Alchemy and Acid with the Baby Face Pachyderm: The Comprehensive Review of the Gorm Expansion (Patreon)

Gorm, Gorm, Gorm, Gorm.
Gorm, Gorm, Gorm, Gorm.

It makes for quite a catchy military cadence to recite the Gorm’s name over and over. Gorm… Gorm…. It is one heck of a word, it rolls off the tongue well with a high quality sound that is very appropriate for the monster that is often cited as “one of the top three Wave 1” expansions.
One of the top three expansions. Well, I say. That is a high bar to set this early in a review, but I am not going to beat about the tall grass here, The Gorm is one of the best designed monsters out there and should be near the top of your ‘things to add to my second campaign’ list.

Let us see why, but be warned dear intrepid hunter, there are mild to moderate spoilers ahead.

Who?

The Gorm is a Lantern Year 1 Monster, this means that it arrives in the very first lantern year and is available to hunt alongside the White Lion. Not as a replacement quarry, which some people have believed in error, but in concert alongside tiddles. Which is great, because if you have played a core game campaign with no expansions you will probably have noticed that eventually you end up farming a huge pile of cats and antelopes while hunting for leather and Iron. It can get a little bit… samey. Which is where the Gorm steps in with its giant hand feet.

The Gorm is a combination of a pachyderm, an angler fish, a bile factory and an angry baby all rolled into one many handed whole (and no I do not mean the Phoenix’s hand infested Cloaca you horrible individual). It is a very different beast when compared to the White Lion, combining mental attacks with a harder to control set of AI cards that create a creature which is somewhat less predictable than the White Lion and a showdown fight that feels like a mammoth hunt.

What?

The Gorm expansion contains the Gorm, a rulebook, the usual monster decks (Hunt, AI, Hit locations, Resources, new Disorders/Fighting Styles, a new armor set card, a new innovation chain, a secret fighting art, two settlement locations and a pile of gear cards (55 in total) representing the gear you can get from both locations.

The Gorm model is one of the more unusual ones in the game, it’s a creepy looking thing that is not to everyone’s taste. While the core game monsters are slightly weird looking, the Gorm is outright body horror level in its design. The large eyed, smooth baby face is juxtaposed with a flap based gaping maw (complete with useless, vestigial fangs in the upper jaw) that is surrounded by a set of arms. The rest of its body is stumpy and wrinkled and echoes the form of Elephants and Rhinos – except for its front paws, which are a pair of large humanoid hands, ideal for making a shield from. Painted correctly the Gorm is a thing of absolute nightmare fuel. I know that I have seen one Gorm with pink-eye that still haunts me.

However, the model itself has issues, it is impossible to assemble this creature without leaving large unsightly seams and gaps. The hind legs have inexplicable sharp lines that crest down the middle of them and the same problem happens on the front hands. These seams take forever to clean and file away and the gaps are very challenging to cover. In addition to this, while the vast majority of the model is sturdy and hard to damage its head lure and face arms are very fragile and vulnerable to breakage. In particular the Lure is something that seems very delicate.

The rest of the components are vary from decent to average quality for the game, which means you put up with the problems that it has because you don’t have much choice. The rulebook picks up grease from even the cleanest hands because of the material used and it has the usual selection of typos and unclear wording that is a characteristic hallmark of Kingdom Death as a whole. There is nothing absolutely game breaking in the Gorm expansion, but it could be better.

That written, it is worth noting that the ordering of the rules in the Gorm expansion are incredible, this is not a Fantasy Flight Games rulebook where you can end up lost and confused in moments. Everything is well structured, set out in a logical order and flows well from one section to the next. Kingdom Death might be a land full of poor spelling and logic flow issues, but it damn well rocks at teaching you how to play, giving you the tools you need to understand and then explore the sandbox world it provides. The Gorm is no exception to this.

As for the rest of the components, which are cards, the important matter is the cards which are added to existing decks which are drawn from randomly (Disorders and Fighting Arts) match the ones from the main game. They are all of the same card stock and that is all that you can really ask for. Stick them in some sturdy sleeves and away you go.
Before I finish here, I have to note that for some reason there is only one rib blade on the armor set sprue, which is a ridiculous oversight. There should have been at least three to four of them - this is a one handed Grand Weapon for goodness sake, we can't even wield them akimbo?

How?

