Marvel United: Civil War Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Player vs Player Modes
• Special Rules for Both Modes
  • Terminology
  • Storylines
  • Locations
  • Shields
• Clash of Heroes
  • Setup
  • Round Sequence
  • Public Endorsement
  • Population Cards
  • Scoring
  • Balancing the Game
• Registration Clash
  • Setup
  • Turn Sequence
  • Winning the Game
  • Missions and Population Cards
  • Danger Tokens
  • Shifting Location Control
  • The Vault
  • Tournament Setup and Rules
• Additional Rules for Both PvP Modes
  • Special Effects Adaptations
  • Banned Locations
  • Compatibility

Components

• 120 Hero cards (12 for each Hero)
• 13 Equipment cards
• 1 Impersonating card
• 6 Locations
• 12 Population cards
• 1 double-sided Civil War Dashboard
• 9 Shield tokens
• 6 plastic bases (3 blue and 3 red)
• 6 Location Control tokens
• 1 Clash of Heroes Summary card
• 6 Clash of Heroes Event cards
• 2 Team Trackers
• 6 Team Blue Mission cards
• 6 Cell cards
• 6 Danger tokens
• Figures: Captain America, Kate Bishop, Spectrum, Hulkling, Goliath, Iron Man, Tigra, Wonder Man, Yellow Jacket, Iron Spider

Player vs Player Modes

Included in this expansion are two different Player vs Player (PvP) modes. Two new special ways to play Marvel United without the Villain, with Heroes facing against each other: Clash of Heroes, a more casual mode, and Registration Clash, a more competitive mode.

In the Player vs Player modes, the players are divided into 2 opposing Teams with 2 or 3 Heroes each (either 2x2 or 3x3).

While both modes share some of the same special rules, they also each have special rules of their own, all described over the following pages.

Special Rules for Both Modes

• In case of effects whose conditions are tied, the active Hero decides how they should be resolved.

Terminology

• Heroes belonging to your Team are considered Heroes for all your game effects.
• Heroes belonging to the opposing Team are considered Enemies for all your game effects.
  • This means a Hero can use Attack actions to deal damage to a Hero belonging to the opposing Team, causing them to discard 1 card.
• Terms such as Villain and Henchman are considered to be Enemy (opposing Hero) for all your game effects.
• A turn in which an Enemy (opposing Hero) is the active Hero is considered a Villain turn for all your game effects.

Storylines

• Heroes take their turns as in the standard game. However, each Team has their own independent Storyline, starting on opposite sides of the play area.
• When taking their turn, Heroes only benefit from the symbols at the bottom of the previous Hero card in their own Team's Storyline. Effects that refer to the Storyline refer only to cards in that Team's specific Storyline.

Locations

• The active Hero may choose to apply the End of Turn effect of the Location where they end their turn only if the Location is controlled by their own Team, as indicated by its Location Control token showing their Team color.
• Locations' permanent effects and mandatory End of Turn effects apply to both Teams, regardless of which Team controls the Location.
• When an Overflow is triggered in a Location, the Team that controls that Location must choose any 1 of their Heroes to take 1 unpreventable damage.

Shields

• Each Hero has 1 or 2 Shield tokens in front of them (depending on the mode).
• Each time they take damage (even if unpreventable), if they have a Shield token on its active side, they MUST flip it to its exhausted side instead of discarding cards from their hand. They are still considered to have taken damage for any game effects.
  • Please note this only applies to damage. If an effect explicitly makes the Hero discard 1 or more cards from their hand, they can't choose to flip their active Shield tokens instead. They must discard the card(s).
• When a Hero recovers from being KO'd, they flip their Shield token(s) back to the active side.

Clash of Heroes

In this PvP mode, both Teams compete by fighting each other and performing other tasks to get the highest score by the end of 6 Rounds.

Setup

1. Place the Civil War Dashboard in the middle of the table, Clash of Heroes side up. Place both Team Tracker cubes on the 0 space of the score track.
2. Shuffle 6 Locations and place them around the dashboard, filling any marked slots of each Location with either Civilian or Thug tokens, as indicated. Players can choose to play with the 6 Locations included in this expansion or use any combination of Locations they own (except the ones listed in the Banned Locations list at the end of this rulebook).
3. Each Team chooses their Heroes (either 2x2 or 3x3) and attaches a plastic base of their Team's color to their game pieces. Each Team places their Heroes in their respective Team's starting Location (indicated by the corresponding arrows on the board).
4. Place Location Control tokens on the Threat slots of each Location. Blue side up on the Team Blue starting Location and the 2 Locations adjacent to the Team Red starting Location, Red side up on the 3 remaining Locations.
5. Each Hero takes 1 Shield token and places it in front of them, active side up.
6. Each Hero must take the card marked with the two Team-colored card icons (shown as two green and yellow card symbols on the printed page) from their Hero deck and remove it from the game. Then, they shuffle their deck and draw 3 cards into their hand. Heroes should use their Equipment cards, if they have any. Heroes with no Equipment cards can choose 1 Generic Equipment card. If they decide not to, they must still remove the card marked with the two card icons from their deck.
7. Shuffle the Event cards in a facedown deck within reach of the players. Remove 1 card from the game, keeping it facedown. No Event card is revealed at the start of the game.

Round Sequence

Once the active Hero (for the first turn, the starting Hero chosen by the starting Team) has completed all the steps of their turn, the Teams proceed, alternating their Hero turns until 2 Heroes from each Team have played their turn.

After each 4 Hero turns (2 for each Team, playing back and forth) a Round ends and the top card of the Event deck is revealed. Event cards can have instantaneous effects that are immediately applied, or ongoing effects that are applied until a new Event card is revealed (after each Round ends, discard the current active Event and reveal a new one from the top of the deck).

Then, players Check Initiative. The Team that is trailing behind in points starts the new Round with their following Hero in turn sequence (in case of a tie, the Team trailing behind is the one that has their Tracker on top of the other Team's Tracker). The first Hero of each Round should take the Summary card for reference.

NOTE: In 2x2 games, if the Initiative doesn't change, the Hero that started the previous Round will also start the current Round. While in 3x3 games, even if the Initiative doesn't change, the Hero starting the new Round won't be the same that started the previous Round.

The game continues to be played in Rounds, following the sequence stated above, with a new Event card replacing the previous one at the end of each Round.

• When the 5th and last Event card is revealed, a last Round is played and then the game ends.
• Alternatively, if a Team's Tracker reaches or surpasses 40, the game ends at the end of that Round.

(Page 3 of the printed rulebook shows the setup layout and an example of Initiative across Rounds 1 and 2: in Round 1, Team Red is chosen to start; in Round 2, Team Blue gains the Initiative. The Event cards shown are Project: Lightning, with the value 5, and Under the Eye, with the value 10.)

Public Endorsement

Heroes may use Heroic Actions to place a Heroic Action token from the pool on an empty slot of the Public Endorsement area of the dashboard corresponding to the Location in which the Heroic Action is performed. This can only be done by Heroes in a Location their Team doesn't control (as indicated by its Location Control token showing the opposing Team color side up).

When 2 Heroic Action tokens have been placed in a Location's Public Endorsement area, discard them and flip that Location Control token to the other side.

Example: A Team Red Hero is in a Location controlled by the Blue Team. The Hero spends 2 Heroic Actions to place 2 Heroic Action tokens in the corresponding Public Endorsement space. The 2 tokens are immediately discarded and the Location Control token is flipped Red side up, showing that the Location is now controlled by Team Red. Now, Team Red Heroes can use its End of Turn effect if they end their turn there.

Population Cards

After each Hero turn, check if any green spaces on the score track were reached or surpassed for the first time. If so, draw and resolve 1 Population card for each one. Add the indicated number of Thug and/or Civilian tokens in the Locations as shown on the card. Use the red and blue arrows on the dashboard as references.

IMPORTANT: In case both a Population card and an Event card must be drawn and resolved after a Hero turn, first draw and resolve the Population card.

