From Panel to Play: Sentinels Affiliation Pack

On today’s Panel to Play, players will get a look inside the Sentinels Affiliation Pack, containing four central and iconic characters central to the program’s goal of eliminating the mutant threat to humankind.

The devastating Sentinels are war machines designed by Bolivar Trask to hunt down and destroy mutants. The Mark IV class are equipped with a variety of weapons systems, including plasma and electric blasts, catch-web cables, and remarkable levels of physical strength. Sentinels are incapable of being persuaded to deviate from their training; they pursue their captives with unrelenting tenacity until they accomplish their objective, which is the eradication of their mutant prey.

On the tabletop, the Sentinel MK4 comes in at a whopping Size 5, and it crams every inch of it with different tools, weapons, and powers to dish out pain to its mutant prey. The Plasma Blast attack may seem like a simple energy beam at first glance, but it can really scorch the flesh off of some adamantium bones thanks to the ability to pay Power to increase its Strength from 5 up to a maximum of 7! Don’t think that beating up on the MK4 is going to do you any favors, either. When it flips to its damaged side, Plasma Blast becomes Plasma Leak, which now has a chance to do one damage to each character within range 2.

For those tenacious mutants, the MK4 has the potent Suppression Protocols attack. Costing 3 Power to use, this Strength 8 Physical attack has a chance to inflict the Incinerate, Shock, AND Slow special conditions on its target, reflecting how a Sentinel can tailor its strikes to deal with specific mutant prey.

As a gigantic robot, the MK4 isn’t the fastest thing on the battlefield and might struggle to catch up to some of the more evasive heroes out there. Fortunately, it can snare pesky targets with its Restraint Cables, ranged cables that shoot out to tangle an opponent and draw them closer for some ol’ fashioned suppression. Once a turn, the MK4 can spend 2 Power to target an enemy and push them Short directly toward the Sentinel.

The MK4 also includes several innate powers to reflect its masterful creation and robotic nature. Master Mold allows you to take two of the towering robots instead of the normal limitation of one character per alter ego, to really put some fear into your opponent. Power Matrix, representing the immense power supply of the machine, gives the MK4 2 Power at the end of each of its activations—perfect for setting up a Restraint Cable on your next turn or for charging up a Plasma Blast. And the machine mind of the MK4 benefits from Sentinel Programming, which prevents it from being moved by Mystic attacks (or superpowers), while further bolstering its mystic defenses with 2 additional defense dice against mystic attacks. Telepathy, magic, and other such shenanigans mean nothing to the might of the machine!

Most interesting to new and old players is the Acceptable Collateral Damage rule, allowing Sentinel Mk4s to overlap terrain features of size 2 or less and destroy them. These relentless machines don’t pay attention to the small terrain and won’t be slowed down or prevented from reaching their targets! Rounding it out, a MK4 has the ability to fly, and as you might expect from a robot, immunity to the Bleed and Poison conditions.

But, you might be asking, what about the bigger, badder version of the Sentinel? What do you get when you take a terrifying robotic menace and give it a version update? You get the Sentinel Prime, of course! This update to the MK4 turns things up to 11 in almost every way.

Its Plasma Blast attacks are tuned up to be 1 Strength higher than their standard counterpart—and the Prime Sentinel must have some heavier shielding on those plasma beams, because it retains Plasma Blast when damaged!

The Prime Sentinel retains everything that makes the MK4 great, with the same flight and immunities, Restraint Cables, Sentinel Programming, and Power Matrix—with the added… uh… benefit of an Overloading Power Core when it is damaged that can score the Prime up to 5 additional Power at the risk of causing itself some damage.

But what makes the Sentinel Prime really special are two powers the garden-variety MK4 lacks. The first is the Mutant Hunters leadership for the Sentinel affiliation. Prime rewards its loyal Sentinels with power when they successfully deal with prey, dishing out 1 Power to a number of its allies equal to the target’s Threat! The leadership has been upgraded with new programming and now works on both KO’s and dazed enemy characters! This leadership works almost opposite of their other leadership from Bastion, giving Sentinels players plenty of adaptability during list building.

Speaking of adaptability, the Prime has one of the most iconic abilities of the Sentinels: adaptability. Sentinels are so fearsome because every time you fight them, you’re adding to their knowledge of how to combat your abilities and defeat you in the future. Pattern Analysis reflects this trait and allows the Prime or one of its allies to reroll up to 3 dice when attacking or defending!

Cassandra Nova is a being known as a “mummudrai,” a parasitic form of life born incorporeal on the astral plane. The mummudrai that grew to be Cassandra was telepathically entangled with the mutant Charles Xavier. Xavier’s vast telepathic powers bestowed Cassandra with psionic powers herself, including the ability to create a physical body for herself.

Cassandra Nova is Xavier’s twisted shadow, bent on genocide and destruction in contrast with his benevolent and humanitarian beliefs. As such, Cassandra has taken it on herself to inflict as much pain and destruction towards the eradication of Charle’s beloved mutants. Using a relative of the Sentinel program creator, Donald Trask, Cassandra took over the Sentinel program and redirected it to cause the destruction of Genosha.

If you ignore the fact that she’s rocketing upward on a blast of mental force, Cassandra Nova might cut an unassuming figure on the tabletop. A slender woman wearing normal clothing, Cassandra Nova’s menace is conveyed in her imperious posture and scowling expression.

On the tabletop, Cassandra Nova is a bundle of horrible things ending in “-kinesis” wrapped up in an unassuming package. The mummadrai has all the mental powers you’d expect from someone who gained their powers from a spirit link with Professor X.

Like Jean Grey, another potent telepath, Cassandra Nova has the Psionic Bolt attack, which can sap power from its targets and bestow it to her. But Cassandra Nova can use this extra power for some truly diabolical abilities that interfere with your opponent’s carefully laid plans. The Mind Possession Mystic attack costs only 1 Power to use, is Strength 6, and allows her to advance the target its Speed after dealing damage. Oh, I’m sorry, were you trying to hold that objective? Not anymore!

Of course, if Cassandra Nova wants to be a bit less subtle, she can always use her Flesh Manipulation attack. Using her biokinetic powers, she unleashes a Strength 8 attack that pushes and damages characters within Range 2. The repellant attack of Cassandra getting her fingers inside you causes everyone nearby to step back and reconsider crossing her.

That’s just the beginning when it comes to Cassandra Nova’s suite of abilities. She can use bio-kinesis to stop an enemy target in their tracks, telekinesis to protect herself from thrown objects, telepathy to distract her opponents and cloak her presence, and more!

Sentinels players have a suite of powerful cards, including Directive One. This game-changing card lets Sentinels characters ignore stealth and prevent modification of defense dice on attacks for an entire round, and attack regardless of line of sight. This is especially useful with Cassandra Nova and the other smaller Sentinels characters coming soon. Online and Operational is another impressive ability, allowing Sentinel Prime to fully heal a Sentinel MK4 within range 3 for only 4 power!

This pack contains the main Sentinels from the present Marvel universe. Who knows what dark technologies will arise in the future? Surely nothing that can come back and menace modern mutants with their ever-changing powers?

You can pre-order the Sentinels Affiliation Pack from your favorite local game store or from the Asmodee web shop today!

Until next time, Atomic Mass Games signing off!