Civil War totally changes up the stone-cold classic that is Marvel Champions, and that’s no bad thing. Now I am a huge fan of Champions, it’s featured more than once in our recommendations and giveaways... but it is starting to feel a bit samey. Now, revised versions of the OG heroes are confirmed to be coming down the line from FFG, but in the meantime, how can you truly change up the game? By fighting other Heroes, of course!
Civil War provides Enemy Versions of Iron Man/Captain Marvel on the side of Registration and Captain America/Spider-Woman on the Resistance side. The cards are familiar villain-style, and come with their own Encounter Sets (so, for example, you get Iron Man equipment upgrades in his set, much like a classic villain tech) whilst the 6 additional Encounter sets are colour-coded Red/Blue so you can easily see what goes together. You also have the choice of how many Encounter sets you use, which brings narrative and another layer of scalable difficulty to the game – plus, you can choose which Standard Set you bring to the game. Far from me to suggest that you shouldn’t own a copy of the core game, but it’s no longer absolutely essential – especially for this set, as long as you have one of the Standard encounter sets. Standard III, which comes in the (excellent) Age of Apocalypse campaign, is the go-to for many players just now, but spare a thought for the (utterly lethal) Standard II from The Hood scenario pack. There’s 2 very good reasons for using S2: one, it means that there is a much more accessible new-player buy-in point, and two, The Hood is Tigra’s nemesis minion, so it allows you to flesh that out and complement the narrative as a whole.
Civil War totally changes up the stone-cold classic that is Marvel Champions, and that’s no bad thing. Now I am a huge fan of Champions, it’s featured more than once in our recommendations and giveaways... but it is starting to feel a bit samey. Now, revised versions of the OG heroes are confirmed to be coming down the line from FFG, but in the meantime, how can you truly change up the game? By fighting other Heroes, of course!
Civil War provides Enemy Versions of Iron Man/Captain Marvel on the side of Registration and Captain America/Spider-Woman on the Resistance side. The cards are familiar villain-style, and come with their own Encounter Sets (so, for example, you get Iron Man equipment upgrades in his set, much like a classic villain tech) whilst the 6 additional Encounter sets are colour-coded Red/Blue so you can easily see what goes together. You also have the choice of how many Encounter sets you use, which brings narrative and another layer of scalable difficulty to the game – plus, you can choose which Standard Set you bring to the game. Far from me to suggest that you shouldn’t own a copy of the core game, but it’s no longer absolutely essential – especially for this set, as long as you have one of the Standard encounter sets. Standard III, which comes in the (excellent) Age of Apocalypse campaign, is the go-to for many players just now, but spare a thought for the (utterly lethal) Standard II from The Hood scenario pack. There’s 2 very good reasons for using S2: one, it means that there is a much more accessible new-player buy-in point, and two, The Hood is Tigra’s nemesis minion, so it allows you to flesh that out and complement the narrative as a whole.
Yes, Tigra. This set’s prebuilt Hero choices are... interesting. I’m a big fan of Tigra in the comics, though I’m surprised to see her as a lead on this tbh, or at the very least not without Moon Knight (he does appear as a persona specific ally, and a very good one, but still). She's a solid anti- minion Aggression build, a more efficient classic Thor, bit light on the card draw though does have ways of mitigating that by pulling cards out to deal with enemies generally. Hulkling, meanwhile, is the other prebuilt, a character I have no real love for. It's a Protection deck... and he's fantastic. His shapeshift mechanics allow him to search for cards, ready repeatedly, Attack or Thwart, support teammates or survive true solo. He's really impressive, but there's a part of me that wishes those mercurial moves had been used for Moon Knight instead.
The other thing that I really like about this is – quite counter-intuitively – that it isn’t a Campaign. Because it’s a set of scenarios, there’s much more incentive to mix and match, to devise your own and replay, whilst giving a framework for a clear sense of direction. I wondered if it was just me, but having discussed this not only with my kids (who love Champions, but can run out of steam on campaigns) and a friend who is a dedicated Solo player (both True Solo and 2-Handed), they all agree that this a really good thing. With so much content available for Champions, it can be intimidating, but this gives you a clear framework for customisation whilst still tinkering around the edges of hero builds. Plus, the game has both traditional co-op and a new competitive mode – so you can race to be the first to take down the enemy leader and hog the glory for yourself! This adds a new twist to classic gameplay, as you work the Leader for your side; will you choose to support the Registration Act, or join the Resistance? A great addition to the product lineup!
