FenPaints posts
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Revisiting Constructing a Kingdom Death: Monster Campaign: Part 3 The Small Content Expansions
Here we will comb through the final category of content; the small/white/beta/seasonal/misc boxes that contain gameplay content with in game integration rules. There are a lot of different kinds of shop purchased content and while they come in a wide range of styles they all have one thing in common. They offer a small...
The Last Standee Pocast Discusses Monster Hunter World
I do not often cross promote between this project and The Last Standee; mostly because it is the place where I get to talk about/review games outside of the world of Boss Battlers and I am never sure how much people enjoy content outside of that remit. However, once I played Monster Hunter World: The Board Game I asked...
Vitanvox Beta Content Review
Vitanvox was raised among the children of the Silence Nursery. Their caregivers wordless smiles are sewn into their faces, their lips sealed tight. The children of the nursery have a specialized diet of Banshee Viper tongues and denatured venom that manifests curious effects in adulthood.Vitanvox was the March 2023 bet...
Skrelle Whitebox Review
Skrelle's earliest memories are blurred by tears provoked by the lush, sulfurous stench that entered her settlement as she slept. She often wonders if the rippling shape stooped over her in the darkness was a dream. It left the vivid impression of desperate striving, life bursting from the barren soil. Now she chas...
Revisiting Constructing a Kingdom Death: Monster Campaign: Part 2 Nemeses
This wonderful image really sells the entire theme and memes of the Manhunter. Zeen Chin's work really IS the heart of Kingdom Deaths's aesthetics.Nemesis MonstersNemesis Monsters are fundamentally different from Quarry Monsters in that if you add them to a campaign they are going to interact with you. They cho...
Revisiting Constructing a Kingdom Death: Monster Campaign: Part 1 Quarries
It's been a while since I went through all of the steps that involve constructing a satisfying and engaging campaign in Monster and with the possibility of the Gambler's Chest Expansion (GCE) maybe arriving this year and the sheer volume of additional mini-expansions released through the store it seems that thi...
A Visual Guide to Monster Resource Farming
Farming in Kingdom Death: Monster (KDM) is a play style where the goal is to squeeze the maximum amount of resources out of a monster as possible. This style is used against quarry monsters; not nemesis ones, and is most commonly employed against the early game monsters of the White Lion, the Screaming Antelope and the...
Origin Stories - Marvel Champions: Core Set Review
Marvel has been a franchise juggernaut for nearly a decade and a half at this point. Since Jon Favreau brought Robert Downey Jr's portrayal of Tony Stark to the big screen there hasn't been a year without Marvel heroes and villains battling it out for a popcorn stuffed audience. The quality of these movies has ...
Aeon Trespass: Odyssey - Box Organizer by Fancy But Functional: A Pictorial Review
Disclaimer: I reached out to Fancy But Functional about their products with intention to purchase and review this insert. Gyuri and his business partner then sent me this insert, plus inserts for Darkest Dungeon. They did not require this review in exchange, nor did they pay or sponsor me in any way outside of sending ...
A Visual Guide to the Screaming Antelope (1.6 Edition)
As a supplement what follows is an overview of the decisions made behind the visual guide components included. I've not added a visual guide to the showdown fight against the Screaming Antelope here because I will probably do a visual guide based around farming it for as many resources as possible in the future; in...
Lunar Twilight Knight Review
The Lunar Twilight Knight was one of two game content items which dropped into the store recently. Both of these follow the trend of packaging a small miniature and a “Painters Scale” one in the same box along with some game content. The Lunar Knight in particular is a very egregious example of this ethos with the ...
Death Crown Inheritor Aya Review
DCI Aya is the latest incarnation of the Aya “clone” from the wordless cartoon in back of the rulebook. Her story has been flirting for a long time with the concept of the thirteen Death Crowns (more Christian references) and in this set not only do we get new game content, but we also get to see one of these Death...
Aeon Trespass: Odyssey: The Hekaton Initial Deep Dive
It is time for us to start our exploration of Aeon Trespass: Odyssey (ATO) and we shall begin with a look at each of the Primordials from the game's first cycle. These four creatures are the antagonists of the first cycle and each of them is based deeply from Greek mythology. So we will start by taking a look at th...
Hellebore – A Frozen Survivor Beta Content Review
Hellebore’s ancestors descended the thin atmospheres of their settlement to launch their papery boats into the frozen seas. Shivering, they navigate the ice floes in search of the floating nests of the lantern flame gull. Each generation harvested a single silver down feather from the shaggy chicks slumbering in nest...
