"2-part Monstrpocalypse question" Topic

First, I've read most of what's been said on TMP and BGG about this game and I think I'll like it. My first question is whether the starter boxes are keyed to a particular faction. For example, if I buy a starter box, am I going to get a Martian monster with Shadow Sun and Cthul units, or will they all be Martian.

Second, if i go the singles route, what's needed for a decent game (I'm assuming more buildings than you get in the starters). For example, one monster (both forms) and say 5-7 units (starter box quantities, I guess)?

Thoughts?

What you get in a Starter set is: 1 Random Monster and Hyper Form, 4 Units consisting of a G.U.A.R.D. G-Tank, a Lords of Cthul Spitter, a Terrasaur Carnidon, and a Martian Menace Vanguard. You also get the Apartment Bulding, and the Downtown Highrise.
You also get a specialised health tracker for the monster and its hyper Form, and specialised activation dice. Also you get a two sided map.
You can't play the game with just buying singles unless you also find someone selling the health trackers and activation dice or you buy a couple Monsterpocalypse accessory sets(You need one set of both health tracker and dice for each side).
Note that each starter set contains only enough for one player.

The starter set basically gets you one unit for each faction, plus a random monster (both forms), as well as the dice, rules and a map.

You can't play the game with just buying singles unless you also find someone selling the health trackers and activation dice or you buy a couple Monsterpocalypse accessory sets(You need one set of both health tracker and dice for each side).

You can, actually. The health tracker's a nice replacement for a couple of D12s or a pad of paper, but hardly essential. The rules are downloadable, and the dice are easily proxied. There are a fixed number of white and red dice, while you can have as many blue dice as you need.

The distribution of units/monsters in the packs is pretty decent; I split a case of each with a friend, and we took 3 factions each. The case of Monster Boosters got us 1 of each monster, and the unit boosters were pretty well dividsed, too.

Note also that Big Monster boosters are sold differently from support units.

In one kind of booster, you get a Big Monster and his hyper form.

In the other kind of booster, you get a mix of support units from various factions, and a building.

Be prepared to spend a &%$#load of money if you intend to build actual faction forces, without substitutions.

Note that you do not need to build faction forces. The units you field may be of any faction relative to the monster, but do cost a bit more to spawn if they don't match the monster.. This is generally a self-correcting issue, as higher spawn costs are not a huge disadvantage while you have a small number of units, and the more units you acquire, the more in-faction you likely have available.

Also note that they sell Monsterpocalypse Accessory Packs, that contain a health tracker, dice set, and bunch of clip on unit id rings. Also, your units re-spawn, so you don't need a HEAP of them. The supported events i play in recommend one monster, and 4-15 units. And units from ANY faction can be used with any monster, they simply cost one extra dice to bring into play. One of the cooler things i find about the game, is there is no "rarity" among the basic monsters. So no one monster is harder to find than any other. Makes it VERY easy to trade for what you want. There are "Hyper" versions of monsters, and "elite" units, but they are the only "rarer" type of models. All in all its a GREAT game, and I really like how its "semi-Collectible".

Edit: link
Shows the Accessory pack.