Once more the future of the universe is in jeopardy and honestly I couldn’t choose a better saviour than some unhinged Chickens. In Chickens’n Aliens, the aliens are building their chicken pals a spaceship so they can fly off and save the day. The winner is the first chicken to get a complete UFO and fly away.
- Plays: 2-4
- Age: 8+
- 30-60mins
I was introduced to this one at Airecon and immediately really enjoyed it. The object of the game is to complete your spaceship which is made of 3 spaceship cards. Collect 3 alien cards and pay 2 corn to gain one spaceship card. This ends the round and you start the new round with no aliens and a fresh hand of cards.
Once your spaceship is complete, you win. I can not tell you how pleased I am that other people also delight in the design of the spaceship. You can align the three spaceship cards so that your chicken is in the space ship! Honestly, I only want to play games with the kind of people who will take the time to align the parts of their spaceship for maximum satisfaction. It’s artistic details like this one that make this game such a joy.
It’s incredibly easy to pick up and learn. Each card clearly and succinctly tells you what to do when you play that card- you also get a card with a summary of each card’s action on it and a game play summary card. By the end of round 1, play speeds up considerably as you quickly get used to what each card does. Some cards help by protecting an alien that you have played for instance, or letting you draw more cards. However, the vast majority of cards help you by hindering someone (and in some cases) everyone, else.
There are cards that let you steal cards, corn, and aliens; that let you look at other people’s cards – I love that you choose whether to keep this information secret or broadcast it; and hypno-chicken makes someone miss a turn. There are so many fun ways to massively ruin other chickens plans! And that’s before we get to the red cards!
The 5 red cards are especially powerful and you can choose how many to add. I just chuck them all in for maximum chaos. There’s a super charged Tractor Beam that allows you to steal either 1 card from each player or, 2 from 1 player; Armed to the Hen’s Teeth allows everyone to draw 3 extra cards; Alien Flu can wipe out all the aliens in play (even protected ones) and All out War makes everybody dump their entire hand. My favourite moment recently was hearing someone who’d just played Corn Star called a ‘motherclucker’ from across the bar. Corn Star lets you steal everybody’s corn so I mean, it’s harsh but fair…
There is an option for speeding up the game by including the lower parts of the space ship in the deck. This is brilliant because the space ship cards are double sided so everyone can see if you have a part, lending those Fowl Play and Wild cards (which can allow you to steal) extra power. I like that this not only speeds up the game but it’s also a really fun change to the game. And, if you wanted to speed it up even more, then leaving out All Out War and maybe Corn Star would help.
I love the artwork. The aliens are suitably weird and colourful, and I enjoy the array of skull shapes on the Alien Flu card. I also like the fact that the Alien cards have Alien printed on the top and bottom which meant I spent way too long trying to work out which way up some of them should go! The chickens are the perfect blend of cute and demonic.
The take that element of this game is everything! If you love thwarting people you’ll love this one. We had such a great laugh playing it and I’ve enjoyed introducing people to it at events.
The game is by Mat Humphrey who is currently working on his next game – Chickens ‘n Pirates. Predictably the art work is epic. Keep an eye out for updates on the website, over on Facebook or Instagram. Or, look out for a man dressed as a chicken at your next games convention – chances are it’s him!
You can play this at any of my events. Check the events page to find out where I’ll be taking the board games next.
Ann Jones set up Cards or Die board gaming in 2017 to bring people together with board games. Ann is Autistic, and as well as being passionate about board games she is dedicated to creating inclusive events.
You can book her to teach and recommend games at your event; whether that’s a wedding, corporate event, pub games night or a community group. Or, you can come along to one of her many free events and play games. You can always request games that she has reviewed.
Come along to an event and find out more or get in touch to arrange a chat.
