Convention Report: Gencon 2006: August 12, 2006 - Part 1 (Day 3)

By Rick Thornquist
August 12, 2006

Here’s part one of my report on the third day of Gencon 2006.  Instead of waiting until tomorrow morning, I decided to type up and post impressions of my first game of the day - Marvel Heroes.  I thought there was enough interest in this one to get this posted earlier than usual.  Here we go!

Marvel Heroes
Marvel Heroes is another big box game from Nexus, the same Italian publisher that gave us War of the Ring.  That game was big, fairly complicated, had lots of miniatures and had lots of theme.  Marvel Heroes is quite similar in those respects - the game is big, fairly complicated, has miniatures (not lots of them, but they are pre-painted), and also has lots of theme.  I played a pre-production version of the game that had almost-final components.

Let’s talk about those components.  As mentioned, the miniatures are pre-painted and to my eye, they are great (see the pictures below).  There are many cards in the game and the art on them is beautiful.  My only beef with the components is the utterly pedestrian mapboard that is simply a map of New York subdivided into colored areas.  I sincerely hope that the board get upgraded before the final release of the game.  As it is, it’s functional but dull. 

In the game, each player takes on a group of four superheroes.  For example, I played the X-Men and I had Jean Grey, Storm, Cyclops and Wolverine.  Each player also plays the arch-villain of the player on their left (this meant the player on my right was playing my arch-villain, Magneto, in addition to his group - The Fantasic Four).  Each character has a miniature plus a card showing their capabilities.

The game comes with a number of scenarios and the goal of the game depends on which scenario you choose.  I believe the scenario that way played was the simplest one, which was either to a certain number of points or whoever had the most points after a certain number of turns (one of the two - I forgot to write this down!).

At the beginning of each round, some cards called Headline cards are turned over which show where in New York a crime is taking place plus the type of crime it is (there is also flavor text describing the crime).  Markers are put in the districts where there are crimes.  Players then use what are called Plot Points to allocate which heroes are going to be active this round (the stronger characters require more plot points to balance things out).

There is then a set of five action rounds.  The start player takes one action, then the second player takes one action, etc, and this goes around five times.  The actions available include moving a hero, troubleshooting (the most fun, basically fighting a crime), medical treatment, doing a story action, or using a special ability.

Once your heroes have been sent to an area they can then troubleshoot to fight the crime.  This is a dice rolling affair that can be modified by any number of cards and special powers.  Other players can play cards to muck up the works and, in certain cases, a player’s arch-villain may become involved.  You can get victory points for fighting the crimes successfully.

Now this is a very much an overview of the game - there is tons more to it.  More powers, more cards, more options, etc, etc.  The game is very detailed and has lots of rules.  We only played one round and with the rules explanation, that took about an hour.  This could be a long one, though I suspect it would depend on how experienced the players are and what scenario you choose.

What did I think of the game?  Well, when you boil it right down to the basics, it’s a dice rolling game with lots of special powers (lots and lots of special powers).  In my limited play of the game, though, I was very, very impressed with how the mechanics wove the theme into the game - the story elements really added to it as well.  This game is just chock full of theme.  The mechanisms are quite interesting as well - there’s lots of interaction and very little downtime.

I don’t think I’m necessarily the audience for this game, but I was very impressed.  If you are the audience for this type of game, well, Marvel Heroes is a must see.

That’s it for now - stayed tuned for part two of today’s report when I’ll report on the rest of my day, including visits to a number of publishers plus even more games!

Pictures - Click the picture for a larger version
	Marvel Heroes - initial setup
	The game towards the end of the first round
	James Torr guides us through the game
	One player’s heroes - The Fantastic Four, plus the arch-villain for the player on his left (who has the X-Men) - Magneto
	A close-up of Magneto
	A close-up of Doctor Doom, the arch-villain of The Fantastic Four
	A player aid card, showing the turn sequence

© 2006 Rick Thornquist

---

Comments:

You must register with BGN in order to comment. Registration is free!

Yay, James Torr, rules guru extraordinaire! JD was telling me about this game recently, and Marvel Heroes should be a hit with the adventure gamers in my group. Posted by W. Eric Martin on Aug 13, 2006 at 10:08 AM | #

I am completely psyched for this game. Thanks for the report and the photos of the board. Posted by Erik Arneson on Aug 13, 2006 at 08:04 PM | #

< Back Home