"Monsterpocalypse Reviews?" Topic

Any reviews from first hand TMPers?

Curious….I likes me some big monsters…and remember those little people taste like chiken once you peel the colorful metal shells off.

try one of the latest episodes of The D6 Generation podcast – 16 I think…

sorry, it's episode 17

thed6generation.com

Well Earthquake…I appreciate the bump to this site…it was my first trip down this road of gamers interviewing other gamers online, and I was even treated to odd character voices as well…whew…I listened to 16 without thinking, missed the 17 reference that was painful, painful and way too close to random zany talk radio which has a special place in hell for me…then I caught 17 and there was some good info on there, thanks!.

Hopefully we can get some TMPers to provide some pics, notes, battle reports, etc..

Some of the repaints on the monsters that I have seen have been really well done, much improving the overall look of the figures. Hope to see more of the same.

I have the starter set and some unit boosters. There are a few pro's to the game that may not be apparent. For one the collectable issue seems much less serious than I was fearing. Each booster seems to have some good units in it and I haven't identified any units so awesome that they would dominate play. In addition you can throw together a band of monsters and support units even if they are not in the same monster faction (I can't believe I'm even typing this stuff, "monster faction," God help us all). Finally, there are so many special abilities to each monster and unit that I think it'll be hard to come up with an stoppable army.

The possible con is that this is far from a simple game. I've run two demos and there was plenty of explaining and questions to be answered. Certainly more complex than Command and Colors or DBA. Now that's a pro as well, but I wouldn't go get this for my 8 year old.

Too bad that's exactly who I bought it for, my 8 year old. And he's not happy that the game has more than two pages of rules. I, on the other hand, love that. It's a complex game that should be loads of fun. He'll get used to it.

The game is certainly more tactically complex than is immediately apparent. The factions play differently, and, at least in some cases, the ideal selection of little units doesn't change much for the range of opponents.

We have one player locally who has figured out the big Martian saucer and has become difficult to beat as a result, while a lot of the online folks are playing that monster the same way they play the others and are under-appreciating it as a result.

Monsterpocalypse shares its defining play characteristic with Privateer Press' other game, Warmachine: Simple rules, but you *must* know your models.

Simple rules, but you *must* know your models.

And your enemies' figures, at least to a degree. That's where the "Privateer model" falls apart a bit. Eventually there are too many units/troops/characters/whatever to keep all their special rules even vaguely in memory. War Machine is starting to groan under its own weight, while Hordes is simpler as a stand-alone but just adds to the strain when combined with WM.

Monsterpocalypse is too new to have baggage issues, and its "stats on the base" format will probably help a little…but in the long run, memorizing all those tiny little icons will likely be an issue, especially as they multiply. At least they're good about putting comprehensive "cheat sheets" in the rules so far.

I absolutely love this game so far. I think I've played 15-20 games.

The rules seem complicated at first but after a handful of games I had them pretty much memorized (with an occassional check of the reference sheet for certain symbol meanings).

I like that it's simple to carry around and set up, and visually very cool looking, but has enough depth and complexity to really reward good strategy and tactical thinking.

Almost every game I've played of it has had a "memorable movie moment" of some sort.

That is what I expected…if you like big monsters, big monster movies, and all that goes with the same…as long as the ohter players are not complete jack_sses then the games should be a blast…pure beer and pretzels…and fun, glad to hear it.

From a "review for new players" point of view, it is worth noting that the rules are written for reference in play, and are lacking a bit in the "easy to read and comprehend" category. The walkthrough card helps some, but be prepared to grumble at the rules once or twice before it starts to "click".

I think they are brilliant rules and have bought into the game in a big way. Let me add to this that all my gaming buddies think the end is nigh because I have actually jumped into a collectible game. But with so many sites that will sell singles at mostly very reasonable prices I hardly feel like the game IS collectible, plus unlike all the other collectible games out there the rules are fairly simple to read, yet complex to master. Every faction will play completely differently depending on which monster (and which Hyper form) you choose to lead the force. So far any collectible figures that they have released are just different models and not some super monster that will blow anybody else without one away.

Privateer may foul up and fall down with future releases and rules, but right now I own a complete, excellent game that really doesn't NEED any more of those things. But more units and monsters would be cool so I win either way!

I play all the time at my LGS and I've found it to be a great games. Collectible, tactical, just all around fun. The issue we've had has been in putting armies together – unit boosters seem to be very popular. We've found it works well to pick like 1 or 2 monsters and learn them inside and out – there are very different strategies to employ for each faction/beast ;)

What sizes are the miniatures ? I wonder about using them for HOTT or similar rules.

"What sizes are the miniatures ?"

The big monsters are on bases that are a bit over 2" square, while the little guys are on bases a little over 1" square.

The small Terrasaur and Planet Eater models are all effectively scaleless.

The 2nd set has been released, and shakes up some of the faction roles and notions seen in the first set. There are also pictures of the bases (faction specific buildings) from set 3 in the new (March 09) issue of No Quarter (the Privateer Press mag).

Shadowsun Syndicate (the "Ultraman" faction) is still the scalpel, and Planet Eaters (giant space chickens) are still the beat stick. GUARD picked up a couple of FAST models, several more factions are capable of knocking the pins out from under the (Martian) Ares Mothership, and the Terrasaurs (Earth native kaiju = Godzilla etc) got a transporter of sorts, for that extra bit of speed. Also, having a pack of flying dinosaurs simply fly off with an opponent is cool.

Man, but I love that game!

Third set is out. Morphers are… odd. Cool, but odd.

Don't know about the others, or the game, but as figures go Ultra Ancient Osheroth is quite a nice not-Cthulhoid. Looks less weird than I Chomp NY Lords of Cthul, tho they had marginally better paintjobs.

To fill up the order I also bought the new Martian base. While I buy the Lords mostly just to feed my HPL obsession, this bit should be useful for pretty much any scifi game as a whatsit or a thingamajick.

Yeah. I was "seeing" the footage of a movie with Osheroth as I unwrapped mine and interpreted his abilities while reading the rules for morphers. Quite the lively "catch the gopher" fight until the good guys get a solid shot in on one of the tentacle sets as they race around the city, under buildings, and BEHIND YOU! Then they all vanish, burrowing deep, and emerge in one place, the body of Ancient Osheroth coalesced amongst then. Then the fight begins in earnest…

Out of curiosity, is the Ultra Ancient supposed to be able to move at all once on the board? Seeing as he apparently has no legs or other motive organs and doesn't seem to be big on floating about (like a massively oversized, very ugly blimp, I'd imagine) either…

He's not handy at the moment, but he does have a Movement score, IIRC.

Well, I suppose he'd be able to sorta ooze around or something of that sort… Not unheard of in the critters inspired by the certain gentleman of Providence.

Anyway, a rather nice fig like I said. All the Lords are, actually. Worth the current asking prices, at any rate.