Villainous Return -Marvel Champions Unofficial Campaign – Scenario #2: Rhino’s Return

Welcome to the second scenario in the Villainous Return campaign. See the campaign overview page for an overview of the campaign procedure and then jump back here to get set-up. The difficulty of this campaign will scale as your team of heroes collects more wins or suffers more losses.

Scenario #2 – Rhino’s Return

Villain Deck : Rhino (I), Rhino (II)

Remove Rhino (I) and add Rhino (III) for expert or insane mode.

Main Scheme Deck: The Break-In!

Encounter Deck: Rhino set, Standard set, more sets as prescribed below in Setup.

Add the expert set for expert and insane mode.

Setup:

  • If you won the previous scenario:
    • Shuffle the Return of Rhino*, Legions of Hydra, and Advanced Legions of Hydra* modular sets into the villain deck.
    • Standard: No special rules.
    • Expert: Deal each player a face-down encounter card.
    • Insane: Search the encounter deck for a Hydra Soldier minion and put that minion into play engaged with the first player. Shuffle the encounter deck. Then, deal each player a face-down encounter card.
    • *Custom sets included below
  • If you lost the previous scenario:
    • Shuffle the Return of Rhino*, Bomb Scare, and Advanced Bomb Scare* modular sets into the villain deck.
    • Standard: No special rules.
    • Expert: Deal each player a face-down encounter card.
    • Insane: Search the encounter deck for a Hydra Mercenary minion and put that minion into play engaged with the first player. Shuffle the encounter deck. Then, deal each player a face-down encounter card.
    • *Custom sets included below

Custom Set Print Files:

Advanced Bomb Scare – The goal of this Advanced Modular set is to enhance the Bomb Scare modular set forcing the side scheme to explode more often. Feel free to use this in your regular games as well. This set was also used in Scenario #1. A printable PDF is available here.

Return of Rhino and Advanced Legions of Hydra – The Return of Rhino set was designed to enhance the Rhino villain (we even got custom art made for this set and plan to do it for others). The Advanced Legions of Hydra set is to continue the theme from the original Legions of Hydra. Adding three extra cards. Two treacheries and a minion. Feel free to use this in your regular games as well. A printable PDF is available here.

Custom Rewards – these rewards are highly valuable and you can print them for after you complete the scenario here.

Zipfile with print images.

If the players win:

  • Record this victory in the campaign log.
  • Each player chooses a basic resource type and adds the Faulty equivalent to their deck. Record this in the campaign log under “Mission 2 Reward”.
  • Each player adds the corresponding basic resource card to their Restriction List. (For example: If a player chooses to add Faulty Energy to their deck, Energy is added to that player’s Restriction List.) This card can not be used for the remainder of the campaign.
  • Each player chooses an aspect and adds it to their “Available Aspects” in the campaign log.
  • Proceed to Scenario #3: Klawing Your Way Out

If the players lose:

  • Record this loss in the campaign log.
  • Each player chooses a basic resource type and adds the Superior equivalent to their deck. Record this in the campaign log under “Mission 2 Reward”.
  • Each player adds the corresponding basic resource card to their Restriction List. (For example: If a player chooses to add Superior Energy to their deck, Energy is added to that player’s Restriction List.) This card can not be used for the remainder of the campaign.
  • Each player chooses an aspect and adds it to their “Available Aspects” in the campaign log.
  • Proceed to Scenario #3: Klawing Your Way Out

Villainous Return – Marvel Champions Unofficial Campaign – Scenario #1: A Real Bomb Scare

Welcome to the first scenario in the Villainous Return campaign. See the campaign overview page for an overview of the campaign procedure and then jump back here to get set-up.

Scenario #1 – A Real Bomb Scare

Villain Deck : Rhino (I), Rhino (II)

Remove Rhino (I) and add Rhino (III) for expert or insane mode.

Main Scheme Deck: The Break-In

Encounter Deck: Rhino set, Standard set, Bomb Scare set, Advanced Bomb Scare* set.

Add the expert set for expert and insane mode.
*Custom set included below

Setup:

  • Each player records their identity and chosen aspect in the campaign log. Players cannot switch identities during a campaign.
  • Standard: No special rules.
  • Expert: Place 1 acceleration token on The Break-In
  • Insane: Place 1 acceleration token on The Break-In. Deal each player one face down encounter card

Required Custom Set Print Files: Advanced Bomb Scare – To goal of this Advanced Modular set is to enhance the Bomb Scare modular set forcing the side scheme to explode more often. Feel free to use this in your regular games as well. Printable PDF’s available here:

If the players win:

  • Record this victory in the campaign log.
  • Each player adds Damaged Avengers Mansion to their deck. Record this in the campaign log under “Mission 1 Reward”.
  • Each player adds Avengers Mansion to their Restriction List. This card can not be used for the remainder of this campaign.
  • Proceed to Scenario #2: Rhino’s Return

If the players lose:

  • Record this loss in the campaign log.
  • Each player adds SHIELD Supplied Base to their deck. Record this in the campaign log under “Mission 1 Reward”.
  • Each player adds Avengers Mansion to their Restriction List. This card can not be used for the remainder of this campaign.
  • Proceed to Scenario #2: Rhino’s Return

Stealth Strike – Ep. 3 – Flying Rhinos!

