Heads up, True Believers, we're trying out a new game!
It's based on some comics books, you may have heard of them...
A few months ago, I acquired the starter set of Marvel Crisis Protocol and, in a staggering third-act twist, I, Stylus, actually painted all of it.
I never saw that coming.
MCP is a skirmish game that's been around for a few years now, and is regularly putting out new character models from the House of Ideas. Essentially you pick a team heroes (or villains) and play six rounds, or until someone racks up enough victory points.
You alternate between individual activations, so there's never a dull moment, the dice are bespoke D8s, and all the special rules are on each character's respective datacard.
A couple of other points to note are:
- power tokens - this is how most powers are activated, and you can gain them in a number of ways, but mostly by taking damage (i.e. the hero just gets more motivated the more of a battering they take)
- damage - each character has a small number of health points, but when these are gone, they're not removed. Instead, they become 'dazed' and no more attacks can be made against them (so your opponent can't continue to pummel a downed fighter).
In the next turn, they get back up again and continue as before with their datacard flipped to the 'injured' side (this is very similar to their healthy side, but once those heath points are gone, they're out of the game) - tactics cards - these are like stratagems, and you can choose five of them to play (once per game) as actions or reactions.
Teams
We're using all ten of the characters that come with the starter set. Technically, you're allowed to mix and match anyone you like, but Kraken and I are far too much narrative players for that sort of shenanigans - so it's straight up Avengers vs Cabal!
Avengers
- Captain America (leader)
- Black Widow
- Captain Marvel
- Iron Man
- Spider-Man
Cabal
- Red Skull (leader)
- Baron Zemo
- Crossbones
- Doctor Octopus
- Ultron
Mission and Deployment
MCP games seem to have two mission 'crisis' cards (I think this is a balancing mechanic for competitive games). Either way, our missions will be:
- Struggle for the Cube Continues
Five objectives which you can pick up and hold. 1VP for each fragment held during the Cleanup phase (end of turn). But you also take damage for each fragment held during the Power phase (start of turn). - Riots Spark Over Extremis 3.0
Four fixed objectives that you must be control to score 1VP during the Cleanup Phase. Healthy characters will trump Injured ones when it comes to contesting objectives.
Never having played this, I've got no idea what tactics might be winning ones, so I stick to a plan that makes the most of what I've got. Red Skull can rack up power all by himself, then use it to whizz other teammates around, so he'll lurk at the back with the tanky Crossbones guarding him. The others are fairly nippy already, either because they can fly or because they just move fast, so they'll go ahead and try and grab scoring things.
I've had a few practice games (but they were against my family, so the challenge was as much about keeping up their enthusiasm as learning the rules), so I spread across the board with Captain America on the left flank, Captain Marvel, Spider-Man and Iron Man taking cover in the centre (as flyers or wall-crawlers, terrain won't slow them down), and Black Widow sneaking around a building on the right flank.
The Crisis
My first moves keep to my plan - Ock and Ultron swoop forward on to a roof, Red Skull grips his box and generates some power whilst lurking behind Crossbones and Zemo. Ock ends up furthest forward, and because I moved him first, he ends up weathering a bit of a beating from Danvers. Ultron zaps her back, but she drinks up the energy from his ray. I've just made her stronger!
I race forward with everyone (it might have been a good time to play the Avengers Assemble tactics card, but you learn as you go) and grab a couple of Cube fragments, although I only manage to secure one console at the back, falling just short of the one in the centre. Which means Kraken gets a slight lead in VPs at the end of turn one.
(Game note: victory goes to the player first to 16 VP, so you have to keep an eye on the tally and can't leave it too late to score. This 'sudden death' style means you can't just linger at the back and shoot, or try to eliminate all the enemy without also scoring points).
I throw everything at Doc Ock (including a tactical card which lets Iron Man bounce a repulsor blast off Cap's shield), as he is the most exposed. But he rides his luck and stays standing on a single health point, which means most of my attacks are wasted.
Well, now that Doc Ock is looking on wobbly ground, he lashes back at the superheroes as best he can. He picks Danvers up and throws her into Spidey, leaving them both a bit battered, but he goes down almost straight away afterwards.
The bonus here is that, when a character gets Dazed, they drop what they're carrying. So now that we've collected all five fragments of the Cube (and characters can hold more than one piece), it's a scramble to knock out the holders.
The rest of my turn goes pretty well, though! First, Ultron uses an ability to hurl the entire news stand at Captain Marvel. Breaking both bones and news, this knocks her down. First blood to me! Then Zemo easily weathers an ambush from Black Widow, then return strikes to take her out in a single swipe. Two for one seems like good money to me - especially with Crossbones and Red Skull advancing down the middle to threaten the Marvel team's backline objective.
