Delicious Deviltry and Dastardly Dragons | Early Impressions of Kingdoms Forlorn (Patreon)

Edit: Disclaimer because I forgot to write it in my excitement. ITU sent me a copy of Kingdoms Forlorn, the expansions and sleeves. I was not charged for these items. They did not however attach any demands or requirements to these items. I accepted this because of the simple fact that without this I wouldn't be able to afford playing it. I've chosen of my own will to write about this, and ITU have given me no limitations (and they know if I find something to criticise I will criticise it. I criticise things I love because I want them to be better). but do bare in mind this fact when reading here.

I'll include a proper disclaimer when I review this in full sometime later this year, when that is depends on when I manage to finish enough Knight stories and fight enough bosses at higher levels.

At time of writing, while there are many excellent boss battlers, there are four that have stood out against the increasing number. There is no one single “best” boss battling game out there, but the four I am about to mention are the gold standards to which I compare other releases.

The first of these is of course Kingdom Death: Monster (KDM), this massive game is still the single purest sandbox experience with its bare bones narrative that is mostly about the characters surviving in the echoes of a dead world. Kingdom Death pioneered an evolution of the Warhammer Quest dungeon crawling design by smashing it with Monster Hunter's huge singular bosses. The two largest innovations that came from this game is the improvements over enemy behaviour via the AI deck giving active behaviours and very significantly the Hit Location Deck giving reactive behaviours that scale with the player units. This innovation gives flavour to the bosses that is more unique than the original dungeon crawling melee, ranged or caster AI and allows for some memorable aspects. This design has been adopted in a number of places, sometimes just the AI deck is used and sometimes both are employed.

The second massive innovation from KDM is one that makes for an almost endless range of replayability.

This is the game's Gear system and it has not been adopted by other games, I won't go further into it here, but I have written in length about how genre changing it is with how it employs puzzle matching colours in a grid as a “mini game”. You can read that here and my thoughts on it haven't changed, I am always looking for any dungeon crawling/boss battling adjacent games to innovate on this engine building, puzzle matching, positional tableau mini-game, but it has not happened, yet.

Our next game is of course Aeon Trespass: Odyssey (ATO); ATO offers a crafted story experience in the vein of the Greek Odysseys (of course it does). Over the five cycles story beats are set up and paid off with some of the mysteries in the first cycle tying into the fifth one. The game also performs an excellent job at linear escalation, every cycle feels more powerful than the last one and with only two exceptions (the Babylonian and Siren Scripts in the 4th and 5th cycles) I have never had a moment that I didn't find engaging, exciting and fresh. I am honestly saddened that I cannot afford to play Twelve Sins of Herakles.

The third is Oathsworn, which I think is the gold standard for an accessible boss battler, while I think there's some missteps in this, especially surrounding how gear works, it also uses the best form of grid spaces – Hexagons. Oathsworns gear is not only still tied to the antiquated “hand, hand, head, armor, accessories” system that I so dearly want Dungeon Crawlers to move away from, but it also forces players to decay their gear by taking it from them instead of offering more and more exciting options. Both of these methods achieve the same thing, but the latter version feels significantly better; I think both KDM and ATO far surpass Oathsworn on this front.

However, Oathsworn is still an exceptional game, the large miniature scale, hexagons and providing players with information about the bosses actions before they do them are all superb elements of this game. Also as a quick aside, the boss battler that does the best job when it comes to giving player information is surprisingly Monster Hunter from Steamforged Games. I wish I could have afforded to pick up Iceborne to see if they refined it further, but alas again I do not have the budget larger board game channels have.

The backs of the cards tell you what body part is about to attack on the left and who it will focus on the right. This gives imperfect information and it is far superior to just generic backs. It is not the only game that provides back of the deck information, but it is the best one at it.

Finally the fourth titan is Primal: The Awakening; there is still a truth that this game doesn't need its miniatures as it is a simple four area fighting arena but the deck construction/building based combat is incredibly well put together and it offers synergy between different player units in a way that only ATO currently holds against in comparison. Really the only sticking point I have against Primal is that miniature issue, they do nothing that poker chips couldn't do and while that's kind of true for all games using miniatures that do not do complicated cover rules like Necromunda, it's especially telling when all the movement a monster does is spinning around the centre of the board.

