Marvel Crisis Protocol: Convocation Showcase and Musings
Gentleben is back with another Marvel Crisis Protocol Affiliation Showcase. This time it’s Convocation. Here comes the Magic side of Marvel!
Hopefully you already read and enjoyed my last MCP article on The Midnight Sons. As I said at the time, the Midnight Sons are a great place to start the game and then grow out your collection into other Affiliations. Ultimately the goal is to keep painting models and grow the Midnight Sons into the much larger Defenders Affiliation where you can include some of the most iconic Marvel super heroes like Spider-Man, Wolverine, and Daredevil. But since many of the members of Convocation are either in Defenders or Midnight Sons, I decided to paint up this tiny 8-member Affiliation first and give playing it a try.
Convocation
First, for anyone wondering, Convocation is not a super team that exists anywhere outside of Marvel Crisis Protocol. While there are plenty of examples of earth’s various mystics teaming up, there’s never been anything other than the occasional alliance of convenience.
As for how they play in game, I’ve found Convocation to be a much more challenging affiliation to play than Midnight Sons. They are unusual in many ways and have a lot more moving parts that you really need to master if you’re going to be successful. Just one good example is the fact that they have no set leader.
You decide which character will act as leader at the start of the game, in addition to which of two leadership abilities they will use. This means you have more decisions to make than you would with any other affiliation before you’ve even put the first model on the table. Additionally their team tactics cards require a bit of finesse and coordination to make the most of but can pay serious dividends to a player that masters them. Unfortunately I’m not quite that player yet. The showcase part is more my forte. But I do think I’ve learned enough to share a few helpful pointers.
As with The Midnight Sons, I’m going to present the models in order of which I’ve found the most useful along with a brief explanation of what I like or don’t like about them.
Convocation Miniature Showcase
Baron Mordo
Mordo makes the top spot since his Ferocity of Cyttorak Super Power is arguably the most important convocation ability. It’s not going to win you a game on it’s own but it’s useful enough that I would never want to play a game without him. And with the Master of the Occult Superpower he should always have the energy to use it at least once per turn.
Since Ferocity is what I’m usually spending his power on, I can’t really speak with experience to how useful his other abilities are. Vaulting Boots of Valtorr seems like a nice gotcha for when he might otherwise get pushed off a point, but for whatever reason it hasn’t come up in any games I’ve played.
Otherwise, he has just a teeny bit more health than most TL 3 characters but is still very squishy on turns when the Iron Bound Books of Shuma Gorath is not activated (which is probably only about half the game barring some unusual circumstance).
Wong
Wong is at number 2 again. Just such a helpful guy to have around with healing, extra power, and condition removal. And for only 2 TL!
Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme
Even though I’ve put him at number 3, I can’t imagine taking Convocation to the table without Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme. He is such a strong character and just does so many things for 5 TL. He can move models all over the place, do a little healing with a big area blast; he gets extra power, and he can even re-roll all his dice once per attack or defense roll – including skulls!
So far I have always made him the leader because that aforementioned Defense reroll, plus the Mystic Armor of Strange ability make him one of the tankier members of convocation. The downside is that I often end up putting him in the thick of it if it looks like there’s a good opportunity to use Shining Circle of the Seraphim. This means he often takes a pretty brutal beating. While we’re on the subject of Shining Circle, don’t forget that as strong as it is, Scalpel of Strange might be a better way to spend your power. MCP is an objective-based game so it’s always super helpful to be able to move your models up to secure a point, or move an enemy away from one. But that’s what makes him cool: so many options!
Ancient One
Whereas Mordo and Wong have really specific roles in your lists, Ancient One is more of a toolbox. She has all sorts of great little tricks and on top of that is the hardest hitter in faction with an 8 dice attack. Her biggest downside is her 2 physical defense, but with re-rolls and martial artist she often manages to defend with both. On turns when Iron Bound Books of Shuma Gorath is active she’s extremely hard to take down as she’ll be rolling five dice against Physical and Mystic Attacks.
Doctor Voodoo
I ranked Doctor Voodoo pretty low in my Midnight Sons article but not only have I come around to him a bit more, he’s also a more important pick for Convocation. No one else in this affiliation has the ability to get objective tokens off enemy models like Voodoo, so that gives him a special place already. Additionally, Iron Bound Books (I keep mentioning it because it’s important) makes him a bit less squishy than he would be in Midnight Sons, and positively tanky if he’s holding the Brother Daniel Token rather than using it.
