Operation Zero Tolerance - Chapter 2.5: Underground Invasion

Operation Zero Tolerance has gone underground! Mind the gap.

+++ Cerebro Strike Files 010897 +++ Full alert +++ Repeated distress signals from Morlock Tunnels +++ Mutants are being harvested beneath the streets +++ Professor X to lead rescue efforts +++ Extreme caution required +++ Nimrod has returned +++

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This is another 'Chapter 2' outing of our Marvel Crisis Protocol narrative campaign. I, Stylus, have already fought above ground with the X-Men, but since this is the big push for Operation: Zero Tolerance, my opponent, Grasshopper, wanted to clear out the mutants in the sewers too.

Sentinels

Leading this expedition is Sentinel Prime MK4 - after the dice ran cold for the robots last game, his reroll aura should sort that out. We also have two more of the innumerable Prime Sentinels: Claude and Gemini.

Last but not least, the futuristic sentinel: Nimrod. He's a big 5 Threat with a number of tricks, but most of them involve inflicting damage on mutants.

Squad: Sentinel Prime MK4, Nimrod, Prime Sentinel, Prime Sentinel

Tactics: Directive One, Scrap Metal, A Perfect Future, Instant Recovery, Recalibration Matrix

Threat: 16

X-Men: Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters

With Cyclops busy on the surface (in our narrative this battle is taking place at the same time as the previous one) and Storm being claustrophobic, the obvious choice to lead this mission is Professor X!

I've had some success with the Prof's ability to pass power around, but I've also found him to be a very fragile leader, so Honey Badger has been assigned to keep him safe.

Beast, Iceman and Rogue are all pretty mobile characters, so they'll be chasing objectives. Although Rogue is the only one who can take a hit, so I'll have to be careful who ends up in the Sentinel bag.

Note: this is a first game I've played since the big 2026 update, so almost all my characters get a bump in health, and Honey Badger can now pick up Extracts. That's quite an evolution!

Squad: Professor X, Rogue, Beast, Iceman, Honey Badger

Tactics: Children of the Atom, Xavier's Dream, To Me My X-Men, Mind Wipe, Sacrifice

Threat: 16

Mission and deployment

Extract: Surprise Assault! Mutant Homes Destroyed

Secure: Assault Ships Make Sweeping Search!

Same as the last mission, Bastion is attacking all mutants, everywhere. While Cyclops is saving the sewer-dwelling mutants who've been flushed to the surface, Professor X is going into the depths to shepherd any mutants who remain.

As before, the Extract objectives recycle at the end of the turn and the Secure extracts allow an attacker to reroll a dice when targeting someone within Range 2 (and, for most of the game, we remembered this!).

There's less terrain than usual (not many bodegas in the sewers), although the massive outlet pipe should be an interesting obstacle, as its Size 5 and basically immovable.

The Uncanny X-Men deploy from left to right: Beast, Rogue, Professor X, Honey Badger, Iceman

The Sentinels deploy (from the picture's perspective), left to right: Sentinel Prime, Prime Sentinel #1 (Claude), Nimrod, Prime Sentinel #2 (Gemini).

X-Men win priority and we're away!

Round 1

The usual scramble for objectives kicks off. On the right, Gemini takes the Secure, but is thwarted by Iceman who grabs an Extract then comes up to contest the Secure (giving himself Root in the process).

On the left, Sentinel Prime is big enough to walk on top of the outlet pipe and contest both Secure and Extract at the same time, so it gets comfortable up there.

Claude walks up to his nearest Secure, then Beast bounces in, picks up an Extract and lands a meaty Acrobatic Strike on Claude. It was a risk, since Beast is obliged to place himself near his target on a Wild result, but he managed to score five hits and still avoid that (some might call it genius).

Nimrod moves straight ahead and picks up an Extract (despite appearances, that central bit of terrain is unhelpfully blocking line-of-sight). Professor X (followed by Honey Badger) goes down the centre for his Secure, and fails to move Gemini with his Mental Suggestion.

Rogue finishes off by contesting the Sentinel Prime's Extract, and the Sentinels end the round with a slight lead and priority.

Score - X-Men 3 : 4 Sentinels

Round 2

Nimrod begins and is frustratingly short of power to do all the things it wants to do (teleport in and use a spender). So it settles for walking into the fray and hitting Beast with an Adaptive Energy Blast, frazzling him to a single point of damage, plus Incinerate.

Beast activates next (while he still can) and dazes Claude. This time, he does gain his movement trigger, which is what he wanted, as he can leap to (relative) safety, take the back Secure and shake Incinerate (to hopefully improve his survival odds).

However, those odds aren't helped when Sentinel Prime uses Restraint Cables to yoink the big, blue furball into range of its builder, and easily dazes Beast.

Gemini and Iceman trade blows over their Extract. Iceman dazes, but not before weakening Gemini so much that Professor X can daze her too.

Rogue flies in to re-take the back Secure that Beast got dragged off and throw a punch at Nimrod. 

Then we have the real surprise of the round: Honey Badger is close enough to try a speculative Claw Slash into Nimrod - scoring five hits that has the robot reeling! It's too good a chance to pass up, so she tries it again. 

