Kingdom Death: Monster - Boxed Game Review

Let me tell you a bit about Kingdom Death: Monster and why it is worth every penny of the asking price (especially if you can nab it at the pre-order values).

I stumbled onto Kingdom Death: Monster (KDM for short) a couple of years ago by way of the Relic Knights Kickstarter (and it's corresponding crossover model). I was vaguely aware of the Kingdom Death miniatures line (mostly from randomly seeing them pop up in painting galleries) but I didn't know much about the inspiration behind the models.

Truth be told, I was initially skeptical about what kind of product KDM would be. The Kingdom Death line had some fantastic miniatures in it and while some of them were disturbing in ways I can get behind, models like the Wet Nurse made me a little suspicious of the brand. KDM also wasn't helping its case with the prolific number of pin-up models it was advertising, and being endorsed by the guys behind Relic Knights (which includes its fair share of questionably designed models) wasn't exactly a positive note for me.

But the more I read about KDM, the more I was brought on board. Adam Poots (creator) was trying to evolve his line from a boutique line of miniatures to a full fledged board game. The game advertised being equal parts intense monster fights and base building, all in a world that captured the "desperate survival horror" feel of something like Berserk. The more I learned about the game, the more excited I became, until I eventually decided to roll the dice and back the Kickstarter, opting for the base game and some choice extra models.

First and foremost was this one.

It has been a very, very long wait for KDM. Over 2 years, I think? Its been long enough that I legitimately don't remember when the original delivery date was supposed to be. But it was damn sure worth the wait. My box 'o death showed up a week or so ago, and I wanted to share my impressions of the product after finally having time to sit down and absorb everything that is in the box set.

The Box:
First things first: this is a massive game. Literally, and figuratively; the core game comes with a ton of content, and that content is heavy. Official listings online peg it at 17 lbs., coming in a (very nice looking) heavy box that measures 24 in. x 12.5 in. x 4.5 in. - that's 1,350 cubic inches of death!

Kingdom Death: Monster Box

The Miniatures:
The very first thing that you are greeted with upon opening the KDM box is...a slightly smaller box.

Kingdom Death: Monster - Miniatures Box

Opening that box reveals a bag containing enough plastic models to keep me busy with assembly for a very long time.

Kingdom Death: Monster - Miniatures Bag, Front View

This massive plastic bag contains all of the miniatures for KDM, and there are a lot of them. Although the game "only" ships with 7 monsters, those models are very large and detailed (the Phoenix is large enough to be comparable to a Warmachine Battle Engine, and may actually be closer to a Colossal/Gargantuan in total size). The rest of the sprues are for the various types of equipment your survivors can equip over the course of the game (plus some bonus aesthetic things like masks and variant heads), giving you a dizzying amount of options and variety.

Kingdom Death: Monster - Miniatures Bag, Rear View

I've only worked with the Prologue models so far - the White Lion and the 4 basic Survivors - but what I have seen so far has been impressive. The plastic pieces are expertly cast; there has been almost no flash to speak of (and what I've found has been very minor) and the mold lines on the pieces are very easy to clean. In some places, the mold lines are so minute that I think the model would honestly be fine with no cleaning at all.

Assembly is very easy, as one would hope with plastic models. The models seemed to be designed in ways that promote joins with lots of surface-to-surface contact, making even seemingly tricky joins pretty painless. The models mostly go together without significant gaps, though I do have some on the Prologue models that could use a bit of putty here and there (nothing major, and it is places I would have expected some gaping).

Overall, I am beyond impressed with the miniatures portion of this boxed set. The sheer amount of models and parts you get is staggering, and it will be an absolute paradise for anyone that loves to kitbash.

It is worth bearing in mind that the models alone almost justify the price of the box set. You get 6 "large" monster models, one "huge" monster model, and 34 "small" survivor models (with lots and lots of bits). Even going off of Malifaux prices for models of comparable size (which is underselling it, as the KDM models are larger in scale) you're looking at easily over $400 if you were able to go out and buy all these models separately. Its a killer deal for such a large set of models, and you get a board game to go with it!

Speaking of that...

The Gaming Supplies:
Digging further down through the layers reveals all of the supplies this set comes with to use during the game and, much like the miniatures, it is a lot to take in.

Kingdom Death Monster - First Layer of Gaming Supplies

The first thing you find are game play aides: folding place mats for use during the various game phases (some of which are very cleverly dual purpose), a sheet of very nice looking, heavy cardboard tokens, and a sheet of (also very nice looking) heavy cardboard terrain tiles (used during the various monster fights).

