Finding Zemo: Marvel Crisis Protocol battle report

We're back with Marvel Crisis Protocol, and a new hero has joined the team!

I'm on something of a painting roll with the MCP set (painting update to come soon), and in addition to completing all the scenery (yes it was I, Stylus, who said that), I've added a new Avenger to my roster - the Sensational She-Hulk!

That that, Girder-Man!

Teams

Kraken is using the same Cabal team as last time (because that worked out well for him - also, it's the only options I can provide!), but She-Hulk's inclusion changes my team considerably. Jen is a Threat Level 6 (most other characters are 3 or 4) which forces me to drop one of my squad to accommodate her. 

She's also the leader of a new Affiliation, A-Force (an alternate universe all-female Avengers), which includes Black Widow and Captain Marvel (Spider-Man is an honorary one of the girls - you can take non-affiliated characters if it's less that half your squad). I thought I'd give that a try, to see if I have better luck this time.

Black Widow is getting a glow-up (after her dismal performance last battle). There is an alternate character card for her (at an increased Threat Level 3, so it fits into my squad tally). I'm using my existing model with better stats (there's the opportunity to do that with a few models, which I'll be taking full advantage of - no sense painting duplicates when there are so many more to collect).

A-Force 

• She-Hulk (leader)
• Captain Marvel
• Black Widow, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Spider-Man

Cabal

• Red Skull (leader)
• Baron Zemo
• Crossbones
• Doctor Octopus
• Ultron

Mission and Deployment

We picked our Crisis cards, rather than randomly drawing them, so we'd get to try out two more missions:

• Infinity Formula Goes Missing!
  As with last time, these are four objectives that need to be secured (with a little bonus power for contesting them)
• Spider-Infected Invade Manhattan
  These objectives need to be picked up, as before. But instead of doing you harm, they have the potential to move their holders around the board (as the spider-infected citizens try to struggle free)

The Cabal take the top end of the table, from left to right: Ultron, Baron Zemo, Doctor Octopus, Red Skull and Crossbones.

A-Force are along the bottom: Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, She-Hulk and Black Widow.

The Crisis

The Cabal seize the initiative and Doc Ock strides confidently out to pick up a spider-infected. I immediately counter with a Special Delivery tactic that allows Captain Marvel to fly She-Hulk into action (where she gets a free attack).

I may have over-cooked the counter-strike because She-Hulk's Sensational Uppercut knocks out Doc Ock before Captain Marvel even has a chance to attack. 

Stylus warned me in advance that She-Hulk was going to be upping the game in terms of hitting power, and he wasn't kidding! Yowtch!

With nothing else in range, Danvers scoops up the dropped spider-infected token (something she will come to regret).

Everyone else moves into position: Ultron and Spider-Man secure their respective objectives on the left flank; Crossbones and Black Widow on the right.

Meanwhile, She-Hulk charges downfield, right into the middle of the Cabal and throws a car at Red Skull. He opts for Crossbones to take the hit, but it proves a wasted effort as it does no damage.

(even worse, I hadn't realised that throwing things does not require an action from She-Hulk, so I cheated myself out of an extra uppercut there)

At the start of the next turn, we roll for spider-infected, and only Captain Marvel is dragged aside. Kraken gets to choose the direction and sends her back up the board and out of position.

The Cabal then decide (almost as if they were planning this all along) to gang up on She-Hulk. Playing the Dark Reign tactic card (which allows rerolls against one character), Baron Zemo, Crossbones and an injured Doc Ock move to surround the green glamazon. They also play the Trip Up, which puts the Stagger condition on her (effectively halving her next actions).

In fairness, Stylus had given me a week to plan in advance. I'd very much set and moved with the plan of luring that damn lawyer into range, so it was very obliging of her to walk into the trap!

Not to be deterred, She-Hulk takes a mighty swing at Baron Zemo, who is clearly the most dangerous of the bunch. Even if I don't take him out, even one damage will load him up with debilitating special conditions. I throw nine dice at him and Zemo avoids every single one. This is not going to go well.

Baron Zemo continues to excel at his swordplay, and chops away over half of She-Hulk's wounds in his activation. She-Hulk is relatively unique (along with her cousin, Bruce) in that she has a massive amount of wounds and never becomes Dazed. This makes her durable, but also means the bad guys can continue to pile into her without respite.

Which is exactly what happens. Doc Ock lasers She-Hulk down even further and, despite a rescue attempt from Spider-Man to patch up the damage, Crossbones finally takes her out. That's a big swing this early in the game.

I want to shout something lawyerly like 'Overruled!' here. 

Now severely outnumbering me, the Cabal presses their advantage. Baron Zemo sprints across the board to pick up a discarded spider-infected and capture my back objective.

Spider-Man does his best to slow down Zemo, but goes down to the combined attacks of Ultron and Doc Ock.

On the right flank, the all-new, all-improved Black Widow has had a much better showing. She races upfield to take the Cabal's objective and knock down Red Skull. Unfortunately, he gets back up again, replies in kind, and retakes both the objective and a spider-infected.

At the close of the third round, everything depends on Captain Marvel. If I can knock off the few remaining health points from Red Skull, he'll drop the spider-infected and lose control of the objective. That won't be enough to put me ahead, but will swing enough VP my way to stop the Cabal winning immediately.

Unfortunately, a spider-infected had dragged Carol Danvers off-course for a second time, so she has to spend her first action getting back into position. It comes down to an all-or-nothing shot to bring down the Red Skull and results in ...nothing. 

The Cabal take victory in a landslide of VP, and A-Force limp away to consider a career change to a different parallel universe.

Back In The Bullpen

Oof. I have a bad habit of miscalculating how much aggro my tank units can take and, sure enough, Kraken set a trap that I walked right into.

Give me one good film or comic where the good guys don't deliberately walk into a trap in order to draw the bad guys out - you're just playing the narrative!

I felt I was starting on the back foot with four characters against five, and was counting on She-Hulk's raw power (easily capable of knocking out a character per punch) to level the field. I am quickly realising that this game is not just about dealing damage (because it is possible to whiff a nine-dice attack), it's also about action economy - something Baron Zemo (MVP once again) excels at.

Yep, that Baron is a very valuable player. Fast and punchy, but in fairness here, also damn lucky! Dodging the nine-dice whiff saved me completely. I think I'd still have taken Jen down without him, as Red Skull could have piled in, but I wouldn't have been chasing Black Widow off objectives then and it would have been closer. 

For my money, a Distraction Carnifex like Jen works best either as a distraction to draw fire while you achieve stuff elsewhere or in combo with the rest of the team. Letting them get dogpiled never works out well, unless you're wanting that dogpile to happen somewhere that pulls the enemy out of position.

Still lots to learn from this game. I was unlucky that Captain Marvel got drawn out of her supporting position, but that's a lesson about certain types of objectives - if there's a chance it will move you around, maybe give it to a less-crucial character to hold.

Who could doubtless be moved back into range! It's a good conundrum to have. 

Still having great fun with this game (I'm also sneaking in games with my kids - yet to win against them either), and there will be some new heroes in the roster once I paint them.