This post is to vett suggestions for changes to the V.2 rules...

Q: Rulebook says that you can not trace LOS into air vents (page 12). Nowhere is said that you can not shoot into or through them.
*** A: I suggest a clarification that states no LOS or firing through vents

Q: Does the card that forces you to draw five more (and then discard down to five) count as one of the two cards that you can play each round? One thing is that it gives you lots of new options, but another thing is that you can't decide whether you actually want to play it or not.
A: The Tactical Advantage card doesn't count as one of the two cards you are allowed to play. It is revealed the moment you draw it.

*** I believe it says play immediately. but yes, there is some confusion to the process how this is played.

Q: Doors, LoS, abilities
A: (unclear) The rules do not state doors block LoS, which is probably oversight, so it's easy to accept they do block it. There are number of abilities and cards that work without LoS, but tell us nothing about doors. In my group we decided that Smart-Disc, Flame Thrower, Grenades, etc. all can target w/o LoS, but doors block them. This just makes more sense in terms of realism.

*** This seems self explanitory... if theres a door there, you cant fire through it. Also no LOS

1.) Why dont Hellhounds have an appropriate "Hive bloodhound" ability to allow them to move 3 tiles? Just calling it "Bloodhound" would suffice.

2.) Predator Self destruct Device. too weak. a 1-3 chance isnt nearly as threatening and comes off more like a fire cracker with no fuse. Why not make it 1-10, same tile str 15 autothit, adjacent tile str 10 autohit.

I also would suggest that the selfdestruct device has to be more devastating. In the first movie of Predator it destroyed a giant area of jungle. In a space ship with his Predator pals around the corner this would be a little bit too strong. But two tiles with a 1-10 str 15 autohit in the occuring tile and str 10 in the adjacent one sounds more "realistic".

Q: Rulebook says that if a model is firing a ranged weapon at a target that is engaged with it or one of it's friendly units a -10 modifier has to get applied to hit. This doesn't sound logical. That it might be more difficult to hit a target in close range with a firearm is okay but the modifier is too high. -4 would be appropriate if the target is engaged with the shooting model. -10 would be appropriate if the target is engaged with another friendly model. If you roll a natural 20 then you might hit the friendly model with friendly fire. That is more realistic and is even a good reason to use the knife in close combat to help the engaged friendly model in its struggle.

Maybe it should be clarified that because of Marines team tactics that they get a -4...

I'm missing something here... if I can't draw LOS through a vent, how could I shoot through the vent? I can't shoot at something I don't have a LOS to.

Now comes a little bit more...

I played a game of AVP last night with two friends and I wrote down everything that wasn't specified good enough or missed outright in the rules.
Furthermore we made suggestions to increase the "realism" and balance of the game.

Okay, let's get started:

- Is it possible to drop strategy cards at the start of every round and get a full hand of them back or do you have to play them in order to get replacements back at the start of the next round? If not then you will have some useless cards for the rest of the game in your hand if you are playing the Predators and all their models have been revealed already (you can't switch any Ping! Token with one another if there are none left).

- When can strategy cards be played exactly? Do you have to play them in advance before you start your actions with you models or can you use them on the fly relatively to the circumstances?

- What actions can Ping! Tokens do? In the rules stands that they just can move. But it doesn't make much sense if they aren't able to at least open doors (if they are Marine or Predator Pings). If they open doors do the Pings have to get revealed to all players? If so the Mimicry Skill of the Predators isn't worth much.

- In this regard is it possible to set Ping! Tokens to sentry mode or do you have to reveal the model too?

- In the rules it stands that the Ping! Tokens are there to conceal the model they are standing for. But if you've got a bigger model already, like the Alien Queen or the Alien Crusher, you know that their Ping! Tokens are clearly bigger than the ones of the smaller models. So it is not a big surprise when the Alien player reveals the only big model he commands. In this case the Ping! Token is worthless.

- In the rules it stands that Acid does friendly fire to other Aliens. That is completely illogical. All Aliens have the same metabolism and are immune to the Acid blood of their own kind.

