WoW minis or Monsterpocalypse?

[ragingphoenix]

go with WoW although not many people on 'Scapers play it. Ive been having lots of fun with it. the Mini's are painted very well,but there alot of things to remember. WoW was my first mini's game after 'Scape as well. And its MUCH EASIER TO LEARN and don't forget cheaper

[gamjuven]

I'm sure you made you decision months ago but I thought I'd chime in. I'd go with WOW minis. I like it a lot better than Monsterapocalypse. It is easy to play, but there's a ton of strategy, like Heroscape. Awesome miniatures. Not huge armies, but elite warp party, awesome look to everything thanks to it being WoW. Great fun. I just wish more people in my area played or if it was more popular in a tournament scene.

I didn't particularly like Monsterapoccalypse when I played it. It was alright, but for me personally i never was interested in the world at all, and although the maps and monsters are very well made and pretty cool looking, I just didn't care for hte minis that much.

[Mombo101]

Actually, I think just the opposite, Monsterpocalpyse is a much better game than WoW minis.

I played WoW minis, and tried Monsterpocalypse. I really felt that the Monsterpocalypse rules were much more intuitive than WoW's. They were a bit complicated to learn, yes, but they felt much more balanced than WoW's. WoW suffers from too much of a luck based game, whoever has the most dice usually comes out on top. On the other hand, Monsterpocalypse forces you to take your die rolling seriously, and think about it from a strategic standpoint. This alone is awesome in my opinion.

WoW minis may be cheaper, but it suffers from two distinct things. 1) UDE lost their license with Blizzard, so the game may not be in print anymore (though this might also be a good thing, meaning boosters/pieces will/may be very cheap soon). Without being printed anymore, that means the player based will reduce very quickly. No player base means it'll be harder to find someone to play with, or tournaments. 2) The game favors the rares/epic pieces. Pieces aren't very balanced also. Even amongst the commons/uncommons some are very very powerful, and others very very crappy. You'll find yourself playing the same few pieces game after game.

The fact that Monsterpocalypse is still being produced and has a number of expansions (4-5 rather than WoW's 2) it allows for a better foundation for people to start out playing. That, and since there are a number of expansions out, you know that there's a player base. In my area, there really wasn't one for WoW minis, but a player base for Monsterpocalypse has slowly been accruing. Plus, Privateer Press is known primarily for their minis games (that and their two boardgames Scrappers and Infernal Contraption are AMAZING), so you know they have that going for them as well.

So yeah, you'll probably be better off going with Monsterpocalypse than WoW minis.

[Land-based AE]

I know this is hardcore necro at this point but anyone who thinks Monpoc is too hard, there is a guy on boardgame geek who has set up every character sheet like a Heroscape card, complete with the text for every piece.

It has helped me a ton.

[gamjuven]

Originally Posted by Mombo101

Actually, I think just the opposite, Monsterpocalpyse is a much better game than WoW minis.

I played WoW minis, and tried Monsterpocalypse. I really felt that the Monsterpocalypse rules were much more intuitive than WoW's. They were a bit complicated to learn, yes, but they felt much more balanced than WoW's. WoW suffers from too much of a luck based game, whoever has the most dice usually comes out on top. On the other hand, Monsterpocalypse forces you to take your die rolling seriously, and think about it from a strategic standpoint. This alone is awesome in my opinion.

WoW minis may be cheaper, but it suffers from two distinct things. 1) UDE lost their license with Blizzard, so the game may not be in print anymore (though this might also be a good thing, meaning boosters/pieces will/may be very cheap soon). Without being printed anymore, that means the player based will reduce very quickly. No player base means it'll be harder to find someone to play with, or tournaments. 2) The game favors the rares/epic pieces. Pieces aren't very balanced also. Even amongst the commons/uncommons some are very very powerful, and others very very crappy. You'll find yourself playing the same few pieces game after game.

The fact that Monsterpocalypse is still being produced and has a number of expansions (4-5 rather than WoW's 2) it allows for a better foundation for people to start out playing. That, and since there are a number of expansions out, you know that there's a player base. In my area, there really wasn't one for WoW minis, but a player base for Monsterpocalypse has slowly been accruing. Plus, Privateer Press is known primarily for their minis games (that and their two boardgames Scrappers and Infernal Contraption are AMAZING), so you know they have that going for them as well.

So yeah, you'll probably be better off going with Monsterpocalypse than WoW minis.

