Marvel Crisis Protocol Tactics: Nick Fury and SHIELD Agents

As the Director of SHIELD, Nicholas J. Fury, Jr. is one of the most important characters in the Marvel Universe.  His organization is responsible for handling the myriad threats to Earth that regular national defense forces can’t handle.  He also works closely with superteams across the globe to ensure the safety of Earth.  In Marvel Crisis Protocol, he is one of my favorite characters in the game, and is also a formidable leader.  

Let’s look at his card.  Of his two available free attacks, resist the temptation to hit a damage spike and gain a ton of power from his Tactical Knife attack, and take the reliable power gain of Fury Special instead.  Sometimes you just won’t deal any damage, and it will throw off Fury’s Power Economy.  With his Grunts, he has other ways of reliably generating more than two power a turn, and more often than not, you will not find him power-starved.  

Before we talk any more about Nick Fury, we need to discuss his Grunts, S.H.I.E.L.D Agents, a little bit more because so much of his kit revolves around them.  They are fairly typical Grunts in that they can’t generate power and all that, and they have a typical stat line of 1/1/1 defenses and 2HP.  What makes them unique is that they can interact with Extracts for free, and if they drop an Extract, you can choose where to drop it thanks to their Buy You Time ability.  They also have a fairly strong 4-dice Pistol attack at Range 3.

With the Grunts out of the way, we can get back to Nick Fury.  I think the best way to play his Grunts is pretty aggressively, because if they Daze, you pick where they drop an Extract, and if they are within Range 3 of Fury they can re-roll an attack and defense dice as well as generate a Power for Fury whenever they deal or take damage thanks to his innate Director of S.H.I.E.L.D superpower.  The only other Superpower that Nick Fury has on his card is the Active power Call in the Cavalry.  For 2 Power, he brings his Grunts back if they aren’t on the table, and while they are Activated when they come in, they can still Interact with one Extract Objective token for free. And you’ll want to have these Grunts on the table as much as possible.

Nick Fury’s Spender Lead From the Front may not look like it, but it is one of the best in the game, and part of the reason you want to make sure you have Grunts on the table.  For just 3 Power, Fury gets to attack with 7 Physical dice at Range 3, which would be fair for a Spender attack if that was all it did.  Not great, but fair.  However, in addition to that, if his SHIELD Agents are within Range 3 (which they should always be), they can advance S towards the target and then make a Pistols attack with re-rolls and Power Generation still in effect with that Pistols attack.  So for 3 Power, you’re effectively throwing 11 dice with a re-roll and have the possibility of refunding one of those spent Power. And with how he generates Power, it’s not that uncommon to use this attack twice in a turn.  

Affiliations

Nick Fury is only affiliated with SHIELD, and until the release of Namor he was the only leader for that affiliation.  There are two parts to his leadership Last Line of Defense: One for when you are down VPs, and another for when you are tied or winning in VPs. If you are losing on VPs, the first time an allied character is Dazed or KO’d in a Round, you score 1 VP.  This is a great mechanic to keep you in a game and allow you to have a chance to catch up. If you are tied or ahead, when an allied character is damaged by an enemy effect, they can spend 1 power and advance S towards the attacking character. If you were pushed off a Secure objective, that is a very good power to spend to get back onto the point.  

Tactics Cards

Nick Fury has three Tactics Cards associated with him.  One is cute, one is useful, and one is one of the best Tactics Cards in the game.  Let’s start with the cute one, Life Model Decoy.  First, you have to spend 3 Power (the equivalent of Lead From the Front) to have the chance of re-rolling an opponent’s attack dice for a round.  I don’t think I have ever seen this card played or taken.  

Reposition can have a place in your 5, especially if you are playing SHIELD and Fury is your leader.  Being able to move him around the board either out of danger or in range to attack without using a Move Action can be useful in the right situations.  

But his best card, which should always be brought if you play him, is Eye in the Sky.  For 3 power, which he should have, Nick Fury or an allied character can make a S advance when they are targeted by an attack. Your opponent keeps the power and action, but this can save a character from being Dazed and putting you in a really bad position.  Additionally, if you are playing the SHIELD affiliation, you can play this card once every round of the game. 

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