I’m curious what makes you skeptical. The Beasts of War filmed a pretty good playthrough over many months. They’ve gotten through 15 Lantern Years so far:
The very first thing that happens in the game is a showdown encounter, so you can see how the AI works immediately, if you just want to check it out.
The heavy reliance on random rolls (including instant death on many many tables) and grinding. The weird childishness of certain cards and encounters. The limited number of monsters. It’s all very well to claim each one is worth a dozen enemy types from other games but then some people find RTS skirmishes endlessly varied and exciting and I sure as fuck am not one of those people. Etc.
The game is the antítesis of grinding. You are on a strict timetable, so you need to maximize loot every fight. You can’t repeat fights with no consequences like in Gloomhaven.
Random rolls are, I think, problematic only in the hunt phase, which is the weaker aspect of the game (but lasts like 5 minutes per hunt) and being remade in the coming expansion (but let’s see if they fix it or if it’s still unsatisfactory). Random death rolls on combat are not death rolls, and I think it’s incorrect to see them like that, they are saving throw rolls where you are lucky when you don’t die.
As for content, I think the game has loads of it. 8 monster with 3 very different levels each is a lot. Or that’s how it feels to me.
If you can’t find anybody to play with, trying 4-5 years in TTS is a good alternative. I think you’ll be surprised at how different from what you think the game is it really is.
Fair enough. I’d counter that encounters don’t feel random and I’m fairly sure death is never instant unless you’re in over your head. You always have some degree of armor or insanity for protection. And you can always use survival to last-ditch dodge attacks. Card draws are more swingy than the dice rolls are. Encounters can go badly, but the loss of an individual survivor does not end the game. I’ve had TPK several times, and the settlement continues.
And sure, the body-horror aesthetic of the game, with monsters composed of human body parts and a kind of weird sexual vibe, is not for everyone. But it’s less prevalent than you think. The most egregious content isn’t even in the core game; it’s ancillary material.
EDIT: And yeah, what Juan said. Especially this:
I mean your characters dying in random events, which are rolled and definitely part of the game. I would also qualify fighting the same thing repeatedly for materials as grinding. That that is on a time table does not change that aspect. And when I say weirdly childish, I don’t mean the horror aesthetic of the game, which is actually kind of interesting, but the grade school bullshit that clashes with it like talking about hitting a monster in the “ding-dong”, or having an event title a character “shit-eater”.
Anyway, I have heard all the fans talk about the game before and you don’t need to debate me or defend the game. I have as much input into my uninformed opinion as is practical without actually playing the game and “extremely skeptical” is where I have landed absent that.
I just think you’d really enjoy the game if you played, given your tastes. That’s all.
If you ever come to Spain we can play a 2-3 year session. That’s doable in an evening.
What makes it so expensive? There aren’t even many minis in the box?
Good question. There’s a LOT of plastic in the box, but most are optional survivor kits that I haven’t bothered to assemble. Those sell for more than $100 on their own, so that’s $100 extra cost that could have been saved.
The miniatures themselves are very high quality, but I don’t know if that factors in the price.
Other than that you have tons of cards (over 1000 I think) and a board. It’s pretty big content wise.
But if they can sell it for $200 in KS including tons of unnecessary minis, a trimmed down version could be profitable at $150 I think.
Board game prices just seem to creep up and up regardless of what’s in the box. Possibly they are keeping pace with inflation better than electronic games, whose prices seem to advance only very slowly
I think Kingdom Death: Monster is a pretty clear case of just profit-making. As said, if it could be sold profitably for $200 (and I do not for a moment believe they were taking a major loss on that), well, $400, that’s all you really need to know.
Before anyone goes on a rant, the developer is entitled to do whatever he wants. It’s his IP. But I am also entitled to not buy it at that price. I’m happy to reward a developer, but not at the cost of a couple of car payments for a game. :)
It’s easier to tell people “these physical items cost more to make and ship” and have them accept that because of the stuff you’re putting in front of them. A video game that ships on a disc or is just a digital copy, not so much, even though common sense should prevail here.
The Judge Dredd reskin of Lost Expedition seems to be available early here
https://www.bookdepository.com/Judge-Dredd-Cursed-Earth-Peer-Sylvester/9781472830661
Carson City came to my mind first. Players compete for plots of land and buildings to put on them. Then, based on surrounding terrain those buildings can produce income for the player. It is worker placement, but if you two players go to the same spot they have a “duel” to see who gets to use the action. All is not lost for the loser, though, as he gets the worker back in his stock to place next round.
The other “city buidler” that came to my mind was Quadropolis. The gameplay is lighter, but does require players attempt to plan ahead and make the most of diminishing options.
I am not sure it would qualify as a “city builder,” but I also really like Warsaw: City of Ruin. This is drafting tiles to build a sector of Warsaw from the middle ages through the present, though more abstracted than that. Mostly players try to place tiles in such a way as to create synergy and score VP and make money. You can argue it is similar to Between 2 Cities, but I was less of a fan of that one.
1979 called and it wants its rose-colored glasses back. :)
Tell Cosmic Encounter I don’t accept the charges!
KDL:M is pretty much a roguelike. You have a limited amount of time to maximize resources to upgrade, survive to the end, and beat the final boss.
Except for $400 you can buy 6 copies of Descent or something and end up with more minis than you can store. :P Maybe it’s a small-scale, high-quality thing?
I also like how many 10s this game has on BGG. I don’t know if that’s because it’s an amazing game, or if $400 buys you a lot of psychological attachment?
Ooo. Do you know if it’s just a re-skin, or are there new rules?
It’s pretty much the same curve as other highly rated thematic games in BGG (and it’s pretty meaningless anyway. BGG rankings are a hype metric at best). If anything the price means there are far fewer votes for KDM than other similarly ranked games.
Or, for $75, you can get a copy of Mechs Vs Minions which comes with great components, inserts and a crazy amount of miniatures (100 minions, 4 prepainted mechs, something in a big box, …)
https://na.merch.riotgames.com/en/other/board-games/mechs-v-s-minions-wave-3.html
The component quality vs price ratio on that game is hard to match.
Yes, The margins on Mechs vs. Minions are probably some of the lowest in the industry. The production values of the game are insane.
And the game itself is pretty cool, if limited in scope and a little long for what it is. Still one of the few games I do play co-op and not solitaire, so that’s a pretty big achievement in my book.
I haven’t played the original as I was hanging for the Dredd version, so I’m not familiar with the rules.
According to this review on BGG these are the differences: