Echoes of Death 4 Review (Patreon)

Photograph used with kind permission from community member Mike B. Information about the Game Content for proxying supplied by timberwolfl. Thank you to members of the community like this who help me get early access to things like this so I can review them in a timely fashion.

This is a rare situation where thanks to Gencon I have been able to see, and play with, the new Echoes game content in advance of its official store release. Normally I can only review this stuff after it has been in the store (and sometimes out of stock) for a while, but Echoes 4 has both either a) not come out yet and/or b) has just hit the store around the time this article lands. Very exciting!

Echoes of Death (EoD) is an ongoing series where the Kingdom Death “Generic” line is translated into the “Monster” world and the various characters are given in universe gear. It's a line I really love the aesthetics for as the miniatures are always absolutely superb and the gear often has neat little variations on the normal ones which keep it interesting.

To date we have had in Echoes 1; Fighter, Thief, Necromancer and Mage. In Echoes 2 was; Gladiator, Bard, Cleric and Ranger. Echoes 3 gave us; Investment Sniper, Knight, Dark Paladin and Monk. When it comes to game content I think Echoes 2 is the one which has the most elements I like, but Echoes 3 was the best balanced of the bunch. You can find my reviews of the previous Echoes of Death in the tags at the bottom of this post.

Echoes of Death 4 has the Paladin, Novice, Boxer and the Mage (again) in the form of the Arrow Mage (confirmed by that being the name on the sprue she comes with). I'm not sure why the Mage is the first one to get a second appearance in the series when we still haven't seen all of the generic line once to date. The strains that come with them are as always fighting art unlocks themed around the individual characters and we'll review both the unlocking conditions and the fighting art itself in turn.

To date my all time top Strain Fighting Arts are: Backstabber (EoD 1 Dagger based), Shielderang (EoD 2 Shield based), Infernal Rhythmn (EoD 2 Instrument based) and Armored Fist (EoD3 Fist & Tooth based). In contrast the ones I found to be the most unbalanced (aka powerful) were Infinite Lives (EoD 1 reroll based) and Convalescer (EoD 2 club/healing based). I'm also a little fed up with Bows getting loads of strains while Whips and Thrown weapons continue to be neglected. Lets see where Echoes of Death 4 lands!

Note: I'll be reviewing these in the framework of the Generation 1 (Pre-GCE) context as I do not have the knowledge of how the GCE will change things.

The Miniatures

I really like most of the miniatures in this set, the Paladin and Novice in particular are really great, with the Paladin looking imposing and dauntless while the Novice has a wild vulnerability to her art which is carried across to the sculpt really well.

In respect to the gear, these include Gamblers Chest Expansion gear options plus a few extra I haven't managed to identify yet and can only take guesses at; the Paladin has Deathking armor, a shield I am not sure about and a lance that looks like a mixture of Deathking Armor in combination with the unreleased Spiral Knight. The Novice is wearing Smog Singer Armor with a Hammer and Shield that look like they come from the Gold Smoke Knight's remains (speculation here). The Boxer has Crimson Crocodile Armor, the Immortal Arm rare gear weapon, a Bloodglass Dagger and a Blood Compass Lantern. Finally the Arrow Mage has Lantern Festival gear on her head, body, waist plus a bow and arm/leg options I can't identify at this time. If anyone has any ideas or corrections please let me know in the comments.

I think that the Paladin and Novice are the best of these two, I do like the dynamic nature of the Boxer's miniature, but I do have to acknowledge that she's really quite far into pin up territory here and that may not be to everyone's taste. Finally the Arrow Mage has a very understated, but excellent pose where she's caught in the act of rapidly grabbing a new arrow to fire again.

The Strain Unlocks and Fighting Arts

Strain 1. Cross Counter.

Unlock Text:A survivor with Rageholic (Disorder) and Berserker (Fighting Art) consumes a Frenzy Drink.

Cross Counter is a tricky unlock as it requires a survivor to have the Rageholic disorder, the Berserker Fighting Art, the ability to consume and a Frenzy Drink (White Lion item).  Rageholic  can be gained via the Settlement Event Dark Trader by spending 6 resources and rolling on a table (20% chance of death, 70% chance of Rageholic + Intercranial hemorrahge, 10% chance of +1 Permanent Accuracy) or it can be gained via the Overload basic hunt event, but there are no specific ways to gain Berserker at this time.

That means getting this particular grouping of disorder, fighting art and item requires a bit of luck. The most efficient route is building the Frenzy Drink as soon as you get the hefty pair of nuts, getting a Berserker via a Romantic settlement (which improves Fighting Art gains) and then spending the six resources when you are fortunate and the Dark Trader turns up.  That's going to be a tough strain to achieve for the average player because it is in essence requiring three random events to all collide in the same campaign and the only element you have control of is spending that six resources when the Dark Trader randomly arrives. Rough.

Cross Counter itself is an interesting concept, if you are a Fist & Tooth attacker who suffers a reaction where a monster uses a basic action on you. In exchange for being completely unable to defend in any manner via guardless:

From the KDM Living Glossary 

You get to score an automatic wound against the monster, auto-wounds are powerful in KDM as they bypass the normal attack roll/hit/wound roll process and here being made to be guardless is not a major drawback because most of the time you can't protect against a “basic action reaction” due to the rules about survival actions when attacking. So really you're losing out on Deflect and any Ignore Hits abilities such as Rolling Armor or the Green Helm.

