It’s about time for an article, eh? I know that everyone, like myself, is busy with the holidays, but I feel compelled to write. I feel like I’ve had a breakthrough. And with that, I pose the question:
Are you sure that you’re really playing YOUR monster?
I certainly wasn’t. In fact, as I look back on all of the monsters that I’ve played consistently, I’m fairly sure that with most of them I failed miserably.
See, it sounds simple – every monster is suited best for a particular strategy. Every one, every single one, is optimized to implement a specific gameplan. Whether this optimization is consciously done during the R&D process or not is irrelevant – a plan is inherently present in every single monster. Our job as players is to FIND it.
Let me explain. I’ve been playing Vorgax heavily for the past month, and over said month I have watched my playstyle evolve dramatically. At this point, I finally feel like I’ve found it. I feel like I’m playing Vorgax in nearly the best way that he can be played. I say “nearly” because, of course, I can improve MY play, but as far as Vorgax’s style, I believe I’m close to getting it right. What’s my proof?
I’ve started consistently winning.
And that’s really what this is all about, isn’t it? Winning is enjoyable. If it weren’t the case that people were trying to win, Monpoc wouldn’t be much of a game, would it? That’s not to say that one need be “roided out” about wins and losses, but simply that winning is an objective, and that in order to accomplish this objective, it’s best we learn how to play our monsters.
So, where to start? How do we get the feel of our monster? We must have a completely open mind. We must not put up parameters or box in particular monsters. We must wipe away any previous beliefs about what a monster is supposed to do. And then, we must evaluate and experiment!
Evaluate
Every monster’s set of abilities tells a story. The most effective way to transmit the style of a monster is through this set. Some monsters have Brawl triggers. Some have Blast triggers. Some have Blue abilities. Some have Red abilities. Some have Actions. Some have debuffs. When you combine all of the abilities that a monster has, it’s like constructing a detailed outline of that monster’s story. You can begin to get a feel for areas in which that monster excels.
Take Drillcon for instance.
Ability: Multi-shot (Brawl)
Ability: Burrow
Ability: Dig-in (Blue)
Ability: Riled
His Multi-shot means that he’ll be good at destroying units while still damaging an enemy monster or building. Blue Dig-In means that his army might excel at holding objective spaces. And his Riled means that he gains an advantage from taking damage. When we put this together, we begin to see a story:
Multi-shot allows for effective powerbase disruption. But, the downside of disrupting an opponent’s powerbase is that you tend to take early damage. What do we find? Riled. Add in Dig-in for Objective Spaces and we have a rough template for the way in which Drillcon might best be piloted.
Every monster has this kind of outline. The problem is that it often conflicts with a player’s natural tendencies. For instance, some of us, in every single game that we play, prefer defense. We build ion cannons instead of zealots (if you don’t understand this reference, for shame), and prefer to turtle. Some of us prefer offense. We love to rush in before the opponent can do anything, to put it all on the line as quickly as possible. Some of us prefer to be tricky and elusive, to cause confusion and force our opponent into bad situations. Some of us prefer a battle of attrition in which our effective management of resources slowly dwindles our opponent to a halt. These tendencies have been around for a long time, and are very deep. If we choose to play a monster whose style is not in-line with our natural tendencies, we either abandon those tendencies or become an ineffective pilot.
Think about every game that you’ve really delved into. Did you choose the barbarian or the rogue? The blaster cannon or the force field? The wall or the soldier? In each game you’ll find that there is a tendency. It is important to notice that tendency, and then to look at the abilities of your monster and construct an outline. Does the outline match your preferred style of play? If not, either switch monsters or be ready to embrace a playstyle that may be uncomfortable to you at first.
Experiment
With your outline constructed, you must experiment. Test, test, test! If the outline seems to say “I should be on the offense, killing lots of units,” then do it! Be reckless. Just try it, even if it is unfamiliar. If the outline says, “I should stay back and let my units do the work,” then for God’s sake stay back! Stay away! When the opponent gets close run to the opposite side of the map! Push all of your A-Die to your unit pool! If the outline says, “I should be leveling the city so that I have an advantage late game,” then do not leave a single building standing. Take 4 damage in the process. Lose a form in the process. It doesn’t matter during testing. Take what you believe your outline to be and push it to the limit.
