Alien Menace Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Presentation
• Goal of the Game
• Components
• Setup
• Cards in Hand
• Tokens
• Discard Piles
• Game Turn
  • 1 - Exploration Phase
  • 2 - Marine Phase
  • 3 - Alien Phase
  • 4 - Combat Phase
    • Combat Resolution
    • Combat Result
  • Strategic Retreat
  • End of Combat
• Portal Room and End of Game
• Clarifications

Presentation

In each room, the Alien plays a creature, which the Marine fights with a weapon. Each player may then raise the stakes with special cards and tokens to be the strongest.

If the Alien wins, the creature wounds the Marine, who flees to the next room (if he is wounded in 3 rooms, he dies).

If the Marine wins, he kills the creature, but another may appear, depending on the size of the room. If he kills all the creatures in the room, he advances unharmed to the next room.

Goal of the Game

The Marine must destroy the portal. The Alien must prevent him from doing so.

Components

• 48 Marine cards, 48 Alien cards, 13 Room cards
• 1 reference card
• 16 tokens (one side "+1" / one side "miss")
• 3 Life Point (LP) markers

Card layout (Marine and Alien cards): 1 - Symbol; 2 - Name; 3 - Strength; 4 - Effect; 5 - Number of copies of the card.

Card layout (Room cards): 1 - Name; 2 - Room size; 3 - Number of cards to draw (Marine); 4 - Number of cards to draw (Alien); 5 - Effect.

Setup

1. Flip a coin. The winner chooses whether to be the Marine player or the Alien player. (The game system is designed to give the Alien a slight advantage.)
2. The Alien player shuffles the Marine cards. He then places them as a face-down pile near his opponent to form the "Marine draw pile". The Marine player does the same with the Alien cards to form the "Alien draw pile".
3. Set aside the "Portal" Room card. Shuffle the other Room cards and place them as a face-down pile on top of the Portal card to form the "Room draw pile".
4. Each player takes 2 tokens and places them in front of him. The remaining tokens are placed in a pile. This supply is common.
5. Each player draws the top 6 cards of his draw pile. If he does not like them, he may tell his opponent, shuffle them back into his draw pile and draw 6 new cards, but only once.
6. The Marine player takes the 3 Life Point markers and places them in front of him.

Cards in Hand

The number of cards a player may hold in hand is not limited. At any time, each player has the right to know how many cards his opponent holds in hand.

Tokens

When a player takes one or more tokens, he takes them from the common supply and places them in front of him. If a player must take a token but the common supply is empty, he cannot do so.

Example: The Alien plays a card that allows him to take 4 tokens, but only 3 remain in the common supply. He takes only 3 and "loses" the last one.

Discard Piles

Cards whose effect on the game is over are placed face up in piles called "discard piles". Each player has his own discard pile, placed near his draw pile. Room cards that were not chosen or have already been explored are placed on the Room discard pile, placed near the Room draw pile.

Players have the right to look at the cards in the three discard piles (see example on page 7).

Some cards force a player to discard one or more cards. These cards are placed on their owner's discard pile without having any effect.

Game Turn

A game is played in successive game turns. Each one consists of 4 phases that always follow the same order:

1 - Exploration phase 2 - Marine phase 3 - Alien phase 4 - Combat phase

1 - Exploration Phase

The Alien turns over the first two cards of the Room draw pile and places them face up between the players.

On the first turn, the Marine chooses the one he ventures into: that is the room in which the first game turn takes place. The unused Room card is placed face up next to the Room draw pile. It starts the Room discard pile.

On the following turns, the player who has just lost the combat chooses the next room explored by the Marine. If there was no combat, the Alien chooses. The unused Room card is placed face up on the Room discard pile.

2 - Marine Phase

• The Marine draws the number of Marine cards indicated on the Room card in play.
• He may then play one or more Event cards from his hand (one at a time). Each Event takes effect immediately, then is placed on the Marine's discard pile.
• When the Marine no longer wishes to play Events, he announces to his opponent that it is now up to the Alien to play.

3 - Alien Phase

• The Alien draws the number of Alien cards indicated on the Room card in play.
• He may then play one or more Event cards from his hand (one at a time). Each Event takes effect immediately, then is placed on the Alien's discard pile.
• Finally, the Alien may play a Creature card from his hand. If he does, this starts a combat (see 4 - Combat Phase).
• If he does not play a Creature, there is no combat.
• The Marine takes 2 tokens, and a new turn begins (see 1 - Exploration Phase).

4 - Combat Phase

In each Room, the Marine defends himself against the Creatures that attack him. If he kills them all, he advances without taking any damage. If a Creature wounds him, he loses 1 Life Point (LP) but manages to flee to the next room (without fighting other Creatures in this room). When the Marine loses his last LP, he dies and the Alien wins the game.

Important: The Alien plays only one Creature card at a time. If the Marine kills this Creature, the Alien may play another one (if the size of the room allows it; see below). At no time does the Marine fight several Creatures at once.

Combat Resolution

Each Creature has a Strength. To kill it, the Marine must obtain a Strength greater than or equal to that of this Creature.

