Arc Philosophy & Knowledge: Part 20 Collectivism Knowledges

With our look at the overarching theories and design for Collectivism over, it is time to dig into the meat of the mechanics. These knowledges have a light level of parasitic design to them, but it is more that they interact with themselves and desire to be spread to as many other survivors as possible rather than being completely turned inwards in their mechanics. Creating a package of knowledges often takes the risk that they do not work well with others and when you are exploring the theme of collectivism on top of that there's a real risk that it could end up devouring the space that the other knowledges need. Let us see how or even if Collectivism manages to navigate that tricky terrain.

All For One

• Type: Unique

• Stages: 3

• Observations Required: Spend another survivor's survival.

• Advancement: 4/8/-

• Lumi Costs: 1/2/3

• Bonuses: With permission you may spend other survivor's survival as your own.

• Parallels: None

Our core tenet Musketeers reference is a direct balancing tool designed to offset the negative part of Collectivism's neurosis - Selfless. Which if you recall, sets your survival to 0 when departing and it applies this after all bonuses, meaning that the survivor has zero survival at the start of the hunt phase.

This is a rather large negative even for a philosophy neurosis because one of the major design goals of the hunt phase is to wear down resources like Survival and then heavily punish survivors who have 0 survival with extreme consequences. An All for One survivor is dependant on other survivors to get them through this phase, especially if you are going past Overwhelming Darkness which you should be doing in a regular fashion by the time you've unlocked the Tier 2 Philosophies.

There are tools you can get which will replenish survival for these survivors, so options that provide survival on certain triggers/activations like Stone Noses or Monster Meat or Survivalism's Tenacity are other options and in truth I really like to have Tenacity on the single lone Collectivism survivor I will be taking out because they benefit so much from having a small bank of survival tokens.

I chose to operate in this manner because my main goal with Collectivism is to keep most of them in the settlement where they can increase the settlement survival limit and only take one Collectivism survivor out at a time in order to unlock the knowledges and let them complete their philosophy arc. I've found that Collectivism Knowledges are similar to homicidalism in that they are a knowledge category that I prefer to utilise on survivors with other philosophies, so choosing to run no more than one Collectivism survivor per hunt and collecting the rest in settlement like a bunch of eggs in a Pokemon storage system box has been an effective way to unlock those knowledges while also benefiting from a deep pool of survival.

On survivors who are not Collectivists I have really liked using this knowledge with front line survivors who are either engaged in some form of tanking hits or dealing damage. Being able to lean on an additional pool of survival from a backline support is a fantastic tool, especially if that support has ways of replenishing their own survival.

Legion

• Type: Stat Booster

• Stages: 3

• Observations Required: 1/1/-

• Advancement: Another Survivor has Legion/8 Survivors in the Settlement have legion/-

• Lumi Costs: 0/2/4

• Bonuses: Theory/May spend 3 Lumi to teach another survivor Legion LOPY/All survivors with Legion gain strength equal to the number of survivors with legion on the showdown board

• Parallels: Monster-Tooth Necklace, Giant's Blood

Our only other evolving knowledge in this philosophy is Legion. Legion is a super fun way of scaling up weapon strength and letting a settlement use powerful abilities on weak weapons. In particular I love how the second rank of this allows you to propagate the knowledge across to other survivors who can also spread it around and then when you hit 8 survivors with Legion they all automatically evolve and level it up. That's such a sweet combination of mechanical and thematic design coming together. This is of course something you'll want to have on all survivors in a hunt group if you are going to utilise it and initially when you have it you'll have 8 survivors with the knowledge to draw from. As such my main goal with Legion is to push it onto good survivors that I am wanting to use in showdowns so I can get it for a slight discount (3 lumi instead of 4) and ensure that all the survivors

It's worth also acknowledging that using this knowledge with the Scout and 5 or 6 (or even 7) player games is going to scale up the power of this level even more.

Myrmidon's Call

• Type: Support and Temporary Stat Boost

• Stages: 1

• Observations Required: -

• Advancement: -

• Lumi Costs: 3

• Bonuses: May encourage without spending survival. Encouraged survivor gains +2 movement tokens until end of round

• Parallels: Gloom Choker

The Myrmidons are from Homer's Iliad and were commanded by Achilles, though their name came not from Achilles, but instead from Myrmidon who was a king and child of Zeus. They have also become somewhat crossed over with the concept of ant people via the Greek word myrmex. Greek, Roman, Nordic, Celtic and Christian mythologies each all have a handprint deeply pressed into Kingdom Death (along with a lot of Japanese manga) and this is not the only place we see such influences. The game is a melting pot in the best possible manner and the use of Myrmidon here is an evocative part of that.

At the absolute floor of this knowledge we have a survivor who can ensure that one other survivor is not knocked down at the start of the monster's turn. But when we have ways of encouraging a survivor regardless of if they are knocked down or standing, and/or gear/knowledges with encourage synergies the ceiling on this can get very high as it may transform into a continuously reapplied buff for the entire team. I really enjoy encouragement based abilities, it's a very thematic and fun concept that ties survivors together in supporting each other.

At the base level, without other encouragement based synergies I will not often spend 3 lumi for this, but I am happy to have it on a survivor. It's also worth noting that this knowledge is specifically engineered as another assist for Collectivists, because they have very small amounts of survival and having this means they can help other survivors (therefore the collective) despite that.

