KickStarter King Arthur: Knight's Tale + Legion IX standalone expansion - dark fantasy turn-based tactical RPG from NeocoreGames

[Cael]

Good cthulhu certainly sounds interesting. Thinking I might do an evil jesus run

The first mage/priest you run into is evil "Christian".

 

[Acrux]

What i don't get is good cthulhu. How that happened.

Like in the King Arthur Role Playing Wargame, it's a choice between Christianity/Old Faith (druids) and Rightful/Tyrant.

 

[Grunker]

Played the Bridge mission (Very Hard). Both my frontliners received injuries. That's using all camps and shrines on the map. Maybe I'm just bad, but I don't think it's that easy.

 

[Grunker]

What i don't get is good cthulhu. How that happened.

Cthulhu is just my lulz-short-hand for the old faith, which in the King Arthur games' universe is some dodgy fae spooky stuff some(oft)times

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Played the Bridge mission (Very Hard). Both my frontliners received injuries. That's using all camps and shrines on the map. Maybe I'm just bad, but I don't think it's that easy.

You definitely have to rotate knights on very hard, injuries are really common.

 

[Lyre Mors]

Game remains considerably challenging 10 hours in for me. Some of the missions you have to be extremely careful about how much damage - particularly vitality damage - you're taking early into them, because they can stretch on pretty long at times, and throw a number of surprise encounters at you that you end up stumbling into while exploring. Death spiraling definitely seems possible if you're letting your knights get too beat up, at least early in the campaign. I've considered restarting a couple times, but have managed to stay afloat and seem to finally be pulling myself out.

The game continues to impress on most fronts and I'm having a great time. People put off by deterministic hits, in general I'd say don't be. There is dodging, blocking, varying damage output, varying enemy HP amounts, and a unique armor system that keeps things fresh and surprising. It's a very fun game. The randomized loot is my biggest gripe so far, but it's done well enough that there are significant progression jumps when you get something good, so it remains satisfying. They should have done hand-placed loot though, imo.

 

[Chippy]

The second King Arthur game had crafting, and I think they also had it in the Van Helsing games, so it wouldn't suprise me if they introduce it as DLC.

 

[Grunker]

I love how zombies will walk mindlessly into your overwatch grinders while human opponents will try to avoid it or at least stop right before so you have to either walk up to them or give them a chance to hit you back after overwatch. Small detail but it's there

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I love how zombies will walk mindlessly into your overwatch grinders while human opponents will try to avoid it or at least stop right before so you have to either walk up to them or give them a chance to hit you back after overwatch. Small detail but it's there

human enemies are also really good at flanking for backstabs on very hard

 

[Grunker]

My asshole will never unravel from its currently clenched position (slight spoiler)

Spoiler

Holy suck on my balls that Ector mission was hard. At least with Balin who seems to be way lesser than his brother in small arenas where it’s hard to get a flank. Had nothing left when I finished the last normal undead fight, Mordred had two injuries and Balin one. “Wow, that was insane, can’t believe I made it”, I thought before realizing YOU HAVE TO FIGHT MOTHERFUCKING THREE MORE LOST KNIGHTS

Luckily there are no ranged enemies in that fight, and Balin’s traps are OP, so using the dark essence, push backs and spamming my ranged I was able to hold off those nuke-hitting sons of bitches for long enough to get them down.

Still only on a roster of 5, so I’ll have at least one injured dude with me on the next mission, and it’s hard to pick anyone but Mordred seeing as how you absolutely need at least one character with Block. Unfortunately he’s the one with worst injuries.

Also, I predict when Darth Roxor finally plays this game he will soon stop complaining about lack of variance (since there’s a good deal of it) and instead start complaining about enemies surviving on 1hp, enemies blocking and armor fall off

 

[Nortar]

My asshole will never unravel from its currently clenched position (slight spoiler)

Spoiler

Holy suck on my balls that Ector mission was hard. At least with Balin who seems to be way lesser than his brother in small arenas where it’s hard to get a flank. Had nothing left when I finished the last normal undead fight, Mordred had two injuries and Balin one. “Wow, that was insane, can’t believe I made it”, I thought before realizing YOU HAVE TO FIGHT MOTHERFUCKING THREE MORE LOST KNIGHTS

Luckily there are no ranged enemies in that fight, and Balin’s traps are OP, so using the dark essence, push backs and spamming my ranged I was able to hold off those nuke-hitting sons of bitches for long enough to get them down.

Still only on a roster of 5, so I’ll have at least one injured dude with me on the next mission, and it’s hard to pick anyone but Mordred seeing as how you absolutely need at least one character with Block. Unfortunately he’s the one with worst injuries.

