Lets make the Quantum Leap

So it's almost been a year and I've been pretty slack here. But keeping with a (mostly) Fiendish theme, and pretty much nothing happening with Monsterpocalyse until recently, I just haven't had anything to blather on about until now.

What I assume, to catch up with the times they're releasing Quantum Figures! One of whom is our very own Poster Child: Cthugrosh. I would have left this article until there was a Quantum Mechathugrosh, but I don't know how long I'd be waiting for it. And I'd have to think of a vaguely disturbing title too.

Now the way Quantum figures work is interesting. Along your stat bar you have stats highlighted in Red. This doesn't mean that the stat is shared to figures adjacent to you - Can you Imagine a Spitter with 7*1 Brawl attack? - What it does mean is that you increase those stats by your Hyper Cost.

That's pretty sweet. You get a bonus to whatever stats are highlighted and you can take names AND chew bubblegum! Cos with stats like these, who would stop you? Quantum Cthugrosh has a stat bar that is almost completely Red. Sweet! 6 Move is pretty good; 5 Defence is not too bad considering he still has 6 health; 7*2 Brawl? An extra Boost die certainly doesn't hurt at all; Same goes for his 5*1 Blast Attack, and his 6*2 Power Attack.

Now his Range is a special case. He starts off at Short range, so 2-3 spaces away from him. That's a pretty short attack. But any long time player of the Lords of Cthul will know that there should always be an Elite Spitter nearby. Or any general player will know to field a Radar Array. So that'll extend it to long range, making it 2-5 spaces away. Quantum then extends the range by the number of spaces equal to the Hyper Stat! Sweet!

So pretty much, his stat line does not change from his Alpha form. Now lets look at his hyper stat! Drum Roll please, Trumpets, streamers and confetti cascade around a small podium with a Khadoran Anvil with a number in the middle, and that number is... 1! Woo! We're Number One! We're Number One! We're Number...

Wait a minute. One? Okay, okay. So the stat increases aren't significant, except in the case of boost die. Any Boost Die are good Boost Die, as I always say. But there's one other condition that I haven't mentioned yet. And that's how to keep the Quantum Effect Active.

You would think that if you had stats that were increased by the hyper stat, you would just make it a permanent thing, and just get rid of these Red highlights. No, the purpose of the Red Highlights is that you gain the benefits to X Stat on the condition that you have more than 5 Power Dice in your pool.

So while it's not a significant effect the Quantum is applying, it can still change the way you play when you're at full P-die whether it's to conserve your P-die by using that extra B-die or A-die to your attacks, or to make a massive attack. But in saying that, a cost of 1 for going into hyper? It's unheard of!

Speaking of attacks, lets see what Quantum Cthugrosh has on offer ability-wise. He has his regular features for a hyper form, Flight and Terrify. Not bad abilities, with their own drawbacks. Though I don't think Terrify has a drawback. Flight certainly does, because factions like GUARD have a massive prejudice against Figures with Flight. So that's probably why his other forms have Jump, because he learnt his lesson before. Hmm...

His last skill is Reach, the ability to attack something 2 squares away. Experience with this ability has never failed me. There have been moments I put myself adjacent to a figure, but the options that Reach presents can change the game. The best part though? It's Blue.

So all figures in your army gain the ability to not only attack something from 2 spaces away, but also figures with Flight. So while Spitters don't have any use for it, figures like the Task master, the Tanglix, the Snatcher, even the Mollok Brutes and Berserkers, can take advantage of it. The number of times I've been one space away from being within range sometimes frustrates me. So now I get to Frustrate my opponent by being that one space within Reach.

Back to the Principal of Fiend High, we look at his Attacks. So Alpha Cthugrosh has a habit of multiplying his units. He'd just spend an action die and place a unit next to himself. It was a great Army producer and given a few turns, you'd outnumber your opponent in no time.

His Blast Attack would help too. Fling targets a unit and chucks it 5 squares into another figure. That makes for a potential range of about 10 squares for a Blast Attack.

That's better than Mogroth! Funny that.

But Quantum Cthugrosh deviates from the Norm. He still remains a Blastard, but he doesn't Fling anyone. He definitely doesn't make anyone Overload. He has taken lessons in Evolution at the Tower of Corruption College, and learnt Transmutation.

Now I've talked about Transmutation before with the Tower of Corruption. You shoot an enemy unit and replace it with one of your own units so long as it can legally be placed there. It takes up the Summon action from Alpha Cthugrosh and combines it with his Blast Attack!

That's not enough though. Alpha Cthugrosh usually Summons and makes an attack, two actions in one turn. That sort of thing should not be abolished, else the figure would be unappealing. So that's why the lucky bugger has Blitz.

Blitz: Once each turn, advance this figure up to 2 spaces even if it has advanced this turn. You can roll another attack of the same type against a different target with Dice in play.

So two attacks, both of which Transmutate enemy units into friendly units.

So double the Firepower. Double the Unit Generation. And then add another third to his Movement. This guy is working all on the up and up. So where does he faulter? Well, aside from the downside of having the same stat line as Alpha Cthugrosh until he gets more than 5 P-die, he doesn't do much else. His 5 skills and triggers are all he has. No Actions, No Reactions, No Advantages. That's all she wrote.

Gameplay wise, he's still as good as Alpha Cthugrosh. He moves, he blasts, he brings out a new unit, and then uses his second attack to either Shoot a Monster, or Transmutate another unit. As the old saying goes, “The More the Merrier!”