A Demo Game For Old Times' Sake

I ended up holding a demo game of Monsterpocalypse. I didn't play myself, instead walking both sides through the game phases and explaining the rules as we went along. For the most part I tried to leave both players to make their own decisions, but I did push them to use power attacks (which I walked them through) for several turns after the monsters got close enough, and gave suggestions on good plays when they asked towards the end of the game as the monsters' health started to get really low.

It was pure G.U.A.R.D. versus pure Empire of the Apes. We played using only base rules and models stats, with none of the rules on the models' cards (except High Mobility ofc, and sometimes Flight). The game was close, with King Kondo managing to pull off a rare win against Defender X. I believe both players knew a little about 40K but had no actual wargaming experience, and both seemed to enjoy the game. They seemed perfectly happy to not bother with the card rules; I think for their very first game just the core rules were enough for them to worry about. There was a bit of a discussion about the game's availablity, and it was nice to be able to say that there are digital models available.

Khan's Maximum Effort

I met up with Contwrath for a game of Monpoc. Luckily we both had a bit of free time, so we were able to meet up a bit earlier and take our time with the game. On a whim I pulled out Defender X and a bunch of ground-based G.U.A.R.D. units, to go with Terra Khan and his little Raptices. Contwrath was running Dynastavus, Xixorax, and the basic 15 Swarm units.

Game 1:
Contwrath put down his map with River City Rampage facing up. I asked him how many apartments per side he wanted us to play, and he randomly settled on just six, which seemed reasonable since the map seemed a touch low on foundations. I won the roll and chose to go first. My initially plan was to focus on shooting down his units and blowing up buildings on his side to make it hard for him to generate power.

I brought in as many units as I could, focusing on tanks so I could move them to hopefully do some shooting, but I did also prioritise grabbing power nodes and controlling buildings where possible. Contwrath pretty much did the same.

Khan shot an insect on a power node, while Defender whiffed his blast attack against an apartment.

Contwrath repositioned his monsters but didn't spend any of his action dice.

I pushed up some units but didn't really get much done.

Contwrath took a second unit turn and, with his great mobility and accuracy, fairly easily knocked Defender X through three buildings, dropping him down to just three health.

Unable to focus too much on a single monster, I had Defender and Khan throw the two big bugs back into the buildings on their side, for three damage each. I then tried to step into positions that didn't give easy line-ups for throws or slams into buildings.

Contwrath brought in some more units and I tried to position mine to make it impossible for the Swarm monsters to align with Defender for a power attack, using the Repair Truck to put out a fire to allow my units to get where they needed to be.

Thanks to super-damage on Dynastavus' Brawl attack, the two Swarm monsters were able to finish off Defender with just Brawl attacks.

My Raptix on the central power node used Hop to clear room for Khan to align with Xixorax and throw him into a building. Khan then Stepped up to a position where it would be hard to throw him into a building.

The Swarm units put a point of damage into Khan. I moved up some units, putting out a fire with the Repair Truck that might make it easier for Khan to align with Xixorax later. I tried to clear insects off power nodes, but most of my attacks whiffed.

Xixorax tried to throw Khan into the hazard behind him, but missed. Dynastavus did a couple of points of damage with a Brawl.

Khan moved onto the rubble the the repair truck had extinguished, and the Raptix Hopped next to Xixorax before Khan body-slammed him onto another hazard and Stepped away. This left Xixorax on just one health.

The Swarm units killed a couple of mine and tried to set up for more power generation.

I brought in more Raptix and spread them around, then focused as many ranged attacks into Xixorax as I could, managing to knock off his last point of health.

Dynastavus spent a ton of power dice to throw Khan into a distant building, knocking him into Hyper.

Unable to line up for a good power attack, Khan settled for a Brawl followed by a body-slam onto an annoying insect, for 4 damage thanks to the Raptix.

Running low on power dice (I forget why by Contwrath actually should have had a couple more dice but forgot to trigger something), Dynastavus whiffed one attack but landed the second, leaving both monsters on three health.

I tried to kill more insects to disrupt Contwrath's power general, but whiffed a couple of attacks.

Contwrath focused on killing the remaining Raptix; thanks to his combined attacks with the Elites he had no trouble hitting, but missed the one on the right.

I Hopped the Raptix next to Dynastavus, knocked her down to one health with a Brawl with Super-Damage, then finished her off with a Super-Damage slam into a hazard.

It was a great game; I was working really hard all game to try to deny Contwrath power dice and reduce sources of damage into Khan, even if it meant making it harder to inflict damage in return. And even then it was very close; if a couple of whiffed Swarm attacks had not had such cold dice it might have ended differently. The Repair Truck was actually a big help, letting me clear the board of hazards that were a problem for the flightless Khan. The Raptix were stars; Hop not only allowed them to coordinate with Khan to trigger Super-Damage, it also allowed them to get past the river, and just generally helped me to get them where I needed them. Khan really showed his potential here; he has weaknesses but he can do a lot of damage if you can set it up.

The Swarm monsters are mobile, accurate, and hard-hitting; they are tough cookies to be sure. They also seem to be able to generate decent amounts of power even without a good power base; my focus all game was on disrupting his unit power generation, but Contwrath never seemed to be that low on power dice. His early double monster caught me by surprise and put my on the back foot early, and I didn't expect the late-game throw into the distant building either. Even without the Raptix in the last turn, Khan could have body-slammed Dynastavus into the hazard behind him first to drop her to one health, then finished it with a Brawl (which might actually have been the safer option as I would have had more action dice). But my way was more fun.

