Climbing the Monolith (MB:Isfet unboxing)

'twas a rainy day yesterday, pretty gloomy and grim in my part of Scandinavia, but made all the more enjoyable via the simple act of the local courier dropping off 15kg of Monolith goodness on my doorstep. Yes, the long awaited package from the Mythic Battles: Isfet Kickstarter campaign has finally arrived. 

Before I get into the actual meat and potatoes of the post, I'd just like to briefly point out that two more factions have been added to the Miniature Galleries section, namely the Ophidian Alliance and the Devourers of Vile-Tis. It's a bit of a slow process, mostly since Blogger is a bit clunky when it comes to formatting (this post especially was a nightmare to edit!), there's a lot of back and forth in order to make everything perfect and my OCD definitely isn't helping. However, I'm truly enjoying the process, because I am using this chance to get a better understanding of some of the models which I might have overlooked previously, plus not to mention expanding my own knowledge about some of the trivia of certain profiles. I tried adding a bit of extra information on some entries, but I'm still trying to decide what it is that these galleries are supposed to contain, just data regarding the actual models or also some info about the cards as well. Regardless, it's loads of fun and, again, if you've got any kind of feedback then I'll gladly hear you out.

But now, let us get into the review/unboxing! I've used a post break here since this one is long and heavy on images, so unless you actually clicked on the post and are seeing the whole thing, please click "read more" below.

So, this post will be an overview of the campaign and the delivery process, as well as an unboxing of sorts. Obviously this post is not Rackham or Confrontation related, but I think it might be worthwhile to get people acquainted with Monolith seeing as how they are the current holders of the Rackham IPs. As it was mentioned on discord many times so far, we still don't know how Monolith or the newly established Rackham Games will approach the resurrection of our beloved IP(s), nor do we know which channels of productions they end up using for their future games, but it might be interesting to see where the publisher is at right now so that we might foresee some future possibilities.

For those uninitiated, Monolith Games has been on the Kickstarter scene for the past 11 years and with 17 successful projects in their repertoire. Without me retyping everything, I think one of their visuals from the currently ongoing Berserk campaign says it best.

Mythic Battles is their own baby based on a game system created by Benoît Vogt and Mythic Battles: Isfet is the third addition to the game which delves into Egyptian mythology, the previous two being Norse and the original game's Greek mythologies. 

This is not my first rodeo with Monolith. I've backed all their Mythic Battles campaigns, first one being the Mythic Battles: Pantheon reprint in 2018, as well as the reissue of the legendary French boardgame Claustrophobia, titled "Claustrophobia 1643". Right off the bat, I think it is worth noting that I never had a single bad experience with their projects, both during the actual campaign and in the delivery/support periods. Their campaigns are usually quite thrilling and they actively engage with the backers for ideas and feedback, the delivery doesn't break any major deadlines and ever since they moved to Gamefound for their pledge manager they offer paying in instalments which I think is super important for us boardgame addicts enthusiasts.

My delivery agent is a real cutie!

Let's get down to it! The shipping box is huge. As mentioned, 15kg of pure gameplay goodness. I've skipped on some of the cosmetics, specifically the Artbook and the sleeves, and some of the new MB:Pantheon and MB:Ragnarok expansions were purchased, but delivered to friends who are currently storing those. Funny story there, Mythic Battles is the most played game series in my playgroup which consists of three people, so we arranged it in a way where each of us has one MB title at home. Helps tremendously when it comes to storage, since these games are enormous.

Voila!

This part of the delivery is for your cat, she went nuts over these...

Inside, everything is nigh airtight. Nothing moves during transportation and nothing gets damaged. There are layers and layers of these cardboard shreds and even if you'd start slamming the box around the game boxes are quite safe. This has been the case with all their previous deliveries and across all of their games there was only one case of a bit of damage where during the MB:Ragnarok shipping two miniatures arrived broken. Not sure if this was during the actual packing or during transport, but it was nothing too big, a broken spear and a broken horn. I could've just glued those back, but the friend who is currently storing MB:Ragnarok insisted we "try out their customer support" and lo! The case was updated as quickly as it was reported to Monolith and replacement miniatures arrived free of charge within a few weeks. Important note there, their customer support has been swift and efficient in my experience! 

Glorious!

I just adore the design of these boxes! The Mythic Battles art was always awesome, you always get this absolutely epic sense of scale which definitely matches the theme of the games. On top of that, very sturdy and resilient, our copy of MB:Pantheon has been yanked around for years on end and is still in tip top shape today.

Big box #1

Now let's dive into the Core box. As you can hopefully see, this is one chonky boy. It contains two layered boxes full of miniatures, as well as rules, scenarios and player aids. Let's check them out backwards.

Player aids, extremely useful in this game!

