Civil War

“This law will split us down the middle. It will have heroes at war with each other.” – Captain America

The Superhero Registration Act has been passed, and now, anyone who wants to use their powers for good must agree to be trained and governed by S.H.I.E.L.D. or face arrest. Iron Man is in full support, and Captain America is fully opposed. Ideals clash, it’s hero versus hero, and in this time of strife, everyone must choose a side.

Fantasy Flight Games is thrilled to announce the Civil War expansion for Marvel Champions: The Card Game!

There are no villains this time around; instead, this special, custom scenario expansion has players facing off against heroic leaders fighting for their ideals. Iron Man and Captain Marvel lead the charge in support of the Superhero Registration Act, while Captain America and Spider-Woman lead the resistance that opposes it. Each of these leaders comes with a fully customizable scenario, with a wide range of main schemes and modular encounter sets to build your own unique Civil War experience. The box also kicks off a new, bonus wave of playable heroes for the game, beginning with Hulkling and Tigra, both of whom come with fully pre-built and ready-to-play decks from the get-go.

Today, we’re providing a first look at the scenario content for this expansion, including what we mean when we say “customizable.” We’ll also be taking a look at the (highly thematic) optional competitive rules that you can use for these scenarios. We’ll go over the playable heroes in more detail in the near future. So, without further ado, let’s take a look at what’s special about Civil War!

A Custom Experience

Unlike previous big-box expansions for Marvel Champions, Civil War doesn’t include an interconnected campaign. Instead, the box comes with four preconstructed scenarios ready to play right from the get-go, plus additional resources to let you mix and match for your own unique experience. This even includes the main schemes!

 

For example, when fighting against the registration side, the first stage of main scheme could be Cut Off Support (Civil War, 63) or S.H.I.E.L.D. Recruits (Civil War, 96), while the resistance side could be wielding Rallying Call (Civil War, 199) or Going Underground (Civil War, 200) as their first scheme. The second stage can vary as well, with nasty options like the Negative Zone Prison (Civil War, 64) for the registration side and Neighborhood Protectors (Civil War, 173) for resistance. There are four stage 1 main schemes and four stage 2 main schemes for each side of the conflict, and when you add in the two heroic leaders on that side, you’re looking at 32 possible combinations for registration and 32 for resistance! And that’s not even taking the modular encounter sets into account.

 

Speaking of modular encounter sets, you’ll find plenty of those on offer in this expansion. Like the scenarios themselves, the modular sets are divided into registration and resistance. There are eight modular sets for each side for a total of sixteen sets in the box, ranging from Maria Hill (Civil War, 83) and the Mighty Avengers (Civil War, 76) on the registration side to Spider-Man  (Civil War, 180) and the New Avengers (Civil War, 154) on the resistance side. You can use whatever modular sets you want for your custom scenario; the only restriction is that you can’t mix registration and resistance modular sets in the same deck!

You may have noticed that many of the cards we’ve shown so far mention an “enemy team,” “enemy leader,” and similar terms. This language is mainly there to help facilitate the optional competitive mode, which we’ll go over in a bit. If you just want to take on these scenarios with the classic cooperative (or solo) Marvel Champions gameplay that you know and love, fear not! Every leader, main scheme, and modular set in this box is fully playable in the standard cooperative mode; you can even use modular encounter sets from other Marvel Champions expansions with these scenarios, and you can use Civil War’s modular sets with the scenarios from those other expansions! This means if you wanted to sling the Maria Hill modular set from Civil War into the Baron Zemo scenario from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., for example, you absolutely can do so. Likewise, if you wanted to beef up one of the leaders from Civil War in cooperative mode with something like the Super Strength modular set from NeXt Evolution, that is also completely legal.

With so many different combinations to explore, this is a level of customizability unlike anything Marvel Champions has had before!

From Friends to Enemies

Okay, now that you know the basic premise of how this expansion’s scenarios work, let’s talk about the scenarios themselves.

 

On the side of registration, we have Iron Man and Captain Marvel as leaders. We refer to them as “leaders” here because, well, they’re not really villains (that, and the fact that you can team up with them during the competitive mode—more on that later). That said, you treat these leaders as “villains” for any game effect that refers to “the villain,” and they certainly hit as hard as the villains have in the past!

