Con of Heroes Hype Train Begins
Hey folks! It’s time to start packing and planning decks for Con of Heroes. This year’s theme is all about the latest wave in Marvel Champions – the Civil War campaign box. This is the first of three hype events.
- Today’s article will cover the schedule of events. Some brief spoilers and a packing list.
- A video will drop this coming weekend with some additional spoilers and things you may want to pack to go along with them.
- Finally, another article will drop next week with some deep design details and insight into a mod set you’ll see at the Con.
Bigger, Badder, Better!
This year’s Con of Heroes promises to be bigger, badder, and better than any we’ve had in the past. With a new location within our hotel, we have (virtually) no restrictions on ticket sales and have already exceeded all previous years’ totals!
We are jam-packed with events, but the most exciting thing is that the Con hours are extended. We should have access to the Con hall starting at 8 AM every morning and running until Midnight (maybe even later for some of us no sleepers)!
This leads me to the schedule of events:
Friday
8:00AM – Registration Opens: You’ll be able to pick up your badge and goodies starting at 8 AM each day!
8:00AM-Noon – Free Open Play: The hall will be set up for unstructured open play. Find a friend from the past and get some warm-up games in to prepare for the afternoon events.
12:00-1:00PM – Planned pause in events for lunch: We want to make sure everyone has time to grab lunch and doesn’t miss anything, so we have preplanned blocks for this. The hall is still open, but make sure to eat something!
1:00-2:00PM – Special Event TBA: Super secret thing is super-secret for now.
2:00-5:00PM – Trickster Takeover Event: As is tradition, we will play an epic multiplayer scenario in a convention hall. This will take place from 2-4:30 on Friday (but many smaller events throughout the weekend). Please bring a copy of TT if you have one so we can run the full experience!
5:00-6:30 PM – Planned pause in events for dinner: Grab some grub, do your thing!
6:30-10:00PM – Con Civil War: During this time, we’ll be playing PvE scenarios from the Civil War scenario box and follow-on expansion. The room will be divided into two halves: games versus the Registration in one, and games versus the Resistance in the other. At the end of the night, we will see who truly wins the Civil War based on the number of leader takedowns! If you are up for it a row of tables will divide the hall and you can play a PvP match against the other side!
10:00 – Unmentionable hours: Open play, rest responsibly…
Saturday
8:00AM – Registration Opens: You’ll be able to pick up your badge and goodies starting at 8 AM each day!
9:00AM- Noon – Civil War very Civil Tournament: KennedyHawk will run a Civil War tournament Saturday morning. 3 Rounds of Swiss and Celebrate – nothing high stakes – bring a PvP deck if you want to check out this mode.
9:00AM-11:30AM – Epic Multiplayer Pod A: We will have a special section for epic multiplayer events! Gather with a host or as a group and set up a Trickster Takeover or CoH Epic Multiplayer event of the past.
1:00PM-3:30 PM – Epic Multiplayer Pod B: We will have a special section for epic multiplayer events! Gather with a host or as a group and set up a Trickster Takeover or CoH Epic Multiplayer event of the past.
1:00PM-9:00 PM – 2026 Con Campaign: Find a team of 4 and play through an epic set of 4 scenarios revisiting themes from the Cons past! For each scenario, you will pick the villain you fight, but we’ll have a recommended choice based on past events. This is a continuous event, so buckle up and make some friends – or agree as a team to try just 1-4 scenarios and rotate around the room to meet more folks.
6:00PM-8:30PM Epic Multiplayer Pod B: We will have a special section for epic multiplayer events! Gather with a host or as a group and set up a Trickster Takeover or CoH Epic Multiplayer event of the past.
10:00PM – Unmentionable hours: Open play, rest responsibly…
Sunday
8:00 AM – Registration Opens: You’ll be able to pick up your badge and goodies starting at 8 AM each day!
9:00AM-11:30 AM – Epic Multiplayer Pod D: We will have a special section for epic multiplayer events! Gather with a host or as a group and set up a Trickster Takeover or CoH Epic Multiplayer event of the past.
1:00-3:30 PM – Epic Multiplayer Pod E: We will have a special section for epic multiplayer events! Gather with a host or as a group and set up a Trickster Takeover or CoH Epic Multiplayer event of the past.
Con Open–6:00 PM – Casual play: Enjoy a light day with casual pick-up games and make memories with your friends from the weekend. Talk about this year’s event before we part ways until 2027! The convention hall is technically open past 6 PM, but host staffing may be light!
Okay, but the spoilers?
As you can see, this year the con heavily features the last Marvel Champions product wave. We want to add on to that. My favorite thing in Champions is deckbuilding, and we want to give encounter decks and Civil War leaders more of a taste of that. What don’t those leaders get to do? Choose aspects – well, no more! Part of your entry pack will include 4 aspect modular sets. Want to avoid spoilers? You have been warned!
Shown here are two of the aspect modular set setup environments. Each modular set gives you a hook that will make you want to include a certain type of cards of mechanic into your scenario to make them stand out even more. When playing with an aspect modular set a player may include 1 aspect in their encounter deck (ok for theme maybe 2 with Spider-Woman).These aspects do not count against the deckbuilding limit for scenario customization.
Keep in mind, these can also be used with any Marvel Champions villain, but they include wording like “enemy leader,” etc., from Civil War. So now you can play against an Aggressive Rhino, or maybe a Leadership Klaw who tries to get the band back together (sound pun intended). Each aspect comes with 4 cards that are shuffled into the encounter deck to help synergize the deck. Cards are typically mirrored off player cards (yes, yes, I know Target Acquired isn’t Justice, but the art made it happen).
The encounter sets feature a tight artwork style centered around one of the awesome teams of heroes in Marvel Champions, and all artwork is original and commissioned from amazing artists across the globe. They offer new ways to play with all your encounter cards. I can’t wait to see what encounter decks you cook up with Civil War content and your full Marvel Champions collection! Be sure to bring some of your favorite modular sets to spice things up at your table.
Tell me what to bring!
Alright. First, bring some basic essentials:
- Playmat
- 3-4 Hero Decks
- 3-4 Villain Encounters (handy if prebuilt and ready to go)
- Tokens
- Some Stamina
As for specific scenarios? To play in all of the events this year you will want:
- Any previous COH content you may have
- The Trickster Takeover Scenario Pack
- At least 1 Registration and 1 Resistance customized scenario
- 4 villains for the campaign:
- Recommended: Ultron, Klaw, Juggernaut, Mutagen Formula
I can’t wait to see you there at the biggest Con of Heroes we’ve ever had. Get hype and think about which villains you think would combine with certain aspects.
Cheers,
COH Planning Team 2026
Con of Heroes 