Montoons: Clash of the Coral Isles, is A high-energy, competitive print-and-play, roll-and-write, arena combat game. As MonToon warriors from rival factions, you compete in an epic clash to claim the Waystone and bring prosperity and power to your faction. Achieve victory by tactically positioning yourself around the map, defeating your rivals in combat, or solving a strategic puzzle to unlock the Waystone’s power.

The MonToons of the Coral Isles, accustomed to conflict, now face an unprecedented event, one which promises to fulfill an ancient prophecy: The Tidalmark. As the Waystones of the Chief’s Archipelago become supercharged, the most powerful MonToon warriors from all factions will traverse sand, sea, rock and reef to claim unimaginable power and etch their names into the island’s vast history.

Disclaimer: The publisher provided the prototype files of MonToons: Clash of the Coral Isles & MonToons: Guardians of the Coral Isles. The opinions expressed in the review are completely my own.

Review:

Components:

Montoons Clash and Guardians are print and play games. The files provided include the paper items for the game. This includes the battle maps, character sheets, and rule books for both the base game and the expansion. There are some items outside of the print and play that are required to play the game. A set of 5 D6 dice for all players, a player pawn or token, some secondary token to represent board effects and a writing utensil. As a board game enthusiast I did not find the non-paper items to be outrageous, seeing as the only thing that has to be specific is the Dice. You can use anything as a pawn or token. I found some little toy dinosaurs and plastic rocks that I just had lying around the house. You can go as elaborate or simple as you like, make the game your own. As I saw this game becoming more and more requested by my game group I went ahead and laser cut some tokens, but kept the dinosaurs they just fit the theme.

Montoons: Clash of the Coral Isle and Montoons: Guardians of the Coral Isle are at the core arena battlers, you are pitting your montoon up against the other montoons on the island searching for the ultimate power the Waystone or better yet eliminating all your competition so you can be the soul survivor on the island. Along with the battle arena mechanics, there is dice rolling mechanic and asymmetrical powers. 

With the dice rolling there is a lot of randomness, but this does not distract from the core game play. The designers have added some mitigation to help with the random rolls of the dice. This adds a strategic element to the game, do I use this +1 on this turn so I can use this attack or can I stay with the roll and find something else to do. It is easy to get greedy and use all your bonuses (which are limited) and find yourself on the wrong side of the dice rolling. Some of those bonuses can win or lose you the game. Adding a +2 to your speed (initiative roll) so you can go first might just win you the game.

The asymmetrical characters are truly unique and play differently. For each character that I have played, some strategy did not work from character to character. Some are designed to be more aggressive and combat centered while others are more objective based. Add in the Guardians from the expansion and there are countless combinations that can be made. As a player if you are not hand selecting your character or Guardians and allowing the fate of randomness to decide having the same game twice seems like a long shot. There is a lot of replay-ability in the game because of the asymmetrical character.

Thematically this game shines as you take on the role of a montoon looking to gain superiority on your island. I do think that what you use for your player pawn and tokens help with the theme, but even using basic items the gameplay lends to the theme. It feels like you are living out an old Kaiju movie, playing as one of the titans trying to destroy the others. The art and graphic design are superb and add to the theme.

Setup is simple, select your battle map and place it within reach of all players. Let each player select a character sheet, or if you want to spice it up randomly give each player a character sheet. Next each player takes a set of 5 dice and a writing utensil. 

If you are playing with the Guardians expansion randomly give each player a Bonus Guardian, Specialty Guardian and a Utility Guardian. Place these beside your main character sheet. They are not available for use until you awaken them. Each one requires a different action to awaken. Once they are awakened, slide the picture half of the guardian card under your character sheet. This will give you extra bonuses and power attacks to unleash on your opponent.

The game play is pretty straight forward. At the start of the round all players will roll their 5 dice, then assign the dice to their character sheet to activate movement, attacks, or cross parts of Waystone grid that gives you bonuses and activates your waystone actions. Once all dice have been assigned each player will take their turn according to the turn order established by the dice assigned in the speed location. Complete all your actions and play goes to the next player. Once all players finish their turn, a new round starts.

Montoons Clash of the Coral Isle by itself is a fun chaotic game that can be setup and placed in a short amount of time. I have played the game at all player counts and I have to say they are all real fun. At 2 players the game’s strategy really opens up but for you are in for some chaotic fun much like Thunder Road. Having Montoons moving, attacking, throwing and pushing each other all over the map in hopes of being either the last one standing or the one that has gained the power of the waystone. While there is quite a bit of randomness in the roll of the dice, how you assign them and how you use your bonuses help in mitigating the random roll. One negative I would say is that with each character there is an attack or movement that is an auto play if you roll that number. In a couple of games you would see players playing the same attack each turn because it is effective. However, that did not take away from the overall fun of the game. In my experience having the character randomly assigned had a lot to do with the replay-ability of the game. As someone who plays Root using the same characters over and over gets stale. Fortunately Montoons: Clash of the Coral Isle comes with 9 characters, from the start. The base game is well worth the purchase and time required to print it out. Since I received the files Montoons has been on steady rotation for my playgroup. Now with the upcoming release of the expansion Montoons: Guardians of Coral isle, there is no better time to hop on this train.

Guardians adds a whole new level of game play and strategy to the base game. After playing the base game then adding the expansion. I don’t think I will go back to playing the vanilla game. The expansion adds so much and with the many combinations between the guardians and main characters keep this game on the table, with me wondering what combo is next and how do I win with it. The game keeps you engaged and trying to plan your next move all the while hoping your opponent does not ruin your best laid plans. 

The sheer variety in this print and play is enough to warrant the price of purchase, but add in the fun and engaging gameplay and replay-ability it just goes over the top. This game is print and play and it rivals some of the best production box games. I would definitely put it in my top 20 games in my collection. I see it hitting the table many many times.

After reading Steven Foster’s review, if this sounds like a game for you at the time of this posting MonToons: Guardians of the Coral Isles will be live on KICKSTARTER starting on Tue, May 6 2025. Check it out and follow it so you can back it on day 1 HERE! Tell them Everything Board Games Sent you!

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