A. Power
United States
Silver Spring
Maryland
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I played my first Alien invasion scenario with some mixed results. My landing zones started close to two of the random capitals: Western U.S. and Congo. My Alien forces made quick work out of these cities and I thought all was well. Then I ran into trouble trying to get to Argentina. The Earthlings put up a strong defense in North Africa, and suddenly I'm nuked. After trying to regroup, I was able to send a force into Europe but the Scandinavia capital held strong for several turns. Those dang cannon cards kept me at bay.
Meanwhile my N. American campaign was having problems crossing into Asia to strike the capital in Yakutsk. Another badly timed nuke wiped out my invasion force, who were sitting ducks in Alaska. Then things really went to hell. My European Task force now heading to Yakutsk, got beaten to a stand still in the Urals, as I lost another group to a nuke in Brazil. The Fleet in orbit was dwindling and the Admiral had High Command duped into not allowing the reinforcements I needed. Finally, I made a break through into Argentina, but my supply lines were thin. I couldn't reinforce my new Alien Capital, and the Earthlings took it back. To make matters worse, my two prong attack in Asia utterly failed with the European Task Force completely wiped from the planet.
The Earthlings adopted a policy of scorched Earth and Western U.S. was blown to oblivion. At least I had fresh units in Brazil...Until scanners detected a nuclear explosion off the coast of S. America, and they were gone. My last hope was locked into a battle for Yakutsk with a 3:8 ratio. Well, at least my execution will be swift.
After battle briefing: Being my first attempt, keeping track of the rules and turn sequence was tough. The system was a bit unwieldy with all the shuffling. The 6th deck, once you have 3 or 4 Capitals runs out rather quickly. Then there's a couple situations not covered by the rules:
1. Do Earth forces get to move if there's no Aliens adjacent?
2. When you take a capital early on (w/ no Earth armies) do they get to create an army adjacent to the capital for a counter attack?
3. What happens to the Alien units in a capital that gets nuked?
Overall it was a fun first outing, but the shuffling and turn tracking was a chore.
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chris reichl
Appleton
Wisconsin
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This sounds interesting. I'll have to try this sometime.
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Matthew Nadelhaft
Scotland
Edinburgh
Scotland
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The Mav is having trouble accessing his BGG account, so he asked me to post this reply for him:
Q&A for Alien Invasion, A Solitaire Risk Variant
Q: Do Earth forces get to move if there's no Aliens adjacent?
A: No, there are no movement rules, per se, for Earthling Armies.
Movement of Earthling Armies was one of the concepts I tossed around while I was designing Alien Invasion. In the end, I decided to handle Earthling movement abstractly through the reinforcement, reorganization, and advance after combat rules.
The lack of movement rules is alluded to in the atmosphere paragraph that accompanies the Earthling Attack Phase rules: "Even the earthlings who stayed in the fight were more apt to sit tight in their defensive positions to await the advance of the Alien forces."
Q: When you take a capital early on (w/ no Earth armies) do they get to create an army adjacent to the capital for a counter attack?
A: No, currently the rules do not provide for this.
This is an interesting suggestion to provide for some "action" around early captures. Alternatively, you can employ some writer's embellishment to relate how the lack of a counter attack is due to the shock and awe effect of the Alien blitzkrieg capture of that first capital.
Q: What happens to the Alien units in a capital that gets nuked?
A: The Alien Armies are eliminated and returned to the Alien Tray.
Thanks for catching this, the rules need to be updated to accurately address this situation. While the result is consistent with the spirit of paragraph 7.E.iv. (which was intended to apply to the situation you describe), the wording of the paragraph says "only Alien Armies" when I instead should have said "when the only armies are Alien Armies."
In retrospect, I think it would be best if I modified 7.E.v and 7.E.vi (nuked Alien Capitals) by adding this sentence to the end of each paragraph: "Any Alien Armies in the territory are eliminated and removed from the board."
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