These are the four games that I currently compare other games to, they are the games I compare all other boss battlers to and the reason you see criticisms levelled against them here is because those are the rare areas where they fall short. That provides me with rough spots that I think could be refined further and these are things I will be comparing Kingdoms Forlorn to. Can it become the 5th gold standard game or is it going to end up being “really good, but not platinum tier” like games such as Townsfolk Tussle, Marvel Champions or Unstoppable?

The Kingdoms

Kingdoms Forlorn is in many ways a slight turning back towards the dungeon crawlers of yesteryear, or more accurately it is a modern take on a classic design. The core framework of the game is that loop of town, travel and fighting that underpins the staples that came from our grandparents of the genre (D&D, HeroQuest and Warhammer Quest), however it has been updated with modern board game designs. We'll get to those, but first of all I want to delve into the thematics of the game.

During sessions of Kingdoms Forlorn players will follow the story of their chosen Knight(s) as they head out into one of the titular kingdoms. The kingdoms themselves are decrepit places of past glory that have fallen into rot and ruin; what the current state of these places is clear but how the fall came about is something of a mystery to be explored.

So while you have the core narrative of the Knights to give a single player a coherent and continuous story to motivate you and facilitate exploration, you also have that wonderful background lore tapestry filled with hints of the past and mysteries of the present. The various bosses, both mobs and traditional single targets have their own background and motives, while exploring you may discover some of them and sometimes knight stories will provide more context and illumination.

I think that this framework takes the best parts of Dark Souls/Elden Ring style world lore that Kingdom Death uses while also marrying it with a more coherent narrative for players to follow. As you follow each knights own tale you'll also come to learn more about the places you are exploring through writing, artwork and even the behaviours of the place.

This is an aspect I think that Kingdoms Forlorn (KF) manages to improve over its older sibling ATO. ATO's writing is exceptional, but the story structure for the various adventures can feel very disjointed, if you are not able to follow a complete adventure arc during a cycle you may not get to go back and finish it off and that story thread becomes unpicked and dangling. As such the stories of each given place may get lost along the way; this in some ways feels realistic, players do not get to see all the steps of another individual's journey, but it can also be a bit narratively discordant at times outside of each core Cycle story and the overarching complete 5 cycles. This improves and enhances replayability, but it may also feel unsatisfying for players who do not have the time to repeat the cycles.

The two places in we have in Kingdoms Forlorn currently, are the Sunken Kingdom and the Principality of Stone (quick aside, did you know that Prince was originally considered a higher title than King and the Prince of Wales before King Edward I's war was higher ranked than the King of England?) are both starkly contrasted with each other. For myself the Principality of Stone feels dry and dusty while the Sunken Kingdom is moist and pungent. You know you're dealing with good writing when you can feel or smell the difference between the places instead of them simply smelling like new cardboard.

All of this is to confirm that KF has both evolved and improved on ATO's narrative formula; the writing in both games is excellent, but KF manages to blend together personal arcs with exploration of the world's own narrative. I do not make this comparison to pull down ATO, but more to highlight that I expect later games from a designer to build upon the previous versions and iterate improvements on that, onwards and upwards.

The narrative structure in Kingdoms Forlorn is one such place where I think this has surpassed its older sibling.

The Knights

This brings us onto the subject of the knights, I have not had a chance to play with each one at this stage, in fact I've only experienced the tutorial knights Kara and The Fleischritter along with the early quests for Ser Sonch and Ser Uber.

Everything I've seen here has been impressive. The small knight boxes are well engineered and only struggle a tiny amount with sleeved cards (a little tight and needed a little more depth, but we're considering mere millimetres here nothing serious), the books are beautiful, well written and offer player agency with choices that matter. Both the writing makes the impact of what you do feel difficult and the future consequences tracking via the matrix promise divergent outcomes. It is an early stage with these, but the stories feel like they can be replayed with different decisions resulting in different endings. Ser Uber's in particular offered some compelling insight and difficult choices a lot sooner than I thought would happen. I've not even gotten into how multiple knights on quests are following one knight's specific quest while everyone else investigates other side tangents to their own story. It's a delight.

