Kingdom Death

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Gorgeous stuff.

I finally got to play last week. I had three of my old buddies (the first people I played WFRP 1st ed and Warhammer with). We did surprisingly well; those guys are super tactical.

We had one character just running around scoping out what the WHite Lion's next AI cards were while others flanked and ran around it. It was epic and awesome.

Lantern year 3 and noone has died yet.

I know that will change, but I'm getting the feeling that as long as one is careful and methodical about Showdowns, one can mitigate sudden death a bit.
 
God dammit. There goes my tax return for this year

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So another purchase is my quest to upgrade my Kingdom Death experience...

A Neoprene/rubber game matt from x-raypad

xray pad Kingdom Death2.jpg

A poster on Reddit posted some example pics of (the xraypad one is the brighter one)

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There is a 3d game board available, but I'm not thrilled by it. I think it would greatly extend set up time (each square is individual) and would ultimately not be a stable play area for figures.

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TristramEvans said:
so...I ordered this...

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That looks fantastic.

I've heard of Kingdom Death - watched the Shutup/Sitdown review; watched all of Sorastro's painting tutorials. Is it available to purchase through retail channels? I remember hearing about the Kickstarter, and the serious chunk of cash required to buy-in.

I spend far too much money on CMON Kickstarters, and have bought Etsy/3rd-party extras for a few board games. But, I'm curious if KD would break the bank - if it would require too much buy-in for my wallet.
 
K_Peterson said:
That looks fantastic.

I've heard of Kingdom Death - watched the Shutup/Sitdown review; watched all of Sorastro's painting tutorials. Is it available to purchase through retail channels? I remember hearing about the Kickstarter, and the serious chunk of cash required to buy-in.

I spend far too much money on CMON Kickstarters, and have bought Etsy/3rd-party extras for a few board games. But, I'm curious if KD would break the bank - if it would require too much buy-in for my wallet.
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Not gonna lie, it's a heavy initial investment. It can usually be ordered via the Kingdom Death site, but is currently sold out. A small company, KD typically restocks 4 times a year on holidays. Regular price for the base game is I believe $400. Once a year, on Black Friday, they have a sale, during which everything on the site is re-stocked and temporarily offered at Kickjstarter backer prices - for the base game I think that's $325 ( Necrozius Necrozius might be able to confirm, they just got it this last BF). Ebay prices when the game is out of stock tend to hover at around $1000, so I don't recommend that route, but I've seen secondhand copies pass hands on the facebook KD Bazarre group for as low as $250. $300 - $400 is more typical though.

$400 is obviously a LOT of smackeroos for a boardgame, even in Kickstarter culture (where $350 will usually net you a game and a dozen or more expansions on top), but I don't think anyone would argue that you don't ultimately get value for that money. On top of 44 miniatures - including miniature representation for every set of armour and weapon in the game and the HUGE Phoenix miniature, that would probably run $300+ by himself if sold through the only equivalent company I can think of; Forgeworld (I think they currently charge over $500 for their Smaug miniature, which is roughly the same size/level of detail, the next largest mini, The Watcher, would probably run about $150) - that's also a large heavily illustrated hardcover rulebook, 1000+ cards and tokens (most beautifully illustrated), pads of character and settlement sheets, gameboards for the hunt and the showdown, dice, gear grids, etc. (there's a reason that there's a lucrative subsidiary business just to buy box organizers).

And all of it is of the highest quality (well, the binding on the rulebook could have been better). This is the epitomy of a "boutique game" - Poots doesn't cut any corners, the thing drips with indulgence.

Contents aside, this is a game with near limitless re-playability. Ignoring any expansions, one could just play the base game for years with each game being totally unique. I think after maybe 50+ games I've only encountered maybe 30% of what could come up.

So, it's hella expensive, but it's also good value for your money. I think the equivalent from GW would easily run you 3K.

IF it's the game for you.

That's the part you kind of have to decide for yourself beforehand (although people who do sell theirs on do tend to either recoup their money or make a tidy profit pretty easily, especially at times when the website isn't stocked).

In that regard I do recommend the Quackalope review over the SU&SD one, which is not as funny or well-produced, but goes into far more detail by people much more familiar with the game.

 
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Before buying KD:M, i had easily spent the same amount on Zombicide Black Plague and it’s many expansions.
 
