Board Games in Review – Smash Up – Munchkin Part 1

January 11, 2016

Hello Nerdarchists and board game enthusiasts. Today I bring you another great game for your consideration, or at least part of it. If you missed last weeks article I did Munchkin Zombies, located here. Smash Up is a fantastic game that only gets better as it adds more options and mechanics with wonderful expansions.
Smash Up Munchkin is a stand alone expansion to the base game and can be played separately or as a standalone game much the same way Munchkin games are treated. In this card game you get 8 new factions, a set of bases to add to your collection. new tokens of course, and 2 new types of cards.

Will You Play Smash Up Munchkin Alone or Add it to Your Others?

Since there is so much in this box I am going to break up the review to go into depth into each pile. The two new card types are monster, which I will talk about below and treasure which I will go into in next weeks article. Since there are 8 factions I will also go into depth about 4 of those options below. Again you will have to wait until next week for the others. They are Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, Orcs, Warriors, Clerics, Mages, Thieves and Warriors.

MONSTERS – The monster deck is separate from the other decks and the bases that you draw tell you how many monsters to add to a base. Monsters have a power and a treasure number. Now monsters are minions in all respect but rather then help players get to the break point of a base they actually add to the bases break value. They can be defeated or discarded just like any other minion and the player that does so gets the treasure value of the monster, and at the same time lower the value of the break point of that base.

If the base scores with the monster still there the treasure is to be divided between all players starting with the player with the highest power on that base that scored and going to the next highest. Only players with minions on that base can lay claim to the treasure, but it is not limited to only the top three scoring players.

BASES – All the bases in this version have monsters that are added to increase their break point value but they are loaded with abilities that let you draw extra cards. There are a few with other abilities between adding bonuses and making sure you have a minion attending the birthday party the bases in this set are just great.

Adding new mechanics adds a new variety to the game but also allows you to be able to add new options to the factions powers. I am happy to say that we are not seeing a continued power creep as sometime happen in these games with the newer sets far out pacing the older. These 4 factions I am going over today all have a set 10 minions and 10 action cards per group and none of them have a minion with a power greater than 5. I was afraid of where things might head after The Obligatory Cthulhu Expansion.

ELVES – The elves are tricky and I would say it takes a talented player to play them correctly. Most of this decks abilities really require you to help out your fellow players. Yes you get something out of it to, but if you do not play this deck carefully or if you get hit with bad luck you could be doing more harm then good for yourself. Between giving out +’s to other players and enabling others to draw more cards this is a deck that I think I will avoid for the time being. There are a few cards that I think are cool, the Flower child allows you to once played trade control of one of their minions for that one. If it has a cool ability can be very helpful and quite sneaky. Your Fae Fighter gives out +’s to other players minions to be able to add +’s to your minions as well.

Without a set guideline of favoring minions or actions i would be hard pressed to say what this deck might pair well with. For now I would say play it with a balanced deck that you like and work well with, so you can Smash Up Elves.

CLERICS – Clerics I would say embrace randomness at its core. Perhaps this is the designers slight on religion, who knows. All I can say is that the randomness has a way or either working out well for you or just messing up your opponents plans. This deck, although random, shows me a deck centered around minions. It can pair well with robots trying to over load the battlefield with your bonuses. I would also feel that it can pair well with ninjas as it has a few cards that can shut down your opponents minions.

DWARVES – Dwarves are all about treasure. I have not gone into detail about what type of cards are in treasures, but come on they are treasures so they have to be good. Typically treasures are earned by defeating monsters. Well dwarves do not want to worry about all that nonsense. Dwarves can get treasure cards from the discard pile, from the treasure draw pile. Dwarves can stop their own treasure cards from going to the discard pile, you can play three treasure cards all at once and you can search the treasure pile for one of your choice and then immediately play it. I think once Nerdarchist Dave sees this I am sure he is going to emphasize how he says Dwarves are the master race. This is a strong deck and any faction that can hold its own would do well with Dwarves. Wizards that play extra actions ironically make a good pairing. i say ironically because dwarves for a while were rarely wizards.

HALFLINGS – Halflings are all bout numbers. They like playing extra minions. They do have the typical split but they cap out with a max power of 4 and that can hurt them, but 17 of your 20 cards are about playing more minions or drawing more minions. The other cards are cards that allow you to draw cards or protect all your minions on a base from other players actions. Any faction that gets you minions quickly will be helpful and since no deck does that better than robots I would pair it with them.

If you want to get your own copy you can do so here.

In case you missed the previous articles I will give you all the links you can find so you can explore this game in as much depth as you like.

Smash Up – Killer Combiner Card Game Awesome Level 9000

Obligatory Cthulhu Set Science Fiction Double Feature

Monster Smash Big Geeky Box Pretty Pretty

Wizards and Zombies Robots and Tricksters Pirates and Ninjas

Sadly it looks like either the internet or our website issues has lost the article about Aliens and dinosaurs. So you guys let me know if you feel it is important enough to go and put back up there.

As always thanks for reading. Keep playing those board games and Until Next Time, Stay Nerdy!