So reading this so far and I am getting similar vibes to the earlier chapters of Tales of the Reincarnated Lord. A fantasy world where tactics matter but an individual can still significantly impact a battle. A balance of politics, war, and strategy. No romance or harem, yet. The characters themselves are a bit flat. If this isn't your first rodeo with this genre then the characters don't seem that bad.

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Spoiler

So, as I keep reading the story seems to shift its focus from the MC to the Princess, who is described as a brilliant and devious person. The problem though is that the Novel describes her character as such rather than show it. We are told that she has amazing preparations already done, but it is only revealed when it is relevant to the plot, leaving the princess as a mary sue like character.

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Finished reading the main story, skipped the side story.
I came very close to abandoning this story after reading till chapter 73.
I have mixed feelings now that I have completed it. So here's why you should read it and why skip it:

My rating would be 6/10 for this novel

The good parts:
- Empire and kingdom building.
- I like the female Main character, she is hot and smart. A total vixen.
- Harem plot!
- Like the sweet relationship between the MC and his waifus.
- MC starts as intelligent, has knowledge of past life - has the Monarch game type system.
- Till chapter 40-50 the battles that MC fights shows that he can use his head and strategize, he uses the system he has got effectively.
- Decent battle sequences and world building around the battles.
- A great villain, you really get to hate him but then respect him too. Proper hate worthy villain.
- Good pace, doesn't get boring at all.

The bad parts that led me to almost dropping this:
- The FMC is gorgeous, and wily and apparently MC becomes a dumbf**k infront of her. Its great to see FMC is a wily vixen, however after she is introduced MC is portrayed a more of a "yes maam" dude and doesn't have any plan/machinations/strategies of his own. He is completely swept up in FMC's plans and machinations.
- Luckily I continued past chapter 73.. and in 20 chapters it gets better. The MC's `I can't stictch together 2 words infront of FMC` symptom gets better and we get to see proper battles and action and scheming
- MC is not impressive. The Villain is more impressive and honestly gets more action time than MC. Apparently the MC was just a standard office going hard worker who got transported, he doesn't really leverage his past life skills / knowledge much in this novel, aand the Monarch system doesn't really help much other than picking up excellent talents. I don't know about you, but I came to read this novel for a power fantasy trip - what if someone with modern knowledge gets transported to a medieval world and uses that to consolidate kingdoms? Howrver MC way too passive and goes with the flow.
- The last war in the book... shows in my opinion how dumb MC can be. He literally left the defense of his kingdom/back wide open to be smacked... I ended up cursing badly seeing his.. wait let me not say anything more.

Over all.. I liked the characters, MC's relationships and etc but hated it too. Totally messed up my feelings about this story.

Well, ignore many things said above (or below), this is a story about a guy that just wanted a peaceful life, but soon realizes that sh*t is about to hit the fan in the entire continent, so he prepares.
This book is more/less about this: War, Management, War, Politics, War, getting some girls, War, Training, WAR.

About 1/2 (or more) of the series we will be seeing more the battlefield than the peace This is about Milton and the other commanders (be ally or enemy) doing smart tactics (and some s*upid ones) to either win or to take the upper hand, be doing some crazy thing, using magic, making a 1x1 battle with the enemy and etc..

Now some spoilers, to the guy who said the princess is leading Milton by the nose, well is lie .
To the guy who said he was making friends with his enemy and letting him talk with his children that could be kidnapped..., another lie

And lastly to the guy who said Milton was dumb... he's half right

Now, one last thing

The novel started of very good. It went downhill after chapter 50. The author wanted to write MC for battle and fMC for politics. I liked fMC as good opponent (like cunning etc.,) early in story but sh*t no, he made MC a gigolo for her. It really infuriated me when MC asked fMC, what will I get for helping this much. She replies you will get a beauty like me as wife. Then MC thinks who will reject beauty like her, only gay will do that. F*cking have some... more>> self respect and pride, you will just sell yourself for her beauty.

I thought for once thought there will be good and strong FMC, but author f*cked up the story Of MC with fMC. <<less

How can this novel be good or okay, it's absolutely tr*sh. The author gives the villain plot armors, I mean the villain just pulls miraculous out of his butt. The worst part about this novel is the villain and MC works together ❤ like best pals. What the hell on earth is this BS. The villain mu*ders children, women, and elders plus the villain almost kills the MC a few times, but hey let's forget about that and become pals. This author is s*upid as hell, he takes his readers for a bunch of idiots. If you recommend this s*upid novel, either u didn't read it fully or have no idea what u just read. Put this novel in the tr*sh bin and light it on fire. I wasted so many hours reading this BS novel.

It not a game, it a war.

MC transmigrated into body of young noble with debt.. With cheat left by his useless father, he can see the stat of himself and others too.

So blalalalala war, war and war.

... more>> But the story is good.

MC not on the path to become the strongest of all or becoming one above all or anything. She just some talented people with cheat that can see stats.

He not even allowed to add any points into his status so everything is hard work and plot armor. We can see a progression of a amn and people around him <<less

It is an ok story. Ok characters.

Just sometimes it feels a bit dragged on.

For example this event where he crash into a wedding to get his 3rd woman back. Sigh. Do we need 4 chapters on that? Or maybe 5? There are other situations when I felt like there are many story bits that could have been shorten from 4-5 shapters to 1 and 2.

Sadly not very good.

The premise and set up are ok, I guess, but the story really fails to build engagement. There's no overarching plot worth mentioning, but there also isn't enough character interaction to call it character driven.

The characters are flat to begin with, and they're not helped by development arcs lasting all of six lines of dialogue.

There's not much in the way of foreshadowing, and tension is remarkable in its absence.

The writing, even accounting for losses in translation, feels flat and abbreviated.

Game of the Monarch is a rather good read. However, it does have some issues. I would recommend reading it if you are interested in novels where a protagonist wages war and occassionally engages in developing his territory. The protagonist is strong but not the strongest and can't take an army on by himself.

Characters: Some people talk as if any MC that isn't willing to tear the heart out of a baby is weak and annoying and if you think so than this MC may not be for you. He... more>> isn't willing to burn down the country to seize power. He has some principles he tries to stick by them. Milton is also portrayed as intelligent and strategic for the most part. The author does this well but there is some inconsistency. When a later (potential love interest) character appears, she is also portrayed as being incredibly intelligent. To portray her intelligence, the author dumbs down the protagonist when he talks with her. It is a cheap and lazy way of building her character by showing her intellectual superiority. Hopefully the author learns from this and writes better dialogue and developments in the future.

Setting: The continent is divided between republican and aristocratic nations. As a the protagonist is a noble, the republicans are the antagonists. This is a rather unique and interesting setting so props for the author there. The two sides are in a permanent state of war and have a rough stalemate on the battlefield. How medieval countries are supporting tens of thousands of troops, potentially hundreds of thousands, in active combat year after year is not explained and a big hole in the story.

I am still reading this, but after 50 chapters in I can say that this has been a rather good story this far. The MC and story are pretty good despite some errors on the author's part. <<less