Marvel: Crisis Protocol – Yondu Rules Preview
Space pirate and leader of the Ravagers Yondu is heading to Marvel: Crisis Protocol. We’re checking out his rules on the tabletop!
Yondu is a lot of things to lots of people. He’s a imfamous space pirate to merchants travelling the stars. He’s a leader to the Ravager — his crew of fellow pirates. And he’s even a father figure to others. Sometimes a questionable one…but no one is perfect, right? Well, now Yondu Udonta is coming to Marvel: Crisis Protocol. It’s time to find out what he’s bringing to the game.
“Yondu is a notorious pirate and combatant, known for his Centaurian weaponry giving his piracy a lethality that can’t be seen, but you can definitely hear it. Yondu has run across various heroes and villains in his life of space piracy, eventually finding a common soul in the lonely, young Peter Quill. Yondu almost executed the young Terran, but in his audacity at requesting to join his crew, Yondu saw himself, alone in the galaxy and unable to return home. Yondu might be a greedy pirate, but he can still find the time to fight for the downtrodden and defenseless (and find an angle for profit while he’s at it!)”
Yondu In Marvel: Crisis Protocol
Starting off with his stats Yondu brings solid defenses of 3/4/3. He’s got 6 stamina on this healthy side and drops to 5 on his injured side. He’s also size 2 and have a move of medium. He’s packing all that in a Threat Level of 4. Does he earn that spot? We’ll get to that.
His basic builder is the Yaka Arrow. It’s an impressive range 5 and packs 5 dice. Targets also don’t benefit from cover from this attack. If he scores any wilds he also causes slow to the target. As for his spender attack it has a still impressive range of 4 with 6 dice and costs 3 energy. On a single wild result it causes Pierce to bypass a targets crits, wilds, and block dice. And if you also get a wild and hit you can follow up with another Whistle While You Work attack — and you don’t have to pay the cost. The follow up attack has to be against a different target in range 3 of the previous target. Oh and it doesn’t chain again.
Attack-wise, Yondu is really bringing the range and I think that’s his big advantage here. If you can get a little lucky with his Whistle While You Work, you can get pretty deep in the enemy’s backline, too.
Yondu also comes with a Hit and Run which, as the name implies, is an attack followed by a move action. For 2 energy this is something we’ve seen before. Next, we have Ravagers Code: Steal Everything. For 1 energy, anytime any character in range 2 would drop 1 or more objectives you can use this power. It allows Yondu to pick-up one of those objective markers to himself. Honestly, I kind of like this power as a nice back-up plan.
Quickdraw is another power we’ve seen before. If an attacker is outside of range 2, instead of rolling his standard defense, Yondu can roll 5 defense dice. If he doesn’t take any damage from the attack, after it’s resolved, the attacking character takes 2 damage in return. All for the price of 2 energy.
Finally, we have The Pirate Way. While he’s holding one or more objectives OR if he’s Contesting a Secure objective, he may reroll 1 die for his attacks and defense rolls.
Overall, I think he’s got some potential. The range on his attacks is appealing as it allow him to sit farther back and fire away. He can also really mess with enemies on objectives (see: Plundered Goods below). My one gripe is that I kind of was hoping that he’d have a leadership ability. Ravager Code seems like a natural slot for a new Guardians of the Galaxy leadership ability. Now, by “slot” I mean literal space on the card. I don’t think an entire team with that power would be very balanced.
Yondu Team Tactic Cards
One of the Team Tactic Cards coming in his character Pack is Plundered Goods. This card costs 2 energy from Yondu. However, it gives him energy back when he attacks an enemy contesting or holding 1 more more objectives. Furthermore, if an any allies attack an enemy within range 3 of Yondu, and the enemy is holding an objective, the allied character can reroll 2 dice in the attack roll. Basically, you don’t want to be the one holding the objectives while Yondu is on the table.
Marvel: Crisis Protocol – Yondu & Nova $39.99
CP126 brings Yondu and Nova to the table in Marvel: Crisis Protocol! As MCP expands into the larger realms of comics, we see more exciting characters from Marvel brought to the tabletop.
Yondu brings a mix of his comics look at new found MCU fame, with his iconic mohawk and deadly bow & arrow. His game mechanics bring an underhanded pirate play style to the game, which will be new and fun for players. Nova is a hard hitting, medium zone character which will be a welcome addition to any player and collector.
Pirate. Ravager. Space …dad?
