Review of The Cats of Mont Saint Michel

Board Game Cover

Introduction

I was super excited when I saw The Cats of Mont Saint Michel, a game by Tom Frank and Marco Pecota, hit Kickstarter.  I lived in France for a number of years and I have been to the actual Mont Saint Michel off the coast of the Normandy region of France.  Truly it is a wonder to visit, almost like stepping through a time machine to another time and place.  Back to the game…I thought the theme was cute, with the cats and the French revolution as backdrops.  I was looking forward to a story driven campaign with an engaging narrative and a spin on your typical dungeon crawling tropes. 

Obviously as a solo gamer, I was excited that they listed the game being 1-4 players.  While I didn’t really investigate what a solo experience in this game would actually be like, I trusted that modern games with solo modes had something planned to make it a worthwhile experience. 

My excitement and assumptions made me completely blind to what the actual gameplay was going to be like.  I thought it couldn’t be too bad with so much thought going into the narrative and theme.  Well, with that little bit of foreshadowing, let’s get into the details.

Game Overview

Here is the official overview of the game.  “The Cats of Mont Saint Michel is a miniatures solo/cooperative campaign game set in the historical monastery Saint Michel and just before the French revolution. You will be playing directly on the coil bound scenario book and using 12 sided dice for combat and collecting cards for loot, skills and powers. The game plays out over a series of linked scenarios forming a campaign and ongoing story. Each previous scenario in the campaign affects the start of the next.

As you play each scenario, your hero will come closer to reaching their ultimate goal of ridding the Abbey of the villainous rats and their brethren. Along the way, they will need to defeat swarms of cockroaches, warrior rats and other foul beings. They will also be gaining experience and unlocking unique skills.

What Works

There’s a lot to like here!  But the devil is in the details.  Let me start with what I liked.

The introductory scenario sets up how the game is going to be played.  The maps are all conveniently inside one spiral bound book a la Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion style.  Kudos to the development team in this…all games should look at this as an option.  The setup and rules are on one side of the book with the map on the other.  Any extra rules are in the supplementary instruction manual that also contains dialog and flavor test when prompted.  Setup is pretty straightforward.  It’s pretty clear where to set items and bad guys and objective markers.  I got the standard edition with standees but opted for upgraded components.  The standees were cardboard, but they were well done and colorful.  In fact, a shoutout to the artist Omar Rayyan. The biggest highlight here is the art…on the board, in the manuals and on the box, it’s truly fantastic.  It does help immerse you in the theme.

Map and standees (prototype shown here)

The rule book I think leans on the pretty bad side.  It’s serviceable, but not great.  Mostly because it’s not referenceable.  When stuck on a rule, you have to dig through where it was introduced, look at the context and see if you can figure it out.  I found that somewhat tedious.

Solo Play Experience

Once everything is set up, the campaign begins—but this is where I hit my first surprise. Although the game is listed as supporting 1–4 players, the rules state that it is designed for four. The designers do warn that true solo play is extremely difficult and that a single cat is unlikely to survive for long. To offset that, solo players who are not using all four characters can give each cat one extra action point. I ended up playing two-handed, with one cat in each hand and three action points per cat, for a total of six each turn.

Early on, that setup felt manageable. Since most enemies only have one action point at the start, six actions per turn seemed generous, and for the first two or three scenarios it was. The challenge was present, but it did not feel punishing.  I was able to complete the objectives and leave the map successfully.  Between scenarios, you visit the Tavern and resolve a random Tavern action card, which can add story flavor or affect your character. While these moments add atmosphere, I found them more distracting than engaging. In one case, a card sent me straight into the next scenario before I could finish the usual tavern steps, which was frustrating.

After the tavern action card, you heal up (sleep) and then you get a chance to buy from the market.  As you don’t really gain much money until later scenarios, you can look mournfully at the cool things in the market while hoping the next round earns you more money.  I will say though that the first few rounds do give you options to draw from the items deck.  These you can keep or sell to spend your proceeds at the market.

What Doesn’t Work

That’s it basically, wash, rinse, repeat, adding new story elements along the way.  And here’s where the game started to lose me.  The story seemed so disjointed that it was kind of hard to follow along.  And maybe it was just the length of the campaigns, but the movement and battles were so “samey” that it was almost monotonous.  And there wasn’t enough narrative to make me really engage with the characters or care about why we were fighting except that we’re cats and we hate rats and cockroaches (the 2 primary baddies).  Then the complexity ratcheted up pretty quickly.  I don’t even want to say complexity…more like the challenges became much more than 2 cats could handle.  By the 7^th or 8^th scenario, I’m drowning in enemies while trying to complete multi-stage objectives with a timer moving ever closer to failure.  Either you run out of time, don’t complete the mission or die and are supposed to restart the mission.  Well, after an hour of monotonous activity, I couldn’t bring myself to want to play the mission over again.  And the cycle continues. 

And that’s really the core of my problem.  The game play mechanics weren’t interesting enough for me to want to engage with it.  It’s basically move, attack, move, attack, investigate.  Over and over and over.  In the meantime, you’re under a constant barrage of enemies coming toward you and the inexorable countdown that ensures if you don’t accomplish the mission, you fail anyway.

Conclusion

I didn’t find it particularly fun, and the loose story wasn’t strong enough to make up for the flat gameplay. I’ll be moving this one on. That said, I think it could appeal to newer players, especially with a full group of four. Younger kids or less experienced gamers may enjoy it more than I did. A few years ago, I probably would have too, but it doesn’t offer enough for me as a seasoned solo gamer. Still, I’m sure someone else will get more out of it.

I’m going to give this a 6.5 BGG rating.  I am surprised by it’s current 8.1.  That’s impressive for a new game.  I wish it the best of luck and I’m hoping the next iteration, The Cats of New Orleans, which I also backed, will improve on this performance.