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. If you haven’t already check out:
- Part 1 – A-Force, Asgard, Black Order and Brotherhood of Mutants
- 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.
- Who They Are: A brief overview of the team.
- How They Play: 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. I won’t go through every card but I will look at some of the key cards in each affiliation.
- 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?
Table of Contents
Midnight Sons
Who They Are
The Midnight Sons are a team of supernatural heroes in Marvel Comics, specializing in battling mystical and occult threats. They confront dark forces, ancient curses, and villains beyond the capabilities of ordinary superheroes. The Midnight Sons are essential in the Marvel Universe for addressing the supernatural and horror elements that lie beyond conventional heroics.
How They Play
The Midnight Sons roster includes some heavy hitting characters like the Immortal Hulk as well as characters that can help score points on the board like Dr. Voodoo and Black Cat. Therefore they have the potential to play a versatile game, switching tactics based on the mission at hand.
Their leadership gives them some much needed mobility which can either be used to move into range for double attacking or to get some distance from your opponent when holding a key extract. Their tactics cards tend to benefit affiliated characters which encourages Midnight Sons teams not to splash too many unaffiliated allies if they can help it.
Leadership
Blade’s leadership is Bump in the Night. It lets allied characters spend one power during their activation to place themselves within range 1 of their current position. This leadership works best on characters with larger bases, which they have several of in-affiliation such as Ghost Rider, Doctor Voodoo and the Immortal Hulk. The ‘bump’ can be used in a variety of useful ways:
- When your characters have been pushed off secures you can ‘bump’ back on without wasting a move action.
- You can pseudo-charge by ‘bumping’ into range to make 2 attacks in an activation.
- Certain characters that start on 2 power like Beta Ray Bill can safely take mid-line objectives which is especially valuable with the rotation of Eyes on the Prize.
- Characters like Gwenom who get benefits from being moved during their activation can move with the leadership without using an action.
Affiliation Size
With nine affiliated characters the Midnight Sons have a small-to-medium sized roster with characters that can fill a number of different roles: The Immortal Hulk for central fights, Wong for support, and Black Cat to help with the objective game. Several of their characters have strong associated team tactics cards such as Heroes for Hire on Iron fist and Deal with the Devil on Ghost Rider. Their affiliated characters have a good mix of attack types and despite a relatively limited roster they have a lot of flexibility. B+
Team Tactics Cards
Banishment is a reactive card where a Midnight Sons character can pay two power after an attack is resolved to give the target and enemy characters within 2 the stun condition provided they rolled at least one success. The stun condition can be debilitating early on as it can reduce the rubber band mechanic of enemies hitting back harder using their newly gained power. The ideal scenario for this is to hit multiple enemy characters bunched up on round 1 or 2. Unfortunately the likelihood of doing this early and hitting more than two characters is fairly low. Additionally some of the key characters you would want to stun like the Hulk or Wolverine are immune to it. C
Bats the Ghost Hound is a reactive card where a Midnight Sons character can pay two power when attacking or defending to turn any dice (including skulls) into any other result. This can be a very strong ability and can help ensure you hit key triggers you are looking for. On Moon Knight this could mean staggering your opponent or on Immortal Hulk or Dr. Voodoo it could mean throwing them on top of the attack you are already doing. As you can use it on a builder attack, the 2 power cost can at least be partially refunded. A
Siege of Darkness is an active card that lets any number of Midnight Sons pay two power to make an attack with a cost of zero. This effect is very strong and has implications on top of straight damage. The Immortal Hulk, Dr. Voodoo and Dr. Strange all have displacement attached to their 0 cost attacks giving you the potential to rearrange the battle state when you play this card. Blade and Iron Fist have ways to move with their 0 cost attacks to set up for future turns. The main thing to watch out for is that it is restricted to your Midnight Sons affiliated characters only but that is a small price to pay for such a powerful effect. A+
Ease of Collecting
Neither of the core sets will help when starting a Midnight Sons collection. Thankfully all their tactics cards come along with their leader in CP 48 Blade and Moon Knight. Dr. Strange and Wong also come packaged together in CP 23. After that you will need to split some boxes for the other members along with two characters in the Immortal Hulk and Ghost Rider who come on their own. B-
For more on the Midnight Sons, take a look at our Affiliation Spotlight: Midnight Sons.
Sentinels
Who They Are
The Sentinels are a series of mutant-hunting robots created by scientist Bolivar Trask. Introduced in “X-Men” #14 in 1965, the Sentinels were designed to track, capture, and, if necessary, eliminate mutants. Over the years, Sentinels have evolved from basic robotic constructs to sophisticated, nearly indestructible machines capable of adapting to various mutant powers. One notable story-line featuring the Sentinels is the “Days of Future Past” arc, where they have taken over the world in a dystopian future, leading to the near-extinction of mutants. The Sentinels have continued to be relentless adversaries of mutantkind, symbolising humanity’s fear of the unknown.
