Hello True Believers!
Recently I got into Marvel Crisis Protocol and was kind of surprised that there wasn't a dedicated thread on here. The game is super fun in either IRL or over Tabletop Simulator.
So, what is Marvel Crisis Protocol?
Marvel Crisis Protocol (MCP) is a tabletop skirmish game created by Atomic Mass Games that is played on a 3x3 Battlefield. Taking the roles of various heroes and villains of the Marvel Universe (more inspired by the comics than the MCU) teams battle to either secure objectives, extract objectives or just say screw it all and try to destroy the other team to ensure the victory!
Sounds great! Where do I sign up?
The Core Box is the best way to get everything you need to get started. Depending on where you go, whether it is your FLGS or an online retailer, you can find it for around $80. The Core Box Includes:
10 Characters
- Captain America
- Captain Marvel
- Iron Man
- Black Widow
- Spider-Man
- Red Skull
- Crossbones
- Baron Zemo
- Ultron
- Doctor Octopus
Terrain
- Two Cars (You can make one, or both, into taxis)
- Two Street Lights
- Two Street Lamps
- Two Dumpsters
- A Daily Bugle newsstand
- A trashcan
Measuring Tools
- Movement Tools - These come in Small, Medium and Long and are jointed in the middle to bend around corners, determine the arc when someone or something gets yeeted, etc.
- Range Tools - These come from Range 2-5 (Range 1 is the width of any of the Range Tools) and are used to determine the range of attacks and effects
10 special d8's with various symbols on them to determine Hits, Critical Hits, Wilds, Blocks, Blanks and Total Failures
A Metric Ass-Ton of tokens for Power, Damage and effects
A Round Tracker to keep track of rounds and Victory Points (VPs). The Game is played to 6 rounds or whoever scores 16 points, whichever comes first!
So, what are affiliations?
Every character, well most characters, belong to an affiliation. The Core Box includes two affiliations, The Avengers and The Cabal, but you can mix and match characters like they do in the comics! As long as most of your squad, determined but threat level, makes up a majority than, sure, Baron Zemo can team with The Defenders to take on X-Force guest starring Ghost Rider! Here are a list of all of the current affiliations to pick and choose from:
- The Avengers
- A-Force
- The Asgardians
- The Black Order
- The Brotherhood of Mutants
- The Cabal
- The Criminal Syndicate
- The Defenders
- The Dark Dimenson (currently the only character in there, technically, is Dormammu)
- The Guardians of the Galaxy
- The Inhumans
- S.H.I.E.L.D
- Spider-Foes (which really should have been called The Sinister Six but there are more than six members so I get it)
- The Uncanny X-Men
- Wakanda
- Winter Guard
- Weapon X
- Web Warriors
- X-Force
There are also one unaffiliated character (The Punisher).
Each affiliation as a leader or two (such as either the Steve or Sam version of Captain America, Magneto or Mystique for Brotherhood, etc.) which gives a leadership bonus and ability to the team. There are also tactics cards (which come with various characters) to add to the strategy to make things extra spicy.
Sounds fun? If anyone wants to check out the rules, extra characters and whatever else click
here to check the rules and what Characters are available.
WAIT! You mentioned something about Tabletop Simulator!
I did! Carefreellama was one of the creators of the TTS mod for MCP. It is full up to date but, as anyone who has used TTS knows, it can be a little daunting. Lucking there is a youtube channel called Rich_Mid Gaming that has plenty of tutorials for getting set up with it. It's a great way to get some games in when you can't get to an LGS and there is even an MCP League going on currently.
Posts
It's also, and this is worth pointing out, incredibly quick to play. Most games last about an hour once people know what they're doing. A friend and I once managed to get an entire game done in less than twenty minutes at one point. (Though I wouldn't recommend rushing like that normally.)
It's also a good game for when someone doesn't show up to games night, as it has some really fun three-player scenarios where two players team up against a souped up version of a big baddie like Thanos or Ultron.
If anyone is on the fence about this I highly recommend it. One thing not mentioned in the (excellent) OP is that the starter box isn't like most games. It's not a "two player starter" with barely half a force (if that) for each side. It's a box for a single person to get started, coming with an entire 10 model roster. You could buy it, stick all the models together and turn up and play against anyone else immediatly.
Anyway it's rather good. Quick to play, small model count, very tactical, equally good playing beer n pretzels or competitive, starter set that legitimately gives you everything you need to play out of the box. What's not to love, except maybe the price, but at the low model count, high price per model is pretty heavily countered by not needing many.
I've been playing Criminal Syndicate and Midnight Sons a lot recently, but I've also been dabbling in Avengers since Cap, Tony and Carol all got updated.
