The Screaming Antelope; a staple quarry monster from the base game trio, has long been one of the lesser explored creatures in the world of Kingdom Death. As we've not had much more to go on other than its status as a bottom of the food chain prey animal with a hyperactive metabolism and a ravenous hunger to match. Even the introduction of the Screaming Nukealope didn't add much more world building for the Antelopes because the concept of that creature links back into the ravenous, hyperactive metabolism that was already established. In a similar vein, the parasitic hands that infest the both the Screaming Antelope and Phoenix have had very little world building over time and the mystery of them was something that didn't have a lot to speculate about for a long time. With the introduction of the Screaming God and the Parasite Queen; the two monsters that are contained in this large box expansion, this has changed a bit.

Both monsters are welcome additions because they add to the portions of the game where content is a little thin at the moment. The Screaming God is a Quarry Node 4 monster, intended to be the top end quarry boss monster for hunting (we only have one other option in The King from the Gambler's Chest Expansion) and the Parasite Queen is a new Finale Monster, the first one to not be tied in a pair with a specific Core monster. This means that now both the Gold Smoke Knight and Godhand can be swapped out for an alternative campaign ending.

The Components

The Screaming God box is one of the larger ones we have seen in recent times, containing inside it the large 3x3 base Screaming God and Parasite Queen models along with four Illuminated Figure Minions and the usual four survivor miniatures. We also have the traditional decks for the boss monsters, though it is worth noting that the Parasite Queen comes with a resource deck, which is new for that class of monster.

Also included in the cards are the usual gear, armor set, disorder, fighting art, indomitable pattern, scout, meal, innovation, knowledge, settlement event, showdown specific, strange resource, terrain and a newer addition in the form of a pillar card. That last one is intended to future proof the expansion for integration with Campaigns of Death when it releases.

In addition to all that there are new terrain tiles and two showdown board extensions that are added to the showdown board when one is playing against the Screaming God. We'll get more into that later, for now it's just worth noting that the box is very full when you receive it, but as we'll see a bit later on it is still unfortunately missing things that I do consider important.

The miniatures are all gorgeous, sculpted in the glamorous 35mm+ scale with the same style and panache that sets Kingdom Death's miniatures apart from the rest, there are very few areas of these miniatures that require any form of critique at all. The Parasite Queen has just two elements to note, she's a very complicated model to assemble and paint (take your time with this model, dry fit everything and follow the online build instructions on the official build website) and her heads. The Parasite Queen comes with a choice of two heads, one which is covered in a veil and the second which looks like M3gan from the movie of the same title. I predicted when I gave my first impressions that the veiled face would be used a lot and the doll-like unused face wouldn't be. This has shaken out indeed be the case. Though the real observation I have here is that neither face is the one that the Parasite Queen was pitched and displayed with originally. Here is that face (from this Kickstarter Update).

Frankly I found the design of this face to be far more weird and appropriate for the game's setting when compared to Meg, and the straps around her face here are still echoed on some of the sculpts of the Illuminated Figures. I don't know the reasoning for not including it at all as an option, I'm sure there is a good one, but whatever it is, it is a shame that it is missing.

The second critique I have is in respect to the Illuminated Figures, the two male miniatures are so clearly the same sculpt with some alterations. Given how unique and characterful the two female ones are it is more noticeable that the male miniatures have this stock look that is more common in games that have many more miniatures on the table at the same time. The sculpt is a good sculpt for sure, but it is noticeable that there are only 3.5 different sculpts when you have all four out together on display. I've done my best to hide this as you can see in the image above, but I can still see it and this is the first time I've really noticed this on two miniatures from the same box.

However, this is completely a minor nitpick and it doesn't eliminate my enjoyment of these miniatures much, they were all wonderful fun to paint, especially the lanterns (which is normally a part of the miniatures I don't enjoy painting).

The last final note I have in respect to the areas for improvement is in respect of the Survivor Weapon Trophy Taker. It's not visible from the display photos of the miniature, but the hand that holds Trophy Taker is comically oversized and weirdly distorted. I suspect this is caused by having the hand and the shield cast as the same piece rather than the usual method of casting them separately and having them be assembled by the purchaser of the game. Sorry if you did not notice that before, at least you can make Scary Movie 2 references about the “strong hand”. The fortunate thing though is the hand is concealed by the shield from most angles so you only really notice this during assembly and close inspection/painting, not during play.

As for the Screaming God itself, this miniature is again of the high standard that one comes to expect from Kingdom Death miniatures and beyond the assembly being a little complicated for less experienced hobbyists there are zero minor nitpicks to make.

Do not mistake these critiques for serious negatives or complaints mind you, these miniatures are of exceptional quality and are only made because of the high status and attention that Kingdom Death and Adam Poots Games state they give to their products. I observe these so that future releases can be even better.