The Double-Team

This was my first two-monster game of Monsterpocalypse. Since I don't have any faction with two painted monsters, I went for the classic team-up: the two monarchs, King and Khan! Karas was running Sky Sentinel and the typical fifteen Guard units, so I chose my four Bellowers for ranged attacks, four Carnidons and four Assault Apes to leverage Khan and Kondo's Blood Rage, the Pteradactix and the Command Ape for some movement tricks, and my cute little Brontox to help me push my lines up the board.

Game 1:
Karas won the roll and chose to go first. Again we treated all the buildings as apartment blocks. The triple foundations scared me so I tried to avoid filling them.

Karas made sure to grab some buildings and power nodes, while I focused more on getting models out and pushing them up the board.
Defender and Sentinel shot down a couple of high-priority units.
I tried to position my monsters to be hard to line up with.
We pushed up our units again.
Defender and Sentinel chained their throws to knock Khan into Hyper. I think Sky Sentinel took a point of damage for stepping into the hazard, which he shouldn't have.
Khan hit Defender with a melee attack with Super damage, then threw him into two buildings for five damage with another point of Super damage, for 8 damage total. Kondo then took damage to step into two hazards to throw Defender into another building, for three more damage, one-rounding him from full!
Karas split some attacks between Khan and some units, not quite managing to break Khan's DEF.
I responded by combining some melee attacks into Sentinel (I don't remember if they hit though).
Sentinel threw Khan into a building.
Khan returned the favour, then Kondo took another point of damage to line up for a power attack, but I think he missed the attack.
Karas focussed all his units to make two attacks on Khan; one hit, leaving Khan on one health.
Sentinel took his Rapid Fire attack into Khan, finishing him off, then threw Kondo into a Hazard. Kondo bounced away from the flames.
At this point Kondo was very low on health; I didn't want to take any more damage from stepping into hazards, and I didn't want to make it easy for Sentinel to land more power attacks, so I moved him to a safer position and used a Swat to throw a Strike Fighter into Sentinel.
Karas sent in his Strike Fighters to swarm Kondo, doing another point of damage.
I tried to get some damage onto Sentinel with my units, but with Khan gone the Terrasaurs were no longer getting Blood Rage and my Apes were all on the table and too far to help out, so I wasn't able to break his DEF of 9.
Sky Sentinel used Rapid Fire and a Fling to put two more points of damage on Kondo, leaving him on one health. Kondo could only do one damage in return with a single Fling.
History repeated itself once more as a swarm of human planes gunned the majestic beast down. Truly, it was human engineering that killed the beast.

Damn, that 11-damage turn was insane. We both thought it was basically over after that, but with no buildings left on that side of the board Sky Sentinel was able to live long enough to finish off the wounded Terra Khan, leaving him in a slow battle of attrition against King Kondo. With two attacks a turn and an army getting extra boost dice, against Kondo's limited one-on-one tools and no units able to take advantage of his buffs, I slowly fell behind, and Karas was able to grind out a win.

I don't really "get" King Kondo; I can see how he has a bit of extra survivability, and High Mobility helped to set up combos, but he just feels to me like he's missing a rule or two. I was a bit starved for power at times; I didn't focus enough on generating power with my units, and I kept forgetting about Kondo's Riled. I also struggle to make the most of melee units; ranged attacks are just easier to get value out of, even if they can struggle a bit with Cover.

While actually running Kondo and Khan alongside each other was very cool and thematic, it felt a little awkward in terms of unit selections and buffs. I dunno, I guess mono-faction just feels more natural to me right now. Guess I need to paint some more monsters.

Old Enemies

I ran a demo game with Saint (playing GUARD) and his son (playing Terrasaurs - or as he called them Tyranids). I didn't bring enough buildings but we made do. Long story short, Saint did a better job of building up his power reserves, but his dice let him down, with Defender X missing several power attacks against Terra Khan. The two picked up the rules very quickly and seemed to enjoy the game. I really need to get some more monsters painted so I can start running 2-monster games. I actually have several assembled, I just can't seem to find the time to pick up a brush.

A Big Monkey Walks Into A City...

This was Speedy's second game of Monpoc. I still don't have four painted monsters so we're still running one a side, but I decided to play Kondo with the Terrasaur units instead of Khan. I won the roll to go first.

Units rush to grab power nodes.

The monsters clash, with Kondo being thrown into a building but bouncing right back into Defender's face.

However a step back from Defender leaves Kondo unable to align for a power attack, so a basic brawl is all I can do.

Units trade blows, but we're too spread out to focus attacks very well.

Defender is able to fly around Kondo to get into a position to throw him again, backing up afterwards.

Kondo gets behind Defender and suplexes him backwards into a building.

Our units aren't really doing all that much, with lots of missed attacks.

Defender gets off another power attack, leaving Kondo on 2 health. Kondo throws Defender as far away as possible and then backs away.

A bunch of spawned tanks hit Kondo for a point of health; I try to block alignment with my units but Defender really just needs to land a blast attack to take Kondo down. It costs him a point of health to get into position, but he manages to land the shot for the win.

This was my first game with Kondo. Getting to ignore buildings and things with High Mobility was nice. I didn't really miss having a blast attack, but at first glance I'm not sure how to use his kit. He seems to want to destroy buildings and units? I don't really know. But more and more I'm seeing the importance of positioning. Problem is I can't see what I need to do yet, so far I only see what went wrong or right after the fact. I still feel like we need two monsters each for the game to really work, but we'll see.