Marvel Zombies – A Zombicide Game

The very popular miniature board game about the Zombie Apocalypse got several releases and supplements, along with a very interesting themed white label with Super Heroes - Zombicide Marvel Zombies in 2023.

Maybe not everybody knows this, as Marvel Zombies has been around, much longer and not just with the What-If Episodes on Disney Plus (and will receive a mini-series later this year!), but they were a series of comic books and collections, and as such the perfect material to be adapted onto the board game

The game was funded by a crowdfunding campaign, gathering more than 9 million USD (!) - and currently ranks #4 on the most backed campaigns for miniature board games on Kickstarter.

What is it about?

The self-description of the game is this:

When the zombie plague strikes, not even Earth’s mightiest heroes are safe. Marvel Zombies is a cooperative board game for 1 to 6 players, based on the core mechanics of the smash hit Zombicide series, bringing non-stop zombie action to the Marvel universe. The original art by comics legend Marco Checchetto is brought to life in amazing game pieces depicting the iconic Marvel characters in glorious (and often gory) detail. 

Fight the insatiable hunger, for heroes never die, they just change.

Compared to the other Zombicide games, you play in the core game the Zombie Mode, where 1 to 6 players are in control of the turned-zombie super heroes and fight against living super heroes and waves of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, while feeding off bystanders and managing their hunger level to gain power and maintain control. But wait a minute, a single player? Yes, the game covers basic mechanics for the movement and interaction of the survivors, so you can play the game on your own against it.

Regarding canon this plays on Earth 2149, also called the Zombiverse, which mirrors the prime setting of the Marvel Universe on Earth 616.

First Impression

The first haptic feedback you get, when you pick up this box is very appealing, as it is heavy and comes with proper artwork, setting the tone of the game and universe, you are about to dive into. Many people will know about the Kickstarter campaign and how CMON added a sheer endless number of additional heroes in variants ontop, if you went all in. Yet, even with the stock version, you get a lot of models - 87 in total, of which 6 are regular heroes and another 6 are zombie variants of heroes. But more on that later.

The miniatures come on a separate tray inside a card board box, with a print on it to give you an overview on who is who. This is great, as it provides you with a decent storage solution in between games. And on top, there's a QR code on it, which leads you to the CoolMiniOrNot page of the game and gives access to two free missions / scenarios (The Anti-Hunger Device and Hunting Jane).

Beneath that tray you will find further gaming components, including the printed materials (tokens, tiles and markers), you will need for the game. There's also rings, small unmarked dice and regular dice in black and red.

The instructions provide you a good overview on the rules and introduction to the game. As you can see from the layout, you will need a mid-sized table to play this as you will use between 4 to 6 tiles for your games and need space for the further gaming materials around them. The back of the instructions covers a reference sheet / overview on the gaming sequences, which comes in handy.

The printed content is well made, from thick card board and properly cut. As usual with this kind of material, some people might want to seal the edges and / or paint them black.

All heroes in this box come with stat cards, and this goes for both the living and undead heroes, so you can use the content in addition with the supplement X-Men Resistance for the different game modes (you switch sides and fight against the undead). These cards are used along the colours rings and dice to keep track of your characters, his special features and the hunger level, which is the main part of the game mechanics, as you want to keep your Zombie heroes in a certain range, to have them functional. Becoming Zombies didn't affect their superpowers, each zombie hero has unique skills that they can unlock the more enemies they eliminate/devour.

Regarding the heroes, the core set provides you with 6 Zombie Heroes, which are Deadpool, Wasp, Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America and Captain Marvel. These miniatures are cast in a light green plastic, have a little flexibility to them, but the details are quite amazing for board game miniatures and are tabletop-worthy.

Same goes for the quality of the living heroes. For easier identification, those are casted in a mid-blue and have a good amount of detail, once again absolutely fitting for tabletop usage, beyond board games. The team of heroes consists out of Scarlet Witch, Dr. Strange, Spiderman, Thor, Ms. Marvel and Black Panther.

Then there are various bystanders, from generic ones to "named" ones, among others Pepper Potts, Agent Coulson, J J Jameson, Thunderbolt Ross, Bob, and further generic troopers.

To give you an idea regarding the size of the models, they are around 32-35mm scale, a bit less tall than the Marvel Crisis Protocol miniatures, and in some cases the larger heroes have been shrunk down a bit to fit the bases and available space.

With this unboxing part concluded, I am very satisfied with the content so far. A proper load of miniatures, the main actors are well captured and the quality of the further gaming components, especially with the casted trays for the characters and such add value to the setup. But if you are not just looting these for the models, and want to know more about the game mechanics, let us move on to the next step.

How does Marvel Zombies play?

First of all, you can download the Rules as PDF for free from the distributor's pages, and read them there. But beyond that, there are multiple Let's Plays that cover this topic and surely are more accessible than the plain written word. For that reason, I linked Board Game Coffee and Quackalope. Please note that Marvel Zombies plays a bit different from regular Zombicide, as a few of the core mechanics are handled differently for example, as we have characters with super powers, there is no equipment deck, as well as the addition of the heroic traits, to gain abilities. The most present difference is the hunger and power mechanic (depending if you play Hero or Zombie mode), which unlocks certain powers and abilities, and in addition to that the interaction with bystanders, you need to save or devour these (once again, depending if you play in Hero or Zombie mode).

