GF9’s Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps Loses its Aim - Review

Ah thanks, mixed up my WW2 minis games.

It appears that at least the Xenomorphs and the power loader frame are the Prodos casts, which isn't a complete surprise as some of the packaging says it was made in Poland.

So, I read your review and I'd like to ask a few things and contemplate some ideas with you.

Over the use of the deck, I believe the reason they went that route with exhausting it, was to make you rush through each mission as fast as possible. It would make sense that certain weapons would use a lot more, forcing you to pick different weapons as equipment as they move mission to mission. So instead of always having a smart gun equipped, maybe drop to the pulse rifle and pistol. (Although pistols do suck.) I find this working well.

As a first edition, sure maybe they need to revisions to the rules, I have never seen a working rulebook first edition that ever worked properly. From games workshop, to special rules for risk, to avp: the hunt begins.

Pertaining to the miniatures themselves, as I will be putting mine together in a few weeks, I watched a miniature tutorial on youtube. The miniature guide seems to work well. Easier than the avp resin models hands down. (As I bought a lot of those models, both fiest and second edition.) Maybe having a unicast might have been better for the box set, and modeling set for the other side releases.

Watching people's first reactions to the first mission (first always seemed to be hyped up, so I'll not dwell on it too much) seemed really impressive. You say you didnt like it beyond the first, how many other players did you play with? As I hear the difficulty increases per player, maybe try it as difficulty increases?

I look forward to the simplicity of the models for the hobby as now that prodos miniatures died, this is the only way to get decent models cheaply. Plastic is always easier than resin.

Duende wrote: So, I read your review and I'd like to ask a few things and contemplate some ideas with you.

Over the use of the deck, I believe the reason they went that route with exhausting it, was to make you rush through each mission as fast as possible. It would make sense that certain weapons would use a lot more, forcing you to pick different weapons as equipment as they move mission to mission. So instead of always having a smart gun equipped, maybe drop to the pulse rifle and pistol. (Although pistols do suck.) I find this working well.

As a first edition, sure maybe they need to revisions to the rules, I have never seen a working rulebook first edition that ever worked properly. From games workshop, to special rules for risk, to avp: the hunt begins.

Pertaining to the miniatures themselves, as I will be putting mine together in a few weeks, I watched a miniature tutorial on youtube. The miniature guide seems to work well. Easier than the avp resin models hands down. (As I bought a lot of those models, both fiest and second edition.) Maybe having a unicast might have been better for the box set, and modeling set for the other side releases.

Watching people's first reactions to the first mission (first always seemed to be hyped up, so I'll not dwell on it too much) seemed really impressive. You say you didnt like it beyond the first, how many other players did you play with? As I hear the difficulty increases per player, maybe try it as difficulty increases?

I look forward to the simplicity of the models for the hobby as now that prodos miniatures died, this is the only way to get decent models cheaply. Plastic is always easier than resin.

Killer first post.

How many times have you played this?

Over the use of the deck, I believe the reason they went that route with exhausting it, was to make you rush through each mission as fast as possible. It would make sense that certain weapons would use a lot more, forcing you to pick different weapons as equipment as they move mission to mission. So instead of always having a smart gun equipped, maybe drop to the pulse rifle and pistol. (Although pistols do suck.) I find this working well.

Thanks for the thoughtful response Duende...the deck as timer is actually a great concept, and I very much like that blazing away with a smart gun or going full auto exhausts your resources, and therein your time. The weapon variety makes for some good decision points. But the problem with the deck lies in that it is really kind of the chief focus of the game, and it’s so fiddly compared to other games that have used similar mechanisms. I also don’t like the reveal a card for effect thing here- everything being in one deck winds up making everything more fussy than it needs to be, which leads to messiness.

As a first edition, sure maybe they need to revisions to the rules, I have never seen a working rulebook first edition that ever worked properly. From games workshop, to special rules for risk, to avp: the hunt begins.

Let me stop you right there. There are COUNTLESS rule books that work flawlessly without the need for revisions or extensive FAQS out of the gate, barring complex with miniature games with multiple factions and interactions. This is not that kind of game. There is no excuse for this game to not be as polished and finished as other similar titles from competitors.

And rest assured- this will likely be the ONLY edition of this game.


Pertaining to the miniatures themselves, as I will be putting mine together in a few weeks, I watched a miniature tutorial on youtube. The miniature guide seems to work well. Easier than the avp resin models hands down. (As I bought a lot of those models, both fiest and second edition.) Maybe having a unicast might have been better for the box set, and modeling set for the other side releases.

