With over 20 affiliations and counting, getting started in Marvel Crisis Protocol can be a daunting task. Even for a seasoned player, with so much available it can be tough to decide where to go next.
This article will aim to break down some approaches on how you can choose an affiliation as well as a brief overview of their strengths and weaknesses. It’s worth noting that the game is relatively well balanced so your choice of affiliation will mostly be personal preference as any affiliation can be made to work. (Yes even Sentinels!)
The other parts in this series can be found here:
- Part 2 – Cabal, Convocation, Criminal Syndicate and Dark Dimension
- Part 3 – The Defenders, Guardians of the Galaxy, Hellfire Club, Hydra and Inhumans
Before we begin, let’s outline how we are going to summarize each affiliation.
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- Who they are: A brief overview of the team.
- How they play on the table: What you can expect from your models once they hit the board and what their general game plan tends to be.
- Leadership: Some affiliations have multiple leaders and this can lead to multiple play styles depending on who you choose as your leader. In these cases we will give a rough score for each leader.
- Affiliation size: How many affiliated characters are there. Do you have a wide number of options available to build up your squad or will you be limited by your core characters?
- Team tactics cards: Each affiliation has a number of unique tactics cards that can in many cases define their play style. The strength and number of these cards varies between affiliation but sometimes all you need is one very strong card to be good on the tabletop.
- Ease of collecting: Do you need to buy multiple smaller boxes to buy their core characters or can you get what you need from just the starter set plus one or two boxes?
The final four above criteria will be ranked from A-F to give you a better idea of how each affiliation performs on the table. It is worth noting that no matter the affiliation you choose, the ‘Earth’s Mightiest core set‘ is probably the best starting point as it will get you all the dice, movement tools and terrain you might need to start your collection.
Table of Contents
A-Force
Who They Are
During the Secret Wars the Battleworld was a patchwork world created from the remnants of different destroyed realities. On this Battleworld existed the island of Arcadia, Ruled over by the baroness She-hulk and under the protection of an all female superhero team. The A-Force!
How They Play on the Table
There are a few different builds that have been successful with A-Force. Either you can lean into the raw power of She-Hulk with and throw her up the table hoping to smash your opponent faster than they can smash you back. Or you can play a much more careful game where your multiple bodyguard abilities on She-Hulk and Okoye prevent your opponent from putting damage where they want to.
Leadership
There is only one leader for A-Force the Defenders of Arcadia leadership on She-Hulk. The leadership itself is quite strong letting you generate additional power for your other characters when a character is damaged. The downside being that your only leader is 6 threat and relatively fragile for her threat cost. B+
Affiliation Size
With over 20 affiliated characters A-Force are one of the largest and most varied affiliations. With so many available pieces you can change your playstyle to suit your needs. With several fast pieces who can score you points quickly like Angela, Black Cat and Black Widow. As well as characters who can help in a fight such as Captain Marvel and Valkarie the A-Force have a lot of character options to choose from. A
Team Tactics Cards
Only 3 tactics cards but they are all playable and all come in the She-Hulk box which you should be buying anyway. Special Delivery is a favorite that lets one of your flying characters pick up She Hulk and throw her right into the enemy giving her a free punch while she is at it. B-
Ease of Collecting
The Earth’s Mightiest core set gives you 2 strong affiliated models to start you off with Captain Marvel, Cosmic Avenger and The Black Widow. You only need to get the She-Hulk box CP39 to get all their tactics cards so your core starts off quickly. After that the issue is that with so many characters some of them are inevitably split across boxes that include characters you don’t need. CP8 Okoye and Shuri are both solid A-Force additions and come in one box so that would be my next buy. C+
For a more in depth overview take a look at our A-Force spotlight.
Asgard
Who They Are
Thor and friends; the pantheon of Gods from Norse mythology. In the cinematic universe they are pseudo-aliens whose magic is just science we don’t understand yet. In the comics the magic is straightforward but their story is much more convoluted with Asgard having been destroyed and rebuilt multiple times.
How They Play on the Table
As they are all ‘gods,’ Asgard is a fairly Elite faction with no cheap in-affiliation 2 threats and a 5 threat leader. You will more often than not be using a smaller number of characters which in turn means each of them needs to put in more work to prove themselves. All Asgard characters start with an additional power which means that they can play missions that require additional power like ‘Mutant Madman Turns City Center Into Lethal Amusement Park‘ better than most other affiliations in the game. Additionally, as their leadership allows them to remove special conditions they can play missions that usually give everyone negative conditions like ‘Demons Downtown! Has Our Comeuppance Come Due?‘. They also have access to a number of character throws which helps them control the battlefield despite often being outnumbered.
