Stats:
No. of players: 2
Amount of time to play: 60 min
Age requirements: 12+
Set-up time: 5-10 min

Monsterpocalypse Rules Description:

Monsterpocalypse is a kaiju miniatures skirmish game. You and your opponent fight in a city using monsters and supporting units. The first player to destroy the other’s monster wins.

The Two Player Battlebox contains everything you need to play: two armies, a map, buildings, dice and the rules. The armies included are all from one of the six factions but the armies in your box are random.

There are three types of dice in Monsterpocalypse: action, boost and power dice. You have ten action dice that are spent for movement and attacking. Boost dice are added to action dice, are unlimited and have a better chance to hit then action dice. Power dice have the best chance to hit, have to earned, are only used by your monster and are needed to make a Power Attack.

Each Monsterpocalypse army has two types of miniatures: units and monsters. On your turn you either use your monster or your units. You get ten dice to use for your actions each turn. Action dice flow to the monster dice pool when used for units (and vice versa).

On your unit turn you may spawn new units, move your units and attack with them. Again, all these actions use some of your ten dice which are then transferred to your monster dice pool. On monster turns you may power up your monster, move it and attack with it. The dice used for these actions return to the unit dice pool. You may voluntarily push dice to a pool at the end of your turn.

During set-up you and your opponent will place buildings on the map. These buildings can be destroyed or used in attacks. Destroying buildings helps power up your monster and may leave hazard areas on the map.

Each faction and miniature has various icons on their bases that give them different abilities, skills, triggers and reactions. These are where the majority of your strategy, tactics and fun combinations come from.

Power Attacks also add a lot of flavor to the game. They can only be made by monsters and includes: body slams, swatting small units into buildings and monsters, as well as other dynamic moves.

Your monster has two forms, alpha and hyper. Each form has different stats and advantages. You must spend power dice to switch from alpha into hyper form. If one of your forms is destroyed, the other one takes its place on the map. You win once you eliminate both of your opponent’s monster’s forms.

Quick Review of the Monsterpocalypse Two Player Battlebox:

Monsterpocalypse is a collectible miniatures game. Normally you must buy blind boosters to obtain and create your army. Since the Two Player Battlebox contains everything you need to play it is a great way to try out the game, a complete game on its own and a decent entry point if you want to start collecting Monsterpocalypse.

I really like the dice pools and how the dice flow between each. It adds some timing strategy and is pretty unique. You can sometimes surprise an opponent by keeping just a couple action dice in your monster pool with a bunch of power dice and take two turns in a row with your monster for devastating effects.

The miniatures look awesome. My Battlebox contained aliens and dinosaurs and they looked great. The buildings look even better. The components are truly top-notch. The rules are pretty easy to understand, but there are a lot of them. This is a pretty complicated game and it is best to learn it in steps. Fortunately there is a quick-start guide to help understand the basics. But the plethora of icons will have you looking in the rulebook often the first few games. It would have been nice to have a player aid for each faction included in your box.

I can also understand why you’d want more miniatures. The armies in the box are complete and work well together but you might want to add some new elements after playing the exact same two armies after awhile.

If you have thought of trying out Monsterpocalypse, like kaiju or skirmish games you should pick up the Two Player Battlebox. The value included in the box make it worth the price.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 4 out of 6
Luck 4 out of 6
Player Interaction 6 out of 6
Replay Value 3 out of 6
Complexity 5 out of 6
Fun 5 out of 6
Overall 4 out of 6 (This rating is for the Battlebox itself. If you are getting into Monsterpocalypse this is a 5 overall.)