Nice video. Always like your stuff - always pretty lean and not much waffling.

I would say this thread title is a bit odd though - doesn’t that apply to most tabletop games?

can you elaborate at all on how that specifically relates to Champions?

What are the default suggested pairings? I don’t think I’ve actually seen that.

5 hours ago, jonboyjon1990 said:

Nice video. Always like your stuff - always pretty lean and not much waffling.

I would say this thread title is a bit odd though - doesn’t that apply to most tabletop games?

can you elaborate at all on how that specifically relates to Champions?

Yah good question. I suppose what I mean is that most board games you buy, setup, and play. The "prep" is in the setup. This game, like many LCG's, require you to invest time outside of playing or setup to really see its full potential. You need to actually derive some enjoyment from planning on your own. I think because the IP is Marvel, and the mechanics have been simplified this game is at risk of enticing a naïve audience who may expect this game to be fun right out of the box. To that I can say, I don't actually think it is.

The starter decks do a good job of setting the stage I guess. However, had I not made my own deck, and randomized the villain deck, I would have missed the true potential of this game.

I hope that makes sense haha

5 minutes ago, Derrault said:

What are the default suggested pairings? I don’t think I’ve actually seen that.

There is a whole host of them actually. Spiderman, ironman, marvel and hulk are aggression I think, black panther is defender I believe.

11 hours ago, TheWiseGuy said:

There is a whole host of them actually. Spiderman, ironman, marvel and hulk are aggression I think, black panther is defender I believe.

The Learn yo play suggests you play your first game:

- Spider-Man Justice (solo)

- Captain Marvel Aggression (if 2 player)

After that, it suggests you use:

- Spider-Man Justice

- Captain Marvel Leadership

- Black Panther Protection

- Iron Man Aggression

and it suggests you use She-Hulk with Aggression as well.

I think the advantage Champions has over a lot of LCGs is that you can just open and play with all the products -

the core and the hero and scenario packs are ready to use with no effort. However, the true depth comes with deck building and trying the different villain modules.

7 hours ago, FearLord said:

The Learn yo play suggests you play your first game:

- Spider-Man Justice (solo)

- Captain Marvel Aggression (if 2 player)

After that, it suggests you use:

- Spider-Man Justice

- Captain Marvel Leadership

- Black Panther Protection

- Iron Man Aggression

and it suggests you use She-Hulk with Aggression as well.

I think the advantage Champions has over a lot of LCGs is that you can just open and play with all the products -

the core and the hero and scenario packs are ready to use with no effort. However, the true depth comes with deck building and trying the different villain modules.

That’s the mechanic that has me really excited, the ability to mix and match not just my hero deck setups, but also the main quest/side quests.

Is there any limit to how many modules you put in, or is that pretty much however many you like?

1 hour ago, Derrault said:

Is there any limit to how many modules you put in, or is that pretty much however many you like?

IIRC the advice is to add one modular set of your required difficulty level. There's no actual limit on how many may choose to include, but adding more than one modular set dilutes the encounter deck and may detract from the main villain scenario. I imagine too many modular sets will lead to a disjointed game experience.

9 hours ago, Janaka said:

IIRC the advice is to add one modular set of your required difficulty level. There's no actual limit on how many may choose to include, but adding more than one modular set dilutes the encounter deck and may detract from the main villain scenario. I imagine too many modular sets will lead to a disjointed game experience.

Thank you, that makes sense.

I think I saw that some of the sets have cards that make you draw until you get X (a villain or what have you), so that might mitigate the issue of deck dilution.

Is this game really overly simplified (IIRC that was implied in the video)? Often times when a gaming company gets a particular license for a popular franchise, they get accused of "dumbing down" the rules to use the license to bring casual people into the hobby. In other words, they are said to release a watered down version of their other, better games.

