Nemesis
review by Luka
What is Nemesis?
Nemesis is a semi-cooperative game for up to 5 players that embodies the intrigue, distrust, and terror that you would expect from an alien horror movie! The game takes place on a space ship called the Nemesis, starting with the crew waking up from cryosleep. Each player takes control of a member of the crew, exemplifying a character archetype with their own unique abilities. To win, each player is also trying to survive and achieve a secret objective. Be warned, however, some objectives stand in opposition to each other, with some being outright hostile to certain players! Can you deceive the other players long enough to accomplish your objective and survive?
Game Setup
Setting up the game is fairly extensive, where players must first set up the game board, and then their own player boards, both with many different tokens and cards involved. Luckily, the game box has an organized insert to make setup and breakdown a little bit easier. Do note that if you get any upgraded components, however, keeping them snug when the box is stored vertically will be difficult. Sleeved cards also fit in the insert.
The box with its contents visible; cards are sleeved.
Outside of the special rooms that are always in the same spots on the board every game (the Cockpit, Engines, and the Hibernatorium), the board will be populated by hexagonal rooms from two different categories. Basic “1” rooms occupy the outer ring of the ship and each room is present in every game, just their positioning is different. Additional “2” rooms occupy the space just outside the Hibernatorium, which is the players’ start point.
The board is set up with player figures in the Hibernatorium in the center. A different map for more experienced players is available on the backside of the board.
More setup continues, including the Intruder’s board (the aliens present on the ship), and the Intruder bag (which is used for when the players make noise and to determine some alien actions). Cards from the Event, Intruder Attack, Contamination, and Serious Wounds decks are shuffled and placed face down, as are the item decks, excluding the crafted item deck. A marker is placed at the start of the Time Track on the board and the other tokens and markers are kept handy.
For crew setup, players are assigned a number and receive two secret objective cards: one from the Corporate deck, the other from the Personal deck. The Personal deck objectives tend to be more cooperative, but can still be opposed to one another; for instance, one player may have an objective that the ship must reach Earth, while another player must have the ship reach Mars. The Corporate objective is a lot more combative, with some objectives outright saying a certain player must die!
An example of a Personal objective and a Corporate objective. Other Corporate objectives can still be cooperatively feasible, such as one requiring the player to collect and escape with an Intruder egg (it’s just really difficult to pull off!).
Afterwards, players then draft character cards to select their crew member. There are six potential characters to choose from in the base game, with each representing an archetype: the Captain, Pilot, Scientist, Scout, Soldier, and Mechanic. Each character also has their own action deck, unique items which they can unlock, a player board, and their own figure.
Player Board Setup
Gameplay Overview
To win, a player must accomplish an objective on their chosen secret objective card (between the two they start the game with), and survive the game, either via escape pod or hibernation. They must not be contaminated and, if the ship self-destructs, only escape pods remain a viable option before the game ends.
The game is played in up to 15 rounds, split between the player phase and the event phase.
In the player phase, players first draw up to five cards from their own action deck, then take turns using said cards to perform up to two actions. Actions require players to discard cards to perform. Each character can perform many of the same abilities, such as movement or trading items, but their deck has action cards that are specialized towards their role. For example, the Mechanic can more efficiently repair the engines, and the Scientist can easily interface with rooms to open and close doors.
The Mechanic has Fast Repairs, an action card that enables him to either repair a room or easily interact with an engine.
The Scientist, on the other hand, can easily interact with rooms that feature a computer or open/close doors using the Computer Skills action card.
Many rooms also feature room-specific actions that players may perform. For instance, the engine rooms at the back of the ship allow players to either check if one of the three engines are repaired, or though certain action cards, they could choose to “repair” the engine, in which case they can decide to place a working or damaged token on the engine’s position face down (if two of the three engines are damaged at the end of the game, the ship will explode and everyone who stays on it will die!).
The two engine tokens that players can rearrange to set the engine as working or damaged.
Similarly in the cockpit, players can change coordinates for the ship’s destination. However, these coordinates are unknown unless the player has checked the coordinates beforehand. Both these actions are critical to many secret objectives and offer opportunities for lying and intrigue via hidden information.
