Marvel D.A.G.G.E.R. Board Game Review

When I first saw Marvel D.A.G.G.E.R. I wasn’t really sure what to think. In fact, I even saw it laid out on a table at a recent trade show and wasn’t overly impressed. Was this really worth $95 Canadian? Even if the cost of the game doesn’t feel quite right to me, that doesn’t mean it won’t be right for you. Regardless of the price, Marvel D.A.G.G.E.R. is a phenomenal game that I could play again and again – and I have.

Early Concerns about Marvel D.A.G.G.E.R.

Initially, I had some concerns around how long it took to set the game up, and how long it took to actually play the game. The box highlights a playtime of 3-4 hours which I feel is a bit light at 5 players, but a bit heavy at 2. I’d argue that after you set up the game, and when you know the rules, this is a 1.5 hour 2-Player game, and perhaps a 4:30 hour 5 player game. If you have the time to invest in 5-players, this will provide a great experience.

Getting started in Marvel D.A.G.G.E.R.

In Marvel D.A.G.G.E.R., players will choose a hero from a pool of 20 heroes, although each hero card is two sided (for reasons we will discuss later), so once the first player has chosen one character from the 20 available, the next player only has 18 to choose from, the next 16 to choose from, and so on until the 5th player only has 12 to choose from.

There is a reason for this, but I cannot help but feel the marketing was a bit misleading in this regard. For example, I couldn’t play as Peter Parker Spiderman while another player played as Miles Morales Spiderman. It’s just not possible.

Each character will have a few character cards that provide unique bonuses, a character quest card, and a few other things. Over the course of 3 or 4 actions, players will use their action tokens to take actions on their unique characteristic board. There are a number to choose from, and you can use one that you think works best with a particular hero – I used the Vigilante board for Spiderman – or you can just choose at random.

How to win at Marvel D.A.G.G.E.R.

There are a number of actions players can perform, including moving around the board, fighting the Nemesis and his cronies, defying a mission, or resting and charging up your cards. In a 3-5 player game, each player gets 3 actions per phase. In a 2-player game, each person gets 4.

The game runs on a Nemesis mission system. Each Nemesis mission deck consists of one random starter card, and three Nemesis specific cards. There are 4 included Nemesis’ in the box, and the rules will suggest you start with Loki.

Alternatively, you can play against Ultron, Red Skull, or Thanos (who is the hardest to defeat). Each Nemesis card will have a threat limit and should your threat ever exceed the limit for that specific mission, you fail the mission and will suffer some consequences. After 1 starter mission and 3 Nemesis missions have been finished (either passed or failed), the final showdown begins and players will need to eliminate the Nemesis to win the game.

The Hero Phase

The game works over two phases, the Hero Phase and the Nemesis Phase. We already detailed what you can do during the Hero Phase, although there are additional actions that can be performed that are found on character sheets – unique to that character, and do a variety of things – as well as using D.A.G.G.E.R. abilities at non-occupied bases around the world map.

Essentially, you’ll want to make sure you are equally keeping enemies in check while completing side missions and working towards successfully completing the Nemesis missions. Decisions can be difficult, and you’ll always have to make sacrifices. That is what I love about this experience.

The Nemesis Phase

During the Nemesis phase, the enemies will activate which will do a variety of things. First, you’ll check the active Nemesis mission to see if it has passed or failed. Then you will draw an event card and using the various symbols on the card, work your way through the event card doing specific things.

There are a variety of things that will happen, but for the most part the various enemies will move, perhaps attack or occupy, an spawn new recruits. The Nemesis themselves will also have the opportunity to move, fight, or occupy a base.

Should a hero ever die – so their damage matches their health – they flip over their character sheet and begin using the character on the backside. In my first game, my Peter Parker Spiderman did die, so I used Miles Morales Spiderman for the remainder of the game.

You lose any specific Peter Parker cards and missions, but otherwise the game plays out the same, with a new hero and new abilities to use. Should your second character die, the players will lose the game.

Is Marvel D.A.G.G.E.R. Worth It?

I find the $90 price tag a bit hard to swallow. At the very least, it would have been nice to see acrylic standee figures as opposed to cardboard. That being said, when I think about how much gameplay is here and how much I enjoyed the experience, the cost issue became a bit less of a problem for me. For sure, it is priced too high, no doubt about that. I’d like to see this game a bit closer to $70 for the components included.

But the gameplay itself is fantastic. I’ve seen a lot of people compare this to Pandemic, and while there are obvious differences between the two, I also see how similar they are. You will need to run around the board using your special abilities to keep things as even as possible.

That includes finishing missions, defeating enemies, and so much more. The game does a great job scaling to the player count. For example, in lower player counts, less enemies spawn during each Nemesis event phase. With more players, more enemy units spawn. This makes playing the game at any player count enjoyable.

Ideally, you’d like to tackle this game with 3-4 players, as it provides the best experience. You get to use more unique abilities from different heroes, which just makes certain combos so much more impressive. 2-player was also fun, and I wouldn’t NOT play at 2. With 5, I found the board becomes a bit busy, and there may be too much arguing within the group on how to approach the missions.

Conclusion

This is a really great experience, and one that I highly recommend. The price tag is a bit high, but there are a lot of games here to justify the price if you are a hardcore Marvel fan. With an obvious opportunity at expansions in the future, there will be a flood of content to play should this core set sell well.

And heck, if you want to level up this experience, just spend a few hundred (1000?) dollars on Marvel United, and pull the figures from that over to this game!