Now we’re getting to some games that were pretty recently Kickstarted for me, though one of them I’ll be getting the first stuff probably in the next month, which is exciting. Both of these were really big Kickstarters so lets dive into them.

Marvel United

Firstly, I love Marvel, if that wasn’t obvious from the fact that I run the 10 Minute Marvel Podcast (check it out), it could probably would be from me going to movies opening night, and previously having done some of the news around Marvel on the website prior to the podcast. So because of the theme, I was immediately interested.

Then what made me more interested was the minis for the game. I know that the chibis aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I feel like for Marvel, it works fine, especially in what turns out to be a fairly light cooperative game that targets less of a hobby or older gaming demographic, it makes sense. While I wouldn’t have minded more realistic minis to at least the comics, I really think they did a good job of capturing the essence of the characters and creating really dynamic minis.

Plus, as I mentioned above, this game is cooperative, and I like cooperative games, and I like cooperative games with a theme and a size that is going to be really easy to get to the table. Now, is Marvel a theme for everyone, probably not, but it s a theme for a lot of people who wouldn’t be interested in high fantasy or trading in the Mediterranean and that’s who would also like this lighter style game. I also like that this is a fast cooperative game. A game should last about 30-45 minutes, and that’s enough to swap out characters and get through two games in a sitting and try out a bunch of the characters when all the expansions for it come out.

Overall, my hype level is pretty high on this one. It’s the type that won’t work for everyone that is going to be great for board game nights for me.

Excitement Meter: 9/10

Frosthaven

The sequel to Gloomhaven, enough said. The biggest Kickstarted board game, enough said. Story driven campaign game, enough said. There’s so much that I’m so excited for with this game.

First, let’s talk about how it’s a follow-up to Gloomhaven, but it adds in even more. There are going to be more puzzles to solve in the game, there’s a town building aspect to the game. New classes, monsters, and new scenarios. Not only that, they are taking what they learned from Gloomhaven and Forgotten Circles and making it better. Better ways to create more interesting and dynamic maps without as much leg work during the game. Plus the Foreteller app for doing the narration and I’m sure the Gloomhaven Helper app (or maybe a Frosthaven helper app) will help manage the monsters as well.

I’ve gone through so much of Frosthaven, talking about the campaign before it was up, and then while it was happening. There’s so much that I’m excited for with this game. I really do think that the new things are going to give the game a fresh feel to it all while keeping a feel that you’d expect from Gloomhaven. The card mechanics, leveling, and things like that don’t seem to have changed, but the stuff they are changing sounds very interesting. I mentioned town building, that’s new, and I really like it as a way that my place and game will be different from yours. Sure there was a little bit of that before with upgrading stickers and a slight branching path at times, but for the most part what you and I did would end up being pretty similar. This seems like we’ll be more apt to end up with really unique board games, which I like the idea of a lot. It makes going to town more meaningful for doing more than just buying new gear.

I also like that they’ve updated the loot. It used to be that you get gold, and gold is fine and nice for buying things. But now you’ll get things for improving your town or crafting items, or gold, depending on who you are fighting. And with that, the crafting supplies or upgrading the town, those are the two same sets of things, so you have to decide, do you need to be able to craft this item now, or can you push the town forward so that you can get better items later? It brings more tension and intentionality to the game that way.

I’m really looking forward to this, but I will say, I wouldn’t be too upset if this was delayed slightly. We have another campaign game we want to play some of before this comes in, with my Gloomhaven group.

Excitement Meter: 10/10

Have you backed either of these games? Which sounds more exciting to you, which would you play more?

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.