Marshlight Reviews: Oktoberfest Aya (Patreon)

Pre-Review Note:

I can only apologise for how long it has taken to get the October content reviews put together, with all the delays from the store, and issues with shipping plus customs they only got into my hands last week (I don't understand why the store can't sort out paying customs in advance the way that many other US sources I have now do). So I will be getting these sorted over the next few Mondays along with (finally) releasing an indexed Contents Page for the patreon which I can pin to the front page now. So now you know what's coming on Monday for the next few weeks and Fridays will be about settlement stuff.

Needless to say, I have not had the time to paint these models, I have only just finished the Gold/Glass Smoke Knight and I have a Phoenix, Death High Models, Screaming Antelopes and a very late WH40K commission to prioritize now that I almost have my work space organized. 

Lets get to the review.

Oktoberfest Aya was a bit of a welcome surprise release this year, as previously we have seen only Halloween themed observations. Aya herself is the survivor who appears in the manga at the end of the Kingdom Death book, the girl who grows up overnight, runs into the Gold Smoke Knight, stumbles into the Nightmare Ram's garden, eats it to death and then dresses up in what became known as the Vagabond Armor set.

She is also present in the first Kickstarter rewards as Aya the Survivor, in Before the Wall, Beyond the Wall, as Easter Aya (with another harvest themed link, she's often seen around plants), as Sci-Fi Aya and in the Death High range as the (currently) only named member of Death High (again she's shown as eating). She is every bit as iconic as Lucy, the White Speaker or Allison despite not having much in the way of interactions with the game right now.

So it made absolute sense that Aya would be the individual involved in this event and it is a fun tribute to a grand old tradition from around the 1810s. It was originally an agricultural festival, but these days is best known for a prodigious amount of beer drinking, I am not a beer person myself, never have been so going to Oktoberfest has not appealed to me. However it is still wonderful to see something like this tributed here.

As an aside before we move on, Aya is a reference to Āyah; which can mean verse, sign, evidence or miracle and also the name of the Akkadian -> Mesopotamian sun goddess. In akkadian Aya means "dawn". So while her fate is currently unknown and looks somewhat troubled (to put it mildly); there are suggestions that she is destined to perform something huge and significant. We'll see.

Contents

• Box
• 54mm Aya
• 32mm Aya
• 3 Pattern cards
• 3 Gear cards
• 1 Art card

The Models

I have not had a chance to paint these models this time, but I took the time to assemble them and judge them for difficulty of construction plus any potential painting or issues in use. We will start with the 54mm Aya.

There is not much in the way of in game usage for this model, I would go as far as to say that she would be best used in a diorama or as a display piece, so her game content potential is close to nil. I would even go as far as to recommend that you appropriate the base she comes with to use on some other model in the future. 

It was a straightforward model to construct, with the only difficult part being the stray strand of hair that sits on the left side (her left) of her head. That piece is small enough that you could damage it while removing it from the sprue, but it is not an important piece.  

She is best assembled in two parts initially, Aya and the barrel being separate pieces. Still, for painting purposes I plan to remove her right arm (the one with the tray) and detach the tray. So I will be painting her in 4 separate pieces, maybe 5 because I am also judging if the head needs to be removed in order to access her back properly.

In all I'd call her a 2/5 on the difficulty front.

Small 32+mm Aya is the one that you might use during games. She is in the new proportions which we shall call the 1.5 scale (as opposed to the original 1.31 scale) and she was a simple assembly. You have the option of putting her together with a skirt on, or with just an apron and panties. I'm not saying you'll be judged based on which one you choose, but...

This puts one in the odd position where there is a hips + leg that are just sitting about without anything to finish them. This is an opportunity for some people, but useless plastic for others. You decide what to do with that spare butt based on how much hobby work you do.

The model is solid, durable and suited for play. She is wearing the Brave Dirndl (a traditional Bavarian dress often associated with Oktoberfest) and carrying the Afterdeath Brew on her back. Sadly there is no sign of any additional Brew sculpt for other survivors to use and the Durendal weapon has no sculpt at all. More on that weapon further on.

I can see one using this smaller sculpt in games to represent either a support survivor, an 'endeavor survivor' (where you use models to represent endeavors) or as the survivor wearing the Brave Dirndl when/if you take that out. She's cute, thematic and only the weapon looks off. I like her more than most of the other small seasonal models except for the Baker Twilight Knight.

