NTTG RULEBOOK REVIEWS: Monsterpocalyse
Welcome to a NTTG rule book review. This is a review of the rulebook in an unplayed state in which I give a breakdown and some thoughts on the rulebook for the given game. I like to do this in a unplayed state as I can then give honest opinion on the writing, layout and how easy I believe it is to understand without any previous taint or prior knowledge of the game.
(Disclaimer: I am an awful writer so if you have an issue with grammer and spelling this probably isn't the site for you, but I do try my best haha)
Game: Monsterpocalypse
Company: Privateer Press
Release Date: 2018
Number of Pages: 44 (PDF)
Author: Well it a PP product so
What is Monsterpocalypse?
A tabletop skirmish game released by Privateer press where you get to live out your godzilla fantasy or bet the ever living snot out of a giant monster in a gaint robot or you know commit to a Martian invasion and if that really isn't enough why not just go King Kong on your opponent.
Book Breakdown:
The rulebook opens on "Welcome to the Battle" that opens with a small description of what then game is and then goes on to describe what armies you can play (but not how to make them). You choose an agenda between "Protectors" and "Destroyers" and within these agendas you have smaller factions meaning you can either play as a faction or go full mixed up agenda in your army composition but you have to stick to one agenda. The book describes 6 factions G. U. A. R. D, Shadow Sun Syndicate, Terrorsaurs (Frigging Dinosaurs!), Lords of Cthul, Martian Menace (UFOs anyone) and Planet Eaters (which I keep reading as plant eaters) .
What you need to play:
This section is a breakdown of basics terms and items you need to understand to be able to play through the game.
It starts with describing the 3 different types of models in the game, monsters, the big beasties that are the mainstay of your army and if they die you lose, units, the little minion models that support your monster, and building, the bits of scenary you get to smash.
Next we have our battlemat in this case it seems that it will usually be a city scape on a gridded mat that shows where to place you building etc.
Now a contentious point with many games if goes on to explain the custom dice, personally I'm undediced on this subject but I can understand people annoyance, you get three types of these power, action and boost. The dice have 3 symbols on the, blank which indicated a miss, one explosion called a strike and 2 explosions called a super strike. The battlemat has a sections for dice for either player and when you take actions and such you use the dice you have from the respective dice pools. Action dice have an interesting mechanic in which when you spend them from one pool I. E the monster pool it moves to the other pool I. E the unit pool and vice versa. Boost dice are pretty simple, they are free bonus when you perform certain things that say you have a boost in. Power dice are quite interesting in that they have better odds of getting a strike to the action dice but they need to be earned by doing things like destroy enemy models.
Moving on from dice we enter the stay card explanations. This is something I like to see games using unit cards becuase if they are done well you barely need to look in the rulebook when playing and even when not they are just a handy dandy reminder. The card seem to be pretty simple, it shows their speed and def star, what type of attacks they have of which their are 3, Brawl, blast and power (only monster have power) and any special rules they may have. Monster also have a second side that they flip to when damaged to a certain level. Monster also have a health tracker but units and buildings don't as they are one hit kills.
Gameplay Overview:
Good news the game uses alternating activation, well I admit this is personal preference as I feel it more engaging that the classic I go you go.
Your first turn you activate a unit then for the rest of the game you make the choice between a unit or a monster.
A unit has the choice between, spawn, advance (move), attack or push (give up dice). Monster are basically the same except they have power up instead of spawn.
We then go onto describing movement which boils down to using the models spd stay and moving that many squares on the grid, this movement is either horizontal or vertical but if it part of the advance phase it can also be diagonal. Restriction are simple monsters can move through allied models and enemy units but not eneumy monsters or buildings a unit can move only through allied models and no one can end on the same square as another model or off the mat.
Monster can be cheeky and spend an action dice to "step" one more square.
Terrian is pretty standard, you have openx rough (counts as two to move through it) or impassable, ofcourse if you model has high mobility rule it can move through anything as long as it doesn't end its move in an illegal state I. E on impassable terrain or another model.
Now ending next to another models puts you in one of 3 states, adjacent which is basically you are next to a model, base to base which is next to model but not diagonal and aligned which is when a monster is fully in contact with another monster.
All through this comes with handy and well done pictures that help explain everything well.
