Hey, hey, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here with a new board game review. Today, we’re talking Star Wars. Star Wars: Bounty Hunters puts gamers in the role of bounty hunters, trying to get the best contracts and the highest valued targets. Players have three goals which will help them earn points: capturing targets, completing contracts, and purchasing droids and crates at the Jawa market. Can you be the best bounty hunter in the galaxy?
Star Wars: Bounty Hunter is a light and quick strategy game. Since it uses the closed drafting and simultaneous action selection mechanisms, it takes little time to play. It’s great for a younger audience and Star Wars fans alike. Before we get into the game flow and the review, let’s get some of the technical jargon out of the way first.
The Fiddly Bits
Designer: Frederic Henry Publisher: Zygomatic Date Released: 2024 Number of Players: 2-6 Age Range: 8 and up Setup Time: Less than 5 minutes Play Time: 20 minutes
1) Place the four Zone cards (that are decks of Targets, Bounty Hunters, Contracts, and Jawa Market). Sort the cards into four decks according to their color and shuffle them separately. Place them down above the matching Zone cards. Leave a space for a discard pile below each Zone card.
2) Place the Imperial Credits conveniently nearby.
3) The player who watched a Star Wars movie becomes the “Guild Master” and receives the Player Aid Card. The Player Aid denotes the flow of the game. All players may refer to the Player Aid during the game. Honestly, and this is Kyra speaking, not the rulebook, I prefer to forgo the Guild Master role and allow every player to refer to the Player Aid. I don’t know why the game doesn’t have more than one copy.
4) Each player draws one card from each of the four decks to form a starting hand of four cards. Never show the cards in your hand to another player.
Game Flow
Each game turn is divided into three consecutive steps. All players perform each step simultaneously:
Step 1: Draw a card
Draw a fifth card from any of the decks and add it to your hand.
Step 2: Choose a card
Choose a card from your hand and do one of two things: Sell a Card, or Play a Card.
A. Sell a Card
Discard the chosen card (placing it face-up on the discard pile below the matching deck’s Zone card) and collect 1 Imperial Credit.
B. Play a Card
Place the chosen card in front of you, face up.
If no cost is shown on the card, activate it immediately by placing it upright (vertically).
If the card has a cost (Jawa Market card), you must pay that cost to activate the card. If you are unable to activate the card immediately, or prefer not to, reserve it by placing it on its side (horizontally).
Step 3: Pass Your Hand
Give the remaining four cards in your hand to the player on your left and collect the four cards passed to you by the player on your right. When all players have completed these three steps, a new turn begins. Repeat the three steps in sequence until the last turn of the game.
Game End
The game end triggers when one or more players capture four targets. Players finish the current turn, then play two more full turns, and finally tally up their scores. The player with most points wins.
Review
I love the small amount of control Star Wars: Bounty Hunters gives its players. Most closed drafting games deal all the cards of a deck, and players will then pass the cards around until all the cards run out. Star Wars: Bounty Hunters adds a simple twist. Players draw a card from any of the four decks. If you need a target, draw a target. If you want another bounty hunter for extra firepower, draw from the bounty hunter deck. Do you already have a lot of captured targets in your display? Start drawing from the contract deck. It’s simple. Clean. And I totally stole this gaming aspect with one of my latest designs, Monster Chef.
Ultimately, this simple twist doesn’t give players enough control. You still need to draw into the card you want. But it gives players the feeling of more control. It’s psychological, and sometimes, that’s all that counts. I’d love to see more closed drafting games include a draw mechanism. Clearly, I do. The rest of the game plays out like a standard closed card drafting game. Nothing too complicated. This makes Star Wars: Bounty Hunters a good game for newer and/or younger board gamers. But I still think more seasoned board gamers won’t turn up their noses to Star Wars: Bounty Hunters. If you love Star Wars, this is a solid Star Wars game.
I also like how the game splits its cards into four categories; those would be the four draw decks. While some of the joy of stiffing the person you’re handing your old hand to with bad cards wanes, the option to draw into what I need is invaluable. It’s more forgiving. But you will, most likely, run out of cards in a deck or two and will be forced to draw from other decks. Again, this isn’t the worst thing. Players can sell a card to the bank, and every Imperial Credit a player has at the end of the game is worth a victory point. If you don’t find what you want, sell a card.
I mentioned this in the setup, but it bears repeating. Star Wars: Bounty Hunters needs more than one Player Aid. The “role” of “Guild Master” is unnecessary if everyone has a Player Aid. The game already has well over 200 cards. Why do you not print out five extra Player Aids? This is a small thing, but it left me baffled.
I enjoyed my time with this title. I may not break out Star Wars: Bounty Hunters all the time, but it’s a good filler plus game. I’ve played this game the most while waiting for others to show up for game nights. It provides enough strategy, functions as a warm-up game, and we can finish the game in under twenty minutes.
Too Long; Didn’t Read
Star Wars: Bounty Hunters is a great introductory card-drafting game with a slight twist. While I may want to play another card-drafting game over this one, I’ll gladly play Star Wars: Bounty Hunters if someone brings it to the table. It’s great for new gamers and a good Star Wars game.
Happy Spooky Season, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here. We’re celebrating the season with our list of the top five horror-themed board games. There are way more horror-themed board games than you might think. Heck, there were way more horror-themed board games than I thought there were. I left a lot of great games and some former favorites off this list. So, you know we’ll have at least one honorable mention. Yay! Let’s see the game that just missed this list, before we get to the ones that made our Top 5 Horror-Themed Board Games List.
Honorable Mention: The Night Cage (2021)
The Night Cage just misses this list because I may not have played it enough. Plain and simple. I have yet to play enough of this title, and I’d love to see it hit the table more. The board doesn’t look like much (without the tiles it’s a simple grid), but pulling tiles from the candle-shaped draw pile is so thematic.
Building out The Night Cage’s labyrinth is a lot of fun, too. And it doesn’t hurt that Smirk and Dagger Games produced an accompanying soundtrack for The Night Cage. Talk about going above and beyond with creating a mood. The Night Cage leans heavily into atmosphere. Each game is a tense prison break. You’ll need to keep your wits to survive.
This list was super tough to make. There are a lot of games that could’ve claimed the sole honorable mention spot: Kingdom Death Monster, Abomination, and Dead of Winter are just a few. We could make another list of the Top 5 Cthulhu-themed games. There are so many great horror-themed board games.
5: Cthulhu: Death May Die (2019)
Yes. I’m a Rob Daviau and Eric M. Lang fan. And yes, several other games can scratch the same itch as Cthulhu: Death May Die. Kingdom Death Monster comes to mind; Kingdom Death Monster is another game one could consider an honorable mention for this list. But I prefer Cthulhu: Death May Die. It would be higher on this list if I had played more than a handful of times.
Unique player powers and an ever-changing narrative that seldom plays out the same way twice. Cthulhu: Death May Die adds a bombastic sense of humor to a sometimes overly serious intellectual property. I appreciate that, too. This game needs to hit my table more often. Maybe then it’ll climb the ranks on a list like this.
4: Betrayal at House on the Hill (2004)
I love Betrayal at House on the Hill. It’s one of the first horror-themed board games I ever picked up after returning to the board game hobby. Again, I had plenty of great horror-themed board games to choose from for this list. Betrayal at House on the Hill (Betrayal for short) plays out like the movie Cabin in the Woods. Players search the titular house, a mansion players build as they play the game. Whenever an Omen card is drawn, the player who drew the card makes a haunt roll. If the roll fails, the haunt begins. Typically, one player works on behalf of the house, and the rest fight against the traitor.
