Mighty Monsters
Mighty Monsters Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Components
- 4 Castle tiles
- 12 King tiles
- 81 Gold (40x 1, 24x 2, 17x 10)
- 1 Start player marker
- 30 Monster cards (5 each of Trolls, Dragons, Insects, Undead, Aquatic animals, Demons)
- 36 Guard cards (12x 1 Star, 12x 2 Stars, 12x 3 Stars)
- 1 Rules booklet
Goal of the Game
Each player tries to loot the most gold from defeated guards while not paying high healing costs for their monsters. Whoever has the most gold at the end of the game wins.
Monster and Guard Cards
Monster card
- Monster strength: the strength with which the monster attacks a guard.
- Healing cost: the amount in gold a player has to pay if this monster loses a fight.
- The back side shows the monster type.
Guard card
- Guard strength: the strength that is needed by the monsters in order to defeat this guard.
- Loot: the monsters that defeat this guard split the depicted gold value between them.
- Guard level: there are 3 guard levels depicted by 1, 2 or 3 stars.
- The back shows the strength value (the range of strength this guard can have) and the loot value (the amount of loot this guard can have).
Set-up
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Assemble the castle in the middle of the table:
- 3-player game: assemble the Start (S) and End (E) castle tiles.
- 4-player game: assemble the Start (S), 4/6 and End (E) castle tiles.
- 5-player game: assemble the Start (S), 5/6 and End (E) castle tiles.
- 6-player game: assemble the Start (S), 4/6, 5/6, and End (E) castle tiles.
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Shuffle the king tiles face down. Depending on the number of players, take the listed number of king tiles and stack them face down next to the king. Place any excess king tiles back in the game box.
Nr. of players 3 4 5 6 King tiles 6 6 5 6 In the basic game, ignore the front side of the king tiles. Their effects are used for the variant "The King's New Rules".
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Sort the gold by value and place it next to the castle's treasury.
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Shuffle the guard cards, then stack them face down next to the castle. Draw as many cards as the number of players, and without looking at them, place them face down on the guard spaces in the castle, beginning at the main gate (guard space 1).
Sequence of Play
"Mighty Monsters" is played over a series of rounds. Each round is separated in 3 phases:
- Play monster cards
- Fight guards
- Heal monsters and prepare for the next round
Phase 1 - Play monster cards
In clockwise order, beginning with the start player, each player plays one monster from their hand and places it on a card space in the castle. Players have 2 choices to place their monster:
A) Place a monster on any empty card space in the castle.
OR
B) Replace a monster with a monster of higher strength. The replaced monster goes back to its owner's hand, and the new monster is placed on the card space.
This option is available only if the combined strength of the monster or monsters lying next to the guard card is less than the maximum strength of this guard.
Note: A monster with 5 strength cannot be replaced.
Example 1: a player can replace either of the monsters if their combined strength (5) is lower than the maximum strength of the guard (6). Example 2: a player cannot replace either of the monsters if their combined strength (6) equals the maximum strength of the guard (6).
To replace a monster, the player must pay gold equal to the guard level. In more detail:
- Guard level 1: The player pays 1 gold to the treasury.
- Guard level 2: The player pays 1 gold to the treasury and 1 gold to the owner of the replaced monster.
- Guard level 3: The player pays 1 gold to the treasury and 2 gold to the owner of the replaced monster.
A player can also replace their own monster. In this case, the player pays only 1 gold to the treasury no matter the level of the guard.
A player cannot replace a monster if they don't have enough gold to pay the cost.
Players place monsters continuously in clockwise order until each player has placed 2 monsters and no empty spaces remain at the castle. Now play continues with Phase 2 - Fight guards. If on a player's turn they have already placed 2 monsters (and have only one card in hand), they pass the turn to the next player.
Note: Since monsters can be replaced, some players might have more turns than others in a round.
Example of a 3-player game: A) Inga replaces Frank's strength 2 monster with her strength 4 monster and pays 1 gold to the treasury. B) Then it is Frank's turn again and he replaces Inga's strength 2 monster with his strength 3 monster, paying 1 gold to the treasury and 1 to Inga. C) Since Inga cannot replace any monster, she places her strength 2 monster in the final free space. Since every space is now filled, it's time to fight the guards.
