Marvel Knockout Round 1: Defenders vs Sinister Six

The Mighty Marvel Knockout starts here!

Defenders vs Spider-Foes (Sinister Six)!

Can I believe my eyes?

It's all too easy to forget just how incompetent our city officials are. They told us Professor Able Zohemund, world-famous AI expert, would be visiting our fair metropolis this week, and what do they do? 

Only announce his presence with a ticker-tape parade!

Lest you forget, I'm an enormous fan of Prof A.Z., whose revolutionary security camera can scan not just faces or frames, but the very thoughts in our heads! No amount of dime-store costumery is going to stop the Prof from knowing what sort of feeble-minded, 'I had a poor childhood', communist lunacy is going on in the heads of the dress-up dumdums plaguing our streets.

As if we couldn't guess - mommy issues and rampant egomania. 

Is it any wonder when swarms of masked hoodlums turned up to ruin the Prof's big day? It's almost as if City Hall wants to back out of the multi-million camera deal before it finally reveals the Truth. Makes me wonder who's really running this town. Right thinking men and women unashamed to tell it like it is, or shady sneakers too ashamed of their own secretive kinks to fess up? 

Whose interests do you think are at stake here - yours and mine, or those of the secret millionaire mask club backing up our broken status quo?

--- J. Jonah Jameson

Defenders

I, Stylus, will be stepping up to the plate with the Defenders: Moon Knight, Daredevil, Luke Cage and Ghost Rider. A combination of street-level brawling and mysticism, with a hefty Threat 5 character on the motorbike.

Tactics are: Cover Me, Mystic Ward, Street Smarts, Highway to Hell and Deal with the Devil

Spider-Foes (Sinister Six)

Kraken will be commanding the first of the bad guys: Kraven the Hunter, Sandman, Doc Ock, Sinister Scientist and Electro. Some strong elemental powers, a guy with a big knife and everyone's favourite cephalopod.

Let's call them the Furtive Four, it's only fair. Yes, it's me - Doc Ock was the first masked villain I ever saw in a Marvel comic, and remains my favourite to this day!

Tactics are: Founding Members, Sinister Traps, Surprise, Webhead, This Is Our Day and Strategic Retreat

Deployment

The crises are: Super-Powered Scoundrels Form Sinister Syndicate - essentially gaining 1 VP for each of the five objectives - and Research Station Attacked! This is a more interesting one whereby you have to secure (but can't pick up) the researcher token in the centre - if you are securing it, you gain 2VP and can move it a little way across the board. If you get the researcher close enough to the Evac objective (we each have one on our respective far sides of the board), it's worth a bonus 1VP. So there's a lot riding on this scientist!

The Defenders deploy as far forward as possible: Ghost Rider, Moon Knight, Luke Cage and Daredevil.

The Sinister Six hold back a little bit: Sandman, with Electro directly behind. Then Kraven the Hunter and Doc Ock on the other side.

The Defenders get the initiative and we're off!

Round 1

Mostly positioning, as many first rounds of MCP seem to be. The Defenders move the most aggressively, with Moon Knight securing the objective on the bottom-left and Daredevil securing one on the bottom-right. He even has time to try a cheeky Baton Hook against Kraven the Hunter (line-of-sight doesn't mean much to a blind man) and chips away a damage.

Luke Cage and Ghost Rider both steam up the centre, ensuring that they secure both the central objective and the scientist.

The Sinister Six are more cautious in their opening moves, with Sandman and Kraven securing their respective objectives, while Doc Ock and Electro hold back, waiting for their turn with the initiative.

Doc Ock also booby-traps my Evac objective with Sinister Traps. The scamp.

This reticence means that the villains fall behind in the VP scores. It's early days - but for those unaware, it's first to 16 VP and then game over.

Defenders 5 : 2 Sinister Six

Round 2

Things start to heat up now as Electro ascends the kiosk and lays down the zaps on Luke Cage. Ghost Rider tries to strike him back, but after wrapping his metal chain around an electrical generator is treated to a brief but memorable lesson about the principles of conduction.

Daredevil stays on his objective, but swings his baton hook to draw Kraven the Hunter off the objective. Kraven retaliates by going straight for Daredevil, but his Kukri Strike misses, and he's still not close enough to contest the objective.

A little singed from the electricity, Luke Cage then unleashes his Sweet Christmas attack, doing enough damage to daze Electro, which is an early surprise.

Moon Knight flings Throwing Crescents at a Sand Construct until it disintegrates, then Sandman reabsorbs his other Sand Construct to close up on Moon Knight's objective and punch him.

