Exclusive Preview: Incineration Superhighway First Look [Tekk]
I’m super excited to present today’s reveal to you… SmashU has been graciously supplied with an EXCLUSIVE first look at the newest map coming to Monsterpocalypse! Without further ado, let’s jump in and talk about INCINERATION SUPERHIGHWAY.
Introducing Teleport Nodes!
The first thing you’ll notice about this map is that it features a brand new type of objective space: the Teleport Node. Teleporters may be familiar to players of First Edition, but they work a little bit differently here, so let’s go over how they function.
TELEPORT NODE – A unit that moves onto this space during an advance treats the paired teleport node and spaces adjacent to that node as adjacent to this space during that advance.
As you can see, each teleport node is paired with another node somewhere else on the map. When a unit moves onto a teleport node, the next space it advances into, rather than being adjacent to its current space, can be any space on or adjacent to the other node in the linked pair. This includes diagonals!
An example of a full advance through a teleport node. Take note of how you can get an extra space of diagonal movement by coming out of the teleporter at an angle!
Power and Vectors
With the new things out of the way, let’s also take a moment to focus on the more familiar aspects of the map.
Power Zones & Negative Zones – Incineration Superhighway features six Power Zones. arranged in a grid structure, and no Negative Zone. Also notice how all of the Power Zones are six or more spaces apart, so a Swat or Fling trigger won’t be able to destroy multiple point holders under ordinary circumstances.
Power Bases – Base building on Incineration Superhighway is going to be quite limited; there are only two double foundations in each player’s backline, and the pathways created by the Teleport Nodes make those buildings easy to disrupt, even without a movement rule like Blitz. A lot of your power production on this map will likely come from unit combat!
Pockets – There are two opportunities for a body-block pocket, shown below. It’s important to consider, however, that both of these options leave Monster 2 susceptible to a Ram followed by a throw into a double, so only take these positions if you’re confident your opponent will have limited power dice!
The two main pockets with allied monsters being represented by the red “1” and blue “2”.
Vectors – There are only four double collision opportunities on this map, making it somewhat similar to River City Rampage in terms of damage output. Unlike that map, however, the doubles on Incineration Superhighway are much more centrally located, so it shouldn’t be as taxing on your power pool to throw your opponent to them. Here are a few examples:
A couple examples of common damage lines or alley-oops. The “1” is the first landing zone for a monster, the “2” in a line from there is the second.
Conclusion
Yes, okay… Incineration Superhighway isn’t a real map. You caught me, it’s April Fool’s. It is, however, real in the sense that it was designed with input from the Monpoc playtest team and it is available to play on Tabletop Simulator RIGHT NOW! If you’re more of a physical models type of person, you can also download a high-resolution file to print out at the link below. Just take it to your local print shop and have them print the file at 30” x 23.625”. If you do, make sure you share some photos and let me know what you think!