We’re back with another Marvel Crisis Protocol tournament report. Akos, Joe and I headed across to Stirling for an event at Common Ground Games; as always our host and TO was the excellent Allan whose tireless work to maintain the scene here in Scotland allows all of this fun to happen. After a few oddities we’re back to the normal format for this tournament which I like; a change is nice but I have the most fun in standard and I think that any lessons drawn can be more widely relevant too.
My roster is the exact same Inhumans rosters that I’ve been playing this year. Partly I haven’t tinkered with it because I really like the way it plays, and partly I have been playing other affiliations from week to week and haven’t really had the opportunity to try out other options. That said, I certainly don’t think that this is the One True Roster for the Inhumans and there is a lot of room for personal preferences to shine.
Characters (10)
Black Bolt (5)
Crystal (3)
Medusa (4)
Ms. Marvel (3)
Quicksilver (3)
Crimson Dynamo (4)
Toad (2)
Captain America (Sam Wilson) (3)
Rhino (4)
Beast (3)
Team Tactics (10)
Brace for Impact (R)
Sacrifice (R)
Can I Borrow That?
Eyes on the Prize
Fall Back
Inhuman Royal Family
Mission Objective
Terrigenesis
Smash
This is a Robbery
Secure Crisis
Gamma Wave Sweeps Across Midwest (E, 15)
Demons Downtown! Has Our Comeuppance Come Due? (E, 19)
Intrusions Open Across City As Seals Collapse (C, 19)
Extract Crisis
Research Station Attacked! (E, 15)
Alien Ship Crashes In Downtown! (C, 17)
Deadly Legacy Virus Cured? (C, 19)
Game 1: Steve playing Hellfire Club – Fear Grips World As ‘Worthy’ Terrorise Cities and Gamma Wave Sweeps Across Midwest
The first game will be a very hard match-up against Steve, a skilled player using probably the top affiliation in the game. I win priority and choose my Secures in the hope that we can slow down the scoring by enough that I can do sufficient damage and eventually turn the tide my way. Steve chooses the higher threat – I probably would have slightly preferred the lower option – and I have a choice between Medusa and Toad or two of my three threats. I eventually pick Medusa because she’s really fun and has very nice displacement, figuring that Toad can perhaps just collect a Hammer and then go to hide somewhere innocuous.
Extraction: Fear Grips World As ‘Worthy’ Terrorise Cities
Secure: Gamma Wave Sweeps Across Midwest
Threat: 18
My team: Black Bolt, Medusa, Ms Marvel, Crimson Dynamo, Toad
My cards: Brace For Impact, Inhuman Royal Family, Mission Objective, Sacrifice, Smash
Steve’s team: Emma Frost, Baron Zemo, Beta Ray Bill, Black Cat, Okoye, Toad
Steve’s cards: Fall Back, I Am A Baron After All, Mission Objective, My Hellfire Club, Sacrifice
Round 1: I think that this will be a pretty standard opening in that I suspect that we will both collect our own Hammers and one on the side, then contest the home points. With last activation I think that I can’t do anything to stop Bill from throwing me off the centre so I’ll mainly be thinking about attrition over the middle here. We start off predictably with both Toads taking the side hammers. I send Ms Marvel into the middle just to keep Steve honest; Emma collects her Hammer and attacks her but doesn’t get the move. Medusa uses Royal Decree to move Crimson Dynamo and collects the last Hammer. Zemo uses his tactics card and charges into Ms Marvel and Black Bolt starts putting some damage into him. Bill comes into the middle but apparently doesn’t see the need to bother throwing me. Finally Crimson Dynamo teleports into the middle and puts some nice damage around the place while also drawing Sacrifice to keep Zemo up. Somewhere around the end here Steve triggers the leadership to benefit everyone. The score is 4 – 3 to Steve.
Round 2: Black Cat is now powered up so I expect to lose another Hammer before long, so my priority is remove some of Steve’s options before he runs away with this. I need to activate Ms Marvel first or she’ll almost certainly get dazed and she does at least manage to daze Baron Zemo. Emma flails ineffectually at Crimson Dynamo (and Steve had awful rolls here as I’m sure that he only really wanted the Wild) and the big Russian returns the favour by giving peace a chance. Black Cat saunters over and relieves Toad of his Hammer; he takes a random shot at her before moving to my back point where perhaps he can at least score something for me. Medusa tickles Bill (she might have done better if I’d remembered about the Hammer) who eventually pays for Fall Back before walking to my back point and hurling Toad into space. I’m left in a bit of a pickle because I do rather need to push forward but also can’t allow Bill to just sit and score two points each turn; I decide to commit Black Bolt who gets the daze. It doesn’t really help as Okoye double moves onto that point instead, taking the score to 10 – 5.
