Colossus is out of control, and the heroes must work together to stop him!
Except for me. I, Stylus, am very contrary.
Our regular games night of Marvel Crisis Protocol has taken a new twist. Rather than pairing off for games, we're trying out one of the Ultimate Encounters packs (essentially a co-operative game against a different scenario).
Unstoppable Colossus
In this scenario, the X-Man Colossus has touched the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak (we've all been there) and transformed into an unstoppable armoured Juggernaut!
With a massive health pool, immunity to all conditions and throws, and automatically healing wounds, there is absolutely no way Unstoppable Colossus can be stopped (it's in the name). What the Crisis Team needs to do is slow down his Momentum so he can be subdued.
Slowing down Colossus can be done using the six Cerebro Towers which have been placed in a hexagon around the field. These can be switched on and their Disruption Beam connected to another Tower.
- if Colossus' movement ever crosses a Disruption Beam, he loses 3 points of Momentum
- if Colossus destroys a Cerebro Tower that has been switched on, he loses 3 points of Momentum
- inflicting damage on him removes 1 point of Momentum
Once Colossus' momentum has been reduced to zero, he gets a subdued token. He then shakes it off and goes back to 9 Momentum.
- Two subdued tokens on Colossus, and the players win!
- If Colossus destroys all the Cerebro Towers, he wins!
However, Colossus starts with his momentum at 9 and has ways to build it up:
- destroying terrain gains 1 point of Momentum
- each dazed or KO enemy gains 1 point of Momentum
- one of his attacks gains 1 point of Momentum if it deals damage
Colossus also starts his turn with a Rampage, which is a chance to gain movement and do damage. The downside is he must go directly towards a randomly-determined Cerebro Tower, which should make him easy to predict.
Ultimate Encounter
Unlike regular games, these are played between Crisis Team (our heroes) and Cosmic Threat (which can be played on autopilot, but for fun and to keep a handle on the rules, I was running Colossus).
We selected two 18-threat squads, and each round alternates between the Crisis Team activating three characters (from any squad) and then the Cosmic Threat getting a turn. This is done three times, so the Crisis Team gets nine activations to the Cosmic Threat's three (they'll need them). For large squads, this could leave some characters unactivated during a round, so any of those characters get a bonus move at the end of the round.
Crisis Teams
We followed the narrative for this one (and what was in Monkey's box of miniatures). The first squad was X-Men, commanded by Rapid:
- Storm (leader)
- Cyclops
- Beast
- Wolverine
- Rogue
The second squad was Avengers, commanded by B1llyb0b:
- Captain America (leader)
- Iron Man
- Black Widow
- Hulk
- Quicksilver
There were no tactics cards (you can take them but that ups the difficulty level of the scenario).
The characters were divided up between the three players, the board was filled with terrain, each squad assembled in opposing corners, and The Unstoppable Colossus went in the centre!
The mission
The first priority was getting the Cerebro Towers switched on, so Captain America, Black Widow and Beast ran forward and activated three of them, successfully connecting a beam through the centre of the field. where Colossus would get hit.
Colossus started his turn by Rampaging directly towards the Beast's tower, smashing it up and dazing the Beast, which began to rebuild his Momentum. Fortunately (for me), the next random Cerebro Tower was the closest, so the managed to Rampage towards it and destroy it before it could be activated.
One-third of the towers gone already and the players realise they need to start throwing bodies in the way of them. Hulk squares off to Colossus while Black Widow protects the next Cerebro Tower.
This works sufficiently for Colossus to target Black Widow with his next attacks. Ignoring the punches from Hulk and Wolverine, he dazes and KOs Black Widow in short order, and the Crisis Team drops to nine players.
Colossus then destroys the third Cerebro Tower and ignores any further challenges to walk across the field and smash up a fourth Tower before it can be activated.
While the X-Men are on the other side of the field, frantically trying to switch on the remaining Towers, Iron Man and Captain America double-team Colossus and start getting his Momentum down to a manageable level.
Storm gets dazed for her troubles as Colossus reboots his Momentum and knocks out the fifth Cerebro Tower. All the heroes are now converging like mad to swamp Colossus before gets to the sixth and final Tower.
A brawl develops around the remains of the fifth Tower, as Storm and Rogue both attack (Rogue being able to lay some easy damage due to her energy absorption ability).
This means Colossus remains to KO them both before moving onto the sixth tower - and he overshoots it when Beast puts his body on the line, diverting Colossus but getting KO'd in the attempt.
Cometh the hour ... we realise that the Cerebro Tower tokens are smaller than the character bases, so if a hero can stand on it, Colossus won't be able to make contact and destroy it.
Who better to take a stand than Cap himself? Captain America runs onto the point and braces himself - he immediately takes automatic damage from Colossus colliding with him, but this is a good thing because a) dazed characters can't be moved, so that Tower is safe until the end of the round b) Cap is actually more defensible when he's injured.
So now comes the real test: while Hulk, Iron Man, Quicksilver, Wolverine and Cyclops run forward to lay damage on Colossus, Captain America has to stand there and defend the point.
Moreover, because Colossus' attack can throw characters if he damages them, Cap has to hold out without letting through a single point of damage.
For a whole turn, Colossus unleashes a barrage of Bare Metal Hand attacks that fail to get through Cap's shield (anyone else hear that Avengers' anthem in their heads?)
As the attacks take their toll on Colossus, he gets closer to dropping his Momentum (and he'll lose 3 points as soon as he touches that last Tower). One more attack on Captain America and - a single point of damage gets through. Cap is unceremoniously flung away from the Cerebro Tower and Colossus destroys it - his Momentum down to a single point.
The city is doomed!
Back in the Locker Room
That was immense fun. Having all four of us basically play out the narrative, talking through the tactics, made for a cracking evening of gaming.
In terms of the outcome, I was worried at one point that the scenario was too tilted (or, more likely, I had mis-read the rules) and there was no way to subdue the Juggernaut. But it came right down to the wire at the end, and the genuine spectacle of Captain America tanking all those haymakers to save the mission was epic.
It would be great to replay the scenario again. We agreed that the teams should really prioritise getting fast movers to activate all the Cerebro Towers, creating a network of Disruption Beams for Colossus to run through. You also need heavy hitters to absorb the attacks - and while everyone is expendable, you don't want to give away easy Momentum points by being too squishy. Blocking access to the Towers is another consideration, so fast-moving characters on larger bases, like Beast, are handy. Finally, any character than can bring more attacks, such as terrain throws, reactions or Rogue's absorption, is all useful to chip away at Colossus' Momentum.
I got very lucky with the randomised sequence of Towers, as Colossus was basically running in a loop, targeting the nearest Tower each time. My main priority was to keep up Momentum, as he does get slower and more vulnerable when it drops, resulting in it dropping even further.
Great game - and the good news is: there's plenty more Ultimate Encounters out there!
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