Okay, I’ve owned this game for a couple of years, and these are my answers:

1: Is it still good?

I love this game. It’s still the only game I want to play regularly. I have games by Warlord, GW, WoC, Mantic, Gripping Beast, FFG and I’m sure some others – but this is the game I go back to.

2: What’s the campaign experience like?

The campaign has a story and an ending – but there’s nothing to stop you playing on if you want. The ultimate goal is survival, but initially there are events that foreshadow something more. Whether you get enjoyment from that, I can’t say. there is a “final” game-over type ending, but you can play on if you like – it will just get a little more tedious when there is nothing to aim for. I will admit that the additional content added for the final years of V1.5 is less polished than some other writing in the campaign.

The premise is as you’ve described – but how you mould and shape the settlement, the events that impact decisions, the loss of survivors or gear, all change with every year and every game. So yes, it’s hunt, kill, gather resource, build, repeat. but the decisions change – sometime due to external factors, sometimes because you’ve learnt something new.

3: How essential are the expansions?

You can absolutely enjoy the core game only – I’ve solo played through it twice, I have another campaign with friends that has just two expansions (Flower Knight and Gorm) and I only added the Flower Knight to make a specific item to help them out  – but the campaigns included in the Dragon King and Sunstalker are better experiences overal, but no expansion is essential.

4: Are there better alternatives now?

That’s pretty subjective – I have read some people prefer Gloomhaven, but I didn’t enjoy the mechanics or the story, and I don’t know anyone who plays it. Only you can say what’s better or worse.

5: Does it still feel as good when played solo?

I love the solo play. Even when played as a group there is no DM/GM – the entire showdown (the fight) is based around the monsters AI deck and Hit Location deck. Playing as a group you will discuss options or just have some people wade right in. When I solo, I find I am more measured and reserved. I think I get more attached to characters when I solo the game. Not a bad thing per se – but survivors die. The gear is the key to winning.

So, for fairness, some cons – You need space and time to play this. My first campaign failed part way through – but that was still nearly 20hrs of play. My second campaign looped – it took about 80hrs. The campaign with friends is currently at 30hrs and they have around 10″years” of play left. And I would say a 4ft x 3ft area is the smallest you can reasonably play on.

There are a lot of models – you only really need to build the Quarries (3), nemesis characters (5) and four survivors – the rest are purely for the aesthetic.

The game could possibly have done with one more monster to hunt, and one fewer nemesis. Adding  either the Gorm or Flower knight as a new quarry does add some variety – particularly in the mid-game.

A couple of people I have spoken to and played with, find the mid-game is a bit of a grind, as you are searching for particular resources, or trying to get a character a certain milestone. I didn’t find this, but again, it’s personally preference.

As far as I know there is no 1.6 as such. There are two particular expansions that came out of the last kickstarter – Campaigns of Death and KD:M Advanced. Campaigns of Death has some rules tweaks to some expansions and has a slew of suggested campaigns to play (including which expansion you can put together to change the game experience). The main game has a couple anyway (People of the Bone, Seven Swordman etc). Advanced KD:M is a whole new set of expansion – all of which are optional. At some point in the future there may be a new KS for V1.6/7/8/9 or whatever version number they choose – but given Adam is still working on the last Kickstarter expansions, it could be a few years off yet.

Black Friday sales do happen – but whether you can get a copy then is something of a lottery.

As I say, this is just my view – and others may have totally different opinions. It’s a big investment either way. If you can find a group to join and play, I would try that first – unless you can afford £400 off the bat, and are willing to possibly take a loss (how much varies wildly) if you resell.

Hope I’ve helped in some way.

I’d say it’s held up really well so far. There are one or too clunky issues that got fixed with faq & eratta (Butcher’s infinite kick loop anyone?). In terms of comparisons it feels “more like Dark Souls than the official Dark Souls board game”.  You don’t need any of the expansions to play. They each add something optional (some add alternate campaigns as well but every campaign containing expansion also contains options to integrate it into the main core campaign with the alternate campaign being an optional extra).

Initially you only need to build 5 models. You can then build more as the campaign progresses and you encounter new foes or craft new equipment.