What's next?

There are already multiple supplements for the game available, partially for pre-order right along with the crowdfunding campaign. The most interesting one, as it switches sides and enables to play as the Heroes against an endless wave of the Undead is X-Men Resistance, which adds Colossus, Rogue, Wolverine, Magneto, Storm and Mystique as heroes, as well as Iceman, Juggernaut, Cyclops, Dark Phoenix, Psylocke and Sabretooth as Zombies to the game. In addition, it provides further tiles to the game, adding the X-Mansion of Professor X to the New York tiles of the core game. Yet, the game has Zombie Mode compatibility and you can unlocks playing both boxes in Zombie or Hero mode.

In case of Heroes' Resistance, you get a slimmed down version of the X-Men supplement, a stand-alone for 1 to 4 players, which introduces Hero mode as well. This box provides you with the living heroes Hulk, Spiderman, Bucky/Winter Soldiers, Vision, Wasp and Black Panther and the Zombie versions of Scarlet Witch, Dr. Strange, Iron Man and Captain America. A bit of an unusual choice, and stands out a bit, as you get alt-poses and double heroes if you mix this with the core set, as you now have double Black Panther, Iron Man and Captain America.

The core set Marvel Zombies, X-Men Resistance and Heroes' Resistance can all be played on their own, limited to their according game mode (Zombie-Mode with the core, Hero Mode with X-Men and Heroes' Resistance) and unlock the other game mode by adding the other set to it. Which means the core set needs either X-Men or Heroes' for Hero mode and the other two need the core set for Zombie mode.

There are four further expansions, all cover new heroes and zombies, as well as bystanders and new tiles, and in two cases you get a special enemy, Red Skull and Thanos, adding another layer to the threat level. These are not stand-alone sets, but need one of the games mentioned above to be played.

Fantastic Four - Under Siege, adds 10 miniatures (2 sets of 4 heroes and two bystanders) in the setting of New York. The addition of the Baster Building adds elevators to the game, along with 5 new missions. The living heroes are the Fantastic Four themself, Mr. Fantastic, The Thing, Invisible Woman and Human Torch. The zombies are all villains, in this case Dr. Doom, Super-Skrull, Namor and Black Bolt. The bystanders are Alicia Masters and Agatha Harkness.

The Clash of the Sinister Six expansion provides a new team mode, which brings up the amount players from 4-6 to a maximum of 8. 7 new missions are added to the game, along with 14 miniatures, covering the living heroes of Venom, Mysterio, Scorpion, Kraven, Sandman and Black Cat, as well as the Zombies Green Goblin, Electro, Vulture, Lizard, Dr. Octopus and Rhino, and two bystanders Gwen Stacy and Flash Thompson.

With Hydra Resurrection you get the first special enemy in an expansion (beyond the Galactus mode), fighting against Red Skull (coming in red, instead of blue or green), the heroes Black Widow, Ant-Man, She-Hulk and another Vision, as well as the Zombies Hawkeye, Quicksilver, Falcon and Loki. And as this is a Hydra themed expansion, you get 14 new Hydra soldiers, along with two bystanders Nick Fury and Maria Hill, providing a total of 25 miniatures with this expansion.

The second expansion covering a special enemy and threat level mechanics is Guardians of the Galaxy, with Thanos being the villain in both modes, Hero and Zombie. He comes as a red miniature just like Red Skull, the remaining miniatures cover the Gamora, Groot, Mantis and Nova as living heroes, and Star-Lord, Rocket, Drax and Nebula as Zombies, along with Howard the Duck and Cosmo the Space Dog as Bystanders.

There is another expansion, which was Kickstarter exclusive, Sentinel Strike, covering Professor X as a Zombie and regular Hero, along with three Sentinels.

Conclusion

This game goes both ways. If you are a casual player, the core game covers proper comic book heroes themed action and if you want to go all in, you had the chance to do so with the Kickstarter, as it was incredibly successful for CMON with almost 29,000 pledgers and a total of 9 Mio USD collected. With these pledges, the game received an incredible number of added miniatures, variants and most heroes included in both variants alive and undead. Yes, there were huge issues with the shipping and additional costs, but that was part of the Kickstarter campaign, we're looking at the regular product range now. Which has a great availability through the network of Asmodee, and reasonable prices as well.

Yes, you don't have access to the exclusive items, but with 3 core sets and 4 expansions, there is still a lot of gaming material available. Beyond that, I like the game play and as a board game it is more accessible to others, compared to for example even skirmish tabletop systems. And this might be a gateway to get others into your gaming group. Beyond that, I am sure with the upcoming delivery of DCeased (Even as that game does not cover Zombie Mode, only hero mode), your own Amalgam / proper Multiverse of Madness will arise.

As for the value, the prices vary a lot. I have seen the core set for around 85 EURs, other charge up to 150 EURs for it. The expansions all range between 40 to 60 EURs, with the most expensive one currently being the X-Men Resistance at ~125 EUR. The core game certainly is worth the 80 to 100 EUR range, and among the expansions, Hydra Resurrection with 25 miniatures provides the best value, with 25 miniatures and a threat level game mode.

Zombicide is a game by Guillotine Games and distributed by Asmodee and CoolMiniOrNot.

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.