A-Force vs. Convocation – Marvel Crisis Protocol Battle Report!

By Phillip Melvin

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending Warfaire Weekend in St. Louis, Missouri. Traditionally a Warmachine focused convention, the organizer have expanded to other games of which MCP is one of the most popular. This year saw 43 players show up for the 2-day Tournament which acted as a Qualifier for the Las Vegas Open Invitational Series. I decided to take some pictures/notes from my 1st round for today’s Battle Report!

I brought an A-Force Roster to the tournament and my opponent had Convocation

I won the roll for priority and chose Extracts. Typically one chooses Secures when they win the roll, but 2 out of 3 of his Secures mirrored mine and I really didn’t want to risk him pulling Hammers against me. Demons Downtown! Has Our Comeuppance Come Due? was selected as our Secure and The Montesi Formula Found as the Extract with my opponent choosing 19 Threat for our game size. With both Crises being E Deployment, we were in for a middle of the board Brawl.

For my Squad I went with She-Hulk (Leader), Crystal, Captain Marvel, Shuri, and Black Cat. For Tactics Cards I chose Patch Up, A-Force Assemble, Special Delivery, Stalwart Determination, and Fall Back.

The Convocation squad I faced was Doctor Strange Sorcerer Supreme (Leader), Baron Mordo, Wong, Ebony Maw, and Blade. His chosen Tactics Cards were Brace for Impact, Shhh…,  Book of Cagliostro, Iron-Bound Books of Shuma-Gorath, and Plane of Pohldahk.

Round 1

I move Shuri up to the back point where I plan to leave her all game and support allies with re-rolls. Captain Marvel moves to the Center point and picks up the Extract. Wong activates and moves onto the back Secure, Meditates, and gives a Power to Strange.  She-Hulk moves up towards the center grabbing the back Extract on her way. Strange, now with 4 Power, advances and uses Scalpel of Strange on Captain Marvel to Place her back near his squad. Maw proceeds to Daze her with a combination of a thrown Newstand and some attacks, then picks up the dropped Extract. I Move Crystal up to re-secure the Center and Black Cat runs up to hide behind a water tower. I score my back and the middle plus have 1 book to his 2.

A-Force: 3 Convocation: 3

Round 2

Iron Bound Books was played this Turn, making my Physical attacks quite ineffective.

Captain Marvel, freshly undazed and full of Power, tries to get some work done by Activating her Binary Form Superpower but Maw uses Shhh… to cancel it. Onto Plan B, I decide to Rocket Punch and put some damage plus Stagger on Strange and hightail it back to the middle. Crystal, with some extra Power from various Leadership triggers, plays A-Force Assemble giving out extra Defense to my center crew.

Wong activates and removes the Stagger from Strange (curse that underrated support model). Black Cat moves up to Steal Maw’s Extract and then moves right back to the middle. Strange Scalpels Captain Marvel back into the danger zone where she gets KOd by some combination of his attackers. Crystal moves up a bit and puts out an attack plus a 2nd attack from Elemental Onslaught, but sadly only does chip damage. Likewise She-Hulk tries to get some damage in but flubs the roll (mainly because of Iron Bound Books). In return she gets pummeled by Mystic Attacks and has to use Fall Back to avoid double taps. The Round ends with me Scoring my back and the middle Secure and holding 2 books to his 0 (He forgot to pick up Captain Marvel’s book, does so quickly the following Round)

A-Force: 7 Convocation: 4

Round 3

Unsure what tricks he will bring, and wanting to keep my Scenario lead, I use Stalwart Determination to prevent my Team from getting Pushed/Thrown this Round.

I then try to take advantage of priority to Beam down Strange/Maw with Crystal and do little to Maw but manage to spike into Strange and leave him on 1. Crystal then uses the Power she gained from all the attacks to Patch Up She-Hulk back to full health.

My opponent is then left with the decision whether to dive in with Strange to get work done or back up in order to get healed by Wong. He chooses violence and pops his Plane of Pohldahk for re-rolls against She-Hulk. He uses his big area spender to not only bring Crystal and She-Hulk down in Health but also hits the Wild + Block trigger to Heal himself for 1. I make a mistake here and choose to activate Shuri next thinking she can take the last 2 health from Strange. She takes 1 off of him, but then the mandatory Push on her attack takes him out of range.

Strange, now Pushed to the back gets Healed by Wong. Crystal is Dazed by Blade and I try to salvage the Round by sending She-Hulk up to finish off Strange but the dice again say no. So I settle for Throwing Blade away so he has to move to attack next Turn. Opponent plays Book of Cagliostro to remove the Activation from Strange (something I had hoped to avoid this Round) who Activates again and between him, Mordo who Hexed She-Hulk to Turn off extra dice from Crits, and Maw’s attacks, they manage to finish off She-Hulk and take her Extract. Black Cat throws out a Stagger spender on Maw to slow him down the next Turn, but otherwise just stays near the middle to score. I still control my back plus the middle Secures and have 1 book to his 2.

A-Force: 10 Convocation: 7

Round 4

Now with only 3 characters left I go into retreat mode and Move Black Cat onto the Back Secure. The Wizards descend, and swiftly KO Crystal before she can attack again. Shuri chooses to pass with the hopes of trying to wait for optimal offensive Pushes off Secures. Instead Shuri gets attacked, rolls 0 Defense, and is Dazed. Finally Maw (who had the Stagger removed by Wong) attacks and Throws a Newstand at Black Cat Dazing her too. He moves Blade to my back Secure and scores all 3 plus has all 3 books for a perfect 6 points that Round.

A-Force: 10 Convocation: 13

Round 5

Black Cat Steals Blade’s Extract then double moves to the bottom left corner of the map. He fails some attacks leaving Shuri alive who in return uses double Spenders to Daze Blade. With Blade Dazed and Strange not in range to Scalpel Black Cat back into attack range, I score 1 final point while he gets 5 and the win.

A-Force: 11 Convocation: 18

Victory to Convocation

Post-Game Thoughts

Double E Deployments meant this game was destined to be a bloodbath. Unfortunately most of the blood was inflicted on my team while his went relatively unscathed. While I played the Crisis pretty well the first few Turns, eventually attrition got the better of me and he was able make up his VP deficit with ease.

Having never played into Convocation before this game, all my knowledge of what they did came only from reading cards. Seeing the Affiliation in action made me really respect the combination of Strange’s board control with Scalpel, the movement shenanigans from Bar with no Doors, the support Wong provides, and their excellent suite of Affiliated cards that cover both offense plus defense. They don’t look easy to pilot, but in the hands of a good player they are a force to be reckoned with.

If I were to play it again I would probably be more aggressive with She-Hulk. I got a bit to focused on holding my Secures when I easily could have used Crystal to Special Delivery for more offense prior to her demise. Of course I’d also respect Scalpel a bit more now that Ive experienced it and realized Wong provides the Power for it to be used Round 1. You can’t really avoid it entirely, but due to it short range Strange can be forced to move further forward than he wants in order to Scalpel.

I also realized after the fact that relying on Stagger to control the flow of the game works great unless they have a way to easily remove it. Wong will now have a bigger target on his head for my next game against the wizards.

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