Word of caution: Betrayal can crumble under the weight of the haunt. Some haunts prove difficult to understand, and gamers can misplay numerous aspects of the haunt. I played one where I was the traitor, my former teammates attacked me, but my character wanted to perish. The other players played into my win condition. No two haunts are the same, so just because players understand one, it doesn’t mean they’ll comprehend the next one. And many of the haunts are unbalanced. Some favor the explorers, while others favor the traitor. Still, my family plays Betrayal at House on the Hill at least once every Spooky Season. If you want a story and exploration, it’s an excellent pick.
3: Final Girl (2021)
I knew Final Girl would make this list, but placing the game would be difficult. I went with the classic three-spot for a game that fits this bill. Whenever I craft one of these Top 5 lists and have one odd entry in the list, not knowing where to place the game (or insert element here), that’s the one I place at three. Final Girl may be the best solo-only board game on the market. It’s definitely the most famous solo-only board game out there. I’ve played it a few times, and I’m hooked.
I can hear some of you complain that Final Girl has a lot of game for a solo board game. Just look at the picture above. You’d think this game facilitated four or five players. Nope. It’s a solo board game. Yowza! That’s a lot of table space for a solo-gaming experience. I’m getting off-topic, but I’ll just say that massive solo games are good for the hobby. Not everyone has enough friends to play games, or they struggle to find times that work to play with their game group. Quick rant over. If you’re going to play a solo board game, you can’t go wrong with Final Girl. It captures its theme brilliantly. You are a final girl trying to survive until the end of a horror movie. Final Girl may look complicated, but the elements work so well together that you can’t help but pick up the rules quickly.
Plus, Final Girl is the only solo board game to make BoardGameGeek’s Top 100 Games. I know that BoardGameGeek has its flaws, but Top 100 for a solo board game is impressive.
2: Mansions of Madness: Second Edition (2016)
Mansions of Madness: Second Edition does a great job of incorporating an app with a board game. I know. I know. This is yet another controversial pick. Two in a row. Some board gamers are purists. They don’t want to own a game that has an app you’ll need to download to a smart device. But Mansions of Madness: Second Edition is so worth it. The game does accommodate solo play, but part of the joy is teaming up with players to solve various puzzles and unearthing what the followers of Cthulhu have planned.
The Mansions of Madness app will also change details for each scenario between different plays. I played the exact same scenario twice in a row, figured I knew who the cultists were, and attacked those characters, only to realize that the details had changed, and they pointed the finger at different characters. My bad. We lost that game miserably. But the fact this can happen validates Mansions of Madness: Second Edition’s app. I don’t always have the time to invest in a scenario of Mansions of Madness, but whenever I do, it never fails to add a touch of cinema.
1: Horrified (2019)
Horrified has dominated the horror-themed board game category ever since it released in 2019. I have all the variants of this game, and we play every Horrified variant each Spooky Season. Ironically, I’ve played the original Horrified the least. I’ve enjoyed every play of the original, but we prefer American Monsters, Greek Monsters, and the Dungeons & Dragons variants best. Speaking of the Dungeons & Dragons Horrified game, I’m writing this post early and before the next variant, Horrified: Ravenloft, another Horrified game set in the Dungeons & Dragons universe, releases. I can’t wait to add the new one to our yearly rounds of plays.
Each Horrified monster behaves differently. Some will openly attack players. Others, like Big Foot, will actively avoid players. Heck, you’ll have to prove Big Foot even exists. The original Horrified has a good mix of various difficulty-setting monsters. American Monsters and Greek Monsters up the ante. World of Monsters gets a little too tough with some monsters. And the Dungeons & Dragons Horrified adds D&D elements. What’s not to love?
Ultimately, pick a genre of monster you would like to face and throw down with that version of Horrified. Prospero Hall does a great job of capturing the essence of most of these monsters. The fact that players take on two or more of these monsters at a time means that you’ll seldom get the same game twice.
By the time you’re reading this, I’ll probably have played all or most of the titles on this list. Like I said, there are so many fantastic horror-themed board games. What are some of yours? Let us know in the comments. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.
Happy Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Geekly Gang! We’re celebrating the day by discussing five board games designed/published by indigenous designers or publishers. Some of these games I’ve seen at my local game shop. I may have played a few of these. The rest I need to try. Regardless of which group these games belong to, I wanted to highlight games designed by indigenous board game designers. Here is Geekly’s list of five board games by indigenous designers.
Wolves (Coyote & Crow)
Wolves by Kenna Alexander was one of the first games that came to mind when I came up with this list. Publisher Coyote & Crow employs a variety of indigenous artists. All of Coyote & Crow’s releases show their native roots. Wolves is no exception.
Wolves features semi-cooperative play. Players must balance personal goals with the needs of all at the table. This is a trend in board games designed by indigenous designers. Culturally, indigenous people don’t tend to seek the all-out destruction of their neighbors. Semi-cooperative play is difficult to pull off well, but Wolves does a great job of walking the balance between players working toward personal and community goals. Each player takes on the role of a community leader. Resources are slim, and everyone must survive through a harsh winter. If any player fails to accommodate their community, everyone loses. I love the art, the design, and the concept.
You should give Wolves a play and keep publisher Coyote & Crow on your gaming radar if it isn’t already.
Burn the Fort (Indigenous Action)
Anti-colonialism is another trend in indigenous board games. No game represents this trend more than Burn the Fort by Klee Benally. The game’s name says it all. Players take the role of a historic warrior fighting to stop the colonial invasion of their lands. Players gather resources, trade with other players, and acquire the means to burn the titular fort.
Like Wolves, Burn the Fort features semi-cooperative play. At the start of the game, everyone starts in an alliance, but alliances can be broken. Players can choose how much they want to contribute to stopping colonial forces, but with each wagon that reaches the fort, the train moves toward the Golden Spike that will ultimately spell doom for everyone. Burn the Fort also offers something of a history lesson. I like games that can make history fun to learn. A brief background accompanies each historic warrior. Excellent.
While other games by indigenous designers feature maintaining balance, Burn the Fort puts the ideas of exploitation and expansion front and center.
Winter Rabbit (Absurdist Productions)
If you want a Native American board game steeped in folklore, look no further than Winter Rabbit by William Thompson. Set in the world of traditional Cherokee animal stories, Winter Rabbit has players take on the role of the animals. Ever the trickster, the Rabbit decides he doesn’t want to work. Instead, he confuses everyone else so he can take all the resources for himself.
Winter Rabbit features an interesting hidden worker placement mechanism. Villagers are drawn from a bag. The active player knows whose villager they have drawn and can choose where to place it; none of the other players knows this information. When resources are produced, everyone gets one, but those with villagers present gain additional resources. Rabbit villagers do not produce resources. When one of these appears, the resources are diverted to the Rabbit Burrow. I told you the Rabbit doesn’t want to work.
I’ll be honest. I borrowed a lot from the publisher’s description of Winter Rabbit. I wrote this post months before its release, and my copy is on its way. I can’t wait to play Winter Rabbit. It looks amazing.
Nawalli: The Aztec Card Game (Studio Tecuanis)
NAWALLI by Gonzalo Alvarez and Will Rogers is a creature battle card game based on Aztec mythology. You take on the role of a shapeshifting sorcerer known as a Nawalli to summon Nawals. The game has four partially pre-built decks, ready for customization. Each deck represents Aztec gods from the four directions: Tezkatlipoka, Tlalok, Ehakatl, and Xipe Totek. As you can see, NAWALLI dives into Aztec mythology.
NAWALLI features gorgeous art by Gonzalo Alverez. Many describe the game as a Mesoamerican Pokémon. NAWALLI could only have come from someone with intimate knowledge of Aztec culture and mythology. The images recreate the traditional Aztec style. The look of NAWALLI catches the eye. There are many dueling card games, but NAWALLI’s vibrant art and theme set it apart.
