Dylan from Vault Games

Due to the game’s large amounts of text written in small fonts, I highly suggest instituting a communication policy as the game doesn’t state whether or not your cards are hidden information. This caught me out recently and caused quite a solid argument between myself and a friend due to a player’s intent being a win during a war but the result being different due to uncommunicated information on the other player’s race card.

Making sure every player is open about their race’s powers both when they attain them, and when they would effect another player’s decision can help the game be enjoyable for everyone at the table.

I made the mistake of playing this after I had played Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring Deck-Building Game and one thing it has going for it is the ramp of archenemies (supervillains).

After playing DC Deck-Building Game a few times, I saw why the villain ladder was used for LotR because DC has a tendency to drag on with no one killing the arch-villain and then suddenly, everyone can and the whole game ends in about 4 or 5 turns.

If you take the arch-villains, and divide them up into 3 power levels (low; medium; high;) and then randomly draw arch-villains from each pile evenly until you have the required amount of arch-villains, placing the high-powered villians face-down on the bottom of the arch-villian deck, the mediums in the middle and then the lows on top with Raz Al Ghul being the topmost, face-up arch-villain.

This way, the game builds to a finish rather than feels boring before suddenly ending.

Due to the large amounts of shuffling in this game, not just with the player decks but also with the objective, barracks, sergeants and strike decks, I highly recommend spending the extra dough and getting enough Dragon Shield sleeves to sleeve the entire game.

Decks sleeved with Dragon Shields cut into each other very nicely so it can cut down your shuffling time immensely as well as saving your cards from the dreaded “shuffle bend”.

If you go into this game with your mind set on a single colour, you may find yourself in deep water. Be flexible and bank on two colours for the first few turns to see what your opponents are moving towards. If 2 of your opponents are already focusing on a single colour, join them. It’s easier to battle over a final points score than try and build blue when you have 2 other players aiming for yellow.

And explore. Every. Single. Turn. Exploring allows you to control the dominant colour because you’re placing tiles faster than the opponent can unravel, plus you’re getting seeds to help with the unraveling of at least one of your opposing colours. Use the exploration strategy if you see your opponent holding back from exploration. It will give you the edge.