AvP Unleashed

Aliens vs Predator: Unleashed

My name's David/Dave/Coma, I've been reading White Dwarf since the 80s (Thrud was my hero) and gaming since the early 90s.  I'll play pretty much any wargame and boardgame that comes my way but my regular games at the time of writing this are 40K, Age of Sigmar, AvP:Unleashed, Star Wars: Legion, Star Wars: Armada and Star Trek Ascendancy.

These are my random thoughts of my recent experience with AvP: Unleashed

A few years ago I backed a Kickstarter from a company called Prodos for a board game called AvP: Hunt Begins, after many problems and delays I finally received my new game and the world was a happy place.

A few years on I've picked up the expansion rules for the game, called AvP: Unleashed.  This allows you to use all the shiny from the board game (all of which can be bought separately if you have no interest in the board game) in a tabletop game.  Grab your sci-fi scenery and scatter, put together some forces and go murder each other.  Deploy your sentry guns to mow down hordes of xenomorphs before they get too close.  Get cut to pieces by predators throwing smart disks.  Spawn more aliens by facehugging people.  All your favourite stuff from Aliens, AvP and Predator is in there somewhere (apart from named characters from Aliens and Predator as they are separate licences to AvP).

 We've played a handful of games so far and I have to say I love it.  At the moment I am playing it in preference to 40K which for me is impressive as I love 40K.

A quick paragraph to give you an idea of how the game works.  All rolls are on a D20 and you are aiming low with 1 being a "powershot" (critical) and 20 being a fumble (lose your remaing APs).  Initiative is rolled at the start of a turn, the winner plays or passes and then activates one unit.  The opponent then activates a unit and so on.  Each model in a unit generally has 2 action points to spend (3 for predators and some others).  Its a free action to pivot, 1 to move, 2 to run, 1 to fire your gun, 1 to smash someone in the face 2 to go on overwatch and so on.  You can use your actions in any order but you can never do the same action twice.  Each model in a unit can spend their actions differently, so feel free to run 2 Marines ahead while the 2 at the back go on sentry (overwatch).

So what do I love so much:

• Aliens is one of my favourite movies of all time.  Marines vs Xenos is my favourite match up so far and it feels like the movie.  Aliens get shredded by the Marine's fire but if a couple get in the Marines are toast.  Plus as the Aliens player you place blips on the table and move them around.  Makes it fun for your opponent as all they know is the base size of the models in the unit under that blip!
• The cinematics of the game are amazing, want to create a wall of fire with your flamethrower which hurts the enemy if they run through it?  Go for it.  Want your queen to have seeded the battlefield with eggs beforehand which facehug anyone who gets to close?  No problem.  Marines holed up on the second floor of that building?  No worries the Aliens can run up the walls and in through the windows!  Want your badly wounded Predator to blow himself up hurting or killing everyone around him?? Awesome!
• The minis for the most part are lovely.  The resin multi-part ones, although a little flimsy are fantastic.  My only complaint being some of the Predators have mesh over their skin and are a nightmare to paint!
• The balance feels about right so far.  Aliens are a horde of close combat monsters that spray acid when they die.  Marines are physically quite squishy but have immense firepower and can  ride in the APC and Dropship from aliens (yes there are rules and models for both).  The Predators are incredibly elite and its nightmare just trying to bring one of them down.

There are a few minor things that bug me, most of which are easily solved:

• Its rolling low.  I don't know, maybe its just me but having to roll low to succeed still doesn't sit well with me!
• There is no 3 player mode.  This seems really odd in a game featuring Marines, Xenos and Predators!  However with a couple of minor house rules and mission tweaks this can be easily added.
• Missing stuff, the game has been out a couple of years now and there are still a lot of missing miniatures that there are rules for in the book.  Get ready to proxy models if you want try all the toys!
• The layout of the book isn't great and the index is terrible.  Be prepared to hunt for those rules.

So there you go, my random thoughts on the game so far for anyone that's interested.

Useful Links:

Prodos AvP games and miniatures:

http://shop.prodosgames.com/8-alien-vs-predator

Thoroughly recommended UK based gaming store that do the miniatures at at discount:

https://www.darksphere.co.uk/c.php?c=1616

Fantastic and relatively inexpensive bases that are perfect for AvP
http://fenrisgames.com/shop#!/Sulaco/c/6759449/offset=0&sort=normal
http://fenrisgames.com/shop#!/Sulaco-Hive/c/6759462/offset=0&sort=normal