Predictably, Kevin jumped on my last remaining health, killing Alpha Anglax with a well coordinated combined attack from his brawling units.

This is arguably the turning point in the game.  Seeing another opportunity for a big power attack against Kondo, I sent Anglax in for a smash, dealing 4 damage to Quantum Kondo.  A better move would have been to throw or body slam Kondo into the Insurance HQ, dealing 3 damage, but removing the option that Kevin took advantage of in his following monster turn.

After having left himself open to two big attacks from me, Kevin finally got his chance to return the favor.  He smashed me for 4 damage, putting Anglax in a corner where my options were severely limited.

Knowing that Kondo had 3 health left and Anglax was down to 1, I made it my priority to heal quickly.  I pulled in two Nautilus Blasters and my Glass Spiral Relay for a combined attack, dealing 1 damage to Kondo and healing Anglax for 1.

When I’d initially planned my smash attack, I did considered the possibility of being put in the corner on Kevin’s turn.  What I failed to notice though, was that Bellowers have Extinguish, meaning that the fire hazard I was hoping would shield me from Stealth Apes and Raptices wasn’t a factor.  After extinguishing the flames, Kevin piled on the units and knocked Anglax back down to 1 health.

Unfortunately for me, Anglax has no way to do damage to both Quantum King Kondo and his Alpha in the same turn.  So I went with the next best thing, killing the Quantum.  At the very least, I can insure he won’t have super damage or any of the other perks of his Quantum form.  My only hope now is that he might miss his next attack against Anglax.  If he does, my units should have no trouble finishing off Alpha King Kondo.

Unfortunately, Kevin did manage to hit within the 96% odds.  After leaving himself open for a couple of significant attacks, he was able to put Anglax in the corner where I couldn’t escape and finish me off with little trouble.  Overall, this game was a very fast damage race which Kondo’s superior health totals gave him the edge he needed to stay on top.

This game had a reckless pace that I actually found more enjoyable than the typical slow circling around looking for an opening.  Here’s what I feel I learned from the match.

1. Sometimes it pays off to aim for that attack that requires two steps and an advance to an unprotected side.  If I hadn’t held back the dice for that early throw, the game would have gone very differently and it’s not unlikely that Kevin would have been driving the momentum of the game instead of having to react to my aggressive approach.
2. Your opponent can always spawn more units, but they only have one monster.  Had I worried less about taking 0ut units and more about damaging Kondo (and gaining health from Leach) my Alpha form might have lasted another few turns.
3. Sometimes, less is more.  Going for a 3 damage body slam or throw would have put Kevin in a very bad position.  At most he could have done 3 damage to me in return and it’s likely that I would have had a better handle on the situation from there than I did on the position I got into after his Smash.
4. Make sure you know what your opponent’s units can do!  I miscalculated when I missed that Bellower’s have Extinguish.  Had I known that, I might have done something very different on my unit turn, such as trying to block teleporters instead of just damaging Kondo.

This game was one that I’ll be looking back on for quite some time.  I wish Kevin good luck in his upcoming rounds and I look forward to seeing how Quantum Kondo stacks up against remaining 3 players in Monday Night Monster!

Glass is Fragile

With Ares out of blasting range and nothing I could use to swat, I decided to take out one of Bobb’s resources permanently.  For the second time I made the rare choice to blast with Anglax.  This time the target was the Glass Spiral Relay, insuring that I don’t have to see that ridiculously threatening unit on his side of the board again.

Should have brought a Fire Kami

Bobb took the following unit turn to attack my Fire Kami, nearly exploding the Spiral Relay, and fortify his position.  While he didn’t do much to Anglax directly, this did disrupt my plans for my upcoming unit turn.

Explosion is my friend

I brought my Elite Marauder into play again to take out his only forces on the east side of the map, hoping to gain a better foothold and try to march my units deeper into his territory where Ares was doing his best to elude me.

Ares just can't stay put

Bobb immediately undid my Explosion by bringing Ares over to brawl my Nautilus Blaster, Manufacturing an Elite Despoiler in the process and then using Transport to drop his Nullifier Pod nearby.

Three blasts in one game?!

Yet again, Anglax was reduced to blasting his targets instead of slamming them into things as he should.  Since I saw that the Nullifier Pod was in a position to make things difficult for my units with Mire and Weaken, I opted for destroying it rather than taking a shot at Ares.

Fly away, Ares. Fly away.

