Why pay for Frontline: Season Four?

[Brewcity_Warmasterz]

So far the last in the "Why pay for?" Series.....

Why Pay for Frontline?

You can play Frontline Seasons Two, Three (ESPECIALLY), and Four at either No Cost, Low Cost, Moderate Cost, or Ebay. Why Pay for Ebay? I will assume you are reading this post because you want to know how to play these expansions for as LITTLE COST out of pocket as possible. So I will focus on "No Cost, Low Cost, and Moderate Cost" and let you decide. This article concludes the series and focuses on Season Four, "Attack of the Giant Amoebas". and can be done at Low Cost and Moderate Cost.

For low cost, you will want to have a standard deck of playing cards. (this should be a DIFFERENT deck than the one you used for "Low Cost" Season Two, but that is because you don't want to mix the cards up. BUT... in keeping with theme, if you REALLY want to go LOW LOW Cost... take a ruler and a black sharpie. Take the ruler, line up the cross corners, draw black lines so each of the cards necessary for this deck has a black "X" across the back of them - then you can't mix them up with the Tech deck by accident.)

You will need 30 cards to represent the "Alien Events" deck. As with Season Two, note that all of the cards are listed with Letters. You will need to print up a sheet that lists the cards (again, I have a premade MS Word document that has them all on one page - if you want one, send me a PM) and then put a letter on the face of all the cards, making sure that the number of each letter matches what is listed in parenthesis for each card. That's your deck.

The Amoebas are even easier, especially now since I've seen the ads for the expansion on Ebay. First off, if you are using the "Low Cost"... you need a roll of pennies. Or anything else you can use that can substitute for the "amoebas". Currently we are using soldiers from "Fortress America"... but plan on changing soon to the "moderate" cost solution.

You will need four "additional devastation markers". These can be simple scraps of paper, but I would recommend using either 8 quarters or 8 half dollars. They just look better. Even better if you can get a black sharpie and color one side black or even draw on the "Radioactive" symbol if you feel clever.

For the "Low Cost" solution, you also short yourself. Your game should have come with two "Blank" diplomat cards. So you can use those two as the Wartime Inflation cards... but unless you choose to change a third card in the deck... you will have only two of them.

For Moderate cost... you can't use a spare deck like you could with the Tech commander cards because you need 30 for the aliens deck. So we still recommend the playing cards... they are durable and easy to shuffle. (We are currently using an old set of "Jurassic Park" cards as I thought they would be suitable - Feel free to use any cards you can find. LOL ) However, for the Aliens themselves... just pick up a few packs of life markers (or whatever they call them in M:TG or any other CCG that uses life counters)... you know, those glass beads they use in the collectable card games. The "actual" invasion frontline pack uses green ones. You will need AT MOST 117. Under favorable (or should I say "unfavorable to the players") conditions... there can be at most 117 Aliens on the boards. This would mean you would have to draw ALL of the invasion cards first (6 Land, 4 Water, 3 Lunar = 39 aliens) and then draw all three of the "Aliens Spawning" cards (39 x 3 = 117).

And for the additional Devastation markers... that's easy... if you have a second Risk 2210 board, you're already set. If not, I totally recommend the Half Dollar solution listed above. Just take some paint and paint them yellow first, then use black marker to put on the black radioactive symbol. They will last you quite awhile then.

And for the Wartime Inflation? You either have one game, then you are stuck as above... or you have two and you already have three blank cards you can use for Wartime Inflation and you're set!

And there you have it! And now, without Further Ado... here is the "Attack of the Giant Amoebas" information as originally posted by Maelic001 (you ROCK bruh!)

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The fourth season of Risk 2210 Frontline is here. Beware the "Invasion of the Giant Amoebas"! This expansion comes with a set of 30 cards representing the Alien Invasion and 3 Diplomat cards to add to your set. You'll need some pennies, chits, dead files, etc. to represent the aliens on the board. You'll also need something to represent additional devastation markers.

At the beginning of each player's turn before their deployment phase, you must turn over the top card of the Alien Invasion deck and do what it says. Aliens attack/defend on a d8. If an alien invades your territory you have the option to either fight or retreat your forces to an adjacent territory; If you do choose to fight, it must be to the death. Aliens will not attack further from captured territories, but will remain to defend said territories.

Here's the breakdown of the Alien Invasion deck:

(A) Land Invasion (x6)
Turn over the top card of the Land Territory Deck.
3 Aliens are invading that territory. The defending player (if any) may defend or retreat.

(B) Water Invasion (x4)
Turn over the top card of the Water Territory Deck.
3 Aliens are invading that territory. The defending player (if any) may defend or retreat.

(C) Lunar Invasion (x3)
Turn over the top card of the Lunar Territory Deck.
3 Aliens are invading that territory. The defending player (if any) may defend or retreat.

(D) Heroic Resistance Leader (x2)
Remove 2 units of your choice and replace them with a Commander of your choice.

(E) Alien Spawning (x3)
Double the amount of Alien units on each invaded space.

(F) Communications Intercepted (x2)
Turn over the top 5 cards of the Land, Water and Lunar Territory Decks.
Place them back in the same order.

(G) Alien Land Devastation (x2)
Turn over the top card of the Land Territory Deck.
Place a devastation marker in that territory. A player in that territory (if any) may retreat, if able.

(H) Alien Water Devastation (x1)
Turn over the top card of the Water Territory Deck.
Place a devastation marker in that territory. A player in that territory (if any) may retreat, if able.

