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Kingdom Death Review – Guinevere
🕑 Added 2024-10-18 09:00:09 +0000 UTC
Guinevere was born on the day of the lantern eclipse, as the darkness closed in on the settlement, her cries pierced the darkness. A warning to the lurking threats beyond.
In her youth they wondered if she was a coward. She demurred when the hunters gathered to depart. When the monsters appeared at the settlement's edge, she showed her mettle.
This time we get a French inspired survivor with Guinevere, named after a character from the French version of the Arthurian Legends (so like Lancelot she's not cannon as far as I'm concerned, yes that's right I am going to be grumpy about the French fan fiction that people think Arthurian legends are once again, you guys have The Three Musketeers, get your fingers out of our Welsh stories!) However, I am absolutely behind the in universe character that this Guinevere represents. That's a sweet little blurb and lets see if the model sculpt backs it up.
The Miniature
I really love this miniature so, so much. Guinevere is an unarmored survivor with a Zanbato. That's a pretty cool little sculpt concept in itself (I've used it before in game more than once) and I like how practical her outfit is in addition to her looking like a badass. This is a model I have use for to represent multiple different types of survivors and that is the full package of everything I want from a miniature. Crystal Skin, Leyline Walker, Marrowism, Impermism (Unbreakable Zanbato) and simply unarmored with a Zanbato, this model covers a spot in my games that I haven't had a miniature for before. That's all I could ask for in a miniature and I have nothing further on that subject apart from it being great.
The Gameplay
This box contains one single character card, an ability that works only during nemesis showdowns. Now I am a player who runs a specialist “Nemesis Team” in my settlements anyway, so this is a character card that I would use in those teams. What you get is +1 Luck Token; that's a decent bonus as most nemesis monsters are vulnerable to Critical Wounds. Of course, The Butcher has no such weakness so in campaigns where we have The Butcher over The Manhunter this character card is a fair bit weaker.
Overall this is a decent enough character card, it's always a lot easier to put abilities and impairments into the deck. However we are in a world of diminishing returns for these cards. If not well managed/designed then each new one either pushes out an old one or isn't good enough to include. What we need is situational cards and The Challenger fits this bit because it is designed to work against Nemesis monsters with critical wounds. As such I would keep this out of the deck, if I had the Butcher, but with the Manhunter instead at Node 1 I'll put it in because that's +4 total nemesis showdowns where luck matters. Fortunately The Manhunter is on par with The Butcher for overall campaign experience, so that is a situation which can come up for entrenched players.
Summary
This is a not the best value if you are in it for just the game content. A situational character card is not the space in the game we players really need to expand on further, if this came with some additional card like maybe a pattern based alternative Zanbato that rewarded you for not wearing armor then we'd be in a good spot. But instead this is a really stingy box on that front, giving not only a single card, but also a card that you might not even use in every campaign. So I can't really recommend this one on the basis of its gameplay content, there's not a lot here due to how situational this one is and instead this would have been better served as being part of a larger box release.
Not much more to say really, if you like the mini and fight the Manhunter often, this is a sedate and fine enough release, it's just a bit overpriced for what you get in the box.
Comments
Fen
Guinevere is Norman French form of the Welsh name Gwenhwyfar. As the character people know of (the one who lusts after Lancelot and brings down Camelot) she was introduced in the French Romance stories from the Middle Ages. That's not the same character as the original Welsh tales. Lancelot is likewise a character I have no time for. Also don't get me started on Geoffrey of Monmouth who really just span up his own fan fiction versions of the original Welsh tales. He's a huge wart on the whole thing and can get stuffed.
Evil Midnight Lurker
...the earliest dateable appearance of Guinevere is in the Welsh Geoffrey of Monmouth's works. Gwenhwyfar is a Welsh name. Where are you getting France from?
