MARVEL UNITED X-MEN EXPANSION

Excelsior! The MARVEL UNITED games is such a blast to play and I am so geeked that now you can expand upon the gameplay by adding mutant heroes and villains into the action. Up to now the focus has been on Avengers-based characters but with new expansion packs Alpha Flight, Deadpool, the Fantastic Four, X-Men and more can join in the action.

I arrived home to find my dog guarding a crate of MARVEL UNITED expansion packs I ordered through a pledge in a Kickstarter campaign for the game. The artwork on these game box covers is super! I need to figure out a nice way to display this amazing art as part of storing these games when they aren't being played. If you have some suggestions tweet them out to me at @Geekdad248!

The elements of these expansion packs to MARVEL UNITED are similar to its original gameplay. A cooperative game where players team up to defeat a villain's master plan. Players must manage their own deck of action cards while moving around a gameboard to complete missions and combat evildoers. It is essential to work together to achieve victory because when players unite in combining actions it can result in some spectacular outcomes.

While a lot has stayed the same, these X-Men themed expansions also have some upgrades to the game. Now you can have a player control the villain in manipulating their master plan rather than just have everyone in the role of heroes. Also, some of the included miniature figures included for gameplay, anti-heroes, can be utilized as heroes or villains. Additionally, heroes now have more special effect cards available to add more comic book style action to the game and each hero has a trigger that when a certain scenario occurs unlocks a unique ability. These changes should make the game more exciting to play!

CORE X-MEN BOX

There is a core X-Men themed game box that is required to play the game unless you have the original Avengers themed core box for MARVEL UNITED. You need to have one or the other or both to play the game or utilize any of the expansion packs that are available for the game. The X-Men core box includes deck building cards, board locations, gameplay dashboards, and miniatures of heroes Wolverine, Jean Grey, Cyclops, Storm, Beast, and Professor X; anti-heroes Magneto and Mystique; and villains Sabretooth and Juggernaut. MARVEL UNITED: X-MEN is available on Amazon.com.

In addition to the core X-Men MARVEL UNITED box, through pledging on Kickstarter I received a huge box filled with additional bonus characters from Alpha Flight, Excalibur, New Mutants and more. 

Plus, Oldman Login and '80s era Storm were bonus characters that I received for going all in and purchasing all of the available expansion packs through the CMON MARVEL UNITED Kickstarter campaign for the game's X-Men focused adventures.

FIRST CLASS

One of the new expansion modes available through the Kickstarter campaign allows you to play as the original X-Men. Angel, Beast, Cyclops, Marvel Girl and Iceman team up against Magneto's twin children, from the 1960s comic book stories not more recent Marvel Cinematic Universe tv shows and movies, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. In addition to adding playable characters this expansion also  includes four more locations to add to your game board.

GOLD VS BLUE EXPANSIONS

Two other expansion packs add future generations of X-men characters that followed the First Class. My goal was to be able to put together the X-Men team from the mid-1980s when I was a diehard reader of the comic books for several years in elementary and middle school. Yes, I'm an '80s kid! With these two expansion packs I was able to add Colossus and Rogue to go along with Cyclops and Wolverine from the X-Men core box as well as Nightcrawler, Storm, Kitty Pryde and Lockheed in my Kickstarter bonus box. Now I have the team back together time for some nostalgic fun!

THE HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE 

How will my '80s X-Men fare against Famine, War, Pestilence and Death? The Horseman of the Apocalypse lets you battle against the world's oldest and one of the mightiest mutants along with his four henchmen in a multi-stage scenario that provides for challenging and intense gameplay. If they can't beat Apocalypse and stop his master plan than there are numerous other characters from these new MARVEL UNITED expansions to incorporate into the game. How do you think Alpha Flight, New Mutants or X-Force would do? Or how about the Avengers or Guardians of the Galaxy from the first MARVEL UNITED release would stand up against Apocalypse and his Four Horsemen?

SENTINALS 

When it comes to X-men battles you really need to be able to have a fight against Sentinals. And MARVEL UNITED: X-MEN doesn't let us down! The Days of Future Past expansion provides a number of these gigantic mutant hunter robots for players to engage with. Players are really going to have to work together and give it their all to defeat these techno terrors!

DEADPOOL

The Merc with a Mouth makes an appearance in the X-Men MARVEL UNITED expansions too. Deadpool has his own expansion pack. It really is a zany scenario that fits in with the madcap exploits of this character known for breaking the fourth wall of media and being a goofy smart aleck. This expansion will provide a zany time!

FANTASTIC FOUR

Now that the movie rights for the Fantastic Four have returned to Marvel the first family of comic books is once again in the publisher's good graces which means we are starting to see more of them including inclusion in MARVEL UNITED. This expansion pack lets you try to spoil the plot of my favorite Marvel comic books villains ... Doctor Doom! A master of both the mystic arts and mechanical technology, it will be no easy task to defeat Doctor Doom.

THOR

I didn't get the THOR expansion in the original MARVEL UNITED Kickstarter and regretted it. With the new Thor movie coming out this summer, I wanted to add the character to my Avengers roster for MARVEL UNITED games. So, was glad to get a second chance to get my hands on it though this X-Men MARVEL UNITED Kickstarter campaign.

I'll be sharing more information about these and other MARVEL UNITED expansions as have the opportunity to dig into all these boxes and enjoy playing game sessions. Stay tuned to ageekdaddy.com for more updates as I get the chance to play MARVEL UNITED with family and friends. Note the game pieces come unpainted so keep an eye on my Instagram and Twitter feeds for occasional pictures of this amateur painter adding some color to them.

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