Gen Con 2016: Kingdom Death New Releases Unboxing

At Gen Con 2016, most of the Kingdom Death crew was on hand in their booth giving demos, interviews, and selling what few copies of the core game that they had left from the first print-run of the game. All of the currently released expansions, with the exception of the Dragon King, were also being sold. 

Before Kingdom Death: Monster the game, Kingdom Death was a company that sold one-off, super high quality miniatures, quite a few of which were, and continue to be, pinup-style, heroic scale female models. Gen Con was no exception, and there were 10 total new releases, 3 of which are pinups, for people to purchase. The pinups have never been a direct part of the game, but a few have come with the odd promo-card that could be implemented into the game at the players' discretion. Every new release miniature being sold at Gen Con contains at least one promo card, while others include special Hunt Events, Fighting Arts, etc. The pinups themselves still aren't part of the game, the cards are really more of a bonus than anything, but just about every die-hard Kingdom Death fan will probably want to get their hands on at least some of them, as well as the other new releases sooner or later. Adam and Anna Poots, the masterminds behind Kingdom Death, also plan to release these miniatures for sale on their website in the near future, and even mentioned that the cards included in some that had previous releases will be available to purchase separately for people who already purchased them in previous runs.

Of note, the pinups specifically include promo items that aren't necessarily part of the game, while the new releases include craftable armor and cards that hook more directly into the game.

Here's a closer look at 9 of the new releases. (Click each picture to enlarge.)

Allison the Twilight Knight

Allison the Twilight Night is really interesting because it is one of the few kits that comes with a sticker that can be directly added to the rulebook to permanently alter the game. The Blue Lantern looks like a great way to fish for a Trap, as long as your Survivor is insane enough to handle the brain damage hit, while the Cloak is a decent way to ignore the Sentient keyword, but only clueless Survivors will be able to make use of it.

Before the Wall

Before the Wall brings an entirely new armor set to the table that can be completed with either Leather armor pieces, or a combination of Leather armor and the promo cards from both Before the Wall and Beyond the Wall. If you look closely at the ridiculously high armored White Dragon Gauntlets that, currently, cannot be created, you will see a previously unseen keyword. While the Sideswipe mechanic is still in development, and not quite ready for public consumption, Adam gave me a few details about it and it sounds awesome.

Beyond the Wall

Beyond the Wall has seen a previous release as a standalone mini. The gear that comes with it help to complete the alternate set requirements for the Vagabond Armor that comes with Before the Wall, and both pieces can be made after some initial requirements are met from the base game.

Fade

Fade is my personal favorite miniature of the bunch, and the promos she comes with are obtained via a Hunt Event that gets shuffled into the Basic Hunt Events deck. The Sword of Silence prevents a settlement from ever seeing the White Secret and White Speaker Story Events as well, which is intriguing, and make the decision to Grab & Dash more interesting for players who also pick up the White Speaker pinup.

Pinup Order Knight

The Order Knight pinup only comes with a single card, but that card has the Outfit keyword. I was able to get some info from Adam about the Outfit keyword.

Outfit!

You can wear that to complete an armor set that shares material keywords.

The man hunter hat was supposed to have that special rule!

Percival

Percival, like Fade, comes with a Basic Hunt event that can lead Survivors to gaining the included Black Guard Style Secret Fighting Art if the players' settlement has Innovated Pictographs. While I haven't had the chance to put it to use yet, Black Guard Style looks extremely powerful, especially for players who like to use swords.

Pinup Sci-fi White Speaker

The Sci-fi White Speaker pinup follows the trend from last year's Gen Con when Kingdom Death released a Sci-fi version of their Twilight Knight. Both items are promo-items that players can decide to use at their discretion, and both rely on the survivors to power them with their own blood. These items are neat, but don't hook into the game as seamlessly as others.

Pinup Warrior of the Sun

The Warrior of the Sun pinup comes with a promo Prismatic Lantern that is fairly similar to the lantern promos that were released with a few prior pinups. It's another pure promo that players can use at their discretion.

White Speaker

The White Speaker has seen a few previous releases. Her promos are similar to the promos from Allison the Twilight Knight in that they directly alter the rules of the base game and include a sticker to add them permanently to the base game. The items are really cool, but don't appear to be overpowered, and the little bit of extra interactivity during the White Speaker story event is great.

All in all I'm pleased with the promo items, especially those that add things like Hunt events, and stickers that add some additions to the current rules. I like getting the little bonuses as part of my single miniature purchases. What do you all think of the new miniatures and the included promo items?

EDIT: Some verbiage changes were made to this article to more accurately reflect the nature of the new releases.

The miniatures used for this unboxing article were purchased by the author.