My wife and I love Marvel Champions and are ready to commit to AH. With that said, what's the best way to start? How many copies of the base game do we need? Also, is there a list for the sequential order to purchase expansions? Thank you and my apologies if this has been asked before.

1 core set is enough for 2 players to start out. 3 scenarios and a few combinations of investigators for 2 players to get the feel for the game. Your core characters can have cards from 2 aspects; in Champions it would be akin to having access to aggression & protection. A second core set is debatable b/c you only get one copy of certain cards in the core but deck building allows for up to 2 copies. Because you only have the one copy and characters can use multiple aspects your deck building is limited at start. It really comes down to personal preference. All expansions after the core have 2 copies of all player cards.

The expansions are released in cycles with a big box expansion followed by six scenario packs that are listed in the correct order on the product page. "Return to..." products listed alter the scenario to make it harder and are not needed right away. The storage boxes are high quality though. The scenarios in a cycle need to be played in order but the cycles themselves are not connected to one another so they can be played however.

Having played both this is a different experience from Champions. Not to imply bad just different. Each cycle consists of a story that spans all expansions in the cycle and early decisions can have implications in later scenarios. Also, you are playing more "everyday" characters and not heroes. You're more trying to evolve the story and survive than defeat all the enemies. Winning can sometimes be a matter of perspective lol. It really is a great and challenging game. Hope you enjoy it.

1. The AH veterans among us generally find the Marvel game too easy. With that warning...

2. Buy a single core set and play. It contains 3 scenarios and the limited amount of cards makes deckbuilding a non-issue (you're basically packing everything.) The first scenario is tutorial, the second scenario is average difficulty (par 3), and the third is designed to slaughter you most of the time.

2.5: A brilliant person who is not me created this https://images.app.goo.gl/SWGArpYUU6KkxRCq8

3. Did you enjoy (winn-) losing? If yes, then I'd go to Dunwich because it's set up friendly and has great staple cards (it can be mechanically unfair). I'd also pick up a second core because my brain can't handle the power of incompleteness, but you may be okay with it. ymmv.

4. Then I'd branch out. Story wise I'd go Carcosa, Forgotten Age, Circle Undone. Gameplay wise I'd go Forgotten Age, Carcosa, Circle Undone.

But. We know people hate Forgotten Age and love Circle Undone and those people have silly walks. In other words, it's a matter of opinion but Carcosa is universally loved by all.

Thank you!

Yeah the average difficulty level in AH is higher. That said failure usually just means a sub optimal resolution of the scenario and/or some trauma. If you fail enough it could mean an investigator is killed or driven insane, but that usually just means you start a new investigator deck to replace it. Rarely there are campaign ending resolutions when you do really poorly. In those cases I just repeat that scenario when you hit those.

So it's harder, but some failure is expected in a horror game to make it feel tense. Also it makes the moments of triumph all the sweeter IMO.

I would suggest after you play it a few times (and if really like it) then pick up a second core set. Most of the core set player cards are very powerful. It's the only product in the line that requires a redundant purchase for a complete play set. All the other products have a full play set of cards in the box.

A strategy tip, +2 going into a check on standard difficulty in the core set is good odds. Also don't feel bad if you do poorly on scenario three of the core set campaign. It's extremely hard. Scenario one is real easy since it's a tutorial basically, but if you don't know what you are doing it can catch you off guard.

All good advice. Just be aware that different Expansions have different levels of difficulty. And different kinds of player cards. If it were all available, I would suggest Dunwich, just because the Investigators are pretty straightforward to play and a lot of good player cards came out in that expansion. It is also not overly hard and a good campaign to break in with. Not a lot of new mechanics to learn.

Otherwise, Carcosa has a great story and 6 investigators. Probably my second choice for a first Campaign.
The Forgotten Age has a very tough opening scenario, but has some very good player cards. Especially for Survivors.

Circle Undone wasn’t overly hard and also has 6 investigators instead of 5. It also has some good player cards and introduced multi class cards, which are nice to have if your card pool isn’t huge, since more than one class can use them.
We picked up our second core set with points on Amazon, so it only cost us $3. Some of the expansions and Mythos packs which are out of stock on the FFG website are available on Amazon.

