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Marvel United: Multiverse wages World War Hulk as their final expansion! (Plus: a BIG all-in pledge reward)

February 6, 2023 by krisis Leave a Comment

CMON’s Marvel United: Multiverse Kickstarter campaign just announced final expansion box, and while the theme wasn’t a surprise some of the contents are: Marvel United Multiverse – World War Hulk!

My prediction for a Gamma-oriented box from World War Hulk or one of the subsequent 00s Hulk storylines has been rising in the odds in every update I’ve made on this campaign. However, the surprise is that this box actually covers two events in one in terms of characters, as it includes two of the predicted anchors of my #1 pick for a Siege expansion: anti-heroes Ares and Sentry/Void.

The total contents of World War Hulk are Gladiator Hulk, Hulkbuster Iron Man, Hercules, Ares, and Sentry/Void. This box will be available at retail, but it has a Kickstarter Exclusive figure of Doc Samson.

Clearly this departure from a pure Gamma-focused box that would include The Leader, Skaar, A-Bomb, Thundra, and Red She-Hulk. I ultimately think it was a good idea to get Hulkbuster into the action in lieu of some of those more-obscure Gamma characters, since a Gladiator Hulk vs. Hulkbuster set will have terrific character recognition at retail. Also, this is a perfect chance to introduce Hercules, since he took over Hulk’s title just after this period!

However, I’m slightly disappointed by this all-male group of characters when Thundra or Red She-Hulk could have easily been pulled in from a subsequent storyline to round out the box.

(Using Ares and Sentry here doesn’t erase the chances of a Thunderbolts box in a future campaign, so I’m happy we snuck them in! However, if we see Moonstone as a late stretch goal, the gig is up for the Thunderbolts.)

In my last set of Marvel United: Multiverse predictions, I had Siege ranked #1 with 60% odds and World War Hulk ranked #3 with 40% odds, so I’d say I did pretty well! I’m disappointed that we won’t see a proper Secret Wars expansion for a “Multiverse” campaign, but “Secret Wars” is a big enough deal that it could be the entire campaign theme for a fourth season.

(Want to play Marvel United right now? Grab either the Marvel United or Marvel United X-Men core boxes right now. They are fun cooperative games that are fun to play with adults and kids alike.)

With this box comes the announcement of the all-in “Omniverse” pledge that includes all of the new gameplay elements in this campaign – which means every new expansion, card deck, and stretch goal figure (but, not plastic tokens, cardboard locations, game mats, reprinted expansions, or past campaign stretch goal boxes).

The all-in offers a $50 discount over getting everything individually, which is more than one expansion free – a pretty good deal. If you had pledged for everything so far, this will be $15 cheaper and you won’t have to up your pledge for the new Marvel United Multiverse World War Hulks expansion box.

Not only is the all-in Omniverse pledge cheaper than buying everything separately, it comes with a HUGE bonus character: FIN FANG FOOM! [Read more…] about Marvel United: Multiverse wages World War Hulk as their final expansion! (Plus: a BIG all-in pledge reward)

Marvel United: Multiverse adds Maximum Carnage to the campaign! (Plus, the High Evolutionary!)

February 3, 2023 by krisis 1 Comment

CMON’s Marvel United: Multiverse Kickstarter campaign announced a sixth new expansion box today, and it was a major shocker to me (though it did not contain Shocker): Marvel United Multiverse – Maximum Carnage!

Why was this box such a surprise for me? I had it marked as “Not Likely” on my list of 20 possible predictions because we already have Carnage in the game. Plus, it felt like the cast didn’t contain enough possible symbiote villains or potential heroes compared to a later event like Absolute Carnage or King in Black.

It turns out, 90s nostalgia can always find a way! The Maximum Carnage box is anchored by an alternate “Dark Carnage,” who is explicitly from the much more recent recent Absolute Carnage event. (You can tell from the little swirl on his forehead.)

It also includes a “New Sinister Six” comprised of Scream, Shriek, Scorpion, Demogoblin, Doppelganger, and Morbius, which… I am fairly certain is not a thing.

(It may be a nod to a single issue reference to the “Sinister Sixty,” which included all of these characters – especially since it comes with a KS-Exclusive “Build your Own Sinister Six” play mode. Again, this concept is from the past few years – decades after Maximum Carnage.)