Attacking:
This is quite a nice elegant system, each attack has a number of action dice you can spend on an attack so if it says 4 you can spend up to 4 dice, add on thr number of boost dice if the attack has any and any power dice you have earned if you want to and roll them. Add all the strikes you get and if they beat the opponents defence you have been successful. Monster also have a power attack option which required spending at least 1 power dice to use. Each successful attack causes 1 damage unless it has super damage or some power attacks.
Interacting with the battlemat:
This sections of the rulebook looks at interacting with the, environment in different ways. Firstly the battlemats have areas marked where you need to place buildings and if you don't place a building their it just counts as open space. You can attack and destroy the buildings and when you do they usually leave a hazardous area that can damage you, some leave rubble or can be fixed with certain powers to rubble.
The other thing you can do with buildings is secure them which provides buffs for your army, the more secured building the better.
There are other special zones that can be secured and offer additional benefits if secured.
Getting Ready To Play:
The rulebook details a very clear set up instruction, gather your army, both side have the same amount of monster and for each monster you get to bring a certain number of units and you also bring along some buildings. You then roll for iniative and start deploying your models. This is the usual affair we see from games.
Order of Play:
This details what we have seen before just going into more detail on the different activations so basically we do alternating activation and follow the set activation route for the unit type chosen.
The rules we hadn't seen where power up, which just let's your monster get power dice for secured objectives, and spawn, which allows you to spend dice to bring new units on via spawn points.
Units can also do a combined attack, I'm not sure why you wouldn't put this in the attack section of the rulebook but hey ho, this allows units adjacent to an enemy to combine into one super attack so they actually stand a chance of hurting monsters.
You keep playing until one side loses all its monsters the other player is then the Winner woohoo.
Special Rules:
The special rule section goes on to describe how to use models special abilities called actions, which all cost at least one action dice to activate, and it offers a really good timing breakdown of how to apply special effects to model and when they happen etc this is nice to see as lot of books just sya, special rules replace or supersede the general rule but having a set timing can really help them make sense and clear confusion.
It then goes on to explain the power attacks in detail, these are an attack and allow you to do fun things like throw other models or body slam them, but they are just attacks with extra effects and work in a similar way as before.
The books then ends with a coop scenario in which two player split control of planet eaters from the starter set against a AI controlled Guard force. It seems to be very much a introduction game to get 2 players used to the rules.
Thoughts and Feelings:
So overall the book seems to provide a simple skirmish game that has some gaint monster flavour. It presented overall in nice fashion with plenty of useful diagrams and pictures and has an index at the back!.
I don't do any score or star rating but I do give my opinion on if the rulebook makes me want to play the game and in this case:
LETS GET PLAYING!
Author: Well it a PP product so
A tabletop skirmish game released by Privateer press where you get to live out your godzilla fantasy or bet the ever living snot out of a giant monster in a gaint robot or you know commit to a Martian invasion and if that really isn't enough why not just go King Kong on your opponent.
Book Breakdown:
The rulebook opens on "Welcome to the Battle" that opens with a small description of what then game is and then goes on to describe what armies you can play (but not how to make them). You choose an agenda between "Protectors" and "Destroyers" and within these agendas you have smaller factions meaning you can either play as a faction or go full mixed up agenda in your army composition but you have to stick to one agenda. The book describes 6 factions G. U. A. R. D, Shadow Sun Syndicate, Terrorsaurs (Frigging Dinosaurs!), Lords of Cthul, Martian Menace (UFOs anyone) and Planet Eaters (which I keep reading as plant eaters) .
What you need to play:
This section is a breakdown of basics terms and items you need to understand to be able to play through the game.
It starts with describing the 3 different types of models in the game, monsters, the big beasties that are the mainstay of your army and if they die you lose, units, the little minion models that support your monster, and building, the bits of scenary you get to smash.
Next we have our battlemat in this case it seems that it will usually be a city scape on a gridded mat that shows where to place you building etc.
Now a contentious point with many games if goes on to explain the custom dice, personally I'm undediced on this subject but I can understand people annoyance, you get three types of these power, action and boost. The dice have 3 symbols on the, blank which indicated a miss, one explosion called a strike and 2 explosions called a super strike. The battlemat has a sections for dice for either player and when you take actions and such you use the dice you have from the respective dice pools. Action dice have an interesting mechanic in which when you spend them from one pool I. E the monster pool it moves to the other pool I. E the unit pool and vice versa. Boost dice are pretty simple, they are free bonus when you perform certain things that say you have a boost in. Power dice are quite interesting in that they have better odds of getting a strike to the action dice but they need to be earned by doing things like destroy enemy models.