How They Play
The Sentinels are some of the largest most imposing models in the game. They move relatively slowly but can hit hard and you can end up throwing fist-fulls of dice at the opponent. They also have several inbuilt rules that make them very difficult to displace. When a Sentinel is stood somewhere, there aren’t many abilities that can move them. They aren’t as durable as their size might indicate and lose some key abilities once they are injured so you are highly incentivized to keep them healthy.
Leadership
Sentinel Prime’s leadership is Mutant Hunters, when an enemy character is dazed choose a number of characters up to the dazed character’s threat value. Each chosen character gains a power. You cannot gain more than one power from this leadership each turn. Additional power is always useful however out of the power generating leaderships in the game this is unfortunately on the lower end. Only working on dazes and not KOs is a little rough, as realistically it means that over the course of the game you only get 3-7 power at most. Additionally, as you can only gain the power once per turn, you occasionally lose out on the extra power if you manage to daze two characters in one activation. Finally, Sentinels themselves already generate a lot of power with their Power Matrix passive ability so additional power isn’t something they are short on. C-
Affiliation Size
The Sentinels have the smallest affiliation in the game with only three character sheets to choose from. Thankfully they can take multiple Sentinel MK4 models so you can tower over your opponents with your stompy robots. They have one non-robot character in Cassandra Nova who brings her own brand of psychic shenanigans with her, but ultimately with such a small affiliation you will struggle to make certain threat values work and there will be little variety in your squads. A rogue agent like Taskmaster or the Winter Soldier is recommended. D
Team Tactics Cards
Directive One is a Sentinels reactive tactics card that is for use in the power phase by allied Sentinels characters. If at least two power was spent, until the end of the round enemy characters do not benefit from stealth and cannot modify or re-roll their defense dice. Additionally allied characters do not require line of sight to target enemy characters until the end of the round. This card is very strong. Two power is a small price to pay to prevent three separate effects and Sentinels should have no problem generating that power. Affiliations that rely on stealth and defensive re-rolls such as Web Warriors are usually a problem for Sentinels to deal with but this card helps to even the playing field. It is also worth noting that although it needs to be paid for by allied Sentinels, your other allied characters will benefit from the card. With Winter Soldier being a popular Rogue Agent, his range 5 attacks get huge benefit from being able to ignore line of sight and stealth. A-
Efficient Machines can be played by Cassandra Nova during the power phase. For the rest of the round allied Sentinels characters within 3 count Shield results as wilds. Cassandra Nova already struggles with power generation so three power in the power phase is a high price to pay; however, as she has Sap power on her Psionic bolt builder attack, she can quickly gain her investment back. This effect is relatively unique and has interesting synergies with several attacks, superpowers, tactics cards and scenario rolls, though you need to plan in advance to get the most from it. B-
Online and Operational has recently been improved and costs half what it did upon release. Sentinel Prime spends four power (used to be eight) and chooses an injured MK4 sentinel within range 3. The injured Sentinel removes all damage, special conditions and flips its card to its healthy side. Sentinel Prime shouldn’t have too much issue generating four power and the ability to completely heal a MK4 is very powerful especially when their injured side is so lackluster. A-
Ease of Collecting
There are only three boxes needed to get everyone in affiliation but being the big models they are, the boxes themselves aren’t cheap. You’ll also want to flesh them out with more allies and depending on who you choose could drastically change the number of boxes required. B-
For more on the Sentinels, read our Affiliation Spotlight: Sentinels.
S.H.I.E.L.D.
Who They Are
S.H.I.E.L.D., or Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division, is a fictional espionage and law enforcement agency primarily tasked with monitoring and managing superhuman threats and extraterrestrial activities. Founded by Nick Fury, S.H.I.E.L.D. operates under the aegis of the United Nations and is known for its high-tech resources and a vast network of agents. While Marvel: Crisis Protocol is a game of superheroes S.H.I.E.L.D. (primarily) represents the non-powered humans tasked with monitoring these super-powered threats.
How They Play
Depending on the leadership chosen, S.H.I.E.L.D. can play an extract-focused list similar to the Web Warriors or they can play more of a gun-line, shooting people at range. They have a lot of strong and unique tactics cards that can change the flow of the game. Eye in the Sky can save key characters who need to survive, and under S.H.I.E.L.D. it can be used every turn. Nick Fury’s grunts give you the option to pick up an extra extract early on with relative safety forcing your opponent to play catch up. S.H.I.E.L.D. teams are often relying on multiple smaller attacks at range coupled with re-rolls from Invincible Iron Man or Namor. With all these small attacks and Marvel dice being how they are you can often ‘spike’ one or two rolls to take out enemy characters when they are not expecting it.
