Alternating Universes

So one of the common questions about the Voltron set is whether or not you can cross the two games over. Voltron is a stand alone set, but yes: you can bring Voltron into Monsterpocalypse, but not the other way around.

Why? Well imagine a Carnidon being deployed in space.

Okay, I may be getting a little silly there. How about something that makes more sense, like Sky Sentinel and G-1 strike fighters. It makes much more sense, however I believe it would unbalance the match by having the Speed 8 Strike fighters careen across the field towards the enemy who are at a disadvantage since the G-1's will be under the effect of Wing Leader.

But you get them onto the Monsterpocalypse fields and you have the same mix up unless you mix up your forces. They need to mix up forces and...

Sidenote: I'm sitting at harrys diner and I've seen- now 5- caravans/Winnebago’s go down Newmarket road. I'm not sure what to think.

The Voltron gear needs to mix up their forces so that they have something without flight. Securing zones on a map is always nifty,and sometimes important, and the Galaxy Garrison Cruisers and Skull Ships are unable to do that themselves.

Well fair enough. The Subterran Uprising make a good mix with Lo-tron. I remember the first few episodes of Voltron and the first Robeasts came out. One of them had drill bits for nipples. So perfect match!

Mixing with the Lords of Cthul however offers a situation that I haven't explored before today: Multi-Morpher-Monster games. Mathematically, 10 action die between 8 figures is ridiculous. It would be more if one of the Pentamorphers didn't have Quick. Then there's the shenanigans. Monsterpocalypse Morphers have more skills and triggers, and actions that can disable or disrupt things quite nastily. And then there's the red abilities that they share! Players with a Voltron set are not only behind on tracking tools, but are behind on rules!

For all those Voltron players: A red ability means you can 'share' it to an adjacent figure of the same Agenda. It gives them that ability to use where appropriate, but they only have the ability while adjacent to the figure sharing it.
Other colours for abilities are Blue and Green. Blue is given to all figures of the same agenda to the figure with the blue ability. Green is a building speciality and are given to all figures in your force so long as your figures are securing the building.

So what does a sensible player do? They use less figures. He plays with four of his more preferred morpher figures and run with them. Maybe even add the guy with Quick. Shenanigans can still run rampant with Hypering up and dropping form, and you can get some wicked combos in like the Green Tentacle (I forget its name) with the Rhino Robeast doing a combination of Beatback and Toss. That can mess something up if done right, such as Beatback into a friendly figure then toss into a nearby building that has spire or a hazard. With the way I've played Morphers, building devastation doesn't really happen until I or they Hyper Up.

So to get the best kick out of Voltron or Lo-tron being on the field of a Monsterpocalypse battle, definitely get a handful of Monsterpocalypse figures. And if you have them of the same agenda, even better! They're cheap as chips and just as tasty.

Now all the Voltron-set players have to do is grab a few buildings! Our local group is very lenient and we have buildings to spare. And you only need two to play, so get a box set!

Tuesday: Hiatus

Re: Bombardiers

Okay, so after playing Starcraft II for a little bit, I noticed something on one of the Characters "Tychus Findlay". He's usually wearing Marine Power armour, and he has a lady in a bikini holding a gun and sitting in a Spade. And I remembered some of the coolest marines get some cool tattoos or markings on their gear.

What's some cool things I could get for my Man-O-War? I was thinking of the different sets of Royal Flushes, but I have 25 figures I want to do it to so if anyone can think of a last set of five, that would be cool. I'll be doing it After Gencon.

I was also thinking of individual ones for the Bombardier Guns/saws, but that'll be going too far.






“Hell it's about time”

I started off Monday afternoon by having a nap when I got home from work. I had spent the night before talking to jenny until 2am, getting more and more excited about the trip to the US. Seriously, the excitement is so thick that you need a giant boring machine to punch holes in it for us to breathe. After a little while, Mel came in to offer some Cous Cous which I nibbled on for a little bit before going back to sleep until about 7:30 when Jen woke up.

We began messaging and didn't stop until about 2am again when I got home after being at the Starcraft Midnight Launch Party at King George Square. It was kinda cool. I believe they mentioned about 2,000 people turned up by the midnight release. That's a bit better of a turnout I was expecting.

Scotty and I had gathered to the event as we ordered our Limited Edition Box sets. Scotty has a collection of Collectors Edition Video games, and I just like Starcraft. And the collectors box is pretty cool. An Art book; a Behind the Scenes DVD; a digital remastering of the Starcraft Cinematics (these were originally done in 1997/98 by the way); a Starcraft II Soundtrack; and a USB device with Starcraft and Brood War expansion installed, and diecast to match Jim Raynors Dog tags.

