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X-bugs box art
2001 Ranked #6,231

X-bugs

A tiddlywinks-style battle game where insect armies flick pieces to capture enemy soldiers and bases. Losing bases reduces your movement dice, so early captures can steadily strip an opponent of the ability to respond.

Family Games Action / Dexterity Fighting Variable Player Powers Dice Rolling

Players

2

Play time

Not listed

Age

10+

Complexity

1.34/5

Rating

6.34

Harder to teach Highly interactive Deep strategy

Overview

At a glance

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ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.

Teachability 2.4/5

Harder to teach

Replay value 4.0/5

High replayability

Interaction 3.6/5

Highly interactive

Player scaling 4.0/5

Scales well

Strategic depth 4.5/5

Deep strategy

See all 5 specifications

How it plays

How does it play?

The History: In the famous Roswell crash, the alien crew died, but some alien insects survived... and at the moment they're ready to conquer the world!

Core mechanisms

Key systems that shape the decisions players make.

Read the full game description

The History: In the famous Roswell crash, the alien crew died, but some alien insects survived... and at the moment they're ready to conquer the world! But during the cold war, US and Soviet scientists studied a solution: genetically modified earth insects, strong enough to deal with the menace! The battle is going to begin! The Game: the game is based on the classic tiddlywinks: every army has three "bases" which have to be defended, and various "soldier insects" (winks) with various shapes, dimensions, and special abilities. An "insect" is captured when an opponent "insect" stop over it. A "base" is captured the second time an opponent "insect" stop over it. Three 6-sided creature dice for every army are rolled every turn, and dictates which kinds of insects can move. When you lose a base, you lose a die and therefore some mobility. When you lose the second base, you're out of the game. There are six armies, but only four were published in the United States. The game is sold in boxes containing two armies, and each army is separately available in two colors so identical forces can face each other: - USArthropods Vs. Flyborgs - Sovietoptera Vs. Chitinians - Samurachnids Vs. Bifids (not published in the US as of 8/2007) Each set has enough pieces for two players; by combining sets up to 12 can play. About special abilities: some insects can mimetize, some can move twice, other can shoot some weapons like missiles or acid spits (represented by winks, too)... BTW, the Italian name for "Tiddlywinks" is "il gioco della pulce", which means "the game of the flea". Reimplemented as Micro Mutants: Evolution

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Editions

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Player resources

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Game and edition data

All specifications (5)

Play and group

Players
2
Best with
2
Play time
30 min
Age
10+
Complexity
1.3/5
Credits and catalog connections

Credits

Designers

2
Marco Maggi Francesco Nepitello

Artists

5
Marco Alfaroli Riccardo Alfaroli Cédric Baer Fabio Maiorana Christophe Swal

Publishers

4
Dal Negro Darwin Project Fanpro Nexus Editrice

Linked items

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