A Review of Griswaldan Beta Content | Kingdom Death: Monster

Ribbons of golden pollen shimmered through the air, glittering in the radiant atmosphere. A relentless tickle tortured Griswaldan's nose as he kneeled, breathless before his queen. Honeyed accolades buzzed in his ears. Ruddy, itchy hives formed instantly, where the flat of the blade touched the skin of his neck. It was all he could do to reach for the sword with measured grace but his shaking hands betrayed the mind-rattling intensity of desire, to possess the weapon, to seize it and conquer. With blade in hand, a smile of rapturous satisfaction spread over his face.

A sensation of unwavering momentum settled in his chest, stinging at his heart when his mind wanders far from his purpose.

As always, much thanks to community members Charles and Timberwolfl for their help in my being to be able to review these in a somewhat timely fashion. I wish I could review them earlier and faster, but that is not something any of us have control over.

Contents:

• 1 x Griswaldan photoresin miniature and base

• Large Matte Art Print

• Character Art Card

The Miniature

The vast majority of this miniature is nothing short of stunningly gorgeous; the armor, shield and sword are intricately detailed with designs that are both practical and beautiful at the same time. Also we have a pose where Griswaldan looks like he is admiring the splendour that is the Obligate Gallant Blade, given how the mechanics of his particular weapons work, that is some excellent posing that adds to the entire piece.

However, I cannot provide such praise to Griswaldan's hair, I'm not sure exactly when this trend started with KDM miniatures, but it is not the first miniature that has stuff on its head that does not read as hair. It has a weird, clumpy texture to it that hair just doesn't have. It looks like thick strands of some vegetative-like material such as small carrots or seaweed. I find that a disappointing, when you compare it to the fine strands of stylish hair that feature in Michael Chang's original artwork. I do not think the sculptor(s?) should be blamed for this, but I would like whoever made the final decision on the art direction to not let hair like this spoil an otherwise incredible sculpt.

Hair and facial features really matter on miniatures because they are around the main focal point that we humans look at, it is natural to look at the eyes on a sculpture or in a portrait and notice the imperfections that occur there.

I prefer to end the miniature critique with positivity if I can, so in the interest of that I'd also like to really highlight how fantastic Griswaldan's lantern design is. It's so intricate with its clean lines and an overall shape and structure that I want to see held by more miniatures.

The Gameplay

Both of the two weapons (sword and shield) that come in this boxed set are tied to a new mechanic called Delusion. This isn't on the living glossary at the time of writing, so I'll provide the full text here:

Delusion X: (X = Weapon type, currently just Shield and Sword)

A gear special rule. This X does not truly exist and cannot be voluntarily placed into a gear grid. When a survivor gains a gear with Delusion – X, record it on their survivor record sheet. Only they may use this gear.

While that survivor is insane, if they have a X in their gear grid, place this gear on top of it without archiving the X underneath.

While that survivor is sane, remove this gear from atop the one it is covering.

If this gear would be archived, archive any gear underneath it as well.

This is a great example of a thematic concept creating a new and exciting area for the game to explore. We have this concept of someone being so deluded that their imagination manifests itself around the gear they are holding and brings it to life.

If you believe hard enough, Atnas is real!

Slots in gear grids are something that is really tight and forces so many gear cards to languish in the binder, because when you've got just 9 places to store gear and 5 of them are often taken up by armor, plus another 1 or 2 for weapons then there's not a lot of space for other cards. The design space here is ripe for exploration, one could have a gear card that changes forms when triggered in some manner (Activation, start of act, start of the monster's turn etc. etc.), and the new form is placed on top of the original card until it transforms back via another trigger. This could even allow for things like arm armor/weapons that turns into blades on your act and then transforms into shields during the monster's turn. It's a concept that I really hope Team Death are exploring more deeply rather than just leaving it one and done in this Beta because it's the best single new design mechanic I've seem from them in a hot minute.