TristramEvans said:
Not gonna lie, it's a heavy initial investment. It can usually be ordered via the Kingdom Death site, but is currently sold out. A small company, KD typically restocks 4 times a year on holidays. Regular price for the base game is I believe $400. Once a year, on Black Friday, they have a sale, during which everything on the site is re-stocked and temporarily offered at Kickjstarter backer prices - for the base game I think that's $325 ( Necrozius Necrozius might be able to confirm, they just got it this last BF). Ebay prices when the game is out of stock tend to hover at around $1000, so I don't recommend that route, but I've seen secondhand copies pass hands on the facebook KD Bazarre group for as low as $250. $300 - $400 is more typical though.

$400 is obviously a LOT of smackeroos for a boardgame, even in Kickstarter culture (where $350 will usually net you a game and a dozen or more expansions on top), but I don't think anyone would argue that you don't ultimately get value for that money. On top of 44 miniatures - including miniature representation for every set of armour and weapon in the game and the HUGE Phoenix miniature, that would probably run $300+ by himself if sold through the only equivalent company I can think of; Forgeworld (I think they currently charge over $500 for their Smaug miniature, which is roughly the same size/level of detail, the next largest mini, The Watcher, would probably run about $150) - that's also a large heavily illustrated hardcover rulebook, 1000+ cards and tokens (most beautifully illustrated), pads of character and settlement sheets, gameboards for the hunt and the showdown, dice, gear grids, etc. (there's a reason that there's a lucrative subsidiary business just to buy box organizers).

And all of it is of the highest quality (well, the binding on the rulebook could have been better). This is the epitomy of a "boutique game" - Poots doesn't cut any corners, the thing drips with indulgence.

Contents aside, this is a game with near limitless re-playability. Ignoring any expansions, one could just play the base game for years with each game being totally unique. I think after maybe 50+ games I've only encountered maybe 30% of what could come up.

So, it's hella expensive, but it's also good value for your money. I think the equivalent from GW would easily run you 3K.

IF it's the game for you.

That's the part you kind of have to decide for yourself beforehand (although people who do sell theirs on do tend to either recoup their money or make a tidy profit pretty easily, especially at times when the website isn't stocked).

In that regard I do recommend the Quackalope review over the SU&SD one, which is not as funny or well-produced, but goes into far more detail by people much more familiar with the game.

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What the hell is with the horned goose?!?!
 
TristramEvans said:
Hey Necrozius Necrozius has your game group reached The Butcher yet?
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Holy shit yes. That was brutal. I was very lucky that the Butcher used Hack City on the survivor wearing a full set of Hide armor.

I was also very lucky that two survivors had reach or ranged attacks.

We only lost one survivor in that fight. I was sure they were all going to die.
 
Necrozius said:
Holy shit yes. That was brutal. I was very lucky that the Butcher used Hack City on the survivor wearing a full set of Hide armor.

I was also very lucky that two survivors had reach or ranged attacks.

We only lost one survivor in that fight. I was sure they were all going to die.
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Wow, actually only losing one survivor your first time is doing exceptionally well. Normally that's a TPK, to the point a lot of longtime players will send in a bunch of newbs from their population to fight him instead of their usual Survivors.

Well done.
 
TristramEvans said:
Wow, actually only losing one survivor your first time is doing exceptionally well. Normally that's a TPK, to the point a lot of longtime players will send in a bunch of newbs from their population to fight him instead of their usual Survivors.

Well done.
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Now I'm starting to worry that I did something wrong!

Now to be fair, my first 2 lantern years were done with my war-game buddies who are SUPER TACTICAL to the max and I got a great head start. But I must say that the Lion-string harp really, really helped too.

It was really close: everyone had 2 or 3 bleeding tokens. Going full berserk that last round gave me JUST the edge I needed to beat him.
 
This game can be brutal. We fought a Screaming Antelope for the first time and scored a PILE of resources. Finally gonna be able to build and equip my survivors!

We get "Hands of Heat" and the event where there's a party and we have to discard HALF of our resources. For fuck's sake!

The King's Man is coming up. I've gotta hustle!

Going to search for a level 2 Screaming Antelope this time. Hopefully we don't get screwed again. Ranged attacks are our friends, that's for sure.
 
Level 2 Screaming Antelopes are my favourite hunts in regards to the risk/reward factor. Great armour too.
 
So level 2 Screaming Antelope did a TPK on my super survivors.

This was due to the Hunt events. Fuck those. One event killed a survivor (rolled a 1 on a table that I was obligated to roll on). Another survivor got a Disorder that forbade them from ever gaining or spending Survival. Ever. And them events that forced them all to discard items. Overwhelming Darkness is fucked!!!