The similarities with ATO include the three core stats, Passion, Vigor and Heat. Passion is similar to Rage, but no longer has the “die from too much rage” drawback, Vigor is our life/health counter and now instead of building up like Danger it ticks down in the traditional fashion which fits the more traditional adventuring/crawling nature of Kingdoms Forlorn. Heat is the main divergent path as it works like Fate, but it offers a lot more functionality due to being used used to not just activate gear or reroll dice, but also used to play Knight cards which are one of the core places where Knights can express their individuality.

Knight cards are a new addition to the game and they have a lot of the "Oathsworn feel" about them, which is absolutely a positive. Each knight can take a certain number of unlocked cards with them on a delve and they can play these to perform actions like dodging a hit or standing up at by spending heat (heat replenishes somewhat at the start of a Knight's action). The cards will then go onto the knight's board in one of three places, as time passes some of these cards will come back into hand to be played again.

This is why the Oathsworn comparison feels apt as it also has you playing cards that gradually cool down before returning to hand, but in Oathsworn you're almost completely using cards to do your actions. KF instead uses these as special extra skills rather than for everything. The cards are also double sided, offering one side to use during Clashes and the other side to use during the Delve portion of the game. I am a huge proponent of using both sides of the card to do things as it takes up less space and this is a perfect way to implement that. All of this is an improvement over how Oathsworn uses its character card skills.

Also at this time I have to point out the artwork on the cards; ATO has some very thematic art on many of its cards, but KF is in another league with its “tapestry” style illustrations on just above every single card that is in the Knight card selection and both types of boss decks. They are stylish, humorous and nothing short of perfection. For someone like myself who is a roleplayer first, this adds so much to the game experience.

I've not even got into the levelling up system here, but it's again making smart use of cards, not just improving your card options, but also increasing your base stats by swapping out your Arc cards (this game's version of the Kratos and Trauma tables). In fact I'd go as far as to say I think the Knights are massive improvements over the previous titans (more evidence that ITU keep improving in later iterations) and while I've not the space to write much about them here, but I also think the Squire system is superb. It reminds me of the “simple hero” version we have in Oathsworn, but that system felt like it undermined the full hero card system, Squires here are their own thing and they feel like a very different supporting unit rather than 'just knight but easier to operate'.

One of the slight negatives I've noticed here is that we get 5 bookmarks for each of the 5 base game knights, but the extra knights in Ten Thousand Succulent Fears do not come with additional bookmarks. This is not a major issue, if you have more than five knights following their stories because of personal rotation or a larger playgroup you will need to procure a few more thematic bookmarks. However, like the Knighves (what a name, no notes) I think that there should have been one copy per knight box including any extra future releases. Small touches like this do matter.

Also on a purely personal I don't have the Little Ser miniature, and while the token is delightful in its own right, I wanted to be able paint and deploy that little guy. The empty space in Ser Sonch's box needs to be filled.

The Miniatures

Continuing the exploration of the aesthetic aspects of KF, the miniatures here represent another step up from the ATO ones. Again, this is not a knock on the older sibling, but instead it demonstrates a continued focus on improvement from one game to the next. Into the Unknown are not willing to rest on their laurels, nor will they bloat their existing games to straining point; instead they keep striving onwards and upwards.

The new models have a better feel to them than older ones, the bases are crisp and sharp to hold and the details benefit as a consequence. I've only managed to paint Kara, part of Ser Uber and half of the White Ape Troll at this time, but I am already so impressed with what has been done here. I think the KF miniatures are on par with Oathsworn's boss miniatures and that is a real compliment because Oathsworn is my platinum standard for non-hobby miniatures (miniatures that you don't have to glue together).

I am a firm believer that miniatures with less than twenty models on the board at once should be at a larger scale, especially when considering boss battlers. The spectacle matters a huge amount, and while KF's Knight models are not at Oathsworn's magnificent scale, I do really like this level of detail and style. In particular the material they are made from feels good in the hand and impresses the eye.