I had a wonderful time painting the miniatures for this expansion, I have not at this point painted the survivor miniatures, I'm having storage/display issues due to how many survivor models there are at this point and I'm in the process of working out how many of each I need and which weapons I like best partnered with the armor set before I paint up the Alpha Armor survivors.

The Gameplay – Screaming God

We'll start with the Screaming God element of this expansion, this Quarry Node 4 monster has a multi-lantern year build up to its appearance, including the journey of an exiled survivor and the story of four survivors from another settlement that the exile sees. This story takes place as an optional vignette built into the campaign structure and I think that its inclusion is a great decision because it allows players to “warm up” against the Screaming God before its actual arrival in Lantern Year 17. This vignette has four foolhardy survivors battle against a Screaming God and takes place in Lantern Year 8 and I think it is an excellent addition to the expansion because of it giving both a way to showcase the monster as a one off (for demonstrating the game to other potential players) and also an official way for players to practice the showdown if they desire. There's also more that happens to the exile on their journey, but I want to leave that for you to discover.

The only issues to note here is that the four survivors that are in this vignette do not have miniatures to represent them and there is still no divider for storing vignette survivors in an organised fashion. The divider issue is something that happens in many releases and seems to be a continuing area that is not improved upon, I'm fast reaching the point where I might have to make my own dividers that match the official ones because there are so many places where I need them. The main reason I haven't at this point is because I'm going to give Campaigns of Death a chance to fix issues before I do it myself.

The missing vignette miniatures is because there was no room in the box for them, so they were not included. I understand this, but it is not the only place where there is gaps in content that one would expect to see in this box and I'll have another observation that ties back to this when we get to the Illuminated Figures.

The Screaming God showdown itself is exemplary, a long running issue that Kingdom Death has had is the gigantic showdown board is far larger than most monsters need, one of the defining features of Kingdom Death's showdowns is how empty the battlefield is and how disconnected from terrain most monsters are. That is not the case at all for the Screaming God, the board's physical footprint is even larger, but that is because of the additions of the Horizon and Stampede Boards which are placed on the short ends of the showdown board. The Horizon is where the upcoming terrain is positioned just before being placed onto the board (more on that later) and the Stampede represents a “wall of death”. This stampede sits over the top of one column of the board as well, actually shrinking the game space in a way that few other monsters do.

The second element of this showdown that puts it above others is the use of the “Rolling Road” mechanic, this is a mechanic used in board and war games to represent that the game is taking place while everything is moving forwards. Instead of having a huge track to move around, the board represents the space around the “racers” and static things like terrain move instead. The Rolling Road is an old mechanic from the 1986 Milton Bradley board game which has the board being extended as the player pieces move forward, this extension is done by moving the furthest back board piece (eliminating any player pieces still lagging behind on that board) and putting it to the front.

Another place where this system was used to incredibly effect is in the 2007 Warhammer “Ash Wastes” expansion for Necromunda, the rolling road scenario there is one that has many of the elements adopted into the Screaming God scenario. Terrain slides in one direction across the board, causing collisions if they come into contact with the vehicles and there is potential elimination for vehicles that get left behind and gangers who are knocked off their vehicles/mounts are in exceptional trouble.

The Screaming God version of this design has the boss and survivors remain in the same place on the board while terrain tiles and knocked down survivors move towards the stampede because they are stationary. If that sounds a little complicated to visualise, think of the showdown being observed by a camera that is keeping up with a race or the experience of being in a moving vehicle on a road, the moving objects look static while the actually static terrain looks like it is moving towards, past and away from the observer.

How this works in mechanics is that at the start of the Monster's turn the Endless Horizon is performed; this has a horizon card being drawn and the upcoming terrain is placed on the horizon board ready to arrive. There is a flow step here for survivors to Dash in order to avoid collisions with the upcoming Labyrinth tiles if needed. Then the Screaming God leaps into the air, jumping over any potential Labyrinth tiles and being absent for the next process, the Screaming God is very experienced at surviving in its environment, no collisions for it.

Then the terrain and other static objects move 7 spaces towards the stampede, this is done by moving the objects nearest the stampede first (removing them from the board when they reach the stampede board – with horrible consequences for any survivors who are foolish/unfortunate enough to let this happen). It's a process that takes a little bit of care and attention to complete, but the rulebook is excellent at ensuring you keep this little music box functioning as well as possible while it plays its tune.

One of the major risks in this showdown is caused by collision due to poor positioning, Kingdom Death is a game where movement and positioning are incredibly important, but most of the time the learning requirements for this are hidden inside the monster AI and HL decks. Because those decks are hidden information (unless you have scouting for them) it can feel very random and pointless to pay attention to positioning. That has always never been the case, just one square can make the difference between being safe and being killed and it's never been more apparent than during this showdown. Being able to Dash well is a vital skill to have in this showdown, if you can't then you'll end up being knocked down and staggered back towards the dangerous right where the mindless herd is waiting to trample you underfoot.