Bobb’s following unit turn was much more threatening than I realized when the game was actually going on.  Luckily for me, his Marauder and Vanguard failed to Explode my Steel Shell Crab, otherwise the Power Pod adjacent to Ares would have used Refuel to put the Mothership into adjacency, likely making it possible to damage Anglax beyond any hope of recovery.  However, the attack failed, he was forced to retreat behind the line of buildings and wait out my unit turn.

Making the most of a bad situation

My unit turn didn’t end up being especially spectacular.  I did succed in taking out both of his Elite Despoilers though, one of which also took out a Power Pod in the resulting Explosion.  At this point it occurred to me that I might have been better off not destroying the Power Pods, but instead using Tow to drag them somewhere useless.  I also spawned my Saucer with the intent to drop my own Nullifier Pod, should Ares become a viable target for my units.

Strike two for Ares

Bobb decided that this would be as good a time as any to have Ares try and heal again.  However, the martians still wouldn’t be made to destroy the Nuclear Power Plant.

Anglax lends a helping hand

Seeing how intent Bobb was to destroy the Nuclear Power Plants, I had Anglax brawl the one adjacent to him in order to help out.  The fact that it denied Ultra Ares the chance to heal later is merely coincidental, I assure you.  I also commanded my Skimmer up near the newly created Radiation Hazard, thinking I might extinguish the hazard in an upcoming turn to give Anglax some breathing room.

Even more martians?!

Bobb’s units not only spawned en masse, they also destroyed my most threatening Nautilus Blaster and removed my Spiral Relay (again) from the neutral spawn activator going a step further this time, placing one of their own on the activator to make sure I didn’t just have Anglax Command the Relay back to it.

No nukes for you!

Anglax, being the helpful fellow that he is, wasn’t satisfied with merely brawling the first Nuclear Power Plant.  He insisted on blasting its neighbor too, making sure his martian friend, Ares, didn’t have to waste any more attacks on those pesky buildings.

How does a giant saucer swat anything?

With all this newly opened real estate, Ares moved right in, swatting the Nautilus Blaster into the Skimmer and killing my hopes for extinguishing the hazards.  To add insult to injury, he dropped a Nullifier Pod next to Anglax.

Never fear, Nautili are here!

Not wanting to leave the Nullifier where it could use Weaken against Anglax, I towed it off into my own territory, forcing Bobb to spend more dice if he hoped to take advantage of it.  My Nautili also pinged Ares for 1 more damage, dropping his Ultra down to 2 health.

Ultra Anglax finally takes a hit

After flying back and forth across the map, Bobb’s units finally mount a coordinated assault against Anglax, hitting him for 1 after Ares used Beacon to move further back.

Nullifier Pods swat nicely

Again, Ares left Anglax the option of swatting to do damage.  Of course, Anglax loves to swat and Nullifier Pods make this really great sound as they crunch into a Mothership’s hull.

"What's martian for 'Hope ya brought a parachute?'" - Bobb

If there’s one thing that Bobb taught me about Ares, it’s that the Mothership can and will move back and forth across the map constantly.  He moved Ares over to get swat my Elite Marauder into Anglax after dropping his Nullifier Pod near Anglax again.  He ended the turn back in his Alpha form.

Why you should always stay away from my side of the board

I love to see a 5 Defense monster within reach of my spawn points.  Taking the opportunity to drop my Nullifier Pod near Ares and spawn and position my Elite Despoiler and a couple Nautilus Blasters, I hit Ares for 1, missing one of my two attacks.  (Total damage healed by Leach: 2)

Focusing on the fish

With my focus on Ares, Bobb was able to secure not 1, but a total of 3 more buildings and do another damage to Anglax.  Here I began to wonder if hiding inside my little alignment-proof box was really the best idea.

When in doubt, have a snack

At this point I could have either tried to do one more damage to Ares, but instead I went for healing and filling my power pool with the Posh Apartments, letting Bobb make the decision of whether our monsters were about to get up close and personal again or not.

Swatting is always fun

Bobb ended up leaving me in a sticky position.  He swatted my Skimmer into Anglax and left me without any way to get aligned for a significant attack against Ares.  At this point I could take a moderately weak monster turn or hope for a big swing with my units.

Two out of three isn't bad

A combination that I’ve used often and had much success with (even earlier in this game) is using the Elite Despoiler’s red Sniper to make my Nautilus Blasters more menacing.  This turn, I attacked Ares with two Nautilus Blasters and my Glass Spiral Relay.  Of the three attacks, two hit.  If not for this turn and the 4 damage swing (I healed for 2 and dealt 2) in the game, I likely would have lost in the very near future.  Ares would be able to force its way into alignment and between the damage coming from his units and the threat of a massive power attack, there’s little Anglax could have done.  (Total damage healed by Leach: 4)

Guess what? Ares flew away!

