Happy New Year! We’re back with an all new Three Box Challenge article, this time: Inhumans!
What is the Three Box Challenge, you may ask? It’s simple – what affiliated rosters can you put together with just the core set plus three boxes of your choice. I know a lot of us obsessively purchase every single box, but I think a huge part of why this game is so great is you can pick up a core box, and a couple boxes of what appeals to you and you could take that to a game night or tournament and do OK.
If you’re coming to this article without having any MCP experience whatsoever and are doubting the value of the Core box, I’m here to tell you that it is worth it. For $100 you get:
All the dice you should need
All the measuring tools you will need
~Half a tournament board’s worth of terrain
10 characters (a standard game requires a roster of 10)
20 tactics (you’ll need 10)
3 secure crises and 3 extract crises (you’ll need 3 of each to play)
Compared to other big wargames like 40k/AOS and WMH, its really impressive what you can get for ~$200. So, this article series is somewhat akin to a budget/beginner’s MCP guide, focusing on a different faction each time.
A quick bit of bookkeeping before we proceed, but if you’re reading this before January 9th, please hop on over to here to vote for your favorite Three Box roster for the holiday giveaway where one lucky finalist will get themselves their three boxes OR a core set!
And with all that out of the way, lets get back to talking about Inhumans!
Everyone’s favorite off-brand X-Men, the Inhumans are a bunch of Human-Kree hybrids who live on the moon. Through a deadly process known as Terrigenesis, Inhuman has their own unique wacky powers and even wackier names (though I guess they’re born with their names, its not like Terrigenesis MAKES their names stupid). First and foremost is the Inhumans king and leader, Blackagar Boltagon aka Black Bolt:
I’m not going to lie to you, Black Bolt is… not great. Well, his leadership is INCREDIBLE, especially after Advanced R&D got significantly nerfed for round 1 tricks. But as amazing as the leadership can be you just kinda get a mediocre fighter. Sure, if he can post up somewhere and Force Power Energy Bolt attacks repeatedly he’ll be a murder turret. But he has terrible power economy, worse action economy and in general a real let down for 5 threat. He will make everything feel awkward about your teams, you’ll have to come to terms with that. But if you are set on the path of playing Inhumans there are a ton of REALLY COOL pieces baked into the affiliation. Like Blackagar Boltagon’s wife and main competition for the contest of “stupidest name in Marvel” – Medusalith Amaquelin-Boltagon aka Medusa:
This 4 threat ball of awesome was so OP at one point that she has the distinction of being one of the only models in the game ever nerfed. And, to be quite honest she’s still quite good. Gone is the era of push buffering and reliably getting a flurry on every attack, but she is still a wonderful control/support piece. Royal Decree in particular will be a BIG help for fixing Black Bolt’s position if he gets pushed/thrown around.
You also get access to an incredibly powerful restricted card in the form of Bitter Rivals:
Which will help you push through on a flank on either Riots or Infinity out of the core box. You also get a 20 threat, incredibly fun crisis to change things up:
Which you’ll notice Inhumans are uniquely good at thanks to the fact that virtually all of them are immune to poison.
To round things out with a second box there is simply no other option than Medusa’s sister alongside the family dog:
Crystal is a mobile impression of Aang from Avatar, the Last Airbender with 4 elemental attacks to choose from. With the right amount of support she can be positively deadly, while staying scenario relevant. Lockjaw the giant teleporting dog is a pure support piece that is also a MASSIVE power battery to help fuel your teammates with the leadership. And with these core 4 characters you boast 15 threat, meaning with the core box you’ll be playing Black Widow A LOT. If you don’t want to play Black Widow, consider prioritizing boxes with 2 threat options. But our first box will give you not only another inhuman, but a 5 threat to let you play 4 wide at 17:
Quicksilver thanks to a marriage to Crystal is Inhuman affiliated and brings a lot of cool tricks. In addition to his Extract stealing card, Can I Borrow That?
he also can be funneled 2 power with the leadership and advance+move onto an enemy Spider or Cube before retreating, and can do so from the middle to either side to make counterplay even harder. Wanda on the other hand is an absolute beater who can present one heck of a frontline between her, Medusa and Black Bolt if you want to brawl. She also comes with No More Mutants
to stumble your opponent at the most crucial moment. Consider the following roster:
[Characters]
- Baron Zemo: 3
- Black Bolt: 5
- Black Widow: 2
- Captain Marvel: 4
- Crystal: 3
- Lockjaw: 3
- Medusa: 4
- Quicksilver: 3
- Scarlet Witch: 5
- Spider-Man (Peter Parker): 4
[Team Tactics]
- Bitter Rivals
- Brace For Impact
- Can I Borrow That?
- Disarm
- Elemental Infusion
- Last Minute Save
- Mission Objective
- No More Mutants
- Sacrifice
- Terrigenesis
[Extract Crises]
- Research Station Attacked! [E]: 16
- Spider-Infected Invade Manhattan [F]: 17
- Struggle for the Cube Continues [F]: 17
[Secure Crises]
- Infinity Formula Goes Missing [B]: 17
- Riots Spark Over Extremis 3.0 [D]: 17
- Terrigen Clouds Sweep Over City [C]: 20
Next up we have another Inhuman, this time an actual affiliated 5 threat option:
Ronan with the Power Gem is a 5 threat battery. He will fuel all your leadership power transfers and ideally be a tanky presence on the board while doing it. It doesn’t quite play out at the Three Box level due to certain tactics cards required but this sets you up for a bunch of cool openers with him and Lockjaw if you grab Eye on the Prize from the Captain America / War Machine box. But for Three Box your starting point should look something like this:
[Characters]
- Baron Zemo: 3
- Black Bolt: 5
- Black Widow: 2
- Captain Marvel: 4
- Crystal: 3
- Drax the Destroyer: 3
- Lockjaw: 3
- Medusa: 4
- Ronan the Accuser: 5
– Infinity Gem: Power - Spider-Man (Peter Parker): 4
[Team Tactics]
- Bitter Rivals
- Brace For Impact
- Disarm
- Elemental Infusion
- Follow Me
- Inspiring Monologue
- Last Minute Save
- No Matter the Cost
- Sacrifice
- Terrigenesis
[Extract Crises]
- Skrulls Infiltrate World Leadership [C]: 17
- Spider-Infected Invade Manhattan [F]: 17
- Struggle for the Cube Continues [F]: 17
[Secure Crises]
- Infinity Formula Goes Missing [B]: 17
- Riots Spark Over Extremis 3.0 [D]: 17
- Terrigen Clouds Sweep Over City [C]: 20
And finally, a dual affiliation crossover option:
There are a LOT of great A-Force options in both the core box and Inhumans boxes – Medusa, Crystal, Captain Marvel, Black Widow are all affiliated and solidly spread along the threat ladder. She-Hulk is also an intriguing choice on Terrigen thanks to her own poison immunity. Imagine rolling up to the table with Black Bolt, Medusa, Crystal, Black Widow, and She-Hulk. Alternatively perhaps you want a more intimidating presence on the midline round 1, switch over to A-Force and play She-Hulk, Medusa, Crystal, Captain Marvel, and Baron Zemo with plans to give your opponent a Special Delivery
to make a big splash on that Terrigen Cloud or Origin Bomb. If that sounds appealing to you, take a gander:
[Characters]
- Baron Zemo: 3
- Black Bolt: 5
- Black Widow: 2
- Captain Marvel: 4
- Crystal: 3
- Lockjaw: 3
- Medusa: 4
- She-Hulk: 6
- Spider-Man (Peter Parker): 4
- Ultron: 4
[Team Tactics]
- Bitter Rivals
- Brace For Impact
- Disarm
- Elemental Infusion
- Last Minute Save
- Sacrifice
- Special Delivery
- Stalwart Determination
- Terrigenesis
[Extract Crises]
- Skrulls Infiltrate World Leadership [C]: 17
- Spider-Infected Invade Manhattan [F]: 17
- Struggle for the Cube Continues [F]: 17
[Secure Crises]
- Infinity Formula Goes Missing [B]: 17
- Riots Spark Over Extremis 3.0 [D]: 17
- Terrigen Clouds Sweep Over City [C]: 20
And FINALLY, if you’re not supporting your FLGS for MCP, I would like to bring your attention to our sponsors for your wargaming needs in both NA and the UK:
NA:
https://www.discountgamesinc.com/
UK:
That will wrap us up for this Three Box Challenge article here on acrossthebifrost.com! Also make sure to check out the Roster Doctor on Facebook, Youtube and Twitch!
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