The Marvel Season for the Dice Thrones game brings new characters and abilities whilst keeping the original mechanics and threat level of the game. Take on the persona of one of your favourite superheroes and battle it out to become champion.
We first bought into Dice Thrones in Season One and really enjoyed the game, being fans of the Marvel Universe, we had to give the new Marvel edition of this game a try.
First Impressions
The artwork on the boxes has that familiar style of the other Dice Throne games, whilst still being recognisable as Marvel characters; it's eye catching and colourful with it's unique styling. This continued inside the boxes with the same set up of character boards, cards, dice and tokens each in their own individual storage trays. From a first look over of the abilities and characters, they look like they'll be great fun to play. I'm not sure how well they will fare against some of the previous characters from earlier seasons, but it will be interesting to try out and see how they match up.
Game Play Overview
Each player takes on the role of a superhero battling it out to prove they're the best. The game is played over a series of rounds until just 1 player remains. Each turn has 7 phases and begins with the active player resolving any status effects or passive abilities that occur during the upkeep phase. They then move onto the income phase and gain 1 Combat point (CP) and draw 1 card before moving onto the first Main Phase. During the main phase, the active player can spend CP to play Hero Upgrade Cards or Main Phase Action cards as well sell cards from their hand to gain CP. Once the first Main Phase has been resolved, they move onto the Offensive Roll Phase whereby the active player can roll their dice up to 3 times to activate a single offensive ability from the results of the final dice roll. Any player will now be able to play Roll Phase Action Cards. Once all cards have been played that the players wish to play, you move onto the Defensive Roll Phase where the targeted player can activate their defensive ability (providing the incoming damage isn't undefendable), rolling the specified number of dice once and resolving them as per their ability and taking any damage/effects dealt. The active player may then carry out a second Main Phase before moving onto the Discard Phase where they can sell cards for 1CP each until they have 6 or fewer cards in their hand. Play continues in this fashion until all but 1 player has been defeated. The surviving player is the winner!
Pros and Cons
The different superheroes all have a very different playstyle yet still feel balanced and authentic to their characters. However, although it felt heroic, it didn't feel superheroic, these superhero characters felt on a similar level to the previous heroes released in seasons 1 and 2 which in some ways felt refreshing but in others felt a little lacklustre. Having said that, I really enjoyed trying out each character and working out which persona worked best for my playstyle. With so many variations between characters, it really is the sort of game where trial and error works best to find the hero that really clicks with you.
Final Verdict
Overall, I thought the characters had been really well designed and carefully considered to ensure they matched up to the characters from the films, tv series and comics. I enjoyed being able to play as some of my favourite Marvel characters in a game I really enjoy and despite the lack of superhero-esque feel to it, I really enjoyed it.
In conclusion, we would rate this game an 8.5/10
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