Since we did the Draken Armada in one big chunk, let’s take a look at their evil counterparts in the same way.
As a child of the ’80s, my brain has always been full of Cold War images. Some of these are from newscasts and history books, but many more are from the popular entertainment of my childhood. When I was brainstorming what the next Destroyer Faction would be, those Cold War images were very influential. I started the thread that would get us to the Zerkalo Bloc by deciding that I wanted “Evil G.U.A.R.D.” We have plenty of mechanical monsters on the Destroyer side of Monsterpocalypse, but neither the Martians nor Uber Corp covered exactly what I was thinking. I wanted a world mobilization of military vehicles led by giant humanoid robots.
These thoughts led to “Who are they?” and that’s where the Cold War imagery finally solidified into a complete picture. What if things had gone a different way on another version of Earth, and someone else had won that conflict? Taking that question and sprinkling in a bit of diesel punk and some super-science got us to the answer: the Zerkalo Bloc.
We moved on from there, and the next question that needed to be answered was, “What do their monsters look like?” I’d been looking at lots of pictures of Brutalist architecture and diesel-punk robots for inspiration, and it hit me that walking battleships would be cool. That was the literal description I wrote for their first monster’s art brief.
Voyaka 099 is all about guns. Its name is a combination of my Web searches for Russian words (“warrior” for this first one) and leaning into the idea that these robots are military vehicles. A ship-like number designation system makes these monsters feel unique and adds a fun hobby challenge to painting them if you want to incorporate the idea into the model.
For the alpha version of the model, I wanted to reference the massive turret and play into the idea that different guns were responsible for different targets. I also wasn’t too worried about pushing the power level of this monster’s offense up a bit since the Faction’s monsters lack mobility. Big Game Hunter gives Voyaka 099 one of the highest Boost Dice stats on an alpha monster’s blast attack but only when targeting other monsters. The smaller guns mounted all over it are responsible for targeting units and buildings, but Destabilizer means it attacks buildings a bit better than units. I also wanted to put some army synergy on this monster. I really like that Spotter can be viewed as if directing the fire of its minions but also as a kind of point-blank bonus for its own guns. Finally, we tested a few different ways for it to support its friends beyond Spotter, and we settled on Secondary Batteries. This ability is very similar to the Defense Turret asset’s rule and is a fun way to indicate that Voyaka is guns on top of guns.
For the hyper side of its card, I wanted to pump up the guns a little more and let Voyaka do something interesting with the city. Penetrator on the blast and Rapid Fire allow it to threaten monsters even more with Big Game Hunter but also challenge plenty of other targets. Power Projection is a small touch to the power level of the monster, but it gives it an interesting option for clearing a path through bothersome buildings while also getting some damage in on enemy models. The ability to perform a ram power attack against a building without having to be in the standard position for that attack is a fun tool in Voyaka’s kit that I’m excited to see in the wild.
The second monster in the Zerkalo Bloc lineup was referred to as the poster-child for the Faction before we even settled on a name for it. I wanted this monster to look like a propaganda poster from 1950s’ sci-fi and be the leader of the Faction’s forces on our Earth.
Komkor 001 is piloted by a veteran of dozens of campaigns conquering parallel Earths, but the monster’s true purpose is to shepherd a command staff deep into enemy territory. The first ability I put on this model was Safeguard. As I noted earlier, I had started this Faction’s development with the idea of evil G.U.A.R.D., and that ability has always seemed core to that Faction. I love the idea that the “good guys” aren’t the only ones who see the value of capturing territory intact, and with that rule, I saw a theme. This monster interacts with every kind of die in Monsterpocalypse. It gets you extra Power Dice with Safeguard, extra Boost Dice with Mastermind, and extra Action Dice with Focused Will. A couple of small bonus abilities on its attacks were all it needed after that.
For the hyper side of the card, I wanted to show consistency as well as escalation. More of Komkor’s health is on this side of the card, so there are plenty of chances to use this new power. The missile tubes in its shoulders switch to high-explosive ordnance in this mode, but more important, the pilot pushes the machine to the heights of in-your-face power with Combo Strikes. (This ability was recently improved slightly in the Summer 2020 Errata/FAQ update.) I’ve always liked it for the ability to punch a building and follow up with a swat or a stomp for maximum Power Dice gathering, but now the ability allows for even better Power Dice production while threatening enemy monsters more.
The first two units blisters for the Faction were obvious as soon as I came up with the theme. Since I was going for military and riffing off of G.U.A.R.D., I knew I needed tanks and jets. Not just any tanks and jets, however; these vehicles needed to look like they were invented by humans whose thought processes are just a little different than those of the humans in our world. The WW-82 (a war walker that entered service in 1982) may seem like a G-Tank at first glance, but it’s not quite. I used that unit’s design as the base of this model, but I adjusted a few stats slightly. They’re not quite as sturdy as their G.U.A.R.D. counterparts, but WW-82s make up for that by packing a bigger gun.
The specialist in their blister is probably my favorite thing in the Faction. Whether you need patriotic music to inspire your own troops or propaganda messages to discourage your opponents, the Propo Walker has you covered. Despite the fact that it isn’t armed with a weapon, its presence is always obvious on the battlefield. It has a few rules that have been seen before, but Inspiration is brand new. If one of these little tin cans is on a power zone or negative zone, you gain a reroll for one unit attack within five spaces of it.
When coming up with what the aircraft of this Faction would be, I leaned into the diesel-punk idea. The LTA in these models’ names stand for “lighter-than-air.” For the LTA Fighter, I wanted an air superiority unit for the Destroyer agenda, but I didn’t want to do another Sun Fighter. Those jets have the highest threat range in the game with their high speed and long-range weapons. For their dirigible counterparts, I wanted to dial down the speed and blast range but crank up the offense a little. These models are decent threats to ground targets, but they excel at taking down enemy fliers.
For the airborne specialist, I wanted a counterpart to real-world helicopters. The LTA Gunship is bristling with weapons and, with rules like Indirect Fire and Quick Fire, it will take care of any ground target the fighters can’t handle.
To wrap up this Insider, let’s take a look at the Zerkalo Bloc base. This was the one place in the Faction where I wanted to diverge a bit from the military theme and lean into the practicality I saw in the Faction. Being as far from home as they are, I imagined they would try to establish bases to get the most out of the territory they had conquered. I also wanted to do something we hadn’t touched on in Monsterpocalypse yet, so I gave them a Reclamation Facility. We have a building that gives you extra Power Dice for destroying enemy units but not one for smashing buildings…until now. Deconstruction means you’ll always get a bit more out of attacks against buildings and forces with rules like Demolisher. After adding that much needed utility power, I also wanted to get a little aggressive with the building. The Rocket Gantry was the first building with a pseudo-attack. This building has a much more direct “attack-like” rule. The Recycle action lets you turn units into Power Dice, and if you want to use it against an enemy unit, you roll dice to see if the unit will hold still so the big magnet can grab it.
And there it is: a look at the first few waves of the Zerkalo Bloc invasion that have begun making its way into our dimension. I look forward to seeing all the great things that Destroyer players do with these models as they continue to hit stores over the next few months!
