Codename: Lovecraft

A new kaiju has risen from The Breach. Codenamed 'Lovecraft', it's a hideous tentacled horror with a wide-angle psychic attack. And it's been drawn to a remote Pacific island from which an unusual energy signature has been detected.

A jaeger is dispatched to destroy the monster - Gipsy Danger.

And the unusual energy signature? A mysterious crystal structure. The jaeger pilots are tasked with studying the crystal, whilst preventing the kaiju from spending enough time in proximity to it to draw power from it.

I set up a game of Mighty Monsters this morning in order to give the game another try. When I first played it I wasn't sure about it, but having got a few more Ganesha-system games under my belt since then I thought that it would be worth revisiting. And I also had my brand spanking new Gipsy Danger model to try out. Since I was trying a mech, I downloaded Samurai Robots Battle Royale as well. Whilst a standalone game, it also allows you to integrate monsters and mechs into one game.

Both monster and mech were lifted straight from the rules, albeit that there they have generic names to avoid copyright breaches:

Lovecraft
Head Q3 C3 - Psychic Area Attack C5L
Body Q3 C4 - Regeneration
Arms Q3 C3
Legs Q3 C3
Slow, Grappler, Radiation Immunity, Amphibious

Gipsy Danger
Head Q3 C2 - Multiple Pilots (2)
Body Q3 C4 - One-Shot Missile C4M
Arms Q3 C3 - Elbow Thruster, Blade, Plasma Gun C4S
Legs Q3 C3
Amphibious

The scenario was this. The crystal was in the centre of the island, which was littered with random mountains and rocks. The opponents started in opposite corners, equidistant from the crystal. At the end of each turn, whichever of the two was closest to the crystal, and within one L of it, would score a victory point. At the end of the tenth turn, and each turn thereafter, a dice would be rolled. on a 5-6 the game would end. The winner would be the one with the most points.

So, whilst taking down your opponent was important, what was more important was your position relative to them.

Lovecraft was slow, which meant that they could only make a single move per activation. Gipsy Danger didn't have this limit, so soon reached the crystal, quickly getting between it and the kaiju.

The two titans exchanged fire, but it was obvious that the jaeger's plasma gun wasn't in the same league as the creature's psychic attack. Already lightly damaged, Gipsy Danger charged into close combat, her sword cutting a great wound in the monster.

Lovecraft retaliated by smashing the jaeger with a rock ...

... then grappling it and throwing it.

Gipsy Danger quickly regained her feet, and rebooted her weapons system, which had malfunctioned. She then fired her missile, to no effect. Lovecraft was now soaking up power from the crystal, and hit the jaeger with another psychic blast, KO-ing one of the pilots.

Before the jaeger could recover, another psychic blast saw its sensors completely disabled, blinding it.

The mech withdrew, giving Lovecraft a convincing win.

Lovecraft had only taken one hit, which it had regenerated.

In Mighty Monsters, damage is marked by turning white activation dice first into yellow ones and then into red. If the coloured dice are used, and fail activation rolls, a test is made for damage effects.
Mechs work differently. When a white dice becomes yellow or a yellow dice goes red, the mech automatically rolls on a malfunction or damage table respectively. So mech always get a problem from damage, but the dice then have no major effect (they do modify future damage rolls). Monsters get no immediate ill effects from damage, but can suffer multiple issues if they push themselves to hard whilst injured. It's an interesting contrast.

Gipsy Danger will return another day (probably with a slight redesign).

I set up the scenario again, but this time with a different jaeger. Since I'm still printing and painting other jaegers from the film, I used an 'unofficial' one I'd used in a game of Giant Monster Rampage last year - the axe and shield brawler, Gambler Diamond.

Gambler Diamond
Head Q3 C2 - Multiple Pilots (2)
Body Q3 C4 - Missiles C2M
Arms Q3 C4 - Melee Weapon, Large Shield, Concussion Force Blast C4M
Legs Q3 C3
Short Move, Amphibious

Gambler Diamond.

Once again it was the jaeger which reached the crystal first. Lovecraft closed with a psychic attack, whilst the mech held it back with a couple of concussive blasts.

A second psychic attack damaged the mech.

Lovecraft closed, putting itself fractionally closer to the crystal than the jaeger was.

Blows were exchanged, but Gambler Diamond couldn't land a hit with its axe, and Lovecraft failed to grapple the mechanical titan. Gambler Diamond took a risk, and broke off the combat, taking a hit which caused a temporary weapons malfunction as it did so.

Time was drawing on. Whilst Lovecraft could probably finish off Gambler Diamond at range with psychic attacks, each turn that went by would see the jaeger scoring points. The tentacled horror had to trade positions, quickly. It charged, and used the once-per-game berserk option to try and get a firm grapple on its opponent. It failed, but a damaging blow saw the mech's shield destroyed.

Gambler Diamond held firm until turn ten, when Lovecraft finally immobilised it, stamping on and destroying the mech's axe as well. The kaiju turned, and was ready to throw the now badly damaged jaeger, but the dice score indicated the end of the game. Despite being close to destruction, Gambler Diamond had secured a win.

Although I constantly had to look a lot of stuff up, I found the rules much easier to use than before, and also found I enjoyed the game far more too. I liked the differing damage effects between monsters and mechs, and am interested in seeing how other types of mechanical things work; the rules allow you to create not just walking devices, but things such as gigantic cyber-tanks as well.