NOTE: After the very last Hero turn (when the game ends) don't draw and resolve Population cards.

Scoring

On their turn, Heroes can advance their Team's Tracker by rescuing Civilians, defeating Thugs, KO'ing Enemies, and taking Control of Locations. Each time each of these happens, advance the Trackers accordingly:

• A Civilian is rescued - Advance by 1 space the Tracker of the Team that rescued it.
• A Thug is defeated - Advance by 1 space the Tracker of the Team that defeated it.
• A Hero is KO'd - Advance by 5 spaces the Tracker of the opposing Team.
• A Location Control token is flipped - Advance by 1 space the Tracker of the Team whose side is now up.

IMPORTANT: When a Tracker enters a space occupied by the opposing Team's Tracker, it must be placed on top of the Tracker that was already there.

At the end of the game, the Team whose Tracker is ahead on the score track is the winner!

If there's a tie, the Team that controls the most Locations is the winner. In case of a further tie in Locations control, the Team whose Tracker is below the other is the winner.

Balancing the Game

In case a Team is composed of more experienced players, they can balance the game by allowing the opposing Team to keep their two card-icon Hero cards (shown as two green and yellow card symbols on the printed page).

Registration Clash

In this PvP mode, based on the conflict surrounding the Super Hero Registration Act, the Anti-Registration Team Blue tries to complete 5 Missions within a predetermined number of Hero turns, while the Pro-Registration Team Red tries to prevent them from reaching their goal.

Setup

Before proceeding, each Team chooses their Heroes (either 2x2 or 3x3).

One of the Teams (chosen randomly) declares a number of Hero cards in their Storyline within which they bet they can complete 5 Missions while playing as Team Blue. The Teams then alternate declaring decreasing numbers until one Team passes. The Team that passed will play as Team Red. The other will play as Team Blue, trying to complete 5 Missions within the last number of turns they declared.

TIP: Consider that 1 Mission can be completed on average within 3 Blue Hero cards. So, we suggest for your first game, you start betting above 15 and not bet your way below 12. Once you are familiar with this mode and how different Heroes perform at it, you can freely decide how far you want to risk it.

1. Place the Civil War dashboard in the middle of the table, Registration Clash side up.
2. Shuffle 6 Locations and place them around the dashboard, filling any marked slots of each Location with either Civilian or Thug tokens, as indicated. Players can choose to play with the 6 Locations included in this expansion or use any combination of Locations they own (except the ones listed in the Banned Locations list at the end of this rulebook).
3. Each Team attaches a plastic base with their Team's color to each of their Hero game pieces and places them in their respective Team's starting Location (indicated by the corresponding arrows on the board).
4. Place Location Control tokens on the Threat slots of each Location. Blue side up on the Team Blue starting Location and the 2 Locations adjacent to the Team Red starting Location, Red side up on the 3 remaining Locations.
5. Each Team Red Hero takes 1 Shield token and places it in front of them, active side up. Team Blue Heroes each take 2 tokens instead.
6. Each Hero must take the card marked with the two card icons (shown as two green and yellow card symbols on the printed page) from their Hero deck and remove it from the game. Then, they shuffle their deck and draw 3 cards into their hand. Heroes should use their Equipment cards, if they have any. Heroes with no Equipment cards can choose 1 Generic Equipment card. If they decide not to, they must still remove the card marked with the two card icons from their deck.
7. Shuffle the Mission cards in a facedown deck within reach of Team Blue. Remove 1 card from the game, showing it to both Teams.

Turn Sequence

Once the starting Hero has completed all the steps of their turn, the Teams proceed, alternating their Hero turns back and forth, going through their Heroes in order until the end of the game.

The game ends immediately when:

• Team Blue completes the 5th Mission.
• The number of turns declared by Team Blue has elapsed.
• Any Hero starts their turn with no cards both in their deck and in their hand.

Winning the Game

Team Blue wins if they manage to complete the 5th Mission within the number of Hero cards in the Team Blue Storyline that they declared at the start of the game.

Team Red wins if they can keep Team Blue from completing 5 Missions in the number of turns declared.