I have no objections to CMON being inventive in order to get an interesting group of characters together into an expansion. However, I find this particular selection puzzling considering they created a modern Carnage without Knull (one of the biggest villains of the past decade), skipped the chance for a re-do on Venom (or adding Agent Venom), and passed on several different “New Sinister Six” line-ups in the comics that include characters we’re lacking – like Lizard, Boomerang, Shocker, Beetle, and Tombstone.

If we’re being honest, I’m probably never going to touch Demogoblin or Doppelganger, but we got an Anti-Hero Morbius plus Scream, so I suppose all’s well that ends well.

I’m much more excited about one of today’s stretch goals, even if it means crossing off a possible expansion from my list: High Evolutionary!

High Evolutionary is a quintessential Marvel Villain with connections to many different characters and franchises. His sculpt looks perfect and he brings some interesting gameplay – including threat cards that double as master plan cards!

(Want to play Marvel United right now? Grab either the Marvel United or Marvel United X-Men core boxes right now. They are fun cooperative games that are fun to play with adults and kids alike.)

Suddenly, my predictive psychic powers aren’t looking so powerful. In my last post, I updated my list of 20 Marvel events and franchises that might merit an expansion box of their own. Now that we’re down to just 1-2 remaining expansion boxes in this Kickstarter campaign, will any of my 19 remaining guesses make the cut? Keep reading for the full list with tweaked odds on what we might see in the final days of the Marvel United: Multiverse Kickstarter campaign.

Marvel United: Multiverse adds Annihilation (plus, 20 potential Marvel Event expansions and their predicted contents)

February 1, 2023 by krisis 1 Comment

CMON’s Marvel United: Multiverse Kickstarter campaign announced a fifth new expansion box, which was not a big surprise: Marvel United Multiverse – Annihilation!

Why wasn’t it a surprise? I perfectly predicted this box and its characters in my last post of 20 Marvel events that might turn up as expansions. It was my #3 choice with 70% odds, and the only miss in my prediction is that I thought CMON might squeeze in the obscure Cammi in addition to Annihilus, Richard Rider, Quasar, and Phyla-Vell.

Score one for me! Score another one for everyone backing this campaign to get the Marvel United Multiverse – Annihilation box, because it sounds like serious fun!

Marvel United Multiverse – Annihilation introduces one new gameplay mode with “Complications,” a deck of extra cards to intersperse with your villain’s Master Plan deck to up the ante with new challenges and restrictions. This is a familiar cooperative game tool for escalating the difficulty of easy games – Spirit Island has a similar mechanic. We happen to enjoy the simplicity of Marvel United, but for anyone who wants a harder version of the game I think this mode will become essential across all expansions.

(Want to play Marvel United right now? Grab either the Marvel United or Marvel United X-Men core boxes right now. They are fun cooperative games that are fun to play with adults and kids alike.)

Annihilation also introduces some fun hero dynamics that show off exactly why I love Marvel United.

Quasar can bank his actions as Wild Tokens, but can’t unleash them until the end game – if you manage to live that long. Phyla-Vell can use Heroic Tokens to shield her from damage. Richard Rider has extra wilds and adjacent location opportunities, plus a triple-wild knockout blow (for the villain and for himself). Moondragon’s special abilities involve plenty of card manipulation for both heroes and villains. And, Annihilus depletes a special pool of Crisis Tokens and regenerates his health as the game progresses.

All of these play options take advantage of the simplicity and extensibility of the game system. It doesn’t need a fourth kind of action, like “Defend,” because the basic system of Move-Attack-Heroic-Wild allows for so many different hacks and customizations via special powers. That makes the game adaptable to any hero, even cosmic heroes whose powers are extremely different than Captain America or Wolverine.

With this box out relatively early in the week, it seems like we can expect two more expansions – one to kick of this weekend, and one late-campaign addition just before the campaign closes on 9th February. At this point, the “Expansion Boxes are Events” theme has been 100% consistent. Does that mean we’re getting two more Event boxes? Or, will the campaign pivot hard at the last possibly moment, as it did last time by adding a Fantastic Four expansion to an X-Men campaign!

This is the third time in this campaign I’ve accurately predicted an expansion (and, fourth if you count my pre-campaign guess of this exact “Coming of Galactus”) box. Will my psychic powers extend to the final two boxes? Let’s check in on my list of expansion box predictions, based on my Guide to Marvel Universe Events. [Read more…] about Marvel United: Multiverse adds Annihilation (plus, 20 potential Marvel Event expansions and their predicted contents)

Marvel United: Multiverse adds a Secret Invasion expansion (plus, 20 events that could be expansion boxes!)

