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.

A Game In The Background

I played a super-casual game with Contwrath. We were hanging out with a couple of guys at the gaming store so we were less focussed on playing the game and more on demonstrating it. In the end we stopped halfway as it was pretty late, but it was a very fun time. Highlights include Contwrath's Savage Swarm doing 9 damage in one turn to Kondo thanks to Xixorax's Super Damage on his Power Attacks. Building power bases and blowing up buildings
Xixorax is thrown around, leaving him in Hyper
Kondo is knocked down to 2 health in one turn!

I Have Super Damage Too!

I got in another Monsterpocalypse game against Contwrath. I ran Terra Khan again, he played Xixorax but proxied by GW's Commander Shadowsun; he had just painted Shadowsun and wanted to put him on the table even if it was in the wrong game.

The Game:
Contwrath won the roll and chose to go first.

I put out as many units as I could, focusing on pushing my Raptix up the table.

Xixorax moved up to punch a Raptix.

Khan rampaged through a building. For funsies.

The Swarm took control of several buildings and power nodes.

I respawned the Raptix...

... then used Hop to grab the spawn node while still in the spawning phase...

... so that I could bring on two more dinos!

All three then moved up to punch an insect, allowing the Raptix to be Towed onto the power node!

Another Raptix moved up to Xixorax as if to taunt him.

Xixorax Rampaged along the river, knocking over a building and flattening three of my units, as well as putting a point of damage on Khan.

Khan responded by Hopping a Raptix next to Xixorax for Super Damage then slamming him into a double for a total of 6 damage, instantly knocking him into Hyper!

Realizing the threat they posed, the Swarm moved up and tried to kill some Raptix.

I spawned them back and started pushing models up to the Swarm.

Xixorax used a full ten power dice to throw Khan as far away as possible then stepped away as far as he could get.

With all the insects and hazard it was akward for Khan to get to Xixorax, so instead he moved up and used a Blast attack on the Cliff Hopper.

A big combined melee attack put a point of damage onto Khan and respawned the Cliff Hopper.

I spawned more dinos and killed a couple of insects.

Xixorax made a tactical retreat.

Khan followed, landing a Brawl then a Throw on Xixorax.

Xixorax was now on a single point of health.

Xixorax took a second monster turn to throw Khan into a building.

This took Khan down to his final point of health too.

Xixorax still had four Action Dice and four Power Dice; all I could do in my unit turn was kill any insects who could generate any more power.

Thanks to Penetrator on Xixorax's Brawl, Contwrath needed to roll seven strikes in his third consecutive monster activation. Two power dice fell off the table and the remaining dice showed five strikes. We picked up the dropped dice and he rolled them again, getting two more strikes, for a perfect finish!

Xixorax just managed to close out the closest game of Monpoc I've ever had!

I haven't had a chance to use Khan's Super Damage before, because I never had a monster activation where the enemy monster was standing next to one of my units. I hadn't realised before that Raptix have Hop because they don't have it on my version of the cards, but I was checking on some model rules online and saw it on their profile, and suddenly I saw the previously missing link in the equation. Contwrath kept killing the Raptix, but they kept respawning. He was able to avoid more super-damage using the river and his units to make it hard for me to advance my units to his Xixorax. I really thought I had this game when Terra Khan flipped a fresh Xixorax to his Hyper side in one attack, but I wasn't able to get another turn with Super Damage while Xixorax got two Super Damage throws, and also got some chip damage in. Plus of course running three consecutive monster activations to focus down Khan.

It was fun game that was as close as it gets at the end. I think we're getting better at positioning and power generation. I need to work on my defensive monster positioning, and I might need to be more agressive with my units too. I basically forgot about my ranged units this time; I brought in Raptix to support Khan, and Carnidons because for some reason I thought they had higher DEF than Bellowers (they don't). I think I'll stick with Khan for a while as I think he has more potential for me to unlock.

It's The Super Damage That Gets You

I played another game against Contwrath's Savage Swarm, a rematch between Xixorax and Terra Khan.

The Game:
I won the roll and chose to go first. As usual I focussed on bringing out Bellowers first, and this time I remembered to secure buildings and power zones.

I advanced Terra Khan to blast away an insect on a power node.

Xixorax moved up to punch a dino.

I used a Ram attack for the first time ever, putting a point of damage on Xixorax.

Xixorax threw Terra Khan into a building.

I advanced my dinosaurs, but couldn't get my melee units into very much.

A big combined attack into Khan...

... that whiffed hard!

Khan threw Xixorax into a building.

Xixorax had to resort to slamming Khan into a hazard. Khan had enough power dice to roll right into a second monster turn, throwing Xixorax into a building again.

Our units didn't get much done; the swarm whiffed a second combined attack into Khan.

Despite being down on health, Xixorax threw Khan into a building and a hazard, with a little extra Super Damage to seal the deal, cinching the win.

This time I paid attention to my power generation, but did so at the expense of moving my units up, leaving Terra Khan overextended without support. It didn't help that I spawned my ranged units first, then kept them back to hold buildings rather than pushing them up to be in range to do work. Still, thanks to strong power generation allowing me to take a back-to-back monster turn I was in the lead, with 5 health on Khan to 3 on Xixorax. But Xixorax has Super Damage on his power attacks in Hyper, which was just enough to pull off the win. Of course Khan also has a way to do Super Damage - possibly twice in a turn in Hyper Mode - but my units were so far back I just couldn't find an opportunity to get them next to Xixorax to trigger the Super Damage. Perhaps I need to summon my fast Raptix first and run them up, possibly using Hop (which I only just now remembered that they have) to move them into position to help Khan. Well, I feel like I'm learning every game, though I'm not sure the knowledge has coalesced into actual skill at the game yet...