A Look Back at Kingdom Death's 2019 (Featuring the Best and Worst moments) (Patreon)

So it's 2020 and because it is important to get the lowest hanging fruit out of the way as soon as possible we are going to combine a 'Year in Review' alongside a 'Best' and a 'Worst' list. Honestly, 2019 was not a kind year for players/collectors of Kingdom Death, the brand has been on a slight decline since the kickstarter because of a failure to keep momentum going. For the ardent collector, blinkered fanatic or casual observer it wouldn't be noticeable because it is slight, but in truth some of the sheen has come off the process. The game itself isn't mechanically harmed by the situation, but the kickstarter has really taken a beating, it's managed to become one of the most delayed kickstarters I've backed - beaten only by Ninja Division's products and that's not a ringing endorsement at all. As such we're going to have a quick look at the year as a whole, followed by what I think were the 5 best moments/decisions/products and the 5 worst.

The Kickstarter started 2019 in radio silence and managed to keep this up until just before Gencon, this "level" of communication was actually against Kickstarter ToS, but the community as a whole kept giving more and more slack to Adam Poots Games LLC (APG) because of the continued good will the game had (and a November 2018 announcement of delays to wave 3 & 4 had curbed one's enthusiasm somewhat already). It wasn't until Gencon before we got any real sniff of what might be coming, and even then the bulk of what we saw was sculptures of minis. If you're not super versed in board game production, miniatures and art assets are almost always the first things completed and it was always expected we'd see this. We did however get to see a functioning Frogdog fight as a demo, but that was the only real meaty game content outside of the July Update. Honestly this update was very demoralizing for myself personally, 2018's November update was one of the worst kickstarter experiences I have had and because the July one didn't provide any real progress towards shipping, just more feature bloat and associated delays I honestly considered jacking everything in. It is ridiculously hard to be a content creator for this game when there has been no significant new content since the 1.5 version of the core game was released. (Some other content creators have actually quit and moved on for this reason).

But APG via Adam Poots made a pledge to provide more regular updates, so I decided to stick with it for the duration (while also looking to other games and ventures at the same time). I'm still not sure that it was the best idea, but my involvement with other projects 'behind the scenes' elsewhere has helped avoid burn out from becoming completely overwhelming.

So far, we've had sort of quarterly updates, which is something that I've considered to be the bare minimum required from APG. I do not appreciate these giant 'text vomit' posts that happen rarely, I have a far higher preference for smaller, focused updates which are released more often. They are far better at building/maintaining hype and interest and I can tell you as someone who writes a lot - they are actually less fatiguing for the author. Adam's binge and silence method of updating is not very healthy for his mental state, so I hope he can maintain the smaller, "every couple of months" posting style and avoid going back to text vomiting like a library Gorm.

That was just the kickstarter, 2019 was also the release of many other firsts (and continuations of other lines); we've seen the first standalone scenario fully released, the first 'variant' monster, more strains, more death high, more resins, more generic heroes, more white boxes and the introduction of patterns. There has been a lot of activity around the store releases and also we've settled into seeing what stuff is seasonal regulars.

So with all of that written, lets look at my top 5 best and worst aspects of 2019!

The Worst Moments

5. The Primal Huntress Bust

Now, just to be clear, the start of a bust line is a great thing. But the execution here was a huge turd that highlighted completely just how out of touch and awful the online shop experience is. I have been one of the spearheads of a 3 year campaign from the artist community requesting busts from Adam, people like myself Liz and Shoshie have campaigned on and off over and over requesting that these be made and released. The bust painting community has also provided a lot of interest, there have been genuinely hundreds of painters expressing their desire to move into Kingdom Death if busts are released.

So that's a huge pile of new people, professional, fantastic painters, along with the existing painters and the collectors all interested in this product. A massive demand and a prolonged campaign which has been going for what feels like eternity. The Primal Huntress release was a sad, wet, fart of a first moment. Dumped out on a delayed 'surprise' shop sale in a quantity which resulted in it selling out within moments of it going up on the store. It is genuinely sad that these busts are already in the hands of re-sellers and people who are just going to sit on them.

