Monumental - A BoardGameCo Review

[@loganbarnes8125]

Great Review! there first 5 mins was a better and more informative review than any of the other videos out there. I've been really looking for something like this to help me pick a side of the fence to lean with the current Kickstarter.

[@BoardGameCo]

Glad it was helpful!

[@larrybartels3833]

Another excellent review. One addition to the military game that I would like to see is a hidden VP set of markers that you give when one of your regions is conquered.

[@BoardGameCo]

Interesting, it would add a degree of spice.

[@LootShaman]

Love this video. Just a note related to the angle use to shot the video. Since your visage is really close to the camera and your settings on auto-focus. If you put the video in full screen you will better see what it does. But what it does is trying to focus continuously between the table and your visage I think. So it creates a bizarre wobble that would easily be corrected by placing yourself on the other side of the table I think, if you want to stay in auto-focus. Much love. Those videos are amazing. I want them to be even more perfect. :) Keep them coming.

[@BoardGameCo]

I know thanks! I noticed it in my watch through after....not enough for me to reshoot but yes, I took a mental note :)

[@svendhondt5352]

What if they put a monument in the middle of the board, that generates points for the one controlling it and/or gives an automatic win after x turns. Combat problem solved and alternate win can shorten the game considerably.

[@BoardGameCo]

That actually sounds like a great idea; would have to be managed as different setups would change that in different ways.

[@loganbarnes8125]

oooh I like that idea, that would be pretty cool

[@FredzGreen]

Backed on kickstarter - also hesitant when I heard about the long downtimes, but hopeful the simultaneous turns might solve this. I like deckbuilding so this might be for me. Thanks for review!

[@ShelfClutter]

Thanks! Passed on this one but was interested to know more. Backed a lot of games this year and I'm trying not to use Kickstarter as a 0% interest bank account :p

[@GameBrigade]

I feel you.

[@BoardGameCo]

Lol 100% yes.

[@foodini666]

I think this is the first game review video of yours I've watched, thought you did a good job. I haven't played this game yet. Looks like if you play with 4 you might need to buy a 2nd game table to put next to the one you have.

[@BoardGameCo]

Thanks! And yes...the sheer amount of card space in addition to the map....

[@andydb5512]

So I was on the fence until you showed the minis...hot damn! Great review, more on the way? Blood rage 😏

[@BoardGameCo]

I should prob do a blood rage review given it's my favorite game...

[@TheCleaopatra]

Thanks for the review! It's been 4 years now, did they address the issues you mentioned in the video? Game length, downtime, war system, etc.

[@lemandro9]

I’ve been thinking about picking this one up! Really expensive right now. I’m deciding between this and tainted grail! Great video!

[@robinrising9929]

luckily they have an $85 token version now vs the $250 buy in when they launched.

[@BoardGameCo]

Thanks! And ya, the token is enough...if buying again I'd probably go that route.

[@tychay]

BoardGameCo You would? I think in terms of getting your value back if you change your mind the minis version, given its quality, would be slightly more likely to hold its value (about $20 more a box).

[@petermaulo8671]

Funforge did post a draft of the expansion rules including simultaneous play in one of the updates.

[@BoardGameCo]

Yes! I read those rules (after filming this video).

[@dougcerulli8826]

For the solo gamers out there, this is a good pick. The AI is basically a deck of cards, so it doesn't take as much table space. (And I basically used the same deck to run two AI factions.). I love working out all the possible combinations of the card powers. We can call it overproduced, but in 2020, we don't have to have crappy components and art anymore. 🙂

[@BoardGameCo]

Hmmm...I might have to give solo a shot.

[@The4thJawa]

Using the automa deck for multiple factions might actually be a brilliant idea. 🤔

[@dougcerulli8826]

It works quite well, since you just continually reshuffle the deck when needed. I either put in one warlord card and use the faction specific card when it comes up, or shuffle in all the warlord cards for the factions I am using and ignore one of it comes up on an other faction's turn.

[@michal4736]

What would you choose at the same price (around 240$): - Dwelling of Eldervale Deluxe with expansions - Monumental Deluxe with both expansions

[@wikornchatnarattanakul3942]

Thank you for the review!! I've been wait for your review for a long while!!

[@BoardGameCo]

My pleasure!

