by Faye Reppas

November comes with some shocking new models for Monsterpocalypse. Even as the Mythic Monsterpocalypse board game Kickstarter heats up, we are full-steam ahead with new releases of our own. It is important to note that neither of these models will be part of the Mythic Kickstarter campaign.

This month features more alternate elite sculpts, specifically the S-Type Shinobi, Bellower, Courser, Toxxo, Squix, and Shinobot. Along with these sets of awesome new sculpts come two much-anticipated new monsters: Robo Kondo and Zor-Voltis. So, November’s theme is electricity, with a super-charged Ubercorp mechanical monstrosity and an electrically enhanced shinobi. Now let’s get to the rules for these two monsters.

Robo Kondo has a massive jetpack that is capable of sustained flight, giving it a great deal of mobility. Its action, Rocket Boost, enhances that sense of a flying monkey. The ability allows this monster to make short hops during both your Unit and Monster Phases, becoming the first monster with built-in movement during the Unit Phase. Robo Kondo’s movement shenanigans don’t end there either—it kept the Tantrum rule from its organic forebear.

Then there is the big new rule, Subsidize. Ubercorp receives money from wealthy countries all over the world for defense contracts and from those they allegedly “protect.” With all that money, they have endless resources to pour into the most expensive toys. Why play with normal Carnitrons when you can just pay for the upgrade using other people’s funds? A quick note on this rule: due to the “to a minimum of 1” text, this benefit can never allow you to spawn a unit for free. If you use the rule, the model will always cost at least 1 Action Die to spawn, even if you use another rule to reduce its cost even further.

In hyper, Robo Kondo continues its focus on expensive units by adding the rule Cut Above the Rest. Another quick note here: a unit’s cost is only reduced by rules like Subsidize and Base while they are being spawned; they immediately return to their base cost once they’ve entered play. With the rule Cut Above the Rest, Robo Kondo is, in a sense, doubling up on bonus Boost Dice from its units. Most two-cost units go from 1 Boost Die to 2 just by being two cost, and then this new rule takes them another step up. A warning: be wary of adding too many high-cost units to a force with Robo Kondo, because if it dies, you’ll have a very hard time spawning units in the late game!

Other than its focus on high-cost units, Robo Kondo keeps its Rocket Boost and potent unit-clearing gun. Its only focus on monsters is Piledriver, which gives it super damage while making a body slam power attack. Robo Kondo brings a great deal of powerful unit options and support, but when fighting other monsters, it will bring little perks to the table.

Zor-Voltis has an entirely inhuman reaction speed due to his entire nervous system being both structurally and electrically enhanced. His rules Coordinated Attack and Prescience are examples of the way he can put this to use. He can coordinate the movements and attacks of all his forces in a fraction of the time other creatures are capable of the same thing. He can even correct his attacks to account for even the smallest of movements to attempt to evade him. Prescience is a powerful reroll ability since it can affect any type of dice, and if you are lucky, can rack up additional rerolls. When thinking about what this means for his odds of hitting, I usually treat it like Penetrator.

Zor-Voltis’ command of electricity doesn’t end with his internal enhancements. He can deliver a literal onslaught of sparking attacks at his enemies. Static Shock is a potent ability in that it effectively always works; however, it has the drawback of not generating any Power Dice from the unit it kills. Regardless of the target of your attack—monster, building, asset, or another unit—its electricity will bounce to an adjacent unit. Static Shock also doesn’t take into account any DEF bonuses from things like cover or force field, and it ignores Cloak. Since it returns the enemy unit to the reserves, it will also not trigger any hit, damage, or destroyed triggers the enemy unit might have.

In hyper Zor-Voltis, keeps his core abilities, Onslaught, Static Shock, and Prescience. However, he switches his unit support from extra attacks to extra accuracy. This makes for some fairly powerful end-game plays, punching units off objectives and then sprinting onto them. Additionally, he is one of only two monsters with DEF 10, which can be back breaking for someone with very little Power Dice to use.

Finally, he gains the Counterstrike ability, which in some games can cause 1 or 2 damage without Zor-Voltis doing anything at all. It effectively works on body slam and brawl attacks, and it isn’t a once-per-turn ability, so it can trigger as often as your opponent is willing to make attacks. Although it can technically trigger from any type of attack that deals damage to Zor-Voltis, it is not terribly likely that a blast or throw will trigger it.

That wraps up November. As a reminder, be sure to check out Mythic’s Kickstarter campaign. It includes five all-new monsters, 3- and 4-player mode, new maps, and a new building as well as potentially more! And check back with us next month for even more Monsterpocalypse!