Round 3: The plan is to clear out the dazed characters and stop Steve from having so many options and then turn my attention to the far point. I already think that this might already be too late to salvage but I’m not ready to go down without a fight. Medusa remembers that she has a Hammer this turn and KOs both Zemo and Bill while Emma finally dazes Ms Marvel, who has admittedly lived a rather charmed life up to this point. Dynamo leaves Emma on a single wound after his first attack but sadly rolls zero successes on the second. After this everyone more or less just shuffles onto various points to score them until it’s Black Bolt’s turn; he does at least manage to daze Emma but she plays Mission Objective to get the Hammer to Toad. The score goes to 14 – 8 to Steve.
Round 4: I can see that the game is basically up so I decide to have a bit of fun with some spite kills. Crimson Dynamo lines up a nice beam and dazes Okoye and puts out some rather nice damage elsewhere. Toad uses Slippery to get some distance after the first shot and then double moves and hops to the corner – that’s actually game as I forgot that he had two Hammers. Black Bolt fails to do anything to Black Cat so at least that makes my error with Toad irrelevant as she also high-tails it to the other corner. Ms Marvel plays Smash but can’t pick up Emma, then Steve passes (I can’t actually remember why but I guess it didn’t matter anyway by that point) so Medusa finishes her off. We end up at 17 – 13.
That was a fun and very instructive game. Steve had a strong plan and executed it well; I was really impressed with his plays especially as he didn’t really need to roll dice for anything to work. Looking back, if I’d remembered about Medusa’s Hammer in round 2 it might have made a difference dealing with Beta Ray Bill and let me both keep Toad on my back point and also send Black Bolt forward to get stuck into Emma and Okoye. I think that there might have been an out in round 4 by activating Black Bolt instead of Dynamo, Master Punch-ing Okoye either out of Bodyguard range or into Toad depending on how the attack went and then dealing with Toad to collect his Hammers but it would have come down to dice and I think still left me likely to lose. I also can’t recall if Black Cat had enough power at that point to just steal one of them back so it might not have actually affected the result even if I’d got it to work and had the dice go my way. I definitely need to have a think about how I deal with Hellfire Club and similar diceless teams; I’d be happy to take any advice.
Game 2: Grant playing Avengers – Research Station Attacked! and Mayor Fisk Vows To Find Missing Witnesses
After a beating in game 1 I thought that I might get a bit of an easier game here in the fun bracket but instead I get Grant who is probably the top Avengers player in Scotland so I’ll have to be on my game here to avoid a 0 – 2 start. He wins priority and picks his Secures, though I think that we were both basically here to fight so it wouldn’t have mattered too much either way. To add to the flightiness we draw Mayor Fisk and Research Station, thereby ensuring that the entire game will be fought in a tiny box in the centre of the map. I go for the slightly higher threat as it allows me to take Medusa who is a big upgrade over the three threat options and also stops First Avenger’s leadership cold. My final choice of three threat could really be any of Beast, Crystal or Ms Marvel but I opt for Beast because his throw is better suited to the expected matchup, his weak energy defence is unlikely to matter much and his power generation is less affected by the inevitable Stun from Mayor Fisk.
Extraction: Research Station Attacked!
Secure: Mayor Fisk Vows To Find Missing Witnesses
Threat: 16
My team: Black Bolt, Beast, Medusa, Crimson Dynamo
My cards: Brace For Impact, Fall Back, Inhuman Royal Family, Sacrifice, Smash
Grant’s team: Captain America First Avenger, Gwenpool, Spider-Woman, Sabretooth
Grant’s cards: Avengers Assemble, Disarm, They Say Keep Your Enemies Close…, Second Wind, X-Ceptional Healing
Round 1: This is just going to be a straight up brawl so I don’t have any massive plans other than ‘punch other superheroes’. I have last activation so Beast will probably double move and launch someone off a point but otherwise I think that I’m OK if I don’t give up too many points an just fight instead. Sabretooth just starts us out by moving to contest the Researcher. Black Bolt sticks some damage on him and he counters which, with the First Avenger leadership, hurts. Captain America takes the left point and Medusa pushes Sabretooth away while using Royal Decree to bring Crimson Dynamo into play. Spider-Woman gives Shock to Crimson Dynamo which feels quite funny to give him a taste of his own medicine, then Beast takes a power from Black Bolt and throws Captain America off the left Witness. Gwenpool bounces off Crimson Dynamo’s armour and then Grant plays Avengers Assemble to get people onto the objectives. Crimson Dynamo sadly spends and action to shake Shock and then zaps Captain America and Gwenpool. The score goes to a mighty 2 – 0 to Grant – this isn’t going to score out too quickly!
