Map Analysis Series: Downtown Beatdown [Gearbox]

The instructive images in this article are captured from the free Tabletop Simulator mod by Tekk which you can subscribe to here.

Hello again and welcome.  I’m Gearbox and I’m here to help you go from casually tossing monsters around the board to playing MonPoc competitively.  This is the seventh article in a series analyzing all the maps released for Monsterpocalypse.  In today’s article I’m going to walk through an analysis of the Monsterpocalypse map Downtown Beatdown.  I recommend reading my articles on Power Bases and Vectors before you dive into this article.

Released in May 2021 in the Elemental Champions and Savage Swarm starter boxes as one side of the double sided paper map.  Downtown Beatdown is a fun, interesting map to play on.  While it’s covered in foundations, it’s not a terribly cluttered mess.  Unless you bring two pedestrian monsters; then you’re gonna have a bad time.

Foundations, Clutter, and Spawn Points

With a whopping 24 foundations strewn across the map, you’ll be placing every building you bring to the game onto Downtown Beatdown.  None of them feel unimportant or useless, however.  Every building matters, either to secure or for potential collisions.

However, 24 foundations do not come without clutter.  It is difficult to maneuver pedestrians around this map, and even speed 6 monsters with high mobility find themselves hemmed in.   The map flows down two lanes, one to the left and one to the right.  These lanes are three squares wide and flow around the central six buildings.  

The 5 spawn points on Downtown Beatdown are positioned such that you’ll want a few speed 5 high mobility units to attempt to secure the Middle power zones.  Given the horizontal distance between them, the left hand side and the right hand side do not interact much.

Why you want Speed 7 monsters with High Mobility on Downtown Beatdown

These monsters have a distinct advantage because they can move between the two lanes outlined above.  Jumping over the central buildings of the map expands their threat range at least threefold over a pedestrian monster in the same space.  Without a SPD 7 High Mobility monster, you have to go through or over the enemy monsters to get to your opponent’s backline power bases

In the below example, Hurricanius can move from the blue position to any of the red positions without having to take a step.

Potential Power Bases

In the lower right is an interesting, so far unique structure that can have 4 units secure three buildings.  It also has a Safe power zone nearby.  Note that if you secure the Safe power zone, the unit can be swatted into the keystone unit securing all 3 buildings, which is a repair truck in the below example.

In the middle there is a lone building with a spawn point next to it.

On the left there is a triple foundation composed of 2 Offset Doubles merged together.  6 units can secure all three foundations without having to be adjacent to one another.

In the center of the map are 3 Middle power zones and 2 negative zones.  Note how none of the power zones on the map are within swatting distance of another power zone, but all of the power zones on the map are within swatting distance of a negative zone.

Alley-Oop Vectors

Remember that anything done on your side of the map can be done on your opponent’s side and vice versa.  Also remember that Vectors can be reversed, if done properly.  In the examples below, Red Goghadra will be where the enemy lands from the initial attack, Defender X will be where you can position your second monster, and Orange Gorghadra will be where the enemy finally lands.  There are a six key Alley-Oop Vectors to discuss on this map:

Backline Single into Double A and B.  Dropping your opponent’s monster onto their backline middle yellow foundation opens up two fantastic double foundation throws that are only 5 squares away, in opposite directions.

Backline Bodyslam.  Drop your opponent’s monster onto this yellow foundation, then bodyslam them into the two attached foundations to cripple their powerbase.

Sideline dangerzone A and B.  If your opponent ends up halfway on this green foundation on the side of the map, then there are two double foundation throws about 5 squares away.

Mid-map single into double.  If you can drop your opponent onto this green foundation, then you can throw them with 4 power dice into this midfield double foundation with only 4 power dice.

Final Thoughts

COMPETITIVE PLAYERS MUST BE COMFORTABLE ON ALL MAPS. Half the time, your opponent is going to choose the map, so you need to be ready to play on all of them. Everything after this line is just Gearbox's opinion, and should not be taken as the last word. In fact, many competitive players vehemently disagree with the below opinion.

Downtown Beatdown is a great map, if you bring at least one monster with high mobility and speed 7.  The ability to jump between the lanes is a vital option to threatening the early game.  This map feels very long, and therefore like a safe place to build power bases, but be careful not to take easily swattable power zones or negative zones.

Comparisons can be made between Downtown Beatdown and Obliteration Boulevard.  Both have two concentric rings of buildings around a central location, it’s just that Downtown Beatdown’s central location isn’t large enough for monsters to enter.  Since there are only two lanes and great difficulty maneuvering between them with pedestrians, you’ll want to avoid this map if you have two pedestrian monsters.

There is a small double edge to this map, since it lets both you and your opponent bring all 12 possible buildings to the table.  While fun, this can backfire if they have more aggressive junk buildings than you do.

In the end, I like Downtown Beatdown and recommend finding a copy for your local play group.  It rewards high speed high mobility monsters and punishes double pedestrian lists.  This map has a lot of interesting Alley-Oops, and some very interesting power zone positioning.

This brings me to the end of the available maps at this time.  I hope you enjoyed this series thus far, and I am looking forward to expanding it in the future when we have more maps available.

Have fun!

- Gearbox