Marvel: Crisis Protocol - Professor X, Nightcrawler, and More Review

Here at TechRaptor we've always been big fans of Marvel: Crisis Protocol. The skirmish-level Marvel miniature wargame covers star characters and deep cuts alike, and this month's batch of new releases keep with that trend. We've previously taken a first look at the core set, checked out some street level Marvel characters, Blade and Moon Knight, and so much more.

Atomic Mass Games sent us fresh batch of brand new characters to explore with the release of three new packs: Professor X & Shadow King, Bishop & Nightcrawler, and Iceman & Shadowcat. This is our review!

Marvel: Crisis Protocol - Professor X & Shadow King

First up, I'm excited to check out Professor X & Shadow King. This duo are well suited to be boxed together, as they're both masters of the mind! Let's start with Shadow King, the snazzy dressed interdimensional demon is really a (slow) walking menace on the battlefield with hard, heavy hitting mental attacks.

He makes up for his slow movement speed with a special ability that allows him to place a token on the battlefield and use that to make attacks from. He also keeps enemies at bay with an ability that dishes out damage if they get too close.

Add to that his ability to remove damage from himself and you've got a pretty tricky, tank-y character on your hands.

Now on to Charles Xavier, mentor to mutant-kind. His leader ability for the Uncanny X-Men affiliation gives X-Men back power after they spend it, and he's all about running as an assistance-based character, with another superpower letting his allies re-roll dice. But he's not just a behind the scenes fighter.

His three attacks are all powerful, especially Astral Duel, which lets you add dice to the attack equal to your opponent's mental defense stat.

That same attack, which could end up throwing as many as nine or more dice, also negates your opponent's ability to re-roll their defense dice. We found this attack alone, in our playtesting, to be one of the most devastating attacks out of all these characters.

Marvel: Crisis Protocol - Bishop & Nightcrawler

I've got to admit right up front here, I'm totally biased with this box set. As a kid growing up collecting X-Men action figures and watching the cartoons in the 1990s, the only character I thought was cooler than Nightcrawler was Bishop. First, let's take a look at Nightcrawler.

With Nightcrawler, as you'd imagine, the idea is to be constantly moving around the battlefield, taking little jabs at your opponents.

In fact, moving Nightcrawler around the battlefield is so important this his attack Brimstone Blitz actually rewards you for moving, letting you add a die to the attack roll for each time he's been placed this turn. And if you roll right, you can even follow that up with another attack roll.

His other abilities are all about movement. He can teleport 1-3 distance by spending 1-3 energy, teleport closer to an enemy he just attacked (for free), is invisible in shadow, and has the Wallcrawler special ability. If you're not bouncing Nightcrawler around the battlefield, you're doing it wrong!

Next up is Bishop, who's all about building up energy and then unleashing it with heavy attacks. But you have to be careful with Bishop, if he starts his turn with 8 or more energy, he suffers 1 damage. His XSE Blaster is a very useful standard attack with its range 4 and Builder conversion of hits to energy.

His hugely powerful attack, though, is the Return With Interest attack, which costs 5 energy, is a 7 strength area attack (A2), let's you pour even more energy into it for bigger results. But how to get all this energy? Aside from his builder XSE Blaster attack, he can mess with an opponent's hit roll, which helps him gain more energy.

Marvel: Crisis Protocol - Iceman & Shadowcat

Finally, let's take a look at Iceman and Shadowcat, a fun X-Men duo. Let's speak to Shadowcat first - I'm a big fan of the design of this character, with her little dragon pal Lockheed by her side as she's phasing through the ruined arm of a destroyed sentinel. I love how Marvel: Crisis Protocol isn't afraid to be creative with their miniature basing - it adds so much character.

Ability-wise, Shadowcat actually does a lot to neutralize the defense of opponents by negating their Crit results in defense (with two different attacks).

She can also spend two energy to move 2, and can boost the defense of herself or a nearby allied character. And while she doesn't have any movement abilities to help her with bigger terrain, she does have stealth, making her impossible to target unless her opponent is within Range 3 of her.

Now onto Iceman, first off -- shout out to Iceman for being the easiest miniature to paint ever. I just threw some contrast blue on him, then dry brushed white overtop, and that was good enough for my purposes! He's also a very straightforward character, with a Beam attack builder, attacks that let him slide around a bit, and of course he's hitting his foes with lots of stun and slow conditions for his ice.

Another cool aspect to Iceman is his ability to use Ice Slide, which lets another allied character near him move 2, as if his icing up the battlefield allows them to better slide into position. It's rules like that which paint a clear picture of who these characters are, and lead to moments on the battlefield that feel like they're truly leaping off the pages of a comic book.

Marvel: Crisis Protocol March 2023 Releases - Final Thoughts

What works so well with these character packs is how these characters fit together. Even if they don't match affiliation, they're both doing something interesting in some sort of a similar space - or at least make some thematic sense together. All in all, I think that each of these boxes are going to be right for different kinds of players, but check out the character cards (remember, Atomic Mass Games doesn't hide their character stats - so you always know what you're getting by checking out the site).

I think the award for coolest model here goes to either Nightcrawler (the miniature even comes with his signature BAMF sound effect because Atomic Mass Games has a great sense of humor) or Shadow King for how much of a dominating presence he can be at the table from a visual perspective. I think, if played right, Bishop could be one of the most powerful of this batch, but they all provide potent answers on the table!

The products used in the creation of this review were provided by Atomic Mass Games. All photos courtesy Atomic Mass Games except photos of unpainted miniatures, which are courtesy of the author.