Homebrew Release: Warnel Chawpiovs v1.3.0 (PC & Nintendo Switch), adds “The Galaxy’s Most Wanted” cards and more

I’ve just released version 1.3.0 of “Warnel Chawpiovs”, a homebrew game for PC (Windows, Linux, MacOS versions are now available) and Nintendo Switch.

I’m particularly excited because this release adds a deck editor which I think works pretty well. The deck editor is compatible with the formats of popular community site MarvelCDB.com, meaning you can easily import decks from that site, as well as export to a format that will work there.

This new release also adds 6 new heroes (Black Widow, Thor, Hulk, Ms. Marvel, Rocket Raccoon and Groot) as well as 5 new scenarios from the “Galaxy’s Most Wanted” expansion, featuring villains Drang, The Collector, Nebula, and Ronan the Accuser. Ronan the Accuser has the reputation of being a very difficult scenario, and to be honest I failed so often and so quickly against it that this scenario might be crippled with bugs and untested encounters (in addition to being super hard, ha). But give it a try and let me know.

(By the way, if you’re using and enjoying Warnel Chawpiovs, please do me a favor and spread the word, to friends or on social networks. Having a growing number of users helps me staying motivated to add more cards and features!)

Overall, the game now supports 20 heroes and 23 scenarios, which I estimate represents roughly 25% of all the cards in the original game (excluding campaigns)

 

This is a fan-created work and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Fantasy Flight Games. All characters, settings, and related elements are the property of their respective owners.

What is Warnel Chawpiovs ?

Warnel Chawpiovs, aka WC, is a homebrew game for multiple platforms (included, but not limited to, Nintendo Switch and Windows), based on the popular cooperative board game Marvel Champions. WC lets you play the popular card game with full rules enforcement. The game does the heavy lifting of handling all the rules, so you only have to focus on your strategy.

Please note that Warnel Chawpiovs doesn’t hold your hand. Although it automates all of the gameplay, you will still need a basic understanding of the original rules to know what’s going on. The rules can be found here if you’re interested: https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/marvel-champions-the-card-game/  (scroll down to the support/rules section and download “Learn to play“)

You can play on your own with one or multiple heroes, and there’s also a multiplayer mode, although I need to emphasize once again, multiplayer doesn’t exactly work*

 

Warnel Chawpiovs – What’s new in 1.3.0

• Adds support for “Galaxy’s Most Wanted” expansion , Black Widow Hero Pack, Thor Hero Pack, Hulk Hero Pack, Ms. Marvel Hero Pack:
  • New heroes : Black Widow, Thor, Hulk, Ms. Marvel, Rocket Raccoon and Groot
  • New villains: Drang, The Collector (2 scenarios), Nebula, and Ronan the Accuser
• Added a Deck Editor
• Various bug fixes

1.3.0 Development notes and anecdotes

Of the new implemented heroes, Rocket Raccoon is probably my favorite to play, I really like his ability to replace his upgrades with high flexibility. He’s great at both thwarting and damage, and I’ve had a lot of fun playing with him. Groot also feels like an indestructible hero, but I had more fun with Rocket.

The Collector’s scenario “Infiltrate the Museum” seems to be designed against Rocket’s ability. As soon as you discard a card from game, the Collector adds it to his collection and can make you lose faster than light. It’s a bit infuriating, but I guess part of the game’s design overall is to add new interesting player mechanics, and villains designed to counter those mechanics.

My favorite scenario in the expansion was probably “escape the museum”, as I really enjoyed the idea of defeating the main schemes as fast as possible to escape. I think it’s an interesting new take on how main schemes typically work. The collector scenarios also add a bunch of interesting Side Schemes with rewards for defeating them (similar to what Red Skull had in TRORS) and I had a lot of fun trying to handle those.

Developing the Deckbuilder was super fun. It was nice to move away from card rules and gameplay for a few days, and instead focus on a new interface with less pressure to “exactly follow the rules”. I think it turned out great and I can’t wait to see what more I can do with it.

Details on what you can do with the deck editor can be found in this video:

Last but not least, despite my best attempts, the game is suffering from growing performance issues. While things should be fine on PC with 1 or 2 heroes, I can see that the Switch is having a hard time with the two latest releases. And on PC, a 4 Heroes game is playable but lag is significant when a card is played or an event happens. I’ll do my best to keep improving performance, but things are what they are for now.

How to install – Windows/Linux

Download the binaries below or on the github page:

• Warnel Chawpiovs Download page

(alternatively on github)

extract anywhere on your computer, then run the binary file (Windows: WC.exe, Linux:WC.x86_64)

How to install – Nintendo Switch

You will need a hacked Nintendo Switch to run this game.

Download the binaries below or on the github page:

• Warnel Chawpiovs Download page

(alternatively on github)

extract the WC folder inside your switch folder on your SD card.

Launch the homebrew Menu in “full speed” mode (not in applet mode). This is done by pressing the Right Should button (R) while launching a cartridge game.

From there, you can run the game

How to install – Mac OS

Download the binaries below or on the github page:

• Warnel Chawpiovs Download page

(alternatively on github)

The Mac OS app isn’t officially signed, so in order to run it you can ctrl + click and select “open”

Running your First Game

On your first run, unless you already have the appropriate resources files (some of these files are included on the packages hosted on my website, but not on github), the game will attempt to download images and other resources. You will need internet access for that step. This step can be pretty long, in particular on the Nintendo Switch (roughly 30 minutes in my experience). Again, that step is not needed if you have the appropriate “*.zip” resource files.

Once you’re in the game select “Sivgle Player”, then choose one hero and one villain, then click on launch.

Note: On your very first run, the game will only let you select one hero and one villain. This is intentional, as the game’s “adventure mode” requires you to win games in order to unlock more heroes and scenarios. If you don’t like this you can deactivate it in the options/gameplay menu, this will unlock all content.

Check the Videos below for examples of gameplay

 

 

 

 

Status of the Switch port

The Switch port is… slow. You might want to overclock your console when you play the game. I know it’s not ideal, but it makes the gameplay much more comfortable.

I would not recommend playing with more than one hero at the moment, if only for performance reasons

 

Troubleshooting, bug reports, etc…

I do not have a dedicated forum or discord in place for this game yet. You can open issues on the github project, or contact me by email (wagic.the.homebrew at gmail), but please understand that I might dismiss or ignore most of those depending on free time and interest.

If there is enough interest for this little game, I might open a discord or something eventually.

Known issues

• Multiplayer should basically be considered broken for now.
• Loading/Saving games is hit and miss depending on the hero/villain
• Switch port is slow. You might want to overclock your console
• There are still lots of issues with specific cards, but feel free to report issues you find on the github
  • In particular multiple cards behave strangely when playing with more than one hero. This isn’t intentional so feel free to report those

 

Want more details?

check the Readme on github

What’s next:

There is still lots of work to do with this game. I am currently focusing on adding more cards to enjoy with a solo hero.

If by any miracle you are looking at my code and can help, in particular with multiplayer issues, please submit a PR on github

 

Download

• Download page

Or on the project’s github page

*  If you badly want to play Marvel Champions with friends online, the Marvel champions digital edition, another unofficial fan game, does a great job at it.