Constraints of Review
I
am using the prefabbed decks that come with the box to see how they
handle solo play. I do not have the option to do group play by and
large, so please take everything you read here with the knowledge that I
have no idea how it relates to group play and probably won't for
months. When I do get to do group play I'll let you know what I think
then. Because I will be playing with everything out of the box, as-is, I
will be doing the whole thing on Basic difficulty. I'll go through the
box again on Solo Expert and will write up something for that, then.
What is This?
This
is the first major expansion for Marvel Champions the Living Card Game.
It includes five villains (Crossbones, Absorbing Man, Taskmaster, Zola,
and Red Skull) and arranges them in a campaign format. Fight the
villains in order, upgrading your deck with campaign cards. It's a
pretty simple set up, but simple can be very good. We'll see.
Last Time...
After four grueling fights Spider-Woman finally took down Crossbones. She grabbed the laser bazooka. Hawkeye did it in one. Yeah. Grabbed the tactics card (lets you draw five cards). These cards are one shot and then gone.
At the end of this game I get a bonus card that helps boost a basic option from my character, like thwarting, attack, defending, etc.
Absorbing Man
So Absorbing Man seems pretty normal, at least at first, with the exception of these delay counters, which get played at the same time as when you're putting down threat at the beginning of the villain's round. You're just sorta minding your business and all that... and then environments come out. There can only be one environment at a time (thank goodness), and these bastards lay down additional crap atop an undefended attack against you. And a bunch of the encounter cards key off of those delay counters, meaning that the longer the fight goes on the worse some of the encounter cards get. They don't come out terribly often, but they pack a really mean punch.
Spider-Woman took out Absorbing man in nine rounds. The laser bazooka definitely came out and fried a bunch of minions. I definitely didn't have anything to deal with guard or anything like that. Fortunately Pheromones came through, stunning and confusing, allowing me to survive much longer than I had any right to. The default deck really pinched this time. I'm tempted to abandon it, but let's see how crap with Taskmaster goes tomorrow. I wound up grabbing the Defensive boost, as Spider-Woman can defend really well and I keep finding that I need a higher defense.
Hawkeye took Absorbing Man out in four rounds. Four. Half the time. Once again Goliath made things a lot easier, although he came out because I sacrificed my tactical upgrade and got the cards necessary to play him. That bow really needs more ways to be readied, which Leadership just can't give Hawkeye. That being said I was able to pump out a ton of damage, quickly. And, of course, I gave him the attack boost at the end, which would make Hawkeye even more dangerous than he already is.
Conclusion
Absorbing Man didn't quite wow me as much as Crossbones did, but that may have been because I had learned the player decks better. I wasn't too happy with not being able to get rid the environments. That would be an interesting mechanic, I think. That being said, the variety is nice and I could easily replay this scenario and get appreciably different results each time, thanks to those freaking environments.
Okay, let's be fair: I won in one on both because of the laser bazooka. Spider-Woman would have lost the first time otherwise. Hawkeye too, probably.
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