Tony is alright.
Doctors suspect he just has lesions in his lungs, and they plan to shove a camera down his gullett again in about 3 weeks.
While not out of the woods, he's a little more optimistic.
30 August 2009
27 August 2009
Loathe with the Fiery Vengeance of a Thousand Suns
Much to my displeasure and angst, I have decided to brainstorm the methods of Mogroth, the Ever-seeing.
So lets run him through... I mean, list his negatives... I MEAN...
Oh never mind. Lets just look at his abilities.
This advantage appears on all three figures. It's good for preparing double activations. Securing a building with Shuffle (Office Building, Insurance HQ, Harbinger Comet) it gives plenty of action die for the turn.
Ignoring Cover is great for targetting those units who are securing buildings good for your opponent. Since the ability is Red, Blasting units can take advantage of it as well.
In the All Your Base Strategy Guide, one of the "Kaiju Conundrums" involved Mogroth adjacent to two Towers of Corruption who both took advantage of Indirect Fire to use Transmutation on a pair of units adjacent to Nova ESR.
This is a fairly powerful ability appearing on his Alpha and Ultra forms. Being unable to be targetted is a massive hump to get over. Not as massive as some others, but still massive enough.
How does one deviate this ability?
Considering you require a faction figure adjacent to your monster, there are a few ways actually. First that comes to mind is Explosion. While not the most abundant ability in the game, those who do have it are able to take great advantage of it and deal the singular point of damage by unloading greatly onto the poor little figure next to Mogroth. Spikodon with Bellowers make a good combination, along with Marauders and Vanguard. Multiple Explodomites make a good Explosion as well.
The only other way is through alternative attacks. Brawls or Blasts with the Fling trigger are a good example. The Swat Power Attack ignores it as well since it's not a blast. Just be warned about opponents with Annihilate or Weaponmaster on their Power Attacks, because they will still deal super damage.
Now we move onto abities that actually define each of the forms.
Alpha Mogroth struts his stuff with a confident stride, fully believing that he is completely immune to Units. This is a slightly embellished truth. Decoy makes him immune to blast attacks, and Terrify makes him (mostly) immune to Brawl units (Carnidons across the world cry out in sadness, as the only monster they thought they could beat, they can't come into contact with).
That's about as unique as Alpha Mogroth becomes. He Blasts, he waddles around, and he awaits powering up while being ignored for just about everything.
Ultra Mogroth drops his immunity to Unit Brawls for Blast triggers: Siphon and Weapon Master. As previously mentioned, he is a prime figure for double activations. With Energy Cycle he can return an action die that missed into the pool. Siphon provides more for double activations by returning a Power Die to your pool if you hit. Considering a secured building with Shuffle available, a second activation includes two additional Action die and an additional Power Die. On top of that, super damage has been dealt to your opponent. So four damage over two monster turns makes for a good profit.
Mega Mogroth drops all his defences for Maneuverability and a dangerous offensive. Beatback on a Blast attack has always been considered quite dangerous, as Rogzor has proven in history. Rogzor also has "Hit and Run" on his blast attacks, which is convenient when he hits as he can hit and then move back behind some units.
Mega Mogroth can do this too, however he has no dependancy on hitting or not. Sprint allows him to move 3 spaces at the cost of an action die. So whether he misses or not, he returns an action die from the attack and uses it to hide behind a screen of units, maybe even drop out of form and take advantage of Decoy.
But something that hasn't been mentioned yet is their Hyper Cost.
The Ultra form comes out cheaper with a cost of 4. Not your typical hyper cost for the Lords of Cthul range, who average out at a cost of 3 when excluding Mogroth. But fair enough, the abilities on the Ultra are impressive. There's only about 3 monsters that ignore super damage (Mega Armodax, Mega Mothership Ares, Laser Knight in general), and losing power dice is always aggitating. Not to mention, he still can't be targetted by blast attacks when the prerequisites for Decoy are made.
The Mega, however, doesn't keep with a sensible pattern. With a Hyper cost of 6, he trades in his abilities for a form that isn't quite worth the Hyper cost of 6, or the Alpha form that you would have lost to get into it because you couldn't afford hypering up.
What should I field with Mogroth?
I would start with an Insurance HQ. I reiterate, Mogroth does endorse double activations. Since your opponent will always be destroying buildings, you will always gain a power die for buildings destroyed throughout each turn.
Next is a Radar array. Mogroth likes long range, and Elite Spitters will not be following him around forever to extend it's abilities.
Units can be assorted willy nilly. Cthulubites are recommended in any instance, even in Guard forces for just their Multi-shot Trigger. So firing a Cthulubite into your opponents face to lower their defence is a good option.
Sun Drones and Power Pods are always good for gaining quick power die. Flaunt 'em if you got 'em, as the saying goes.
So why the hate? Why despise Mogroth for who he is? Love the pansy that he is!
The common belief is that I've had a few bad matchups. Tharsis-5 was the start of a bad relationship. It was hard to really get away from him and his beat-backing shenanigans.
At the end of that game, I came to the conclusion that I was playing a Yasheth game without a Yasheth on the field. Power attacking him wasn't very beneficial because of Armoured, and running away proved hiding is harder than originally thought.
Other matches have come down to poor luck. A game against laser Knight threw me into a Crystalline Building and an Office Building, losing my form.
Not to mention, as part of a ritual I follow I try and destroy a TV Network Highrise to gain a substantial amount of Power Die (4 to be exact). Too bad he can't hit it with his Brawl of 6*1.
Another common belief is that he's just not my style of play. I'll agree with that. I love tearing apart the town, throwing my opponent into inconvenient places and making them suffer for their actions.
It's one thing I liked about Ulgoth. He would always make an opponent regret actions taken against him.
Mogroth can't provide this. Mogroth makes for a good blast matchup, but not much else.
Not my cup of tea, thank you.
Alpha Ultra Mega Speed 6 6 6 Defence 6 7 7 Brawl 6*1 7*1 6 Blast 6*2 Long 6*3 Long 6*3 Long Power 5*2 6*3 6*2 Health 5 5 5 Hypercost - 4 6 Ability Energy Cycle Energy Cycle Sprint Ability Decoy Siphon [Blast] Energy Cycle Ability Indirect Fire [Red] Weapon Master [Blast] Beat Back [Blast] Ability Terrify Decoy Indirect Fire [Red] Ability - Indirect Fire [Red] -
So lets run him through... I mean, list his negatives... I MEAN...
Oh never mind. Lets just look at his abilities.
Energy Cycle: If this figure participated in an attack that involved 2 or more action die, you may place 1 action die that missed back to the active pool.
This advantage appears on all three figures. It's good for preparing double activations. Securing a building with Shuffle (Office Building, Insurance HQ, Harbinger Comet) it gives plenty of action die for the turn.
Indirect Fire: Attacks made by this figure ignore Cover.
Ignoring Cover is great for targetting those units who are securing buildings good for your opponent. Since the ability is Red, Blasting units can take advantage of it as well.
In the All Your Base Strategy Guide, one of the "Kaiju Conundrums" involved Mogroth adjacent to two Towers of Corruption who both took advantage of Indirect Fire to use Transmutation on a pair of units adjacent to Nova ESR.
Decoy: While a faction figure is adjacent to this figure, this figure cannot be targeted by blast attacks.
This is a fairly powerful ability appearing on his Alpha and Ultra forms. Being unable to be targetted is a massive hump to get over. Not as massive as some others, but still massive enough.
How does one deviate this ability?
Considering you require a faction figure adjacent to your monster, there are a few ways actually. First that comes to mind is Explosion. While not the most abundant ability in the game, those who do have it are able to take great advantage of it and deal the singular point of damage by unloading greatly onto the poor little figure next to Mogroth. Spikodon with Bellowers make a good combination, along with Marauders and Vanguard. Multiple Explodomites make a good Explosion as well.
The only other way is through alternative attacks. Brawls or Blasts with the Fling trigger are a good example. The Swat Power Attack ignores it as well since it's not a blast. Just be warned about opponents with Annihilate or Weaponmaster on their Power Attacks, because they will still deal super damage.
Thinking about it, Chain Attack Brawl Trigger, and Fling Brawl Trigger is a cool concept. Brawl a unit, Fling it at a monster, then Power attack Swat a unit, Swat it at a monster...
Now we move onto abities that actually define each of the forms.
Alpha Mogroth struts his stuff with a confident stride, fully believing that he is completely immune to Units. This is a slightly embellished truth. Decoy makes him immune to blast attacks, and Terrify makes him (mostly) immune to Brawl units (Carnidons across the world cry out in sadness, as the only monster they thought they could beat, they can't come into contact with).
That's about as unique as Alpha Mogroth becomes. He Blasts, he waddles around, and he awaits powering up while being ignored for just about everything.
Ultra Mogroth drops his immunity to Unit Brawls for Blast triggers: Siphon and Weapon Master. As previously mentioned, he is a prime figure for double activations. With Energy Cycle he can return an action die that missed into the pool. Siphon provides more for double activations by returning a Power Die to your pool if you hit. Considering a secured building with Shuffle available, a second activation includes two additional Action die and an additional Power Die. On top of that, super damage has been dealt to your opponent. So four damage over two monster turns makes for a good profit.
Mega Mogroth drops all his defences for Maneuverability and a dangerous offensive. Beatback on a Blast attack has always been considered quite dangerous, as Rogzor has proven in history. Rogzor also has "Hit and Run" on his blast attacks, which is convenient when he hits as he can hit and then move back behind some units.
Mega Mogroth can do this too, however he has no dependancy on hitting or not. Sprint allows him to move 3 spaces at the cost of an action die. So whether he misses or not, he returns an action die from the attack and uses it to hide behind a screen of units, maybe even drop out of form and take advantage of Decoy.
But something that hasn't been mentioned yet is their Hyper Cost.
The Ultra form comes out cheaper with a cost of 4. Not your typical hyper cost for the Lords of Cthul range, who average out at a cost of 3 when excluding Mogroth. But fair enough, the abilities on the Ultra are impressive. There's only about 3 monsters that ignore super damage (Mega Armodax, Mega Mothership Ares, Laser Knight in general), and losing power dice is always aggitating. Not to mention, he still can't be targetted by blast attacks when the prerequisites for Decoy are made.
The Mega, however, doesn't keep with a sensible pattern. With a Hyper cost of 6, he trades in his abilities for a form that isn't quite worth the Hyper cost of 6, or the Alpha form that you would have lost to get into it because you couldn't afford hypering up.
What should I field with Mogroth?
I would start with an Insurance HQ. I reiterate, Mogroth does endorse double activations. Since your opponent will always be destroying buildings, you will always gain a power die for buildings destroyed throughout each turn.
Next is a Radar array. Mogroth likes long range, and Elite Spitters will not be following him around forever to extend it's abilities.
Units can be assorted willy nilly. Cthulubites are recommended in any instance, even in Guard forces for just their Multi-shot Trigger. So firing a Cthulubite into your opponents face to lower their defence is a good option.
Sun Drones and Power Pods are always good for gaining quick power die. Flaunt 'em if you got 'em, as the saying goes.
So why the hate? Why despise Mogroth for who he is? Love the pansy that he is!
The common belief is that I've had a few bad matchups. Tharsis-5 was the start of a bad relationship. It was hard to really get away from him and his beat-backing shenanigans.
At the end of that game, I came to the conclusion that I was playing a Yasheth game without a Yasheth on the field. Power attacking him wasn't very beneficial because of Armoured, and running away proved hiding is harder than originally thought.
Other matches have come down to poor luck. A game against laser Knight threw me into a Crystalline Building and an Office Building, losing my form.
Not to mention, as part of a ritual I follow I try and destroy a TV Network Highrise to gain a substantial amount of Power Die (4 to be exact). Too bad he can't hit it with his Brawl of 6*1.
Another common belief is that he's just not my style of play. I'll agree with that. I love tearing apart the town, throwing my opponent into inconvenient places and making them suffer for their actions.
It's one thing I liked about Ulgoth. He would always make an opponent regret actions taken against him.
Mogroth can't provide this. Mogroth makes for a good blast matchup, but not much else.
Not my cup of tea, thank you.
25 August 2009
Tuesdays are Popular
These were posted on an Australian Tourism Website and the answers are the
actual responses by the website officials, who obviously have a great sense of humour
Q: Does it ever get windy in Australia ? I have never seen it rain on TV, how do the plants grow? ( UK ).
A: We import all plants fully grown and then just sit around watching them die.
Q: Will I be able to see kangaroos in the street? ( USA )
A: Depends how much you've been drinking.
Q: I want to walk from Perth to Sydney - can I follow the railroad tracks?
( Sweden )
A: Sure, it's only three thousand miles, take lots of water.
Q: Are there any ATMs (cash machines) in Australia ? Can you send me a list of them in Brisbane , Cairns ,Townsville and HerveyBay ? ( UK )
A: What did your last slave die of?
Q: Can you give me some information about hippo racing in Australia ? (
USA )
A: A-fri-ca is the big triangle shaped continent south of Europe.
Aus-tra-lia is that big island in the middle of the Pacific which does not... oh forget it. Sure, the hippo racing is every Tuesday night in Kings Cross. Come naked.
Q: Which direction is North in Australia ? ( USA )
A: Face south and then turn 180 degrees. Contact us when you get here and we'll send the rest of the directions.
Q: Can I bring cutlery into Australia ? ( UK )
A: Why? Just use your fingers like we do.
Q: Can you send me the Vienna Boys' Choir schedule? ( USA )
A: Aus-tri-a is that quaint little country bordering Ger-man-y, which is ... oh forget it. Sure, the Vienna Boys Choir plays every Tuesday night in Kings Cross, straight after the hippo races. Come naked.
Q: Can I wear high heels in Australia ? ( UK )
A: You are a British politician, right.
Q: Are there supermarkets in Sydney and is milk available all year round?
( Germany )
A: No, we are a peaceful civilization of vegan hunter/gatherers.
Milk is illegal.
Q: Please send a list of all doctors in Australia who can Dispense rattlesnake serum. ( USA )
A: Rattlesnakes live in A-meri-ca which is where YOU come from.
