Monumental
Monumental is a next generation civilization game with a mix of innovative mechanics taking the best of the deckbuilding and 4X games.
Raise your empire, develop various technologies and build majestic wonders while exploring and conquering the known world to emerge as the most dominant civilization of all time.
Each player controls a civilization that will evolve through their city: a grid of 3x3 cards (formed from the player's starting civilization deck) that can each be activated to gather various resources such as Science, Military, Production, Culture, and Gold. But there’s a trick: one cannot activate all their cards at once, which means that tough choices will have to be made each turn in order to select the cards that are the most needed.
Expansions:
- Monumental: Lost Kingdoms
- Monumental: African Empires
Matt says
"At the heart of Monumental is a new mechanic I call ‘cross-tapping’, where you deal cards from your deck into a 3 x 3 grid, and you choose 1 row and 1 column of cards to use on your turn. In this very simple system, you already have all the tools for some very satisfying combos, and every turn you are presented with engaging and interesting decisions.
I was intrigued by deck-building games, which are interesting because they offer a random selection of cards from your deck each turn, and then you have to make the most of what you have been dealt. But the interest is not really in the playing of the cards – once you have a hand your choice of actions is mostly automatic. I wanted this feeling of getting a new set of opportunities each turn, but with some juicy decisions as to how to use these opportunities. What do you need to do right now, and what can wait until later? Do you pull off a small combo now, or wait and hope for something even better? Hopefully this tension and excitement permeates through Monumental from its core mechanism."
