From Panel to Play: Apocalypse

Beware! Apocalypse awakens!

Armed with technology that allows him to regenerate between ages and fueled by his belief that only the strong survive, Apocalypse awakens from his rejuvenation chamber between ages to search the world for more power. During one awakening, he found it in the form of a Celestial ship. He used that technology to augment his innate mutant power of manipulating his body at an atomic level. He uses this Celestial technology to transform mutants from the ages he awakens into his loyal lieutenants, the Horsemen of Apocalypse. Apocalypse and his horsemen aim to cull the weak of the world, brutally imposing their philosophy of survival.

Apocalypse forms weapons out of his body to exploit the weaknesses of his enemies with his Biomorphic Arsenal attack, and the Cower Before Me trigger plays into Apocalypse’s special condition-focused gameplan. You Will be Remade Through Me gives him a unique way to take advantage of conditions his squad puts out by replacing duplicates with other conditions. En Sabah Nur’s Judgment adding 2 dice for each special condition is a powerful finisher for any enemy character with multiple conditions.

What doesn’t kill Apocalypse makes him stronger. Only the Strong Remain allows Apocalypse to heal back from weak attempts to harm him, and an attack that only deals 1 damage to him leaves him better off than if that attack had not been made, especially if that attack would cause him to gain a condition he’s immune to. His resilience becomes extreme on his injured side, where he becomes immune to all special conditions.

Apocalypse augments the power of his squad with technology. Celestial Technology is a long range place for his allies that can completely change the shape of a game. His leadership, Apocalypse’s Horsemen, is the most powerful representation of his ability to augment the power of his team, though.

Apocalypse has a whole new level of power when he uses his leadership to gain Master of the Horsemen. He gains access to a toolbox of active superpowers from the Horsemen cards assigned to that game. He and his Horsemen also gain access to rerolls and extra power to use those superpowers by spending Evolution tokens from the Master of the Horsemen card. His Horsemen are also greatly empowered by his leadership.

Each character in Servants of the Apocalypse is eligible to be assigned 1 of 2 different Horsemen Cards when the leadership is chosen. For example, Wolverine can be assigned the Death or War Horsemen Cards. If Wolverine is given War, he gains the Fury and Horseman of War superpowers. Apocalypse, as Master of the Horsemen, then also gains the ability to use the Fury superpower once per turn. War is built to brawl and generates Evolution tokens from both dealing and suffering damage. Famine, meanwhile, doesn’t want any part of the brawl War wants to cause. They are given a superpower to deny a fight to the enemy, and they generate Evolution tokens by doing just that.

Pestilence’s Consuming Blight is great in a brawl, but the special conditions they put out are also effective at controlling enemies without fighting them. Either way, Pestilence generates Evolution tokens by spreading conditions to as many characters as possible. While War is built to start fights, Death is built to end them. Even the most powerful Horseman of Death benefits from waiting for the moment when they are strongest and their enemy is weakest before striking.
Each of the Horsemen benefitting from different, and sometimes conflicting, situations means a Servants of the Apocalypse player has to try to create situations where each Horseman they take can thrive.

Building a Servants of the Apocalypse–focused roster and making squads with it has an additional level of complexity that rewards deep familiarity with the affiliation. In addition to considering everything else that goes into squad building, an Apocalypse player needs to consider which Horsemen Cards they want for that game and which characters should be assigned those cards. Getting the most out of Servants of the Apocalypse will take some practice and thought.

In addition to the gameplay, Servants of the Apocalypse is a great hobby opportunity. Horsemen are augmented versions of the characters in the affiliation. The change shown between Angel and Archangel shows just how drastic these augmentations can be, and the metal wings of Archangel are great inspiration to make similar changes to other characters. Similarly, the depictions of Wolverine and Gambit on the Death Horsemen card show some other visions for what Horsemen transformations could look like. A Servants of the Apocalypse roster can also stand out with a unique paint scheme inspired by the transformations of Apocalypse’s Horsemen.

In addition to everything Apocalypse offers the standard game mode, an Ultimate Encounter for Apocalypse can be found in Rejuvenation Chamber. In that Ultimate Encounter, the crisis teams try to sabotage Apocalypse’s Rejuvenation Chamber before he can awaken to his full power. Apocalypse’s Horsemen, meanwhile, try to defend the Celestial technology and force Apocalypse’s evolution to progress faster. When Apocalypse awakens, he uses 1 or 4 different cards based on how strong he was allowed to become. Unlike the standard game, the affiliation restriction is removed from who can be Horsemen in the encounter, giving more freedom to create the Horsemen a player imagines. That encounter can optionally use the terrain found in CP185, Dark Future Terrain Pack, and the treasure chests in CP110, Shrine to En Sabah Nur, in place of the tokens found in CP194, Rejuvenation Chamber to immerse themselves in a setting inspired by Apocalypse.

In addition to their uses in the CP194 Ultimate Encounter, the terrain in CP185 and CP110 comes with One-Shot cards that can be used to enhance standard games of Marvel: Crisis Protocol.

Prepare for the arrival of Apocalypse and pre-order these new packs, that will shake the world of Marvel: Crisis Protocol. Check back later for another From Panel to Play, the series where we give you your first look at how your favorite characters transition to the tabletop in Marvel: Crisis Protocol. Pre-order these characters and more at your local game store or through the webstore today.

Until next time, Atomic Mass Games, signing off!