MNM VII – From the Ashes
By Team Covenant– October 1, 2012
It’s time. Monday Night Monster is back. We’ve heard nothing but disappointing excuses, dodges, and outright denials from Privateer Press. We get it. Monsterpocalypse is not going to see a release for a while, if ever. It might be movie-related. It might be profit-related. It might be manufacturer-related. It might be time-related. It might be staff-related. But, most importantly, it might not matter. We are here, and we are here to play one of the best miniatures games that has ever been created. We are here to challenge each other and to build friendships. We are here to explore our favorite monsters and see how well we can do. We will not be denied, and we will continue to play, even if we’re the only ones left.
Welcome to the world of Monday Night Monster! This online Vassal tournament is a longstanding tradition among the TC community, and one that is responsible for a significant number of epic stories, remarkable battles, and close friendships. When we get together and catch up at MonCon, Monday Night Monster matches are often brought up. These are the games you rarely forget.
What You’ll Need
Download the Vassal Engine
Download the latest Monsterpocalypse Mod
Read the “How-to” for Vassal Play
How To Enter
The current Team Covenant World Champion and MonCon winner Chris Engler (Wapcaplets) will be the official Tournament Organizer for this iteration of Monday Night Monster, and as such, will be keeping track of matches, lists, and reporting.
To enter, message Wapcaplets (message is on the far right, under the avatar) with the following:
- Your Monster, including chosen Hyper form
- Your 15 unit list
- Your 2-12 building list
- Your chosen map (Covenant Maps are LEGAL, as decided by Wap himself)
The Rules
- At the start of Turn 25 and every turn thereafter, the active player rolls one B-Die. If a super strike is rolled, the game is over.
- A player wins by destroying both forms of the opposing monster. If the game ends before this occurs, the following tiebreakers are checked, in the order given:
- Most forms killed.
- Most total damage done to the opposing monster (this is different than usual, damage counts even if it was healed).
- Most health remaining.
- The game is a draw.
Good Luck
As you all know, we’re cranking away on some vast improvements for Reborn III. Don’t make fun of us if we don’t get a chance to participate! Let’s make this the best Monday Night Monster yet.
We had to get some things sorted with Wap being able to use the event system, but MNM is here! And it’s an important step that gets us closer to opening up event hosting to ambassadors. All around good times, no doubt.
Wap, once again you win the Good Guy Gaming award. I’m excited about the ranked events working for ambassadors. Now I have to start crafting my list.
Question about this round. It looks like you play just one monster through the whole event, is that correct?
Correct. Same list, all rounds. Just like MonCon. I wanted to keep it simple for this first one just so I have fewer moving parts to manage!
The inclusion of Bryan Danielson alone makes this the best MNM ever.
YES! YES! YES! or
NO! NO! NO! or
I’M THE TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS!
No. -I- am the tag team champions.
No, _I_ am the tag team champions.
lol! I need to show my wife this, so she stops thinking I’m the only one with the guilty pleasure of wresting.
And, No -I- AM the tag team champions.
Chrissy thinks WWE is funny. She secretly watches it and thinks I don’t see her watching along with me. And last night, she talked about wrestling for about a half hour… I think she’s coming around.
My entry is in. Very excited to fight some monsters.
Hating that the turn counter and still-bad-number-of-dice is part of it, considering my only real loss with Ulgoth to this day was to the turn count and not an opposing monster… 100% due to the fact I lost the starting roll, or Zach would have had to chase after me.
I highly recommend that if we do have to roll dice, make it just 1B and if you roll a super-strike it’s over. That way it could easily go to conclusion… you can’t just play beat-the-system to win.
Sure, I’m totally down for doing the single B-Die. Wap, you ok with it?
What?! Someone is forcing me to play the same monster twice in a row? The humanity!
Will definetely pm…once the dice stops spinning & I picked a monster.
Entry has been sent. Everyone already knows what my entry is. =)
It makes me want to play Robo Kondo, but I’ve already chosen.
Maybe Ole’ Quantum Cthugrosh will have to come out after all…
I’ll probably be entering as well, although I’m not exactly sure on my monster choice yet. One question though, are email games allowed or will all matches have to be done in one sitting? I’m not sure I’ll be able to always do live matches.
Turn limits will keep me out; too easy to game the system.
Have fun guys and good luck!
Please Chris reconsider. You are correct about the turn limits, so just kill them before it comes to that. I really do hope you reconsider, as your a great player and you would add so much to this event.