I can't really express much more at this stage because a lot of my appreciation of the miniatures comes into focus when I try my best to bring them to life with colour, but so far my painting experience has revealed sculpts that speak to me. There is a coherent vision to the art direction not just in the cards, but everywhere.

The Delve

One of my favourite maps of all time is ATO's Cycle I map of Crete, it is so beautiful when completely assembled that I have long considered getting the card versions mounted and framed for the office wall. Kingdoms Forlorn maps are a bit more disjointed in that manner, as you explore the kingdom during the delve phase you will combine the various cards together in a map, but at this stage (I've not checked fully) there does seem to be gaps caused by the different card sizes. The network that emerges feels like a video game map, constructed of areas that have different sizes rather than a tile map that covers everywhere. I don't think either method is superior, the tile version is satisfying when every space is filled in (I'm looking at you Cycle II Map) the design feels like the places have a coherence to them in a different manner.

It evokes a more video game feel, and that is a good fit.

The real slam dunks that these various cards offer though is a combination of mechanical readability and aid in navigation. It's a lot easier to become familiar with a map and remember its layout when there are distinct larger and smaller areas. You also know that the more important areas tend to be larger ones and you cannot ever be sure that a space on the board is really going to be empty, include a card or even have multiple smaller cards in there - at this point I've not fully explored the maps so I've not laid them out to see if they are seamless and that is part of the thrill.

The exploration reminds me again of Warhammer Quest (WHQ), which uses tiles of various sizes, except that in WHQ the table space is always an issue and the scale of your travels is always so much smaller. A “Kingdom” really couldn't feel like a kingdom without the art of the card allowing for a scale that helps highlight the vastness of the places. These were thriving regions, there were many houses, markets and spaces where people are no longer present, it is a haunting and empty landscape because of this.

A few other improvements on the “dungeon crawl” aspect of this game are these fixed maps, you do not always enter in the same point, but the connections remain the same. This means over time you have an area where the players can improve through repetition and familiarity. That makes the place more real, it has a geography that can be somewhat understood.

The layout and sizes are not the only clever and engaging parts of this game's “exploration” each card has printed on the back of it values that cover how much time it takes to explore it, how much extra 'threat' the are generates (or removes) as you expose it, if it has any clues and a deep fog value that I'll get back to later (it's a very Silent Hill feeling fog for sure).

We also have a themed exploration deck for the region along with some preset points of interest, the kingdoms also have their own individual curse which lingers over the place, the knights themselves have to be careful not to gain too many curse points as that can result in an end to the delve also.

This makes routing have more crunch to the decisions, if threat climbs up too much then additional monsters may come a calling, so do you pick a route that reduces it. Are you desperate to reach a given place? Then maybe you'll risk the Deep Fog because the map has become disjointed. The Deep Fog is another place where a mechanic that could have been very basic gets some much needed decision making. You have to travel (reveal) a certain number of cards without surpassing a total number of 4 printed on the cards. What's really cool is you lay out the cards in a line, but if the route you are taking isn't working you can backtrack, turn the unwanted cards face down and then head out in a new cardinal direction. It is effectively a risk/reward grid where you are trying to find the right route as that offers escape without punishment. There's a lot of learning and elements to digest here, but honestly in itself it is a version KDM's hunt phase, but better executed in all aspects.

I've also not covered district monsters, encounters, temporary “moods” to a district and a whole bunch of other things that bring this phase to life. This is not the mostly superficial Hunt Phase for Kingdom Death, this is a sub game you could almost play on its own. One of the few negatives here is that the encounter board and the Clash board are the same board, but opposite sides. Separate boards would have functioned better, however ITU have offered print out versions of the smaller encounter boards, so that helps a lot. I imagine we'll see some custom versions of these boards in the future, I would love to see Rollin' Mats create something as they're real professionals with attention to detail.