All Australian snakes are perfectly harmless, can be safely handled and make good pets.
Q: I have a question about a famous animal in Australia , but I forget its name. It's a kind of bear and lives in trees. ( USA )
A: It's called a Drop Bear. They are so called because they drop out of Gum trees and eat the brains of anyone walking underneath them.
You can scare them off by spraying yourself with human urine before you go out walking.
Q: I have developed a new product that is the fountain of youth. Can you tell me where I can sell it in Australia ? ( USA )
A: Anywhere significant numbers of Americans gather.
Q: Can you tell me the regions in Tasmania where the female population is smaller than the male population? ( Italy )
A: Yes, gay night clubs.
Q: Do you celebrate Christmas in Australia ? ( France )
A: Only at Christmas.
Q: I was in Australia in 1969 on R+R, and I want to contact the Girl I dated while I was staying in Kings Cross*. Can you help? ( USA )
A: Yes, and you will still have to pay her by the hour.
Q: Will I be able to speak English most places I go? ( USA )
A: Yes, but you'll have to learn it first
24 August 2009
Kings of Leon - Cold Desert
Its days like these that you can look into the distance with some sort of feeling. I passed the train station to look over north eastern brisbane in this absolutely humid weather, a sweaty change from the norm, and just feel... Amazed, taken aback by the warmth not only in the air, but in myself. It's a rare, but good feeling. Your skin tingling in the tepid air and a calm song as the only other thing on your mind.
I guess this is a moment where I can say I love Brisbane. It's home.
Edit: Btw, this euphoria that has been running through me for the past 4 hours?
Turns out it's Spring Cleaning Fever.
A Billionty different Actions, One iddy biddy Action Die
During your unit turn you may perform one action available to your force or from buildings you secure. During your monster turn you may perform one action available to your monsters.
Every faction has actions. Some have many, some have few.
Respectively it changes the way people play with their forces, or it defines the way a monster is played.
Planet Eaters have the fewest Actions available to them, mostly available from buildings set on the field such as the I Chomp NY Monuments, the Privateer Press Building and the Harbinger Comet Shard.
With the lack of actions they have no need to change their playstyle. With Attraction on the Harbinger Comet Shard is a low priority ability. If you have action die you weren't going to use, just trade it for a Power die.
Easy peasy.
Lords of Cthul have the most Actions available currently. Not only from the buildings, but from units and monsters as well.
Bleed, Telekenesis, Extinguish, Sacrifice, Summon. These are but a few of my favourite things. Adding in the Actions from secured buildings, it brings the total up to Nine. Nine Actions, eight of which are available to units. This is excluding Mogroth, whose Mega form adds another one: Sprint.
So how do I choose from this cavalcade of single dice options?
It's not easy, that's for sure.
Each action is beneficial. They are worth the die that could've been used to move a unit onto a Power Zone, or thrown into a Slug Squad Salvo.
However, some are more situational than others.
The most situational I find is Extinguish, coming standard with Spitters and as an optional extra for Mega Ancient Osheroth with all of his followers.
Prevent up and coming damage? Heck-to-the-yeah.
As coming standard with a Spitter, they can fire off into a dangerous building that your monster may be tossed into. With a Spitter just up ahead, they remove the hazard and Voila: two less potential damage and a bit of rough terrain.
Personally, I think I've used this action about four times since I started playing with them.
Less situational is Telekenesis: Move one unit within 2 spaces to an adjacent space that it may legally occupy.
Telekenesis can be used to disrupt a lot of things from making an easy kill to breaking down someones defences with but a flick of a limp wrist.
A few figures have Telekenesis. Cthugrosh, Ancient Osheroth and also the Task Master.
The taskmaster is infamously known to be quite useless in my eyes. Mind you, I have been using him against forces with Flight or High defence. On paper, he's really quite good. With 3*1 on his brawl with a Fling trigger adjoined, he may kill two figures with a sturdy punch to the face and a hammerthrow. Too bad his punches are like throwing squids into your face. While unnerving, it doesn't really work to the best benefit. With Telekenesis, he can move a nearby unit into a hazard, instantly removing the figure if it can suffer from hazards.
Cthugrosh and Osheroth make different use of Telekenesis. As mentioned, with the flick of a limp wrist they can break down a monsters defences.
This is true, while a little embellished.
A street term used commonly for the following technique is Screening, where a player moves a unit adjacent to a monster to prevent an enemy monster aligning for a Power Attack.
Telekenesis gets around this my moving the unit out of the way so that the monster can step into place, or move if he's already close enough, and power attack his opponent into oblivion.
Situational, but mostly beneficial for a monster turn.
Sacrifice comes third on the list, where removing an adjacent unit restores a health point to your monster. Once again this attends the Galas of Cthugrosh and Ancient Osheroth like Harajuku Girls around Gwen Stefani, an inquiring member for the Lords of Cthul. (She always wants to be in the cool crowd, you know.)
Sacrifice is barely deemed a situational ability. When in the situation of low health during your monster turn, sacrifice is a good trade off. Grunts are a good choice. Unless it's a Meat Slave. In which case, you better have a good reason to Sacrifice a Bleeder!
Speaking of Bleed, this action is a more ritualistic ability where any haemophiliac or even hypochondriac will reserve 3 action die to restore a health to their monster every unit turn.
I have found myself reserving said action die quite a few times, especially when my monster is still on full health (mostly because he has just lost form from a Crystalline Building).
Lastly is Summon.
The day I stop using this is the day I stop playing Lords of Cthul.
Cthugrosh, Ancient Osheroth's Morphers and the Tower of Corruption sport this accessory without shame or dignity, reproducing like a Roman Catholic family from Monty Pythons "The Meaning of Life".
This action is always considered into calculations. The ability to control where you spawn a figure, and cheaply to boot, is a game changing effect.
Cthugrosh can use it to spawn a Meatslave to screen him from opponent monsters; Ancient Osheroths Morphers and Cthugrosh can summon a Cthulubite into play to take advantage of Weaken; The Tower of Corruption can summon an Elite Spitter to help with a combined attack against another unit that will turn into another unit thanks to Transmutation.
So many applications and so many chances to apply.
So that is my order of priority with Actions of the Lords of Cthul.
Every faction has actions. Some have many, some have few.
Respectively it changes the way people play with their forces, or it defines the way a monster is played.
Planet Eaters have the fewest Actions available to them, mostly available from buildings set on the field such as the I Chomp NY Monuments, the Privateer Press Building and the Harbinger Comet Shard.
With the lack of actions they have no need to change their playstyle. With Attraction on the Harbinger Comet Shard is a low priority ability. If you have action die you weren't going to use, just trade it for a Power die.
Easy peasy.
Lords of Cthul have the most Actions available currently. Not only from the buildings, but from units and monsters as well.
Bleed, Telekenesis, Extinguish, Sacrifice, Summon. These are but a few of my favourite things. Adding in the Actions from secured buildings, it brings the total up to Nine. Nine Actions, eight of which are available to units. This is excluding Mogroth, whose Mega form adds another one: Sprint.
So how do I choose from this cavalcade of single dice options?
It's not easy, that's for sure.
Each action is beneficial. They are worth the die that could've been used to move a unit onto a Power Zone, or thrown into a Slug Squad Salvo.
However, some are more situational than others.
The most situational I find is Extinguish, coming standard with Spitters and as an optional extra for Mega Ancient Osheroth with all of his followers.
Extiguish: Replace one adjacent Hazard with Rubble.
Prevent up and coming damage? Heck-to-the-yeah.
As coming standard with a Spitter, they can fire off into a dangerous building that your monster may be tossed into. With a Spitter just up ahead, they remove the hazard and Voila: two less potential damage and a bit of rough terrain.
Personally, I think I've used this action about four times since I started playing with them.
Less situational is Telekenesis: Move one unit within 2 spaces to an adjacent space that it may legally occupy.
Telekenesis can be used to disrupt a lot of things from making an easy kill to breaking down someones defences with but a flick of a limp wrist.
A few figures have Telekenesis. Cthugrosh, Ancient Osheroth and also the Task Master.
The taskmaster is infamously known to be quite useless in my eyes. Mind you, I have been using him against forces with Flight or High defence. On paper, he's really quite good. With 3*1 on his brawl with a Fling trigger adjoined, he may kill two figures with a sturdy punch to the face and a hammerthrow. Too bad his punches are like throwing squids into your face. While unnerving, it doesn't really work to the best benefit. With Telekenesis, he can move a nearby unit into a hazard, instantly removing the figure if it can suffer from hazards.
Cthugrosh and Osheroth make different use of Telekenesis. As mentioned, with the flick of a limp wrist they can break down a monsters defences.
This is true, while a little embellished.
A street term used commonly for the following technique is Screening, where a player moves a unit adjacent to a monster to prevent an enemy monster aligning for a Power Attack.
Telekenesis gets around this my moving the unit out of the way so that the monster can step into place, or move if he's already close enough, and power attack his opponent into oblivion.
Situational, but mostly beneficial for a monster turn.
Sacrifice comes third on the list, where removing an adjacent unit restores a health point to your monster. Once again this attends the Galas of Cthugrosh and Ancient Osheroth like Harajuku Girls around Gwen Stefani, an inquiring member for the Lords of Cthul. (She always wants to be in the cool crowd, you know.)
On a side note: I'd like to see a Morpher monster made of Try-Hard Celebrities. "Britney Spears, Gwen Stefani, Lady Gaga and Jessica Simpson: Form up into MECHA-STREISAND!"
Sacrifice is barely deemed a situational ability. When in the situation of low health during your monster turn, sacrifice is a good trade off. Grunts are a good choice. Unless it's a Meat Slave. In which case, you better have a good reason to Sacrifice a Bleeder!
Speaking of Bleed, this action is a more ritualistic ability where any haemophiliac or even hypochondriac will reserve 3 action die to restore a health to their monster every unit turn.
I have found myself reserving said action die quite a few times, especially when my monster is still on full health (mostly because he has just lost form from a Crystalline Building).
Lastly is Summon.
Bring one Faction Unit from your reserves into play adjacent to this figure.
The day I stop using this is the day I stop playing Lords of Cthul.
Cthugrosh, Ancient Osheroth's Morphers and the Tower of Corruption sport this accessory without shame or dignity, reproducing like a Roman Catholic family from Monty Pythons "The Meaning of Life".
This action is always considered into calculations. The ability to control where you spawn a figure, and cheaply to boot, is a game changing effect.
Cthugrosh can use it to spawn a Meatslave to screen him from opponent monsters; Ancient Osheroths Morphers and Cthugrosh can summon a Cthulubite into play to take advantage of Weaken; The Tower of Corruption can summon an Elite Spitter to help with a combined attack against another unit that will turn into another unit thanks to Transmutation.
So many applications and so many chances to apply.
So that is my order of priority with Actions of the Lords of Cthul.
22 August 2009
Blood is Blood
Family is an important thing. Without family, some people wouldn't be who they are today.
I have a brother. One Brother, at thirty three years of age.
He has estranged from the family from a huge debacle years ago that I'm still very unsure on details about, all I really know was that trust was broken and he left.
One thing he did was stay in touch with me and my little sister, T.
We don't judge him. Sure he's made bad choices, but that doesn't stop him from being our brother. He knows where he stands with us.
For years we would hardly hear from him (at least, I would) and we'd catch up and have a bit of fun but it would still be a few months before word would come from him again.
That's my only problem with him. Not much of a problem, because I'm not one to miss people. I know they'll come back one way or another, or that they'll be fine where they are.
He's made some bad decisions as I mentioned. Drugs are a big thing. They've played a big part of his life for quite a long time.
Last time I saw him, he was hitting them pretty hard.
But he had his head on straight. He knew his place. He looked after those he saw in a good view, which was a lot of people, and especially his family.
When his son came around, he tried to keep in contact. He wanted to have something to do with him. He tried and tried, but the mother wouldn't have a bar of it at all.
He even tried to contact him the other week when he started cleaning up. He contacted the grandmother and said "Look, if you don't want to give me a number, then fine. But I'd really like to see him."
Unfortunately, some people are subborn asses.
He called me tonight.
We had a good chat for about 2 hours.
He's currently in hospital.
Two years ago a few accidents happened with his ankle, such as rolling it on a wrecked gutter and having a pallette mover ram into it. Since then, he has had pain shooting up his leg. For the past week he hasn't been able to sleep because the pain is so unbearable.
Within those two years, he has had to invoke all sources of money he had available to him, along with his superannuation and selling most of his prized possessions, because work cover continually fucked him around.
The hospital had a look at it and believe it's nerve damage.
Unrelated yet still importantly, a few weeks ago he stopped smoking. Weeks before that he stopped doing drugs.
About a week ago, he started coughing up blood. By his estimation, he would expell about 2 cups of blood every morning from coughing.
He went in to see the doctors and was there for 3 days, having liquids pumped into his lungs, cameras threaded through and other various tests and experiments put towards him.
Doctors aren't sure what's he has, but they know that it's not Cancer. They also believe that Blood Clots may form in his lungs.
He discharged himself under the arrogance of "I don't give a fuck".
Eventually, he worked his way to a friends place. Police pulled him over and wanted to collect his car. He was unaware of his licence being revoked and the Police were forcing the issue.
With the lack of sleep, consistant and nagging pain from his leg, and plenty of stress built up in him, he blacked out after one of the officers caught him very off guard.
My brother was trained in martial arts. Ju-jitsu when he was younger. Anything else he has learnt is unknown to me.
He was also a body builder. He's not a big man. He's smaller than I am in just about every way. His muscle build is what makes him different.
So when my brother came to, he wasn't in a good position and neither was the policeman.
He told everyone that he had medical problems and gave information for his Psychologist who was promptly called.
His medical information was also forwarded on to the Psychologist and his Psychiatrist as well, who placed him in a private mental hospital under medical surveillance.
So he called me tonight to tell me this, and to catch up. He isn't sure of whether or not he'll survive the next three weeks that he's in hospital or not. Unfortunately, nobody is sure.
I love my brother.
Although I hardly see him, and through all his bad mistakes, he's still my brother.