[@woniepom]

I think everybody confuse 1 thing about the new expansion: introducing Continuous mode do NOT fix the game length, it fixes the player interaction ! not the same at all, to me, players will wait less time between turns so helps everybody staying awake BUT it will increase the game length for sure: instead of having all my resources in front of me and doing all my actions without caring of the order, I now have to think what should I do first: invade first or take card first, i will look at my opponents resources see what they can do/grab which is both positive and negative: you are no longer alone doing your stuff BUT you take more time to think about strategy and same for the other players... But of course we will see when we receive the game if true or not :-)

[@BoardGameCo]

Ya I'm on the fence on that....it would have to make the game much better...

[@thibautchinois]

I played with the continuous mode and without. I have to disagree. The time you take between each action is used by your mates for their own actions. I get your point about strategies and priorities, but all in all, I think it mainly reduces the overall time. At least that's what happened for us. From a usual 3hr game, we got to end the game after 2h30 at a 3 player count.

[@sairam71]

Somewhere in one of bgg threads they said combat is not changing in this ks. However they are aware of it and thinking of an expansion to address it.

[@BoardGameCo]

:( So basically $400 to get this game with both fixes. I'm not sure that's worth it (will still hold its value but not sure if I need it for myself).

[@joshmcilroy603]

Would a 'area control token' be good to give you points for areas you were last in? Also, a card you could get in your deck to recruit a warrior and then you have to play that to bring a warrior back to your home city. Could spice it up a bit?

[@BoardGameCo]

Unsure...might be worth trying.

[@robertpapancsev8891]

I like your reviews, please do more! With new KS a lot of things are improveing. The only thing I still miss is to make the combat more interesting. Currently its just who has more minis in a tile, pluss defence value of the tile, its just math, nothing exciting.

[@BoardGameCo]

Ya for this game for sure.

[@Andy-td4sj]

Alex, how important are Lost Kingdoms and African Empires? is the core good enough on its own?

[@BoardGameCo]

I like the core plenty, but I can't comment on African kingdoms as I haven't played.

[@michelangeloclemente]

Hi Alex, great video! Will you be doing a anticipation video about Primal the awakening and Sankokushin five sacrifices? They seem to be the next great things!

[@BoardGameCo]

Both definitely on my list to do videos on, not sure if it will be before or when they go live though.

[@JoeyJocco]

Great review, Alex! How does this game compare to other civ or 4x games you’ve played (other than being a bit abstracted on both fronts)? You mention possibly getting rid of Monumental down the road-is there a different game that you would replace it with? Something that gives a similar feeling while playing but that doesn’t have some of the downsides you talk about here?

[@BoardGameCo]

Through the Ages is much much better, and only an hour longer, less with the right crowd. The 4x genre hasn't actually been a huge hit in our group....we've played a lot but many have different complaints we have. I like the idea of the genre more than any of the executions I've tried. Heroes of Land Air & Sea may be my favorite so far....but we got rid of that too.

[@kmloke4507]

Which Civ or Civ themed board games would you keep in your collection? Also, are you seriously could be getting rid of Monumental? I am thinking of going all-in deluxe version for this KS campaign... 😓

[@BoardGameCo]

Yes. Monumental is very much on the hit list. It's great and enjoyable, but a few too many flaws for me to be sure I want it in my collection. As far as alternates, my favorite still is Through the Ages, amazing game...longer than monumental but a depth to make it worthwhile.

[@TimYoung1984]

If I late pledge for Endless Winter and have Lost Ruins of Arnak, is Monumental a game worth owning?

[@BoardGameCo]

Monumental is a very different game....from those 3 it's my lowest ranked....but still solid.

[@TimYoung1984]

Out of 10, what would you give it? Out of 10, how about Endless Winter? Arnak?

[@BoardGameCo]

@@TimYoung1984 Endless and Arnak are 5's for me, my highest ranking using my own system. Monumenal is a 4.

[@TimYoung1984]

@@BoardGameCo Do you think Monumental is a 4 solo, or may even be better solo because it won’t last as long as a 2-3 person play?

[@BoardGameCo]

@@TimYoung1984 I know Jeremy Howard likes it solo, I've played it 2 and 3 and liked both.

[@maxnix9256]

Can you say something about the luck factor? This is one of my biggest concerns. Beeing lucky with knowledge cards (get them early, dont have to discard because of drawing 2 in a row,...) or resources (beeing efficient in using them as well as getting matching cards you can buy). I watched a video of a solo runthrough and these early game factors seemed to have a big impact on the game.

[@BoardGameCo]

There's definitely luck but no one at our table felt it was unduly distributed.

[@kmloke4507]

Would you recommend getting this game plus all expansions if just for solo gaming? There won’t be any downtime issue in this case.

[@dougcerulli8826]

I enjoyed the solo version of this game a lot. It might be the way I prefer to play this particular game. The expansion has some extra AI cards that you can use to change the difficulty level of the AI. I'm looking forward to that.