The Clashes

OK, so we've been through a lot of the various elements of this game that I think are unique and engaging. The Clash Phase is another one of those, it comes in two forms (not including encounters which I've not experienced enough yet to be able to write about), we have Exhibition Clashes which are slightly shorter clashes against the monster predominantly present in your current district (this changes from delve to delve and even changes at times during the delve). Full Clashes are a bit longer, but otherwise are very similar from a mechanical standpoint, also note that clashes can be against a single enemy or multiples, and full clashes are not always single enemies, nor are exhibition clashes always against groups.

This is where the boss battling experience really comes home to roost, the board is a bit smaller and benefits from that as it creates a fights in tight spaces vibe while still giving players space to manoeuvrer. We still have proven mechanics like the AI and BP monster decks, though the Mobs take a clever spin on this by having each BP card represent a mob and which specific one they are is revealed by attacking or some other mechanics and they can even have extra effects when face up.

There are so many interesting and neat mechanics in all of this that I really do not have time to do them justice in a first thoughts piece. I've seen mobs that vary their tactics from one fight to the next, bosses from one encounter make guest appearances in other ones, hordes, traditional 1 vs. Many battles and so much more without even getting into the boss gimmicks. ATO's system felt great, especially with the tight size of the AI/BP decks and the entire escalation mechanic, KF feels like it has matured with grace and style.

I'm honestly going to write the least in this section because it's the biggest part and I need more time and reps to really get a handle on all of this. Some fights are fast, some are a slow slog, some require quick actions, some require team work. The most important thing here however is no matter if I'm having a fun time, or a hard one, every single clash has been deeply engaging. Board games don't have to be fun all the time, this is a game set in a hard world with deep struggles and dark fantasy elements. Fun isn't something the Knights always experience.

A game has to be engaging, the Clash phase is engaging, deeply so.

Final First Thoughts

It is probable that Kingdoms Forlorn will step past Oathsworn, Primal and even ATO to take the top spot alongside Kingdom Death as my preferred boss battler. The more segmented way of playing and the focus on specific characters and places tips it ahead of ATO for my tastes and preferred game style, though I don't think the two games are direct comparisons with each other, they share systems but their overall ethos is different.

I do think that Kingdoms Forlorn most closely compares with Oathsworn in many aspects, they have that similar dark fantasy setting with a focus on story. However Oathsworn's narrative sections are more like puzzles to optimise and solve, something that is very obvious on replays. Kingdoms Forlorn instead offers new knights to explore, new kingdoms to get lost in and most of all it seems to provide (as far as I can see right now) even an opportunity to reset a knight and follow a new path with perhaps a new outcome, or at least a second chance to gain and try out knight specific gear that was missed last time. In short KF has more replayability and variance in its campaign(s) and that is one of the places where I felt Oathsworn fell off a little. Sandbox campaign games have a massive advantage over narrative ones when it comes to repeat play because they offer player driven emergent stories, while the stories for the KF Knights are written, they have a lot of branching paths and also the delve route taking is unique for each player.

This is a very exciting game and I think it has strong potential to be my board game of the year for 2025, it's already making me wish I had two tables so I could keep both it and KDM set up all the time, perhaps I'm going to have to invest in that. More likely I'll just dream about having that because it's a luxury that we already are able to have a dedicated board gaming table (via an inheritance).

Last note; this one is directly for Marcin and the team if they see this.

I'd like to challenge you (ITU) to take as your next big game innovation point and evolution of the Gear tableau. The puzzle connections/gem slots/grid/engine builder is a phenomenal set of mechanics that I want to see you guys improve upon. It is the special spice that's missing from every boss battler outside of one and it is my number 1 favourite part of Kingdom Death.

I think you have it in you to take the strengths of that system and refine it even further. We don't need the near forty+ year old gear mechanic of hand/hand/armor/etc to keep returning in in our next generation of boss battlers, there is so much more that the gear grid and “gem” connection system could become. The old way is broke, it does need fixing.

I believe you guys can take it to the next dimension.

As for me? I'll be back with a lot more Kingdoms Forlorn in the coming months, I'm obsessed and this game is the front runner not just for my game of the year 2025, but it is looking like it will hold position and become one of the boss battlers I compare everything else against.