Also, I predict when Darth Roxor finally plays this game he will soon stop complaining about lack of variance (since there’s a good deal of it) and instead start complaining about enemies surviving on 1hp, enemies blocking and armor fall off

At first I regretted getting Balan, instead of Balin.
Even though setup with 2 champs worked pretty well paired with Mordred shield bash on heavily armored enemies.

I really liked that 3 knights battle in Ector mission.
With proper positioning it allowed to drag out their approach and deal with them one-by-one.
Thought myself pretty clever getting through it without taking a hit, but since there's only one side that was nicely covered with "cthulhu shit" jars, I suspect it was the intended route.

In any case positioning plays very important part.
It makes all the difference between gangbanging or being gangbanged.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Liking the game so far, seemed easier than beta now its kicking my ass prestigiously. Goddamn I wish i had more time playing nowadays :/

 

[Grunker]

Anyone figured out the exact trappings of the armor system? It's my favourite part of the combat, yet I have difficulty figuring out how it works *exactly*. Especially with some attacks bare being able to scratch a single armor pip while others just rip off 7-8 armor in one go, without me noticing any big tooltip differences on the attacks.

My asshole will never unravel from its currently clenched position (slight spoiler)

Spoiler

Holy suck on my balls that Ector mission was hard. At least with Balin who seems to be way lesser than his brother in small arenas where it’s hard to get a flank. Had nothing left when I finished the last normal undead fight, Mordred had two injuries and Balin one. “Wow, that was insane, can’t believe I made it”, I thought before realizing YOU HAVE TO FIGHT MOTHERFUCKING THREE MORE LOST KNIGHTS

Luckily there are no ranged enemies in that fight, and Balin’s traps are OP, so using the dark essence, push backs and spamming my ranged I was able to hold off those nuke-hitting sons of bitches for long enough to get them down.

Still only on a roster of 5, so I’ll have at least one injured dude with me on the next mission, and it’s hard to pick anyone but Mordred seeing as how you absolutely need at least one character with Block. Unfortunately he’s the one with worst injuries.

Also, I predict when Darth Roxor finally plays this game he will soon stop complaining about lack of variance (since there’s a good deal of it) and instead start complaining about enemies surviving on 1hp, enemies blocking and armor fall off

At first I regretted getting Balan, instead of Balin.
Even though setup with 2 champs worked pretty well paired with Mordred shield bash on heavily armored enemies.

I really liked that 3 knights battle in Ector mission.
With proper positioning it allowed to drag out their approach and deal with them one-by-one.
Thought myself pretty clever getting through it without taking a hit, but since there's only one side that was nicely covered with "cthulhu shit" jars, I suspect it was the intended route.

In any case positioning plays very important part.
It makes all the difference between gangbanging or being gangbanged.

It's also a good example of how your approach is crucial. One entry point makes the battle easier than others on the map, while other entry points makes it probably the hardest fight there.

 

[Nortar]

Anyone figured out the exact trappings of the armor system? It's my favourite part of the combat, yet I have difficulty figuring out how it works *exactly*. Especially with some attacks bare being able to scratch a single armor pip while others just rip off 7-8 armor in one go, without me noticing any big tooltip differences on the attacks.

There's the Armor Breaking stat - AB. Armor is reduced by Damage dealt, multiplied by AB.
On this screenshot Sir Kay has 20% AB, so if hit for 19 damage, the armor will be reduced by 19x0,2 = 3 pips.
The only thing I'm not sure if it's discrete or not. In other words, will it be reduced by 6 or 7 pips in 2 such hits?

Spoiler

Some attacks have AB modifiers. Kay's Death Strike here has -20% AB, with his base stats this attack won't affect armor at all.

 

[Grunker]

Brilliant, thanks.

Also lul:

 

[rusty_shackleford]

some of the missions on very hard seem flat out impossible
Into the Deepwoods is the first absolute stopper I've hit, no way I'm getting past this.

the campfires just don't restore anywhere near enough to deal with the massive amount of hp/armor damage the enemies there put out, it's such a massive difficulty jump from anything prior.

doesn't help that my team is a bit gimped due to having to select based on a "who has the least amount of wounds right now" basis, still would probably get wiped with my A team tho

[edit]
also been really unlucky with shop items, multiple refreshes in a row the only weapon runes I got were champion ones and none of the heavy guy armor runes

 

[Nortar]

some of the missions on very hard seem flat out impossible
Into the Deepwoods is the first absolute stopper I've hit, no way I'm getting past this.

My first reality check happened in Sir Yvain mission.
It starts suspiciously easy, but mistakes cost dearly and each boss has some kind of a dead-hand punishment.
And the only thing worse then archers in the backline, are the archers in the backline with poisoned arrows.
Until the last I hoped for "this all happened in a dream" explanation to get out without injuries. Yeah, right.

 

[Grunker]

I breezed through Sir Yvain. That and the rebellion mission were managable.