- As long as the Marine with the motion tracker is alive your flamethrowers can make a flaming inferno attack and literally shoot around the corner. But it shouldn't be possible to do this maneuver if one or more of the Marine player's models are standing on a tile that is between the shooting model and the target tile. They should receive friendly fire.

- If a model is shooting at a target that it is engaged with it gets a -10 modifier on the to hit roll. It should be more easy to hit (-4 modifier is more realistic). If the shooting model is firing at a target that is engaged with a friendly model the -10 modifier should be applied. If it is a miss a 1-5 chance should be made to determine if the friendly model has been hit instead with friendly fire. Furthermore, the friendly model will be hit if the roll results in a natural 20. If more than one friendly models are engaged on that tile the player who did the RS test determines which of his models got hit.

- Acid blood doesn't happen often enough. If an Alien model gets killed only on a 1-5 its acid blood gets spilled. It should be happening more often (1-10) and if the Alien model had been killed by a messy weapon (Grenade launcher, Smartgun, Grenade, Sentrygun, SmartDisc, Combistick, etc.) the Acid spill should happen automatically without any dice rolling. The Alien literally explodes or gets cut to pieces in the first place.

- If a knife was used in successful cc against an Alien it should be rendered useless after the attack. The Combistick (and therefore the Wristblades and SmartDisc) of the Predators is (are) immune to the Acid as is mentioned in the rules for the Combistick. But the human weapons are not. So the knife should be destroyed after an Alien was killed with it.

- Without question knifes are bad cc weapons against Aliens. In this regard a Pistol would have been better. It should have a shorter range as most of the other ranged weapons (up to two tiles) and be as strong as the knife.

- The Alien Climbing Claws are not very useful. You can only use them if a tile is full with your own models. It should be allowed for the Alien player to use them on any tile regardless of the occupying models.

- The Self-destruct device of the Predators is too weak. It should blow up on a roll between 1-10 and should make an Autohit str 15 in the tile where it occurs and an Autohit str 10 on any adjacent tile that isn't blocked by a door. If the test misses the Self-destruct device will blow up one more round later (see the suggestion for Self-destruct device timer further below for more clarification).

- The Self-destruct device should only be allowed to be activated when the Predator using it has just 1 wound left and no possibility to heal himself because he has used up his one healing option for this game. This simulates the desperation and last stand that the Predator is doing as he knows his end is near (like in the first and second movie).

- To simulate the timer for the Self-destruct device of the Predators it should blow up in the next round after it has been activated. So it might be possible for
other models to get out of the blast radius in time or to kill the Predator to prevent the Self-destruct devise to blow up in the first place.

- The Cloaking device of the Predator doesn't get mentioned in the rules as I can remember (might not be the case). Will there be rules with the models for Cloaked Predators or do these only show off and have no game effect whatsoever? Cloaking is a fundamental skill of the Predators but Aliens should be immune, because they don't use optical organs to target their prey. The Cloak device should work like the Alien Advanced Hide skill, so you can move while hidden with the exception that the Predator doesn't need infested rooms to hide in plain sight and that it is not a passive skill and has to be payed with actionpoints. Only when a Predator does a combat action of any kind should the Cloak device deactivate automatically.

- The corridor tiles are crammed with crates and have mostly bad lighting. So it should be more difficult to hit a target with a ranged weapon that is more than 1 tile away. A -1 modifier on the RS value from the second tile on for every tile that lies between the shooting model and its target should be set.

- Content question: In the base game box there are enough sentry, hide and action tokens for all models that come with the game. But what with the add-on models? I've got already some add-ons but not one of these tokens were delivered with them. Only the model(s), the stat card of the model type and the Ping! Token(s).

