Marvel United: X-Men – Phoenix Five
Marvel United: X-Men – Phoenix Five Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
The Phoenix Five expansion contains:
- 5 Phoenix Five Villain miniatures: Cyclops, Emma Frost, Colossus, Magik and Namor
- 1 Hope Summers miniature
- 12 Hero cards
- 5 Villain dashboards
- 60 Master Plan cards (12 per Villain)
- 1 Mission card (Train Hope)
- 30 Threat cards (6 per Villain)
- 6 Phoenix Force Threat cards
Phoenix Five Campaign
Players undertake a series of games taking on each of the Phoenix Five. If the Heroes lose a game, the campaign immediately ends with their defeat. If they win a game, they move on to fight the next Villain (who grows in power). How far into the campaign the Heroes are able to go will be the mark of their success. Only the best can hope to defeat the 5th and final Villain with the full power of the Phoenix Force.
Players choose 1 of the Phoenix Five Villains to face in the first game and follow the standard rules. During setup, replace the Defeat Thugs Mission card with the Train Hope Mission card.
Train Hope Mission
To complete this Mission, a Hero must use both a Move and an Attack action during the same turn to place a pair of tokens (a Move token and an Attack token) from the pool on the card. These actions are spent to add the tokens to the Mission and do not allow the Hero to Move and/or Attack. Once 3 pairs of tokens are added, the Mission is complete.
Note: Heroes can still defeat Thugs, though their tokens are simply discarded.
Transcriber note: the printed Super Villain Mode and Phoenix Force token icons are not text. The coloured block icon is rendered as "Action tokens" by reading the surrounding rule and the Hero's discard rule. Verify against the base rulebook if in doubt.
If the Heroes defeat the Villain, they then choose another of the Phoenix Five to face. The rules of these subsequent games have a few extra differences.
Setup
Transcriber note: the printed Setup section interleaves bullets with worked examples, shown here in printed order.
- Each game, players can use a different set of Heroes. The only restriction is that a Hero cannot be used until their Phoenix Five version has been defeated.
- The Villain's Health is equal to the number written on their dashboard plus 1 for each previously defeated Phoenix Five Villain.
- Place the current Villain dashboard on top of the dashboards belonging to the previously defeated Villains, so that only the BAM! effect of the previous Villains can be seen.
Example: The Heroes defeated first Cyclops, then Emma Frost, and are now going to fight Namor. Namor's dashboard is placed on top of the other ones, so players see, from top to bottom, the BAM! effects of Namor, Emma Frost, then Cyclops. 6 Health tokens are placed on Namor's dashboard (4 base Health + 2 Health for the 2 previously defeated Villains).
-
Locations can be changed from game to game or kept the same. Just make sure to reset them and remove any Crisis tokens on them.
-
For each Villain that has been previously defeated, replace 1 random Threat card of the current Villain with a random Phoenix Force Threat card. A Phoenix Force Threat cannot be placed in the Heroes' starting Location. If that would happen, swap it with the first regular Threat clockwise. The Phoenix Force Threat cards are always shuffled back in their deck between games.
Example: The Heroes defeated Cyclops and Emma Frost and are now going to fight Namor. They take the 6 Namor Threat cards and randomly discard 2. Then, add 2 random Phoenix Force Threat cards and shuffle them together. They place 1 Threat card faceup on each Location.
- Crisis tokens received and Action tokens gained in previous games are discarded.
Special Rules
- The BAM! effects of the Phoenix Five are cumulative, so each Villain brings all the BAM! effects of the previously defeated Villains. When a Villain activates their BAM!, they activate all the BAM! effects available to them, from top to bottom. The BAM! at the top will apply before the BAM! below it, and so on.
Example: The Heroes are fighting Namor after first defeating Cyclops, then Emma Frost. Every time Namor's BAM! activates, the BAM! effects of Namor, Emma Frost, then Cyclops are activated in order. First, 1 damage is dealt to 1 Hero in Namor's Location. Then, 1 Crisis token is given to each Hero in Namor's Location and to 1 Hero in each adjacent one. Finally, 1 damage is dealt to each Hero in both Locations adjacent to Namor.
- The Special Rules of previously defeated Villains are not still in effect, except for the effect of the Crisis tokens assigned by Emma Frost's BAM!: Heroes with any Crisis tokens at the beginning of their turn must play their Hero card randomly. Then, discard all their Crisis tokens.
- When a Hero is KO'd by Magik, they are banished. The player must discard all their Action tokens and choose a different Hero to resume playing. The new Hero is laid down in the Location of the banished one. Any Super Hero card in the hand of the player may be used by the new Hero. The banished Hero may be used against a subsequent Villain.
Super Villain Mode Campaign
In Super Villain Mode, players will face each other in a "best 3 out of 5 games" campaign. As soon as the Heroes or the Villain win 3 games, they win the campaign.
The Heroes start the first game with 6 Action tokens. In each following game, they start with 2 fewer Action tokens for each game they won, and 2 more Action tokens for each game they lost.
Example 1: The Heroes won the 1st game, so they start the 2nd one with 4 tokens.
Example 2: The Heroes lost the 1st and 2nd game, so they start the 3rd one with 10 tokens.
Standalone Game
A single standalone game can be played against one of the Phoenix Five. It is handled as if playing the 3rd game in a campaign:
- After choosing the Villain to face, draw 2 extra random ones.
- Place their dashboards under the chosen Villain's dashboard, so only their BAM! is visible.
- Replace 2 random Threat cards with 2 random Phoenix Force Threat cards.
- Set the Villain's Health to 6.
- If using Super Villain Mode, the Heroes start with 6 Action tokens.