Nunami (Thomassie Mangiok)
We end this list with the self-published Nunami. While Wolves featured balance between one’s neighbors, the Inuit board game Nunami promotes the healthy cohabitation of humanity and natural elements. Nunami’s triangular cards heighten the game’s dynamic terrain management.
Nunami, like NAWALLI, features traditional Inuit artwork set against a stark white or black background. Nunami may be the most abstract game on this list. Players influence a region (hexagon base) with the cards they play. Some cards will cause another to flip facedown. The first player to reach four points wins. Nunami plays the fastest of any of the games on this list. If you want a quick play, Nunami may be for you. Even though Nunami plays more like an abstract game (think Chess, where there’s no story reason why a Knight moves in an L pattern), players attempt to achieve balance. In this case, a balance between man and nature. That sounds like a Native American theme to me.
These are five board games by Native American designers that I wanted to highlight today. What are some of your favorites? Let us know in the comments. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.
Hey, hey, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here with another Top 5 Tabletop Games throughout the years. Today’s list features the best games from 2003. Unfortunately, 2003 gets sandwiched between two of the better years for board games, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have a handful of standouts this year. Almost every year has at least one or two stellar games. We’ll talk about 2003’s board game list soon, but let’s review the ground rules for which games make these lists before we begin.
1: Cultural relevance plays as much of a factor as overall quality. A game might make a list that doesn’t hold up to others of its type, but you must admit the game is everywhere.
2: Only one game from a franchise makes the list. This will become more of an issue the closer we get to games with expansions.
3: Longevity plays a role, too. A game doesn’t have to fly off the shelves today, but it had to have some widespread appeal for a decent time.
5: Reiner Knizia’s Amazing Flea Circus (2003)
Amazing Flea Circus is by no means one of Reiner Knizia’s best small card games. I much prefer Don’t L.L.A.M.A., but Amazing Flea Circus still deserves an honorable mention, because few games from this year have seen as many printings and editions. It’s a simple but fun game. Sometimes, that’s all you need. Spoiler Alert: Amazing Flea Circus won’t be the last we hear from Reiner Knizia on this list.
4: Coloretto (2003)
In Coloretto, players collect colorful chameleons. The rules are simple. Either add a card to a row or collect all the cards in a row. A row can only contain three cards, so eventually, players will be forced to claim rows. Players gain points for up to three colors. Each color beyond the first three costs players points. Wild (or Joker) Chameleons count as any color and +2 cards always help.
Coloretto proves you don’t need a complicated rule set for an engaging game. One can see its influence in games like River Valley Glassworks, where one only scores points up to a certain number of colors. Coloretto’s main game mechanisms center around set collection, but set collection works. I wouldn’t be surprised if Coloretto’s success as a set collection didn’t spawn other games that use a similar mechanism. Ticket to Ride (released the next year) also uses a similar system.
3: Yinsh (2003)
We’ve mentioned the GIPF Project series of abstract games on more than one of these past best of year lists. Yinsh is the highest-rated of these games. In fact, Yinsh is still a Top 5-rated abstract game on BoardGameGeek. The board game resembles the cover art (above). Like Othello, discs are dual-colored. Players try to make a chain of five discs in their color by jumping over discs with their rings, flipping over the disc. As soon as a player gains a chain of five discs, they discard one of their discs. The first player to discard three of their rings wins.
Yinsh has a clever, built-in balancing mechanism. Getting rid of a ring means a player gets closer to victory. But you’re making yourself weaker, because you have fewer rings. Brilliant! There’s a reason the GIPF Project is the highest regarded abstract game series. And Yinsh earns its place among the best.
2: Amun-Re (2003)
The top two 2003 games could be flipped. I went back and forth with these two titles. Both are great, but in the end, I chose the 2003 Spiel des Jahres winner as number one. Amun-Re was up for the Spiel as well. I’m telling you, it was close. Amun-Re is yet another Reiner Knizia board game to make one of these lists. It’s like Knizia makes a heap of great board games. In Amun-Re, each pharaoh wants to build the most pyramids. To accomplish this, they must first acquire a province where they can trade and farm. With their profits, they can buy new provinces and building-stones to erect pyramids. For all their actions, players must make clever use of their power cards and always offer appropriate sacrifices to Amun-Re.
Love the theme. Evidently, Reiner Knizia loves an Egyptian-themed game, because Ra also made one of these lists. I believe Amun-Re may be the only pyramid game Knizia ever designed. To be fair, I’ve lost track of every Knizia game. The man has forgotten more about board games than I’ll ever know. But Amun-Re holds another distinction; it’s one of Knizia’s more complex games. The two games on this list may be the polar opposites of what Knizia can do as a designer. Amazing Flea Circus is one of Knizia’s least-complicated games. Amun-Re is one of his most complicated. Both can be a lot of fun. And both came out the same year. Crazy!
1: Alhambra (2003)
In Alhambra, players are acquiring buildings to be placed within their Alhambra complex.
The money in Alhambra comes in four different currencies (of different suits) and is available in the open money market. The 54 buildings of six types become available for purchase in the building market four at a time; one building is available in each of the four different currencies. On a player’s turn, a player may 1) take money from the open money market, 2) purchase a building from the building market and either place it in his Alhambra or reserve, or 3) engage in construction and re-construction projects with buildings that have been placed in the player’s Alhambra or reserve. The game rewards efficiency, as when a player purchases a building from the market for the exact amount of money, the player may take another turn.
I don’t always agree with the Spiel, but I like Alhambra’s combination of set collection (yay, another set collection game), tile laying, and area majority. Alhambra marks the second time Dirk Henn made one of these lists. Wallenstein made the 2002 list. While I like Wallenstein more (in large part because of the cube tower), Alhambra does enough to take the top spot in a weaker year for tabletop games. That may sound harsh, but you haven’t seen 2004’s list. It’s a doozy. Still, I enjoy the heck out of Amen-Re and Alhambra. I struggled with which one to place at number one.
That’s our list of the Top 5 Tabletop Games of 2003. Let us know which game you like best. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.
Hey, hey, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here, and today, we’ll be discussing Marvel United. Yes! We haven’t discussed this board game in quite some time, and it’s time to fix that. Marvel United’s various villains and the way they alter the gameplay are the game’s most intriguing game design elements. In today’s list, we’ll share our picks for the Top 5 Marvel United Villains.
Dishonorable Mention: Gladiator (War of Kings Expansion)
Right off the bat, we’re shaking up things with this list. While a Top 5 Marvel United Villains list is up for debate (everyone has their own taste), Gladiator may just be one of the most universally hated villains in the game. Simply put, he’s unwinnable at heroic mode, unless you use multiple heroes with lots of wild symbols, which limits the number of heroes you can even use to defeat this villain. Most games against Gladiator end with the heroes auto-losing after a couple of turns. No thanks.
While the rest of the War of Kings Expansion adds some nice variety, Gladiator as a villain is plain unfun. Fortunately, he is an antihero. I’d use him as a hero, not a villain.
5: Dark Phoenix (Marvel United Season 2, X-Men, Stretch Goals)
We’ll be seeing a ton of Marvel United Season 2 on this list. Most gamers list it as the best Marvel United Season, and I tend to agree. Marvel United X-Men rules. Unlike our previous entry, Dark Phoenix may be difficult to acquire. Difficult, but not impossible. She’s available in the Season 2 Stretch Goal box. This box includes a heap of fantastic characters. We may see another one on this list from the same box, so the hefty price tag of $80 to $100 may be worth the cost.
Dark Phoenix offers a chaotic and fun fight. She doesn’t go down easy, but at the same time, Dark Phoenix doesn’t feel unfair of a fight (ahem, Gladiator). It also doesn’t hurt that Dark Phoenix is an iconic villain. I love playing against her, reliving moments from the epic Dark Phoenix Saga. And look at that mini. Gorgeous.