It’s hard to do in 2 turns with many monsters. Slower killers like Anglax will likely win around turn 30.
24 turns
Important to note that the B-Die currently arrives at this distribution.
T25: 1%
T26: 6.5%
T27: 18.5%
T28: 35.2%
T29: 52.8%
T30: 68.2%
T31: 79.9%
This gives Anglax and other defensive monsters to T29-30 most of the time, but they do risk an early finish. Should force a bit more offense so we don’t have 10 hour games.
Odds after turn 29 are the issue. Whoever goes first gets that turn and has only a 31.8% chance of the opponent getting any reply. That’s why I recommend keeping things at 1B super-strike and letting cumulative odds take their natural course.
Can you elaborate on this Chris? I think I remember hearing some concerns a while back but I don’t recall the major issue.
It never happened to me personally(I lost due to the daring play of Tekkactus) but I witnessed on many occassions people turtling up and healing when they knew the very predictable turn limit was coming close, even taking multiple back to back unit turns doing nothing but building a unit screen and healing, or waiting for that moment to plink someone for 1 or 2 damage. I think it’s silly to have turn limits on Vassal, the whole point of Vassal(to me at least) is I can play from the comfort of my home, stop and start as I please, even play email.
IRL timed turns are necessary for tournament play or just to keep things moving, but my recent RL timed games I still managed to go 30+ turns(and sometimes that + was a big number) and still make it in under an hour. I feel like Vassal is a different beast and should be treated that way.
I agree with Chris that the turn limit isn’t working, and I don’t think needed. I’ve lost a few games because of time, at it still bothers me because it breaks the spirit of the game. Is there any reason to keep the turn lit other then tradition?
Sorry Chris, but I’ll take a turn limit over having to risk another 8 hour long game any day. No offense to Josh Gremillion, but that’s not something I ever want to do again.
Did you count the number of turns in that game?
Not that many!
Tekk my intention is not to change the format. I just don’t want to play in this format, that’s all.
Yes Chris, I did that to you, and felt dirty about it too, which was fitting for my cthul list.
But that was the rules and it happened to me too. Sort of interesting tactics, just not the kind of fun meta game we want from Monpoc.
8 hour games are unreasonable…How specifying a minimum game time for all as a base and leave it up to each pair to decide if they want to play longer, have AFK flexibility and/or more turn time for newer players. I also find it helpful to set a standard for “strive for” turn times or else I fall way too easily into OCD and late night meditative thinking. 3 hours seems reasonable and gives 30 5-minute turns plus 30 minutes for setup and extra time. Then “strive for five, news at ten, push at 15″ to set a reasonable pace?
Heh, I had actually forgotten about that game because it was at the point where it didn’t matter any longer. So somebody has pulled some shenanigans on me!!
C’mon, Chris! Play and prove you can win despite any theoretical gaming of the system.
Hrm, I’m tempted to scrape the rust off my debatable MonsterPocalypse skills and get into this, but I’m not sure.
Calling ALL MonPoc players, mate. You. Chris Young.
ALL DE PEOPLES. It’s time to gather the masses.
It’s away!
I’m craving some smashing too much to sit out. Although if votes count, I vote for either not turn limit, or a single super strike rolled on a single dice…it doesn’t matter what kind, right? they all have only one super?…calling for the end of the game. it eliminates the ability to predict with any reliability when the game actually ends.
And for 8 hour games…those games took so long because most turns took for-ever to play. Turn limits to the game might have shortened that game a bit, but no game-limit system can fix tentative play that lacks aggression.
Now…what to play? Hrm, I think I’ll break from tradition and not ask for suggestions (but they are of course welcome
)
I named B-dice because they are never in a pool to get misplaced or miscounted. And it’s true — a lot of these legendary long games were less than 30 turns long to conclusion. It was the very slow play by one/both players that was to blame… not the number of turns the game went.
Bobb, I am not suggesting you play Quantum Deimos.
Good one, Dave. You in too???
Sorry Jeff. Although I had a blast playing at SoCal Smackdown, work and 3 kids has my time pretty much sucked dry. Dont think I could pull that off.
I know I for one would have done cartwheels to meet your time constraints, but I understand. Energy low.
I’m in!!
I won’t have time to submit a list until some time tomorrow, but Israel & I will both be playing.
Woot! Yay team Brenton.
I totally read that as “Yay team Boredom” because of my recent post seemingly getting results. Yay team Boredom!
Chosen your monster yet? I’m very curious.
I’ve narrowed my list down to 10, which isn’t bad.