While not being able to power attack Ultra Ares was annoying, I think I was even more frustrated by Bobb’s ability to almost always pull Ares out of a dangerous position or move into an advantageous one with a well timed Refuel or Beacon.  Between Explosion and the inherent weakness of Nautilus Blasters, he was able to take a good chunk of my units out at the same time.

Reducing Range

At this point in the game, I wanted to take away as many options as I could.  So I swatted the Nullifier Pod into the Radar Bobb had been securing.  With that gone, his units and Ares will have to get a little closer to Anglax, giving me the opportunity to try and finish off his monster.

What is Ares doing?

Bobb knew that I couldn’t really move out of my current position without exposing myself to a brutal counter attack.  So Ares lined up for a blast and sat back to see Anglax’s reaction.

The answer is always swat

I think Bobb must have just missed the fact that I could swat his Vanguard into Ares.  Either that or he was trying to lure me into a false sense of security in my current position.

Deja vu!

Almost exactly like the move that finished my Alpha form, Bobb cleaned out my units and then used Refuel to bring Ares into alignment.  From here, he has a 4 damage power attack.  All he has to do is hope that I’m not able to heal Anglax before he makes his move.

Leach wins games

Of course, I can see the 4 damage throw coming too.  So I scrambled all my units to try and end the game before that happened.  I led with my Glass Relay and a Nautilus combining against Ultra Ares, finishing that form.  I was hoping that my remaining Nautilus Blaster would be able to deliver the coupe de grâce.  Unfortunately he missed the longshot odds.  At this point though, Bobb is in a rough spot, since Leach healed after the first attack.  (Total damage healed by Leach: 5)

"...1, 2...5! Err, 4." - Bobb

Bobb threw everything into this attack, powering up and rolling a massive 5*1 and 10 P-Dice.  Unfortunately, he doesn’t get the win for being able to throw me off the map (sorry, Bobb ).  He did knock Anglax down to 1 health, meaning that I couldn’t afford for Anglax miss this next attack.

Anglax wins despite his early mistakes

Anglax turned around and threw every die possible to swat the Nullifier into Ares.  Not surprisingly the attack hit, ending the game, once and for all.

This game was more than just a good game, it taught me a few things that I’ll definitely have to keep in mind for future games.

1. Don’t leave yourself open unless you’re absolutely sure you can counterattack for more.  If you’re sure, double and triple check.  Even after all that, maybe you shouldn’t do it. 
2. Beacon and Refuel are ridiculous when you’re dealing with a monster with 7 Speed and Flight.  It was impossible for me to entirely predict where Ares would be on my next turn.  Bobb was constantly criss-crossing the map and keeping me on my toes.
3. A Fire Kami is a good investment.  If Bobb had been packing a Fire Kami, the hole where I hid Anglax could have repeatedly become a blazing inferno.  All he’d have to do is alternate between the Fire Kami and Spadefin Skimmer to keep that threat alive.
4. Leach literally wins games.  Over the course of this game, Leach healed Anglax for a total of 5 damage.  That’s a full form!  Bobb’s army (and my own Ignite) dealt 14 damage to Anglax over the course of this game.  If it weren’t for Leach, he would have been dead long before I finally managed to secure a victory.
5. Sometimes it’s better to Tow than to destroy. Throughout the game I kept destroying Bobb’s Power Pods, only to have them spawn or be transported near Ares for a Refuel on a following turn.  If I had simply used Tow to pull them off to my side of the map, he would have had a much harder time making use of them and I could have stopped wasting dice destroying them over and over again.

I’d really like to hear your thoughts and comments on the game.  In particular, Bobb, if you’re reading this, it’d be great to get your thoughts on anything I might have missed.

Since it’s hard to pass up Ignite (4 A-Dice for a guaranteed damage) I spent the dice required to get the Fire Kami spawned and in position.  I also took this turn to secure the Power Plant and Bank HQ in the middle of the map and brawl the Stealth Ape again with my Crab, this time using 2*2 (61.96%) on the attack instead of repeating the 1*2 that previously missed.  After lighting up Kondo, the Fire Kami combined with the Nautilus Blaster on J9 to take out that meddlesome Pteradactix and earn Anglax 3 much needed P-Dice.