4: Legion (Marvel United Season 2, X-Men, Stretch Goals)
It did not take long for us to get to another Marvel United Villain from the Season 2 Stretch Goal box. Legion may be the pinnacle of Marvel United villain design. Like in the comic book, his personality changes. Every two turns brings a new wrinkle and mechanism into the game. Sure. This gimmick functions like an intricate puzzle in miniature game form, but puzzles can be a blast.
I’ve heard rumblings that at least one DC Super Heroes United villain borrows some game design ideas from Legion. I hope that’s true. Legion’s changing personality adds plenty of spice.
3: Doctor Doom (Fantastic Four Expansion)
Doctor Doom is our third representative from Marvel United Season 2 (X-Men). Such a great set. Naturally, Doctor Doom is included in the Fantastic Four Expansion, and he makes this list for more than nostalgia reasons. I swear. Doctor Doom is a “fantastic” Marvel United villain. All jokes aside, I’ve always had tight games against Doctor Doom as a villain. The Marvel United design team made sure to tune his combination of cards so players will always be one turn away from winning or losing each game. Brilliant!
Combination doesn’t begin to describe Doctor Doom’s Threats and Master Plan cards. They work so well together, and every time a new card gets revealed, players will be forced to make tense and meaningful decisions. Doctor Doom is one of those villains you face, and you’ll know which decision caused you to win or lose.
2: Juggernaut (Marvel United X-Men Core Set)
The X-Men set is four out of four on this list. Yowza! See what I mean when I said the Marvel United X-Men was a banger? Juggernaut makes this list–and almost tops it–because he makes a phenomenal introductory Marvel United villain. And he happens to be included in the Marvel United X-Men Core Set. Unless you really want Avengers in your game, I almost always suggest picking up the readily available X-Men Core Set. This makes Juggernaut one of the easiest villains on this list to add to your collection.
Juggernaut makes a great introductory villain because he’s thematic and fun. He charges around the board, headbutting people. Juggernaut behaves like you’d expect Juggernaut to behave. His ruleset is on the simpler side, but he can be challenging. Marvel United found a way to make Juggernaut easy to play and rewarding to defeat. I’ve never had a table dislike Juggernaut, and he just may be one of my most commonly played Marvel United villains.
1: Sinister Six & Assembled Sinister Six (Return of the Sinister Six and Maximum Carnage Expansions)
I’m double-cheating with our top entry. First, the Sinister Six is a supervillain team. Second, I’m picking two expansions here. Return of the Sinister Six was a KickStarter exclusive all the way back in Season 1, but plenty of stories carry this expansion, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to find. Maximum Carnage was released in Season 3, but the modular Sinister Six add-on was only available in the KickStarter exclusive variant of the expansion. I picked up the Maximum Carnage expansion via retail, so I have a method of adding the modular Sinister Six.
Above is a picture of Carnage’s puzzle piece that can be used in the modular Sinister Six. Using the Marvel United wiki, I took images (and real-world measurements) and printed out my own copy of each puzzle piece of a modular villain at my local library. There are some unique cards you won’t find in a retail copy of Maximum Carnage, so you’ll need to print out those as well. Both are easy to find and download.
I love both iterations of Marvel United’s Sinister Six. Featuring the Sinister Six’s founding members, Return of the Sinister Six provided Marvel United’s first supervillain team. Like Legion, The Sinister Six functions like another intricate puzzle. But once you’ve figured out the puzzle, it may be time to move on to the modular Sinister Six. This version of the Sinister Six includes every villain who has ever joined the Sinister Six, so that static puzzle becomes an ever-changing puzzle. The first Sinister Six holds a special place in my heart (and you’ll need them to fill out your roster of every Sinister Six member), but the modular Sinister Six is clearly the best Marvel United villain. Fun, adaptable, and never boring.
Did we get the list right? Let us know who your favorite Marvel United villains are in the comments. Thank you for reading, wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.
Hey, hey, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here with another Top 5 list, and this one’s a little bit of an update. I shared a similar list over a decade ago. Yikes! It may be time for an updated list. Board games fall in and out of favor, and a decade is a long time for a board game. I’ll share a game’s previous rank in parentheses to show how far a game fell or rose over the past decade. Thousands of new board games are released each year and plenty of them have superheroes as their theme. Let’s see which games made our list of Top 5 Superhero Board Games.
Honorable Mention: DC Deck Building Game & Marvel Legendary (Previously #2)
During the deck builder boom, the superhero game genre saw a ton of deckbuilding games. Every board game theme saw a ton of deckbuilding games. Heck, I backed a Care Bears Deck Building Game last year. Eek! And of course, Marvel and DC Comics received the deckbuilding treatment. Both games have their strengths, weaknesses, and supporters, who will rough you up if you say the wrong thing about their game of choice. For me, I prefer Marvel Legendary’s flow. It held our second spot over a decade ago, but recently, I’ve played Marvel Legendary with 5-players, and never again. It’s borderline unplayable. The DC Deck Building Game offers more of a story. Players feel like they’re playing as a character, but the rules can get clunky.
Again, I prefer Marvel Legendary’s flow, but DC Deck Building Game presents a fun alternative with more of a story.
Honorable Mention: The Reckoners
The Reckoners didn’t quite make the list for one simple reason. I have yet to play it. I’ve watched demos and caught others playing this game, so I know it’s a good one. The Reckoners even has a great score on BoardGameGeek. I had to mention this simultaneous play, fast-action romp of a game. But I haven’t personally played The Reckoners. I could easily see this dice chucking game claim one of the top five spots in the coming years.
One last note before we get started. We’re not including games with a superhero theme if they’re part of a system that didn’t originate with superheroes as its theme. So, systems like Unmatched, which have plenty of superhero options, won’t make the list. And other games like a Marvel Monopoly or 5-Minute Marvel or even a Marvel Codenames, won’t make the list. Funnily enough, that would disqualify Marvel Legendary. The Legendary series of deckbuilding games began with horror franchises like Alien and Predator, which are fantastic by the way.
5: Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition (Previously #1)
Honestly, Sentinels of the Multiverse may have been our number one over a decade ago, but if it wasn’t for a definitive edition, it may have dropped to an honorable mention. Don’t get me wrong, I still like the original, but the original Sentinels had a lot of glut. Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition trims the fat and even fixes some rules issues. Sentinels still offers a unique gaming experience. It’ll always hold a special place for me. But if I’m playing Sentinels, I prefer the Definitive Edition.
The quality of life changes make all the difference. Reminder tokens are just the tip of the iceberg. If you have yet to purchase Sentinels and you’ve always wanted a copy, I’d buy the Definitive Edition. It accomplishes what its name suggests.
4: Batman: Gotham City Chronicles
Relive some of Batman’s most iconic stories with Batman: Gotham City Chronicles. This game’s asymmetric play (the villain player’s turn differs drastically from the hero players’ turns) is a joy. Hero players use dice to control their characters. I like a good dice chucker, and playing as a hero in Batman: Gotham City Chronicles is a fun dice chucker. But I love how the villains’ turn works. The player controlling the villains controls them with a villain deck and an ever-shifting river of villain tokens in the “River.” Activated villains during a turn move to the end of the river, and the further down a villain is from the front of the river, the more action points it costs to activate the villain. This takes careful playing by the villain player. While you could activate Joker on turn one (typically, he begins at the end of the river), it may serve the villain player best to activate a different villain. Maybe Harley Quinn.
Character models are ripped straight from comic book panels. Batman: Gotham City Chronicles even offers a website with uploaded content to take your game further. Is there a new Batman tale you’d like to relive? There may be a fan-created or even a Monolith-designed campaign for that story. Batman: Gotham City Chronicles is a blast to play, but it may be one of the more difficult games to acquire from this list.
