Rise of the Black Panther: Marvel United Exp.

Rise Of The Black Panther

Anyone following my blogs will know I’m a big fan of this game. Marvel United has brought the opportunity for players to pick their favourite MCU heroes and fight to stop villains implementing their master plans. It’s a co operative game for 1 to 4 players and a game I’ve found to be a lot of fun.

The rise of the Black Panther expansion adds a lovely additional dynamic to the game adding to the jeopardy of the situation. Here is what is brought.

Additional Heroes

The first hero added is, unsurprisingly, the Black Panther. King T’Challa’s Black Panther is introduced to the game who is an all-round character. A nice balance of attack, movement and heroic actions which mirrors true with the character.

Next you have Shuri, the Black Panther’s younger sister and tech expert, rivalling that of Tony Stark. Shuri is a huge asset to any team. Not the strongest character so will rely on support, but she provides plenty of support to the team and has a huge amount of choice actions (where you choose one of the three). My view is she is an asset to any hero squad.

The Winter Soldier, Bucky Barnes. This one was a surprise for me in this set but then when we watched that bonus scene in the first Black Panther movie where the Winter Soldier was secretly recovering in Wakanda after Civil War, this is not a huge surprise. Wat does not surprise is he is all out attack, he’s relentless here. He’s not the most mobile, heroic actions are next to non-existent, he is a fighter.

These 3 combined do bring a nice balance to form a team. If mixing with other heroes you will need to consider how you balance the squad.

Killmonger

This is one tough villain as you may well expect. Killmonger is all about adding a lot of crisis to the situation. Crisis tokens invariably cannot be taken out of play. So, if/when Killmonger adds more civilians and thugs to locations, but cannot. Crisis tokens are played instead. So, not only will Killmonger win if he plays all 12 master plan cards, but also wins if 4 or more locations have 3 or more crisis tokens present on the table top. This does cause a lot of unwanted chaos on the board as you will continually be having to manage the levels of thugs and civilians, slowing you down in

completing your objectives. He’s a handful, but he’s on his own with no supporting henchmen, so that’s something.

All the new mini’s look spectacular. They really do make me wish I could paint to any sort of standard and do them true justice. If you are a painter you’ll love these.

New Locations

6 new locations to be added into the mix with all other locations offered by the game. Unsurprisingly, all connected to the fictional country of Wakanda. The artwork on these cards, right in keeping with the comic style of marvel united and all look stunning.

Endangered locations

A wonderful additional game mechanic here that can be introduced when battling any villain, with any heroes. The introduction of endangered location chips. There are 4 pairs of these that create a bond between the hero and a location on the board. If a location overflows with thugs and civilians, and that location is linked to a hero, the hero takes an automatic 1 damage for not managing their location. So, if battling Killmonger, not only will crisis token be added, but your hero is dealt additional damage, as if the game wasn’t challenging enough. A brilliant addition though to keep the heroes alert and on their toes.

Final Thought

Rise of Black Panther is a pleasing expansion to the game. I’m incredibly satisfied with the offer. Some brilliant additional characters to use in the game as well as battle against. I really like this new rule as well. It makes sense the hero would have a vested interest in protecting a key location to them, and would suffer if something bad happened to it. I hope you enjoy using this set.