As such I think this is a nice little package, but it's not exactly going to blow the gates off. The tricky part here is if you gain it on a survivor who doesn't use Fist & Tooth it's not doing anything much at all, so you'll have to decide if you're going to switch weapon types for that survivor or just ignore it. This is always the case for weapon based Strain Fighting Arts, but it is especially noticeable when you are dealing with Fist & Tooth due to the challenges involved in getting various different options to improve F&T together on the same survivor in the first place. (Hint: It gets easier when you own the Spidicules expansion but only for Female survivors).

Strain 2: Curse Conductor

Unlock Text:  A survivor witnesses their partner vanish from history during the Scribe's Book (Hunt Event 84).

That is a really interesting and difficult unlock to stomach. Thematically it is fantastic, but mechanically it means if this happens you're going into a showdown an entire unit down. Deaths on the Hunt are often a massive problem for the game because the showdowns are balanced around 4v1 not 3v1. Still getting this unlock is something that just requires the innovation of Partnership and Pictograms, then taking both partnered survivors out every hunt until they encounter the hunt event while at least one of them has 3+ courage.

I don't think you spend lifetime rerolls on this one because the unlock situation might contribute significantly to a failed hunt, but instead you just take this as a consolation prize for the loss.

The Curse Conductor fighting art is a super interesting one with (yet again) Bow synergy, however it works without needing arrows, the arrow mechanic is simply a small boost. There are already Monster Controller tile strategies in the game revolving around the Slender Man's Gloomhammer and the Spidicules Affinity Rings (especially the Green Ring), so this is another contributing component to that. The fact that it doesn't need bows/arrows, but benefits from them, is a great decision and I'll accept another bow synergy strain because it can operate without them.

The fighting art itself is simple, yet powerful, while you are the monster controller you nerf the monster's accuracy while buffing every survivor's accuracy. I like “debuffing” as a playstyle and it is always exciting to see more of this creep into the game as eventually it means there will be a critical mass of options and I can fully realise “Debuffing” as a survivor archetype.

Strain 3. Beginner's Luck

Unlock Text: A settlement with Protect the Young roll a 1 and a Lantern 10 during the same Intimacy result and picks the 10 result.

This is a solid unlock that just requires time to achieve, I'm not like the bulk of the community who believes Protect the Young is strictly worse than Survival of the Fittest, I really like Protect the Young in People of the Lantern as it promotes interesting Savior strategies. As such, this is a strain made for me, both because of its trigger condition, but also because of the mechanics of the Fighting Art.

Quick Note; due to Twins being possible on this role, this is one of the few times you'll get two survivors with a Strain Fighting art on the unlock. That's also really cool. I also appreciate the thematic inclusion of the Gambler.

This Fighting Art is just really well designed, it provides a powerful boost, but only when a given survivor faces a particular Monster and Level combination for the first time (after gaining Beginner's Luck). Luck is a really powerful stat to have but getting it only for the first showdown is a great limitation to hold it in check. You can also alternate multiple survivors with this ability if you wanted to hunt the same monster/level combo multiple times.

Strain 4. Seiging Offense

Unlock Text: If razor maggots kill a survivor during Herb Gathering.

This is a second Unlock that “compensates” the disaster of losing a survivor during the Hunt Phase, however the circumstances of getting this one are really rare. You need a Sickle to trigger Herb Gathering, you then need to roll a 75+ on the table to Explore the Swamp, you then need to Roll a 10 on that table to Eat the Fruit and consume consume it before rolling a 1 on that third table.

Do you want to know roughly how rare this occurance is? I had completely forgotten that the Razor Maggot result even exists because I have never had this happen once in all the six to seven years I've played KDM. Getting into the Swamp is tough enough without then achieving the 1 in 10 roll plus another 1 in 10 roll. Admittedly if I get to the fruit with lifetime rerolls I'm not going to have accepted the death result, but this is an absolutely insane combination to achieve. I am positive some players have had this happen because we have enough of a player base out there that it must happen, but goodness is it rare.

The Fighting Art is a little bit of a mixed bag, the main issue is Deflect normally doesn't turn up early in a campaign, and this fighting art does nothing without it. When it is able to be used gaining an extra deflect token is nothing to sneeze at, it is for sure a very powerful fighting art, it is just going to be very variable in how useful it is. The earliest that Deflect typically turns up is in lantern years 21+; with the 10th Anniversary Survivors providing an earlier Deflect shield. This may change with future content, but APG are very careful about handing out Deflect to early because of how powerful it is.

As such I think this combination of unlock and situational fighting art makes this the least of the four strain fighting arts we get in this box.

Final Thoughts

As the strain fighting art system is getting more and more overstuffed with only five strains allowed in the deck in the campaign set up there is always diminishing returns on each boxed set. The miniatures themselves are up to the high standard that Echoes of Death has always held and this is not the worst selection of fighting arts we could have had, but at this point I am wondering if we need a change to the Strain Fighting Art system because set up bloat/randomisation is getting to be quite an issue. I think the system would benefit from the Strain Fighting Arts being placed in their own deck and five “Draw a Strain Fighting Art” cards added to the Fighting Art deck so you keep the current ratio but make all the individual Strain Fighting Arts potentials to be gained, because they are a lot of fun, but the average player isn't going to experience a lot of these without some form of house rules.

As a hobbyist and gamer, there's a lot of value in this boxed set for myself because I get the experience of painting the miniatures in addition to the strains, but if you are after just game content I do not think the Echoes series is the best value you can get – that title remains with the Ringtail Vixen white box and the Fade White Box. In the rankings of the Echoes of Death series I would put this one in second place behind Echoes of Death 3 which remains such an incredible package, so Echoes 4 is a good product, just not for players on a budget.