Hello again, and welcome to another blog post. This weekend, I ventured out for my first table top tournament in 21 months for a little one-day Marvel Crisis Protocol event run by one of the members of my gaming club.
MCP has really taken off with Welwyn Wargamers in the past few months, with lots of club members getting involved. The boxed set is really good value, and the models are really nice, and the rules are pretty solid too with some nice tactical elements especially pre-game.
So I had signed up for a Guild Ball event earlier in the month that got cancelled, so jumped at the chance to attend this event just down the road from my house.
I'm still a real novice at MCP - I have maybe 7 or 8 games under my belt and it's something that rewards you when you've played a few times and got the hang of your own affiliation (not to mention your opponent's!). I was under no illusions that I might find it tricky, but this event was aimed at newer players with an achievement card system that you had to try and complete during your 3 games.
We got a bunch of cards at the start of the day, with achievements ranging from win a game, to daze 2 characters with one attack. Some were easier than others, but I was hoping to at least get a few done!
On to the details. I took Avengers, I promised myself I would paint the core 10 characters in the box before I bought any more models, and I managed to do that (see earlier post). So I had enough time to add 3 more Avenger affiliation characters too, and my 10 I took to the event were:
Captain America (Steve Rogers)
Captain Marvel
Iron Man
Thor
Black Panther
Vision
Spider-Man
Black Widow
Dr Octopus
Baron Zemo
Most of the decision was based on getting as many Avengers characters in as I could - 7 in this case. I took Spider-Man because I'd painted him in the core box, and that left me two and I like Doc Oc as he's from the Spider-Foes affiliation I want to collect and Baron Zemo seems pretty good from what I've seen.
For my crises cards (the missions you play) I took Deadly Meteors, Mayor Fisk and Infinity Formula as my secure options (stand a character near them to 'control' them for VPs) and Mystic Herbs, Fear Grips the World and Struggle for the Cube as my extraction options (pick them up and hold on to them for VPs).
That might not mean a lot to you if you've never played. Sorry about that, but there are two types of mission and you play one of each in a game. First to 16 VPs wins.
Finally, you had to pick 10 tactics cards which are once a game things. Of those, you pick 5 for each game.
I took:
Avengers Assemble
Patch Up
One-Two Punch
PSD
Disarm
Trip Up
Field Dressing
Escort To Safety
Ricochet Blast
Advanced R&D
Again, it would take too long to explain them all, but there's basically a couple of heal options, a way to get my characters out of danger, a special attack, a couple that hinder my opponent and a move card. They're all useful, if you remember to play them that is...
Game 1: Avengers vs Midnight Sons
I was playing the event organiser in game one on this lovely table. I ran: Captain America, Iron Man, Captain Marvel and Vision. They were up against Mr Sinister, Dr Voodoo, Moon Knight and Blade
I've not faced Midnight Sons, and all I knew was they could move themselves additional distances and had a lot of mystical attacks, which my lot didn't like so much. I took Vision to try and help a bit with that.
The missions were Intrusions Open Across The City and Mystic Herbs.
This game got away from me fast and after it was 1-1 in turn 1, I lost Captain Marvel before she could activate at the top of turn 2 and was back pedalling. I did manage to force Blade to be dazed and drop the mystic herb, and I dropped Mister Sinister not long after that but in the process I eventually lost Cap and Iron Man.
Vision did salvage some pride by getting the herb across the battlefield to score me 4 VPs but at that stage I only had him standing and it was a simple case of him being obliterated by 4 angry Midnight Sons.
6-16 loss
Game 2: Avengers vs Avengers
A civil war no less, but no sign of Iron Man. I was playing the store owner for this one, and it was a really fun game with a lot of stuff getting beaten up on both sides! At least we both knew what the other could do too, so there was a bit more knowledge around to help out.
The missions were Infinity Formula Goes Missing and Struggle for the Cube. I ran: Captain America, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Black Widow and Baron Zemo. I was up against Captain America (also Steve Rogers), Black Widow, Thor, Warmachine and the Punisher.
With a couple of additional speed options in Black Widow and Black Panther I was able to grab 3 of the cube fragments in turn 1 and also hold two of the objectives which gave me an early 5-4 lead.
Then when I could push a couple of his models away from objectives that quickly snowballed and although I had both Marvel and Zemo knocked out, Black Panther eventually scooped up two cube bits and was securing an objective and I managed to run away the winner.
16-9 win
Game 3: Avengers vs Web Warriors
I forgot to take a picture of this one, which is a real shame as the table we played on looked amazing!
I didn't know that much about Web Warriors, apart from that they have a lot of rerolls for attacks and defence. I was hoping my lot could stand up to that a bit and dish it out as well, and we were playing a higher threat option so I could try out a few more models I'd not used before. I ran: Captain America, Thor, Captain Marvel, Black Widow and Doc Oc. I was up against Miles Morales, Amazing Spider-Man, Ghost-Spider, Black Cat and Venom.
This time the missions were Deadly Meteors and Fear Grips the World. This secure mission is slightly different because you have to roll to take the objective. More of that later!
This was another learning experience, as my opponent obviously knew what he was doing more than I did as I struggled to grab objectives. I did have a couple of iffy dice rolls which cost me 6 points as they game progressed, and the Web Warriors ability to reroll defence dice proved a real thorn in my side as I could not do the damage I needed.
Try as I might I think I failed 3 times to grab an uncontested objective after I couldn't manage any 'hit' rolls on 4 dice. That left me floundering as the Web Warriors grabbed hammers and seemed to be able to daze my models at will. I couldn't really ever catch up.
4 - 16 loss
So I finished on 1 win and 2 losses, and a few lessons learned. As mentioned, it was all about achievement cards and when you completed one you wrote your name on it and put it in a box. At the end of the event, they drew out some of the cards to win prizes!
I was lucky enough to win Ghost Rider (cool model) for the achievement of losing a game (!) and also picked up a MCP book for a best sportsmanship nomination. I also bought Hawkeye and Black Widow, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D who are also Avengers characters to add to the affiliation.
Really good fun, and the game has a lot more depth to it than I initially thought, I'd recommend at least trying it out if you're at all interested. I felt Captain Marvel underperformed for me, whilst I really enjoyed using Black Panther. The two affiliations I wanted to collect initially were Wakanda and Spider-Foes, and I have the models for all of Wakanda now so once I've a few more games played with Avengers I might give them a go.
Thanks for reading!