I've retired the criminals from play for now after beating a couple of my friends in the 10-0 ball park after 2 or 3 turns as I've tuned them and practiced them way more than my friends have had a chance to hone their lists. So anyway Avengers are real fun now.
I'm also working on an Avengers/X-Force dual affiliation for an event I am going to this weekend.
I really enjoy this game. It's really the first skirmish game I've played but I love tactical games on my PC. I've always looked at TT skirmish games from afar but I love how this game feels.
Switch FC: SW-7588-7027-0113, Steam/PSN: Halfazedninja
Introducing EARTH'S MIGHTIEST X-VENGERS!
Switch FC: SW-7588-7027-0113, Steam/PSN: Halfazedninja
yeah I have a group of friends that literally exists because Warmachine dragged us all to the same game store(s). We were pretty competitive for a while (our bar tabs were pretty competitive as well) but were drifting away before Mk3 launched and that shattered any remaining interest we had. We've dabbled in Malifaux, Infinity, Guild Ball, and probably some others I'm forgetting, but MCP grabbed us like the scent of carrion to a pack of starving hyenas.
I jumped in with Criminal Syndicate as I'm a control player at heart and one of the people who got in before me plays almost nothing but Web-Warriors. I've since dabbled in Cabal (big fan of Ultron, Red Skull is lame) Sam Avengers (super fun and powerful) and Spider-Foes (I started them right before the AYG/DP ban so I need to figure out how to play them without broken Carnage -- luckily I didn't know how to play them with him) and I have the entire Web-Warriors core but have never played them due to the aforementioned. I'm also looking at picking up Thanos and Corvus/Proxima because the BO hybrid lists really appeal to some part of my brain.
This is my first real wargame, unless you count the original Marvel/DC Heroclix back in the day, but I always wanted to get into it. Warhammer looked too daunting and I also never really live close to many LGS's that played anything in-store other that TCG's. Since I moved I live between two pretty great stores and have been getting games in on Tabletop Simulator.
I love MCP because it's easy to get into but really deep when you start thinking of all of the strategy involved.
Switch FC: SW-7588-7027-0113, Steam/PSN: Halfazedninja
Carnage is a bit of a menace. If you leave him on one health ever he will probably be back to full next turn.
Switch FC: SW-7588-7027-0113, Steam/PSN: Halfazedninja
Yeah but since he has 1 energy defense somebody better start blasting!
Switch FC: SW-7588-7027-0113, Steam/PSN: Halfazedninja
I've been having a lot of fun working up Midnight Sons with a friend. They are really brutal if you go for attrition. Having been on the receiving end of Ghost Rider, Blade, Doctor Voodoo and Moon Knight dropping Siege of Darkness on Demons Downtown ... Oooof. Its pretty rare to have Kingpin Dazed or KO'd in a single Activation.
Rare, but it happens lol
Switch FC: SW-7588-7027-0113, Steam/PSN: Halfazedninja
Meanwhile I can't roll over two hits on an 13 dice Hulk Smash...
And both hits get blocked by Black Widow...
I'm not salty about it, I swear...
Switch FC: SW-7588-7027-0113, Steam/PSN: Halfazedninja
I never got around to breaking out the airbrush for terrain over the weekend but I did get quite a bit of painting done!
Not pictured: The wash on the bases, I did that after the pic was taken.
Switch FC: SW-7588-7027-0113, Steam/PSN: Halfazedninja
MCP is a game where I've had to make a much more conscious effort to manage tilt, because the number of games where I've angrily said "well that's the fuckin' game right there" after a bad roll or activation and ended up winning or at least making a close game of it is too damn high. It's a high-variance game but with really solid rubber-band mechanics.
Same here. The dice giveth and the dice crushith your dreams.
Switch FC: SW-7588-7027-0113, Steam/PSN: Halfazedninja
Dis also me. Hulk is in the naughty corner right now because of his inability to crush a 3 threat character 2 turns in a row. I was starting to get pretty tilted and had to remind myself that yeah, dice gonna show that variance. I'm not working on anythign at the moment because I'm moving, but also am currently fully painted! Here is some of the stuff I've done recently:
Mr Knight
Doctor Voodoo
Blade
Omega Red
Hood
And the Sanctum Sanctorum (Cat for Scale)
Rogue and Gambit and Nick Fury + SHIELD Agents and Daredevil + Elektra + Ninjas should be coming out here soon, so i'll probably be grabbing uhhhh .....All of them. Y'know, as a reward for being a grown ass adult and moving.