Leadership
Nick Fury’s leadership Last Line of Defense has two parts. If you are behind on victory points, the first time an opponent KOs or Dazes one of your models you gain a victory point. This lets you go behind on points early and gain them back as the game progresses. As this will trigger on any character including Nick’s grunts, this can potentially lead to multiple free victory points during the course of the game.
The second part of the leadership occurs when you have equal to or more victory points than an opponent and lets your characters spend a power when they are damaged to advance short towards the attacker. This part of the leadership is useful on characters with ‘taunt’ abilities like Luke Cage or on characters who can attack enemies back like Venom with his ‘So many Snacks’. Overall these are both useful leadership abilities to have but the inability to freely choose which part of the leadership to use limits it. B-
Invincible Iron Man’s Let’s Get You an Upgrade leadership allows allied characters to spend one power when attacking, defending or dodging to re-roll one dice. As this re-roll is limited by power rather than once per turn it works best on characters who can generate a lot of power with multiple attacks such as with War Machine or the Original Human Torch with their beam attacks. As it requires power, the value goes up as the game goes on when characters are more likely to have power to spare. Invincible Iron Man himself can help allies re-roll dice with J.A.R.V.I.S. making your attack dice under Iron Man very consistent. A-
Namor or Steve Rogers, Captain America can play the Invaders card to gain The Invaders leadership. This lets allied characters re-roll one defence die and, if they are within range 2 of an ally lets them modify skulls. In an affiliation with multiple re-roll options such as Namor’s charismatic leader passive and Invincible Iron Man’s J.A.R.V.I.S. re-rolls the ability to re-roll skulls can be invaluable. Additionally, as you can stack Namor and Baron Zemo’s re-roll auras, you can make a castle of characters who all get three defensive re-rolls including skulls which can be very difficult for an opponent to punch through. The issue with the leadership is that it takes up one of your tactics card slots, but under certain map layouts it can still be worth it. B
Affiliation Size
With 20 characters in affiliation, the S.H.I.E.L.D. roster is diverse enough that you can make a fully affiliated team without issue. They have characters that can enable multiple archetypes such as a gun-line with Winter Soldier and Iron Man; an extract focus stealing team with The Original Human Torch and Spider-Woman; or a close up brawling team with She-Hulk and Namor. A-
Team Tactics Cards
Eye in the Sky is technically an Unaffiliated card but under S.H.I.E.L.D. it can be recycled every round. Nick Fury can spend three power when an allied character is targeted by an attack. If he does you can advance your character short and if they are then outside of the attack’s range or line of sight the attack ends. The simplest use of this card is to save a character from a key attack, but there are multiple nuances that mean that this card is effective in multiple scenarios:
- Characters don’t have to be advanced away from the attacker so you can use it to move forward to contest a point (assuming you survive the attack)
- Characters with defensive abilities like Black Widow can move into their martial arts range.
- You can use it to move a character into range of a bodyguard like She-Hulk who can then take the attack.
- You can use it with characters with fly/wallcrawler to move out of line of sight behind terrain.
The only drawback of Eye in the Sky is that it can be difficult to ensure Nick Fury has three power at the start of every round. A-
Battlefield Medicine lets a S.H.I.E.L.D. character pay two power during their activation to remove 3 damage and a special condition from themselves or an allied character within range 3. The ability to heal and remove special conditions is very strong and can save a character on the brink of death. When coupled with other defensive abilities available to S.H.I.E.L.D. it can make the team a tough nut to crack. A+
The Shieldmobile lets a S.H.I.E.L.D. character pay three power to immediately advance long with the flight superpower. As it doesn’t need to be done during that character’s activation you can use it to score or contest a point late in a round. Another use is to give some of the ‘turret’ characters a pseudo charge or to get a character that looks like they may be in danger out of trouble. Three power is a relatively high cost but the effect and flexibility it provides is usually worth it. B+
S.H.I.E.L.D. have several other less used tactics cards but their overall tactics card quality is high.
Ease of Collecting
The Earth’s Mightiest core set comes with five S.H.I.E.L.D. characters including Invincible Iron Man as a leader, so that can be a great way to start the collection. Nick Fury in CP55 has most of the S.H.I.E.L.D. tactics cards and between those two you have a strong starting point. The only downside is that there are some characters in single boxes such as She-Hulk and Nick Fury and the Howling Commandos. There is also at time of writing no S.H.I.E.L.D. affiliation box. B+
Spider-Foes
Who They Are
In short – the enemies of Spider-man. All of the Spider-Foes characters hate the web-head for one reason or another. There are some running themes among Spider-man villains – animals, evil scientists and low level criminals with powers. Some characters like Dr Octopus or the Lizard fit are both animals and scientists, while the Green Goblin is only somewhat of a scientist himself… The enemies of Spider-man have often come together in the comics to thwart Spider-man and his allies, especially under the Sinister Six team name, which has changed members over the years.
