Marvel Skirmish in New York: Review
Information:
Player Age: 10+
Player Count: 2 Players
Time to Play: 30 Minutes
Year Published: 2025
Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by Asmodee
Introduction:
Marvel Skirmish in New York is a re-implementation of an older title Fight for Olympus. In this game one player is playing as the hero and one the villain. They are fighting for control of various locations, in pursuit of those locations being undefended so the attacking player can gain the bonus of the location, whether this is points, artifacts or battleground cards.
To gain enough points, players will have to move the tug of war marker to their side with the villain winning by reaching nine and seven points for the hero to prevail.
Game Anatomy:
Hero and Villain Cards:
Both the hero and villain players will have a separate deck. Made up of both main characters and side characters. Each character has a cost to play on the top left. Some of the cost will have colours, this requires cards or citizen markers of that colour(s) to be discarded for the cost. The characters can also contain a card effect which will either be an effect that occurs when played, when the character attacks, or ongoing.
Side characters are the shield and hydra agents. They are generally cheaper, with weaker abilities or abilities that benefit the opposing player.
There can be multiple side characters with the same name in play, while only one main character with a certain name can be in play at a time. Each main character appears in that player's deck four times. Two as a standard and two with a stronger empowered ability.
Battleground Cards:
Battleground cards can be won through attacking the Avengers tower undefended. These cards cost other cards like the hero and Villain cards, except they are a one time use. These cards will have victory points that can be gained as well as a helpful effect.
Artifact Tiles:
Artifact tiles are awarded if a player wins the tug of war, by moving the marker in the Sanctum Sanctorum fully over to their side. There are two locations that can move this marker so if undefended these artifacts can be gained fast. The artifact tiles will have either a one time effect that can be activated when the player chooses or an ongoing ability that will activate based on the timing on the tile. These are powerful abilities that can turn the sway of the battlefield very quickly.
Game Board:
The gameboard is filled with six battlefields allowing one character on either side. There are also unique effects that will be activated if the player attacks and the battlefield is undefended.
Civilian Markers:
Civilians will be freed during the game by the hero player, as they attack an undefended Manhattan, the hero will gain these markers.
These markers can be spent on a player's turn as that colour when playing a card. Once spent they are discarded from the game.
Setup:
- Setup one of each colour of civilian marker on the Manhattan locations.
- Shuffle the artifact tiles and place two face-up ok the sanctum, place the tug of war trackers on the middle of the sanctum and the zero point track.
- Shuffle the battleground cards and place the deck in the allocated space at the Avengers tower.
- Create a pool of pow (damage) tokens next to both players.
- Each player gains their respective deck, shuffles the deck and returns 15 cards back to the box. They then deal themselves seven cards for the hero and five for the villain. The villain starts the game.
How to Play:
The aim of the game is very straightforward, the goal is to have the point tracker reach seven for the heroes and none for the villains. This is no easy task as there is only one point marker which will be pulled back and forth to either side. On a turn the active player will go through three phases, recruitment (optional), attack, and lastly draw.
In the recruitment phase the player can play any amount of cards from their hand as long as they pay the cost, for the hero player they can spend civilian markers as their matching resource colour then discard for the game. Each location/lane on a player side can only have one character. This is the phase that the battleground cards are also played.
If a player has a main character on the battlefield they are unique and only one of each character can be in play. These cards can still be played though, and to make matters even better they can be played completely for free and replace the matching main character in play. Why might someone do this ? Firstly it allows the player to heal that character, their old wounds do not carry across. The other reason is the version of this main character in the player's hand may have a better effect of an immediate effect that will trigger again when played. This is my favourite mechanism of the game, it truly allows the players to feel like they are healing their important character or triggering them again, for no cost as well.
The attack phase commences next starting at Manhattan locations (far left locations awarding points) and continuing to the right. Each character in the active players lane will either attack the opposing enemy or trigger the locations effect. It will attack first and only trigger the location if the location is undefended. To attack the player will deal damage equal to their attack to the opposing character, stacking with any damage from previous rounds. If the damage on that character matches their life they are discarded from the battlefield. The opposing character does not attack back. If the player's character has any attack abilities it will now activate.
If the location is undefended when the character attacks they will instead activate the locations. There are three locations in Manhattan that will award one point for the villain and a citizen marker first for the hero and a point once the civilian marker is depleted. The middle two locations are the Sanctum Sanctorum when attacking at this undefended location the tracker will move one space towards the active player. When this tracker completely reaches the active players side they will choose one artifact to keep and discard the other, then draw two new artifacts to display.
The last location is the Avengers Tower, this location will grant the active player a battleground card.
The last phase, the draw phase, has the active player draw two cards before the other player starts their turn.
Final Thoughts:
- Good mix of tug of war tracks and lane battling.
- Cards are a challenging resource during the game.
- Cards are a tight resource.
- Rewards repeated plays with the same opponent.
Battle lane head to head games are a popular genre of games. Marvel Skirmish for New York mixes battle lane mechanisms where players are fighting over lanes to activate the special abilities of those lanes, while also creating tug of war mechanisms mainly for the point track. See the players have to reach the end of their side on the point track this could be seven or nine depending on the side. This is not easy because it isn't simply reaching those points it's keeping the opponent from pulling the track towards them or being capable of swinging a large point gain on a single turn, or in reality doing this multiple turns in a row. The most interesting mechanism is how the main characters work, to summon a character players have to discard resources matching the required colours. These resources are cards or citizen markers (that only the hero player has access to). This makes keeping a powerful main character in play essential. To make this easier a main character can be replaced by themself for free. As there are two versions of these characters that can summon a more powerful version, while also removing all of the damage on the character (healing them) and activating the instant ability if any. This game is great for anyone who enjoys head to head lane battling or tug of war games. The marvel theme will bring people in, however the tense turns, deciding which lanes to guard or let go, and how to eliminate the enemy to finally allow the lanes to activate create the interesting and tense gameplay which will have the players coming back again and again. Especially with the fast gameplay.
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