Marvel Crisis Protocol

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Marvel Crisis Protocol is a miniatures game set in the Marvel universe. A normal game always has two Crises: Secure (Stand on an objective) and Extraction (Carry an objective). In addition to featuring iconic heroes and villains, there is a large emphasis on terrain: Scenery affects traversal and can be used for cover or thrown. Characters like Spider-Man are almost completely unimpeded by scenery, but Hulk can throw damn near anything, including dump trucks, which is always great for a laugh. Despite the aforementioned emphasis on terrain, vertical distance is not measured for attacks, meaning a character on the ground can punch a character on the roof of an adjacent building.

Another interesting facet is unrestricted roster building. There is nothing stopping you from having sworn enemies on the same team, like Captain America and Red Skull. The reasoning is thematic: Comics are subject to strange team-ups all the time (for example, alternate universe versions, mind control, etc.). There are no factional restrictions, but there are affiliations which can provide bonuses if at least half your team shares an affiliation like Avengers or Cabal. Some characters have multiple factions they can belong to, like Black Panther, who has Avengers and Wakanda. Some characters have Leadership abilities that are activated when you fulfill an affiliation, and some Tactic Cards can only be used on characters that belong to specific affiliations, like Odin's Blessing with Asgardian characters.

Is This Game For Me?

Pros

• Very high quality miniatures that do justice to the characters.
• Each character feels unique and true to the source material.
• Team building is simple. You'll usually have about 4 or 5 characters on the field with the only additional prep-work being Tactics Cards.
• Terrain is fun as hell to throw around.
• The game has a raid mode which a group of players go with teams against one player controlling a maxed out character (Hulk, Ultron and Thanos for now).

Cons

• The pricing is on par with Games Workshop. Because every single expansion has unique characters, they can't exactly count on repeat purchases.
• Assembly is a pain in the ass.
• Static poses. No room to get creative there without a knife and the willingness to take a risk on your expensive model.

Factions

Avengers

The first half of the Core Set, the Avengers have a LOT of heroes, giving them access to a lot of variety. The team's affiliation is "One Day Unlike Anyother" giving discounts for the first power used each turn. It takes a bit of practice to get used to this ability, as its the FIRST ability you use each turn and doesn't use cost with abilities X. However its EXTREMELY useful for anyone with a reactive super power, allowing a character to use this ability plenty of times while in an opponents turn.

• Captain America: Cap is the Team Leader for the Avengers. Team Leaders are always useful for their ability alone, and at 4 points Cap is a good character to play and a pillar for your team. He has high phyisical and energy defense, and 6 health making him pretty tanky. His attacks are useful, but his Shield Bash alone give him a good power to move enemies from objectives. Vibranium Shield gives him good defense (usually by costing 1), and Bodyguard allows him to protect another important character. He is real tankiness comes when he is damaged, where he can "DO THIS ALL DAY" and add blanks to his defense successes making him REALLY hard to go down specially when using Vibranium Shield.

• Iron Man: Playboy-Genius-Billionaire is unfortunally, dissapointing At 3 cost, he doesn't match well with other heroes. His Repulsor Blast is useful, as you can push enemies, but it demands a Wild to be rolled. His homing rockets cost 2 power for a mediocre attack with AoE. His Friday AI costs too much to be used, and it demands the player to activate it for the NEXT attack, instead of all of them. Suffering less damage from your opponents is useful, but problematic for a character that has little to no energy generation. When wounded, he has a Unibeam which in itself is a pretty strong attack, that ignore Line of Sight and its a 5 distance BEAM. Whatever stays in his way is gonna get hurt, but unfortunaly, not only its too costly as a power, but its very unlikely that you weill be able to fire a beam in too many opponents. Stark biggest weakness however is the sheer lack of power generation, which a dude who has THE ARC REACTOR and BUILT ONE IN A CAVE WITH A BUNCH OF SCRAPS, should have at least some way to generate more power for himself.

• Black Widow: Natasha Romanov is not a power player, but she is useful. Cheap, with stealth and a Large move, she can reaches places and guarantee objectives. She is not winning you fights, but she can be used to guarantee objectives and even moving to finish a running opponent.

