The Sentinels roll forward and the kids are (for the moment) all right.
+++ Cerebro Strike Files 0120697 +++ X-Mansion compromised +++ All active personnel retreat and regroup +++ Evacuate the Massachusetts Academy +++ Find safety +++ Save the students +++
---
Chapter 3 of our Marvel Crisis Protocol narrative campaign. I, Stylus, will be taking the Teen Titans of the X-Men into battle. My opponent, Grasshopper, continues with the Sentinels.
New Mutants
With all the adults having taken a turn, I wanted to run out the X-Men's junior league - the New Mutants! I've always had a soft spot for these guys, plus the narrative of having the students on the run fits very neatly.
Magik is (currently) the only leader they can take, and is a great character to play (as shown by her performance in Chapter 1) - sending enemies through Limbo is always fun, plus her leadership allows for the New Mutants to adjust their positions when one of their own is attacked, which is more narrative than a lot of leadership abilities.
Her fellow students are Sunspot and Warlock. Sunspot's abilities depend on him generating Flare tokens, so I'll have to keep an eye on that. Warlock is a weird set of attacks, which suits his weird character (try explaining to your opponent, 'his mutant power is that he's nice!'). He's good either close up or at range, and can also eat terrain to heal himself or improve his attacks.
The adults in the room are Colossus, whose bodyguard ability and general tankiness I'm counting on to keep my squishy students alive; and Emma Frost, whose high opinion of herself is entirely justifed.
Squad: Sunspot, Emma Frost, Magik, Colossus, Warlock
Tactics: New Mutants, Practice Round, Survive The Night, Tomorrow's Soldiers, Journey Through Limbo
Threat: 18
Sentinels
Four games in, and Grasshopper is showing a preference for large, dangerous models and also for keeping Priority.
Accordingly, we have two 5 Threats - Nimrod and Sentinel Prime MK4 - returning to add mutants to the pen. The latest 5 Threat is a very different prospect - Cassandra Nova, the evil twin of Professor X, and an absolute bag of psychic tricks.
A lone Prime Sentinel (aka 'Skynet') makes up the numbers, because the upcoming scenario does require boots on the ground.
Squad: Nimrod, Cassandra Nova, Sentinel Prime MK4, Prime Sentinel
Tactics: Directive One, Scrap Metal, Instant Recovery, Patch Up, Recalibration Matrix
Threat: 18
Mission and deployment
Extract: Salvaged Supplies Fuel Resistance Efforts
Secure: Survivors Search for Safe Shelters
The Secure is simple enough, albeit in an unusual shape and odd number, which should make things interesting. It has the secondary effect of allowing an ally to lend a teammate an extra defence die, but who's going to remember that in the heat of battle? (we certainly didn't).
The Extract, however, is really weird: holding it is worth 2VP, so there's that. Moreover, a character can't pick it up unless another ally is already contesting it (so forward planning is required). Moreover, a character holding the Extract must end their activation within Range 2 of an ally, or drop the Extract.
This one never came up, but if an Extract would be moved to another character (like Black Cat's stealing ability), the Extract is dropped - so you can't get around these restrictions with cheeky tricks.
It makes the Extract a high-stakes headscratcher and, to be honest, if it wasn't in the narrative campaign, I'd be tempted to avoid it.
Our battlefield is the green fields of New England, where the mutants are making a run though a park with some light construction work going on.
The New Mutants huddle together for safety: Emma Frost, Sunspot, Warlock, Colossus and Magik.
The Sentinels also go central - this is a map without much on the flanks: Sentinel Prime MK4, Prime Sentinel (Skynet), Nimrod and Cassandra Nova.
Sentinels win the first turn, and we're away!
Round 1
As expected, the round is about setting up to grab the supply Extracts. On the right, Warlock helps Colossus pick up the Extract, and they're joined by Magik on the home Secure.
Nimrod steams forward and throws a speculative Adaptive Energy Blast at Warlock. Cassandra Nova moves up to secure their home Secure.
For the left Extract, the Sentinels are in more of a pickle: logically, Skynet should move first, to set up Sentinel Prime to take it. But Emma Frost's builder attack has the potential to move people around, which could scupper those plans.
Both Nimrod and Sentinel Prime are immune from getting moved by mystic powers (having no fleshy brain probably helps with that), so the best option is moving the Sentinel Prime first to get on the middle Secure, and have Skynet pick up the Extract.
Emma Frost walks up to contest the Secure, and Sunspot also moves twice (building up his Flare token reserve) to take control of it, just nudging the New Mutants ahead.