It'll be sad if he goes.
I have a brother. One Brother, at thirty three years of age.
He has estranged from the family from a huge debacle years ago that I'm still very unsure on details about, all I really know was that trust was broken and he left.
One thing he did was stay in touch with me and my little sister, T.
We don't judge him. Sure he's made bad choices, but that doesn't stop him from being our brother. He knows where he stands with us.
For years we would hardly hear from him (at least, I would) and we'd catch up and have a bit of fun but it would still be a few months before word would come from him again.
That's my only problem with him. Not much of a problem, because I'm not one to miss people. I know they'll come back one way or another, or that they'll be fine where they are.
He's made some bad decisions as I mentioned. Drugs are a big thing. They've played a big part of his life for quite a long time.
Last time I saw him, he was hitting them pretty hard.
But he had his head on straight. He knew his place. He looked after those he saw in a good view, which was a lot of people, and especially his family.
When his son came around, he tried to keep in contact. He wanted to have something to do with him. He tried and tried, but the mother wouldn't have a bar of it at all.
He even tried to contact him the other week when he started cleaning up. He contacted the grandmother and said "Look, if you don't want to give me a number, then fine. But I'd really like to see him."
Unfortunately, some people are subborn asses.
He called me tonight.
We had a good chat for about 2 hours.
He's currently in hospital.
Two years ago a few accidents happened with his ankle, such as rolling it on a wrecked gutter and having a pallette mover ram into it. Since then, he has had pain shooting up his leg. For the past week he hasn't been able to sleep because the pain is so unbearable.
Within those two years, he has had to invoke all sources of money he had available to him, along with his superannuation and selling most of his prized possessions, because work cover continually fucked him around.
The hospital had a look at it and believe it's nerve damage.
Unrelated yet still importantly, a few weeks ago he stopped smoking. Weeks before that he stopped doing drugs.
About a week ago, he started coughing up blood. By his estimation, he would expell about 2 cups of blood every morning from coughing.
He went in to see the doctors and was there for 3 days, having liquids pumped into his lungs, cameras threaded through and other various tests and experiments put towards him.
Doctors aren't sure what's he has, but they know that it's not Cancer. They also believe that Blood Clots may form in his lungs.
He discharged himself under the arrogance of "I don't give a fuck".
Eventually, he worked his way to a friends place. Police pulled him over and wanted to collect his car. He was unaware of his licence being revoked and the Police were forcing the issue.
With the lack of sleep, consistant and nagging pain from his leg, and plenty of stress built up in him, he blacked out after one of the officers caught him very off guard.
My brother was trained in martial arts. Ju-jitsu when he was younger. Anything else he has learnt is unknown to me.
He was also a body builder. He's not a big man. He's smaller than I am in just about every way. His muscle build is what makes him different.
So when my brother came to, he wasn't in a good position and neither was the policeman.
He told everyone that he had medical problems and gave information for his Psychologist who was promptly called.
His medical information was also forwarded on to the Psychologist and his Psychiatrist as well, who placed him in a private mental hospital under medical surveillance.
So he called me tonight to tell me this, and to catch up. He isn't sure of whether or not he'll survive the next three weeks that he's in hospital or not. Unfortunately, nobody is sure.
I love my brother.
Although I hardly see him, and through all his bad mistakes, he's still my brother.
It'll be sad if he goes.
21 August 2009
It's like watching an Incoherent Bruno
It's a One Word thing, where you contribute a word onto the end of the sentence.
THIS IS PRETTY FULL ON SO IF YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE FIRST PARAGRAPH, STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING.
Raver-Ray eats plenty of dingers when they are stomping to the rabbits who stutter in motion. Rabbits which multiply very evenly across KFC stores Bukkake!
This next adventure details the experience through a lab where spiders run under the skin of koala's at very low altitudes with harmonica's making loud farting noises. Dishwasher Steve who has roundabouts on his driveway while Stefan looks incredibly ripped open a prostitute while eating mdma coated chicken.
Billy bumrash drives bullants crazy with his glowstick. These midgets grew twice under the influence of papercuts and wrinkles McDonnells farm EY-I EY-I O. And i sucked off a Llama's fleas penis under a leprechaun! EY-I lowrider Joe. Cindy Crawford indulges capslock whilst fingering jeremy's sausage sizzle, which bubbles over underground pipes filled full palmtree existentialists down town.
The crapper is nicely decorated with supercalifragistic curtains drooping around shit thats dongle ate elephants. My pet beaver darth-vader wears bikepants that ride up mountains with insatiable speedbumps around lights. Beaver playboy munched gravel and cheesy-puffs while bouncing around insideout whilst puffing away on his fishbowl and slapsticking aunty tranny who licks rocks and picks.
Raver-Ray continues playing sega saturn porn on playstation 3 nodes with his GPS dryer boosting hard dinosaurs in dishwashers. Beer, meat-pie, hookers and paperclips are used for constructing cars, milo and concrete. Ray Sanchez is digging up plasmas that transform giraffes into barnicles friends with spaceships that complete around the planet of Uranus.
Octopus tentacles triangulate often through pieces tightly without touching sand palaces created purely of sand. This sand crab likes sand and telstra communications hella much.
Spongebob phattpants stomps very loud on balloons when fishing feces throughout the scrubs. Faeces taste hella-fucking-balls-to-the-wall-awesome!
Random bits slap people who fuck around poles covered in sperm from whales, which tastes like period juice and anal grandfather's sphincter penis farm penis penis Bukkake! Lolcats should sideways jump towards space rockets underground when dodecahedrons roll spinners around cigarettes. Lolcats feed on $100 bills while pimping the bitches full while the underground subway collapsed onto slime-balls. Bitches are-like-stitches first card and hummer bumblebee is addicted through excessive cheeseburger consumption.
Astroboy magnificently saved dextroamphetamine from cutters hedgehog penis juices rubbing feet together sideways down. Lions are lions which means leprechauns breed with lions but lions like leprechauns breed with lizards creating a human. Humans created cheesecakes penis deliciousness from quick raver-ray's pocket.
Sasquatch runs backstroke while Homer runs cartwheels around flutterbies butterflies butterfingers that earthworm-jim uses peanuts salted zomg.
Superman likes phone-boxes when batman pokemons! Snuffleupagus oozes style! War is raving afghanistan's-heroin-trade to produce large ponds of rock cocaine, which interrogates into butt-sex externally performed with dongers.
Radness is art created proctologically fever inserted with crowbars and pills like-sticking-dingers-in-ya-dick which fucking hurts!
Pills effect the triangles that effect 83ARZ, woody and jen and SCR48 because they are dodecahedrons shaped like FIREBALL_LASERS with paperclips dancing sidekicks. These are revolutionary pokemon trading-cards with super-duper strong powers and-bolt-on-spinners with SPARKLES.
Highlighter woodsy lights candles romantactly around-a-rounda-bout because ass-butter gushes fast. I ate your lolliepops backwards. switch1197 rocks 83ARZ boat because rivers slather.
Aspirin, tabasco and lube fucking bozookas play hard on pac-man's jizz is gorgeously violated laws by lasers.
Cups filled with pills tastes sparkly because anal-beads spread cavities throughout Raver-Ray's eardrums and throughout his vibrator. . . mmmmmm-*teeth-chatter*.
Michael Jackson died. End. Moon-walking rocks Japanese imports from japan. . . Scooby-Doo maloo pounds because
Explicity Deleted
http://www.gameinformer.com/News/Story/200908/N09.0820.1413.00424.htm
Dead is it?
DEAD?!
What the FUCK is he talking about?
When Sony created the Playstation 2, one of their biggest selling points was to have backwards compatibility with Playstation 1 games! Now he says that it's DEAD?! It's not a SELLING POINT ANY MORE!?
Who the FUCK is he kidding?
Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii are backwards compatible with MOST of their range!
What separates them from Sony?
Many conspiracy theories are floating around for WHY its not backwards compatible.
Too expensive to incorporate into the hardware or software;
It keeps the sales for the PS2 increased due to overstocking themselves;
Some stupid twat is trying to bring Sony down from the inside by convincing them of stupid ideas;
I'm willing to lead with the latter, since this bloody idiot has affirmed that it is not coming back and is confident in his statement that it will remain that way.
Okay, sure. Backwards Compatibility isn't much of a selling point these days. Every one and their mother is backwards compatible (That's really not a safe analogy).
But does that mean you should take it away? Would removing something that has become so standardised really keep things the same, or even make it better?
In the words of a friend of mine: "Know your place, Peon".
Sega was a leading star in Backwards Compatibility. They made the Mega Drive Game Converter, the clunky cartridge that you jammed into the top of your console so you could play the Master System Games you loved so much, like Wonder Boy and Dragon Crystal!
Since then, the consoles have worked from Discs and backwards compatibility has simply been incorporated into the system because all upgraded forms of Disc have been able to work with their predecessors.
Its not like it's fucking hard. A few 0's and 1's here, a under-clock setup there, and a few graphical adjustments with this, and BOOM! Backwards compatibility.
You know what? I'm still going to get one. I still want to play their exclusive games. I might even trade in my almost-9-year-old PS2 for a new PS2 as well, but I doubt that now.
But I DEMAND that Playstation make a downloadable or purchasable program to allow PS2 title compatibility.
Dead is it?
DEAD?!
What the FUCK is he talking about?
When Sony created the Playstation 2, one of their biggest selling points was to have backwards compatibility with Playstation 1 games! Now he says that it's DEAD?! It's not a SELLING POINT ANY MORE!?
Who the FUCK is he kidding?
Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii are backwards compatible with MOST of their range!
What separates them from Sony?
Many conspiracy theories are floating around for WHY its not backwards compatible.
Too expensive to incorporate into the hardware or software;
It keeps the sales for the PS2 increased due to overstocking themselves;
Some stupid twat is trying to bring Sony down from the inside by convincing them of stupid ideas;
I'm willing to lead with the latter, since this bloody idiot has affirmed that it is not coming back and is confident in his statement that it will remain that way.
Okay, sure. Backwards Compatibility isn't much of a selling point these days. Every one and their mother is backwards compatible (That's really not a safe analogy).
But does that mean you should take it away? Would removing something that has become so standardised really keep things the same, or even make it better?
In the words of a friend of mine: "Know your place, Peon".
Sega was a leading star in Backwards Compatibility. They made the Mega Drive Game Converter, the clunky cartridge that you jammed into the top of your console so you could play the Master System Games you loved so much, like Wonder Boy and Dragon Crystal!
Since then, the consoles have worked from Discs and backwards compatibility has simply been incorporated into the system because all upgraded forms of Disc have been able to work with their predecessors.
Its not like it's fucking hard. A few 0's and 1's here, a under-clock setup there, and a few graphical adjustments with this, and BOOM! Backwards compatibility.
You know what? I'm still going to get one. I still want to play their exclusive games. I might even trade in my almost-9-year-old PS2 for a new PS2 as well, but I doubt that now.
But I DEMAND that Playstation make a downloadable or purchasable program to allow PS2 title compatibility.
20 August 2009
Gaming for Charity
About 18 months ago, an event called Gencon Oz appeared on my social radar, an event where neck-bearded gamers and hot little cosplayers attended to enjoy the fun and excitement of social gaming and nerdly eccentricities.
I attended in excitement, planning to wage Warmachine (haha, you see what I did there?) across the two days of B.O. and Geekly Pop Culture jokes.
Quite a few people attended, many of whom I enjoy seeing to this day, and I have made plans to attend again this year.
One particular fellow stood himself out a little bit earlier. His name is Spenny, and he Games for Charity. Well, his name isn't actually Spenny, but it's what I work with.
His foundation of choice is Heartkids, a group devoted to research into Congenital Heart Disease, an affliction his daughter was unfortunate enough to recieve. So last year he made an offer to some friends and a few of the guys attending to make donations depending on his play.
25c per victory point; $5 per state resident/pressganger he defeated; $5 for placing best in faction or in the top 4.
Throughout the weekend he was also recieving random donations of $20 or more, gifted to him for being such a good sport.
Overall he made about $800 (Is that right?) and donated it very proudly to the foundation.
Since then, he has kept it up with the large events that he has made attendance and earnt quite a bit for the charity over the past year and a half.
This year, Gencon Oz is turning up again and with his attendance, he has started up the charity run again.
I've opted in for the 25c per victory again, because frankly I'm a bit of a stinge, but I've also roped in my workmates. I sent the email around describing his ventures and how the setup works and recieved emails asking how it works because I apparently didn't make sense, or asking if they have to attend or play themselves, (And one asking if this was actually from me and not forwarded on) but eventually when everything was made clear about a half dozen people have said they would donate, half of whom have declared flat donations, and the remainder making pledges based on his play.
So that's what I'm doing for Gencon Oz for Spenny.
As for playing myself, well... I haven't done anything since the night at Kel's. So I'm bringing my stuff to work on monday and painting during lunch!
It'll be good. Just have to get my arse into gear.
19 August 2009
It's Leech! Not Leach!
Leeches are well known for sucking the lifeblood from their victims, eventually bloating and detaching, leaving a anticoagulant that prevents the wound from healing properly unless treated.
Leach appears as an "Advantage" in Monsterpocalypse. "If a unit hits a monster with an attack, restore +1 health to this monster".
In another post I mentioned how confronting this ability is to its opponents with Yasheth, a monster who lives entirely on Vampiric Tendencies.
In the current expansion, All Your Base, the ability has expanded onto two more monsters: Mega Ancient Osheroth and Mega Vorgax.
Yasheth and Mega Ancient Osheroth both have differing playstyles. Yasheth is a Brawler and has Vampirism on his Brawl so he doesn't waste his time spending a-die on removing a unit from play, but spends it toward beating a monsters defence.
Mega Ancient Osheroth becomes a Blaster and trades his Sacrifice Action for Leach. An interesting trade. From Annihilate and Radial Attack to Multishot and Feeding Frenzy.
Its quite a change.
Now he can waddle around within his own units and survive by denying contact, while his units run up and attack the opponents monster and restoring any health taken away by said opponent. And if the units are set correctly, retaliation by monster will result in Super damage.