Round 2: Now that Avengers Assemble is out of the way I can think a bit more about how I want to score these points. Since I don’t have Priority I can safely daze whoever I want in whatever order I feel like; Captain America would be very nice to deal with since his leadership is really annoying but I think that I’ll have to take what I can get. Sabretooth hurts Black Bolt further and I Sacrifice the second attack onto Medusa since he’s left with just one wound and Bleed. The king doesn’t disappoint, dazing Captain America and Sabretooth, the latter with Master Punch; I figured that it didn’t matter if he got taken down by a counterattack here since he was going to daze to Bleed anyway. Spider-Woman hurts Medusa and gives her Shock, and Medusa hurts her right back and throws her away. Gwenpool finishes off Medusa, Crimson Dynamo dazes Spider-Woman and Beast throws Gwenpool off the right Witness. The score is now 4 – 2 to me.
Round 3: Now I need to turn some of those dazes into KOs; Spider-Woman is probably easiest (though I’m not really well set to do it) and Captain America is the most tempting. If I can get up by an activation then it’ll make actually scoring points a bit more achievable. Sabretooth goes first again and gets stuck into Medusa; she plays Fall Back to avoid the second attack. Grant plays Disarm on Crimson Dynamo – I should add at this point that he’s probably the best user of that tactics card that I’ve ever encountered; it’s never failed to be extremely annoying. Medusa KOs Spider-Woman and throws Gwenpool further away, then she miraculously survives a round of attacks from Gwenpool after some truly rancid dice from Grant. Beast throws Captain America away but he charges back in and not only KOs Medusa but dazes Beast for good measure; a pretty excellent activation from him. Crimson Dynamo moves to contest points and fires off a couple of attacks just to build power. Finally I make a huge mistake with Black Bolt, hurting Sabretooth and letting him Aggressive back to contest the Researcher, then he also completely fails to hurt Captain America. Oh well, he had a good activation last round! The score goes to 4 – 4, showing off our scenario credentials!
Round 4: After all that we’re just back to having 3 minis each rather than 4 each. I have better displacement than the Avengers so if I can avoid losing Beast I can just go last and throw someone off a scoring point. Sabretooth mauls Black Bolt who continues his unexciting round of attacks into Captain America. Gwenpool flails uselessly at Crimson Dynamo and I have a huge brain failure by activating Beast and having him achieve nothing whatsoever into Captain America apart from a cheeky throw away from the scoring points. Captain America returns the favour with a highly unexciting round of attacks into Black Bolt and Crimson Dynamo finally manages to get something for either of us this turn by dazing Gwenpool. I do at least score all the points now, mainly because Crimson Dynamo is still healthy and we go to 10 – 4 to me.
Round 5: I want to keep chewing through Grant’s heroes (er, and Sabretooth) to bring home the fruits of an attrition lead. Anyone that I can get now is KOed which will be huge. Unfortunately for me, Grant has the same plan as Captain America KOs Black Bolt and Gwenpool dazes Crimson Dynamo, although in the latter case not before he’s zapped her pretty thoroughly. Beast throws Captain America, who is looking pretty peaky by now, off the left Witness and Sabretooth has to double move over to contest it. The score is 10 – 8, still in my favour.
Round 6: On the one hand, I only have two characters left, but on the other hand I do have Priority at last and Grant’s characters are in pretty bad shape. Beast lays into Sabretooth, leaving him on a single wound, and also throws Captain America into some scenery to finally KO him. Gwenpool can’t manage to drop Crimson Dynamo in a single activation – it would have needed staggeringly good luck to do so, and perhaps Grant would have been better served activating Sabretooth – so Crimson Dynamo finishes off the mutant and moves to score. We finish up and 14 – 8 with the Inhumans ahead.
That could have been the bloodiest game I’ve played in a long time. Both Grant and I were looking for a fight and the crisis combination absolutely ensured that we got it. I think that the decision-making this kind of game probably doesn’t really translate well into this report but there were constantly points where we had to choose who to attack most effectively due to the various offensive and defensive tools available at that point. It was quite nice to see Sabretooth out in the wild again as he hasn’t been particularly popular and I really think that this team is well set to support him. My biggest, or at least most obvious, mistake was attacking Sabretooth in round 3 which not only gave him a ‘free’ attack but also let him move onto an objective that he hadn’t been scoring.