This is so low down on the list because in the future, I am sure that this bust situation will be rectified and we will see more of them. I am sure that the 200 was APG's idea of a 'tester release' but when you have a confirmed audience of thousands of fanatics, plus a fresh potential audience of ridiculously talented bust painters out there, you really should do better than what we got here - it continues to demonstrate a fundamental failure to understand the consumers of this brand. Not a good start Adam.

4. Generic Hero - The Boxer

The generic hero line has been something of a fun distraction, sometimes producing some great models that work well for roleplaying games, or can even represent certain survivors on the showdown board. However, there has been a gradual creep in the way that the body styles have been represented in this line, initially the hero line had a bunch of different body types, all still within the male gaze anime style, but they were varied. However, the more recent releases have all trended towards dummy thicc levels of body shapes, with some of the most recent landing in Society/Cronenberg levels of exaggeration. It was somewhat cute on the Novice, but the Bullet Novice and the Boxer in particular resulted in my saying 'these are ugly models' for the first time since I started painting the Kingdom Death range.

It's a trend I don't really appreciate, we've moved away from the awesome power of things like the Gladiator, or the shapely without being distorted Druid into a place where the models stop looking interesting and start being ugly. This entry is for that trend.

3. Echoes of Death II

Echoes of Death I was two good strains, one situational/weak one and one utterly busted one. Echoes of Death II refined this process by creating a set of overpowered ones. Even the weakest of these strains is way above the normal power curve for a fighting art, but Convalescer represents the most powerful fighting art we have seen to date. In addition it's stronger than almost all of the secret fighting arts (it's certainly as strong as the Acanthus Doctor, maybe stronger, and only the Gloom Man stands ahead of it in the power rankings) - and it is unbelievably easy to unlock. The miniatures were a fantastic, joyous creation, but the strains and strain fighting arts were rushed, unbalanced and in sore need of more playtesting to fix the wording so they were clear, consistent and not prone to abuse.

This is the same type of problem which also crops up in the Easter Aya (Ancient Eggpoots), Halloween Stan (Hope Eater), Christmas Stan (Cube of Atnas), Easter Twilight Knight (Hairmite) and the Valentines Day Twilight Knight (Scoopy Club).  In fact the trend is for the promo content to have some severe balance or mechanical issue(s).

2. The Gencon Update & Delays on Delays

For the reasons listed above and many more, the announced delays here were almost completely unacceptable. I am not going to reiterate them a second time in the same article except to say that I hope the community explodes with anger if there is another delay announced before we see Wave 3 (and Wave 4 honestly should NOT be delayed any further than it has been already).

1. The White Gigalion

This (confirmed) rushed product, created for the purpose of giving content to a sculpture, contains a huge distillation of things one can do wrong with monster and gear design. The Vignette itself is a great idea, with only the Gigalion's broken, buggy AI causing it to feel a little off (more on that below); but the Gigalion's inclusion in normal campaigns is one of the worst, I think only Spidicules, King's Man and the Lion Knight are capable of worse experiences than the Gigalion's mixture of frustrating showdown mechanic, reductive space destroying design and poorly balanced gear.

The models are amazing and I have all the time in the world for the Hooked Claw Dagger, but the Vicious Trait's continuous activation every turn results in a lion that feels like a yo-yo instead of a credible threat the way that the L2 White Lion used to. The strain unlock for the Gigalion is a waste of cardboard (it's the worst strain unlock idea I have ever seen outside of 'unlock this monster by taking a poop on your starting survivors'), the Oxidized Beast Katars are a nice idea that fails in execution because of the Oxidation process (the Katars are fine, you just don't have time to make them), the Lion Slayer Cape is utterly busted on Screaming Armor (which is busted in itself). But worst of all are the Dense Bone Arrows, which push the envelope for power so far that they distort the game experience around them. The Sunshark Arrows were already one of the most powerful weapons in the game, the Dense Bone Arrows power crept on this - you now have access to an end game weapon by beating a single L2 Gigalion plus some leather, great cat bones and iron. These arrows should never have been released, they look like some casual creator gear design, not something from APG.

