Here’s my problem with Kingdom Come: Deliverance—it’s simply not finicky enough. It’s too straightforward, I am too able to keep its rules and demands in my head, the game does not compel me to keep track of enough small things. Oh, you expect me to put my armour on in a precise order? That’s complicated. For babies.
Fortunately, top minds have figured out a way to increase the grognarditude of one of the games industry’s foremost grognard RPGs (which, let me be clear, I adore): they’ve turned it into a board game. Coming, appropriately, out of board game house Czech Games, Kingdom Come: Deliverance – The Board Game is currently up for preorder for the somewhat spicy price—to me, as a man whose board game experience consists of Mouse Trap—of $200.
It comes from renowned game designers Tomáš Holek and Vlaada Chvátil and looks to be replicating the general arc of the games in tabletop form. You start off as a rag-clad peasant, make your way out into the world, and either find success or die horribly. “Deal with unpredictable locals, train to become a skilled archer, a silver-tongued orator, or even a cunning thief. Whatever path you choose, let it be your own,” goes the blurb. It can be played solo or with up to four players.
It’s of course not out yet, but already redolent in bits: tokens, cards, figurines, boards, sub-boards, figurines, baubles, gewgaws. There’s a lot to keep track of, but they are fortunately all quite pleasant to look at, at least insofar as their prototype renders are concerned. This is what I mean by ‘KCD, but more complicated.’ In fact, here’s the full list of stuff: