Kajiro

All-Out Kaiju Attack! A Resource Page for 'Monster Island' Compiled By Alan Saunders

Kharsa

Introduction

This page is an online resource for 'Monster Island', the miniatures game of giant monster combat in the style of Godzilla films. 'Monster Island' is published by Firefly Games, and currently consists of five main products:

• 'Monster Island' - This is the original set of rules and you need this one to play the game. It covers battles between monsters (or 'kaiju', as they are termed in the game) on the tropical island on which they have been imprisoned - the 'Monster Island' of the title. Players can create their own kaiju and pit them against each other in combat using any figures that come to hand, or the stand-up cardboard figures provided in the book.
  

• 'Escape From Monster Island' - This takes the game off Monster Island, and has rules for destroying cities as well as introducing the human units that attempt to stop the monsters. The book also has some extra abilities your kaiju can purchase, as well as expansions on the basic rules. Again a set of card figures are provided in the book.

• 'Invasion of Monster Island' - Mentioned in the first two books are the alien Deloks; this book contains rules for their units and allows you to play out cinematic alien invasions of Earth, with or without the involvement of kaiju, as well as covering games in extra-terrestrial environments. Again there are more new abilities for kaiju to purchase. This supplement is only available as a PDF download.

• 'Revenge of Monster Island' - The smallest supplement, it includes a few new abilities for kaiju and one or two extra rules for human and alien units. The rest of the book is given over to a description of the main areas and buildings of that favourite kaiju stomping ground - Tokyo. This book is let down by the lack of any maps of the city it describes. This supplement is only available as a PDF download.

• 'Monster Island Battle Pack' - New kaiju as well as several sheets of cut-out figures for kaiju, human and alien units. PDF download.

The Firefly Games website also has a number of free downloads available. These include an errata, a few extra rules for alternative environments, record sheets and a whole load of player-created kaiju.

This site follows Firefly Games in 'disguising' the names of the more famous kaiju. Firstly, and most importantly, this get around any copyright inconveniences, but secondly it means that there is less requirement for the kaiju to actually match the film version. The following page offers a guide to these disguises:

• Kaiju Disguises

Between them the four books allow a partial history of the 'Monster island' world to be determined:

• 'Monster Island' Timeline

Rules Variants

This section covers new and variant rules that I have been trying out.

• Movement Rules
• Combat Rules
• Special Abilities
• Miscellaneous Rules

Kaiju

This section has profiles of a range of new kaiju. Some are original creations, whilst others are based on creatures from films. All kaiju are built on 30 points unless otherwise stated.

• Gorgan - Teleporting alien.
• Gouka - Ever changing.
• Grosnox - Bat out of Hell.
• Kajiro-X1 - An experiment gone wrong.
• Kajutaijuq - Canada's anti-kaiju mecha.
• Nijira (Larva) - Baby Nijira.
• Mantidora - Now you see it ...
• Metacrinus - Giant plant from outer space.
• Quodaq - Nyani Mkubwe's arachnid foe.
• Ronin-X - The heroic kaiju-fighting mecha.
• Shinyu - Serpentine guardian of Mu.
• Tigan - The space dragon beefed up (45 points).
• The V4 - Nazi terror weapon.

Scenarios

• The V4 and the Vampires
• Tigan Attacks!

Gallery

Pictures of games and kaiju miniatures from my collection.

• Kaiju Figures
• Other Miniatures
• Games
• A blog post showing my human units under construction.

Other Resources

• Scott McGinnis's unofficial Map and History of Monster Island.
• Toho Kingdom - A superb resource covering the whole output of the studio that created Godzilla. A somewhat eccentric writing style, though.
• IMDB search for 'Godzilla'
• Mothra's Song - With lyrics so that you can sing along.

Any comments? Why not send me an e-mail?

Back to The Wargames Section

Legal Bit: 'Monster Island', all of its supplements, and the creatures and organisations mentioned in them are Copyright 2002-2005 by Firefly Games. All rights reserved. This page is a fan site and no infringement of copyright is intended. All original material on this site is Copyright 2005 by Alan Saunders.