XCOM: The Board Game – Evolution
Expansion of: XCOM: The Board GameXCOM: Evolution is an expansion for XCOM: The Board Game that complicates your war effort with new missions, enemies, and invasion plans, as well as mechanics that make your struggles more dangerous than ever.
90m
1 - 4 Players
Ages 14+
GShock112
A very successful expansion that changes EVERYTHING in the base game addressing several issues. The CS is now more involved into the game because he has many new techs available and needs to use the research lab asset to seek the cards the XCom need in the bigger deck now. Given the Cybernetics lab appears as an asset CS card, the CS also needs to choose whether to commit salvage for the research OR for the production of a MEC trooper. If you thought saving money on research was a good idea, careful of the new crisis card that EXHAUSTS all uncommitted scientists (and satellites). If you get that and have uncommitted resources, they will be unavailable in the next round. The introduction of the Exalt tokens is the most dramatic change because it adds an invisible enemy to be dealt with a D6 die... Expect heavy losses. Both the CDR and the CO may help chances of survival with cards that counter this threat. On the other hand, there's no asset card that can't be destroyed by the aliens now when they damage the base. Management of the emergency budget, that can take care of this damage, has now become more important than ever (and so all the tech cards that produce coins). A major change in the mechanics also involves the completion of at least 1 side mission to unlock the final mission. Mission rewards have also changed, the number of missions themselves have vastly increased and completing one also adds coins to the budget of the following turn. On top of that, among the new Aliens, the Mechtoid and Seeker are fearsome opponents. If you and your group play XCom regularly, this is a MUST BUY.
Arkeas
Adds some really interesting new elements to the game without bogging things down in a lot of new rules. Some interesting new tech, MEC troopers are a welcome addition, and the Exalt and threat cards keep things tense. Very nice addition.
santafelis
We only used it once. It adds cool new stuff but also it could be a bit too much. The base game is solid without it. Maybe as a variant.