So they were in extremely bad shape at the fight. The Antelope kept running away, healing and knocking everyone down. It was worse than the Butcher fight, by a mile.

So started brand new survivors. They had no resources so they hunted a level 1 lion. When they got back, they got some luck. A Savior was born and one survivor went up to Courage 3.

next time I’m going for a level 2 lion. They need lots of stuff if they want to survive the King’s Man.

Yikes, this game IS brutal. I might play with Hero mode next campaign, because RNG auto deaths can be real sucky when you’ve had a bad day.

i know that’s heresy to KD:M players, but I can do what I want so there.
 
BTW, some of those are NSFW. Granted anyone who knows Kingdom Death should know better, but if they don’t, Octopus-Penis-Shark might be a bit of a shock on top of all the pinups.

Angler-Fetus-Elephant is just wrong. :devil:

By the way, do they have any sort of setting explanation for all this?
 
Necrozius said:
So level 2 Screaming Antelope did a TPK on my super survivors.

This was due to the Hunt events. Fuck those. One event killed a survivor (rolled a 1 on a table that I was obligated to roll on). Another survivor got a Disorder that forbade them from ever gaining or spending Survival. Ever. And them events that forced them all to discard items. Overwhelming Darkness is fucked!!!

So they were in extremely bad shape at the fight. The Antelope kept running away, healing and knocking everyone down. It was worse than the Butcher fight, by a mile.

So started brand new survivors. They had no resources so they hunted a level 1 lion. When they got back, they got some luck. A Savior was born and one survivor went up to Courage 3.

next time I’m going for a level 2 lion. They need lots of stuff if they want to survive the King’s Man.

Yikes, this game IS brutal. I might play with Hero mode next campaign, because RNG auto deaths can be real sucky when you’ve had a bad day.

i know that’s heresy to KD:M players, but I can do what I want so there.
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Just to make sure, you know after a TPK your settlement still recovers all the gear your survivors had right?
 
CRKrueger said:
BTW, some of those are NSFW. Granted anyone who knows Kingdom Death should know better, but if they don’t, Octopus-Penis-Shark might be a bit of a shock on top of all the pinups.

Angler-Fetus-Elephant is just wrong. :devil:

By the way, do they have any sort of setting explanation for all this?
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Yes, but it's heavy spoiler territory, I know Necrozius at the least wants to discover stuff for themself. I may start another thread on deep KD lore


And Octopus Penis shark isn't the bad one, that 's the Wet Nurse


Wet-Nurse-2_2048x2048.png

Of course none of those, including the pin-ups, are part of the base game. You have to go out of your way to seek them out
 
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Kingsman murdered my team. It was hilariously one-sided.

I did some planning too. I carefully side-stepped him, planning to hide behind the columns and nova attack his rear (where he's weak).

Just as I got everyone into position, the fucker drew an AI card called "Kneel" which forced my ENTIRE party to become knocked down.

There went my dual-katar wielder and archer to thin out those 3 invulnerable cards on top of the hit location deck. There went my plan to follow up with the counter-weight axe to wound him a bunch. Had 4 Survival for each character too, so rush in, attack, and dash away into cover.

The fucker laughed as he literally tore us apart, constantly re-healing those three invulnerable hit locations.

The fight went on forever, and actually wasn't very fun. Next time I face him I'm just sending in four newbies and skipping the fight.

First time I actually got angry at the game was when I curiously checked out the winning event in the unlikely case I ever DO try to defeat him. That solidified my decision NEVER to fight this guy again.

SPOILERS;
Poots has a huge laugh at your expense if you dare to defeat this asshole. The one who deals the killing blow gets cursed and dies eventually, while being overburdened with horrible gear SHIT.
 
What’s up with all the armor kits? Do they allow you to assemble different versions of a survivor with different armor? Do the various armor and weapon options for survivor miniatures in each expansion match up to the cards in the expansion, so that as your survivor upgrades, you can use different minis?
 
Necrozius said:
Kingsman murdered my team. It was hilariously one-sided.

I did some planning too. I carefully side-stepped him, planning to hide behind the columns and nova attack his rear (where he's weak).

Just as I got everyone into position, the fucker drew an AI card called "Kneel" which forced my ENTIRE party to become knocked down.

There went my dual-katar wielder and archer to thin out those 3 invulnerable cards on top of the hit location deck. There went my plan to follow up with the counter-weight axe to wound him a bunch. Had 4 Survival for each character too, so rush in, attack, and dash away into cover.