The diecast metal somewhat threw me off. I don't hear much of diecast except for that old Optimus Prime that I had as a kid. I'd lost his fists which you hide in the cab while he's a truck, but you put them where the headlights are so he's a robot holding his gun.

There were some cool things happening, such as EB Staff going around offering free copies of Game Informer magazine and potato chips for free, and the cosplayers were pretty cool. The best ones were Kerrigan, a pair of Firebats, an Ultralisk and, the coolest one of the night, a Pylon.

Now the hosts weren't too bad. There have been better hosts around, but for guys who don't do this sort of thing very often, they did pretty well. At least I assume they don't do it often. There were prizes for best cosplay (of course, the Pylon won); there was a sound-off competition, where a group of people imitated units from the original Starcraft (the most used one was the Battle Cruiser dude, but the best two were the guy who did the Zergling and the guy who did the Ghost); a buzzer competition which one guy was on each question like syrup on pancakes; and a Q&A for our special guest.

So call me rude, but I didn't really know him or care about him. I didn't catch his name, but I was told he was a lead designer for Starcraft II and he was there to answer a few questions that just needed to be asked by the Brisbanian Starcraft fans.

I can't remember what they were. Honestly I wasn't really paying attention. I was sitting on the steps (new steps since KGS has been redesigned, a little to my displeasure as there's less foliage than there was before) and ahead of me was a full moon shining out from underneath a girls unfortunately small undies. Then she bent over and I saw my life flash before my eyes before Scotty pulled me out of a terrified trance.

Okay, I exaggerate, but it wasn't pretty.

Around 11:30, everyone was lining up outside the EB Games stalls and wait to grab their copies of Starcraft II. A bunch of guys a few bodies behind us started up a joke about getting it early and began a countdown from 10. Sure sure, that's funny. Get in early and we'll get the game, Ha and a ha. Then they did it again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And then the actual countdown came and that was fine, though their voices were leaving a ringing in my ear now. Then the line up began shuffling and they did it two more times before they finally figured the joke was over.

Yeah, it was over the third time you did it ya wankers.

Scotty and I taxied it home and I got home and immediately started installing it. It was kinda sad installing it, because my desktop hasn't been used in... well a few months since I got my Netbook, and the DVD drive hasn't been used in just as long. So for the next couple of hours, I could hear my poor DVD drive revving away like it was competing in the Drag Races. Thankfully I don't need the drive to play it again, it just plays by itself.

But eventually, at 2am, I got to sleep while it was installing louder than a mariachi band, and turned it off in the morning. Last night I got about 2 missions done, and they were interesting. They weren't super freakin awesome, but they were definitely much like the Original Starcraft. Only Prettier. MUUUCH prettier.

Goldmember

Like a Parody of a James Bond Film, we new have a Robot covered in Gold. Granted he's not as sexy as Jill Masterson, but that really depends on your perspective. Now that we're done fantasising, lets get to the topic: Mega Voltron.

As with Lo-tron, Voltron was a robot of many forms of Super Damage. He had Weapon Master on his Brawl and Super Smash, a potentially extremely dangerous attack with the only penalty of the prerequisites for Smash. In the year of playing Monsterpocalypse, there hasn't been many times I've seen a figure get Smashed. To boot, when Voltron made a Power Attack, he shifts a unit into a new position.

Mega Voltron tones down a little, as he doesn't have a definite form of Super Damage but he has more options for Super Damage. To start, we have his brawl attack. Rather than Weapon Master, a flat Super damage, he has Lightning Attack.

Lightning Attack: Once each turn, this monster can roll a second attack of the same type with dice in play against the same target monster.

So two attacks in quick succession against the target, using his Brawl Attack of 7*3. This has been known to get rather dangerous. Slugbutt (AKA: Grindix-Birvikaan) has Lightning Attack along with Synchronised Move. With the Red ability "Overload" from the Lords of Cthul Corruptor, he could get two attacks with Super Damage on the target.

Note: I will have to check up on this because I believe there is something somewhere about Super Damage only being applied to an attack once.

I'm not sure what Red abilities Guard and the Elemental Protectors have but with a little planning ahead they could pull off some really powerful combos, just like other factions. I'll have to consult Scott about it. He might even have some tips about Flak!

Ow! Stop it Scott.

His other form of Super Damage is exactly where one would expect: The Power attacks. His previous Incarnation was limited to Super damage on his Smash Attacks, quite difficult to pull off in our gaming group here in Brisbane. Mega Voltron however is much more... generous to his Power Attacks.