But Stylus is outscoring me - turn three might look bad for him survival-wise, as the good Doctor gets back up and immediately starts busting heads again. He doesn't last long - a combo of taser webs and Cap's shield threatens to flatten him almost immediately, but he somehow survives an energy zap from Danvers to stay standing.
Unlike Black Widow! Zemo's attacks take her straight out of the game, whilst also letting him move swiftly back towards the middle.
Black Widow, as it transpired, was a terrible choice for an unsupported sneak attack. Zemo got lucky to skewer her in one turn, but that was poor usage from me of Agent Romanoff - now I'm outnumbered (which makes a difference with alternating turns - the player with most characters is always going to have the final activation).
Meanwhile, Red Skull keeps playing the long game, but uses a strat card to allow Crossbones a double move! The big lug had also been knocked down once by this point, I think, partly because the objective he was carrying kept hurting him. But he had also savaged Spidey on his lumbering way towards the rear objective.
But I was still playing for the points - there are lots of abilities for characters to be pushed away or pushed towards (I guess we'd call that 'pull') in this game, and I use repulsor blasts and impact webbing to shove Ultron and Dock Ock away from an Extremis Console and claim it for myself!
By the close of turn three, Stylus was generating a decent lead. He just needed three points next turn for a win, whereas I needed five and didn't look like scoring them easily.
Despite being on the receiving end so far, it's looking like victory is in my grasp, due to Victory Points! Iron Man (who's holding two Cube fragments) gets healed up entirely by Captain Marvel's with the Patch Up tactic.
Iron Man then flies to steal the villains' back Console objective, and there doesn't seem to be enough in Kraken's arsenal to take him out in one turn (even with Ultron looming behind).
The Cabal have the numbers, and most healthy fighters, but Red Skull, Zemo and Crossbones seem to be on the wrong flank, and won't get over to me fast enough. It's looking very good for me in terms of VPs if I can make it to an early finish.
Now we both started getting down and dirty. Spidey and Danvers tag-teamed Doc Ock, flinging him off the objective he'd pinched last turn. Then Danvers delivered a Rocket Punch, slamming the octopodiatrist right out of the game and allowing her to steal both the cube fragments he was carrying. Disastrous for me!
But not entirely so - it was finally time for Red Skull to strike. Spending all his power, he gave Crossbones and Zemo their orders, and they both got a short bonus move. Just enough for Zemo to make the range to leap in, skewer Spidey and the objectives from him.
And then the big money - Crossbones could also just make it in, close enough to perform a combo move that let him pick Danvers up and power slam her into the nearby dumpster. POW! It was close, I thought I had her - but Stylus rolled good dice, and she emerged, spitting coffee grinds and teeth.
The game favours aggression, so even with good defence dice you're likely to take a couple of wounds from an attack. Luckily Danvers held on with a single health point and, with the Cube fragments in her possession, it's looking all over.
If I didn't stop her somehow, I'd lose. And luckily, there was just one strat card I could use - Heave Ho let Crossbones and Zemo together uproot the nearby traffic light and lob it straight at her. So she emerged from the dumpster just in time to cop a red light to the muzzle. Down and out for Captain Timely, and I could even regain those vital two objectives!
Nooooooo!
It was last minute, right enough, but I'd done it. We both broke the 16-point mark, to tie on 17. Sudden death from here on in, whoever leads on points at the end of a round wins!
We go into Turn 4, but I have very much missed my chance for victory. With the full might of the Cabal ranged against me, Spider-Man and Iron Man both go down, and all the Cube fragments and Extremis Consoles pass into the bad guys' hands.
All that remains is Captain America standing alone and surrounded, desperately hoping that the words 'To Be Continued' will appear and give him another shot at this.
Back In The Bullpen
I'm getting a good vibe about Marvel Crisis Protocol (and not just because I love painting the models). I was apprehensive about it being a competitive / deck-building game, but I reckon you can brush all that aside if you just love playing games with superheroes.
It also has the feel of a 'easy to learn / hard to master' game. We easily got into our stride with the mechanics, but there's plenty to explore with tactics cards, powers and synergies, (if you're so inclined - personally, I'm just going to collect what is cool). The game took two hours, which would easily reduce with familiarity, and best of all - you can set up on a regular table.
Same happy vibes from me too. It reminds me somehow of X-wing in terms of the way it's sold and the snappy ruleset with lots of interesting add-ons, but also in terms of being quick, fun and pretty well balanced, as far as I can tell from one play-through. I'm definitely keen for more.
I think there'll be more of these to come, so watch the skies. Excelsior!
Sounds a fun game guys, nicely written up as always
ReplyDelete