Ready for a surprise? Coming at the same time as the new Elemental Champions and Savage Swarm starters is the first-ever Monsterpocalpyse dynamic update! That’s pretty big news for Monsterpocalypse players, so let’s go over what this will all look like and how you will get the new rules and cards.
First, scope: in total, 16 models (including elites, if a unit) are getting changes. One model is being updated with a new rule to be standardized with the other monsters in its Faction. Five other models are getting changes because of how the new rulebook interacts with an existing rule. Finally, all models that currently have errata are getting their errata corrected on their cards. All and all, 41 models that will be seeing at least some changes. But there are two other criterias on scope: one, models released within the last roughly six months were intentionally excluded, with two extremely limited exceptions. And two, models that have appeared in a starter are excluded until those starters have been out of circulation for at least a year.
Next up. How will you get these new cards? The first 17 cards mentioned above are getting brand-new physical cards. They will be made available for purchase as a pack online, direct order only. All 41 models will be getting new images of their card that will be attached to their respective store pages. Thus, if you don’t want to buy new physical cards, you can print them out for free online. One recent question is whether or not we are going to make a card database similar to the WARMACHINE database. Regrettably, not yet.
Finally, I’m sure players will want to know should they expect rules to change. Currently, we do not plan to do dynamic updates very often; we anticipate not making more than one a year. This, then, is your 2021 update, and we can’t say that this time if there will even be the need for one in 2022. That being said, errata will still occur should a rule need to be tweaked due to an unforeseen interaction or a mistake. New errata will generally also be accompanied by a new card added to the store page for the model in question.
Of the remaining changes, three are meant to lower the effectiveness of a problematic interaction of the model in question; the last thirteen are all meant to increase the effectiveness of the model. As decreasing the power of an existing model is a controversial step, we will share all three of those changes here and now. We’ll be talking about some of the other changes in the weeks before the release of the new Monsterpocalpyse starters.
Let’s begin with our favorite cephalopod, Krakenoctus.
All of the non-errata changes happened to Krakenoctus’s alpha form. Generally speaking, they were overperforming in alpha but not so much in hyper. We toyed with the idea of altering both forms to a lesser degree but ultimately ended with just these changes. The major change here is that Lightning Attack is replaced by Onslaught. You might wonder why Onslaught has rules text dealing with a hyper form when this monster doesn’t have it in hyper. The rule was created for a certain Martian that, in fact, does have the rule in both forms. Onslaught is meant to keep the potency of the double fling, Krakenoctus’ claim to fame, but without the ability to follow up destroying units with a power attack. Finally, Krakenoctus also lost a Defense and Boost Die on its brawl in alpha.
Coming to the arena next is…Globbicus.
Requiring symmetry, all of Globbicus’ non-errata changes are in its hyper form. We considered a plethora of changes to our slimy friend; however, the ability to make multiple power attacks from different angles proved to be just too difficult to balance. As such, Limited Cognition was created: Only one Globbicus can make a power attack each turn. That was a pretty big hit to its overall strength, so we toyed with adding new abilities to it. Explosion was added so that a Globbicus that can’t make a power attack still has some potent unit control. Envelope replaced Flank, and this is a rather mean ability; the area it affects is less, but it also affects all types of attacks. Globbicus’ already stellar power attacks will be even more accurate now! Finally, Tantrum just didn’t come up enough to warrant its inclusion, especially considering the monster already has quite a few rules, so Tantrum got left on the cutting room floor. Globbicus has fundamentally changed from a monster with one incredibly powerful interaction to a toolkit of destruction.
Finally, we have the Sun Industries Building.
There are two changes here; let’s start with the much simpler of the two, Shadow Screen. The building and units surrounding it ended up being too resilient to blast attacks, especially when they are on your opponent’s side of the map. Requiring it be secured allows for more counterplay with the building and a significantly less annoying situation when trying to get a sudden Crawler off your side of the map. By contrast, changing Underground Network was a much more involved update. It also marks the first time everyone is seeing a key new term added to the upcoming Monsterpocalpyse rulebook. So, what is a full advance? A full advance is the free advance up to the SPD all models get during the Advancement Phase. You only get one, and it does not lock you out of advancing by any other rules. This means that a unit can use its full advance to move adjacent to the Sun Industries Building and still be targeted by the Ambush action. But a unit that has been moved by Ambush will be locked out of using its full advance that turn. A few important things to note about Action: Ambush. First, it can be used during the Monster or Unit Activation. Second, you can ambush with one of the units currently securing the Sun Industries Building. Finally, it’s an action, so Static or Jam will be an effective counter to ambushing units.
Now that we have gotten the big three out of the way, I’m looking forward to showing you the other models. But that will have to wait for another day! For now, keep on the lookout for the new Monsterpocalpyse starter products coming soon!