Aside from that contested objective, no others have changed hands, which puts the Defenders into a formidable lead. 

Meanwhile the scientist remains under friendly control, and continues towards the Defenders' Evac objectives.

Defenders 9 : 3 Sinister Six

Round 3

Things now start getting violent. The Sinister Six play the Founding Members tactic, just to lay down as many incapacitating conditions as possible, but I'm not sure anyone will stay on their feet long enough to suffer them.

Ghost Rider uses Highway to Hell to drag Doc Ock onto his own booby-trapped objective, which then flings him away.

After cornering Daredevil, Kraven the Hunter attempts to shank him, but the Man Without Fear is not to be caught by surprise. He strikes back and Kraven is dazed before he can take a second action!

Before I can bask in this good fortune, Moon Knight ducks away from Sandman and advances towards the injured Electro - but he runs straight into a Live Wire and is dazed before he can take a second action!

Sandman abandons his objective to surf towards Luke Cage, having enough left to punch him. Seeing what's coming next, Luke Cage throws a final punch at Electro and we have our first KO!

Sure enough, Doc Ock dazes Luke Cage with a tentacle strike and the central objective goes to the Sinister Six.

Things are tipping the other way for the Defenders, who are claiming no objectives. The last action is for Daredevil to take the hit from Kraven's trap and sprint to the centre, ensuring the scientist is still secured.

Defenders 11 : 5 Sinister Six

Round 4

The scientist is now on the Defenders' Evac objective, which means the Sinister Six really need to pull back the VPs. Doc Ock leads by example, picking up Ghost Rider and slamming him into Daredevil, dazing them both.

Moon Knight is now back on his feet, and between the punishment he's endured (plus some help from his Stephen Grant personality), he's got a lot of power to spend - he unleashes two Avatar of Khoshu attacks on Sandman, dazing him.

Kraven attempts to return the favour on Luke Cage, but his kukri snaps against his Unbreakable Skin. His spear thrust does no better and he has just enough time to wonder about investing in some vibranium weapons before Luke Cage counter-punches and KOs him.

With the KOs starting to stack up, most of the objectives are standing empty. But with a huge 3 VP gain for getting the scientist to his Evac objective, the Defenders just need one more to win it.

Defenders 15 : 6 Sinister Six

Round 5

Sandman has a good try to Sand Blast three heroes off the evac objective, but they all manage to stay on their feet long enough to reclaim the objective, then daze Doc Ock for good measure.

And that ends the crisis! Some unstoppable momentum for the Defenders, while Ock's sinister VP count is, appropriately enough, six.

I mean, eight would have been better. 

Defenders 19 : 6 Sinister Six

Back at the Bullpen

I had some serious words with my dice after this match - some really blatant favouritism from them tonight, blunting my every attack and refusing to provide defence. Not all their fault, really, I think I might have done better to stick my bomb on my own evac, then crowded into the middle early on and crunched both Cages (Luke and Nick). Trying to play in from the sides left me split up and vulnerable, especially when I tried to lead with Electro instead of tanky Sandman. 

I think the scenario demanded early aggression - once you have that scientist, the ball is in your hands. I was lucky to have two fairly tanky characters in Luke Cage and Ghost Rider (plus a think slice of luck with dice rolling). I was impressed with what the whole team could do - the first ones through to the quarter finals!

Where were the police when the madmen came calling? Where were the feds? Where was the army?

WHERE was SPIDERMAN?

It's a miracle that Prof A.Z. escaped with nothing worse than a torn toupee and moderate PTS. I'm not ashamed to call the Mayor of our fine city a panderer to the flim-flam fig-leaf-faced phonies who threaten our democracy and our homes on a daily basis. I'm sure as shooting ashamed to live in the same postcode as whatever pseudo-citizens voted him in, I'll tell you that!

Who were they, these invisible voters who brought low the law of our city? Who elected a snivelling crutch for the costumed creeps? Have you met any them? Do you know them? Or are they perhaps just names from a morgue, propping up a stolen election for a fraudulent faker? 

City Hall isn't saying any more than their veiled vigilantes ever will!

Well, nobody ever accused J.J.J. of keeping God's honest gospel from you! Keep reading, and you'll soon know exactly which masks are secretly running our city. Names, birthdays, bank balances, and a couple of juicy secrets they really don't want you to know. 

Keeping tuning in to find out - when the Bugle blows, you know you're hearing the note of truth!