Add Some Alien Intelligence To Your XCOM Game
September 19, 2014 by deltagamegirl22
Fantasy Flight Games has posted a preview of the companion application that will be used in playing their upcoming release, XCOM: THE BOARD GAME.
It states that the app which is available as a download or online, is the integral part of the game. This app is what determines alien activity and helps create the tension of the game.
There are two phases in the game when it come to the application: a timed phase when you get alien activity alerts and an untimed phase when you have to respond to these new changes. Now you need to remember there are time limits on how the players respond to these new threats.
The Communications Officer is responsible for communicating to the players new actions and controls the pause clock. This clock can be activated to give players an opportunity to conform a census and determine the appropriate responses. However, you must remember there is only so much time before it is all gone and then it's shooting from the hip.
Also, your responses to the alien activity have to be deliberate and timely or you might loose your satellite activity and then your alien action forecaster and intelligence network gets scrambled and you are now in reactive mode versus proactive.
There are so many dimensions to this game that it should keep players on the edge of their seat. This is one game I really wanted to get in a demo of at GenCon, but not only were the tables packed but so were the people standing around watching. This is another game that is taking advantage today's technology to enhance your game play. As you know I have posted a few items about another game that embraces technology as a central part of game play and some of you did not seem impressed, I honestly think XCOM: THE BOARD GAME will grab you and not let go!
How will you respond to the alien invasion?
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I’m probably the wrong side of 40 for this but I treat games as a time to put the damned phones and fondleslabs away.
I have pre ordered this already and can’t wait.
Yah, these is like doing a port from a console game to pc, but telling that you still need the console to play the pc version, what’s the point? if I wanted to play xcom with my phone or PC, I’d download de damn xcom for phone or PC.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with using an app like this for a boardgame, especially if only 1 person in the game is using it. It really defines their role as the communication officer if they’ve got the phone.
To me it sounds like a good idea and has a lot more potential for challenge and difficult decisions as compared to say an AI deck of cards.
That sounds actually cool, as opposed to some of the early gimmicky attempts to integrate apps and tabletop. Though honestly, what i’d like in a wargame is a simple cam-program that lets me aim the phone on a model and tells me it’s stats and/or status changes via shape recognition (so I dont have to manually input the models stats).
I’ll keep an open mind then. Maybe the good folks at BoW could lay on a demo game so we can see how smoothly it goes.
I think if digital apps are going to integrate into board gaming, Fantasy Flight are going to be the company with the funding to get it right. I think it opens up some interesting possibilities and just like Golem Arcana, allows the company to tweak anything within the app as an update without having to release an entire second edition. Also, if I remember rightly, I’m sure I heard there are 4 different AI types on release of which you play a randomly selected one. Being digital makes it much easier for FFG to just release a new AI for… Read more »