Wage war against opponents on a hexagonal board. Prepare your armies to face off on the battlefield and surprise your enemy with your choice of special abilities!
Monolith Arena is a fantasy battleground board game built around the base engine of Neuroshima Hex, which is also from designer Michał Oracz. The game includes four factions, with unique abilities and units. Players take turns placing tiles on the hexagonal play field, building offensive and defensive advantages, all of which are activated when the field is filled or when a player uses a "battle" order.
A new feature is the three-level "monolith" for each player, where the faction banner is set into the top level. The other two levels are secretly set with battlefield tokens chosen by the player at the outset, providing a strategic choice in setup that will play out during the tactical operations of the game. The monoliths mitigate the influence of the random tile draw that otherwise drives the game, giving players more choice and control.
- Innovative rotating mechanic
- Balanced weight for families and gamers
- Learning curve for new players due to multiple tokens and terms
- dice drafting and godly actions around a rotating obelisk
- Mythic temple-building duels with rotating central obelisk
- euro-dice drafting with godly powers
- Lorenzo il Magnifico
- Coimbra
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- dice drafting — Draft dice of different colors and pips; some are 'favored' or 'tainted' depending on obelisk orientation.
- Dynamic obelisk rotation — The rotating obelisk changes available dice and action order mid-game.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- bam that's a quote, baby, quotable
- it's one of those things that you should always feel like there's no chance for you to win on both sides simultaneously
- easy like sunday morning
References (from this video)
- Strong interaction with a familiar two-player framework
- Tactical depth over repeated plays
- Has a legacy in the same universe as Nirōshima Hex
- Rules may feel dense to newcomers
- Not as approachable as some lighter Portal games
- Card crafting and combat with a fantasy/sci-fi veneer
- Arena combat with modular faction mechanics
- Competitive, with subtle cross-influences from Nirōshima Hex
- Nirōshima Hex
- Monolith Arena (tabletop)
- Ascension Tactics
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- deck-building — Build and use cards to influence combat and tile placement
- tile-based combat — Tiling and positioning influence outcomes and allow for strategic depth
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- number five tides of time two player game
- number four on my list and this was very tough for me because i was torn between these two
- number two we actually combine two games together, nirōshima hex and monolith arena
- number one stronghold, what else could there be right
- it's a game you can pull off the shelf and play without a heavy rulebook in hand
- the art is amazing and the components are gorgeous, it makes you want to play again just to look at them