January 31, 2023 by krisis 1 Comment

Earlier today, CMON’s Marvel United: Multiverse Kickstarter campaign announced its fourth new expansion box: Marvel United Multiverse – Secret Invasion!

This box, its theme, and its characters were not on my list of predictions in this weekend’s post about the Marvel United Multiverse – Civil War expansion! It includes the O.G. Nick Fury, Maria Hill, Quake, Clint Barton as Ronin, and several Skrull opponents.

I’ll admit, I’m slightly negative on the contents of this expansion box.

While I love the idea of having a set of Skrull villain sculpts, it didn’t add a group of hotly-anticipated heroes. Having Nick Fury Sr. is fun, and Quake has a following from the Agents of SHIELD TV series, but Maria Hill is relatively anonymous as a standalone hero and an alternate Hawkeye wasn’t exactly at the top of every list.

Who else can you include in a Secret Invasion set?! Most of the story was about not knowing who to trust, so it’s shorter on iconic heroes than some other Marvel Events. Yet, there were options available. Hank Pym as Yellowjacket is core to the event, but they just included him in the Civil War box. It’s a pivotal event for Janet van Dyne, and the Wasp in the core Marvel United box is technically Hope van Dyne! Why not give us a Janet figure?!?! And, Norman Osborn plays a massive role in the event, but we just got his Iron Patriot as a stretch goal.

I think including Hank and Janet in this set was the way to go, which could’ve freed up a spot in Civil War for a different hero. CMON really missed their chance here. As a completionist I’ll eventually add this box to my final pledge, but I’m not excited about it.

(Want to play Marvel United right now? Grab either the Marvel United or Marvel United X-Men core boxes right now. They are fun cooperative games that are fun to play with adults and kids alike.)

I’m much more interested in what this set means for the remaining expansion boxes in this campaign – and it’s looking like we can expect 2-3 more. To this point I’ve been predicting teams of characters, because that’s how the past two campaigns worked. However, this campaign is all stories and events – The Coming of Galactus, Age of Apocalypse, Civil War, and Secret Invasion.

With that in mind, it’s time to pivot to an all-new, not-entirely-different list of 20 predictions that repackage major characters into events-based boxes. For a list of all of Marvel’s many line-wide events over the decades, check out my Guide to Marvel Universe Events. [Read more…] about Marvel United: Multiverse adds a Secret Invasion expansion (plus, 20 events that could be expansion boxes!)

Marvel United: Multiverse has a Civil War in their new expansion box (and uses it to solve their Young Avengers problem)

January 27, 2023 by krisis 1 Comment

Breaking news! Minutes ago, CMON’s Marvel United: Multiverse Kickstarter campaign announced its third new expansion box and a new stretch goal: Marvel United Multiverse – Civil War!

While Civil War wasn’t on my list of 10 predicted expansion boxes in my last post, I’m still claiming victory. That’s because this box includes Kate Bishop, and if you buy it from Kickstarter it will also include Hulking.

That’s two of the four core Young Avengers down. Plus, the box came just as the Kid Loki stretch goal was met, which introduced a Wiccan stretch goal. That’s two more Young Avengers down, including another of the core four.

We’re now missing just three characters able to play a complete Young Avengers team across any of their incarnations: Stature (Cassie Lang), the final core founding member; Grant Morrison’s creation Marvel Boy (Noh-Varr), from Kieron Gillen’s run; and the depowered mutant Prodigy, also from Gillen’s run.

Given the potential Ant-Man synergy I’d still expect them to fit in Stature before this campaign ends. Marvel Boy and Prodigy are slightly more obscure, so I wouldn’t lay heavy odds on seeing the pair of them.

(Want to play Marvel United right now? Grab either the Marvel United or Marvel United X-Men core boxes right now. They are fun cooperative games that are fun to play with adults and kids alike.)

The Marvel United Multiverse Civil War box does more than just introduce Kate Bishop and Hulking to the game. It re-implements Captain America and Iron Man from the core Marvel United box with beefed up cards. It introduces a MCU-friendly Iron Spider skin for Peter Parker with new cards. Plus, it includes missing 80s Avengers Tigra, Wonder Man, Yellowjacket, Spectrum (Monica Rambeau), and the first giant-size hero sculpt with Bill Foster AKA Goliath!

Civil War also introduces an entirely new mode of play: player-vs-player. [Read more…] about Marvel United: Multiverse has a Civil War in their new expansion box (and uses it to solve their Young Avengers problem)