Marvel: Crisis Protocol

What is Marvel: Crisis Protocol

Marvel: Crisis Protocol is a “tactical miniatures game for two players” from Atomic Mass Games. You put together a team of heroes and villains from across the Marvel Universe and fight another team over a set of mission objectives.

It was the studio’s first game, published in 2019. The current Core Set is the Earth’s Mightiest Core Set, and its rulebook credits Will Shick as lead game designer and Sarah Rowan as lead game developer.

There’s no rule about keeping heroes and villains apart. The rulebook points out that the Marvel Universe has seen “an almost infinite number of team-ups,” so any characters in your collection can go on the same roster.

How it plays

Roster, then squad. You bring a roster of 10 characters, 10 Team Tactic Cards, and 10 Crisis Cards (5 Secure and 5 Extraction). The mission is one Secure Crisis and one Extraction Crisis. The Crisis Cards set a maximum Threat, and you pick a squad from your roster that fits under it. So you never play all ten characters at once.
Affiliations. If more than half your squad shares an affiliation, like the Avengers or the Guardians of the Galaxy, you can use that affiliation. That unlocks a character’s Leadership ability and the Team Tactic Cards tied to that team.
Power fuels everything. Every character gains 1 Power at the start of each round. The most common way to get more is taking damage from the enemy. You spend Power on attacks and superpowers.
Alternating activations. Players take turns activating one character at a time. Each character gets two actions: move, attack, shake off a condition, or use a superpower or Team Tactic Card that needs an action.
Custom dice. Attacks and defence use eight-sided dice with Critical, Wild, Hit, Block, and Blank faces. Criticals add more dice to the roll, and Wilds can trigger special abilities.
The city is a weapon. The table is 36 x 36 inches with at least 12 terrain features, and the rules expect them to be destructible. Characters can throw terrain at each other and throw each other into things, and collisions deal damage.
Injured side. Every character’s stat card has a Healthy side and an Injured side. Take enough damage and the card flips.
Race to 16. The first player to 16 Victory Points wins. If nobody gets there, whoever has the most at the end of Round 6 wins.

How to start

Get the Core Set. The Earth’s Mightiest Core Set is $149.99. It has 13 miniatures of heroes and villains, 26 terrain miniatures, 6 Crisis Cards, and 20 Team Tactic Cards, plus the rulebook, tokens, dice, and range and movement tools.
Or start with one team. AMG’s Starter Sets are aimed at a single player. The Spider Foes Starter Set is $94.99 and has ten of Spider-Man’s villains, which is a full roster, along with Crisis Cards, tokens, measuring tools, and dice.
Download the rules. The rules page has the full core rulebook as a free PDF, along with the affiliation list, the FAQ and errata, format rules, and updated character cards.
Check the assembly guides. The miniatures come unassembled and unpainted. AMG posts assembly diagrams for every kit, and the rulebook tells you to look at them before you start clipping.