Missions and Population Cards

Each time a Mission is completed, immediately after the current Hero turn is over, draw and resolve 1 Population card. Add the indicated number of Thug and/or Civilian tokens in the Locations as shown on the card. Use the red and blue arrows on the dashboard as references.

NOTE: After the 5th Mission (when the game ends) don't draw and resolve a Population card.

Then, after the current Hero turn, discard the completed Mission card and reveal the top Mission card of the deck and apply its effects. This is the new Mission for Team Blue to complete.

Danger Tokens

• If the effects of a Mission card can't be fully applied, apply as many as possible. For example, if a Mission requires a Danger token to be placed on 2 Thugs in the 2 Locations with the most Thugs and there is only 1 Location with 2 Thugs and 1 Location with a single Thug in play, place a Danger token on all 3 Thugs.
• Danger tokens can never be discarded or removed by any effect that discards or removes tokens. They can only be discarded following the instructions on the active Mission card. If a Civilian or a Thug with a Danger token on it is moved to another Location, move the Danger token with it.

Shifting Location Control

When a Hero uses the End of Turn effect of a Location controlled by their Team, immediately flip the Location Control token to the other side, shifting control of it to the other Team.

The Vault

To stop Team Blue from completing its insurgent Missions, Team Red relies on the Vault. They can tag Team Blue Heroes and throw them in Cells with specially prepared Traps to keep them out of action.

• Team Red Heroes may spend 1 Heroic Action in a Location occupied by a Team Blue Hero to give them 1 Crisis token, tagging them to be trapped.
• During their turn, Team Red Heroes may spend 1 Heroic Action to take 1 available Cell card and place it facedown (with its Trap side down) in a free Cell space on the Vault (the dashboard). A free space on the Vault is a space that is not already occupied by a Cell card or by a Hero. The Team may choose together which card to place, but the active Hero chooses if there is no agreement.
• When a Team Blue Hero is KO'd, if there's at least 1 Cell card ready on the Vault, Team Red must choose 1 ready Cell and place the laid down Hero in the corresponding space on the Vault.
  • If the KO'd Hero has any Crisis tokens, the Trap effect of that Cell card is applied and the card is discarded, along with all of that Hero's Crisis tokens. Note that Trap effects don't have to target the KO'd Hero.
  • Otherwise, that Cell card is discarded with no effect.
• Should a Team Blue Hero be KO'd while there are no Cell cards on the Vault, that Hero is simply laid down in their Location and will recover from the KO on their next turn with no special consequences, following the standard game rules.
• Team Blue Heroes starting their turn in a Cell after being KO'd stand back upright and replenish their hand following the standard rules. They proceed to play a Hero card on their turn as usual. However, as long as they are imprisoned in a Cell, they cannot move from there by any means, Special Effects on all their Hero cards are canceled, and they can neither use their Equipment cards nor recharge them. This means they effectively lose their turn without performing any Actions unless they can free themselves (see next page).

NOTE: Cells are not considered Locations for game effects.

Example (page 7 of the printed rulebook): Kate Bishop is KO'd. As there are 2 Cells ready in the Vault, Team Red chooses to place her lying down in Cell A. As she has a Crisis token, the Trap in her Cell card is resolved and discarded, removing 1 of Captain America's Shield tokens. Kate's Crisis token is discarded.

Shieldbreaker Trap (Cell card): Team Red can remove from the game 1 Shield token (even if already used) belonging to a Team Blue Hero, even if KO'd. Then, discard this card.

Tournament Setup and Rules

When playing in a competitive tournament environment, the following changes apply to Registration Clash mode.

The 2 Teams face each other over 2 back-to-back games, using the same Heroes, same Locations setup, same 5 Cell cards, and same 5 Mission cards (to be shuffled again as they don't have to be in the same order), but swapping their Team color and roles. So, in the second game, Team Blue players will play with the same Heroes but as Team Red and vice versa.

