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As you can see from the example card above, Munchkin 40k gets it: this is Munchkin humor in 40k grimdark, and it just works. Below is the beginning of our first game, in the prosaic surroundings of our kitchen table. The Munchkin Warhammer 40,000 box comes with 168 cards, which makes entirely adequate door and treasure decks, and a board and little cardboard standies for everyone. The board is used purely to mark which level everyone is on and where to put the cards, so it's theoretically totally unnecessary, but we liked it.
In case you don't know how Munchkin works, it's very simple: each player represents a tabletop role-playing game player who is, well, a munchkin; someone who completely ignores the plot and role-playing aspects of the game in order to make the best character possible and "win". Hence, the objective in Munchkin is to be the first to reach level 10 by killing monsters. To get there, you amass equipment of all kinds to help kill monsters - and stop other people from winning first! It's not particularly well balanced, and often devolves into an intense king-killing exercise where everyone piles onto the leader; and all that is exactly the point. It's why it's called Munchkin. It's a bit too heavy to be a party game, but not nearly heavy enough to be a Very Serious Game either - and far too tongue-in-cheek for that as well. In my opinion, Munchkin has a very particular niche of its own, and a lot of the criticism it gets comes from people who seem to think it should be something other than what it is.
To get back to Munchkin 40,000, this iteration switches things up a bit: we're no longer role-playing a dungeon crawl, but rather we're tabletop wargaming. Classes and races are out in favor of armies and vehicles, and some of the cards reference miniature gaming rather than role-playing; for instance, you can drop an enemy's level by playing Unpainted on it, or even worse, Proxied.
Below is the end of our first game. I won playing an Ork with a Lychguard Wraithscythe, Radium Pistol and Chosen Helmet, riding the Auric Aquilas. I won by playing both Purge Yourself from Imperial Records and Pilgrimage to Holy Terra, and defeating a C'tan while defeating my opponent's attempt to make me lose a level with Left Your Terrain at Home.
For our second game, we all somewhat hilariously started as Necrons, but later, erm, evolved; thanks to the Alliance card, I found myself playing both Necrons and Tyranids. The amount of grenades being thrown into the fight below demonstrates, I think, that we were getting the hang of this Munchkin thing.
After a long while spent with all of us at level 9, eventually my fellow Necron managed to find a monster in the door deck and, despite our best efforts, defeat it to win the game.
We had a great time playing Munchkin Warhammer 40,000. Thematically, it's a perfect match: 40k "grimdark" has always been a bit silly, and the writing and John Kovalic's art capture that silliness wonderfully. Our second game got a bit intense, and yeah, I can kinda see how people who played waaay too much Munchkin back in the day got burned out on it, but we very much enjoyed ourselves.
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The really scary thing about Munchkin is that it appeals to the collector in me. Ordinarily, I wouldn't be interested in owning multiple versions of the same game, but with Munchkin, the thing is that you can combine them. All of them, that is. So once we'd tried 40k Munchkin, clearly the thing to do was get another set. Seeing as how we've all been pretty diehard Marvel fans since the previous millenium, the obvious choice was Munchkin Marvel.
As you may be able to tell, we also got a blister pack. It is excellent.
Also, we found a copy of Fairy Dust Dice at our friendly local gaming store, and my partner loved them, so now we're also playing with a four-card Fairy deck.
The first thing you notice with Munchkin Marvel is that it takes itself a lot more seriously than 40k Munchkin. Here, everyone starts with a Role card that tells you what kind of SHIELD agent you are; each even comes with a little bonus applicable in certain situations. In addition to equipment, we can also have allies and be affiliated to a Marvel universe organization like the Avengers. Below is a picture toward the end of our first game, when I got Cryogenically Frozen and had to miss a turn, so I had plenty of time to get the camera out!
As you can see, even the art is much more serious! The cards are pretty succesful thematically; we did get a kick out of having stuff like different Iron Man armors and Captain America's shield, and even Infinity Gems, flying around, and fighting various Marvel bad guys. The presentation seems to be mostly geared toward the current Marvel cinematic universe, but the art is from the comics.
Below is the end of our game: our fellow operative, definitely a Hydra double agent, deployed a Life Model Decoy to defeat the Kingpin and make it to level 10.
Overall, Munchkin Marvel is fun to play, but thematically it's in a slightly awkward spot between being a serious Marvel game and proper Munchkin comedy. Crucially, Marvel lacks the meta level that's so important to Munchkin; you just can't have a card like Left Your Terrain at Home in Marvel! Also, I don't really think the Role cards add much to the experience, and I've come to dislike making players pick from a strict gender binary. Even in a household of fairly hardcore Marvel fans, we thought Munchkin 40k was just much more fun, and more Munchkin.
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Later, we got the opportunity to try a five-player game with the Faith and Firepower expansion. I started out as a Necron with a power sword and a Fairy Duster, as you do. One particular complaint I have with Munchkin 40k is that although I regard the Necrons as an innovation, I've now played as one so many times that I'm about this close to buying the codex and a Start Collecting Necrons box.
Faith and Firepower adds a little over a hundred cards; you can see the size of the door and treasure decks in the picture above. Most importantly, there are two new armies, the Sisters of Battle and the Tau, both of which we felt were good additions to the game, and a whlle bunch of stuff for everyone to use.
Five-player Munchkin turned out to be pleasantly chaotic. We had a bit of a moment when a player threatened to get too far ahead by fighting a Snotling. The Snotling, however, turned out to be a holographic projection, and what they actually ended up fighting was a Fairy Scary Heretical Grimdark Undead Mean Machine Angel, with his dial set all the way to 4.
The chaos lasted for something like three hours, until everyone's joint efforts were no longer enough to stop a Tyranid-Sisters of Battle alliance storming to victory in their Leman Russ.
If Munchkin 40k was good with three players, it's absolutely excellent with five.
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We're definitely going to try the Cosmic Chaos expansion and see if that makes Muchkin Marvel a bit more interesting, but what I think seems to be the best bet at this point is to keep playing Munchkin 40k, but add the Marvel cards to it. It's worth noting that the Marvel set is a particularly good candidate for this since none of the cards have any use restrictions! And since we've got kind of a comic book vibe going, there's also Munchkin Turtles. Mixing multiple sets of course means we'll also be interested in Cheat with Both Hands... You see where this is going. We're going to need some kind of card holders.
Our introduction to Munchkin has been great fun so far, and I would very much recommend Munchkin Warhammer 40,000 to anybody who's even a little bit into 40k and interested in Munchkin. So far, it seems like a perfect match. Also get the Judge Dredd expansion while you're at it, it's easily worth the price and, seeing as how Games Workshop stole most of Warhammer 40,000 from 2000 AD in the first place, very thematically appropriate. Another expansion that goes nicely with 40k is Space Ships. But just the base game itself is excellent fun. If you missed the Munchkin craze the first time around like we did, give Munchkin Warhammer 40,000 a shot. I think you'll find it's worth it.
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