Marvel United has soared in popularity in our home recently with the young ones. It is a really accessible and easy to pick up cooperative game. So building on my personal collection I picked up this standalone game within the Marvel United Universe that contains all the components needed to play the game, but can also fully integrate with all the other Marvel United sets.
This, however, is a very niche set. I don’t feel the characters, both good, anti hero and bad are particularly well known. Arguably an excuse for the creators to make more money by finding every possible character available in the world of Marvel, but the game is great and provides the enjoyment in our home that I hoped for. As well as further peaking the boys interest in these awesome characters.
Rules overview
The beauty of Marvel United is its simplicity. The mechanics almost come across as too simple and there isn’t much to it, however with unique villains that are significantly different, it makes for a very different game each and every time as well as distinctly unique heroes bringing their different skills and traits to the play.
Once you have your board set up with the 6 locations placed in a clock shape, villain dashboards set in the middle with their threat cards laid on each location. All counters within easy access. Set your villain up in a location with heroes opposite and you are set to go.
The villain always starts a game. They win if they are unable to draw a masterplan card, this is a basic that applies to all villains. Or they complete their unique victory criteria. Players win when they take the villain's final health point off of them.
So turn that master plan card over for the villain to start and work your way through what the villain completes. Once you have done this, then players go and they get 3 player turns. Players start with a deck of 3 cards and draw a card on their turn giving the choice of 4 to play from. Before players have a chance to strike a villain, they must complete their missions, which are to save civilians, defeat thugs and remove threats. Only when they have completed 2 out of 3 of these missions, can they go after the villain.
Players on their turn have the choice of playing heroic actions (which save civilians or remove threats), move (move location adjacent) or strike (knock out a thug, damage a henchman on a threat or place a wound on the villain). Or combinations of these abilities.
The villains actions on the master plan cards invariably see them move location. Then they “BAM” which usually involves striking heroes and then finally drop off some more civilians and/or thugs in nearby locations. Players lose cards in their hand if they are struck as they essentially act like wounds also. If they lose all cards a hero is knocked out triggering further
BAMS which is where things do start to go horribly wrong. Marvel United is all about game management and that is where the skill lies in this game.
New additions
I questioned why I even bother picking up such a set. I already own 2 base games in Marvel United and Marvel United X Men. I also have an enormous amount of expansions so why pick this set up?
There are new characters. Both heroes, villains and the anti heroes which have decks to be used as a hero or as a villain. Having new villains to test yourself against is always a lot of fun because I have been in awe up to this point how different games can be with a different villain to square up against. It’s unreal. Morlun and Spot as the chief villains of this deck are incredibly tough. Morlun in particular, we’ve had our share of losses to him, he comes with six henchmen in his deck of threats that all damage heroes on a BAM, so you know you are going to take some pain here from the off.
Then there is a suite of spider men characters in Symbiote Spider, Spider Punk, Spider Noir, Silk, Penni Parker. They are a strong cast of heroes with some incredible abilities, which are most necessary in this version of the game against these villains.
Then the anti heroes in Anti-Venom and Superior Spiderman. You can form a team to take these on or use them as heroes against other villains. The Superior Spiderman character is absolute class as a hero and very useful.
I’ve really rated these characters in this set. They are niche, they are not the well known Marvel cast from the cinema screen so players may not share the same fondness for them as others. I know there will be people out there big into the comics that love these characters and this is maybe what this set taps into.
Extra Rules
As this game has evolved with each series, so have the rule sets to enhance the gameplay. There is now Super Villain mode which I did encounter in the X Men series of Marvel United but great to see it now included within a standard base set.
This mode allows the game to go up to 5 players as one player can control a villain character. There is a lovely set of rules to allow a player to take control of the villain instead of the autonomy of the board game rules. I feel it makes it harder for the heroes when the other player can take control of the villain. It is fun to try. The significant element here is the Super Villain cards and the Super hero cards which really feels like it is adding to fight between good and evil, these cards are excellent.
Then there are some Commander Solo mode rules for an enhanced solo play version of the game. I am yet to try this variation.
Completely compatible
My favourite element of Marvel United is that it can be used interchangeably with all other Marvel United games and expansions. This is truly excellent. I love the idea of mixing Thor with the X Men, or in this case you can use this cast of Spidermen against some of the classic Spiderman villains. Absolutely brilliant.
Having only played this standalone game within itself, I cannot say for certain, it feels a little stronger perhaps than the earlier material. The heroes and villains feel like they have a bit more about them and so perhaps dominate a little more. By this, I mean these heroes could comfortably beat early villains and the early heroes may well struggle against these villains. I don’t know but I certainly look forward to trying it down the line. I still maintain Wolverine is a hero that adds value to any squad of heroes.
Where could this set have been improved?
Perhaps in the creators efforts to evolve the game and keep it interesting, they are slightly over complicating it from how it started. There are a lot more rules within this set, a lot more detail on the heroes and villains for consideration as well as equipment that can be used alongside some characters. There is just more and more and more to it that wasn’t originally there.
The beauty of Marvel United is the simplicity and it is getting more complicated. That will appeal to some gamers, no doubt, but may also put some others off, possibly. The cool thing is that it all works together, from original content to this new stuff and it has been seamlessly integrated. But I wonder for those fans that fell in love with the original if it is too much? Equally, I understand the need to evolve the game.
Artwork
You cannot look at any set of Marvel United without tipping the hat to the appreciation of all the artwork that goes into any set, and SpiderGeddon is no exception. It is another visual stunner for the printed work as well as the detailed minis being truly exceptional. I always wish I had the painting skills to do them true justice. I think it is this artwork that really first captured my younglings interest as well. Any game that looks good is always going to make a positive first impression before the box is even open and this game 100% delivers here, for me.
Final thoughts
This is a top game in its own right and has provided a lot of joy to our household already. My family is really enjoying marvel united and have loved taking on the new challenges this set brings. We've had some furious battles on our tabletop already and there will be many more to have going forward.
Having the choice of base sets for Marvel United is very useful as well. There will be a lot of Marvel fans out there that don’t necessarily like all the characters. So having the options to get hold of a base set with characters you like is also an asset. Maybe some would only want the SpiderGeddon cast without the rest.
This is another welcome set into the Marvel United Universe.
