by Emanuel Class

Hello, everyone! I hope you had a monsterful holiday season. January is a special month for Monsterpocalypse with the launch of the First Guardians and Ancient Ones line. Inspired by ancient Mayan and Aztec lore, these Factions tip their respective hats to many of the stories, creatures, and gods of those people. Of course, we have history for the two Factions coming to you soon, but for now let’s talk about all the gameplay information we know you’re eager to hear!

King of Camazotz

The King of Camazotz sees combat as a bloodsport. He uses his massive size to bully other monsters. In Alpha form, the King has all the hallmarks of a raging demon. With flight, high mobility, SPD 6, and Bloodsport, this chonky bat is deceptively mobile. He only has 4 health in his Alpha form, making it a short and furious incarnation. But the King’s 11 health can be deceptive. With Vampirism and Onslaught, the King can dish out some damage and keep his own damage track at full health. As he brawls with his opponents, his Skull Bat units can smell the scent of blood and appear by his side to feast on his enemies.

Once he’s in Hyper form, he is an absolute beast and with 7 of his 11 health in Hyper, the King gets to be angry for a long time. Trading Bloodsport for Sprint, the King can close the gaps to his enemies quickly. After that, look out for his Battering Ram, as he throws the full force of his weight into his ram power attacks. When this bat rams a building, the monster on the other side is tossed away by the force of the blow. And just because this big bully is good at demolishing buildings doesn’t mean it’s the only thing he can do—with Onslaught and Siphon on his brawl attacks, he can steal power from his enemy’s pool and use the dice against them. Even still, the fun doesn’t stop there. The cherry on top is Energy Thief. With the King of Camazotz, once per turn you can steal an Action Die from your opponent and use it against them.

Skull Bats are the terrors of the skies. With Abduct, they don’t even need an attack in order to remove an enemy model from the board. Further, the King of Camazotz loves to spawn Skull Bats with Scent of Blood so that subsequent attacks can benefit from Scout, an ability that lets allies gain an extra Boost Die on attacks against enemies that are adjacent to a Skull Bat. As you can easily imagine, there is no Destroyer that wouldn’t love to have a Scout around. However, the balance to the Skull Bats is that they cannot scout for each other; Abduct does not benefit from the extra Boost Die because you don’t need to roll dice for the Skull Bats.

Their counterparts, the Skull Keepers, are the enablers of the Faction’s aggressive play style. Using their attack trigger Shadows, they can grab a nearby allied unit and bring it up to the Skull Keeper’s position. The Skull Keeper can also use Action: Death Gate and sacrifice itself to move an adjacent allied unit up to three spaces from its current position. There are a lot of clever positioning tricks you can perform if you watch for the opportunities. Under the best circumstances, the Skull Keeper can benefit from Scout, bring a model up to support it, and then sacrifice itself to launch the Scout farther to aid in other attacks!

The Master of Xototl is not a monster to be taken lightly. This sky god can bring the fury of a hurricane down upon his enemies. With Demolisher and Power Projection, the Master can land key rams against his opponent’s power base while filling his own Power Dice pool. Using Action: Reshape, the Master can also have any unit he needs at a moment’s notice. Allied models that attack enemy models within five spaces of the Master are invigorated by his power, gaining additional Boost Dice on their melee attacks. And while it takes the Master a little longer to get angry, when he goes Hyper, there’s almost no place you can hide. In Hyper form, the Master picks up Action: Offering, allowing him to sacrifice an allied unit to rush him along. And if they are a Faction model, he gets a little extra bump. With Ravage on his power attack and Drag on his brawl attacks, he can roll an enemy across the map. Triggered by body slams, the Master can be placed adjacent to the target after the body slam is resolve, ravage also lets him make a free brawl attack, and that’s not all. His brawl trigger, Drag, lets him place the target adjacent to him anywhere. That means the opponent can get dragged into the perfect position for the Master’s allies to get in on the action.

Jaguar Spirits hit their enemies in a blinding flash of fur and magic. A great revenge killer, these units are apex predators, slaughtering their prey then flashing into a useful position adjacent to a building or on top of a power point. To make sure they get their point across, these warriors are able to use a Power Die like a monster with their ability Power Hitter.

Arbiter Monoliths are there to help make sure there’s enough power to go around. Their ability to Amplify while on a power point makes them an asset to any Protector’s force. These statues are slow at first glance, only boasting a mighty SPD 3, but they make up for this by hopping from power point to power point using their Action: Leyline. Once they’re in position, their ability Death Sentence lets allied monsters deal super damage to adjacent enemy monsters.

You may notice a couple of common themes among all these monsters and their units: deceptive mobility and important synergy drawn across the Faction. And this is just the beginning! With two more monsters and unit packs releasing in the spring and summer, we can look forward to a lot of new and exciting things on the tabletop very soon. Check out these new releases in the Privateer Press Online Store or at your favorite LGS today!

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