Panel-To-Play: The Leader, Red Hulk & Sensational She-Hulk

Gamma power looks very different in the hands of its wielder. With new Leaderships for Intelligencia and the Thunderbolts joining Marvel: Crisis Protocol, The Leader, Red Hulk & Sensational She-Hulk bring that gamma powered might in some pretty exciting and different ways. Let’s dive in!

Samuel Sterns, better known as The Leader, was once an overlooked laborer before exposure to gamma radiation transformed his mind and granted him superhuman intelligence. Obsessed with proving his intellectual superiority, Sterns became one of Hulk’s most persistent enemies and eventually formed the Intelligencia to further his ambitions.

At 3 Threat, The Leader is less interested in overpowering an opponent than pulling their plans apart with attacks like Mental Bolts, a Range 4, Strength 5 Mystic attack that has Sap Power on a Wild, causing the defender to lose 1 Power for each Wild rolled and giving that Power directly to Leader.

Engines of Destruction takes a different approach. The Range 3, Strength 7 Physical attack lets The Leader Advance Medium after it resolves, while every Wild rolled can give the defender Bleed, Shock, Slow, or Stun. A good roll can leave the target damaged, loaded with conditions, and dealing with Sterns somewhere entirely new.

His superpowers give him even more control over where everyone ends up. You Are Here To Obey costs 3 Power and Advances an enemy within Range 4 Short, while Psychokinesis spends the same amount to Throw a Size 3 character within Range 3 Short.

That makes The Leader particularly good at disrupting a board before the opponent gets to execute the turn they had planned.

Moving Sterns around against his will is much harder. Mental Monolith prevents him from being Pushed or Advanced by Mystic attacks or enemy superpowers, and reduces collision damage he suffers by 1. He is also immune to Poison. Being irradiated with gamma radiation has its benefits I suppose!

His real mental might extends beyond his own activation through I Have Calculated All Possible Outcomes To Your Defeat, the Leadership for Intelligencia. Whenever an allied character rolls dice and gets at least one Critical, it gains 1 Power after the effect resolves. Each character can only gain that Power once per turn, but the trigger is not limited to combat.

That means rolling dice for an objective interaction can fuel Intelligencia too!

My Latest Invention gives The Leader another way to meddle with objective play. For 1 Power during the Power Phase, any enemy within Range 5 that interacts with an objective token gains Slow after the interaction resolves. On a Crisis that asks opponents to keep interacting, Sterns can make one of those decisions a little more painful.

Another fun Tactic Card is Shadow Brokers, where it asks the entire Intelligencia to buy in. At the start of the Activation Phase, any number of affiliated characters may contribute Power. If they spend at least 10, each Intelligencia character gains an Underworld Ring for the round. As long as another non-Dazed allied Intelligencia character is within Range 5, that character can reroll up to 2 dice while attacking, defending, or dodging. Who says a life of crime doesn’t have benefits, eh?

General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross spent much of his military career hunting Hulk before eventually becoming the very kind of gamma-powered being he had pursued. Transformed through an experiment engineered by The Leader, Ross retained his intelligence and military training while gaining immense strength and the ability to generate intense heat.

At 5 Threat, Red Hulk turns that heat into both the setup and payoff for some of his biggest attacks. Blistering Strike is a Strength 6 Physical attack that can give the defender Incinerate on a Wild. Normally that condition is already useful, but Red Hulk has a much more direct reason to want it on his target.

Scorched Earth is a 4 Power, Strength 7 Area 2 attack. When attacking a character with Incinerate, Red Hulk can remove that condition to add 3 dice to the attack roll. After each attack resolves, the defender is Pushed Short regardless of Size.

Burning Drop gives Ross another way to get the whole sequence started. For 3 Power, Red Hulk Places within Range 2, suffers 1 damage, and gives Incinerate to every other character around him.

And yes, we mean every character.

Burning Drop doesn’t care which side they’re on, so where Ross lands can matter just as much as who he intends to hit next. Once he’s there, Everything Including the Kitchen Sink does exactly what the name promises. For 3 Power, Red Hulk can Throw a Size 4 or smaller terrain feature or enemy character Medium.

Energy attacks bring out another side of his gamma powers. While defending against one, Energy Absorption lets Red Hulk change one Critical, Wild, or Hit in the attacker’s roll to a blank for each Wild in his own defense roll. He then gains 1 Power for every die changed this way. Enemies beware as  trying to blast through him can end up funding whatever Ross wants to do next.