Phase 2 - Fight guards
Flip the first guard card, the one adjacent to the main gate. Then players combine the strength of the 2 monsters lying next to the guard card:
A) The strength of the monsters is equal to or greater than the strength of the guard:
The owners of the 2 monsters each take half of the loot in gold from the treasury. If 1 gold remains after this split, it goes to whoever played the monster with the higher strength. If both monsters have the same strength, nobody gets the 1 gold. If both monsters are owned by one player, that player takes all the loot from the treasury.
Example: Inga and Frank have a combined strength of 6 and therefore defeat the guard. They now split the loot. Since Frank has played the higher strength monster, he takes 6 gold and Inga 5 gold of the total loot of 11 gold.
B) The strength of the monsters is less than the strength of the guard:
The monsters are defeated by the guard.
Important: Phase 2 - Fight guards ends immediately, and no more guard cards are revealed. Play continues with Phase 3 - Heal monsters and prepare for the next round.
Example: Inga and Frank don't reach the 9 strength of the guard and therefore lose the fight and don't get any loot.
If the monsters win against a guard, the next guard card is flipped over and a new strength comparison is made. This phase ends after all of the guards are defeated or after the monsters lose to a guard for the first time. Play then continues with Phase 3 - Heal monsters and prepare for the next round.
Phase 3 - Heal monsters and prepare for the next round
First, if a guard defeated monsters, the owner(s) of these monsters must pay their healing cost to the treasury.
Second, each player who has monsters lying next to an unrevealed guard card must pay the healing costs for each of these monsters.
If a player doesn't have enough gold to pay all of the healing costs, they pay as much as they can and suffer no other penalty.
Example: Inga and Ani could not defeat the 3rd guard in the castle. Therefore the remaining fight against the last guard is also lost. Now Inga, Ani and Frank have to pay the healing costs for their monsters. Inga = 1 gold, Ani = 1 gold, Frank = 2 gold. Only Jenny got lucky and does not have to pay any healing costs.
Players pick up the 2 face-down monster cards in front of them and add them to their hand, then they take the two monsters that they played in the current round and place them face down in front of them.
Example: Jenny picks up the two face-down monster cards in front of her and adds them to her hand. She now has a full hand of 3 cards again. Both her monsters in the castle are flipped over and she puts them face down in front of her.
Discard the guard cards from the castle without revealing any face-down cards. Draw new guard cards from the stack and add them to the castle in the same manner described in the set-up.
Discard the topmost king tile.
Give the start player marker to the next player in clockwise order.
End of the Game
The game ends after the final king tile is discarded. Now players count their gold. The player with the most gold wins; in case of a tie, there are multiple winners.
Example: Frank and Ani share last place with 19 gold each. Jenny is in second place with 23 gold. Inga wins as she managed to grab the most loot with 32 gold.
Variant: Guard Line-Up
In this variant, place the guard cards in the castle in a different way during set-up and preparation for the next game round.
Players still draw as many guard cards as number of players, but instead of distributing them one after the other in the castle, players sort them by guard-level (number of stars) first. Once sorted, players place the cards in ascending guard-level order, beginning at the main gate.
This small change creates a new dynamic while fighting the guards!
Variant: The King's New Rules
In this variant, the king introduces little rule changes each round, with these rules being depicted on the front side of the king tiles.
Changes during the sequence of play, Phase 1 - Play monster cards: Before players start to play monster cards, flip the topmost king tile face up. This rule change takes effect this round.
The King Tiles in Detail
Note: If the strength value of a guard changes due to a king tile, the rules for replacing a monster still apply according to the original values.
- Players cannot play a monster with a strength of 1.
- Monsters of strength 4 and 5 cost 4 gold to heal.
- If the two monsters lying next to a guard card have the same strength, the guard has +3 loot.
- After all the monsters are played, players add the strength of each pair. All guard cards that lie next to the weakest pairs of monsters have +3 loot.
- All players take their monsters of strength 3, 4 and 5 in hand and place the monsters of strength 1 and 2 face down in front of them.
- There is no rule change this round.
- The first guard card has +3 loot.
- The second guard card has +2 strength and +3 loot.
- The first two guard cards have -2 loot.
- The last guard card has +10 loot.
- The last two guard cards have +4 loot.
- The last guard card has -3 strength and -5 loot.