Score - New Mutants 4 : 3 Sentinels
Round 2
Everyone's now clustered in the middle, so let the punching start! Nimrod goes first, advancing into the middle of the New Mutants and letting rip with a Shockweb. Unfortunately, Magik is just out of range, which means Colossus takes it on the chin.
He doesn't have enough power to raise his defences, but gets royally thumped by Nimrod. This does give him enough power to Big Brother Warlock (who uses the New Mutants leadership to jump behind him). When the dust settles, Colossus is left standing on just a few points of health left.
The attrition is already starting, so Sunspot lets rip with a UV Strike, followed by a Dark Solar Blast, which dazes Skynet and drops the Extract.
Sentinel Prime blasts at Magik, but makes little headway. Cassandra Nova tries to take off Colossus' final damage, but falls short.
Magik takes a Limbo Step over to the dropped Extract, picks it up and whacks Sentinel Prime with Bolts of Oshtur, giving it the Hex condition.
Warlock hits Nimrod with his Buster Cannon, giving it the Shock condition and then treating himself to a tasty dumpster to heal up.
Emma Frost closes off the round with a couple of Psychic Spikes that tears into Sentinel Prime, bringing it down to a worrying amount of wounds.
The Secures haven't changed hands, but with both 2VP Extracts with the New Mutants, they take a big jump into the lead. Maybe they can close this out before the big enemies start to build momentum?
Score - New Mutants 10 : 4 Sentinels
Round 3
Nimrod is, once again, first up to bat. It dazes Colossus, which drops one of the Extracts, then moves to occupy the New Mutants' home objective (and begins to contest the fallen Extract).
During the same activation, Skynet uses her excess of power to Patch Up Sentinel Prime.
Magik teleports in to avenge her big brother, hitting Nimrod with Bolts of Oshtur, giving it the Hex condition. She then sends it on a Journey Through Limbo, giving it the Incinerate condition and sending it far away from the Extract.
A revived Skynet continues the daisy-chain of revenge by double-tapping Magik with Nano Bio-Weapons, dazing her, dropping the second Extract and ensuring that a New Mutant can't just walk up and take the first Extract.
(while all of this is computing, I play Tomorrow's Soliders to give the remaining New Mutants a power boost)
Sunspot starts by throwing a tree at Sentinel Prime, which bounces off him. He then hits Skynet with a couple of UV Strikes, then uses High Energy Conversion to throw her into Cassandra Nova, leaving Skynet on one wound. For his last action, he races over to the fallen Extract, to help anyone else collect it.
Cassandra Nova walks forward and picks up one of the fallen Extracts (I think Skynet had been thrown close enough to assist her). Warlock tries to hit her with Self Must Protect Selfriend, but he's already eaten the terrain that would allow him to reroll dice, so the attack whiffs.
Emma hits Sentinel Prime twice, but also whiffs. Sentinel Prime then walks off the middle Secure, picks up the second dropped Extract, and steps back on his home Secure.
With both Extracts held in their restraint cables, and the mutants only holding the middle Secure, the Sentinels close the gap.
Score - New Mutants 11: 9 Sentinels
Round 4
Cassandra Nova starts this time, hitting Colossus with Flesh Manipulation (even though he's made of steel) that gets Warlock and Sunspot pushed back towards their deployment zone. Having disrupted the New Mutants' comeback, she retreats to her home Secure for a nice gloat.
Colossus remains close enough to Nimrod to throw an X-Slam into him, helpfully throwing the big robot away before he dazes.
Sunspot uses Sunburn (basically a charge) to get back into the fight and KO Skynet before she can activate.
Sentinel Prime immediately hits back with a massive Suppression Protocols MK2 that KO Magik.
Warlock moves back onto the home Secure and takes a shot at Sentinel Prime. In the final activation, Emma Frost stays on her middle Extract, but moves just into Stealth range to hit Cassandra Nova.
I should point out that Cassandra had been using her Psychic Distraction power all game and it had consistently failed to do any damage - which would have allowed her to move out of range. In this case, it cost her, because Emma Frost's Psychic Spike went straight through her defences and dazed her, dropping the Extract.
The New Mutants still hold two Secures to the Sentinels' one Secure and one Extract, meaning the gap closes even further.
Score - New Mutants 13: 12 Sentinels
Round 5
Nimrod begins by teleporting in and hitting Warlock with Adaptive Energy Blast. Colossus uses Survive the Night tactics card to use the Back Off! ability, more to push Nimrod away than to inflict any damage.
