Not Bored Gaming - Episode 18 - Kingdom Death: Monster - Review

Join Mark as he takes a very in-depth look at the game Kingdom Death: Monster. This behemoth of a game is at the top of many people's games lists for its immersion and content - however, do the expense, tone and book keeping mean that this is a game to be avoided.

As this is a very lengthy video, the timestamps are:

Contents - 5:33
Rules - 13:06
Gameplay - 22:02
Settlement Phase - 24:23
Hunt Phase - 33:24
Showdown Phase - 37:28
Book-Keeping - 53:34
Final Thoughts - 56:18

Don't forget to LIKE and SUBSCRIBe to Not Bored Gaming for more great content.

[timwanger]

Great video! In my experience you should always wait with your purchase a little while. KDM has this tendency to worm itself into your mind. If you encounter KDM for the first time and you can't stop thinking about it, investigating it, watching videos about it...then it's the right game for you. For me it took about a year and it ended with me getting the core box just last week and already putting aside funds for Black Friday :D

[MWKRider]

I am always happy to say that I was a 1.5 backer for this and have zero regrets. Every time I bring out this game for solo play or with a dedicated group I always have fun and always reminded how much of a great purchase this was. I have spent over 1k in current expansions already and another $800 in future expansions. This really is a game like no other and is more of enthusiast board game then your standard fair. You definitely need to love building and painting miniatures though since that is half the fun in my honest opinion. I love my plastic crack.

[PACEUK]

Still love this vid and come back to it from time to time when I’ve had a break from KDM to get me back in the mood for a game. Will you do a comparison vid with ATO one day?

[bobthebox]

The first story is amazingly done. It only goes over the most important rules and makes sure you know the showdown phase (which is where most of your choices will be centered around) without making you worry about gear and settlement management

[boardgamerants]

Just checked out your final comments. Very cool, knowing this is your favorite game, that you did not just say "get it!". Great points to consider were made. Very respectful, responsible reviewing, IMHO.
And I think if someone is okay with nudity, they would likely not have a problem with this game. There are female AND male parts flying all over the place and no sense of inequality that I could pick up on. It simply adds to the inevitable sense of vulnerability one feels while playing this amazing game. Thanks for bringing this awesome game experience to my attention!

[jamessendy]

I got this off of the original Kickstarter, i ended putting probably close to 75 lantern years into the game with different groups and solo...and then realised that the only part of the game i actually enjoyed was the Settlement Phase.

I loved the settlement phase, loved all of the option it gave you. Loved the feeling when you had great little stories that popped up with the different events or the set story events. Plus prepping the hunting party, i loved puzzling out the item grid trying to make the best out of what was available

But i realised that i absolutely hated the generally unmitagatable randomness of the the hunt phase and didn't find many of the hunt events that interesting, and was disappointed they were in a book rather than cards where the hunt table could have been modified which would have made the whole thing far more interesting.

Then while i liked some of the innovation of the showdown phase, i hated how long the level 2 and 3 ones were and how boring the level 1 ones became (at the start of multiple campaigns)
The brutality of them was something i enjoyed but really hated how drawn out they could become.

Then came the campaign restarts and while you talk about needing to work out a strategy to make the early game tolerable without being too hard, i found this got really dull, but you were punished too hard if you deviated too much from getting specific things early (not going to spoil what for those who haven't played yet)

While i like some of the mini designs the base box unfortunately has the issue of being put together from a range of existing minis and the reason they are all included in a cohesive story wrapped around them instead of being designed to be together (which granted some of the in progress stuff is for sure rectifying)

I also hated the engineering of the bulk of the armour sets (but i sold most of them off so made a bunch of money back on them alone)

I did have great fun painting a lot of it though.

In the end i would make excuses not to pull it off the shelf so ended up selling it (and coming out well ahead of what i actually paid)

But i can't complain about getting so much game out of it, but between Kingdom Death and Gloomhaven they really showed me what i don't like in big campaign games and what to look out for when looking for new ones (pretty much i hated how repetative i found both of them)

Any in conclusion to my Thesis, great video review mate, but thought i would chuck up what is bound to be a fairly lonely negative review (that isn't turned off by the art or the miniature hobby part of Kingdom Death but rather the gameplay issues that i had)

[tombiby]

I like how your brightly colored card grids and survivor bases lighten the dour mood a bit :-)

[ginovilleneuve]

Thanks for the video, exactly what i was looking for as a review

[stu]

Thanks for the great review ! I sold kdm in the past because of the book keeping part - the addition of the app would make such a difference ... I might need to spend money ... Again ...