Currently the coordinates of the ship are set to B, which is Venus in this game due to the active coordinate card.
Some actions can also produce noise, mainly the movement action. When moving, the player rolls the 10-sided noise die to determine in which corridor to place a noise token. Once two noise tokens are present in one corridor, both the tokens are removed and an Intruder appears and ambushes the player responsible for the noise. The first time an Intruder shows up, players must discard one of their secret objectives, thus locking in their goal for the game. Moving into a room another player is already in does not generate any noise, however, so players are encouraged to team up despite potential betrayals.
A Noise token is present in corridor 1 connected to the Engine Control Room.
Getting attacked by an Intruder can result in minor or major wounds. Minor wounds don’t directly affect player capabilities, but major wounds can hamper players by reducing the amount of items they can carry. Both can threaten the player with contamination, however, which gums up the player’s action deck with unusable cards and could potentially kill the player at the end of the game. Performing fewer actions and holding onto more action cards when you pass can prevent attacks from surprise encounters, however.
The sound die was rolled when the Soldier player character moved into the Engine Control Room, which triggered the noise die to be rolled. Unfortunately, another sound token was added to corridor 1, which caused both to be removed, and resulted in the player drawing a token and being ambushed by an adult Intruder. They didn’t have enough cards in hand and therefore an attack card was drawn.
If a player performs fewer than two actions on their turn, the player must pass and take no more turns that round. Once all players have passed, the event phase starts.
In the event phase, the time track (and self destruct sequence, if applicable) moves forward 1 space. Intruders then attack players, fire damage is dealt, and an Event card is drawn. Event cards move Intruders to different rooms and cause a problem or put a wrench in players’ plans in a thematic way, such as preemptively launching an escape pod.
The game continues until players have all (in any combination) either jumped into an escape pod, hibernated, or died, or when the time tracker reaches 0. When the game ends, players check and see if they’ve accomplished their secret objective and, by extension, test to see where the ship was headed to, if the engines were repaired, and if any player’s Contamination cards are infected. An infected player will die. Whoever lives and completes their secret objective wins.
The scanned contamination card reveals that the player is infected. If they still have this card at the end of the game, they will die.
Thoughts
Nemesis quickly became one of my favorite games due to its freedom of player expression and intrigue. The action system is simple, yet enables such variety through the use of unique action cards and rooms that players can interact with. The threat of Intruders attacking and causing damage also gives players pause to really think about what cards they will use and how many they hold to stay safe from ambushes. There is so much more to explore that I did not mention that players can do. For example, players can examine corpses and Intruder eggs at the laboratory to discover their weaknesses or, once a player dies, that player can control the Intruders with an optional game module.
Additionally, the game has great pacing, making the experience feel like you’re acting in a movie. The start of the game has a subtle tension, as each player buddies up to explore the ship, gear up, complete an objective, and try to determine what everyone’s objectives could be, and by extension, everyone’s loyalties. Once the first alien Intruder shows up, the tension mounts as everyone must lock in their secret objective and must be suspicious of the other players while simultaneously trusting them. A player with the goal to have the ship safely travel to Earth cannot both repair the engines and set the ship’s course easily, as the cockpit and engines lie on opposite ends of the ship. They will likely have to trust another player to help them, who may just as easily want the ship destroyed for their objective. With the scattering of the crew across the board, and the Intruders appearing more and more, players become increasingly desperate as the climax hits and betrayals are revealed. In one of my games, everyone seemed to work together, until players began to hop into escape pods or hibernate. I was left alone with one other player, someone who had been helping me complete my goals that entire game. The Intruders were closing in on us and our room, but instead of helping me defeat and avoid the monsters together, he ran and locked the door behind him! It was then he revealed his entire plan was to have me die. Unfortunately for him, the Intruders couldn’t be contained so he died quickly after me!
If you are a fan of the Alien movie, board games with roleplaying elements, or if you have an involved gaming group that enjoy hidden role games, I highly recommend Nemesis.
All the miniature variants.
The Queen Intruder miniature.
Nemesis is available now from our webstore.
