monsters ravage america  

Updated 1/4/2011

2010 WBC Report  

 2011 Status: pending 2011 GM commitment

Nick Henning, CT

2010 Champion

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Event History
1998    Dave Long     167
1999    Marvin Birnbaum     106
2000    Tom Meier       83
2001    Rebecca Hebner       68
2002    Joseph Sposito       69
2003    Marvin Birnbaum       73
2004    Nick Henning       64
2005    Marvin Birnbaum       80
2006    Nick Henning       33
2007    Daniel Val       55
2008    David Brooks       77 
2009    David Meyaard       58 
2010    Nick Henning       70
 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Nick Henning       CT    10    110
  2.  Marvin Birnbaum    NY    05    100
  3.  Rebecca Hebner     CO    05     77
  4.  Steve Scott        CA    07     68
  5.  Joe Sposito        NJ    02     63
  6.  David Brooks       TN    08     62
  7.  Tom Meier          VA    00     50
  8.  Matthew Beach      MD    10     45
  9.  David Meyaard      CT    09     30
 10.  Daniel Val         es    07     30
 11.  John Koskl         NC    05     30
 12.  Christina Hancock  NH    99     24
 13.  William Sparks     MD    10     18
 14.  Verity Hitchings   DE    10     18
 15.  Derek Landel       NJ    09     18
 16.  Alex Bell          MD    08     18
 17.  Steve Dickson      CA    03     18
 18.  Mike Eoppolo       DE    02     16
 19.  Dan Eshleman       NC    01     16
 20.  Joshua Garton      VA    99     16
 21.  Jason Levine       NY    09     15
 22.  James Sparks       MD    10     12
 23.  Mike Fisher        PA    06     12
 24.  Erica Kirchner     KY    05     12
 25.  Rich Moyer         MN    04     12
 26.  Ryan Gury          NC    03     12
 27.  Seth Kirchner      KY    02     12
 28.  Abby Cocke         MD    99     12
 29.  Reiko Brooks       TN    00     10
 30.  David Pack         CO    08      9
 31.  Dave Denton        NY    07      9
 32.  Paul Weintraub     MD    04      9
 33.  Joshua Dunn        VA    99      8
 34.  Joanna Melton      VA    09      6
 35.  Gregory Kulp       NJ    07      6
 36.  Tito Lightburn     VA    06      6
 37.  Lauren Vessey      VA    05      6
 38.  Sue Cornett        FL    04      6
 39.  Andres Dunn        MD    03      6
 40.  Cliff Ackman       PA    06      4
 41.  Kevin Wojtaszczyk  NY    02      4
 42.  Christi Cousins    ME    01      4
 43.  Dan Hoffman        NY    99      4
 44.  Brooks Beyma       MD    10      3
 45.  Matt Morgal        MD    08      3
 46.  Nathan Trent       VA    07      3
 47.  Daniel Pappas      MD    05      3
 48.  Erika Poniske      NC    03      3
 49.  Jeremy Weatherford IL    06      2

2010 Laurelists                                              Repeating Laurelists:

William Sparks, MD
2nd

James Sparks, MD
3rd

Matthew Beach, MD
4th

Verity Hitchings, DE
5th

Brooks Beyma, VA
6th

Past Winners

Dave Long, NC
1998

Marvin Birnbaum, NY
1999, 2003, 2005

Tom Meier, VA
2000

Rebecca Hebner, CO
2001

Joe Sposito, NJ
2002

Nick Henning, CT
2004, 2006, 2010

Daniel Val, Spain
2007

Dave Brooks, TN
2008

David Meyaard, CT
2009

John Rinko and Joanna Melton check out Godzilla's relatives.

Finalists gather around GM Mark Love.

Looking Cool Matters!

Although this game is Coached, for the first time since the GM took over from designer Ben Knight in 1999, no demos were held in 2010 but attendance rose anyway 21%. There were Halloween-type prizes for winners of any game. While it was not required to advance, 27% of the players played more than one heat, a reason to attend this national convention. 28 games were played with 112 player starts, including the semi-finals and Final. 64% of games played used the 2005 MONSTERS Menace America edition, while 36% used the 1998 MONSTERS Ravage America edition. Ravage was the default version, but a switch to either a semi-finalists vote or making Menace the default is destined for 2011.

Ravage continued using house rules established in 2005, to incorporate some improvements made in Menace: weakening the Navy sub defense by 1, reducing the Air Force fighter range by 1, and adding a southern California overlay map to strengthen the Marines bases (a copy of which was made available to players by the GM.) A 9-point handicap was added to Ravage scoresheets to determine alternates, since the Menace version has more opportunities to collect extra attacks from infamy markers, and has more mutations that affect the Challenge battles.

