A board game that united multiple interests: board games, Marvel, cute miniatures, art, and teamwork. I never imagined this board game subgenre would be so much fun.
The idea was to bring together a group of of remarkable people to see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could.
Nick Fury – Director of Shield
During the Christmas holiday, we played games with the Ence family to catch up. Our family don’t play board games but we enjoyed Here to Slay, Kingdomino, and Unstable Unicorns.
That got me thinking about board games again, as a great way to spend time together away from screens. I began to search for games we could play together as a family. We aren’t competitive toward each other, so I came upon cooperative games. Marvel United came up in my searches and I loved the miniature figures for their Chibi styling.
I added the game to my birthday wishlist and did some light research on miniature painting since they were single-colored plastic figures.
Fast forward two weeks, and I received Marvel United for my birthday from Tracy. With the game in my possession, I researched further into painting the miniatures.
I found Friday night painting classes at my neighborhood game store, Rainy Day Games. Dave, who I believe is the owner, gave me great tips on how to get started. I also watched YouTube videos before I started purchasing supplies.
After priming the models so that the acrylic paint would hold onto the plastic figures, I got started with the villains before the girls helped with the heroes. The process of painting was meditative as you had to apply thin coats of paint multiple times to preserve the small details.
It was great to have Kadie, Violet, and Jenni help paint the figures and we’re proud of the result. It was our first experience with painting miniatures, but we’re looking forward to doing more.
We did finally play the game itself. We lost to the Red Skull on our first try, but Jenni and I defeated Ultron.
Looking back, I’m still charmed by how the idea to play a board game with my family led to a three-month adventure into a fascinating new hobby within a hobby. And it united my family to create art and play games.