Matthew BaileyToday’s game was a spur-of-the-moment buy while I was meant to be buying a new wok from the Chinese supermarket (that just “happens” to be next to the board game shop)… sigh…
Game 47 of the “Bailey Family Summer 2023 Board Game Bonanza” is “Monster 12,” played by Jack (.8.), Toby (5), and myself.
I feel a little bit bad as I’ve been recommending quite a lot recently, and today is not going to be any exception, but the true fact of the matter is we’ve actually played a lot of decent games this summer, but today’s game cost me less than lunch for me and the boys did when I bought it so it’s all good.
“Monster 12” is a push-your-luck dice-rolling game that has just been released and is part of Kosmos’s small box “open & play” series that launched at the UKBGE this year.
You set up the game using the box as a play mat by laying all three sets of six different coloured dice in their locations. Then, you lay out three Monster cards on the table in front of you. The general idea of the game is to be the first person to collect 12 Monsters with at least one of all six colours.
On your turn, you can choose to either Hunt or Collect. If you hunt, you must choose three dice, and these dice must match the colours of available Monsters on the cards in front of you. For instance, if there are two yellows and one red on the cards in front of you, you can choose two yellows and one red. However, if there is only one green, you can only have one green die among your three.
To hunt, you roll the three dice and can then place a die on a monster that has a matching colour and more pips than the monster has eyes. As long as you catch at least one monster with one of your three dice, you can then choose to either collect any cards that have been fully captured, or you can restock your dice up to three and roll again.
You can keep doing this theoretically until you have captured every monster on every card in front of you. The kicker, though, is that if you miss a roll (e.g. you don’t roll high enough), then you pass your turn to the next player and you do not get to collect the monsters that you have already caught. The next player can then continue rolling where you left off or they can choose to collect the monsters that you have already caught.
I am a big fan of push-your-luck games and also a fan of dice rolling, and as such, this scratches both itches. What I also like is the fact that when you are choosing which colours you’re going to go for, you equally have to be thinking: do I try to take something that another player needs, but equally, if you go for that card, you may very well catch it then never actually get around to collecting it, giving the next player an easy ride.
Component quality is generally good; the box is well-made and holds all of the pieces well, and it’s great that it is used in the general design. The dice quality is okay; they are fairly generic dice, and it is a little disappointing that the dice colours don’t actually match the colours of the monsters very well. For example, the dice are a pastel pink colour, whereas the monster is a dark, vivid pink. Comparing the dice tough to the ones in “Dice Fishing” though is a night and day win for these.
These small gripes aside, we all really like this game. You can definitely play this game with kids younger than the 7+ stated on the box. It doesn’t take very long, and there is just enough here in terms of originality that I am happy to have it in my collection alongside other push-your-luck games.
It’s also pretty cheap which helps.
