Sentinels of the Multiverse
Sentinels of the Multiverse
Cover artDesigner(s)Christopher Badell Adam Rebottaro Paul BenderPublisher(s)Greater Than GamesPlayers2 to 5Age range13 and upSetup time5 minutesPlaying time45-60 minutes
Sentinels of the Multiverse is a designer card game published by Greater Than Games and released at Gen Con 2011. It is a cooperativegame in which players control a team ofcomic book-style heroes battling a villain. Each player controls a different hero, while a villain and environment deck each run themselves. A given game includes 3 to 5 heroes, 1 villain and 1 environment, which can be mixed and matched to create a number of different scenarios. The core game comes with 10 heroes, 4 villains, and 4 environments.
GameplayEdit
The game mechanics of Sentinels of the Multiverse include aspects that are somewhat similar to a variety of other card games, including Magic: The Gathering andDominion. Each hero comes with a fixed deck of 40 cards, as well a “character card” that specifies initial hit points (HP) for that hero as well as an innate power. On their turns, the players may each play a card, use one of several “powers” provided by cards, and draw a card. On the villain and environment turns, the players reveal the top card of the villain and environment decks, respectively, and perform the specified actions. When a hero is reduced to 0 HP, they lose the ability to use cards or powers, but remain in the game as an “incapacitated hero” with a fixed set of abilities with which they may aid their allies. The game generally ends when either all heroes are incapacitated, or the villain is reduced to 0 or fewer HP, though some villains include alternate win conditions.
ReceptionEdit
Sentinels of the Multiverse has been well received by players and critics since its launch, with Tom Vasel of The Dice Towerpodcast giving it the #1 slot in his “top 30 games to look out for from Gen Con 2011”,[1]and the review blog Giant Fire Breathing Robot awarding it “Board Game of the Year: 2011”.[2] Reviewers generally praised the art and gameplay, while criticizing the small box, lack of HP trackers, and difficulty scaling among different numbers of players.[3][4]
ExpansionsEdit
Greater Than Games released an expansion,Sentinels of the Multiverse: Rook City in the spring of 2012. The expansion added 2 heroes, 4 villains and 2 environments to the base game. The villains in Rook City also include an H icon in some cards, which represents the number of heroes in the game, as a way to improve scaling. The cards used in Rook City are also of a better and thicker cardstock as compared to the original base game.
In the autumn of 2012 Greater Than Gamesreleased their second expansion, Sentinels of the Multiverse: Infernal Relics. Similar to Rook City, this expansion added an additional 2 heroes, 4 villains and 2 environments to the game. This expansion also introduced the concept of a super villain group, containing multiple villain characters in a single deck.
As of fall 2013, the Rook City and Infernal Relics expansions are now produced in a combined box.
At the same time as Infernal Relics, Greater Than Games also released a new edition of the base game, Sentinels of the Multiverse: Enhanced Edition. This edition of the game has minor change to some of the cards and added the H icon to the base game’s villain to improve their scalability. A better box with built in storage inserts were also introduced with this edition along with dividers for all of the deck available to date. Other improvement includes better card stocks for all the cards and new artwork for the environment cards in line with what was introduced with Rook Cityand Infernal Relics. 162 tokens were also included in the new edition to help keep track of damage and the various different types of modifier in games.
In spring of 2013, Greater Than Gamesreleased the third Expansion, Sentinels of the Multiverse: Shattered Timelines. Similar to Rook City and Infernal Relics, this expansion added 2 heroes, 4 villains, and 2 environments to the game.[5] The Shattered Timelines expansion featured the winning fan-created villain from the Create a Villain Contest run by Greater Than Games in September 2012.[6] The expansion was supported by a Kickstarter campaign that ended successfully on November 29, 2012, having raised $185,200.[5]
During the Shattered Timelines Kickstarter Campaign, Greater Than Games announced that they would use some of the funds raised during that campaign to help finance their fourth expansion Sentinels of the Multiverse: Vengeance.[7] This expansion added 5 heroes, 5 villains, and 2 environments. The new villains have smaller decks than previous villains, as they’re designed to be played in a new game mode as a party against the heroes. Vengeance is available as of February 2014.[8] During this time Greater Than Gamesalso released the box set Rook City & Infernal Relics, discontinuing the production of separate boxes for Rook City and Infernal Relics.
The Vengeance box included an advertisement for an upcoming expansion,Wrath of the Cosmos. As with earlier expansions, this will include 2 heroes, 4 villains, and 2 environments.
