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...

A Massive Infestation

Contwrath has been working on his Savage Swarm and was ready to try them on the table. He chose Xixorax, and I stuck wit' me boy Terra Khan.


The Game:
Contwrath felt confident enough with the rules to use Elite units, which I have not been using as I can't be be bothered to deal with the extra complexity (he marked his with a blob of tack on the backs). We're still just using apartment blocks though. He won the roll and chose to go first.

I positioned Khan to Rampage forwards agressively, pushing all my units up but forgetting about power generation. My Pteradactix Towed my Brontox onto a power node, allowing him to summon my Spikodon using Nesting.

Contwrath did NOT forget about power generation. Xixorax Stomped my three specialists back to the spawn room and then Sprinted back.

Khan had no power dice to work with. He took a Blast attack at Xixorax but missed.

The Swarm could not make it to Khan so they destroyed a building out of frustration.

My little dinos killed a few things.

Xixorax ran away from Khan, killing two Carnidons with a Stomp then Sprinting even further away.

Khan put a point of damage on Xixorax with a Swat.

Using the Hopper to drop Khan's defense, the Swarm units did a point of damage with a big combined attack.

Two Carnidons rolling two whites and four blues missed a Razor Beetle.

Xixorax slammed Khan into a building then Sprinted away.

Khan followed and slammed Xixorax back.

The Swarm continued to try to chip away at Khan while the Terrasaurs pushed up and did what they could.

I was able to subtly ("How far do you want to throw him? ONLY two inches?") able to guide Contwrath into throwing Khan into two buildings for five damage.

Now in Alpha, Khan was able to brawl and slam Xixorax for three damage.

The Swarm was able to do another point, but my Bellowers and Spinodon returned the favour.

At only six defense thanks to Penetrator and Sidekick, Khan easily went down to a big 10-power haymaker.

Xixorax turns and walks away before the body even hits the floor.

We were both playing much more confidently this game, using our monster and unit rules in a more deliberate manner. For some time now I have appreciated how easy Monsterpocalypse's core rules are to pick up, now I'm started to see for myself how much scope there is to play with the special rules, and how interesting the unit activations can be. It was a fun game,that I enjoyed on a more technical level that most games so far.

Actually Trying To Use The Rules

I got to play a game with Contwrath, who decided to buy in to Monsterpocalypse. He just received his models, so for now we used my stuff. He chose the Empire of the Apes, and I went for the good old Terrasaurs.


The Game:
We tried to pay more attention to model special rules this time, as well as actually using Cover and Terrain rules (which I've always forgotten or ignored until now). We stuck with basic appartment buildings though. I won the roll and chose to go first.

Pretty standard deployments.

I destroyed a building for funsies.

As did he.

My units start creeping up the sides.

His move up to meet them.

I start chipping away at Kondo with a blast attack.

Kondo responds with a brawl attack.

I take a second monster turn and nail Kondo with a Swat.

He does not activate Kondo again, going for a unit turn.

I knock a couple of his units off the power zones.

Despite this, by his next Monster turn Kondo is FULLY POWERED UP!

He still misses his Swat attack against Khan though...

I throw Kondo into a building, but he kills two of my units with a Tantrum.

The Apes push back against the Terrasaur units.

I send in reinforcements.

Kondo slams Khan for four damage, but is thrown into a building.

The Apes keep pushing for power zones.

As do the Saurians.

Kondo slams Khan into the double foundation again.

And Khan throws him back again.

With both monsters on just one health, the Ape units focus on Khan.

Throwing all the dice they can into a single attack, they get all the strikes!

"Not like this!" Khan goes down to a volley of gunfire!

We started a bit slow as Contwrath refreshed his memory on the rules. I feel like we both made better use of the units this game than in my previous games, securing buildings and jostling for power nodes etc. The monster side of the battle was a little subdued, partly because the units started to get in the way so we ended up not moving the monsters around very much. Overall it was a very fun game that I felt was was a bit more technical and a bit less "YOLO!" than some previous games, which makes sense when we were spending more time checking rules and so on. Still need to get that fourth Protectors monster painted...