Zach took a fairly clean unit turn, spawning and starting to secure the two Monuments.  Two of the Apes and a Raptix took a shot at Anglax (3*4 vs Def 6 = 45.41%), and as you can see above, missed by 1.  We both forgot about Jam, which would have stopped Berserk and made that roll 3*1 (3.94%) instead of 3*4, but since it was a miss anyway…

Now that Anglax finally had some P-Dice I could make a big attack.  However, the grape Ape was in a position where the only thing I could do to net more than 2 damage was to throw him as far as possible, 10 spaces, into the Newspaper Office.  This also meant that if Kondo wanted to retaliate on his next turn, he would have to take either take a damage from the hazard or get positioned awkwardly and be satisfied with a 1-damage brawl or swat.

Rather than come after me, Kondo opted for what passes as his typical turn, brawling the Bank HQ and then stomping my nearby units.

At this point I had split my A-Dice 5/5 between monster and unit pools, so rather than take an ineffectual unit turn, I had Anglax rampage into the Statue of Liberty, rolling just enough to hit it without also risking a hit into the Imperial State.  Conversely, I could have taken a step to the right before my rampage, guaranteeing that I wouldn’t hit the hazard building.  I tried to Command a screen into position on my south side, but with the Command Ape and Countermeasures, that wasn’t possible, so Kondo had a prime opportunity to knock out my form.  Had I been planning ahead, I could have commanded the Spiral Relay into position before my rampage.  Without really thinking it through, I pushed the A-Die anyway, leaving 2 in my Monster pool.

Kondo came up and took the opportunity to body slam Anglax into the Electrical Power Plant, killing my Alpha but leaving me in a decent position for a counter-attack.  Unfortunately, since I pushed that 1 A-Die last turn, I couldn’t get into position to slam Kondo into the Imperial State Building, meaning I’d have to go with a less effective turn.

At this point the only way I could see to damage Kondo was to slam him into the Apartment Building for 2.  Unfortunately, since Zach had flexed back to Alpha, I wasn’t going to be killing his Quantum in the process.  I also commanded a Nautilus Blaster into range, hoping for an effective unit turn.  Had I held the A-Die back (again) I could have had a more effective monster turn, throwing Kondo into the Imperial State and leaving him with 3 health between both forms with my units likely able to finish off the Alpha on the following unit turn.

After some careful thought, Zach came up with the positioning you see above.  He’s snugly secured the Imperial State Building and positioned a Fire Kami and Stealth Ape in positions to wreak havoc with my monster and units.  However, his Stealth Ape failed an attack against the Nautilus Blaster and wasn’t able to Hit & Run to safety.  Otherwise, the Kami would have ignited the rubble under Anglax, sacrificing itself for 1 damage on my monster.  Since Zach wasn’t willing to sacrifice both units, he used Attraction on the Imperial State.

Some of you have seen me talk about Nautilus Blasters on my community blogs.  Alpha Kondo is exactly what I want to see during my unit turns.  5 Defense and within range of several of my spawn points.  I paid 2 to spawn my Elite Despoiler and moved it to K11.  I also spawned a Nautilus Blaster on J14, which I moved illegally since I forgot about rough terrain.  Unfortunately for Zach, he didn’t catch that either at the time.

Once I got all my Blasters clustered around my Despoiler, they fired away at Kondo.  Each one rolled 1*2 and put Kondo at -3 Defense with Weaken from Ultra Anglax, Armor Piercing naturally, and Sniper from the Despoiler.  All three managed to hit the 74.07% odds (using Synchronized Move after one of the attacks to capture another Power Point) costing Kondo a total of 3 health in one unit turn.  As I told Zach at the time, that’s what I consider a successful Unit turn.  It only pains me that Anglax didn’t need to heal off of Leach.

With Kondo down to 1 health in Alpha and 2 in Quantum, Zach took an opportunity to heal and stock up on P-Dice again.  He brawled one of the Apartment Buildings to his south and then stomped, knocking out a couple of my units.  This had the nice advantage of putting him into a position where I couldn’t do more than 1 damage with an attack and with his rapidly filling Power Pool, I really didn’t want to see the Quantum just yet.

Even if I had wanted to force him into his Quantum, I couldn’t do 2 damage in a single attack.  Instead I went for the next best thing, doing 1 damage and hoping to keep myself from getting hit by any particularly vicious counter attacks.  I went ahead and swatted the Fire Kami, knowing that swatting the Stealth Ape would give Zach a chance to take a quick unit turn, Ignite and damage Anglax regaining all of his A-Dice and possibly a P-Die or two for a big monster turn.  I wanted his Alpha to wear out as many dice as possible so that when I finished off that form his Quantum wouldn’t be able to hit as hard.