So what the heck does the Gorm bring to the game that has people giving so much praise for it, you’d think it must be something pretty special considering how repulsive the beggar is. When you’re not much of a looker you need to really have it going on elsewhere if you want to be invited to the prom and the Gorm is one of the first partners people invite.

There are a lot of reasons why this is and I’ll break them down here.

1. It complements the White Lion
One of the things you may have noticed when playing the core game only is that certain weapon types; such as axes, daggers, shields and clubs, are very difficult to get early on and that can make it very difficult to achieve mastery in them. In general, if you are playing the core game only, you can be either waiting until at least the tier two locations (Weapon Crafter, Leather Worker) arrive before you can start work on them in earnest or be stuck with a sub-optimal bone weapon (as an aside, can anyone explain to me why there is not a bone club from the Bone Smith? It is the easiest thing you could possible construct from a bone. Sort it out!)*

*This comment left in because it was me predicting the existence of the Bone Club long before it was announced in the kickstarter and I'm proud of that one.

The Gorm fixes this by providing access to the rib blade (Grand), Gaxe, Greater Gaxe (Axes), Knuckle Shield (Shield), Acid-Tooth Daggers (Daggers) and Riot Mace (Club). Most of these are relatively easy to make as well, with only the Riot Mace proving to be a serious challenge to construct and that is because one of its components can only be found via the Death Blow.

On top of this the Gorm potion line has the Wisdom Potion, this is a passive version of the Cat’s Eye Circlet and it works by letting you see what the top card of the hit location deck is at all times. It even has a relatively rare left facing blue affinity, which is huge in the early game because rawhide + luck charm + 1 left or right facing blue affinity combined with a deadly weapon is an eight Gear slot combo that gives you critical hits on an 8+. What is even more important is that this potion has massive synergy with the Cat’s Eye Circlet, survivors with slow weapons can chip away at the top card of the deck when they know it is safe and appropriate for them to attack – meaning you do not need to use the Cat’s Eye Circlet as much.

2. It has an armor set that is great from the early to late game.
Do not get me wrong, Gorment Armor is very difficult to construct and has some issues. Because the Gorm makes stockpiling resources risky (more on that later) it can take a lot of time and effort to get the Gorm specific resources you need to build this armor. The main problem is the Gorment Suit, which is on one hand amazing, because it is waist and body armor rolled into one slot (meaning your Gorment Armor only needs 4 slots to function in the early and mid game), but it also has a high resource requirement.

In order to build a full Gorment Armor set you need a large amount of sturdy hide and a Gorm Skull. Because the Gorm has a lower resource crit drop rate than the White Lion you may be surprised how long this takes. 

Also when constructed this armor set is honestly a bit finicky to use. It has bad affinities and a limited scope, but as a generic armor set for a ranged/reach attacker with a shield it's pretty solid.

3. Regeneration Suit
The Regeneration Suit is one of the premium items in the expansion, it is an optional part of the Gorment Armor set, which when used increases the armor points you receive to four across all locations and six in the body and give you healing abilities that will let you shrug off severe injuries. That puts it in the late game category, especially when combined with the unique ability of the suit (see Guard below). In addition, as an accessory, the Regeneration Suit can be combined with many other armor sets and builds, including, but not limited to – the Shadow Saliva Shawl/Green Ring/Vespertine Bow evasion sniper.

However, it is not easy to make a Regeneration Suit at all, it can only be made from a Stomach Lining, which you will only get by defeating the level 3 Gorm. That is a challenge only for worthy foes.

4. Guard
Guard is an ability given by the Gorment Suit (Body/Waist), it requires a Green Puzzle + a Blue and a Red Affinity to become active, however it gives you the ability to move away and get a free block. This costs one survival, but with the Gorment Sleeves (when activated) this becomes a free ability to use. A free block every single turn is something that should not be looked down on, and it’s a powerful ability for attacking characters who want to hit and then not be the nearest target. When you combine this with items like the Blast Sword from the Dragon King (which has Block 1 built in) or the Beacon Shield (Block 2) you get a massive boost in survivability that is far more valuable than you can imagine.

