Marvel Crisis Protocol event - The Best At What I Do

 Another MCP tournament, and this time, I'm part of a team.

(although not, as will be seen, the best part)

Off to Bristol Independent Gaming to play four games of Marvel Crisis Protocol. This was 'Collateral Damage pt.13' (I'd previously been to part 12, and had a great time), but the twist was: you had to attend as a team of three.

Having no friends proved no impediment to me, as I was kindly hooked up with a couple of gents from Swindon. They were great guys, although due to the nature of the pairing, we didn't get to spend much time together (other than for the pairing, and some rudimentary tactical discussions).

I won't go into the details of the team pairing. Suffice to say: it's a lot easier to execute than to explain. If you know what you're doing, there's probably some real strategy you can employ. If you don't know what you're doing (right here!), then just let chance take over and enjoy your games.

The team I brought this was Weapon X (basically all the laboratory-enhanced mutants) as they were the latest ones I painted. The affiliation only has eight members, so I rounded it out with Omega Red (who is basically one of them) and Loki, Prince of Lies (that one, I admit, was tactical).

I was also motivated to create a display board for the team. Nothing too complex (that will come), but a neat way of showing the team. They are framed by an old X-Men comic that depicts a flashback of a Cold War era Wolverine, Sabretooth and Maverick fleeing Omega Red. The story (in hindsight) was a slightly daft, but the artwork remains stunning and it had a formative effect on me.

Game 1 - Weapon X vs Thralls of Dracula

Weapon X: X-23, Logan the Wolverine, Sabretooth Apex Predator, Domino, Deadpool, Maverick

Thralls of Dracula: Dracula, Blade, Gamora, Killmonger, N'Kantu, the Living Mummy
Crisis: Unexpected Guests Crash Royal Wedding, Wedding Party Targeted in Terrible Attack!

Threat: 20

Yes, your superheroes can fight that Dracula. They were commanded by Stuart and we were playing the maximum 20-threat game (that was my choice - possibly unwisely, but I love a big game).

The Wedding Party crisis is tricky - only two objectives, but worth double points. This can lead to a brawl in the centre, and I wasn't about to disappoint. I weighted my squad to favour the left objective (Logan, X-23, Maverick and Sabretooth vs Dracula, Killmonger and N'Kantu), hoping that I could just stymie efforts on the right objective (Domino and Deadpool vs Gamora and Blade).

Unfortunately, Dracula's team were also looking to rumble, and they're a lot better at it. Most of my left-objective squad were dazed early on, and although they managed to punch back and return the favour, I was trailing points by then. Killmonger also has a nifty tactics card to earn 2VP for dazing a high-threat model (and the best I could offer was a 4 threat, so that was a bit of a gimmie).

On the right, Domino got chased around by Gamora, who eventually brought her down. Deadpool took the unconventional method of not attacking Blade (to avoid him building power) and using his Merc with a Mouth ability to drain power. Deadpool actually gets better after he dazes, with takes some getting used to.

We ended the fourth round on 17-11, and it was a really enjoyable game. Stuart is a knowledgeable player who played with a very generous spirit as I stumbled through my rules.

I learned that I needed to know my squad better - I hardly used any of my tactics cards (because they were reactive) and forgot a lot of my innate rerolls (because you also need to remember them in the moment). 

Still, my two team-mates won their bouts, so collectively, we were on a win!

Game 2 - Weapon X vs Guardians of the Galaxy

Weapon X: Logan the Wolverine, Sabretooth Apex Predator, Maverick, Omega Red, Loki Prince of Lies

Guardians of the Galaxy: Star-Lord, Nova, Yondu, Rocket Racoon, Groot, Drax the Destroyer
Crisis: Spider-Infected Invade Manhattan, Super-Powered Scoundrels Form Sinister Syndicate

Threat: 20

We were playing an all-Welsh team next (I didn't qualify, despite having two Welsh grandmothers), and my opponent was Mutlow, fielding Guardians of the Galaxy. I always enjoy playing against them, despite my appalling win record.

Lured by another 20-threat game, I filled out the roster with all the alumni of that 90s X-Men comic, plus Loki, who was up to his own mischief. I should mention his inclusion in the roster was because he provided me with some useful mystic attacks and the ability to send his own team-mates forward (most of Weapon X enjoys getting close and stabby).

Unfortunately, things went south very quickly for me. Some of it was my fault - I thought Logan would be able to tank two shots of Rocket's plasma rifle (reader, he could not). But when Loki was given a judgement token by Nova, he couldn't generate any more power. Worse, Yondu's flying yaka arrow spiked with remarkable consequences - four of my five team-members dropped in a single activation.

I did my best to counterattack, taking out a couple of Guardians in return, but it was an uphill struggle on an icy slope and the game ended on Round 3, 17-8.

Game 3 - Weapon X vs Web Warriors

Weapon X: X-23, Domino, Deadpool, Omega Red, Loki Prince of Lies

Web Warriors: Spider-Man (Miles Morales), Spectacular Spider-Man, Black Cat, Agent Venom, Spider-Man 2099
Crisis: The Montesi Formula Found, Super-Powered Scoundrels Form Sinister Syndicate

Threat: 18

In our third game, I wanted to avoid the pairing with X-Force (because there were too many overlapping characters for my narrative taste) and Guardians of the Galaxy (because they rightly terrify me). Luckily Web Warriors also have a reputation and no-one wanted to face them, so I was in luck.