Not surprisingly, Zach stuck with the typical Kondo 1-2 punch, brawling my monster for 1 damage and then Stomping to knock out my screening units.  This puts me in a very delicate position.  If I hit Kondo and took out his Alpha, the Quantum would have Super Damage on his next turn.  Instead, if I don’t swat and stay in my current position, Zach can’t do more than 2 damage, however with only 4 health on my Ultra, I’m not entirely sure if I can get a solid 2 damage on his Quantum before his Units come in to finish me off.  In hindsight, I think my best move would have been to move up to the I3-J4 square and then swat the Airborne Ape into him.  Before all that though, leading with a Command to move the Spiral Relay into a screening position on J5.

Instead I went for a move that, while it kept me alive, was sub-par overall.  I moved into the position above and swatted the Stealth Ape into Kondo, finishing his Alpha.  If Zach had been able to power up, I would already be dead here.  Knowing that he couldn’t power up and attack me both, I felt like this was an acceptable position to finish his Alpha form even if it wasn’t the best move.

At this point, Zach sent Kondo off to the corner to stay out of my reach and heal by brawling the Sports Arena.  This wasn’t entirely unexpected, since Kondo was down to 2 health and I was clearly capable of taking one more monster turn, dishing out (most likely) 1 more damage and knocking him down to 1 health remaining, which my units would be pretty capable of handling.

Since Zach put Kondo out of range of everything except a swat, and I didn’t feel particularly inclined to setup anything for him near his Imperial State Building, though that might have been a better idea.  Instead, I went after a snack of my own.  I should have moved one space further south, but I’ll explain that in a bit.  I easily hit the Posh Apartments and also took the opportunity to Command my Spiral Relay onto his Spawn Point at J4, hoping to slow down his unit turn a little.  The Spawn Point at 04 is arguably a better position for my Relay, because if he wants to use his Brontox to spawn the Shadow Spikodon, he has to do it from there.

Since Zach was forced into a unit turn, he decided to be as aggressive as possible, pushing them to forward Spawn Points and Power Points and making them tempting targets to draw attention away from Kondo.  He also positioned them in such a way that, if Kondo could get through a good chunk of my health, they would be able to finish the job.

After watching Zach’s aggressive unit play, I knew that I wanted to take away his options for Kondo.  If it came down to a straight battle of attrition, Anglax can out-heal Quantum Kondo without too much trouble.  The problem is that I would have to keep Kondo in range of my units.  So this turn I screened up partially, forgetting that Kondo had Sprint, and tried to take out the only Posh Apartments left on the board.  I missed the apartments, but it hardly mattered since Zach had bigger plans in mind.

After lots of careful consideration, Zach planned out the above move, using the majority of his A-Dice to Sprint, Step, and Advance into alignment with Anglax, leaving him with the perfect power attack.  He had enough left over to power up making sure he would have his full movement range and more than enough dice to throw Anglax into the Imperial State Building.  Here’s why I should have moved down one space further.  If I had, I could still have screened on the same sides as I currently am, but it would have also meant that Zach wouldn’t have been able to get aligned for the throw or any other solid attack if he powered up.

Kondo easily came down and threw Anglax into the Imperial State, dropping Anglax down to his final point of health.  Without any dice in my Unit pool and the only potential health being deep in enemy territory, I had to go for the throat and hope to survive Zach’s unit turn.  If I could manage that, I’d be able to end the game easily.

I knew that I’d be able to hit Kondo for at least 1 damage on my Unit turn, so I moved and used all my dice to ensure a hit for 2.  However, I should have been a little more thoughtful in how I did that damage, as I also ended up throwing Kondo beyond the range of Anglax’s Jam ability, meaning that all his Apes would have Berserk available to them.  I also mis-calculated by Commanding my Spiral Relay between Kondo and myself instead of blocking the square on Anglax’s northwest corner.

After a couple false starts with jumping units trying to stand on water, Zach finally pulled together the above combination, using the Glass Airborne Ape, an Elite Airborne Ape, and a Stealth Ape to combine on Anglax rolling 3*7 after Berserk (85.27%).  Sadly for me, the Apes hit, ending my big fishy reign of terror.

In conclusion, I feel that I’ve learned a few new tricks from this game.  Specifically putting my screen into place before standing next to a figure with Countermeasures and going all the way around the enemy monster to get that prime position for a power attack.  The game was well fought on both sides and I’m sure there are plenty of other things I missed or that may have been lost in translation over the course of this report.  If anyone has any pointers for me, any questions about what happened in a turn or would just like to congratulate Zach on a game well played, please drop a comment.