Nemesis (boardgame)
Nemesis is a semi-cooperative boardgame for 1-5 players, designed by Adam Kwapiński and published by Awaken Realms in 2018.[1]. It was funded via a Kickstarter campaign[2], attracting over £3,000,000 in pledges from a funding goal of £50,000.
The game combines teamwork with bluffing, backstabbing, and other elements of a science-fiction survival horror adventure.
Players take on the roles of crew members of the spaceship Nemesis, having been woken from hibernation by the ship's computer due to an infestation of alien creatures dubbed Intruders. Suffering from temporary amnesia, they must explore the ship and try to get back to Earth while dealing with the alien threat. Players also have hidden objectives, which may conflict with other player's goals.
| File:Nemesis tabletop game.jpg | |
| Designer(s) |
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|---|---|
| Illustrator(s) |
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| Publisher(s) | Awaken Realms |
| Publication date | 2018 |
| Genre(s) | Sci-Fi |
| Players | 1–5 |
| Playing time | 90-180 minutes |
| 🌐 Website | awakenrealms |
Search Nemesis (boardgame) on Amazon.
In addition, there are fully cooperative and solo game modes supported.
Gameplay[3][edit]
Players select a character to use and take the appropriate player board and cards. Characters included in the base game are Captain, Pilot, Scout, Scientist and Soldier. During the Kickstarter campaign, a Mechanic was added as a 5th player expansion stretch goal, and a Medic was available as an add on.
At the start of the game, all characters have awoken in the hibernatorium in the center of the Nemesis, suffering partial amnesia - they no longer recall which rooms are on the ship or where they are. To win the game, they must be alive at the end of the game, reach Earth and accomplish their chosen objectives. It is possible for none, some or all of the players to win. The game is limited to 15 turns.
Each turn is divided into two phases, the player phase and the event phase.
In the player phase, players draw five cards from their personal Action decks. Each character's deck is unique, featuring actions only available to them, actions available to all characters at identical cost, and actions available to all characters at different costs (representing differing levels of ability). There are also basic actions that do not have action cards. Every action has a cost which must be paid in action cards. Players take turns performing actions such as moving around the ship, searching for equipment, fixing malfunctions, healing wounds and encountering Intruders. Intruders come in several varieties of increasing toughness: larvae, creepers, adults, breeders and the queen.
While moving around the ship, players reveal rooms, each with unique room action abilities. Not all rooms are available in every game, and the locations of rooms are randomised. Each time a new room is revealed, an exploration token is also revealed. This has additional effects, such as the room being on fire or malfunctioning, the character getting covered in slime or a door closing behind the player and trapping them.
When moving to an empty room, characters hear strange noises, which may be the workings of the ship's machinery or an alien presence. These are represented by noise tokens, and whenever one would be placed where there is already one present, an Intruder appears and attacks the character. Wounds caused by intruders can also infect them, adding infection cards to the player's deck. These cannot be used by players to pay for actions, and so reduce the players ability to do things in the game. Each infection card has a status of infected or not infected, which can only be revealed by scanning the card - a scanner (red cellophane) reveals hidden text showing the status.
Once all players have passed, either having no more cards to pay for actions or not wanting to take any further actions that turn, the event phase begins. Intruders attack players, move around the ship and an event occurs - such as fires outbreaking, Intruder eggs hatching, or larvae inside characters clawing their way out. Finally the population of aliens on the ship can grow and new aliens can arrive on the board. Then the next turn begins with the player phase.
To accomplish their objectives, players may need to co-operate with other players. Some objectives directly conflict (e.g. kill player 2, or send the ship to Mars instead of Earth), leading to elements of bluffing, suspicion and treachery.
At the end of the game, any players still alive then check that the ship's engines are working well enough to make a hyperspace jump, that the coordinates are set to Earth, that they have met their objective and that they survive any infection they have. If all checks pass, the player has won.
Reception[edit]
The game has mainly received positive reception on social news aggregation platforms such as Reddit[4] and has rapidly entered BGGs top 100 board games list[5]. When reviewing BGL have described it as "epic semi-cooperative Sci-Fi horror board game"[6] and Way to Many Games have described it as "all things considered, this is a marvel of a game".[7]
Many reviewers and players noted similarities to the Alien franchise.[8]
Awards & Honors[edit]
- 2018 Golden Geek Best Thematic Board Game Nominee[9]
Expansions and Spinoffs[edit]
- Aftermath[10] - An epilogue game, featuring a new crew exploring the Nemesis after the events of the original game. It includes five new characters (Android, Bounty Hunter, CEO, Convict, Psychologist) and unique traits for both original and expansion characters. This expansion was a stretch goal during the Kickstarter campaign.
- Voidseeders [11] - features a new alien race, Voidseeders, that can cause hallucinations and insanity. This expansion was a stretch goal during the Kickstarter campaign.
- Carnomorphs[12] - features a new alien race, Carnomorphs, that get bigger and stronger as the game progresses. This expansion was an add on during the Kickstarter campaign.
- Nemesis Lockdown[13] - In May 2020, Awaken Realms launched a new Kickstarter campaign for Nemesis Lockdown, a stand-alone expansion set on Mars. Some aspects of the original game will be compatible with the expansion.
- Nemesis: Distress - In June 2020, IGN released a trailer for Nemesis: Distress, a first-person multiplayer horror game for PCs on the Steam platform.[14][15]
References[edit]
- ↑ "Nemesis". Awaken Realms. Retrieved 27 October 2019.
- ↑ "Nemesis Board Game". Kickstarter. Retrieved 27 October 2019.
- ↑ "Nemesis rules in English" (PDF). Awaken Realms. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
- ↑ "r/boardgames - N E M E S I S : kickstarter what s your first impression?". reddit. Retrieved 2019-11-09.
- ↑ "Browse Board Games | BoardGameGeek". boardgamegeek.com. Retrieved 2019-11-09.
- ↑ "Best Kickstarter Board Games of 2019". Board Games Land. 2019-11-03. Retrieved 2019-11-09.
- ↑ "Tabletop Review - Nemesis". WayTooManyGames. 2019-01-10. Retrieved 2019-11-09.
- ↑ "Nemesis brings alien impregnation horror to your tabletop—and it works". Ars Technica. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
- ↑ "2018 Golden Geek Best Thematic Board Game Nominee | Board Game Honor | BoardGameGeek". boardgamegeek.com. Retrieved 2019-11-09.
- ↑ "Update 50: Aftermath WIP Print and Play! · Nemesis Board Game". Kickstarter. Retrieved 2019-11-09.
- ↑ "Update 5: Voidseeders expansion! · Nemesis Board Game". Kickstarter. Retrieved 2019-11-09.
- ↑ "Update 13: Carnomorphs expansion / expansion freebies! · Nemesis Board Game". Kickstarter. Retrieved 2019-11-09.
- ↑ "Nemesis Lockdown". Kickstarter. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
- ↑ "First-person multiplayer horror game 'Nemesis: Distress' announced". NME. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
- ↑ "Nemesis: Distress - Official Reveal Trailer". Youtube - IGN channel. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
External Links[edit]
Nemesis on Awaken Realms
Nemesis on BoardGameGeek
Nemesis: Aftermath and Voidseeders on BoardGameGeek
Nemesis: Carnomorphs on BoardGameGeek
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