It may seem crazy or stupid at first, but I’ve found, as I hope you do, that sometimes it…actually works. I’ve found myself sitting with my mouth open at the end of a game, completely surprised that a certain playstyle actually worked. Who would’ve thought that plunging right into the heart of the enemy base would lead to such an overwhelming victory? Who knew that I could win a game without ever leaving the back row of my base? These kinds of revelations are what really drive our abilities to the next level, and they stem from experimentation.
Again, take Drillcon. I have never piloted Drillcon, but just from looking at his abilities I have an idea of how best to use him. Now I must experiment with that idea. My first game I will get as many units on negative zones as possible, run Drillcon into my opponent’s base on my first turn, and Brawl/Multi-Shot until one of us dies. If that works, I’ll start to refine it. If it doesn’t work, I’ll look at WHY. Maybe I succeeded in destroying my opponent’s powerbase, but he or she had 3 power zones in the distance that were allowing effective powerups. Next game, then, I’ll attempt to block those power zones, or set myself up so that I can effectively remove opposing units from them. If that works, I’ll start to refine it. If it doesn’t work, it’s back to the outline.
Now, something working doesn’t necessarily mean that you win the game. It could be that you effectively denied your opponent a powerbase, but that they were playing Martians with 3 power pods and didn’t need a powerbase. Even if you lost, it still worked. And once something works, you can build on it and start to construct variations based on specific matchups. The important thing is that the outline works – then you can begin to fill in the rest.
Conclusion
It’s hard to transmit exactly what I am trying to say, but I think that’s because it seems so simple. Each of these monsters has a set of strengths. When we play to these strengths, we do well, and when we do not play to these strengths, we lose. If I am playing Sky Sentinel and I rampage through my opponent’s powerbase first turn, I’m not playing Sky Sentinel. I am not playing to the strengths of my monster. If I’m playing King Kondo and I sit in my base waiting for my opponent to come after me, I’m not playing King Kondo. King Kondo’s abilities do not scream “SIT AROUND AND WAIT”. That is not Kondo’s outline. Look at the abilities, construct an outline, and test its extremes.
Then don’t be surprised when you start winning.
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Steven is a philosopher, spiritual guru, and avid gamer currently residing in the wonderful metropolis of Oklahoma. He helped start Covenant TCG a few years ago and has been doing a lot of the photoshop/design work ever since. If he's not building a debris hut in the wilderness he's behind a computer screen striving to make Covenant a little bit better each day! 
This is correct. Couldn’t have been said better by me. We’ve been doing this forever. Josh is just better than I am at doing it. I am and always will be willing to play with Nova ESR due to the fact that I know that she likes to simply Plink at the opponent while hiding amongst the buildings in Killer Canals, all the way up until they screw up, place their monster wrong, and then get Thrown into a Crystalline Building. I realize what Monsters do and work off of their abilities until, after much profanity and slaughter, my plan for the monster finally works. Truly, this works. Nice Article, man. 10 out of 10. =)
It’s actually surprising that we haven’t heard something on this before. Every monster has a play style that you must use to reach its full potential. The mistake is to try and make the monster fit your style.
Wonderful article. It echoes something I’ve long said, you need to find the monster that fits your natural playstyle. The only bummer to that is that you may find that what sits your playstyle doesn’t fit your aesthetic choices. For example, when I began playing MonPoc, I was drawn to the Terrasaurs, and wasn’t at all interested in the look of the Planet Eaters. Of course, now my tastes are well known, I can’t seem to use the Terrasaurs to save my life, and I love the playstyle of the Planet Eaters.
First let me say that this blog is simply fantastic.
I think it is absolutely critical to figure out what play styles your monster can play effectively. Almost as important is the fact that players also need to find their play style. I’m wondering though, do you think it’s possible that a certain monster could have multiple play styles? That would then lead us into a discussion of just what is a play style and what are the ones offered in this game. However, I think there might be some monsters who have been cast away by the community because of playing the wrong style.
