Army Vs Aliens

I decided I needed to pick up some more 2 player only games a couple weeks ago it was Lost Cities, I also realized I have no real "dice games" in my collection. Obviously being a Sci-Fi fan it was an easy choice between Army vs Aliens and Pirates vs Ninjas. Although I was a bit biased against dice games before even opening the package, I must admit I was pleasantly surprised with how much fun Army vs Aliens is. Below I will cover how to play, my thoughts and why everyone should have a dice game in their collection.

Objective: The goal of the game is to destroy all of your opponent's dice. If 5 consecutive turns go in which no dice have been destroyed the game is considered over, players now count the total value of all units in their Scoring Area and the player with the highest total wins.

How to play:

Basically each player gets a handful of six sided dice. Instead of numbers they each have pictures representing different arsenals to be used by either the Army or the Invading Alien forces. To start both players will roll all their dice, then the player with the most Rank 1 - Trooper / Invaders gets to go first.

On a turn a player chooses either to Rally or to Attack.

Rally: 

When you take a rally action you roll all the dice from your Rally Zone and any dice you choose from your Combat Zone.

The "Rally Zone" are any dice that are inside of your cup, dice go in the cup when
they get "used" to attack your opponent's dice. Your Combat Zone is simply the dice
that you currently have rolled in front of you.

Attack: 

This is where the majority of the game takes place, each of your dice can be used to destroy your opponent's dice of equal or lesser value. Three of the same type may also be used to destroy an opponent's die of 1 rank higher value. After making an attack, all dice that you used are placed in to your Rally Zone. All dice destroyed are claimed and placed inside your Scoring Area.

Dice Results:

 Example Turn:

The player who rolled the most infantry starts, in this case the alien player begins.

The alien player starts by using his UFO to destroy one of the Army player's tanks. The army player then decides to rally and rolls everything except for his Nukes.

To stop the Army Player from launching his nukes, the Alien player uses his
Overlord to return 2 nukes to the Army player's rally cup.

The Army player answers by using an infantry to kill an alien infantry.

My Thoughts

When I read the rules I was less than thrilled, but I ended up impressed with the amount of choice you actually have to make. I was under the impression oh dice game, they can play themselves, not this one. The one thing I found odd is that the Green dice were the Aliens, shouldn't they be the Army? Either way this is an excellent filler game that is great with beer and pretzels.

Who Would Enjoy Army vs Aliens?

Everyone: Obviously everyone doesn't include everyone, there are those that detest dice, don't like 2 player games, games that can be played in less than 10 minutes, or games that are lighthearted fun. Army vs Aliens is great for vacations or traveling anywhere because it is super easy to store (it's just dice!) you can pretty much bring it and play it anywhere. You can teach the rules in under a minute to anyone, it really is that simple but you will want to play again. It does get stale after a while but I don't think this would be the game you would center your night around anyways. Great for in between games, and starting off or winding down your night.