So, I think this is all for now. If I think more about it I'm sure more things will come to my mind.
We discovered that the Alien player has as good as no chance against his Colonial Marine and Predator enemies in the scenarios that come with the base game. They are not fast enough, not tough enough and not deadly enough to be a real threat against the superior firepower of the Marine and Predator weapons. Their only chance is to hide and wait until the Marines and Predators have decimated each other. Then they might get a chance against the survivor(s). The Alien player was frustrated that he was not able to move fast and strike an attack. His enemies are able to do a cc attack and an RS attack with their two actions in one round. Whereas the Alien player has only one attack via cc. He isn't able to get past the Predator armor easily and will surely lose most if not all models that he sends into close combat against an Predator. I don't know why so many people say that the Marines are so weak. Okay they only have one big model (the Power Loader) but their weapons are very dangerous (even and more to Predators than the Alien weapons arsenal).
So should the Alien player get more models for scenarios of the base game? Otherwise he has no chance.

Wow!! Fantastic points all around. I played my first game last night with a buddy. He chose the Marines, I chose the Predators and we rolled each turn to see which of us was controlling the Aliens. I'm sure this caused considerable confusion for the hive (We're attacking them! No, we're attacking THEM!!) but it allowed us to at least see how the Aliens play out during a mission.

A great many of the aforementioned points pertaining to rules clarification were seen in my game session. Thank you for posting your list of issues so that the devs will hopefully see this and take note.

Is it possible to drop strategy cards at the start of every round and get a full hand of them back or do you have to play them in order to get replacements back at the start of the next round?

I dont see why not. I think thats something that players would really just agree on. If you dont like a card, youre going to discard it anyway... I dont think it needs a *rule*, per se.

- When can strategy cards be played exactly? Do you have to play them in advance before you start your actions with you models or can you use them on the fly relatively to the circumstances?

I think thats dependant on the card, some cards say "Choose a model", in that respect, you would do that before the model activates to do it actions. Other are fine on the fly.

- What actions can Ping! Tokens do? In the rules stands that they just can move. But it doesn't make much sense if they aren't able to at least open doors (if they are Marine or Predator Pings). If they open doors do the Pings have to get revealed to all players? If so the Mimicry Skill of the Predators isn't worth much.

As written, PING! tokens can only move and run. The mimicry skill is strictly sound and lighting, not actual movement of objects.

- In this regard is it possible to set Ping! Tokens to sentry mode or do you have to reveal the model too?

Generally anything that requires an action like CC or RC is something that will reveal a token. You *could* set your PING! token to sentry but the moment it acts, its revealed.

- In the rules it stands that the Ping! Tokens are there to conceal the model they are standing for. But if you've got a bigger model already, like the Alien Queen or the Alien Crusher, you know that their Ping! Tokens are clearly bigger than the ones of the smaller models. So it is not a big surprise when the Alien player reveals the only big model he commands. In this case the Ping! Token is worthless.

I agree, in that respect, I use one of the alien objective tokens.

- In the rules it stands that Acid does friendly fire to other Aliens. That is completely illogical. All Aliens have the same metabolism and are immune to the Acid blood of their own kind.

Completely illogical... I dont use that rule.

- As long as the Marine with the motion tracker is alive your flamethrowers can make a flaming inferno attack and literally shoot around the corner. But it shouldn't be possible to do this maneuver if one or more of the Marine player's models are standing on a tile that is between the shooting model and the target tile. They should receive friendly fire.

In theory, they should... but the flame attack doesnt friendly fire through each tile... you pick a tile and "thematically" the flame "bank" or "bounce" or whatever...

- If a model is shooting at a target that it is engaged with it gets a -10 modifier on the to hit roll. It should be more easy to hit (-4 modifier is more realistic). If the shooting model is firing at a target that is engaged with a friendly model the -10 modifier should be applied. If it is a miss a 1-5 chance should be made to determine if the friendly model has been hit instead with friendly fire. Furthermore, the friendly model will be hit if the roll results in a natural 20. If more than one friendly models are engaged on that tile the player who did the RS test determines which of his models got hit.

I agree... shooting into an engaged tile runs the risk of shooting your own guys...

- Acid blood doesn't happen often enough. If an Alien model gets killed only on a 1-5 its acid blood gets spilled. It should be happening more often (1-10) and if the Alien model had been killed by a messy weapon (Grenade launcher, Smartgun, Grenade, Sentrygun, SmartDisc, Combistick, etc.) the Acid spill should happen automatically without any dice rolling. The Alien literally explodes or gets cut to pieces in the first place.

