Marvel: Crisis Protocol: What it is, new releases, rules, and how to start

Marvel: Crisis Protocol is a miniature wargame in which players bring together a dream team made up of heroes and villains from across this comic book universe and lead their superpowered forces against their rivals in tactical battles. The game is designed mainly for two players and is played on a standard 36 x 36 inch battlefield, filled with interactive urban scenery. Its gameplay revolves around highly tactical skirmishes in which characters can make use of the environment, literally throwing cars, dumpsters, and even buildings at their enemies to claim victory.

To properly understand the trajectory of the game, it is important to look at the studio behind it. Formed by veterans of the board game industry, Atomic Mass Games was founded on January 2, 2019, as an Asmodee studio dedicated exclusively to miniatures. Its first published title was this superhero game, released in fall 2019, which revolutionized the market by removing strict faction restrictions and allowing creative combinations of characters within the same team.

Today, the studio continues to produce highly relevant miniature games within the industry, together with fast and dynamic game systems, and it has successfully expanded its catalog to include hugely popular Star Wars miniature lines.

How to play Marvel Crisis Protocol: basic game concepts

A standard Marvel Crisis: Protocol game is played over a maximum of six rounds, with the main objective of reaching 16 victory points by completing the objectives on the Crisis Cards before the opponent, or by completely knocking out (KO) the enemy squad. The structure of each round is precisely divided into three different phases: the Power Phase, the Activation Phase, and the Cleanup Phase. During the Power Phase, characters naturally gain Power tokens, a vital resource used to unleash devastating attacks and superpowers, special attacks, and interactions with objectives or scenery.

The core of the strategy takes place during the Activation Phase. Players alternate turns activating one character at a time. An activated character can perform up to two actions, choosing between advancing across the battlefield, making an attack, using an active superpower, or removing a negative condition. Movement is based on specific movement and measuring tools, classified as short, medium, and long, along with range rules for attacks, superpowers, and interactions.

Combat resolution uses eight-sided dice, or D8. When a character makes an attack, the player checks the range, selects the type of attack, physical, energy, or mystic, and rolls the attack dice. The defending player rolls their corresponding defense dice, and the successes are compared. A key tactical and thematic element of the game is that suffering damage directly grants Power tokens to the injured character; this means that, as your heroes take hits, they gain the fuel they need to strike back with spectacular attacks and superpowers.

AdeptiCon roadmap and new characters

The future of Marvel: Crisis Protocol remains very active. During the AdeptiCon 2026 presentation, Atomic Mass Games showed a roadmap with several releases and updates designed to expand both the competitive and narrative sides of the game. Among the announced new releases, the arrival of new characters such as Onslaught, Blackheart, and Hulkling stands out, along with new Starter Sets, Reissue Character Packs, and character updates planned to keep the game balanced and refreshed.

These new releases not only expand the catalog of available miniatures, but also offer new options for building rosters, exploring different affiliations, and refreshing already existing teams. For players who enjoy the hobby side, each new release also represents an opportunity to paint iconic Marvel characters, work on special effects such as energy, fire, magic, or gamma radiation, and create more thematic urban bases.

Beyond the individual miniatures, the roadmap also reinforces the idea that Marvel: Crisis Protocol continues to grow as a system. The arrival of new packs, reissues, and character adjustments makes it easier for both veteran players and beginners to find updated ways to enter the game or expand their collections. Starter Sets and Reissue Character Packs, character card packs, are also planned for the coming months.

Beyond the miniatures themselves, the organized play team also announced its huge calendar for the 2026/2027 Grand Tournament season. The studio remains committed to the community, offering exclusive prizes, promotional items, and world-class painting competitions.

Rules changes, errata, and Standard Format

To maintain a balanced and highly competitive environment, the studio frequently publishes digital updates and errata documents. Keeping up to date with the official Marvel Crisis Protocol rules ensures that games remain fair, tactical, and fun. The most important recent adjustment arrived with the November 2025 rules update, which significantly revised list building and mission selection.

In addition to the major November 2025 update, in January 2026 AMG updated the game documents to include new characters and Team Tactic Cards, or team tactic cards, and removed The Great Refuge from Standard Format.

Under the revised Standard Format, players must now bring 5 Secure Crisis Cards and 5 Extract Crisis Cards in their pre-game lists, a notable increase compared to the original requirement of 3 of each type. This expansion greatly increases the variety of mission combinations that a player will encounter from one game to another, forcing strategists to build much more adaptable 10-character squads. The update also introduced “Zone Tokens,” a new type of secure objective token that includes a 90-degree arc and completely changes the way characters must position themselves to contest zones.

Character balance is monitored continuously, resulting in updated stat cards in print-and-play format. For example, the Sentinels affiliation received aggressive updates to bring it up to the level of the competitive environment. The Sentinel MK4 now has the innate superpower “Acceptable Collateral Damage,” which allows these enormous robots to move through small pieces of interactive scenery without being hindered. Other characters, such as Yondu, have had their stamina value, meaning their endurance or life on the stat card, slightly increased to improve their survivability on the battlefield.

In addition, the developers have revised several older Crisis Cards to remove overly random elements. In missions that previously required players to roll dice to blindly “search” for objectives among piles of debris, characters can now simply interact and secure the resources, shifting the focus of the game away from pure luck and toward tactical positioning.

