Monster Pit Review from Jazz Paladin

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Quick Look: Monster Pit

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Designers: Nick Seddon, Aron West
Artists: Carly A-F, Kwanchai Moriya
Publisher: Elzra
Year Published: 2023

 

Review:
 

While it may be said that tower defense games are a dime-a-dozen on mobile apps and PC’s these days, the same cannot be stated for board games. I am aware of a scant few, and those that I am aware of were bogged by some issues that concerned me (such as Kingdom Rush’s large amount of components / space consumption).

Elzra Games has few games under their belt already that thematically and aesthetically seemed like they would mesh with me, but when I had glanced at them in the past, they largely consisted of dexterity based games (similar in some ways to Dawnshade). I passed on the opportunities to check those out, given that I am usually not taken by that particular genre, but in doing so I almost missed out on noticing that Monster Pit ditched the dexterity mechanics in favor of more traditional dice and card-based gameplay. 

So I called in a favor to see if any review copies were available, and thankfully there were. Now to see how the game stands against the rest I have tried.

Monster Pit takes the now-familiar concept of hordes of monsters moving on a pathway to your castle (citadel in this case) that must be destroyed before reaching the center of your fortifications. If they manage to reach this point, the game is over and your kingdom is ruined. 

I do need to clarify that for the purposes of this game, Monster (with a capital “M”) will refer to the big bad boss that will move towards your defenses. Any of their subordinates from now on I will refer to as baddies or minions to avoid confusion with the  Monster, as technically all the enemies could be construed as “monsters” if given half a chance.

The game itself is either a fully cooperative 4 player game, or one versus all (up to 5 players) where one player takes control of the Monster and other players work against them. It is also enjoyable in solo mode.

 

 

I will primarily be treating this review from a fully cooperative perspective as that is where I spent most of my time. 

Each player at the commence of the game will take player boards and select a Champion that will have their own unique abilities. Some other runic identifiers will be randomly placed on the board as a means of determining where certain baddies or effects may spawn or have events triggered. 

The game itself is pretty straightforward. There is a morning phase, midday phase, and twilight phase where various actions will be taken either by the players or the Monster. Players taking actions will get to place their captain on various structures in the castle area in a worker-placement fashion to take any and all actions appropriate to the district they are visiting. As such, they may choose to engage in target with baddies (if they happen to be situated in the district), buy goods/upgrades, hire mercenaries, arrange/rearrange their warriors (more on this later), and even attack the Monster directly if feeling so bold.

 

 

The Monster will usually always have an opportunity to progress on its pathway to destruction and/or attack during its turns, as well as utilize special circumstantial abilities.

And there are thankfully at this time 5 Boss Monsters to choose from, along with ways to modify their difficulties, health, etc.

Players will throughout the course of the game build up a series of offensive and defensive troops to be utilized. Offensive units can only be used to attack, and Defensive units will only be able to defend, and will be placed on specific areas of player boards that reflect their role in combat. Some units are more versatile and can be used in either offensive or defensive fashion. 

 

Units can also receive weapons, buffs and more to make themselves stronger.

Combat is usually handled via dice rolling. The types and results of dice rolled can be either beneficial or detrimental to you and your opponent, as through the game, you will find that the dice color/type that will consistently be swayed to alter the field of battle (White dice favor the player, Red favor the Monster, yellow are balanced in the favor of neutrality). Simply roll a higher number of “captain” symbols than “Monster” symbols and players will win. A tied score or more Monster heads on the dice mean the Monster wins and inflicts a severe consequence. However, a player winning a roll by more than 2 means they get a critical hit and deal extra damage to the Monster.

As the game progresses, a lot of battles will happen ; the Monster will occasionally be able to unleash minions to raid various buildings in town, rendering them temporarily useless to players until the baddies there can be defeated. Players will attack the Monster and vice versa, and when all is said and done there will either be only a smoldering mass of Monster lying on the battlefield or a ruined Kingdom, as there can only be one victor.

 

 

I will refer you to other methods if you want more description of the game play, as a how-to video on YouTube should serve better than I can for getting into the nitty gritty, but this is fundamentally how the game operates, and should give a good idea of how things go.

 

Now for my impressions :

The Good : 

Thematically, I find that Monster Pit capitalizes on the Tower Defense genre quite well. It does feel like I am playing one of my old favorites (Bloons was always my preferred choice, FWIW), and the cooperative mode’s nature lends itself to a game night free of internal conflict with other players, which is especially important when there are those who don’t like getting beaten by human opponents. And while I did not get a chance to test out the one-versus-all, I did look at the cards and abilities for the Monster when in a PvP mode, and it does seem to like it would be enjoyed as much as I do Beast for being able to create a competitive mode with less friction than a full on battle between players. Quite frankly, more games need this as an option, as they seem to be going the way of the dodo…

 

 

And the game was fun, and easy to scale the difficulty, which at its lowest level seems like it may be a little easy to cheese if players coordinate well enough. Thankfully, that is easily rectifiable with the numerous setup options available. 

Art is fantastic, and card stock is superb. The double layered boards used for tracking Monster Health and stats is perfect in vibe and functionality, and I regally have no complaints about the quality control.

Being able to play with anything from solo to 5 players is also a boon. 

And the difficulty level makes the game very approachable.

 

 

The not-so-good.

For me, the big elephant in the room is the game itself ; or rather the space it consumes. I wasn’t expecting to utilize the entirety of my larger than 4”x6” gaming area, but yes indeed, I did, and it did get cluttered in a way that usually only much larger-boxed games manage to do. While I understand the need for space for player boards given that each needs to supply a host of forces, perhaps smaller sized cards for player forces could have been utilized, as this would directly impact the size of the player boards, which are perhaps the biggest contributor to the absence of space. Maybe that is something to consider for future editions.

In addition, the central board where all the fighting / worker placement happens could have used some better delineation. While the player aids that come with the game are wonderful, and clearly show a picture of what each building in a district is, the board itself could have used text to show which building is which, as it could often get confusing when just looking at a glance. This is not a problem when players get familiarized with what they can do and know what to associate each building’s aesthetic with, but it does take a while to adjust to. Again, something to consider possibly for future editions.

 

 

The instruction manual sometimes manages to be confusing (partially due to not being able to clearly see locations described on the board due to the previously mentioned lack of delineation), but overall manages to eventually manage to get the point across, even though I was left scratching my head in a few instances.

I do think that the player boards should have been one piece as well ; as they are now, they are two pieces that are placed side by side, but they are meant to be placed in a joint fashion. Unfortunately , this also means they can drift apart during gameplay, causing numerous cards and resources to shift out of place.

 

Summary: 

The big question I should ask myself at the end of any review is would I recommend the game. Because sometimes I find that a game is passable but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it when given a chance. 

I do feel comfortable, however, recommending Monster Pit. 

Once you have a grasp of it, it becomes a solid game, and one of the only representations of the Tower Defense genre that doesn’t get bogged down with complications. It plays intuitively, but manages to be strategic at the same time. 

Some may deride the stinginess of dice, but I found the ability to manage and control outcomes via dice modification to give a pleasant level of comfort in fate to almost each and every roll. 

Definitely higher than an ~8/10 for our group, which immediately entitles it to a status of “keeper” for us. 

If given a chance to try the one versus all mode, I will be sure to update our thoughts, but for now, let us say that we were left impressed!