Subterrans...The new Planet Eaters?

I have to hand it to PP, this game gets better every set. The amount of synergy between red, green, and blue abilities is almost too much to take in.

Every faction withing the Now block has some rather playable monsters either currently stomping around boards, or due out in BiJ.

Sadly, I can't say this for the Subterran Uprising. Their monsters in a word, Suck. And I can't say I'm all too thrilled about their BiJ prospects.

Are these guys the new Planet Eaters? Their installation better be something special.

Personally I think the PE's had good monsters, but the units were all a little odd or missing the ability to cross the board. I think Moles are more closely related to the Martians of the old set. I would argue that Martians has some really weird to horrible monsters but good units. Very similar to where the moles are.

Very fitting as an analogy as well since Hoppers (which are pretty much just vanguards) make PE much better now.

We probably need to split this us up.

1) units

Moles have terrible units. I know the community keeps saying that they have excellent brawlers, but what does that really give you?

It gets you radial attacked by airbornes! Everytime I have brawled recently I have only set myself for getting bombed by splash monkeys.

They also lose a ton of synergy that Cthul has in taking their units in that they don't have access to the Towers.

As it stands currently, the moles only truly viable map is Killer Canals. And they aren't even the best Canal army as several others come to mind.

And in a block full of awesome abilities they get none! Command, amplify, transport, radial attack, etc. Every other Now faction has a defining ability that even makes them splashable off agenda. I can't say that I am itching to take any of the Mole units as a splash.

This same argument could be made in Rise block of the PE units. Their is a slight chance one might splash an explodohawk but I doubt it.

2) monsters

This probably wasn't a fair assessment. I would argue that Planet Eater monsters aren't necessarily better than Martians. Every one of the Martian monsters is playable with the exception of Deimos. Conversely, I think Zorog is a coaster on most maps.

Each Rise faction has 2-3 truly playable monsters. It's seeming like this isn't the case for the Moles.

I'm just a casual player, so I'm not going to give you some game changing strategy. But I have been using Xaxor, and can tell you that being able to provide Charge/Jump to units is huge. Especially if you get on a teleporter map, and add in secure an Oil Refinery. I would pit that build against most Monsters, and think he would do very well.

Xaxor is an absolute beast, he's the exception not the rule.

Generally speaking, and not always...Brawly units are bad. Heck, without xaxor, most planet eater units can't even hit flyers.

Too early to tell (even with all the spoilers). The units are of decent DEF, can bring the hurt in a nice trio (grunt, elite brute + berzerker). Yes, they're prone to radial, chain react, and explosion, but all they need is protection ala Mega Hondo (Blue forcefield) and their survivability goes way up. Just as the beetles almost single handedly made PE viable, something that gives protection (or possibly charge) could really up the unit's value.

The monsters are adequate. Not spectacular, but adequate.

I've been doing well with Mole units in my Cthul armies. With the Mole Monsters I'm doing alright. Probably need to revisit them and see what I can do now that I've been playing a couple of months. I started with them since they were the first tuned army I was able to put together.

Honestly with my Cthul armies my favorite unit to mix in is the mollok mortar. Burrow gives it nice flexibility and it's easier to get it to combine with the Cthulabite. I run a spitter squad and a mortar squad. Obviously not as effective for summon, manufacture & transmogrify but the burrow keeps me happy. Plus they can brawl if need be. I also keep a berserker in the mix. Very helpful when the need to brawl arises. My brutes are mostly kept when I go all Mole.

I'm very much looking forward to the tow unit and the range unit with marker. Of course the marker unit will make it challenging to determine which units go in. Depends on how it compares to mortars I guess. The spitters are required.

I do like grindix mega...maybe with a few more shooters in this new set, they won't be so awful.

I bet their installation will put them on the map though.