Marvel United!

Designer: Eric M. Lang & Andrea Chiarvesio

Players: 1-4

Age: 8+, 14+

Time: 60 min.

Description: Cooperative board game where players use their individual hero decks to play cards and move around locations to defeat the villain's master plan.

For anyone interested, I will add links to anything that I purchased online.

1. Who is this game for?

Let me start out by saying the age is only "suggested". Some places say the game is for 14+, but I play this with 7-11 year old kids and they do just fine with a little assistance. That being said, I believe this game is for all ages as it's been fun for both kids and adults in my family. The theme is Marvel, art is well done, mini's are cartoony, and game-play is strategic, but not super deep like other modern board games.

Marvel United has great solo game-play, but I'd suggest using 2-3 heroes at a time. Since heroes can utilize previously played cards, solo play makes it easy to plan your future moves.

Co-op has been great with 3-4 players. A 2 player game is fun, but I'd suggest each player having 1 hero if playing with kids and 2 heroes each if playing with adults.

2. Game-play loop:

Heroes' Turn:

Heroes play action cards allowing them to do actions such as moving locations, defeating thugs, rescuing civilians, or completing threat cards. Heroes need to clear thugs and civilians from locations to both complete mission cards and to avoid overflow effects. Removing threat cards from locations provides an additional bonus ability to heroes on those locations. The interesting part of the heroes' turn is that they can activate the actions on the last hero's card in addition to their own.

Villain's Turn:

Villains flip an action card which typically results in movement, adding thugs/civilians/threat cards to locations, attacking heroes, and activating special BAM effects. There's also a game of cat-and-mouse as the heroes try to avoid the villain until they've completed 2 of the 3 mission cards on the Villain Dashboard, at which time the heroes can start attacking the villain directly.

3. Pros & Cons!

Pros:

- Replay value; each game uses random locations and just the base box has a variety of heroes and villains for different combinations.

- Games start with heroes being able to play 3 cards for every 1 card the villain plays. This is true no matter how many players there are, thus creating fairness.

- Having miniatures included.

- Teamwork feels necessary and creates a positive environment.

Cons:

- The way knock-outs are handled feels a little lacking.

- Modern board gamers may not find enough depth in the strategy and hero cards.

4. Expansions! (what I own)

- The Base Game includes: 7 heroes and 3 villains. These are Wasp, Black Widow, Ironman, Captain America, Hulk, Captain Marvel, Antman, Red Skull, Task Master, and Ultron.

- Enter The Spider-verse: Adds 3 heroes; Spiderman, Ghost Spider, and Miles Morales. Also adds 1 villain; Green Goblin.

- Doctor Strange (additional hero): Include the mini and hero deck for Doctor Strange.

The bundle including all three of these is a great value and often goes on sale as well!

5. Gallery: