@@Quackalope I hate to poke the duck (bear), but has the giveaway winner been revealed yet? I can't seem to find it in this comment section or on Discord
I recently bought KDM after watching your playthroughs and this comparison has just convinced me that i need this in my life too! I would love to have something like a corrupted lion knight added as a homage. For a weird addition. A phoenix knight as an evolution to the eggknight
Thank you so much for your timely in-depth preview videos and that awesome comparison to the established ancient monster that is KDM. I am currently also very much looking forward to the studio's current game Aeon Trespass: Odyssey. Maybe you can also add some comparison to that in the future? As far as weird abominations are concerned: I would be thrilled to see some kind of oozing slime monster that can split up into separate minis and re-form stronger, be very resistant against physical damage (or at least some piercing / slashing weapon types) and yield resources for potion making.
What about a shroomknight? A knight with mushrooms growing on it that can spore off and creat more little enemies or that could infect the player and partially take control of movements or attacks.
Thanks for the video both. I think it sums up the play through experience you had quite well. Not for the sake of the competition but just for joining in: I think I quite like the idea of a "Splinter Knight". Humanoid and cursed, Made from dry broken wood and constantly howling in pain from the constant breaking and splintering. Maybe work into the clash the fact that the more it moves or makes big attacks the more pain it causes itself. Could be some clever mechanics around trying to keep it from moving so it doesn't escalate as the more pain it is in the more brutal it becomes (works with the inverted combat paradigm too). Can imagine this wooden creature in armour slowly moving around until the Knights find it and it becomes this brutal whirlwind of pain fueled death hating the Knights and the world for causing it this pain... Or just like a Bacon knight or something maybe Egg's cousin seeking revenge (not really).
Your honesty and directness, coupled with your passion and enthusiasm, is absolutely why I subscribed to your channel long ago, and follow many of your videos. Thank you.
Thanks for giving an honest opinion of the prototype. This looks like it has a lot of promise, but still needs a lot of work. Here is hoping that they put out a demo of an earlier encounter instead of jumping in "mid campaign" with lots of extra rules. My vote is for a moth creature!
Kingdom Forlorn Base Pledge Giveaway Entry Idea (Liking was already done when I clicked o the video, been subscribed for a long time love the channel): Fire Chicken Knight Lore: Sir Cinimod Fawkes was once known as the most handsome knight in the realm and...his odd adoration of chickens. It is said his looks attracted the attention of a maiden who simply admired the handsomeness of the knight for too long in her spouses eyes. Sir Fawkes was quickly punish for an innocent crime he did not commit. His punishment? his flock of chickens where slaughtered and his looks would be forever removed... He was Tarred and Feathered with the still blood soaked feathers of his own chickens. Not wanting to bare going on with life Sir Fawkes tried to end it by burning himself grabbing one of the torches from the guards who where using it to put the burning Tar on him during the public humiliation. It is said the crowd saw the man turn into a human Phoenix burning with fire with feathers and all...but it quickly turned into laughter and death was not going to be here for Sir Fawkes. Some within the crowd threw various things at the knight to dowse the flames.....He was forever known hence afterwards as the Fire Chicken Knight a vengeful knight who did not bother to hide his dis-figuration and openly showed what his body had transformed into.
Twin Dragons of One Body; Perhaps something like two dragon minis where one is its animated skeleton, the other is its shambling and writhing body (lacking a skeleton) (Heck, I’d be ok if it didn’t have to be a dragon)
I would love to see a ham knight so we could get some sort of eggs and ham pun in there. I’m picturing a grotesque pig bulging out of armor. There could also be something worked in around the fact that pigs will eat anything.
Great video! As a KDM enjoyer, this was actually pretty helpful. What sold me on this one was actually AT:O’s updates. The game looks very different and has had positive changes from when they first showed it off, so I’m hopeful and optimistic that that KF will be the same way. Plus, they have a good refund policy so I can always change my mind if I’m not seeing enough positive change implemented.
I'd like a grotesque Loot Jester as a rare event hunt. His costume would be exaggeratedly puffed-up and he constantly flees from the characters on the board; whenever he is struck it causes a tear and either above-average quantities of crafting materials/items fall out which can be collected at the end of the battle or swarms of nightmare insects/minions spawn from them. Maybe he tosses traps around as he runs. Can end the battle at any time to collect the loot and retreat from the boss. Drops and spawns improve as the battle wears on and culminates in the jester revealed to be a rampaging centipede-like abomination that wrecks characters. Could be a very low occurrence rate to make it a meaningful, neat little lucky encounter with some risk vs reward at play.
As a curiosity, how does the critique of the battles escalating too quickly, and both enemies and allies dying quickly, get adjusted in light of the notable misplay when it came to misuse of the armor die (and overflow die mechanic) for dealing wounds, and for avoiding damage. Well, and unfortunately ignoring all Mortis cards aside from the Judicium cards when getting Humpty Charged. While it certainly made for a faster video, correcting either of those would have made both the enemies and allies last longer, and also greater exemplify the "hard co-op" aspect of the intended game play. For what it's worth, I see a lot of valid critiques, and if the game play elements were not made sufficiently clear, then I agree that onus lies of the developers, and providing a prototype which garners an appropriate response to what is included therein. It's a shame you haven't tried Aeon Trespass: Odyssey on Tabletop Simulator, though, even if I understand why you might not have done so. While there are some differences (refreshing Heat, and the hand of cards in particular), the general combat mechanics are roughly similar enough, I think it would have provided an excellent framework with which to understand the rules for Kingdoms Forlorn. It probably would have saved many hours of the confusion you expressed in interpreting the rules, as well. Almost certainly more than the time would have been saved than it would have taken to play a battle or two against a Primordial. I do agree with your sentiment that Kingdoms Forlorn will likely be a more enjoyable experience with a larger play group than some other campaign games might be with their often more interchangeably generic characters. Aeon Trespass: Odyssey, for example, is about the journey of the Argo, and it's crew. Which will have their own personal bonuses they accrue, but not personal stories in remotely the same vein as Kingdoms Forlorn. The very unique aspects of the individual characters in Kingdoms Forlorn will naturally lend themselves to an increased investment of the players in their particular characters and the game in general. Particularly for people that might enjoy the dramatization and pseudo-roleplay aspect of it all. It's also easier to have a more interesting interplay of occasionally conflicting goals when controlled by different players. It will certainly be interesting to see how they intend to scale the game for 1 to 4 players, and how that will interact with the Delve and Clash phases.
I think it adds to the Co-op value while not changing my opinion of the fights and how they will / should escalate in the final game. KDM still does the long boss battles and core AI better - this does interesting Co-op, Storytelling, and allows you to fight multiple battles in a single session. Look at the Power track - every time we attack we go up a total of 6 levels. If you survive to 4-6 you are either about to die or doing damage with each hit. We were off by a few steps and that made us off by a few rounds of activation each - not by a full 60min cycle or more. I am looking forward to this game and to AT:O - with the caveat that this prototype and the way it was shared did absolutely make the process hard. AT:O back in the day had the same issue according to the reviewers who cover it - they are both ambitious and massive projects!
Our experience was shorter than it should have been. But even playing with the correct rules, the overall experience would still be shorter than a normal KDM session. KF has 5-8 full activations vs. upwards of 15-20 in KDM.
I would add a cordycep living through a host that can also affect other characters through spore based attacks. (Spore bomb, or spore cloud, maybe spore traps that trigger gas when stepped on. Could have little mushroom terrein pieces/traps/obstacles) possibly it could turn an ally into an enemy that the player is forced to play (until cured) against teammates.
I know it's not exactly culinary based, but I would love to see a mirror-based boss with nightmares (maybe specifically the heroes' nightmares) coming out of it!
Some kind of dopplganger boss would be cool to see. Always a favorite of mine and you don't see them often enough. Nothing trembles the boots like fighting against yourself. Dang it will likely ship before KDM wave 4. . .
Some kind of hybrid of forest stuff and frog abomination. Basically frog covered in muschrooms, moss etc. And a crown on top so he can be called a Prince.
If given the task of adding a weird abomination, I would probably add something like a flailsnail to the overgrown kingdom or the swamp kingdom. It is basically snail that can grown to huge sizes as it ages with flails as antennae. (see d&d flail snail)
What Kingdom Forlorn needs is Prince of Fire. It would look something like a multitude set of eyes that drip tears of flame and that are all attached with long iron shackles. The eyes would pull along a golden sarcophagus (the resting place of the Prince).
WIth games like Gloomhaven and KDM, which easily could fill a lifetime of playing board games to fully explore their contents, but requiring mostly same group of people to play with, it's always nice to see games with accessibility in mind to offset time commitment some of those great games require. Interesting thing is that, while usually in a circle of friends you want only one person to own given game, this one tries to encourage having multiple copies, thanks to the ability to move characters between campaigns. One thing that comes to mind with a new monster is some kind of chimera, with wolf's (or duck :D) torso and head, but with stitched, different looking human parts. Maybe one leg is shorter, maybe one arm is skinny because it holds a rapier, while second one is a muscular one to grab a big shield. They hunt other people not only for food, but to strengthen themselves. There are tons of possibilities here. What I really like about this game, from what I've heard is this atmosphere of grim and hidden secrets. Plot twists and history related to every aspect of the game and how you can't take things for granted. Those monsters could also have some nice twists, like: The first thing that comes to mind is that there is a mastermind behind them, some necromantic surgeon, which changes animals into those chimeras. But players instead of a boss find that they are animals envious of people, who are doing this to themselves in some desperate efforts to be like humans. Seems like it could fit :)
I would like to see a royal looking crescent moon-face giant baby in a heavily modified death stroller with mega wheels. In one hand, he holds a spiked rattle and in the other, a bottle of strange evil milk that he likes to spray on his subject to mutate or dissolve them. Yup.
Backed KF soon after it launched. Was anticipating it from watching your videos. Liked video My recommendation for an abomination would be a tribute to Kingdom Death with a Smoke Knight. And of course subscribed!
I'd like to add a poison tree abomination, which requires 'threading the needle' on heat to survive. The tree would shoot every player with an un-dodgeable poison dart at the very start, and then send out questing vines covered in tiny mouths. Moving too fast or attacking to vigorously (too high heat), pumps the poison around your body too fast and you pass out. Move too slow, or already passed out, and the vines catch you and you get eaten. Freeing other players from vines, or dragging them to safety if they pass out from poison, just complicates the heat juggle even further. Just surviving to get away is the best victory you can hope for :D
I can definitely say that a monster that embodies the mist themselves clad armor and shapes that change during combat so different minis can be used during the encounter, some bigger, some smaller and some divided around many squares
Chicken Parmigiana Calvalry, would be interesting. Chicken as the horses with slightly melting cheese wedge as the riders. This sounds awesome. Will look more into this project. Thanks for covering this and pushing forward with the Dev on improvements. Love your passion.
This is a great video. I would love if another devil was added. Specifically, something akin to how Beelzebub is depicted. Insect like and grotesque as with wings and many legs. It scurry's around the battlefield frantically making the knights chase after it only to turn around and stab them with their legs as sharp as spears. Being a brutal fight that will spin your strategy on its head. And as always, Quack!
What about a Broccoli Baron. That uses "choke" mechanics, also uses trees as obstacles on the board, maybe even teleporting between them or even attacking heroes in the lime between a pair (or more) trees!! (Silly name I know, but it can always be fixed)
Thanks for doing this. I'd love to see a "Sleeping Knight" (or Drunken Knight). It could either have a protector that does most of the work/actions or it simply "wakes" up from time to time.
