Real Name: Johann Shmidt
First Comic Book Appearance: Captain America Comics (March 1941)
Affiliations in Comic Books: Cabal, Hydra, Third Reich
Marvel United Appearance: Marvel United Core Set (July 2020)
Marvel United Team Decks: None
Movement
BAM!
Civilians
Thugs
How Red Skull Plays: The Red Skull is recommended as your introduction to Marvel United. His gameplay provides a good overview of different rules while not introducing anything complicated.
Villainous Plot: Red Skull wins if his “Fear Track” reaches 20.
How he does this? Red Skull raises the “Fear Track” by using his BAM! Effect, Overflow effect, one of his Threat Cards (“Subversion”), and 2 special effects on 4 of his Masterplan cards (“Hail Hydra!” and “Hydra Insurgency”).
BAM!: Deal 1 damage to each Hero in Red Skull’s Location and increase the Fear Track by 2.
Red Skull always raises the Fear Track by 2; he doesn’t need to deal damage to a hero. There are only 7 BAMs in Red Skull’s deck, so the most he’ll raise the Fear Track by this means is 14. That alone is not enough for the heroes to lose, but Red Skull’s BAM! Effect teamed up with other effects (like his Overflow effect) can snowball.
Keep in mind that if a hero is KO’d, Red Skull can BAM! Again.
Overflow: If a civilian or thug token can’t be added to a Location, increase the Fear Track by 1 for each token you couldn’t add.
Red Skull adds the most civilians of any of the core set villains and he’s also tied for the most thugs. His Overflow effect can occur quite often. But the most civilians and thugs Red Skull adds to a single location at one time is 2.
Threats
Red Skull is the only core set villain with six unique Threat cards. Every other villain in the core set has at least one duplicate.
Crossbones (Henchman)
Health: 6
BAM!: Deal 2 damage to each Hero in this Location. Any Hero can prevent this effect by taking 2 Crisis tokens.
It may seem that preventing Crossbones’ damage is the wise move, but Red Skull has an ability in his deck that allows him to raise the Fear Track for each Crisis Token. The more Crisis Tokens are in play, the faster the Fear Track moves.
Madame Hydra (Henchman)
Health: 5
BAM! Deal 1 damage to each Hero in this Location. Any Hero can prevent this effect by taking 1 Crisis Token.
Madame Hydra is a weaker version of Crossbones. She can still be annoying, and the Crisis Tokens can still pile up.
Bob Agent of Hydra (Henchman)
Health: 4
BAM! Heroes starting their turn in this Location take 1 Crisis Token.
If you end your turn in Bob’s location, make sure your teammates can defeat him before your next turn. Otherwise, you’re adding more Crisis Tokens.
Brainwashing (Threat)
Clear: 3 Heroics
Triggered Effect (Red Skull finishes movement on this Location): Heroes in this and adjacent Locations take 1 Crisis Token each.
“Brainwashing” isn’t too bad by itself, but heroes risk increasing the Fear Track the more Crisis Tokens they have.
Subversion (Threat)
Clear: 3 Heroics
Triggered Effect (Red Skull finishes movement on this Location): Discard all thugs and civilians from this Location and advance the Fear Track by the number of tokens discarded this way.
Some locations have as few as 3 spots for thug/civilian tokens. Others can be as high as 5. Depending on the location “Subversion” is on, this can be a devastating card. I recommend clearing this card early in the game.
Hydra Elite Troops (Threat)
Clear: 3 Heroics
Constant Effect: Each thug in this Location requires 2 damage to be defeated.
This threat is mostly annoying. Increasing the amount of damage needed to defeat thugs will become a trend. As soon as this Threat is cleared, thugs can be defeated with 1 damage.
Master Plan Deck
Movement:
All the core set villains have the same total movement, their movement predominantly shows up in three cards. The rest of each villain’s movement is 1 and 0 with a couple of 2 thrown in. Since this is the case, Red Skull (like the rest of the core set villains) is predictable in terms of movement.
Civilians:
Red Skull adds civilians and thugs evenly and at one of the better rates for a core set villain. He’ll also discard civilians to raise the Fear Track.
Thugs:
Again, Red Skull adds thugs and civilians evenly. But players typically see more thugs in play than civilians, because Red Skull doesn’t have an effect that discards thugs.
BAM!:
Of the core set villains, Red Skull has the most BAM! Effects in his deck. Get ready to raise that Fear Track.
Special Effects on Cards
1) Hail Hydra!: Discard all civilians from Locations with Heroes and deal 1 damage to each of those Heroes. Advance the Fear Track by the number of civilians discarded this way.
This one can be brutal if you have 3 or 4 heroes spread across different locations. Wasp’s “Wings” ability may be warranted here. Or you can use Black Widow’s “Interrogate” to move the card if you haven’t kept up with rescuing civilians.
With or without Wasp or Black Widow, you’ll need to keep “Hail Hydra!” in mind when moving to locations with a lot of civilians. “Hail Hydra!” loses a lot of its bite the fewer civilian tokens are in play.
2) Hydra Insurgency: For each Crisis token the Heroes have, advance the Fear Track by 1.
There are two copies of “Hydra Insurgency” in Red Skull’s deck. Pay attention to how many of these cards you’ve seen. Crisis Tokens won’t matter if both copies of this card have been played. If neither card has been played, you may not want to take Crisis Tokens.
General Strategy
There’s a reason Marvel United suggests Red Skull as a player’s first villain. His mix of Henchmen and regular Threat cards are suitable for a wide range of heroes.
Again, I suggest clearing the “Subversion” Threat early in the game. This will require 3 Heroics. Rescuing civilians also requires Heroics, and the presence of “Hail Hydra!” makes that a good strategy. Clear civilians at any location a hero moves to and clear Threats. Depending on the Threat type, you can use Attack to clear henchmen or if you have an abundance of Heroics, go for the remaining Threats that require Heroics. The more Threats you clear, the more end-of-turn effects you’ll unlock and the more powerful your heroes become.
Be careful. Minimize the impact of “Hail Hydra!” and keep an eye out on how many “Hydra Insurgency” cards have been played. But don’t be too sluggish. Overflow (not being able to place thug/civilian tokens) can also cause the Fear Track to progress.
If a hero gets low on health, they should separate from the group. A hero KOing causing another BAM!. If the heroes are lumped together, they could receive multiple damage and KOs and trigger yet another BAM!. And another BAM!. And Another…and so forth.
Remember to time completing the first and second missions as close together as possible to avoid the villain speeding up too soon.
Core Set Heroes
Ant-Man
Black Widow
Captain America
Captain Marvel
Hulk
Iron Man
Wasp
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