Outside of these Convocation-specific situations, I’ve found myself wishing I had him on my roster a few times recently. On a couple of occasions I’ve had my opponents load up multiple objective tokens on hard-to-kill models only to find myself unable to take them out fast enough to prevent them from getting a big score. Doctor Voodoo would have been a big help in those situations.
Doctor Strange
I’ve come around a lot to vanilla Doctor Strange since my Midnight Sons article. Unfortunately he comes in kinda low with this affiliation because I prefer the other Strange. And you can only bring one. What makes this strange stand out is that he’s quite a bit tankier with the Hoggoth’s Hoary Wisdom ability. And of course it can make others tankier too. Upgrade Strange with the Soul Gem card to give him more power to use it all the time. While overall I find the Sorcerer Supreme version’s bag of tricks to be more useful, this Strange might be better for missions where you really have to get stuck in tight and find yourself surrounded by foes.
Clea
I’ve had someone tell me Clea is one of the worst characters Marvel’s Clea in the game but that seems really harsh for a TL 3 character that can do as many things as she can. She can’t hit very hard, true, but her attacks have some useful Special Rules attached. Additionally she can give herself some extra power and then use it to throw Terrain, or move a friendly character somewhere they need to be. I also like her Descendant of the Faultine ability. While she has plenty of things to do with the 3 power she can get from Descendant, consider saving it for using the Book of Cagliostro Team Tactics card on the Sorcerer Supreme.
Magik
I probably should play a few more games with Magik before I start critiquing her, but I’m going to do it anyway. As far as her card goes she’s a decent TL 3. It’s her Team Tactics cards that are a bit more interesting and that’s sort of where we run into a problem. Convocation has so many good Team Tactics cards I have a tough time picking which ones to bring even when I’m not considering character-specific ones.
That means even though Faithful Companion and Journey Through Limbo seem pretty strong, I don’t think I can prioritize them over Plane of Pohldahk or Orb of Agamoto. Or even more standard fare like Brace for Impact. Especially when Journey Through Limbo is a little redundant with what the Sorcerer Supreme is already doing. I can see her being more useful in one of her other Affiliations like X-Men or Defenders. Additionally her newly revealed Leadership ability for New Mutants seems pretty strong though so there’s definitely a place for her there.
Out-of-Affiliation Picks
“This drink… I like it! Another!”
That just leaves our out-of-Affiliation picks. Juggernaut was recommended to me as being a great choice for Convocation and there are lots of reasons why. He has a high mystic defense so he goes great with… you guessed it… Iron Bound Books of Shuma Gorath. You can also combine Baron Mordo’s Ferocity of Cyttorak Super Power with his Unstoppable Momentum Super Power for an extreme 10 or 12 dice attack. He’s also a lot tougher than anyone Convocation has to offer.
I tried Thor in a couple games for an early powered-up Mjolnir swing. Wong can give the Prince of Asgard the extra power he needs to use For Asgard! turn 1. Then Mordo uses Ferocity to give him an 8 die Strike. With that many dice he’s very likely to trigger a Throw and build up enough energy for a God of Thunder attack or another Throw with Strongest Avenger. This should leave at least 1 enemy model dazed and hopefully one or two more damaged.
Colossus came with Magik and seemed to make up for some Convocation shortcomings so I decided to paint him and give him a shot. He’s good at sticking to Objective Points thanks to Organic Steel. Additionally the Big Brother Super Power can let him soak some damage – extra useful for Convocation whose members are all a bit low on health. He can also take a lot of work to bring down with Bozhe Moi and Organic Steel. The more attacks your opponent dedicates to trying to bring down Colossus the less attacks there are targeting your squishier wizards.
On to Defenders
With Midnight Sons and now Convocation finished I have 11 of the 25 Defenders painted. While neither Black Cat or Baron Mordo are members of my next Affiliation goal, both have key unique abilities that can make them interesting out-of Affiliation picks. When I started this project it would have only been 11 more models to my goal, but recent new releases added 4 new Defenders. Nonetheless I’m well on my way and already trying them out on the table (even though I could stand getting a lot more games in with Convocation to really get the hang of them). I should be back with Defenders pics in no time.
~ Hope you enjoyed the pics and maybe even found the write-up a little helpful. If you’re another Convocation player how does this advice stack up against your own experiences? Do you have an out-of-Affiliation pick you prefer? Is there a different team member you’d put at the top?
