Club Night – To Me, My X-Men!

Date: 12/4/16
Game: Marvel Universe Miniature Game
Opponent: Cameron
Size: Level 30

My Force: X-Men Starter Box
His Force: Avengers Starter Box
Result: Defeat, 4 – 1

This was our first game of the Marvel Universe Miniature Game, and I strongly doubt it will be our last. It is a new ruleset by Knight Models, to cater to their range of Marvel Licensed models, similar to how their Batman Miniature Game caters to their DC line up.

The two rulesets are about as different as they could get. I am sure that this is down to some licensing clause to prevent DC from being able to be played against Marvel, and all the implied comparisons that that will bring. That said, I think I much prefer the Marvel ruleset to the Batman one.

This is largely because the Batman game relies on single D6’s or pools of D6’s being rolled, looking for a simple X number or higher. The result is games that can hinge on a couple of dice rolls that are entirely random and unpredictable. The Marvel ruleset seems to take a leaf (or three) out of the Warmachine ruleset and works on 2 D8 + stat for most rolls. This means that the resulting roll can be mapped along a probability curve and is somewhat predictable (I can do X and have a relatively safe roll, or do Y and know that there is a higher chance of failure). There is a lot more to the ruleset, but it is already sitting on a pretty solid foundation in my mind.

Myself and Cameron opted to adjust the mission in the rulebook (each starter box comes with a different mission), and keep the scoring but change the deployment zones from an ambush in the middle of the table, to a more standard deployment with one player on each side of the 3’x3′ play area. We also decided to opt out of the throw-able scenery rules for the first game at least.

The resulting game had a lot of back and forth, and felt very cinematic to us playing it (onlookers to our game also commented on how thematic everything appeared), with the battle being met between the flying models on top of a roof, before moving to the ground level to support the foot sloggers.

Ultimately, I let myself split my forces which ended up with Wolverine being outnumbered and incapacitated, creating an imbalance in our respective board presence, which slipped further and further out of my fingers as the game went on.

I think the MVP’s for each side were Captain America for the Avengers who managed to block several “red” abilities (a once per game ability, like a Warcasters’ Feat in Warmachine) with his Shield Block, and Colossus who was just a rock for the X-Men, soaking up far more than his fair share of hits (thanks to his Bodyguard ability), before putting the final nail into Cap’s coffin on the final turn.

As it was our first game, we undeniably got some things wrong, but we didn’t let it get in the way of our entertainment and will know better for next time.