If you have ever watched one of the movies or series from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or read a superhero comic book, you may have noticed the destruction caused as the heroes battled against their foes. The Battle for New York in the Marvel Studios movie The Avengers left the city a mess. Who cleans up after these battles. In addition to the rubble of destroyed buildings, there is all the artifacts and technology left behind from the heroes as well as the defeated foes. The government actually contracts with companies to clean up the mess and prevent these artifacts from getting into the wrong hands. In the new tabletop game Marvel: Damage Control you get to run a business that cleans up super messes and try to gain more power than your competitors.
What Is Marvel: Damage Control?
Marvel: Damage Control is a deckbuilding card game for 1–4 players, ages 14 and up, and takes about 30 minutes to play. Players take on the role of clean-up companies who remove dangerous and powerful artifacts from the rubble left behind as superheroes battle against villains and other threats to humanity. It’s currently available at your FLGS as well as from Amazon and has s suggested retail price of $34.99 for a copy of the game. Marvel: Damage Control was designed by Omar Akil and published by WizKids, with illustrations by Darren Calvert.
Marvel: Damage Control Components
Here is what you get in the box:
— 20 Starting cards
— 4 Manager cards
— 40 Standard Rubble Cards
— 40 Module Rubble Cards
— 20 Standard Character cards
— 8 Module Character cards
— 12 Destruction Zone barriers
— 4 Vault boards
— 4 Desktop Boards
— 44 Influence tokens
— 4 Reference cards
The two types of starter cards. Photo by Michael Knight.
Every players begins the game with the same five starting cards. The get 3 Construction cards and 2 Engineering cards. Each card has two icons showing the actions the provide a player.
The four different managers in the game. Photo by Michael Knight.
Each player also gets a manager card which is added to their starting cards to create their starter deck. These cards each have the same two abilities as well as one or more other abilities unique to their card.
Four of the rubble/artifact cards. Photo by Michael Knight.
Rubble cards all have artifacts on them. The goal is to collect these artifacts in order to score points at the end of the game. The power of each card is listed in the upper left corner. The effect caused by the card when it is uncovered is shown in the upper right corner. These can also be played for their abilities which are listed on the card similar to the starter cards. However, some rubble cards have a cost listed along the left side to play them.
Each module has 10 unique rubble/artifacts. Photo by Michael Knight.
When you play a game of Marvel: Damage Control, you use the rubble cards from two of the four modules. These rubble cards are mixed in with the standard rubble cards and have a theme from one of the Marvel heroes.
Examples of hero cards. Photo by Michael Knight.
Players can enlist characters including superheroes to help them with your job. These cards can be recruited during the game and add to a player’s abilities. Each has a power listed in the upper left corner, a cost and ability at the bottom of the card similar to the artifact cards, and a recruitment cost in the middle under the image. A player can have a maximum of 3 character cards in play. They can be worth points at the end of the game and provide some helpful abilities during the game.
Some of the character cards from the modules you can recruit. Photo by Michael Knight.
Each of the four modules comes with 2 character cards which are added to the standard character cards. These characters have the same theme as the artifacts within their modules.
The vault and desktop boards. Photo by Michael Knight.
Players have a desktop board where they play their cards to show the type of action or ability that was used as well as a vault board under which they store artifact cards they have placed in the vault. Only artifact cards placed in the vault are worth points at the end of the game.
Influence tokens and the two sizes of destruction zone barriers. Photo by Michael Knight.
The destruction zone barriers come in two different sizes and are used to create the destruction zone for the game. The number of barriers used is determined by the number of players, creating different sizes of destruction zones. The influence tokens come in values of 1 and 5 and are used to pay the cost to play some cards during the game.
Both sides of the reference cards. Photo by Michael Knight.
Each player gets a two-sided reference card. Once you understand the rules, the reference card is all you really need to remind you of what the symbols mean.
