When Mantic released the Big Red Book, the new rules for creating your own Rare Monster piqued my interest. Hobbyists are spoilt for choice these days with awesome miniatures, and now you can customize rules to accurately represent your monster of choice in Kings of War. How cool is that?
What’s more, with a menu of stat boosts and special rules to purchase, you can easily create a system in which players “level up” their Rare Monsters over a series of games – much like, you guessed it, Pokémon. With this in mind, I create the Unplugged Monster Mash. A one-day, narrative event in which players could build, train, and battle with their custom Rare Monster.
My purpose in writing this article is to explain the rules and structure of the event itself, showcase some highlights from the event, and hopefully inspire some of you to adapt/implement the Unplugged Monster Mash with your own gaming group!
Introduction
Throughout Pannithor’s storied history, mighty armies have engaged in epic clashes on the field of battle innumerable times. While the outcome of such conflicts is often decided by the superior discipline of veteran regiments, the cunning tactics of a shrewd general or the overwhelming strength of numbers of a ravenous horde, the most spectacular, bloodiest, and iconic battles are won by armies commanding terrifying and malicious monsters.
Such remarkable beasts do not appear overnight. Armies go to great lengths to capture young monsters in the wild and subject them to intense training over decades before unleashing them on an unsuspecting foe. This process is costly, time-consuming, and deadly. Would-be monster handlers commonly lose digits, limbs, and worse. Still, in a world as rife with geopolitical maneuvering and war as Pannithor, the rewards far outweigh the risks.
In this unique, narrative event, participants assume the role of a general testing one such monster in a series of small skirmishes in hopes of refining them into a stone-cold killer. Each battle affords the opportunity to gain experience points for your fledgling monster, yet being too reckless can lead to grievous injury.
The day will culminate in an ultimate death match to determine whose monster is strongest of all. Do you have what it takes to claw your way to the top of the pile?
Army Composition
Each participant will build a 1495 point army which must include a Rare Monster of exactly 170 points. See pages 92-93 of the Big Red Book for the full rules for building Rare Monsters. Keep in mind that this Rare Monster must be on a 75mm base and unlocked as with a regular Titan.
Allies are not allowed.
Additionally, the Blade of the Beast Slayer and Axe of the Giant Slayer Magical Artefacts may not be taken.
My thought process here was to keep the armies small enough so that the Rare Monsters would be a focal point, without being too powerful. I also wanted to be able to comfortably fit three games into an afternoon.
At 170 points, the players started the day with relatively tame Rare Monsters. They had to decide whether to invest all of their starting points into one aspect (such as Melee, Ranged, or Defense) at the cost of others or try to create a balanced profile. Here are some examples:
Jon took a balanced approach to Akhten’Ruk the Destroyer:
Kailas took a focused approach to THE BIG DEAL (not to be confused with The Big Deal):
Each of the six participants went in a different direction with their Rare Monster, which was fun to see. The most creative had to be Kevin’s The Honorable Knight – Walking Statue of the Ivory Tower:
Format
Rounds will be played on a 4×4’ table with terrain pre-set by the event organizer.
Participants will have 40 minutes on their chess clocks each round.
Participants will earn additional points in each round of the event, which can then be used to purchase new upgrades for their Rare Monster in-between rounds.
When purchasing an upgrade to a stat that has been previously upgraded, only the difference in cost need to be paid. For example, if a Rare Monster already had Me 4+ (15 points) and you wished to upgrade it to Me 3+ (30 points), this would cost 15 points rather than the full 30.
Furthermore, purchasing new upgrades can modify the cost of prior upgrades. For example, if a Rare Monster already had De 3+ (10 points) and Ensnare (5 x De value → 5 x 3 = 15 points) and you wished to upgrade it to De 4+ (25 points), this would cost 20 points in total (+15 for the change in De and +5 for the change to Ensnare).
In between rounds 2 and 3, after purchasing new upgrades, participants must roll on the Injury Table if their Rare Monster was Routed in either of the previous rounds. If your Rare Monster was Routed once, roll 2D6. If your Rare Monster was Routed twice, roll 3D6, discarding the highest die. Then consult the table below.
| Injury Table | |
| 2-3 | Traumatized – The Rare Monster was permanently scarred by the horrors of battle and suffers -2 to its Waver value. Note that this may cause a Rare Monster to lose the Fearless special rule. |
| 4-5 | Arm Injury – The Rare Monster has endured a badly broken limb, which sets poorly as it heals. It suffers -1 to its Me and Ra values. |
| 6-8 | Leg Injury – The Rare Monster has endured a badly broken limb, which sets poorly as it heals. It suffers -1 to its Movement value. |
| 9-10 | Concussed – The Rare Monster sustained a resounding blow to its head. Though it may return to the battlefield, it has somewhat regressed and loses one upgrade of your choosing. |
| 11 | ‘Tis But a Scratch – The Rare Monster fully recovers from its wounds. |
| 12 | What Doesn’t Kill you Makes you Stronger – The Rare Monster fully recovers from its wounds, eyes blazing with vengeance. Gain an additional 10 points which must be spent immediately. |
Matchups for the first round will be decided at random. Matchups for the second and third rounds, however, will be based on how many points each participant’s Rare Monster has accumulated.
