XCOM: The Board Game Announced, Companion App Required

Be ready to retake earth on a tabletop in XCOM: The Board Game.

Fantasy Flight Games has announced that it is bringing our favorite turn-based strategy RPG, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, over to the board game format. That's right, you will use dice and mini-figures to decide the fate of the world with your friends around a table. Surprisingly, XCOM will require the use of a free-to-download companion app that will help keep track of the game with your friends.

The app will act as both a guide to XCOM's gameplay and as an online tool. It will coordinate the ever-increasing alien invasion. Aliens will plot strikes against your base and you must respond accordingly. The app measures the time it takes for you to respond and each move's results. It then plots its next invasion strike based on the previous round's information. Also, the app will teach all newcomers how to play the game.

XCOM: The Board Game is expected to arrive at retailers in Q4 2014. Don't forget to research your alien technology so you have a fighting chance.