Marvel Champions: Red Skull | Rahdo's Final Thoughts 

Something to note is that playing the campaign on Expert is different than playing the scenarios on Expert. The Expert campaign adds the Obligations and a few additional rules, whereas Expert scenarios are played w/ the Expert modular set and the villain on Stages II/III instead of I/II. If you want to use the extra rules for the Expert campaign, while keeping the scenario difficulty Standard, you can, and vice versa.

I'm pretty sure Stark is funding Aunt May's trip along with the group because Peter is under 18

The next scenario, Kang, will also likely give you a similar alter-ego disconnect since half way through the scenario each of the characters are separated and sent spiraling through time so again it doesn’t make sense for Steve to go home to his apartment. An interesting mechanic they could use for those times when they want to do immediate stories within a scenario is have side schemes that pop out that say “While this in play you can’t flip to alter-ego.”

Funnily enough, the thematic disconnect really jumped out at me as well. The coreset really sold me on the theme with the way that the scenarios seemed to be take place over a larger passage of time (which would make flying back to stark towers to acquire upgrades for the suit make sense). Felt like it was a missed opportunity to not represent these scenarios in a broader context and just simulate the showdowns through mini-main schemes (that made it impossible to switch hero forms or something while they ticked down..could've maybe added some more variety to the gameplay as well). For instance "Mini Scheme with 1-2 threat to advance; "He's getting away on the motorbike!; players cannot change forms, but the enemy is potentially vulnerable" or some little window of opportunity/disadvantage that could meld the gameplay/theme together better. Could've potentially been a cool way to add some windy arcs to the gameplay.

Agree on your points about how some core mechanics don't scale so well in theme given an immersive campaign setting. A board game of this size is an entire experience, story included. If it was all about sheer gameplay and nothing else, big box board games wouldn't be this profitable and we'd all still be playing chess. Thanks for saying what needed to be said!

I think of each game as an issue of a comic book. It has downtime, it has epic set piece fights, sub plot etc and flipping into alter ego for me isnt literal. Its just a reminder that more is happening in the heroes life. Its all the panels before and after a fight, flashbacks, flash forwards etc that make up a comic. The one exception and the one thing that bothered me about wrecking crew actually was you never could trigger your obligation because shadow of the past wasnt in the wrecking crew deck. This bothered my play group a lot because for them that emergent story telling for having your nemesis show up at the worst possible time is one of the best and most exciting stories told by champions. I do think the game is at its best when it leaves the story telling to the cards and the players own imaginations but there are people who like a more structured story not a sandbox. I imagine the sandbox players have already created their own scenarios and difficulties lol because the community for this game is obsessive and insane in the best way :)

Richard is overthinking it.

Maybe you could take it as they are recalling these alter-ego cards as memories? Like, Peter Parker recalls Aunt May and draws strength from that? Scheming is weirder then, like, the moment-to-moment advantages the villain is looking for to get away, dunno. Anyways, I play for the gameplay, but I appreciate your view on thematic consistency!

Thanks for another great review!! And it must be said (as a european I can do so) I love the statements on your tshirts!

Spider Woman’s prebuilt deck is awesome! You can play her deck on standard and expert and win (maybe make a simple card swap or two!)

@rahdo Ffg designers confirmed at this years online gencon that this was the safe campaign expansion that would be basic, they said the guardians of galaxy campaign coming next will be more in depth including a new market where you can spend money between scenerios to buy new cards and items and upgrades to your ship. So I think your wishes will soon be granted :-)

Would you play marvel legendary or champions more?

Very valid points, I have completely bought into this game and I think its fantastic how accessible it is for someone who is new to collectable card games. But I tried to tell stories thematically with it and it sometimes works better than others, so I guess you just have to accept that. I had a brilliant ending to playing red skull with Doctor strange, I was low on health and i knew I had many encounter cards coming. Red skull threw so many minions at me, but no attacks happened because I was in alter ego. It was like I was suddenly sneaking around while he sent his entire army after me, then the next turn when I flipped back and was able to finish the game, felt like I'd just jumped into the room and dealt the final blow to the villain when his army was just about to win. So much fun! When it works, it is absolutely brilliant.

