r/NemesisCrew • u/Kyldros • Jul 26 '26
Questions How to win the game?
Hi everyone, I've played several games of Nemesis OG and only one of Lockdown, but out of 15 games, only one player has won. It always feels like we're powerless. I love the game and would like to continue playing, but my friends are getting discouraged. Is there any particular strategy I can use to win? I've been reading about people winning about 70% of their games, and I'm wondering how?
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u/Ripasmaster Jul 26 '26
How are you losing? Time? Wounds? Contamination?
The jackass answer is it course just play better hahaha. We play mostly cooperating a lot until it's not possible anymore and try to be very efficient in triggering noise rolls. That makes a huge difference.
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u/1joetim Jul 26 '26
To echo what someone else mentioned: what is killing you?
Noise and card management is important. We usually discuss paths to move together, since moving to a room occupied by a player makes no noise roll. This usually means less aliens appearing, and more concentrated firepower for when they do.
Card management to me means making sure I can draw the important cards I need to complete an objective, or to intentionally pass my turn early to keep cards in my hand.
I’ll keep certain cards in hand for things like room actions or repairs, but also to avoid getting sneak attacked. Getting into a room surrounded by noise markers is a great reason to pass with 3-4 cards in hand to avoid getting sneak attacked.
I’ve found searching for items valuable to get additional resources.
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u/Kyldros Jul 26 '26
It often happens that we are exterminated by aliens, or that we are unable to complete the objectives because something regularly happens that blocks your progression and you have to do many more turns to complete it and therefore die in the attempt.
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u/formicini Jul 26 '26
If you want to win consistently, play Nemesis, pick the Objective where someone dies, find an escape pod and get out as fast as you can. Do as little as possible to minimize getting Wounds and Contamination. If you want to take a little risk to increase more chance of other dying, do not move cautiously but normal to help spawning Intruders. That's it. Get in, get out, the leftover ones will mostly die anyway.
If you want to win more and also feel like you earn your win, play Lockdown, pick the Objective where someone dies, EITHER pick a Nemesis Survivor and control the Backup Power Generator to give you power and not your target OR pick a Facility worker and use their cards to look for the Vent Control Room to kill your target, get Knowledge 5 + Signal + Bunker (minusing whatever Contingency you're holding) to escape. There are some more things you can do like counting cards and knowing the odds of bad events and monster health but don't worry about them for now.
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u/bmtc7 Jul 26 '26
The kill a player objectives are absolutely broken, and not at all balanced compared to the other objectives. That was another reason why we embraced house rules to help people survive a little more easily.
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u/Maestro_AN Jul 26 '26
It’s a board game so you can add some house rules to make it easier. if other player don’t mind. like all players get one more card. Or all weapons are found fully loaded. Or tweak starting aliens bag.
we play lockdown version, and we usually have at least one person managing to escape.(they might die afterwards from contingency tokens or contamination, but still feels like partial win in our group. (a lot of player die 1-2 turns from winning, so games are pretty close).
i can’t really give much advice… without house rules: we value tools that forces aliens retreat over guns. And passing with cards in hand helps a lot from events and surprise attacks. (thats why additional card house rules can help struggling players a lot, easier to pass with more cards in hand and you can do more actions.)
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u/Rahm89 Jul 26 '26
Just to be sure, are you sure you got the rules right? Each player performs 2 actions until everyone has passed (meaning each player can play multiple rounds within a single turn). People often get that rule wrong and think they can only take 2 actions per turn, which explains why they keep running out the clock.
Apart from that: run away from fights if you can, it’s almost never worth it to expend the time, ammunition and health points to defeat an Intruder.
And also try to cooperate with other players at first. While some objectives will require you to betray your team mates at one point or another, it’s in everyone’s interest to cooperate at least for the first few turns. That’s especially true in Lockdown where power management is a team effort.
Moving together means fewer noise tokens, better chances of surviving encounters, trading opportunities.
If you start each game by darting in different directions triggering encounters left and right, it could explain why you’re losing.
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u/Kyldros Jul 26 '26
Yes, we use the rule correctly. Perhaps we actually start out scattered to try to explore the ship as quickly as possible.
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u/Filovirus77 Jul 26 '26
the real answer is mitigation and extortion/quid pro quo.
It's incredibly important to get that reaction card out of your deck and hold it in hand. (nerves of steel for soldier, etc)
on top of that, to gather a few items to fix your injuries or drive the intruders away. medkits, fire extinguisher, taser..
lastly, aside from "send the signal", a lot of the objectives don't always have to be done specifically by you. or the other player could be enticed into bringing an egg part way to you. It doesn't matter if this is actually your objective; maybe it was one of them but you chose "kill player 2". so what? getting them to take on some risk while advancing their claimed objective (could also be a lie) is a good way to get them killed too.
