New Game Round-up: Monsterpocalypse Returns, Samurai Jack Revisits the Past, and Ultimate Werewolf Legacy Invites Replays

New Game Round-up: Monsterpocalypse Returns, Samurai Jack Revisits the Past, and Ultimate Werewolf Legacy Invites Replays
From gallery of W Eric Martin
Privateer Press has announced a Q4 2018 release for Monsterpocalypse Hobby Miniatures Game, an updated version of the Monsterpocalypse collectible miniatures game that it debuted one decade ago. Here's an overview of the setting and the updated game system:

Quote:
In Monsterpocalypse Hobby Miniatures Game, two or more giant kaiju monsters brawl, blast, and body-slam each other in a dense destructible urban environment. Alongside these towering monsters, lesser minions such as powerful tanks, fighter jets, flying saucers, fearsome dinosaurs, and demonic fiends fight to capture important locations and help power their monster to victory.

This represents an updated and streamlined second edition of the original Monsterpocalypse collectible game from 2008. Players can choose two different agendas when building their armies: the noble Protectors, who want to save the world and the creatures that inhabit it from destruction, or the evil Destroyers, who seek to enslave and destroy the Earth for their own diabolical purposes. Both agendas feature three different factions, each with its own unique monsters and units. Players can mix and match any models from the factions within their agenda when building their army.

The game debuts with two different one-player starter sets, one for each of the two agendas. These starter sets will be expanded by monster, unit, and building packs that contain new models for players to use in their games.
More details: To play the game, each player needs to have a force that consists of 1-3 monsters, 15-25 units, and up to 12 buildings. These miniatures need assembling and come unpainted, whereas in the original collectible game the figures were sold pre-assembled and painted, albeit in blind-buy boxes. To quote Privateer Press, "This change from pre-painted figures to hobby models has also allowed us to significantly increase both the size and the level of detail of the models as compared to the original game figures, creating a truly exciting kaiju-inspired hobby miniatures game line."

That said, the size of these new miniatures comes with a drawback: "Due to the difference in scale, original Monsterpocalypse figures will not work in the new game. All official Monsterpocalypse tournaments and events will require players to use the new hobby models for play." To demonstrate the difference in scale, Privateer posted an image (which I've cropped) that shows the new Defender X on the left and the original Defender X on the right:


From gallery of W Eric Martin


I'm not a minis guy, so perhaps I don't know any better, but they don't seem that different to me. As for the gameplay, Privateer writes: "In developing the new Monsterpocalypse, we worked hard to tighten and streamline the rules while keeping the core game experience of the original game intact. Perhaps the biggest change has been making two-monster games (with each player controlling two monsters) the standard, alongside the more traditional single-monster battles of the original game."

Board Game: Ultimate Werewolf Legacy
Bézier Games has placed a Gen Con 2018 debut date on Ultimate Werewolf Legacy, which was initially announced at Gen Con 2016. For those not headed to Indianapolis in early August, the game should reach retail outlets by the end of that month.

Here's an overview of this design from Ted Alspach and Rob Daviau, which sounds pretty much as described two years ago:

Quote:
Ultimate Werewolf Legacy uses gameplay similar to Ultimate Werewolf, but you no longer have single standalone games as players and the village itself have attributes that are retained between games, with events that take place in the first games having effects that ripple through remaining games. Make a bad decision early on, and it can haunt the village for years to come! Players can earn titles, which provides them with special abilities in future games, regardless of their role. Players are each given a public family card in addition to their secret role card, and they team up with the other members of their family to work together...unless one or more of their family members is secretly working against them.

As for the village, there are multiple paths that the game may take, and as a result the experience you have playing through the entire game will differ from someone else who is playing with another set of people. This also allows players to play through the campaign multiple times, with a different set of roles, rules, and environments each time.

At the center of Ultimate Werewolf Legacy is an oversized, 80+ page diary, that walks the game moderator through every session. The diary has been designed so that players with no previous Werewolf playing experience can both play and moderate. The diary is structured into five distinct chapters with three game sessions in each chapter, as well as an introductory preface game session. Players can jump in and out for individual sessions, but ideally they'll play all the sessions in a chapter. Each chapter can be played in a single evening. At the end of the sixteen-game session campaign, the diary will be a record of exactly what happened in your village, and who was ultimately responsible for what it became over time.

Replay packs that contain a new diary and an additional set of family cards will be sold separately, allowing players to play through the entire campaign again.
Board Game: Samurai Jack: Back to the Past
• Ahead of its debut at the 2018 GAMA Trade Show, USAopoly has announced a board game project done in collaboration with Project Raygun and Cartoon Network's Adult Swim division — Samurai Jack: Back to the Past, an Andrew Wolf design for 2-5 players due out in Q3 2018 with a $35 MSRP that has the following premise:

Quote:
Based on the fifth and final season of the animated series, Samurai Jack: Back to the Past picks up the title character's mission to return to the era before the reign of his adversary, the evil demon Aku. Jack's friends accompany him along a path, comprised of various locations from the series, to defeat villains and finish with the most honor. Winning requires utilizing allies, traits, and weapons while guarding Jack's sanity, taking players on an unpredictable ride that mirrors the story-rich episodes revered by critics and loved by fans.

Samurai Jack: Back to the Past features custom sculpted figures for Jack, Aku, Ashi, and more characters from the series.
Board Game: Samurai Jack: Back to the Past

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