Onto the gameplay content!

Gameplay Content

We have in this box a total of six gameplay related cards, 3 gear cards and the patterns required to craft each of them. This puts immediately to our first issue, there are no rules for how to use the patterns here, they were located only in the 10th Anniversary Survivor box. 

Now I consider that to be a serious oversight, if you are going to release promotional content with rules that are not in the core rulebook, you absolutely should either be:

a) Warning people that this box requires rules from another promotional box.

b) Providing a copy of the rules online, with a link on the store page to download them

c) Putting the rules in the box.

None of these have been observed here, and I think that is a large mark against this product. It should be able to stand alone for anyone who purchases it, not require another piece of limited edition/seasonal promotional content or asking around online for the rules.

In addition to this, the Afterdeath Brew is a Lonely Tree expansion, which should have been again written on the store page, the Lonely Tree is not high on most people's purchase list, so it is very possible that some consumers bought this item without being able to use a whole third of the game content. That's okay, they can solve this problem by spending a meager $75 in the shop! Nice.

I am all for cross expansion interactions, but the consumer should be warned in advance when they are included. This is the third time this has happened now and I am honestly a bit bewildered why the community isn't pushing back on this and asking for reasonable transparency in these products. Look at that picture at the top of this article. Can you see that the Lonely Tree is required? If you can, you're looking at the wrong picture.

Speaking of Pictures, here are the cards themselves:

One small detail you might not notice immediately, the top right has the Afterdeath and Dirndll in the "II" category while the Durendal is in the "III" one. All of the 10th Anniversary patterns are "II" while the Black Ghost Dagger from the Halloween "White" Speaker is a "III". We'll see what that means in the future.

Now onto each item in turn.

Afterdeath Brew

Crafting this item is not an easy feat, you need to encounter the Lonely Tree at Level 2, survive the showdown, triumph over the typos and collect the Blistering Plasma Fruit.  

You also have to give up being able to consume this resource, which is a huge ask, because the Nightmare Blood ability is REALLY powerful. It's one of the best ones now that saviors were nerfed to not be able to use ageless in 1.31. So the brew has to be incredible.

It's not. It's a somewhat niche item with an 'avoid death' ability that triggers 20% of the time as long as the survivor had died from bleeding. It also has a "self kill" ability that drops 5 bleeding tokens onto the survivor (they can outlast this with Unconscious Fighter or sometimes Purpose).

Now this means there is a meme/edge use for this item in the Red Ring of Death build, instead of needing to get Story of the Young Hero for your survivors, you can now use Afterdeath Brew + Red Ring + Bandages to activate it for 2 automatic wounds as long as you have a way of surviving the bleeding tokens. Don't ask how this works with Story of Blood please, the timing stuff in Kingdom Death is not defined enough to cope. Just sculpt up Unconscious Fighter instead thank you. Apart from that, this is a way of deafening your own survivors so they can abuse the Screaming Helm (if they don't die).

Still, in practice what this item boils down to is a right green affinity (solid), and a vague passive that can help save survivors who died to bleeding. Perhaps it's something you just take against The Butcher when you're sending in lambs? 

It's a D tier item on the whole, but that is fine for a promotional item. I prefer them to be fun, situational and silly over really powerful (stares hard at the Tempered Spear).

Brave Dirndl

Hey look, it's a place to get rid of your Skullcap Hammer! The crafting cost on this one competes with the Vagabond Armor set, so you have to decide how many vagabonds you want (probably 1, and it can just cost 1 cloth so that's fine). 

The real tricky part is you need a returning survivor with an instrument, that means you're either using the Gorn, you're crafting this right after a nemesis fight or you're risking deletion via the Harvester. In games with the Gorm or settlements with a Whisker Harp, that's not too bad, but it is quite the limitation.

You'll also need both the Weapon Crafter and the Leather Worker open because of the other requirements. That means the actual crafting cost for this item is: 2x cloth, 1x leather, 2x bone and 1x scrap + needs another 1x bone, 1x leather for the Sickle and whatever you paid for the instrument.

It is quite the journey to make this item indeed!