Something like a loch ness monster (or marine dinosaur type thing) would be cool, and you have to fight from a boat or islands, and you can dive to attack it holding your breath.
A cthulhu-like knight, with tentacles coming out of his broken helmet. He should hold sickles (so that they look like the tips deformed tentacles) and his armor should definately be covered with corals, rust and starfishes.
Enjoyed this comparison review, despite it being a prototype. Will be interested to see how their campaign progresses, and considering what they have done w ATO, I’m still excited. My vote of a villain or a support companion? They need some duck representation! A quack advisor or duck helm 😆
Okay, so I was just thinking about weird abominations and I looked over at my board games and then it hit me… I would love to see something like a walking board game! One could even call such an abomination an aBOARDmination… no? Okay, well, I still like the idea. Imagine a living version of something like Root that could open up to reveal all the little critters coming out to hunt you! Would be cool!
I really would like to see like an 'inception-like' monster, like a barbed-egg-zombie lord that when killed would spawn hatchlings that were incubating inside and also would damage the cells next to it or poison enemies and players
It scratches a similar but different itch than KDM. Definitely planning on this. I would think a fleshbeast or flesh knight that plays around the campaign thematic story with the flesh richter. Might make story based mobs be an interesting encounter and further development.
Since the egg knight makes me think of "Hey diddle, diddle" nursery rhyme I would love to see a cow monster flying around on a creepy faced moon, holding a dish as a shield, a spoon as a weapon (who are both trying to run away together), with a cat playing a fiddle while a dog laughs at the party riding the cow. Just like we all remember from our childhood, right?
Thanks for this in depth review. I’m already a backer of ATO and have been so impressed so far so this is a no brainer to me. I hope to see a doopleganger type monster that mirrors the strength and weakness of myself and that would be the nemesis anytime as I always believe the biggest enemy is always oneself. You always have to overcome yourself to reach greater heights and think that would be a great story! Anyway, congratulations again on this great review!
I mean going with the idea of food knights.... We can have a reference to Dark Souls by bringing an Onion Knight, which despite been silent, you can see tears from his face every time he kills someone (hence Onion Knight)
Glad to see the constructive criticism and to hear that ITU is responding in a positive manner. I'd like to see some gemstone / jewel based creatures, since it is the Principality of Stone. A Diamond Golem, Crystal Drake, that type of thing.
In the full pitch video they showcase a weird caped and crawling elk-skull weirdo. I’m usually not that big into minis, but this guy really had me intrigued! Soooo…more weird elk-skull weirdos please! 😄
A monster that is actually a more deformed version of one/all of the Knight with their own twisted take on their abilities I think would be great! Sort of like Shadow Link from Ocarina of Time haha.
The type of abomination I would add is Faces in the Fog, souls of the dead trapped and twisted by the Deep Fog. Imagine being attacked by the face of a lost loved one, looking at you with sadness as it attempts to add you to the ranks. You could attempt to speak to them, to reconnect to their humanity, but would quickly learn it was lost long ago.
For a kind of creepy monster I would introduce a species of mimics a bit like the dark souls ones, but that can become any inanimate object. When they grow up, mimics can become whole houses or even castles wich would make for some interesting moments i think?
I have an idea: WATCH OUT! HERE COMES...... THE MOTHER IN LAW !!! Her shrill screams for grandchildren cause piercing damage and testicular retreat...... No just kidding but that'd be awesome I'd like to see a randomised two-phase encounter option that could apply to any NPC so (for example) start off with a regular NPC encounter for a side quest gathering information but because of your level of madness / intellect the small orphan child explodes into an ungodly fiend which immediately ambushes you...... I think I'm describing a human mimic? Great review and comparison guys loving the content and still big fan of the channel 👍
Thank you for the insightful video! As a kdm fan it s always nice to see alternatives. As for the knight idea, for some reason, i think the idea of a woodland critter like a badger knight would be awesome.
