Monuments: Wonders of Antiquity

About this board game

Monuments: Wonders of Antiquity is a strategy game for 2–4 players, with games lasting about 60 minutes. Build ancient monuments, record your opponents’ achievements, and compete for the lasting fame that determines victory.

The game features 12 types of ancient monuments, including the Pyramids and the Colosseum, with nine cards of each type. On a monument turn, you have three actions to collect cards, erect monuments, or expand monuments already in your display. Cards can be drawn from the deck or from three face-up cards, while building a monument costs just one action regardless of how many matching cards you use.

• The first player to build a monument type needs only two matching cards.
• A second player needs at least three cards to build that same type.
• No third player may build the same monument type.

Monuments become valuable through history. Each player has historian tokens—two per player, or three in a three-player game—and a historian turn replaces the usual monument actions. During it, you write a history about all eligible monuments belonging to your opponents, not your own. A monument must contain at least two cards to be included, and writing a history removes one card from the game, potentially reducing a monument’s future value.

Using every historian token matters: unused tokens cost 12 victory points at the end of the game. Histories mentioning many monuments can also provide additional points, creating a difficult balance between helping opponents and avoiding penalties.

In Monuments, timing is crucial. Build early to secure a monument type, or wait to collect more cards and strengthen your display. Meanwhile, copyists can reduce the points awarded for a monument when they build a larger version, making every decision—and every piece of glory—contested.