Game 3: Euan playing Spider-Foes – Alien Ship Crashes In Downtown! and Portals Overrun City With Spider-People!
I’m clearly not going to get any simple games here as next up is Euan with his Spider-Foes. The new batch of Spider-Foes doesn’t seem to be available here yet so I didn’t have to worry about Sandman at al but there are no shortage of good options in affiliation these days and Euan is a canny player. He wins priority and picks his Secures which was no surprise – Doctor Octopus can expect to get blended on an E Secure – and I go for the slightly higher threat. This set-up definitely calls for Rhino and Sam to bring their mobility to the team, and having a pair of long movers available is also rather nice. Indeed, if anything Black Bolt is the one I’m least excited to put on the table here but he’s got the leadership so he’s definitely getting the nod.
Extraction: Alien Ship Crashes In Downtown!
Secure: Portals Overrun City With Spider-People!
Threat: 18
My team: Black Bolt, Crystal, Quicksilver, Captain America (Sam Wilson), Rhino
My cards: Brace For Impact, Can I Borrow That?, Eyes On The Prize, Sacrifice, This Is A Robbery
Euan’s team: Doc Ock Sinister Scientist, Lizard, Rhino, Black Cat, Sabretooth
Euan’s cards: Brace For Impact, Sinister Traps, Sucker, This Is A Robbery, X-Ceptional Healing
Round 1: Euan puts the Sinister Traps on the left Spider Portal which is a bit of a surprise as it looks like he’s setting up Sabretooth to go in there. Black Cat takes the central Core, then Captain America plays Eyes On The Prize, takes a power from Quicksilver (who probably doesn’t really need it now considering the board state) and collects the right Core before moving back to safety. Lizard comes up and flips the Portal over there. Black Bolt gives Rhino a power (and will do every remaining activation this round, so Rhino will start with 4 power) then goes forward and puts an extremely nice attack into Black Cat that will make the rest of my game a lot more manageable. Doc Ock helpfully fails to flip the far Portal, which I always hate to see, and eventually Euan’s Rhino is obliged to deal with it. Quicksilver can’t finish off Black Cat but Crystal can, though she’s too far away to pick up the fallen Core. Sabretooth, who is probably glad of the excuse not to hurl himself on his own team’s trap, races across to pick it up instead. Finally Rhino, who I’ve been powering up this whole round, flips my home Portal, Stampedes and eventually dazes Doc Ock while also drawing Brace. The score is 3 – 2 to Euan as we both left that mess on the left well alone.
Round 2: I can live with going down pretty hard on points if I can drop either or both of Black Cat and Doc Ock this rounds and not giving up too much attrition in return; I’m actually not even worried about the Crises this round as there just aren’t that many points available. Doc Ock, who is flush with power, hurts Rhino and throws Quicksilver into Black Bolt (and I Brace it). Rhino leaves Black Cat on one wound, but he does manage to throw that nasty size four building before Euan gets the chance to do so. Black Cat puts Stagger onto Quicksilver and tries to do the same to Black Bolt so I Sacrifice the second attack into Quicksilver again; he hates the Stagger just like everyone else but he can only have it once. Black Bolt lets rip and KOs Doc Ock. Euan’s Rhino goes after Quicksilver but Black Bolt takes it and avoids damage, then fails to flip my home Portal, does very little to Captain America and in the end doesn’t have enough power to play This Is A Robbery. Overall Euan’s dice were quite awful, though obviously I did what I could to make sure that I didn’t give Rhino power, and I want to give him full credit for being really cheery throughout as I think that I might have been a bit more moany than he was if our roles (and our rolls!) had been reversed. Captain America has had more than enough of giant animal-men and zooms off across the board, KOing Black Cat but rather fittingly also failing to flip that Spider Portal and getting Placed in the process. Sabretooth shows Rhino how it’s done, one-shotting Captain America but not being able to collect his Core, so Crystal collects it instead and sorts out that Portal. Lizard and Quicksilver basically swap places and ownership of the right and near Portals; the score is even at 5 – 5. I seem to have forgotten a picture here.