I love the idea of the phoenix from KDM, so something along those lines. Maybe a large Chicken stuck in some sort of timeloop where it sometimes gets replaced with an egg mini and then suddenly ages again.
I'm obsessed with mimics (from D&D), so I would go with a mimic knight. It's a suit of armor that opens up top-to-bottom as a giant mouth (like a living iron maiden) that tries to swallow you!
I have always wanted to see some sort of a garden knight! So the garden knight would start weak but as the battle progresses, he would plant things in the battlefield.
I like the sound of a choice-based exploration phase. I think I'd like a tentacular monstrosity that can attack at range with a hard mollusc shell which it can retreat into.
Game looks very promising thus far. I'd love to see an Axolotl Dragon. Can't wait to see what else is revealed and I hope that Aeon Trespass will hold me over.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I'd like to see a Sleepy Knight with some kind of bedtime mob. The Knight can be in pyjamas and slippers with a nightcap and can fight with dreams/nightmare tropes as well as storybooks and hot chocolate.
Sadly never played KDM but vicariously living the experience through your videos! So I am excited to pledge this! Would love to see those plague doctors in grotesque form. Someone mentioned mushroom knight. Would be cool to see mushroom plague doctor.
I would create a dark fantasy version of Pinocchio with a sharp skewer instead of a nose. And Geppetto could be his squire or someone who might give him some buffs, healing etc.
I would love to see a death rotten zombie like princess as a boss that eventually would help us or giving us some buffs like the others, having to defeat her first to add us to our roster
Maybe a Tree-like abomination could be fun? It would be beneficial to the players on daytime (like green plants breathing oxygen out) and dangerous during nights (green plants releasing CO2 at night). Given the grim universe of the game, it could be the other way around: the Tree-creature breaths poison out on daytime and absorbs poison at night
Lol imagine a cracked knight that comes later in campaign. Egg knight has been de-shelled, but the shell was a seal holding the cursed demon/abomination/Cthulhu whatever inside. Now its released it is SO MUCH MORE POWERFUL
Enemy/Villian: Jello Hulk/Bulk… attacks by the heroes could have a chance to bounce off and strike another nearby hero. Also appreciate all the info you’ve given on this game!
Some kind of platypus-based boss. The idea of a fuzzy, venomous, egg-laying, semi-aquatic animal -- nature has basically done the work for you! Love the series of reviews on this and excited to get in on something that might become as big as KDM
I think it’d be cool to have a burrowing worm boss, maybe with smaller snake-like tentacles that appear first as a mob as a precursor to the actual larger boss
A tentacle knight would be awesome. The knight can do ranged attacks with the tentacles and melee attack with a sword. Thanks for all of your content regarding Kingdoms Forlorn!
An Onion-head berserker that gets spicer the more layers you peel off his head...and the peeled off layers need to be be gathered, twist together, and create a skin-spear to pierce the centre of the berserker with.
A Quackalope hunting the forests of the Barony of Bountiful Harvest could be quite epic but perhaps Sunken Kingdom would be a more appropriate spot. Strange though that the other kingdoms haven't shown up yet - making me a bit anxious about the final price.
First things first - My Abomination suggestion: The Squire of Dead Knights. A small boyish creature dragging the dead bodies and armor of fallen Knights behind him (with chains and ropes). In a fight he uses them as "Puppet"-Knights skillfully performing ritualistic Squire duties to them before battle. Second: I'm not totally sure what to think about this video. Comparing with an prototype is very harsh and I personally think you didn't do your best job with this comparison. Comparing a prototype you played once or trice to a game you probzbly played the heck out of is even harsher. Saying "It's your fault to sent us a prototype that isn't a finished product at all" sounds more than a bit unfair. I'm not going to back Kingdoms Forlorn (at least if I'm not winning this giveaway 😉), because of the steep price and the campaign organisation. I think it's good to compare it with KDM, but I think there's a difference between comparing and rating (hope that's understandable). So long. Quak! 😉 wishing you a great day
A blood demon using parts of different dead knight body parts as it's body, kind of like a slime like monster using flesh as a puppet maybe even using a goat head as the head.
