Marvel Crisis Protocol

This article is a stub. You can help 1d4chan by expanding it

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.

Rosters

The game have a point system for each character. It goes from character being super cheapt, at 2 points, and so being weaker but useful, and characters being up to 8 points, like Dormammu, which can become half of the team by themselves in point in most crisis.

Because there are a LOT of teams and a LOT of different ways to build theses characters, dividing them by their Threat Value (their point cost) facilitates it, as you can even use all of them in any combination, so they are essentially competing against others in their point value.

2 Threat

Right now, the 2 threat characters are the cheapest characters in the game (excluding the Infinity Gems, who are not characters themselves). They are often made with a specific idea in mind, and are not usually particularly resistent in most scenarios. Their use is first, to fill out odd crisis, but with a proper plan, they can be used as a cheap activation in game.

• Black Widow/Natasha Romanova: The 2 pointer from the Core Box, Nat is pretty cheap, and mildly useful. Large movement is excellent for her, as it allows her to grab extracts and get the hell away with their moves. More over, with some proper preparation, she can stay in stealth (enemies can only target her at Distance 3). She is nothing exceptional, but she can be used for some objective hunting. More over, she can be used in good teams, specially Captain America (Sam Wilson) who loves cheaper and smaller characters.

• Bob, Agent of Hydra: Coming from the Deadpool box, Bob holds objectives in the back. His main point is using his big cannon to shoot people. He starts with a Loaded Token to then hit whatever you want at distance 4 and cause a LOT of damage. But you also blow yourself when you do it, so you have at best two chances to use this attack. Due to his BUT HOW?! he does have a bit more of resilience, as he doesn't flip automatically flip when attacked in his injured side if he hasn't activated.

• Bullseye/Benjamin Pointdexter: "BULLSEYE!" Having received a decent update for his character, Bullseye he is good for holding objectives, can often use his two actions per turn as he has Hit and Run to shoot and move and has a 4 range for his attacks. What he serves is generally is a good finisher (causing minimal 1 damage), getting a bit of bleed on opponents, and being a nuisance. In a team like Criminal Syndicate he shines, as he is a cheap healthy body to hold objectives, adding another body to hold an objective.

• Nebula: Gamora's sister. She is an assassin character, with a Large movement that gives her chances to catch far away enemies.Decently resistant for a 2 Threat, as she has a re-roll and in-built immunities (she is mostly robot after all). Her biggest weakness is not being able to interact or secure objectives, which however is compensated by her rerolling any number of dies when attacking those that are playing the objective game. E and C crisis are great for her, as she can stay positioned to strike enemies in two points if you position her properly.

• Okoye: The Dora Milaje General. Wakanda's own Praetorian Guard, even after her nerf she is still well liked as a two pointer. The basic reason is simple, she is a cheap character that can throw herself and save her friends with Bodyguard. She has decent defensive abilities (one defensive reroll and adding blanks to her successes). She is well used and well known in the community.

• Rocket Racoon: Listen, its a trash panda with a giant gun so you can tell its going to be a glass cannon. He is super fragile with 3 health, and 2 phyisical and energy defense but staying close to Groot can keep him alive, as the rabbit will use the big tree to protect himself. He is immune to collisions and ALWAYS get Cover (he is tiniest character of the game, discounting Ant-Man and Wasp when transformed). What makes him offensively powerful then? First, his main attack is a 5 range 5 damage shot. That alone is pretty good at keeping damage pumping (specially in certain crisis deployments), the rat spender is also pretty decent for an area attack with 7 dice and 1 damage with a pull. Its his Tactic - Deadly Duo, which he uses with Groot, where the fox SHOOT THREE MORE TIMES with his basic attack in different targets. Thats a LOT of firepower in one turn.

• Toad/Mortimer Toynbee: You know what happens to frogs when they are hit by lightning? Well, they probably become surprisingly decent characters. Toad is ABSURDLY good for crisis play, first because of his innate power where he can interact with objectives at range 2. That alone gives him more space for good positioning. He can also pick up allied characters objective tokens, which allows him then to get the hell out, which he can do with his Medium movement and a Hop that positions him 2 range. Not only that, when attacked he can slip away from enemies, so he is really good at mobility and getting the hell out with objectives. With proper positioning and energy control, Toad can move, capture an objective at 2, move again, and use his hop to stay very far away from his enemies while holding an objective. Purple Herb is an awesome Crisis for him. Get a character to reach the Herb position, pick it up, move and then prepare Toad to take it from an ally, hop and move. You might be able to finish the crisis in two turns.

• Wong: Cheapest mage of the game. He is a support piece, but thats it. Don't expect much from him beside that, he will not defend well, survive much or anything. What he will do is heal his allies or pass power to them, but don't count on him holding objectives for long.

3 Threat

3 threat is where the characters can shine a bit. Because they are at this level, it means that they don't have to be at their full power, and but can bring enough to the table for being cheaper.

• Ant-Man/Scott Lang: