Marvel: Crisis Protocol

Marvel: Crisis Protocol is a tabletop miniatures game published by Atomic Mass Games and first released in 2019. Players assemble teams of Marvel characters, build and paint their miniatures, and compete on a three-dimensional battlefield filled with interactive terrain. Unlike a traditional board game with a fixed board, Crisis Protocol uses modular terrain and scenario cards to create changing battlefields.

Each player normally creates a roster of characters and selects a squad whose combined Threat value fits the chosen mission. The game’s scenarios are called Crisis cards and divide into two categories: Extract and Secure. Extract missions involve characters carrying objectives such as Cosmic Cubes, Skrulls, or civilians, while Secure missions require players to contest locations or hold points across the table. Victory comes from earning more victory points than the opponent, not simply eliminating every opposing character.

Characters activate individually during alternating turns. An activation commonly includes two actions, allowing a character to move, attack, use an innate superpower, or interact with an objective. Attacks use custom dice and compare successes against the defender’s defenses. Damage can daze a character, but dazed characters are not necessarily removed immediately; they may return to the fight later in the round, depending on the character and game state. Characters also generate Power, a resource used to pay for superpowers and reactive abilities.

Team affiliations give the game a strong Marvel identity. Leaders such as Captain America, Red Skull, Storm, and Spider-Man provide affiliation abilities that reward particular team-building choices. The game’s roster spans heroes, villains, aliens, mutants, gods, and cosmic entities from Marvel comics and films, including the Avengers, X-Men, Brotherhood of Mutants, Guardians of the Galaxy, Asgardians, Wakanda, and Criminal Syndicates. Some characters can belong to more than one affiliation, reflecting their different comic-book relationships.

The game’s narrative is intentionally broader than a single campaign. Crisis cards describe conflicts such as dimensional breaches, alien invasions, mystical disasters, and battles over powerful artifacts. Because players choose the teams and scenarios, one game might depict the Avengers confronting Ultron, while another could place Doctor Strange beside unlikely allies against a criminal operation.

Crisis Protocol has received continuing expansions that add miniatures, cards, terrain, and rules updates. Atomic Mass Games has also revised character cards and organized-play materials over time, making the game an evolving system rather than a static boxed experience. Its appeal rests on combining recognizable Marvel storytelling with tactical positioning, resource management, objective play, and the visual spectacle of painted superhuman miniatures.