Now, speaking about the rulebook and player aids, I won't go over how the game is actually played, since that would double the size of this review. What I do want to say is that Mythic Battles has always had an extremely clear set of rules and a well written and concise rulebook. The basic mechanisms are easy to get into, especially since a big part of the game is relegated to specific keyworded abilities. True complexity of the game comes with the plethora of units the players can choose from, especially since all units aside from the lowliest of troops have their own unique special abilities, and even those are easy to grasp and there is no need to memorize it all since it is clearly outlined on the unit dashboards which are in front of you.

The common misconception here is that additional expansions just add "more stuff that doesn't make sense". MB:Pantheon has a shocking 17 expansions (an expansion being anywhere from 2 new units to 10+) and my group has all of them except the incoming two new ones... and the game is a breeze, because the basic system is so simple. Sure, complexity arises with some interactions between powers and talents, but there has almost never been a moment where we didn't know how to proceed. Monolith does FAQ-s and rules clarifications, so even if some messy affair pops up at the table, they are notified by the community and it is usually addressed.

Also, the interesting thing about most Monolith games that I've seen is that they feature both the English and the French rules in the same box. Which is a bit frustrating on one side, cause you potentially end up with booklets which you don't need, but also nice since you are safer when browsing the second hand market and don't have to obsess with searching for the right version. And truth be told, we've actually bought a few expansions outside of Kickstarter, so this dual-language bit made finding what we wanted a breeze. 

Smaller minis, some of the heroes.

A Divinity next to a measly troop.

Close-up on some details...

The simple use of textures to great effect.

Birb.

All the small details, like the birds on the back, are so thematic...

Look at that gorgeous base!

Love the details here!

Boy, that was a big photo dump of just a fraction of the miniatures. For board-game miniatures, these are absolutely fantastic. The miniatures themselves are a mix of ABS hard plastic for some thinner parts and PVC for the rest. Luckily, the production process for these has greatly improved over the years, so the details on these are amazing. Only the smaller miniatures sometimes tend to suffer since the details don't end up being too crisp, but those are in the minority, as most smaller minis still look great. I actually forgot to take pictures of those... but for example, the first and second picture feature minis on the smaller side.

The big boys and girls however are truly a thing of beauty. Great design overall, somehow each mini tells its own story while holding up to the theme, and every millimeter has been used for small interesting details and wild intriguing shapes, not to mention the variety of textures applied, like the scales of the snake or the skin of the crocodile. And the bases, dear lord the bases! Some of these look gorgeous, that Sphinx blew me away. This is all exactly what I want from a miniature, to be blown away by some detail and to get excited to paint it just from a glance.

Not a lot of these present!

Naturally there are some faults, mainly in the form of mold lines and some gaps. Some minis seem to not have these issues, some have clearly visible bits that need to be cleaned. This guy above is a bit on the terrible side, but nothing that can't be fixed with a scalpel and some sandpaper.

MB:Pantheon - Perseus

MB:Ragnarok - Freya (no spear, the one that was broken)

MB:Pantheon - Hera

MB:Pantheon - Hephaestus and Lava Golems

MB:Pantheon - Veteran Hercules

MB:Pantheon - Geryon

MB:Pantheon - Manticore

Here are also a couple of miniatures from MB:Pantheon and MB:Ragnarok (the one with the goddess without a spear), as well as a few images of minis of MB:Pantheon which I painted a few years ago. The biggest takeaway here is that I think that the mini quality has vastly improved since the first iteration of the game.

Big box #2

I'll briefly show the other chonky box which is essentially a storage box filled with all non-miniature and non-rulebook materials. The initial Mythic Battles release didn't have one of these bad boys and it was honestly such a pain in the ass to store, especially since the game is of this magnitude and without their proper place many components would just fly around in the box and every time you pack it up you had to guess what goes where. Now it's a slick solution where you can store everything in its right place and Monolith went back and did this storage solution for all Mythic Battles titles. 

This will be OCD heaven.

As you can see, it contains all the cards, dashboards, tokens, terrain pieces and dice, with a whole lot of extra room for things featured in the Duat and Eternal Cycle expansions, or any other Isfet expansions that might come out in the future. I also forgot to take a picture with them inside, but the folded game boards go on top of what you see in the picture and they fit perfectly. And speaking of game boards...

These boards are glorious! The photos don't do them justice, but the color palette used for these is beautiful. MB:Pantheon featured great artwork, but in my opinion the choice of colors was a bit on the darker side and overall too matte somehow. Overtime, they definitely added more vividness to their boards and MB:Isfet is definitely a wonderful culmination of color. They feel quite alive and the second I unfolded them they made me think of Hybrid. I think we'll be in for a real treat with a reimagined Hybrid and I truly can't wait to see what they come up with. The boards in Mythic Battles are these big 4-part foldable, double-sided boards, but for Claustrophobia they did the single tiles which were also fantastic. Sadly, my copy of Claustrophobia is sitting in storage in Serbia still, so I don't have it on hand for a few quick shots, you'll just have to take my word for it. 

Similarly, the terrain elements are nicely done and adequately thematic, and the same can be said about the dice. All of which again makes me think of Hybrid and what we might get there.

