How to start the affiliation
The best purchase to start your collection of my personal favourite faction in the game is to get the newer four character pack CP91 With Thor, Hero of Midgard, the Mighty Thor, Loki, Prince of Lies and Lad Sif. Every single one of them is a top performer on the tabletop and very much core to the affiliation. You also get a choice of two very good leaders here. Next up you’ll want to look at Heimdall and Skurge, Beta Ray Bill and Ulik or the Asgardian Affiliation pack in any order you choose. Sadly none of these boxes is a home run like CP91. Heimdall looks cool but can’t really fund his kit in any of the Asgardian leaderships. Skurge is a very good Workhorse and my personal favourite of the 3s. Ulik isn’t affiliated with Asgard but very good. You just run into the issue of already being super tall so fitting in a 5 threat splash is basically impossible. OG Thor will never leave my personal list as he’s an incredible tech piece in the right match ups. Valkyrie is a decent 3 but Hela sits at the bottom of the in affiliation 4s for me and Loki 1 just faces to hard of a competition with his 5 threat version. Enchantress and Angela are more to taste than core to the affiliation.
What leaderships are available and what is their typical archetype
Asgard has three leaderships:
I come bearing Gifts is just pure upside where you pay Loki for rerolls. Never a bad thing to have though I find myself struggling for power to pay for the leadership more often than you’d think.
Renegade Thor of Asgardia is the only “free” leadership available and just gives a conditional offensive and defensive buff. You’ll find you won’t get as many defensive rerolls as you’d like but the offensive one will come up a lot.
Prince of Asgard is a more situational leadership that can change match ups to your favour. Always remember to check at the beginning of any of your turns if there’s a character you want to use the leadership on.
While under Thor leadership you can build a Type 2 game plan (Scenario focus who can punch if necessary) Asgard’s typical game plan will be a Type 3 (Attrition that can shift to scenario if it needs to), some builds even going straight Type 4 (Pure Attrition).
Rating every affiliated TTC and Character
Doomed Prophecy
B. A card that can win but also loose you games. Difficult to use but potentially very potent. My favourite user is Skurge, but Angela can be great with it too.
For a Limited Time Only
C. Having to play it in Hero Thor’s activation kills the card because you seldom want to activate him early and if you don’t the card does nothing.
Freyja‘s Blessing
C+. Reads good but kind of never comes together in play.
Heart of the Worthy
B-. An additional Jane activation can win you the game. You’ll also only ever consider using the card if you’re sure it does.
Odin‘s Blessing
A+++. You’ll never even consider playing an Asgard game without this card.
Rainbow Bridge
A. You might not want it in games with a lot of extracts but it’s versatility is hard to beat. Don’t try to set up the perfect situation where 3+ characters use the teleport. If one can benefit a lot from it it is already enough to be worth it.
Trickster‘s Boon
B-. It’s kind of a telegraphed play and you have to bring specific splashes to be worth it but the effect is pretty strong.
Brothers in Arms (R)
A. It’s not technically an Asgard card as it is unaffiliated (and before it got restricted I would’ve used it in Guardians for example). It is a kitchen table card with OG Thor and Bill but Hero of Midgard who suddenly throws out 10 dice builders with it straight up broke the card and made it necessary that it got restricted. It doesn’t make my roster because of it but I can absolutely still see the argument for it.
Characters (13)
Angela (5)
B-. As often the case with her Angela faces to stiff a competition to make most Asgard rosters. She’s the only non-leader 5 threat but is a safe midline grab and has high damage output against weaker characters.
Beta Ray Bill (4)
A. Bill is very good at not dying and can have explosive offensive turns sometimes. Not an every game piece anymore but an always reliable 4 threat.
Enchantress (4)
A. Maybe the most controversial take here but I absolutely adore Amora. She offers control, a Beam and an in affiliation steal (that she can use to great effect with her bow). Meet my Executioner is also a great TTC when you also have Skurge on the table.
Heimdall, The All-Seeing (3)
C-. Heimdall can’t fund his cool kit and doesn’t offer much outside of it.
Hela, Queen of Hel (4)
C. Hela was the best Eyes on the Prize user but with that card gone and Loki, Prince of Lies occupying the spot of ranged Mystic attacker Hela is kind of out of a job.
Lady Sif (4)
A. The new default 4 threat. There has to be a specific situation, like an Energy Pay 2 Flip to exchange her against Bill in my experience. She basically just always good at what she does and will seldom let you down.
Loki, God of Mischief (4)
C. OG Loki is a staple in Cabal but can’t really make the roster in Asgard especially with competition from:
Loki, Prince of Lies (5)
A. Loki 2 is an absolute menace. From his good leadership to decent attacks and the thing that drives opponents crazy: Oh my, what a pity, Loki is a blast to play and a nightmare to see on the other side of the table.
Skurge, The Executioner (3)
B+. Skurge is a workhorse. Aggressive, Taunt, terrain throw and giant dice pools for a 3 threat make him a reliable beat stick you aren’t expecting to live through the entire game.
The Mighty Thor (5)
A. Jane Foster brings the second leadership of the list and the only available that doesn’t cost power making it the most pure upside. She is also reliable damage dealer, who brings some control, in her own right.
Thor, Hero of Midgard (6)
A+. Hero Thor probably has the highest amount of possible damage output per activation in the entire game. He lacks defensive abilities and control but makes up for it by simply killing everyone in his way. He’s the Thor you know from the movies.
Thor, Prince of Asgard (5)
B+. Original Thor is maligned by many and he can be extremely frustrating to play when he just won’t hit anything. But he has the most control of any of the 5 threats and his ceiling isn’t that far of from his Hero version. He also brings a leadership that can simply win some match ups where Loki and Jane aren’t going to work. Clearing all the Staggers a Defenders squad puts out is very nice for example.
Valkyrie (3)
B-. Valkyrie is a solid damage 3 threat with some control that also falls over dead quite quickly.
potential future characters, especially leaders
Having just had four new characters injected into the affiliation I don’t think we can expect new releases any time soon. The most likely addition will be the Warriors Three who’ll come on a single 50mm like the Howling Commandos is my guess. The only future leader I could see is Odin himself if he’s ever added to the game.
Example Roster
Characters (10)
- Thor, Prince of Asgard (5)
- Loki, Prince of Lies (5)
- The Mighty Thor (5)
Thor, Hero of Midgard (6)
Beta Ray Bill (4)
Enchantress (4)
Lady Sif (4)
Skurge, The Executioner (3)
Rocket Raccoon (2)
Hawkeye (3)
Team Tactics (10)
Heart of the Worthy
Odin‘s Blessing
Giant‘s Blood
Meet My Executioner
Freyja‘s Blessing
Brace for Impact (R)
Versatile Strategy
Patch Up (R)
Recalibration Matrix
Rainbow Bridge
Secure Crisis
Deadly Meteors Mutate Civilians (I, 17)
Mutant Madman Turns City Into Lethal Amusement Park (B, 18)
Gamma Wave Sweeps Across Midwest (E, 15)
Extract Crisis
Fear Grips World As “Worthy“ Terrorize Cities (D, 18)
Deadly Legacy Virus Cured? (C, 19)
Alien Ship Crashes In Downtown! (C, 17)
This the current state of my competitive list though that’s always in flux.
Cheers from Germany 🍻
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