But he can no longer heal during his own turn. Is that important?
A very different ball game for Ancient Osheroth, for sure. But not a very big change. In my experience, most monsters seem to take a massive hit when first blood is drawn. Most monsters are placed on the back foot because of it. Healing for one damage doesn't change the end result. Granted, Ancient Osheroth has 6 health, but in personal experience it hasn't made that much of a difference. So no, it isn't that important.
However, having traded for Leach is. With Leach, it is two damage restored most unit turns. One for a meat slave and another for a slug salvo. It restores two health for the turn you expect to be dangerous with no loss of units.
Now to derail from the usual propaganda of "Cthul is awesome", I want to have a quick word about Vorgax on behalf of a friend of mine, Richard.
He's not convinced that Vorgax is any good on his Ultra form. However, he has been playing a uphill battle against me as I continually beat-back him into something that causes alot more damage than he'd like to suffer (Such as his own Harbinger Comet Shards).
So he sent off the box-tops for Mega Vorgax, originally for the sake of collection.
Only the other day have we found out what Mega Vorgax actually does. And I haven't told him yet.
Unless Scoot has already told him. Or he has been checking the forums.
I aim to think of ways to help Richard become extremely aggrivating through this post.
To begin, lets consider his style of play. His list of abilities are Thusly
For Planet eaters, they don't have many actions available. In their unit phase they have Attraction from the Harbinger Comet Shards, and actions from the Monument Buildings and Privateer Press Building (R&D, Beacon, Business Centre, etc).
The only monster with Actions available to Planet Eaters is Vorgax and his Morphers.
His morphers have Summon, and I'm yet to find someone who has a problem with Summon. Because they're morphers, he can place a unit somewhere to keep a building secure while he runs off to brawl one or two things. Heck, brawl a monster then brawl a building.
Or even surround a monster, place a chomper between them and make a couple of brawl attacks, dealing Super damage each time. Nice.
As for Mega Vorgax he has a Dice Efficient Action, where you effectively gain an action die for nothing. So if he rolls one action die for his power up roll and fails it's not a waste since he can gain that back.
We move onto the subject of Lightning Attack. It's a simple trigger: re-roll the same dice as if you made another attack. It's on his Brawl, which is useful since it's useless on a Power Attack and he no longer has a Blast attack.
Because of this, I consider him to have a similar playstyle to Yasheth, only with more damage output than healing.
We will Ignore Flight. Everyone and their second cousins have Flight.
Lastly is Leach, the spark that engulfed this topic with flames.
I'd like to point out that this is the only Monster within Planet Eaters that has the ability to Heal. The rest work from Endurance.
With the way Leach works, an opponent monster must be hit with units of the same agenda. So lets consider their units.
So there are plenty of ways to deal a point of damage to benefit from Leach when fighting a Def 7 Monster. Mixing and matching is a good choice too.
Spawn 1 Destructomite, 1 Elite Constrictor and 1 Explodohawk. 4 A-die.
Advance all three into position, putting the monster into Flank range. 3 A-die.
One attack of 3 A-die, 3 B-die against a Defence 5 figure? ~49% chance to hit.
So there's my Theory-pocalypse for Vorgax and Leach. Some of the Maths may be a little off, but Brain Storming can be taxing on the mind.
Now all Richard has to watch out for is being thrown into buildings.
Leach appears as an "Advantage" in Monsterpocalypse. "If a unit hits a monster with an attack, restore +1 health to this monster".
In another post I mentioned how confronting this ability is to its opponents with Yasheth, a monster who lives entirely on Vampiric Tendencies.
In the current expansion, All Your Base, the ability has expanded onto two more monsters: Mega Ancient Osheroth and Mega Vorgax.
Yasheth and Mega Ancient Osheroth both have differing playstyles. Yasheth is a Brawler and has Vampirism on his Brawl so he doesn't waste his time spending a-die on removing a unit from play, but spends it toward beating a monsters defence.
Mega Ancient Osheroth becomes a Blaster and trades his Sacrifice Action for Leach. An interesting trade. From Annihilate and Radial Attack to Multishot and Feeding Frenzy.
Its quite a change.
Now he can waddle around within his own units and survive by denying contact, while his units run up and attack the opponents monster and restoring any health taken away by said opponent. And if the units are set correctly, retaliation by monster will result in Super damage.
But he can no longer heal during his own turn. Is that important?
A very different ball game for Ancient Osheroth, for sure. But not a very big change. In my experience, most monsters seem to take a massive hit when first blood is drawn. Most monsters are placed on the back foot because of it. Healing for one damage doesn't change the end result. Granted, Ancient Osheroth has 6 health, but in personal experience it hasn't made that much of a difference. So no, it isn't that important.
However, having traded for Leach is. With Leach, it is two damage restored most unit turns. One for a meat slave and another for a slug salvo. It restores two health for the turn you expect to be dangerous with no loss of units.
Now to derail from the usual propaganda of "Cthul is awesome", I want to have a quick word about Vorgax on behalf of a friend of mine, Richard.
He's not convinced that Vorgax is any good on his Ultra form. However, he has been playing a uphill battle against me as I continually beat-back him into something that causes alot more damage than he'd like to suffer (Such as his own Harbinger Comet Shards).
So he sent off the box-tops for Mega Vorgax, originally for the sake of collection.
Only the other day have we found out what Mega Vorgax actually does. And I haven't told him yet.
Unless Scoot has already told him. Or he has been checking the forums.
I aim to think of ways to help Richard become extremely aggrivating through this post.
To begin, lets consider his style of play. His list of abilities are Thusly
Leach (Advantage): If a friendly agenda unit hits a monster, restore +1 health to this monster.
Lightning Attack (Brawl): Make another attack using the dice in play.
Flight (Skill)
Fission (Action): Move two action dice into your monster pool.
For Planet eaters, they don't have many actions available. In their unit phase they have Attraction from the Harbinger Comet Shards, and actions from the Monument Buildings and Privateer Press Building (R&D, Beacon, Business Centre, etc).
The only monster with Actions available to Planet Eaters is Vorgax and his Morphers.
His morphers have Summon, and I'm yet to find someone who has a problem with Summon. Because they're morphers, he can place a unit somewhere to keep a building secure while he runs off to brawl one or two things. Heck, brawl a monster then brawl a building.
Or even surround a monster, place a chomper between them and make a couple of brawl attacks, dealing Super damage each time. Nice.
As for Mega Vorgax he has a Dice Efficient Action, where you effectively gain an action die for nothing. So if he rolls one action die for his power up roll and fails it's not a waste since he can gain that back.
We move onto the subject of Lightning Attack. It's a simple trigger: re-roll the same dice as if you made another attack. It's on his Brawl, which is useful since it's useless on a Power Attack and he no longer has a Blast attack.
Because of this, I consider him to have a similar playstyle to Yasheth, only with more damage output than healing.
We will Ignore Flight. Everyone and their second cousins have Flight.
Lastly is Leach, the spark that engulfed this topic with flames.
I'd like to point out that this is the only Monster within Planet Eaters that has the ability to Heal. The rest work from Endurance.
With the way Leach works, an opponent monster must be hit with units of the same agenda. So lets consider their units.
- Belchers are the first unit that come to mind. Long range and not bad blast stats give good reason for fielding them. Radar adds an additional two spaces giving them Extra Long Range.
The only place they fall short is with Boost Die. Leadership bonus puts them at 1 B-die each. So to add onto this, they can secure a Bank Headquarters and take advantage of "High Security" to add another B-die to each unit. With three Belchers, that giving use of 3-6 A-die and 6 B-die, making anywhere between 58-84% chance of hitting a Defence 7 Monster. - Scorchers are the same deal but trade long range for high speed and maneuverability. However, I stand that the Belchers do the job better due to not having to move and can use those action dice to boost their attacks.
- Explodohawks are a very good choice, with their high brawl stat they have a good chance to hit someone and as history has shown us, they usually hit out of Spite.
- Chompers, Constrictors and Destructomites have the same problem that most brawlers have: Reaching their targets.
Destructomites and Constrictors have the speed and all terrain/burrow to reach targets with relative ease, and Flank and Penetrator to help with their attack, however lack much boost die and nothing else to help with adding more without adding a second monster. So with three Destructomites, they have 3-9 A-die and 3 boost die, ranging a ~27-88% chance of hitting Defence 6. Considering that most of the dice in a pool will be used for advancing I see that percentile ranging in the lower end when the chance arrives.
Chompers are where all the boost die are at for a massive attack. The downside is their lack of manuverability and speed. With an average speed of 5 and nothing to ignore rough terrain or buildings, they have can't reach their target very easily.
However, if they all reach a monster the chance to hit is ~54-84% using 3-6 A-die and 6 B-die. - Explodomites are a good choice as well. Being cheap, manuverable with average speed and a good brawl stat, they make good choices for brawlers regardless of their self destruction (which only accounts for the lead figure, I might add). So attacks from 3 Explodomites range from 3-9 A-die and 6 B-die give a percentile of ~54-95% against Defence 7.
With no Elites of their kind, they may be able to take advantage of a nearby Harbinger Comet Shard and add another B-die to their attacks and saving action die for the attack itself.
So there are plenty of ways to deal a point of damage to benefit from Leach when fighting a Def 7 Monster. Mixing and matching is a good choice too.
Spawn 1 Destructomite, 1 Elite Constrictor and 1 Explodohawk. 4 A-die.
Advance all three into position, putting the monster into Flank range. 3 A-die.
One attack of 3 A-die, 3 B-die against a Defence 5 figure? ~49% chance to hit.
So there's my Theory-pocalypse for Vorgax and Leach. Some of the Maths may be a little off, but Brain Storming can be taxing on the mind.
Now all Richard has to watch out for is being thrown into buildings.
17 August 2009
The Crotch of it all
Thats right ladies and gentlemen. This is a post for one of the Lords of Cthul's most useful units: The Meat Slave.
These rolling testicles of tenacity are capable of some of the most aggravating feats of Cthul playstyle through simple denial, respectively from each of their special abilities.
The first on the list is
Incubator - if this unit is hit, crush it and replace it with a faction unit without Incubator from your reserves.
Anything from the Lords of Cthul you can fill in its place, simply for the sake of denial. A taskmaster is a prime choice. With its high defence removal from a prime position, such as a power zone, is made harder. Making things harder again would be a figure with cloak, requiring figures to get closer.
If you're ready to make an assault on your next unit phase, replace it with anything from a corruptor to a Cthulubite and mangle your opponents units, or even monster.
The best part of it all is that you brought a figure out, a possibly expensive figure too, for nothing. That is fantastic in anyones eyes.
The next ability on this miniature Mr Creosote is the action:
Bleed - restore one heath to an adjacent monster then crush this figure.
This is half the source of endurance to a Lord of Cthul.
The other half is the abilities on the monster itself.
- Cthugrosh and Ancient Osheroth both have Sacrifice.
- Ancient Osheroth's Morpher form and Yasheth have Vampirism.
- Yasheth also has Leech.
- Ulgoth and Mogroth are the only ones that lack self preservation abilities. Mind you, Ulgoth doesn't really need it.
The ability to restore health is invaluable in a faction.
There are only two factions that cannot heal: Shadow Sun Syndicate and Planet Eaters.
Terrasaurs eat apartment buildings.
Martians eat Nuclear Power plants.
Guard have a repair vehicle, which is also employed by Tyrranix's Morpher form (Since Trucks need fixing sometimes too).
This is one of the things that makes Lords of Cthul unique: the ability to take whatever and then come out with more, if not the same, amount of health as he went in with. The Meat Slave delivers this in a small, rotund and fleshy sack of goo and it would be a waste to see it missing from any list.
Tactics!
Securing Buildings and holding Zones is a huge part of the game, but sometimes your opponent will get in your face and eliminate your units before you have your first Power Up roll.
Meat slaves can take these roles with some tenacious results. Utilizing their Incubator ability, any attack made against them will be countered into your favour.
Taskmasters, Corruptors and Tanglix make a prime choice for holding their positions with their average to high defence, and then cover if they are Securing Buildings, a second assault requires more in the attack than before.
Tanglix, Spitters, Snatchers, Squix and Cthulubites are good choices for a Retaliation. Tanglix and Spitters as they can continue to hold the point while retaliating with their Blast attacks. Squix and Cthulubites to return fire with their blast attacks as well, however with flight they won't be holding any zones except for the sake of denial. Snatchers are good for a running assault, when you can benefit more from disrupting their units than holding the point or building.
If any shadow units are available, feel free to place them as well. Because they're brought in for free, Shadow Taskmasters are a good choice as they can hold the point without a problem but Tanglix or Snatchers are better for the retaliation.
The other 'tactic' I can think of isn't so much a tactic as something to consider. Because meat slaves suffer from low speed, getting them in to use Bleed is a somewhat difficult.
If you're playing a monster that relies on getting into an opposing monsters face, try to consider your spawn points or even teleporters on the map so that you know you can get your Meat Slaves adjacent to you. If you need some help with movement, place a Taskmaster next to the spawn point to take advantage of Motivator and make sure you're securing an Oil Refinery to have the impregnated sacks move six spaces across the field.
Some monsters don't need to worry about this, however. Mega Cthugrosh and Mogroth are both good blasters and tend to stay back from the fight. In turn, they stand among their secured buildings and Meatslaves surrounding them. Unless the opposing monster has beatback, they remain rather secure and healthy.
Well that's where I stand with the Meatslave. As mentioned, it would be an utter shame to see a list without one.
16 August 2009
The Salivating Slug Squad
Since the beginning of the game, units have been made special in their own little ways.
Even the Carnidon, who is special in a Short Bus way.
Today I would like to speak of an interesting unit of the Lords of Cthul: The Spitter.
At first glance, it's a bit of a crap unit.
Short Range Blast with 1 A-die and 1 B-die, so they won't exactly be killing much except those with low Def scores and have managed to put themselves into range.
And they won't be securing much either, as with low Spd and Def scores they will be taken out before the have a chance to get into good positions unless your opponent is playing conservatively.
They also have a special action: Extinguish - Flip an adjacent hazard tile to a rubble tile.