3: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures: City Fall and Change is Constant
While I just praised Batman: Gotham City Chronicles for its asymmetric play, Gotham City Chronicles took a lot of inspiration from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shadows of the Past. The game began to show its age, so IDW updated Shadows of the Past with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures series. Both boxes are standalone games, but you can combine the two for double the heroes in a half shelf fun.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures edges out Gotham City Chronicles because it lowers the barrier of entry by just enough to make the game more accessible. TMNT Adventures is by no means a simple game. It offers almost as many story options as Gotham City Chronicles, and you can even customize your heroes, taking advantage of a map’s terrain. I’ve played the opening scenario for this game numerous times and love it. I’ve never progressed that far in the game’s story. I may need to rally my gaming group to finish a campaign.
2: Marvel Champions: The Card Game
Spoiler alert: Marvel takes the top two spots in this list. I can see people flipping the two games at the top of this list. Some will like Marvel Champions more than the next title, but I like the next title slightly more than Marvel Champions. Clearly, both opinions are valid. The two games top this list. I love Marvel Champions’ inclusion of alter ego play. I rarely see superhero-themed games include anything about alter egos. When you play Spider-Man in Marvel Champions, you’ll have to balance his exploits as Spidey and finish his homework as Peter Parker. Brilliant!
Since Marvel Champions is a living card game by Fantasy Flight Games, it offers plenty of story and deck customization. I’d advise players to become familiar with Marvel Champions’ base rules before fiddling with deck construction, but that is another option. If I didn’t go all in with Marvel United (our next entry), I may have done the same with Marvel Champions. My only concern is that I rarely feel like I’m doing what the card says. Usually, I’ll say to my teammate that I have X-amount of blue, and they’ll respond with I have a X-amount of green, and we’ll deal with threats based on color/number. Despite this, Marvel Champions is a lot of fun and deserving of the second or even top spot.
1: Marvel United/United Game System
I love Marvel United. It edges out Marvel Champions for me because it’s easier to onboard players and remember how to play the game. Few games on this list can boast that. I’ve played a lot of Sentinels of the Multiverse, but I’d have to refer to the rules a few times if I were to break out the game again. Marvel Champions has a ton of fiddly rules. I don’t need to do consult the rulebook with Marvel United. The graphic design is perfect. You could look at the symbols and guess what the game wants you to do. Other games on this list function like modern video game consoles in that one must log in, download software, and register products before playing a game, while Marvel United is plug-and-play.
And Marvel United happens to be our only game system on this list, but the system originated with the superhero theme. DC Super Heroes United releases later this year (hopefully), so we should get the chance for some awesome crossover battles between Marvel and DC Comics. Even though CMON Games has yet to announce another follow-up series, my guess would be Star Wars United. That’d be dope. Regardless of which direction the United Game System takes, the United System offers countless hours of play. The only issue I have with this game is that I never know who I want to play. I have so many characters. I placed everyone into a randomizer.
That’s Geekly’s list of the Top 5 superhero-themed board games. We’ll have to see what changes in the next ten years or so. Let us know your favorite superhero-theme board game in the comments. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.
Hey, hey, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here with another Top 5 Tabletop Game List throughout the years. 2002 has more than one big name game. We’ll see some familiar names—both designers and game series—but 2002 also saw some new blood. We’ll get to the board games in a bit, but first, let’s review our list’s criteria.
1: Cultural relevance plays as much of a factor as overall quality. A game might make a list that doesn’t hold up to others of its type, but you must admit the game is everywhere.
2: Only one game from a franchise makes the list. This will become more of an issue the closer we get to games with expansions.
3: Longevity plays a role, too. A game doesn’t have to fly off the shelves today, but it had to have some widespread appeal for a decent time.
Honorable Mention: Pirate’s Cove (2002)
Pirate’s Cove has been out of print for a while; I hope it returns to print soon because it’s a great light-to-mid-weight game, featuring pirates. Who doesn’t love pirates? Players simultaneously select which island they’d like to visit. Each island allows players to upgrade parts of their ship.
But if two players land on the same island, they fight. The goal of fighting is to scare off your opponent and be the last ship on the island, so you can upgrade your ship. Ultimately, you’ll want to have the most fame. While Pirate’s Cove can be a little mean at times—I’ve picked islands I knew a weak opponent would choose—the game plays fast.
5: Mexica (2002)
That’s a clean sweep. Each one of Michael Kiesling and Wolfgang Kramer’s games in the Mask Trilogy made one of these lists. Don’t let Mexica’s ranking at five fool you. It’s a well-regarded game and a fitting end to the trilogy. Players score points (El Grande style) based upon their dominance in a district.
During the first round scoring, only districts score points. In the second round (at the end of the game), all land areas and districts score. This adds some spice to the way scoring occurs. It also allows players to recover from a weaker first round. Unlike Java, Mexica has seen a recent reprint. And I love the building play pieces.
4: Wallenstein (2002)
Wallenstein introduced—or at least popularized—the dice tower, even if its dice tower is more of a cube tower. Players place cubes at the top of the tower, and eventually, the cubes fall to the bottom, granting resources. I don’t know why more games haven’t used the cube tower. If you tear open the cube tower, you’ll find landing spots for the cubes to get stuck. Clever.
This mechanism would receive an update with two recent games: The Loop and Dead Reckoning. This adds to the mystique of this game mechanism. Every game that has used this mechanism has been highly regarded. Does the game have a cube tower? It must be great.
3: Bang! (2002)
Bang! is easily the weakest game on this list—and that includes the honorable mention—but Bang! may have the largest cultural impact. Bang! solidified the hidden role game. You know what your role is and you must figure out who everyone else is playing. The Sheriff (whose identity is known to all players and has an extra health point) wants to kill all Outlaws and the Renegade. Deputies protect the Sheriff and kill Outlaws. Outlaws want to kill the Sheriff. And the Renegade wants to be the last one standing.
Bang! has seen its share of spin-offs, too, including the even better Bang! The Dice Game, which speeds up the already brisk gameplay. And so many themed versions of Bang! the card game. There’s even a Bang! card game based on Marvel’s Secret Invasion. Eek! Bang! can be a good time. It’s thematic; you’re playing out a Spaghetti Western. I call Ringo.
2: Age of Steam (2002)
Martin Wallace and train games go togetherlike board and game. The game that claims BoardGameGeek’s top spot is Brass: Birmingham, a train game by Martin Wallace. Age of Steam is only the second time Wallace made a train game. It improves on Voldampf (2001) in almost every way.
Age of Steam set the tone for what a mid-to-heavy-weight train game could accomplish. Heck. Case in point, the only designer who could outdo Martin Wallace was Martin Wallace. Even though another Wallace train game tops BGG’s list, Age of Steam still sees play. I’ve seen countless people create new maps, keeping the game alive.
1: Puerto Rico (2002)
Puerto Rico easily takes the top spot. It’s the highest-rated game (on BoardGameGeek) and maintains a spot in the Top 100 games. But more importantly, Puerto Rico may have more influence on how games are designed today than when it was first released. Each round, players take turns selecting a role card from the display. When a role is chosen, every player gets to take the action appropriate to that role, but the player who selected the role also receives a small privilege. For example, choosing the “Builder” role allows all players to construct a building, but the player who chose the role may do so at a discount. So much of modern board game design adapts this concept in exciting ways.
Flamecraft comes to mind. Players upgrade spaces (shops) on the board that benefit everyone at the table, but the player who made the upgrade gets an additional kickback. Having your play benefit or affect someone else’s forces to players to pay attention to what their opponents are doing. Puerto Rico turns up the ante. Everyone gets some variation of the action you choose each turn. This small twist heightens the tension of each choice. Brilliant!
Did we get the list mostly correct? Let us know which games you’d add in the comments. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.