Crunch: If this monster’s attack rolled 1 or more super strikes, it does super damage.

Any Power Attack, performed with his 7*4 stat, has the potential to deal super damage. Smash, Body Slam, Throw... even the very unappreciated Headbutt. So long as there's a Super Strike rolled. Now rolling his maximum action dice of 7, adding his 4 boost die and the minimum of 1 Power die, he rolls 12 dice with a reasonable chance of rolling 1 Super Strike.

But lastly there's his third trigger. Rather than go with the traditional Power or Brawl Attack, Mega Voltron has done something similar to Mega Lo-tron has and added something to his Blast Attack. Raising his Blast stat to 8*3, while still at short range, gives some thought to the ability of his Lion Head Attack.

Multi-Shot: Choose up to 2 other enemy units in the blast attack range of this figure. Those with a DEF equal to or less than the number of strikes rolled take 1 damage.

Now I've known Multi-Shot to be an annoying ability as it allows the attacker to disrupt more than just the target. With Mega Voltron's Short range, it won't exactly bring empires to ruin, however it will do enough damage to someone's power base to make them think twice before moving there and potentially suffering a hit.

But that's Mega Voltron for you, an all round gold guy with a jack in all trades.

Friday: Alternating Universes!

It's the final countdown!

I have a week and a half before I make the pilgrimage to the holy land of gaming.

And you know what's starting to annoy me? Everyone reminding me. Every day, I get “So are you excited that you're going to the US?” Yes. I'm excited. Stop reminding me so that I don't jump on the spot and get distracted from work!

Ugh. The people I see every day.

I am very excited. For the first few days, I get to see lots of people I've talked to over the internet. The internet's safe, right? Nobody wants to skin me and then return to Brisbane in my visage? I wouldn't. I'm suspicious enough as it is. I get pulled aside for a “Random Person Search” every friggin time. Melbourne? Yep. I was wearing a Straw hat if I remember correctly. Canberra? I was wearing a beanie. This time I'm not going to wear a hat. The only suspicious thing is that near the back corners of my head, the hair sticks up. No reason. It's like bed hair only it's all freakin' day, every day.

So I'll get pulled over for a bit by US Customs and get inspected for my gear and questioned on my ESTA and, whoever forbid, I get an oral examination (I can hear the latex snapping already) and then I toddle on my way to Indianapolis for Gencon, where we hook up a night at the hotel and I try to adjust my body clock (because Aaron doesn't believe in it and Scott doesn't understand the ability of HAVING one).

There's only a little bit of Ninja shopping I have to do so far. Kel wants a copy of “Least I Could Do: Beginnings” signed by Lars De Souza and Ryan Sohmer; Humph want a Tshirt which is Gencon/PP related, so I'll hopefully get a PP Ram Tshirt; and then there's bits and bobs that I have to grab from Jenny.

Funny enough Jen has asked for a little bit of Ninja Shopping as well, but it's to get an Australian edition of After America. That's all and that's hardly a problem.

While I'm at the convention? First thing I have to do is go to the Privateer Press Booth and report in (AFAIK) and say “Hi” to lots of people and pick up my Press Ganger shirt, and possibly buy Pigs for next years Hordes Army. Oh and Books. Books are nice.

Speaking of Armys, the Man-o-War list is coming along swimmingly. I've got to re-glue a few weapons and finish off the paint on the last unit of Shocktroopers, and finish converting the Bombardiers before I'm done with the tonne of Man-O-War figures. May even get the Behemoth done too, but I'm not going to push my luck. The bastard's missing a Bombard cannon anyway. With this army I shall play matches with people and have a good time. Particularly Waggles. I still owe him a game.

Update: So with the help of Kel, I've finished the Bombardiers! You can check it out herea!

I'm rather glad Aaron will be joining Scotty and I. There's a few hours of the time where I'll be separated from him, and I felt bad knowing I'd be leaving him on his own. There's the Press Gang Invitational, which I owe Jen (a PP Employee) a Beer for giving her the image of shaving someones body hair so that they look like a Penguin (Surely Devilsquid is white under the fur). And then there's the few hours I'm volunteering at the booth to demo games. So Aaron with him will prevent Scotty from getting Hog Tied and forced into cosplaying Faye Valentine because some sweaty nerds couldn't find a frailer body to match a woman.