Get the mutations that can be used in the MONSTER Challenge!

Toxicor (the Menace clone of Bronacle) won 37% of the Menace games, while Bronacle won 44% of the Ravage games. The four Ravage MONSTERS, whose lairs are concentrated in one region, did not win a single game. The western Gargantis in Menace suffered the same fate. The players controlling the Army, with its stronger defense, won 42% of the Menace games and 44% of the Ravage games! The Marines did the worst, (partly due to an absence of Dolan players in 2010.)

Menace won by: Toxicor 7, Tomanagi 5, Zorb 4 (champion), Megaclaw 2, Konk 1, Gargantis 0

Ravage won by: Bronacle 4, Glow Wyrm 2, Konk 2, Tomanagi 1, Ixitpla 0, Frothomir 0, Dread Swamp Lasher 0, Dust Devil 0.

Menace winners controlled: Army 8, Air Force 6, Navy 4, Marines 1.

Ravage winners controlled: Army 4, Air Force 2, Navy 2, Marines 1.

MON-STAR of the Silver Screen: For many years 10% of players' MONSTERS were consistently sent to Hollywood with zero health, (there trying to break out again.) In 2010 14% of Ravage players were sent to Hollywood. It's been rare to see anyone sent to Hollywood in the Menace version, but 8% went there in 2010. Players received a MON-STAR of the Silver Screen certificate for the dishonor, with their handprint on the back.

Frothomir may not have won a game, but he was the second biggest Ravage MONSTER in the tournament, controlled by 16-year-old Andrew Wilson of New Jersey. Thomas Agostino of Munich, Germany had the biggest Ravage MONSTER. As the top alternate, Rebecca Melton's Tomanagi was the biggest Menace MONSTER. The youngest winner was 9-year-old Aidan Czyryca with Megaclaw. 14-year-old Jordan Luce had the best score for a first time player, lured in to fill the last board. But she lost to Brandon Beltz, and couldn't stay Sunday to play as an alternate. Matt Geary won his game despite getting only 4 health points for stomping New York City. He formed an alliance with Zorb, but 13-year-old Anna Rinko's Navy beat Zorb down to 1 health. Anna went on to win in another heat, but didn't attend the semi-final.

The Semi-finals

Matthew Morgal became the top seed, as the only player who won two heat games, one of Ravage and one of Menace. 2010 brought a 45% no-show rate for the semi-finals, the highest ever recorded. Only 12 of the 22 different winners appeared for the second round which made the four alternates very happy, since one ended up taking 6th place and the other advanced all the way to the Final.

So who became the First Family of MONSTERS in 2010? Joanna Melton and son Thomas both won heat games, and daughter Rebecca advanced as the top alternate. William Sparks won a heat and had to call his father, James Sparks, back to the ballroom for the last alternate spot, after one of the winners disappeared. Joanna Melton was reported as the winner of her semi-final and her whole family left, expecting she'd be in the Final. But in the Menace version, the written rules require that both military MONSTERS must be attacked last in the MONSTER Challenge. But Joanna had beaten the two military MONSTERS, and rolled up their starting health, before attacking William Sparks' MONSTER. She agreed to restart the Challenge from before that error, and then lost to William. For her honesty and willingness to correct the mistake, and for her gracious acceptance of defeat, Joanna Melton was nominated for the Sportsmanship Award. (Also recognized is David Pack, who played as a non-contender in the Junior's tournament, to keep the game balanced, and taught the game to adult novices, who then proceeded to beat him. He had taught the game to most of the juniors, when he last attended the WBC two years ago.) Matthew Morgal and Brooks Beyma also lost to William Sparks, with Brooks Beyma taking 6th place in the tournament.

The Sparks indeed became the First Family of MONSTERS, as the last alternate, James Sparks, joined his son in the Final, by defeating David Anderson, Thomas Melton, and assistant GM, Verity Hitchings, (who finished 5th in the tournament, for two team points.) Matthew Beach advanced to the Final for the fourth time, defeating Matt Fagan, Rebecca Melton, and Paul Bolduc.

