Kingdom Death: Monster - Sylvania Review (Patreon)

Sylvania lay dying. A short life of frustration and mockery due to her unusual features. A pair of large hands gently traced from the bridge of her nose to her misshapen ears, yanking them abruptly. Shocked back into consciousness, her gaze met a serene face framed between two long ears. Madness poured through the strangers' large unblinking eyes. The blood weakly coursing in her veins set ablaze with the chaotic madness spewing from her savior. Her once fatal wound itched as its pain faded and she was restored. The long eared one leaned forward and kissed her deeply. Sylvania awoke, a sacred elf determined to be the last of her kind.

Sylvania is from the Beta content line, which means that the game content is a bit wilder and more experimental, as such I tend to be a bit kinder when reviewing these items when compared to full expansions or white boxed because these are purchased with the understanding that they may not be as balanced or well polished. Sylvania is the latest in this line and represents another Atnas adjacent character due to her elf like appearance. Whether she was saved by Elgnirk or some other Chaos Elf we can't be sure at this time, but it is a nice window into a world which has recently gained pointy eared

The Model

The Photoresin miniatures always tend to be more complex and intricate than the plastic ones, this is due to the differences in production. What you get are miniatures that have more details, but also are less suited to be game pieces due to the brittle nature of the resin.

The Sylviana miniature is no exception to this, and it is absolutely gorgeous. However, it's not much use as an in game piece because the only piece of gear that she has which is related to in game cards is the Quiver which comes with this box. That might not be an issue for some players, but if you want to ensure that you are playing with weapons/armor that are as close as possible to what they are equipped with (something that can very much help with identification of survivors on the board) then you'll likely not use this miniature. I know I will be leaving her in the box for the moment.

The Game Content

We get two entirely separate pieces of game content in this box. The first one is the Killjoy secret fighting art (SFA). This is a once per campaign SFA that is triggered the first time a survivor with 25+ insanity dies. They Inexplicably Survive (something which is used by some seed patterns) and they gain the Killjoy SFA.

It's a really interesting and powerful SFA, ensuring that your survivor will always wound at least once per attack, but you have to still take the failure punishment when it triggers. Automatic wounds are unicorns in this game and this one is no exception. It's also the most balanced of all the automatic wound triggers we've seen so far. I really like what it is doing and I think the cost of 'you kill all other survivors in the settlement with 25+ insanity is absolutely fair and appropriate. I very much hope to see this one make it into the game's official design space.

The Compact Quiver is also another home run of design. It costs 3x leather, 1x perfect hide, 2x bone, 1x scrap and it's one of the first “arrow pointing” gear cards that's really making use of the mechanic in a meaningful manner (sCrap Rebar anyone?) It's got a lot of flexibility in where you place it, but you'll need to put it in either slots 2, 4, 5, 6 or 8 (Cardinal points + middle) in order to make best use of it. That's going to impact on your affinity layout, but in exchange for that you get +2 accuracy to all bows and arrows this is pointing to and if you have 2 or more arrows + a bow pointed at then you'll also get to remove Cumbersome from the bow which is a huge benefit (cumbersome arrows like the revised Dense Bone Arrows don't get this boost, which I think is fair).

It's a really simple but great piece of design and I hope they develop this system further by letting arrows and affinities co-exist.

Summary

Beta content can be seriously wild with its designs, sometimes we get very problematic content like Doll, but most of the time we get stuff that expands the design and play space in some wonderful ways. Sylvania's game content is absolutely a part of that and I think both the Compact Quiver design and the Killjoy SFA are really well done designs. This is one for everyone, not just fans of bows & arrows.

And as an aside, I really happy to see such overwhelmingly interesting, unique and fun content in the box. I am so delighted with both of the cards in this box.