Atomic Mass Game's Marvel: Crisis Protocol has several different affiliations representing famous teams in the Marvel canon, and knowing which characters work best for each group is a key to victory. While some groups only have a few characters, the Avengers is one of the biggest teams available in the game.
The Avengers can be a particularly challenging affiliation to build a roster for because both of their leaders support significantly different game plans. The Avengers have seen slightly less competitive play lately, but a handful of reworks and new members have brought the group back to the forefront.
Black Widow
Black Widow (not to be confused with the inferior Black Widow, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.) isn’t great because of her stats or abilities but because of her cost. There are very few two threat characters in the game. Natasha’s low cost makes her incredibly valuable for making squads’ threat numbers work.
While she can’t do much damage, Black Widow has a few tools that make her a functional objective carrier. Her Stealth ability prevents anyone from attacking her from beyond range three, and Martial Artists lets her count blanks as successes when defending against an attack within range two.
Quicksilver
The MCU and Fox versions of Quicksilver may be wildly different, and neither was particularly accurate to the Pietro Maximoff found in Marvel comics, but Crisis Protocol does a fantastic job bringing the speedster’s abilities to the table. Quicksilver is already one of few characters with a long basic movement speed, but almost everything on his card lets him move around even more.
Players can move Pietro to nearly any part of the board on turn one making him a fantastic tool for either threatening opponents’ backline secure objectives or flanking back row ranged attackers. Can’t Catch Me is a fantastic superpower that lets Quicksilver move when he is attacked, and, if played right, it can put him out of range before the attack happens.
War Machine
War Machine is not a complicated character in Marvel: Crisis Protocol. While he has a few tricks up his sleeves, players bring him for one reason: beams. While many characters have beam attacks capable of damaging multiple enemies, it’s rare to have them as a character’s free attack as War Machine does.
There’s a ton of potential to generate energy and deliver bleeds with this attack, which sets up frequent use of his more expensive Empty the Clip attack. Because beams shoot in straight lines, War Machine thrives with Sam Wilson’s movement-granting leadership ability.
Hawkeye
Clint Barton loves sitting in the back lines and pinging enemies with his range five Arrow Shot. The attack rolls a respectable five dice, but it’s made more impressive by the fact that the attacking player can choose whether the defender uses their physical or energy defense.
Furthermore, his basic attack inflicts the attacker’s choice of Bleed, Shock, Slow, or Poison if a wild was roled. This versatility allows him to take advantage of many enemy weaknesses and board states, and few other characters have the range to fire back at him. Hook Arrow can help Hawkeye get into optimal firing position, and Fast Draw damages any enemy that’s able to move up and make an attack.
Hulk
Hulk may historically be one of the strongest Avengers, but his power level in Marvel: Crisis Protocol wasn't doing his reputation justice. Characters priced at six threat should be game-changers, so players were thrilled when Atomic Mass Games announced a massive rework for Hulk.
Almost every facet of the fan-favorite character is now better. Hulk's builder attack will be giving him more energy, his defensive capabilities are higher, and he has a brand new superpower that lets him reroll defensive dice. Hulk is also now immune to stun. These changes make Hulk a great brawler that's capable of holding control points and taking out enemies.
Captain America (Steve Rogers)
Captain America is Marvel: Crisis Protocol’s original leader for the Avengers affiliation, but, as an original core box character, he had been seeing less and less use as better options and a new leader were released. Fortunately for the likable Star-Spangled Avenger, Atomic Mass Games announced an updated character card for Steve Rogers at their Ministravaganza event in early September. Whether or not players choose to use his leadership ability, Captain America will likely return to must-include status on the Avengers when this update is officially released later this year.
Scarlet Witch
Scarlet Witch is one of the more expensive Avengers at five threat, but Wanda’s kit packs a ton of utility for the cost. Her builder, Hex Bolt, rolls an impressive six damage and grants negative status effects to the target for each skull in the attack role. While this is a powerful attack on its own, Scarlet Witch’s Chosen of Chthon ability further boosts the attacks’ effectiveness by letting her count skulls/failures as successes. Telekinesis and Curse round out Wanda’s superpowers and let her move terrain features and stymie enemies’ recovery actions.
Vision
Vision plays a lot like War Machine, but he costs more, does more damage, and has better defenses than his power armor-clad teammate. Vision is a great offensive threat because of his builder attack, Solar Energy Beam, which damages every enemy in a four-distance line and saps energy tokens on wild dice rolls.
Defensively, Vision thrives due to his ability to shift density forms. Enhanced Density lets Vision resist pushes and tank physical damage, and Phased lets him avoid collision damage and shrug off energy attacks. The Rapid Phase superpower allows him to shift between the two as needed for only two power.
Captain America (Sam Wilson)
Sam Wilson has seen increased importance in the MCU, and his knack for leadership is well reflected in Marvel: Crisis Protocol. This version of Captain America was the second (and hitherto final) leader for the Avengers affiliation, and his leadership ability, “All-New, All-Different,” Brings an entirely different playstyle to the group than Captain Rogers.
Sam grants movement to allies when a friendly character is dazed or KO’d, so he thrives in a roster of many cheap allies that can constantly prop his ability. While his leadership ability is solid, Sam himself is also a fantastic extract objective holder with excellent mobility.
Black Panther
Black Panther may be the leader of the Wakanda affiliation, but he's also a great addition to the Avengers roster. His defensive values of 4/3/3 are already good, but his Vibranium Armor ability lets him add blanks to any defense rolls against physical or energy attacks. Black Panther's Kinetic Burst attack only costs three energy for six attack dice, but he can spend extra energy to add dice when he needs a big hit.
The attack also pushes enemies away if Black Panther rolled a wild during the attack, so it helps clear enemies away from objective tokens. Mantle of the Black Panther and King of Wakanda give T'Challa and nearby allies the ability to reroll dice, which is a great way to mitigate bad luck.