2023 Hobby Log

One of this year’s resolutions was to get more games in and so far this has been a failure. For good reasons but still a failure, at least in terms of miniatures games. This project has been focused on what has been getting painted, the fact that games all got cancelled because I’ve been ill.

Cultists, I’m sorry but I’ve been keeping a secret from you all. Not only that but I’ve broken a promise I made to myself several years ago. I feel like I’m living a lie and it is time to come clean.

I have a new love.

I swore I wouldn’t do another FFG card game after Netrunner. I adored that game, played hundreds of runs of it. Possibly thousands. I thought about it all the time; at work I would spend time building decks in my head, I’d read the sub-reddit and chat to people endlessly about the nuances of the game. However, the Living Card Game model, so often touted as being “better” than the TTG model, was still pretty awful if money wasn’t something you had a lot of (and I didn’t! Still don’t). FFG’s usual bullshit about buying two core boxes, having to buy every pack as it came out because availability of stock was rough and the vast majority of cards you never touched. And power creep? Eee gads! Then it died. I was free!

Yeah, now I’m not.

Now, give FFG their due, the model for their card games now is markedly different and they are going to a lot of effort to make them much more new player friendly. Right now they are revamping the whole Arkham Horror line so you’ll be able to easily get any of the campaigns, whenever you are ready for them. I knew that, as much as the idea of Arkham Horror fascinates me, there’s no way I’d play it because FFG aren’t the only one’s who’ve changed in the last few years.

Last year I picked up the Project Nisei System Gateway after a friend took an interest in going back to my old Netrunner love. The is the way that fans are keeping the game “alive” and it is a really impressive job. I sat with it all, the terms flooding back. Then I realised I’ve no interest in building decks any more. I just can’t find the enjoyment in sitting for hours, finding synergies, working out cost curves and tying themes to a competitive deck.

I picked up the core box for Marvel Champions the way I often pick things up; thoughtlessly, without any real idea of why I suddenly think I have time and space for another new game. What I did know about it was that it plays well solo, and has pre-constructed decks for those who don’t want to deck-build.

Most of the reviews you see out there for it, compare it to Arkham Horror and comment on the lack of a proper campaign structure. For sure, if you are looking for the MCU in card game format, this is not where you are going to find it. I’m not looking for another legacy or grand campaign game though. I have RPGs for that.

Stories in Marvel Champions are more like reading a trade for a comic. The way I play it, I sit down and pick which hero I want to play as. Grab their deck. Who is the villain? Pick their cards out the box, grab the five or six universal cards that go into the villain deck and pick out the side plot (called modules in the game). Shuffle up and play.

The core box has five heroes, three villains, several modules (plus cards to make increase the difficulty level); after upwards of twenty games in the last month, I’ve still not tried all the combinations. That’s without deck-building. Clearly being a sensible person, I’m going to stick with the core box for a good while…

Okay, maybe I’ve not changed that much.