Welcome to Year 2 of the Monsterpocalypse!

October 2009 sees the beginning of the second year of publication for Monsterpocalypse, and in that year a whole new wave of monsters will take to the city streets for some Monsterpocalicious destruction. For the second block of series we developed six new factions, which I will be spotlighting over the next few weeks.

In the coming series we have giant apes, monstrous fish-men, malicious mole people, element-infused samurai warriors, big honkin’ bugs, and even some mechanical titans of some of your favorite monsters from previous series. All these monsters come from the same agenda wheel that was introduced in Series 1: Rise—we have been planning these guys for a while now. Thus each faction from the first three series will be able to make nice and play with some new friends from the new block. This mean your G-Tanks and Rocket Choppers will be able to move into battle alongside the monsters and units of the Elemental Champions without penalty and will be able to benefit from the granted abilities while also sharing agenda-specific effects like Flank or Spotter. Further, Sky Sentinel will have a host of new units that he can grant abilities to! (More on that in a later post.) Sure, these new factions can certainly stand on their own, but I’m guessing the new figures will make you want to go back and take a new look at the older figures.

Oh, and we can’t forget about the buildings! We also have nine new ones in the set. Some of them fill roles that previous buildings filled, so new players will have access to those abilities and effects, while others act in a completely new way. For Series 4, we introduce green abilities that only appear on buildings. In a nutshell, if a building has a green ability and you secure it, all your monsters and units are considered to have that ability. For example, if the ability Radar appears in green on a building you secure, all your monsters and units get Radar. This means that with Series 4 and future sets we will be able to do a lot more with buildings without having to add abilities like Radar Network just so we can grant Radar to other figures.

For collectability, Series 4: Monsterpocalypse Now is structured a lot like Series 1: Rise. It has the same number of units, monsters, and buildings, broken into the same rarity distribution as in Series 1. If you are a veteran player, you should know exactly what to expect from your boosters. If you are not a veteran, let me clue you in.

There are three rarities of Monsterpocalypse figures, each listed with one or more stars (H). The more stars something has, the rarer it is. For instance, in a unit booster you will find: 1 of 9 buildings labeled HH, 2 of 14 units labeled H, 1 of 10 units labeled HH, and 1 of 12 units labeled HHH. In a monster booster you will find 1 of 12 monsters and its corresponding ultra form labeled HHH. Promo figures can be rarer than regular figures, of course; depending on how many are produced, they are labeled HHH, HHHH, or HHHHH.

The Series 4 starter sets are also very similar to those for Series 1 as well—so similar, in fact, that if you already have a Series 1 starter you should probably forgo the purchase of a Series 4 starter and concentrate on monster boosters and unit boosters instead. Monsterpocalypse Now starters contains the same map, the same dice, and the same health tracker as Rise starters. The only difference is in the rulebook and the reference sheet. Because we thought it would be rude to ask you to buy a new starter just to get a new rulebook and reference sheet, we will be making those available for download via our web site upon the release of Series 4: Monsterpocalypse Now. You can obtain all the other new items in the starter, namely the figures, in the monster and unit boosters.

If you are new to Monsterpocalypse, you will want to start off with a Series 4 starter set. This has all the rules, along with all the tools you will need to play, like dice and health trackers. The new rulebook features the new figures in the examples and the learn-to-play game intro, so everything should be really easy for a beginner to follow. The starter set is still the best purchase choice for a newcomer, and with Christmas right around the block it also makes a great gift.

This all kicks off in mid-October with a launch event to celebrate the arrival of these six new factions to the battlefields of Monsterpocalypse. Participating retailers that pre-order launch kits will receive two Quantum King Kondos that they can use as prizes for the launch event, so make sure you get your own preorders in to your retailers soon so you’ve got a chance to win a Quantum King Kondo. Further, in this new year of Monsterpocalypse Organized Play we are introducing the all-new glass units. We will bring you more information on quantum figures, glass units, and new OP events in a couple of days

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