Team Sacrifice

• Type: Dice Roll Bonus and Hunt Management

• Stages: 1

• Observations Required: -

• Advancement: -

• Lumi Costs: 2

• Bonuses: You may elect to become the straggler, +3 to roll results when you are the straggler.

• Parallels: Leader

First thing to note here is the +3 bonus to rolls is not optional and it's a blanket effect covering all kinds of dice rolls (at least until it gets an FAQ or Errata). That means that most of the time this is incredible safety net for a hunt team because one survivor can be the lightning rod for all the worst situations and they get most of the time neutral outcomes from those straggler rolls. However occasionally, because you cannot opt out of using that +3, this may become a severe negative. In those edge case situations you're probably going to instead follow the normal Straggler mechanics if you are familiar with the consequences of the stragglers' dice roll.

That's a small bit of a shame, but despite that area where it operates as a negative, most of the time you'll want one copy of this on a single survivor in your hunt party because it ensures that only one survivor is ever the straggler and most of the time they suffer lesser consequences than any of the others. If you run a red shirt support in your hunt parties then they're the ideal target for all of this because they're mostly disposable in the first place.

Eight Eyes

• Type: Unique

• Stages: 1

• Observations Required:

• Advancement:

• Lumi Costs:

• Bonuses: If your survivors have more eyes than the monster, at the start of the showdown you ambush it.

• Parallels: Various other Ambush mechanics, most of which are related to the hunt phase

First of all, it's time for an eye count!

(Note this eye count is 100% not official and may even vary from one group of players to the next).

• White Lion – 2

• Gorm – 2

• Frogdog – 2 (I am not counting the Dogpoles)

• Crimson Crocodile – 16

• Screaming Antelope - 2

• Flower Knight – 2

• Smog Singers – 6

• Spidicules – 8

• Phoenix – 4

• Dragon King – 2 or 4

• Sunstalker – 2

• Dung Beetle Knight – 2 or 8

• Lion God - 2

• King – ??? (It could be 2+, I still don't know how much a part of the creature the stone cherubs are, they are a resource and don't appear to be like the parasitic hands that infest phoenixes. Still I've not fully explored The King in analysis yet, that is to come this year though!)

• Butcher – 2

• Manhunter – 2

• King's Man – 2

• Slender Man – 0

• Black Knight – 2 I think, though there's 6 eyes visible due to the decorative pauldrons and helmet

• Lion Knight – 2 (but does Sam, Rand and Ash count? Then it's 8)

• Atnas – 2+ depending on what you've done with the living antlers

• Lonely Tree – 0 (though I painted eyeballs on all the monster fruit like a fool!)

• Bone Eaters – 2 Per Eater

• Watcher – 0

• Gold Smoke Knight – 2

• The Tyrant – 2

• Gambler – 2

• The Hand/Godhand – 3, this one I'm confident about due to mechanics directly referencing the three lenses/eyes.

Of course the real issue is it can depend on your painting, I've painted additional eyes on a number of monsters and there's things like the nostrils on the “head” of the Sunstalker that could be argued to be eyes. Also it can be very subjective when you're dealing with monsters like the Oblivion Mosquito. As such I think the important thing here is for each group to decide on a number that feels right and then stick to that number in a consistent fashion. It is a fun mechanic that plays with the the game's mechanics in an interesting manner, but it can be fuzzy, deliberately so.

As for the power of this card, it's pretty high, Ambushing the monster is very strong due to how it gives the survivors a massive amount of deployment flexibility and also the first strike. As the campaign moves forward survivor's offence becomes stronger, especially when combined with the ability to deal multiple attacks or multiple wounds per hit location. Bursting a monster early on is a very strong way to set the monster back by denying strong AI cards and making the monster more predictable on the second lap of the AI deck through removal during the wounding process.

This is a card you don't want in many numbers either because you'll want a maximum of one survivor with this at the start of the showdown and all of this means that this card feels powerful but not overwhelming.

Oh yeah, watch out for blind/one-eyed survivors when using this!

Final Thoughts

Collectivism is a very interesting philosophy, its design is very much around personal sacrifice for the greater good in combination with together we are strong. All for One on the surface looks very selfish, as it is where a single survivor draws on the strengths of others in order to become stronger themselves. However, this extra strength is used for the good of the hunt party and the settlement as a whole. Then we have Team Sacrifice and Myrmidon's Call, both of which are of no benefit to the survivor who has them because they are used to protect others from dangerous consequences.

Legion and Eight Eyes land in the category of 'together we strong' (as does the Selfless neurosis) with Legion asking you to have multiple copies of it on the hunt in order to get the greatest benefit from the knowledge while Eight Eyes only requires one copy, but draws strength from the group as a whole.

It is fascinating how many different aspects of Collectivism are explored in this small selection of knowledges and I think the entire philosophy is really well designed. I am a little surprised though that there was not more impact on the settlement side of things outside of the Selfless Settlement Survival Limit increases. When I first played with this philosophy I did expect to see more things to assist in the Settlement Phase rather than showdown related.

Final note: I am writing this as someone who lives in Sweden, where the Nordic model is thriving, and comes from the place with nationalised health services originated (Wales, it was founded by Aneurin Bevan and there is a statue of him in Cardiff near the site of the now closed board game shop where I worked during my university years). I am very much pro-collectivism as I believe a community that works together elevates all members.