M is for Monolith

 By Goblin Army Games

This is another game that has been sitting on the sad/unplayed shelf for ages. We decided to give it one last try to see if we wanted to keep it...

Players: 1-4

Time: 30 minutes

Ages: 8+

Theme:Runes??

Mechanics: Dice Rolling, Worker Placement, Strategy

In Monolith: The Strategy Game, you compete with other players for a finite amount of crystals that can help you pay the tolls as you move along a track to the finish line. There are 5 rounds of play in which you roll and place your dice on the cards (which make up a modular playing field that changes each time you play) and then resolve the text to gain special powers, skills, or crystals, which can either help you advance on the game board or thwart you opponents.

The good: 

• Lots of re-playability with a different game board every time you play. 
• Quick game play
• Nice components
  

The bad:

• The color--the flavor-- is missing from this game. This lack of theme makes it kind of boring. I'm not even 100% certain what the theme is supposed to be. Something about wizards and runes?? Fail.
  
• It can be a bit frustrating if you draw a game board with limited # options like we did this go around. We drew several cards that required ones or sixes, so constantly had a whole lot of 2-5 dice that we couldn't effectively play

The undecided:

• With only two players, we did not have to worry much about slot blocking, but I suppose with more players, this would be more of an issue. I'm not sure how that would affect the game-- more excitement or more frustration?
  

Anyway, we played one game (Dustin won) and then decided this one will not be staying in our collection... We have other worker placement games that fit the niche and we like them better.

We rate it a 4.5/10 since we found it pretty mediocre.