What do you get when you make this? Well you get a dirndl that is very brave!  It is in essence a 1 point body + waist armor that provides a survivor buff when you achieve the triumph of wearing it as your only armor and surviving the hunt & showdown. You can wear accessories to help with this, so the Tabard, Cloth Leggings and various headpieces all help, but on the whole whatever survivor goes out wearing this, they are going to be playing either ranged or support unless they are very brave and have a phenomenal tank and monster controller.

The reward for doing this is +1 courage with an additional bonus of +1 strength if your settlement has Song of the Brave. Song of the Brave is amazing and you should be aiming for it all the time anyway (especially considering that Music tree = best innovation tree) so you should not be departing with this one until you have Song of the Brave sorted.

The bottom line is simple, it's an interesting item with some fun themes and it could be alright for the right kind of survivor - especially if that +1 strength hits in important break point or you are seeking a guaranteed "See the Truth" trigger while carrying dried acanthus (classic trick, it allows you to avoid the loss of an eye). But on the whole it is again a D Tier item and I think that is a fine place for it to be. You're not going to be using this one a lot and it is very expensive.

Durendal

Last of all, we have the infuriating Durendal. This is another one of the "Earth swords of legend" that has made it into the game; alongside the Muramasa, Excalibur and Scarlet, the Golden Sword of Battle (yes I am counting that one). 

This time it is the weapon of Roland, the paladin of Charlemagne and I am exceedingly vexed that it has been included in this boxed set. Oktoberfest is a Bavarian tradition. Roland is very, VERY French. Now yes, he was Frankish and yes that is a Germanic people. But this is quite the stretch because of how deeply French the Durendal is considered to be. But, I will cede that the Germanic people do feel a connection to him as well.  There is Rolândia in Brazil after all, thanks to certain people.

The weapon itself is just a hot piece of garbage and lets delve into why. 

Statistically, this weapon is very impressive, it's a sword packing 2 speed, 6+ accuracy and 9 strength. With a potentially massive armor bonus to all locations (depending on courage). 

Crafting it is also an interesting adventure. You need a returning survivor who has been regurgitated by a Screaming Antelope, plus a savior and the blacksmith location - you also need to spend 2x iron, 1x leather and 1x other (keyword) gear to craft this.

Now that you have the sword, you can only take it out on a hunt as long as your savior goes with you, and the moment that savior dies, the sword disappears from reality. (We still don't know if it can be re-crafted, the pattern rules do not cover this).  This means in absolutely optimal situations you can use the Durendal for six showdowns (unless you have somehow performed the nutty move of creating an Ageless Apprentice Savior - which currently works, but I believe will be patched in Campaigns of Death).

So, I have to give this one an E tier grade for the most part because Etheral is an obnoxious ability that limits the campaign types that the weapon can be used in and also puts a clock on how long you get to keep it for. But, if you craft this weapon late enough in the campaign, where the savior you have is going to last until the final nemesis showdown, then it can be an S Tier weapon. I am not fond of items like this, that require mental gymnastics and metagaming to make them viable, but the theme is neat.

Summary

So, should you get this one on the secondary market or wait until next Oktoberfest for its re-release? If you can pick it up for MSRP, then it's fine I guess, very good if you want the models. But if you are just after the in game content, this one is a tall ask for anyone other than completionists. There are three items, that you might sometimes see when drawn via the pattern rules (whenever you hit insight, Song of the Brave + Graves helps here as new survivors automatically insight when born) and sometimes you may not. All of them are awkward to construct, with the dirndil being the most straightforward - and you might never be able to make the Afterdeath Brew because of how the tree works. So I would say the main function of these pattern cards is to actually weaken the Pattern pool overall and increase diversity. That means those of you who find the game too easy because of your elite gaming skills, exceptional knowledge and strong showdown play will want these so you're not always drawing the 10th Anniversary patterns, but newer players should avoid.

For modelers and die hards only.

Giveaway!

And as usual (or at least as long as I have stuff I can share), we have a give away as a part of the competition. This time it's for the Echoes of Death I (one) strains, rules and fighting arts (plus the art cards if I can find them) as I have a spare set I am not doing anything with!  These are the four with Infinite Lives and Backstabber in them.

As always this is open to anyone who is a $5 or higher patron and the entry phrase is:"Ducks have no echo?"