Hey, hey, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here with another Top 5 Tabletop Game List throughout the years. 2001 is the year in board games we’re covering today. While 2001 saw a lot of great games, I don’t see as many of them played as much today. And yet, 2001 in board games set industry standards and even introduced one of the most interesting game mechanisms. We’ll get to the games in a bit, but first, let’s review our list’s criteria.
1: Cultural relevance plays as much of a factor as overall quality. A game might make a list that doesn’t hold up to others of its type, but you must admit the game is everywhere.
2: Only one game from a franchise makes the list. This will become more of an issue the closer we get to games with expansions.
3: Longevity plays a role, too. A game doesn’t have to fly off the shelves today, but it had to have some widespread appeal for a decent time.
Honorable Mention: San Marco (2001)
Alan R. Moon almost makes one of these lists again—he won’t need to wait long for another entry—and while San Marco helped popularize area control and card drafting as game mechanisms, it’s since been overshadowed. San Marco won a handful of awards, but it just missed out on our list.
5: Zombies!!! (2001)
We begin 2001’s Top 5 Board List with Zombies!!!. This design by Todd Breitenstein still has its defenders today, but many Zombies!!! Fans have moved on to another game that will most likely make one of these lists: Zombiecide or Dead of Winter. You can’t deny Zombies!!!’s influence on the board game industry. It proved a miniature or standee-heavy game could make bank, solidified zombies as a board game theme (Zombies!!! was one of the first zombie games), and its use of tiles as terrain has been duplicated for decades.
Zombies!!! cornered the market for zombie board games for well over a decade. It shocked me that no other board game attempted to claim Zombies!!! throne until 2012.
4: Serengeti (2001)
Serengeti has the opposite problem of Zombies!!!. While Zombies!!! makes this list for its cultural relevance and lacks a standout game mechanism, Serengeti offers a fantastic twist for an auction and payout mechanism and often gets forgotten, in part, because it got rethemed as Don (a gangster game). Both games made the list, but just barely.
Players bid for African art (sensitivity may be the reason the game got rethemed) with the local currency “Hongo.” Players may not bid a number whose “ones” digit matches the number on any card they previously won. The payout mechanism is that players owning a card whose number matches the “one” digit gain a share of the bid. Serengeti has this nice push-pull of wanting to acquire lots, but it matters when you obtain the lot, because you stand to gain a kickback every time someone else gains a similar lot. It’s no wonder Serengeti won several awards as the best card game of 2001.
3: Evo (2001)
I struggled figuring out where I should place the next three games. You could invert the rankings of all three of the next three games, and I’d agree with you. Regardless, I had to put these games in some order, and we begin with Evo. You control the survival and evolution of dinosaur species named Dinos. Guide their migrations, perfect genes to develop and mutate your Dinos, and push out other creatures to become the “dominant species.”
Another board game would be released over a decade later, Dominant Species, which owes a lot to Evo. But Evo is more streamlined than Dominant Species. I’ve heard people talk about Evo, and that’s another vote for it to climb higher on this list. Evo was nominated for a lot of awards, won a couple, and is highly regarded. Why didn’t it land higher on this list?
2: Zendo (2001)
Zendo has the innovative game mechanism I mentioned at the beginning. Zendo is a game of inductive logic where one player, the Moderator, creates a secret rule (like a structure must consist of at least two pyramids) that the rest of the players figure out by building and studying configurations of the game pieces. The first player to correctly guess the hidden rule wins.
Zendo uses Looney Pyramids and was originally released as part of a group of games that could be played with Looney Pyramids in 2001. Zendo was later released as a standalone game in July 2003 and promptly won multiple awards, including the 2005 Mensa Select. Zendo makes its players think creatively. Its bizarre game components make it stand out.
1: TransAmerica (2001)
TransAmerica is yet another board game on this list to win multiple awards. TransAmerica was even nominated for the 2002 Spiel des Jahres (German game of the Year)—I still don’t yet know how the Spiel des Jahres committee determines when a game is eligible—and just barely missed. Like Zendo, TransAmerica earned the 2003 Mensa Select. But TransAmerica takes the top spot on this list because it combines accolades with cultural relevance. Train games were nothing new, but TransAmerica streamlined train board game mechanisms. Something we’ll see with a future number one game.
Each player has a set of five cities strung across the United States that need to be connected by rail. Players begin by placing their station on an intersection on the map, then take turns placing one or two rails each turn on the lines of the map. Initially, players can only be adjacent to their station or on a line that touches their station, but once one’s network connects with another player’s, one can place their rails anywhere along the combined network. I love how TransAmerica rewards players who know when to connect their networks with another player’s. Can you take advantage of others’ rails more than they can benefit from yours? TransAmerica boasts a short play time, perfect for players new to the hobby.
Did we get the list mostly correct? Let us know which games you’d add in the comments. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.
Hey, hey, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here. The title of this post sounds sacrilegious. It can be difficult to believe someone who rates the Dorformantik Board Game above the video game that inspired it, to also rate some video games above their inspiring board/tabletop games. I love board games. But several video game adaptations work better than the original board games. There are various reasons why a board game or tabletop game may be better as a video game, and I’ll share why I prefer the digital version to the physical version of the game. I still play some of these board games in their original form, but all the games on this list make better video games than board games.
5) Ticket to Ride
We begin with a game I play digitally and physically, Ticket to Ride. Asmosdee Digital does an excellent job translating Ticket to Ride to various online platforms. Since I have an iPad and an Android smartphone, I’m certain I’ve purchased Ticket to Ride for at least three or four of its possible platforms. Each version makes it easy to see what other players (typically AI players for me) have done on previous turns and plan future turns. Ticket to Ride’s tutorial is quick and easy, which makes sense: the game is quick and easy to learn.
The reason why I play Ticket to Ride on digital more than my physical copies is my gaming group has moved passed this classic gateway game. I could litter this entire list with digital versions of some of my favorite, classic gateway games like Carcassonne and Ticket to Ride or even Smallworld (also from Asmodee Digital), but I like Ticket to Ride’s interface just a bit more and the extra maps add an extra layer of variability without needed to store dozens of bonus Ticket to Ride maps.
I like getting in a game or two of Ticket to Ride while I wait in line or I’m traveling. I highly recommend the digital Ticket to Ride.
4) Sentinels of the Multiverse
Sentinels of the Multiverse is another old favorite. Yes. Like Ticket to Ride, my gaming groups have moved past this board game to other games of its ilk, but there are more reasons why Sentinels of the Multiverse makes this list. The game takes a while to set up and take down (this reasoning will come up again), and Sentinels of the Multiverse has a lot of cards that trigger at various intervals and during different turns, which makes triggers easy to miss.
Sentinels of the Multiverse: The Video Game eliminates the need to remember triggers. The setup is nonexistent. Just load the game and go. While I may not own Sentinels of the Multiverse: The Video Game on as many platforms as Ticket to Ride, I’ve put in plenty of hours playing this digital version. I think the reason why I’m reluctant to purchase Sentinels of the Multiverse on other systems is that all content for the original Sentinels of the Multiverse is available in this video game. I don’t want to buy everything again.
Handlelabra does a great job converting the original Sentinels of the Multiverse into its digital version. Graphic effects match the original art, drawing me into the game. Sentinels of the Multiverse keeps the theme going with little touches like “Meanwhile…” whenever the game waits for input. Nice!
3) Neuroshima Hex
Neuroshima Hex is another game with plenty of triggers that are easy to miss, but unlike Sentinels of the Multiverse, the setup and take-down of this game are so laborious, I don’t dare play the physical copy. The only way I’ll play Neuroshima Hex’s physical form is if someone else agrees to handle the game’s logistics. And the timing aspect for Neuroshima Hex can get tedious. Sure, timing can be something one can easily miss, just like Sentinels‘ triggers, but Neuroshima Hex runs deeper than that. It hurts more in the physical game to overlook one of your opponent’s hexagonal pieces with a faster speed than yours and a devastating ability. In the digital copy, I snap my fingers and move on. In the physical game, I’m dejected.