Undeterred, Nimrod throws a dumpster at Warlock and dazes him ("eat this!").
Colossus walks to contest the fallen Extract and get close enough to attack Nimrod (this risks a Psychic Distraction, which could KO him, but once again it rolls blank). Colossus' X-Slam does throw Nimrod away further.
In the battle of the psychics, Cassandra Nova hits Emma Frost with a Mind Possession, catching her without enough power to Shield Mind, and so walking her off the Secure and into Psychic Distraction range (only one hit is required, it does nothing). Cassandra Nova is then able to advance onto the middle Secure, which is now uncontested.
Doing some mid-round maths, that means the Sentinels are now scoring two Secures and have one Extract, which is enough to win at 16VPs. Sentinel Prime is scoring three of the four VPs, which means it's the one with all the marbles.
So Emma Frost ignores Cassandra Nova and puts a Psychic Spike into Sentinel Prime. But with its Sentinel Programming ability to count Wild results as double against mystic attacks, it actually manages to hang on with a single wound.
Emma Frost throws her second attack and does enough to take it down - except Sentinel Prime plays Recalibration Matrix and gets the Wild it was looking for! It still stands!
Sentinel Prime edges as far back as it can, while still staying on the Secure and within Range 2 of Nimrod (so it doesn't drop the Extract). Retreat is not usually part of the Sentinels' programming, but this could be game-winning.
Warlock moves to take the home Secure, so that leaves Sunspot to be the hero. He uses Sunburn to get back into action, and picks up the fallen Extract. So far, so good. But Sunspot then realises that his UV Strike attack is not in range of Sentinel Prime, and it doesn't have the power for his Dark Solar Blast (which is in range).
The only option is a UV Strike against Nimrod, to hopefully build enough power (just a single one would do) to enable to second attack against Sentinel Prime. Sunspot boosts the attack with all three Flare tokens, as Nimrod bolsters its defence with Metahuman Power Recognition and Adaption Protocol (I'm not typing that twice!).
Nimrod prevails! Not one damage goes through, and Sunspot has no way to attack Sentinel Prime!
In desperation, Sunspot advances onto the Secure, contesting it with Sentinel Prime and denying the Sentinels victory. We go into Round 6 dead level on points.
Score - New Mutants 15: 15 Sentinels
Round 6
Nimrod advances forward for his favourite area attack, and it's a big one. Colossus is KO, Emma Frost is dazed, Warlock is hit but, crucially, Sunspot is unharmed. He's got a good energy defence, and Sentinel Prime wasn't about to lend Nimrod any rerolls he might need for his own survival.
Once again, Sunspot gets to be a hero. Even without Flare tokens, he doesn't miss a second time - Sentinel Prime is dazed and drops its Extract.
There's no way back for the Sentinels now. The best Cassandra Nova can do is leave her Secure to add Warlock to the tally of captured mutants, but it's not to be.
By the skin of their teeth, the New Mutants have it!
Score - New Mutants 19: 15 Sentinels
Back in the X-Mansion
Yikes! I can't remember the last time I so narrowly pulled victory from the jaws of defeat there (I really thought Sunspot had blown it in Round 5). I also can't remember when I fact three 5 Threats at once, so I had to put in a lot of work.
My opponent, Grasshopper, played well to use his Priority advantage against my numbers. I was being kept off balance by the attacks and displacement they could bring, and it was a shame the dice let him down (Psychic Distraction comes to mind - we counted one hit from sixteen rolls)
I've completely changed my mind on the Extract scenario - having to cooperate to pick up the high-scoring objectives adds a whole layer of tactical thought. It also means you can't just drop someone's Extract and take it for yourself. I'll definitely play this one again.
For my team, I think Sunspot excelled himself (despite his spotty reputation) and was probably the MVP. Emma was solid as always (although perhaps not at her best against robots) and Warlock was a pleasant surprise (he never got to use his Poison abilities, so maybe he needs careful squad-building to get the best from him).
It's a shame that both Rasputin siblings got captured. Colossus is a very useful bodyguard (or he usually is - he fell over a bit easily here) and I would certainly want to have wanted Magik for a future game.
I guess it's time for a jailbreak!
+++ Cerebro Strike Files 0120697.1 +++ Magik captured +++ Colossus captured +++ All those who could escape have now reached safety +++ Contact the leader of your nearest X-cell and await further instructions. +++ Prepare for counterstrike +++ If you can hear us, we are coming for you +++
No comments:
Post a Comment