Ultimate Encounter: Just The Parker Luck

"Can the arachnid anarchist sink any lower? Now he's interrupting a peaceful hostage situation to harass innocent scientists, lion tamers and close-up magic enthusiasts. Spider-Man is a MENACE!"

Just another day in the life of Peter Parker - rescue Spider-Convention attendees from the clutches of the Sinister Six. And take a couple of exciting photos for Robbie, because he needs to make rent.

Follow the success of the last Ultimate Encounter, we decided to try another one. With four people taking part, they make for a nice beer-and-pretzels (tea-and-chips) co-operative* game of Crisis Protocol.

*I say 'co-operative' - I, Stylus, am always nominated as the antagonist. You have to lean into it.

Just The Parker Luck

In this scenario, two teams of Spider-Foes are trying to herd civilians into their traps. Spider-Man must stop them, and maybe take a few photos.

The Spider-Foes score 3 points from trapping civilians, and 3 points for dazing Spider-Man, with a bonus point for doing it in sight of a camera.

Spider-Man scores points 3 points from dazing Spider-Foes, with a bonus point for doing it in sight of a camera. Spidey also has the ability to set up and remove cameras across the board.

The first to 13 points wins!

Spider-Man has a special character card - Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man - which gives him increased stats and movement. Unlike the Juggernaut, he is vulnerable to being dazed, but he cannot KO and can return from injured to healthy if he gets out of sight of a camera.

Similarly, the Spider-Foes cannot KO, but will instead be impeded - so everyone gets to keep brawling!

Crisis Teams

The two teams were divided between Monkey, Rapid and B1llyb0b. They didn't have to be actual Spider-Foes, but with team sizes being a mere 10 threat, which exactly matched the classic Sinister Six, it was on!

• Doctor Octopus
• Electro
• Sandman
• Kraven the Hunter
• Vulture
• Mysterio

Three tactics cards: Surprise Webhead!, Joint Effort and Recalibration Matrix.

The mission

The game starts slowly - the villains need to build up enough power to chase the civilians and Spider-Men whiffs his first two attacks on Doc Ock. On his second activation (he gets three per round), Spidey switches tactics and picks on the elderly Vulture, dazing him with a single hit!

Flush with success, Spidey starts putting up cameras and shooing away civilians (rather than running out of danger). This comes a cropper when Kraven the Hunter storms in and chops off half his damage with his kukri strike. Yikes.

Kraven really is Spider-Man's kryptonite, as he follows up by putting Corner the Beast on Spidey, which temporarily stops his Wall-Crawler ability and inflicts damage every time he moves. Mysterio completes the tag-team by hitting Spider-Man with his Hypnosis Gas, which forces him to move. Double Yikes!

In his final activation, having clearly identified his main threat, Spider-Man punches Kraven, then throws Mysterio into him, dazing him. With all this done in front of the cameras, Spider-Man is building a commanding lead in VPs.

In the next round the villains strike back. Kraven (who else) piles back into Spider-Man, followed by Electro, dazing Spider-Man (in front of his own camera!). 

This leaves the remaining villains free to do their villainy. Doc Ock shoves a civilian into their first trap, while Vulture wakes up and starts chasing two more. Mysterio sets up for the next round and Sandman lumbers into attack position with his two sand constructs.

Things are getting close now. Even though Spider-Man cannot KO (he just bounces back up), the injured side of his card has no attacks and limited super-powers, so its imperative that he gets out of sight to catch a breather.

Spider web-swings out of range, allowing him to flip back to his healthy side, and avoid the first round of villain attacks. He then swings back in and thwip thwops Electro, followed up by throwing Doc Ock and dazing Electro.

This brings Spider-Man into one VP of winning, and he has enough power to play his Selfie ability in the Cleanup phase, which scores an immediate VP. Basically, if Spidey is on his feet and near Electro at the end of the round, he wins.

After much internal debate (which is entirely in character of the Sinister Six), they decide to ignore chasing civilians and just try to hammer Spider-Man. Unfortunately, Spidey is on full health with rerolls to his defence. But the villains have been saving their cards for this - Surprise Webhead! allows them all to make a bonus attack, and Joint Effort lets one of them add attack dice for surrounding allies.

Kraven kicks off with Expert Tracker (everyone gets a bonus attack dice) and Corner the Beast (take damage for moving). Then the attacks begin: Doc Ock and Sandman throw in good attacks, but Spider-Man finds his defence rolls and avoid them both. Electro is dazed and Kraven has already activated. Vulture is out of range.

Everything falls to Mysterio, who throws a gallon of Hypnosis Gas at Spider-Man, supported by his surrounding villains. This proves too much for Peter Parker, who finally succumbs.

Victory for the Sinister Six!

Back in the Locker Room

That was brilliant! A really narrative battle and fairly brisk game (all done in three rounds).

As with these scenarios, lots of tactics suggest themselves with hindsight. As Spider-Man, I hadn't made the most of the fact that I could remove cameras as well as plant them - on a few occasions, I conceded VP because I was getting dazed in my own photos.

I would also have been wise to use Spidey's superior movement to dance around the villains, picking off the weaker ones, rather than jump in the middle and brawl.

On the other side, I think the Spider-Foes need to decide who is going to chase civilians and who is fighting Spider-Man. They are very effective when they all gang up on him, but it does leave them at risk of being out-scored (as Peter has more ways of getting VP).

The use of tactics cards was spot-on however, and a game that ends on the last dice roll at 12-13 is always a good one.

If nothing else, it's encouraged me to paint up another Spider-Man!