High Scoring Strategy Guide for Marvel Civil War

[Cloda]

In principle this is a very well balanced table in terms of scoring and strategy. There is actually not that much to it once you figure all the modes out, but the real trick comes in to do the right thing at the right time! As such you have to have much better awareness than on many of the other tables of what the ball hit and which modes are running (or not running). It is thus not a beginners table (something that the pinball wizards are relishing after a string of easy single table releases) but will provide a good opportunity for anybody that is interested in getting better and learning how to become more strategic with the game. Beating the wizard mode (final mode before you are forced to switch sides) consecutively is really where your big scoring comes in on this table... or should.

There is though unfortunately a gaping scoring imbalance with one of the modes and now that it is official that the "hole" will not be fixed and the leaderboard will not be reset, I thought that I'll share the high scoring strategy so that everybody is on a level playing field when a tournament happens on this table. There is not much of a strategy though other than focussing on the right sink hole.

Here is a link to the video I made with a quick attempt at demonstrating how to get a big score using the high scoring relatively low risk strategy. Apologies for the low quality video and especially the sound! I'm using a new device and didn't take the time to figure it out properly before recording.

http://youtu.be/XvY9g93wVBA

In this video I didn't even play as safe as I could but still managed to keep the ball alive and score 300 million. I scored a billion employing this strategy in less than half an hour. The strategy employed is as follow:

- You can play with either Ironman or Captain America.
- Repeatedly shoot the right sinkhole until you get your multiplier and extra ball.
- You will notice that each time you hit the right sinkhole it gets shot up the left ramp so that you can hit it with the top left flipper for the ball to come out at the right sinkhole again.
- As you keep on shooting the score per sink hole goes up to 4 million.
- If you then shoot it with the top left flipper for it to come out of the right sink hole you get another 4 million and you also get 500 thousand for hitting the little target next to the top right flipper.
- In the end you get 8.5 million for that little combo.

Some tips for playing safe in general and especially while employing this strategy:

- If the ball ends up on the right flipper shoot the left sink hole until you have both kickbacks activated. An unprotected right outlane is very detrimental in the long run.
- Unlike what I did in the video, don't take shots with the moving ball.
- Use bump if needed to bring the ball under control on the flipper, aim and then shoot. As such I use bump quite a lot on the table to bring the ball under control.
- If you start any missions or modes (especially Fight), just hold the ball on the flipper until the time counts down to cut down your risk.

This table is a lot of fun to play through to Wizard mode repeatedly and they have very nice combos and strategy to figure out and employ so don't just play for high score as you will miss out on a lot of excellent pinballing. In short this is what needs to be done to get to wizard mode with both heroes in one game:

Starting the game with either Captain America or Ironman all 8 the other heroes are neutral and you have to get them on your side before you then get to the wedding (wizard mode). You then switch sides in the Civil War and start with a real deficit in the sense that all the heroes are then on the other guys side. Your must then work hard at neutralising heroes before you can win them over to your side. You need to take a good look at the rule sheet because it is quite tough to figure out what to do as there are many ways to neutralise, win (or lose) heroes from your side and it also differs significantly between the two sides. The one thing that I can specifically recommend is not to start a fight unless you are quite sure that you can win it as all your hard work of neutralizing a hero and winning him/her over can be undone in a flash. I struggled to always see which lanes to hit during a fight as the flashing lanes using view 5 (my preferred view) doesn't give the whole picture... you need to see where the actual characters are positioned to get a better idea which lanes to hit.

I'm sure Shoryukentothechins guide will follow soon but for now there are some great tips and strategy, especially by tenorhero, in the following thread:

https://forum.zenstudios.com/showthr...ll=1#post37258


I have been playing this game for the last two years and have steadily improved and became a lot better at it. Please take a look at my thread linked to in my signature for strategies for some of the tables, tips and a whole bunch of other stuff that might be of interest.

[tenorhero]

I figured you would post this at some point. Thanks for the references

Also like to add that in the ZP2 forums I have also posted since that is the console I play on. Also note that certain things I mentioned in the earlier posts Initially it was for my impressions but I also added what I found out about the aspects and scoring opportunities of the table. As I like to figure as table out before looking at any rule Sheet.

https://forum.zenstudios.com/showthr...nd-impressions!

Most of it is also in the link cloda had mentioned.

[rapierdwit]

Yeesh, I know many of Zen's tables have grindable chances but, from your video, the Ball Save light literally NEVER goes out. The chance of losing a ball is virtually zero if you can keep making that shot in a timely manner.

[lasvegaspinballhalloffame]

Yeah, and I did it the same exact way, yet my ball save goes out,and stays out for a bit. HHHHHhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmm.

[IndyRC_Racer]

Cloda - Thanks for posting the video. My highest score so far has come from playing normally through wizard mode 2x. I'm fairly confident if I'd been more patient I could have gotten to wizard mode a 3rd time and broken a billion (or at least been close). This table is actually fun to play and a bit of a challenge to try to covert allies to your side after beating wizard mode for the first time.

Unfortunately getting a high score on this table will be no indication of ability to beat wizard mode multiple times. Instead it will reward people who will grind just to see their name at the top of a leaderboard (like several other tables).
SHAME ON YOU ZEN FOR CREATING YET ANOTHER EASY GRINDING/SPAMMABLE SCORING SITUATION.

[Rafie]

Good showing, Cloda. I'm sure even though you tell some people how to do the high scoring bid, it still won't be easy for them. I do enjoy this table a lot. The table design and the special effects always wows me.

[IndyRC_Racer]

Shame on me in my previous post in this thread for over-reacting (ridiculous font size - changed back to normal).

I'm not a big fan of the grindable/spammable scoring opportunties on a lot of pinball tables. However, sometimes those opportunities are more like a reward for good effort. A good example of this is Epic Quest. If you chose to advance to lvl 100, jackpot rewards will be at least 10 million and super jackpot rewards will be at least 20 million. However it takes real effort to get your knight to that level. No matter which way you choose to raise your experience level on Epic Quest, it will at least improve your overall pinball ability.

I can think of several other tables where there are good scoring opportunities. The thing about most of them is that you have to hit several difficult shots, do several other things to build up a base score (spiderman/paranormal), or generally have to play the table to get to the opportunity to get the big score.

Unfortunately for Civil War you only have to be able to hit 2 left flipper shots to end up with the potential for millions. While that shot may not be easy for everyone, the average person will be able to get the hang of it pretty quickly. This is a shame because through normal play it is possible for the average person to get 100 million on this table. A real good player should be able to get 1 billion by beating the wizard mode 3-4 times.

I share Cloda's opinion that Zen should nerf this opportunity (perhaps cap the max score at 500,000). I also feel that a scoreboard reset would be appropriate as last I've checked #1 is over 8 billion (although I'm not sure if they used this method to get that score).

In the end we all at least know about this scoring opportunity and can choose to use it or not.

Thanks again to Cloda for taking the time to create a video and post the information here.

[DarkKodiaK]

nice vid, since I'm coming late to this party for the civil war table many months after the fact. Your video has enlightened me. Even commented on your youtube a couple minutes ago

I mean on the 3rd play on this table i hit the wizard mode once, and was half way to the 2nd before game over (was happy to hit the wedding party on the first ball as well!), very quickly. The other two balls went pretty quick after gaining back a couple allies (Which is actually pretty tough to do).

I agree, i generally do not like the more grinding long play tables, but at least I know this option on the table just to juice a score up a bit is there available to do.
only problem is... can i do it

thanks for the vid!