(I) Alien Lunar Devastation (x1)
Turn over the top card of the Lunar Territory Deck.
Place a devastation marker in that territory. A player in that territory (if any) may retreat, if able.

(J) Mothership Syphon (x2)
All players lose 1 Energy.

(K) Terraforming (x2)
You may remove 1 Devastation marker of your choice.

(L) Alien Warning (x1)
All players lose 5 units, in turn order.
Players choose their own losses.

(M) Aliens Catch a Cold (x1)
Remove all Alien units from the boards.

The new Diplomat card is:

Wartime Inflation (x3)
Cost: 0
Play on your turn before your first invasion is declared.
You may not play this card if you have played another Command card this turn. For the remainder of the year, all energy costs (purchase costs and effect costs) are increased by 1.

All in all, an interesting new expansion and the production qualities are really nice on this one. The new cards are even the same size as the original decks (previous Frontline expansions had oversized cards). Yet again, here's hoping AH plans on releasing this and the previous Frontline expansions in a proper "booster pack" format so everyone can get access to them.

ADDENDUM by BW: In further posts it lists that the Aliens are IMMUNE to command cards. Therefore you cannot use ANY COMMAND CARDS against them. You may not nuke them, you may not stealth MOD them or anything like that. As with the other factions... the AH/WoTC FAQ's can be found on Wavex's totally cool/informative site.

Have fun! Enjoy the Carnage!


Foxtrot One (FT1)
"Ya know... there are days when you should have just stayed in the barracks cleaning your rifle. 'Chik-Chak! BLAM!' "

[Gorak]

Thanks again man.

[wavex]

"the AH/WoTC FAQ's can be found on Wavex's totally cool/informative site."

Thankx FT1 I feel flattered. :-)
Just to give credit where... it's our site (Grendel and mine)

Excellent articles btw !

Glenn
www.belgium2210.be

And keep playing.....

[wavex]

FT1,

I have another idea... Maybe you would like to reformat your article take some pictures and would like to have it published on our site...
We would welcome your "guest publication"...
Let me know what you think,

Glenn

[Iceman]

Originally Posted by Brewcity_Warmasterz

For Moderate cost... you can't use a spare deck like you could with the Tech commander cards because you need 30 for the aliens deck. So we still recommend the playing cards... they are durable and easy to shuffle. (We are currently using an old set of "Jurassic Park" cards as I thought they would be suitable - Feel free to use any cards you can find. LOL )

We use cards from the old Battletech ccg. It has a number that match perfectly (Creative Terraforming, Fanatical Leader) and most match pretty well (Deep Lake for Water Invasion, Secured Drop Site for Land Invasion, etc)

However, for the Aliens themselves... just pick up a few packs of life markers (or whatever they call them in M:TG or any other CCG that uses life counters)... you know, those glass beads they use in the collectable card games. The "actual" invasion frontline pack uses green ones. You will need AT MOST 117. Under favorable (or should I say "unfavorable to the players") conditions... there can be at most 117 Aliens on the boards. This would mean you would have to draw ALL of the invasion cards first (6 Land, 4 Water, 3 Lunar = 39 aliens) and then draw all three of the "Aliens Spawning" cards (39 x 3 = 117).

Not to nitpick, but...
Would it not be 39 x2 = 78 for the first Spawning, x2 = 156 for the second, and x2 = 312 when the third comes up?

We really like the Invasion expansion.
More than we like the Tech Commander (unfortunately, we love the factions, so we kinda Have to use the techie).
It can really kick someone in the teeth (aliens block you from getting the continent you've fought so hard for, then immediately double) or it can totally level the playing field (the guy on top has his surefire strategy mucked up by a timely invasion into the weakest part of his holdings).

I don't recommend it in combo with random land distribution, though.
Luck really starts to overwhelm strategy in that case.
Not always true, but we agreed to never combine them in order to avoid that possibility.

-VIC

[Brewcity_Warmasterz]

Oh that's gross. Yes yes, I bow to your superior wisdom. See why I don't lend people money? I'd lose every time I try to do the math.

I don't think I have 312 of ANY counter... I think that would require ALL the pieces in Fortress America to accomplish, much less horking around a bag with 325 (rounding up) beads in it!

Incidentally, we've never had more than 24 aliens present on the board at any given time.
FT1

PS: I'll consider reformatting the articles... it's just a matter of "time". Yeah I can get you pics too. Should be interesting. LOL Give me a few days... but we still have to work on the "Play by Web thing"... don't think we've forgotten.
Ft1

[maelic001]

Another relatively low cost option for new devestation markers is to pick up a new set from svgames.com....

[Referee]

or maybe you could get glass beads in three colors? (for 1, 3, 5 amoebas) That would reduce the number of beads you'd need.

[wavex]

FT1,

the few days are over :-) Hand over the articles and prepare for eternal recognition **cough cough**
Just that you know that we haven't forgotten !!!


WaveX

[Brewcity_Warmasterz]

G... old buddy old pal. Uh... I forgot. ::grins::

I'll work on them this week and have them ready by at the latest, late evening on Sunday. Will take pictures, as well. Can you take Word format? I can send in Word or WP format, but prefer Word as I'd have to reinstall WP. Heh.

Let me know... I DO check the boards like twice a day... just can't believe I forgot. Oy.

Thanks!

FT1