To do so, the Marine may, in the order of his choice:

• Play a Weapon card. He places it in front of him, facing the Creature card. Each weapon has a Strength and possibly an effect. Warning: the Marine may play only one Weapon card against each Creature card.
• Play one or more Combat Action cards. He places them in front of him, facing the Creature card (and possibly behind the Weapon he played). The effect of the Combat Action card is applied. The Marine may play one or more Combat Action cards without having played a Weapon card.
• Use one or more of his tokens. He takes a token from those he owns and tosses it into the air. If the token lands on its "+1" face, it gives the Marine a bonus of +1 Strength against this Creature. The Marine may use as many tokens as he wishes, tossing them one at a time. The Marine may use one or more tokens without having played a Weapon card. In that case, if he then decides to play a Weapon card against this Creature, the bonuses obtained with the tokens are added to the Weapon's Strength.

Tokens that gave "+1" are placed on the Weapon card or, if they were used without a Weapon, in front of the player, facing the Creature. Tokens whose result is a miss are spent anyway and are immediately returned to the common supply.

• If the Marine fails to reach a Strength greater than or equal to the Creature's, he loses the combat. Case 1 (see Combat Result, page 6).
• If the Marine reaches a Strength greater than or equal to the Creature's, the Alien has the choice between:
  • doing nothing. The Creature is then killed. Case 2 (see Combat Result, page 6);
  • increasing the Strength of his Creature. To do so, the Alien may, in the order of his choice:
    • play one or more Combat Action cards. He places them in front of him, behind the Creature card. The effect of the Combat Action card is applied. The Alien may not play a Combat Action card without having played a Creature card.
    • use one or more of his tokens. He takes a token from those he owns and tosses it into the air. If the token lands on its "+1" face, it gives this Creature a bonus of +1 Strength. The Alien may use as many tokens as he wishes, tossing them one at a time. Tokens that gave "+1" are placed on the Creature card. Tokens whose result is a miss are spent anyway and are immediately returned to the common supply. The Alien may not use tokens without having played a Creature card.
    • If the Creature's Strength again exceeds the Marine's, the Marine may once more play cards and use tokens to increase his Strength.
    • Remember that the Marine may not play two Weapons against one Creature.
    • In turn, the Marine and the Alien may continue to increase their Strength until one of them stops raising it (because he does not want to or cannot do so). (See Combat Result, page 6.)

Combat Result

• Case 1: The Marine loses the combat. If the Creature has a Strength greater than the Marine's, the Alien wins the combat. The Marine loses 1 LP. If he drops to 0 LP, the Alien wins the game! If he still has 1 or 2 LP, the combat ends for this room (see End of Combat).
• Case 2: The Creature is killed. If the Marine has a Strength greater than or equal to the Creature's, the Creature is killed. The Alien tilts the Creature card on its side to show that it is dead. If the Alien has played in this room a number of Creatures less than the size of the room, he may play another one. If he does, the combat continues (see Combat Resolution). Otherwise, the Marine wins the combat (see End of Combat). If the Alien has already played in this room a number of Creatures equal to the size of the room, the Marine wins the combat (see End of Combat).

Example (see diagram):

• A: The Alien plays a Demon, Strength 2.
• B: The Marine plays a Pump Shotgun, Strength 3.
• C: The Alien plays Poisoned Darts ("This creature has +2 Strength"). His Demon now has 2 + 2 = 4 Strength.
• D: The Marine tosses a token, which lands on the success face. His Strength is therefore also 3 + 1 = 4.
• E: In case of a tie in Strength, the Marine kills the creature. The Alien decides to toss a token, which lands on the wrong face. He could toss another but prefers to keep them for other creatures. He therefore tilts his Demon to show that the Marine has killed it.
• F: The Alien has played only one Creature in a room of size 4, so he may play another: he plays a Carnass, Strength 3, and the combat continues.

Example of combat (diagram on page 7): The Marine has killed the first creature (Demon). The Alien then plays a second one (Carnass), then it is the Marine's turn to play. The Hangar is a room of size 4, so the Alien may play up to 4 Creatures.

Strategic Retreat

Players are never obliged to play their cards or use their tokens. In large rooms especially, the Marine may very well choose to lose the combat even though he has Weapons.

However, be careful: this strategy is risky. It costs 1 LP and gives two tokens to the Alien!

End of Combat

The Room card is placed on the Room discard pile. The Weapon, Creature and Combat Action cards played are placed on their owners' discard piles. The tokens used are returned to the common supply.

• The player who won the combat takes 2 tokens.
• The player who lost the combat chooses the Room card during the next Exploration Phase.
• A new turn begins (see 1 - Exploration Phase).

Portal Room and End of Game

If the Marine reaches the Portal room, the outcome of the combat in this room determines the winner:

• If the Marine wins the combat, he destroys the Portal that threatens humanity and wins the game!
• If the Marine loses the combat (even if he still has 2 or 3 Life Points), the Creatures drag him into their world through the Portal. Nothing can stop the arrival of the invaders: the Alien wins the game!

Clarifications

Cancel cards: The Combat Actions "Force Field", "Terror" and "Jammed Weapon" must be played immediately after the card they cancel. Once other cards have been played or tokens have been used, it is too late. Players must play their Combat Actions one after the other to give their opponent time to play a cancel card in response. Likewise, the Event "Recon Robot" must be played before the effect of the Event it cancels is applied.

Changes to Room size: Two Combat Actions change the size of the Room: "Smoke Grenade" and "Collapsed Wall". These modifications are cumulative. For example, if the Alien played two "Collapsed Wall" cards in a room (size +2) and the Marine played one "Smoke Grenade" (-1), the size of that room is increased by 1. These cards may be played each time a Creature is killed. "Smoke Grenade" may also be played in response to "Collapsed Wall", and vice versa.