I got the opportunity to have a game of Marvel Universe Miniatures against Marwin at Mind Games Melbourne. He was running a team of DC characters (apologies, not au fait with the DC Universe!) including Superman, Cyborg, Starfire, Kid Flash and Ravager. I was running my Superhuman team consisting of: Captain America (hereafter, Cap), Wolverine, Hawkeye, Black Panther, Daredevil, Elektra, Deadpool and Black Widow.
Set-up and Deployment
Stuart had set-up a nice urban table for us to play on, and we agreed sizes were two door cars, trees and the billboards would be size three, four door cars would be size four and the truck is size five. There wasn’t any smaller scatter terrain, so my team would not be able to throw any terrain!
Round One
Marwin wins initiative this round and activates Superman first. He flies forward and picks up the nearby truck, hurling it at Black Widow and Black Panther. Both of them dodge out of the way easily, however Superman follows up quickly with Heat Vision (Details) which burns Black Widow.
Black Panther turns his dodge of the truck into a Pounce (move 4” for one POW) into contact with Superman and makes a Savage Strike (Details), which hits, throwing Superman to the ground. He then follows up with a Claw Attack (details) which also hits, indicating Superman is no match for Vibranium!
Starfire flies forward to get into contact with Elektra and launches an overloaded Leadkick (details), which misses. She then flips the energy pillar over to Marwin’s control.
Daredevil is up next, and he uses Grapple Stick (displace up to 12”) to get into contact with the nearby energy pillar and then activates it.
Ravager moves forward into Main Street, then makes a further Pounce move. She then makes a Bullet Train attack (details) on Black Widow which hits.
Black Widow activates the middle energy pillar for me.
Marwin uses one of his three passes
Hawkeye moves forward to the edge of the building he’s perched on and shoots a Nerve Gas Arrow (details) at Superman (note: this turns out to be a mistake on my part, as I thought the effect was for his next activation, not the end of the round…), which hits, but Superman’s resistance prevents him from taking damage.
Marwin passes again, making that two in a row.
Deadpool, finding himself well away from the action briefly considers heading home, but then figures he might as well attempt to help and moves towards the centre of the table.
Having used two consecutive passes, Marwin is now forced to activate a character, and he picks Cyborg. He moves forward and uses his Plasma Cannon (details) on Elektra, which scores a critical hit.
Next, Elektra activates the energy pillar, taking it back from the DC team, and attempts a Sai Strike (details) on Starfire however isn’t able to make contact.
Kid Flash uses Hyperspeed (details) to move onto one of the pillars, activating it for the DC team, then speeds off towards the middle pillar.
Cap is up last, and he makes a double move to the pillar Kid Flash has just activated, and then activates it back for the Superhumans.
Thus ends the round and I pick up one victory point for having all three pillars aligned to me, and Elektra fails her Stamina test and is KO’d.
Round Two
I win initiative this round, and start off with Cap. The planned combo starts with Cap throwing Wolverine at Superman, and Wolverine using his once-per-game Fastball Special to make a free Snikt (details) attack on Superman. Cap then makes a Shield Bounce attack on Superman also which hits.
Superman gets up, moves towards Black Widow and launches a Super Punch (details), with two overloads (using his details skill), however the swing is wild and Black Widow easily dodges it.
Black Panther moves back into contact with Superman and makes a Savage Strike, overloaded for Knockdown, but misses.
Starfire uses Punch (details) on Elektra, but misses, however follows up with a quick one-two thereafter, with those two Punches connecting and incapacitating Elektra.
Wolverine moves back into contact with Superman and makes an overloaded Snikt attack, which scores a critical hit.
Ravager makes a Bullet Train attack on Black Widow which hits, pushing her into the red zone. Black Widow fails her Stamina roll and is KO’d, with Ravager pushing a Psionic Blast (details) which incapacitates her. Ravager then moves forward towards the centre of main street.
I pass using Black Widows Strategist skill (as it pops at the start of the round and I figured this would be the last chance I get!).
Cyborg moves towards the nearby pillar and activates it for the DC team.
Deadpool activates, moves into contact with Superman and makes an Armour Buster attack (Details), which hits, dealing no damage, but putting Distract/2 on Superman.
Marwin cleverly uses a pass here.
Hawkeye makes a Dead Shot attack (Details) on Superman, scoring a critical hit and dealing three damage.
Marwin makes a further pass for the round.
Daredevil Grapple Sticks to Kid Flash, and makes an attack that misses.
Kid Flash activates last, activates the pillar he is in contact with before shooting off towards another pillar and also switching that over to the DC team’s control.
End of the round, with no victory points, however Superman fails his Stamina roll and is KO’d.
Round Three
Marwin wins the initiative for the round.
After deliberating, Superman activates first, passing his Stamina roll and getting to his feet. He makes a Super Breath attack (Details), however everyone affected easily dodges. Deciding discretion is the better part of valour (and having only one endurance point left) he then flies as far from my team as he can.
Wolverine moves to Ravager, picking her up and tossing her into the side of the nearby building.
Cyborg moves over to Ravager, and then makes a White Sound Destruction attack (details), which hits Wolverine, Daredevil, Black Panther and Deadpool. All of them dodge except Daredevil, limiting the effectiveness of the attack.
Cap runs over to Kid Flash, making an overloaded grab attack, however misses completely. He then activates the pillar for the Superhumans.
Ravager gets up, moves forward and makes a Bullet Train attack on Black Panther, however misses.
Black Panther moves towards Ravager and makes an overloaded Savage Strike (overloads for dice rather than knockdown) but misses.