Me too, Froggies! Wonder how much overlap there is….
It’s been changed to a single B-Die roll.
Is that single dice, accrueing +1 dice each turn past 25, or permanently just 1 bdie each turn?
No die is added – just 1 every turn. 16.67% chance every time.
I haven’t worked it all out but I’m estimating that the cumulative odds on a single B-Die roll may be setup for early game ending: 17%, +14%, +??
Just play it out so more monsters are viable. Those higher-turn monsters often take shorter turns, plus play could be faster there is potentially less on the line for each individual turn, and healers are balanced from turtle-healing by the total damage done rule but not totally screwed by still having opportunities for a few turns of healing to make a difference in having to come out for form killing aggression.
So, with the new (maybe not so) sudden death rule, would it be acceptable if both players of any given round to agree before starting the game to just play things out?
That’s up to Wap!
I’m in, and I even know my monster. Now I just need to get the list together and the PM sent…
Looks like I’m going to have to make a couple full lists to be able to make these final cuts…do I go blasty, or brawly/multi-purpose?
Down to 2 myself. Facing exactly the same descision, blasty or brawl & multipurpose.
But at the same time, I’m wondering now whether I should enter. While it’s possible to have the occasional game, I’m not sure if I’d be able to stay awake that late to meet all the matches (GMT+2, so 7 hours out from EST & 9 hours ahead of PST), or be fair to ask my opponent to move his schedule around for mid-week games.
How many matches would there be roughly / over how many days/weeks?
You have to enter, Mike. You could win this thing.
Ok. My die is cast. I’m in.
Think I have a vague idea how to run me monster.
Just all the Covenant Maps I have to study now…
I’m down to 2 now. I’m building lists for both and looking at maps for them.
I’m jealous. I submitted a list, but I’m by no means married to it.
So, so, so (so) rusty, but giving it a shot. Quantum Rakadon brings his totally inexperienced human along for the ride.
You are on the right monster to be on when you are rusty — 12 health, great healing potential, multiple repositioning powers, and even mitigation in the form of hazard immunity. It doesn’t get much more forgiving than that, except maybe with Cthul blood.
I thought about going with Mega Armodax because, well, I love him. More than a little. But since the (virtual) sky is the limit, might as well go quantum.
Just out of curiosity what’s in the new MonPoc module?
It should be all of the Cov Maps.
Floodplain Fiasco is pretty interesting, I must say!
Does it have Quantum Terra Khan? Someday, I’d like to be able to stomp around Vassal with QTK
Missing only Field of Dreams, as far as I can tell.
God it’s been so long since I played (year(s)?!), but I just don’t think I can commit to it, especially with Halloween and travel coming up…
I noticed no MNM7 announcement on the old Privateer forum, so I posted one and invited the moderator to come play.
Sweet jumin’ jehoshaphat! I was thinking about how I needed to get my head back into a Monpoc frame of mind, and this is just the thing I need to kick start it!
Brining Nova to the table as she is my monste I am (supposed to be) mastering!
Pew pew!
Hope to get my revenge on you, though we never brought our came to a conclusions it probably would have went to Nova.
I’m in! (Well, not officially yet, but I will be.) and I’m not playing Mega Rakadon! (Thanks, Bobb.
)
Hey, I’m pretty sure I’m not playing Galaxius! Well, kinda sure…he’s still on the “maybe” list.
Didn’t you send in your list already? I’ve finally picked mine, now I just have to chose a map.
Hey, nothing in the rules is stopping me from sending in an updated list!
What’s the deadline for entry?
Have it in before the this Monday. My guess would be by Sunday Night, but Wappy will have the final say on the deadline.
So many Quantums, so little time…
Ok, totally changed my list…ponder, y’all!
Bobb stop Wafflin’.
I think I’ll enter. contemplating if I’ll have the time, Oct. busy month for us. 90% yes. We have till this week end right? Maybe I’ll send list to Wapps tomorrow.
At least I didn’t create a poll this time! And a MNM without me wafflin’ is like waffles without ice cream!
Another day, another list? NO! I’m sticking with my #2.
At least until tomorrow!
List officially in. Now I hope my work/family schedule allows me to actually play.
I’m right there with ya’ sir.
Dragon’s Tear Tavern has to represent. I’m in!!!
I feel like Daniel Bryan right about now…
NO!NO!NO!
For real it was a good game with Nick. Congrats. Always a pleasure to play ya.
Well played Eric. It was a fun welcome back to MNM!