‘Unmatched: Redemption Row’ Board Game Review
Almost anyone who watches popular movies, reads comics or engages with fiction of any kind has surely made comparisons between their favourite characters – and in some cases crossover stories have become more popular than the fiction that started them. Without focussing on any particular theme, and by picking up a mixture of royalty-free and licensed intellectual property, Mondo Games and Restoration Games have brought us Unmatched – a competitive, miniatures-based game that brings these impossible conflicts to life. Available in an ever-expanding range of packs, the latest Unmatched games include Marvel heroes split across two packs – Unmatched: Redemption Row.
As with most Unmatched sets, Unmatched: Redemption Row features several heroes (three to be exact) which is enough to allow players to pick up this set, learn the game and decide if it’s something they like, or more likely, it adds three new characters that can integrate fully with sets that you might already have. The three characters included in Unmatched: Redemption Row are Moon Knight, Luke Cage and Ghost Rider – each of which brings a detailed miniature, a deck of cards and a unique gameplay experience. Among all the sets I have played with (others of which include characters as diverse as Dracula, Jurassic Park Velociraptors, Bruce Lee and Alice (from Wonderland)) I would rank Unmatched: Redemption Row as having slightly more complex characters than average.
Before I get into detail about the three characters in this set and why I think you should (or shouldn’t) include it in your collection, I want to just provide a quick overview on how Unmatched plays. This is predominantly a two player game, although at this point there are options for playing with three and four players and it is possible to play the game with two teams of two. In all permutations, players take turns to take two actions from a list of three (normally.) These three actions include Manoeuvring, Scheming or Attacking. The first of these allows the player to draw a card from their deck and to move their character and/or their sidekick(s). Scheming allows the player to place a card face down which will “activate” at a set time later, whilst attacking allows the player to place a card down to attack an opposing hero or sidekick.
What are sidekicks you ask? Well, in Unmatched: Redemption Row there is only one (Misty Knight) who is represented not by a miniature but by a high-quality plastic token. Sidekicks are controlled by the player who is acting as the associated hero, and in general sidekicks have their own health, their own attack cards and their own movement value. In other sets like the original Unmatched: Battle of Legends Volume I, a character might have several sidekicks (Medusa in this case) and the rules would be tweaked again (in this case each of Medusa’s sidekicks has no health dial and is killed instantly on being hit),
Any board in Unmatched is split into both zones and spaces. Zones are represented by the colour of the spaces within them, and some spaces are solid colour whilst others are split between two colours – meaning that they belong to two zones. Character movement is linked to spaces (two movement means you can move two spaces) whilst ranged attacks (and some other effects) affect zones – meaning that a character with a ranged attack can usually hit any opponent in the same zone. The simple turn structure and the way that boards are laid out in Unmatched makes it genuinely simple to pick the game up and to teach it, and once you’ve learned any set, sets like Unmatched: Redemption Row are very easy to integrate.
Coming to Unmatched: Redemption Row specifically then, it really is all about two things – firstly the board itself which is broadly the same on both sides and features a “classic” Unmatched art style on one side, and a more cartoonish, comic-book style on the other. Both sides include spaces to add a handful of tokens (optionally) which do various things like add damage to an attack or restore health, and these again align to the comic-book theme by indicating that a character is scoffing down some food, or perhaps throwing an opponent into an electrical terminal or something similar. It’s a nice, minor addition to the existing ruleset, and it takes very little to integrate.
The characters In Unmatched: Redemption Row are the big draw. I mean, who doesn’t want to see Ghost Rider fight Little Red Riding Hood, or Luke Cage facing off against Bigfoot? What about Moon Knight versus The Invisible Man? What makes the characters in Unmatched: Redemption Row particularly interesting is how the characters here (being effectively superheroes) compare to both each other and the characters from other sets. A recurring theme – and something that I love about Unmatched – is undoubtedly how it maintains balance despite the very different perceived power levels of the characters on the board. Can Little Red defeat Ghost Rider? Yes, most definitely – and that’s the magic of Unmatched.