[@BoardGameCo]

I can't comment on the solo...I was interested but haven't yet played it.

[@The4thJawa]

@@BoardGameCo hopefully you'll do a little update once you do as I'm also interested in more opinions about the solo mode.

[@ptitbass]

I would be interested to know too.

[@9595dennis]

What Gaming table is this?

[@BoardGameCo]

Uniquely Geek Coffee Table :)

[@porkchopboardgames6852]

As a painter of Miniatures the quality of These adds another positive to backing. You get a lot of them and the subject matter is appealing so I’m leaning to back this. All in is way too much, probably the core game and the Africa expansion. Coins maybe?

[@Muageto]

Well we seem to agree on the player count. I played it once, at 3, the last few turns started to drag but that was manageable. I heard that at 4, some people had like 15 minutes downtime...

[@Muageto]

And I'm in on the KS of the expansion, going all-in because I enjoyed playing it and think at 2 it could be nice to play and the occasional three when my brother comes in :)

[@DireMcCann]

Muageto 15 min? Sounds like playing a big tabletop war game like Warhammer... been there, done that. Definite strains against getting this. Though the KS expansion has a Continuous play mode to shorten downtime

[@BoardGameCo]

I ended up deciding I'm not going to keep it...too expensive to be on the fence about.

[@Deadomen123]

I first backed this game, then drop the pledge fully and now I have $1 just to see the updates. The campaign hasn't attracted so many backers as I would have hoped and it made me little bit critical towards the game as well. It is quite expensive game for what it is - it probably would be the most expensive game I own, if I would just get the core game. I love the miniatures, graphics in the cards, deck building sounds interesting etc. but not having so much interactions with other players is definitely a downside (continuous play might fix this). That being said, one of my favorite two player games is 7 Wonders: Duel, and this might(?) scratch the same kind of itch.

[@BoardGameCo]

Yep, sadly I think I changed my mind and am passing on Monumental.

[@Deadomen123]

@@BoardGameCo Are there any similar games you could recommend instead of Monumental?

[@mikevincent564]

Sold my copy for the reasons you cite. I’m worried the fixes may not make it great, and I don’t want to sink yet another $100+ to make it good, not a $300 game in my opinion, though it is fun.

[@BoardGameCo]

A fair choice....one I should probably be making myself honestly.

[@mikevincent564]

@@BoardGameCo they only have 12 quest cards, which probably isn't enough to fix the combat issues you mention, espcially as the example we've seen doesn't illustrate this. Also, I want this to be a game I play with 4-5, so the length/downtime, even if they band-aid it sadly won't be enough. It really is too bad, as I LOVE the aesthetic and gameplay, but the game seems like it might be too flawed to justify a $300 price tag. Maybe a 2nd edition which fixes everything from the ground up, rather than with band-aids.

[@inezkestens5561]

I looked into this game because while I'm not the biggest miniatures fan ... I easily find them too big to function on a board, I was very interested because they have so much cool characters. But it very obvious from an overview that 60% of those very gorgeous miniatures are obsolete. I had hopes this would be my civilisation game but that doesn't seem to be the case :p If anyone has some good recommendation for that genre? I've been looking for quite a while because I SHOULD like the genre. I studied history (don't do that people, I'm in IT now :D) and love simulation and strategy games .... However I never liked Civilisation. It's the one game I very much couldn't see the appeal off. I'm more the Crusader Kings/Mount&Blade kind. And in boardgames I haven't come across a civilisation game I really like. So suggestions are welcome :)

[@BoardGameCo]

Through the Ages is a beast of a game in this genre, but totally worth it. Perhaps Nations is a bit lighter and easier to play?

[@StardriveEkko]

New camera angle?! Thats weird! You are a three dimensional beeing?

[@BoardGameCo]

Lol thanks, slowly catching up on comments :)

[@looquanjun450]

Thanks for this video to save my $

[@BoardGameCo]

Glad I could help!

[@RedEyedGhost1]

This game seems to be the poster child for kickstarter excess and overproduction.

[@BoardGameCo]

There are others but this is up there.

[@tychay]

Terraforming Mars Big Box, Vindication, Suburbia SuperCE, any Chip Theory game, most CMON KSE, … (Not that overproduction is a bad thing. In some ways, when it comes to kickstarters, that’s the point. Much of this stuff could never exist in retail.)

[@TimYoung1984]

Do you like Dwellings of Eldervale more than Monumental?

[@OPMDK]

Super small world lol

[@BoardGameCo]

Lol to an extent :)