Kingdom Death Monster - Token Set and Terrain Tiles

Just below those items (and forming the barrier between the "gaming aides" layer and the "storage" layer) is the folding game board, which is used during the monster encounters:

Kingdom Death Monster - Folding Game Board

The board itself is made from high quality cardboard and is decorated with a pretty awesome background design (especially considering its just window dressing; the game easily could have just shipped with a big 'ol empty grid). I have some concerns about how easily it will be to see the grid during play (particularly around the darker edges), but I won't know how much of an issue that is (if it is an issue at all) until we actually play the game and see combat in action.

Once you lift up the game board, you reach the heart of the game: the collection of cards and record sheets that drive the game, the storage compartments that will help you keep it all straight, super swanky Kingdom Death: Monster dice, and of course, the rulebook.

Kingdom Death Monster - Storage Section

I haven't cracked the plastic on any of the card sets yet; I'm reticent to do so before I really know where the hell everything is supposed to go. But just looking at the them, they continue the high standard of production and utility that is found elsewhere in the project: crisp, clean printing, sturdy construction, and a general eye towards usability.

Kingdom Death Monster - Gaming Supplies

The game gives players a few very helpful tools to track their progress. Each survivor gets a tracker sheet - very similar to a D&D character sheet, just significantly streamlined - and these sheets do an excellent job of collecting all of the relevant information you would want to have handy. KDM isn't a role playing game, but it shares similar character building systems with a pen-and-paper RPG. Having a poor stat sheet for tracking all the information you need to track would have been a huge negative; thankfully that doesn't appear to be the case at all.

In addition to the character sheets, each survivor also gets a gear grid which is used to manage the equipment they carry. Gearing your characters in KDM seems to be as much of a mini-game as the game itself: not only is the equipment itself important, but the position of that equipment and its affinity relative to other equipment can give you bonuses. That adds an interesting extra wrinkle to managing gear and seems like it could be a lot of fun (can't say for sure until we play, of course).

The gear grid also provides each player with my favorite thing in the world: a quick reference to common rules. This is one of those things that is invaluable at first, but becomes less and less useful as you continue to play and those basic rules become ingrained. Even so, it is a godsend early on; the less time you all have to spend looking things up in rulebooks, the more you can actually play the game! Putting commonly needed rules on a core gaming aide is something I always appreciate.

Finally, each game of KDM includes a settlement that the survivors are trying to build up. As one would expect, that involves a lot of bookkeeping (especially across multiple play sessions) so you want a good way to keep track of everything that has gone in your settlement. The settlement recording sheets that come with KDM seem to be very thorough in that regard. It has spots for just about everything I can see you wanting to record, and (very helpfully) plenty of open spaces to write in new things from the various expansions - the Kickstarter ended up funding around 8 different expansion options which should be available in due time.

Lastly, there are the rulebook and the dice:

Kingdom Death: Monster - Rulebook and Dice Closeup

The dice are a really nice extra touch. KDM uses d10s to resolve all the rolls in the game and I don't think it is unfair to say that most people buying this product will have at least a few of those dice available already. Moreover, just any 'ol d10s would do for this game.

But that wasn't good enough for KDM, and so you (the buyer) gets a custom set of d10s - four black and one white (I'm assuming the dual colors are to make it easier to roll 2d10 for the few required d100 rolls). The dice themselves seem to be quality dice (I've seen my share of good and cheap dice in my time) and they replace the '0' on each die with a lantern; the iconic symbol of KDM. This makes the dice pretty damn cool looking.

What impresses me the most about the dice set are the hit location dice that come with the set (used to determine where the survivors are struck whenever they are successfully attacked by a monster). There isn't anything technically special about them: they are simple d6s. It would have been way easier (and almost certainly cheaper in terms of R&D and production) to just include some regular 'ol d6s and provide the player with a quick reference chart (probably on the gear grid) as to which number corresponded to which body part.

But, again, that wasn't good enough for KDM. Why force your players to have to look up conversions of numbers-to-body-locations when you can just give them a pretty slick looking set of dice that already have those locations printed on them?

Its a very small thing, but its something I appreciate a lot. Plus, who doesn't love getting more dice?

The Rulebook:
I've seen a great many rulebooks in my time, and KDM's rulebook ranks right up there near the top of the list.

Kingdom Death: Monster - Rulebook

Part of that is presentation: unlike a lot of other gaming rulebooks, the KDM rulebook is equal parts art book and rules reference. The book is closer in style and presentation to an art book - high quality printing on high quality paper, wide portrait layout - and it does contain a great many pieces of excellent art. What is sort of nice is that, while the book makes use of full art pages, it doesn't ever feel like it is using any of them for filler (give or take the comic at the end of the book). That leads to a rulebook that is substantial, but also feels lean and focused.