Similar to his hero form, Iron Man (Civil War, 59) powers himself up with Tech attachments, gaining +1 SCH for each one he has on him. This means his Powered Gauntlets (Civil War, 65) and Rocket Boots (Civil War, 66) can increase both his ATK and his SCH simultaneously, while the Mark V Helmet (Civil War, 67) and Mark V Armor (Civil War, 69) boost his durability and make it harder to stop him. Any one of these attachments can be problematic for you, and when you combine them with a Supersonic Punch (Civil War, 71), it’s clear that Iron Man is playing for keeps!

 

As a core member of the Avengers and the de facto leader of the registration faction, Iron Man comes with quite a few fellow Avengers in his preconstructed scenario. Avenger minions like Yellow Jacket (Civil War, 73), Doc Samson (Civil War, 78), and Hellcat (Civil War, 79) all come in with potent When Revealed effects that are bad enough on their own, but when those effects can be triggered again with Mighty Avengers (Civil War, 76), you’ll have your hands full just trying to stay afloat against Earth’s Mightiest Heroes (Civil War, 77).

 

Also on the registration side is Captain Marvel (Civil War, 92), a proper powerhouse of a leader that packs a real wallop. Her signature move Energy Channel (Civil War, 98) builds up energy counters over time, and whenever it has 4 or more, she can spend them to perform a bonus attack with overkill. This can get especially nasty when she has an ATK boost from something like Cosmic Flight (Civil War, 100) or gains even more bonus attacks from treacheries like Photonic Blast (Civil War, 101). What’s tricky is the fact that Energy Channel gets an energy counter every time someone attacks Captain Marvel, but you have to attack her if you want to win the scenario. Even if you minimize the number of attacks you make, she can still net herself extra energy through cards like Crisis Interdiction (Civil War, 102) and Energy Absorption (Civil War, 103). You’re going to have to be strategic and careful if you want to take Captain Marvel down!

 

As for her preconstructed scenario, Captain Marvel flies in with the full support of S.H.I.E.L.D. behind her. First is the elite unit of Cape-Killers (Civil War, 105), who specialize in hunting down Unregistered Supers (Civil War, 106) and Bringing Them In (Civil War, 107). Right behind them are a full platoon of S.H.I.E.L.D. Soldiers (Civil War, 109), who are fully prepared to overwhelm your team with a Rapid Response (Civil War, 110). With both the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. stacked against them, those fighting on the side of resistance are bound to have a difficult time!

 

Still, as difficult as it may be, the resistance fighters are no pushovers themselves, especially with Captain America (Civil War, 137) leading the front. With his iconic Shield (Civil War, 143) in hand, Cap is notoriously tough to put down, emphasized by the steady stream of tough status cards the shield can give him. Even though you can pull the shield from his grasp, cards like Shield Block (Civil War, 146) and Shield Toss (Civil War, 147) can make that just a temporary setback, gaining additional kickers if he already had the shield. And while you’re busy trying to get damage through to him, he’ll be winding up with a Heroic Strike (Civil War, 148) or a Super-Soldier Serum (Civil War, 145) enhanced punch. He really can do this all day…

 

Joining Captain America’s side in the resistance are many of his fellow Avengers, including Falcon (Civil War, 150), Goliath (Civil War, 152), and Black Panther (Civil War, 155). Like Cap himself, these Freedom Fighters (Civil War, 153) don’t know when to quit, represented by their potent boost effects and When Defeated abilities that deal them as boost cards for one last swing. And even when you think you’ve got a handle on the situation, the New Avengers (Civil War, 154) can always bounce back for another round.

 

Where Captain America leads the charge in overt resistance, Spider-Woman (Civil War, 168) poses a significant, covert threat. Every time a treachery is revealed, she gets a skill counter on Finesse (Civil War, 174), which powers up her next attack based on the number of counters it has. As you might expect, she has some nasty treacheries to go with it, such as Pheromones (Civil War, 176) making you both stunned and confused or Inconspicuous (Civil War, 178) forcing you to choose between losing an asset or letting Spider-Woman scheme. You might think you can handle the odd scheming from her here and there, but you may think differently while her Contaminant Immunity (Civil War, 175) is active, boosting her SCH and preventing her from becoming confused. Finally, if you let her build up too many skill counters, then you’ll have a tough time dealing any real amounts of damage thanks to her Self-Propelled Glide (Civil War, 179). She is a former spy for S.H.I.E.L.D., after all—she’s quite skilled at navigating dangerous situations!

