Civilizations from across the ages compete to conquer lands, build wonders, and accumulate knowledge to see which of them will be the most Monumental.
Monumental is a a civilization game for 1-4 players, ages 14+, and plays in 90-120 minutes. Designed by Matthew Dunstan and published by Funforge, the game incorporates a variety of mechanics, including 4x (Explore, Expand, Exploit, and Exterminate), deck building, and a unique “cross-tapping” mechanic. It’s currently seeking funding on Kickstarter where you can purchase the Classic Edition for $75 or the Deluxe Edition for $104. Note that Monumental is a Kickstarter exclusive and won’t be sold at retail so grab your copy now if you are interested.
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Note: My review is based on a prototype copy, so it is subject to change and does not reflect final component quality. Many of the cards I played with did not have art on them, and I played with the classic edition so tokens only, no miniatures. However, I will say the quality of the tokens and cards were top notch, and the artwork that was included is gorgeous and vibrant. And speaking of components, this game comes with a lot.
The goal of Monumental is to become the most successful civilization by building the most wonders, gaining the most knowledge, developing cultural policies, and conquering and controlling the most provinces. In the end, the player who has acquired the most victory points is the winner.
Board setup is dependent upon the number of players. Assemble the board using the tiles and layout as shown in the instructions, placing the Barbarian/Free City tokens, Production tokens, and Market tokens on the board as indicated. Place the various resources (military, production, and science counters, and gold coin and cultural tokens) within easy reach of all players.
Take the three different types of Basic Building cards and place them into separate piles. Also sort and shuffle the Development cards by their respective eras (I, II, and III), stacking them on top of each other with era I on top. Deal the top 6 cards from the Development Deck into row, creating the Development Display. These are the starting Development cards for purchase.
Each player chooses a civilization to play, taking the corresponding Warlord, Explorers, Outposts, and Soldier tokens and places them on their capital tile. Also, take the corresponding Warlord and Cultural Policy cards. Finally, shuffle your 15 starting Civilization cards and deal them out in a 3-by-3 grid from top to bottom, and left to right. These 9 cards are your city. While setting up your city, if you deal a Knowledge card, then place the next Building card on top of it before finishing your grid. This completes the setup phase. Now it’s time to begin playing!
The highlight of Monumental is its cross tapping mechanic. On your turn, you will activate one column and one row by tapping, or turning sideways, those five cards. Each card gains you a specific type of resource—military, production, and science—or has an triggered ability. If you activate a card with a Knowledge card beneath it, you get the benefit from the Knowledge card as well. Gather the appropriate counters from the resource pool. You will be able to use these to take actions during your turn; however, note that any resources that you don’t use, go back into the resource pool at the end of your turn. Use them, or lose them. The exception to the rule are Culture and Gold Coin tokens. A player may keep these to spend on a future turn.
On their turn, a player may take any of these actions, in any order, and as many times as they wish, as long as they have the resources to pay for them.
As you can see, there are a lot of options available. One thing to note is that gold can be spent in place of a military, science, or production resource, making it a valuable commodity since you do not lose it at the end of turn like the other resources.
Once a player has completed all their actions, they return any unused resources back to the resource pool, discard tapped city cards, and replenish their city by dealing new cards from their Civilization Deck into the empty spaces from top to bottom, and left to right. Additionally, shift Development cards away from the Development deck to fill any gap left by purchased cards, and then deal out new cards so that there are a total of 6 available for the next player. If no Development cards were purchased that turn, discard the one farthest away from the deck, shift the others down, and deal out a new card.
The end of game is triggered when the final Development Card is dealt. Play continues until the last player finishes their turn. Then each player receives one more turn so that all players receive an equal number of turns.
The winner is determined by victory points, which are calculated as follows:
The player with the most victory points is the champion. Ties are resolved by the player with the most gold being victorious. If there is still a tie, then the player with the most Culture wins. If there is still a tie, then players share victory.
Monumental has a lot to offer. It is a 4x civilization game. It’s a deck builder. It has a unique cross-tapping mechanic that gives a player maximum flexibility each turn. All of these combine into an interesting and engaging game with good production quality and beautiful artwork. At first glance, there is a lot going on on the board, and a lot of information to assimilate. However, it only took a turn or two for everyone to grasp the gameplay. Although there are several possible choices, you are limited by the resources you can produce, and the actions are straight forward (spend a resource, do the action). I was impressed at how smooth the gameplay was and that the array of options did not cause analysis paralysis.
Monumental also has a lot of replayability built in. For starters, the core box comes with 5 different factions (Greeks, Egyptians, Vikings, Chinese, and Japanese), plus another 4 available for purchase (Amazons, Aztecs, Atlanteans, and Mughals). Each faction has a unique warlord power, Cultural Policies, and starting Civilization Deck, offering different play strategies and guaranteeing a different experience with each faction. And the variable tiles add even more replayability. While the rules provide basic board setups, you are free to create your own map. For instance, if you desire to have more player interaction and head-to-head combat, then just assemble a smaller board. Or want to make it more difficult to conquer provinces, then use tiles and Barbarian tokens with higher defenses.
I especially liked that there are several paths to victory. You can focus on military might by conquering and controlling the most provinces; or amaze the world with your collection of wonders; or become the smartest civilization by gathering knowledge; or maybe the best strategy is a combination of these. The cross-tapping mechanic plays into this beautifully by allowing a player flexibility on each turn to activate the cards that will most benefit their strategy at that moment.
In addition to having fun and creative central mechanics, Monumental also does the small things well. Like any good deck builder, the game provides a way to cull your deck through the archiving mechanic. Certain cards, when activated, allow you to archive, or remove, one of your non-activated city cards from the game. Thus removing less powerful cards from your deck so that you will be able to activate your powerful ones more frequently. Also, the fact that all players get the same number of turns is a nice touch. It’s never fun when a game ends right before you are about to have a big turn that might have solidified your victory, but in Monumental, when the end game triggers, everyone still has one last chance to go big.
The last thing I want to touch on is the solo mode. My prototype didn’t have the Solo Deck, so I was unable to test this out, but I am always more interested in games that provide a good solo experience since breaking free for a game night doesn’t happen very often. While my hunch is that Monumental is best enjoyed with other players, the option to setup a solo challenge is appealing. The solo mode setup is the same as for a 2-player game; however, you use the Solo Deck to control the automona’s actions. You take your turn as normal, and then on the automona’s turn, flip a card from the Solo Deck and perform those actions. It’s that simple. You add up victory points at the end to see who had the better score, you or the autonoma.
Overall, Monumental looks like a great civilization game, with or without the miniatures. I am looking forward to playing the final version and call dibs on the Greeks. What civilization do you want to play?
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Disclosure: GeekDad received a copy of this game for review purposes.
This post was last modified on October 22, 2018 1:38 pm
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