We’ve all lost a game. Whether it be because you didn’t move to the right spot, you didn’t see a figure had a certain ability, or the dice just didn’t come through, you lost for one reason or another.
In this article I’ll examine the reasons for losing. There aren’t many really. Just three big reasons:
1. You didn’t know something.
2. Dice.
3. You didn’t prepare.
2. Dice.
3. You didn’t prepare.
The first reason is fairly self-explanatory. You forgot about that red hoist, you didn’t see the Robo Brontox on a power zone, you didn’t realize Alpha Grindix had power drain, you didn’t know how a rule worked. Whatever it is you didn’t know, in some small part, it cost you the game. How do you avoid this reason for losing? Become familiar with everything Monsterpocalypse. Get to know all of the figures, read the wiki, read the rulebook, stay tuned-in to the rules updates, ask questions, watch other players play. The more you know the game, the more you won’t forget or overlook things and the more you won’t lose.
Sadly there is sometimes no direct way to prevent the second reason for losing. Sometimes dice will just not roll in your favor. You can know everything there is to know about Monsterpocalypse, have the perfect force/monster, and an immaculate plan of attack but the dice can still roll all misses for you and all hits for your opponent. You lose.
But really now…what are the odds? If you don’t forget or overlook anything, have a decent understanding of how many dice to roll in an attack to hit, and come into a match with a good plan of attack with contingencies, the odds of the dice doing you in over the whole game are remote. More remote than most people like to admit, hence the blaming of dice. But really, unless Lady Luck not only walked out on you but slashed your tires, kicked your dog, and slapped your grandma, don’t blame her for making you lose. The odds of the dice making you lose when you have done everything else right is very very VERY slim. So that brings us to the biggest reason for losing, not being prepared.
Being prepared is a multifaceted part of not losing. Being prepared isn’t just about creating a usable force, city, and map for your monster, it is about identifying how everything works together to defeat the particular opponent you are facing. If you successfully prepare to face your opponent, the problem with dice not rolling in your favor is highly mitigated. You can roll several missed power ups or attacks in a match and still win if you are prepared for those rolls to miss. Alternatively, if you are prepared, you will have an infrastructure created in the match that can produce enough dice for you to use in an attack to make the chance of you missing so slim it is virtually non-existent. You’ll have more units on the board to make combined attacks, more attack options, more options to attack without a retaliation and so on.
Monsterpocalypse isn’t a game about rolling better than your opponent, it is a game about having more and better options than your opponent.
If you are prepared to face your particular opponent and can create a plan of attack that maximizes your options and minimizes your opponents, you will have a much greater chance of NOT losing, even if the dice roll bad. You could even have a -160 luck handicap and your opponent could have a +200 luck advantage and still NOT lose. (See: Luck)
Of course, sometimes you just have a bad match-up and it’ll be an uphill battle no matter how perfect your plan is or how much you’ve prepared. You could have an all blasting force and monster and your opponent is running Ultra Mantacon. You could have a non-healing all brawling force and monster and be facing Ulgoth. There will always be bad match-ups. Sadly in those matches you may have to rely a little more on the dice to be in your favor than you would like, but if you make a good plan of attack and come prepared you won’t have to let Lady Luck do all the heavy lifting. She hates to carry players along.
So, if you don’t want to lose, get to know the game, be prepared, and don’t let yourself be put into a position to blame the dice. If you do all of that and still lose, the most important thing you can do is examine what happened so in the future you can avoid that reason for losing.
May all your power ups succeed and all your strikes be super!
Good Luck!
