Overview

Nemesis: Retaliation is a semi-cooperative board game designed for 1-5 players, which focuses on emergent narrative and the tension of the action-horror genre.

Each player assumes the role of a marine squad member equipped with professional gear.

They are sent to a Facility infested with deadly alien life forms and tasked with a mission – yet their own goals may conflict with one another.

In the end, there is one thing they must do above all: survive.

Setup

Players select their Marine (e.g., Officer, Heavy Gun Operator, Recon) by choosing from two classes proposed. Each character has a unique Action Deck and Starting Equipment. You can check Mission Task as well as your Private and Mission objectives before choosing your Marine.

Next step is Support Equipment Draft. Each player, except Contractor, choose one item from 7 cards proposed.

Finally, each player is choosing 4 Tactical Gear tokens (Ammo, Grenade, Oxygen, Medpack) and places them in their Tactical Belt.

After that, each player draws 5 Action cards and Player 1 begins the game.

Other steps, like placing Robot in Hibernatorium, preparing Intruder Bag, starting Corridors, etc. are handled by BGA automatically.

The Map

The Map in Nemesis shows a Facility which is divided into 3 Sections – A, B, and C. The Facility consists of Rooms, which are always placed in one of the 3 Sections. The Rooms are connected by adjacent Corridors.

Characters may only be placed in Rooms, while Intruders may be placed both in Rooms and in Corridors.

Each Section has its own Life Support System that may be either Active or Inactive. Changing the status of those systems is possible in Life Support Control Rooms which can be found in every Section.

Each Section has its own dedicated Section Rooms (marked with “A”, “B”, and “C” symbol). All other Rooms (marked with “?”) are random and may appear in any Section.

On BGA, you can check all the room, by clicking magnifying glass icon above the board.

Rooms are connected with Corridors. As a result of Movement and other Actions, Noise markers are placed in Corridors alerting you to incoming danger.

When you roll Noise value matching the number of adjacent Corridor with Noise marker, you may spawn Intruders, depending on the token drawn from the Intruders Bag.

Note that Intruders move into Room and Corridors, when Players move only between Rooms.

Corridors can hold up to 6 Intruders or Queen and 2 other Intruders (Queen counts as size 4). Room can hold unlimited Intruders.

Empty Corridors may be Reinforced during the game. When a Corridor is Reinforced, Noise marker from it is discarded and it is flipped to side with "O" value shown.

Noise markers won’t be placed on such a Corridor. However, Intruders can still move into such a Corridor.

Note: Corridors leading to the Hibernatorium can never be Reinforced

Equipment Cards & Inventory

Equipments Cards you find during the game can be divided into three Categories:

Small Item - If You find Small Item, you can put it in your Backpack. You can hold unlimited Small Items.

Heavy Item - Heavy Items (horizontal Cards) need to hold in one of your hands (Left or Right). Usually You can hold only two Heavy Items, with exceptions like Bayonett or Duct Tape being used to tape items together.

Armor - You carry armor on your Heavy Injured section of Player Board. This is to emphasize that you lose Armor and all items on it, when your health drops to Heavy Injured state (4 or less).

Tactical tokens on your Armor or Heavy Items may be used during use Tactical Gear action.

Game Round Structure

PLAYER PHASE

Players take Turns during which they resolve the following 3 steps:

1. Perform 2 Actions – Perform 2 Actions of your choice listed on the Character board.

2. Oxygen Loss – If you are in a Section with Inactive Life Support Systems lose 1 Oxygen.

3. Fire Damage – If you are in a Room with Fire lose 1 Health Point.

This process repeats until all players have Passed.

INTRUDER PHASE

1. Intruders Burning – Intruders in Rooms with Fire receive 1 Hit.

2. Intruder Attacks  – Intruders Attack Characters in the same Rooms.

EVENT PHASE

1. Event Card Resolution – An Event card is resolved.

2. Bag Development – Intruders’ colony develops.

CLEANUP PHASE

1. Starting Player Change – The next player becomes the Starting Player.

2. Drawing Action Cards – Each Character refills their hand by drawing cards up to 5 in their hand.

3. Time Advancement – The Round marker is advanced and a new Round begins.

Player Actions Overview

In a given Turn a player must perform 2 Actions choosing from the list on the Character board. If they are unable to perform any other Action they must perform the “Pass” Action. Players may perform the same Action multiple times in any given Turn.

Costing 0 Action cards:

• Play an Action card (resolving one of the effects on card, sometimes it may require to discard additional cards)

• Pass

Costing 1 Action card:

• Make a Move – move to adjacent room

• Place 1 Secure Token

• Fire a Shot in a Room - add one damage to an Intruder and roll attack dice - if the result is equal or lower value, the intruder is killed (exception for Queen - special rules apply). The Skull icon is always considered lethal damage

• Fire a Burst at a Corridor - usually You have to spend Ammo, roll a Burst die and assign damage to Intruders in Corridor equal to value rolled

• Perform a Melee Attack – draw a Contamination card, attack Intruder, Intruder retaliaties if not killed, can block by adding Malfunction marker to a Weapon

• Use an Item

• Activate the Robot

• Trade – allow all Players in your room to Trade items

• Use any Tactical Gear – use any number of tokens from your Tactical Belt

Costing 2 Action cards: • Use the Room – activate the Room ability

• Make a Move Cautiously – move to adjacent room and place 1 Secure Token there

NOT IN COMBAT

Some Actions (marked with crossed out Intruder icon) may only be performed, when a Character is not engaged in Combat. A Character is considered to be in Combat when they are in a Room with at least 1 Intruder.