The fucker laughed as he literally tore us apart, constantly re-healing those three invulnerable hit locations.

The fight went on forever, and actually wasn't very fun. Next time I face him I'm just sending in four newbies and skipping the fight.

First time I actually got angry at the game was when I curiously checked out the winning event in the unlikely case I ever DO try to defeat him. That solidified my decision NEVER to fight this guy again.

SPOILERS;
Poots has a huge laugh at your expense if you dare to defeat this asshole. The one who deals the killing blow gets cursed and dies eventually, while being overburdened with horrible gear SHIT.
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Yeah, Kingsman is very much about the gameworld "putting you in your place" as it were, it's one of the more frustrating encounters (but wait till you reach the time chicken). The opportunity to learn King's Walk aside, alot of players prefer the Slendeerman expansion, which completely replaces the Kingsman in the game.
 
CRKrueger said:
What’s up with all the armor kits? Do they allow you to assemble different versions of a survivor with different armor? Do the various armor and weapon options for survivor miniatures in each expansion match up to the cards in the expansion, so that as your survivor upgrades, you can use different minis?
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Yeah, every piece of armour and gear in the game is represented in miniature form, with the armour kitas themselves allowing you to build 4 survivors each decked in that armour. Really ambitious players will magnetize the minis so you can build your survivor each encounter to be wearing and holding exactly the gear they have on their cards. Personally, I'm not a fan of the armour kits because the poses arre a bit stiff - they look like GI Joes to me. I prefer the narrative sculpts, but it is nice that the game allows you to go WYSIWYG if you want. I have seen some people do some pretty nice stuff with them though with minimal conversions. This guy's Screaming Antelope Armour Kit for example:

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Speaking of armor sets, which ones do you aim for in the game?

The Rawhide kit is cheaper and relatively quick to complete early on. I like the pounce ability of the Lion kit, but it cost a LOT of resources.

Any tips?
 
Necrozius said:
Speaking of armor sets, which ones do you aim for in the game?

The Rawhide kit is cheaper and relatively quick to complete early on. I like the pounce ability of the Lion kit, but it cost a LOT of resources.

Any tips?
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Leather is the one I rush to get ASAP in the early game, preferrably before King's Man. Late game without expansions, Phoenix is probably the best (Lantern armour doesn't synergize well with gear), but tricky to use.

With expansions, Green Knight Armour is obviously the best, but almost impossible to get, so usually my "peak" armour is the Dung Beetle Knight armour. (but the Flower Knight has a "no armour" armour that's just insanely good)
 
I meant to ask before too, do you have the Whisker Harp yet? I find that's almost essential for dealing with Kings Man and Level 3/Legendary prey
 
Incidentally I gave up on my first solo campaign. The deaths of so many survivors, including my savior (green) was too much. I didn’t want to even bother with trying to defeat the Hand, if the Kingsman and Butcher were any indication of what was to follow. I made some BAD decisions!

I feel a bit wiser, and I’m trying a few new survivor and settlement sheets from BGG. Also I’ve ordered some coin sheets so I can set up gear grids more quickly.
 
Speaking of Leather Armor, can one use Surge during a Monster’s attack flow to activate a Shield?
 
Necrozius said:
Incidentally I gave up on my first solo campaign. The deaths of so many survivors, including my savior (green) was too much. I didn’t want to even bother with trying to defeat the Hand, if the Kingsman and Butcher were any indication of what was to follow. I made some BAD decisions!

I feel a bit wiser, and I’m trying a few new survivor and settlement sheets from BGG. Also I’ve ordered some coin sheets so I can set up gear grids more quickly.
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Well, KD is the type of game where even good decisions don't necessarily mean you won't get f-ed up.

Especially by hunt events. I find those more frustrating than anything else in the game.

But I usually won't give up on a campaign until I absolutely can't go forward, just because it's an opportunity to try stuff out and see what's coming.

I will say The Hand is way "easier" than the Kings Man - or at least, less arbitrarily punishing.

Curious if you managed to discover who the Kingsman is based on? Once I "got it" I never looked at him the same way again.
 
TristramEvans said:
Curious if you managed to discover who the Kingsman is based on? Once I "got it" I never looked at him the same way again.
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Hmm not yet. Something from A Song of Ice and Fire?

edit: i assume because that’s another setting that seems to frequently go “gotcha!”
 
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