Welcome to the Mariana Trench: People of the Lantern #0 (Setup) (Patreon)

As requested previously, we've reset our strain and lost settlement milestones and we're all the way back to (almost) square one for a fresh new campaign. I'm going to really miss those Ocular Parasites. 

In this update I'm going to go through the choices for the various expansions in the campaign, the goals we have (which are why the given expansions are chosen) and other pieces of setup. I think once you've played a few times, to either success or failure, it is worth taking an approach like this because it both focuses you and also refines the experience to either be something you'll more enjoy or something that will challenge you.

And, lets be honest, the core box does not contain the best monsters...

Chosen Expansions:

• Gorm
• Spidicules
• Sunstalker
• Dragon King
• Manhunter
• Slenderman

Always in:

• Lonely Tree
• Baby & The Sword
• Sword in the Stone
• Strange Spot
• Strains
• Patterns
• Dead Warrior
• Infant in the Reeds
• Tattered Package
• Wares for Sale
• Corsair Coat
• Xmaxe
• Vagabond Armor
• Hopestealer
• Scoopy Club
• All other Promo Content with in game rules for obtaining it

Exclusions

First of all, let us discuss the exclusions.

White Gigalion

We replayed the Gigalion showdown recently to see if we could unlock the strain and were immediately reminded just how poor the Vicious trait on the Gigalion is. It yo-yos around the board in an incredibly frustrating and lame fashion, so we just tossed the entire vignette aside because we have no desire to face this one during the campaign. The overpowered nature of the arrows was another reason for this, we're using bows, but we don't want the Catgut Bow + Dense Bone Arrows to be the first and last pick on the train. In addition we're trying to avoid the White Lions too much as nijiq is burned out on them, so... It's a bad expansion with an over-saturated base monster and it's out for now. We might go back and unlock it later, but seriously, how many of you have actually played against the Gigalion and experienced the Vicious trait in action RAW? Because I am genuinely surprises that more people are not posting about the broken functions of that AI card.

Flower Knight

I don't really feel the need for such an easy, low power monster in this game, even though I will miss True Blade a great deal, it's not being included unless. UNLESS. We hit the Flower Addiction disorder. So consider it a "strain" monster until then. 

This also means that the Lump of Atnas cannot be triggered. Which isn't a bad thing, that piece of promo content is also OP. 

King's Man

We're bored with the shallow nature of the King's Man content. I love the idea of doomed/cursed survivors who will eventually succumb to their nature and be lost forever. But the application of it here is poor. When you have the choice between this or the Slenderman, it's not really a contest.

I will go back and revisit the King's Man when they're updated in the Gambler's Chest, until then consider them to be on my do not use list.

Screaming Antelope

Removed by the Spidicules official rules. We'll reintroduce this if the update pack lands before the campaign finishes. Or we'll add it and hunt it once for the Barber Surgeon if we hit Pottery.

Lion God

We could add it in, but I think there's enough late game content available already. I'll re-explore the Mhendi in a future campaign. Shallow expansion, not a lot of fun with this mix (especially with the low amount of White Lion & Screaming Antelope hunts we'll have).

Phoenix

We could hunt it, I guess? It's still in, but it's not really one we'll go after because the good gear either requires too much investment of time or the DK/SS have equivalents in their options which are at least as good or better. Again we might revisit this when/if the Legendary Card Pack lands during this campaign.

Dung Beetle Knight

This is a great expansion, but we want to focus on the DK and SS in the mid to late game, so there just isn't much space for the DBK. Plus one can have too much of a good thing. It's basically a victim of over use. Also if we leave it in, it makes too many builds overpowered and one doesn't have a need for the Rainbow Wing Belt to fix Early Iron when we can oxidize the relevant weapons instead.

Inclusions

These expansions are included together because of their incredible levels of synergy. I'll walk through the options now so you can see how they link up.

Gorm

Right now you're either hunting the Gorm or the White Lion for your hit location control. We're likely to go after the White Lion no more than 2-3 times (including Prologue), so the Gorm is essential because it offers the Wisdom Potion if we fail to hit a Cat's Eye Circlet. 

In other options, the Gorm has strong synergy with spears and bows, while also providing one of the best daggers in the game (Acid-Tooth Dagger) if we don't manage to make the Nuclear or Tempered Daggers that is. 

Spidicules

As problematic as some of the surrounding pieces of the expansion are (non-compensated elimination of a huge portion of core content via the loss of the Screaming Antelope, Taken, Young Rivals, Red Ring), the showdown is at its heart an incredibly fun experience unlike anything else. The combination of minions (only one of two monsters to use them at the moment) and a main monster who is elevated above the board and prone to running away (in a well designed fashion, take note Gigalion) means that we're willing to put up with it.

I just wish the weapons were a tiny bit stronger and the monster had a better position as a LY5 one instead of a LY2 one. Still this one is in for the utility/support stuff rather than the weapons & armour.

Slenderman

He's in for all the reasons the King's Man is out. Even with a reduced amount of White Lion, no Antelope and less Phoenix there is still a lot of content worth exploring. It might also give us a reason to go after the Phoenix in order to craft a Slender Ovule. 

I do really like the thin plant man.

Dragon King & Sunstalker

I've written in many places how these two as quarries are close to the perfect combination. With each monster's armor complementing the other's weapons. The Cycloid Scale Armor makes the Nuclear weapons useful before unlocking the Red/Blue Cores and it can also make the Blast Sword somewhat viable. 