Kingdom Death: Monster - Rulebook

The rules themselves seem pretty good. Its hard for me to say how well they'll hold up once we actually start playing the game - I've read plenty of rule sets that sounded great on paper but either didn't work well in game or ended up being a drag to actually play - but at the very least the rules seem very mechanically sound and well tested.

Kingdom Death: Monster - Rulebook

That last point is an important one. So many people have great game ideas, but those ideas don't always successfully make the transition to a working rule set. Most of the time that failing happens in the mechanical bits of the rules. Flavor is very easy to translate; trying to come up with robust yet streamlined rules that maintain that flavor (while still being fun to actually play with) is much harder.

Kingdom Death: Monster - Rulebook

KDM resolves that gulf by abstracting a lot of things: instead of trying to come up with a complex set of rules to cover different situations (which is what some games try to do) all of those situations are found on random roll tables and/or cards that are flipped during combat. Giving those rules their own space allows them to be much more thoroughly explained and detailed, and it also allows the core rules of the game to stay very lean and straightforward. The end result is a game that is easy to pick up and play (and teach others) that still has plenty of room for depth and surprise (or at least it seems to be so; we haven't played it yet to find out).

Kingdom Death: Monster - Rulebook

Special mention also needs to be given to the artwork found throughout the book (and all of the game aides). Although there are some deviations from the art style - including an extremely anime-styled piece that sticks out like a sore thumb - the art has a consistent quality (high) and tone (mostly grim as hell). The rulebook to KDM is one of those books that is almost worth owning just to look at; so much of the artwork is remarkable and unlike almost anything else you find in Western "fantasy" products.

I also have a real soft spot for the bits of artwork that are sprinkled throughout the core rules section. Many of these illustrations add another layer of understanding to the rules by literally demonstrating what some game concepts would look like as they play out, which is helpful for learning and entertaining besides. My absolute favorite works of art are the goofy/cute bits that you find periodically in the rules section. They are very similar to the hit location dice: absolutely unnecessary but undeniably charming and endearing, and another example of how much love and dedication was poured into the product.

The Verdict:

I've already tipped my hand as to how I feel about this, but it is worth asking (then answering) the key question: is Kingdom Death: Monster worth the asking price?

Two points of disclosure:

1) I haven't played the board game yet, at all. I feel like the game is solid (and the buzz from other backers who have played the game has been pretty positive), but I can't say for sure one way or the other until we play it. And,

2) I did not pay anywhere near the retail price for this product. Although it has been a very long wait, the Kickstarter for this game has also ended up being one of the highest returns on investment I've made into a Kickstarter: the final retail cost of the game ended up being four times what I paid into the Kickstarter (I was expecting double, maybe 2.5).

With those points out of the way, I can say with absolute confidence that this box is worth every penny of $400USD, and then some. The quality of the product contained within is undeniable and you get an absolute ton of stuff for that investment.

However, I think it is important to note that KDM isn't a product for everyone.

A big draw of this box (and probably not an inconsiderable portion of the cost) are the miniatures that it comes with. For anyone interested in getting a ton of great minis (either for this game or use in other games/settings), the KDM box is worth it for that alone. 

Gamers that are more looking for a board game will probably still find a high quality product here (and the miniatures aren't strictly required to play), but you lose a lot of value from the box if you aren't also interested in the miniature hobbying side of it.

KDM also has a thematic tone that isn't going to be for everyone. The setting and the game itself are grim and brutal. This comes through in the rules - the survivors are fragile and prone to horrible deaths - and the artwork - much more jarring if you have anyone that may be squeamish to that sort of stuff.

KDM doesn't revel in any of its darker aspects (or really push them as a marketing point); more that it does not blink when it comes time to convey some dark and grimy stuff. Some players are going to be okay with that kind of setting and tone, while others will be turned off by it.

KDM caters to a fairly niche audience - miniature enthusiasts that also enjoy boardgaming and Berserk - but if it strikes your fancy, there honestly isn't anything else like it out there. It is an unquestionably high quality product that gives you an unbelievable amount of content and product, somehow going above and beyond its (relatively high) price point.

I seriously cannot recommend it strongly enough. Hopefully the previous 3,000 or so words are enough to convey that, yes, KDM is worth your time and money. Infinitely so.

I've managed to assemble the prologue models, so I'll be back with a quick write-up of how those went together and how they look. My group will hopefully be able to start playing KDM in the next month or so, and I'll absolutely be back to share gameplay impressions once we get the chance to play it.

Until then, thanks very much for reading!