 

Rounding out the resistance in the rest of Spider-Woman’s preconstructed scenario, we have her fellow wall-crawler Spider-Man, who we mentioned earlier. This wisecracking Avenger can be quite the nuisance for those fighting for registration, especially with his ability to leave people Tangled Up (Civil War, 181) in his webs. Also teaming up with Spider-Woman are Luke Cage (Civil War, 184) and Jessica Jones (Civil War, 185), two members of The Defenders (Civil War, 188) who are skilled at dishing out status cards. It’s clear that, while the registration fighters have far more resources at their disposal, the resistance more than makes up for it with grit and sheer determination!

Hero Versus Hero

Okay, we’ve alluded to it a few times up to this point, so now let’s talk about the exciting new, optional mode introduced in Civil War: competitive mode!

 

This mode can either be played one-versus-one or two-versus-two, with players splitting up between Team Registration and Team Resistance. Each team chooses a leader to represent them, building that leader’s scenario with whatever main schemes and modular encounter sets they want, so long as all modular sets match that leader’s team: registration or resistance. Instead of using the Standard encounter set, you’ll use the new Standard PvP set, which we’ll discuss below. Once each team has built their scenario, they swap scenarios with each other; this means the resistance players will face off against the registration team’s custom scenario, and vice versa.

 

There are two copies of the Standard PvP set included in Civil War, one for each team. These cards function similarly to the regular Standard set while also providing the opportunity to interact with the opposing team as you race to take down their leader before they can defeat yours. For example, Righteous Cause (Civil War, 125) works a bit like Advance, granting the enemy leader an extra scheme, while Whatever It Takes (Civil War, 126) takes the place of Assault. When Targeted Strike (Civil War, 127) is revealed, your opponents get to search the top 5 cards of your encounter deck and choose what new threat to hit you with.

Finally, each team begins the game with a copy of Choosing Sides (Civil War, 128A) in play.  When this side scheme is completed, it flips over to Now It’s Personal (Civil War, 128B), allowing you to earn some special bonus cards that let you team up with your team’s chosen leader. Each leader comes with four of these cards, and they can all swing the competition in your favor. For example, you could use The Futurist (Civil War, 129) to cause your Iron Man leader to scheme during the hero phase, or you can draw on Captain Marvel’s Raw Power (Civil War, 136) as a double resource card while also boosting up her energy counters. On the resistance side, the Captain America leader can tank a hit for a teammate with No, You Move! (Civil War, 207) while Spider-Woman can use her status as a Double Agent (Civil War, 211) to redistribute some threat between main schemes.

The battle continues until only one team remains. A team is eliminated when their leader is defeated, when they let the enemy main scheme complete its stage 2B, or all their team’s identities are defeated. How will you fight for your team’s ideals?

Shapeshifters, Synthezoids, and Sympathizers

As we mentioned earlier, today’s preview focuses on the scenario content from Civil War. In the coming weeks, we’ll also preview the two heroes that come in the box, Hulkling and Tigra.

Hulkling comes with a pre-built Protection deck, and his playstyle revolves around his ability to shapeshift into different forms, altering his stats and abilities to suit his needs. On the flip side, Tigra pounces in with a pre-built Aggression deck, hunting down minions from the encounter deck and getting stronger based on the number of enemies engaged with her. Both of these heroes offer their unique strengths to the team and are powerful additions to the game’s roster. Look forward to learning more about them soon!

As for upcoming content, we mentioned that Civil War heralds the beginning of a “bonus wave” of Marvel Champions expansions. For starters, this box brings four customizable scenarios to the table, with lots of main schemes and modular sets to provide tons of possible combinations; but what if we told you that there’s an expansion on the way that will increase that even further?

For the first time since the core set, the first expansion after the big box of this wave will actually be a scenario pack! In Synthezoid Smackdown, the battle between registration and resistance continues with two more customizable scenarios, this time featuring She-Hulk and Vision as leaders. We’ll go over these two scenarios in a dedicated article for the pack in its own time, so stay tuned!

And of course, a new wave means new hero packs! For this bonus wave, there are only two hero packs this time around. These two are both Avengers, and both of them will release after Synthezoid Smackdown. We’ll share more about each of them at a later date, so look forward to finding out who’s joining the fight!

A War Among Heroes

Will you fight alongside Iron Man in favor of superhero registration? Or will you join Captain America on the side of resistance? Choose a side and dive into this conflict of heroes when Civil War arrives this September!

You can pre-order your own copy of Civil War (MC56en) at your local retailer or online through our webstore today!

 

Written by Peter Schumacher