Gamma Powered adds another Power during the Power Phase, while immunity to Incinerate means Ross does not have to worry about getting caught in his own flames. He is also immune to Poison. Go gamma radiation!

Last but not least, Necessary Measures shows why Red Hulk is the head of the Thunderbolts. Once per turn, when an allied character damages an enemy with an attack, another allied character gains 1 Power. Like Ross, it is straightforward, but it gives the Thunderbolts a reason to start connecting attacks early and funnel those resources toward whoever needs them next.

Vicious Cycle keeps that momentum going. After an allied character makes an attack, another allied Thunderbolts character within Range 3 can spend 2 Power to immediately make a 0 Power attack against the same defender.

The best part is, the card can even come back. When an allied non-Grunt character is KO’d, Vicious Cycle may return to your available Team Tactic Cards and potentially be played again later in the game.

Then there is War of the Strongest. During the Create Attack Dice Pool step, Red Hulk can spend 3 Power to add dice to his attack equal to the defender’s Threat Value. Against the right target, that can turn into a huge number of additional dice.

There is a catch, however! After the attack resolves, the defender may immediately make a 0 Power attack back against Red Hulk. Of course, they’ll have to survive first.

That makes War of the Strongest an enticing option when Ross thinks one more massive swing can Daze or KO the character standing across from him. High risk, high reward indeed.

Rounding out this Character Pack is Sensational She-Hulk.

Jennifer Walters is a brilliant lawyer whose life changed after she received a lifesaving blood transfusion from her cousin Bruce Banner. His gamma-irradiated blood transformed Jennifer into She-Hulk, giving her tremendous strength while allowing her to retain her intelligence and confidence.

Any boy does Sensational She-Hulk bring plenty of that confidence to the table. Wall-Shattering Strike is a Range 2, Strength 6 Physical attack that always gives Jennifer 1 Power after the attack resolves. A Wild also leaves the defender with Stun.

Emerald Objection gives her something much heavier to swing with. The Range 3, Strength 8 Physical attack Throws a Size 4 or smaller target Medium after the attack resolves. Roll a Wild and that character also gains Stagger. Objection sustained!

Ms. Walters likes to get up close and personal. However, once Jennifer gets close, simply attacking her isn’t always the answer either. Cross Examine costs 2 Power after an enemy within Range 3 attacks Sensational She-Hulk. Jennifer rolls 4 dice, and the attacker suffers 1 damage for each Critical and Wild.

Attack her again during the same turn and she rolls 6 dice instead. The first question might be free, but the follow-up? Yeah, that’s gonna hurt!

Of course, like her cousin, she also likes to use the environment to make her case. Approach the Bench costs 3 Power and Throws a Size 3 or smaller interactive terrain feature within Range 3 Long.

Her last two abilities are pretty slick, too. Case Prep helps when the dice refuse to cooperate. If Sensational She-Hulk rolls no Hits while attacking, she can reroll the entire attack roll. If she rolls no Blocks while defending, she can do the same with her defense dice. Lastly, Gamma Powered gives her 1 additional Power during the Power Phase, and she is immune to Poison. Gamma radiation really doesn’t sound that bad…

Her Team Tactic Card, Hostile Witness, makes walking away from Jennifer a decision of its own. When an enemy within Range 2 of an allied Jennifer Walters would Advance or Climb during its activation, she can spend 2 Power to play the card. That enemy may drop any objective tokens it is holding and spend 2 Power. If it does not, its position cannot change during that Advance or Climb. Keep the objective and stay within reach, or pay the price to get away. Either way, Jennifer has made her case.

Now that the characters in this Character Pack have been properly revealed, we think it’s only fair that we share the Affiliations List for both the Intelligencia and Thunderbolts. We hope this helps cook up some fun roster as you’re waiting for release day.

Intelligencia: 

• The Leader
• Abomination
• Bullseye
• Crossbones
• Crossbones, Merciless Merc
• Hood
• Iron Monger
• Killmonger
• Klaw
• M.O.D.O.K.
• M.O.D.O.K. Scientist Supreme
• The Wrecking Crew
• Viper

Thunderbolts: 

• Red Hulk
• Agent Venom
• Deadpool
• Elektra
• Ghost Rider
• Iron Fist
• Luke Cage
• Punisher
• Taskmaster
• The Black Widow
• Winter Solider, Operative

The Leader, Red Hulk, & Sensational She-Hulk each bring their own brand of gamma-powered chaos to the battlefield, along with some incredible sculpts and two new Affiliations to build around. Which one are you most excited to bring to the table?

Till next time,
Atomic Mass Games