Fully Grounded #14: Lion Statue (Patreon)

This is part of the terrain series, other entries can be found at the contents page here.

Terrain usually from Emporium Miniatures (not in this case).

Link: https://www.etsy.com/shop/EmporiumMiniatures

• Number: 1 (4 vs. the Lion God)
• Size: 4x 2x2
• Passive: N/A
• Activate: Yes
• Obstacle: Yes
• Classification: Blocking Terrain, Story re-roll

Here and there, scattered throughout the game of Kingdom Death are hints about the civilisation that came before the age of the Watchers and survivors. 

Before the Scribe, Ethereal Dreamer, Golden Entity and Parasite Queen really started messing up the Plain of Stone Faces; the Gold Smoke Knight protected the lands populated by a lion-like people who lived in and around the Silver City. However, still undisclosed events broke this civilisation and scattered its people, devolving them from being the Thundercats (because Adam loves his 1980s TV) into the bestial creatures now known as the White Lions.

Survivors will encounter many hints of this previous civilisation which have not been completely erased by the Watchers; pillars, monuments to lions and even encounter members of the Holy Lands (Manhunter, Lion Knight 2nd) who either use lion headed equipment (the Golden Entity co-opted the Lion motif from the Silver City) or cosplay as one - in case it isn't clear from all the hints in the expansion, the Lion Knight's "head" is actually a mask. If you want to see what the Lion Knight (2nd) really looks like, check out the Manhunter, the Forge God and Lion Knight (1st). They're corrupted; almost half-baked slightly-larger-than survivor types.

In addition, the Gold Smoke Knight to this date still presents many of these lion-like attributes and the Cyclops Knight still forges lion based equipment; however on the surface of the world at least, there is almost no traces left of the Silver City. Only the mournful, mad, corrupted previous ruler known as the Lion God and the statues erected in its tribute.

These statues are covered in hieroglyphic symbols and contain information or portents; when used during a showdown survivors can glean small snippets of the future, giving them a bonus if they encounter a story event during the showdown.

The main use for this is during the Lion God fight, where; if you can get to a statue before the Lion God uses it to slap you around the head and activate it you will gain a bonus reroll which you can spend while spelunking in the sink hole that the Lion God creates. This sink hole is where most of the best rewards for the showdown are located, and having a reroll there can let you improve what you get, while also (hopefully) avoiding the worst of what can go wrong. There are four statues, so the hope is that four survivors get to use them and then use the sinkhole, however the Lion God fight is full of so much unavoidable bullshit that usually it isn't possible for everyone to get a dive in the happy face hole.

Outside of the Lion God fight, for the most part this is just a large piece of terrain for hiding behind, but there are a few specific monsters who have story events you can take advantage of if you happen to get a Lion Statue during them, they are:

• White Lion/Gigalion - L3+ 
• Gorm - L3
• Manhunter - L4
• Dragon King (All Levels)
• Gold Smoke Knight (if somehow you manage to make terrain spawn there one day in the future).
• Dung Beetle Knight (Possibly? I'm not sure on the timing of Spelunking of Death, it seems to be showdown phase because it's certainly not Settlement Phase).
• Flower Knight
• King's Man
• Slenderman
• Spidicules (L3)
• Sunstalker (requires Black Blood status card) - However, like the GSK, currently there is no way to spawn a Lion Statue during the fight.

So, as you can see, there are a bunch of potential story events smeared through most of the monsters in game, it is just a matter of fighting the right monster at the right level - though you probably do not want to be triggering the Gorm's story event, it's... not very helpful).

Tactically the statue can also be used to block line of sight and control where the monster is going. Initially it is set up adjacent to the monster, which means you can even consider placing it between the monster and some survivors - and that's the best option if you want to get a non-combatant survivor behind the statue. If you face the monster towards your main front line, then place the statue on a flank and put a survivor so the statue is between the monster and the survivor, you won't have to worry about Field of Vision targeting the separated survivor (but you will still have to worry about other forms of direct targeting if that happens). 

It's not as good to hide behind, as the collapsed column or stone head, but its better than the standing pillars.