Get in and Get out – complete the mission. I wish that’s how my games went. The minipodcast Stealth Strike continues with a third mission in our debut series. In this mini-series your host KennedyHawk will play and narrate games using a single deck. Our patrons have set up a tough line up of four villains for me. I’ll begin on Standard and each time I win I will increase the difficulty level so if I go 3-0 I’ll end up in a finale at heroic level 2! This is a new experimental type of episode where you get to experience some game-play along with me and hopefully feel like you are right there at the table. These will hopefully get better as they continue but be sure to let me know what things you enjoy and want things you don’t.

This third episode pits our Natasha against Rhino in a Heroic Battle as he brings out all sorts of tricks from Norman’s stash. Can Black Widow avoid the Rhino’s Charge? Find out! One more missions to go in our gauntlet after this and we’ll see what our record is with this SHIELD themed deck and take a break from Stealth Strike while we wait for the Rise of the Red Skull campaign release.

Decklist: https://marvelcdb.com/decklist/view/2228/stealth-strike-episodes-1-4-1.0

Connect with the Marvel Champions Monthly Podcast:

By The Numbers: Rhino!

Cap is right! Let’s talk.

Numbers! The kind of numbers that don’t require you to have a Cosmic Calculator (yet)!

Hello everyone and welcome to what may be the first installment of my article series, tentatively named By The Numbers. My name is Shane and I like card games AND numbers, so naturally I figured I should combine those two things into one riveting data sheet…

That didn’t happen, (well, it did happen, but data sheets aren’t as exciting to everyone) but what I did do is crunch some numbers that may or may not help you the next time you think “I can take 3, but I can’t take 4… What are the chances of that happening though?”

What does this mean? Well, I sure am glad I asked. What I did was collect and record the boost symbols in each modular set, determine the average within each set and with those averages, you can do some quick math to figure out approximately what the average damage per turn will be for any given combination of modules.

Doesn’t that sort of take the fun out of the randomness? Another good question, Shane.

It might be seen that way and I can understand if data like this isn’t for you. It’s not surgically accurate, it’s just a guideline for people who like to see some numbers before heading off to storm Doomstadt. (Think of it like a warning, but not THAT Warning. This warning is sorta useful.)

Then let’s get to it! This weeks installment? He’s big, grey and recently known to both Break AND Take! It’s…

Rhino!

Courtesy of Marvel.com


Here’s some basic info about this big fellas eponymous modular set:

This Modular set Rhino has 17 cards that it adds to the Encounter Deck. The set contains more of course, but we don’t need to count the Main Scheme or Villain Cards. Of those 17 cards, 5 have 0 Boost icons, 5 have 1 Boost icon and 7 have 2 Boost icons. By adding those icons together, we can determine an average number of icons.


((0+0+0+0+0) + (1+1+1+1+1) + (2+2+2+2+2+2+2)) = 19
We then divide that value by the number of cards, like so:
19/17 = Approximately 1.1

This means that the average amount of additional damage will be +1.

We can then do something similar with all of the additional modules and recommended modules for a scenario.

Standard Average: 0.6
Bomb Scare Average: 1.3

Once we’ve got the averages for each of these sets, we can add them together and divide by the number of sets we included, in this case we have 3.

1.1+0.6+1.3 = 3
3/3 = 1

Therefore, the average boost damage is almost exactly 1. Which makes perfect sense for what is considered to be the “Starter Scenario”. There are very few big damage spike turns and the Villains bonuses to their actions are statistically very average.

Really takes the ol’ brain for a jog.

The thing that makes Rhino such a deadly adversary isn’t that he’s got a real doozy of an attack value. It’s that we really start to feel it when he attacks extra times each turn! Using the Standard recommended configuration of Rhino, Standard, and Bomb Scare, there are 5 Treachery cards that allow Rhino another attack on any turn. This means 5 out of 30 cards we can encounter mean our Rampaging Rhino gets a round 2 against our heroes.
Any given encounter card has approximately a 17% chance to result in an extra attack from the big guy. Can your squad handle something like that?

Rhino’s set is 41% Treachery cards, 24% Attachments, 24% Minions and 12% Side Schemes, adding in the Standard and modular sets only makes those numbers even smaller. The real reason you’re getting Charge+Stampede is because it’s easier to remember getting crushed than sneaking buy without incident (but I’m no psychologist).

The Expert mode of Rhino does change the numbers a bit, but they’re still fairly predictable. Using the recommended modules in addition, our Boost Average goes up to about 1.4. This means that we’re going to see a good amount of +1 damage turns, but we’re certainly going to be seeing higher than that more frequently than the Standard mode (and by a larger margin). 

In conclusion, it’s safe to say that Rhino will just about always be dealing 1 damage in addition to his printed value in any given scenario. So if the question is can you take that next attack and the difference is life or death? Better hope to get lucky or just never leave home without a trusty Shield Block! Thanks for reading and see you next time!

Thumbs up, soldier!

Editors Note: Thanks for reading our first community created article. And shout-out to Attercop for showing us some of the numbers behind the Rhino scenario! – KennedyHawk