I'm working on a few videos in the background (Literally working on the next episode of A Choice Cut right now) and while writing up the details for the armor video, I realised that while I often cover various cookie cutter builds and analyse gear, I don't think I've written about the system as a whole. The Gear Grid system and its associated mechanic of Affinity could be debated as one of the two mo...
2025-01-31 10:00:10 +0000 UTC
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The guest had arrived and they felt merry and bright despite the gloomy frost that descended on the settlement. Their joints ached and their blue-tinged skin stung in the biting winds. Barely audible above the howl of the wind and the glad tidings bellowed by their guest, a papery tune emerged. They gathered, pressed together for warmth to sing the carol they each knew in their hearts without ev...
2025-01-24 10:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Time for another Antelope. Paint, wherefore art tho?
2025-01-17 23:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Part two, you know the drill, let us get into the remaining seven gear cards and then look at what expansions have the most interesting synergies to explore with the Froskrafter!
Spiked Buckler
Crafting Cost: 1x Ironclad Spine, 1x Organ
As the Gorm's Knuckle Shield has shown in the past, a Node 1 Shield that has Block 1 is mechanically very strong. In truth ...
2025-01-17 10:00:07 +0000 UTC
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I intended to come back to the videos with a short, simple video. This was not it. This is the longest video I've done and if I do another one of this length it'll be a miracle. I couldn't edit this one as much as I would have liked because beyond a certain file size it started crashing with each edit. So I had to call this one 'good enough' and let it go simply because I didn't want to cut it into portions.
The attached files include the short pdf version of the presentation which cont...
2025-01-15 18:00:11 +0000 UTC
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As we start the new year it is time to begin moving towards a review of the Frogdog; which I will say at the moment is an expansion I do not have a completely clear final set of thoughts on. Usually when I am in this position, working through all the individual elements with detailed analysis helps clear things up and often tips the scales in one direction or the other. So we are going to start this breakdown with a look at the two crafting locations that come in this expansion box, beginning...
2025-01-10 10:00:11 +0000 UTC
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We made a positional error in this one that turns out to be very costly!
Also missed the deathblow bonus and a bold trigger, because Justin's still learning and it's late evening here when I'm recording. Whoops, oh well.
2025-01-04 11:01:16 +0000 UTC
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2024 has been a rough year for the world overall, one can only look towards 2025 and hope things may trend better. However, in the world of games we've had a fantastic year, with not one, but two expansions from Adam Poots Games. While the Black Knight expansion is easily my preferred expansion of the two, both it and the Frogdog show a huge amount of growth and maturity in respect to game design. However, here in this look back at the year I want to write about other board games and video ga...
2025-01-03 14:00:13 +0000 UTC
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Here we go again! Plague is fun card to draw early.
2024-12-27 23:07:23 +0000 UTC
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Hi all, as always I will be taking two weeks off, the first week for rest and the second week to return to work and write/record for the following week as I usually work one to two weeks ahead of writing (apart from shop review releases, which I put out as soon as I've crammed enough games in with them to form hopefully I solid opinion and understanding).
That means no releases on Friday 27th or Jan 3rd. But there will be two in the week after that, one on the 10th as per usual and one ...
2024-12-24 18:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Aya donned the mask, motes of energy hidden in the extinguished lanterns of her armor vibrated with new life. Constraining and directing her range of motion, the armor put an impossible parabolic dimension to her aim, sending her weapons sailing back to her.
Aya sojourned with the people of the sun. The cold light illuminated the devastating techniques of these strangers. Ever the...
2024-12-20 10:00:10 +0000 UTC
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In celebration of 15 years since the release of the first Kingdom Death figure, we revisit the starting survivors of Monster, Allister, Zachary, Lucy, and Erza. Fifteen lantern years into their existence the pursuit of survival is replaced with a quest for perfection. Life and death still remain balanced on the edge of dice roll but the grizzled survivors have endured beyond expectation.
2024-12-20 10:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Enjoy!
2024-12-13 23:14:49 +0000 UTC
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Last stretch for the the Gambler's Chest Expansion (GCE) Seed Pattern cards and we're going to cover both Era III and IV here to get this series wrapped up. That'll let me get back to the Philosophies and the Frogdog Expansion Review.
With these two Eras we expect to see pattern cards that; regardless of their type, are either perfect for the entire mid game (Leather to Iron) or can hang with ...
2024-12-13 10:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Early release for Pillar Patrons and above.
I'm tired boss.
2024-12-11 20:00:09 +0000 UTC
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As mentioned on Wednesday's post, I have a rather large video to edit which means I need to get ahead of the writing portion in order to try and get that published asap, so for the next two weeks we'll round out the Monster Specific patterns, with Era II this week and Era III after that. I'll review the BF stuff the very week it gets into my hands, but I can't control when that happens.
The Ga...
2024-12-06 10:00:10 +0000 UTC
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Please accept this video in lieu of the People of the Lantern Primer video which I intended to come out this week. That video was supposed to be a simple, shorter one between Dark Bestiary videos. I spent four hours recording stuff and I'm working on cutting it down, I suspect it's still going to be around two hours when I'm done. Whoops.