Here are just some of the cards and dashboards. Naturally there's a ton of those in here and they are all awesome looking. They've had a unified look across all Mythic Battles iterations since you can play them either stand-alone or mix and match units, so the design has been replicated the same way. Cards are simple, but very thematic. The dashboards I always loved, since you had all the information for the specific unit laid out in a very clear and well organized fashion. The tokens, especially those for units, have greatly benefitted from the enriched color palette, since for MB:Pantheon we always found it to be a bit of a pain to find the required tokens before the game since they were all so color mute. Here they are vivid and clear and just nice to look at. 

Also, the same thing that goes for the rulebooks being in both languages applies for the cards and I think those are even nicer to have in a secondary language, since you can either use them as replacements if you ruin some of the cards, or for storage and display, since the art on them is really beautiful in my opinion.

Honestly, this entire delve into MB:Isfet has me thinking about Hybrid. Monolith definitely has all the right tools to do it justice, with everything from the miniature design, the extremely thematic bases, the terrain elements, the tokens and the gameboard design, I can envision opening up their Hybrid release and just reveling in it. If they manage to be faithful to the design symbology and vibe of the original, nudging it up to Monolith quality standard is going to make it into an amazing product. Truly excited for that to happen!

And there you have it! I obviously haven't posted images of all the minis and all the little bits and pieces found in the boxes, in fact I still haven't unboxed the Duat and the Eternal Cycle expansions, but this was just to give you a "brief" overview of my thoughts and the actual product. I think the biggest takeaway from this needs to be that Monolith Games is not Sans-Detour. They are a serious company with years of excellence behind them, a company that has been improving their product over time, and one that has certainly learned from all their previous endeavors. I know that a lot of people have their doubts, especially when it comes to companies which operate almost entirely on Kickstarter/Gamefound, but Monolith has definitely stood the test of time and is a company that I think is standing on firm ground when many other companies have faltered. CMON used to be a giant in the industry and many other companies aspired to be like them, but just take a look at where they are now, following things like the pandemic and the tariffs, and compare them to numbers generated by recent Monolith campaigns:

Note that this is showing Berserk two days into the campaign!

Now, to be clear, I'm not saying that the resurrection of the Rackham IPs is confirmed and guaranteed success. It is going to be a long and difficult road for Monolith/Rackham, especially in trying to please the community and earn its respect and goodwill. But what I am definitely saying, is that we are presented with a solid base from where we can be hopeful. Monolith is probably the best company that we could have gotten in the crowdfunding world, especially them being French is probably a sign that they will do the best that they can in order to respect the original IP and what it aimed to achieve. I am absolutely certain that they will do a brilliant job with Hybrid (and AT-43, though I'm not sure if that IP has been part of the deal?) and the RPG. I mentioned Hybrid several times above and it is worth pointing out that several of Monolith's previous projects have been RPG titles, so they definitely have a plethora of experience in that field as well. 

For (Confrontation) Rag'narok, I am holding my breath a bit less, simply because that is a bigger unknown and is a game which is outside of Monolith's territory as far as genre goes... they haven't so far published a non-boardgame skirmish title. Additionally, we don't exactly know what the relationship between Monolith and Rackham Games is going to be, whether they will have some shared resources and production channels, whether they'll fall back on Monolith's experience for guidance, or something third. What we do know is that members of Rackham Games are active on the CDRF server and have been, from what I can tell, open to community feedback. Regardless of the relationship between the two companies, if any, it is highly doubtful in my mind that they've acquired the rights and then will just let the investment rot away and disappear in the hands of someone less experienced, because to repeat, this isn't Sans Detour. But as I said, I am positive and definitely think that the IP is in safe hands, since realistically I doubt that we as a community could have gotten a better deal. 

Lastly, I would love to see a bit more positive energy from the community. I know there are many unknowns and that some prominent community members have tried reaching out to members of Monolith/Rackham Games (me included) to no avail... I can only speculate on the silence, but I can absolutely understand a creator being silent before they are 100% certain of what to say, especially when dealing with an IP with so much history and so many past difficulties. People tend to be excited, but also too quick to judge or be unnecessarily critical of things which usually just contributes to negativity and overall spreading of doubt. Relax and enjoy the ride for now. I've been to many crowdfunding rodeos since 2017 and I've seen disasters coming from a mile away, but I've yet to see one coming from Monolith.* If it all ends up going to shit again, we'll just keep on being grumpy grognards and we'll get a bunch of memes in return and can keep saying how Rackham is cursed. But if it ends up being a success? Well, well, well, what a time to be alive that would be! Time will tell.

*CORRECTION: I just remember only one crowdfunding campaign being cancelled by Monolith and it was for "Beyond the Monolith", which suffered from poor explanation from the creator about what it actually is and how it is supposed to work. To this day I haven't grasped what the point of that one was. I don't think this is merit enough to criticize Monolith too much, as the campaign was simply cancelled, so none of the backers lost money or were screwed over. It was simply a vision poorly translated to the consumer, but I think it was worth mentioning for full transparency.