• Captain Marvel: Carol is a useful beatsitck, with her own super sayan (BINARY) form that can be activated at 5 cost adding two dice to her attacks and defense till next turn. Her three attacks are decent, a basic strike, a long range attack that keeps her far away from enemies, and a Rocket Punch for some good damage. Mind you ALL of these attacks gets boosted by her Binary Form. Having a power to throw enemies and terrain gives her more ability to control objectives and cause damage. As its telling, the character can be a pretty good beatstick, but she LACKS the power to make good use of it. Surprisingly, she can work extremely well in Magneto's team, as this is a dude that can generate a lot of power when an terrain is broken which will happen often (specially she is the one breaking terrain over peoples head).

Cabal

The other half of the Core Set, the Cabal are the evil team with their leader the Red Skull, with strong pieces like MODOK and Ultron.

Wakanda

A really small faction with five characters, all of the characters are excellent and even if not affiliated are very useful in different lists. Their Affiliation ability allow a re-roll for power, being quite useful and making them good for more secure re-rolls. Having two push powers with their units make them quite good at controlling the game. One of the famous Wakanda Wave strategies essentialy boils down to using the card "Wakanda Forever" after your opponent tries to capture an objective, and then pushing everyone out. If you set yourself properly, you can reap a LOT of points in one turn with this.

• Black Panther: King of Wakanda and the team leader, he is VERY resilient because his armor allows him to add blanks to his defense rolls. He is fast, with a large move, and really good attacks with one push. His Leadership is useful, but costing 1 power per turn can be expensive.

• Killmonger: A highly offensive character, he is capable of taking out two or three enemies by himself and becoming more and more dangerous as he drops people. His tactic card "Usurp the Throne" gets him 2 VP by dazing or KOing enemies, which he can very much do in a single turn.

• Okoye: For 2 points she is cheap, hits really well with a ranged attack and a dangerous attack that allow for a second hit. Bodyguard is probably one of her best traits, protecting other heroes and doing the sacrificial play. She is widely regarded as one of the best two point characters, being useful to protect allies and can get some good shots at people.

• Shuri: Really REALLY powerful character, useful even outside of affiliated list. She can keep pushing enemies away with a long range attack, upgrade allows more stable gameplay with re-rolls for allies.

• Storm: Married T'Challa for a while in the comics, so it makes sense for her to be here. Unfortunaly she doesn't match that well with the team, but can be a decent pick if you want to mix your 10 guys with X-Men.

Asgard

The second kingdom released for the game, the Asgardians as a whole get another power every turn, with Team Affiliation allowing to remove a single damage or special conditions. They have a lot of staying power being able to heal themselves, high defense and tactics that reduce damage.

Also they really like throwing things around with Thor, Valkyrie, Angela and Enchantress able to make people their favorite ragdolls and guarantee objectives with it.

• Thor: Prince of Asgard. A powerhouse that can fly, hits really well, and his Affiliation ability allows his allies to heal themselves. Things that make him powerful are his MANY different attacks, as he can Charge (move and attack spending power), then attack again, with a chance with a Throw AND another Throw with "Strongest Avenger". Worth his five points.

• Valkyrie: Similar to Killmonger, she is an agressive character that can cause a LOT of damage by herself. Dragon Fang allows another basic attack (if a Wild die is rolled, which should be easy if you spend power to use her superpower that can change her dice), charge gives her movement without losing her hard hitting status. Widely regarded as one of the best 3 point characters of the game. Throwing people around AND being offensive? Pretty good.

• Hela: A mild choice, she has a few abilities tied to Capture Soul tokens where she can improve her attack die and cause bleed on her enemies.

• Loki:Skillful at controlling the battlefield. His God of Mischief ability forces enemies to spend power to use super powers, being able to disrput plans and power plays in a turn. Choosing a Crisis like Origin Bombs where enemies are forced to spend power to get the objective can make him even more of a problem for his enemies.

• Angela: Offensive Powerhouse. She can get to enemies SO FAST, as she has a Large Movement, her basic attack allowing her to move, and then Dazing and KO attack allowing her to move AGAIN. She can also throw enemies away.

• Enchantress: A REAAALLLLY good control piece. Her basic attack is a Beam with 3 range, that allows her to SAP people (meaning she takes their energy if she rolls Wilds). She also has a technically High Defense, as enemies targetting must pay 2 to stop her from using her 5 Mystic defense for ANY attack. She can throw people around, but most importantly - she can STEAL enemies objectives, making her EXTREMELY useful to guarantee points.