What A Bunch Of A-Holes!

Wes and I arranged a game of the Marvel Universe Miniature Game, partly because we hadn't played for a while, and partly because it was good motivation for Wes to get his Guardians of the Galaxy finished. We were both using the basic starter sets because this is pretty much all we have (although I do have Wolverine available to change things up if necessary), and we decided to play the Relics mission in which there were two objectives near the centre of the table and all of the VP's related to the control of them.

Earth's Mightiest Heroes: Thor, Cap, Widow and Iron Man

Guardians of the Galaxy: Gamora, Starlord, Drax and Rocket

I'd used my Avengers a couple of times before, and so had a fairly good grasp of their capabilities, whereas Wes would be using his Guardians for the first time. It had been about four months since our last game, and so it's entirely likely that we got stuff wrong.

TURN ONE

The Avengers arrive on the scene. Widow infiltrates up near the stones.

Groot and Gamora head straight for a fight.

The Avengers hurl everything they've got at Drax and Gamora.
Cap and Drax hold the Relics.

TURN TWO

The fight kicks off in earnest, with cars thrown and hammer's swung.
Iron Man unleashes his Unibeam, and Drax drops the Relic.

TURN THREE

Starlord grabs the Relic and runs.
After finishing off Drax, the Avengers follow.

Gamora charges Widow because of Comics Rule #236:
Only girls can fight girls.

Captain America heroically sneaks off with a Relic.

It all gets a bit fanfiction as Gamora and Widow lie down together...
...after failing their KO rolls.

TURN FOUR

Cap heroically bounces his shield on the head of the comatose Gamora.
She's removed from play.

After being pushed off a roof..
...Rocket runs and hides.

Thor and Iron Man close in on Starlord.

TURN FIVE

When faced with a dance-off, Thor decide to chuck a building at Starlord...
...just to be sure...

With Starlord taken out, Iron Man grabs the second relic.

With nothing left to lose, Rocket charges Cap and Widow.

Well that went well...

After Rocket failed his KO test, we decided to end the game with a turn to play. Wes had no models in play and was not able to score any VP's to change the result. I'd gained 1 VP for knocking the Relic out of Drax's grasp, 1 VP for holding both Relics at the end of turn five, and would have scored another one at the end of turn six. So, overall the score would have been 3-0 to the Avengers.

I think Wes struggled for a couple of reasons. Firstly, lack of familiarity with his crew. He was still working out how best to use them through the game, and naturally, made some bad choices. Secondly, the Avengers are a bit good (and in terms of Thor, possibly too good), being more mobile and harder to damage than the Guardians. Finally, I think Wes didn't concentrate his attacks to leave characters vulnerable. Had he done this, he could have dropped Black Widow quite quickly to give him a numbers advantage.

Overall, it was a good game. My highlights were firing a Unibeam through Drax, Gamora and a taxi (which blew up), pushing Rocket off a roof, and throwing a building at Starlord. Wes threw his share of cars, but struggled to make the damage count (Thor isn't the best target).

I think Wes has plans to get his hands on Groot, and I'll alter my line up the next time we play, just to be different. We're still hoping to convince others to join in as its a fun game, with a low model count, that doesn't really cater for 'serious' play, which makes it a great casual game.

Hopefully, this is the start of full resumption of usual services. TTFN.