If you haven’t played Nemesis, check out my thoughts in the review of the game – it’s just based on the first wave of kickstarter, but a really enjoyable story based game with a lot of depth!

If you are looking for my thoughts on playing the game – here’s my top tips to staying alive and winning…

During the Game:

Stick Together; Taking extra discards to move quietly or moving with other players is well worth while. Lowering the chance of aliens in the early game is important because they can block the routes to important rooms and you can be under-resourced. Once you have enough resources to fight them, you can take a few more risks – just at the point when you are under time pressure.

Get Ready; Preparing for the aliens means searching the rooms and gathering the resources to fight. Guns, bullets or perhaps enough to build a taser – you need to have a way to combat a last minute surprise or you will likely get caught by an alien just as you head into hibernation!

Hibernation; It requires a noise roll at the last minute of your game – minimising the noise around the room therefore is the most crucial component of the game. I think if you have a 50% or more probability of rolling an alien at the end – then you have already prepared to fail.

Fire & Malfunction; Keep these below 5 – events can quickly spread these, especially fire. That said, setting fire to the alien nest as soon as you find it can really help destroy the alien presence. It does one damage a turn! Also, don’t stand in the nest or a fire – there’s a lot of event cards that make this a very bad strategy!

Crafting; Using searched tools for crafting is a good idea – the fire tools can help, but most of all the taser opportunity can give you a sure fire way to clear out the hibernation room at the end game or if you get caught off guard (without bullets!).

Engines; Engines are on your route to checking the rooms at the bottom of the board – whoever goes that way will be tasked with checking those too. Don’t force another player to also run this route – however, a player who is keen to head that way probably cannot be trusted!

Run first; Ask questions later. The aliens are tough and running early means you can get away. If you shot first and then run, you will have less actions to escape. Aliens move slowly, so putting a couple of rooms between you is worthwhile.

Dead Body; There’s a dead body in the hibernation room, that’s how you know something is up! Taking this dead body to the lab will help you work out what’s going on. Finding the lab and then picking up the body is inefficient. The last player out of the room should take the body and run with it. Earlier players might stumble on the room but the last player will follow up by taking the gamble of which way to go. Waiting to find it is time consuming and means you will have to go back through the all important hibernation room!

Locked Doors; These don’t slow the alien threat, but on a key route they can block your path to victory. Be sure to clear these doors on the way out and not be stuck rushing to open them on the way back.

Room Abilities; Some of these are pointless, but some will close down fires or open doors. Explore effectively and look for key rooms that make or break your particular objective. Which rooms are revealed at the point you select your objective will likely contribute to your decision.

Good Luck!