Is that the case with this game? I haven't decided whether to try this game or not, but it has gotten my interest, being a long time Marvel fan. I had considered Game of Thrones, but the way they ended the TV series soured me on the series. Plus it has no solo mode, which is important to me since there is no real gaming community where I live. Too small a town, I guess.

Although simple is not always bad. The rules for chess are not complicated, for example, and that's probably the best board game ever invented.

33 minutes ago, Vince79 said:

Is this game really overly simplified (IIRC that was implied in the video)? Often times when a gaming company gets a particular license for a popular franchise, they get accused of "dumbing down" the rules to use the license to bring casual people into the hobby. In other words, they are said to release a watered down version of their other, better games.

Is that the case with this game? I haven't decided whether to try this game or not, but it has gotten my interest, being a long time Marvel fan. I had considered Game of Thrones, but the way they ended the TV series soured me on the series. Plus it has no solo mode, which is important to me since there is no real gaming community where I live. Too small a town, I guess.

Although simple is not always bad. The rules for chess are not complicated, for example, and that's probably the best board game ever invented.

In the video - one thing he explains is that sometimes the board state/villain phase can get quite busy and complicated and more 'gamer gamers' will have to hand hold the 'casual/non-gamers' at the table.

For what it's worth - I think FFG made a deliberate design choice to make a game that is distinctly accessible and streamlined, compared to their other LCGs. But this is not the same as 'dumbed down' or 'simplistic'. The game still provides a lot of depth and complexity and I'm sure the game will draw in a lot of casual/non-gamers (due to the IP) who bounce off it's many keywords, text, phases, abilities etc.

1 hour ago, jonboyjon1990 said:

For what it's worth - I think FFG made a deliberate design choice to make a game that is distinctly accessible and streamlined, compared to their other LCGs. But this is not the same as 'dumbed down' or 'simplistic'. The game still provides a lot of depth and complexity and I'm sure the game will draw in a lot of casual/non-gamers (due to the IP) who bounce off it's many keywords, text, phases, abilities etc.

Being accessible is good. And being streamlined usually is. Anyway, I did make a point to say that some gaming companies are accused of dumbing down mainstream games, I don't necessarily agree with it. But the OP's video did seem to suggest that he didn't find the game enjoyable until he started building his own decks. Knowing FFG, I imagine there is a lot of depth to this game and that it is quite enjoyable. But I haven't played it or even seen the rules, so I can't pretend to know.

3 hours ago, Vince79 said:

Is this game really overly simplified (IIRC that was implied in the video)? Often times when a gaming company gets a particular license for a popular franchise, they get accused of "dumbing down" the rules to use the license to bring casual people into the hobby. In other words, they are said to release a watered down version of their other, better games.

Is that the case with this game? I haven't decided whether to try this game or not, but it has gotten my interest, being a long time Marvel fan. I had considered Game of Thrones, but the way they ended the TV series soured me on the series. Plus it has no solo mode, which is important to me since there is no real gaming community where I live. Too small a town, I guess.

Although simple is not always bad. The rules for chess are not complicated, for example, and that's probably the best board game ever invented.

Based on what I’ve seen, its just very smooth and refined gameplay, with (so far) nothing bizarrely, pointlessly, or needlessly complex.

I haven’t watched the video. But if you like card games, like Marvel, and enjoy solo play. Well, this game is for you I’d say.

I don’t think it’s dumbed down or overly simplistic. Also this is the coreset, it’s goinf to have tons of expansions. This is the simplest it’ll ever be. I can’t recommend this game strongly enough. I mean as long as your interested in a card that is going to continually grow and present new challenges and material.

Now if they would just come out with a Fantastic Four module (? Is that the right word?), I would definitely be in.

1 hour ago, Vince79 said:

Now if they would just come out with a Fantastic Four module (? Is that the right word?), I would definitely be in.

A Fantastic Four box expansion is inevitable. I'm very much looking forward to seeing FF and X-Men expansions down the line.

