On Thursday, UK-based games developer Modiphius uncloaked the vanguard of an alien invasion for XCOM: The Miniatures Game. An advanced landing party of aliens, from Sectoids to Chrysallids, plus a squad of XCOM Operatives and the game’s 180-page core rulebook, will go up for pre-order in July – expect them to land in stores in the fall and winter.
As we predicted when the game was first announced, XCOM:TMG‘s rules will be based on the Five Parsecs From Home ‘adventure wargame’ system. It’s a system designed primarily for solo and co-op campaigns, which pits the player(s) against AI-controlled enemies – though Modiphius says that there will be a “player-versus-player mode for those who want to play the aliens”.
The core experience puts you in charge of “an elite team of XCOM operatives as they fight across different mis sions to build XCOM and defeat the alien threat”, with new aliens entering the game with each month of the war.
The rulebook is “packed with new color art” and “includes rules for creating your squad, generating XCOM missions as the war progresses, a complete encounter and combat system, buildings and expanding the XCOM headquarters, researching new technologies”, and guidance on “creating and collecting terrain”. Pre-orders of the rulebook come with a free PDF right away, so we’ll get to see all these rules in July.
The model range will be “multi-part high-quality resin”, and comes from the same team responsible for Modiphius’ Fallout, Elder Scrolls, and Mass Effect miniatures. The pre-order wave includes “a six-member XCOM Operatives squad, Sectoids, Sectoid Commanders, Thin Men, Outsiders, Floaters, Chryssalids, and Seekers”, plus Infection Pods to add to any modern-day terrain you might own. Further alien releases will be divided up into packs that correspond to the different threats that arrive in each month of the campaign.
Advanced rules will also add content from the game’ expansions, including “advanced tech upgrades, MEC troopers, and the treacherous EXALT faction”. Later model releases will include “S.H.I.V.s (and their variants), XCOM Veteran Operatives in popular armors, Mutons (including Berserkers and Elites), Cyberdiscs, Drones, Mechtoids, MEC Troopers, Heavy Floaters, Ethereals, Sectopods”, and the aforementioned EXALT.
The models announced so far all come from XCOM: Enemy Unknown and its expansions, but not its sequel or spin-offs. I wouldn’t count those out, as Modiphius has released miniatures based on every Bethesda Fallout Game (and one or two characters from the Black Isle originals), but they might a long way down the line, or conditional on this set being successful.
I’ve never been a solo wargamer, but XCOM might genuinely be the game to change that: I am terrifyingly weak to the allure of games like XCOM. And if there’s rules for terrain destruction, then I’m really cooked… But what do you hope we’ll get in this game? Share your thoughts in the Wargamer Discord community!
Source: Wargamer