Neuroshima Hex‘s strategic and tactical moves are fantastic, but there’s too much to remember in the physical copy. Neuroshima Hex’s digital copy provides reminders for gamers. Games don’t take nearly as long to play, so the time investment isn’t long. The same can’t be said of the physical version of Neuroshima Hex. I even like how the digital copy incorporates the game’s lore. While playing, it’s easy to overlook Neuroshima Hex’s post-apocalyptic world, and its colorful denizens.
Portal Games and Big Daddy’s Games did a great job translating Neuroshima Hex to a digital game. Similar to Ticket to Ride, I can see information easily and cleanly. Neuroshima Hex’s digital copy even has a free demo for you to try.
2) Gloomhaven
Gloomhaven’s digital copy makes it to this list for one reason: no setup. While other factors may have factored into other digital copies of board games making this list, Gloomhaven has an unbearable setup time. Fortunately, the Gloomhaven digital copy packs everything in the original’s massive box into its programming. You won’t need to save your character from one scenario of Gloomhaven to the next because this is a video game. The game does that for you. And Gloomhaven’s graphics are fantastic.
Like most other titles on this list, Gloomhaven has an easy-to-see and use interface. The physical game’s sometimes complicated rules are explained a little better in its digital version. I’m not saying that Gloomhaven’s rules are difficult to follow, but parts of the rules can be like Sentinels of the Multiverse and be easy to miss, and players won’t need to play out the artificial intelligence of the game’s enemies. Yes. A quarter to a third of Gloomhaven is acting out the game’s enemies. You won’t need to do that either in the digital version of Gloomhaven.
And did I mention Gloomhaven’s graphics? I did? Well, they look almost as good as Baldur’s Gate 3. Okay. Maybe that went too far, but Gloomhaven’s digital game looks amazing. You also won’t need to wait for your gaming group to meet up so you can continue your campaign. Gloomhaven: The Video Game offers the perfect alternative for this sprawling epic.
1) Onirim
Onirim will take the number one spot for some time to come. It would’ve taken this spot over a decade ago if we did a list like this. Onirim is the game I replace Solitaire with on all my smart devices. At its core, Onirim is a colorful, whimsical twist on classic Solitaire, but the physical game suffers for one reason: shuffling.
And I’m a compulsive shuffler. Seriously, I’m AuDHD (Autistic and an ADHDer) and shuffling cards is a stim for me, and I think there’s too much shuffling in the physical copy of Onirim. Some cards (Nightmares) discard cards from the deck, and if you draw more than one in a turn, you’ll need to shuffle them back into the deck. Other cards (keys) allow you to search the deck for a door, and if you find one, you’ll need to shuffle the deck again. And those are the base game cards. Onirim offers a couple of expansions with more cards that will force players to shuffle.
It may sound like I hate Onirim. Far from it. I love this game; it’s the only Solitaire game I’ll play on my smart devices. But Onirim has a ton of shuffling. You won’t feel that if you play Onirim’s digital copy. Trust me. Once you start playing Onirim, you won’t want to stop playing this dream of a Solitaire game.
That’s my list for now. What digital copies of board games do you like to play? Let us know in the comments. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.
Marvel United: Fantastic Four – The Coming of Galactus was one of the main reasons I backed Marvel United Multiverse (the third wave of Marvel United), and it’s one of the better Marvel United expansions. It offers a ton of variable play options. With last summer’s Fantastic Four: First Steps featuring Galactus, I jumped the line of Marvel United reviews to cover this specific expansion from the third wave. I mean, it’s Galactus. He’s kind of a big deal.
We’ll get to Marvel’s planet-eater in a minute, but first, let’s take a look at Marvel United: Fantastic Four – The Coming of Galactus’s less cosmic details.
The Fiddly Bits
Designer: Andrea Chiarvesio and Eric M. Lang Publisher: CMON Global Limited and Spin Master Ltd. Date Released: 2024 Number of Players: 1-5 Age Range: 8 and up Setup Time: 5-10 minutes Play Time: 30-40 minutes
We already covered the Game Setup and Game Flow in our original Marvel United review (here’s a link to that review), so we’ll go over the basics in the following two sections. Let’s cover an abbreviated review of the game setup and rules.
Marvel United: Fantastic Four – The Coming of Galactus’s setup can change depending on which Villain(s) and Heroes you choose to play. Each game consists of six locations. Unlike most other expansions, Marvel United: Fantastic Four – The Coming of Galactus includes six locations, but they’re built specifically for battling Galactus. If you choose to fight Galactus’s heralds one on one or as a group, you may want to pick six locations from a different box. You may choose your locations or shuffle them and choose six at random. Each Location card has spaces at the top for civilians and thugs, and a rectangle with a block of text that will state “End of Turn” at the top of the box.
Place civilian/thug tokens on their matching spaces. Shuffle the Villain’s Threat deck and deal out each Threat face-up so that it covers the rectangle at the bottom of each location. You must clear this threat before gaining the “End of Turn” effect printed on a Location. Place health tokens where signified on threat cards and on the Villain dashboard. Place the three mission cards (Defeat Thugs, Rescue Civilians, and Clear Threats) face up under the villain dashboard where the text reads “Unlocked.”
Each player shuffles their hero decks and then draws three cards to form their hands. Shuffle the Villain’s Master Plan deck. Leave the Master Plan deck face down. This will be the villain’s draw pile.
Players place their miniatures on one of the six location cards, usually the centralmost location for each player (easy access). Then, they place the villain on the location card opposing the heroes.
If one player chooses to play as the villain, hand the Super Villain cards to them, and the Heroes gain access to Super Hero cards. These new card times can be played if the game state triggers their use (for example, “You play a Master Plan card” or “Any Hero has 4 or more cards in their hand at the end of the Hero turn.” Timing is key.
Special Galactus Setup Rules
Follow the rules on the back of Galactus’s hexagon-shaped dashboard to build the Stop Galactus Missions deck. “Convince Galactus to Spare Earth” will always be the bottom card. And then reveal the top Mission.
Shuffle the Master Plan deck and remove 6 random cards from the game.
Heroes start in the Location corresponding to the continent where they are playing.
Set aside the 2 New Herald Threat cards, placing the others as usual.
Place Galactus on the back of his dashboard in the middle of the 6 Locations, facing the Heroes’ starting Location.
Split the printed action tokens among the players in any fashion.
Heralds of Galactus Setup Rules
Place the 4 Heralds’ Villain (individual) Dashboards nearby the group’s dashboard, each with Health depending on the number of players.
Randomly place the 4 Herald tokens faceup, each in a different slot on the Herald Group Dashboard.
The Heroes start the game in any 2 opposite Locations (splitting as they wish). Then, randomly place 1 Herald in each other Location.
Create a Crisis token pool within reach of the players. The number of Crisis tokens will be dictated by how difficult the players want the game. Players will then split a total of 2 wild action tokens, however they see fit.
Game Flow
The villain(s) play first. Draw the top card of their master plan deck. The villain moves the number of spaces indicated. Resolve any BAM! Effects and these effects will be printed on a space within the villain’s dashboard. Then, place the civilian/thug tokens (if any) indicated at the bottom of the card. If a player has taken the role of the villain, they get a hand of cards and can choose which card they play. The heroes get their turn after all the villain’s effects are resolved.
Heroes pick which player goes first, and hero turns will continue around the table clockwise. At the beginning of each game, Heroes will get three turns before the villain receives another turn. During their turn, heroes play one card from their hand.