Before we get onto the monster it is worth noting that this entire showdown works best on the original cardboard board, the plastic showdown board has a couple of extra wrinkles that make it less smooth. The first is the coordinates for each space are printed on the underside of the tiles instead of along the edges, so you can't easily spot the 7th, 14th and 21st columns in order to speed up the Labyrinth tile moving process (you can fix this by marking the columns on the sides of the relevant edge tiles) and the second more significant one is that the stampede board covers up column 22 on the showdown board (right most one) and this requires either removing all those tiles or having the stampede board at a weird slant or putting something under the stampede to level it out. It is again not a deal breaker, but it is another point of friction.

The Screaming God's design is a really fun one, the monster has infinite movement, meaning that it can get to its target no matter what, but there is an amazing exception to this, it can't squeeze between two labyrinth tiles if the gap is too small. This means survivors can stand/dash into those tight spaces and avoid being attacked, again empathising the importance of good positioning and survival management. It's a great spot for counter play, something the Screaming God (SG) seeks to neuter through knock down and collision mechanics. Being collided with by this monster results in it scooping the survivor up with its vast undermaw in the same way its smaller brethren do sometimes. The unfortunate survivor risks being masticated, but they can also get fired out of the SG's maw at incredible speed if they're not released fast enough by a critical wound.

I'm not going to spoil all the surprises that the SG has in store for players here though, these are just some of the base mechanics that the boss monster has at its disposal. There are many more printed on the AI and HL cards and in the Story Events, suffice to say this oversized deer is a beast worthy of the Quarry Node 4 (QN4) title.

Before I close out this part, I did want to briefly compare the Screaming God to The King as that is the only other QN4 monster we have at the moment. The King turns up 4 entire lantern years later than the Screaming God and that delay has a lot of impact on the game's texture. If you are playing People of the Lantern, the monsters you encounter after beating the Core Nemesis of that campaign are forced at Level 3, this includes QN4 monsters. Meaning if you take down the Watcher in Lantern Year 20, your very first King has to be Level 3, rough, though you can alter that by delaying beating the watcher until LY25.

The more significant clashing element between the two is surrounding the gear, King gear is so obscenely strong that it can trivialise even Finale Monsters. If Screaming God gear was at a similar level then the end game portion of Kingdom Death runs would become even more of a “Victory Lap”. Fortunately the Screaming God Great Hall Gear is not only better balanced, with more reasonable stat profiles and less dominating abilities. This gear is also a lot of fun to use as it is (surprise surprise) built around movement, providing more mobility and pay off for large moves. It feels similar to the original Screaming Antelope/Stone Circle gear as well, but more like a distant cousin rather than a straight evolution. I'll be doing a full breakdown of all the delightful new toys in the future, so I'll just leave it here and say that the Great Hall gear will be the baseline I'm going to compare other future Node 4 gear cards against.

I do have a couple of areas where I think the gear situation is lacking though, there are zero Seed Patterns for this monster in the box, I expected at least two. There is also just one lone Indomitable Resource, I expected at least three. This is probably another spot where the box size limitations caused this, but it very disappointing. Especially given that I expect we'll see a bunch of extra stand alone white box releases via the shop to add more content to the Screaming God. Content that I think should have been in this box. At this point the only route I could see that feels somewhat fair is if the four Screaming God vignette survivors when they are released come stacked with several seed patterns, indomitable patterns and an entire extra crafting location. I'd recommend a prosthetics extension to the Barber Surgeon, the Great Hall has a lot of survivors with lost limbs/prosthetics depicted in the artwork, this would be a thematic slam dunk to include while also justifying the box existing even further.

Team Death have been putting out so many fantastic monster designs in recent time that ranking the best ones is always difficult, but there is no doubt that the Screaming God is one of them.

The Gameplay – Parasite Queen

With the addition of the Parasite Queen we now have some knowledge about the source of the parasite hands I mentioned at the start of this review and we get to confront her if we choose to swap out our Finale Monster (currently Godhand and Gold Smoke Knight). This changes the texture of the campaign quite a bit as well as ratcheting up the difficulty. The Parasite Queen (I'll call her The Queen from now on) is a challenging monster worthy of the title of Finale Monster, I don't want to get into much detail about The Queen's mechanics here because I really value protecting the first time experience as much as possible. The Screaming God I feel more comfortable in discussing because of how early one can experience it via the vignette and also breaking it down highlights just what makes it one of the best showdowns in the game right now.