Starfire makes a Final Beam attack (Details) on Black Panther which scores a critical hit. Pressing this, she moves up to Black Panther and makes a Punch attack which hits, pushing Black Panther into the red, however he remains conscious.
With the gleam of greed and overconfidence in his eye, Deadpool uses his Bodyslide special ability (once-per-game, displace to anywhere on the board) to get into base-to-base with Superman in an attempt to be the one that lands the killing blow. Launching an overloaded Stab-Stab attack (Details) with his remaining POW, he misses entirely.
DC team makes a pass, still outnumbering Superhumans despite casualties.
Hawkeye shoots a Standard Arrow (details) at Cyborg but misses, then follows up with a second which hits.
Marwin passes again.
Daredevil switches the pillar he is in contact with, uses Grapple Stick to get to another pillar, and also activates that.
Kid Flash, seeking to undo the superhumans work switches the nearby pillar, then moves to another and switches it also.
No victory points, and all KO rolls passed this round.
Round Four
I win initiative this round and comment on the fact we’ve alternated each turn of the game.
Black Panther starts by grabbing and throwing Ravager into a nearby car to get her out of the way.
Next, Superman makes a six POW Super Punch on Deadpool, I elect to use Defensive Improvements as Superman’s attack isn’t really that high, but he manages to land the blow anyway. He then flies straight up to land on ledge, safely out of the way of my team.
Deadpool moves into contact with Ravager for some sweet mercenary on mercenary action, and makes two Stab-Stab attacks which both hit.
Starfire makes an overloaded Punch attack on Black Panther, which hits. She then does the same again which also hits and incapacitates him. That out of the way, she moves into contact with Daredevil and the middle pillar.
Wolverine storms up to Kid Flash, throws him into a nearby car and then activates the middle pillar for the Superhumans.
Cyborg moves into contact with Daredevil, makes an E-Strike (details) which he overloads and hits. He then makes the same attack again, hitting , before using Orders (details) to allow Ravager to activate.
Ravager gets up, moves away from Deadpool, then fires a Bullet Train at Deadpool which hits taking Deadpool into the red zone. He makes a Stamina check, but fails and is KO’d.
Hawkeye activates and fires a Specialist Arrow at Kid Flash hitting, as well as firing two Standard Arrows which also hit.
Kid Flash gets up as the arrows rain down on him, moves onto the nearby pillar and activates it, then runs back towards the building Hawkeye is perched on top of in an attempt to get into cover.
Cap switches the pillar he is on top of, then moves forward and makes a Shield Bounce attack which misses.
Daredevil makes a Grapple Stick move and switches the last pillar back to me.
All KO checks are passed at the end of the turn (and there were a lot!).
Round Five
Marwin wins initiative, furthering the alternation.
Superman is up first and he flies down into contact with Deadpool and makes an Overloaded Super Punch attack which hits Deadpool and incapacitates him.
Wolverine moves into contact with Kid Flash, throws him into a car which incapacitates him, then moves back into contact with the middle pillar.
Cyborg flies forward and makes a Total Disruption attack (details) which hits Daredevil and Cap, causing them to lose two POW each, then switches the middle pillar back to the DC team.
Hawkeye changes position on the rooftop slightly and makes a Specialist Arrow attack on Starfire which misses. He follows up with a Standard Arrow which hits for one damage.
Starfire activates the pillar for the DC team, moves into contact with Daredevil and makes an overloaded Leadkick attack which hits.
Daredevil moves away and then activates the pillar back again.
Ravager moves up to Daredevil, launching a Swords attack (details) but misses.
Cap is up last, and he makes a move towards Ravager, who he throws into the wall of the nearby building, at which point she is KO’d. A note here, we misplayed this part as Cap scored a critical hit on the grab attack, which we incorrectly discounted, so Ravager would’ve been incapacitated at this stage.
Daredevil loses consciousness after the beating he took this turn.
Round Six
I win the initiative, seeing the game evenly split from an iniative perspective.
Wolverine goes first and moves into contact with Firestorm, making a grab attack on her, which misses. He then makes a Snikt attack which also misses.
Superman flies over to the middle pillar and activates it back to his team, then makes an overloaded Heat Vision attack on Daredevil which, amazingly, misses.
Deadpool activates, fails his Stamina roll, remaining unconscious on the pavement.
Cyborg moves over to one of the further pillars and activates it back to the DC team. He then makes an overloaded Vibration Attack (details) which Cap Shield Blocks.
Hawkeye uses a Hook Arrow (allowing him to displace 12”) to get down to the other flank pillar, which he activates back.
Ravager regains consciousness, gets up and fires a Bullet Train at Daredevil, which hits and incapacitates him.
Cap activates and moves to Starfire, making a grab attack which misses! He then activates the middle pillar.
Starfire activates and switches the middle pillar back to the DC team.
Marwin picks up one victory point for controlling the most pillars at the end of the game.
Conclusion
So a hard fought draw it was, with one victory point each at the finish. Reflecting on the game, some of my key mistakes were underutilising Cap by having him out of position for the bulk of the game, and forgetting I could let Marwin go first when I win initiative (which would’ve affected Round Six considerably). Otherwise, I was happy with how my team performed, with the high model count providing a definite advantage, although Marwin did use his passes cleverly. My key highlight was getting Superman down to one endurance, however I just couldn’t quite shut him down after that due to his cowardice! This was a highly enjoyable game, and was great to get a chance to go head-to-head with some DC characters, given my group has been entirely focussed on Marvel.
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