Those are valid points. WoW minis is really hurting with the possibility that there might not be any more expansions. In regards to the random thing, I actually never bought a single booster. I bought each figure individually online. There are a number of websites that offer some great prices for figs at a low price. Some of the ultra rare ones are a bit pricey, but honestly most of them you don't need, and the ones you do need you would be paying less than the amount of random boosters you would have to buy to get it normally anyway. Now I'm not sure about Monsterapoc, it could very well be easier to get the figs, but I've gotten a great collection of WoW minis for very cheap compared to most mini games, and I don't have boxes of duplicates this way either.

As I said my personal opinion is that I also don't care much for the monsters that were released or are available. But that's a personal opinion that I like the "fluff" of WoW more than Monsterapoc. And for the record I don't play WoW online, never have.

But yeah it's a very valid point that Monsterapoc is still releasing expansions, while WoW minis may not. And the rules thing is probably also a personal choice.

WoW minis is a lot of luck, although I think there is still a ton of strategy in terms of how you pick your army and how it works together (like heroscape)

[tylerdrake]

I know it's an older thread but I had to chime in. . .

I bought lots of WOW minis. Pretty good game but not my cup-of-tea. I played this with my kid. really nice looking Minis and cards, I thought. We tried WOWMinis, but my kid was off set by the cards.

I finally tried MONPOC since I found a good deal on Ebay. The look of this game - with Aliens buzzing between buildings, etc - is really cool. I play it with my 7-year old. We can never seem to have enough buildings or Monsters. Posing them on the Map is fun by itself. We played without most of the Special Abilities to start, but have worked up to using everything.

Price Wise - I spent close to $200 on WowMinis and double that on MONPOC. (no ebay this month AT ALL). Both are good depending your genre pick.

As for WOW Minis being a "dead game" - that may not matter at all. (We also bought some Dreamblade a few months ago and it was fun too)

Conclusion - MONPOC is more up our Rampage alley, but it may not work for everyone. AND a VOLTRON set comes out this month (which is what originally piqued my interest)

[DarkJawa]

I hope no one smashes me for posting in a thread this old, but couldn't resist when I saw the title. I have played both games on and off. Both are solid games, and can appeal to a wide variety of people.
WoW Minis
I actually played this game without ever having played the computer game. This game is that good. The maps from the delux starters are awesome and the minis look great. I actually think the cards in the game help capture that RPG feel. Its one drawback is the "U-bases". Though I never had any major issue with them, there were players that had fits over fitting figures on them and getting them to turn properly. In the end, I can't help but wonder if they are the reason the game died off.

Monsterpocalypse
Also a great game, with solid mechanics and lots of dice rolling. If you are a fan of some Magna, or the old Godzilla or other similar Monster Movies from the 70's then this is your game. Using monsters to smash buildings, smaller "units", and of course your opponent's monster is just a lot of fun. Especially if you combine any of those, like throwing your opponent into a building or smashing a building so it falls and crushes the enemy on the other side. I think there are a lot of different types of Monsters (agenda/faction) to appeal to any fan of this genre.
My biggest MonPoc complaint is distribution. It is very hard to get buildings, which you need to generate power dice that can be used during your attacks.

All that being said, a friend and I are actually starting both games again very soon. We already have some MonPoc to play with at any time, but we will be picking up some WoW minis. We sold our last sets to fund our adventure into Warmachine/Hordes.

[Eclipse]

I've been playing both games for a bit now. Since WoW minis died off (which is actually the fault of the TCG, but whatever) I've actually probably enjoyed it more. I pruned my collection down to a good variety of figures and gave them standard ABC setups to speed up setup and make it more of a pickup and play sort of game; which is where it really excels.

I wrote up some rather extensive thoughts in the actual MonPoc thread, but I really like that game as well. It's wonderful extensive, strategic and full of interesting decisions mixed with the fun of smashing big toys together. I'd probably get a lot more time with the game, but it's just so obscenely obtuse in the way it handles its rules, I really struggle to teach the game to my friends. I've put a lot of work into making it more accessible, but its really disappointing that I have to do so.

Still, the game is crazy fun. I just got my shipment of the newest release (Big in Japan) the other day and they really ramped up the chaos in the set. There's a giant ferris wheel you can send rolling through the city for pretty massive destruction, lots of monsters that really benefit from razing the city to the ground. I wish the game was easier to understand and I really wish it had a better purchase setup, but darn it, I'm willing to overlook all that for the ability to throw a giant gorilla into the flaming wreckage of the Empire State Building.