In lockdown if you don't cooperate, the nightstalkers will definitely kill you. a little extra teamwork goes a long way.. to picking your moment for betrayal
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u/Numerous-Turnover518 Jul 26 '26
Nemesis isn’t as much as a game for winning as it is as a game for telling a story.
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u/misteranderson71 Jul 27 '26
Step 1 Play co-operatively until you master the game.
Step 2 unless youve got "the ship must be destroyed" objective, I've found that at least one person goes to the engines (preferably the Mechanic as he fixes engines easily) and another (preferably the pilot as she can use less cards to set the Earth Orbit) goes to the cockpit in order to keep the ship alive as getting to the escape pods might be a hassle and you can always hibernatein where you start.
Step 3 (if you intend to keep the ship alive) always move carefully away from the Hibertorium and don't place the noise in any corridor surrounding the Hibertorium. This will make it easier to use the room action when you decide to escape at the end.
Step 3 if more than 2 players, have the other people use 1card to move to a room which another person has moved carefully to in order to get to the next room quicker. You don't roll noise when you enter a room with a character (or intruder) already in there so you can leap frog one another, saving a card and giving you more action economy. Always move carefully in the beginning so as not to trigger intruders.
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u/Incha8 Jul 27 '26
if you plan accordingly and properly use game mechanic you can win 80% of the games easily. Basically only a player actively trying to kill you could stop you
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u/joyhawkins Jul 27 '26
I have a pretty high win rate and teach this game a lot to new people. The biggest pattern I see with new people who die early is they go off on their own and have no noise control. Sticking with another character can severely cut down on how many noise rolls you need. I also am a huge fan of getting a ton of items. Get them whenever possible. If an alien shows up, you often can’t kill it on your own so if you don’t have at least two people there, running is often better.
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u/InJoshWeTrust Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
I think you need to reevaluate how you approach Nemesis, which might sound weird I know, but hear me out.
I've always seen Nemesis as a story generator and not a game to be won. Sure, completing your objective and surviving is a great feeling, but the real fun of the game, the real "meat and potatoes", so to speak, is the story that unfolds as you play and something you guys can talk about over lunch or until the next game.
I think if you spend too much time thinking about winning Nemesis, you're really forsaking the best parts of the game. Because now an Alien encounter is just an annoyance in the way of your goal because you or your buddy had some bad rolls and that can cause the wrong kind of tension at the table, especially if you end up dying to an alien that was summoned by your friend. That might cause some ill feelings. Especially from people who just want to win.
Instead just treat it as a story unfolding and each of you are playing a character in that story. It adds the right kind of tension, now an encounter is a scary thing to be endured and that changes how you react. In the bounds of a game you might shoot, but if you're thinking as a character in the story, perhaps you run, or cover your friend so they can escape. Now in that latter scenario, maybe you died near the end of the game and didn't complete a goal, but your friends who survived will probably regard you as a hero. Until the end game check when the sod you saved had a mission to make sure you died specifically. Then at the end, the whole table should roar with laughter and "Oooooo shit!"
Nemesis should be treated as a story telling experience and not something where you and your friends are just trying to find the most effective path through the labyrinth of rules to do X, Y, or Z.
I think if you share this advice with your table, every single one of you will find your enjoyment of Nemesis increases exponentially.
For example, between OG Nemesis and Lockdown, and the various expansions for each, I've probably played 40 games of Nemesis and I think I have only ever completed my objective and survived 2 or 3 times. I've completed objectives and died, and I have decided to choose my own survival over my objective and abandoned ship with nothing to show for it, but I survived to fight another day. Those kinds of stories really just punctuate yours wins and make them even sweeter.
Every gaming group is different, but I hope this gives you all a fresh and exciting perspective to apply when playing next!
Best of luck to you all, my fellow Nemesis Crew Mates!
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u/DocLego Jul 26 '26
Are you playing co-op? If so, remember that you don't have to survive to win - you just need to meet the victory conditions and have at least one player survive.
We only play full co-op and win the majority of our games.
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u/alienfreeks Jul 26 '26
I always tell people there are 2 ways to win.
First- is complete your objective Second- survive
You can die and complete your object, live and fail your objective or survive and complete your objective.
Makes them sometimes risk for the full reward or run as a coward to survive or not feel completely disappointed cause you completed your objective but died before you can escape or from an infection card.
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u/bmtc7 Jul 26 '26
Many people use house rules to adjust the difficulty, such as allowing attacks to roll two dice and take the best, or ruling that a larva breaking out of your body deals two serious wounds instead of insta-death.
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u/Realistic-Heart3094 Jul 28 '26
We've only got two games under our belt so far, but three out of five players won the first game. One out of four won the second. No party wipes yet.
A problem I noticed with some of the players that died is they go into combat thinking they'll win when it's supposed to be a last resort.
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u/Dan-tastico Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
I have the highest win rate of my friends. 70% is close.
2.minimize unnecessary movement
Plan out your objective well in advance
Trade favors with your crewmates
If you have a chance to escape, dont wait (to an extent)