The G.U.A.R.D.

G.U.A.R.D. (Globally United Advanced Research & Defense) is humanity’s answer to the slew of invading monsters from other dimensions, galaxies, planets, and forgotten regions of the Earth. The finest scientists and military leaders came together to develop the greatest fighting force mankind has ever known. Every piece of G.U.A.R.D.’s hardware represents the pinnacle of human military technology reconceived and redeveloped from scratch to meet the world’s new challenges. With all new tanks, choppers, and giant mechanized robots, G.U.A.R.D. stands strong to defend the inhabitants of Earth against the invading threat.

Of the two debut G.U.A.R.D. monsters, Defender X may be the most straightforward. He has the Safeguard ability that rewards him with an additional Power Die when he Powers Up if his units are securing at least one building. With proper placement of your units and buildings, you can tip your unit to Power Die ratio well beyond 1:1 in your favor. Most of your units should commit to securing buildings and holding objectives. This allows you to build a Power Dice reserve to supplement your Action Dice and makes it easier to take multiple consecutive Monster Activations. This means you can put a lot of damage on your opponent while he tries to refill his monster’s Action Dice pool.

When Defender X enters his Ultra form, he gets to use his rocket fists. Launching his fists lets Defender X keep his distance while knocking enemy monsters into adjacent buildings and hazards for extra damage. Defender X can essentially reap the benefits of performing a power attack from several squares away.

Sky Sentinel requires a bit of love from your units to perform at his maximum potential. He loves his Rocket Chopper buddies by granting them the Wing Commander and Ground Control abilities anywhere on the board and then granting the Radar ability to units adjacent to him. Wing Commander gives Flying units like Rocket Choppers a Boost Die on blast attacks, and Ground Control allows flyers to hold objectives (something they cannot normally do).

With the large stacks of Boost Dice that Sky Sentinel’s Rocket Choppers can bring to bear on combined attacks, you want those Rocket Choppers ganging up on the enemy monster every chance you get. This extra damage adds up rather quickly.

Sky Sentinel is not the most robust monster in Monsterpocalypse, so keep some units close to prevent enemy monsters from getting too close. This also allows Sky Sentinel to make the most of his blast attack, which is his specialty.

While Rocket Choppers are great, G-Tanks form the backbone of G.U.A.R.D. forces. Sporting a Guass cannon on top of a chassis with reinforced, cutting edge armor, these resilient units can lay down some serious fire. Some players may quickly disregard this unit because it lacks Boost Dice or any ability other than All Terrain, but the G-Tank’s Defense 4 means you can run these guys into the middle of a hot spot to hold an objective or secure a building with a reasonable chance of them surviving. They also have long range, which means that with Radar (from Sky Sentinel or a Radar Array) they can make blast attacks across nearly half the map!

G.U.A.R.D. commanders round out their arsenal with two specialized support vehicles, the Mobile Ops Center and the Repair Vehicle. The Repair Vehicle has an ability that allows you to restore Health to your monster, which can extend his life well beyond the Health printed on the stat card. The Mobile Ops Center provides extra range to adjacent figures making blast attacks as well as an additional Boost Die to combined attacks.

All in all, G.U.A.R.D. really function under the banner of teamwork and multi-tasking. You need your monster and your units to stay aggressively focused on the enemy while some of your units secure buildings, hold objectives, and run interference for your monster. It seems wrong to call G.U.A.R.D. a finesse faction, but its equally wrong to call them a beat stick faction. They fall neatly between the two extremes, which actually lends them and you a lot of flexibility in how to approach the game.

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