Let’s take a brief look at what each of these new characters does one by one. Moon Knight is first up, and as far as I know, his “key” ability is unique among sets released to date. Moon Knight has three characters cards rather than the usual one, and these represent his alter egos – Moon Knight, Mr Knight and Khonshu. The Moon Knight player must cycle these characters at the end of each turn, swapping between the three and enjoying (or not) the benefits of what each one offers. Moon Knight allows, erm, Moon Knight to move up to two spaces straight away – without using a manoeuvre action. Mr Knight allows him to add plus one to defence value, whilst Khonshu allows him to add plus two to attack and prevents all damage except combat damage.
Moon Knight is definitely an expert-level character relative to others I have played with. Asking a novice player to balance the three alter-egos, whilst simultaneously working his deck (which as a lot of evasion, feinting and control effects) is a real challenge. For an experienced player however, Moon Knight is really, really fun. I particularly enjoyed the way in which the Moon Knight ego can move extremely fast into or out of battle (and since Khonshu is the next alter-ego, it will usually be into battle) and then Mr Knight offers a more defensive option, should you have put yourself in danger. His deck, as mentioned, is quite a complex one to play with, but again, it’s enjoyable and flexible.
Luke Cage, on the other hand, is much more straightforward. In short, his deck is all about dealing massive damage at close range, and his deck has a decent mix of very heavy attacks, attacks which can be boosted, and cards which Luke Cage can use to defend himself when he’s right in the thick of it. As the only sidekick in Unmatched: Redemption Row Misty Knight supports Luke Cage with a ranged attack option, as well as a few cards that allow her to hit really hard up close and personal. She has relatively high health and survivability for a sidekick too, so she tends to stick around long enough to draw aggro, and she’s powerful enough that if an opponent ignores her, she will hurt them.
Playing with Ghost Rider is an absolute blast. Ghost Rider begins the game with access to a resource called Hellfire, which basically allows him to boost actions and do interesting and rule-breaking things. Firstly, he can spend Hellfire to move up to four spaces and to damage any character he “passes through” for one as he goes. This allows him to reposition more or less anywhere relevant, whilst also adding the upside of dealing a bit of damage to at least one opponent. In some cases, this upside could be much higher (taking out two of Medusa’s sidekicks, for example) but that’s a rare or niche case. His cards support the use of Hellfire in many ways – with some generating more of it for use later and others allowing Ghost Rider to boost damage or add effects by spending Hellfire. For those who have used Beowulf and experienced his “Rage” mechanic, I can say that Ghost Rider is definitely similar.
So here’s the thing – if you’re already committed to Unmatched and you just want to have a complete collection (which is definitely a thing in the Unmatched hobby) then I’d guess you’ll be buying Unmatched: Redemption Row anyway. If you’re a casual collector who also happens to be a fan of Marvel or superheroes, then again, Unmatched: Redemption Row is a set you’ll definitely want to pick up. But what about new players? What about people who are neither here nor there on Marvel, but love Unmatched? Well, I’m in the latter of these two categories, but I have to say Unmatched: Redemption Row is one of my favourite Unmatched sets to date.
The three characters on offer here – as hinted at by the name – are all flawed heroes who I suppose don’t quite fit into the classic superhero vibe. Yes, Luke Cage is bulletproof and yes, Ghost Rider is… Whatever he is…. And these things should make the characters more powerful than anything else in the Unmatched universe, but they don’t, because the game just works so well. In their own way, each character feels very powerful – and sometimes invincible – to use, but so too does Beowulf, Little Red, Robin Hood or Bruce Lee. That is the magic of Unmatched, and Unmatched: Redemption Row really fits in well here. Where I would not recommend Unmatched: Redemption Row is for new players – there are better starter sets out there (Battle of Legends or Cobble & Fog, for example) and if you’re curious about Unmatched, perhaps buy one of them as well as Unmatched: Redemption Row just to give you some simple options to learn with.
Overall, Unmatched: Redemption Row is a very worthy addition to the Unmatched canon and it is a fitting addition to any collection – as long as it’s not the first one you buy into. For returning fans or comic book fans, Unmatched: Redemption Row is just fantastic. The three new characters work extremely well and offer new and varied strategies for players to explore. The new board is attractive and adds a minor tweak to the rules in the form of the tokens I mentioned earlier, but it isn’t a gamechanger in the sense that it should weigh too strongly on your decision to buy or not.
