My X-Men: Under Siege board game variant

[Jeff]

Does anyone remember the two X-Men board games created by Pressman group waaaay back in 1993? I used to own X-Men: Alert and sadly ruined all the figures that came with it by using the wrong paints. It wasn't until my college years that I discovered a 2nd superior game called X-Men: Under Siege. Using similar gameplay with a few new characters this game also included a board of the entire X-Mansion. It wasn't until a few weeks ago that I was able to track down a copy of my own and started to think of how I could make it better. My first thought (as someone had mentioned on this site) was to use minimates to replace the game pawns. Sadly the majority of characters in the game are ones I don't own in my collection so I went with the next best thing: Heroclix. I quickly got to work....

After much trial and error and research into other games I finally created a variant to X-Men: Under Siege that I am happy with. Keeping gameplay and most of the components intact, I’ve added in object cards to the rooms that can be used to assist X-Men in battling Evil Mutants. Characters that are strong enough to lift them (I’ve added a strength stat to the character cards) can use the object’s bonus in addition to the Marvels or X-Men rolled on the fighting dice. Characters are also able to take cover behind objects and absorb some, if not all of the damage. Characters can carry objects with them between battles as well. Here’s a look at some of the object cards:

One of the games I researched when creating my variant was AEG’s Tomb. A great D&D style dungeon romp with plenty of suspense and choices for players. I felt this was lacking in Under Siege so I added in another card type: Traps. Traps act just like they do in Tomb- there’s a number of players needed to disarm it, a specific stat to roll with, (in this case, a X-Men’s fighting, strength, or intellect) the number of Evil mutants you must roll with those dice, and the failure result for not disarming the trap. If a trap isn’t disarmed, players remain in the room until they can disarm it- still taking damage with each failure. Here’s a look at one of the trap cards:

Because of the added cards, I needed to recreate the board to apply them. I purchased a copy of Under Siege and scanned in the game board in three parts and then painstakingly recreated each floor of the X-Mansion in Illustrator. Here’ a sample of the six boards:

Each floor has a key that shows the number of Evil Mutants, Objects, and Traps located in the various rooms. Like Tomb, card placement in each room is random so players can choose where to place each card (a room may have up to three cards placed in it, one of each type) Players will know that room selection once the game starts, is completely random as determined by the cards drawn from the under siege deck. In my variant, players still add up their team’s intellect and draw that many Under Siege cards.

When searching a room players play the cards located within as such: Traps first, Evil Mutants second, and Objects third. Certain mutant powers of the characters may let you avoid traps. Objects from previous rooms carried by characters can be used against Evil Mutants. Objects located in the room can only be used for cover during battle with an evil mutant. Any object not used in this fashion can be picked up by the X-Man and used in the next battle. Objects may also be used against traps in a defensive action only.

The objective of the game has changed however. No longer do you tally points for rooms chips, evil mutants or floors cleared. Instead, for every trap you defeat you collect a piece of cerebro. The back story I came up with is that the Evil Mutants have infiltrated the X-Mansion to destroy Cerebro (Xavier’s mutant finding technology) in order to keep Xavier from locating more mutants to come to his side—and to generally trash the mansion. Collect the 20 missing pieces of cerebro (as a co-op game) and fight to stay alive battling Evil Mutants. So while the Evil Mutants are a threat, it isn’t the goal to defeat all of them- you just have to survive. A goal for the evil mutants is to defeat the X-Men. Should they K.O./kill 12 of the 25 available X-Men in the game, you lose.

Players still start the game with two X-Men and can pick up a third teammate through the course of the game by either drawing a card from a room (mixed in with the object cards) or from the Under Siege deck. I believe there are two.

