Monarch

Monarch is a competitive strategy game where you play as one of four sisters seeking to take the throne. To accomplish this, you must populate your court with items and characters that increase your influence, while avoiding unwanted guests that other sisters send to distract you. Component Quality and Setup: Monarch was an extremely easy game to learn and set up. Given a few minutes, I was able to quickly read the rules and set the board for play. The components consist of 13 cardboard tile punch-outs that represent villages or farms, a number of cardboard punch out coin and food tokens, a deck of playing cards, and thick banner cards. Everything is durable and high quality. The game also comes with baggies for the tokens, as well as a larger cloth bag you could stuff the tokens or tiles into. Gameplay: Ultimately, your objective is to have the highest crown allotment by the end of the game, which is determined when a player’s court is filled up. To buy cards that increase the value of your crowns, you must earn coin by taxing the villages (who demand food) or harvest food from the farms to pay for taxes. Strategy and thought enter the game when the thematic Path Cards are purchased and their synergy comes into play with the chosen banner that sister ends up flying. For instance, a sister that has chosen Wisdom as her path (and met the wisdom requirement to fly that banner) receives additional crowns for inviting wisdom-path cards into her court and into the farms and villages. Other sisters are working to flesh out their respective paths as well, while depriving the Wisdom-path sister of Wisdom cards, or sending unwanted guests into her court to distract her. There are also card types with synergy, such as fantastic beasts and fashionable clothing that can be added to a sister’s court. Meanwhile, lunar events can be drawn which have a global impact on the game, such as offering a bountiful harvest or depleting everyone’s coin reserves in half. Overall Impression: Monarch is suitable for novice and experienced gamers alike. It was extremely easy to learn, to setup, and everyone had a good time playing. The only thing I had to look up on the internet is what classifies a “beast” because the Rhinoceros refused to give me crowns if I had another beast in my court (there’s a faded emblem in the card’s text box denoting if it is a beast or clothing item). Otherwise the action was fast paced and engaging. The cards were all interesting, and their synergy was apparent to everyone so players would actively take measures to try and capture a card or prevent its acquisition.

This is a rather fun and simple game. The basic idea is to become the favored daughter of the queen before the other players by selecting a specific route and becoming the next in line for the throne. The game is simple (not very time consuming) yet very replayable. Your decisions each turn not only effect you, but could have potential effects good or bad on the other players/daughters of the queen. The box is a nice sturdy construction and the cards are thick and the art style is pleasing to the eye.

A great game for new tabletop players and old alike! It plays and teaches very easily! We all had a great time on our first play-through and we wanted to play again. Lots of fun! There is a fair bit of hate online for this game, but I don't understand where it comes from. The gameplay is somewhat straight forward but there are many ways to win and several cool mechanics that keep things interesting. It is not a 4-hour-war-epic of a game with a 100 page rule book - it is something you can pull out and play in 30-45 minutes (depending on # of players) and have a good time!

I run with a bi weekly board game group that mostly runs co-ops and can get into character, as we also play Pen and Paper style games, so I was a little reserved to get this one until I started researching the game more and reading other reviews. First: This game is VERY easy to learn, has fast setup/cleanup, and relatively quick to play depending on the number of players (or first time or not), so if looking for a filler game that even younger kids can play this is a great for that. Second: Replay hasn't been an issue. Having only played three times, 2 three player and 1 four player, I had fun with each time and didn't have the same strategy each game. Which leads to the next point. Three: The game is lighter on strategy which again helps for the first point. While five cards are up at anytime, others may buy what you want before your turn comes around, more so in the 4 player game I recently played. Plus the "Moon" cards can throw a wrench in your plans by hindering your Apples and Gold, or giving your opponent what they needed in order to buy more things. Four: There is a slight co-op feel as what you can buy may effect other characters when "Taxing" or "Harvesting" but the betrayer of that comes in the form of "Unwanted Guests" that eat at victory points. Five: Role play this game is a hoot! After bringing it to my game group mentioned above I "failed" to bring it the next week as the one person I felt would not care for the game asked to play it again. Next session I brought it and a wig actually came out as we further role played our "characters" saying why we should be the queen and the others should not. This only made the game that much more enjoyable and felt faster, especially when not our turns. Six: The art work is simple but nicely done for the type of game and the story line behind it. The only cons that I would say for the game aren't too bad. One is with pro-matte sleeves the cards are a little harder to get into the draw string bag and tighter in the box. Two the game can be memorized easily, but due to random draws and the "Moon" cards this isn't really a major issue or complaint. The last is the game lid is tight on the bottom part of the box making it hard to get off at times; my box can show this as it has a corner ripped up the seam from an eager in-law. Overall amazing game for cost and value; would recommend it no matter their preferences.

This game is a great addition to our collection. Most of our games are Euro strategy games that take hours to complete. This game is great in that we get that strategy feel with a 30 minute playtime (can be much faster or slower depending on how quickly you want to finish). You have plenty of ways to seek victory using a single suit or by combining suits of cards. Will you pursue a single type of card at the exclusion of others, or employ a mix-and-match balanced style? Either way your shot at winning seems pretty fair. This game balances the need to collect a simplified form of resources (just food and gold) with the ability to buy cards that bolster or inhibit one another. If you’re on the fence, watch the Dicetower game review on YouTube as it pretty accurately describes what you’re getting into. We love it!