From Panel Play: X-Force Affiliation Pack

When the world calls for a less cerebral approach to handling the challenges mutantkind faces, they can rely on the subject of today’s From Panel to Play, the X-Force. The X-Force Affiliation Pack brings back four characters, and their associated Team Tactic Cards, to Marvel: Crisis Protocol as a convenient expansion to the X-Men starter box. Cable’s team handles the morally questionable and occasionally clandestine tasks required to defend mutantkind. They work behind the scenes allowing the rest of the X-Men to take the public spotlight as the peace-minded champions of their people.

Leading this team is Cable, a mutant from the future who brings a great deal of firepower and a strong Leadership to get the job done. Cable has received a few changes over the years including the addition of Stamina on his Healthy side and a reduction of cost in his Askani’son attack. These two changes may seem minor, but their effects are undeniable as both give Cable the extra staying power a 5 Threat Value character should have.

In addition to these two numerical changes, two of Cable’s rules have been updated over the years. The first is his Leadership ability, Wetworks. This Leadership’s update gave it the ability to reroll Failure results during an attack and allows the attacker to ignore Cover in certain conditions which make it much more effective for the team known for its aggressiveness. The second change was to his Plasma Rifle attack. This long range, but otherwise fairly basic attack, never lived up to the expectation of a Range 5 attack that could Incinerate its target. It gained a special rule that allows it to reroll dice when used against nearby enemies making it much more potent as characters gather around objectives.

Joining Cable is the epitome of Luck itself, Domino. Domino hasn’t changed since release showing off her Probability Manipulation and how things tend to go her way. Most of her abilities highlight how difficult it is to be her opponent with her having chances of extra attacks, denial of Cover, denial of enemy Critical dice, and increased chances for her own Criticals.

The X-Force also comes with potent Team Tactic Cards. Warpath gives the character playing it an Advance towards enemies after being attacked and Cat and Mouse allows for an X-Force character to be Placed after deployment, before the first round even begins, setting up scenario plays or counter attacks to respond to an opponent’s initial actions.

The next characters in this pack make up a famous duo: X-23 and Honey Badger.

X-23 is a trained assassin who can leap into a frenzy of attacks relying on her Healing Factor to give her some staying power against her opponents. She’s had some changes over the years as well including the loss of a superpower, Adamantium Skeleton. As she does not have an adamantium skeleton, this is a great thematic change that also reduced her power a little bit when she was overperforming.

Honey Badger is also an aggressive character, but instead of focusing on attacking enemies, she annoys them with her Anklebiter superpower while still being Too Dangerous to Ignore. She has not had any changes since her release due to her solid, but not over the top kit that makes her an appealing choice for many players.

X-23 and Honey Badger are sisters, and they are very protective of each other. When one is attacked, the other will be able to Advance towards the attacking character with Big Sis or Lil’ Sis in order to defend their sibling which can set them up for devastating activations.

This Affiliation Pack also includes a few more Team Tactic Cards including Instant Recovery which provides additional healing for the character that uses it, Johnathan the Unstoppable to enable better scenario play with Honey Badger, and the Jame Logan Howlett/Laura Kinney team up card Wolverines. All of these cards round out the X-Force affiliation and provide an array of tools for players to explore.

With that, the X-Force heads out on their next questionable assignment to defend mutantkind. Come back for the next From Panel to Play to see what’s coming soon to Marvel: Crisis Protocol. Pre-order your X-Force Affiliation Pack from your local game store or online at the Asmodee store!

Until next time, Atomic Mass Games signing off!