The X-Men character choices have remained the same with a few spill overs from X-Men: Alert- Colossus, Shadowcat, and Professor X. I’ve removed Cable and Maverick and added in Multiple Man, Mimic, Dazzler, and Cannonball. I decided to forego the figures that came standard with both games and instead when with Heroclix. Most were relatively cheap on ebay and a lot I had collecting dust in the closet. New character cards were made for each X-Men as well. As mentioned above a strength stat was added to all the cards so characters could lift objects. Two mutant abilities were added in the form of a ‘level 1’ and ‘level 2’ options. Level 1 can only be used when you have two teammates, level 2 is unlocked when you have 3 teammates. A player can switch between level 1 and level 2 abilities once they have three X-Men on their turn. Characters can still heal on a turn just as they do in Under Siege along with playing the Medical Wing card and restoring themselves to full health.

One last element I added was ‘special appearance’ character cards that are shuffled into the 25 X-Men character card deck. When a player reveals a ‘recruit a new X-Man’ card they may find one of these characters instead:

Lockheed

Lockheed may fight alongside the X-Men with his fiery blasts from his mouth. He’ll attach himself to a X-Man with the lowest fighting stat number and travel with them from room to room. Lockheed must stay with that X-Men until they are defeated then he may be moved to a new owner. Lockheed does +2 damage to any Evil Mutant in battle but cannot harm traps. Lockheed can take 2 hits before he is defeated and cannot heal or use the Medical Wing to recover. For every three Evil Mutants rolled, Lockheed takes a hit.

Leech

Leech was visiting the mansion when the Evil Mutants arrived. Due to his mutant power of canceling out mutant’s abilities within range, his life was sparred but he left behind, terrified and alone. Players will place Leech with the X-Man who has the highest strength stat and unfortunately have their special abilities (both Level 1 and Level 2)

canceled out. Leech also cancels out any Evil Mutant’s special abilities- except for Arcade, Brood, Mojo, and Juggernaut. Due to his size, Leech doesn’t take damage for any evil mutants rolled unlike Lockheed.

Sentinel

Sentinels are the X-Men’s most formidable foe and as such are a costant threat. When a player draws the Sentinel Character Card (placed in the middle of the character card deck), they place the heroclix Sentinel figure near the game board. Players then rolls 2 dice: the mansion die, a six sided die to represent the six floors of the mansion to show where the Sentinel has focused on attacking his prey and a 50/50 capture/terminate dice. Place the Sentinel on the game board floor( X-Men logo) that corresponds to the color rolled. The Sentinel has two functions: capture or terminate as determined by the Sentinel dice. The Sentinel rolls the die to determine which mutants possess unique abilites to be exploited or if they are too dangerous to the Sentinel army and must be terminated.

Capture Roll: Any X-Men on the same floor as the Sentinel are immediately captured. Place the X-Men pawn in the hand of the Sentinel. A Sentinel may capture up to two X-Men at one time. X-Men may attempt to rescue captured X-Men (either players) by attacking the Sentinel with their fighting stat and any objects they are carrying. For every three blanks rolled, an X-Man is rescued.

Terminate Roll: Any X-Man on the same floor as the Sentinel are attacked. Sentinels instantly do 2 damage without having to roll. Characters may avoid this attack if there Level 1 or Level 2 special abilities allow it.

Because of the scale of the Sentinel all Marvel and X-Men rolled only count as1 hit. The Sentinel’s strength is the full dial of the heroclix figure- a whopping 26 points.

So that’s my variant. I’d appreciate any thoughts/comments/concerns. I’ve also created a rulebook available as a pdf if anyone is interested, let me know. I’d be happy to email it you along with the card files and gameboard to play for yourself. And, if you have the minimates or have the time to make customs for characters,this game would work perfectly for them.

[b00sted]

very impressive man! and bravo on the creativity it took to come up with. my son is 19months old and my wife dont play board games with me and it may be a bit boring to play with myself haha but I really did enjoy reading though all that you have done with this.

[Jeff]

Thanks! My wife too isn't a board game fan but enjoys seeing my minimate customs. My 1 year old daughter keeps me pretty busy- but I can't wait for her to start playing board games with Daddy. I already have Candy Land, Chutes & Ladders, and Memory ready to go....

I still have to get a group together to playtest it, but the basic gameplay mechanics and card files are all ready to print. I'll post pics of the game in action hopefully next week.