rmsgrey
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Posts posted by rmsgrey
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You have a few options.
- There's a thread over on boardgamegeek that reverse engineered the app, so you can find all the details there to set things up yourself.
- You could download the Windows version of the app, which should be compatible with future Windows versions for a long time to come.
- You could buy a $50 tablet dedicated to the game, and keep it and a charger in the game box.
- You could trust that the app, or a fan-made replacement, is going to be available indefinitely.
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Maybe he could point out to you where in the rules it says the Central Officer doesn't have veto power? Purely as a practical matter, Central can stop a player from placing (more) units (legally) by tapping "Done" on the placement step...
It's not an official response, but it should at least encourage him to re-evaluate his arguments.
And it is clear from the rules that it's not up to the Commander to decide when the game can continue - it's the Central Officer who controls the app, and thereby controls the flow of the game, so his refusing to allow the game to continue is not in line with the rules.
If you want an official source, check out this official game preview from FFG: https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2014/12/8/something-has-to-give/ specifically the section titled "build toward victory":
QuoteWhen you play as the Commander, it is your job to track the budget and manage the emergency funds. However, there’s a catch: You don’t actually have the authority to shut down your teammates’ expenditures.
Throughout the game, your teammates will assign units to various tasks based on what they think is the best way to respond to the alien threat, and based on what they believe they can contribute. Each of those units counts against your budget, but your teammates are the ones making the decisions about how many units they assign, and where they assign them – not you.
[image]
This is one of the unique challenges of the Commander’s position within the fully co-operative structure of XCOM: The Board Game. You’re responsible for tracking the budget, but in order to make your efforts meaningful, you need to encourage the cooperation of your teammates.
That makes it entirely explicit that the intention is for control of the budget to be a purely advisory role so far as other players are concerned.
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In easy, you have unlimited pause - the person controlling the app can just hit pause at every step.
At higher difficulties, you can still force a pause by opening the menu.
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What I'd like to see would be a campaign game (not necessarily Legacy, but I could probably live with it) though the tricky part would be designing a suitable opposition force.
My vision is for a squad-tactics game where you play out each combat encounter as a game session, then upgrade and re-equip between games - in other words, the standard XCOM/Total War formula of playing a strategy game in the (very) long run, but having most of the actual game time spent in the tactical game (but with goals and setup arising from the strategic layer) - though a major issue is that if you're doing the strategy right, the tactical battles tend to end up as curb-stomps...
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On 6/13/2017 at 7:45 PM, Mighty Martin said:Hi, sorry if this has been asked before,
I played my first game (solo) today using the tutorial game as instructed and things were going great until turn 4 and I accidentally hit the done button on a section that I hadn't actually DONE, I didn't get a chance to even acknowledge what it was, I couldn’t find a way of returning to it, what happens? is the game screwed or is there a way I can get back to the previous screen?
I've scrapped this current game but any help would be appreciated for future.
If you look at the bottom third of the screen during the Timed phase, there's a (scrollable) window with a complete history of that phase's steps. The only slightly tricky one is the UFO placement, which uses two-letter abbreviations for the six continents or orbit (NA, SA, EU, AF, AS, AU, OB).
During Resolution, there's a button in the bottom left to go back.
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6 hours ago, Runko said:If you have a continent that is let's say 1 space from orange.
After Global defense, 10 ufo's remain on that continent. (later they are moved to orbit i know)
You increase the panic level by 1 and 9 panic levels are "tanked" ?
Exactly. Of course, next round, you're going to have to do something to avoid losing to mass panic.
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Since this has been dug up from the distant past, I've an observation to make about making UFOs go away automatically just because that's how the videogame does it:
The videogame also handles mission choice differently - in the videogame, when you get given a choice of missions, you choose between 3 and get increased panic for the 2 you don't pick. If you're going to clear UFOs after every round, you should also draw an additional Mission and increase Panic in the continents of the Missions you don't choose...
2 hours ago, Thinkpositiv2 said:Hmm, none of your rules show, that UFOs in orbit are removed/destroyed.
He's talking about the specific scenario where
A) A continent has enough UFOs surviving after Global Defense to put it into orange panic.
B) The same round, a Mission on the continent is completed, bringing it back from orange panic.
C) (implied rather than stated) there were no UFOs in orbit after Orbital Defense.
In that situation, the UFOs all stay on the continent and none move to orbit.
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Yeah, if Exalt tokens went away at the end of the turn, there'd be very little point in burning successes to clear them either.
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I don't know for sure, but I've heard a rumour that the card got renamed and is present under a different name.
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Dear FFG,
considering the game's status has now been updated to "on the boat" on Nov 1st, it would be a great thing if you could release the .pdf rules for us to see.
I'm literally dying to play this... the rules could give me some oxygen to hold on until January! :-)
It may be worth remembering that the PDF rules for the base game only came out months after the game itself...
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That information is not hard to find.
Of the 6 listed there, one is on the boat, one is in development, a couple are at the printers, and a couple have several components across various stages. Conclusions to be drawn from that are unclear.
Also, it's clear that that list is incomplete.
