zOMG it's a bug!

So last night I went to my first local competition.  Unfortunately, my pal couldn't make it with me, and it was a bit under populated, but it was superbly fun!

Again, I can not say enough about the community for MonPoc.  Last night I met three fellow players in my local area, never having met them before, and felt immediately accepted, even as noobish as I was.

we were told to bring a Unit base of up to 15 units, so having limited supplies, I brought the following with me:

• 2 x Howitzer Ape
• 2 x Elite Howitzer Ape
• 2 x Airborne Ape
• 2 x Elite Airborne Ape
• 2 x Stealth Ape
• 2 x Command Ape
• 1 x Green Fury Van
• 1 x Pteradactix
• 1 x Fire Kami

Then, we each bought a Monster Booster from the NOW set.  since we had no clue what our monsters would be, I was thinking I would be at a HUGE disadvantage of course, as nothing may synergize here.  So what did I open?  A BUG!

Manticon it was.  I had heard many things about Manticon reading online, but had NO clue how to use him.  In a very nice move, the first person I played, Bill, allowed me to borrow his character cards he printed from Boardgamegeek.com.  I'm not sure where yet on their site, but somehwere are really cool character cards for the monsters that explain all their powers and stats in one easy place so if you aren't as familiar with the icons, they rule!

Bill and I had a slow start to our game, but it picked up quick after a few building destructions.  He was playing Gorghadratron who is superbly cool looking.  He swiftly came in after setting himself up in a screen and bashed my buggy brain in for 4 damage, followed by a switch to alpha form.  I went after him and got him down to three, but learned real quick, positioning is key, as much as not missing your dice rolls are too :-)  In the end, I was thrown mercifully into the fire as time ran down, me with my Alpha form destroyed, and he with only 4 damage on him, taking the win and putting me at 0-1.

My next game was against a really funny guy name Matt.  He was hilarious to play against and played like I have envisioned the game should be played... he made sound effects and witty remarks, fitting of a guy being filmed in a big rubber suit smashing a city to bits for Godzilla lovers.   He was fielding a group of Protectors mixed of the Guard and the elementals, and had Anglax as his boss.  Anglax, I learned fast, is a wrecking ball with super rampage!  both of us ended up destroying multiple buildings and almost leveling the entire city on Skull Island map, before the end came.  I was able, in Hypre ultra Form, to brawl and chain into power attacks enough to Destroy his alpha form, fittingly, after tossing him into his own buildings.  Time ran out and I was able to go to 1-1 after taking out the Alpha.

My next game, and I apologize if I'm wrong here, but I think his name was Bill as well, or something with a B (I'm terrible at names, really!), but he was also a great person to play against.  His city and army looked much better than anything I had faced yet, with a mix of utility units from all agendas and a Imperial State building, which is way better looking in person.  He was fielding Drillcon-Vorionikk as his monster.  This was a battle right down to the end.  He killed my alpha, and then I came back and killed his Ultra!  He took me down to two health, and I took him down to 2 as well!  In the end, I moved into fire, taking a point of damage, and rolled all my dice to bodyslam his Alpha into another fire, doing 2 damage and winning the game!  It was amazingly fun and a super hard victory.

This put me at 2-1, and taking second place!  Not that shabby for a first timer!  I won a Glass Airorne Ape which will go quite nicely with my Empire too!  Bill, the first person I played won the entire thing at 3-0, and took home a Mega Incinerus which was awesome looking!

If you are new too, don't be shy, get out there and get meeting, greeting, and beating!  It's amazing how much fun it can be.  And, a big thank you to everyone last night for the advice and tutorials, everything helps and it's much appreciated!

You Damn Dirty Apes!

So, tonight marked the first booster case opening I have gone through with MonPoc!  My friend and I went in together on a case of Units for MonPoc Now and boy did we have fun tonight!  We decided to split the case off what we needed/wanted, so since I was looking for Apes, and he was looking for Invaders, it actually worked out well.  We got enough for a full army each between what we had previously and what we got tonight, and finish out with some good buildings as well.

