Smash Up: Monster Smash
Hide under the sheets! Monsters are coming! Smash Up: Monster Smash brings all the great horrors of the screen to your game of Smash Up. Can you master these horrifying factions to defeat your opponents? With new “power counter” mechanics, Monster Smash brings all-new excitement to your base smashing madness!
Vampires – From the dark gothic recesses of ancient brooding castles, draped in black velvet, and probably listening to Bauhaus, the children of the night come to drink deep from Smash Up! Draining the very life from their victims, these cursed souls will gain power upon destroying your opponents’ minions.
Mad Scientists – Working in the lab, late one night, my eyes beheld an eerie sight. For my monster from his slab, began to rise. And suddenly to my surprise, he did the Smash… Up. The Mad Scientists, intent on unlocking the mysteries of life, have instead released death in the form of powerful creations! Their toying with nature can empower various minions, but at what cost?
(Apologies to Bobby Pickett)
Giant Ants – The future of atomic energy was never supposed to have this disastrous effect! Mutant ants spill out from giant hills, intent on destroying our homes and all else that stands in their colony’s way! The ants work as a great hive mind, spreading their power around as necessary to ensure their atomic-age victory!
Werewolves – From howling at the moon, to cowing their pack, or ripping through town, the werewolves are here to assert their place as the alphas of Smash Up. Using their explosive power to beat down opponents, the werewolves will not relent in their drive to hunt and dominate all that stand against them.
Combine these groups into teams of two for various effects! Smash Up: Monster Smash also contains 8 new Base cards to compete over.
User Reviews (2)
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A Note on the Smash-Up Expansions as a whole…
So far I own the base set, Awesome 9000, and the Science Fiction Double Feature sets. I really enjoy playing Smash Up, so picking up Monster Smash was a no-brainer. I really like how each one of the expansions effectively use the theme of the faction to create unique decks and add new bases. I find each expansion continues the theme of “discovery” with finding new combinations (it’s a temporary thrill, but still is fun). The expansions also change strategy because you will change how you play depending on your opponent’s strategy, the number of opponents, the house rules, the bases, and the factions that are battling. Let’s look to see if this new expansion does the same…
Monster Smash! Power UP!
If you enjoy the other expansions, then you will probably enjoy this expansion as well. While the Awesome 9000 and Sci Fi expansions were a mix of power, defense, and support factions, this one is all about power! Specifically, moving power, being powerful at certain times, and adding more power.
Monster Smash adds the “+1 power counter” which are just the victory point tokens that you use to show added power in specific situations.
The Factions!
Like the other factions, these are unique, use the theme for inspiration, and play differently from other factions.
-Mad Scientists: Mad scientists are a faction that manufactures power and turns power into different actions. They have cards that add power each turn, and minions that add power to other minions when destroyed. They do other things with power tokens, including destroying them to play extra minions, scrapping cards to play tokens, or destroying power tokens to destroy other minions. They can generate power, then use that power for sneaky purposes.
-Werewolves: These guys don’t use power tokens as much as the other factions, but this doesn’t mean they lack power. They gain power at specific times. They have the ability to add power the first time they are played, as a talent temporarily, or as a base breaks. This makes them easier to bring out and good with breaking bases, but some minions are weaker on other player’s turns. Their actions focus on playing temporary power and some attack cards.
– Giant Ants: Get those power tokens ready. Giant Ants have a very low printed power compared with other factions, probably the lowest. They have 4 “workers” who have a printed power of 0, but start with 2 power tokens. These gigantic insects bring out the power tokens quickly, and the lowly worker ant can quickly become a powerhouse. Most of the actions and abilities of the minions are about putting down power tokens, moving power tokens from one minion to another, and increasing the power of those power tokens temporarily.
-Vampires: Possibly the trickiest to play out of the bunch. They gain power from other players minions being destroyed, but most of their attack cards focus on minions of power 2 or less. They have cards that play weaker minions from the discard pile, minions that get stronger if you destroy your own cards, minions that gain power from being weaker than your opponent, and some other ways to add power tokens. They seem to be best with destroying their own minions which, depending on bases and pairings (destroying your own gremlins at the cave of shinies?), could make them powerful and annoying.
All in All
This expansion does what a lot of the other Smash Up expansions did:
1.Adds variety with bases and factions.
2.Adds element of “discovery” to old factions as you find new combos.
3.Creates new, powerful faction combinations and counters to other factions.
This one also…
4.Adds a fun new mechanic (power tokens) that allows for more strategy, or changes old strategies.
I think the Mad Scientists and Giant Ants are 2 of the most fun factions to play out of any set (they’re not the best necessarily, I just enjoy playing them). I like the power tokens, they add new mechanics and strategies to the game without changing game play or game time too much.
I wouldn’t get this as your first expansion. I think Awesome 9000 is more of a natural extension of the base set and a better first expansion. If you have one or two other expansions and like them, then you should get this expansion as well. If you tried Smash Up with expansions and still don’t like it, this expansion probably won’t change your opinion.
Is this my favorite set? No, I like Science Fiction Double Feature more as a whole. However, if you own other expansions, I highly recommend this set.
This is a good expansion. All of the factions fit together well. The Giant Ants seemed to be out of place for me personally but the dynamics of the cards work very well with the other factions in this expansion. Our game club at school plays this game very often. We have mixed in the bases but mostly play with these factions mixed with a few of their favorites from the base game. Mixing all of the factions together is really fun. I played with just Monster Smash factions and it was different but also enjoyable (I won with Mad Scientists and Werewolves vs. Giant Ant and Vampires). I am looking forward to growing my collection after my birthday. Big Geeky Box and Science Fiction are next on the purchase list!