The way both of these cards are gained is also unique, thematic and fun, once per campaign per weapon a departing survivor with the Quixotic disorder will gain the matching weapon type if they have one in their gear grid. If you depart with a shield, you gain the Obligate Gallant Shield, if you depart with a sword you gain the Obligate Gallant Blade, if you depart with both, you get both. It's also worth noting both of these two weapons have the other keyword which means they cannot be used by Saviors, which suggests the source of these weapons is anathema, or at least incompatible to the Ethereal Dreamer's realm.

This is all wonderfully playful and a great reference to the Quixotic disorder's namesake Don Quixote who comes from the book with the same title and fits with how people can delude their world into fitting with their personal viewpoint. The survivor(s) sees themselves as a brave and honourable knight type so firmly that they manifest that belief into becoming reality, but only for as long as they are able to keep up the charade and really believe in the fabrication. Which is represented by the insanity mechanic. It is like a sister to the Sentient ability that comes on weapons, but turned all the way up to eleven. It's also a nice echo of Atnas's own dread delusion of the invisible miniature Elgnirk at his side and Atnas himself was also a swordsman of great skill and dedication.

Obligate Gallant Blade

Of the two weapons I think the Gallant Blade is the less interesting, it is a (2/4+/8) weapon with a new ability called Combo Finish X; with X being 2 here.

Combo Finish X:

A Gear special rule. At the end of your attack with this, if you inflicted X+ wounds, inflict an additional wound.

So it is essentially another variant on Devastating but with extra hoops to jump through, which isn't that exciting in the same way that Savage isn't that exciting either as that is Devastating but on Critical Wounds. We also have this additional negative that if we fail to wound the monster in a round we lose all our Insanity. Thematic, but it isn't adding that much more to the play experience.

There is no doubt that if gained early on this weapon is going to really be worth supporting with insanity gains such as Screaming Helm or similar options because 2/4+/8 with a potential bonus 3rd wound is going to wreck early and mid game monsters very effectively. That's a statline that sits right up there with many mid to late game options, so it is a weapon that will put in work.

It is however just that, it's a big old whacking beat stick of big stats. Potent and effective but it's not going to make your heart sing with true joy.

Obligate Gallant Shield

The design of this shield is somewhat fascinating, we have whorled brain matter, a horned goblin-like face, antler like knotwork and the entire shape plus lower section looks beetle-like, in fact the overall shape makes me think of the Pokémon Shedinja, though I am sure that resemblance is not the intended one even if it would be very appropriate given how delicate and temporary that Pokémon is. It could also read as a fly, a stag beetle or a bee, and I think that last one is the most likely of the options.

Its mechanics are both thematic and unique, you are unable to protect yourself at all due to the Guardless ability, but you get to protect someone adjacent, allowing them to ignore a hit. This leans into the nascent “Squire” archetype that has been slowly getting support over time and this is another piece of that puzzle.

Just like the sword, the real strength of this card is how early it can turn up, if you have crafted a shield (and there are Node 1 shields available in Gorm and Frogdog) plus that survivor with Quixotic then this is yours if you want it. Having this to use "just" as a 5 strength beater can help you get Shield Mastery very early on in a campaign. Later on in the campaign it's offensive capability will drop off, but it still can be utilised to protect an adjacent tank and that is very interesting if you are using a reach weapon and standing right behind them.

Final Thoughts

This is one of the more interesting Beta designs we have seen in a while and is something that anyone who is wanting to explore the “Knight & Squire” style of play where one survivor stands next to another survivor and enhances the actions of their “Knight” rather than doing anything themselves. It's also a new space in the game to explore and that makes this release a very important one for the game's potential in the future. Working out ways to get around the 9 slot limit that gear grids impose on the game is an important part of the future because as more and more gear cards come out they need to power creep previous designs if nothing is done about the current “hard” limit of 9 gear cards per survivor unless they have ways to get around that.