Defend Earth-Prime from dastardly villains in Sentinels of Earth-Prime a stand alone card game set in the Mutants and Masterminds TTRPG Universe.
This revised and licenced version of Sentinels of the Multiverse is fully compatible with everything else from the Enhanced Edition, but may feel a bit underpowered if you mix it up with the Definitive Edition. It’s also a great superhero board game just on its own.
Disclosure: Thanks to Chris from Green Ronin for letting us take their demo copy home from Origins. Some links in this post are affiliate links, using them costs you nothing extra and helps support this website. As an Amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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What is Sentinels of Earth-Prime?
Sentinels of Earth-Prime Superheroic Card Game is the result of a collaboration between Greater Than Games and Green Ronin Publishing. It is a non-collectible, cooperative card game for one to five players that we think gets better the more people you have.
The game plays two to five players with games lasting about an hour, more when you are just learning the game or when you use one of the games many decks for the first time. While the box says it’s for ages thirteen and up, I know eight year old me who had recently discovered the TSR Marvel Super Heroes Adventure Game would have devoured this game.
Sentinels of Earth-Prime is a somewhat fiddly game with lots of moving parts and things to track as well as a ridiculous amount of asymmetry, giving the game a lot more weight than you would expect from a superhero card game. Due to this weight, games can take quite a bit of time with most of our games going over an hour. Though this will get quicker the more you get to know the various decks in the game.
To help make the game more accessible and to keep things easier at the start every deck in rated on a one to three complexity scale. This is great for onboarding new players and we strongly recommend starting off with the level one decks.
One of the most fun parts of Sentinels of Earth-Prime is picking which decks to use. Players each choose a hero, then pick a villain to try to thwart, and finally decide where the battle is taking place. During play, each turn, the villain will do something dastardly, then the heroes each get to act by playing one card and activating one power, then something interesting will happen in the environment.
The various possible combinations of decks leads to a fantastic amount of replay value just in the core game box. There’s infinitely more if you considering adding in expansions and when you include the possibility of mashing what you get here with all of the other Sentinels of the Multiverse stuff that’s out there.
Not that you are going to need new stuff for a while. The Sentinels of Earth-Prime core box comes with four villains, ten different heroes (each with two different starting powers to choose from), and four environment decks.
There are a couple of extra things in the box, to be used if you pick up expansion decks. For example you get a fifth oversized villain card for Malador the Mystic but the deck for that villain is sold separately. Green Ronin did this so they didn’t have to make special packaging for the expansion to hold the oversized card. I thought this was smart but I admit I was worried I was missing a deck when I first checked out our box.
All of these card decks come in a unique cardboard insert that works pretty well for sorting the cards but not so great for organising all of the various counters you use while playing the game. This is one where you may be interested in a better box insert.
The component quality is what you would expect from any modern hobby card game, with good card quality and quality cardboard tokens. The rulebook is a bit verbose (which seems to happen whenever a TTRPG publisher puts out a board game) but good for learning the game.
Where the quality in Sentinels of Earth-Prime ramps up, is with the Mutants & Masterminds based artwork on the cards. I don’t know if Green Ronin reused art from their RPGs or if it’s new artwork but it is absolutely perfect for a superhero based card game.
Playing out a comic book style battle in Sentinels of Earth-Prime
I already mentioned that you start a game of Sentinels of Earth-Prime by decided who you want to play, who that group will face off against, and where you will battle. This is done with everyone picking their own Hero deck (and choosing which of that Heroes two powers you want to use that game), picking a Villain deck, grabbing that Villain’s extra large character card, and choosing one of the environment decks to use.
Players set the hero card for their character in front of them along with their chosen power. They then shuffle their deck and draw a starting hand. Each villain is a bit more complicated to set up but basically just involves following the instructions on their oversized card. Many villains will start with various conditions or cards in play.
Now before I get into covering how the core game plays, you need to be very aware that Sentinels of Earth-Prime is very much a card driven game. Most of the game and what happens in it is driven by the cards, but then each hero and villain changes the game and how it plays. Because of this, when first playing with any deck in the game there is a learning curve to get over, and the deck complexity ratings do a good job of letting you know which are harder to overcome than others.
Overall this is a very exception based system. I’m going to cover the generic rules that always apply and the general flow of the game. I just want you to be aware that all of this can get messed with in many ways depending on what decks you choose to play with and what cards from those decks come up.
Each round starts with a villain turn which itself starts by drawing the top card from the villain deck and doing whatever it says on the card. Next you go through every other villain card in play, including any that were just revealed this turn. Activate each card in turn, reading through it and doing whatever is said on the card.
Many of these card effects will be based on the number of heroes playing, and card effects are often based on individual heroes’ current health score.
There are a wide variety of status effects and damage types as well as defenses against these. Be sure to read all cards carefully and literally.
Next the players get to go. On the surface this is dead simple. On your turn you get to play one card and do what it says, then you can activate one Power card you have face up in your tableau, and then you draw one card from your deck. Each character starts with a default power they can always use that stays in play so there’s something you can do from turn one.
Really that’s it. The thing is, in Sentinels of Earth-Prime, every hero’s deck plays differently. Many cards will let you play more cards, draw more cards, give you new powers, let you activate more than one power, burn your cards for effects, and more. A lot of card effects are cooperation based, doing things like healing other heroes, letting other players draw cards or activate their own powers, etc.
Once all of the heroes have acted you see what’s going on where you are battling by flipping over the top card of the Environment deck. Like every other aspect of this game, all kinds of fun things can happen. Civilians may be put in harms way, the weather may change, things might explode, etc. What I found most interesting is that many of the Encounter cards will affect both sides of the battle and they aren’t always bad things.
You goal in a game of Sentinels of Earth-Prime is to knock out the villain by depleting their hit points to zero. Most villain cards have two sides. Most of these flip when you defeat the villain but some have other triggers. The back sides of the villain cards will have a new set up section you follow, and will often have an even bigger pool of hit points.
In addition to having to battle the villains themselves, many other opponents can enter play through villain and environment cards and each of those has their own hit points. They activate on future Villain and Environment phases. These cards are discarded when their HP hits zero.
Of course, the heroes also have hit points. When a hero gets knocked to zero they aren’t eliminated from play, rather you flip over the hero card to the Incapacitated side and now each time it’s their turn, you use the abilities listed there.
While those heroes won’t be playing cards anymore, they at least still get to take part, which is something I’ve always appreciated from all of the Sentinels games.
As expected from a card game that is recreating a comic book battle, Sentinels of Earth Prime includes all kinds of cool powers, various defence types and attack types and even rules for heroes battling their arch nemesis. It’s hard to get across the variety in this game without playing it, just know that the way the cards interact make every hero and villain play very differently and pretty much all of your generic supers tropes are covered here.
Sentinels of Earth-Prime is a great addition to the Sentinels universe and is even better if you are a M&M fan.
To me the real joy in Sentinels of Earth-Prime and really all of the various Sentinels of the Multiverse games, is the asymmetry and the joy of figuring out the trick to each deck.
With Earth-Prime I really enjoyed the moment I was playing a character for the first time and I had a power that said something like “Destroy 1 Location,” then later seeing a couple of Location cards and realising that my characters powers are based on controlling the city itself. That was Doctor Metropolis for those wondering.
Another example is the way that Johnny Rocket, the speedster character starts off almost useless and has to ramp things up by getting Momentum cards into play which are later destroyed to power up other cards.
The problem is that this is also the games biggest downfall for players who just want to sit down and play a superhero card game. While some decks are easier to pick-up even the most basic deck is going to be more fun to play on your second time around once you see how things work.
With players who prefer to know what they are getting into I recommend giving everyone a chance to look through their decks for a bit before you start a game of Sentinels of Earth-Prime. On the other hand some players, like me, prefer learning as they go and relish the joy of discovering each deck as you play.