In January 2015, The “Wrath of the cosmos” expansion was released. This expansion included 2 heroes, 4 villains and 2 environments. The preorder campaign was largely successful and added 1 more hero, 1 villain, and 1 environment along with 6 hero promos.
The Villains of the Multiverse Expansion, release in December 2015, reintroduces some old villains as well as some new ones, using the Vengeance combat mechanic of having one villain per hero character. This expansion includes ten new villain decks with over-sized villain character cards and four new environment decks. The preorder campaign also allowed the release of 1 promo villain and 1 promo environment, as well as 7 promo hero character cards.
On October 16, 2014, an iOS/Android versionwas released followed on December 22, 2014 with a Steam release for the PC.
On January 29, 2016, Greater Than Games announced the title of the next expansion, “Oblivaeon”, which would be on Kickstarter beginning February 9, 2016 and will feature numerous perks. In this announcement, they also stated that this will be the final expansion for Sentinels of the Multiverse.[9]
Sentinel TacticsEdit
In March 2014, Greater Than Gamesannounced a Kickstarter for a new game set in the Sentinels of the Multiverse universe,Sentinel Tactics: The Flame Of Freedom.[10]This reached its funding goal in under 6 hours.[11]
HeroesEdit
The current heroes in the game include:
Base Game
Legacy, an American hero and Supermananalogue who focuses on damage and buffing other heroes.
Absolute Zero, a hero who messes with fire and cold damage to heal himself and hurt the enemy.
Wraith, a Batman-type heroine using many types of gadgets.
Tachyon, a speedster whose powers are fueled by her discard pile.
Bunker, an armored juggernaut who switches between different “modes”, using a variety of weapons like Gatling guns and grenade launchers.
Haka, a Maori tribal strongman who focuses on survival, milling his deck, and taking out low health opponents.
Fanatic, an angel on earth, a versatile hero who benefits from boosts to damage.
Visionary, a psychic who does many things to mess with her opponents.
Ra, the Egyptian sun god who does all things fire.
Tempest, an alien amphibian who controls storms, does a lot of damage and support.
Rook City
Expatriette, a Punisher type gunslinger with a variety of guns and ammunition.
Mr. Fixer, a martial artist and mechanic. Many extra benefits given to a single power.
Infernal Relics
The Argent Adept, a complex master musician with 5 instruments and a variety of songs.
Nightmist, an expert in the occult, uses spells and relics to both harm and heal herself to great effect.
Shattered Timelines
Chrono Ranger, a time traveling gun-toter who posts bounties on his targets.
Omnitron-X, a future version of the villain, Omnitron, who grew a conscience, all-around support hero with minor healing.
Vengeance
K.N.Y.F.E., a melee and energy damage focused hero who isn’t afraid to hurt herself for the greater good.
The Naturalist, a sort of “beast boy” with three forms, a rhino for survival, a gazelle for support, and a crocodile for damage.
Parse, an analytical mastermind, uses her bow and powers of observation to hinder the villains and support her team.
The Sentinels, a team of four low-hp heroes who team together to make one multi-talented hero.
Setback, fueled by bad luck, he uses his luck against his enemies, occasionally causing collateral damage.
Wrath of the Cosmos
Captain Cosmic, a Green Lantern analogue, and an energy master who uses his constructs to buff his allies and do damage.
Sky-Scraper, an Ant-Man-type heroine who uses her size manipulation and cards called “links” to damage the enemy and debuff them.
Mini-Expansions
Promotional Characters
America’s Newest Legacy (AKA “Young Legacy”, analogue to Supergirl)
Rook City Wraith
Ra: Horus of Two Horizons
Redeemer Fanatic
Dark Visionary
The Eternal Haka
Freedom Six Team Leader Tachyon
Freedom Six Wraith: Price of Freedom
Freedom Six Unity
Freedom Six Bunker: Engine of War
Freedom Six Absolute Zero
Freedom Six Tempest
Dark Watch Expatriette
Dark Watch Mr. Fixer
Dark Watch Nightmist
Dark Watch Setback
America’s Greatest Legacy
G.I. Bunker
The Super-Scientific Tachyon
Prime Wardens Argent Adept[12]
Prime Wardens Haka[12]
Prime Wardens Fanatic[12]
Prime Wardens Captain Cosmic[12]
Prime Wardens Tempest[12]
Rogue Agent KNYFE[12]
The Argent Adept Kvothe Six-String
The Scholar of the infinite
Chrono-ranger The Best Of Times.
The Hunted Naturalist
The Adamant Sentinels
Santa Guise
Termination Bunker
Termination Unity
Termination Absolute Zero
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