[ano]

Well, I firmly believe that monkeys are very powerful in the lategame if left untouhed early on but with the pretender you suggest they will have very hard times to defend from properly launched attack and that is a pity fact. Yes, they have many powers and excellent summons but very many different things (territory and gems being the most obvious) are required to make all that work well. Still, I'm agree that they are playable and, if lucky enough, may even become unstoppable in the late game.
But they are very, very luck dependent. I don't mean luck scale, I mean lucky positions, neighbours, sites etc. Especially I don't like being very luck dependent but may be one day I'll try...