Interestignly and oddly, I got a Music Producer, but it's a Publishing House... or is it a Music Producer... see, the model is a Publishing House, but the card in the base, is a Music Producer... so we have no clue what to do with it.  It also didn't come with a building tile which kinda sucked.

After that was behind us, we sat down to play a full game.

Me and my Empire of the Apes, and he and his Krakenoctus Invaders team.  We played on Highway to Hellvue and had an Epic battle.  In fact, we finished as he needed to leave, and if anyone can let me know about the rules question I'm about to ask, I would appreciate it.

Here was the set up:

Forgive the right side of the map, I only put up the side that matters in Vassal to depict this.

At this moment in time, it was my turn, and I could activate my monster or my units, having 6 dice in my monster pool and 4 in my unit's.  I had 7 power dice, and after powering up with 1 die, I had 9 power dice total.

I had two life left, and my friend had 5.  Here's what I did to end it in one turn:

I stepped up adjacent and base to base alignment with Krakenoctus, just south of him, taking one damage form the fire I walked into and smashed him with all my dice, hitting, sending him flying across the board!

Now, I think that this did 5 damage to him, as it resulted in this set up:

Since the smash sent him flying int the Hotel (which has Spire), the Oil Refinery (which is flammable) and the Cathedral (which is probably a sin), I did the following:

1 Damage for the hit
3 Collision Damage - 1 Damage for each building Krakenoctus collides with along the path (Hotel, Oil Refinery, and Cathedral)
1 Spire Damage for hitting the Hotel (with Spire)
1 Hazard Damage - Passing through the fire created by the Oil Refinery

Total = 6 points of damage

Even if I'm wrong about the Fire, which is my question, it's still 5 I'm positive of, and a dominating, Ape type hairy chest beating win!

So the question is, does the Krakenoctus take damage from the Fire Hazard created by the collision with the Oil Refinery, from the Smash Power Attack?  I think so, as Smash in the rulebook says the target Monster collides with all buildings, units, and hazards in it's path.

Either way, it was an epic battle, with the Apes coming out victorious!  This puts me at 1-1 and feeling a bit more confident.  Either way though, win, lose, or draw, this is one of the most fun times I've had learning a new game.

If you too are new, head on over to the Team Covenant community pages.  They have lots of advice, and I have learned a ton with their new Mastering Monsterpocalypse series that is up online now here: http://teamcovenant.com/category/monsterpocalypse/

Suplex for the win...

o I got a chance to play another game tonight and it was a wild one!

My buddy and I got some more boosters today, in fact we each bought a monster and a unit booster.  He went with a mix of I Chomp NY, Rise, and All Your Base, while I went all I Chomp NY (Being from NY originally, that is fitting).

He pulled a Lazer Knight monster and I pulled a Ulgoth.  Both of us were immediately impressed with Ulgoth, he's super detailed and extremely well painted!

We decided to have some fun, and being noobs, just laid down Smashville and went two on two monsters, with a bunch of units with mixed faction since we don't have enough (yet) to play full armies of factions or agendas.

Unfortunately, we had to cut it short, but there was one kill.  After all four buildings were destroyed in the center of the map, and all were either burning infernos or ignited to be on fire, my opponent, playing my Ulgoth (because I was nice and let him use it) suplexed me (Body Slam Power Attack) over his head, onto a burning inferno for 2 damage, leaving me in range of Krakenoctus to blast away and deal 1 more damage, taking my Lazer Knight Alpha from 3 to 0 and getting a hella cool kill out of it.

Two Monsters against each other is really interesting, especially with resourcing your dice correctly.  We recently bought a booster case of NOW, so we can't wait to open them later in the week and hopefully finish out our first armies!

New Tricks

So I'm learning new things over the last few days like the below:



While this may be old hat to you, being new to the game, it has me somewhat jealous that I ONLY have apes at the moment, and it also makes me want some of the older pieces.  I'm sure in due time I will get these of course, but I can drool in the spare moments between.

