Days of Future Past is played as an epic game in two parts. First the Heroes must take down the Sentinels hunting them. If they can do so before Nimrod is fully activated, they must then face Nimrod himself. The closer Nimrod was to being fully activated, the more powerful he is for the final battle.
No Missions are used for this game, and the Villains can be damaged from the start. The Sentinels don’t have a Master Plan deck. Instead, they have an Activation Protocol that indicates all they must do in accordance with what cards the Heroes played. At the start, the Heroes are assigned 3 Sentinel Target tokens matching each of the Sentinels. At the end of each Hero’s turn, the players must activate the Sentinel targeting that Hero (if a Hero doesn’t have a Sentinel targeting them, they get to choose which to activate). Following the Activation Protocol card, the Sentinel scans the last 2 Hero cards played and acts accordingly. Moves cause it to move towards its target, Heroic actions cause it to put Civilians in peril, Attacks cause it to attack Heroes around it, Wilds heal it, Special Effects advance the Nimrod Activation Track, and finally, if it reaches its target, it attacks it.
Needless to say, Heroes will need to plan their turns carefully and coordinate their actions in order to outsmart the single-minded Sentinels. The Threat cards generally inform the Sentinel actions. Mutant Detection enhances the Sentinel attacks, Sentinel Production helps them repair themselves, and Data Analyzer accelerates the Nimrod Activation Track when Heroes are KO’d. Clearing these Threats help decrease the Nimrod Activation Track, which can be a lifesaver since whenever a Sentinel doesn’t need to move to reach its target, or has no damage to heal, the track also advances. If it ever reaches the end, Nimrod is too powerful to be stopped, and it’s game over. If the Heroes manage to defeat all Sentinels before that, Nimrod immediately enters play and must now be fought.
Read about the second part of this battle in the Nimrod section below. Now it’s time to gawk at these impressive Sentinels, each standing about 14 centimeters tall!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cmon/marvel-united-x-men/posts/3175228
