Marvel Champions Designer Breaks Down How Allies Work and Which One Is Already a Favorite

After some time with Fantasy Flight Games and Asmodee‘s Marvel Champions, it becomes apparent how vitally important allies are to winning the game against whatever Marvel villain you’re fighting against. Sure you have the power of your chosen hero character, but you won’t be able to stop Klaw, Ultron, or Rhino from achieving their goal without some help from allies like Mockingbird, Hulk, Hawkeye, and more. ComicBook.com had the chance to chat with Marvel Champions designer Caleb Grace all about the game, and he broke down how allies work in the game and why they were designed to leave the board on a regular basis.

“Allies are an exciting card type in Marvel Champions,” Grace said. “They have thwart (THW) and attack (ATK) values just like your hero, so they can help defeat the villain and prevent them from accomplishing their scheme. But when an ally thwarts or attacks, they take reciprocal damage as a result. This represents the allies putting themselves in harm’s way. It also ensures that they won’t stay on the table forever. We designed allies that way because Marvel Champions is ultimately a game about your hero, and we didn’t want it to turn into a game about amassing an army of allies.”

You can only have 3 allies at a time, and each one comes with their own unique ability. For instance, Spider-Woman stuns when entering combat, while Hulk ends up having to make an attack that could damage everybody on the board. One of the most interesting allies is actually the lovable Squirrel Girl, and she’s become a favorite amongst the design team.

“Another interesting thing about allies in Marvel Champions is that they are all unique,” Grace said. “Every ally is an individual from the comics, and we tried to give each one an ability that evoked that character’s powers. For example, Squirrel Girl is an ally in the Leadership aspect. She has the power to summon an army of squirrels, which sounds silly until there are so many of them that they completely overwhelm her enemies. To represent this fantastic power in the game, we gave her this ability: “Response: After Squirrel Girl enters play, deal 1 damage to each enemy in play.” This ability has proven to be incredible in the game, especially against villains like Ultron who summon lots of little minions.”

Trust us, aftering facing all of Ultron’s little annoying drones, you will be grateful that Squirrel Girl, Tippy-Toe, and the whole Squirrel crew are there to even the odds.

Now, with Captain Marvel in the game, you might be wondering if a certain lovable Flerken is also in the game as an Ally. “As for Chewie, it’s too early to say,” Grace said. “But with luck, our game will run for so long that we will eventually be able to include everyone’s favorite character.”

We cannot wait to see Chewie swallowing drones and enemies whole, and here’s hoping we can add her amazing abilities to the game soon.

Marvel Champions releases on November 1st, and you can check out more of our coverage of the game right here! You can also hit me up on Twitter @MattAguilarCB for all things tabletop!