5. Riot Mace
The Riot Mace is a somewhat difficult item to get your hands on. It requires a total of 4 Gorm specific resources and as mentioned above, one of them has to come from the deathblow (which will cause a survivor to lose an eye in the process). However, it is worth it, completely and absolutely. The Riot Mace is one of the best clubs in the game (behind the Gloom Mace from the Slender Man) and it is in my opinion a part of one of the best late game damage dealing builds you can get. 2 Riot Maces + Lantern Armor (and Blood Paint if you can fit it in) is a juggernaut of beauty and destruction (but even 1 Riot Mace, Lantern Armor and a Shield is excellent).

The Riot Mace is accurate, has good strength, gains sharp when wielded with Lantern Armor, has deadly by default and has the ability to force monsters to perform basic actions when it hits with a perfect hit. This last ability can be amazing or terrifying, it really depends on the monster you are attacking. Regardless, it is an awesome piece of utility that can save lives if used correctly.

6. Black Sword
The Black Sword is the second best sword in the entire game and in the hands of a Sword Master there are few monsters who can withstand it (In general it wounds on a 2+). This beautiful slice of death and elegance requires you to have some Gormite (a difficult strange resource to create) and a Gorm Skull, but once you construct one you have a weapon that will last the rest of the game.

It’s not a clever or tactically deep weapon to use, but it does carve things up, very effectively and it gives you survival on perfect hits. Yum.

7. Gorm Innovations, Alchemy and Potions
The Gorm expansion comes with two different settlement locations, the Gormery works like a traditional location and is not that remarkable in design (outside of the gear you can get from it). However the Gormcymist is a location that works differently to anything else you might encounter. You spend 2 Organs and mix them up, rolling 1d10 + 1d10 for each Gorm Innovation you have (you get one Gorm Innovation for free when you first kill a Gorm) and check a chart. This chart has a range of potions on it, some of which heal you, others give you benefits for blocking and so on. They are a unique set of items and so many of them are top quality.

The Gorm Innovations themselves are not that great, you certainly do not want to waste your once per year innovation on them most of the time, however the Gormcymist lets you spend an endeavour, a Gorm brain and a strange resource to innovate the next part of the Gorm Innovation chain immediately. Anything that pulls innovations out of the innovation deck in addition to your normal innovation is powerful and it is great that this line has an alternative way of building them. That was a fantastic piece of design.

Also, as mentioned above, the Wisdom Potion is amazing, it’s one of the top support items in the game right now. The only drawback it (and all potions) has is that it is consumable, so watch out around Screaming Antelopes. It sucks when those beggars eat it up.

8. Other Amazing Items
I’ve gone all this way without mentioning that the Gorm also has some incredible utility and support items; The Pulse Lantern, when correctly used, can be a one way ticket to destroying a monster rapidly without much risk and it is one of the few ways you can knock down a monster in the middle of its action. In fact it is so powerful that I have rated it as one of the top support items in the game and I generally craft it multiple times in a campaign.

The Gorn is another solid, fun instrument that has great utility – but it also allows you to play as a travelling band of Minstrels (1 Harp, 1 Drum, 1 Gorn, 1 Cello) and the Armor Spikes an item that may seem weak, is actually very powerful vs. certain monsters. Especially when you combine it with Gorment armor (and it has a down blue half-affinity which is super useful).

I have also not done the Acid-Tooth Daggers justice, most Daggers just plain outright suck in this game. But Acid-Tooth Daggers are so good that they actually get me to build White Lion Armor (something I am normally loathe to do).

9. Good Risk/Reward Ratio for the Level 2 and 3 Gorm hunts.
You will see the level 2 and 3 Gorm hunts appear in the “cons” section of this review, because they can be terrifying for inexperienced players to deal with. However, unlike the core monsters, there are actually a lot of positive reasons for hunting the level 2 and 3 Gorms a few times in a campaign. The level 2 Gorm can produce a huge amount of resources (and Acid Palms) while the level 3 Gorm potentially gives you access to Gormite and the strange resource required to build the Regeneration Suit.

10. Green Armor
The Gorm is one of the key expansions required in order to build the Green Armor set, you cannot build Green Armor without hunting Gorms and building the Gorm innovations. If you want to get the biggest achievement available in the game to date, you are going to need to get your Gorm on.

But...

It’s not all roses and rainbow poop however, the Gorm does bring a few nasty things that are part of the standard Gorm experience. You need to be OK with these issues and be happy to either deal with or just avoid them.

