Marvel D.A.G.G.E.R. First Impressions

Marvel D.A.G.G.E.R. has heroes fighting villains unsurprisingly.

Loki makes a better Cthulhu than Cthulhu!

Nefarious forces threaten the world as we know it, and it’s up to a small group of heroes to come to its rescue. With the enemy’s minions closing in and innocents in peril, our heroes will need to work together to stop the villain’s plans and save the world — but will they be able to save it in time?

Marvel D.A.G.G.E.R. Game Overview

Quick Rules Summary

Players are Marvel heroes cooperatively trying to thwart a Marvel villain’s evil scheme.

On a player’s turn, they’ll activate an action to move, attack and use special powers related to that character. One of their three actions is (I think called) “primed” which makes the action taken more powerful.

Once everyone has played 3 actions, the Villain will act moving, attacking, advancing their plans and spawning new minions on the board.

How do you win?

If the players complete their mission cards before the villain advances the timer to the end of the track, the players will win.

Main Mechanisms

It’s mainly a cooperative game with point-to-point movement, dice rolling and a bunch of other stuff. There’s a lot going on which I’ll get to more in the next section.

USP

It’s a Marvel game which I love, but it hardly counts as unique. When I was taught this game at UK Games Expo 23, I was asked “Do you know Eldritch Horror? Then you’ll know most of it”.

So a popular IP with gameplay elements similar to an existing game is hardly unique.

Theme

I like Marvel and Marvel board games and this one has a grander overall feel to most. Here you moving from country to country so you feel that big scale. More “Infinity War” than “Avengers Assemble”.

Setup

As with most FFG games, there are cards and tokens all over the place.

This was a demo so it was already set up but it looks in depth.

Components & Artwork

As with most FFG games, these are of standard quality.

The art is strange with its weirdly tall, stretched thin characters.

Ease of Teaching

Open information co-ops are generally easy to teach. It’s quite fiddly and detailed though but everyone of all abilities will get through it together.

Similar Games

I already mentioned the Cthulhu-themed one. Might as well stick in both Marvel United and Marvel Champions as co-op Marvel games.

Marvel D.A.G.G.E.R. Review

Positives

There are several villains each providing their own scenario.

Each Hero character plays differently.

The characters are double-sided, so Yelena was the other side of my Natasha. You can start as Yelena, or switch over when a character dies.

The one action you have that is better than your others is a simple yet really clever way to give a second layer of thought to your turn.

If this is indeed Eldritch Horror rethemed into Marvel, I’m all for that…

Negatives

…but I can’t buy every Marvel game, can I?

It’s expensive and based on FFGs previous games, expansions will be coming.

Summary

At £67 for another Marvel game, I will pick this up when it’s on sale as I really enjoyed playing it.

Jesta ThaRogue