This is cool. It saves your monsters from a lot of damage in the long run as hazards are a massive game motivator in the long term game.
To save your monster some health by destroying a building which you can get to, have one adjacent to it and when the building is destroyed, remove the hazard it creates. Completely eliminates a threat.
But these are the Grunts. The Elite is where it is at.
Adding to their list of abilties is Officer, a regular feature of most Elite figures. This gives an additional B-die to their version of Grunts within 2 spaces, sending Grunt Spitters to 2 B-die on their blast attacks making them rather formidable.
The Elite also has, and this is the kicker, Red Radar.
For those who are unaware, a Red ability gives the same ability to adjacent figures of the same Agenda.
Radar gives blast attacks an additional two spaces to their Range, turning those short range blasters to long range, and long range into extra long range.
This works well with the majority of figures across the board.
But that's not all. Monsters can also take advantage of this nifty salivating slug!
Yasheth recieves the most aggitating benefit from Spitters, however. Before anyone picks up on it, I'll clarify that Yasheth does not have a Blast attack. The Blast is missing. He has a blank space where a Blast should be. So he cannot Blast someone with some Blasty eyebeam that can Blast something to Blastereens.
But he does have:
If it wasn't bad enough that he heals from Meat Slaves and with his Vampirism Brawl Trigger, he heals from his units shooting a monster! A semi-prepared unit turn can restore 2 health to Yasheth during his turn. An Elite Spitter, two Grunts and a Meat Slave spends your entire unit turn frustrating your opponent, simply over two health, one of which was inadvertantly donated to Yasheth.
A little more preparation and you can double that, adding to more frustration.
The Throw into a nuclear hazard you performed last turn Deimos-9? Well you've lost all profit there.
The Smash into an Apartment building you were so proud of Gorghadra? Stop your little victory dance and turn around, Bucko, because I'm getting back up and feeling a little nasty.
So what are the downsides to Spitters? They do seem quite Superriffic.
Well to start, they have a Low Defence score. These guys die from a gentle breeze, so to speak. So they appreciate taking advantage of Defence increasing effects, such as cover from buildings or the Elite Squix Red Force Field. Unfortunately, this only affects blast attacks. If anything were to run into their face, they are in a bit of strife.
Another thing is Low Speed. It's not much of an immediate problem considering their range, but it is more of a long term problem. Moving costs dice. So if you want to move Spitters, you want to make it really worth the effort of moving, somewhere you suspect you can take advantage of later on in the game. Unfortunately, it's only a little bit of a problem because of their slow speed and lack fo maneuverability.
There are only a couple of things to counter this, to my knowledge. The first that comes to mind is securing an Oil Refinery. With a +1 Spd across the board, it's a great idea to start off your offensive with everything available.
The next is Taskmasters. Taskmasters have an ability called Motivator, where if a unit starts adjacent to him, they may advance an additional space. This combined with the Oil Refinery makes for good long term positioning. If you don't get shot down, mind you.
So whether to aggrivate your opponent with healing your monster, or simply supporting other units to annihilate their power base, Spitters are an interesting unit for the Lords of Cthul.
Even the Carnidon, who is special in a Short Bus way.
Today I would like to speak of an interesting unit of the Lords of Cthul: The Spitter.
At first glance, it's a bit of a crap unit.
Short Range Blast with 1 A-die and 1 B-die, so they won't exactly be killing much except those with low Def scores and have managed to put themselves into range.
And they won't be securing much either, as with low Spd and Def scores they will be taken out before the have a chance to get into good positions unless your opponent is playing conservatively.
They also have a special action: Extinguish - Flip an adjacent hazard tile to a rubble tile.
This is cool. It saves your monsters from a lot of damage in the long run as hazards are a massive game motivator in the long term game.
To save your monster some health by destroying a building which you can get to, have one adjacent to it and when the building is destroyed, remove the hazard it creates. Completely eliminates a threat.
But these are the Grunts. The Elite is where it is at.
Adding to their list of abilties is Officer, a regular feature of most Elite figures. This gives an additional B-die to their version of Grunts within 2 spaces, sending Grunt Spitters to 2 B-die on their blast attacks making them rather formidable.
The Elite also has, and this is the kicker, Red Radar.
For those who are unaware, a Red ability gives the same ability to adjacent figures of the same Agenda.
Radar gives blast attacks an additional two spaces to their Range, turning those short range blasters to long range, and long range into extra long range.
This works well with the majority of figures across the board.
- Elite Spitters that have surged ahead on the board can't recieve many Spitter reinforcements. Squix, however, can easily fly ahead and catch up. With a semi decent blast attack on Squix, they can help eliminate units within their newly established Blast Range.
- Tanglix are slightly better at Blasting than Squix, however don't have the same maneuverability. But flaunt them if you have them. An extra A-die or two never hurt.
- Cthulubites recieve the best benefit from this. Not only are they as good at Blasting as Tanglix and have the same maneuverability as Squix, they also have Multishot which bases itself around the figures current range. With Cthulubites leading a combined attack with Spitters, enemy units within five spaces of said Cthulubite should be worried.
- The Tower of Corruption benefits easily by using its Summon Ability to bring an Elite Spitter into play for 1 and then Blasting off at a unit with a maximum of 4 A-die and 3 B-die only to turn the target into another unit!
But that's not all. Monsters can also take advantage of this nifty salivating slug!
- Ultra Ancient Osheroth and Ultra Ulgoth take advantage of Radar with their blast attacks. Since both of them have Annihilate their attacks will deal 2 points of damage, unless the target has an Immunity to Super Damage. If the target is on their last legs, there's little they can do to save themselves!
- Mega Mogroth adores the Radar. Given an extra long range he can Blast something from 7 Spaces, halfway across the board, to Beat-back them into a building!
- Cthugrosh likes Radar to really aggitate an enemy from 10 spaces away with his Blast trigger Fling. With Radar on Cthugrosh, he can blast up to Five spaces away. Fling triggers on a unit and tosses the figure into a monster another five spaces away! And with his Mega form, he can deal super damage against the target with the Overload ability!
- I'm using Exclamation marks much more than expected!!1ELEVENTY!!
Yasheth recieves the most aggitating benefit from Spitters, however. Before anyone picks up on it, I'll clarify that Yasheth does not have a Blast attack. The Blast is missing. He has a blank space where a Blast should be. So he cannot Blast someone with some Blasty eyebeam that can Blast something to Blastereens.
But he does have:
Leech - When a friendly faction unit hits a monster with an attack, restore 1 health to this monster.
If it wasn't bad enough that he heals from Meat Slaves and with his Vampirism Brawl Trigger, he heals from his units shooting a monster! A semi-prepared unit turn can restore 2 health to Yasheth during his turn. An Elite Spitter, two Grunts and a Meat Slave spends your entire unit turn frustrating your opponent, simply over two health, one of which was inadvertantly donated to Yasheth.
A little more preparation and you can double that, adding to more frustration.
The Throw into a nuclear hazard you performed last turn Deimos-9? Well you've lost all profit there.
The Smash into an Apartment building you were so proud of Gorghadra? Stop your little victory dance and turn around, Bucko, because I'm getting back up and feeling a little nasty.
So what are the downsides to Spitters? They do seem quite Superriffic.
Well to start, they have a Low Defence score. These guys die from a gentle breeze, so to speak. So they appreciate taking advantage of Defence increasing effects, such as cover from buildings or the Elite Squix Red Force Field. Unfortunately, this only affects blast attacks. If anything were to run into their face, they are in a bit of strife.
Another thing is Low Speed. It's not much of an immediate problem considering their range, but it is more of a long term problem. Moving costs dice. So if you want to move Spitters, you want to make it really worth the effort of moving, somewhere you suspect you can take advantage of later on in the game. Unfortunately, it's only a little bit of a problem because of their slow speed and lack fo maneuverability.
There are only a couple of things to counter this, to my knowledge. The first that comes to mind is securing an Oil Refinery. With a +1 Spd across the board, it's a great idea to start off your offensive with everything available.
The next is Taskmasters. Taskmasters have an ability called Motivator, where if a unit starts adjacent to him, they may advance an additional space. This combined with the Oil Refinery makes for good long term positioning. If you don't get shot down, mind you.
So whether to aggrivate your opponent with healing your monster, or simply supporting other units to annihilate their power base, Spitters are an interesting unit for the Lords of Cthul.
15 August 2009
Simpsons Reference... Check
When I started Monsterpocalypse, I wasn't sure what I wanted to play. All of them were cool but didn't really peak my interest. So everyone chose their own factions.
Shadow Sun Syndicate was tossed around between everyone, so that left me with one choice: The Lords of Cthul. I picked them up and stuck with them, perfectly fine with the scores of innuendo and bad hentai jokes that were to come.
Ten months later I have become proud (Mostly) to be the representing Lords of Cthul player at my local Haunt, with little rituals to follow per series and season.
For example, every Series I represent with monster released that Series.
In Series 1, I swapped between Yasheth and Cthugroth.
In Series 2, I played Ulgoth.
In Series 3, I will be representing with Ancient Osheroth.
But this is where I come to a Dilemma.
Next Series is the start of a new Season in Monsterpocalypse by introducing Six new factions, one for each Agenda. If I am to represent through Agenda, I will not be able to play Lords of Cthul as they will not be expanding this season.
So, I will be expanding into a new faction.
Following the spoilers from Gencon, I found out what faction I would be playing were I to stick to Agenda.
Thats right. Molemen.
They call themselves the Subterran Uprising, rising from the ground to reign terror upon the populace.
I'm a little excited the more I think about them.
With that said, I will still be continuing this Blog of Monsterpocalyptic catastrophe following the Molefolk and their earthly antics.
The only derailment from this will be Voltron, due to release next year, and a few posts regarding Voltron and his antics will be posted in due time.
In the mean time, I shall be continuing with Unit-by-Unit descriptive posts.
Chase for Terrasaurs
Rich for Planet Eaters
Biggins for Martians
Scoot for Guard
Shadow Sun Syndicate was tossed around between everyone, so that left me with one choice: The Lords of Cthul. I picked them up and stuck with them, perfectly fine with the scores of innuendo and bad hentai jokes that were to come.
Ten months later I have become proud (Mostly) to be the representing Lords of Cthul player at my local Haunt, with little rituals to follow per series and season.
For example, every Series I represent with monster released that Series.
In Series 1, I swapped between Yasheth and Cthugroth.
In Series 2, I played Ulgoth.
In Series 3, I will be representing with Ancient Osheroth.
But this is where I come to a Dilemma.
Next Series is the start of a new Season in Monsterpocalypse by introducing Six new factions, one for each Agenda. If I am to represent through Agenda, I will not be able to play Lords of Cthul as they will not be expanding this season.
So, I will be expanding into a new faction.
Following the spoilers from Gencon, I found out what faction I would be playing were I to stick to Agenda.
Thats right. Molemen.
They call themselves the Subterran Uprising, rising from the ground to reign terror upon the populace.
I'm a little excited the more I think about them.
With that said, I will still be continuing this Blog of Monsterpocalyptic catastrophe following the Molefolk and their earthly antics.
The only derailment from this will be Voltron, due to release next year, and a few posts regarding Voltron and his antics will be posted in due time.
In the mean time, I shall be continuing with Unit-by-Unit descriptive posts.
13 August 2009
And on the third series, the Dark Lords smiled
Yes, this is a post about the ever aggitating Cthulubite, how most opponents find it so difficult to deal with such a unit.
For quite a while, Lords of Cthul players have suffered a little when it comes to blast attacks. Yes we have Spitters, with an elite that has a magnificently useful ability. Yes they have an awesome ranged attack, at a decent range.
But we don't have explosion
You don't?
We don't have chain reaction
You don't say!
We don't have spotter!
And THEN!?
Returning to the story. We now have the Cthulubite. This creature creates disaster to anyone within range.
To start, he's a flier. Flight is about as useful as it is dextremental, as the amount of anti-air effects are increasing now adays. The Cthulubite makes up for that with a very high Def Stat of 4. Only one other unit in the Lords of Cthul has a Def stat that high: The Taskmaster.
But we won't go onto that subject here.
Flight allows a great amount of maneuverability. Move over buildings, stop on hazards and impassable terrain, etc etc etc. Granted, it won't gain cover, but in my style of play it hasn't needed to.
The next ability on the sidebar is "Distract". I'm not a fan of this ability, but I won't deny it's usefulness.
For example, I had a game against UncleBiggins the other day. He started off pretty bad, and I was mauling his martians something chronic.
Somewhere nearing the end of the game, his power base was torn apart by an Elite Snatcher, a Shadow Snatcher and a Cthulubite in that order along a straight line.
His retaliation was reasonable: Spawn a Marauder and try to take out all three at once by combining with a couple of Vanguard. The only problem was the Shadow Snatcher in the middle. Cloak requires figures to be within two spaces to be able to target them with blast attacks. Within two spaces of the Shadow Snatcher means you have to be within two spaces of the Cthulubite. Within two spaces of the Cthulubite means you lose a b-die on your attacks.
He put in the effort anyway, throwing his four A-die into the attack. With a roll of three strikes, he eliminated the snatchers but not the Cthulubite.
Good times.
The next ability on the list is "Weaken". I made mention before that I don't have Spotter, and since I make quite a lot of blast attacks, it's good to have an ability to lower someone's Def for ranged attacks.
Weaken kicks that up a notch by allowing weaken to lower a figures Def for ALL attacks. This makes him a great choice for Summon from Cthugrosh or Ancient Osheroths Morphers when they have an action to use and want to go for another activation.
Obviously, it also gives units a boost to their attacks. Another game with UncleBiggins, I was playing against his Tharsis-5. Tharsis-5 had two damage left to drop him out of form.
So, I sent a massive Spitter Slug Squad at him. Two Grunts and Two elites teleported through to the other side of the map with a Cthulubite in Tow. A Def 4 Monster targetted by Two attacks of 2 A-die and 4 B-die each? ~75% chance of hitting.
To boot, the Cthulubite added into an attack as well, increasing the second attack to a 83% chance along with taking out two more units within range.
