Monsterball

I always enjoy seeing new Monsterpocalypse formats and scenarios that players devise. This year’s MonCon in Tulsa, Oklahoma featured both the Tennessee format as well as the unpredictable Fresh Ground Monster format. At PAX a few weeks ago, a group of us threw down with a fast-paced scenario that squishes eight monsters onto a standard map at once.

The following format, Monsterball, was created by Terrence Miltner (ChiVenger), a Press Ganger in the Chicago area, and the Chicago Monsterpocalypse crew tested and tweaked the scenario over the following few months. This format was inspired by the Grind board game (http://privateerpress.com/grind) by Privateer Press.

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Monsterball

Summary: Monsterball captures some of the action of the Tag Team format mixed with a wacky city-smashing sport in the spirit of super-sized Rugby.

Setup: Monsterball takes place on the Grapple in the Garden map. Follow the standard rules for building placement and first turn. After buildings are placed, place the Barreller (or another available morpher) on the center power zone.

Special Rules: Each player’s force includes two monsters from the same agenda, 0 units, and 2-12 buildings. One monster always uses the action dice from the unit pool, one monster always uses the action dice from the Monster Pool. Power dice may be shared freely between a player’s monsters, but a player may never have more than 10 power dice at a time as usual.

Monsters may attack each other normally and the target monster is moved, but monsters do not take damage in Monsterball.

The Barreller does not suffer damage in Monsterball. When a monster smashes the Barreller, he may choose to smash the Barreller in a straight line diagonally away from his monster instead of straight back from that monster. (Count the first diagonal space once and additional spaces twice as usual.)

Victory Conditions: A player wins the game by moving, body slamming, throwing, or smashing the Barreller into one of the opposing player’s monster starting zones.

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PAX Monsterpocalypse Events

I hope to see some of you at PAX this weekend for our Monsterpocalypse events. For those who do not follow the Privateer Press web site event announcements, I’ve provided the details here, below.

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Monsterpocalypse PAX Premier Event

EVENT TIME: Saturday with 10:00 AM registration (and a start time approximately 10:30 AM).

LISTS: Single-monster constructed event, players can bring up to 2 lists, lists do not need to be from the same agenda.

MAP: Each player provides one double-sided map. When a player chooses the map, they can choose either side from either player’s map.

TIME LIMITS: Rounds will be 60 minutes plus a hidden round modifier. Turns will be 5 minutes each.

VICTORY: Players will only score a win for defeating their opponent’s monster (both forms). Form kills and damage dealt will be tracked for tiebreaker purposes.

PRIZES: Full Metal Cyber Khan for the winner of the event and mega forms for the other players in the finals.

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Monsterpocalypse Iron Arena Format

EVENT TIME: Friday from 11:00 AM until 11:00 PM, Saturday from 9:00 AM until 6:00 PM, and Sunday from 9:00 AM until 6:00 PM.

FORMAT: Open play to earn “skulls,” tickets that can be exchanged for Monsterpocalypse and general Privateer Press prizes.

SCENARIOS: Players can play standard single-monster games but can also play formats out of the scenario packet to earn bonus skulls.

PRIZES: Prizes include Monsterpocalypse promotional figures as well as Privateer Press dice, bandanas, water bottles, artwork, and more.

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Voltron - The People Speak

Now that the Voltron battle miniatures game is officially released, we’re hearing a lot of great things. Rather than spout more of my own opinions, here’s what the people have to say . . .

We’ll start off with a quote from Chris Miller, an avid gamer and blogger, who says, “Each piece is characterful and has an impact. I love how even the lowliest of units plays a critical role by securing a fueling station or other map feature. Meanwhile I’m constantly juggling the location of my Morphers in my head, trying to decide which abilities I want on which part of the map. The depth level of the game is deceptive.”

Josh Gremillion, winner of GenCon Masters 2009, says, “I really like the slight differences between the Good Guys and the Bad Guys in the set too. Giving all the Skull ships and Lotron morphers Hit and Run promotes a selfish, all-for-me kind of ‘glory hog’ or ’save myself’ approach to play, while Synchronized Move on the Garrison Cruisers and Lions promotes selfless acts of heroics and teamwork.”

After a day of running Voltron demos for his locals in Hawaii, “Falsekrak” said, “One of the best comments was they liked the fact that all that fun was packed in a nice compact box. Easy to take along. Easy to set up. Easy to teach. All in all a great way to introduce new people to the game we love. There is just enough in the box to get a great gameplay experience, and just enough to get new players a taste of what Monsterpocalypse has to offer.”

“Babalbin” from California focuses on the element of expanding into Monsterpocalpyse games when he calls Voltron “a fun addition to Monsterpocalypse and worthwhile to add to a standard Monsterpocalypse game. There are some really neat things that can be done with both Lo-Tron and Voltron in conjunction with established Monsterpocalypse forces.”

Last but not least, Marc Gramatges had quite a bit to say about Voltron, and the following is merely a snippet of his story of his first Voltron Battle Miniatures Game experience.

“In no time at all we were throwing down. Ben had never played Monsterpocalypse so this was a good test to see how easy Voltron was to play. Both of us loved the sculpts and he was particularly fond of the skull ships. Being a Cthul player I picked up Lo-Tron, quite surprised and happy to see that they are Fiends and that Voltron are Protectors. I explained to Ben how this means we could mix them with Monsterpocalypse easily, as he would see later. We played the SuperNova map, mostly because it was the side we opened up to. What I loved about the map was that all the rules were right there. Not once did I have to break down what different items on the board were.

We started playing without even going over the rulebook, and Ben was able to pick it up from me making my turn and seeing what I was doing. On his lion’s turn I showed him the power attacks and before I knew it I was being body slammed into the supernova (not a good place to be). The game was fast and quickly we were in Ultra form, with Lo-Tron and Voltron slugging it out. Another body slam or two into the Nova later, I was defeated and Voltron saved the universe.