The Darkest Cardboard: A Review of Darkest Dungeon
“Ruin has come to our family...You remember our venerable house, opulent and imperial, gazing proudly from its stoic perch above the moor?I lived all my years in that ancient, rumor-shadowed manor, fattened by decadence and luxury, and yet I began to tire of conventional extravagance.Singular, unsettling tales sugges...
A Primer on Deck Scouting and Manipulation
For a fair while now I have been wanting to visit this portion of gameplay in extensive detail; but I have been putting it to one side due to the hope that we'll get the GCE shipping announcement. However, one cannot wait forever so I am going to simply pull the trigger on getting the first iteration of this out be...
Novice Beta and Elgnirk Content Reviews
As both of these two Holiday releases are relatively light on content I will review them together here. Normally I would consider splitting them up, but given the nature of these two I'll just keep them on one page.ElgnirkElgurk is unusual in that this content is designed to be used exclusively around the Holiday S...
Campaign Perk Valentine's Day Reminder
Just a quick PSA to remind you that each year this electronic promotional perk becomes an active bonus! Have a good week, catch you on Friday and we'll see what the inevitable Sale brings later today!
Introducing Kingdom Death to New or Casual Gamers
Recently I had a short discussion on the subject of what promotional material would be good for a newer or more casual group in order to make their play experience more fun and engaging. While I thought about this it kind of spiralled in size (this happens EVERY TIME, I can't even review a game without it turning i...
Action Economy in Kingdom Death Part 2: The Hunt, Showdown and Gear Grids
We're continuing on last week's article around the concept of action economy with a brief look at the hunt phase, an in depth trawl through the showdown phase and then a discussion on Gear Grid efficiency and concepts. You can access the previous article through this link here.The Hunt PhaseA brief note on the ...
Gear Tableau Building & Slot Efficiency
Gear Grids are one of the best (mostly) original mechanics in Kingdom Death; they provide a tableau building puzzle that you get to construct before going on each hunt. If I am honest; I think gear grids are the single best mechanic in Kingdom Death and the only negative surrounding them is how Armor takes up 5 of 9 sl...
Action Economy in Kingdom Death Part 1: Introduction to principles and Settlement Phase
Today we're going to go into a little bit of board game theory with a look at the concept of action economy; we'll start with an examination of the concept in general terms, before looking at some great examples from various board and card games and then finally we'll get into the specifics of how this appl...
Boss Battlers: Quick Reviews
As the genre of Boss Battler continues to grow and grow, both in the more heavy Miniature versions and the lighter card based ones I've wanted to take a little time and provide some light reviews of the various different ones I have played apart from Kingdom Death. So enjoy this bonus content! (Or not, it's up ...
White Box Buyer's Guide Part 2 – The Non-Seasonal Content
For the first part of this guide; see this link. This second part covers the boxes that come into stock on the shop in a more sporadic and non-seasonal manner. Again no Beta content or content without in game crafting/gaining rules will not be covered.The structure of this review is a couple of paragraphs detailing wha...
White Box Buyers Guide: Part 1 Seasonal Content
I had a request for an updated guide into the various extra pieces of content that have been released over the years, this content provides a wide range of different options for players to rebalance and alter their play experience from one campaign to the next. The intention of this updated guide is to give discerning ...
2023 Content Poll
No post this week as I'm taking a break for a week due to the holiday season (I write posts one to two weeks in advance, so this is actually written the week of New Years). Normal service resumes next week, this break helps me start to get a handle on Aeon Trespass: Odyssey and also consider what topics are next to...
Out with the Old; in with the New: A 2022 Retrospective
2022 has proven to be a very busy year for APG; with 14 releases (plus the Simulator) that had game content, while the exact quality of the content varied from being great all the way down to actively bad for the game's health it overall trended towards positive and I wanted to take a quick retrospective look at ea...
GameGenic Matt 53x53 Square Sleeves review.
In recent times I had the opportunity to try out GameGenic sleeves for our Arkham Horror and Marvel Champions decks and after using them I decided to get a few of them and see how good a fit the 53x53mm square sleeves are for gear cards.Kingdom Death gear cards are 51x51mm, which is an aesthetically pleasing size, but ...
Screaming Oni Armor Review
Lucy wears the Screaming Oni hybrid armor that transforms the reckless abandon of the screaming armor into a precise tool for maiming monsters.As we all know, hybrid armor sets that repurpose existing gear cards and turn them into something with a new function are one of the most exciting parts of content that can be r...
White Sunlion Armor Full Release Review
Erza of the Sun wears modified armor adapted to the scorching conditions created by living under the sleeping sun. This White Sunlion hybrid armor is added to People of the Sun campaigns. It grants the wearer more movement, less armor, and the ability to ignore the extreme heat that prevents survivors from wearing heav...
