Monsters on Main Street Forest City, N.C.

The Monsterpocalypse is surely upon us at Next Level Gamez in Forest City, N.C. (www.nextlevelgamez.com)…and we’re loving it!

Feb. 19 marked our third official tournament and we had a respectable four players turn out. Mike, Kevin, Kyle and Scott (yours truly) battled it out across city blocks, through skyscrapers and even in mid-air to determine whose beast would be the best.

Having won the first two tournaments at our store, I was pretty confident heading into this Thursday night showdown. One of my prizes from previous events was the ever-tricksy Mega Deimos-9. I started this game as a Shadow Sun Syndicate player thanks to the fact that I pulled Zor-Maxim in my initial starter set. But recently, I’ve become enamored of the Martian Menace. I love their power dice manipulation strategies and their units are capable of producing a lot of those coveted red dice, and the usefulness of Martian Power Pods cannot be overstated, in my not-so-humble opinion.

As a result of my new green fetish and the fact that I had a promo tournament prize monster on hand, I decided to bring Deimos-9 to the table with a gaggle of Martian Menace units for support including five Vanguards, one Elite Vanguard, two Elite Hunters, two Saucers and two power pods. My selection of buildings was pretty straightforward. Like most of our players, I’m pretty new to the game and just play what I have on hand.

Deimos-9 would be facing off against Rogzor, Defender-X and Cthugrosh. In round 1, I faced off against Mike and his Planet Eaters force led by Rogzor.

Round 1

Early Game

Things started out pretty well for me. I used my Power Pods and Saucers to secure buildings and Power Up objectives and gained four power dice on my first monster turn. As Mega Deimos-9 only requires three power dice to shift into hyper form, I immediately upgraded. After a few steps, I advanced (right through the buildings thanks to Mega Deimos-9’s Climb ability) and brawled him. A hit was good for one damage, and so much more. This triggered Mega Deimos-9’s Chain Attack ability and allowed me to immediately make a power attack. The Mean Green Machine grabbed Rogzor and threw him into an oil refinery for a total of four damage that turn. Not bad for my first Monster turn! But things would only get worse from here.

Mid Game

Mike made a quick move to shift into hyper form himself as Ultra Rogzor showed up. Not only does this figure look the coolest of all the Ultras I’ve seen, but he has a great ability in Hit & Run and his great blast attack. Mike was also making it a point to secure a radar dish with several of his units to up Rogzor’s range on his blast attack. I did destroy that radar dish, but Hit & Run still made it almost academic that Rogzor was running hard and fast away from Mega Deimos-9. He was able to blast me to pieces while I couldn’t get aligned or even adjacent for many turns as I vainly attempted to step and advance to catch him. Mega Deimos-9’s Chain Attack is a way to dish out a ridiculous amount of damage on the opposing monster, but it’s no good if you can’t get close to your target. Mike’s Explodohawk blew up in my face and dropped me back to Alpha Deimos-9.

Late Game

It was during the late game of this round that I discovered the trade-off Deimos-9 players must face with all the combo-tastic power of Chain Attack. In Alpha form, Deimos-9 has to just walk. Yep, no flying, no jumping and no climb. Ultra Rogzor easily outpaced me for several more turns. Too late, I decided to try outmaneuvering him with the Refuel ability on my Power Pods. But as I only have two Power Pods and I didn’t think about it until I only had two health left, I simply wasn’t able to get close enough to Ultra Rogzor to even damage him again before time ran out in the round.

Mike scored three victory points, earning one for destroying my hyper form and two for winning the round. Over at the other table, Kevin and Kyle played to a draw in a super defensive game (full of lots of healing, I was told) to put us at these point totals at the end of round one.

Mike: 3 VP

Kevin: 1 VP

Kyle: 1 VP

Scott: 0 VP.

Round 2

Hoping to get to hyper form as Mega Deimos-9 and stay there, I prepared to face off against Cthugrosh and Kevin’s motley crew of units.

Early Game

My plan to secure buildings and Power Ups paid off, as I was able to secure a nuclear power plant and two Power Up squares with two Power Pods. The red dice I gained let me switch to Mega Deimos-9 on my first monster turn again. Thanks to a use of the Refuel ability on my second unit turn, Mega Deimos-9 was in position to attack Cthugrosh on my second monster turn. I brawled him and hit for one damage, triggering Chain Attack. Now, Chain Attack is the whole reason I decided to play Mega Deimos-9 as the ability to follow up a brawl with a SECOND attack, much less a power attack seems pretty powerful. And it was. My power attack was an attempt to throw Cthugrosh into two Downtown Hi-Rise buildings. I rolled four action dice, two boost dice and four power dice. Success! As these Hi-Rises burst into flame, I dished out five damage in one power attack! Counting the one damage from the initial brawl, that’s six damage in one turn! From zero damage to dead on the same turn? Yes PLEASE! Alpha form Cthugrosh was toast, but Ultra Cthugrosh was a little more difficult to damage.

Mid Game

Ultra Cthugrosh was mad! He stepped up and threw Mega Deimos-9 into another Downtown Hi-Rise for three damage on a power attack. Nowhere near six damage, but painful nonetheless when the fragile Martian walker only has six health to start out. Kevin was out for blood as the big demonic beastie, and he got a crucial assist from his units by making a massive combined Brawl attack on his fifth unit turn with four units working together to punch Mega Deimos-9. There were three Carnidon’s and one Task Master laying the smack down, putting me to one health remaining on Mega Deimos-9.

At this point, my luck and plans all fell apart. I failed a critical power up roll (three dice, no successes) and brawled Ultra Cthugrosh. I got a hit, and could have triggered Chain Attack…but alas, I had no power dice to roll. I ended my turn with three action dice in my monster pool, hoping Ultra Cthugrosh would miss me and I could take back to back monster turns.

Kevin rolls one action dice to attempt to power up, and of course succeeds – just to spite me, I assume! Ultra Cthugrosh brawled me to death and I dropped back to Alpha Deimos-9. Have I mentioned how much I dislike Alpha Deimos-9? Being limited to just walking is a real hinderance to the way I enjoy playing this game.

Later, on my next unit turn, I was able to kill a few of his units with some Vanguards and the Elite Vanguard giving me some much needed red dice thanks to the Vanguard’s Power Gorge ability. But it was too little, too late as Kevin used another combined brawl attack with the same four units to punch me again.

Late Game

Kevin closed in for the kill and used Ultra Cthugrosh to body slam Alpha Deimos-9 into a skyscraper causing three damage. With only one health left in my Alpha form, it looked like I was headed for another loss. I tried a speculative blast attack with two action dice and five power dice, but still missed. On his final turn, Kevin healed to four damage with Sacrifice and then brawled Alpha Deimos-9 for the win.

Mike defeated Kyle giving us these final standings:

Mike: 5 VP

Kevin: 4 VP

Kyle: 2 VP

Scott: 0 VP

Conclusion

So what have we learned? Alpha Deimos-9 sucks! Well, at least with the way I like to play Monsterpocalypse, Deimos-9 is too gimmicky. My preferred strategy is to use my Monster to get in their face and use power attacks while my units lock down and secure a power base of buildings and Power Up squares to enhance my power attacks or my long range (via a radar dish.) This doesn’t seem to work well with Deimos-9 and when I try to use him again, I’ll make sure to use some units to make more offensive moves with combined blast attacks and such.

Our next tournament will be February 28 with prizes from I Chomp NY! Until next time, may all your Power Up rolls be successful and check out Next Level Gamez on the web at www.nextlevelgamez.com. It’s the home of our soon-to-be-award-winning gaming podcast!