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A Gaming Life
AEG & The OP bring Marvel Comics to Smash Up
Late last year came the news that Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG) and The OP (formerly USAOpoly) were joining forces to bring licensed characters to the Smash Up universe.
Finally, yesterday, the announcement came as to what the first team-up will actually be: Smash Up: Marvel.
I’ve actually known this since Dice Tower West, as during my game of Dead Reckoning Alederac CEO John Zinser told me but I was sworn to secrecy. I’ve been chomping at the bit to release this news!
How will this work?
Let’s take a quick look.
Smash Up is a classic game designed by Paul Peterson where you take two different factions of 20 cards each (factions can be anywhere from Dinosaurs to Robots to Grannies to Rockstars and way more!) and try to gain victory points by dominating bases that are out on the table.
The factions have always been taken from a variety of either generic sources or parodies of existing sources (like the Cease & Desist expansion that parodies Game of Thrones, Star Trek, Transformers, and Star Wars).
Now, though, we have actual licensed properties, so this new set will have Hydra and The Ultimates as two of the eight factions available.
They even gave a tease of two of the cards that look incredible.
One change that you definitely notice right off the bat is that the card names have been changed. No longer do you have “minions.” Instead, you have “characters.”
I can’t really see Captain Marvel as a “minion,” so that does make sense.
Depending on whether there are any more changes, you could still mix these in with a regular Smash Up deck and just know that “character” and “minion” mean the same thing in regard to powers and abilities.
Will there be more?
“Players will be able to employ the character-specific abilities of heroes such as Captain Marvel and Spectrum, or evildoers like Arnim Zola and Red Skull, to accomplish Smash Up’s objective—strategically build your characters’ powers to dominate bases and collect as many victory points as possible! Conceptualized by both AEG and The Op’s game design teams, each faction’s custom traits are respectively inline with the comics and Marvel universe’s storylines.”
Ok, that doesn’t answer the question, but neither does the article. There will probably be some other changes, at least in nomenclature, but maybe not?
The announcement says there will be eight factions in the box, which means that this is the equivalent of a base set to allow four players (most Smash Up expansions come with four factions and thus are standalone for two players, but not more than that).
I’m wondering what other factions there are going to be. Avengers? Alpha Flight? Thunderbolts?
I can’t wait to hear more about this one but it’s not coming out until Fall 2020.
That means more time for announcements!
I’m sort of on the fence about this (and other licensed properties), but as more comes out about Smash Up: Marvel, I expect some of my concerns will be alleviated.
If the only real change is “Character” instead of “Minion” and otherwise all of the factions can join together, this may be a fun expansion!
Keep an eye on that OP page for more information, but I will also be updating with posts whenever I see anything. They say they will be revealing two factions each month, so mark your calendars!
Are you excited about this? Meh? Intrigued but skeptical?
Let me know in the comments.
Dude! Take Your Turn! 
I was wondering if you seen this! As a Marvel fan, I’m excited. I think with the comics, different teams often work together to accomplish the same task. It is Smash Up, so if anyone has a problem with that, I’d remind them that’s the point of the game. 😆
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I can understand some of the concerns about licensed properties and the tone of Smash Up, but I’m certainly not against this. Especially if they’re also working on their own expansions.
This will get the game into more mainstream areas and I think that’s a good thing.
Sadly, I missed this announcement yesterday until I saw it really late last night. Too late to post about it. Hence the double post today. 🙂
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