There are going to be some mild spoilers in this article. Honestly, it’s nothing I didn’t find out before I played but I know there is a fan base who want to play this game 100% blind, if you are reading I’m going to assume you are like me and want to feel somewhat prepared before you set off on your game.
Consider everything beyond the white lion photo to potentially contain spoilers:
To quickly set the stage of this campaign, in the previous People of the Lantern campaign, in Lantern Year 14 my returning survivors ran into shrouding mist and ended up never finding The Fix settlement and stumbled upon a newly forming settlement, aptly known as The New Fix.
The Strategy
Before I set out on this new campaign I wanted to do some things differently:
– Choose the principle Survival of the fittest
– Choose the principle Cannibalism over Graves
– Be deliberate about a few character/gear archetypes (Spear/Shield/Great Weapon/Axe)
– Avoid Bone Weapons (mostly because of the weapons I’m bringing to the new game plus)
Dramatis Personae
Francis the Founder: Francis was one of the original 4 characters from last campaigns prologue fight.
Minerva Daughter of Light: Minerva is the daughter of Athena, along with Francis one of the original 4, and a partner to Shaun the Straggler.
Shaun the Straggler: Shaun was found trapped in a cage during a hunt. The Settlement of the Fix didn’t really trust him at first and he was used to do a number of risky endeavors. He survived them all and now found himself one of the top dogs in The New Fix.
Helga the One Handed: Helga had a number of unfortunate severe injury rolls that led her to losing her arm, an eye, and she’s traumatized (gets knocked down when ending an activation next to a monster). Despite the odds she survived and redefined her role as a Spearmen and support character to work around her Traumatized Disorder.
Lantern Year 1
I imagine all plus campaigns (campaigns where you port characters from previous campaigns over) feel weird. I wanted to avoid innovations early on but having the resources from a level 2 white lion hunt as well as the armor load outs they came in with I went against my better judgment and decided to innovate every year possible.
I imagine Francis and his crew have a cold determination from the lessons learned from their last settlement. Survival Abilities like Dash and Surge are game changers and while they still remember how to preform those actions, that can’t quite get these new people to understand.
Lantern Year 2-5
Lantern Year 5-10
Lantern Year 11-15
Lantern Year 16-20
Lantern Year 20-25
Final Thoughts
I enjoyed my time playing this game. I can see why after a play through you need to start to pick up expansions otherwise hunting the lion and Antelope over and over can get tedious
I like that I had to use out of the box strategy to succeed. I feel like I cooked my way to victory by combining many Antelope hunts and the benefits you get from the Dung Harvest in the Dung Beetle Knight to boost my key survivors stats.
I love that you have to start planning for the boss fights years in advance. It adds to the immersion and feeling that you are controlling a small civilization rather than playing a pre determined plot/game progression.
I was somewhat underwhelmed by the Watcher fight, but I was so laser focused and had multiple ways to deal more than one wound without drawing multiple location cards that I didn’t mind. It was honestly my favorite fight and the plot twist afterwords is one of the more memorable moments.
Gold Smoke Knight was also a tense fight but it lacked the story payout that the Watcher delivered which was somewhat disappointing.
Next up I plan on doing a Sun Stalker Campaign and considering adding Spidiclious to the mix of monsters (I’m on Antelope burn out)
As always, thanks for reading. Enjoy the hobby, comment below, and check out my YT Channel@Decisive Operations Happy New Year!