Alien Armies

Alien Armies was a trading card game published by Panini Comics in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Following the success of GE Fabbri Ltd’s Doctor Who: Battles in Time collectable trading cards and magazine series, Panini (better known to fans and collectors for their Doctor Who Magazine title) launched a more affordable collectable trading card game in October 2009 (without a magazine component). This title were only available until the end of 2009. In November, two Collectors Tin were issued, each with sixty regular cards and an exclusive card.

Starter pack
A starter pack was available from newsagents and consisted of:
 * Alien Armies Game Board (one required per player). The players could mount their strongest cards, ready for play against an opponent by beating their opponents corresponding score.
 * Collector’s Binder – a plastic-sleeved folder to house the collection, with a removable cover insert. It listed details and had a checklist of all 260 cards.
 * Four packs of 6 assorted cards (individually available from retailers priced 50p UK)
 * The Starter pack in a sealed clear bag was priced at £4.99 (UK)

Card features
The 260 card collection was made up of various card types;
 * 180 Standard Cards (Cards numbered 1-180)
 * 40 Glitter Foil Cards (Cards numbered G1-G40)
 * 20 Super Foil Cards (Cards numbered F1-F20)
 * 20 Super Foil Emboss Cards (Cards numbered E1-E20)
 * The cards followed a television transmission order covering the Tenth Doctor stories from The Christmas Invasion through to Planet of the Dead with only the 10 (E) Doctor cards referencing earlier stories.

Some key cards could be found repeated but in different card types and each of the cards were categorised as one of the following;
 * Doctor
 * Children of Time
 * Villain
 * Ally
 * Equipment


 * All the cards featured a single image against a different colour themed background with the main image and other features being laminated. Each card (apart from the equipment cards) carried Power and Attack ratings along with a tiebreak rating (blue), and a power up options for use with equipment cards in blue, green, red and yellow, cards also credited the appropriate episode title.

Promotions

 * To mark the simultaneous launch of both Starter packs and individual card packs, Panini's own regular Doctor Who Magazine, 4 separate packs and an exclusive Tenth Doctor Card was included with issue number 414, which was bagged.


 * Three other special edition cards were also made available,


 * The weekly Doctor Who Adventures title also featured pack giveaways that included two free packs with each of three consecutive issues (DWA Issues 135 - 137).


 * In both these titles, the promotional card packs included 5 consecutivly numbered standard cards and one other.