How did I find myself playing Marvel Crisis Protocol?

I’ve played tabletop games for a decent amount of time at this point, and I’ve been a fan of various brands under the Marvel umbrella for much longer.  Having seen a few of my regular gaming buddies pick up Marvel Crisis Protocol as one of their main games, I thought I’d take the plunge. After all, the buy-in for the game isn’t too high, and I’ve always fancied playing a skirmish wargame – the fact that it’s Marvel is a bonus. 

As a child of the 90’s (see https://tinyurl.com/r9va5cka) I was, and am a fan of the X-Men. From the Saturday morning cartoon, to the movies of the early 2000’s, the X-Men have been a pop-culture staple throughout my life. So, it made sense that my first foray into Marvel Crisis Protocol would be with The Uncanny X-Men.

How do I build an army in this game?

So, firstly, Marvel Crisis Protocol is a skirmish table top game – for the Warhammer 40,000 fans out there this means that it’s closer in scale to Kill-Team.

When it comes to making a roster in Marvel Crisis Protocol, you select;

– Up-to ten Characters (usually)
– Eight “Team Tactics” cards
– Six “Crisis Cards – consisting of three “Secure Crisis” and three Extraction Crisis”.

The interesting layer to this, is that unlike other table-top wargames, you’re not entirely bound to choosing Characters from the faction that you’ve chosen. Fancy taking Baron Zemo on a trip alongside Bucky Barnes and Sam Wilson on a Falcon and the Winter Solider-style mission? Absolutely possible. What about Red Skull teaming up with Thor and Loki? Have at it! Marvel Crisis Protocol’s only restriction comes when you start the game, and choose an affiliation. 

As for the “Team Tactics” cards, you can choose eight, but you’ll only be using five when you play your game. 

“Crisis Cards” are the missions of this game. Each player gets to choose three Secure Crisis cards, and three Extraction Crisis cards. Both players have a hand in building the mission that you play.

So How Do The Uncanny X-Men Play

In the game, the X-Men really do (for the most part) feel like the X-Men. They’re highly team focused, and they’re fantastic at playing towards completing the mission. Most of their game relies upon securing various objectives, and running away with them.  

Can I use Logan, Scott and Jean as The Love Triangle squad?

Yes, you can. But you might need to use The Beast as a third (fourth?) wheel.

So far, in Marvel Crisis Protocol, we’ve got an okay range for the Children of The Atom. We have Storm and Cyclops to fill our complement of “Leader” options. We have Beast, Cable, Domino, Jean Grey and Wolverine as the members to make up the rest of our core X-Men Roster. We can look forward to Colossus joining our squad at some point, but as of writing, there is no release date for The Proletarian. Of course, as mentioned above, you’re not entirely restricted to Uncanny X-Men.