Wargaming with Wifey - Mighty Monsters

Thought I'd try out some of the rules I purchased around christmas.  Normally, zombie racing would be at the top of the "must play" list, but Kim and I fancied something different, and a little light-hearted kaiju monster combat sounded like just the job.

Accordingly, Mighty Monsters from Ganesha Games was dug out, and card scenery duly printed off and constructed.  Then we picked up some Moshi Monster toys to use as the protagonists, and the following battle report ensued.

The rules follow the same general guidelines as the dungeon game I ran last month (and have still to write up...), except that each monster has body parts with a quality and combat score, as opposed to each individual having an overall quality or combat score.  So, for example, if I want to move, I must pass the quality roll for my monster's legs and so forth.  There is an interesting mechanic for showing damage which will be explained later by my mate, the Prof.

Oh!  Look, the lights are dimming.  So grab your popcorn, and sit back to enjoy the thrilling B-move extravaganza "Terror in Shieldsville!"

"Monster Island is a misnomer," began Slick Evans, the realtor, "It's actually an archipelago.  That's why house prices are so low..."  Looking at the recently repaired apartment building, he hoped these buyers wouldn't figure out the real reason.  The smarmy grin slipped from his face as he turned to look out to sea.

'Talk about bad timing..."  He thought as he watched the blue monster, Chuffy emerge from the waves.  Slick wasted no time in climbing into his flash sports car, sparing not a moment's thought for his clients.  As Eggbert the giant green monster stomped onto the road, bellowing a challenge, Slick stood on the accelerator pedal and began to consider a change of career.

Kim and I played this, our second game of Mighty Monsters, this afternoon.  She took control of Chuffy, while I played Eggbert.  The two monsters have identical stats, but their skills and abilities have been tailored differently.  Chuffy has a number of attacking options, including atomic fire breath, fangs, and a potentially deadly claw attack.  Eggbert specializes in defence, with a protective shell.  His preferred attack methods are a slam attack (shoulder charge), head butts and kicking.  But he has no real ranged attack, and is reliant on closing the distance to fight.

Deployment:

Both monsters began at diagonal opposite corners of the board.  Eggbert won the initiative roll, and chose to go first.

Turn 1:

Eggbert started by attempting a sprint (triple move) to try and get to grips with Chuffy immediately.  He was only able to make a double move, so decided to stop behind two buildings.  A head-butt was attempted against one building, in hopes of creating some rubble to throw at Chuffy.  But Eggbert was unable to bring one down (he rolled two failures to activate).

Chuffy, hearing the commotion, raced towards the shaking buildings, and immediately bathed Eggbert in atomic fire.  When the smoke cleared, Eggbert still stood unscathed.

Turn 2:

Chuffy could only look on in confusion as Eggbert came charging through the glowing embers left on the street, intent on barging him to the floor.  Chuffy proved the stronger in this clash, however, knocking Eggbert to the floor instead.  Not a good place to be.

Wasting no time, Chuffy pounces on the recumbent Eggbert, attempting to savage him with his wicked claws.  Unable to angle his shell to deflect the attack, Eggbert is sent skidding along the street.  Chuffy runs forward and continues his assault, with a vicious bite.  Eggbert roars in pain as Chuffy's teeth sink into the soft flesh of his underbelly.

The Prof Says:

In this picture we can see the dice showing the monsters' relative health.  Unhurt monsters roll all green dice.  A yellow dice indicates a wound.  If a yellow dice is rolled and scores a 1, bad things happen.  If a monster continues to take damage, the yellow dice will be replaced with red dice.  If a red dice rolls any failure...  well, let's just say you're in a world of trouble.


Turn 3:

Eggbert begins by climbing to his feet and aiming a kick at Chuffy's body.  The kick caused no damage, but created enough space for Eggbert to regain his footing properly.

Chuffy, enraged by this show of defiance, snaps at Eggbert with his fangs.  Although Eggbert again fails to shield himself with the shell, Chuffy's attack was telegraphed, and Eggbert bats Chuffy's slavering jaws to the side.  Likewise, Chuffy's claws fail to strike home.

