Crisis Focus: Terrigen Clouds Sweep Over City

By Phillip Melvin

Today I present for you the 1st of my deep dives into the MCP Crises. To start this series I chose to go with the big 20 Threat Secure called Terrigen Clouds Sweep Over City (a.k.a. Terrigen Clouds). If you are newer to Marvel Crisis, I suggest checking out Bret’s Scenario Overview first before giving this article a read.

Crisis Story Background

Long ago the Kree Empire experimented on ancient Humans in order to create soldiers for their war against the Skrulls. These Inhumans were no different than others until exposed to Terrigen Mist, a mutagenic vapor from the crystal of the same name. While the powers manifested were great, the project was abandoned due to a vision of the future where an Inhuman would rise up to destroy the Kree.

Despite the project’s cancellation, Inhumans weren’t terminated but instead set free to live on Earth (due to some kind of bureaucratic oversight). Their Society grew and saw some Inhumans living in isolation while others chose to intermingle with early Human Civilizations. Over time Inhuman scientists rediscovered the process of creating Terrigen Mist, enabling them to perform Terrigenesis and enhance select individuals.

Jumping to modern day, The Inhuman King Black Bolt activated a Terrigen Bomb in order to fight off Thanos and protect his people. The bomb released Terrigen Mist into Earth’s atmosphere causing millions of humans who possessed a latent Inhuman gene to undergo Terrigenesis and gain Superpowers. After spreading across the face of Earth, the Terrigen Mists settled into the form of two enormous clouds that now roam the planet. However these clouds are far from safe, as many with the Inhuman Gene perish during the Terrigenesis process, and those with the X-Gene (latent or active) die quickly after being exposed to this deadly poison.

Where to find this Crisis

Comes with the Black Bolt & Medusa Box

Crisis Basics

This Secure Crisis is at the top end of the curve possibly letting you play a 20 Threat game. While it does use the C center line Deployment, it is notable in that you don’t place an objective on the center point and instead only use the far left and right points on the diagram. However the position is just for the start of the game, as the objectives in this Crisis can potentially move each Turn.

If nobody Secures the Cloud Tokens then nothing happens. However for each Secured token in the Cleanup Phase, a player gains 2 VP and the true fun begins. In Priority order, the player who is not Securing the objective gets to move the token Range 2. After the token is moved, every character in Range 1 suffers a damage and gains Poison.

While this all seems bad, remember that this Crisis requires no dice rolling or Power spent to control these scenario elements.

Crisis Strategy

For players trying to hold these objectives, you may face consistent damage as well as a Power drain. If you put long range shooters onto these points, you may be able to regain the lost Power with their Builder attacks, but more melee focused characters may find they have no target’s for their Power generating attacks. You’ll need to have roster selections that will be adept at performing this role without weakening your overall team structure.

For the non-securing player you have to make the choice between giving your opponent Damage/Poison or moving the cloud towards a more advantageous location. If you choose to leave the clouds within Range 1 of the opponent, they will take the penalty but can easily just stay there to score the following Round. However you can also do a full Range 2 place towards your own team for an easier score in the future.

The problem with this decision point is the fact that 2 clouds exist. If you choose to move the clouds away from the scorers, you risk both clouds becoming clumped near the center of the board. This takes what starts as a wide spread out scenario and turns it into a middle scrum not unlike Gamma Shelter.

The best Characters to use for securing these objectives are ones that can mitigate the negative effects (Poison immune, Healing Factor, Damage reduction that has no minimum, Attacks that regain health) or ones with larger health pools that don’t mind chip damage (most 5 Threat or greater characters). With 2 VP on the line for each objective you’ll also want to bring characters who can clear enemies from the Clouds with Throws, Pushes, forced Advances, or just damage to Daze/KO them. Letting your opponent score a Cloud for even 2 Turns can be enough to swing the game in their favor.

Affiliations that like to play Terrigen Clouds

• Kingpin Criminal Syndicate: Characters count as double for Securing Objectives, and this tankier affiliation doesn’t mind the Cloud damage.
• Thor Asgardians: Likes to play high Threat Crises and brings a Leadership that can clear Conditions or Heal. Will still get 1 trigger of Poison before it can be removed, but all Asgardians get 2 Power per Round so its not so bad
• Cable X-Force: Leader is Poison Immune and doesn’t mind sitting on a point and firing his Range 5 gun. Affiliation also has large amount of Healing Factor melee attackers that can shrug off the Cloud damage while taking advantage of the scrum if Clouds start to converge
• Strucker Hydra: Your characters can become Poisoned and then use the Leadership to pass it off to enemies. As a bonus, you Heal away the Cloud damage when you pass off the Condition to the opponent
• Crimson Dynamo Winter Guard: Can remove the Poison Condition with the Leadership (will still trigger once before removal) and allies have a chance to roll and avoid getting Pushed off objectives. Durable stable of characters that can stand on a point and take a beating not unlike Criminals
• Black Bolt Inhumans or She Hulk A-Force: All Inhumans are Poison Immune and A-force can take all of the female Inhuman characters. Bonus for A-force with She-Hulk being Poison Immune as is the oft taken Captain Marvel

Poison Immune Characters

Even outside of Inhumans there are plenty of Poison Immune choices to add to your Roster. Odds are good that Terrigen Clouds being selected will cause opponents to bring any Poison Immune characters they have available as well. Remembering this list will help you pinpoint characters your opponent is likely to bring and allows for counters with your own selections.

Conclusion

Terrigen Clouds is a unique Crisis in that it punishes you for scoring it, but doesn’t grant any benefit in return. However this risk reward choice provides an up for grabs 4 Victory Points per Turn, and that’s not taking into account the Extract Crisis you also are playing. Give this Scenario a try sometime if you want to play a High Threat game, a High Scoring Game, or just like the idea of moving scenario elements to spice things up.

As always, if you want to read more content about Marvel: Crisis Protocol, Conquest, or Warhammer: 40,000, there are many articles to be found on this very website! Consider subscribing to the Line of Sight Youtube, and joining the Discord! Finally, if you want to support this content directly, check out the Line of Sight Patreon where you can help influence the very course of the podcasts!

Thanks for reading, we’ll see you next time!