A Review of People of the Sun – Priestess Percival “White” Box | Kingdom Death: Monster
A young Percival travelled into a land bathed in sun. An unrefined prodigy, she trained in the art of the sword creating a new style. Before returning to the citadel in the sky.
WARNING: This box set requires owning the Sunstalker Expansion to use it without house rules. In addition it has an optional extra element that “requires” the Black Knight Expansion. This is not currently mentioned on the store page. I hope this is corrected.
Box Contents:
1x Hard plastic Priestess Percival figure with base and scenic insert
1x Large matte art print
1x Sanctuary Longsword rare gear card
1x Sun Sparring Rite settlement event card
x Syncretic Vestments pattern card
1x Syncretic Vestments pattern gear
For our pre-review preamble today I'm going to tell you a little about the origination of the name Percival. This name is the English version of the French name Perceval. But, that is also not the original form of name because it is the French version of another Welsh name; that of Peredur.
Peredur fab Efrawg is from a Welsh romance that is itself based on the even older folklore figure of Peredur. So our Citadel survivor has a name with a long and ancient history, and much like Arthur (meaning Man Bear in Welsh) the name Peredur itself is believed to be based upon medieval Welsh words for Hard and Spear. These are all things that have forever lodged in my head as connecting with the original the original Welsh folklore that the Arthurian legends are based on is something that I've come to do as a way of keeping my homeland in my mind.
Also another reason it's lodged in my brain is that one of our cockatiels is called Peredur/Percy, he was originally called Persephone, but when he reached adulthood he lost his pearl plumage indicating that he was not a she as we thought and in fact a he. So we decided to rename him.
Percival here sadly does not wield a spear, instead this small box set depicts her before she developed the Blackguard Style of sword wielding which has become synonymous with her legacy. It is interesting to see the connection between the Sun settlements and what would become the Black Knight's Citadel in the sky. It shows the incredible age of the citadel and also that worshippers of the ancient Sun (Elder Sunstalkers) have been around for at least as long as the citadel has existed. There are some excellent mechanical ties between Blackguard Style and the various People of the Sun mechanics that bring this all together in a satisfying fashion.
The Miniature
I do not think in recent times there has been a miniature who's art direction has disappointed me as much as this one. If you were to hand me this miniature unpainted and ask me which survivor of the known survivors this represented I would have guessed either the Priestess of the Sun, Erza or Aya. I would never have guessed it is Percival because she is missing her most iconic aspect, she has two hands! More seriously the reason I do not read this as being Percival is she is lacking Percival's iconic hairstyle, Percival does not have straight hair all the way from top to bottom, she instead has hair that falls into curls as it approaches her shoulders. You can see it here in this shop search, her hair is pretty consistent across the board and while curly hair can become more curled over time. When you are creating characters having a consistent silhouette is a key part of recognition for them as it helps people identify them from their core elements quickly. Erza and Aya are the straight-haired redheads, with Erza typically having a longer cut while Aya has a shorter one.
On top of that, the plinth/pillar Percival is kneeling on is disappointing from a Kingdom Death perspective. It has none of the characteristic details that make the architecture of Kingdom Death's world iconic, not even any faces on the panels or sculpting that depicts the Sun god of the settlement. This would be fine as a plinth for a bust, but as something a play piece is standing on I find it uninspiring
In addition, the sculpt here appears to be missing the shoulder pauldrons that were present on the resin print. Which you can see here.
I do not know if this is an error on the part of the assembly image here or if they have been omitted entirely, as I am forced work with proxies for these reviews due to the time the actual boxes take to get here. So if someone who has the miniature in their hands could confirm if it has the missing elements or not I'd be grateful. Because I can't be sure at this time I won't judge the miniature on that omission, though I do think the assembly here in this image is not showcasing the miniature in its best light at all. That's not really a reflection on the sculpt though, it's the presentation in the store which is a little sloppy (You can see if you zoom in on the full image for Percival the roughness of the cleaning and gluing, I do expect better from a brand that prides itself on being boutique).