Which leads us to the Cthulubites final ability: Multi-shot.
Multi-shot: When a target figure is hit, compare the roll to the Def of two units within range. If the roll is equal or higher, those units suffer a point of damage.
This ability was around last season. Two Monsters had it before it was Erratta'd, when you could choose two enemy figures within range. "Enemy Figures" was why it was Erratta'd. Not only could you target units, but you could target Monsters with the additional attacks.
UncleBiggins again, has Multi-shot on Phobos-7. He would always be firing off a shot at a low Def unit with quite a lot of dice and then when he has made sure he has rolled high enough to hit my monster, he would deal the point of damage. If not, then he would choose another unit to destroy.
Risk? Obviously none what-so-ever. Always a profit with multi-shot.
The Nerfing? Oh yes. Well that came about when Series 3 brought forth Morphers. With the previous Multi-shot wording, you could target Three Morpher Figures and deal 3 points of damage. The only requirement was that they were within range of the attacking figure.
Phobos-7 and Nova ESR were devastated to hear that their advantage had been taken away from them. Phobos-7 with his seven space range and Nova with her Weapon Master Multi-shot which deals four damage without trying.
So the Erratta came and it was brought down to units only.
I was happy. Not only would Morphers become more viable, but I finally have a way of attacking multiple units with a single attack. Other factions have Explosion, or Chain Attack, or even Flak.
I have Multi-shot. And I use it well.
UncleBiggins is making a regular mention here, and well deserved too. He's become a victim to some of the biggest points I've made here.
On the last game we had, we were playing Danger Lake. Not a particular favourite map of mine, but following a ritual of mine of "pick a map, any map" and spreading them out like a deck of cards, we submitted to the scene. It's better than the other side, a widely despised map in my group.
To my right were the smaller group of buildings, while to my left were the five buildings that "mark the spot".
UncleBiggins had placed an Imperial State building on his side of the Node Row, and I opposed with a Government Building.
His first turn involved a Despoiler and a Saucer moving up to the Node Row and securing the two structures. Good move. A Saucer on the Negative Zone, a Power Pod on a Power Zone and a Despoiler to help secure the two.
Good start.
My retaliation came only to fuel UncleBiggins' hatred for my Flying Terror.
An elite Spitter and a Cthulubite advanced into Blast range of the Saucer and weaken distance of the Despoiler. Two action and Two boost made for a great denial of Power Dice, as I needed only Two strikes to Eliminate them all.
That is the fear and aggitation that spreads from Cthulubites.
Tough as Nails and hits like a Brick Outhouse.
He's a handyman that can rebuild that Outhouse too, just so you can hit something else with it.
What more could you want?
For quite a while, Lords of Cthul players have suffered a little when it comes to blast attacks. Yes we have Spitters, with an elite that has a magnificently useful ability. Yes they have an awesome ranged attack, at a decent range.
But we don't have explosion
You don't?
We don't have chain reaction
You don't say!
We don't have spotter!
And THEN!?
And then along came Cthulubite...I'd like to credit George Jones for not having a choice in the use of his song "Along came Jones". Ah, what a classic.
High flyin' Cthulubite
Slow flyin' Cthulubite
Doom Bringin' Cthulubite
along came big, scary Cthulubite
Returning to the story. We now have the Cthulubite. This creature creates disaster to anyone within range.
To start, he's a flier. Flight is about as useful as it is dextremental, as the amount of anti-air effects are increasing now adays. The Cthulubite makes up for that with a very high Def Stat of 4. Only one other unit in the Lords of Cthul has a Def stat that high: The Taskmaster.
But we won't go onto that subject here.
Flight allows a great amount of maneuverability. Move over buildings, stop on hazards and impassable terrain, etc etc etc. Granted, it won't gain cover, but in my style of play it hasn't needed to.
The next ability on the sidebar is "Distract". I'm not a fan of this ability, but I won't deny it's usefulness.
For example, I had a game against UncleBiggins the other day. He started off pretty bad, and I was mauling his martians something chronic.
Somewhere nearing the end of the game, his power base was torn apart by an Elite Snatcher, a Shadow Snatcher and a Cthulubite in that order along a straight line.
His retaliation was reasonable: Spawn a Marauder and try to take out all three at once by combining with a couple of Vanguard. The only problem was the Shadow Snatcher in the middle. Cloak requires figures to be within two spaces to be able to target them with blast attacks. Within two spaces of the Shadow Snatcher means you have to be within two spaces of the Cthulubite. Within two spaces of the Cthulubite means you lose a b-die on your attacks.
He put in the effort anyway, throwing his four A-die into the attack. With a roll of three strikes, he eliminated the snatchers but not the Cthulubite.
Good times.
The next ability on the list is "Weaken". I made mention before that I don't have Spotter, and since I make quite a lot of blast attacks, it's good to have an ability to lower someone's Def for ranged attacks.
Weaken kicks that up a notch by allowing weaken to lower a figures Def for ALL attacks. This makes him a great choice for Summon from Cthugrosh or Ancient Osheroths Morphers when they have an action to use and want to go for another activation.
Obviously, it also gives units a boost to their attacks. Another game with UncleBiggins, I was playing against his Tharsis-5. Tharsis-5 had two damage left to drop him out of form.
So, I sent a massive Spitter Slug Squad at him. Two Grunts and Two elites teleported through to the other side of the map with a Cthulubite in Tow. A Def 4 Monster targetted by Two attacks of 2 A-die and 4 B-die each? ~75% chance of hitting.
To boot, the Cthulubite added into an attack as well, increasing the second attack to a 83% chance along with taking out two more units within range.
Which leads us to the Cthulubites final ability: Multi-shot.
Multi-shot: When a target figure is hit, compare the roll to the Def of two units within range. If the roll is equal or higher, those units suffer a point of damage.
This ability was around last season. Two Monsters had it before it was Erratta'd, when you could choose two enemy figures within range. "Enemy Figures" was why it was Erratta'd. Not only could you target units, but you could target Monsters with the additional attacks.
UncleBiggins again, has Multi-shot on Phobos-7. He would always be firing off a shot at a low Def unit with quite a lot of dice and then when he has made sure he has rolled high enough to hit my monster, he would deal the point of damage. If not, then he would choose another unit to destroy.
Risk? Obviously none what-so-ever. Always a profit with multi-shot.
The Nerfing? Oh yes. Well that came about when Series 3 brought forth Morphers. With the previous Multi-shot wording, you could target Three Morpher Figures and deal 3 points of damage. The only requirement was that they were within range of the attacking figure.
Phobos-7 and Nova ESR were devastated to hear that their advantage had been taken away from them. Phobos-7 with his seven space range and Nova with her Weapon Master Multi-shot which deals four damage without trying.
So the Erratta came and it was brought down to units only.
I was happy. Not only would Morphers become more viable, but I finally have a way of attacking multiple units with a single attack. Other factions have Explosion, or Chain Attack, or even Flak.
I have Multi-shot. And I use it well.
UncleBiggins is making a regular mention here, and well deserved too. He's become a victim to some of the biggest points I've made here.
On the last game we had, we were playing Danger Lake. Not a particular favourite map of mine, but following a ritual of mine of "pick a map, any map" and spreading them out like a deck of cards, we submitted to the scene. It's better than the other side, a widely despised map in my group.
To my right were the smaller group of buildings, while to my left were the five buildings that "mark the spot".
UncleBiggins had placed an Imperial State building on his side of the Node Row, and I opposed with a Government Building.
His first turn involved a Despoiler and a Saucer moving up to the Node Row and securing the two structures. Good move. A Saucer on the Negative Zone, a Power Pod on a Power Zone and a Despoiler to help secure the two.
Good start.
My retaliation came only to fuel UncleBiggins' hatred for my Flying Terror.
An elite Spitter and a Cthulubite advanced into Blast range of the Saucer and weaken distance of the Despoiler. Two action and Two boost made for a great denial of Power Dice, as I needed only Two strikes to Eliminate them all.
That is the fear and aggitation that spreads from Cthulubites.
Tough as Nails and hits like a Brick Outhouse.
He's a handyman that can rebuild that Outhouse too, just so you can hit something else with it.
What more could you want?
And it came from nowhere to speak from the Eye
Ah, Bruno.
Not what I was expecting. I was expecting him to simply parade around in his leather lederhosen and make gay jokes at everyone.
The gay jokes were plentiful, from Anal Retention to Seducing Christians.
The dick jokes were long, hard, erect and in your face, like a reinactment from Big Brother.
The jokes were outrageous.
Michelle and I saw this last night and she was mortified from the beginning.
It started out alright, disguising itself as a standard fashion show with an extremely gay host. Then it went to the closet where he tried on some new outfits.
The snowball rolled its steady roll down the slope and it just became more and more outrageous, just as a Sasha Baron Cohen film has been.
After almost pissing ourselves into a fit, we retired to Irish Murphys down the road and drank and laughed and chatted until the early morning so I could return home for some slumber before work.
There is no more news, to be honest. I have been pretty slack.
I HAVE, however, decided to do another blog based on my Monpoc thoughts, since I seem to be exposing too much of my inner self to the girls for them to really handle.
So for the Nerdy Lads that are even slightly interested, please head on over to I HATE MOGROTH where you can enjoy more pleasant rants about the game as they come to mind.
Heck, I might even have some tactical advice.
Mind you I'm not the most tactically minded, so I would take any advice you attain with a saltshaker.
Not what I was expecting. I was expecting him to simply parade around in his leather lederhosen and make gay jokes at everyone.
The gay jokes were plentiful, from Anal Retention to Seducing Christians.
The dick jokes were long, hard, erect and in your face, like a reinactment from Big Brother.
The jokes were outrageous.
Michelle and I saw this last night and she was mortified from the beginning.
It started out alright, disguising itself as a standard fashion show with an extremely gay host. Then it went to the closet where he tried on some new outfits.
The snowball rolled its steady roll down the slope and it just became more and more outrageous, just as a Sasha Baron Cohen film has been.
After almost pissing ourselves into a fit, we retired to Irish Murphys down the road and drank and laughed and chatted until the early morning so I could return home for some slumber before work.
There is no more news, to be honest. I have been pretty slack.
I HAVE, however, decided to do another blog based on my Monpoc thoughts, since I seem to be exposing too much of my inner self to the girls for them to really handle.
So for the Nerdy Lads that are even slightly interested, please head on over to I HATE MOGROTH where you can enjoy more pleasant rants about the game as they come to mind.
Heck, I might even have some tactical advice.
Mind you I'm not the most tactically minded, so I would take any advice you attain with a saltshaker.
Self Imposed Ban
In recent times, it has come to my attention that games have become too quick for my own liking.
It is not that my group are doing anything right or wrong.
It is not that we play overpowering monsters (Although some would beg to differ).
It is the effect a particular building has on the field.
That is as far as it goes for securing this building.
We recieve more benefits from the Imperial State building. I usually use my action for the Summon on my Towers of Corruption. And with the "Power Producer" ability it provides another P-die over the Crystalline Building.
So it is not beneficial to field this for security.
Using it for target practice is more its style.
This building is notorious for being a direct cause of Instant Grevious Bodily Harm, and occasionally death.
It starts with the Reaction "Towering Inferno", where when the building is destroyed a Flame Hazard is placed where the building occupied.
Buildings with this ability have shown time and time again that it hurts when you land on them, and their spaces remain dangerous.
When Monsterpocalypse was first released, Block wars was always entertaining when you would have monsters waltzing through buildings, arm in arm, leaving behind a trail of flaming destruction through the centre square, ending in a dip that would leave the audience in awe at such majesty, requesting an encore.
But this is only half of the health problems that this Monument of Mortality causes upon its victims.
The Crystalline building brought into the game a new ability.
It was scary having to suffer three points of damage when landing on one building. Four, or even five damage, was restricted to two or more buildings.
More than that was difficult. Kill-Agains Island is known for it's three buildings standing in a triangle, and how being thrown onto those three would drop a seven health monster out of form.
That's all well an all. But why not be a little more 'Efficient'?
Being thrown into the Crystalline building causes four damage off the bat.
That leaves most monsters running around like a chook with its head cut off.
If Super Damage is in the mix, that leaves most monsters without a form.
All from one building, who was innocently standing the midst of a city like a daydreamer in a dandelion field.
Even the mighty Gorghadra has fear of this building. And he's Tough.
From now on, I am Self-Imposing a Ban on this Erection of Expiration from future matches. If my opponent wishes to field one, then so be it. I will take full advantage of it's presence. But my opponents should (and probably will) take grace in that I won't be fielding one myself.
PS: Performing this entire post in a David Attenborough accent is one of the most entertaining things I've done with myself in years.
Thank you, David Attenborough.
It is not that my group are doing anything right or wrong.
It is not that we play overpowering monsters (Although some would beg to differ).
It is the effect a particular building has on the field.
The Crystalline Building.This building is not used to be secured in my gaming group. We understand the benefit of securing such a building. An action to deny your opponent a P-die is nifty. With it being a monument, you gain two P-die on your power up rolls. Nifty once again.
That is as far as it goes for securing this building.
We recieve more benefits from the Imperial State building. I usually use my action for the Summon on my Towers of Corruption. And with the "Power Producer" ability it provides another P-die over the Crystalline Building.
So it is not beneficial to field this for security.
Using it for target practice is more its style.
This building is notorious for being a direct cause of Instant Grevious Bodily Harm, and occasionally death.
It starts with the Reaction "Towering Inferno", where when the building is destroyed a Flame Hazard is placed where the building occupied.
Buildings with this ability have shown time and time again that it hurts when you land on them, and their spaces remain dangerous.
When Monsterpocalypse was first released, Block wars was always entertaining when you would have monsters waltzing through buildings, arm in arm, leaving behind a trail of flaming destruction through the centre square, ending in a dip that would leave the audience in awe at such majesty, requesting an encore.
But this is only half of the health problems that this Monument of Mortality causes upon its victims.
The Crystalline building brought into the game a new ability.
Spire (Reaction): Monsters colliding with this building suffer an additional point of damage.This is massive.
It was scary having to suffer three points of damage when landing on one building. Four, or even five damage, was restricted to two or more buildings.