PASSING

Note that in Nemesis Pass is an Action.

A player does not Pass automatically when they have no cards in hand. The “Pass” Action must still be performed, which may sometimes force a player to wait until their next Turn, if they have already performed 2 Actions. This may cause them lose additional Oxygen or get another point of damage from Fire.

REACTIONS

At any point, a player is able to play a Reaction effect if the conditions described on the card are met. In such a case, the card’s Reaction Effect is resolved and finally the card is placed on top of the discard pile.

Reactions are not Actions and do not count toward the Actions per Turn limit.

CHOOSING AN OBJECTIVE

During their Turns, players may also choose their Objective. Each player may only choose an Objective once per game, while they still have 2 Objective cards.

An Objective may be chosen before or after any of the 2 Actions in a Turn, but not in a middle of one, and it is NOT considered an Action for any purposes.

To choose an Objective, the player choose 1 of their Objective cards and removes it from the game.

The other Objective is kept and must be fulfilled before the game ends. Then, the marker on the Objective Choice track is moved down by 1 (if possible) and the  player draws Action cards according to the marker.

First Player that choose objective draws 3 cards, second & third draw 2 cards, fourth player draws one cards. In 5 Players game, last player to choose objective does not draw a card.

Intruder Movement and Target Priority

During Event Phase or due to player movement, actions and Noise token resolution Intruders may move and attack player.

Intruders in room with Players choose to attack. Intruder attack is resolved by drawing Attack Card and resolving it's effect. It may differ based on type of the Intruder attacking.

Intruders not in room with Players, move towards the closest Player using the shortest route. Intruders ignore Doors when choosing how to move (closed Doors blocking the path are destroyed and intruders don't move through them).

Intruders move between Rooms and Corridors – If the moving Intruders are in a Corridor, they move to an adjacent Room. If they are in a Room, they move to an adjacent Corridor.

Only 1 Intruder enters a Room with a Character – Whenever Intruders move from 1 Corridor to a Room with a Character, only the largest Intruder moves to that Room instead.

Intruders Attack when moving to a Room with a Character – Whenever an Intruder enters a Room with a Character it always Attacks (some effects may allow you to prevent that Attack, such as Secure tokens).

Intruders stay in Combat  – Intruders do not move when they are in the same Room as a Character. They do not move away from Combat, unless Repelled.

When Intruders have multiple Characters they could Attack/move to, they choose the target by following this pattern:

Closest Character

If there are multiple Characters in the same distance, then out of them the Character Activating the Attack/movement (if there is any)

If there is still a tie, then out of possible Characters, the one that is first in Turn order.

If there are two, same distance, paths to choosen Character, Intruders move towards Room / Corridor with lower Id.

Intruder Types

The Queen

Only one in game, an extremely durable and aggressive enemy. When you shot the Queen, you move the Damage token on her Health track. When you deal Lethal Damage or the token reach the 5th space, you resolve top card from Queen Health Deck.

The card must be fully resolved, even if Queen dies in the effect. Queen permanently dies when there are no cards left in Queen Health Deck.

Drones

Rare but more dangerous than typical Adults. Their attacks may have stronger effects.

In Rooms they behave the same as Adults. In Corridors, you need to apply 2 damage to kill them. (Intruder doesn't keep damage tokens in Corridors, so Burst with value 1 has no effect on Drones).

Adults

The most standard type seen very frequently.

In Rooms standard Shoot rules apply (add Damage token and roll Attack Dice). In Corridors they need only 1 damage to be killed. (For example, Burst roll 4 can kill Four Adults, but ony Two Drones)

Larvae

Not as deadly as the other Intruders, but can infect Players with Contamination card if their attack is not blocked.

Larva has only one HP. In Room every attack will kill Larva (even you roll Spend Ammo during Attack). In Corridor they need only 1 damage to be killed.

Game End

The game ends when one of the following takes place:

Round 14 ends – Time is up, and all Characters who have not Escaped the Facility/Hibernated are beyond saving and are considered dead.

OR

All players have died or Escaped/Hibernated.

When the game ends there are still a few checks that need to be done before players can determine winners.

1. Each Character without a Larva on their Character board – Draws all cards from the Action deck and discard pile to hand and performs the Infection Procedure. (Scan their Contamination Cards to check for Larva infection)

2. Each Character that currently has a Larva on their Character board – Gains 1 additional Contamination card, reshuffles their whole deck (including hand and discard pile) and performs the Eclosion Procedure. (Draw 4 Cards from their Deck, if at least one is Contamination, that Character dies)

3. Each Character who  is still alive  – Reveals and checks their Objective. Note: If a Character has not chosen an Objective until that point, they reveal the one Completed (if there is any).

4. Each remaining Character who succeeded in completing their Objective wins the game!

Note: Current ELO implementation on BGA consider all-Players win or all-Players lose as Tie between all players.