Thats exactly how I run it... i always roll for it, but its made easier with the roll.

- If a knife was used in successful cc against an Alien it should be rendered useless after the attack. The Combistick (and therefore the Wristblades and SmartDisc) of the Predators is (are) immune to the Acid as is mentioned in the rules for the Combistick. But the human weapons are not. So the knife should be destroyed after an Alien was killed with it.

In theory, again, yes it should... I think that might actually add more minutae to the game than is intended... but lets say there's an attack... boom... now the knife is gone... what happens to the marine on the next alien CC attack? The marine is outta luck? (We're in some real pretty $hit now, man...) ;P

- Without question knifes are bad cc weapons against Aliens. In this regard a Pistol would have been better. It should have a shorter range as most of the other ranged weapons (up to two tiles) and be as strong as the knife.

Not a bad idea...

- The Alien Climbing Claws are not very useful. You can only use them if a tile is full with your own models. It should be allowed for the Alien player to use them on any tile regardless of the occupying models.

Also not a bad idea...

- The Self-destruct device of the Predators is too weak. It should blow up on a roll between 1-10 and should make an Autohit str 15 in the tile where it occurs and an Autohit str 10 on any adjacent tile that isn't blocked by a door. If the test misses the Self-destruct device will blow up one more round later (see the suggestion for Self-destruct device timer further below for more clarification).

Indeed. I agree.

- The Self-destruct device should only be allowed to be activated when the Predator using it has just 1 wound left and no possibility to heal himself because he has used up his one healing option for this game. This simulates the desperation and last stand that the Predator is doing as he knows his end is near (like in the first and second movie).

Not a bad sduggestion. But I think at any point that the player is in desperation they will use it.

- To simulate the timer for the Self-destruct device of the Predators it should blow up in the next round after it has been activated. So it might be possible for
other models to get out of the blast radius in time or to kill the Predator to prevent the Self-destruct devise to blow up in the first place.

I agree

- The Cloaking device of the Predator doesn't get mentioned in the rules as I can remember (might not be the case). Will there be rules with the models for Cloaked Predators or do these only show off and have no game effect whatsoever? Cloaking is a fundamental skill of the Predators but Aliens should be immune, because they don't use optical organs to target their prey. The Cloak device should work like the Alien Advanced Hide skill, so you can move while hidden with the exception that the Predator doesn't need infested rooms to hide in plain sight and that it is not a passive skill and has to be payed with actionpoints. Only when a Predator does a combat action of any kind should the Cloak device deactivate automatically.

I assume so with the wargame rules it will have more usage... I hope, anyways.

- The corridor tiles are crammed with crates and have mostly bad lighting. So it should be more difficult to hit a target with a ranged weapon that is more than 1 tile away. A -1 modifier on the RS value from the second tile on for every tile that lies between the shooting model and its target should be set.

Again, i think this might be more minutae than is intended...

- Content question: In the base game box there are enough sentry, hide and action tokens for all models that come with the game. But what with the add-on models? I've got already some add-ons but not one of these tokens were delivered with them. Only the model(s), the stat card of the model type and the Ping! Token(s).

A good question... I imagine they'll make an extras pack.

Maybe Ranged attacks should not be allowed by a model who id engaged at all. This gives all but the aliens the aility to make 2 attacks when engaged, kinda taking away the aliens only strategy, which is to rush and engage. The model should be forced to make a CC check in order to move out of the tile before shooting.

Also why can a hallway hold the same number of models as a room? The room should be unlimited, making them a good place to defend against an alien rush.

Its possible I'm overlooking something, I just got the game.

Separate rule that may need tidying up/changing is should the aliens be able to move faster than current stats or should the aliens be able to move into b2b+still be able to swing? As it currently stands, they have to run to get past the guns and then hope to survive a turn. While additional movement could be abused such that the marines or Predators never get a shot off, the other option of allowing aliens to attack when they move into the same tile, might even things out for them.
Should we look at some of the cards need that rewording, specifically some of them that refer to an "alien type model unit". Some aren't clear.