More than that was difficult. Kill-Agains Island is known for it's three buildings standing in a triangle, and how being thrown onto those three would drop a seven health monster out of form.
That's all well an all. But why not be a little more 'Efficient'?
Being thrown into the Crystalline building causes four damage off the bat.
- for the Attack.
- for Colliding with the Building.
- for the Spire Reaction.
- for the Blazing Inferno Reaction.
That leaves most monsters running around like a chook with its head cut off.
If Super Damage is in the mix, that leaves most monsters without a form.
All from one building, who was innocently standing the midst of a city like a daydreamer in a dandelion field.
Even the mighty Gorghadra has fear of this building. And he's Tough.
From now on, I am Self-Imposing a Ban on this Erection of Expiration from future matches. If my opponent wishes to field one, then so be it. I will take full advantage of it's presence. But my opponents should (and probably will) take grace in that I won't be fielding one myself.
PS: Performing this entire post in a David Attenborough accent is one of the most entertaining things I've done with myself in years.
Thank you, David Attenborough.
A Poor Effort
Last night was a new experience in Monsterpocalypse.
And new experiences are always fun!
Scotty and I arrived at Fastbreak as usual, with our Monpoc in bag and a groan at our regularity. We've been awaiting for a long time for something new for monpoc, specifically the Monpoc Strategy Guide. It's always a nifty read and it's fun to learn the promotional monsters, possibly proxy the figures to really mix it up.
Alas, a few weeks ago, the Strategy Guide was held up by US Customs and only recently has been passed on. The due release now is the 14th of August (Next Friday).
Now, another of our regular Monpoc Players is Doc. Doc is a smart man.
He's so smart that he remembered that there was a "Map Pack" release, with a new map and the Privateer Press Building.
This is where it gets interesting.
The Privateer Press building is what we expected to be.
At the time we came to assume that it was there for aesthetics. After all, it is still a building.
The only sense we got out of it was the power attack Ram, and it stands back up like a punching clown.
One thing we did agree on was that its a really pretty building.
Really pretty.
We move onto the maps.
The first map we looked at, Highway to Hellevue, struck us as a little odd.
Buildings made a conga line straight across the middle, from corner to corner, with a power point SMACK-BANG in the middle.
The Blue monster points look fine. One in the middle of his edge of the map, and one in the corner that isn't occupied by buildings.
One of the Red monster points were in the opposite corner... But the remaining Red point was in the middle of the right edge of the map. It struck me as odd.
Scott considered it an interesting map, as if you put buildings with the "No Fly Zone" ability across the middle, nobody would be able to cross the middle of the board without having to destroy buildings.
The second map was where our game was held, Waterfront Wreckage.
In the centre of the map is an island with four buildings going lengthways with two buildings on each end segregated from the remaining two, who make face, by roadways. The roadways each lead to a teleporter and a power zone.
the rest of the map is in four quarters, each with one or two teleporters, one or two power zones, and two spawn points each.
Thats right. Four Spawn Points.
So we deployed our buildings.
First intentions were: Statue of Liberty's at each end of the central Island.
Second intentions were: Privateer Press Buildings at the centre of the Island.
We changed this to the Crystalline buildings and put the PP Buildings in more beneficial positions.
The rest of the buildings were placed confidently where we could each utilize them to our advantages, along with our morpher monsters.
I'll run this forward a Turn as securing buildings is about as interesting as grass growing.
My monster turn consisted of running my morphers forward while continuing to hold an insurance building (Something I forgot to actually gain the power dice for at later events).
Scott did his usual "Take your time for thinking things out" and eventually decided on Hypering up into Legionnaire and flying across to one of my tentacles (I believe it was the Green one) only to brawl and toss him into a Crystalline building.
Four damage, straight off the bat.
And to top it off, he had three or four action dice left for a second monster activation. Considering he has taken out only one crystalline building, and that the crystalline building is the most dangerous building in the game (Currently), I can see his anxiety.
In retaliation I could do nothing but fire off spitters at him, dealing a measley 1 point of damage.
His onslaught came in the form of One action die, two boost die and four power die rolling a 4 to hit against my Def 5 morpher.
Vengeance came in the form of Ultra Ancient Osheroth body slamming Legionnaire into the remaining Crystalline building for 5 damage, an excess of 1 damage.
The spitters came to save the day again. A pair of slug saliva salvos careened across the board to cover the Legionnaire morphers under the effects of a Cthulubite (Holy jebuzz do I love my Cthulubites). Two damage to help secure my win.
There was little he could do to secure a win. He could not do six damage to me to secure his victory.
So he did as much disruption as possible.
He powered up and recieved a good amount of power dice, enough to help his endevours.
One tank decided to break away, using a teleporter to flee into the middle of my Spitting Slug Squad.
The goal? Contest the PP Building, preventing as much gain of power dice as possible.
He then proceeded to shoot Osheroth.
First attack eliminated my Alpha form. Easy enough. It's hard to miss Def 4 with a good amount of dice thrown into the attack.
Naturally I pulled myself a space away as to line up for a smash attack, something he admitted his lack of movement prepared for me.
His second attack was a combined, once again against Osheroth. He missed both times, even with his re-roll.
Fair enough.
His last attack. His offensive tank, the one with Crunch, pulled out all the stops. Two action die, one boost die and two power die.
First roll missed.
Second roll... Hit.
I congratulated him on his roll.
Super damage dealt, I was on three health and it was my monster turn.
I conducted the execution move as swiftly as possible, Smashing his morphers together and dealing the four points of damage required.
Satisfied at the game and its turn of events and I surveyed the battlefield.
"Scott..."
"Yeah?"
"This was a tame map."
"Why do you say that?"
"How many buildings did we destroy?"
If you've been paying attention, you'll know what I mean.
Like I said, this was an interesting game and Scott and I will be playing on the map next week, if not sooner.
And new experiences are always fun!
Scotty and I arrived at Fastbreak as usual, with our Monpoc in bag and a groan at our regularity. We've been awaiting for a long time for something new for monpoc, specifically the Monpoc Strategy Guide. It's always a nifty read and it's fun to learn the promotional monsters, possibly proxy the figures to really mix it up.
Alas, a few weeks ago, the Strategy Guide was held up by US Customs and only recently has been passed on. The due release now is the 14th of August (Next Friday).
Now, another of our regular Monpoc Players is Doc. Doc is a smart man.
He's so smart that he remembered that there was a "Map Pack" release, with a new map and the Privateer Press Building.
This is where it gets interesting.
The Privateer Press building is what we expected to be.
- Business Centre: Your opponent loses 1 Power Die.
- Indestructable: Enough Said.
- Limited: Only one may be fielded per opponent.
- No fly zone: Figures cannot move through this figure.
- R&D: Bring into play 1 figure from your reserves.
Defense 6.Why does it have a Def and Pow stat when you can't destroy it?
Power 3.
At the time we came to assume that it was there for aesthetics. After all, it is still a building.
The only sense we got out of it was the power attack Ram, and it stands back up like a punching clown.
One thing we did agree on was that its a really pretty building.
Really pretty.
We move onto the maps.
The first map we looked at, Highway to Hellevue, struck us as a little odd.
Buildings made a conga line straight across the middle, from corner to corner, with a power point SMACK-BANG in the middle.
The Blue monster points look fine. One in the middle of his edge of the map, and one in the corner that isn't occupied by buildings.
One of the Red monster points were in the opposite corner... But the remaining Red point was in the middle of the right edge of the map. It struck me as odd.
Scott considered it an interesting map, as if you put buildings with the "No Fly Zone" ability across the middle, nobody would be able to cross the middle of the board without having to destroy buildings.
The second map was where our game was held, Waterfront Wreckage.
In the centre of the map is an island with four buildings going lengthways with two buildings on each end segregated from the remaining two, who make face, by roadways. The roadways each lead to a teleporter and a power zone.
the rest of the map is in four quarters, each with one or two teleporters, one or two power zones, and two spawn points each.
Thats right. Four Spawn Points.
So we deployed our buildings.
First intentions were: Statue of Liberty's at each end of the central Island.
Second intentions were: Privateer Press Buildings at the centre of the Island.
We changed this to the Crystalline buildings and put the PP Buildings in more beneficial positions.
The rest of the buildings were placed confidently where we could each utilize them to our advantages, along with our morpher monsters.
I'll run this forward a Turn as securing buildings is about as interesting as grass growing.
My monster turn consisted of running my morphers forward while continuing to hold an insurance building (Something I forgot to actually gain the power dice for at later events).
Scott did his usual "Take your time for thinking things out" and eventually decided on Hypering up into Legionnaire and flying across to one of my tentacles (I believe it was the Green one) only to brawl and toss him into a Crystalline building.
Four damage, straight off the bat.
And to top it off, he had three or four action dice left for a second monster activation. Considering he has taken out only one crystalline building, and that the crystalline building is the most dangerous building in the game (Currently), I can see his anxiety.
In retaliation I could do nothing but fire off spitters at him, dealing a measley 1 point of damage.
His onslaught came in the form of One action die, two boost die and four power die rolling a 4 to hit against my Def 5 morpher.
Vengeance came in the form of Ultra Ancient Osheroth body slamming Legionnaire into the remaining Crystalline building for 5 damage, an excess of 1 damage.
In a somewhat unexpected retaliation, he sent forward an Ion tank to stand next to one of his morphers (the one with Marker, allowing a reroll) and sent Osheroth out of Hyper Form, leaving the morphers sitting there like a four man sausage fest.
Admit it. You know the line.
The spitters came to save the day again. A pair of slug saliva salvos careened across the board to cover the Legionnaire morphers under the effects of a Cthulubite (Holy jebuzz do I love my Cthulubites). Two damage to help secure my win.
There was little he could do to secure a win. He could not do six damage to me to secure his victory.
So he did as much disruption as possible.
He powered up and recieved a good amount of power dice, enough to help his endevours.
One tank decided to break away, using a teleporter to flee into the middle of my Spitting Slug Squad.
The goal? Contest the PP Building, preventing as much gain of power dice as possible.
He then proceeded to shoot Osheroth.
First attack eliminated my Alpha form. Easy enough. It's hard to miss Def 4 with a good amount of dice thrown into the attack.
Naturally I pulled myself a space away as to line up for a smash attack, something he admitted his lack of movement prepared for me.
His second attack was a combined, once again against Osheroth. He missed both times, even with his re-roll.
Fair enough.
His last attack. His offensive tank, the one with Crunch, pulled out all the stops. Two action die, one boost die and two power die.
First roll missed.
Second roll... Hit.
I congratulated him on his roll.
Super damage dealt, I was on three health and it was my monster turn.
I conducted the execution move as swiftly as possible, Smashing his morphers together and dealing the four points of damage required.
Satisfied at the game and its turn of events and I surveyed the battlefield.
"Scott..."
"Yeah?"
"This was a tame map."
"Why do you say that?"
"How many buildings did we destroy?"
If you've been paying attention, you'll know what I mean.
Like I said, this was an interesting game and Scott and I will be playing on the map next week, if not sooner.
06 August 2009
Avert your gaze, Erin
Today I have been contemplating the semantics of Monpoc and how to organise All you can Eat so that everyone can get their 24 achievements easily. It came down to a few requirements and a concerted contribution from our regulars.
So you set up six tables across the room/s, and to mix it up give them each a different map.
Each table is set up thusly.
Here's an Example.
Keep following the pattern of a pair from one Agenda, then pit them against an opponent from the opposite Agenda and the agenda to their right, or left. Rince and repeat until you've run out of monsters. Because Morphers are not included in this, it makes things even. Mind you, I do want to keep Mogroth out and put in Osheroth. (Golly Gosh do I hate Mogroth).
The units are then set up for each side as best possible (Agenda A has a full Agenda A force; Agenda B/C have their combination).
Players then mix and match tables carrying between them 6 Hazard and 6 Non-Hazard buildings, with all three monuments each.
On the 12th game, they have 24 of the easy Achievements.
Its the other 8 Achievements to watch out for.
So you set up six tables across the room/s, and to mix it up give them each a different map.
Each table is set up thusly.
Still not quite Getting it?
Monster -
Agenda A -Monster
Agenda BMonster -
Agenda A -Monster
Agenda C
Here's an Example.
Defender X -
Protector -Gorghadra
DestroyerSky Sentinel -
Protector -Yasheth
Fiend
Keep following the pattern of a pair from one Agenda, then pit them against an opponent from the opposite Agenda and the agenda to their right, or left. Rince and repeat until you've run out of monsters. Because Morphers are not included in this, it makes things even. Mind you, I do want to keep Mogroth out and put in Osheroth. (Golly Gosh do I hate Mogroth).
The units are then set up for each side as best possible (Agenda A has a full Agenda A force; Agenda B/C have their combination).
Players then mix and match tables carrying between them 6 Hazard and 6 Non-Hazard buildings, with all three monuments each.
On the 12th game, they have 24 of the easy Achievements.
- Played with full forces from each Agenda (6 Achievements)
- Played with all monsters from each Agenda (14 Achievements)
- Played with 12 Hazardous Buildings, 12 Non-Hazardous Buildings and All three monuments (3 Achievements)
- Played Multi-monster with monsters from different Agendas(1 Achievement)
Its the other 8 Achievements to watch out for.
- Have 15 units in play at one time.
- Have all 10 Power Dice in your Power Pool.
- Earn at least 8 Power dice in one Power Up.
- Destroy a Full-Health monster form in one attack.
- Win a game without using Hyper form.
- Destroy at least Four buildings with one attack.
- Destroy at least Four units with one attack.
- Deal 2 damage to a monster in a single Unit turn.
05 August 2009
It was kinda crap...
Last night was a new experience in Monsterpocalypse.
And new experiences are always fun!
Scooty and I arrived at Fastbreak as usual, with our Monpoc in bag and a groan at our regularity. We've been awaiting for a long time for something new for monpoc, specifically the Monpoc Strategy Guide. It's always a nifty read and it's fun to learn the promotional monsters, possibly proxy the figures to really mix it up.