Chuffy emits a growl of frustration, and plants a hefty kick to Eggbert's midsection, wounding him again.  He follows up with a tail sweep, hoping to knock Eggbert to the floor again, but his foe recoils away from him in the nick of time.  Things don't seem to be going well for the injured monster, but Chuffy is having trouble capitalising on his attacks.

Turn 4:

Eggbert, the pain of his wounds goading him on, goes into a berserk frenzy (the prof will explain more on this later), the surge of adrenaline allowing him to ignore some of his injuries, and charges into Chuffy at speed.

Although he is rocked onto his heels by this sudden onslaught, Chuffy manages to keep his footing.  Eggbert lets loose with a flurry of punches, now causing serious damage because of his berserk state, and follows up with a vicious headbutt, causing further serious injury.  Suddenly, the tables have turned, and Chuffy is on the defensive.

Not accustomed to defence, Chuffy elects to attack instead.  Shaking off his grogginess, Chuffy attempts to bite Eggbert.  There is a resounding crack, as fangs meet shell, and Chuffy pulls away, trying to ignore his broken tooth.  Chuffy makes a pathetic swipe with his claws, and it suddenly becomes clear that something is wrong (Kim rolled a 1 on a yellow dice!).  Eggbert easily deflects the clumsy attack, and counterattacks with a punch.  The punch has no effect.  However, the pain of his injuries appears to be telling on Chuffy, and he falls to the ground.

The Prof Says:

Once per game a monster can go Berserk.  It will heal damage on one dice by one level (i.e. a red dice can be turned yellow, or a yellow turned green), allows one body part to automatically pass three activation rolls (allowing a very powerful attack), and doubles any damage the monster causes for a turn.  This is a very powerful ability, and timing is critical to make the best use of it.


Turn 5:

Eggbert levels a kick at Chuffy, while his opponent is down, but fails to cause any damage.  Clasping his paws together above his head, Eggbert now drops a hammerblow on Chuffy, causing a further wound.  While he is in close proximity, he attempts a bite on Chuffy, and tears a chunk of flesh from his opponent, leaving him with all red dice, and close to destruction.

But Chuffy is not about to give up the fight yet!  The plucky blue pugilist lets out an earth-shattering roar and goes berserk.  Chuffy leaps to his feet, ignoring one of his grievous wounds, and bites Eggbert with all his remaining might, causing two wounds.  An attempt to disembowel Eggbert goes horribly wrong (another 1 on a yellow dice!), and Chuffy ends up cradling his crippled paws to his chest.  He will no longer be able to make claw attacks.  In an attempt to try and buy himself some breathing space, Chuffy swings into another tail sweep, and manages to push Eggbert back.  Unfortunately for him, Eggbert retains his footing.

Turn 6:

Eggbert again tries to slam into his opponent.  But the battle is telling on both monsters, and they end up rebounding from each other.  A kick to Chuffy's body causes another wound, and although Eggbert's tail sweep proves completely ineffective, Chuffy is in a critical state.

Chuffy rears up to take a bite out of Eggbert, and then starts to sway.  His eyes glaze over, and he collapses to the floor, unable to continue fighting (You guessed it - a failed activation roll, followed by the worst possible result on the injury table).

Battered, but unbowed, Eggbert climbs shakily to the roof of one of Slick's apartment buildings and roars his victory to the heavens.

I fear that by including this picture, I may have won the game, but lost a wife....

This was only our second game, so we didn't explore any of the other rules, like throwing each other into buildings and so forth.  And you can see, movement wasn't exploited much as we got too caught up in trying to knock each other out (the monsters never truly die in this game, in the same way as Gozilla and his opponents are never really killed, but keep turning up in sequels). 

I wonder how differently things might have gone if Chuffy had kept Eggbert at a distance, using tail sweeps to knock Eggy down and his breath attack to soften him up more before committing himself.  Still, we really enjoyed the game, so no doubt "Terror in Shieldsville II - Chuffy's Revenge" will be on the cards soon...