Here we will comb through the final category of content; the small/white/beta/seasonal/misc boxes that contain gameplay content with in game integration rules. There are a lot of different kinds of shop purchased content and while they come in a wide range of styles they all have one thing in common. They offer a small amount of gameplay content plus some miniatures, which means they are always less ...
2023-05-05 09:00:03 +0000 UTC
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I do not often cross promote between this project and The Last Standee; mostly because it is the place where I get to talk about/review games outside of the world of Boss Battlers and I am never sure how much people enjoy content outside of that remit. However, once I played Monster Hunter World: The Board Game I ...
2023-05-01 14:23:07 +0000 UTC
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Vitanvox was raised among the children of the Silence Nursery. Their caregivers wordless smiles are sewn into their faces, their lips sealed tight. The children of the nursery have a specialized diet of Banshee Viper tongues and denatured venom that manifests curious effects in adulthood.
Vitanvox was the March 2023 beta content release and it brought with it another new ability and tw...
2023-04-28 09:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Skrelle's earliest memories are blurred by tears provoked by the lush, sulfurous stench that entered her settlement as she slept. She often wonders if the rippling shape stooped over her in the darkness was a dream. It left the vivid impression of desperate striving, life bursting from the barren soil. Now she chases the strange vegetation cultivated in the darkness.
From now forward I...
2023-04-28 09:00:04 +0000 UTC
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This wonderful image really sells the entire theme and memes of the Manhunter. Zeen Chin's work really IS the heart of Kingdom Deaths's aesthetics.
Nemesis Monsters
Nemesis Monsters are fundamentally different from Quarry Monsters in that if you add them to a campaign they are going to interact with you. They choose when and where the fight is, all you c...
2023-04-21 09:00:03 +0000 UTC
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It's been a while since I went through all of the steps that involve constructing a satisfying and engaging campaign in Monster and with the possibility of the Gambler's Chest Expansion (GCE) maybe arriving this year and the sheer volume of additional mini-expansions released through the store it seems that this year is the best time to be doing so. It will also provide a great point for me to compar...
2023-04-14 07:04:33 +0000 UTC
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Farming in Kingdom Death: Monster (KDM) is a play style where the goal is to squeeze the maximum amount of resources out of a monster as possible. This style is used against quarry monsters; not nemesis ones, and is most commonly employed against the early game monsters of the White Lion, the Screaming Antelope and the Flower Knight in their level 1 forms.
While one can approach every single showdown with this goal in mind, it is more common for players to use this a max of two or three...
2023-04-07 09:00:01 +0000 UTC
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Marvel has been a franchise juggernaut for nearly a decade and a half at this point. Since Jon Favreau brought Robert Downey Jr's portrayal of Tony Stark to the big screen there hasn't been a year without Marvel heroes and villains battling it out for a popcorn stuffed audience. The quality of these movies has varied, but it is only recently that we've began to see the cracks show as hero fatigue se...
2023-04-04 12:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Disclaimer: I reached out to Fancy But Functional about their products with intention to purchase and review this insert. Gyuri and his business partner then sent me this insert, plus inserts for Darkest Dungeon. They did not require this review in exchange, nor did they pay or sponsor me in any way outside of sending the inserts at no cost to me.
You can order inserts for a wide range of games at 2023-03-31 09:00:03 +0000 UTC
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As a supplement what follows is an overview of the decisions made behind the visual guide components included. I've not added a visual guide to the showdown fight against the Screaming Antelope here because I will probably do a visual guide based around farming it for as many resources as possible in the future; in fact I might just do a generic 'farming monsters for resources guide' instead. Anyway, enough with the footnote, onto the contents.
No monster package in the world of Kingdom...
2023-03-24 10:00:12 +0000 UTC
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The Lunar Twilight Knight was one of two game content items which dropped into the store recently. Both of these follow the trend of packaging a small miniature and a “Painters Scale” one in the same box along with some game content. The Lunar Knight in particular is a very egregious example of this ethos with the painters scale model just being the exact same model of Allison the Twilight Knight...
2023-03-17 10:00:04 +0000 UTC
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DCI Aya is the latest incarnation of the Aya “clone” from the wordless cartoon in back of the rulebook. Her story has been flirting for a long time with the concept of the thirteen Death Crowns (more Christian references) and in this set not only do we get new game content, but we also get to see one of these Death Crowns, not worn by Aya, but carried by her.
I still do not appreciate 6 gam...
2023-03-17 10:00:04 +0000 UTC
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It is time for us to start our exploration of Aeon Trespass: Odyssey (ATO) and we shall begin with a look at each of the Primordials from the game's first cycle. These four creatures are the antagonists of the first cycle and each of them is based deeply from Greek mythology. So we will start by taking a look at the initial inspiration for the Hekaton, then we will take a dive into the Primordial its...
2023-03-10 11:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Hellebore’s ancestors descended the thin atmospheres of their settlement to launch their papery boats into the frozen seas. Shivering, they navigate the ice floes in search of the floating nests of the lantern flame gull. Each generation harvested a single silver down feather from the shaggy chicks slumbering in nests of hollowed bone. With the passing of countless lanterns, Hellebore’s linea...
2023-03-03 10:00:03 +0000 UTC
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“Ruin has come to our family...
You remember our venerable house, opulent and imperial, gazing proudly from its stoic perch above the moor?
I lived all my years in that ancient, rumor-shadowed manor, fattened by decadence and luxury, and yet I began to tire of conventional extravagance.
Singular, unsettling tales suggested the mansion itself was a gateway to some fabulous, ...