@Andrew – do you think it’s more important to use the monster that fits your style or the aesthetics? Or maybe a player should have two armies, one for each? I guess I’m wondering because I know if I didn’t absolutely enjoy my apes demolishing my opponent, I don’t know that I would be as excited to use them. With less excitement, I would likely want to play less. With less game time, I am likely to not become as good with the apes, even if their play style fits me to a t. Thoughts?
Zach, ideally your monster would fit both aesthetics and playstyle, but I don’t think they’re equally important. I would say playstyle fit is more important. There’s little that’s more aesthetically pleasing than an army that plays smoothly and wins. Or, put another way, even the most off-putting army becomes more attractive when you can win regularly with it.
I highlighted it as a “problem” because folks who aren’t as obsessive as I am may try to limit themselves to one faction. Without game experience, they are likely to pick one that pleases them aesthetically, which may not be the “ideal” army/monster for them playstyle-wise. They play a few games, lose a lot, feel lost, and quit the game without giving other monsters a chance.
Who says that a player has one strict play style that they’re limited to? I roll Ulgoth and Grindix. One’s a control/finesse monster and the other is a strategy-who-needs-strategy beatstick. They couldn’t possibly be more different in terms of style, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy playing both.
A well reasoned introduction and it creates a framework for further discussion. I know play style has been mentioned before. Maybe not as directly. But, it has been mentioned.
@Tekkactus. No one is saying you can’t have more than one play style. But it is rare to see a player who excels in more than one style. People have tendencies; right handed versus left handed, for example. Or in a better analogy from MMA, brawlers versus grapplers. People can learn to do both, but they have a natural preference.
I know my favorite place to play is on the other side of them map and I like a durable character to withstand my tactical mistakes. I thought the Planet Eaters were the faction for me. However the Terrasaur units made more sense to me in play. I saw how to use them intuitively and with Tyrannix I had a monster that suited me as well. Now I have my Apes. Ah, my pretty pretty Apes. I can’t wait to see how Tyrannix and Gakura do together this weekend in my first tournament in a couple months.
This article just reminds me how oddball “My” monster is. Playing by my intuition and evaluating his abilities and stats lead me to play one way with him, after which I discovered that was a horrible failure. So I figured out I needed to play completely differently and unintuitively. I’ve won (Almost) all of my games with him since then.
I really enjoyed this article. Well-written and a topic that isn’t brought up often in Monsterpocalypse strategy discussion.
I don’t think a lot of people take into account how much personal playstyle makes a difference when playing monsters. This may not seem very strategic, but I always seem to to better with a monster whose playstyle I enjoy, rather than simply one whose abstract numbers someone calculates as “optimal.”
I have a friend who wins consistently with Rakadon, and he seems to support your position in this article…he says he does well with Rakadon because the monster really suits the kind of game he likes to play (lots of attacking with boosted units.)
Wolfbiter,
Yes that’s exactly it! And the thing is, I’ve realized that I tend to take monsters I enjoy AESTHETICALLY and play them in accordance with the PLAYSTYLE I enjoy – and that this has yet to match up.
When I think about the type of game that I like to play, it’s all about precision, evasiveness, and control. I like to slowly gain momentum by outplaying my opponent through positioning and resource management. And yet, here I am using the Planet Eaters, perhaps the most “throw it all out there and destroy” faction in the game.
When I realized this I started playing Vorgax differently, and started doing well – but still, Vorgax’s style is not my personal style, so my ability to really push him to the limit is, well, limited. I’m constantly having to fight my instinct to fall back and play a more “careful” game.
So, while I love the Planet Eater look and feel, I’ve realized that their particular style may not be the best for me. That’s not to say that they aren’t just as competitive as everything else, but that they’re not as competitive FOR ME.
It may be many sets down the road until I find that perfect match =)
@Botounami Did you use Drillcon in this example because of me? I enjoyed your article, especially because it referenced my favorite monster alot. Now I have to go play a game with him.
I think that I did actually, as I remember that game was fresh on my mind =)