This is a review that has been simmering for a long time. I’ve finished about 4 campaigns of this game and it has now been over a year, so I definitely have the perspective now to write this. I’d say most of my PBEM gaming time has been devoted to Clash of Monarchs (COM). Clash of Monarchs is a 2-4 player CDG simulating the Seven Years War in Europe. Well, I can now tell you, after many, many hours of play, that COM is absolutely a genius game: an extremely playable monster size game. Not a monster mapwise but rather gameplaywise and in campaign length. It was designed as a labor of love by <PERSON> over a period of many years and the time that was taken with it, in the same way as my favorite game, Here I Stand by Ed Beach, really shows. The game is relatively polished and is well tested and balanced. Don’t necessarily trust the commentators who have barely played the game or glanced at the rules proclaim how difficult it is to play and that the rules are X pages long. After even a modicum familiarity is reached, the mechanics really fall away and allow you to think about what you want to do and how you want to do it from a strategic standpoint. I rarely consult the rules while playing and can do almost anything a commander in the Seven Years War would want to do with his armies.
So what is Clash of Monarchs and why is it such a great game?
Components and Production
This is a big game, and the components are a mixed bag. The cards are wonderfully designed and look great. The colors of the counters, powers and cards really make the game look quite nice on the table. In particular, the period art that was chosen for all the counters and the cards is amazing. In fact, I would say COM has the most beautiful cards I’ve ever seen in a CDG. On top of that, almost all the leaders, even the minor ones from the minor powers (there are so many leaders in this game, many of which you won’t see in a single game), have unique, accurate art for them on the counters. Even the different army’s SP counters are unique and vary in color and costume depending on the country they are from and who they are. Cards and counters are really an A+ effort with great attention to detail.
On to the controversial map. 504
According to the BGG and CSW comments, apparently the map is so bad that it has basically caused people to give up on the game and give it bad reviews. The map is really a tale of two uses and I think I have some insight into it, though no excuses. I have played COM mostly via VASSAL PBEM and live play. In that context, the map looks great. It looks good and the borders are quite clearly delineated. It even has some stylish touches like the colour palette of the various spaces and their space ownership. Sounds great right?
Then you pull it out of the box and try to play it in person. It’s obvious, at least to me, that this map was made on a computer screen, played via VASSAL, etc, and then something was lost in translation to the paper. It is dark. It’s not unplayable, as others seem to have suggested, but it does make playing the game and figuring out the passages between the point to point spaces much more difficult that they should be. Whether something happened to <PERSON>’s art on its way to the printers or there is just something about the palette that doesn’t transfer between a computer screen and the physical product, I do not know, but the map is definitely the weak point of the production. Don’t let this scare you away, however. And definitely don’t let anyone tell you the map makes the game unplayable or anything of the sort. It is playable, even in person with the art. It is not, however, close to ideal.
No False Choices in Cardplay
Clash of Monarchs is a CDG in the vein of Hannibal rather than Paths of Glory (POG). Forces are counted in SP and leaders, not armies with particular characteristics, are activated depending on their initiative rating. So <PERSON>, while a powerful commander, is hard to activate and takes 3 op or better cards to move---just as in real life, where <PERSON> in the Austrian command had to frequently plead, cajole and threaten <PERSON> to take any action at all. By contrast, <PERSON> will be continuously activated, moving all over the board and running circles around the Austrians with his 1 rating.
It is here where COM really shines. COM is a CDG where gameplay, not cardplay, dominates. 92