The fourth semi-final game was going to have four former Ravage champions at the same board, but #3 seed in 2010 and two-time Ravage junior champion Jacob Hebner was still awake at 4:00 AM... and fast asleep at 9:00 AM. But this was still the first time in tournament history that three former champions were in the same game, as they all wanted to play at the only Ravage semi-final board. Heat winner Brendan Coomes took on three-time winner Marvin Birnbaum, two-time winner Nick Henning, and 2008 champ David Brooks. David beat Rebecca Hebner in their 2010 heat game, the first time they faced off since Rebecca beat David by the roll of a single die in the 2001 final challenge. Brendan Coomes was left to deal with the daunting task of defeating three former champions, and they sent him to Hollywood with zero health three times. He sat out the MONSTER Challenge there. Nick Henning's Tomanagi got control of the Challenge at Mount St. Helen's, whose blue sea color gives that female MONSTER an extra attack in her first round of any combat! That, plus Nick's 25 health and 1 extra infamy attack, was enough to defeat the 14 health of Marvin Birnbaum's Bronacle. Nick even rolled up some health, which was needed to edge David Brooks' Glow Wyrm's 24 health and 1 infamy to send Nick to his third Final.

The Final Game
Ravage was still the default game in 2010, but only because the GM didn't change the Preview Page in time. Nick Henning found himself in the same position that Steve Scott did in 2007. He could require his opponents to play Ravage, which Nick had only been playing. Nick had even played Menace in a semi-final several years earlier, and lost. Since 2005, all of the MONSTERS players have been very accommodating, to fill boards of both versions. Nick said, "This will probably cost me the game", but agreed to play Menace. The GM provided him with a sheet summarizing the differences in the two versions, with aspects of Menace frequently overlooked by Ravage players.

So the Final involved a 2-time Ravage champion now playing Menace, a four-time finalist, and the first MONSTER Final with two relatives, a father and son. All four were given new baseball caps, with the military branch that they chose to play in the Final (and three of them also had dog tags.) They also got souvenir programs from the most recent Veteran's Day service at General John J. Pershing's grave at Arlington National Cemetery.

The starting positions:

Matthew Beach, Toxicor with the Marines

Nick Henning, Zorb with the Air Force

James Sparks, (the dad), Tomanagi with the Army

William Sparks (the son), Gargantis with the Navy

Turns 1-2: Toxicor stomps New York City. Zorb mutates at the Nevada Test Site, getting Iron Stomach. Tomanagi stomps San Diego, defeating the Marines there. Gargantis stomps Los Angeles.

Turn 3: Toxicor is retreated from Boston when he attacked it. Zorb stomps San Francisco, getting six health. Tomanagi stomps Phoenix. Gargantis mutates at Nevada Test Site, gets Atomic Recovery.

Turn 4: Toxicor stomps Boston, adds seven health. Nick's Zorb stomps Portland and attacks Toxicor with his Air Force. Tomanagi mutates at Roswell, gets Laser Beam Eyes. Gargantis mutates at Experimental Breeder, gets War Spikes.

Turn 5: Toxicor defeats four military and stomps Baltimore/Washington and his own base, gains 12 health, but is limited by the written rules to Toxicor's maximum 30 health. (All other MONSTERS' maximum is 40.) Zorb stomps Seattle and now has 22 health. Nick's Air Force attacks Gargantis, but mutates him, giving him Atomic Breath. Tomanagi stomps Denver and now has 16 health. Gargantis stomps the infamy space at Mount Rushmore.

Turn 6: Matthew's Toxicor mutates at Three Mile Island, gets High Octane Blood. He sends his Marines next to the flying Gargantis, who cannot be blocked. Zorb stomps Vancouver. Nick explains, "I don't like Canada." Tomanagi mutates at the Experimental Breeder Reactor, getting Beserk. He chooses military research and gets a military MONSTER, Captain Colossal. Gargantis stomps another infamy, at Royal Gorge, and his military takes the Molecular Cannon.

Turn 7: Matthew's Toxicor disappears from the growing military, and he attacks Tomanagi with six Marine units and his Stabilizer Ray, removing the mutations. Two units survive and retreat this female MONSTER. Zorb disappears. Tomanagi disappears with nine health, restoring her to 11. Gargantis mutates at Roswell, getting It's a Robot.

Turn 8: Matthew pours five Marine units into the VLA Radio Telescope infamy space. Nick's Zorb, now wearing a white cape for fun, appears in his Florida lair. James' Tomanagi appears in the south Atlantic Ocean lair. Gargantis stomps the Alamo infamy space and the base there.

Turn 9: Toxicor mutates at the Breeder Reactor, getting Son of MONSTER. Following a previous attack on Toxicor, Nick sends his Air Force towards the southeast, after a military cooperation deal with James collapsed. James' Tomanagi stomps Atlanta and his Army attacks Toxicor, sending him to Hollywood. Gargantis stomps Houston.

Turn 10: Toxicor rolls to get out of Hollywood, but is stuck with four health. Zorb chases the Blonde Lure and is forced to remain in Florida. Tomanagi stomps Nashville.