Resolve actions and the symbols printed at the bottom of the hero’s card in any order. The symbols at the bottom of a hero’s card will be shared with the next player, but any printed action will not be shared. Heroes will use these actions to complete missions. The game begins with three missions in play: Defeat Thugs, Rescue Civilians, and Clear Threats. Each mission card will have spaces for the tokens they require to complete. As soon as these spaces are filled, the card is discarded, and the mission is considered complete. Mission cards can be completed in any order.
After the heroes complete the first mission, the villain panics and will act (play a card) every two hero cards instead of every three hero cards. After the heroes complete the second mission, the villain becomes vulnerable to damage. The heroes can complete the third mission, but it isn’t necessary. If the heroes do complete the third mission, each hero immediately draws 1 card, increasing each player’s hand size by one.
Play continues back and forth until either the villain wins (by completing their unique master plan or anyone, heroes or villains, runs out of cards) or the heroes win by dealing enough damage to the villain after the villain becomes vulnerable to damage.
Review
Like its predecessor, Marvel United: Fantastic Four, Marvel United: Fantastic Four – The Coming of Galactus lives up to the hype. I seriously considered not backing any part of Marvel United Multiverse, but a few highlights from the stretch goals, a couple of other expansions, and, first and foremost, The Coming of Galactus, made Marvel United’s third wave fun and exciting.
Let’s begin with the big man himself. Galactus’s scale is intimidating and thematic. Despite multiple Sentinels in the X-Men (second wave of Marvel United), Galactus is by far the largest miniature for the game. He should be. At first, when I heard that Galactus would begin the game on the same space as the Heroes, and the Heroes begin the game on the continent where the gamers are playing, I rolled my eyes. That’s silly. But watching the big purple guy staring at my home continent when the game began made it more real. It’s weird. It was creepy, bizarre, thematic, and loads of fun.
Galactus never becomes Under Pressure, so Heroes don’t need to worry about speeding up Galactus’s clock, but Galactus cannot be damaged. You’re not defeating Galactus. You’re convincing him not to devour Earth. To do that, you need to complete nine—that’s nine—missions instead of the usual two, plus dealing damage to the main villain. This makes the lack of speeding up Galactus’s clock moot. You’ll need every card and round you can to tackle his hunger.
The Missions vary with each element Marvel United offers: Heroics, Movement, Damage, Rescuing Civilians, Defeating Thugs and Henchmen. You’ll need a well-balanced group of Heroes to consider taking on Galactus. Fortunately, the Fantastic Four fit that bill, and they’re the classic Galactus opponent.
I like how Marvel United: Fantastic Four – The Coming of Galactus includes a Silver Surfer Herald Threat Card, so you can use Silver Surfer as one of Galactus’s heralds. That’s awesome and a great touch. Galactus adds a heap of Civilians and Thugs to the board each one of his turns; he adds one or the other to each Location he’s not facing. This applies plenty of pressure. At first, I wondered why the Heroes were given six action tokens to split among themselves. Yeah, you’ll need every last one to defeat Galactus. The few Master Plan cards that don’t add copious tokens shake up the game by bringing back defeated threats of a certain type or adding brand new Heralds. Yay!
I could go on about Galactus for another 400 words or so. He alone makes The Coming of Galactus worth it as an expansion, but this expansion ups the ante of variable playstyles. You can battle the Heralds of Galactus without including the big man himself. What? Marvel United adds an extra dash of spice anytime it includes a villain team. The Heralds of Galactus are no different. The Herald tokens dictate which villain does what during the villain’s turn. The first spot is the Villain who acts as if they played the Master Plan card for the turn. The other three Heralds add tokens: a Thug, a Civilian, and a Crisis Token. Players lose if they gain too many Crisis tokens, so you’re already at a huge disadvantage.
I love how Marvel United’s game system allows for simple but elegant solutions to potential problems. It could be boring if the Heralds did the same things each turn, but the Herald tokens shift positions after each Villain turn, so each Herald will have a chance to perform the four actions.
I’ll be honest. I haven’t played nearly as many games of Heralds of Galactus as I have The Coming of Galactus—for obvious reasons—but don’t sleep on this game mode. The Heralds of Galactus team adds a heap of extra value to The Coming of Galactus expansion.
Before we get into the individual Heralds as solo villains, let’s take a quick look at the six unique Locations and the lone hero in The Coming of Galactus. I’ll start with the western hemisphere and work my way east. Each one of these continent Locations has a ridiculous “End of Turn” ability. I advise only playing with these Locations if you intend to take on Galactus, his Heralds as a team, or another crazy strong opponent. But the choice is yours. Ultimately, you do you. Just know these abilities are crazy strong.
We begin with North America, and this Location may have the tamest ability of the six. North America allows you to swap a card from your hand with one of your faceup cards in the Storyline. This is good, but other Locations and character abilities have done something similar in the past. South America allows you to discard a card, gain 1 Wild token, and Action tokens equal to the symbols of the card you discarded. Now we’re talking.
Europe allows you to draw a new hand. Simple but great. Africa’s ability to discard a card to the bottom of your deck to defeat 1 Thug and rescue 1 Civilian anywhere is one of the best ways to prevent overflow, a common issue. Asia adds multiple Thugs and/or Civilians to itself, but Asia can house a game-high six tokens. Yikes! Sometimes you need extra Tokens to accomplish goals. And Oceania may have the single most broken ability. You may KO your Hero to remove them from the game (discarding any Action tokens you have) and choose a different Hero. What? Oceania may be the only way you can keep a game with Galactus going. Oh, I’m almost out of cards. KO. New hero. Talk about an insane power.
Nova (Frankie Raye), one of Galactus’s Heralds, can also be played as a hero. She offers a bunch of move, a large amount of damage, and little Heroics. Her special abilities can be great in certain situations. “Nova Flame” deals one damage to Everything at her Location, while also discarding (not rescuing) Civilians. This is a good way to clear a Location. But her starting card “Pyrokinesis” begs to be played first. As long as “Pyrokinesis” is faceup in the Storyline, at the beginning of your turn, you may place 1 Crisis token in an adjacent Location to deal an extra damage there. If the villain(s) you’re facing don’t use Crisis tokens, no problem. If they do use Crisis tokens, you could be in trouble.
The Coming of Galactus features two new major shakeups to gameplay: Galactus and his Heralds as a team. But the Heralds can be played as solo villains, and there are some more interesting gameplay mechanisms to be found with each. Terrax takes an interesting approach to a progression track. His gameplay centers around causing numerous overflows, and he can even slow down by adding Movement tokens in between Locations. Air-Walker wins by adding Crisis tokens to Heroes. He can be annoying because each one of his Threats allows him to move away from Heroes, making extra Movement a necessity. And Nova wins by adding Crisis tokens to each Location. She does this in multiple ways; however, she may deal the most damage to Heroes by causing damage if a Hero lands in a Location with a Crisis token. Uh oh!
But Firelord is the most interesting of all the Heralds as villains. The Heroes are trying to rescue Firelord. Like Galactus, Firelord can’t receive damage. In specific cases, Firelord’s BAM ability can actually help the heroes, furthering the idea that Firelord doesn’t want to harm humanity. This is a nice touch. As you can see, The Coming of Galactus offers a bunch of replay value to Marvel United in a relatively small box. Honestly, the box is that big to accommodate the Galactus mini. That box’s size is a hundred percent the big purple guy.
Too Long; Didn’t Read
As of the writing of the review, Marvel United: Fantastic Four – The Coming of Galactus replaced Marvel United: Fantastic Four as the highest-rated Marvel United expansion on BoardGameGeek and for good reason. This expansion adds more game modes than any other single expansion of Marvel United. And Galactus is terrifying and hoot to play against.