The Banshee is fucking my shit up currently. That thing has so many hp that you have to kill all its minions twice, because you can't rely on winning the fight before they rise

 

[rusty_shackleford]

So I guess I'm about halfway through? I seem to be a lot further ahead of everyone else posting so I'll post about my experience so far mixed with some tips(no spoilers besides the thing marked with a spoiler tag):

The levels tend to have a lot of optional fights/lewt/bosses along with secrets & optional objectives. Map design is pretty darn good, to be honest. Knock a point or two off for not much interactivity, though.
How you approach combat matters, even if it's not one of the fights that has multiple entry points. Scout around a bit and go slowly, don't just rush into areas.
Your perception/arcane skill ratings will help you find hidden treasure when exploring levels. When you get close it will become visible and there will be floating text saying what skill & rank was used to find it. Not to be confused with standard lootables that are visible before getting close to them.
For events where you have to send a hero to deal with problems(becomes increasingly common the further you play), who you send does matter. Read the text and think about it, don't just send anyone out.
The devs did their homework with regards to the lore & characters. Sir Kay having a Stubborn trait, for example. Most(all?) heroes have traits that match their character.
Guinevere having an 'unfaithful' trait was
When you get a new hero, check their traits. Most of them have a trait for a specific assignment at the castle.
...And Mordred can be given an assignment too, just not one at the round table. IIRC his trait is for the training area.
Heroes of the same class generally do not have all the same abilities. Some differ wildly with many unique abilities, some not so much. Some have the same 'main' ability but the specialization pips do different things, etc., A lot of heroes have their own unique abilities, some with multiple or an entire theme.
You can miss out on heroes based on your choices and have to pick between conflicting ones more than a couple times.
Archers don't seem to be very good, I'd say there's pretty much always a better pick to take with you over an archer.
Resists become increasingly important the further you go.
Yes, the amount of knights you can have is limited(to the 3 upgrades it seems) and you'll have to dismiss some to make room if you just take everyone. Woops! To clarify, when you're at the limit they go into the pool at the bottom of the round table screen thing(can't remember the name atm), I have no idea what happens if you have 4 and try to get another as there's only 4 slots there.

Spoiler

There's a consumable to resurrect fallen heroes in the crypt. I've found exactly one so far. I used it to resurrect

Spoiler

Sir Tristan's lover, Isolde. He had an event to ask me to allow him to go collect her remains to inter them in the crypt, and I allowed him. When you get one of the rez consumables, you can use it on the remains he brings back. Yep, doing this will add Isolde to your roster.

The item property that makes the first attack of opportunity against you miss each turn is great for getting in free backstabs.
Champions can do a lot of early pressure with one of those items that gives a yuge +move at the start of the encounter. They have a few talents for +damage per square moved and +damage for each enemy you kill(rampage or something), they can turn into a wrecking ball.
Duels are a cool feature. You can solve quite a few encounters -- especially ones against opponents that are honorable or looking to test their mettle -- by doing a duel instead of mass combat.

If I had a main critique, it would be the maps lacking interactivity and the kingdom management being a bit too simple. More upgrades, especially exclusive ones, would have been nice. And some court intrigue, perhaps. The events are fun, I'd like more of those.
I think someone said the lewt is randomly generated, that's only half true. Pretty sure all the artifact gear is handmade.

basically, pretty good, combat is lots of fun and that's nearly the entire game so good job neocore.

also the combat is hard as balls on Very Hard. It doesn't fuck around.

 

[Grunker]

When do you get a second defender? It's kind of slamming me that I have to bring Mordred for every single mission

 

[rusty_shackleford]

When do you get a second defender? It's kind of slamming me that I have to bring Mordred for every single mission

one of the side missions involving a graveyard or something has a defender

 

[Grunker]

Think this spells the end of my current journey. This game is hard man. I thought I did pretty good not having to heal Mordred at all through 5 or 6 concurrent missions, but no defender and only 1 melee guy prolly makes next mission impossibru:

Have to get gudder, I suppose.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Thinks this spells the end of my current journey. This game is hard man. I thought I did pretty good not having to heal Mordred at all through 5 or 6 concurrent missions, but no defender and only 1 melee guy prolly makes next mission impossibru:

Have to get gudder, I suppose.

make sure you're always checking the market for gear upgrades, I didn't put enough emphasis on that at first and started over and did better

the bottom right market upgrade description is misleading btw, it doesn't just apply to the next refresh but every refresh then on

also it should be pretty obvious, but make sure you rotate your gear off people who are assigned to a task to active roster members if it's better than what they have

 

[fantadomat]

is this out or is tihs some ea/demo tihng

 

[fizzelopeguss]

Worth removing from inventory? Game certainly looks pretty in screen grabs.