Marvel: Crisis Protocol – Alliances: Night of the Goblin

Twenty-three miniatures, and the Green Goblin is the big one.

A cooperative box set from Atomic Mass Games in which up to four players take a team through a campaign against the Green Goblin and a considerable number of his minions. It arrives with twenty-three miniatures — four characters, eighteen enemy minions and the boss himself — along with two double-sided stage boards, four character dashboards, stat cards, dice and tokens. It is a complete game in a box rather than an expansion that assumes you already own a shelf of other things.

The campaign structure is the draw. Characters level up between stages through forty-four upgrade cards, tracking stamina, power and experience on their own dashboards, and the whole thing builds to a boss battle. It sits inside the Crisis Protocol universe without requiring that you already play Crisis Protocol, which makes it an unusually forgiving way into a hobby normally guarded by a paint station and a rulebook the size of a phone directory.

Perfect for: Anyone who has looked at a miniatures game, liked it enormously, and been quietly put off by the part where you are expected to paint it first.

Up to 4 players | Cooperative campaign | 23 miniatures