Round 3: Even though the score is even, I’m way up on attrition so I just need to turn that into a points advantage. Rhino and Black Bolt will continue to try to fight and my three long-movers will just run around and flip Spider Portals. Euan’s Rhino bounces off Black Bolt on the way to dazing Quicksilver, who is feeling rather put-upon now. My Rhino plays This Is A Robbery to hurl Sabretooth away but then fails to damage Lizard; he does at least flip that home Portal back. Lizard is unable to flip it back and Rhino is too big to push away. Captain America has to take one for the team so he bravely jumps on the Sinister Trap, then at least makes it worthwhile by taking the Core and flipping the Portal. The score goes to 11 – 6 to me but I apparently missed this photo too.
Round 4: The objective here is just not to do anything silly to give the game away so I’m just going to play keep-away as much as possible and protect my lead. Lizard throws Black Bolt away, dazes Rhino at last and takes back the Core. He also flips my home Portal and Quicksilver flips it right back again. Euan’s Rhino dazes Crystal and flips that far Secure. Black Bolt Master Punches Lizard toward the right, places next to him after the throw, then moves to flip the right Portal. Sabretooth double moves to flip my home Secure now that there isn’t anyone on it and Captain America follows him and flips it back again. The score is 15 – 9 to me, and Lizard helpfully gets KOed by the Core he’s holding.
Round 5: With only two characters left, Euan’s going to have to have a hell of a turn to pull this back, so it largely doesn’t matter what I do. But it’s a matter of principle to play the game so I’m going to continue paying attention to the Portals and largely not worrying about fighting the remaining Spider-Foes unless I have nothing better to do. Sabretooth picks up the nearby Core that just vapourised poor Lizard. Quicksilver runs away and hurts Rhino but mainly is just there to flip that Portal. Euan passes (in fairness, he has a lot of passes) so Crystal fails to flips another point but does hurt Rhino. One more pass turns out to be one too far as my Rhino dazes his and the rest of my team scores some points. We recorded the score as 21 – 9 but I didn’t note relieving Sabretooth of his Core so maybe it should have been 21 – 10.
As always with Euan, I had a blast. I was probably a bit lucky to punk Black Cat so hard in round 1, but on the other hand she’s still somewhat vulnerable to dedicated killers as her own defence dice can just fail her sometimes. I think that might be the first time I’d had the opportunity to just pour power into Rhino but it really made sure that he had an impactful first couple of activations. Overall Euan was a bit too aggressive with his positioning in round 1 and I had the mobility and firepower to make something happen from it. That said, Euan’s dice were pretty bad throughout and that certainly helped me – in particular failing the first Portal roll with Doc Ock meant that Rhino was needed to spend his power and be a bit out of position in the early game. Euan – if you’re reading this, you should start taking notes and writing these yourself; I appreciated your very kind words.
Game 4: Stu playing Unaffiliated – Spider-Infected Invade Manhattan and Intrusions Open Across City As Seals Collapse
Goodness me this one is going to be a treat. Stu is a really strong player who always brings the fun, but this time his roster is a fully insane unaffiliated piece of genius with eight two-threat characters, Nick Fury Jr (who brings the Agents, so kind of like 1.5 minis) and Baron Zemo just so Stu can play on odd numbered threat values. I win Priority and choose my Secures but I get Intrusions which is probably the least good for me in this case. I pick characters who can put out more attacks than most as I need to whittle down Stu’s options to a manageable level before I get swamped by sheer weight of numbers.
Extraction: Spider-Infected Invade Manhattan
Secure: Intrusions Open Across City As Seals Collapse
Threat: 19
My team: Black Bolt, Medusa, Ms Marvel, Quicksilver, Rhino
My cards: Mission Objective, Smash, Sacrifice, Terrigenesis This Is A Robbery
Stu’s team: Baron Zemo, Black Widow, Bob Agent of Hydra, Bullseye, Nebula, Nick Fury Jr, Rocket Raccoon, Toad
Stu’s cards: Brace For Impact, Fall Back, I Am A Baron After All, Joint Effort, Sacrifice
Round 1: I’m genuinely not sure I have any idea how to effectively approach this match-up, but I guess I need to make sure that I’m holding onto some of the Spider-Infected or I’ll get scored out quickly. Ms Marvel takes the left Spider-Infected and moves onto the left Seal as she’s safe(ish) over there and Black Bolt gives a power to Quicksilver. This means that Stu has to activate Nick Fury and collect both his home Spider-Infected or I can steal one of them and run away to safety; Stu is no chump though and knows this just fine so he brings in the SHIELD boss. I use Quicksilver anyway, rushing over to the right and getting a cheeky spike into Fury. I use a few of my many passes so Toad takes the central Spider-Infected, Rocket shoots Quicksilver but does no damage and Bob comes in to contest on the right. Rhino moves over and drops Black Widow in one very lucky roll then gets the Agents with a throw. Bullseye collects their Spider-Infected and heads toward the centre. Medusa goes to tie up on the right and Nebula has to just move twice as she doesn’t have any nice targets available. Black Bolt moves up and one-shots Toad but he’s too far away to get the Spider-Infected; instead Zemo comes in and gets it. The score is 4 – 3 to Stu. Annoyingly both of my extract holders get moved and none of Stu’s do.