How to Play Marvel: Damage Control
The Goal
The goal of the game is to score the most points at the end of the game by collecting artifacts and recruiting characters.
Setup
Players start off by creating the destruction zone using a number of barriers depending on the number of players. The more players, the more barriers are used to make larger destruction zones. Players then choose which two modules they will be using for the game. The four choices are Mighty Asgard, Mystical Manipulation, Pym Tech, and Vibranium Synthesis. Each module offers different types of interactions that go along with their theme. Now take the 10 rubble cards from the two selected modules and shuffle them with the 40 standard rubble cards. Place this rubble deck face down near the destruction zone. Next shuffle the 2 character cards from each of the chosen modules with the standard character cards to form the character deck. Place this face down and then draw the top five cards and arrange them face up in a row to form the character lineup.
It is now time to fill the destruction zone with rubble. Give each player 9 rubble cards. They are not allow to look at them. The players then simultaneously drop their rubble cards face down into the destruction zone one at a time until they have one card left. They then drop these last cards face up into the destruction zone. Do not rearrange the cards unless they fall completely outside of the destruction zone. They can lie on top of the barriers. Each player then takes a desktop board and a vault board, a 1 value influence token, and a set of five starter cards. They randomly add one of the manager cards to their starter cards and shuffle the six cards together to form their deck. Place the player decks face down next to their desktop. Players then draw four cards from their hand to form their starting hands. The player who most recently read a comic book is the starting player. Give them the desktop that says ‘starting player’ and you are ready to play the game.
The game all set up and ready to play. Photo by Michael Knight.
Gameplay
Players each take a turn before the next player going clockwise around the table goes. A player’s turn is divided into 3 steps: playing cards, recruiting characters, and the end of turn clean up. Let’s take a look at each step in order.
Playing Cards
During this step, the player can play or discard all of the cards from their hand in any order. If they choose to play a card, they select which action they will use and then place the card in the slot that matches the action on the desktop. There are four different actions available in the game. Uncover lets you choose a faced own card in the rubble and flip it face up. You can only select a card if the entire radar circle on the back of the card is visible. Otherwise, the card is considered trapped under the rubble. When flipping over a card, be careful to not disturb the other cards around it. Once uncovered, you then perform the event listed in the upper right corner of the card. There are two standard events and four specific to their modules. For example, the collapse event requires another player to take a card from the face up and drop it into the rubble. The character sighting event takes a new card from the top of the character deck and add it to the left side of the lineup. If there are already 5 characters in the lineup, take the rightmost character card and remove it from the game. The Extract action lets you select a face up card from the rubble and place it in your hand. If you choose to Demolish, you discard a face up card from the rubble and gain 2 influence. Finally, the Vault action lets you place a card from your hand under the vault board. You can also perform the vault action without playing a card by paying 6 influence. Only cards under the vault board are scored at the end of the game. Players may also choose to discard cards from their hand and earn 1 influence for each card discarded in that way. Artifacts often have actions on them as well. However, they also have an influence cost which must be paid to use them. Artifact cards can also be placed above the artifact space on the desktop instead of using their action in order to use that artifact to recruit a hero, which will be explained in the next step.
Recruiting Characters
Once a player has played all of the cards they wish, they may recruit a character. Each character has a recruitment cost listed below their image. This is usually two actions and possibly a type of artifact. To pay the cost, discard the cards in the matching spots on the desktop. Once recruited, place the character below your desktop. You can only have up to 3 characters in your play area. If you recruit a fourth character, then you must remove one of the current characters from the game and replace it with the new one. Each character also has their own effect. If it is an immediate effect, it happens right as the character is recruited. An endgame effect only occurs at the end of the game and usually involves scoring. Ongoing effects are always available on your turn. Finally, activated effects can only be used once per game unless otherwise stated on the card. Place an influence token over the effect once it has been used to remind you. Some effects have a cost.