Another dice spike! This time, Nimrod has to scramble to get a reroll from Sentinel Prime to stay on its feet, narrowly avoiding the humiliation of getting dazed by my 2 Threat. It then plays Instant Recovery to get some more health back, and has a narrow escape.

With all that, we're still scoring 3 VPs apiece, and Sentinels hold priority.

Score - X-Men 6 : 7 Sentinels

Round 3

Now possessing all the power it needs, Nimrod goes first and used Teleportation Matrix to get between Rogue and Beast, then hitting them both with Shockweb. Beast is immediately KO, and Rogue is reduced to a single point of damage - which is immediately removed when Nimrod throws the central pillar at her and she is dazed.

Professor X has another quiet turn (he's having a real problem generating enough power because no-one is attacking him), while Iceman and Gemini fail to take each other out (though they ae both layering each other with conditions).

Sentinel Prime is running out of targets, but it can still score two VPs a turn and lend rerolls when needed, so it's happy as a clam.

Honey Badger takes another swipe at Nimrod (who had healed two wounds at the end of his activation) and brings him down to a single wound once again. Having had enough of this nonsense, an awakened Claude double-taps Honey Badger and dazes her.

That was a good comeback turn for the Sentinels. The X-Men are one character down, and they've opened up a lead with the end in sight.

Score - X-Men 9 : 12 Sentinels

Round 4

Waking up with Priority, Rogue intends to use it. She starts off throwing Claude into Nimrod, hoping for a cheeky daze, but the big robot manages to avoid all damage. So Rogue settles for battering Nimrod into unconsciousness with Southern Hospitality.

Sentinel Prime attempts to shot down Rogue, who proves too resilient to take down. Claude tries to repeat the trick with Honey Badger, but she avoids all harm and darts forward to pinch an Extract.

With Iceman and Gemini still slap-fighting over the right Secure, Professor X takes a chance and leaves his Secure in the hope of taking Gemini off the point and gaining enough power to pick up an Extract. Neither of those things happen (oh, professor) and I lose the chance at a 2VP swing.

Nonetheless, my rebound turn did close the gap in scoring, and victory could be anyone's in Round 5.

Score - X-Men 12 : 14 Sentinels

Round 5

Every VP now counts, so Grasshopper and I are both counting the objectives with each activation.

Sentinel Prime starts, but still fails to get much damage through Rogue's Kree-Mutant Physiology - though it can still claim the Secure objective, as it's still healthy (I don't think it's been targeted once)

Iceman finally puts an end to the game-long battle he's been having with Gemini. Using Children of the Atom to shake Root and gain some power, he's able to KO Gemini and move to pick up an Extract objective. 

Professor X then plays To Me, My X-Men to bring Iceman over to the back Secure, while he scoots off to get the right Secure.

Then Nimrod steams in, grabbing an Extract and teleporting into attack range of Iceman and Honey Badger. Nimrod needs to generate power, so launches a builder into Honey Badger - and whiffs! Things are now getting tense, as the robot needs to take out both these characters to keep things competitive.

Nimrod hits Honey Badger again - Xavier's Dream ensures she stays on her feet, but it does generate just enough power for Nimrod to hurl a barrel at Iceman and KO him!

Honey Badger, still blowing raspberries at having survived the best Nimrod can throw at her, attempts to Claw Slash a couple of times. History doesn't repeat itself, but she does get the Elusive trigger to run across to the right and grab an Extract (far out of Claude's range).

As things stand, both sides are gaining 2VP this round, with one activation left each.

Claude goes first grabbing an Extract and flying to the Secure on the outlet pipe, scoring another 2VP.

Rogue now has a long shot - if she can KO Claude and take both objectives, then both sides will draw even and we'll go to a final round.

Using her Charge power, Rogue gets close enough to hit Claude twice - and scuffs both attacks! In our narrative, this happened at the same time the Sentinel MK4 was exploding on the surface, so maybe that distracted her.

Either way, the Sentinels score out and take their first win of the campaign!

Score - X-Men 14 : 17 Sentinels

Back in the X-Mansion

That was a very tactical finish to the game (the first time the Sentinels didn't just go for attrition, and it paid off). I wondered about the wisdom of having Sentinel Prime on the sidelines, but he was regularly scoring 2VP every round, and was able to influence the game with his restraint cables and pattern analysis rerolls. Nimrod was as intimidating as advertised, when he wasn't being bullied by pre-teenagers.

I was worried about losing Professor X, but it turns out I had a different problem - no-one was attacking him! I really needed to generate some power off Xavier, as he has a lot he can spend it on (in hindsight, giving him two tactics cards was probably a waste).

The rest of the gang did okay. Beast got lucky, and then unlucky, but I liked his movement ability. Rogue was able to soak up punishment. Iceman had some poor rolls, but did make heavy weather of taking out a Prime Sentinel (although they could say the same thing).

The MVP was, of course, Honey Badger. She did ridiculously well against Nimrod and, had she been able to daze it with her simple builder, I'd still be apologising to Grasshopper now.

Next chapter: the mutants are on the run, and won't someone think of the children?

+++ Cerebro Strike Files 160497.1 +++ Morlock Tunnels destroyed +++ Unknown number of mutants taken +++ Escape routes to the X-Mansion compromised +++ Fall back to secondary positions +++ Beast captured +++ Iceman captured +++