Timeline Events 2026: Multiversal Chaos

Narrative play receives a major boost this year. The studio officially presented the 2026 Timeline Event, titled “Multiversal Chaos.” Timeline Events are unique tournament formats designed to challenge players with strict thematic restrictions and extraordinary scenarios. These events offer a fresh and deeply immersive way to enjoy your collection, moving away from standard competitive games to tell a broader, interconnected story on the tabletop.

The affiliation and roster system

Although you can combine whichever heroes you want, using the official Marvel Crisis Protocol affiliation list provides incredibly powerful tactical advantages. Before a game begins, players secretly select their active team from their 10-character roster to match the exact threat level of the chosen crisis. If more than half of the characters chosen for that specific game share the same affiliation, the team can officially declare that affiliation.

Declaring an affiliation allows the squad to use a unique Leadership ability provided by the faction leader. For example, Steve Rogers gives the Avengers an exceptional tactical advantage through dice manipulation. Although absolute failures cannot be changed, this ability allows allies to strategically convert their blank results into guaranteed successes or wild results. Alternatively, the Cabal affiliation, led by Red Skull, grants power generation bonuses when dealing damage.

Affiliations also unlock the use of specialized Team Tactic Cards restricted to specific groups. Some of the most popular and best-supported affiliations are:

• The Avengers

• Cabal

• Spider-Foes

• X-Men

• Brotherhood of Mutants

• Guardians of the Galaxy

What to buy to start and the Starter Sets

Getting into the hobby is much easier when you know exactly which boxes offer the best value for money. The main product for any beginner is a Marvel Crisis Protocol core set. The classic Core Set contains 10 hard plastic miniatures, including Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, Iron Man, Red Skull, and Doctor Octopus, a Daily Bugle scenery piece, cars, dice, movement tools, and all the necessary tokens.

However, to enjoy the full introductory experience, the more recent “Earth’s Mightiest Core Set” is highly recommended. This huge box invites you to assemble a completely new roster and includes 13 plastic character miniatures, an astonishing 26 scenery miniatures, 20 Team Tactic Cards, and 6 Crisis Cards. It is a complete game in a single box that provides everything two players need to start rolling dice immediately.

If you prefer to jump straight into a specific theme, Atomic Mass Games offers specific Starter Sets. The X-Men Starter Set provides a complete roster of iconic mutants ready to fight for their survival, while the Spider-Foes Starter Set allows you to command Spider-Man’s best-known villains from the very beginning.

Once you have a core box, Character Packs are the main way to expand your roster. You can find cosmic entities, supernatural monsters, or high-tech fighters. For example, the Iron Lad, Iron Monger, Kang the Conqueror, and Rescue come together in a highly sought-after expansion pack that introduces characters linked to time travel, such as Kang.

All miniatures in this game are supplied unassembled and unpainted on hard plastic sprues. Taking the time to cut, clean, and properly glue your miniatures is a very rewarding part of the hobby. To help beginners, the publisher offers excellent MCP assembly diagrams in PDF format on its website, so you can assemble your heroes correctly before reaching the painting table.

Official prices and buying guide

Calculating the budget for your new wargame is simple once you know the official retail prices. Understanding the different product levels will help you plan your collection efficiently without overspending.

Here is a breakdown of the official prices for Starter Sets and character expansions according to Asmodee store data. Keep in mind that you will also need to invest in regular hobby supplies, such as cutting tools, quality plastic glue, primers, and acrylic paints, to complete your collection properly.

Note: Prices may vary depending on country, distributor, language, availability, and store. In Europe, prices in euros often differ from the direct conversion from USD.

Painting and scenery ideas for MCP

A fully painted table is a visual marvel. The game uses interactive scenery that has a decisive influence on line of sight, cover, and combat resolution. Scenery ranges from size 1 elements, such as streetlights and traffic lights, to size 5 elements, such as the huge Daily Bugle building. Since superpowered characters can throw these objects across the table to crush their enemies, having a varied and well-painted city is essential for tabletop immersion. You can easily complement the official scenery boxes with scratch-built urban elements or custom 3D prints to bring your New York streets to life on the tabletop.

The artistic side of the game is highly celebrated by both the community and the studio. The developers regularly highlight community paint jobs and proudly organize “The Path of the Worthy,” the official miniature painting competition held annually at AdeptiCon. This highly prestigious competition features incredible work that inspires players from all over the world to push their lighting, shading, and basing techniques to the highest level.

Is Marvel: Crisis Protocol worth starting in 2026?

2026 is a good time to start playing Marvel: Crisis Protocol, especially thanks to the availability of starter boxes, the recent rules updates, and the roadmap of new releases announced by Atomic Mass Games. The system has matured well, balancing a strict competitive ruleset with very rich thematic and cinematic gameplay. The introduction of deeper roster requirements, narrative Timeline Events such as Multiversal Chaos, and highly accessible Starter Sets means that, whether you are a competitive tournament player or a hobbyist who wants to carefully paint your favorite comic book heroes, the game offers a top-tier wargame experience. Gather your dice, paint your miniatures, and get ready to fight for the fate of the multiverse!

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All trademarks, logos, and product names mentioned, including but not limited to Marvel: Crisis Protocol, and any other titles, are the property of their respective owners. The use of these names in this text is for informational and descriptive purposes only, with no intention of infringing intellectual property rights, copyrights, or registered trademarks.

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Note 2: All miniatures and terrain elements shown in the images have been painted by @anthony.s.arts (IG).