Turn 11: Toxicor breaks out of Hollywood, goes to the already-stomped Los Angeles. Zorb stomps Tampa. Tomangi tries to get to Pittsburgh, but is stopped by Nick's Laser Fence. William's Gargantis stomps Austin for the 20th stomp, and his Navy units attacks his dad's Tomanagi.

Turn 12: Matthew's Toxicor steals the Challenge control by getting to the southwest Challenge Site. His Marine units attack Gargantis and Tomanagi.

MONSTER Challenge: Matthew's Toxicor has Atomic Breath (extra attack in the first round of combat), five health and no extra attacks from infamy. He attacks and loses to William's Gargantis, who has It's a Robot, War Spikes, nine health and 1 extra attack. The win adds Matthew's five health with no losses, so Garagantis chooses to attack his dad James' Tomanagi. The big carnosaur has 16 health, no mutations and two extra infamy attacks. Gargantis, who won the only previous Menace Final, prevails, but his health was knocked down to two. Adding Tomanagi's starting 16 gives him 18 to face Nick's Zorb. The big eyeball has 16 health, no mutations, and five extra infamy attacks. Nick uses the method of champions... rolling 4's, 5's and 6's to inflict damage. Gargantis misses in the second round of combat, and Nick Henning joins Marvin Birnbaum with his third MONSTERS plaque. It's Zorb's first Menace championship.

Nick Henning had spent the week wearing a 4-foot stuffed snake draped over his body, which he'd gotten for his heat win over the GM. There is no Zorb clone in the Ravage version of the game. So why did Nick, now a 3-time MONSTERS champion, choose Zorb (the All Seeing Eye) for the Final? "Just because I thought he looked cool."


GM Mark Love gets a helping hand from Dave Pack overseeing the monsters.

The next wave of monsters wait in the Minors ready to challenge the Henning dynasty.

 MONSTERS Menace America Junior

15 little monsters, aged 12 or under, played in the 2010 junior tournament, but the best critters were:

1st: Thomas Melton

2nd: Taylor Rish

3rd: Andrew Doughan

4th: Abigail Elliott

5th: Ben Loeb

6th: Mirth Pack

A few little MONSTERS did not make the 2010 junior tournament (notably Werewolf players), because it began at the crack of 9:00 AM Saturday. But 15 juniors did attend and many already knew how to play. Most of them had been taught both the rules and strategy two years ago by David Pack. Now 18, David filled one of the 2010 junior boards as a non-contender, who could not participate in the MONSTER Challenge. The game is poorly balanced if nobody operates the 4th military; David practically ran a clinic in this game against experienced juniors.

The four winners of Round 1:

Thomas Melton with Zorb and the Marines

Andrew Doughan with Toxicor and the Navy

Taylor Rish with Megaclaw and the Air Force

Abigail Elliott with Gargantis and the Navy.

Their Junior final game may be the first MONSTERS junior final with no 12 year-olds:

Thomas Melton, age 11, took Zorb and the Navy.

Taylor Rish, age 11, took Megaclaw and the Army.

Andrew Doughan, age 10, took Toxicor and the Air Force.

Abigail Elliott, age 7 (that is not a misprint), took Gargantis and the Marines.

Zorb stomped Los Angeles, Megaclaw stomped the Paul Bunyon infamy, Toxicor mutated at the Breeder Reactor, getting Whip Tentacles, and Gargantis stomped the Vegas Strip infamy space. Zorb stomped San Francisco, Megaclaw mutated, Gargantis stomped the Corn Palace infamy, and Toxicor mutated at Roswellm getting Winged Horror. Zorb mutated at the Nevada Test Site, getting It's a Robot, Megaclaw stomped Old Faithful. As the game proceeded, Gargantis was sent to Hollywood, Toxicor was out in the open, and Zorb stomped Seattle. Taylor's Megaclaw stole the MONSTER Challenge in the northwest. Abigail's Gargantis was stuck in Hollywood, signing autographs. Taylor's Megaclaw had two health and nine extra attacks from infamy. He fought Andrew's Toxicor first, beat him, and rolled up his starting 14 health. He then took on Thomas' Zorb, who had 30 health, one infamy, It's a Robot, and Son of MONSTER. That was too much to take on, and Thomas Melton emerged as the 2010 Junior Champion!

For his service in taking his game time to thoroughly teach Menace to the juniors, filling a junior board as a non-contender to make it viable, and teaching both Menace and Ravage to adults and taking them under his wing during the games, which he lost, David Pack was nominated for the Sportsmanship award.

 GM      Mark Love  [12th Year]   NA
    emailpal@iwon.com    NA

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