Players: 2-4
Playing Time: 45-60 minutes
The Components
Monuments is largely a card game, though it has a few other bits:
Cards: The heart of the game, a set of 120 cards, including 108 monument cards and 12 available monument cards. They're all printed on slightly light, untextured cardstock.
The monument cards represent the sets you're collecting. There are 12 suits, each with 9 cards. Unfortunately with 12 suits you have to be really careful to avoid coloring problems, and this game doesn't quite manage it. A lot of the colors exist in two different tones--for example a light blue and a dark blue--and that's OK most of the time. However at least two are particularly troublesome, a copper color and a bronze color, which I've seen multiple people puzzle over in multiple games.
Besides its suit color (and icon), each card also includes a value (from 1-9) and a "symbol" (which some people confused with the color-related icon; it would have been easier if each suit was solely represented by its color).
The "available monument" cards help you keep track of the fact that each monument can only be built by two different players. They're strictly unnecessary, but a real nice addition to make it easier to play the game.
Board: This board serves three purposes: it keeps track of the increasing value of the 12 monuments (and also tells you how to score them); it keeps track of historian scores (and reminds you of how to score them); and it keeps track of any scores that players make during the course of the game. For the fact that it's solely utilitarian, the board looks decently nice. It also really helps the usability of the game.
Wood Bits: A bunch of wooden discs, used to mark the current values of monuments, scores of players, and historian scores.
Reference Sheets: Cardstock sheets in the four player colors which remind you of all the important rules.
For a card game, my primary Stylistic criteria is the card stock that's used, and I find that the cardstock used in Monuments is just slightly on the light side. However, the game does have some nice usability, and I also like the theming: the idea of historians writing about the monuments of the ancient world rings true to me. Thus I give Monuments a high "3" out of "5" for Style: slightly above average.
The Gameplay
The object of Monuments is to earn the most points by building the great monuments of the world and writing their histories.
Setup: The board is laid out and a monument tracker marker is placed on the "0" value space for each monument. Each player is given an initial hand of 5 card and is given 2-3 historian markers. Three cards are placed face-up next to the draw pile.
Turn Options: On his turn a player can either take a monument turn or historian turn.
Monument Turn: On a monument turn a player has 3 action points and may earn a 4th action point by discarding two cards with identical symbols. He may split these action points as he sees fit among the following 4 actions:
Draw a Card. The player takes a new card from the draw pile or one of the three face-up cards next to it.
Erect Monument. The player may meld a set of identical cards. If no one has yet erected the monument, he must play at least 2. If someone else has already erected the monument, he must play at least 3. Only two players may ever play cards for the same monument.
Expand Existing Monuments. The player may add one or more cards to an existing monument.
Score Victory Points. The player discards two cards with the same symbol, then earns one victory point for each card in his display that has the same symbol.
Historian Turn: You can take a historian turn if you still have at least one of your historian markers left and if any opponent has a monument with at least two cards in it.
When you do, you take one card from each opponent's monument that has two or more cards in it. Your historian scores a number of points equal to the number of cards (which you mark with the historian marker). Then you increase the value of each monument by the number of cards you took for it (which will be 0, 1, or 2, since at most two people can be working on the same monument). Finally, you discard the cards.
Ending the Game: The game ends after the players have gone through the deck. Now they score points.
They'll already have some points thanks to the "Score Victory Points" action. They now add points equal to the value of each of their historians. The biggest history is worth 9, the second 6, and the third 3. Any unused historians score -12 points.
Finally, all the monuments score. Their values have already been set based on how many histories included the monument. The gamut can run from 0 points to 18. If just one player worked on the monument, he gets all the points. If two players worked on it, the player with more cards in the color gets two-thirds of the points and the player with fewer cards gets one-third. There are often ties because players have lost many cards due to histories being written. In this case, the player with the higher value card wins. This can make it really important to play a high card when you start your monument.
Relationships to Other Games
At heart Monuments is a set collection game with elements of majority control affecting final scoring. It feels a lot like traditional set-collection card games, such as Rummy, with just a bit of extra strategy thrown in.
The Game Design
Monuments is a cute little set-collection game. I think my favorite part of the game is the brinkmanship which underlies almost every area of the design. Do you start building your monument now, or do you wait to get a higher card for the bottom? Do you add to your monument now, or do you hope that no one calls a history in the next round, when your monument is sitting at a bare 1 card and won't be written about? Do you play your historian now, or do you hope that no one else does for your next turn? Do you hold off on expanding your monuments until the very end, in hope of winning the majority-control prize?
If I described Monuments I'd call it Rummy with some stressors--and that's its greatest strength.
Given that description, you'll also understand some of the games other design elements. Most notably, it can be pretty random. You can keep drawing for a card and never get it. I don't consider that a weakness, but it is a design element you should consider. (I also like the fact that the designer accounted somewhat for the randomness by using card symbols to give you something to do with otherwise useless cards.)
What I do find troublesome is the fact that the game is pretty opaque. It's pretty hard to figure out the value of holding a monument on your own, of making sure that a monument increases in value each historian turn, of continuing to put cards on monuments, etc. There are just too many levels of events for you to get any sense of how to play the game best from casual play.
Nonetheless, I find Monuments an interesting design, thanks primarily to its brinkmanship, and thus I've let it eke in a "4" out of "5" for Substance: above average.
Conclusion
Monuments is an interesting game of set-collection and brinkmanship that takes Rummy and adds a bunch of shiny chrome to the set-collection aspect. It's a good casual game, but more serious players might be annoyed by the opaqueness of the system.