Be sure to use the deck’s ranks, especially when playing with players of different difficulty levels. The ranks aren’t about power level or really how difficult they are, rather it’s a ranking of how complex they are. I do love that I can sit down with someone new and give them a rank one hero while I can grab a more complicated one for myself.
I also found all of the decks in this box to be very well balanced with each other. Just because you have a level one hero doesn’t mean you won’t be as effective as a level three hero and a group of level one decks can beat a level three villain.
Sentinels of Earth-Prime is based on the 2nd “Enhanced” edition rules, and presents a slightly streamlined and simplified version of the Enhanced rules. There are less status effects that stay in play that you have to remember and track.
This version also came out before the more recently released Sentinels of the Multiverse Definitive Edition, and people who enjoy that may feel this is a step backward. Definitive is the most streamlined and fastest playing version of Sentinels. Personally I like that Earth-Prime sits somewhere in the middle here, it’s smoother than Enhanced but not as quick as Definitive.
That said, this did come out before the Sentinels of the Multiverse Definitive edition and for people that own that this could feel like a bit of a step backwards. To me this feels like a step between 2e and Definitive. It is also worth noting that all of the cards here are technically compatible with all of the other Sentinels stuff out there.
While all of the various editions are compatible, things did change significantly in the Definitive edition and the balance is NOT the same between the Enhanced Edition and Definitive Edition. What this means it that while you CAN mix and match sets, you are better off finding Enhanced edition material to pair up with Earth-Prime.
Sentinels of Earth-Prime does a fantastic job of playing out like an epic superhero comic book battle. What I think sets this game apart from other supers games is the encounter deck thing, where having your battle take place in Freedom City feels quite different than battling in Tartarus. It’s not just about who is fighting who but also where the battle is taking place.
The theme also comes out in the way play escalates. To me, a core aspect of a comic book battle is that things ramp up and you do get that feeling in Sentinels of Earth-Prime. Your heroes improve as you put more cards into play and the villains are constantly adding new threats, mooks and minions for you to deal with. Plus, the way the villain cards flip and the nemesis rules really bring home that epic boss fight at the end of a story arc.
Besides the learning curve, which I think is part of the fun, Sentinels of Earth-Prime has a problem that I feel has plagued all versions of the Sentinels games and that is fiddliness. There can be a lot of things to track in this game and a lot to remember. Many cards give bonuses to attack or defence, or prevent certain types of damage, or only trigger when other things happen, and some character powers only go off on other players turns.
It is very easy in this game to miss something. It’s easy to forget about an effect entirely or even miss a card when trying to activate every card in play on the villain’s turn. I’ve even forgotten my own modifier cards when using an action as a hero. Tracking all of this can also add up to a lot of table clutter and pretty much every fan of the game has their own method of keeping track of it all.
One issue we ran into is hero actions that go off on other player’s turns. Some of the support characters have many of these abilities and we’ve had rounds where the non-active player did more on another player’s turn than the active player, to the point that we sometimes forgot who’s turn it is and move on to the next player by mistake.
All this said, I did find Sentinels of Earth-Prime to be easier to manage than Sentinels of the Multiverse and even than the Enhanced edition.
A complaint that Sean had about the game, as someone who doesn’t mind the fiddliness and tracking, was the heroes themselves. While he understood that these are iconic heroes and villains of the Mutants & Masterminds world, which could be a selling point for M&M Fans, he found the characters to be glaring rip-offs of well known Marvel and DC characters.
Personally this didn’t bother me at all, DC, Marvel, and other smaller studios have been doing their thing for years. There aren’t many supers tropes they haven’t already covered. Plus people like the popular heroes so it makes sense for the designers to want to include similar characters in the game.
One local group I’ve played Sentinels of Earth-Prime with loved the fact that it featured M&M characters as they are big fans of the RPG. They commented about how well the game emulated these characters and made them feel more real to the players.