So that is why I am awarding the White Gigalion the 2019 Phoenix Poop award for worst moment in 2019. It, like many things we've seen on this list, was a great idea sullied by poor execution.

The Best Moments

5. The Frogdog Showdown

While the Frogdog is no contest the most juvenile monster we have seen to date, the Gencon Frogdog showdown was the first example of the new content we have seen in action since Gencon 2018. Without it Gencon 2019 would have almost been nothing but the company treading water. Of particular delight was the demo Zach B ran for TWIST Gaming, which was a combination of childish glee from all three of them plus an unexpected ending that almost deflated Zach.

It was also marvelous to see the new gear designs and get to experience the direction in which the design team is moving on the Wave 4 expansions. I look forward to seeing what is in them in 2025, it will be a nice way to spend the day while we're trapped indoors because the world is on fire.

4. The Naked Forbidden Bundle 

The King is something that I do not personally care much for, the miniature sculpt is low detail, the model is mostly shapeless robes without character and the entire thing is showing its age (The Scribe is significantly better). However, The King and the Scribe hold a place in a lot of people's hearts because of the cancellation of the Lantern Festival and the rarity of this model.

So while my experiences of painting the resin versions of this model have formed a mostly negative 'who cares' position, I have to agree that the release of the previously abandoned Lantern Festival sprue sculpts; The King, The Scribe, The Twilight Cloak survivor and the two Great Game hunters is a great thing. For one it has converted useless stock that was taking up space into money for APG and secondly it has got these old models out into the wild for people to enjoy. 

3. The Ringtail Vixen White Box

I have not written a full review of this mini-expansion yet, just a short one that covered some details. But I have to straight up tell you again that this is the single best small white box purchase you can make at the moment. It's perfectly balanced and fixes one of the most problematic experiences for new players.

It also has a plastic version of a great model. Two thumbs up.

2. Death High

This line of models has continued to exceed all expectations, they are the single best product line that Kingdom Death produces at the moment. I love everything about them, the character, the details, the way that the Photoresin printing lets them have elements that would not work on resin (and require sacrifices to be in plastic), I love it all. They are always my favourite part of every shop update and have become the only non-game content I still purchase.

May they continue on into the future for years to come!

1.  The Pattern System 

The strain system was the best thing we saw in 2018 and the new Pattern System continues this trend by providing another innovative creation. But that is underselling it, so let me be clear, the Pattern System is the best thing that has happened to Kingdom Death since the first Kickstarter delivered. 

There is so much depth and elegance to the Pattern System that it is a shame it was not part of the game from the start. Some of the individual creations released so far are stupidly overpowered (Tempered Spear, Tempered Axe, Afterdeath Brew) or utterly useless (Telirc Eye Tac) but this does not take away from the overall concept. When you begin to explore the mechanics of this addition there is so much space which has yet to be unfolded. It's brilliant.

And that's it, to be honest while some of the lows for 2019 were really bad and concerning for the future of the kickstarter (note the Kickstarter =/= the game, it is the way that the Kickstarter is being managed along with the business itself that concerns me, the game is absolutely fine despite the problems) and my confidence in the balance of future promo content (white box and pure promo) is also not good.

Finally, I think it is worth mentioning that Adam asked me to send in feedback/bugs/game breaks directly to the Design Team to help them refine and improve the card pack & Campaigns of Death. However, I can't really call this one a positive because I've had no response to my first email and it's been 4-5 weeks now. I'm not surprised, just disappointed. We'll see.