Welcome to the Idiots Guide to MCP. Where we take a look at various elements of the game, and try to break them down for newer players in order to get a better understanding of how the game works. In this Chapter we're going to be taking a look at crisis cards, and how they effect the way the game plays out on the tabletop.
Let's start with the basics then, in a game of MCP there are always two crisis (mission cards) in play at the same time, one will be a secure (blue card) and the other will be an extract (red card). Depending on who won priority, the player who won the roll gets to pick either their secures or extracts, and then the card is picked at random from one of the three in their roster. If the priority winner chooses secures, the opposing player then must select one of their extracts at random, or vice versa if the priority winner chose extracts instead. The player who lost priority then gets to pick the threat level, which is the number shown in the centre of the card. Both players then must select a squad from their roster up to a maximum of the threat level selected. We'll go over how a player should decide on a threat level later in the article.
Map Shape - Narrow vs Wide Scenarios
There are two defining features when we talk about crisis, and the first of these is the map shape, which can often be referred to as narrow or wide scenarios. Let's look at some examples of these below:
The first example we're going to have a look at is Gamma Wave, which is an example of a "narrow" scenario. The map shape (E) has all of the objectives placed in a vertical line down the centre of the board, with no objectives at either edge of the board. As this is a secure, these objectives are not going to move around, and so is going to force both teams into the centre of the board in order to score - hence the name - "narrow" crisis.
Another good example is Intrusions, this time though instead of the objectives being in a vertical line down the board, they're horizontal, but the map shape still forces both teams to operate in a very small area of the board, so still achieves it's purpose in being a narrow crisis.
In complete contrast to narrow crisis then, Riots is an example of a crisis deemed to be "wide". Instead of the objectives being in a small area of the board, on a wide crisis they're spread out among a much larger area, forcing you to split your squad. One of the main characteristics of a wider crisis, is that you cannot get between more than two points in a single activation without some form of additional movement tech.
Infinity Formula is another good example of a wide crisis. It's a slightly different map shape this time but the same characteristics apply. The objectives are spread out, forcing you to split your squad, and you're never within reach of more than 2 objectives without any additional movement.
So those are the two main types of map shape, and these examples are the extremes of both types. There are examples of crisis where they may be slightly less extreme, but generally they're either going to bunch up characters to a specific area of the board, or they're going to make you fan out.
You may have noticed, that all of the examples given above have been secures. So you might be wondering, what about the extracts? Extracts still follow the wide and narrow convention, however they are picked up by characters and moved around (there is an extract where this isn't the case, but that doesn't follow a lot of the usual conventions so we'll not go there), so the map shape is only really relevant at the very early stages of the game. Everything talked about above still applies for extracts, it just wont affect the whole of the game as they're not static in the same way secures are.
A point to note, there are some secures such as Mayor Fisk above that can move around but they don't tend to move far enough that they're warping from the original map shape.
Fast vs Slow Scoring
The second defining feature of a crisis, is how quick they score. And whilst the map shape determines what area of the board the game is played in, the scoring is going to dictate the pace. There's a lot of combinations here, as the pace is going to be dictated by both the secure and the extract, and there's lots of different combinations that could be pulled out, but there's a couple of examples below that can give you an idea.
Spider Infected and Scoundrels are considered to be fast crisis. This is because they both offer 5 objectives, each scoring 1 VP so there's 10 VP's to play for each round if both of these are played together. Because of this, a player is likely to reach 16 VP's before the end of round 6, and makes the pace of the game very quick.
Another example of how crisis can change the pace of the game, are Paranoia and Demons Downtown. Paranoia is one of the quickest scoring extracts in the game with 4 VP's on the table and the potential for both players to score an extra VP in the cleanup phase. Although this part of the game would be quick scoring, Demons Downtown is one of the slower scoring secures, and with only 3 VP's on the table, so this slows the game down slightly.
In complete contrast to the first example with two quick scoring crisis where there were 10 VP's on the table in total, the example above with Alien Ship and Deadly Meteors would be considered a slow combination, with only a maximum of 6VP's to claim, therefore the game is more likely to go on for longer, as there's not enough points on the table to score the game out quickly.
Threat Level
Whilst threat level isn't a primary reason to include a certain crisis in your roster, it is certainly something that should be considered. Threat level ranges from 15-20 after the recent crisis change, so there is a wide variety available. At lower threat levels, it's generally harder to include higher threat characters without making sacrifices in terms of how many characters you can include in your squad. At higher threat levels, this has the opposite effect, and tends to provide a lot more flexibility for character selection when squad building.
Crisis Effects
The final thing to note is crisis effects, and every crisis has one and can play a huge part in how the crisis plays out on the table.
Let's take Senators for example, as this is a crisis where the crisis effect has a huge impact on the game. Anyone holding a Senator can only make 1 move action per turn, severely limiting movement, so players often have to find ways to play around this.
Some crisis effects however, are not always to the detriment of the players. Let's take Fear Grips for example, where a character can add 1 dice to their attack roll for each extract they are holding. The downside though, is you do need to pay an extra power before that character plays a tactics card. Worth it though.. right?
That concludes Chapter 1 and should give you a basic understanding of how crisis work in the game. Tune in for Chapter 2 where we cover roster building and you can find out how to select the right crisis for your roster!
As always, thank you for reading, and please check out our sponsor www.protechgames.com for all your MCP needs.
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