This is a sponsored post. Prototype featured.

Before you read on

We already covered Kings of Ruin a year ago! That was Chapters 1-2, so with the extension of now Chapters 1-5, we are covering half of the campaign. To not waste time, this review is only going to cover the new stuff in this prototype.

If you want more info on how Kings of Ruin compares to Fall of Avalon, or a more detailed overview/how to play, check out that review here.

Our experience with Tainted Grail

Daniel has completed Fall of Avalon, and Daniel and Ashton (me) have both previously played Kings of Ruin (prototype) with different characters.

For this solo playthrough of Chapters 1-5, I made sure to pick different story paths than him, and also used an entirely new character (Iunis).

I (Ashton) have NOT finished the Fall of Avalon campaign, but have worked on Daniel for much of the content where he discusses its completion, and have compared notes with him for this review.

Need to learn how to play? Or want more reasoning for our points? Our review video’s got you!

Component/Art PROS

• Minis continue to be incredible with sundrop treatment

  • Monsters, companions, mounted heroes, normal heroes, and wyrdform minis

  • Aren’t final, and a little off-color, and some parts fell off during shipping (came in bubble wrap)

• Log booklet has pleather outside

  • Very nice to use after going through many logs

• Components holistically good

  • New secret reader devices

  • Insert for minis/cards

• Player aids now include victory check for damage and taking damage if in wyrdness at night

• New Wyrdform encounter cards with new art

• Wyrdform character boards that slot in/out

• Art in general continues the Tainted Grail great quality

GAMEPLAY PROS — 2 New Characters

• Iunis: Formorian Ex-gladiator fighter (used for campaign)

  • Feels physically bruising to use, hurt self to get benefits

  • Great if you like to have long sequenced encounters

  • Diplomacy has cards to get benefits if enemy is in grey or red zone

  • Can gain terror to heal, which is very useful after taking a beating

  • Thematic Downside: ending days in settlements gains terror (she’s an outcast)

• Osbert: Trickster, Gambler, Bard

  • Crafts bombs/snares by spending energy, needs because 5 hp

  • Diplomacy grants options to go greedy:

  • gain wealth by resetting track (Risky Bet)

  • Roll a die to either get enemy activation, or uptick and draw cards (Stroke of Luck)

  • Can busk in parts of the story, or beg for money with skill

  • Rewards precise card play for risk lovers

• New characters have own upgrade decks, skills, backstories (like usual)

Gameplay Pros - Wyrdform Cards/Skills

• Nice progression to combat/diplomacy, adds diversity

• Cost something to use, but are better especially in Wyrdness

• New skills to use, but we didn’t get to use them

Gameplay Pros - Cleaning up previous prototype woes

• Now 2 markers in chokepoint locations on the map, delays the random encounter more

  • Helps in later chapters where there’s more traveling

• Self-reliant changed: Now gives decision to lose health or gain terror in order to gain energy

  • Can min-max 3 tracks more carefully now

  • Fixes Gerdwyn issue where she would easily max out on energy with self-reliant + eating

• Gerdwyn “Fast Learner” is no longer terrible

  • now grants 2 magic + drawing 4 cards for encounter deck upgrade

Gameplay Pros - Previous Prototype Pros hold up across 5 chapters!

• No more grind of encounters

• Marking time passes on encounter sheet is great way to keep track of progress

• Confining to certain sections of the map keeps chapters concise

• Still locations to spend resources and energy to heal up, prevents ‘death spiraling’

• Double-sided location cards continue to be relevant

• A & B item decks are supplemented by C & D deck to keep pacing of item gain smooth

  Gameplay Pro - Slight Spoilers on Claudyne (feel free to scroll down)

• Fought in a different sense than previous review

• Very epic

• Has flavor text to read mid-fight

• Has his own cards to play based off book of secrets

• Hits like a truck, unlike before

Story Pros (MINOR SPOILERS: Feel free to scroll down)

• Internal strife to find Arthur vs. going home continues to have repercussions

• Far from feeling railroaded, so many branching story points in every chapter

  • Multiple times felt like “Oh, no going back from this decision now”

• Chapters not as straightforward as they initially may seem

• Doing something different in every chapter

• Previous decisions continue to have effects on land in later chapters

• Non player characters (NPCs) continue to fill the island

  • 3+ choices for ally with at some point

  • Everyone could be doing the “right” thing, just depends on how you look at it

• Some jaw-dropping moments in story

• One chapter has firm nods to those who have good knowledge of the Fall of Avalon campaign

Rulebook Cons

• Assume finished game will come with some fast start/setup to get Chapter 1 started faster

  • Chapter 1 currently does good job of getting people comfortable with game

  • Rulebook is like bloated reference at 40+ pages for simple gameplay loop

• No rulings on whether or not you can show hands to each other during group encounter

General Component Cons

• Eventually get a bazillion small cards in front of you, hard to forget/use certain things

  • No self included organization system

• Difference between 2 of a trait vs. 1 on encounters is hard to see (empathy especially)

• Skill tiles are hard to tell what attribute they belong to

Gameplay Cons — Elgan

• Still has ability to make a Wyrdcandle that lasts 1 day (Waystone lasts forever, only 1 more magic cost)

• Downside now punishes you for going into instant effects in Wyrdness (before used to be any Wyrdness)

  • So many Wyrdness spaces that have instant consequences though

  • Other characters don’t seem to hit as hard as this

  • Downside could be restricted to once a day

Gameplay Cons —Insane Condition & Multiplayer Woes

• Going insane doesn’t do much outside of panicking during encounters

  • Possible energy loss while exploring isn’t that bad

  • Could be a type of insanity deck you flip for every day you’re insane?

• Multiplayer playthroughs have lots of downside if someone isn’t in encounter

Gameplay Cons — Claudyne Fight (feel free to scroll down to avoid minor spoilers)

• Should be able to adjust combat deck at least before boss fight

• Boss reshuffles your deck, but on their terms and very slowly

• Situation where forced to lose the fight, because not ready to fight him with a 11-13 card deck at that point in the game

  • Can’t run away from this one, get penalized for losing

  • Have to wait entire day to adjust combat deck

• In story path I took, boss seems scaled around 2+ adventurers, really stretches you to do so much damage to kill it

  • Boss combat is cool, but seeing how TG is mostly about story, boss fights should be less punishing to lose (think of video game just restarting at a checkpoint)

  • Or bosses could just be easier to beat