Hello, Commander. The war continues—at great cost. We now believe another force is at work against us. If not dealt with swiftly, it could destroy us…

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce the upcoming release of XCOM: Evolution, an expansion for XCOM: The Board Game!

As the alien forces spread and peril increases, the sinister humans of EXALT seek to take advantage of the chaos to infiltrate and destroy XCOM from within. Their treachery leads to new challenges, and you'll find new missions, enemies, and invasion plans, as well as mechanics that make your struggles more dangerous than ever. You'll face new crises, you'll find your work subverted, and you'll have to deal with new threats to the very resources you need to win the war.

Fortunately, your team has also made some advances since the war began. The discovery of the mysterious alien substance known as Meld promises to unlock some astonishing breakthroughs in the field of biomechanics. And XCOM: Evolution allows you to pursue some of these advances, potentially bringing formidable new weaponry to the field in the form of MEC Troopers!

The Threat of EXALT

EXALT is a paramilitary society, determined to seize power during the chaos of war, and their members have infilitrated all manner of organizations, including XCOM. This means that your war has a new front; even as you turn outward to fight back the alien invaders, you must also confront the enemy within.

In XCOM: Evolution, the threats posed by this organization and its treachery are represented by EXALT tokens. These tokens influence the various tasks on the game board, increasing the level of danger associated with them. Missions and other tasks that gain the "dangerous" designation are associated with a six-sided alien die instead of the eight-sided alien die from the base game.

This means that the members of EXALT and their influence markedly increase the chances that your team will roll at or below the threat value. Thanks to the threat of EXALT, there's a greater chance that all your units at any task will be exhausted, destroyed, or killed.

Finally, the members of EXALT and their goals feature prominently in one of the game's two new invasion plans. While the new Annihilation invasion plan represents the ultimate XCOM challenge, the Suppression invasion plan finds your XCOM team fighting the war equally on two fronts—both against the aliens and EXALT. Both these invasion plans will be freely available with an update to the game's companion app, but they will require the components from XCOM: Evolution to play.

The Discovery of Meld

At last, the alien substance known as Meld finds its way to XCOM: The Board Game!

Along with a trio of new assets for the Chief Scientist, Central Officer, and Commander, the discovery of Meld may just give your XCOM team the edge it needs to survive the heightened challenges of XCOM: Evolution.

Fans of the XCOM computer games will recognize Meld as the mysterious alien substance that the scientists at XCOM use to unlock powerful upgrades and technologies. Since XCOM's forces always start off with a technological disadvantage versus the aliens, it's only the team's ability to adapt and advance that gives them a fighting chance. Meld is critical to those efforts, and the substance is just as critical in XCOM: Evolution.

All the missions from XCOM: Evolution feature an extra Meld reward. These new missions denote a task that, if completed on the turn the mission is drawn, allows the Squad Leader to claim the indicated reward. However, if the XCOM soldiers assigned to the mission are unable to complete the task before the end of the turn, the Meld token associated with the task is removed, and the Meld reward is no longer available.

More importantly, the discovery of Meld allows XCOM's scientists to outfit willing volunteers with powerful cybernetic implants, transforming them into the elite MEC Troopers. These truly fearsome soldiers are specialized in all four military skills, meaning they greatly improve your chances of successfully defending your base and completing your missions. However, you never start with any of these soldiers in play; instead, your Chief Scientist needs to discover the key to creating them by sifting through alien salvage in the new Cybernetics Lab.

You Are Humanity's Last Hope

The war is not won. The war continues, and though your team has made great strides, you now face an unprecedented measure of peril. How will you deal with the enemy without and within? The old strategies will not suffice. You must transform your team into something greater. You must evolve the XCOM organization.

XCOM: Evolution and the next wave of alien assaults are scheduled to launch in the fourth quarter of 2016!