2023-02-28 10:00:01 +0000 UTC
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For a fair while now I have been wanting to visit this portion of gameplay in extensive detail; but I have been putting it to one side due to the hope that we'll get the GCE shipping announcement. However, one cannot wait forever so I am going to simply pull the trigger on getting the first iteration of this out because it is still a deep enough topic to be worth diving into and then revisiting when we see what new options shake out of the tree with the arrival of the first meaningful new con...
2023-02-24 10:00:05 +0000 UTC
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As both of these two Holiday releases are relatively light on content I will review them together here. Normally I would consider splitting them up, but given the nature of these two I'll just keep them on one page.
Elgnirk
Elgurk is unusual in that this content is designed to be used exclusively around the Holiday Season (As KDM is a heavily Christianic board game in its...
2023-02-17 10:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Just a quick PSA to remind you that each year this electronic promotional perk becomes an active bonus! Have a good week, catch you on Friday and we'll see what the inevitable Sale brings later today!
2023-02-14 08:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Recently I had a short discussion on the subject of what promotional material would be good for a newer or more casual group in order to make their play experience more fun and engaging. While I thought about this it kind of spiralled in size (this happens EVERY TIME, I can't even review a game without it turning into some three thousand word essay) reaching a point where I knew I would be best...
2023-02-10 10:00:03 +0000 UTC
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We're continuing on last week's article around the concept of action economy with a brief look at the hunt phase, an in depth trawl through the showdown phase and then a discussion on Gear Grid efficiency and concepts. You can access the previous article through this link here.
The Hunt Phase
A brief note on the hunt phase; there are a few tools that can improve the qua...
2023-02-03 10:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Gear Grids are one of the best (mostly) original mechanics in Kingdom Death; they provide a tableau building puzzle that you get to construct before going on each hunt. If I am honest; I think gear grids are the single best mechanic in Kingdom Death and the only negative surrounding them is how Armor takes up 5 of 9 slots (another reason why things like Crystaline Skin really matter). That is not the fault of the gear system however, it is the fault of the armor system and before we dig into ...
2023-02-03 10:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Today we're going to go into a little bit of board game theory with a look at the concept of action economy; we'll start with an examination of the concept in general terms, before looking at some great examples from various board and card games and then finally we'll get into the specifics of how this applies to boss battlers and Kingdom Death in particular.
Any kind of board or card game is based around the concept of taking turns, either players alternate turns in some kind of order,...
2023-01-27 09:20:07 +0000 UTC
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As the genre of Boss Battler continues to grow and grow, both in the more heavy Miniature versions and the lighter card based ones I've wanted to take a little time and provide some light reviews of the various different ones I have played apart from Kingdom Death. So enjoy this bonus content! (Or not, it's up to you, I'm not your boss.)
Sentinels of the Multive...
2023-01-25 11:34:14 +0000 UTC
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For the first part of this guide; see this link. This second part covers the boxes that come into stock on the shop in a more sporadic and non-seasonal manner. Again no Beta content or content without in game crafting/gaining rules will not be covered.
The structure of this review is a couple of paragraphs detailing what the in game content is, who it is best for and a note if the miniature(s) are suitable to...
2023-01-20 10:00:59 +0000 UTC
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I had a request for an updated guide into the various extra pieces of content that have been released over the years, this content provides a wide range of different options for players to rebalance and alter their play experience from one campaign to the next. The intention of this updated guide is to give discerning players (rather than collectors) the information required to understand what a particular piece of promotional content provides, both in regards to its power level and what kind...
2023-01-13 10:00:03 +0000 UTC
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No post this week as I'm taking a break for a week due to the holiday season (I write posts one to two weeks in advance, so this is actually written the week of New Years). Normal service resumes next week, this break helps me start to get a handle on Aeon Trespass: Odyssey and also consider what topics are next to work on. Speaking of Which; here are the options for the next Deep Dive into Visual Guide series (Click on the Visual Tag at the bottom of this post to see what is already there).&...
2023-01-06 10:00:02 +0000 UTC
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2022 has proven to be a very busy year for APG; with 14 releases (plus the Simulator) that had game content, while the exact quality of the content varied from being great all the way down to actively bad for the game's health it overall trended towards positive and I wanted to take a quick retrospective look at each release to see if my previous experiences hold up alongside the reviews based upon initial campaigns.
Grimmory
2022-12-30 10:00:03 +0000 UTC
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In recent times I had the opportunity to try out GameGenic sleeves for our Arkham Horror and Marvel Champions decks and after using them I decided to get a few of them and see how good a fit the 53x53mm square sleeves are for gear cards.
Kingdom Death gear cards are 51x51mm, which is an aesthetically pleasing size, but there are limited options out there. The most notable other ones however are Paladin, Docsmagic and KDM's own sleeves – I can look at a fuller comparison of each type i...
2022-12-30 10:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Lucy wears the Screaming Oni hybrid armor that transforms the reckless abandon of the screaming armor into a precise tool for maiming monsters.
As we all know, hybrid armor sets that repurpose existing gear cards and turn them into something with a new function are one of the most exciting parts of content that can be released. On top of that I have a great deal of fondness for the Scr...
2022-12-23 10:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Erza of the Sun wears modified armor adapted to the scorching conditions created by living under the sleeping sun. This White Sunlion hybrid armor is added to People of the Sun campaigns. It grants the wearer more movement, less armor, and the ability to ignore the extreme heat that prevents survivors from wearing heavy furs.
Some how we've already reached the point where some of this ...
2022-12-16 08:00:01 +0000 UTC
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