Moving on from dice we enter the stay card explanations. This is something I like to see games using unit cards becuase if they are done well you barely need to look in the rulebook when playing and even when not they are just a handy dandy reminder. The card seem to be pretty simple, it shows their speed and def star, what type of attacks they have of which their are 3, Brawl, blast and power (only monster have power) and any special rules they may have. Monster also have a second side that they flip to when damaged to a certain level. Monster also have a health tracker but units and buildings don't as they are one hit kills.
Gameplay Overview:
Good news the game uses alternating activation, well I admit this is personal preference as I feel it more engaging that the classic I go you go.
Your first turn you activate a unit then for the rest of the game you make the choice between a unit or a monster.
A unit has the choice between, spawn, advance (move), attack or push (give up dice). Monster are basically the same except they have power up instead of spawn.
We then go onto describing movement which boils down to using the models spd stay and moving that many squares on the grid, this movement is either horizontal or vertical but if it part of the advance phase it can also be diagonal. Restriction are simple monsters can move through allied models and enemy units but not eneumy monsters or buildings a unit can move only through allied models and no one can end on the same square as another model or off the mat.
Monster can be cheeky and spend an action dice to "step" one more square.
Terrian is pretty standard, you have openx rough (counts as two to move through it) or impassable, ofcourse if you model has high mobility rule it can move through anything as long as it doesn't end its move in an illegal state I. E on impassable terrain or another model.
Now ending next to another models puts you in one of 3 states, adjacent which is basically you are next to a model, base to base which is next to model but not diagonal and aligned which is when a monster is fully in contact with another monster.
All through this comes with handy and well done pictures that help explain everything well.
Attacking:
This is quite a nice elegant system, each attack has a number of action dice you can spend on an attack so if it says 4 you can spend up to 4 dice, add on thr number of boost dice if the attack has any and any power dice you have earned if you want to and roll them. Add all the strikes you get and if they beat the opponents defence you have been successful. Monster also have a power attack option which required spending at least 1 power dice to use. Each successful attack causes 1 damage unless it has super damage or some power attacks.
Interacting with the battlemat:
This sections of the rulebook looks at interacting with the, environment in different ways. Firstly the battlemats have areas marked where you need to place buildings and if you don't place a building their it just counts as open space. You can attack and destroy the buildings and when you do they usually leave a hazardous area that can damage you, some leave rubble or can be fixed with certain powers to rubble.
The other thing you can do with buildings is secure them which provides buffs for your army, the more secured building the better.
There are other special zones that can be secured and offer additional benefits if secured.
Getting Ready To Play:
The rulebook details a very clear set up instruction, gather your army, both side have the same amount of monster and for each monster you get to bring a certain number of units and you also bring along some buildings. You then roll for iniative and start deploying your models. This is the usual affair we see from games.
Order of Play:
This details what we have seen before just going into more detail on the different activations so basically we do alternating activation and follow the set activation route for the unit type chosen.
The rules we hadn't seen where power up, which just let's your monster get power dice for secured objectives, and spawn, which allows you to spend dice to bring new units on via spawn points.
Units can also do a combined attack, I'm not sure why you wouldn't put this in the attack section of the rulebook but hey ho, this allows units adjacent to an enemy to combine into one super attack so they actually stand a chance of hurting monsters.
You keep playing until one side loses all its monsters the other player is then the Winner woohoo.
Special Rules:
The special rule section goes on to describe how to use models special abilities called actions, which all cost at least one action dice to activate, and it offers a really good timing breakdown of how to apply special effects to model and when they happen etc this is nice to see as lot of books just sya, special rules replace or supersede the general rule but having a set timing can really help them make sense and clear confusion.
It then goes on to explain the power attacks in detail, these are an attack and allow you to do fun things like throw other models or body slam them, but they are just attacks with extra effects and work in a similar way as before.
The books then ends with a coop scenario in which two player split control of planet eaters from the starter set against a AI controlled Guard force. It seems to be very much a introduction game to get 2 players used to the rules.
Thoughts and Feelings:
So overall the book seems to provide a simple skirmish game that has some gaint monster flavour. It presented overall in nice fashion with plenty of useful diagrams and pictures and has an index at the back!.
I don't do any score or star rating but I do give my opinion on if the rulebook makes me want to play the game and in this case:
LETS GET PLAYING!
Nice review thanks for putting it together. Gives a good overview of the game rules.
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