Hey Rahdo, think of misison 1 and 2 this way, Peter Parker doesn't have time to see Aunt May, but he swings to a corner and grabs his backpack and takes a quick snack that Aunt May made for him. Steve Rogers doesn't go back to his apartment, but maybe he pulls out his cellphone and checks the security cameras of his apartment. When you are playing those cards. Switching to Alt-Ego I thought the way you had it but switching to Alt-Ego sometimes is just taking a quick break from the fight to take a quick breather.

I'm surprised you found the "Peter Parker visiting his Aunt May" so difficult to imagine as just giving her a call or getting a box of cookies from her, or even remembering what he's fighting for. You don't need to approach these cards too literally - I mean after all, the whole concept of Super Heroes is ridiculous.

I loved it. Just went through the last 2 yday. 2p with out of the box decks. Won all first try. Gonna do expert with one more hero I think. Making better decks.

Thanks for the review! I got the base game when it came out but never really got into it due to the lack of campaigny feeling. I don't need a campaign like the one in the Arkham card game (I enjoy LoTR card game more, actually). But I just felt something missing in the Marvel game and I never got any expansions. However, I decided to keep the base game until the campaign expansions came out to give it another try. I wonder if this box would change my mind..?

Appreciated this honest appraisal of the new campaign and storytelling flaws thereof... Great summary, Rahdo.

Can I play the story with other heroes?

Cap is still Steve, even with his suit on, so it makes perfect sense that he would have access to the more “pedestrian” aspects of his person. He’s not necessarily “going back to his apartment.”

Great points about the “thematic confusion” in the campaign scenarios. I think it would have been stronger if each villain had separate, non-campaign main schemes for when you play them each as a stand alone experience. Because some of the main schemes don’t make a lick of sense in stand alone. Like Absorbing Man, his main scheme is literally just him standing there???? Outside of the campaign context, that main scheme makes no sense. I also agree with your fear of the alter-ego sides of heroes become less important. Hawkeye and Spider woman both have very uninteresting alter-ego sides and abilities. I find myself never flipping forms with either when I go up to hero form. But we are getting Ant Man and wasp later, and I think it would be a crime not to sink into the thematic gameplay elements of each of their respective alter-ego sides. Also, about Spider Woman’s deck building thing. I think the devs were trying to sink into the theme of versatility as a spy. Rather than pigeon-holing her to one role by only pairing her with one aspect, the player gets to decide what 2 roles they want to fill on the team and go from there. Sorry about the long comment, but this is one of my favorite games of all time lol

I think the thematic storyline gripe is going to get worst with the Galaxy's Most Wanted campaign box. It looks like we will be having missions in outer space. So I don't think Peter Parker is gonna be taking a ship back to Earth to visit Aunt May just to heal up. Unless they have a teleporter nearby.

In some ways they have revisited the sticking point of LotR. The immersion in the world is fantastic. But each scenario requires you to create a new party. Since the book LotR was about three separate party's on a constant journey, requiring a different party make up every scenario breaks up the theme. I look on it as each scenario is a different comic book (OK....graphic novel). It is not necessary to have a connection to another scenario. Maybe as I get better and play more the campaign may appeal to me more. For campaign I'll stick to Arkham Horror lcg. It was designed that way from the start and I don't really se MC being able to duplicate that. A very thorough and good review.

Rahdo. Good video. Thank you. I have to push back gently on your big comment that you are concerned about the developers breaking the verisimilitude. That you're putting it on them. What about putting it on the player? Yes and engagement with a villain happens over an hour, it should be on the player playing somatically not to use aunt May don't you think?

hail hydra!

If you play the game regularly, a few times a month maybe, you should be playing the game on expert. There is some serious power creep in the game (for the heroes) and expert in this game is no that hard.

You seem to be nitpicking Rahdo.

It is very odd to see a Euro fan complain about a thematic detail in a game. :) I am not really a Euro gamer but I like some, while I mostly adore good thematic rich games And let me tell you ONE thing: Marvel Champions is the best game that was published over the past 2 years... NOT Gloomhaven, the Jaws of the Lion, not Tapestry, not Paladins of the West or other Death may Die KS products etc .... Nope, this Marvel Champions game - certainly in solo and 2 player mode - is King in the thematic/card/solo/design department of these last 2 years. I played this well over 150 times already and I do NOT even care about Marvel Comics and certainly not these movies. It is simple: the game play is a w e s o m e. /Discussion closed/

with every Final Thoughts video I fear that this is the one where rahdo announces it is the best game possible and the channel is over...