Noob impressions of this game compared to HQ

[Village]

Yeah it's a permanent ability. I keep it simple and say he can heal so long as killed marine is within 2 squares - but you could say max 1 per turn or something.

Another homebrew rule we tried was for the alien player. We set the game length to 12 turns max, so there will be 12 alien events but instead of it being a random draw we give the alien agency to choose which alien event card to play each round (discard after use). To set the 12 cards we allow the alien player to choose 6 and the other six are randomly dealt from the remaining pile. This way the alien gets some strategic choices on timing when a genestealer attacks or when the suicide android appears etc. Too often otherwise a good event comes up when that miniature type is absent from the board. I find it helps balance the game towards the alien. I have a double set of cards, so I chose 6 genestealer events and got a couple of nice ones in the random selection (my suicide android took out 2 marines). Ensuring plenty of genestealer presence in the game was one of the main reasons for coming up with this rule and really punishes slow marines that get left behind.

(Note: We also play with Marine squad size of 8 - this makes for a higher body count and more points potential for the aliens. The marines also tend to get in each others way if they bunch up in corridors so tend to divide into sub-groups which also makes for more encounters). Yesterday's game (missions 2) saw the Imperial Fists lose 7 marines and the Ultramarines lose 5 (Blood Angels were sitting it out). The Ultramarines achieve both mission goals and the alien player also got top rank thanks to the carnage. Kids loved it.

[Kurgan]

[The post above me was spam, but it has now been removed... please ignore my snark!]

[Village]

Is that directed at me? Sorry, I'm not sure what spam you are talking about.

[StratosVX]

Not you Village, the post Kurgan is referring to was deleted.

[Village]

Ah ok, thanks. That explains it. I was totally confused there.

[Kurgan]

@Village. Yeah, sorry I can't resist responding to those sometimes... Your post wasn't anything close to spam!

[Kurgan]

Hey thanks... someday I'd like to revisit it and play some more on Twitch with fans!