I’m more put off by the low quality than the assembly to be honest. They are standard quality for board games but for miniatures games they are poor. The aliens are OK but weren’t worth the effort. They were a chore, as compared to GW models wheree assembly is part of the hobby.

Watching people's first reactions to the first mission (first always seemed to be hyped up, so I'll not dwell on it too much) seemed really impressive. You say you didnt like it beyond the first, how many other players did you play with? As I hear the difficulty increases per player, maybe try it as difficulty increases?

The first mission is way better than all of the others. It’s a mobile scenario, it plays quick, and had a lot of drama. The rest range from OK to terrible. The bug Hunt missions are junk. I played solo, with two, and with three. The difficulty didn’t really seem to increase that much if you scale the motion tracker cards as stated in the rule book. Also note that my solo games I played with 1 hero and five grunts or with all six as heroes.

I look forward to the simplicity of the models for the hobby as now that prodos miniatures died, this is the only way to get decent models cheaply. Plastic is always easier than resin.

I don’t know, given the level of detail I wouldn’t be willing to do more than a quick Contrast job on these.

I ended up getting a copy of this and I feel for those with little to no skill in assembling models.

I think the quality is fine (detail is better than FFG, Ares, and others but not as good as maybe CMON or Awaken Realms better stuff), but the Aliens are a pain in the ass with their tails and feet that don't have pegs for the bases.

Speaking of the bases, they're the best part. Love the scenic details and the names of the marines.

Welp, this thread inspired me to seek out Space Hulk. After calling around, I found one store that "had one in the back" and I was able to go down and pick it up. Latest edition, super pumped to get it assembled and painted and hopefully enjoy something close to an Aliens experience.

Space Hulk promises you man versus alien in desperate battle and you get man versus alien in desperate battle. While it kind of captures the space marines versus aliens part of the second movie it doesn't have a Ripley.

Deathwatch Overkill > Space Hulk

If you aren’t set on miniatures and a map, Legendary Encounters is good.

My friend and I replayed the first mission of with correct rules and lower character count ( and thus less alien blip card draws ) . I think 4 characters and two "Grunts" aka NPCs are probably the right mix. We also picked characters vs random draw - you def want some "officer" types since they have better card cycling abilities.

Aside from the totally horrid mini assembly, the game play is still a mixed bag IMO. You spend a LOT of time flipping, shuffling and managing the card draw piles. Deck management is abstractly thematic in that it sort of functions as a timer/ammo thing, but it takes up a lot of the game play IMO.

The game is fairly thematic in that you really feel desperate at times. Unfortunately in a co-op, this means player elimination - fairly hard to avoid in the 3 scenario campaign game it would seem - is a downer. And while the game scales player wise for alien draws, it also penalizes larger parties since they'll have more cards on their character, thus less cards in the draw deck. This means the VERY nasty red Hazard cards will pop up more often. Some are pretty brutal. In two games, one character drew a card on the first turn which forces 2 cards to be DISCARDED - i.e. more or less permanently out of the draw deck. This condition continues til they attack aliens - which on turn 1 is impossible. The card is also very hard to remove.

Overall this game seems a mixed bag at best. We are gonna give scenario 2 a go Saturday to see what happens.

Did I mention the mini assembly utterly blows ?

I've played four games of it now and hovering around 3/5 stars. I definitely like it more than Michael, but I do think it has issues.

I'm reviewing it for Ars so still gathering thoughts and seeking more plays.

charlest wrote:
I'm reviewing it for Ars so still gathering thoughts and seeking more plays.

Charlie is sending us all thoughts and plays. Insert conservative joke here.

This was a good review, thank you! I've linked your work in our article about the game: alkony.enerla.net/english/the-nexus/boar...game-base-set-review

"these minis are more fiddly than space hulk"

More fiddly than the push fit, famously easy to assemble GW minis?

If you don't like games that involve the miniature hobby, maybe don't buy miniature games?

Gale force 9 sell tools and scalpels and all those things you mentioned that are needed. Funny that.

It's crazy that the biggest problem with board game miniatures is when they are provided assembled and arrive as a bendy, poorly casted mess. Hard plastic sprues are the gold standard - I see a guy here is struggling with Warhammer Underworlds figures??? Those are like sets you'd buy for a kid who had never assembled a miniature before. If you hate building miniatures dont play a miniature game that requires miniatures. Damn, you got me whining now