Xcom game wiki

While each XCOM action definitely occurs at some point in each round, the Alien actions vary a whole lot more. Thanks to the app, The actions come in unpredictable ways each round, keeping players on their toes. In addition, the global situation — how many continents are nearing panic, how many UFOs were in orbit, whether or not you completed a mission — can affect the details.

Eventually, the timed phase ends, and then you have a resolution phase to see how well your defenses hold up. When you roll, each task is its own miniature push-your-luck event.

You roll blue dice based on the units assigned to a task, along with an 8-sided Alien die. When you roll, you count up your successes and add those successes to the task. If you have enough successes to complete the task, hooray!

If not, you can roll again, but the Threat level increases. If your red die is higher than the Threat, your units are fine and can roll again. You can always choose to stop rolling before this happens if you want to keep your units alive. Fortunately, the threat level resets to 0 for each Task. Enemy units left on the board after defenses are rolled do very bad things. After a certain number of rounds have passed possibly shortened by completing missions , the Final Mission becomes available.

The final mission is just like a normal mission, except far more difficult. Fortunately, the players do have a few other things in their toolkit. Each player has a role with specifically defined responsibilities: the Central Officer relates info from the app and assigns Satellites; the Commander tracks the budget and must keep the team from exceeding it, as well as assigning Interceptors and choosing Crisis cards; the Chief Scientist chooses technology to research and assigns Scientists; and the Squad Leader chooses the mission and assigns soldiers to defend the base and pursue the mission.

Each of these roles starts with a few extra abilities that can be used out of turn, to help turn the tide of battle. The Commander has a special emergency funding card with extra money that can be pulled once per round when they really need it, and they can also train soldiers to become Elite to roll additional dice in combat.

The Squad Leader can use a couple soldiers to remove a Crisis card. The Chief Scientist can use salvage from destroyed enemy soldiers to roll more dice for tech research, as well as use Scientists to play a tech card directly from their hand for a one time use instead of a permanent ability.

As the Scientist researches new tech, these cards go to specific roles and grant them new special abilities, including scoring automatic successes, refreshing the Emergency fund, or increasing the odds of success for a task.

Caylus apparently invented Worker Placement, and most of us have heard of Dominion, deckbuilding, and many of the games that followed on its heels. And of course with every new mechanism, some people will love it and some people will hate it. Fortunately XCOM lands squarely in the camp of Board Game, and the digital app is expertly integrated as another fun component in this excellently produced game. Yet while the app is the big story hook here, what really matters is the underlying game system.

Once you get past the glamour of shiny tech, is there a substantial experience here? XCOM is difficult, for sure. Yes, I said tutorial. There is no printed rulebook included in the box.

You get a quick reference sheet to help identify components and set up the components in the right order. Fantasy Flight Games has really been making strides more than any other company to get people playing their games almost immediately out of the box. Legends of Andor had a tutorial scenario and specialized components to learn the game by playing with scenario cards gradually introducing all the rules. Star Wars: X-Wing had quick play rules which gave you the basics so you could throw down immediately and get the advanced rules later.

Soldiers are initially fielded in squads of four but this number can be expanded up to a maximum of six as the game progresses. Soldiers' deaths are permanent, but those who survive long enough to graduate from the Rookie rank will gain one of the following specialized classes:. These veterans can bring a staggering variety of deadly abilities to the battlefield as they rank up.

Soldiers can be further customized through the option to change their physical appearances and names and outfitting them with the latest weapons and equipment developed by your research team. By researching new tech, players will gain access to upgrades such as body armor and weapons , as well as gaining access to new facilities. By interrogating captured live aliens, players gain Research credits which can greatly speed up the research process.

Players who pre-ordered the game received access to the Elite Soldier Pack , which adds a variety of cosmetic options to customize their squad's look including a number of color and aesthetic armor upgrades and a new flattop hairstyle inspired by the original X-COM: UFO Defense.

Players who pre-ordered on Steam also received a copy of Civilization V. XCOM 2. Victory is the goal, but that's just an afterthought here - it's the complex journey that counts.

A Nintendo Switch version was released on May 29, Twenty years have passed since world leaders offered an unconditional surrender to the alien forces, and XCOM, the planet's last line of defense, was left decimated and scattered. Now the aliens rule Earth, building shining cities that promise a brilliant future for humanity on the surface while concealing a sinister agenda and eliminating all who dissent from their new order. Only those who live on the edges of the world have a margin of freedom.

Here, a force gathers once again to stand up for humanity. Always on the run, the remnant XCOM forces must find a way to rise from the ashes, expose the insidious truth behind the occupation and eliminate the alien threat once and for all.

Guide your strike force around the world, build popular support and expose the aliens' sinister plans. Use your scientists and engineers to research and develop and upgrade weapons and armor to fit your preferred tactics.

The state of the world affects each combat missions environment. Use concealment to ambush enemy patrols.