Mostly Monsters and Mechs

I tried a third game of 'Mighty Monsters' yesterday to try out rules changes. This time I added mechs into the mix as our game on Thursday showed that some of the damage effects are a bit ragged around the edges and very much advantage monsters (mechs and monsters take damage differently in this game).

I played the same teleporting crystal scenario, and used Armordax and Terra Khan again. The first mech to enter play was Mecha Khan.

Despite appearances, the second mech was not called Lord Snooty's Giant Poisoned Electric Head. But maybe it should be.

I call it Kajutaijuq. It flies and has mechanical pincers.

Terra Khan and Mecha Khan exchanged fire and basically used up their ranged attacks. Indeed pretty well all ranged attacks got used up in their first or second shots.

Kajutaijuq had a real advantage in this scenario, since its high-speed flying meant that it could chase the crystal around the board, and the ability to go to high altitude made it harder to engage in combat. I did house-rule that points for the crystal were only scored if an flying monster was a low altitude (where close combat is possible).

Everyone jostled for position in the middle for a while.

Armodax chased the crystal, whilst Terra Khan and Mecha Khan got stuck into close combat. I awarded a couple of points for each monster or mech defeated, so taking out an opponent was an alternative to chasing the crystal every turn.

Kajutaijuq dodged attacks from Armordax. The pink counter shows that the mech has its force-field raised.

Terra Khan eventually grappled his mechanical counterpart, and a serious of powerful bites wrecked the cockpit, disabling it. But the mighty monster's legs had taken damage, and Terra Khan was limping.

Meanwhile Armordax had brought Kajutaijuq to battle. The mech had some bad activations, which Armodax was able to exploit, smashing it to pieces over a couple of turns, and leaving it wrecked with an unconscious pilot.

This left Armordax and Terra Khan fighting out over the crystal. Armordax was slightly ahead on points, so simply avoided chasing the crystal and concentrated on keeping Terra Khan in place until the scenario timed out.

Armordax won on points, with the destroyed Kajutaijuq second. Terra Khan came a close third and Mecha Khan a distant final place, having never really got into the game.

I do feel mechs are a little disadvantaged vs monsters, although this obviously depends on design and scenario objectives as much as anything else. Mechs get reaction moves, which are useful, but I don't think they are quite as useful as the Berserk ability monsters get as their equivalent 'freebie'. In addition the damage effects mechs take can knock them out quite quickly after a couple of hits; I may need to tone down their effects a little. On Thursday we discussed making as many of them as possible recoverable by spending actions.

Anyway, here are the stats for the two mechs in this game.

Mecha Khan

Head Q4 C2 - Reaction
Body Q3 C4 - 2 x Missiles C4L (Single Use)
Arms Q3 C2 - Elbow Thrusters x 1, 2 x Lasers C3M Linked
Legs Q3 C3 - Amphibious
Tail Q3 C3 - Blade

Kajutaijuq

Head Q3 C4 - Force Shield 3, Reaction
Body Q3 C4 - Concussive Force Blast C3S, Hyperflight, Light Armour (All)
Arms Q3 C3 - Claws