Tackling The Villains
Playing as just the one hero (rather than controlling two) I've found the game to have a good flow to it where it feels like the Villain and their Schemes are challenging without being dishearteningly tough. I have memories of playing The Lord Of The Rings and getting rather crushed by the second scenario in the core set, nevermind the third where you're infiltrating Dol Guldur!Klaw has been a nice step up in challenge. Rhino is rather straight forward with a lot of focus on him as the prime focus but the extra amount of scheming that Klaw can put out, twinned with the Masters Of Evil, means that you have to solve a very different kind of puzzle.
I have yet to take on Ultron but I'm sure that I'll get a chance to do that throughout the next week. I'm still doing a little bit of experimenting here and there to find out what kind of deck feels like it can handle all elements of the game.
Choose Your Hero
This leads me on nicely to talk about the different heroes in the game and what I think of them. For me, my favourite is Spider-Man. I have tried him out with both Justice and even Aggression but I think that Spider-Man's set of skills really lend to him being able to deal with both the scheming side of things and beating up villains. Justice is key to this though as whilst Spider-Man can deal out a fair bit of damage here and there, especially with Black Cat in play, he does need a little bit of help keeping the villain's schemes at bay.Beyond Spider-Man, I think my second favourite hero has to be She-Hulk. When I was playing The Lord Of The Rings, the Tactics deck was one of my favourites (killing lots of things!) so having a hero which can deal out a lot of pain really worked for me. She also has a decent suite of skills which allow her to keep the villain's schemes at bay even with Aggression as her core aspect which I've enjoyed playing with.
Iron Man comes in third for me as I really enjoy the way he has been portrayed in card game form. I think they've got the style of Iron Man down, firing up his arc reactor and getting ready to blast foes away but over a longer period of time. I decided to move his aspect from Aggression to Leadership thanks to some of the extra characters you get with this aspect.
For example, Leadership allows you to bring three different characters into the mix. Maria Hill is perfect for some extra card draw, allowing you to find Tony's tech quicker whilst Vision keeps both enemies and schemes at bay. Hawkeye is great as an early option too, sticking around during the game and slowly wittingly down minions until you need to use him for something more specific. This trio, twined with Warmachine, allow you to keep things ticking over before Iron Man is ready to get stuck in.
The other two heroes are both still something of a learning curve for me. I like what Captain Marvel brings to the table but I feel maybe (and this is just my opinion) she can be a bit one-note. She is really fun when you get her power levels up and she feels like Captain Marvel but I have had more fun doing damage and kicking ass as She-Hulk.
This then leaves Black Panther. I feel like I really need to try a few more games with him and perhaps try a different aspect with him in order to get the most from him as a character. Unless you find his equipment and alongside that, Wakanda Forever, you are going to have a tough time using him in-game. If things fall into place for you, it should be a doddle as he comes with a lot of good ways to generate the resources needed in order to fire up his full suite of abilities. To that end, I'm considering perhaps either twinning him with Leadership for lots of card draw or maybe working him into an Aggression deck so that he still has lots of power to dish out when he's not doing it himself.
I can see all of the different characters working with each of the aspects available to them but there will be a nuance to matching each hero up with their perfect archetype and doing a bit of mixing and matching once a few more cards enter the pool.
The Future
This then leads on to us talking about what's next for Marvel: Champions. There is a fair amount for you to get stuck into with the Core Set, especially if you can play the game with more people and test out the different difficulty levels, but some new heroes and scenarios are all going to be welcome.It looks like we're going to get the Green Goblin first followed by Captain America and then both The Wrecking Crew and Ms. Marvel in 2020. Thor is then meant to be not far behind which should give us new cards for Leadership, Protection and Aggression (if Thor is tied to that). My friends and I have been wondering about who might show up for the new Justice pack and I think it would be fun to see someone different, perhaps someone like The Punisher! However, it might be someone more Avengers affiliated so maybe you can have a guess below as to who that could be.
In true Living Card Game style, you don't need any of these new card packs to enjoy the game since it's all cooperative, but they will come with a few new options to help mix up play. I can certainly see myself picking up each of the new hero packs for sure and then engaging in the scenarios when I feel I've exhausted the options in the Core Set.
All of these options are great and help with solo play, offering up new chances to play through the game in different ways but one of the key elements for me is going to be opening up some nice options for multiplayer. I hope the game works well with two, three and four players and I could see Marvel: Champions turning into a great evening game where you really get stuck into some challenging puzzles to solve.
Some Final Thoughts
As it stands, I feel like Marvel: Champions has hit a good note. The gameplay feels like a puzzle but not too tough, a nice gateway into the cooperative LCG scene and all of the characters have something different about them which makes them fun to play as.The future also seems to have been planned out nicely with very user-friendly hero packs on the way which are ready to go once you've taken off the wrapper. Add into that some fun new scenarios planned with memorable villains and also talk of campaign play and such and you've got the makings of a great game which has learned a lot from both The Lord Of The Rings and Arkham.
The Marvel universe is one which is utterly bursting with ideas and options for Fantasy Flight Games to tinker around with. Just thinking off the top of my head they have some great options for The Guardians Of The Galaxy, The Fantastic Four, X-Men and of course on the villain side of things the likes of Doctor Doom, Loki, Galactus, all of the Spider-Foes and even someone like Thanos.
One thing that would be really fun to see is if they can keep up the release of heroes both varied, well-known and also diverse. Of course, everyone wants to see Captain America and Thor but it's also good to see Ms. Marvel popping up and there are lots of these newer characters which might be fun to see in more detail.
The future is certainly going to be interesting for Marvel: Champions!
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