So.., over the past week I have been racking my brain for something to post as the lull of waiting for the Screaming God getting delivered to backers continues to persist.
And whilst the last weekend delivered at least a little something I deemed worthy of being shared, I would much rather be sinking my teeth into the Vignette encounter packaged with the loud-mouthed deity at this time.

But, for what it’s worth, today I have a brief tale of triumph:
We, as in I, together with the help and wits of a good friend, managed to finally defeat the Gold Smoke Knight over the course of the last weekend!

Depending on a few factors – like for instance: how long you have had the game, how many campaigns you’ve played or how methodical you approach the game in general – this may or may not be something worth talking about for everybody.
But I do have to say, I felt really happy about it!

The Gold Smoke Knight had been the Finale monster in my collection that had put up the most resistance until now, typically hitting me with L cards off the top of its deck and ready to put me into a position from which I could barely deal any damage in return.
But not this time!
In a surprisingly slow and methodical manner, we fought against the golden brute with both tried and true methods of engagement, as well as new content alike.

Our PotLantern campaign featured Frogdog, Spidicules & Phoenix as quarry monsters with Flower Knight being “splashed in” as well (we had in turn held off from a Node 4 just in case the SG came charging in), and Butcher/KillyB, Slenderman & the Hand for Nemesis monster.

These 4 survivors were the ones who got it done, and I took the pictures shortly after the fight, with armor points etc. as they were right after the encounter.
All 4 of them managed to deal damage to the Gold Smoke Knight over the course of the fight, though it is probably not much of a surprise that the Phoenix Armor and Bullfrogdog Armor did the heavy lifting, typically charging at the monster in tandem.

Notably, we never managed to get a pair of Frogdoggles built and thus played the entire campaign without hit location scouting. AI scouting was also kept to a minimum – employed in 2 or maybe 3 fights.
We did not fall into Slowserism because of this either, as our most used weapons over the years were a set of Hooded Scrap Katar, a Sonic Tomahawk and an Amber Poleaxe.

And to top things off, it was also a (mostly) Twilight Sword-less campaign as well, wielders typically dying within 1 or 2 Lantern Years after gaining the weapon.

My favorite hunt over the entirety of the campaign (which was most likely a Frogdog) saw us arriving at the showdown with 5 broken legs and 4 broken arms spread evenly across the entire party.

This also lined up really nicely with me painting the Gold Smoke Knight as my first mini after reaching 100 painted minis!
Or so I thought..
My count fell apart really quickly despite me doing my utmost best to get it right. I recounted everything like 6 times! And yet, I still missed both Lunar Aya (because I had given her away last year) and the DBK ball – so my counts have all been off by a bit from the get-go!
So, now I’m at 105 .. or 106 .. or something.

***

After having recently finished 2 campaigns featuring Spidicules and exploring the fight a bit more at higher levels as well, I do have to say that I can’t emphasize that much with the typical complaints about spooder gear anymore.

This relates both to the crafting costs for the head-piece as well as to the affinities on the set.
If you do not know what I mean by this: the head piece requires a Strange Resource only obtained by the Lvl3 fight – which only has 12TGH! Compared to a lot of other higher level monsters, that’s nothing! That’s a Lvl2 birb!?
Sure, the real threat in the Spidicules Lvl3 encounter comes from the Spiderlings, especially whilst anything and everything gives bleed via an After Damage effect, but the barrier for entry to this fight is significantly lower when compared to almost any other monster in the game!
And should you be desperate for a head piece before that, you could always be wearing a Skull Helm to round out the set until you get around to making the turban.. it would put the whole ensemble on par with other Node 2 armor sets numbers-wise.

Similarly, it would seem another common complaint about the set are the abilities found on its pieces and the required affinities for them. Four of the items have abilities, requiring mostly puzzle pieces throughout, and you will typically be able to activate 2 or 3 of them, but it forces you to chose which.
I won’t argue that their positioning in the grid can be a bit wild, and I am willing to concede that the chest armor doesn’t fit in as well with its affinity colors, but overall I’d much rather have a set be open for some decision making every once in a while than have every other set be a Lantern Armor with a more or less fixed layout.

These 2 points are obviously my own opinion and should your’s differ, feel free to share how and due to what reasoning!

Overall, I feel there isn’t as much wrong with Spidicules as some people make it out to be.
The mini can be a menace.

Although calling it “unplayable” is yet another stretch, I would say.

Overall, I really came to liking the Spidicules expansion.

***

I initially also wanted to comment on a couple of things I read in regards to the Screaming God expansion over the last couple of days, but I am unsure if I should at this point.

A lot of the discussions I have seen on the expansion and its contents feels somewhat moot (premature) to me at this point as most people have yet to play it – or even get it.

..

This is one of those times where I started typing out loads of different things and ended up leaving it at 2 sentences in the end. Yeah!

At the end of the day, personally, I just want to get my copy, build a cool looking axe and try out some fun new gear!

As for the upcoming week, things are unfortunately fairly unlikely to pick up before I get my Screaming God in hand as I will be pre-occupied with personal things for a few days.
Winning the campaign with that Bullfrogdog Armor does make want to put together that Resin VS Copper opinion-write-up though.

As always, thank you very much for your time, does a Node 4 really need more than 1 indom at release?
Amathul