Monumental is a next generation civilization game by Matthew Dunstan, packed with innovative mechanics taking the best of deckbuilding and 4X games.

Playing from 1 to 4 players (5 players with The Lost Kingdoms expansion), raise your empire, develop deep knowledge and build majestic wonders while exploring and conquering the known world to emerge as the most dominant civilization of all time.

On top of bringing 3 brand new civilizations along with their own gameplay specialties, African Empires is fully loaded with new exclusive mechanics that aim to enhance the base game to a whole new level of strategy, making it a must-have expansion for fans of Monumental!

African Empires is the second expansion to Monumental and can't be played without the base game (Core Box).

This expansion brings many new mechanics to the game, which you will find the details of below.

 

- CONTINUOUS GAMEPLAY

In Continuous mode, players activate their Cities simultaneously at the start of each turn, and then proceed to take their actions one by one, activating their combo brick by brick, allowing you to adapt to your opponents’ decisions and strategies.

The Development display mechanics are modified in order to be played with this new mode.

This mode encourages players to be more cautious of how they organize their combos.

To support this new mode, African Empires includes the new Action Tokens which will help you keep track of the actions played within a single round.

 

- ADVANCED ECONOMICS

 

African Empires includes a huge gameplay update to Monumental: Economics and commercial dominance!

Gold can now be used to advance your economical influence, represented by the new Trading track. Each new space on the Trading track may provide you with powerful benefits such as new buildings, temporary abilities or the precious new Trade Benefit tokens. The position of the player on the Trading track will also eventually grant Victory Points at the end of the game.

Trade Benefit tokens can yield powerful benefits to your civilization. While they are drawn randomly each time, they can be stored face-down for you to use them when the right time comes. Trade Benefit tokens are a new secret weapon that can instantly change the course of the game to your advantage. Do not neglect them!

Explorers, when working together, now have the ability to place a brand-new structure on the map: Trading Posts. These new buildings grant the ability to trade resources with Free Cities and opposing Civilizations with Exchange Tokens. The further the Explorer moves on the map, the more trading points on the Trading track are scored and Trade benefit Tokens gained.

The variety of Trade Benefit Tokens and Exchange Tokens brings a new way to gather resources in order to acquire cards and move on the Map.

 

- QUESTS

 

Quests are new cards dealt to players at the beginning of the game.

These are hidden objectives that are not mandatory to fulfill – but their nature as hard-to-attain ambitions means that they’ll yield a decisive advantage in case of success when comes the time of the Victory Point count.

 

- THE FUTURE ERA

The Future Era Cards could be used in the regular mode as well as the Continuous mode. These new cards infuse the game with a new possibility to score Victory Points towards the end of the game, when Knowledge cards and Wonders in the Development Display become too scarce or expensive.

These cards are acquired by spending resources (Gold, Military, Science, Culture, Production) and can be claimed by other players even when acquired, creating some competition at the end of the game.

 

- RESERVING CARDS

 

In African Empires, players can now trigger effects which allow them to Reserve Development cards from Era-specific side-decks, made of various unused Development cards from the Core Box and/or Lost Kingdoms.

Various cards in African Empires grant the effect “Reserve a card”. When a card tells you to do this, draw the top card of the deck on the Reserve board matching the current Era or any earlier Era, and place it face-up next to your Warlord. That card is now considered to be in your Reserve. If you ever have to draw a card from the Reserve and the corresponding deck is empty, you may draw from any earlier Era deck of your choice.

On their turn, a player may choose to acquire any card in their Reserve, in the same way that they would normally acquire it from the Development display – by paying its cost, and then either placing it on top of their City deck (in the case of Building and Knowledge cards) or next to their City with a Wonder marker on it (in the case of completing the first stage of a Wonder).

 

- UNREST

 

In African Empires, you may face the dangers of rebellion within your Empire!

Unrest represents problems occurring in your city which prevent it from functioning at full capacity. Whenever a card effect instructs you to take an Unrest card, you take one from the supply and place it on top of your deck.

Activating an Unrest card in your city has no effect; however, when you do so, it is immediately returned to the central pile. If an Unrest card is archived, it is also returned to the central pile. If you activate an Unrest card on top of a Knowledge card, you will still get the effect of the Knowledge card, even after the Unrest card is returned.

 

- SCIENCE TOKENS

Science Tokens will introduce a new way to gain Science, in the same way as the Production Tokens introduced in the Core Box, which represented an alternative way to gain Production.

These will be introduced in new Scenarios and can be incorporated in older Scenarios as well.

 

- NEW PROVINCE TILES

 

In African Empires, you will discover 5 new illustrated Province Tiles, all set in Africa and each with their specific effects:

- Mines
- Savannahs
- Foothills
- Harbors
- Oasis

 

 

 

 

All new tiles are fully compatible with any Civilization from both the Core Box and Lost Kingdoms.

 

- NATURAL WONDERS

 

Discover Africa’s Natural Wonders, a new element added to the game in African Empires !

Natural Wonders are particularly wondrous natural formations that appear on maps and provide powerful benefits to any Civilization that controls them. However, these benefits can easily be taken away by a conquering force, so you’d better make sure you defend them! Natural Wonder tokens will be placed on Provinces and will provide the player who controls their Province advantages like bonus Defense and Victory Points… But unlike their Man-made counterparts, their control may very well change!

 

- 3 NEW CIVILIZATIONS

 

Last but not least, African Empires brings 3 more civilizations to the game, each endowed with specific gameplay features alongside new Buildings, Knowledge, Cultural Policies and new Warlords effects:

Zulu Kingdom:

This Civilization will be specialized in dealing with the new Rebellion game mechanic. Many of the Zulu cards grant powerful effects in return for gaining more Unrest cards in the City. Additionally, some effects will enable the Zulu to force opponents to gain Unrest.

The Zulu also start the game with 3 Hidden Force tokens in their supply, each one with a military value of 0, 1 or 2. These are used for defensive tactics and to create uncertainty for any potential trying to overthrow your borders.

 

Mali Empire:

The Malians have access to many cards that will let you directly move on the Trade track or that will help you to invest or to build Trading Posts.

However, this Malian wealth comes at a cost – you will need to spend Gold instead of Military to conquer new Provinces. This feature creates a major gameplay change for Mali players, requiring them to adapt to this new playstyle.

 

Aksum Kingdom:

The Aksum Kingdom will benefit from the possibility to acquire more frequently and efficiently the cards in their Reserve. In this respect, at the start of the game, the Aksumite player will Reserve 3 cards from the Era I side deck, placing them in their personal Reserve.

Their Reserve Cards can also be used to acquire resources, thus inducing a very specific way to play.

 

Change the way you play Monumental through this second expansion!