Anyway. After all is said and done in Indianapolis, I fly up to Detroit and get picked up by the wonderful Jenny. We've been talking a lot about it recently and organised a few days of entertainment. A couple of nights are spent going out to a few parties for friends Birthdays; there is the night of our 8 month (which I think falls on a birthday party, but I'm thinking we'll have dinner another night so that we can really enjoy it); there's apparently a pub crawl across town with her and her family and friends; there's a Wednesday we're going to spend walking around Downtown Kalamazoo going to the art galleries and to a park that has a free concert and have lunch/breakfast at the place wiith the best Grilled cheese sandwiches; and there's going to the movies to see “Mao's Last Dancer” and “Eat Pray Love”.

That's as far as I can remember so far. The last thing I can remember is “Making the most of doing nothing on a Sunday”. Which sounds good to me. I said we could try and con her mum into looking after Taz for the night and we'll pick him up in the afternoon, just so she doesn't have to stress about him for the day.

So anyone who thinks I'm not excited about going to the U.S., please refer to the above. I'm very excited.

What else has been happening?

Well with buying an Xbox 360 a few months ago on the cheap, I decided to hook it up to the net and get into the Marketplace, and what did I find but None other than Doom. I've never gotten very far in Doom. Didn't help that I only got the shareware versions which only had the first Chapter in it, but hey I think I finished that once or twice.

But over the past week of painting, I've taken breaks to rest my knees which really don't like being crossed for too long and slowly worked my way through the labyrinthian levels and solved the puzzles to get to the exit while trying to get out of the firezone of Cacodemons. Fucking Cacodemons. Hate them. I also downloaded Wolfenstein 3D. Now that's a good investment of my remaining 400 MS points.

More games I'm getting next week is Starcraft II. It's got a special midnight release over at King George Square (Apparently it's 1 in six events across the world!) that starts at 9:30 and includes trivia, games, etc. And at midnight, we pick up our copies of Starcraft II and head home. If I get a lift from Aaron, I imagine it'll be a lot like the time I bought Halo 3, and we drove home laughing Maniacally in his ute as we drove from Aspley to Nundah. Then we played until the wee hours of the morning on Richard HD TV he had in the lounge room and we adored the prettiness of the game as we did a two player campaign coop until the wee hours of the morning.

Good times. I want to not sleep and just play SC2's campaign until I have to go to work, but I think I'll pass out and probably wake up late and then get into trouble and I would rather not get into unnecessary trouble.

That's about it for gaming. Voltron came out, as I made mention, and I've still been blogging every Tuesday and Wednesday on I hate Mogroth trying to make funny AND informative. I'm failing, but I'm enjoying it. Though I am running out of subject matter. I may have to actually branch out more into other factions.


In last news, the Natural High July is going well. I haven't had a drop of caffeinated beverage in ages. Though what I haven't drank I've replaced with Chocolate. Its cool but not at the same time, as it's expensive. Also, people are confusing me becuase some people say chocolate has caffeine and others say it doesnt. I really don't know.

One thing I forgot to mention in the Natural High July post was my other incentive: The almighty dollar. I figured out how much I spent on caffeinated drinks over the course of 31 days and exaggerated it slightly and worked out to be $140 over the course of a month. As each day that I don't have caffeine passes, it lowers by $4.50. But if I do have a drink, it bumps back up to $140. At the end of the month, I give the people of Dry July the remaining amount. So if I have a drink on the last day, I have to pay $140 to dry July.

Like I said, I haven't had any drinks for the whole month passed. I have my doubts about having a drink now. Though I do want to taste a V.


that is a nice update I reckon. I'll catch you kids on the flip side.

So Jealous Right Now

Stoopid Comic-Con getting stoopid Mega Lo-tron before anyone else does. It should shut it stoopid face.

*Kicks dirt*

Nah, I don't have anything against Comic-con except that they're receiving Mega Lo-tron as a promotional deal for the Voltron Set! (Lucky Blastards) As a special promotion to Comic-Con, they released the information for Mega Lo-tron on Monster Insider.

And so I've yoinked it off the site and now I'll do my usual ramble on whatever tangent I have on the Welch's Mascot. That's right he's big and he's purple, as all evil beings tend to be, and he's got some nifty new tricks.The only things that have stayed the same are Reach, Flight and his 6 Health. Everything else has changed slightly. His Attack stats have all changed to match 7*3 so no major proficiencies are present. Lastly, his Speed and Defence stats have swapped, leaving him less manoeuvrable but less likely to suffer retaliation.

But his attacks have changed. No longer does he has hit and run on his Power Attacks, and Adaptable to give him Super Damage on his Swat attacks (Because Ram is unavailable in the Voltron set due to a lack of structures). Instead he receives a rather rare ability to his repertoire, and a rather cool one in my opinion.

Juggernaut: If a space this monster would move into while rampaging is occupied by 1 or more other monsters, this monster stops moving, and the other monsters suffer 1 damage if their DEF is equal to or less than the number of strikes rolled for the rampage. If this monster is in its hyper form, this attack does super damage.