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I would imagine that most games announced at GenCon should be available before Christmas.
That didn't work out so well for the base game, though I imagine a lot of the kinks have been ironed out of the app development process after their experience the first time around, so they might be able to hit an earlier target.
Does anyone have any information about the production status of most GenCon announced games?
https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/upcoming/
Assume for a moment that I don't know which games on that list were announced at GenCon and which weren't...
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I would imagine that most games announced at GenCon should be available before Christmas.
That didn't work out so well for the base game, though I imagine a lot of the kinks have been ironed out of the app development process after their experience the first time around, so they might be able to hit an earlier target.
Does anyone have any information about the production status of most GenCon announced games?
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February? That's a lot...
It's basically a few tokens and some cards, which probably come from the same factory, plus the miniatures... coming from some other factory. I'm pretty sure there should be an update to the app... which must include the new cards in the balance of things.
So you're saying they announced at the beginning of August and began production in mid August... that means everything in the mechanics is ready to be implemented.
I find it hard to believe it could go past Xmas but if I was FFG I would announce a date or... begin pre-ordering since they have their own shop page.
Is there a way to tell for sure? Somewhere the DEVs would answer the question?
6 months is a fairly standard turn-around for Kickstarter board-game projects where the game is fully designed and the KS is just being used to fund production.
It takes a long time to manufacture tens or hundreds of thousands of games, and it takes a long time to ship bulk freight around the planet. As I say, I'm just making an educated guess at when the game will arrive, but it is an educated one.
CommissarFeesh reacted to this -
I can see it's at the printers... the announcement was done exactly one month ago... so... when is Evolution going to be up for sales? I'd like to order both together so I'm waiting for that before I order XCom base game itself.
It was updated to "At the Printer" on the 15th of August (before that, it was "In Development"). Time taken to print is listed as being "many months". Once it changes status again to "On the Boat" it'll be less than 2 months away from reaching shops (four to six weeks on the boat; 7-10 days shipping). Rough guess: don't expect it before February next year.
Disclaimer: I am not an employee of FFG, nor affiliated with any shipper or distributer of board-games, so my guess is based mostly on what's on the Upcoming page itself, which is sufficiently vague that I could easily be wrong by a couple of months - I'd still be surprised to see it in shops this year - pleasantly surprised, but still surprised.
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FFG announcement article: https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/xcom-the-board-game/products/evolution/
Things that can be gleaned from the article:
- Exalt are represented by tokens that can be added to and removed from the board, and make tasks Dangerous while they're on the board.
- There are at least 3 plastic figures.
- There's a 6-sided Threat die.
- There are at least 2 new Missions with Meld - and one of them has an additional text condition associated with its first task.
- There are new alien cards - though they might just be replacements for existing aliens.
- There's an entirely new small card type.
- There are "destruction cards" associated with the Annihilation invasion plan.
- There are new Tech cards - including one that adds yet more competition for the Central Officer's Satellites, and one that can deal with EXALT tokens.
- There's a Meld Token that shows which Missions are eligible for an extra reward for speedy progress (the example has the Meld reward for the second Task).
- The Chief Scientist has a Cybernetics Lab that has something to do with MEC Troopers.HolisticDeveloper reacted to this -
My machine's not exactly cutting edge (motherboard and CPU are 8 years old; graphics card 6 years old; RAM upgraded a couple of times) and runs it without a hitch. It's a Unity-based app, so the min spec for the Windows version should be pretty close to the min spec for the Android/iPhone/Kindle versions.
So long as your PC is more powerful than a typical smart phone, it shouldn't be a problem.
CommissarFeesh reacted to this -
1) For non-enemy mission tasks, if I fail it I think the soldier does not die (is that correct?).
2) If that task is failed, can I attempt the task again? If so, does a different soldier need to attempt it?
1) If you roll a Loss on any Task, you lose (or Exhaust) the Unit(s) involved. The only way the Soldier wouldn't die is if you had UFO Flight or Revive and an appropriate Unit on hand to use them with
2) After rolling a Loss, you may continue with the same Task so long as you still have eligible Units available - either due to saving an Interceptor with Defense Matrix or because you're in ground combat and still have some assigned Soldiers left (either due to Revive or because you didn't commit all the assigned Soldiers to that roll).
CommissarFeesh reacted to this -
I've now played the game three times and have a few questions on how things work.
1) Am I supposed to be shuffling cards back into play after each round is over? (spent enemy cards, discared cards, mission cards etc)
2) Can tech & asset cards be used for only their character's actions, or can they be used at any time? For example, the Chief Intel Officer has a card that lets him reroll an enemy die, can he do that only for his roles, or could that card instead be used on a Commander's interceptors
I've been reading through a few forums and haven't yet found any definite answers for these Qs.
1) You're half right - In the Refresh step of the Resolution Phase, the app should tell you to put all discarded cards on the bottom of their decks - you should only ever shuffle a deck before play begins, or when a Crisis tells you to shuffle the Crisis deck. The basic idea is that discards go to the bottom of their deck, but, rather than slowing things down during the Timed Phase, you just put them in a discard pile until the end of the round. Personally, I don't bother recycling discarded Missions since even if you don't unlock the Final Mission early, you'll still only draw the 12 Missions once each. Other decks either have a chance to loop round, or a way to interact with the discards, so I follow the rules on them.