Leadership
Asgard currently only have one leader – Thor, Prince of Asgard. The ‘Prince of Asgard‘ leadership allows them to pay power at the start of their activation to heal or remove special conditions. This can be quite strong especially when you can remove debilitating conditions like stagger. However the limitation of it having to be done at the start of activation and the fact each character can only be affected once per round hurts this leadership quite a lot. C+
Affiliation Size
There are only nine affiliated Asgard characters so the affiliation is on the smaller side. The characters that they do have access to are quite strong with Thor himself having recently been improved and Beta Ray Bill – arguably the best 4 threat in the game also in affiliation. There have been some additional reinforcements announced for later in 2024 though which may also give some added life to the affiliation. C-
Team Tactics Cards
Only three cards but they are all quite impactful. Odin’s Blessing can reduce all damage taken by a character to one which gives one time protection from a dice spike. Rainbow Bridge lets your characters get some out of activation movement and Doomed Prophecy has a big risk reward removing all your physical defense in exchange for a one-turn jump in offense. A-
Ease of Collecting
The core set does not include any Asgard characters; however, the Asgard affiliation pack includes four solid characters to start you off. From there the Asgard characters tend to be in boxes with other Asgard characters, but you will definitely want to also pick up CP130 which includes Beta Ray Bill. B+
For a more in depth overview take a look at our Asgard Spotlight.
Avengers
Who They Are
“There was an idea, Stark knows this, called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of of remarkable people to see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could.” This idea led to the Earth’s mightiest heroes, the Avengers!
How They Play on the Table
The Avengers have such a large roster and such a variety of leaders that you can build an Avengers team to suit most play styles. Generally the leader you choose will dictate how you build your team. There are enough Avengers in the game that you have two Avengers teams against one another without any character overlap. The airport fight scene in Captain America Civil War is a real possibility in modern MCP.
Leadership
Captain America (Steve Rogers) – This leadership allows you to reduce the cost of the first superpower you use by 1. This can lead to some extremely strong early plays allowing your characters to do things like charge up the field or throw opponents one turn sooner than they usually could. A
Captain America (Sam Wilson) – Sam’s leadership lets you remove a damage, a special condition and move short when one of your characters is dazed or KO’d. This can be a huge advantage in a battle of attrition and can let your characters position optimally before activating. The difficulty with the leadership is balancing your lower threat characters who are more likely to daze with the higher threat characters like Hulk who benefit from the healing and movement. B+
Hulkbuster – Tony’s leadership is very situational allowing you to reduce the damage taken from collisions. Facing into a throw heavy team like Magneto’s Brotherhood this could be a strong defensive tool but ultimately most teams don’t have enough throws to make this worth it. D
Captain America, First Avenger – The Earth’s Mightiest Heroes leadership allows you to manipulate your dice to make your characters more likely to trigger any additional effects like throws on Dr Voodoo or stagger on Luke Cage. This does cost power so gets stronger as the game goes on and power becomes more available. A-
Affiliation Size
The Avengers are the largest affiliation in the game by a wide margin. You could easily start collecting a different affiliation and stumble into an Avengers roster accidentally! With such a large roster you can build a team that can suit multiple roles charging down the middle with a Hulk or running around the battlefield scoring points with a Quicksilver. A+
Team Tactics Cards
Four cards and a bit of a mixed bag. Avengers Assemble is stapled to every Avengers list giving free movement out of activation which is always useful. The other cards are more situational with Second Wind removing stun and a damage and Reserve Members which lets you give a non-Avengers ally a small bump in offense/defense during the game. B
Ease of Collecting
Both core sets are built so that you can create a solid Avengers/Cabal foundation. If you don’t want to purchase the original core set you can instead get the Avengers Affiliation box CP141 which has the same Avengers characters from that box. After your chosen core box there are so many Avengers it depends on who you want to go for next. Some good options would be CP38 which has Sam Wilson and Warmachine for an extra leadership and some punch and of course CP4 for some HULK smashy time! A+
For a more in depth overview take a look at our Avengers Spotlight.
Black Order
Who They Are
The Black Order are a group of aliens recruited by Thanos to be his generals in his war against life. They make their appearance in the MCU as a major part of the Infinity War storyline collecting the Infinity stones for their adoptive father Thanos.
How They Play on the Table
In one word, aggressively. If you want to play an affiliation that is all about taking out your enemy as quickly as possible then this is the affiliation for you. Thanos’s leadership even gives you victory points for each model you KO for extra incentive to damage your opponents. The other consideration for Black Order is that they are the affiliation that makes the most use of the Infinity stones. When building out your squad you’ll need to decide whether or not it is worth upgrading your characters to give them additional superpowers and abilities. Most people put two Infinity stones on Thanos meaning you’ll need to work around having an 8 threat leader. This leads to a small number of characters so you will often have priority but each of your activations needs to be impactful as you race to kill your opponent before they out score you.
