Xenofaction

I have had the opportunity to play this game while it was still in development, and I must say, it was the most fun I have had with a board game in quite a long time.

The game-play is fast paced, and there is never a dull moment with the game changing at every twist and turn.

I would highly recommend this game to anyone who wants to try a new game that utilizes unique new game-play elements and designs.

This game is Amazing! If you ever wanted to play a tabletop game like Warhammer 40k without buying tons of models and then having to invest time and energy into painting them then this is your game. The board alone is mind-blowing.

Any deductions I give this game are due to it being first run and the publisher not using kickstarter to its fullest. There are a literal ton of spelling mistakes. These mistakes don't stop the game from flowing but are not something you want to see after you dropped all that dough on this game. The fan base should have been used to revise the rulebook and character cards.

In addition to the above, this is one of the few games I bought and when I open it, feels incomplete. I don't like the idea of using the wax pencils to write on the character sheets. Instead I bought 200 5mm d6s to use as health, ammo, and armor counters. In addition I use metal coins that I got from the Among The Stars Kickstarter for Victory Points. This works Great because I can use the 1's for infected, 2's for player characters killed, 3's for robots, 5's for missions, and 10's to either condense 5's or for special events.

I hope my review does not discourage you from this game. I just want it to inform you where this game is at. I'm hoping that in a few years when version 2 is out this game is so far beyond this review. But until then it needs a fan base and I hope you will join it!

My friend Chris brought this game to my Tuesday night game group. We played a four player game, then after every one got there we played a 8 hour 8 player game. My most favorite game in the world is War Hammer. This game is Epic in the same way War Hammer is, but with out all the head set up head ache and money. I think if Fantasy Flight or Wizards of The Coast got a hold of this, games work shop would have to step it up for War Hammer. The guys who made this game are like crazy board game surgeons. They have no idea how to spell or write and even if they could you cant read the doctor scribble. On the flip side the rules were still easy to follow and made sense and made an incredible game.

First my Graze Inquisitors rushed onto the station and wiped out 2 infected lurking in the hall ways. Next the Xil Xarix landed their drop ship two docking ports away and with the help of a action card and phase beacons, created a hive at the entrance to the umbilical. The minbar stormed onto the station in force, dispatched some drones and took over the robotics room. It just got crazy fast from there. The combat was quick easy and exciting.

The races we played were; Amoniens, Mintar, Xil'Xarix, Dwern, Nel'Varin, Graze, Quatic Mari and Ssalssariss.

They put a lot of thought into the powers and weapons. Names like Gravity Sinewators, Drudge Blasters, Rupture Cannons and my favorite the Brain Fist. I can't say enough. We are going to play next Tuesday too. I really want to try the Gendari. One more thing who ever did the art on this game was very talented, the symbols used are awesome, they would look great on t-shirts and hats. I would definitely love to throw on a T with a Graze symbol on it. I hope they get this to the store shelf soon.

I had a chance to play this game when one of the creators dropped it off at the local game store. my boyfriend and I were at. He was talking to the owner very passionately about the game. After he left we asked the owner what the game was. He called it xenofaction. The owner said that he dropped it off for free for any body to play at the store and welcomed comments. So we asked the owner if we could play. He not only let's us play but he played with us and another guy hangin out at the store played too. When we first started we were a little intimidated by the number of pieces and the size. After a quick read through the rules and a five min setup we played through the first round really slowly. After the first round though it was fast. Most of the time I play a game on my phone while waiting for my turn but the way this game is set up you can participate using your action cards at any time. I really like the way the N.P.C. units, as they called them, moved and attacked. After a four hour game we noticed two other people sitting near us just watching. My boy friend immediately said let's play again. The owner said he had to watch the desk but he other two guys joined in. After another six hour game I can honestly say we were addicted. We will be back next weekend to play. I played the ambien and the quatic mari races. They were so different from each other and we'll thought out. I can't wait to play a different one. I think there may have been nine all together but the owner said the creator would be back in a week with all the expansions and there are eight more races in that. Oh and what was really cool was the grit mat board.

Comments based on the Kickstarter edition after one 4-player game.

Game play: This is a fun, relatively fast-paced game that combines several elements into a well-functioning package. We really liked the variety of mission options, the faction differentiation and the NPC turns interspersed between player turns. It can be difficult to get your reinforcements on the board at times, but this does increase the intensity of the game.

My actual rating based on playing this game is 8.5; the reduced score of 6.5 is due to the factors detailed below.

The rulebook, while not too difficult to decipher, is very poorly written. It seems at times that someone with an advanced English Lit degree decided to write a thesis that breaks as many grammatical rules as possible without creating a work that is completely unintelligible. Multiple redundancies, poor phrasing and design rationale interspersed inside the body of several rules make reading the Xenofaction rulebook an annoying experience at best. I had read the demo/WIP rulebook and asked the creator if it would be edited prior to publication (being in much the same state as the final version) before committing to backing this Kickstarter project; his 'yes' answer is a bit irksome at this point as it has obviously not been edited into at least a semi-professional state.

Markers and cards: the game's markers are quite good; they're colorful and printed on heavy chipboard. What little text is on each isn't obscured by the faction icons (which are much easier for me to see than 6-point text these days).

The Action Card deck, laminated faction tracking/reference cards, dropship cards and player aids are likewise well done, aside from a couple of unfortunate typos and grammatical errors. I'd have been happier if the player initiative track had been mounted on chipboard (similar to that used for the LOS tool), but it functions well enough.

Game board: this is a huge board, very nicely rendered, and is very colorful. We had some difficulty at first in determining the red and green play boundary markers that restrict movement and/or LOS due to similar hues being used in the board's artwork; a few moments of looking closely at the board helped us to differentiate between the 'background noise' and the functional lines on the map.

I do have a few problems with the board. It's a 6-panel map, taped into two 3-panel halves which, by itself, doesn't create any difficulties as the two halves line up just fine (for the most part; see below) and the tape used seems to be sturdy enough to handle repeated unfolding/storage without incident. Each map panel is mounted on fairly flimsy chipboard and does not have a finished or sealed backing; it looks (and feels) as if adhesive sheets were mounted on leftover notepad backings. While a mousepad-style board was offered during the Kickstarter campaign for a more than modest amount (some 2/3 the cost of the actual game), I didn't know that it would be a necessary upgrade due to the low quality of the included board.

One final problem, specific to my board, is that one of the adhesive sections was miscut prior to being affixed to the backing board; this left an annoying white line between two of the panels on one of my board halves. While it doesn't disrupt game-play, it creates an unnecessary and completely avoidable eyesore on an otherwise attractive map.

So, will I continue to play this game? Absolutely! If you can get past all of the minor-to-moderate issues with this iteration of the game, it's definitely a great way to spend an afternoon or evening. But I do hope that Theory 12 Games will (at the very least) hire an editor and/or proofreader before marketing a non-exclusive version of this very cool game.