How They Play
Spider-Foes characters are generally on the chunkier side with most of the affiliation size 3 or higher and many of the affiliated characters are on a medium base with a medium move. This means that your core characters are both mobile and tough to kill. They have several abilities that trigger off an opponent moving near them such as Mysterio’s Tricks and Traps or the Green Goblin’s Trick or Treat. This gives them a unique playstyle revolving around chipping away at an opponent and forcing them to take additional damage when they come near you. They can push this even further using their own displacement abilities to throw/push/advance their enemies into the range of allies who can then trigger their traps to do even more damage. Playing Spider-Foes can sometimes feel like playing a pinball machine ready to prime as soon as you get enough power.
Leadership
The Green Goblin’s leadership is Oscorp Weaponry. This lets allies re-roll an opponent’s defense die once per turn. Due to the timing of this they can re-roll the opponent’s die after the opponent has done their own re-rolls and after you have seen the number of successes or failures likely to be in the roll. This makes it particularly good for pushing one or two points of damage through and has great synergy with attacks that grant additional effects based on damage such as Mysterio’s Hypnosis Gas. It also synergizes with attacks that happen during an enemies’ turn such as Venom’s so many snacks. However the limitation to once per turn means that you can’t rely on this all the time and when you do use it, your opponent might just roll into another success. C+
Dr Octopus, Sinister Scientist’s leadership is the Sinister Six. Once per turn, if an allied character was attacked and not dazed, they may gain one additional power. Additionally, once per turn, if an ally suffers damage from an enemy attack, they can remove either incinerate, shock or slow. Power is always valuable in the game and even a completely scenario-based team will need to attack you from time to time. On top of that the ability to remove some of the most debilitating conditions will always prove useful. The issue with this leadership is that your opponent controls whether or not they attack you and therefore whether or not you gain power which makes it harder to plan for than similar power generating leaderships. B
Team Tactics Cards
Sinister Traps has been a staple Spider-Foes card since its inception. It is played during the first power phase and placed on an objective on the table. The first time a character (friend or foe) ends a movement within range 2 of that objective, roll five dice; on hits, crits or wilds, the character takes damage and their opponent can push them short. This card is especially strong when you don’t have priority, as you can prevent your opponent getting an early extract lead. The trigger happens immediately so if they land near an extract with a trap it has the potential to push them off it before they get a chance to pick it up. This is especially strong if they needed two moves to get there, as they then lose the opportunity to take the objective. The trouble is that some opponents can just trigger the trap with grunts, or they can use the damage as an opportunity to gain more power early on or worst case scenario they can move you onto your own trap which – not being an enemy effect – will make your own characters take damage and not gain power for it. B+
Surprise, Webhead allows any number of spider-foes characters to pay two power to make a 0 cost attack against a chosen enemy. This card has similarities to other cards like Wakanda Forever or Siege of Darkness but is limited in that the attacks all need to be into the same target. Out of activation attacks are extremely helpful and considering many 0 cost attacks also build power, the initial power cost can be mitigated. There are also several Spider-Foes characters whose attacks have additional useful effects like giving out status conditions or displacing the target. A-
Strategic Retreat is a reactive tactics card that is played when a Spider-Foes character holding an objective is targeted by an attack. For four power they can move the objective they were holding to an ally within range 3. Then they can then immediately advance short away from the attacker. This card combines the effect of mission objective and fall back in one. Both powerful cards, and with mission objective no longer in rotation, this effect has now become a unique one. The 4 power cost is relatively steep however under the Sinister Six leadership characters shouldn’t have too much trouble paying it. A-
Affiliation Size
The Spider-Foes recently got a bump in the number of affiliated characters with the release of the Vulture, Shocker, Electro and Sandman box, bringing them up to a healthy 14 characters. They have a lot of crossover with the Criminal Syndicate affiliation, making them a popular choice to dual-affiliate with. B
Ease of Collecting
The Spider-Foes have their own Affiliation pack which gives you four characters to start your collection. The Vulture, Shocker, Electro and Sandman box can then round out most of what you need. The mightiest core set also has Dr. Octopus, Sinister Scientist for their second leadership though that can be a high price if he is the only character you want in the box. Finally, you’ll want Rhino as he is staple in most Spider-Foes rosters. A-
For more on the Spider-Foes read our Affiliation Spotlight: Spider-Foes.
That’s it for now. Keep on the look out for the next article in the series where we will cover all the X-People together!
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