So he'll crash tackle Voltron for 2 damage. Sounds good to me, especially against two morphers standing next to each other. Fortunately for the Voltron Lions, it's only 3 damage as you only apply Super Damage once.

That's not the only Super Damage he deals, though. One thing that didn't get much recognition in the Ultra forms was their blast attack. It wasn't neglected as it was still a good attack stat, but it didn't have any triggers or skills associated with it. And being of short range, there wasn't any reason to use it except to spite someone and nab that last point of damage they had. Ultra Lo-tron had the Range advantage over Voltron due to Adaptable making Swat Power Attacks tangible, especially with Hit and Run. And now Mega Lo-tron has that kick that turns peoples pants into hats.

Weapon Master: This attack deals Super Damage.

Okay, so it's not quite pants-hat quality, but you can do worse for a Blast Attack Trigger.

But the Grape Ape isn't all about Super Damage, no no. He's got his own nifty little trick just as others do, and it's not anything to shake a stick at. That's right he doesn't have a stick, he has a spikey ball on a flaccid chain. And that tends to scare people.

Power Strike: Target monster’s controller loses a number of P-Dice equal to the number of super strikes you rolled in the attack.

Much like Crunch the attack requires Super Strikes to make effect, but instead of something so plain as Super Damage the target suffers a loss of Power. So if you roll a score of 20 on 10 dice, you've drained your opponent of a second activation, or a potentially dangerous counter attack. But you've got two chances to get a roll of 20: “Almost Nil” and “Next to Bupkis”. Though hats off if it happens for you.

So that's Mega Lo-Tron for you. He's a nice Jack of Trades, and an interesting alternative to his Ultra form.

Next Tuesday: Goldmember

You could almost believe it was BP...

There aren't many uses for a Hazmat truck. You can use it to transport Hazardous Materials from point A to point B. Which, in Monsterpocalypse, it technically does. You get it from point A: The Spawn Zone, to Point B: The Target.

And for best effect, you ram it straight into point B.

The Hazmat Truck is a danger to everyone around it, with its 3 abilities that can kill everyone around and one that will kill itself because, we're here to discuss the semantics of Explosions and the Hazmat Truck.

Now there are a few forms of explosion here in Monsterpocalypse. The first is his defensive trigger “Unstable”. The image in your minds eye should be simple. A bullet fires into the side tank, and he goes KABOOM! And all units adjacent to him are blown to Smithereens, causing all other units to sidle away from him in future. Especially since it's really easy to hit the Hazmat Trucks Defence 2. A stray sausage roll in a pastry fight could cause it to spark off.

Unstable: If this figure is hit, all adjacent units are crushed. If this figure is a unit, crush it.

But that didn't discourage them from joining in on a fight. “We'll just park ourselves away from him. Surely that'll keep us safe!” they think.

Well... No. Not quite, lads and lassies.

You see, the Hazmat Truck has an effective danger zone of 10 squares when he hits, not including the target of the attack. You see, he explodes on his target and from the space he's attacking from. So friends and enemies are in quite a bit of danger from his 2*1 Brawl stat. And if they help him... Well the image in my head is that a Mollok Brute gets a Carnidon into an arm lock, and then they both stand and stare like a Deer in Headlights as they both realise what's going to happen.

Radial Attack: If target figure is hit, all other units adjacent to the attacking figure with a DEF equal to or less than the number of strikes rolled take 1 damage. If this figure is a monster, all other monsters adjacent to the attacking figure with a DEF equal to or less than the number of strikes rolled also take 1 damage.
Explosion: All monsters and units adjacent to target unit with a DEF equal to or less than the number of strikes rolled take 1 damage.

So there is really no escape for most units unless they want to have a really high base Defence, or have Reach, which means the player has crabs. Wait, that didn't come out right.

Okay, in a bit of seriousness, the Crabs of the Tritons are a good fit with the Hazmat Truck. they have Reach, so they can spread themselves out to perform the combined attack against a unit. This really only affects explosion, however, as it only triggers off units. It's easy to spread about your units thankfully so you can dodge the Radial Attack.

But lastly, and not least, what do you expect a Truck ramming into someone does? Well, it self destructs. Kinda happens when you run straight into something.

Self Destruct: Crush this unit.

And so end the adventures of the Hazmat truck. Until it gets respawned of course... At a cost of 1, and being a neutral unit, it's fun for the whole family! And by family, I mean "Whatever faction you play".

Get your fun time Suicide Bomber today!

Friday: "So jealous right now..."