What I am comfortable covering here is that The Queen also plays around with a requirement for players to have good positioning and movement skills developed and also makes good use of the entire showdown board. Beyond that it is a tough, challenging showdown that makes for a wonderful capstone to the Kingdom Death experience. I think it is a lot better designed than the Godhand (who has some genuine design mistakes that I think need to be corrected in an update) and it is more of a challenge for QN4 gear than the Gold Smoke Knight is (GSK needs some statistic adjustments now that we have QN4s to put against it). This is the current pinnacle of the KDM finale experience and I think it will be hard to top it until we reach the Ivory Dragon, I do expect based on the current hot streak that Team Death are on any other new Finale Monsters that come out before Saturn turns up to devour its children such as the Mountain Man or the Dragon Goblin are going to be around the same level of challenge and quality.

I'm also comfortable in briefly mentioning that I liked how the The Queen has her presence to the settlement signalled long before she turns up via story event(s). This is something that the Godhand also had, but the Gold Smoke Knight lacked. Something that really hurts the status and importance of the GSK so very much. There's also some real, fun, long lasting consequences for you if you don't beat the Queen and I loved that element so much. I don't want to spoiler what that is here, but I think it's one of those simple changes that has a massive impact on the texture of your next campaign in a really fun way.

Before we move on, as I mentioned above, I do need to write about the Illuminated Figures. When I saw we were getting four of these in the box I expected them to have a fair impact on the game. My greatest hope was that they'd act as heralds for the Parasite Queen via the Encounter system. That you'd run into them the same way that the Bone Eaters turn up and they'd provide an additional wrinkle to the game that supports the repeating story event that beats through the soul of the settlement when the Queen is in reach.

Instead they are used as minions by the Parasite Queen and it's quite likely you won't even see a single one of them turn up during your showdowns against The Queen. The odds are just stacked against them appearing. This makes their inclusion in the box over the Vignette survivors feel bad, I've fought The Queen in four separate campaigns at this point and I've not seen them once yet. I took to using three of them as starting survivors in order to justify the time spent painting them (they're great miniatures and deserved time on the table, I just didn't use the Spear wielding one cause that miniature didn't fit the unarmed and umarmored vibe I wanted).

So the Illuminated Figures feel a bit like a waste of time, effort and space here and I really want to urge Team Death to put out an Encounter expansion for these miniatures so we can feel the Queen's call far earlier and more strongly. Give me something that brings out the creeping dread that the original lore for the Illuminated Lady 1 and 2 resin releases evoke. There is a chance here to package this with the missing Vignette Survivor miniatures and Seed/Indomitable Patterns to really round out the entire experience and elevate this Screaming God Expansion even further.

To further illustrate part of why I am disappointed in the microscopic role that the Illuminated Figures play in this release here is the original lore text from both of the resing releases.

The Illuminated Lady appears to survivors hopelessly lost in the darkness. A nude figure glowing softly by the light of her lantern, other lanterns grow dim as she nears. Her presence fills survivors with comfort and serenity and she will guide them into the darkness never to be found again. Some joke meeting her is a kinder end than most. – Illuminated Lady 1

They appear at the settlement's edge. Visions of desire. Radiating benevolence, beckoning with compassion, embodying longing. Their solitary appearance casts doubt on a survivors sanity. Eventually the entire settlement will confess their own unique vision of the creatures. Moved by desire but wary of their purpose, the settlement wonders what purpose the illuminated figures serve. – Illuminated Lady 2

So much promise here that could have been adapted into the game mechanics via an optional Encounter Board add on. I know it is hard to include Encounters as they require an Encounter Board to be used, but there are solutions to that. There could have been one on the back of one or both of the Horizon/Stampede boards for example.

Final Summary

This is absolutely one of the best releases we've had in a main line expansion; the play experience of both showdowns is fresh, unique and very rewarding both for player and skill expression. The gear is almost entirely excellent and fun to both craft and explore uses for. The miniatures are excellent, the showdowns are sublime, this is close to peak Kingdom Death Expansion content. I didn't even get into the delightful Knowledges, Disorders and Fighting Arts that we have in this expansion, just about everything presented in the box is of the highest quality.

However, there are areas where the vision was reigned in due to size and scope clashing with physical box limitations, the Pattern gear and Illuminated Figures are the most tragic of the losses here and I hope that Adam Poots Games does something to address this and also avoids this happening with future releases.

Despite those gaps and the few niggles here and there I think that this expansion box is phenomenal and it makes for a great purchase to use alongside the core game even if you do not already have the Gambler's chest. One of my campaigns I tried this out in was basic People of the Lantern + Screaming God + Parasite Queen without Arc Survivors and it was also a blast. This is not a perfect release, but it is really close, so close that you can forgive the imperfections, as such I am recommending it as an early purchase for all players of this game, perhaps even before the Gambler's Chest.