The optional Withdraw rule will not be in effect.
As a final note, the upgrades purchased for the Rare Monster both prior to the start of the event and during the event must be reasonably represented by the model itself. For example, if you want your Rare Monster to have the Fly special rule, then it needs to look like it can fly! I reserve the right as the event organizer to override an upgrade if I deem that it breaks this guideline.
The schedule for the day looked like this:
11:00 – 11:30 Arrival / Setup
11:30 – 12:50 Round One
12:50 – 1:50 Lunch Break / Level Up
1:50 – 3:10 Round Two
3:10 – 3:20 Level Up
3:20 – 4:40 Round Three
4:40 – 5:00 Results / Cleanup
We were able to stick to it without issue, and it allowed folks to arrive and depart at a reasonable hour.
Scenarios
| Round 1 – Pillage Follow all of the rules for Pillage as described on page 72 of the Big Red Book. A total of 5 Objective Markers will be used. At the end of the round, participants will earn additional points for their Rare Monsters as follows: +10 points for each Objective Marker you control +1 point for every point of Damage dealt by your Rare Monster if you won/drew the round +2 points for every point of Damage dealt by your Rare Monster if you lost the round |
| Round 2 – Fool’s Gold Follow all of the rules for Fool’s Gold as described on page 74 of the Big Red Book. Each participant will only use one of each value of Bluff Counter. At the end of the round, participants will earn additional points for their Rare Monsters as follows: +10 points for each Bluff Counter marked with a 1 that you control +20 points for each Bluff Counter marked with a 2 that you control +1 point for every point of Damage dealt by your Rare Monster if you won/drew the round +2 points for every point of Damage dealt by your Rare Monster if you lost the round |
Rounds 1 and 2 were all about earning the most additional points for the Rare Monsters. The bonus points for the losing player were meant to ensure that everyone was able to walk away from the battle with enough points to purchase at least one or two upgrades.
The spread ended up being quite interesting. The additional points earned ranged from 94 down to 30, with most players being in the 60-80 range.
| Round 3 – Dominate Follow all of the rules for Dominate as described on page 72 of the Big Red Book, with the following exceptions: The size of the Dominate circle is 9” from the centre of the playing area The only Unit Strength which counts towards controlling the Dominate circle is that of the Rare Monsters |
Round 3 was all about testing the mettle of the leveled-up Rare Monster and seeing who could survive the battle.
The most exciting moment of Round 3 had to be Kailas v. Kevin. By this point, The Honorable Knight – Walking Statue of the Ivory Tower had become nigh indestructible. His Nerve was 16/22 with Fury (boosted to 18/24 thanks to the nearby Battle Shrine). His De 4+, Big Shield, and Iron Resolve combo had been reinforced with Ensnare, Inspiring, and Regeneration (4+). Yikes!
But Kailas was up for the challenge. Over two turns, he essentially threw his entire army into that veritable wall of steel, starting with a Legion of Ogre Chariots! After the second round of Melee, Kailas needed to roll a 7 (twice) to Rout. As the other games had already ended, we all crowded around to table to watch the fateful roll. The dice gods blessed the Ogres that day, as the Walking Statue toppled over and crashed to the field of battle with a deafening thud.
Awards
At the end of the event, the following awards will be presented:
- King of Monsters – awarded to the participant whose Rare Monster accumulated the most points among those who won round 3.
- Slayer of Monsters – awarded to the participant who Routed the most Rare Monsters. Points accumulated will be the tiebreaker, if necessary.
- Mockery of Monsters – awarded to the participant whose Rare Monster accumulated the fewest points among those who lost round 3.
Here are the links to the Players Pack and Rare Monster Sheets I created for the event, which you can feel free to make copies of and edit as you see fit:
Unplugged Monster Mash – Players Pack
Thanks for reading and please drop your comments/questions below.
LOVE to see the Kings of Warmahordes big boys, one day I’ll get my own mammoth done up to terrorize the tabletop on a square base!
Great report, great idea, looks like a lot of fun!