these people back on their turn. The GA player may also try to get more agents on the board by having an alien player draw the top attack card, and hope it's an agent. During the fighting phase, aliens may attack townspeople, townspeople can attack aliens, etc. Whenever two players are in the same space, they can fight. Each player rolls an eight-sided die and adds it to their character's values (the star and Master Aliens get a +1) Recruited townspeople and other characters on the same side add a +2 to the fighting people. If the aliens win, they take over the losers. If the townspeople win, they must drag (move with the alien) that alien to the sheriff, deputies, or sheriff's office to secure the alien (remove it from the game). Townspeople and agents may even fight each other. The game is over when An alien gets a certain number of victory points (the total value of all townspeople they control) – alien wins! All the aliens are dead – townspeople win! The master aliens are dead (killing the rest automatically) –- townspeople win! The agents capture eight alien specimens (or townspeople –- but two townspeople are only worth one alien) –- agents win! There are more rules, but they are minor and can be found in the rulebook Some comments on the game: 1). Components: There are a lot of components in the game. The cards look nice, and have good artwork on them but are of lower quality. This isn't a big deal, and for a small company, I'm rather impressed with the quality of the components in the game. The tokens are small rounded pieces with stickers on them with a picture of the character and their numerical value. The chips are black tiddly winks with stickers on them also. The card sleeves are of high quality, and the board tiles are also extremely high quality. The mission cards provided for each player are helpful. All in all, a lot of time and effort went into the components for this game. Maybe they aren't to the standards of some of the larger companies, but they are certainly up to playing the game many times. 2). Rules: The rules are on ten color pages, and are very detailed. As you can tell from my description, there are a lot of rules in this game. Despite this, however, the game doesn't feel very "fiddly" and people grasp quickly the basic goals and agendas for the game. The game is more complicated with four players, to be sure – but the two-player game is rather simple. The mission cards help ease players into knowing what they can do, and once played, the game becomes even more simple. 3). Theme: The theme just overflows in this game. The game really plays out just like a "B" alien horror movie. All the stereotypical characters are there, from the priest to the cheerleader to the rebel, etc. The locations are all right, and the items used to discover aliens are very familiar (fire extinguisher, flashlight, etc.). The sneak attacks, the fighting, the agents – all makes for a wonderful theme, one of the best I've seen in a game. 4). Fighting: My one quibble with the game is the fighting, as it seems a bit random. The eight-sided die adds a lot of luck to the fighting. It's not a big deal, but I've seen games that have been won and lost because of the fighting. 5). Strategy: There are piles of strategic moves in this game. The townspeople must try to avoid sneak attacks by clustering their folk together and desperately seeking the aliens. The aliens must decide who to attack, and when, and should they turn on each other? The relationship between the townspeople and agents is rocky at best. What makes the game good is that only one player can win, so that everyone has enemies. 6). Elimination factor: A player can possibly be eliminated early in the game (unlikely, but possible). This may detract from those who do not like elimination games. 7). Fun Factor: The game is quite a bit of fun to play. The rules aren't as "tight" as many of today's modern German games, but they are quite functional, and better than most American fare today. I think it's equally fun to play all four sides, but it's a bit spooky to play as the townspeople, and try to figure out just who the aliens are? So I will highly recommend this game. It's a fantastic effort by Immersion games, and they have pulled off a game that is chock full of theme. So many games have a theme tacked on to them these days, and it's refreshing to play a game that is both fun, and theme filled. Try the game out, and fight the fight that affects all of mankind! Back to Table of Contents -- Game! # 11 To Game! List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by George Phillies. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com