Yeah, this is the thing. If early game your opponent gets a bunch of crits and dazes something they shouldn't you then have a ton of power next turn to try and bring it back. The injured/healthy thing helps a lot too because having played a lot of skirmish games having one model ganged up on and killed before it can do anything feels really bad.
Switch FC: SW-7588-7027-0113, Steam/PSN: Halfazedninja
On the other hand my preorder for Shadowlands Daredevil, Elektra and Ninjas and Nick Fury and Shield Agents has already shipped, so we might be getting those ahead of most of the world.
Shame I just moved house and all my hobby stuff is still in a box somewhere...
That's crazy that Austrailia is so far behind!
SHIELD and SLDD just came out today in America.
Switch FC: SW-7588-7027-0113, Steam/PSN: Halfazedninja
Slowly getting the full collection.
Bravely Default / 3DS Friend Code = 3394-3571-1609
Opposing team can't contest if they are all dead lol
Switch FC: SW-7588-7027-0113, Steam/PSN: Halfazedninja
Was a little busy this weekend! I did all of them in Speedpaint except for Juggernaut. He was primed red with a white zenithal Drybrush and a lot of time. Took me about 5 hours on him but I love how they all came out!
Switch FC: SW-7588-7027-0113, Steam/PSN: Halfazedninja
Now I just have to decide I am most keen to put on the table first ....
(Its probably Bad Matt + Goons)
Bad Matt and the Goon Squad for sure,
Switch FC: SW-7588-7027-0113, Steam/PSN: Halfazedninja
he's still pretty boring, but boring doesn't mean bad. The thing I wasn't sure about was how good grunts would be and as it turns out they're very good. Daredevil's leadership rewards attack quantity and he brings the quantity. We guessed at how grunts would work and got everything right except that they're deployed at the beginning of the game, which is even better! Daredevil himself has zero power demands, which makes his spender very accessible and that's an on-demand 9-die attack. And the excess power is great to feed into All According to Plan/Medpack.
A lot of people seem to be adjusting their lists to be more killy, but I've pretty much taken my CS/Cabal list (which used Sin as my backup plan for pay-to-flip missions) and replaced Sin with Daredevil. I'm already running pieces like Hood (my crippling Hood addiction will not be sated) and Juggernaut that fit into an attrition plan. So I don't really feel the need to add Killmonger. Hell, even Bullseye shines when you give him a reroll and juicy targets.
Elektra still looks like ass, though.
I hope Elektra finds a good use in some team that we just aren't seeing yet.
I only got around to painting one model this weekend and I can't wait to try him in Brotherhood!
Switch FC: SW-7588-7027-0113, Steam/PSN: Halfazedninja
I'm getting stuck into painting Bad Matt and his goons. I'm happy to just have a 2nd CS leader even if his only really gimmick is murder. I feel like murder oriented CS opens up more life for some less fielded crims like Killmonger and Kraven who don't quite gel with the Wall of Meat Kingpin CS.
I feel like he is just a good attrition piece while at the same time draining their power. He can pull someone close to him or another teammate (like lets say Juggs if it's a high point game) and Juggs can yeet someone further from their own team and kidnap them.
Switch FC: SW-7588-7027-0113, Steam/PSN: Halfazedninja
Anyway Bad Matt and Ninjas done!
Gotta admit I kinda just got bored with the ninjas and stopped painting them ... They really copped the Basecoat-wash-highlight experience after SLDD got like 4 layers of airbrush, 2 shades and them a couple more manual highlights on top of that.
Now I gotta work out a roster for him. As tempting as it is to just slot him into my existing Kingpin roster, I'm tempted to rotate Killmonger and MODOK back in for the additional murder. Also I'm keen to give No Mercy and Cruel Tutelage a go. I'm not convinced that they're super good, they look pretty fun for a more murder oriented CS list.
They look great!
Switch FC: SW-7588-7027-0113, Steam/PSN: Halfazedninja
Tactics wise I'm real enjoying No Mercy and Cruel Tutelage. I dont know if they're "good", but I'm enjoying them a lot.
Most amusing moment in game recently was Bucky King Hitting Magneto. Had had a pretty rubbish turn so far, no damage sticking, no dazes, then Bucky just lays Magneto out in a single punch. 8 damage off 7 dice, vs 0 success in defence. Boom straight to KO cos he'd just flipped.
Dice in this game y'all.
My current love is A-Force. Those ladies are very smashy. And airdropping She-Hulk onto the enemy never gets old.
Switch FC: SW-7588-7027-0113, Steam/PSN: Halfazedninja
Phone Booth was from Corvus Games Terrain.
Switch FC: SW-7588-7027-0113, Steam/PSN: Halfazedninja