A long time ago, I was immersed in runescape and it was fun just hanging out in that virtual fantasy world. <PERSON>'s campaign and enthusiasm brought back memories of those and I became very intrigued to get my hands on the city of kings. This fantasy world is set in the last remaining city standing firm against the tide of darkness, gives of a LOTR vibe from the get go.
Game arrived and I began punching and sorting out everything. When I am almost done, I wondered what have I gotten myself into again, this feels like another gloomhaven with the never ending punching.
Thankfully, <PERSON>'s foresight by including the necessary set up trays and anti knock sheets meant that sorting and setting up for games is going to be more efficient. And those are a godsend.
This is the first time I have seen a publisher giving exact details in both videos and documents how to pack the games, where/how to sort the tokens, walking through gameplays, detailed rule explanations while the games are en route to the customers, feels like we are really being pampered haha.
After going through the rules and setting up my first game. Everything looks quite unwieldy and seemingly complicated and fiddly.
Thankfully, I am quickly proven wrong as I worked out the gameplay. It is intuitive and the rules made sense. You either move, explore, fight or interact with the map on your turn (or sending your slaves to get supplies)
I also liked the fact that rules for "range" targeting is clear and concise. No zigzagging across the board, just plain old straight lines. This made offensive and defensive plannings much easier. 366
The fetch quest, protecting NPCs, sending out your workers to farm/get resources stirs up fun whimsical moments.
While I have just started exploring this game (and having fun), I think that it offers good depth strategically and good monster encounter replayability. You only start with 4 actions and you have to budget them carefully between your character and your worker. You are of course free to do whatever you want, just go fishing or exploring for example but you always have to be mindful of the "clock" in the game. Every time the clock strikes midnight, your city lose one hope and all be lost when hope is gone. CoK is not a limited sandbox with a timer counting down, so your action selection counts and too much inefficient movements can cost you the game.
Character's skills and stats customization is quite fun too, you can build your character up in whichever way you like, be it the standard tank, damage dealer, or if you just love scavenging so much that you just upgrade your workers to move faster or gather more stuff. The enemies will never have the exact same abilities sometimes they can be quite deadly if you spent your level up in places that you shouldn't have
For example, this poison bolt shooting, teleporting, grabby Hope Breaker gave me hell in the early part of the game.
City of Kings punishes reckless play. I tried going about in a very adventurous manner, attacking (and getting my attack reflected) left my character helpless in the next turn and the team got wiped and chase off by panic.
I learned quickly and began to appreciate the tactical nature of this game. I have since escorted NPCs, caught a lot of fish, run away from some monsters, visited new areas, traded for items, started on an exciting story and I can't wait to get back adventuring in this world.
This is still an early impression but I do believe that fantasy solo gamers have another gem on their hands on top of Gloomhaven. (And this sets up faster and have much less AI management than GH)
Note: The skill disc placement on <PERSON> the broken (purple character) is incorrect. The skill disc level ups should always form an unbroken line connected to the root. 884