Monsters have taken over the Scottish Highlands & only the strongest Clan will survive. Will you be the saviour of Loch Lomond or will your clan be just another causality of the Monster of Loch Lomond

Objective

In every round, your goal is to chase away all the Monster cards from the clan. The Monster cards are worth a lot of points that negatively impact your score. The game ends when all 4 Victory Tokens are won. The player with the lowest points wins the game!

Through swapping cards and the use of magical powers, you will try to find the monsters hiding in your clan and chase them into the Open Highlands or to one of the rivalling clans. Besides the big lake monsters, there are also many Scottish legendary creatures present in the Loch Lomond area. These legendary creatures are also a huge threat for the safety of your clan. However, their magical powers can be used to your benefit and will turn out to be critical for finding and removing the monster hiding in your clan.

Set-up

1. 1. Place the Token cards open on the side of the table.
2. Shuflle the rest of the cards well and place four cards face down in front of each player. These form the players’ clans, and should be placed as 2 top cards and 2 bottom cards.  Important: these cards cannot change order, unless one of the actions requires you to do so.
3. All the other cards are placed in the middle of the table faced down and form the Closed Highland Pile.

HOW TO PLAY

Beginning with the starting player, players take turns in clockwise order. Remove all tokens from the pile and shuffle the cards well between rounds. The oldest and wisest player starts in the first round. The player that won the latest Victory Token starts every next round.

During your turn

You can choose to:

1. Draw a card from the Open Highland Pile. You may swap this card with one of the cards in your clan.
2. Draw a card from the Closed Highland Pile. Without showing it to your opponents, swap the card face down with 1 of the cards in your clan. The replaced card will be placed on the Open Highland Pile.
3. Draw a card from the Closed Highland Pile. If you do not want the drawn card in your clan (option 2), you can place it directly on the Open Highland Pile. Some cards have a special power that automatically comes into play and must be performed immediately. Check out the description on the card.

You can play one of your tokens at any point during your turn, even before you draw a card. (More about the tokens at the Token section)

SHOO!!

Someone discards a card on top of the Open Highland pile that is also in your or a rival’s clan? Shoo!!By discarding this card from your or your rival’s clan on the Open Highland Pile you chase this character into the open Highlands.

Only the person that first called Shoo!! is allowed to perform this action. If you discard a card from your own clan, you have one less card to worry about, and if you discard a rival’s card, he or she will receive a card of your choice from your clan.

Beware! Did you discard the wrong card? Bummer! As a penalty, you draw an extra card from the Closed Highland Pile and place it blindly face down in your clan.

SAORSA!!

Your goal is having the lowest number of points and to get rid of all the monsters from your clan. The Monster cards are all cards with a value of 4 and higher. For instance: the “Monster Egg” is not a Monster (yet).

As soon as you believe your clan is free of any monsters, and you have the lowest number of points, you call out ‘SAORSA!!’ at the start of your turn. After you have done so, your turn is over, and no further actions can be taken.

Last round

After “SAORSA!!” is called, every other player takes one last turn. The cards of the player who called “SOARSA!!” are frozen during this last round, the other players’ cards remain in play. The use of the token ‘Baby Monster’ is not allowed during the last round.

Counting the score

After the round is finished, every player counts the total number of points in their clan. The score will be kept on the accompanying scorebook. You can also earn tokens with each round. The goal is to have as few points as possible. The game ends when all 4 Victory tokens are won.

Victory token

Did you call “SAORSA!!” with no Monster in your clan, and did you also have the lowest score? You win a Victory Token! This token is worth -3 points at the end of the game. Do you share the lowest score with another player? You called out “SAORSA!!” first, therefore you still win the Victory Token. If you don’t have the lowest points, but have no Monsters in your clan, no token is won this round.

Incorrect SAORSA!!

You called “SAORSA!!” but you still have a Monster in your clan? This counts as an incorrect “SOARSA!!”. You will get 8 penalty points

Game Play

When the team at Key Card Games reached out to me regarding the Monster hunter epic, Monster of Loch Lomond. I was excited purely off the theme. As an epic tales of clans & monsters set against the rich history of folklore, mythical creatures & legends of Scotland. I had to play it!

I assembled my clan leaders, advised that we had to all talk in a Scottish accent & went about playing Monster of Loch Lomond. The Scottish accents lasted about 10 mins, as I sounded more Irish, 2 of my friends sounded like they were English & Danny sounded more like Donkey than Shrek. We decided to stop insulting the Scottish people with our accents & dived into a game that seemed to have a medium to light complexity with vigour.

The first game, we played slow. Allowing players to cheat a little and look at there cards more than once. And get us all used to the rules before playing for real. It is a really easy game to figure out, with the rules just flowing into the next. Even Danny’s partner with us, who has never played a boardgame in her life had no trouble picking it up.
Once the first game was over, the alliance was no more & the clans went to war!

I was having a blinder & called SAORSA!! Early. Feeling impressed with myself….. until I realised at the end of the round; that my Lake Monster was not on the top right but the left & Danny had stolen my Seer instead. And the round was lost & the 8-point penalty was mine

Danny’s Partner took out Round one & Round two, I know she said that he has never played a boardgame in her life. Yet I am calling BS. That woman is the sweetest, loveliest & vicious player I have ever met.

Round 3 was all mine & this time the brain was switched on & SAORSA!! Was my war cry! Only an act the Monster of Loch Lomond gods could stop me from winning this round! And the Gods were not on my side. Danny played the Kelpie, that swaps a card with an opponent’s card & again the 8 point penalty was mine!

I swear, that Incorrect SAORSA!! is so stoopid. Like why is that even a rule! Ok, maybe, just maybe I don’t like it because it hit me twice. But that is only maybe!

As Danny’s Partner took out the first play-through we continued to play into the we hours of Sunday Morning. And loved every minute of it. The more we played, the more we learnt the cards, the more risks we took….. the more stoopid 8-point penalties I took.

Danny & his partner took my review copy home with them as they were babysitting this weekend & wanted to play with the kids.

There is only think I am going to put to the team at Key Card Games why is it that the Scottish (Even, if both Robin Stokkel & Peter Jan van der Veek are Dutch, but it is a Scottish Game. So humour me on this little technicality) can only invent games that score backwards? First Golf & now Monster of Loch Lomond.

Art

The Art of Monster of Loch Lomond fits the theme as beautiful as you could imagine. The mystical & whimsy of the monsters is captured so beautiful, that it just sings on the table. From the deadly but graceful Selkie to the alabaster hauntingness of the witch & the cuteness of the baby monster.

The art has been designed so harmoniously; to created a game that looks interconnected but still allows each creature to be unique & have its own personality & flavour….. even if it is a scary personality & monstrous flavour

Final Thoughts

I was excited for Monster of Loch Lomond because of the theme. As the theme & setting worked so perfectly together. Yet I have been fouled but that before. A great theme & a great bit of art does not make a game good.

Monster of Loch Lomond is not one of those. As though I loved the theme & art, it was the gameplay that made this game special. The memorising card for me was a real winner, as we do not see as many of those anymore. Then forcing players to not just memorise their cards but those of others & trying to effect that in a way that helps you & hinders them without becoming enemy number one. Is a balancing acted that I loved….. that being said, I’m not a sore loser or anything; but incorrect SAORSA!! is stoopid & I hate it!

Monster of Loch Lomond is a great light to medium game that can be enjoyed by the whole family & with a replay value that keeps you coming back for more. It smashed it’s Kickstarter goal with 24 hours & if you’d like your copy click the link below.

Monster of Loch Lomond Kickstarter Page