1. Gorm Climate
This is the single most obnoxious thing that the Gorm does, the little angry baby elephants make it rain acid with their weather controlling abilities. There are a lot of things that this can do, but the two most irritating effects are that; one they can cause the construction of the Hovel Innovation in Lantern Year 1 (which sounds good, but in truth it adds a lot of bloat to your Innovation deck because most of the innovations that follow on from Hovel are not good apart from Family and Clan of Death) and that; two you have to deal with the Gorm Climate event happening year after year, causing a 30% chance of acid rain happening which will destroy everything in your settlement storage. This continues on and on until you construct an innovation that is… mediocre, that allows you to soothe their baby rage and make them stop ‘making it rain’ on your poor survivors.

Note: It is ABSOLUTELY FINE to play the Gorm expansion without Gorm Climate if you want to give newer players a taste of the expansion without having them feel the pressure of acid rain. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, this expansion is not overpowered without Gorm Climate.

2. Hunt Events
The Gorm Hunt cards are brutal in comparison to the Antelope and White Lion ones, they will absolutely shred the heck out of your survivors if given the chance and have less opportunities to gain understanding and courage along the way. It’s not a deal breaker, but just be warned that it is not a pleasant experience at times.

3. Level 2 Gorm Den
While the level 1 Gorms are young, impetuous and prone to ruining the weather with tantrums. The level 2 Gorms like to sit inside dens, slurping up nutrients and bringing the next generation of little baby Gorms into this world. However, this is no place for a hunter to visit, and as such you have to roll on a table when entering and when exiting the showdown. On the whole the results of these tables are not too bad, but there is a 1% chance on entry that your survivor will end up going home without ever showing up to the fight and you can also suffer a variety of stat losses and injuries.

That written, it is worth also acknowledging that there are benefits to these tables, you can get a lot of extra resources and even get access to the amazing Acid Palms ability (+1D10 to your strength for fist and tooth) at the cost of 1 movement.

Last of all, you can’t really take inexperienced hunters in against a level 2 Gorm, the Gorm trait Musth (based on something that happens to real life elephants when they are in heat) will cause hunters with under 3 hunt experience to become overwhelmed, losing a lot of accuracy in exchange for strength. Musth's end of turn ability is also very frightening, you should pack ways of mitigating severe injuries if you intend to fight the L2 Gorm, it is awful to lose your tank to a severe head wound that ignores your armor.

Still, it’s better than what the Phoenix does to inexperienced hunters I guess.

4. Level 3 Gorm
Very few of you will ever face the nightmare that is the Level 3 Gorm. This horrific monster has to be lured by feeding one of your hunting party to it at the start of the hunt (and they have a chance to lose gear from digestion) and everyone else has to deal with the pools of Bile around the ancient resting grounds where the ancient Gorms hang out. There are possible upsides from both of these situations (being digested and the bile pools), but it’s the old classic ‘roll on a table and take this event that you can do nothing about’ that remains amongst the weakest part of Kingdom Death’s design.

In addition to that the Level 3 Gorm has a horrific upgraded basic action and the ability to automatically kill a survivor by dissolving them away. It’s one heck of a nasty fight, but I am of the opinion that it is worth the risk and effort at least once in a campaign for experienced players.

5. Gorm Disorders
Ugh, just ugh. Getting Lure Epilepsy on a survivor just sucks.

Why?

Here is a list of all the top tier items that come with the Gorm:
Gorment Armor, Regeneration Suit, Knuckle Shield, Black Sword, Greater Gaxe, Riot Mace, Acid-Tooth Daggers, Steadfast Potion, Rib Blade, Power Potion, Pulse Lantern and of course the Wisdom Potion. Even the bad stuff is only bad because of its situational usage rather than outright weakness.

But if that is not enough… Well, the Gorm is just the right mix of power and pain, it adds to a campaign without making things too easy, it gives you options, utility and potency without making too many items in the core game useless. It is a complementary expansion that builds on what is good in the core game while adding flavor and variety.
It helps bolster the early game while also remaining relevant to hunt a couple of times in the mid and late game.

Where?

Sat on the shelf, under a dark blanket (because it is a creepy baby), but always ready to get on the table as soon as you’ve ripped your Bow, King’s Spear, Katar and Cat’s Eye Circlet from the White Lion’s remains.

Score?

I give it Nine out of Ten Gormite Strange Resources and a Wisdom Potion.

9.5/10