Battle Report - Marvel Crisis Protocol

Howdy folk,

Here's hoping that the New Year vibes are still treating you well. 

Well, first game of the year, and sure enough it was Duncan and I taking some more Marvel Crisis Protocol to the table. Unfortunately Mike was unavailable, so it would be only two teams of heroes and villains. We took the opportunity to go with a "full meal deal" of MCP, and that included all objectives and special markers (can't remember what they're called in game).

So we selected the mission type, the general table layout, and then objectives...in this case we pulled the mission 'Spider infected civilians', whom we dubbed spider-babies immediately and forever after. As well there were 3 portals on the table...I wish I had remembered that they were portals then, but, such is gaming life.

So, that leaves us with game setup of 5 x spider-babies to rescue, and 3 x portals/rifts to take control of. In the case of the babies, they could move the character holding them distance S if the right (or wrong, depending on your perspective) roll was made. And the portals had a nifty feature that left any characters with the 'incinerate' condition if they were within distance 1. Oh, and our threat level on the card was 17 or 19, but given that I had not brought enough, we went with max value for the figs I had...so our threat value was 14.

Team setup: Duncan had the Soviet Avengers...Winter League, Red Guards...maybe Winter Guard...I honestly can't remember. I just googled it, they're the Winter Guard. He had Soviet Ironman (gawd I gotta google this...)...

...okay, he had Crimson Dynamo, Darkstar, Ursa Major (big ole bear), and the Red Guardian...I was calling him Captain Russia and Soviet Captain America in the game...my comic-fu is a little lacking here. Anywho, to counter this red horde, the Guardians of the Galaxy...Peter Quill, Rocket, Groot, Gamora, and Nebula - all of them are worth 3 points each except for Nebula who is a cool 2 points.

**So we googled while we were playing...Duncan had just bought the new core box, I had the original set...and we saw that there were a varied number of tweaks to abilities and point values between releases, so we're just going to pretend that I'm on the up n up**

Anywho, the Guardians of the Galaxy...

We even broke out Tactics Cards for this as well...admittedly the only cards I recall are the 2 specifically related to Rocket and Groot...I do remember that StarLord had a narly leadership skill which could be doled out to 1 Guardian per turn that allowed up to 3 re-rolls of defensive or attacks dice...at anytime...so kinda handy

In the interest of being fully transparent, as soon as the game was over, I started forgetting details...FAASTT...so this is much less a report and play by play, than random rememberings and thoughts on the game.

Duncan did beat me to the punch and his report is here.

So, here we go...gametime...hope you enjoy the pics!

Table setup, Winter Guard at top of frame, Guardians de Galaxy on the bottom. Terrain was various building and such. Card layout had 5 x red tokens for spider babies, 3 x blue for portals/rifts.

The Winter Guard...Ursa, Red Guardian, Darkstar, Red Dynamo (l to r)

First few turns had the Winter Guards moving up to the Daily Bugle, taking a few spider-babies and controlling 2 x portals. The Guardians moved up and StarLord took a portal, I think Groot grabbed a baby, and the sisters Lady Gamora and Nebula came up from the right.

Rocket and Groot moving fairly close together...their tactic cards have some nice features...Groot is a tank and can absorb damage, and if they're together, Groot can activate Rocket to carry out 3 x plasma rifle attacks up to range 5, but they have to be on 3 different targets. So I just kinda kept them close together...Groot moves S, and Rocket cruises at M.

For the most part, the Red Guardian kept behind the action holding onto the intial portal. Ursa Major who is not only a bit of a tank, is also a real f'ing bear...has some really good damage abilities.

Duncan was making some amazing die rolls...like I was getting a few hits on him, but he really blocked almost all damage I was dealing. The big thing with the Guardians de Galaxy, they generate power on successful hits and damage , so that was a nice bonus...but Duncan's rolls kept that minimized.

Nebula and Gamora are also pretty slick...they have melee weapons, but they are able to do some jazzy range 2-3 attacks that let them end next to their target or keep at range depending on the ability. But, boy can they move, they both move at L and while Nebula cannot contest an objective or hold an object, she is a wicked assassin...

The pic above, the Red Guardian finally comes up from the back...StarLord keeps taking a bit of a beating and will eventually get tossed behind the Daily Bugle and get pummeled in the dark alley.

At this point, the Bugle keeps being hot! and Crimson Stark starts to head off Rocket and Groot. You can see StarLord in behind getting hits from all the other Winter Guards...he takes one for the team and just takes the hits.

At this point, both Nebula and Gamorra have enough and start getting aggressive on the Bugle. Nebula gets tossed to the alley and Gamora keeps charging in.

Nebula makes it back on top of the Bugle...Ursa Major gets knocked off (I think...) and Nebula takes it to Darkstar...getting some wicked ninja assassin hits in on her and knocking Darkstar out of the game...I think Quill is already gone by this point.

Now, Ursa jumps back into the fray, he really likes the Bugle rooftop...and both Gamora and Nebula lay down a beating on him

of note, any red tokens that you see laying on the table are spider-babies that have been dropped by our heroes and villains after they are injured and/or taken out of the game. I think at one point I had 3 of the Guardians de Galaxy get injured at the same time...

The ladies get control of the Bugle rooftop, sending Ursa Major back to Mockba Zoo!!

A few frenzied plays and we're both trying to scoop up spider-babies...

The last roll for me of the game, and I solidly knock Crimson Dynamo out of action...

And with that, we had a game. The extra elements were cool, but definitely took more care on my part to play the characters to their maximum. The game was a lot of fun, and happy to have this start of the year's action. Oh, lol…I forgot to say, Duncan and the Winter Guard for the win…but I think I was within 2-3 points of him…good game regardless!

Take care.