Round 2: Well that went considerably better than I could have expected. My plan is really to continue to fight Stu’s team as hard as I can, especially trying to KO anyone who gives me the opportunity, all while trying to avoid going too far behind on points. I also don’t really have to worry about giving away Priority as it seems unlikely that I can daze half of Stu’s team before they activate. I start with Medusa as she can make a lot of attacks, she dazes Fury (and also hurts Bob who plays Sacrifice) and throws Rocket away behind that piece of terrain so he has to waste an action getting LOS back. Nebula goes into Quicksilver and leaves him on one wound; his attack back is rather anaemic. Black Widow fails twice to Stagger Rhino and Black Bolt makes up for his good attack last round by completely failing to harm Zemo. Toad does better attacking Black Bolt then jumps through the Portal to the right. Ms Marvel pulls Zemo toward her and dazes him by throwing Black Widow into him. Rocket puts the last wound on poor Quicksilver and Rhino finishes Black Widow and collects the Spider-Infected that Zemo had previously been holding. Bullseye moves back toward the left. The score goes to 7 – 6 to me; none of the unaffiliated squad moves but Medusa and Rhino both go for a little walk.
Round 3: I feel like I’m making good progress here; I mainly want to KO Fury and Zemo as they’re the highest value pieces but ultimately I’ll take anyone. Medusa pushes Toad away (in retrospect I can’t remember at all why I attacked him… perhaps I needed to gain power?), dazes Bob with Terrigenesis to score points and collect another Spider-Infected and finally KOs Fury by throwing Nebula into him. Excellent work, your majesty! Nebula hurts Quicksilver and he polishes off Toad. Zemo dazes Black Bolt, hops through the Portal and stabs Quicksilver; I Sacrifice it onto Medusa and take four wounds anyway! Rhino comes across and KOs Zemo before Rocket finishes dazing Medusa. Stu then agonises about how best to use Joint Effort, eventually settling on an attack into Rhino that achieves almost nothing considering the number of dice involved. Ms Marvel moves to the centre and Bullseye follows her with Hit and Run. The score is 13 – 8 in my favour.
Round 4: I think that I have probably done enough here to get over the line but I can definitely make my life easier by continuing to pick up Stu’s heroes. Medusa has an uncharacteristic poor round attacking Nebula but does at least throw her away. Bob fires his rocket which KOs Quicksilver and dazes himself in the process. Ms Marvel Embiggens but can’t quite get Bullseye who uses Parting Shot twice. He hurts Rhino but doesn’t get the spike that would have been needed to daze the big chap. Rhino has had enough of being picked on by small people so uses Smash and dazes Bullseye and Nebula. Rocket finally KOs Medusa and Black Bolt saunters over to collect a fallen Spider-Infected and sit on the Seal. We finish up at 18 – 9.
What a completely mental game! I enjoyed that a lot and despite it being obviously a bit of a silly roster I think that there are some serious teams that would struggle to play into it, either getting swamped by attacks or just outnumbered on Secures. Stu was, as always, a delight to play. I felt that I was sighing and groaning a lot through the game but I was just because I was having to think about how to deal with such an unusual game rather than because I was annoyed about anything. I’m not totally sure that there is a huge amount to learn unless this kind of roster becomes mainstream but I suppose it was quite gratifying to know that the Inhumans could put out a large enough amount of damage across enough targets that they could deal with it.
So once all the scores are added up I’m in fourth place, bizarrely tied with Steve despite him beating me handily in game one. I think that might be the end of my Inhumans journey for now as I am keen to play some other factions competitively. I was interested to see how high I could get on the global leaderboard and needed to get ~20 tournament games to get a proper score. As it happens, two extraordinary players are miles above me but third place globally is still very satisfying. Thanks to Steve, Grant, Euan and Stu for four amazing games of MCP and, as always, thanks to Allan for running the whole event every time. I will return… but not for a few months because I’m on holiday for our next regular event.