Instead as I'm very familiar with this expansion at this stage, here's a review of the Black Knight release on the KDS. I did encounter a few bugs.
2024-12-04 18:00:13 +0000 UTC
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With the Gambler's Chest generic patterns forming a broadly positive impression it is time to move onto the Monster specific ones, I'm going to again try and push these together as much as possible, but looking at them I can't guarantee less than two or three parts especially because these particular patterns have hybrid armor sets included in the mix.
To write that I excited to write...
2024-11-29 10:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Justin's first proper level 1 White Lion. How will the people of Arkham fare?
Edit: It's live now, I should have posted it 24h later. Fingers crossed I'll get it right next time. Sorry about that!
2024-11-28 23:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Declining to wish upon a frozen star, Brave sets out to fulfill his own wish. He carries Hollow's husk upon his back, journeying to Dedheim to restore the spark of life to her twisted remains.
Strange fires in the sky guide him to a pitted field of freshly dug graves. Brave steals curiously growing seeds from the rot-fumed barrows in the vain hope they will grow to something useful.<...
2024-11-22 10:00:07 +0000 UTC
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The settlement celebrates the unlikely victory over the timeless Phoenix. A whirling dance of iridescent feathers sparkles at the settlement's center enshrining the memory of the settlement's perseverance.
The Model
While I wouldn't want to use this model during gam...
2024-11-22 10:00:06 +0000 UTC
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A while ago I reached out to Justin from PlayingBoardGames about Kingdom Death, something he'd expressed interest in. PBG do amazing deep dives into Arkham Horror LCG while also covering a bunch of other games. Even though they are mechanically very different, there's so much common ground between Arkham and KDM that I was pretty confident it would be right up Justin's alley.
We ran a private learning session on the KDS and Justin was hooked enough that he wanted to do an entire campaig...
2024-11-15 22:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Era II makes up the remainder of the Gambler's Chest Expansion (GCE) generic pattern cards, this means that our foundational seed patterns halt around the Node 2 power level; and as we saw with Era I last time, there is not a large amount of rhyme or reason to how these generic era cards are organised. Jarngreipr and Masamune both need Iron and the Masamune even needs the Blacksmith generic settleme...
2024-11-15 10:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Two hours of me rambling about how great the Gorm is as we dive into all its different cards and mechanics. I would have cut this down a bit here and there, but my editing software kept crashing due to some issue with the recording codec. I'll have to reinstall OBS and see if that doesn't happen next time. Next entry in the Dark Bestiary will be The Screaming Antelope.
Next planned video will be something lighter in weight and length, a Primer on People of the Lantern. After that it'll...
2024-11-13 18:00:09 +0000 UTC
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We'll start our deep dive into the Seed Patterns with the Era I “generic” line. The generics are the ones labelled with just the “seed” keyword, meaning that they are present in every single campaign. That ubiquity means they are the foundational element of our seed pattern experience because they are always present. The Era I patterns are also the easiest to craft because they require their...
2024-11-08 10:00:07 +0000 UTC
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As is tradition, I want to start this dive into a section of the GCE with a top down look at what Seed Patterns are, how the system works and dig into the various positives and potential negatives that such a system features. I find writing out in this method provides a solid foundation for my understanding and analysis of the individual card elements. It helps me a great deal to get a firm grip on ...
2024-11-01 10:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Except when reviewing new releases; I'm now going to get back into digging around in the Gambler's Chest while I finish out my thoughts on the Frogdog in preparation for a review on that expansion. I want to return to the philosophies, but gear is one of my all time favourite things, so for a little while now I'm going to dig into the seed pattern system, reviewing it and taking a look at all the options the GCE gave us. Then we'll get into the really exciting tier of philosophies.
Howe...
2024-10-25 09:00:06 +0000 UTC
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The weavers of mirages learn a solitary dance of intense passion, their posture embracing an absent partner. The lantern light shines off the polished teeth that adorn their costume, creating dizzying paths of light that cross and recross. A successful performance will create an illusion of the dancer in the embrace of their own image.
The Model
2024-10-18 09:00:15 +0000 UTC
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WARNING: REQUIRES GAMBLER'S CHEST EXPANSION
Spewing and hacking, Ledla stumbled out of the kaleidoscopic cloud crying many-hued tears. From within the obscuring smog, wretched cries of guilty conscience expired invisibly. She collapsed, clutching the flaccid face, the springy resonance of the waxy monster hide hitting the ground played a note of absolution to her fading ...
2024-10-18 09:00:10 +0000 UTC
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Guinevere was born on the day of the lantern eclipse, as the darkness closed in on the settlement, her cries pierced the darkness. A warning to the lurking threats beyond.
In her youth they wondered if she was a coward. She demurred when the hunters gathered to depart. When the monsters appeared at the settlement's edge, she showed her mettle.
This time we get a Fr...
2024-10-18 09:00:09 +0000 UTC
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