22 hours ago, Janaka said:

A Fantastic Four box expansion is inevitable. I'm very much looking forward to seeing FF and X-Men expansions down the line.

You would think so, assuming the game has legs. I thought I read somewhere on here that there were currently no plans for a FF expansion, at least at this point.

If the correct heroes and announced hero packs are anything to go off of, I wouldn't be surprised if the campaign expansion is themed around the Avengers. I would not be surprised to see Xmen either. If we were to get a Fantastic 4 release, it would be a couple years from now.

44 minutes ago, Turtlefan2082 said:

If the correct heroes and announced hero packs are anything to go off of, I wouldn't be surprised if the campaign expansion is themed around the Avengers. I would not be surprised to see Xmen either. If we were to get a Fantastic 4 release, it would be a couple years from now.

That's probably right. Unfortunately the Fantastic Four has become an afterthought in the Marvel universe. Partly because the movie licensing to Fox has resulted in a string of mediocre to terrible movies. Back in the '60s when Stan Lee was in his heyday, the Fantastic Four was the first Marvel comic and became the foundation for the entire Marvel universe. For a time it was the top selling comic in the world. Many Marvel characters first appeared in the FF (Black Panther, Inhumans, Adam Warlock, Doctor Doom, Galactus, Silver Surfer, etc).

2 hours ago, Turtlefan2082 said:

If the correct heroes and announced hero packs are anything to go off of, I wouldn't be surprised if the campaign expansion is themed around the Avengers. I would not be surprised to see Xmen either. If we were to get a Fantastic 4 release, it would be a couple years from now.

Whilst this game doesn’t have cycles in the traditional sense - it seems the core set and first (4?) packs have been designed around the Avengers. They could continue that with the first Story Box - but by then there will already be 9 Avengers heroes in the game.

The first story box could kickoff a ‘new’ cycle.

Whilst X-Men or the Fantastic Four are obvious choices my prediction is Guardians of the Galaxy.

They’re on the core set box cover and are feature on some card art (X-Men and FF are not).

Also, whilst FFG are clearly basing the game on the comics and not the movies - it makes good marketing sense to try and match the current moment of what’s in vogue - hence the Avengers focus.

Historically X-Men / FF are the bigger deal, but in recent times GotG are more ‘current’

2 hours ago, jonboyjon1990 said:

Historically X-Men / FF are the bigger deal, but in recent times GotG are more ‘current’

It only makes sense to start with the Avengers considering what a huge phenomenon their movies have become. Warms my heart, to tell you the truth. Even if I personally would like to see some indication that the FF are in the pipeline.

GotG might be a bit of an odd choice though, since their adventures take place in space, and not on Earth, like presumably most of the other characters you would be adding to a deck.

The new relaunch Dan Slott did for FF has been great so far in my opinion. It's a nice jumping on point for new readers since it starts with the FF being disbanded and coming back together. I agree that GotG at this point would be a bigger seller for the game than FF or X-Men. It would be smart of them to get those characters out early. Also we already have Rocket featured on a card.

I don't think the desluxes will be themed around teams. They are called Story Boxes. So I think the focus is the campaign. I believe it was mentioned somewhere that it will come with 2 Hero decks.

But it would be a good place to kickstart a theme with 2 heroes.

Hickman’s new X-Men is Marvel Comics main push right now. And, As mentioned above Slott’s FF has done well for them. If this is about comics and not movies, then both groups should be coming soon.

Yeah I get the impression X-Men is Marvel's main push now considering how many resources they've pushed into this new House of X/Powers of X story line. I am interested to see how this all shakes out. X-Men have needed a soft reboot for a long time. It makes sense since now they can fully capitalize on that IP that they'd want to do their best job revitalizing it.

Also even more than other comics the X-Men comics really suffer from the under utilization of editorial boxes in modern comics. You need to help new readers with the heavy X-Men continuity or you need to ignore it. Even as a reader for 40 years I get confused or lost sometimes.