Additionally I've been posting on the forums and I must say, the community is 100% solid.  As I've mentioned before, I've played WOW Minis since it's inception, and this was my first tabletop experience other than dabbling in warhammer, and this is not a slight in any way against WOW Minis or it's community, as I think it's one of the best communities for games out there on the web, but I find that everyone I have read posts by on the forums thus far, and definitely everyone who has answered me in my numerous rules questions posts, to be open to my questions and understanding of me not being experienced with the game.

This is a nice thing to have when you are fresh to a game that has a good amount of experienced players already.  It is very easy as an experienced gamer, to forget that new people may not understand or know the rules and abbreviations for said game as well as you, but everyone has been great.

Another thing I learned was that when you have someone like Gakura, and he brawls, his triggers go off... well duh, I think everyone knows that after reading the instruction manual, but what I didn't know, was that if he has the chance to make a second brawl attack, as his Blitz trigger lets him do, that his brawl triggers will trigger off that too... my apes just got better... WAY better :-)

I'm learning every day and so far, I love every minute of it.  I have yet, in my playtesting on vassal by my lonesome (by choice, many people have wanted to play but I'm a still only ankle deep), been bored for one second.

Army Training

So I'm going apes, as if you haven't guessed by now, for my first army.  I was able to purchase a few things from Trollandtoad.com (which is a tremendous resource for any gaming material you may need), and here's how it's looking so far:

Gakura and Ultra Gakura for the main Monster:

Two Airborne Apes:

Two Airborne Apes (Elite):

Four Howitzer Apes:

One Howitzer Ape (Elite):

One Stealth Ape:

Two Command Apes:

As you can see, that's only 12 Units.  I need more Stealth Apes for sure, just have to find them.  I like the idea of throwing in one Fire Kami as well, for incinerate.   With as much building destruction as Gakura will be doing, I think that's a nice added bonus to any Body Slams or Power Attacks that would have normally landed someone on Rubble.

Building wise, I have the following:

1 Insurance Building and 1 Cathedral:




4 Electrical Power Plants:




2 Newspaper Offices:



2 Posh Apartments:



1 Privateer Press Building:

So, to sum it up, it's coming along, I just need to find some final pieces.  If anyone has suggestions or thoughts, please let me know.  I know a lot of people play with the Imperial State Building, but with the amount of P-Dice Gakura gets when brawling an electrical Power Plant, I think that means I don't necessarily need the ISB unless it's maybe late game and things are destroyed.  I figured, securing the Insurance Building, then brawling a Electrical Power Plant nets me 7 P-dice alone, which is pretty rocking, not to mention the Demolish capability, and the option to blitz and attack again!

Virtually Smashing

Today I ventured out on Vassal.  I have played on Vassal many times before, but not Monsterpocalypse, so I was, as always, a bit concerned about the community I would find there.  People either get Vassal, or don't.  And if you don't, you usually REALLY don't and never take the time to figure it out.  Those who do or have, find it's extremely useful in my opinion.

I added links to the Monpoc items for Vassal on the sidebar, so please I highly advise, go get them.

Remember, I'm new.  So today, I learned that with my Empire of the Apes I'm building... I can use these guys!

T-Rex!  Yes, this makes the game even that much more fun!  I've also learned that monsters can traverse great depths, and water means nothing to them.  Why would I think that a 61 meter tall behemoth would have a problem, hell, they are puddles to him!

So back to the community thing... First, I posted online a few rules questions and introduced myself.  Usually these things can go one of two ways with one being "n00b!" comments.  However, everyone was VERY nice.  I got answers to all my questions and learned a thing or two about a thing or two.

Then, venturing onto Vassal, I got to watch two great games tonight.  The Subterranean Upriser, Grindix (which I personally think is one of THE funniest names ever for a giant phallic thing that comes out out of the ground at you) utterly whipped the snot out of Aquosia.  Then, I got to watch a match between Incinerus and Grindix again, with Incinerus winning this time.

