Marvel Champions LCG

This week is Marvel Champions week! I have declared it so!

I’ve been enjoying Marvel Champions for about six months now, and in that time it has become a real favourite for me. True, I have waxed and waned a bit, as I’ve tried to get into the game slowly, without overwhelming myself with the amount of content that is out there for the game. Between Christmas and my birthday, though, I’ve had a significant injection of content that has left me with a lot of stuff to discover, and so that’s really the aim of this week on the blog – my attempt to really get to grips with the game and all the new stuff that I now have!

This game was chosen as one of my 10×10 games for the year, but in actual fact I think I’m going to smash this goal before the end of January as a result of this endeavour! I think that’s one of the big attractions of the game for me, though, that it can be played as a pretty standalone experience. There are hundreds of heroes in the Marvel pantheon, with as many villains for them to go up against, and I love the fact you can get all manner of mash-ups going from this game.

I have previously talked on the blog about how each big box expansion for this game is sold as a “campaign expansion”, but said campaign is actually pretty weak, especially in comparison with the other co-op LCG out there, Arkham Horror. However, I actually now think that this is a good thing, because it doesn’t lock you in to playing in a specific way. Yes, there’s a vague storyline going through each box, and even the core set, and it kinda makes sense to enjoy that story by playing through each villain in the recommended order. But there’s really nothing stopping you from just playing a single game against Hela, without first going through Thanos and his minions. Or you can just play against Ultron, or just against The Collector. Or whatever.

In modern games, it seems to be a bit of an expectation that there will be some form of campaign play, or some way of linking together different games to form an overarching narrative. It’s not always a requirement, though, and I’m a big fan of the fact you can pick this game up and have a great game by playing a one-off fight against, say, Red Skull.

Indeed, the campaign system is weak enough that it almost encourages you to avoid it. I’ve only really tried the Thanos campaign, but was so decidedly unimpressed that I gave up after Thanos himself, the halfway point, as it didn’t really seem worthwhile. Each box has a not insignificant amount of cards for campaign play, but I’m thinking they could just be used for regular games, if at all. There is some theme involved with them, but it’s not Arkham Horror levels of immersion.

I feel as though I’m ranting here, but that’s really not the case! Suffice it to say, the campaign system in Marvel Champions holds very little interest for me, but this is not a bad thing because I love the fact this is a game you can just pick up and play.

It’s Marvel Champions week, so let’s look forward to a week of rambling about what has very quickly become one of my most-played games!!