As for using this as a game piece, I do not think I'd use the pillar at all in this one and I'll probably even go as far as reworking/replacing the hair. The pillar just raises the miniature up too high for my gaming preferences as also breaks my immersion because it's hard for me to not question why everywhere she goes there is a pillar. (An image of her hauling it about behind her and then setting it up to pose on while she is fighting is amusing as heck, so at least it has comedy going for it).
As an example of where this kind of elevated terrain on a base does work here's Stone Wrecker (Support KDM Collector if you can afford it, such a valuable archive). Stone Wrecker isn't as high up and the face he is standing on is classic Kingdom Death. You know exactly what game world he's from.
Now please note, the skill and talent of the artists here is not something I'm questioning or critiquing because they are obviously excellent. Instead it is the art direction decisions that I think have failed this piece for my tastes. It's not often a Kingdom Death miniature leaves me completely cold, but this one does.
I do not take pleasure in picking at it, so to finish on a couple of positive notes. This will probably be used in some excellent dioramas and art is by its nature subjective, if you like this piece then do not let me yuk your yum. Also two more positive notes, Doot Doot!
The Gameplay
As noted above, this release requires you to own People of the Sun due to the core part of its design being a People of the Sun exclusive Event card (you are of course welcome to ignore that, enjoy the sandbox as you deem fit). When drawn this event has a chance of either killing a survivor and archiving itself (30%), archiving a random weapon in exchange for a Superior Steel Sword (30%) and providing the new pattern Syncretic Vestments (40%). There's also a rogue-lite legacy option which we'll get to after we look at the two new gear cards.
First up is the Sanctuary Long Sword, this sword has an excellent profile of (2/6+/6/Sharp) and gives an automatic Sharp Strength 10 on a Perfect hit. All of these things tie to not only the Black Knight Squires who are represented on the settlement card art and reflected in the sword's design but also to the People of the Sun and their campaign mechanics of Perfect hit + Sharp. This is an excellent example of thematic storytelling. Otherwise this weapon is a pretty basic no-frills one that is practical and useful like the Steel Sword. The only real sticky spot here is the mechanics surrounding archival of a random weapon, the issues on this are tied to a) randomising a weapon to archive and b) when it turns up in the timeline.
For issue a) Not all weapons are always kept in gear card form on the table at all times, older weapons can often tend to be recorded in the settlement storage so that requires a solution such as them either all kept in your settlement box to shuffle up and randomise, a digital form of randomisation being used used if you are playing with a digital app, you spend the time pulling everything out of the box to shuffle up or you have them all written down and are able to assign a dice number to each. Randomisation of things like this is something that works cleanly in a computer game, but when dealing with a board game it's the kind of thing that I'd rather see left out of Kingdom Death. We've got enough bookkeeping and administrative actions already!
The b) issue of when it turns up in your timeline doesn't matter if somehow you're playing the Games Master mode where you pick the order of cards for your play group. In fact then there is opportunity for some excellent story telling and assistance available. But, if you're playing normally whereby you have no control over when this card is drawn; the Squires turning up early can really give you some offensive punch for minimal cost, while sleepy Squires turning up late might result in the loss of very valuable gear in exchange for something you don't need because your Sun weapons are already superior. That's a potentially frustrating and uneven experience for most of this table when you consider it alongside the death result, so be aware of what you are signing up for.
Our top prize is a pattern for the Syncretic Vestments.
Pattern Crafting Cost: 4x Hide, 1x Perfect Organ, 2x Scrap
Crafting Requirements: Sacred Pool Level 2
One of the really neat parts of this design is the Sacred Pool requirement, it highlights one of the many reasons why Patterns have been such a huge success. Older designs from before patterns would have had needed to the crafting cost on the settlement card, which means that the unless the the L2 Sacred Pool requirement was erased you could only craft the vestments if you drew the card after Lantern Year 5 (which is the earliest opportunity players have to upgrade the sacred pool) gaining the pattern card instead means that players can bank the recipe for crafting later. This is all good game design and shows how Team Death have continued to learn and grow in the aspect of board game design.
