You’d have to have been living under the rock (even including recent lockdowns) not to know that Marvel is big business. A couple of decades ago, it might have only been the comic-book community and a few RPGers that would be overly familiar with the franchise, but these days the likes or Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow and the Hulk are household names.
Therefore it’s hardly surprising that CMON, master of miniature-fuelled/filled Kickstarter campaigns would have been the perfect choice for a board game of the franchise, and even less surprising (given CMON’s track record, the popularity of miniatures in boardgames and the fan market for Marvel collectibles) that its Marvel United campaign knocked its funding and stretch goals out of the park like the Hulk, raising close to $3M from over 20K backers.
What was perhaps a little more surprising was the fact that CMON delivered the game on time, considering how behind they were/are with previous campaigns Trudvang Legends (four months late at the time of writing with no fulfilment date apparent) and the 2.0 version of their classic Zombicide (five months late and just shipping, slowly).
But we’ll leave such negativity to the side this time around – after all, CMON have been reasonably good over the years and getting things to backers on time, and they certainly don’t skimp when it comes to drenching them in injection-moulded plastic goodness, so let’s focus on that for this bang-on-time offering.
[N.B. We’re just going to be looking at the Core set for this review, which should now be available in retail, although we will mention some of the expansions. We won’t be including any Kickstarter-exclusive stuff, with the sole exception of using the campaigns play-mat, which is NOT included in the game, but gave a nice background to the beauty shots.]
Components
The box itself is of a fairly modest size and doesn’t hog a load of shelf real estate, and inside everything is nicely compartmentalised, although spaces for any counters are a little limited, and you’ll still definitely need baggies if you want to stop things getting mixed up. But it’s a pretty good insert.
As always, most of the focus of any CMON campaign is going to be about the miniatures, and Marvel United doesn’t disappoint, although perhaps for a CMON project there’s a more modest quantity that usual (Kickstarter stretch goals notwithstanding!).
The characters in this game (three Villains and seven Heroes) are sculpted in a chibi style (for those of you that don’t know, that means they’re slightly “bobble-headed” and cartoony, as opposed to the more anatomically correct representation that you get with something like Marvel Crisis Protocol).
The mouldings and details are crisp, I guess aided by the caricatured styling, but these are great looking minis, and they take paint well, as you can see from these examples (painted by the talented hand of I Paints Minis).
As for the other components, the counters are brightly printed and chunkily tactile, and the card decks, although not fabric quality, feature excellent art and graphic design and aren’t cluttered with too much information.
All in all, it’s a pretty good showing for the asking price, although at the time of writing stocks seem to be rather limited so you’ll probably be paying over the MSRP at present.
Good news is that there’s a current Kickstarter going for the X-Men version of the game (although you’ll have to be quick with only a few hours left at the time of writing!), and the general Marvel popularity should mean it’s back in stock pretty soon.
Gameplay
Despite being on the face of it a miniatures game, this really is more of a card game, with the minis just acting as counters (as I’m sure the whole “rather-have-standees-than-minis-any-day-of-the-week” camp will readily point out!), and the gameplay is pretty straightforward.
The “board” is laid out with six randomly drawn locations, arranged in a circle. Each has a requisite number of Thugs and Civilians placed on them at the start, and each has a unique ability the players can make use of… but only once they have cleared the Threat on that location, specified by a card played onto it at set-up from the Villain’s Threat deck.
The centre of the circle is taken up by the respective Villain’s dashboard, which differs depending on the particular ne’er-do-well the Heroes face. Below that are three objective cards relating to the clearing of Threats, defeating of Thugs and rescuing of Civilians, the unlocking of which not only provide bonuses for the Heroes and allow them to inflict damage directly to the Villain, but also advance and accelerate the flow of the game to its climax.
Each character (and the villain they face) has their own deck of cards, and players will be taking turns playing a single card to determine their actions for the turn. Every three cards (or two as play progresses – we’ll come to that later) played by the players, one card will be dealt from the villains deck to enable them to throw a spanner into the works.
Now you may think that a single card would make your actions fairly minimal and limit your abilities each of your turns, and you’d be right. But the trick here is that in addition to your own played card, you can also use the abilities of the card played by the previous player, even if the villain has played a card in the meantime.
This little mechanic might not seem like much, but it not only expands the options you have for the card you play from your hand, but also fuels team tactics and discussion – the Marvel heroes do tend to act as a team after all!
In terms of possible actions, play mainly revolves around moving to different locations, inflicting damage on thugs (or even the Villain themselves) and using their heroic powers to rescue Civilians and clear threats from the board.
Clearing Threats not only helps you achieve your objective of finally inflicting damage on the Villain and winning the game, but also reveals the bonus of that location, which the Threat card covers until it’s cleared.
The Villain’s deck is markedly different to the Heroes’, acting as an AI for their movement around the board, dictating whether their special BAM! ability is triggered, where thugs or civilians might be placed and any other special events.
Cards from both the Villain and Heroes are played in a clockwise circle around the locations, starting on the first turn with the Villain (after all, in every good Marvel comic book or film, life is usually going along quite nicely until a Villain pops up out of the blue to ruin everyone’s day!) , followed by three Hero cards (laid by the players in turn sequence clockwise) and then another Villain.
The frequency of Villain cards rises to one every two Hero cards once the players have cleared one of the objective cards. This means the players have to plan when they clear the objective as well as creating a tangible heightening of drama in the flow of the game. Players won’t want to dawdle once the Villain can for every two of their actions!
Damage inflicted to the Heroes can come from a variety of sources, and results in the player losing a card from their hand for each point of damage taken. If a player loses their entire hand they’re Knocked Out (KO’d), the Villain immediately gets to resolve a BAM! effect, and they’re essentially ignored from any gameplay effects (positive or negative) until their next turn.
Once the players have cleared two objectives they can start inflicting damage on the Villain themselves, as opposed to just their thugs and the Henchmen that appear on various Threat cards. Remove all the health counters from the Villain dashboard and the Heroes win!
Conclusion
If you’re after some kind of in-depth Hero/Villain experience in the Marvel world, then look elsewhere, and if you’re after a more skirmish focused Marvel miniatures game then check out the aforementioned Crisis Protocol.
But for a really quick, fun, colourful romp in the Marvel universe, that can be enjoyed by both younger and older gamers alike, then Marvel United is hard to beat.
The components are good, it’s quick to learn, quick to set-up and break down and it doesn’t take up too much shelf space… unless of course you go all in on all the expansions.
In terms of expansions, they have you covered, and it’s worth noting that not only do they give you a bunch more heroes and villains to play with, but they also expand the gameplay in new ways, so if you end up finding the game that little too simplistic for your tastes after a few plays, then an expansion could be just the thing to bring it up to spec for you.
In the core box though, there’s also ways to up the difficulty by using the included Challenge cards, to handicap more experienced players or just provide more of a… challenge!
Personally though, I don’t feel a great need to invest in a load of expansions. I’m happy to keep Marvel United as a simple, almost filler game to crack out for Marvel fans or a mixed-age group around the table.
Your main problem at the time of writing will be tracking down a copy. It looks like Ebay is the only option at the moment, where prices are predictably sky high – I’m guessing due to the dual appeal to both the gaming community and Marvel collectors.
In fact your best bet may be to get your name down now for the X-Men sequel and grab a bunch of the expansions for this edition (if you’re that way inclined) while you’re at it.
In fact, judging by the resale prices at the moment, it’s not a bad investment. But like we said at the start of the review – best get yer skates on, as there’s only a few hours left in the campaign.
Now where’s that debit card…?