In summary, Voltron is a beautiful game that is easy to pick up and quick to play. One of the greatest benefits of the game is how it lets you learn the rules quickly and jump right into Monsterpocalypse with the very same models you were just using. I fully intend to use Voltron as a lead in to running Monsterpocalypse Demos because of this fact.

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Mega Lo-Tron Coming to Comic Con

We interrupt the regularly scheduled blog to bring you a sneak peak at Mega Lo-Tron. This mega form was just recently announced as a special Comic Con release, and I don’t want to waste any time getting to the good stuff. Mega Lo-Tron, ladies and gentlemen:

When I found out that I no longer had to keep Mega Lo-Tron a secret, I considered telling about a playtest game with Mega Lo-Tron and considered contrasting him with Ultra Lo-Tron, but I eventually decided on sharing a Monsterpocalypse army featuring this monster form instead. GenCon Monsterpocalypse Masters is just around the corner, and I would be shocked if we didn’t see Voltron and Lo-Tron armies stepping up to challenge monsters like Defender X, Zor Maxim, Mantacon, and Anglax.

For my Mega Lo-Tron city list, I chose:

5 Music Producer

2 Insurance Company HQ

2 Radio Telescope

1 Office Building

1 Statue of Liberty

1 Privateer Press Building

For the unit list, I chose:

3 grunt Snatcher

3 elite Snatcher

3 grunt Cthulabite

1 elite Task Master (or Shadow Task Master)

2 grunt Grinder Tank

1 elite Grinder Tank

1 grunt Repair Vehicle

1 grunt UCI MRV

Position the Statue of Liberty, Privateer Press Building, and at least one Radio Telescope and Insurance Company HQ in locations near the spawn points that are easy to secure. Position the Office Building in a location that’s within arms reach of the Robeasts. Remaining buildings can be placed closer to the center of the map or even on an opponent’s side of the map if necessary.

Secure the near buildings to provide strength and flexibility to the rest of the force, and try to keep the Privateer Press Building secured at all times for the powerful R&D action. This discount for UCI MRVs or Cthulabites is an exceptional boost to the force’s powerful unit complement. The units’ main job is to spread corruption throughout the city via the Manufacture Advantage, but Grinder Tanks also increase the accuracy of Snatchers and Cthulabites via their Marker ability, and the off-faction Repair Vehicles can keep Robeasts and Lo-Tron fighting fit.

The Robeasts should have no problem building up an early pool of P-Dice by brawling the Office building and blasting enemy units (or monsters under the right circumstances). Keep an eye out for good angles on Rhino Robeast’s Toss trigger even if they require a number of A-Dice to step the attackers into position. One good Toss can deal substantial damage to an enemy monster. Against enemy morphers, Armadillo Robeast is a great asset, dishing out multiple damage via the Radial Attack trigger.

Look to deal substantial damage to the city itself before Lo-Tron even enters the scene. Unlike other monsters, he does not rely heavily on collisions for his damage output. Between Juggernaut and Weapon Master, Lo-Tron can reliably deal super damage to an enemy monster on a battlefield of nothing but rubble.

Mega Lo-Tron’s Juggernaut skill will really keep an enemy on his toes since it ignores the most common form of monster defense – screening. Rampage right through units and buildings to crash into an enemy monster for super damage. When a Rampage is not an option due to positioning, Lo-Tron’s Weapon Master blast attack or Power Strike brawl attack (with Reach) are also great alternatives. Brawling is especially effective when dealing that last point of damage to finish off an opposing monster form. With an 8*3 brawl, Lo-Tron is remarkably accurate with that flail, and a good roll can really hamper an opponent’s actions thanks to Power Strike.

While Mega Lo-Tron is on the field, unit turns should shift from corrupting the city to supporting this powerful monster. Healing and screening Lo-Tron will guarantee that this monster’s 7 Defense and 6 Health outlast your foe and allow you to stand victorious.

I hope to see many of you at Comic Con!

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Cosmic Influx

In my last blog, I touched a bit on the development of the Voltron battle maps. Playing Monsterpocalypse in space has some different elements from playing in a crowded cityscape, but playing on the Cosmic Influx map also varies greatly from Solar Conflict.

The dominant feature of the Cosmic Influx map is the large comet and, just as importantly, the comet’s tail that snakes across the battle map. While Solar Conflict focuses heavily on the Super Nova map feature, the comet takes center stage in Cosmic Influx both visually and from a game play standpoint.

As you can see, the comet’s tail is littered with dangerous asteroids, lucrative power crystals, relay stations, and a navigational probe. Given the limited quantity of dice and figures players have available to fight over these resources, Cosmic Influx can be a very contested battle map. Throughout the firefight for these resources, however, players must remember that the true goal is defeating the opposing monster.

Players really need to choose which direction to channel their battle plan. The navigational probe greatly enhances a player’s maneuverability, relay stations greatly enhance monsters’ potential damage output, power crystals enhance P-Die production, and outright combat can earn P-Dice while simultaneously knocking an opponent down a peg or two.

Due to the breadth of resources on the Cosmic Influx map, players are forced to make some tough choices based on play style and may even need to shift their strategy throughout the game based on how things play out. Gathering P-Dice may become more important than enhancing damage output, or maneuvering through the asteroids may become more important than gaining additional P-Dice. Players will need to be able to read the battle map as well as their opponent in order to be successful when battling on the Cosmic Influx map.

With early copies of Voltron now in house, the next blog will feature a battle summary between some Privateer Press employees taking the Voltron battle miniatures game out for a spin.

Until next time!

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