TTS League 2025: Crisis Event 3 (Europe) - Round One

I’ve been playing a little Tabletop Marvel when I’ve had free time in the evenings, trying to brush the rust off before the UK Grand Tournament at the end of May. I’ve had pretty good results with my Team Pink Midnight squad, and it felt like a good idea to put them down in a more competitive environment – so, back into the world of the TTS League!

After playing a lot of Vassal Malifaux over the past few years, it was interesting to return to a 3D online world (especially given that, theoretically, the actual physical height of things matters much less in Marvel Crisis Protocol than it does in Malifaux, especially Malifaux 4^th Edition).

The game was Alien Ship and Deadline to Destruction, which suited me perfectly.

I had priority and my opponent chose 17 which let me pick my favourite squad – Elsa, Space Loki, Werewolf by Night and N’Kantu.

Loki doubling down on the Root that I often put out with Elsa’s leadership is very impactful, and there has not been a single game yet where he hasn’t felt like the MVP when I’ve taken him. Werewolf is very dice dependent (which this game demonstrated) but N’Kantu and Elsa are also just good role players; N’Kantu is undoubtedly the anchor of the team and Elsa can move around whilst taking shots at range, which gives my backfield presence some bite.

My opponent had an Avengers roster which looked fairly classic to my eye; his squad was Steve and Sam, Shang-Chi, Okoye and Black Panther.

It’s really interesting that even after so long away from the game, some of these early release characters are still absolute staples – and have been transformed by updated tactics cards. Black Panther with Wisdom of the Ancestors uses it arguably better than Black Panther (Chosen of Bast) and I was very aware that he was going to have a round where he could really dish out the hurt and be even harder to kill. Equally, I’m running Giant’s Blood which lets Loki move his bubble in a truly obnoxious fashion and was, again, transformative for the strategy of running the character.

I did consider whether I wanted to pivot when I saw the Avengers across the table. My roster is:

Immortal Hulk
Loki + Space Gem
Werewolf by Night
Blade
Elsa Bloodstone
Frankenstein’s Monster
Black Panther (Chosen of Bast)
Man-Thing
N’Kantu
Wong

I could have run Blade, Immortal Hulk, Black Panther (Chosen of Bast) and N’Kantu  to have a squad which had a lot more mystic damage and maintained a safe extract grab, or even Blade, Immortal Hulk, Loki and Wong to have a double safe extract grab and gone full scenario – in retrospect, that may have been the better choice, but I find Elsa more fun and I’m enjoying finding ways to maximise her leadership.

The flow of the game was determined by round 1. I strongly respect Shang-Chi and did not want to give him an easy target after Sam airlifted him up. My intent round 1 was to have Loki grab an extract with the space gem and move backwards, able to reposition as needed round 2 onwards, maybe throw out some root but accept that round 1 I was likely to go a little down on points and then start coming back thereafter.

However, Werewolf by Night spiked hugely into Steve and dazed him in one hit after he had been softened up by N’Kantu using the Deadline console. This was more than I was expecting, and I think the biggest misplay I made all game was not choosing to then have Werewolf pounce to grab the extract.

Instead, I wanted to double down on the early attrition lead and have Werewolf pounce into Steve at the top of the next round. If I could take Steve out at the top of 2 then the game would almost certainly be in the bag. Unfortunately (for me) that did not happen; Werewolf pounced and put some damage into Steve, but even with three attacks thanks to Siege of Darkness, he was not able to seal the deal and Steve escaped with one health remaining.

From there, the rest of the game was a tense back and forth as the Avengers consolidated their early scoring lead. I was able to draw it out over four full turns and inflict a lot of damage, with every single Avenger injured by the game end and Okoye KO’d, but I wasn’t quite able to seal the deal on the critical models I needed downed when I needed them downed. I drew it out across 5 full turns, but in the end lost the game 19-7 (which sounds a lot more crushing than it actually was).

I think the main takeaway here was that getting greedy with Steve was the wrong move. If Werewolf had been holding the extract, he would have been much harder for my opponent to ignore throughout the game, and Steve would still have been injured and at risk if Elsa, Loki or N’Kantu got close. Capitalising on attrition doesn’t always mean trying to remove characters; sometimes it means remembering the mission after something has gone unexpectedly well!

Despite the fact that this was a loss, I still felt as though many aspects of my strategy were vindicated. My opponent very rarely had the power to do everything they wanted. The ship cores did not explode much because I think there was only one round where the holders had more than 2 power, and Deadline kept up the pressure - softening up Steve and threatening to KO him towards the end of the game when he was on one health with an extract. Definitely a fan of that crisis.

Valuable lessons learned, and a fantastic game that I really enjoyed. I have to hand it to my opponent for remaining cool under the amount of pressure my team was putting out and taking the win as a result. Looking forward to round 2!