On the other side of the equation, the Sunstalker Weapons perform to an incredible level when they're combined with Dragon Armor, especially the Sunshark Bow/Sun Quiver/Dragon Armor build which is absolutely ridiculous in power, and the Sky Harpoon + DA build is absurd for spears, but also cool things like Dragon Armor + an Ink Sword are technically very challenging to use, requiring planning and positional play, while also packing a lot of power in them. There are few places where you can't find synergies.

Manhunter

Speaking of Synergies, the Manhunter is in because of several synergistic options his gear offers. This Holy Lands slave trader not only provides 3 incredible pieces of gear (we might skip out on using the Toolbelt this time tho), but it also gives access to additional opportunities to level up weapon proficiency through his special showdowns. I find that to be a much appreciated section of the game because it can be nice to have additional chances to get the "required" masteries of Spear, F&T and Shield over as fast as possible before moving into other more fun and wild ones. But despite this, the Manhunter is not a slouch, the showdown is fairer than most and you're more likely to win than lose - but it can absolutely cripple the survivors involved.

Yeah, I really like the Manhunter, even if it does help the survivors more than it hinders them.

The Rest aka Always In

As for the rest, I always leave the Lonely Tree in because I adore its showdown fight (and it's hard to encounter, so just having it in the campaign doesn't mean it will turn up) and all the promotional content is in because I've reverted my strains back to 'locked'. Some of the strains (and patterns) cannot be completed in this run because of the lack of the DBK/FK in particular. But that is fine, we can do them another time.

Goals

So an important part of adding expansions in (after you've experienced them a lot) is simply having some aims or goals. These can be either target monsters such as 'Find TOM and kill him' or 'Hunt all the Legendary Core monsters in a single campaign' to certain pieces of hard to make gear or even specific builds.

Early on, the best way to handle things is to be flexible, many of the weapons are rather interchangeable, you can manage fine with either a King's Spear or an Amber Poleaxe. And a Luck Based DPS can manage with either the LBK, Greater Gaxe or the Rib Blade as they all perform the same function. So the early game goals rarely change, they are:

• Get HL Control
• Get Rawhide armor in multiples (2-3 copies)
• Get Monster Grease, Lucky Charms & 1x Fecal Salve
• Get Whisker Harp if possible
• Get decent weapons
• Get Bandages
• Aim for Leather

Outside of that, it's going to depend on the pattern cards drawn, we're going to use those to help guide our focus and direction early on, because weapons like the Tempered Spear/Dagger/Axe are so exceptional it is hard to pass up on making them if we get the opportunity. 

During the middle portion of the game, we're going to look at hitting Spidicules with the aim of gaining the rings (requiring us to ball it) and the Silk Body Suit to use in conjunction with Leather Armor. We might also look at the Silk Armor set for a few mixed pieces, but it is frustrating that its best slot is the head, meaning it can't be used in conjunction with the Rawhide Headband.

Later on the aim is to complete a set of Lantern Armor, Dragon Armor and Cycloid Scale Armor for the hunters. With possibility of flexing into Phoenix Armor/Hybrid Armors if the Legendary Card Pack lands in time and is enticing enough to encourage a switch into the other gear.

 Settlement Goals 

These are also very flexible and depend a lot on what happens, because if the Gorm drops Hovel into construction in LY 1 the deck is going to be exceptionally bloated (even more so if we get ammonia and the Gorm innovation tree in there) and will need thinning to get back towards Symposium.  What is certain is we will not be innovating in LY1 and will consider carefully if we do it in LY2 or not (typically LY3 is the point where I find the gear base is strong enough to start innovating, but it's very subjective).

We will be prioritising the Music tree over the other (non-Symposium) options early on because Drums is exceptionally powerful and Song of the Brave is needed to clean out the Gorm Climate. But Paint is the option sat behind that because we want that before the Slender man turns up.  

However, I'm not too concerned because KDM hands out a LOT of free innovations if you know where to look. We typically will pick up 2-5 free innovations over the course of the campaign and we'll get the ability to force out a few others directly via location based stuff or monsters means we can get most of what we need.

The Principles are set in stone from the start, we're going:

• SotF
• Graves (Compulsory for any settlement imo)
• Collective Toil
• Romantic

SotF and PtY are both viable options, but they require different play styles. We're saving PtY for the Stars run. Graves is a no brainer over Cannibalize. But Collective Toil is my preference over Accept Darkness because of the strength of how it can bolster and protect your population. The trigger event on Collective Toil puts the Bone Witch into play, but it can also give you extra population and resources (which you can reroll via lifetime rerolls to score).  Finally Romantic is just way more interesting and powerful than Barbaric, so that's another no brainer for me, I'm not picking Barbaric when Romantic lets me have more choices in respect to my gained Fighting Arts.  Incidentally, I think Barbaric should have had the same text Romantic does, but switched for Disorders to be something like "When you gain a disorder, draw 2 and choose which one to keep." Making Barbaric tribes mentally more resilient than Romantic ones.  But lets be honest, thematically you should switch that, with Romantic Tribes being more resilient to disorders and barbaric tribes getting better fighting arts... Thematic whoops there.

So that's the sweeping goals and aims, we'll refine further when we get a bit down the line and see what's working and what's struggling. So next time this series comes back, we'll be right in the shoes (bare feet?) of our survivors from the Mariana Trench, which will be split between a narrative description of what happens and a detailed strategic look at why the decisions made... were made!