Both times, I had questions during the game, and while I hate interrupting people on Vassal, everyone was VERY nice and open to my questions.

Communites make or break a game, and thus far, my experience has been great!

Now, I have to figure out how to get to my local shop to play sealed on the 9th... which is my daughter's birthday... and family is in town... hm, where is that Green Fury Van when you need it!?

PS - these dudes are REALLY cool looking:

MonPoc Now!

So I have been an avid gamer for some time now, and until the creation and launch of world of Warcraft Minis, I never really enjoyed tabletop gaming.  I played around with Warhammer and 40K, enjoyed painting, but never got much into the games themselves.  At one point I was actually painting for cash, but then I graduated college and got a real job.

Then last week, in the midst of making it to my local gaming store early, I had an urge.  I wanted to play something new, and so did my friend with me.  We both said we had wanted to look at Monsterpocalypse for some time now, and with the recent introduction of the newest expansion, Monsterpocalypse Now, we figured why not now?

There are certain things in life that immediately hook us.  The reach into our souls and touch a place that even our subconscious doesn't know exists.  It hits a home run and scores in a flash... for example, when I was 4, the first movie I saw in a theater that I can remember, was Star Wars.  Hooked, from the moment the words started scrolling, even though I couldn't read half of them... and then that giant ship came into view... yup, I was a lifer.

This same thing happened with MonPoc.  I bought a starter, and said, "Oh wow, they have giant Apes!" as i looked over the box.  I immediately said, "That would rock if I got an Ape."  Guess what I got?

Yup, Gakura!  This dude is a giant Ape, hairy, angry, and is wielding a train.  A TRAIN!  Not often do I get to sit down, play as an Ape, a train wielding ape at that, and get to be told, "Yes, you can throw me into a building."

This game rules so far and as such, I made this place for me to chat about my experiences in learning to play it from scratch.

Perhaps my favorite thing, is all the models are very detailed and superbly painted for pre-painted minis.  Major props to Privateer Press on this aspect.

As such, tonight was my first full game.  My buddy, Daniel, who bought the game with me, came over and we decided to sit down and destroy some buildings.  I went out and bought a Unit Booster as well as the Privateer Press building with the All Your Base Map Pack, and we decided to play on Highway to Hellvue as our map.

This was an interesting thing, as we don't have a ton of buildings, but we had enough to cover the green foundations.  A few apartment buildings, a few newspaper buildings, a constructions crane, and a privateer press building later, and it was on to clobbering time.

Me with my Gakura, and him with his Krakenoctus, the Invader Triton monster.  We both had very few units to speak of, let alone matching ones, but I was able to secure a few more apes, so we decided to pay without faction cost penalties and speed things up.

I really enjoy how the dice are your resource in this game.  In short, you start with 10 Action Dice (A-Dice) in your Unit Pool.  When you spawn, move or attack, you use one or more A-dice to do so.  Those used, are then shifted to your Monster Pool.  As the game progresses, you can choose to use your Units or Monsters, and the dice in each one's respective pool is at their disposal.

The thing I think I like is there are so many options.  The pivitol turning point in our game came when Krakenoctus used a Power Attack with 6 Red Power Dice (P-Dice), 1 Blue Boost Dice (B-Dice) and 7 A-Dice to hit Gakura with a Power Attack: Throw, sending me flying 6 city blocks backwards, and hitting a Newspaper building.  This did 1 damage for the hit, 1 damage for the collision with the building, and 1 damage because said building turns into a towering inferno when destroyed!  3 damage!  This may not seem like much to the average gamer, but when you only have 6 life and no current owned way of healing... it hurts!

In the end, Gakura fell to the power of Krakenoctus, but not without turning the entire cityscape, except for the indestructible Privateer Press building, to rubble and or fire!

So I'm 0-1, and yet, left wanting more... more apes that is!