Leadership
Thanos (Healthy) – The Death’s Agenda leadership gives you a victory point for each enemy character you KO. This leadership is very strong but limited in that it only works for KOs not dazes and is restricted to Thanos’s healthy side. You’ll need to make sure your opponent does not get an early daze on Thanos to make the most of the effect but additional VPs are worth it. Grunt characters provide some easy victory points as they KO easily. B+
Thanos (Injured) – Once injured Thanos’s leadership becomes much less useful. It allows you to injure your own characters to give yourself rerolls. While situationally this can be helpful you are guaranteeing damage on your own characters to potentially roll a failed dice into damage on an opponent. D
Corvus Glaive – The First of the Black Order leadership is attached to a card and gives all other Black order characters power when they daze or KO an opponent. The points of note on this card are that you cannot take it if Thanos is in your squad, it only affects Black Order characters and taking the card is one of your allotted five. C+
Affiliation Size
A relatively small affiliation with only eight affiliated characters however this is mitigated by the fact many of your pieces are at such a high threat that you are unlikely to field too many at once. It also means often dual affiliate with Black Order taking just the key pieces in case their team needs a secondary fighty game plan. C
Team Tactics Cards
With six affiliated tactics cards they have more than most affiliations to choose from. Highlights include Mothership which allows your characters to teleport across the board to one another and Blood to Spare which gives you a free attack when one of your characters is dazed. Vengeance! B
Ease of Collecting
With a relatively small affiliation and an affiliation pack available the Black Order are a relatively easy affiliation to start. Begin with the Black Order affiliation pack CP159 and the Thanos box CP25 and you will mostly be set. A
For a more in depth overview take a look at our Black Order Spotlight.
Brotherhood of Mutants
Who They Are
The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, who have now been rebranded and dropped their ‘Evil’ moniker, are a group of mutants who follow Magneto’s philosophy of mutant superiority rather than Xavier’s of peace between humans and mutants. They have a long history of fighting against the X-men to further the mutant agenda though they are just as likely to join the X-men to fight off greater threats.
How They Play on the Table
Brotherhood have enough affiliated models that they can build squads to fulfill different playstyles depending on who they take. Under Magneto they can throw the world at their opponent while gaining cover behind Magneto’s magnetic shields. Under Mystique they tend to play a more objective focused game plan trying to score out as quickly as possible.
Leadership
Magneto – The From the Ruins leadership lets Magneto hand power out to his allies whenever terrain is destroyed. This leadership can be a little dependent on the terrain on the board and having access to affiliated pieces who can throw terrain but brotherhood has this in abundance. Extra power is always a good thing and you can quickly snowball because the power leads to more terrain throws leading to more power etc. A
Mystique – The Freedom Force leadership isn’t as flashy as From the Ruins but it can be just as strong. It refunds the first power spent to interact with an extract and additionally allows you to place a token down on secure objectives to tag them as your own without needing a character to stand there. The refund on power is most helpful on the early turns when power is scarce and can let you start turn two on 2 power or to pick up an extract and flip a pay to flip early. The token can make all the difference in the late game when usually you have to choose between standing on a point to score or deal with the opponent. B-
Affiliation Size
With fifteen affiliated characters there are enough members of the Brotherhood to make a full roster of ten affiliated characters with change. The characters that they do have available also have varied abilities and playstyles with characters like Sabertooth being full offense vs Toad who is the king of 2 threat points scorers. B+
Team Tactics Cards
Asteroid M is a solid card which lets you teleport your characters to one another, you can either use this to fly from one end of the board to another, or to let your relatively slow but hard hitting Magneto get to where he needs to be without wasting move actions. Magnetic Refraction gives your characters cover as long as they are near Magneto and under Brotherhood recycles every round. The other two cards available are a little more situational with Difficult to Please letting you double activate Magneto but requiring a lot of setup from his children and The Books of Truth giving you a once per game re-roll of all attack or defense dice. B+
Ease of Collecting
The core set does not include any Brotherhood characters which is a slight downside but outside of that the affiliation is relatively easy to collect. The Brotherhood Affiliation box CP140 gives an easy place to start a brotherhood collection giving you both leaders, the ever useful Toad and the slightly less useful Sabretooth. After this you have a few options Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are classic Brotherhood characters available in CP63. Blob and Pyro CP82 are both very useful characters especially with the number of conditions Pyro can throw out. Alternatively though they are usually considered X-Men Rogue and Gambit have dark pasts as part of the Brotherhood and are also both affiliated and available in CP60. B
For a more in depth overview take a look at our Brotherhood Spotlight.
That’s it for part one. Stay tuned for part two of this series, where we will give a brief overview of the next set of affiliations.
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