2) Compare the wording of Satellite Uplink with the wording of Carapace Armor - or Satellite Targeting with Holo-Targeting - in both cases, the Central Officer gets a version of the effect that can affect any player, while the Squad Leader's version only works on his own Tasks. In general, the cards mean exactly what they say - ones that only work on specific Tasks will say so.
MadLarkin and CommissarFeesh reacted to this -
Finally won my first game
solo play on easy on Domination. Totally a make-or-break turn, I had to tank the final mission in one go as there were so many UFOs left on the board I had virtually zero chance of the world not falling into panic next round. Talk about tense Had a couple of games last night - won both
The second game we did Domination on Hard - despite having to have a second go at the Final Mission we won on turn 6. Actually crushed the alien invaders; we ended with 93 points (could have been 96 if I had left on UFO on the map (cost three interceptors in killing it and risked the three Satellites to kill the UFO I left in orbit)
All continents were in the yellow, base was undamaged, one ufo left in orbit and three dead interceptors and three dead troops. Kicked. Ass.
Looks like we'll have to play Expert next time...
Wouldn't it have been 95 points (2 UFOs; 3 dead soldiers)?
I've won a solo game on Expert (mostly proving a point) - I forget which invasion plan.
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To use the current buzz-word: XCOM Legacy
Though once you go the campaign route for XCOM, it's more natural to bring it back to being a squad-based tactical combat game - rather than spending most of the time on the strategic layer, play each round out as a co-operative tactical game, and use the strategic side to tie the campaign together - there are decent cardboard AIs out there that can provide tactical opposition for a co-op game, or you can have a player take the alien role.
For the strategic layer, again, you could have a human to run the aliens, but an app might be better - or a Pandemic Legacy style stacked deck if you're happy with a less reactive opposition.
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Husker949 has it right, but I like the sound of my own voice, so I thought I'd expand a little on the Threat question:
If you check the rules carefully, Threat changes in the following ways:
A) Threat is set to 1 before starting a new Task (except when changing Tasks during Base Defense or moving to the next Task during Mission resolution)
B) Threat increases by 1 after applying the results of a roll
C) Threat increases by 1 before rolling the first time against a Chryssalid with Implant
D) Threat decreases by 1 each time someone uses Satellite Targeting or Holo-Targeting
There's no concept of "the fifth roll against a Task is at 5 Threat" - rather, when you roll at 4 Threat, the Threat then increases to 5 after applying the results of the roll. It doesn't matter whether you were at 4 Threat because it was your second roll and both rolls were against different Chryssalids, or because it was your ninth roll, and you'd used two Satellites and three Heavies on the relevant Tech cards to hold the Threat down.
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Thanks.
As a tactic, would it be best to send a single soldier at a time to attack enemies (once the Threat gets fairly high)?
Yeah, the break-even point is about 3 threat - after that, you're better only risking one soldier at a time - the saving comes when you would have rolled more successes than you needed and lost the soldiers at the same time - you actually get slightly fewer successes on average if you roll until you lose all your soldiers one soldier at a time from threat 4 or earlier, but you lose fewer soldiers on average if you roll until you succeed one soldier at a time. Actually, you only start saving once the number of successes you need to roll drops below the number of dice you're rolling, but that happens pretty often.
And, of course, you have the option to give up after losing one soldier rather than going all or nothing - which gives you a much lower chance of success, but significantly reduces your risk.
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So basically on a mission card, you need at least three dice rolls, since they all seem to have aliens or skill checks of that number on them?
Yeah, I can see why the SHIV and Holotargeting are good to have early, you can actually keep that alien dice roll at something sane to burn through a mission in the same turn you draw it.
Yeah, all the Missions (and Final Missions) have three Tasks - either fixed skill sets or slots for enemy cards - so, unless you use something that lets you get a success without rolling, you'll need to roll at least 3 times to complete a Mission. If any of the enemies is a Thin Man with the Infiltrate ability, then you'll need at least one additional roll to deal with their replacement (barring Arc Thrower use).
There is one situation where you can ignore one or more Mission Tasks entirely - and that's when you've emptied the Enemy deck by taking lots of Salvage and not spending it. It does mean missing out on the benefits of Salvage while you're collecting it, and pretty much requires Archangel Armor to make it viable, but if you can pull it off, you can then ignore Base Defense and Missions become significantly easier. I'm not convinced it's worth doing - even if you don't get any Techs that use it, just feeding Salvage into the Laboratory offers a significant boost, and, unless things break in your favour, it'll be Round 4 or 5 before you get any benefits...
solo play on easy on Domination. Totally a make-or-break turn, I had to tank the final mission in one go as there were so many UFOs left on the board I had virtually zero chance of the world not falling into panic next round. Talk about tense
BSG and all expansions - reprint?
in Battlestar Galactica
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The best information available is that FFG/Asmodee no longer has the Battlestar Galactica license, so there won't be any reprints until/unless that changes.