So I think I can safely say that if you are a Mutants & Masterminds fan you are going to like this game even more than someone who doesn’t recognize the characters.
I played the original Sentinels of the Multiverse when it first came out. I enjoyed it quite a bit but found it a little too fiddly. I only played a friend’s copy a couple of times and never felt the need to pick one up for myself.
I returned to the game part way through the second “Enhanced” edition and found a much more manageable game that I enjoyed quite a bit. I did get my own copy of this one and did pick up a few of the expansion boxes. It still wasn’t a big hit with my regular group though, so it didn’t get as much play as I would have liked.
For this edition, I didn’t even know Sentinels of Earth-Prime existed until I happened to spot it at the Green Ronin booth at Origins Game Fair. I was instantly drawn to it after Chris Pramas gave me an overview and noted that they had streamlined the Enhanced rules for this licenced version of the game.
I again have to thank Chris for giving in after I begged him to let me bring home their demo copy so I could compare it to other supers games we had in our pile of shame and obligation at the time. I’m so glad he said yes, as this box has rekindled my love for the series.
Speaking of those other supers games, they were KAPOW! from Wise Wizard Games and Marvel Dice Throne from The Op. (click the links to check out our reviews of each of those). Of the three, Sentinels of Earth-Prime is the heaviest game with the biggest learning curve and the longest playing time. This is one for the comic book geeks with the willingness to accept the management and organization required in the game.
If you dig thinky super hero games, games where each hero is very different from the other and part of the fun is figuring out how to best use a particular heroes powers and options, you will enjoy exploring Sentinels of Earth Prime.
If you are a Mutants & Masterminds fan you will probably enjoy this chance to explore one of your favourite worlds in a new format. Sentinels of Earth-Prime might be a great alternative for when your RPG night falls through.
If you dig other super hero games, like KAPOW!or Marvel Dice Throne, both of which we’ve reviewed in the past, know that this is a very different game. Sentinels of Earth-Prime is much heavier and more involved. It rewards system mastery and repeated plays and because of that it won’t be for everyone. However, if you have enjoyed those lighter games but wanted something more, then you really should check out Earth-Prime.
FAQs
Do I need to own Sentinels of the Multiverse to play Sentinels of Earth-Prime?
No, Sentinels of Earth-Prime is a completely stand alone game. While having played games in the Sentinels of the Multiverse series will help you to learn Earth-Prime you don’t need to have played and you definitely don’t need to own anything else to play with this box.
Should I have played Mutants & Masterminds to really enjoy Sentinels of Earth-Prime?
I have no personal experience with Mutants & Masterminds and loved this superhero card game. So, no you do not need any experience with M&M to play this game. That said, friends of mine who do play M&M did get something out of Earth-Prime that I did not.
Is Sentinels of Earth-Prime really compatible with everything Sentinels?
Officially yes, this box can be expanded by and can expand all other Sentinels of the Multiverse products. That said due to balance issues and rule changes Earth-Prime works best with Sentinels of the Multiverse Enhanced Edition stuff.
Are there any expansions for Sentinels of Earth-Prime?
In addition to being compatible with other Sentinels products, there are specific Sentinels of Earth-Prime expansions. There are three hero expansions, Eldritch, Sub-Terra and Lantern Jack, and one villain, Malador the Mystic.
With that the citizens of Freedom City are saved from a potentially disastrous board game purchase. I hope we’ve let you know enough to figure out if Sentinels of Earth-Prime is a good fit for you and your group.
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- Sentinels of Earth-Prime is a cooperative card game that recreates the pulse pounding action of superhero comics.
- Play a hero of the Freedom League like Lady Liberty, Captain Thunder, or Johnny Rocket striving against the schemes of villains like Argo the Ultimate Android and Omega, Lord of the Terminus, in dynamic environments like Tartarus and Freedom City.
- 2-5 players
- 45-60 minutes
