Month: January 2021

Setup:
Scheme: Fall of the Hulks
Mastermind: General “Thunderbolt” Ross
Henchmen: Phalanx
Villains:

• Code Red
• Radiation

Heroes:

• Hulk
• She-Hulk
• Slapstick
• Captain America 1941
• Gamora

Was pretty easy. Played two handed, which means I had twelve wound cards and as long as the stack didn’t run out, I was good. Didn’t take me too long to take out Ross. Not much else to say. Except for the scheme, the rest was random. Also, forgot a picture again.

Setup:
Scheme: War World Hulk
Mastermind: General “Thunderbolt” Ross
Lurking Masterminds:

• Illuminati, Secret Society
• The Red King
• The Sentry / The Void

Henchmen: Sakaaran Hivelings
Villains:

• Code Red
• Illuminati

Heroes:

• Bruce Banner
• Gladiator Hulk
• Hiroim
• Korg
• Miek the Unhived

Did some checking on the BoardGameGeeks forum and decided to switch up to two-handed games instead of three. Should makes the games a little easier and it did play a little better. A lot of people play advanced solo rules or even player created solo rules, each with one deck, but I think I prefer it this way for now. Not sure why I ever went to three to begin with. Maybe the games were getting too easy before I got some of the new expansions that ramp up the difficulty? Who knows, but I do know I lost this one and it came down to the last card of the villain deck with one mastermind tactic left. This scheme essentially has twice as many mastermind tactics to take out, which doesn’t seem very sporting, but I managed to smash seven of the eight. Liking all these Hulk cards so far, and if it wasn’t obvious, I picked out these heroes manually to recreate the actual World War Hulk story as best I could.

Setup:
Scheme: Shoot Hulk Into Space
Mastermind: Illuminati, Secret Society
Henchmen: Death’s Heads
Villains:

• Illuminati
• MLF
• Queen’s Vengeance

Heroes:

• Thor
• Hulk
• Professor X
• Skaar, Son of Hulk
• Moon Knight
• Hulk Deck: Gladiator Hulk

Picked up the World War Hulk expansion and this was my first run with it. The scheme and mastermind were manual, the rest were random. Thought having Professor X in it was a nice touch. Pretty frustrating game. The Hulk Deck has 14 cards and for each twist two get added to a Prison Ship stack that you can recruit from. You lose if the Hulk Deck is empty (so after 7 twists) or there are 10 cards in the Prison stack (5 twists with no recruiting). Had no problem keeping the Prison stack low enough, and kept the bad guys in the city pretty clean, but could never accumulate enough attack points to ever challenge the mastermind. Would always be one short or some other action would force a card discard or the mastermind would flip to increase its hit points that would have given me a chance otherwise. I know part of it is luck, but this is probably the most annoying part of this game in general for me. Often there isn’t enough time to build your decks, especially with three players, to be able to do anything. Needless to say I lost this one. Maybe I’m doing something wrong, or I’m just unlucky, need to look into it a bit more. Really enjoy the game, just hate losing when I have no chance.

Setup:
Scheme: Unite the Shards
Mastermind: J. Jonah Jameson
Henchmen: Spider Slayers
Villains:

• AIM – Hydra Offshoot
• Four Horsemen
• Kree Starforce

Heroes:

• Agent Phil Coulson
• Agent X-13
• Bishop
• Mockingbird
• Steve Rogers, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.

This was a random game and I loved the idea of JJJ trying to get infinity shards. Unfortunately, I got my ass kicked quickly. JJJ has an annoying thing where he gets two S.H.I.E.L.D. officers for each player that are four hit points each. You can’t attack him until those are gone first, and master strikes add more. Plus with this scheme, each twist adds shards to the mastermind and once he gets ten you lose. Never came close to even being able to attack him and he got the ten shards pretty quick. Pretty disappointing game.

Setup:
Scheme: Brainwash the Military
Mastermind: Loki
Henchmen: Doombot Legion
Villains:

• Dark Avengers
• Enemies of Asgard
• Streets of New York

Heroes:

• Ant-Man
• Hulk
• Ironman
• Thor
• Wasp

After reading the first issue of Avengers I thought I’d try and recreate the matchup here. This scheme seemed closest to the story. A bunch of S.H.I.E.L.D. Officers are added to the villain deck. If five of them escape, you lose. They only have three hit points but each twist that comes out adds one. Had a few twists come out early, and a bunch of regular villains escaped, but I seemed to be doing okay. Then suddenly I had four officers out, and the last twist turned which means those officers escape and I lost. A better/different shuffle and I think I would have beaten it. That’s my biggest gripe with this game, trying to get a good, random shuffle of the cards. Often wish there was a computer version. Would make setup and cleanup a heck of a lot easier.

Setup:
Scheme: Everybody Hates Deadpool
Mastermind: Mr. Sinister
Henchmen: Maggia Goons
Villains:

• Hydra Elite
• Marauders
• Masters of Evil

Heroes:

• Agent X-13
• Captain Marvel, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Mr. Fantastic
• Solo
• Steve Rogers, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Got a win, but just barely, and even that could be debatable. Normally you win by getting all four cards from the mastermind, but I usually defeat them a fifth time to take their main card. In this game the villain deck was almost done, which would have meant I beat the scheme but the mastermind got away. A draw in my book. Had one card left in the deck and two mastermind cards left. Managed to beat them both in the same hand, so I’ll take it. Mr. Sinister is a pain in the ass and this scheme was no walk in the park either. The Deadpool expansion introduces a Revenge mechanic, meaning for every card of that villain group you have defeated, you add one more to their hit total. This scheme adds that to everyone and you lose when nine villains escape. Managed to keep them in check well enough, but Sinister is tough to take down. Go me.