2026 is shaping up to be a big old year for supers across the various movie multiverses.
So looking at some super games seems like a good plan! We’ve got something for all ages and interests, and then there’s the small matter of the winner of our January giveaway- oh and of course how to win this month’s!
Marvel Champions: Civil War
(RRP: £48.99)
Civil War totally changes up the stone-cold classic that is Marvel Champions, and that’s no bad thing. Now I am a huge fan of Champions, it’s featured more than once in our recommendations and giveaways… but it is starting to feel a bit samey. Now, revised versions of the OG heroes are confirmed to be coming down the line from FFG, but in the meantime, how can you truly change up the game? By fighting other Heroes, of course!
Civil War provides Enemy Versions of Iron Man/Captain Marvel on the side of Registration and Captain America/Spider-Woman on the Resistance side. The cards are familiar villain-style, and come with their own Encounter Sets (so, for example, you get Iron Man equipment upgrades in his set, much like a classic villain tech) whilst the 6 additional Encounter sets are colour-coded Red/Blue so you can easily see what goes together. You also have the choice of how many Encounter sets you use, which brings narrative and another layer of scalable difficulty to the game – plus, you can choose which Standard Set you bring to the game. Standard III, which comes in the (excellent) Age of Apocalypse campaign, is the go-to for many players just now, but spare a thought for the (utterly lethal) Standard II from The Hood scenario pack. There’s 2 very good reasons for using S2: one, it means that there is a much more accessible new-player buy-in point, and two, The Hood is Tigra’s nemesis minion, so it allows you to flesh that out and complement the narrative as a whole.
Yes, Tigra. This set’s prebuilt Hero choices are… interesting. I’m a big fan of Tigra in the comics, though I’m surprised to see her as a lead on this tbh, or at the very least not without Moon Knight (he does appear as a persona specific ally, and a very good one, but still). She’s a solid anti- minion Aggression build, a more efficient classic Thor, bit light on the card draw though does have ways of mitigating that by pulling cards out to deal with enemies generally. Hulkling, meanwhile, is the other prebuilt, a character I have no real love for. It’s a Protection deck… and he’s fantastic. His shapeshift mechanics allow him to search for cards, ready repeatedly, Attack or Thwart, support teammates or survive true solo. He’s really impressive, but there’s a part of me that wishes those mercurial moves had been used for Moon Knight instead.
The other thing that I really like about this is that it isn’t a Campaign. Because it’s a set of scenarios, there’s much more incentive to mix and match, to devise your own and replay, whilst giving a framework for a clear sense of direction. With so much content available for Champions, it can be intimidating, but this gives you a clear framework for customisation whilst still tinkering around the edges of hero builds. Plus, the game has both traditional co-op and a new competitive mode – so you can race to be the first to take down the enemy leader and hog the glory for yourself! This adds a new twist to classic gameplay, as you work the Leader for your side; will you choose to support the Registration Act, or join the Resistance? A great addition to the product lineup!
Marvel Champions: Synthezoid Smackdown
(RRP: £24.99)
Of course, all that being said, maybe you do want to mix things up even more with your Civil War. The set adds two more Leaders, She-Hulk and Vision, as well as a further 8 modular encounter sets (4 for each side), more than doubling what comes in the Civil War box. Now, would I have preferred it all to be in the one box? Mayyyyyyybe. Tough call, honestly, as it would have had to be quite a lot more expensive; this allows you to pace your purchases, dipping your toe in the water. Smackdown can be played without the Civil War box, which makes it a really attractive price point
Origin Story
(RRP: £29.99)
This new offering from Stonemaier Games is a gorgeous, tight little engine builder. It feels like the struggles of a super starting out, not quite sure which path to take, making decisions good and bad. The trick taking is familiar but I love that, well, love is the trump suit (against speed, brains and strength) – wonder woman would be proud! Also, the art by Doodleblule is in stunning watercolours that are reminiscent of (though quite distinct from) the work of David Mack (Kabuki, particularly, but familiar to most folk for Daredevil and Cap) and Alex Ross.
The gameplay over 5 rounds is fast and satisfying. It’s always challenging to find a competitive game that satisfies all 3 of us – the 15 yo prefers low-mid weight co-op or light dungeon crawlers, as a rule, whereas 18 yo prefers cutthroat mid weight engine or tableau builders – so the fact that this made for a great experience for all 3 of us is really impressive (I’ll play pretty much anything, I just like fresh takes on familiar mechanics).
Stamina builds over rounds, and can be used as a resource to power up super abilities and backstory elements. Highly thematic, as each round you draw 3 new power cards and pick one to add to your tableau – BUT on R3, an EVENT (think Crisis, or storyline comic) impacts all of you, and on R5 you become your super identity, for good or ill.
This game is, well, super. It’s rare that a small box game has such a big footprint – it certainly doesn’t feel small. I also applaud that it’s so well priced, SM meeting head-on the marketplace challenges (though I would’ve maybe liked another wee divider in the box to keep stuff organised). An outstanding effort from the SM team.
Codo Berlin 63
(RRP: £29.99)
From the minds that brought you Shackleton Base and Kingdom Crossing comes a weird and wonderful game of duplicitous double-agents and superpowered spies in Cold War Berlin. Each player assembles the same team of 8 spies – 5 on the board, one of whom is secretly also your leader, and 3 in reserve. Pieces face players so movement of exactly who it is is secret, and you aim to land on the opposing pieces to take them, winning by taking their leader. Each turn you can move a piece single space orthogonally, or can swap 2 tiles secretly (from the board or reserve). Why? Because each character has a super power that they can use after moving… but you can, and will, LIE THROUGH YOUR TEETH.
You can claim to use any superpower, but it’s is up to your opponent to challenge. Challenge wrongly, and they lose a reserve; challenge a bluff correctly, and YOU lose one – and if a player can’t lose a reserve, they lose the game!
This is the core of the game’s strategy, and a whole lot of fun to be had as a result. I enjoyed the game as quick devious bit of strategy, the spawn was less of a fan, but there we go. Fab component quality too, great guides and a little Berlin wall box divider!
GIVEAWAY TIME!
This month have a copy of Codo Berlin 63 this month for you lovely people thanks to our chums at Hachette. And this month’s giveaway is super simple – Just tell us which superhero movie you’re most excited for this year! As usual, enter here AND on our socials for bonus entries!
And finally the winner of the January giveaway is… @board_ray on Instagram!
The Writer of this piece was: Sam Graven
Article Archive: Geeking Out
You can follow Sam on Instagram at @big_geekingout
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