On 3/4/2020 at 12:12 AM, Iuchi Toshimo said:

2.5: A brilliant person who is not me created this https://images.app.goo.gl/SWGArpYUU6KkxRCq8

Thanks for reminding me, I haven't updated that in a while.

Yeah echoing everyone...I finally bought a second core set after playing Forgotten Age and Dunwich with just one core, and man it makes a world of difference. Well worth the investment if you find you're enjoying the game. Plus the tokens can wear out if you are fumbling around as much as I do, so replacement tokens will get used.

After you get started you'll get thrown into cycle debates as indicated...so let me just boldly say you can wait on Circle Undone (at least story-wise...it's not as dangerous as Forgotten Age, as immersive as Carcosa, or as 'introductory' as Dunwich)...but then again Carolyn Fern kicks butt so you'll want that eventually too lol.

I am a little OCD, I realize. I use the plastic quarter size coin covers to protect the chaos tokens. They work really well. And I eventually invested in plastic clue tokens etc. Etsy has a vendor that has really reasonable prices. We play 2- 3 times a week, and have made quite an investment in this game, so keeping the cards and tokens clean is important to us!

How do you find playing with the card sleeves? I have some but haven't put them on yet, and a few core cards are wearing down.

But some nice guy made me some wooden tokens so they're going to last a nice long time!

2 hours ago, Krysmopompas said:

How do you find playing with the card sleeves? I have some but haven't put them on yet, and a few core cards are wearing down.

But some nice guy made me some wooden tokens so they're going to last a nice long time!

Wooden tokens are awesome. I wish I had your friend! I have used a couple of inner sleeves and like the Titan Shield inner sleeve the best. They hold up better than Pro Fit penny sleeves, or the really cheap inner sleeves, which seem to scuff super easily, even when double sleeved. They also stack flat, so your deck won’t tip. I single sleeve all Player, Scenario and Encounter cards. But we do double sleeve our decks. I use Ultra Pro Matte Eclipse. They aren’t the most expensive outer sleeves, but hold up well and fit easily into our deck boxes. They shuffle easily, as they are not a rough texture, and stack flat. We do a careful mash type shuffle, so as not to bend the cards. We just went with the five class colors, so if we are playing a guardian we double sleeve in blue, a seeker in yellow, etc. It makes it easy to keep our decks straight! Everyone is different, but I like to keep the permanent cards single sleeved. It keeps them easily separated during set up and clean up. This game becomes an investment, but our cards have stayed pristine and like I say, we play a lot!
Titan also has a thicker clear sleeve that is matte on one side, which you could use instead of double sleeving, but they are more expensive and I don’t know how they shuffle. The inner ones we use shuffle fine.

Definitely use coin capsules on your chaos tokens. I can't imagine playing the game now without those capsules. I'm sure the tokens would be all beat up at this point.

I played the first two core set scenarios with a friend of mine. We managed both very well and got the „best“ solution. But we both had the feeling that we had no idea why we have managed that scenarios so good.
Also we had no clue how to improve our decks in a decent way.

Is there a guide or how to deckbuilding ?

On 3/9/2020 at 10:21 AM, Jaran91 said:

Is there a guide or how to deckbuilding ?

Peter and I did a podcast episode all about it: episode 16 - https://drawntotheflamepodcast.blogspot.com/2017/05/episode-16-approaches-to-deckbuilding.html We recorded this a couple of years ago so it's probably more relevant for players starting out than for experienced deckbuilders. We're keen to revisit the topic soon!

On 3/3/2020 at 2:22 PM, player537497 said:

My wife and I love Marvel Champions and are ready to commit to AH. With that said, what's the best way to start? How many copies of the base game do we need? Also, is there a list for the sequential order to purchase expansions? Thank you and my apologies if this has been asked before.

I would say get one core set, and play through Night of the Zealot. If it is a game that you enjoy, then get a second core to open up deck building potential. As for campaigns, there is no correct order, just pick a campaign, and start with the deluxe expansion. From there, you will want to get the six corresponding mythos packs in numerical order (if possible). Stand Alone scenario packs are fun little side quests (with the exception of Labrynths of Lunacy which is strictly stand alone), and I highly recommend Murder at the Excelsior Hotel.