Operation: Aliens Combat Game

Operation: Aliens Combat Game is a 1993 board game published by Peter Pan Playthings, the individuals who worked on the game are all uncredited.^[1]

Overview[]

The game combined the rolling of dice to move the player's character with event cards and featured small figures of Colonial Marines and Aliens. In it, players would have to survive on a vessel infested with Aliens, collect the self-destruct codes, reach the bridge and enter the codes before making their escape in the escape capsule.^[1] Reviews criticized the game for being underdeveloped, simplistic, and lacking polish.^[1]

Contents[]

1 Four-page Rulebook
1 Playing Board
1 Die
4 Marines Figures
4 Scorpion Alien Figures
1 Queen Alien Figure
4 Marine Character Cards
4 Pointers
4 Assault Rifle Tokens
4 Grenade Launcher Tokens
4 Flame Thrower Tokens
22 Event Cards
18 Alien Cards
4 Code Red Tokens
4 Code Yellow Tokens
4 Code Green Tokens

Objective[]

The objective of the game is to survive long enough to set the ship to self-destruct by visiting the three coded control panels. Weaponry and the Sick Bay help the Marines to achieve their goal. Once all the self-destruct areas have been activated, the Marines must begin the countdown by activating the ship's computer in the Computer Room. Then the Marines must leave the 'Narcissus' before the ship explodes, via the escape capsule at the Bridge... But beware of the Queen Alien!

Setting Up the Game[]

At the start, each player chooses which Marine to play and takes the corresponding Marine Character Card. These depict the equipment and life force of the four Marines during the game. The four pointers should be attached to the Marine cards and must point to 6 lives. The four Marine game-pieces are placed in each corner of the Computer Room where the game begins. The Aliens and Queen Alien are placed in the Alien Area, waiting to be brought into play.

Trivia[]

Despite the game requiring two dice to play, the game only came packaged with one singular die.
Despite the characters being allied Marines, the objective of the game is to be the ONLY survivor and to try to cause the Aliens to attack the other players rather than yourself.
Despite using characters from the Aliens: Space Marines mini-comics, the Marines are still referred to as Colonial Marines within the game's rulebook.
The game's rulebook (if taken as canon to the Aliens: Space Marines mini-comics) clears up some of the confusion around the mentions of events on "Acheron" by characters who died in the Aliens film.
- To further cement it as not being connected to the movies, the game is set on board an alternate version of the USCSS Nostromo's Narcissus lifeboat, now a much larger Marine vessel.
The Queen featured in the artwork of the game has 6 arms. Her two regular arms, the two ventral arms, and a pair of medium-sized arms in between the other two pairs.
The artwork of the game uses the original designs for the Kenner Gorilla Alien and Scorpion Alien (as the Three-headed Alien) designs. Interestingly the Bull Alien design in the artwork is not the original design but the design used in the Aliens: Space Marines mini-comics.