Alas, a few weeks ago, the Strategy Guide was held up by US Customs and only recently has been passed on. The due release now is the 14th of August (Next Friday).
Now, another of our regular Monpoc Players is Doc. Doc is a smart man.
He's so smart that he remembered that there was a "Map Pack" release, with a new map and the Privateer Press Building.
This is where it gets interesting.
The Privateer Press building is what we expected to be.
"R and D", a Summon Ability but allows the summoning of any unit rather than just the respective faction unit.
Indestructable. 'Nuff Said.
Limited; and
I've forgotten what the last ability is.
What really struck us as odd was the stat bar.
Defense 6.
Power 3.
Why does it have a Def and Pow stat when you can't destroy it?
At the time we came to assume that it was there for aesthetics. After all, it is still a building.
The only sense we got out of it was the power attack Ram, and it stands back up like a punching clown.
One thing we did agree on was that its a really pretty building.
Really pretty.
We move onto the maps.
I've long since forgotten the names of the maps, but I'll find out when I get home.
The first map we looked at struck us as a little odd.
Buildings made a conga line straight across the middle, from corner to corner, with a power point SMACK-BANG in the middle.
The Blue monster points look fine. One in the middle of his edge of the map, and one in the corner that isn't occupied by buildings.
One of the Red monster points were in the opposite corner... But the remaining Red point was in the middle of the right edge of the map. It struck me as odd.
Scoot considered it an interesting map, as if you put buildings with the "No Fly Zone" ability across the middle, nobody would be able to cross the middle of the board without having to destroy buildings.
The second map was where our game was held.
In the centre of the map is an island with four buildings going lengthways, the two buildings on the end segregated by roadways. The roadways each lead to a teleporter and a power zone.
the rest of the map is in four quarters, each with one or two teleporters, one or two power zones, and two spawn points each.
Thats right. Four Spawn Points.
So we deployed our buildings.
First intentions were: Statue of Liberty's at each end of the central Island.
Second intentions were: Privateer Press Buildings at the centre of the Island.
We changed this to the Crystalline buildings and put the PP Buildings in more useful positions.
The rest of the buildings were placed confidently where we could each utilize them to our advantages, along with our morpher monsters.
I'll run this forward a Turn as securing buildings is about as interesting as super fast grass growing.
My monster turn consisted of running my morphers forward while continuing to hold an insurance building (Something I forgot to actually gain the power dice for at later events).
Scoot did his usual "Take your time for thinking things out" and eventually decided on Hypering up into Legionnaire and flying across to one of my tentacles (I believe it was the Green one) only to brawl and toss him into a crystalline building.
Four damage, straight off the bat.
And to top it off, he had three or four action dice left for a second monster activation. Considering he has taken out only one crystalline building, and that the crystalline building is the most dangerous building in the game (Currently), I can see his anxiety.
In retaliation I could do nothing but fire off spitters at him, dealing a measley 1 point of damage.
His onslaught came in the form of One action die, two boost die and four power die rolling a 4 to hit against my Def 5 morpher.
Vengeance came in the form of Ultra Ancient Osheroth body slamming Legionnaire into the remaining Crystalline building for 5 damage, an excess of 1 damage.
Admit it. You know the line.
In a somewhat unexpected retaliation, he sent forward an Ion tank to stand next to one of his morphers (the one with Marker, allowing a reroll) and sent Osheroth out of Hyper Form, leaving the morphers sitting there like a four man sausage fest.
The spitters came to save the day again. A pair of slug saliva salvos careened across the board to cover the Legionnaire morphers under the effects of a Cthulubite (Holy jebuzz do I love my Cthulubites). Two damage to help secure my win.
There was little he could do to secure a win. He could not do six damage to me to secure his victory.
So he did as much disruption as possible.
He powered up and recieved a good amount of power dice, enough to help his endevours.
One tank decided to break away, using a teleporter to flee into the middle of my Spitting Slug Squad.
The goal? Contest the PP Building, preventing as much gain of power dice as possible.
He then proceeded to shoot Osheroth.
First attack eliminated my Alpha form. Easy enough. It's hard to miss Def 4 with a good amount of dice thrown into the attack.
Naturally I pulled myself a space away as to line up for a smash attack, something he admitted his lack of movement prepared for me.
His second attack was a combined, once again against Osheroth. He missed both times, even with his re-roll.
Fair enough.
His last attack. His offensive tank, the one with Crunch, pulled out all the stops. Two action die, one boost die and two power die.
First roll missed.
Second roll... Hit. I congratulated him on his roll.
Super damage dealt, I was on three health and it was my monster turn.
I conducted the execution move as swiftly as possible, Smashing his morphers together and dealing the four points of damage required.
Satisfied at the game and its turn of events and I surveyed the battlefield.
"Scoot..."
"Yeah?"
"This was a tame map."
"Why do you say that?"
"How many buildings did we destroy?"
If you've been paying attention, you'll know what I mean.
Like I said, this was an interesting game and Scoot and I will be playing on the map next week, if not sooner.
04 August 2009
More Indistinguishable Death
Golly Gosh am i sick of her song.
01 August 2009
Word of the Week: Bromance
I heard the word one evening while refreshing my appearance on Facebook. A funny fellow who is quite the jet setter has been in the company of too many lady-friends, and sent a status update requesting Bromance.
I giggled to myself at the portmanteau and then checked my phone to look at Facebook...
... Immediately noticing the asshattery (Another Erininthesky Signature Word) I turned off my phone and walked away.
The week before last, I recieved an email from Mother Dearest.
I remembered to the sunday before last where I enjoyed a day at Kels place with Greg, practicing a day of Hardcore Warmachine/Hordes.
The most notable part of that day was Gregs Eldest (I think) playing with my figures and calling my Venators "Girls".
Kel made mention that he wanted to do this again in a fortnights time.
Fair enough, I thought. It'll last a few fortnights before Gencon and we'll get plenty of practice in.
So delaying mother with an email requesting her to await friday for an answer, I sent an sms to Kel asking if the practice was on at his place again.
Fortunately not, as Kel had something else happening. However, he did have an alternative for me which was to turn up at his place on Tuesday or Wednesday to paint (Knowing full well how much I have to paint.)
I accepted his offer for Wednesday night (As Tuesdays I go to Nundah for Monpoc Gaming) and I took the bus to his place.
The night was spent rather well with back paints and neck strains and finger cramps covered with dvd's of Danger Mouse playing in the background.
To top off the night before retiring, Kel presented to me one of his favoured Animes: Appleseed.
I've heard dabblings of this Anime while watching Madman DVD's, their advertisements trying to tempt the sci-fi addicts, but I hadn't looked into it at all.
The first presentation was the second Appleseed Movie's Introduction.
This was awesome. I became extremely interested with this fun display of ninja-esque capabilities with SMG's versus miniguns and explosives.
Or even a helicopter trying to get away from nine rocket launchers that had been patched together to fire as one.
After this introduction to the movie he showed me the first movie.
I'm terrible with descriptions, but I'm certainly interested in looking this up now.
The night was full of one-liners ("Penfold, Shush") and manly emotions (Belching and Farting).
A good night, in my eyes.
But the Bromance doesn't stop there.
Saturday day was simple. I go to Blind Pig and nerd up for the day with some games of Warmachine/Hordes.
First of two games was against Jeff and his Epic Kruegar list. It was a sad moment for him because he hasn't had much luck with Kruegar for a while. I played rather offensively, killing off what I could and sacrificing others for the sake of the better lot (Ancestral Guardians and the Immortals). My Ancestral Guardian vs Totem Hunter History remains hardly tarnished, with another knotch on the Guardians belt to match the other 2.
But Kruegar strayed too close to Morghouls attack range and I lept at the chance like a kid on candy. As an afterthought, we realised a mistake of a Woldwyrd being a little too close for comfort but jeff accepted the loss anyway with a quick change of what should've been done.
The second game was a loss at my own stupid fault.
Playing Reznik, the player had him standing between a Devout and another 'Jack with Venators to play Firing Squad and an Ancestral Guardian to finish the job.
But I made a mistake didn't I.
Morghoul lept and weaved his way through the melee to put him within spells distance of the ancestral guardian, and Line of Sight to Reznik. The feat was blown and Shadow Walker was cast on the Guardian.
Two fury left on an assassination against a Defence 10 figure.
What do I do? I know. I'll cast "Death Warrant" on him to give my Cyclops Shaman to deal some substantial damage.
That was the mistake that I shouldn't have done. One of Rezniks ability, "Witchhound" allows a model in his battlegroup to move after being hit with a spell.
He ran away behind the rest of his jack.
I stamped the floor in aggrivation at my Asshattery.
But I bit my tongue and continued, salvaging what I could before losing my own warlock.
Time was called, however, and my opponent still won due to having partially completed the object (Damaging Indescript objectives).
The day was entertaining, and it was good to see familiar faces.
I must say, Killian is getting better. He was pretty keen with the 350 we were playing earlier. I was impressed.
But that is not all, my dear readers. The end is nearing.
The travel home remains. Somewhere between Park Road and Roma Street, my phone alarmed itself to me.
I quickly considered my alternative: Stay in my room, play Kingdom Hearts, maybe even do a blog.
I accepted his offer for a movie and we drove out to Chermside.
I was like I was on a date. Awkward silence was riddled through the night. He enjoyed the movie (Transformers 2) and that was it.
We arrived home and spoke with everyone present (I mimed to Kim saying I couldn't hear anything, Movies Speakers ruined my ears) before retreating to my room after giving up on trying to listen.
I giggled to myself at the portmanteau and then checked my phone to look at Facebook...
... Immediately noticing the asshattery (Another Erininthesky Signature Word) I turned off my phone and walked away.
The week before last, I recieved an email from Mother Dearest.
Hey Matt, are we going to the movies this sunday?It was that time of the fortnight and mother was curious.
I remembered to the sunday before last where I enjoyed a day at Kels place with Greg, practicing a day of Hardcore Warmachine/Hordes.
The most notable part of that day was Gregs Eldest (I think) playing with my figures and calling my Venators "Girls".
Kel made mention that he wanted to do this again in a fortnights time.
Fair enough, I thought. It'll last a few fortnights before Gencon and we'll get plenty of practice in.
So delaying mother with an email requesting her to await friday for an answer, I sent an sms to Kel asking if the practice was on at his place again.
Fortunately not, as Kel had something else happening. However, he did have an alternative for me which was to turn up at his place on Tuesday or Wednesday to paint (Knowing full well how much I have to paint.)
I accepted his offer for Wednesday night (As Tuesdays I go to Nundah for Monpoc Gaming) and I took the bus to his place.
The night was spent rather well with back paints and neck strains and finger cramps covered with dvd's of Danger Mouse playing in the background.
Not to mention the fine dining of Eagleboys Pizza with Coke, Garlic Bread and Chicken wings.
To top off the night before retiring, Kel presented to me one of his favoured Animes: Appleseed.
I've heard dabblings of this Anime while watching Madman DVD's, their advertisements trying to tempt the sci-fi addicts, but I hadn't looked into it at all.
The first presentation was the second Appleseed Movie's Introduction.
This was awesome. I became extremely interested with this fun display of ninja-esque capabilities with SMG's versus miniguns and explosives.
Or even a helicopter trying to get away from nine rocket launchers that had been patched together to fire as one.
After this introduction to the movie he showed me the first movie.
I'm terrible with descriptions, but I'm certainly interested in looking this up now.
The night was full of one-liners ("Penfold, Shush") and manly emotions (Belching and Farting).
A good night, in my eyes.
But the Bromance doesn't stop there.
Saturday day was simple. I go to Blind Pig and nerd up for the day with some games of Warmachine/Hordes.
First of two games was against Jeff and his Epic Kruegar list. It was a sad moment for him because he hasn't had much luck with Kruegar for a while. I played rather offensively, killing off what I could and sacrificing others for the sake of the better lot (Ancestral Guardians and the Immortals). My Ancestral Guardian vs Totem Hunter History remains hardly tarnished, with another knotch on the Guardians belt to match the other 2.
But Kruegar strayed too close to Morghouls attack range and I lept at the chance like a kid on candy. As an afterthought, we realised a mistake of a Woldwyrd being a little too close for comfort but jeff accepted the loss anyway with a quick change of what should've been done.
The second game was a loss at my own stupid fault.
Playing Reznik, the player had him standing between a Devout and another 'Jack with Venators to play Firing Squad and an Ancestral Guardian to finish the job.
But I made a mistake didn't I.
Morghoul lept and weaved his way through the melee to put him within spells distance of the ancestral guardian, and Line of Sight to Reznik. The feat was blown and Shadow Walker was cast on the Guardian.
Two fury left on an assassination against a Defence 10 figure.
What do I do? I know. I'll cast "Death Warrant" on him to give my Cyclops Shaman to deal some substantial damage.
That was the mistake that I shouldn't have done. One of Rezniks ability, "Witchhound" allows a model in his battlegroup to move after being hit with a spell.
He ran away behind the rest of his jack.
I stamped the floor in aggrivation at my Asshattery.
But I bit my tongue and continued, salvaging what I could before losing my own warlock.
Time was called, however, and my opponent still won due to having partially completed the object (Damaging Indescript objectives).
The day was entertaining, and it was good to see familiar faces.
I must say, Killian is getting better. He was pretty keen with the 350 we were playing earlier. I was impressed.
But that is not all, my dear readers. The end is nearing.
The travel home remains. Somewhere between Park Road and Roma Street, my phone alarmed itself to me.
"Hey buddy u home tonight/ was thinking cause mel and matt r doin their thing want to see a movie or something to get out of the house?"I haven't recieved a message wrought with missing letters like that in about a year. And surprise surprise, it's the Superdick.
I quickly considered my alternative: Stay in my room, play Kingdom Hearts, maybe even do a blog.
I accepted his offer for a movie and we drove out to Chermside.
I was like I was on a date. Awkward silence was riddled through the night. He enjoyed the movie (Transformers 2) and that was it.
We arrived home and spoke with everyone present (I mimed to Kim saying I couldn't hear anything, Movies Speakers ruined my ears) before retreating to my room after giving up on trying to listen.
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