Civilisation-building meets deckbuilding in Tokaido studio’s Monumental

Put empire-building a la Civilization and 7 Wonders together with deckbuilding and you’ll probably get something along the lines of Monumental, an intriguing civ-developing game coming out of Tokaido studio Funforge.

Designed by Elysium creator Matthew Dunstan, Monumental mixes the global expansion, area control and technological progression of the historical epic genre with evolving decks that drive the action.

Up to four players take on the roles of various civilisations from history – Greece, Egypt, China, Japan and Denmark make up the core box – led by a legendary hero from their faction, commanding armies of miniature soldiers that will spread out over a board made up of modular tiles comprising various environments, be it volcanoes or swamps.

Each civ has a unique deck of cards, from which the player draws and activates cards to move their forces around, research technologies or build wonders, which grant various special benefits. As is typical for the genre, a juggling of cultural progression and conflict with either barbarians or rival empires is needed to win.

What makes Monumental quite a bit different from either of its key inspirations is the ‘cross-tapping’ mechanic at its centre, which involves dealing cards into a three-by-three grid. The player then picks one row and one column from which they can use actions, offering up the potential for combos and tricky risk-reward decisions.

It should also play quite a bit quicker than the true giants of the civilisation-building genre, with an estimated play time of around 90 minutes.

Monumental is currently up on Kickstarter, with its campaign declaring that the game will be the latest title to be exclusive to the crowdfunding site, making it the only place to get a copy for the time being.

The campaign still has a way to go before it reaches its £131,000 target, though, as it’s currently sitting at just over £72,000 with 23 days left on the clock.