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Showing posts with label Kingdom death. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kingdom death. Show all posts

Friday, 15 January 2016

Kingdom Death Beta scenarios

After playing 2 lantern years of Kingdom Death, I've not really had a chance to carry on recently as the lightbox had to come out for the painting challenge. Once things are settled again in March/April time I must set it back up again and carry on trying to survive in the darkness. I was tempted to add the KD bits to the challenge, but I want to spend some time on them and work out how to do OSL when the world is *only* lit by the lanterns being carried.

One of the joys this year is that we're in the process of building a sewing room in the garden for my wife. Once that is done we're having a full reshuffle of the house, decorating everything as we go... the last room on the list is converting one of the bedrooms into my office/gaming room where i can leave the lightbox *and* Kingdom Death out all the time. 

I found out this morning that a beta version of all the one shot scenarios for the kickstarter characters were released sometime over Christmas (get them here). There are some really interesting looking options in here, especially the ones that grant you more people as your prize for winning!


Friday, 23 October 2015

Project review part 1...

With the approach of November, minds turn to Curt's painting challenge. I've no idea if it is on again this year or not, but I really do need to get back to painting regularly anyway, so what better way to get the mind prepared than to review all the partially completed (or in some cases completed) projects and see what can go and what can stay.

Jugula

First up is Jugula. You may remember last year I painted up the 8 gladiators for this one in the painting challenge, which made it the only project I've ever truly completed to the point that everything I own for it is painted.


The plus points:
- I like the system
- It is, to a certain extent, a finished project. At least to the point of having two identical teams to play with.

The negative points:
- If I want to expand it (which is a near certainty if I ever play it), I need to paint more of the 40mm figures, which I didn't enjoy.
- We havn't played it at all since finishing it.
- The figure scale means it can't be used for other games as well.

I'm thinking, for me, this game would be better at 28mm so the figures can be used for 7tv and other gladiatorial games as well, providing a bit more flexibility.

So it looks like this one is coming down on the sell site of things at the moment, unless anyone else has some good arguments otherwise?

If anyone is interested, I'd be looking to sell these together, with the deluxe mat, the rest of the shield transfers and the remains of two Familia 1 weapon packs that will allow you to customise any future gladiators. RRP for this lot is £75, prior to painting. Quick note, this does not include cards or rules.

Onto

Kingdom Death

This one is staying. I've been waiting 3 years for this one and the two sessions I've tried so far have shown the wait was well worth it. The models, while slightly larger than the rest of my collection, look like they will be nice to paint up once I've worked out where all the little tiny bits go on some of the figures. The survivors aren't useful for other systems, but the monsters will be interesting for Strange Aeons games... the size only helping make them even more terrifying!

The plan here is to just assemble the 4 starting survivors and all the enemies for now, so may be a nice little self contained project for this winter's challenge (self imposed or Curt-led) as it totals to a mere 11 models (4 survivors, Lion, Antelope, Phoenix, King's man, King's hand, Butcher, Watcher) without touching on the KS bonuses.

Then

Zombicide Seasons 1 & 2

This is another one that is staying, no questions. It is a fun game with some great models that can be re-purposed for other systems easily.

Remember the massive horde of zombies from last year? Yeah, well there is more still loitering in the shadows!

To finish off Seasons 1 and 2 I just need to get around to finishing off the survivors for the earlier sets.

The zombivores are one of those things that seem like a good idea at the time, but looking back on it, probably complicate things more than was ever really needed. I'm contemplating turning all the unpainted/uninteresting zombivores into additional walkers to add some character and variation to the hordes, which should allow a quick turnaround on those. Some are fun models, so may end up joining the few zombivores that have already been done.

This would give a nice group of figures to sort out for the challenge as well. Finish the season 1 and 2 survivors as well as converting their zombivores into walkers. This should provide a nice sense of completion to this and neatens up the survivor wall case a bit!

Zombicide Season 3


Season 3 is untouched at the moment. All the zombies and survivors still need to be painted... I suspect this will take a lot of black undercoat to get started, so we'll see how finishing Seasons 1 and 2 go before we start on these ones in 2015. It isn't going anywhere though, so they will eventually appear. I may add some of the zombivores into the mix along with the season 1 and 2 versions.

Tomorrow I'll move onto the multitude of skirmish systems that I seem to have accumulated.

Friday, 9 October 2015

The awakening...

Chia stepped forward, looking around at the 9 bloody, battered figures gathered around the pile of lanterns with her and utters the first purposefully formed words, giving birth to Language. She then settles herself in front of the Lanterns at the center of their new home and ponders the meaning of... everything. Wondering how they will survive in this dark world where their only form of light comes from these lanterns in front of her.

After rapidly expanding the newly founded settlement of Cannerbrie, Chia's mastery of language ignites the Inner Lantern, instilling confidence and purpose in the others. Jo and Kara sneak off into the dark, clutching the Love Juice; returning with twins (Chris and Lara). These new additions are greeted with joy and Affection. The rest of the settlement worked hard crafting some equipment for the next hunting party.

At this point, our settlement looks something like:

Cannerbrie

Lantern Year: 1
Settlement: Lantern Horde, Skinnery, Organ Grinder, Bone Smith
Innovations: Language, Inner Lantern, Protect The Young
Quarry: White Lion
Equipment: 2 bone swords, 2 bandages, monster grease, 4 cloth armour, 4 founding stones
Population (alive/dead):  12/0
---

I started my first game of Kingdom Death tonight and went through the tutorial fight against a low level White Lion.  I think my band of brave new souls must have the luck of the gods. The number of Lantern 10s that came up during their first ever encounter was pretty good and everyone survived, which seems to be a rarity from the few reports I've read.

Each time you hit a creature, you draw location card. Each card has possible after effects and critical wound options. A Lantern 10 is an unmodified wound roll of 10, which triggers the Critical clause on the location card. These critical wounds generate additional bonus effects, like -1 movement for the creature, or knocking it down.

As you can see from the little story, there is a lot of post game stuff to sort out, which really brings your settlement to life. We'll see how long that lasts against a more powerful lion in the next Lantern Year. As the game slowly introduces each monster and nemesis type, it seems like a reasonable aim to try and paint up everything needed for the next Lantern Year before carrying on. In this case it would be 4 survivors and the Lion. 5 figures shouldn't be too hard, right?

You'd think that... but the story behind this world leads to some interesting thoughts and questions about *how* they should be painted. The only light in the world is from lanterns carried by the populace, or from lanterns and fires out in the wilderness. We won't mention the creatures that use unnatural light as a lure for the humans yet *shudder*. So. If the only light is from lanterns, does this mean I should technically be painting everything using OSL? I've only ever seen this done once or twice and that was by real masters, like Haley's Cleric on CMoN... I'm not entirely sure if I can pull it off or not :/

Wednesday, 7 October 2015