More Megaton Mashup

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Last month, Oz gave you your first look at Megaton Mashup, the new way to play Monsterapocalypse. Megaton Mashup is a co-op version of the game, pitting you and a friend against an AI monster controlled by a deck of cards. You can catch up on the co-op goodness that is Megaton Mashup in Oz’s article here.

One thing I noticed while running several playtest games of Megaton Mashup is that this alternate version of the game seems to reach out to a different audience. When I set up playtesting, most of our games are between two experienced players—that way, we get the best feedback for the nuances of the game. However, when we are creating a new way to play instead of just a new model, I’ll often take the time to expand my playtester pool to other groups of people, from the completely uninitiated to those for whom Monsterapocalypse just isn’t their cup of tea. I knew I’d find people who just don’t like competitive games as much as co-op, but I also found a few people who didn’t really like Monsterapocalypse specifically but who really liked Megaton Mashup. So, that got me thinking: maybe Megaton Mashup might be a really good way to reach out to people who would never have considered Monsterapocalypse? To that end, last month I decided I’d try to create a Megaton Mashup kit to add to my board game collection.

In a game of Megaton Mashup, there are three monsters and 20 units. One monster is the villain, and the other two are controlled by the players. Each player chooses 10 units to go with their monster, and the overall pool of 20 units can be used by both players throughout the game. This means that if one player uses a Destroyer monster and the other a Protector, they can both have access to all the units in the game. As a result, there are hundreds of possible groupings to play with. I can’t exactly have an entire model line in a board game kit, though, so I limited myself to six monsters and 40 units.

I chose monsters and units that work well with the Megaton Mashup rules. Some monsters don’t work so well as the villain because they have a lot of abilities that just don’t get used. Likewise, some units—especially units that target other units (like those with the Lone Wolf rule)—don’t work terribly well, either, as the villain doesn’t have any units of its own.

With those restrictions in mind, I surfed through the list of monsters and came up with the following. The first won’t surprise anyone: Gallamaxus. When we designed him, we were sure to make him both an interesting villain and a fun and different way to play in the regular game.

The second: Deimos-9. It has a really good set of abilities to play as either the villain or for the players to use, and Grappler is especially a fun mechanic when in the villain’s hands.

The third is a brand-new monster: Leviathron. Crunch can be a sort of hard-mode mechanic in the hands of the villain, as it can trigger on any of their attacks, and the villain often rolls 4–6 Action Dice on most of their attacks.

Fourth is Incinerus. He can be a really interesting villain, constantly lighting fire while in hyper, and his Feed the Flames ability as the villain makes him hit especially hard.

The fifth is Ghorghdra. As a villain, he gets access to super-damage all the time in hyper, which is pretty painful.

Finally, Armodax offers another variation of the hard-mode, where you have a villain that much more resistant to damage.

 

 

With the units, I wanted to pull in a few from all the Factions presented plus a few mainstays. In Megaton Mashup, you want your units to do two things well: generate Power Dice and offer unique support abilities like Life Flank, Spotter, Repair, Extinguish, and Ignite.

Protectors                                                                      

  • 1x Repair Truck
  • 1x MR-Tank
  • 3x Exo Armor
  • 1x Elite Exo Armor
  • 1x Shadow Rider
  • 1x Ape Infiltrator
  • 1x Psi-Eel
  • 3x Steel Shell Crabs
  • 1x Elite Steel Shell Crab
  • 1x Scavenger Van
  • 3x Carnidons
  • 1x Elite Carnidon
  • 1x Petaridax
  • 1x Brontox

Destroyers

  • 3x Squix
  • 1x Elite Squix
  • 1x Power Pod
  • 1x Destructomite
  • 3x Reaper
  • 1x Elite Reaper
  • 1x Robo Brontox
  • 3x Scorcher
  • 1x Elite Scorcher
  • 3x Toxxo
  • 1x Elite Toxxo
  • 1x Absorber

The final thing the kit needs is buildings: you’ll need enough to fill up the foundations on the map you use. I plan to have the two starter maps with the set because they fold down nicely, which means I’ll need 20 buildings. For something like Megaton Mashup, you’ll want a big mix of buildings. If you add in the three new neutral buildings coming soon, you have 22 buildings total in release, so having one of each can be pretty nice.

I’ve only just started putting together my kit, and it’s going to take a few months to get it together completely. So, I hope everyone is ready for a new way to play! I’m looking forward to all of you getting your hands on this new twist on the mayhem of Monsterpocalypse!

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