Commanding them was Dan, who was trying out the new Spider-Man 2099 (a proxy, since it seems all of the UK is waiting patiently for those boxes to arrive), along with their new leadership ability Web of the Spider-Verse, which gives them more mobility (as if they weren't fast enough!)

For myself, I decided to actually play my team leadership card, as well as banishing Logan to the dog-house for the rest of the event (can't kill a racoon, useless to me). X-23 was back, along with Domino and Deadpool (I like low-threat characters - there's less pressure when you mess it up), and also Omega Red, whose tentacles might help displace the tricksy web-swingers

Learning from my mistakes, I even eschewed the 20-threat crisis to go with Montesi Formula, since it lets you throw spellbooks around, and Web Warriors can't use their spider-sense against mystic attacks.

I the pre-game, I played the Dossier tactics card (which lets me hunt someone down). Black Cat took hold of the token and was never seen again (seriously, I didn't lay a glove on her all match).

I started off aggressively, marching Omega Red onto the central objectives and daring the Web Warriors to throw me off. They crowded close, but were unable to damage the big fella. As my supporting characters grabbed their respective objectives, Loki went for a bold move - jumping into the midst of the enemy and hitting them all with Root and Slow conditions.

Those conditions, combined with Omega Red spewing Poison and reeling people off their objectives, were hampering the Web Warriors' game plan. Miles and Spectacular Spider-Man were quickly dazed (those mystic attacks doing some work) and their biggest hitter, Spider-Man 2099, wasn't quite able to live up to his cost (in fairness, he was unlucky that, when his attack dice spiked, so did my defence dice - the leadership actually came in very useful!)

But when the Web Warriors hit back, they were also able to either throw me off the objectives or steal my objectives. Some of the team were also infuriately, hard to catch while they were still scoring points (Black Cat!). By the end of the fourth round, we were both on 15pts apiece.

However, the attrition of the game had dropped the Web Warriors down to just three characters: Agent Venom, Black Cat and Spider-Man 2099. While I had all five characters left, with more than enough opportunities to contest the objectives.

Needless to say, I spent the entire round terrified that I had been lured into some cunning spider-trap and I was about to throw the game. But no - I had actually done enough to win it, 21-16.

My favourite game of the day. Dan was a really great opponent who helped me understand all the tricks a Web Warriors team can pull off, and fought me to an absolute nail-biting finish.

Game 4 - Weapon X vs Guardians of the Galaxy

Weapon X: X-23, Maverick, Deadpool, Weapon X, Loki Prince of Lies

Guardians of the Galaxy: Star-Lord, Yondu, Rocket Racoon, Drax the Destroyer, Mighty Thor
Crisis: Unexpected Guests Crash Royal Wedding, Riots Spark Over Extremis 3.0

Threat: 17

My last game of the day brought me a familiar opponent: RickyRolls, whose Guardians of the Galaxy I fought in the last event. In many ways, I got lucky with the pairing, since his two team-mates had recently represented at the MCP World Team Championship in Copenhagen last month (and one who'd actually won it!).

As well as a healthy fear of Yondu, I was starting to get a handle on how the team plays. For the last game, I swapped out Omega Red for Maverick and Domino for Weapon X (I think it would have been better to stick with Domino, but I'd painted Underpants Wolverine specially, so had to give him a run-out).

As it transpired, poor Weapon X didn't get much of a debut - he got clobbered by Mighty Thor (that's Jane Foster Thor) and then skewered again by Yondu (that arrow!). However, he did provide enough of a distraction for X-23 to grab the extract and daze Mighty Thor.

Loki proved himself to be a real nuisance by jumping into the centre and hitting everyone with area attacks. He also kept moving people around with his mischief, which meant Rocket was frequently out of bodyguard range for Groot, and got clobbered. Loki was getting hit by attacks from all sides, which eventually took him out, but also gave him the power to injure nearby characters when they rolled skulls (a very annoying and quintessentially Loki ability)

Groot was harder to deal with, throwing Deadpool off his objective, but Maverick had been steadily building up power from the Extremis console and was able to daze Groot, while moving to claim the objective.

As we approached round 5, I was leading 14-15 on points, but down to X-23, Maverick and Deadpool, while the Guardians had Mighty Thor, Groot and Star-Lord, all with plenty of power. If two of my three characters could be dropped, I'd lose the game. Groot failed to deal with Maverick, but Star-Lord took out Deadpool. X-23 had run away with an objective onto a rear point, so it was down to Mighty Thor to chase her. Using all her accumulated power, Jane charged, attacked and threw a building at X-23 - who managed to cling onto her last point of health.

By the narrowest of margins, I squeaked a 18-16. It was desperately unlucky for Ricky, but his team won the overall bout.

At the end of the day, our team finished seventh (of eighth), but it was a great few games, my squad won second prize for Best Painted, and I learned a little about playing Weapon X (so naturally I'm going to ditch them and paint something new for next time!)