Another interesting aspect of this pattern design is that if you draw this card and have all the materials/crafting requirements then you can archive it for the Black Knight legacy element in the same lantern year and then recraft it later on. You're not limited to the number of times you can craft pattern gear, you are instead limited by the total number allowed in a settlement instead. Make it, send it away with the Squires, make a replacement and then enjoy it next campaign also! That's a fun interaction
Crafting limit: The total quantity of this pattern gear that your settlement can have at any time
To get to the gear card itself, as time passes and the overall power level of KDM stuff creeps forever up (power creep is something inevitable in a game that keeps releasing new content and it is an incredibly hard thing to deal with), something I've come to really appreciate is gear with good thematic mechanics that provide either unique options, support existing marginal strategies or have strong storytelling elements. These Vestments land in somewhat in all three of those categories. We have the linkage between the Squires and the Sun People with the block/deflect synergy, the strength token bonus that directly feeds into Sun Survival actions and access to the incredible Provoke ability if we're using swords.
Provoke: A gear special rule. When you wound with this weapon, gain the priority target token.
Add onto that support for the heavy affinity thematics that Warriors of the Sun lean into and we've got an excellent piece of gear that's flexible and has a bunch of interesting synergies. Red Fist, Gorumand token eating, Regalism, tanking, dealing damage. There's a lot you can do with this and it's mostly all in support of other cards, that's what I like to see and I certainly appreciate this far more than the sword
SThe Black Knight link is a rather fun little element that provides us with the rogue-lite legacy element, during the lantern year that the event has happened you can archive the Syncretic Vestments and that turns them into something that will turn up during your next campaign if the Black Knight is your Node 3 Nemesis (which right now is pretty much the best choice for the node). We've seen this before with the Gambler's Chest allowing for passing a gear card forward to the next run and it is as good here as it was there.
Sure, things like this are mostly for players who lifestyle game Kingdom Death, but the part of this I really like is if you're a more casual player you do not lose out because it's an additional extra printed on the card. It's a teaser, something to suck your group back into another campaign and there is no negative to this apart from the small part of the Settlement Event card's real estate that has been sacrificed. I love this form of passing things from one campaign to the next and I want to see more of it.
This means that the sword is practical, simple and powerful. The Syncratic Vestments on the other hand have so many different things they can synergise with or support that they are the real gem here. I honestly wouldn't blame people for house ruling it as an element of Waiting Bell every campaign they have the Black Knight in because it is thematic and interesting.
Final Thoughts
While I found the miniature to be a failure for my tastes and needs, that portion of these reviews always tends to boil down to personal artistic preferences unless there's some major engineering/tooling issue. We've had poorly tooled miniatures in recent times (The King, The Black Knight are very recent examples of this) but notably they are based on old designs and didn't get the full updated refresher treatment they deserved.
I don't personally think I'll ever assemble and use this miniature without extensive reconstruction of at least the base (and maybe the hair, but for now without a Starting Survivor/Unarmored Percival, I don't see the need). The main mechanical negative found revolves around the randomness, both in getting this event and what it does for you being in the hands of the dice god. But, the a positive of having this in your settlement event deck is it reduces the odds of Cracks in the Ground/Plague turning up and that's always good in my book.
The Sunstalker requirement and the Black Knight bonus does create a barrier to entry, but those two boxes are two top tier expansions that I think should be in everyone's collections early on and if you have the pre-requisites plus you play People of the Sun on the regular already then go ahead, pick this up. If you're not playing People of the Sun a lot right now I'd recommend waiting until Campaigns of Death comes out and we see what that expansion does to update and modernise the Sun campaign. The “optimal” way to use this card is to run Sun until you get the vestments and then play whatever other campaign you want with the Black Knight in it
I do think releases like this would be better served in the “bundle” style that is Echoes/Survivors of Death. Just think how great a People of the Sun box set with this Percival, White Sunlion Armor Erza, Screaming Sun Armor Lucy and Sunlantern Armor Aya would be in comparison to the four individual releases we have had. I sincerely hope that future expansion campaign based survivors such as Bloom, Stars and Dreamkeeper come in fours rather than split up the way that Sun has been. That would be a lot more palatable and easier for me to recommend.
I'm going to start giving these release reviews a final grade. So this one gets a C+ from me because while the vestments are amazing, the selection overall is uneven in what it does for your game experience and it has direct dependency on something that comes in an expansion.
This is available for purchase at: https://shop.kingdomdeath.com/products/people-of-the-sun-priestess-percival