INTRODUCTION

“Queen Gimelda is desperate! After losing all of her lands to the marauding monsters, she is now confined to the walled citadel of the Lands of the Discord. Once she was ruling over a proud kingdom with lush lands of fire, water, Air, and jungle. All that is left now is gloom. With Modhelm fallen and King Bödagard slain by the advancing monsters, she resorts to drastic measures: she promises the crown to the clan of warriors which will bring justice to the monsters, by capturing or slaying them, and then reconquering her lost lands.”

Dice-placement games are my jam, it is a genre or rather a mechanism that I find endlessly fascinating. From Rajas of the Ganges to Troyes and Black Angel, they all share a common ground built upon the manipulation of dice and turning the whims of Lady Luck to your advantage. It is therefore hardly surprising that I was keen to take a closer look at Monster Lands from publisher Second Gate Games, a game of saving the magical realm from invading beasts by recruiting tough-as-nails mercenaries and rolling dice.

Full disclosure: a review copy of Monster Lands was kindly provided by publisher Second Gate Games.

COMPONENTS

You know the old saying about never judging a book by its cover? Turns out these words of wisdom are also applicable to board games, go figure! Now, I will be the first to admit; the cover art for Monster Lands does not pique my interest even the slightest. It was only after hearing several people whose opinions I hold in high regard sing their praise about this dice-placement game that a spark of curiosity started to flicker inside my feeble mind. Thankfully this old dog is not too old to learn new tricks, as Monster Lands is one of the most visually striking board games I have seen in quite some time. From equipment cards to the main board, the art style by Enrique Fernández Peláez is one brimming with colour and character. This is especially true of the illustrations for the mercenaries one can recruit at the local tavern, provided your reputation as clan leader is sufficient enough and you have coin to spare.

Monster Lands is one of the earlier board games published by Second Gate Games but you would not know it based on the quality of the included components. It is worth mentioning that this board game was originally a Kickstarter release which featured custom dice in addition to wooden tokens and chits for the mercenaries. And although these upgrades are indeed visually impressive to say the least and one can acquire an upgrade pack through the official Second Gate Games web shop, personally I am more than happy with the overall quality that is on display in the retail edition of Monster Lands.

GAME PLAY

Monster Lands is a game about slaying beasts and conquering lands with the ultimate goal of becoming the most well-known clan leader in all of the realm thus earning you the crown from the Queen herself. In order to achieve these lofty ambitions you will need to recruit fearless warriors and mercenaries to join your ranks, purchase equipment in the form of powerful weapons and magical items before sending out expeditions beyond the safety of the Citadel’s walls. Rather than using worker meeples in the traditional sense to perform the associated actions of the various locations on the main board, Monster Lands instead uses a dice-based system. Unlike other board games that share this mechanism, the dice used to perform actions in Monster Lands are rarely rolled. This is especially true for the locations inside the Citadel, where the number of dice is more important than their actual value.

Behind the safety of the towering walls, you will allocate your dice to prepare before venturing forth on daring quests and expedition. Visiting the local tavern will allow you to recruit new mercenaries who are willing to lend their blade and loyalty so long as your reputation is high enough and you can afford their services. This is a vital part of the game, as mercenaries are the main source of adding additional dice to your pool thus giving you more flexibility to acquire better equipment, traps, and potions all of which are needed to better stand a chance of surviving a monster encounter. But these battle-hardened warriors of the land are not easily impressed. If you glory is not sufficient enough then the top-tier mercenaries will not waste their precious time on your clan. This creates an interesting eco-system, where you will initially square off against less terrifying i.e., difficult monsters thus slowly but steadily increasing your glory to the point that it starts to catch the attention of the mightiest of warriors, assassins, and trackers. But as you become more famous as clan leader, your hired subjects will start to become greedy asking for more pay at the end of each turn which acts as a way to balance the scales and preventing you from becoming an unstoppable behemoth.

Once you mercenaries have been hired, equipped, and payed you are ready to put them to good use by venturing forth far beyond the safety of the Citadel to vanquish the terrifying beasts that roam the lands. Unlike the bastion where the numerical value is largely less important, when facing off against the monsters you will roll your allocated dice trying to achieve the highest value possible. Almost. Each monster has the option of either being outright killed or captured, where the second alternative is more difficult to pull off in terms of rolling high enough numbers but in returns nets you a greater amount of glory points. This is where the importance of spending time and precious dice in the Citadel comes to fruition; the better equipped your daring mercenaries are the better chance they stand of surviving the encounter which translates into dice-manipulation. Traps though expensive may grant you the opportunity to re-roll a particular colour of dice or add additional ones to your pool, whereas poison tokens add additional damage to the result of your roll. But at the same time spending your dice on the action locations within the walls of the Citadel means you have less dice at your disposal when assigning mercenaries to combat monsters or trying to conquer lands. I love these sort of difficult choices in board games, where you want to do everything but can only do a selective number of actions thus forcing you to make a dare I say calculated risk. You can buy the fanciest of armour or the sharpest of axes, the deadliest of potions or the strongest of traps but what good does it do if you do not have enough dice left in your pool to actually kill the bloody thing?

In terms of upkeep, the solo mode in Monster Lands is as easy to manage as it is enjoyable to play. Madhala, your solitaire opponent, does not compete with you for end of game points nor do they recruit mercenaries or acquire equipment cards. Instead, Madhala serves but one albeit focused purpose and that is to act as a roadblock often impeding your own progress by taking the prime spot in the que to go monster bashing or removing mercenary cards from the tavern. On their turn two dice are rolled, one determines if Madhala will visit the Citadel or the outskirts of the realm whereas the other die indicates which particular action they wish to perform in that particular area of the main board. Unlike yourself, the solo opponent in Monster Lands never rolls dice to determine the outcome of a monster encounter. If Madhala has managed to snag the prime spot in the que well then they automatically succeed. This may sound like a bad thing and to a certain extent it can be, however the cunning clan leader knows how to turn the whims of Lady Luck to their own advantage. For example, if a monster is either killed or trapped then any mercenaries that did not fight instead gets a chance at conquering the adjacent land where the previous beast roamed. These not only provide valuable points but also special abilities, actions that you can trigger if a mercenary of the same elemental affinity is assigned to the land card in question. So maybe you decide to let Madhala take the spotlight and instead opt for the third or even fourth slot in que.

Another aspect of the solo mode in Monster Lands that bears mentioning is the fact that the game comes with ten solitaire scenarios that can either be played individually or stringed together into a campaign. This is not an overarching, narrative campaign but instead the game presents you with special rules and end-of-game conditions. Think of them as tweaks to the core formula, creating a greater sense of variety to the solitaire experience. For example, one solo scenario forgoes the whole victory points system entirely and instead tasks you with earning as much gold as possible. Another scenario has the Citadel being attacked by a monster in round one, a condition that is otherwise impossible due to the core design. I really enjoyed these little challenges; they may not be earth-shattering, but they do an admirable job at providing variety to Monster Lands and as we all know variety is the spice of life. And board games, never forget about board games.

FINAL THOUGHTS  

I am going to go out on a limb and say that Monster Lands is probably one of the best board games you have never heard of. Because this is indeed a good game design, in fact I would go so far as to call it a hidden gem. In a recent top ten list Tom Vasel of Dice Tower ranked Monster Lands as one of his personal favourites when it comes to board games that feature dice placement as a main mechanism, a sentiment that I am inclined to agree with. If you enjoy this style of game that feature clever use of dice, then I wholeheartedly recommend taking a closer look at Monster Lands from publisher Second Gate Games.