Nemesis Board Game Review

By: Justin Hopkins

It is the beginning of the most wonderful time of year and no better way to get things rolling then with a horror Board Game Nemesis. Made by Adam Kwapinski, Rebel and Awaken Realms. A big box game, inspired by the Alien Movies. Where, you or a group of friends take on the role of a member of a space crew, who is tasked to try and survive “Intruder” attack, while each trying to pull off a secret agenda each player has. Some could be team based or make sure it gets to Earth to the far more diabolical ones of make sure you are the only survivor but more on that later. With how beefy this game is, lets jump right in and start discussing shall we.

The Rundown

So, this is quite the large game and has a bit of a set up time. Even down to what side of the board you wish to use. For the first few games, would definitely suggest the starting side and not the hard side. Shuffle the room pieces and set them face down and topped with smaller tokens. That could represent stuff like slime, fire, broken or nothing. do the same with the engine tokens and random draw a coordinate card without looking. So you don’t know where you are going. Set up the monster bag accordingly and the Intruder Board with eggs and three hidden weaknesses that can be unveiled by taking a human corpse, alien corpse and an egg to the lab. From there you pick your character and their associated deck along with a corporate and personal agenda cards. Keep them both for now, one player gets the player one token and it is time to start the game. Everyone starts in the Hibernation Room with a dead crew member token in the room. You draw five cards and start your turn. You have two actions, some actions call on you to discard, one of which, is explore. Means you can go to a room, if it is unexplored, flip over the piece and the smaller piece to reveal what room it is and what is going on inside said room. Fire, broken, slime. As well as a number of items hidden in the room. If no one is in the room, you have to roll for noise. Placing a noise marker in that numbered corridor. If two markers appear in the room. Remove all the markers attached to the room and draw from the Monster Bag. Placing whatever Intruder miniature you pulled from the bag into the room with you. If their level is greater than the umber of cards you have left in your hand. A surprise attack happens and you have to draw a card to reveal the damage. Unless it is a larva, then you get an infected card and place him on your player board. If this is the first Intruder to appear, each player selects one of the agendas, Corporate or Personal, to keep and discard the other. That becoming their goal for the remainder of the game. Back on the board, you can fight the intruder. Which costs ammo and a roll to see how much damage you administer. Maker the alien and draw a card. If its health is lower you kill an. Higher it lives. You can also try to run and you can get cards to help. Otherwise, the alien may be taking one more swipe at you. Once a person has taken their two turns, it goes to the next and back and forth till everyone has passed or exhausted all of their cards. Which begins the Event Phase. The timer for Hyperdrive goes down one. Same with Self-Destruction if that is active. Draw an event card, Alien attacks or moves and draw a monster token and resolve what comes out. Pass the player one token to the next player and keep going. You can re-enter the Hibernation Pod when the timer gets to the blue, but you better make sure two of the three engines are working, otherwise the ships blows up. If a player has died, self-destruct gets to yellow or you have a key, you can try for the escape pod. Of course, both will require a noise roll and don’t forget to check those infected cards to make sure you are not infected, or you will die from that.

Review

This game might seem pretty intimidating to fist pick up. It is a heavy box, with a lot of pieces and a short story of a rulebook, but honestly, once the game gets going. Everything runs like a dream. You start working out strategies and dealing with the ever changing situations and sucks you right in and all the things disappear into the story and experience and the real trouble hits; how hard this game can be.

The phrase, and everything was going so well never rings more true then Nemesis. Had a game where we had all but one room explored and before we knew it; nearly every adult was on the board and the Queen was chasing me around. It did not take them long to finish us off. Another game where everything was going so well, when the card that kills you if you have a larva popped up and I was dead. So frustrated and so ready to try again, because when all the strategies pay off and you make it across the finish line. This game gives you such a raw, wonderful feeling of achievement.

I love the fact that this isn’t a pure Co-Op game. Sure you work together on some stuff, but you each have that agenda card. Which adds a whole new level to the game. You can be a good person, who is trying to do the right thing cause your goal is to save everyone or make sure we get to Earth, but they can’t be sure cause you could be lying cause you may have picked an evil card (me, I always pick the evil card) Which can be something as simple as get away with an egg or be the only survivor. Adding even more strategy and trying to figure out who to kill the others without it looking like it is on purpose. So many different ways to play and all depends on what you decide to do with your character.

This game is gorgeous. From the detailed board and so many cards. The miniatures are lovely. If you love painting figures you really hit the jackpot with this box and if you don’t. They still look great. A lot of love went into making the box and it shows.

I don’t have any negatives to say. It is more on the pricey side, but they really give you your moneys worth with everything inside. For Board Game fans, especially those who love the alien movies, will love this game. It’s even a fun game to play solo and a blast to play with friends. Couldn’t suggest adding it to your collection more.

As always, I hope you enjoyed reading and….

Thank You For Reading!

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