Alien Conquest Game: Part II

I established the theme of my tactical miniatures game: Bug-eyed alien saucer-men at war against Earth's military might. That sounded like a fun, gonzo opportunity for some light-hearted wargaming. One goal I kept in mind was to keep the violence toned down. These are cartoony toys going to war, not hardened soldiers mired in a battlefield of blood.

Inspiration from Tex Avery

I decided that no character would ever get "killed," only knocked out when they are defeated. Much like in Warner Brothers' Looney Tunes cartoons, characters would be knocked to the ground with tweeting birds flitting around their heads, only to recover soon after. This is the concept behind the role-playing game Toon (created by game design legends Greg Costikyan and Warren Spector).

As a game mechanic, being "knocked out" is the same as "killed" unless there is a way for a character to recover. I allowed characters to revive knocked out allies by spending one game turn next to them. However, this could make the games run long as it takes longer to knock out each and every enemy unit. I needed a different game objective other than wiping out all enemy forces.

Capture to Win

The mechanic I needed came from the Alien Conquest storyline itself: Capture. The Alien forces are working to capture us Earthlings to use our big brains as power sources (most aliens have teeny-tiny brains). Earth's defenders, the ADU (Alien Defense Unit), wants to capture as many aliens as possible to study them and better understand their enemy. I decided that capturing enemy units and bringing them to a player's "home base" on one side of the table would be the game's main objective.

Aliens round up Earthlings

The Alien forces use mind-controlling Pluuvian Brain-Beasts (a.k.a. "Clingers") to capture both innocent Earthling citizens and ADU soldiers alike. Once a Clinger has attached itself to a character's head, the Alien player may move that figure at will on his/her turn. Additionally, Alien troops may escort citizens back to home base with the business end of  a ray gun. Captured Earthlings may be sealed in green capture pods and loaded onto some vehicles.

ADU Forces study captured aliens

The ADU may capture Alien troops by first knocking them out and then slapping a pair of handcuffs on them. Then, they are escorted back to base by ADU troops and may be placed in blue containment pods for study or loading onto vehicles.

Study for Advantage

As further incentive to capture Alien units, I plan to include mechanics allowing the Earth player to find weaknesses to exploit. This is partially inspired by the Alien Cyborg's defeat after someone illogically offered it a birthday cake. Tom Wham's fantastically fun The Awful Green Things from Outer Space is a game all about trying different weapons to fight an unknown, invading alien force with unexpected and hilarious results ("I tried the fire extinguisher on the creature but that just made it grow bigger. Then I threw a bottle of acid at it, causing it to burst into 5 smaller aliens!"). I plan to use something similar for using improvised weapons like oil cans, pizza, birthday cake, etc.

Please note: LEGO® is a trademark of The LEGO Group of companies. This website is not affiliated, authorized, or sponsored by The LEGO Group. I do not claim to represent The LEGO Group and this game is completely my creation. While the project may use the LEGO® Alien Conquest world as a theme, any text about the game's mechanics are under my copyright.

Alien Conquest: a game for NaGa DeMon

This is November and that means National Game Design Month (NaGa DeMon, for short) is here. To celebrate, many game designers volunteered to design, playtest, and play a game of their creation by the end of the month. Click the banner above for more information and feel free to join in on the fun!

My choice for NaGa DeMon is to create a game based on one of my favorite recent LEGO® properties: Alien Conquest from 2011. It is all about green-skinned aliens descending to Earth in flying saucers to harvest the brains of human beings to power their spaceships. It is a fun mix of Mars Attacks and other B-Movie style science fiction motifs in a cartoony, modern setting.

The Alien Invaders

The Alien invaders from Planet X2 1/2 are here to take our brains! A wide variety of bug-eyed bad guys (and gals) come in minifig form, complete with ray guns, flying saucers, and Pluuvian Brain-Beasts (the little one-eyed critters in the front). Who can defend us against this unstoppable menace?

The Alien Defense Unit Forces

The Alien Defense Unit (ADU) is Earth's only hope to fend off the invading aliens. Their team of soldiers, pilots, computer specialists, and scientists will find the invaders' weakness and send those creeps back where they came from!

Alien Conquest had an expansive product line but was short lived. A few of the recent Collectible Minifigures (such as Alien Villainess and Galaxy Patrol) seem to be part of the overall Alien Conquest storyline, but the main line is finished.

After picking up many sets from the series, I realized it had the makings of a great tactical miniatures game. Not your typical grognard slog-fest (that I would certainly enjoy) but a fast-paced, fun game with a lot of tactical decisions and the means to outmaneuver and outthink your opponent. I completed my collection of Alien Conquest sets*, read up on the established back story (such as there is one), and set out to design a new game.

Next update: what is the goal of the game?

Please note: LEGO® is a trademark of The LEGO Group of companies. This website is not affiliated, authorized, or sponsored by The LEGO Group. I do not claim to represent The LEGO Group and this game is completely my creation. While the project may use the LEGO® Alien Conquest world as a theme, any text about the game's mechanics are under my copyright.

* With the exception of the ADU Walker promotional set only available in the UK. Drat!