A Goblin King from a Labyrinth Kingdom who doesn’t attack the Knights directly, but manipulates the board terrain to trap the Knights. There are also objects of value for each Knight that provides an item to draw their focus away from attacking the Goblin King. Will the Knights retrieve their object of value and defeat the Goblin King or have to later venture to the Labyrinth Kingdom?
Spaghetti Knight. Tendrils of spaghetti that attach to the hero knights and don’t let them get too far away. The heroes must then wind up their noodles into and interlacing pattern like a May Pole mosh pit of doom. Can the heroes knot their noodle or will they get sauced in the end?
I would love to see sponge monster, maybe even spongebob vibes, or cheese. Lots of holes, could be filled with something, resistant to blows, absorbing liquid.
I would introduce a toothless dragon, who angrily sees the glimmer of a knight’s teeth in jealousy and has the ability tooth eruption. A knight loses all teeth, exploding as shrapnel, each knight takes 1 wound. The toothless knight must only approach the dragon from the rear for attacks as they are shamed. :)
I am excited for Kingdoms Forlorn. Currently all in on Aeon Trespass and my girlfriend and I can not wait for it to deliver. She fell in love with the Greek theme. I am so hopeful that this game will also see its way into our collection. I am hopeful for a skeleton dragon to appear. or perhaps dragons of every variety
Thanks for the comparison. Just getting into KDM and still waiting for ATO. For inclusion recommendation: how about a selkie? I don’t think I’ve seen and seal folk in any other game.
regarding the enemy AI deck fiddliness: is there any way to have all the levels of an AI action on the same card? so, for example, say an enemy has Headbutt. you wound him, so you have to upgrade Headbutt to its level 2 version. can the level 2 stats be printed on the baseline card to reduce fiddliness? (i suppose this is a suggestion for Into The Unknown more than a question for quackalopes. :p )
Awesome video as always! :) I'm still excited about the game and lore but I also got my expectation right. What I would like to see is a strange dog/wolf like monster or knight with some TLOU like infection.
Thanks for the video. I’d like to see a squire for the Egghead; give him a mini-Egghead minion on the side. (Or if that would be a total rework on this monster, create another pair of Knight and Squire.)
I would love to see an orang-utan knight with double scimitar that can mind control mobs of monkeys squires to better coordinate theirs actions and do powerful actions with them.
I would love a dark fairytale character or creature in kingdoms forlorn. Creatures that have rules that dictate their tactics around arcane reasoning would be amazing to include.
Oh, and as a bit of compensation for my critique on this video and the other, enjoy a duck-hydra (or duck-Ghidorah?) in Kingdoms Forlorn, from the Kingdoms Forlorn miniature showcase video on Into the Unknown Studio's RU-vid channel today: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-riJlPOFsLsI.html (from about 2:18 to 2:29 in that video) ...I'm not sure if that counts as a creature idea, though, even if it might also be hard to top, hmm... Obviously a duck-themed knight or demon of some sort? Ducks are already practically eldritch abominations once you get down to it. It wouldn't even be much of a stretch. Alternately, with a limited knowledge of the alternate kingdoms, how about a mob fight with violent Fruit Demons or Pixies, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes style. From the Barony of Bountiful Harvest, where plants are coming to life, such as the animated pumpkin demon creature thing in their news update.
Definitely interested in this. Liked the idea of KDM but could never bring myself to spend the money and campaign games tend to be solo affairs for me. If I were adding a a boss I think I would add an artichoke avenger