[marktattersall]

Great work, Mr Dainty. This deserves to move from BGG latest video to hot review, to replace the SUSD travesty.

[lapisverderossi]

My favorite game ever. I'm at the eighth campaign (People of the Stars, lantern year 18).

[dilatedbeholder]

This might sound silly. I'm finally getting the urge to jump on the KDM band wagon, however I unfortunately know how the story ends and what the final encounter is. Is the experience still worth the purchase?

[nickmayne]

Great review mate, I love the game but it’s a nasty nasty hard & unforgiving game be prepared for pure rage & despair after losing everything many times maybe not a happy game for a pandemic 💀

[Amalga_Heart]

This game always looks amazing, but.... yeah, its' a tough buy. Trying to assemble the minis would drive me to madness. Heck, I've only got one thing so far that required any assembly, which was a mega-boss for Dark Souls, and that's only 3 large pieces, but it still was super irritating and it comes apart sometimes. Yeah, the thing looks just amazing during gameplay, but still frustrating. I'll never understand how people get into building stuff like that on a more complicated scale.
Though also it's hard to make a $400 board game sound like a logical purchase. Normally I dont really care about cost at all. When I buy games that have expansions, I tend to just buy everything at once, because I bloody well can. But $400 for JUST the main box? Even I cant reason that one out. And it's probably mostly because of the minis. I love board games, but sometimes minis just seem kinda... unnecessary. Yeah, they look amazing, but you could replace them with small pictures of poodles and it's not like the actual gameplay would really change much.

Well, all that and also it's just tougher to acquire stuff during this accursed pandemic.

Still, it really does look just superb. I think I'd probably love it. Ugh. With my absolute lack of self control, I'm probably going to end up with a copy of this sooner or later. And then I'd get frustrated at the minis and try to staple them together or something silly like that.

[liesureleeminis]

Commenting here so I can come back to this. Kingdom death is a game I drool over, but can't afford. Gonna try to get it next black friday.

I'm dying to put the minis together.

[kevindorn]

Boardgames are totally underrated as prepping items. If the grid goes down and electricity is gone whatayagonnaplay then? Gamers will need their fix.

[OrlandoGameRoom]

I agree with your take on the hypersexuality, but I think "misogyny" is the wrong word. However, I can definitely see how those who look at the game and know nothing about it would assume so. I know I did! The hypersexuality focuses on men and women pretty equally (for every set of large breasts, you'll find a penis flopping around somewhere). There's no targeting on women, and in fact the gameplay tends to favor women. Many of the game's most powerful characters are women, there tends to be something of a matriarchal theme in a lot of the events and lore. It's also interesting to note that for all the violence, sexuality, body horror, etc, Poots has stated there is no rape in KDM. But I get it; like I said, from the outside looking in, KDM looks like a misogynistic game. It was a big concern of mine until I started playing, and went "Well damn, they flipped the script on me! Awesome!"



I'd also point out that as far as the in-game content goes (i.e. not the pinups and extraneous sculpts), the majority of the sexuality in the game is not AT ALL portrayed as titillating. It's not meant to be sexy, it's body horror. It's meant to be twisted and horrific, taking these body parts made for life and creation and twisting them into something perverse and terrifying. Every monster in KDM was once a survivor (or survivors) that was warped by the world, and that's what they became.

[TheHexyBeast]

i think hand spans should be the new standard for measuring game boxes lol the game really reminds me of the monster hunter video games and really like the gear system... but its soo big! one day Jonny...one day. Great video mark

[markalexandermaron]

How many characters to control do you recommend for solo gaming?

[maxnix]

Great review. This made me want and not want Kingdom Death Monster :D
I think I will keep an eye out for this game and think about it, when it is on sale