For generations your family has protected your clan which has settled comfortably on the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond, up in the Scottish Highlands. Pleasantly grey and rainy during the day, you take comfort patrolling your patch of home and making merry with the townsfolk. Come nightfall however, the mists roll in over the glens and settle on the lake, providing enough cover for all manners of creatures to sneak their way into your clan.
A game of memory, tactics and luck, protecting one’s clan is never an easy job. So come along, grab a pitchfork or sword and prepare yourself to rid your village of the accursed beasts that threaten your livelihoods!
The Aim
The aim of this game is to obtain the lowest score over a period of 4 rounds. This is achieved by discovering the identity of the 4 beings inhabiting your clan and swapping out threats (cards with a high score) in favour of less threatening humans (cards with low scores). The catch? All cards are constantly face down so you will need to remember what position your cards (and your opponent’s cards) are in. At the end of each round, players will reveal their cards and the total scores are tallied.
The Game
This nifty little card game is a 2-6 player game that lasts up to half an hour. It is particularly enjoyable because in order to gain an advantage, you not only need to focus on your cards but also the cards of your opponents.
Start the game by removing the victory reward cards, Seer Stone and Baby monster token cards, shuffling the deck, and handing 4 cards to each player. These cards are immediately placed face down in front of each player in a 2x2 grid without being looked at by any players. At the start of the round, players can look at their 2 bottom cards once, and only once! The turn breakdown is very straightforward and bearing the main objective in mind (lowering your overall score) players must choose to carry out one of the following actions:
1) Replace one of their 4 cards with the face up card in the discard pile.
2) Take a card from the deck, look at it, and replace it with one of the 4 cards in your clan.
3) Take a card from the deck, look at it, and play it to the discard pile to activate its action.
Actions 1 and 2 above are simple ways to get rid of high scored cards from your clan if a lower scored card happens to be drawn. Action 3, on the other hand, is where the game gets much more interesting. The cards allow you to take a variety of actions from looking at more of your own cards, to looking at opponent’s cards, and even switching cards from your clan with cards from an opponent’s. This is where keeping tabs on your cards and your opponent’s cards becomes crucial to victory. In order to use these actions, players would draw a card from the deck and immediately discard it to activate its power. Play progresses in this way until a confident clan leader proclaims “FREEDOM!” on their turn and essentially begins the countdown for the round. Once each other player takes one final turn, the cards are revealed and the total scores are tallied. Players with the lowest score obtain a victory card corresponding to the round and play progresses to the next round.
A couple of the cards also have benefits which are activated at the end of the rounds granting players perks for the following day in the life of a clan leader.
Another interesting rule is that players have the possibility of reducing their clan size if the correct opportunity arises. When a card is discarded and a player is certain they know the location of a matching card either in their clan or an opponent’s clan, they can claim “SHOO!” and promptly proceed to reveal that card and discard it as well. If the card is discarded from their clan, their clan size has now reduced to 3 cards. If the card is discarded from an opponent’s clan, the player successfully shoo-ing the creature can transfer any one of their cards to the opponent’s clan thus reducing their clan size too. On the other hand, if a player incorrectly guesses the matching card, they must keep it, along with another from the deck as ‘punishment’, which would increase your total clan size to 5! The clan leaders will not be happy!
The Flame
These are a few things which make this game attractive and worth playing:
- Simplicity: It’s a very easy game to learn and play. Straightforward rules and all actions are also written on the cards so it is very self explanatory. Only a few rules to remember which makes for a fun party game.
- Artwork: The illustration style by Rixt Heerschop is beautiful and deserves every ounce of praise. I know we shouldn't judge books (or games in this case) by their cover, but this box is cool and after getting a peek at the cards inside I was very pleased with the whole aesthetic. Heerschop does a great job of bringing these mythical creatures to life with pops of colour and manages to make them look interesting and cute enough that you might be tempted to keep them in your clan after all!
- Time: Simple rules to explain, fast turns and swift rounds make for a quick game overall. This is appealing to many who might only have an hour or less to fill but is also great for avid gamers as it is a fun and replayable game.
- Size: Being a small box of cards, it’s perfect to take with you on your travels and play on the go. It also doesn’t take much setup space as opposed to a number of board games and card games out there which makes it an ideal game to take to parties or at your kitchen table.
- Eco-Friendly: The game comes with a little card stating it was designed and manufactured in line with very stringent ecological standards, which, in this day and age, is something I wish more companies took to heart. Hats off to the team for focusing on this too!
The Lame:
Not all games are perfect, and although this one tries hard to be the best, it falls slightly short in a couple of areas:
- Variety: The concept of using cards and their abilities to play around with your and your opponent’s clans is great, however playing this game 5-6 times, I felt myself wanting some more variety. Be it in the form of more cards with different scores or additional mechanics to make the game a bit more interesting, I feel as though the game holds back and doesn’t take the bold strides I was expecting it to.
- Luck: Unfortunately, with games like this, a lot depends on which cards you’re picking up. Understandably, this is not always avoidable, but something to be aware of is that 2 ‘unlucky’ draws can throw a game completely into the loch for you. After all the memory work and planning it can be frustrating to randomly lose your lead.
The Claim:
Monsters of Loch Lomond is a quick, fun and beautifully illustrated game. It’s small enough to play almost anywhere, it’s easy to learn and you can easily find yourself playing it over and over with friends and family on a cosy winter evening. Will you be a successful clan leader, driving creatures out of your town? Or will you come face to face with many pairs of yellow glowing eyes gazing back at you across the lands, as your village is cloaked in darkness?