Before setting up the game, go through the following procedure that replaces the one described in the preceding Registration Clash rules:

1. Randomly decide which Team will play the first game as Team Blue.
2. Each Team chooses 4 Locations. Then, both Teams, starting from the one that will play the first game as Team Blue, shows their selection to the other Team, who removes 1 of those Locations. The resulting assembly of 6 Locations will be used for both games (it's ok if this results in having 2 copies of the same Location in the games). The Locations are arranged randomly, and the setup should not be changed between games.
3. The Team that will play the first game as Team Blue declares 1 of their Heroes. Then, the Team that will play as Team Red declares 2 of their Heroes. Then, Team Blue declares their remaining Hero. If it's a 3x3 game, Team Blue declares their last Hero as well, followed by Team Red's last Hero.

While both Teams can use copies of the same Hero, the same Team cannot have two identical Heroes (though variants like Wolverine and Old Man Logan are allowed).

IMPORTANT: Team cards are not allowed in tournaments.

When each game ends, Team Blue counts the number of their Hero turns they took to complete the 5 Missions, while Team Red counts the number of Cell cards they discarded (each discarded Cell corresponds to an imprisoned Enemy). Keep note of this information.

NOTE: During the second game, if Team Blue fails to complete the 5 Missions within the number of turns their opponents took in the previous game, the game immediately ends.

After both games, the winning Team is the one that managed to complete the 5 Missions in the lowest number of Hero turns. In case of a tie (if both Teams have the same number or if neither completed the 5 Missions), the winning Team is the one that discarded the most Cell cards. If the tie persists, the Team that played Team Red in the second game is the winner.

Additional Rules for Both PvP Modes

Special Effects Adaptations

If an effect refers to these keywords, consider them as follows, completely replacing the original effect:

• Threats: If an effect refers to adding Action tokens to a Threat, it now refers to adding Heroic Action tokens to a Public Endorsement space instead. If it refers to clearing a Threat, it now refers to flipping a Location Control token to your side. If it refers to swapping Threats, it now refers to swapping Location Control tokens instead (if it refers to moving Threats, it has no effect).
• Delay the next Villain turn: During the next Enemy turn, the Hero won't benefit from 1 symbol of their choice at the bottom of the previous Hero card in their Storyline.
• Accelerate the next Villain turn: During the next Enemy turn, the Hero may use 1 symbol of their choice at the bottom of the previous Hero card in their Storyline twice.
• Play a Master Plan card facedown with no effect: During the next Enemy turn, the Hero won't benefit from any symbols on the previous Hero card in their Storyline.
• BAM!: Consider the BAM! as all the Attack symbols both at the bottom and on the Special Effects of the cards used by the Enemy in their Storyline.
• Master Plan card/deck: It refers to 1 of the Enemy Hero cards or decks. The active Hero can choose which Enemy to target. If it refers to the two Enemy-type icons shown on the printed page added by a Master Plan card, it refers to the Population card instead.
• Stunned token: Attach a Stunned token to an Enemy. Heroes with a Stunned token treat Special Effects on all their Hero cards in their Storyline as blank until the end of their turn. Then, they discard all their Stunned tokens.
• Health: Effects that refer to a Villain or Henchman's Health refer to the number of Hero cards in an Enemy's hand. (Special case: Squirrel Girl's Common Sense considers the total number of cards in the hands of all Enemies.)

Banned Locations

The following Locations are not compatible with either PvP mode and may not be chosen during setup:

• Marvel United: S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters, Stark Laboratories
• Rise of the Black Panther: Great Mound
• The Infinity Gauntlet: Hala, all 6 Thanos Locations.
• Blue Team: Mojoverse
• Gold Team: Hellfire Club Building
• First Class: The Danger Room
• X-Force: Morlock Tunnels
• Maximum Carnage: Statue of Liberty
• The Age of Apocalypse: Dark Beast Laboratory, The Core (Seattle Slave Camp)
• Secret Invasion: Camp Hammond
• Annihilation: Harvester of Sorrow
• Multiverse Promos: Monster Isle

Compatibility

• Both PvP modes are NOT compatible with any other mode.
• Companion cards CANNOT be used in either PvP mode.