The Ghost-Spider costs an uncover and a super artifact, Since the player used a Construction for an uncover action and then played the artifact onto the desktop, they can recruit the character. Photo by Michael Knight.
End of Turn Cleanup
After recruiting characters, the player clears their desktop by removing any remaining cards to their discard pile. If there are fewer than five characters in the lineup, add new characters to the left side so there are five in total. Finally, draw four cards from your deck to form your new hand. If needed, shuffle the discard pile to create a new deck so you can draw four cards. The next player now begins their turn with the Play Cards step.
Game End
The endgame is triggered when there are no more cards in the destruction zone or there are no more cards in the character deck. Play continues to the end of the round when the starting player would normally begin their turn. At that time, players then score their points. To do this they add the power values for all artifacts in their vault (not in their hand), the power values for any recruited characters, the power on the endgame effects on characters, and they score one point for every 3 influence they have, rounded down. The player with the highest total power score is the winner. In case of a tie, the player with the most influence wins.
This player scores 17 for the artifacts and 12 for the heroes for a final total of 29. Both Scarlet Witch and Captain Marvel score based on types of artifacts. If the player had influence, they could score additional points. Photo by Michael Knight.
Why You Should Play Marvel: Damage Control
Marvel: Damage Control is a fun, quick, light game that is perfect for a lunch break or for the start of a game night. The rules are fairly simple and easy to teach. The reference cards contain most of the information for which you would normally have to refer back to the rulebook. In fact, I read through the rulebook, paying attention to the examples of game play, and then was able to play my first game using only the reference cards. Marvel: Damage Control has a great theme. Instead of playing as heroes, you are instead normal people cleaning up the mess left behind by the superheroes and their massive battles. Heroes of course make appearances in the game as you can recruit them, but they are usually there to help during the game or at the end to increase your score.
The game has some fun mechanics. I have always enjoyed deck-building games, but I like it when deck-building is part of the game and not the entire game. Marvel: Damage Control fits that profile. While everyone starts with the same cards and are adding to their deck, you also need to remove artifacts to the vault so you can score them at the end. Therefore, there is a bit of strategy that requires players to decide when to put their artifact cards in the vault, while also losing their actions which can provide more options than the starter cards.
I also like the way characters are recruited. It is not based on the value of the cards in your hand, but in how you use them during the play cards phase. Therefore, you have to be thinking about what characters you want to recruit and their cost while planning the actions you will take. Plus the characters are not all powerful like you would expect. They may provide some actions for game play or points at the end, but they are just part winning the game and not the main focus. This is also reinforced by the fact that you can only have 3 characters in your play area at a time.
Another fun mechanic is the way the rubble cards, which have artifacts on the opposite side, are placed into the destruction zone. Players drop them in and how they lie and are covered by other cards determines if you can access them. Plus the way influence is gained, but either discarding cards in your hand or removing them from the game entirely with the demolish action. While this gets you more influence, it also hastens the end of the game by removing cards from the destruction zone. In fact, the fact that players can determine the endgame by their actions is part of the strategy. If you have been vaulting artifacts early on, you may want to end the game before your opponents can do the same.
Overall, I enjoy playing Marvel: Damage Control. It is something different which can be a breath of fresh air and has a playful air about it unlike some superhero themed games which can be quite serious. As mentioned earlier, I like that it is quick to learn and play while still requiring some strategy in order to win. There are also rules for solo play where you must score a certain number of points before the endgame while playing turn after turn yourself. I find the use of modules where you pick 2 of the 4 for each game provides some variety and the combination of the 2 modules can affect the way you might play the game. If you enjoy the Marvel superhero universe and are looking for a fun, quick game you can play as a family, game group, or even by yourself, then I recommend Marvel: Damage Control.
For more information, visit the Marvel: Damage Control webpage!
Here is a trailer for the game.
https://youtu.be/OmSkO7rtPvM
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Disclosure: GeekDad received a copy of this game for review purposes.
