You know in a horror movie when one of the Actors hears a noise that sounds awfully like a crazed killer, the music racks up a notch and Phew! it turns out it was just the cat and we let out a sigh of relief …. Now is the time the crazed killer jumps out. We know this, we’ve seen enough horrors to expect it. When a game says “1-8” players, this is the cat. You should know better. It’s a one player player game really. 
So having not seen the 1-8 players tag and having ignored the fact that it’s a coop I sat down with five chums to play Eldridge Horror. I didn’t really like it. 

Eldridge Horror is like playing Wack a Mole with a big dog trying to hump your leg whilst someone throws flaming chips at you and A another shouts “boat number 3 your time is nearly up!” so you can’t enjoy the experience. If that’s what the designers were aiming for they got it bang on
We’ve been here before with Arkham Horror, Elder Sign and even xCom. Portals are opening around the world hastening the end game timer, various bad events have to be solved or they add to your woes and in the center of these distractions is an uber baddie you have to gather weapons and tools to defeat. It’s not a million miles from Talisman is it?  

The game is to the usual high standard of Fantasy Flight production but interestingly doesn’t come with models for investigators or monsters. Fair enough it would be too expensive. The standees are fine. 
Let’s get straight to it. The game is dull. It’s also practically solitaire, has long downtimes between player turns. For me it just doesn’t work and it’s a pity. The IP is as good as you can ask for. It’s just the premise of the game is bore ring. Yes there’s lots of atmospheric text but guess what? I don’t read it. I also pick the default character when I play a RPG video game and don’t spent ages on their looks. I want to get to the game proper asap. 
This is not an RPG, it’s not scary. It’s a big old puzzle where everyone is playing against the game but rarely together. Now If a game is solitaire then it doesn’t require multiple players. If it doesn’t require multiple players it’s not really a game is it?

I’m going to stick a pin in Eldridge Horror. I had heard ok things about it and I feel I’m missing something. Maybe it’s better with four. I dunno but it left me cold and I wouldn’t rush out and buy it
Bad Fantasy Flight. Sit
Huzzah!
Vic 

The Swiss are interesting cats. They’ve mostly stayed out of conquest games like diplomacy being happier to spend their time crimping Toblerones (the villians) but when it comes to Imperial 2030, being Swiss is the surest way toNot lose badly
Imperial 2030 is one of my very favourite 6 player games, hands down for years now and I’m too old to change. It’s got everything a conquest game should have, armies (check), conquest (check), world map (check), diplomatic deals (check), backstabbing (check and check). What makes it all the more interesting is it’s not a conquest game. It’s a stock market game. GASP!

The surest way to lose a game of Imperial 2030 (apart from playing it) is to come into the game thinking it’s a conquest game. It’s not. it has all the trappings but the game is all about backing the right horse and that may not always be you. Truth be told you may not have your own best interests at heart when you run a country.
In the same way as “Don’t trust Vic” gets bandied about before a game starts, “You don’t own the country, you just invest in it” is a truth universally acknowledged by losers of this game (usually 5 of them each play). I’ll tell you what write that on the back of your hand in black biro before you start and refer to it often.

The sizzle of 2030 is you INVEST in a country by buying shares in it. The player with the biggest investment gets to control the country and call the shots when it comes to building and moving armies, building factories, taxation and dealing out dividends. unfortunately there’s nearly always lesser investors with their snouts in the trough when it comes to dividend dinner time. This is where the real skills comes in. Having played this game a lot I’ve found that doing a William Reiker and letting someone else make the hard decisions can win you the game. Actually doing a Reiker with multiple people at the same time and not controlling any countries will win the game for you. However like all great games the skill is in judging when to jump ship and become a citizen of the world and egging others into investing in your country and have them take it over when it’s as valuable as stale bread. 
Time and again it’s the Swiss that win the game. Lose you’re country to a higher stake holder and you become a Swiss investment banker (their entry requirements are questionable if you ask me) and critically you can invest every time someone else does unlike landed premiers who are too busy with matters of state and only get to invest every so often. 

Now if you can time it right and you leave office with enough of a wad and a resonable portfolia of investments you have a good shot at winning if you can manage your money and invest in sure things (there are no sure things). Suddenly this doesn’t sound at all like a conquest game does it? No sir. Don’t be fooled your conquest skills are critical early on but like all the presidents before you, you only start to make real cash money once you’ve left office
Huzzah!
Vic

Black Plague is the latest version of Zombicide. It’s a coop but it’s a decent coop. If you’ve played any of the other zombicides then this is much the same again with a new lick of ye olde lead paint. 
The copy we played was owned by our host and he’d gone elbows deep in the Kickstarter and had pretty much one of everything including the expansion. We opted for the heroes from Monty Python’s Holy Grail which were grand but not side splittingly funny. 

The game is one of the better unstoppable mission based zombie horde games. Perhaps they’re a an acronym for that. It’s set in fantasy land with the usual dwarf, elf, human, whatever stereotypes. What if all elves are not good archers? Or dwarves prefer oil painting to cleaving. Anyhoe the Necromancers have something or other and bang! Zombies a go go. 
Each character starts with a special ability like healing, magic missile (yes there’s magic) and maybe a starting weapon. An overall mission which might see you trying to gather food or kill x amount of zombies or whatever. Then it’s off to the starting spot and a surprisingly quiet set of streets. Don’t be lulled into a false sense of no zombies. They’re in the post. Remember those projects in college where towards the end you wished you did more at the start? Zombicide. 

Each turn consists of moving you’re dudes and doing actions like opening doors (bad), searching buildings (probably good), culling zombies (good) and despairing. Once everyone has moved more zombies appear and then they move. Some in the case of the runners quite quickly. In the case of everyone else nice and slow. Don’t be fooled, it’s unforgiving and nails hard. 

There’s a few zombie varieties some impossible to kill with you’re starting weapons and some apocalyptic. More If you’re masochist enough to buy the bigga bosses add ons. 
As you kill zombies you start to level up and gain extra abilities like more moves/attacks better shooting but the flip side is now more and nastier zombies start to appear to match your level. Very quickly it goes from a small leak to a tsunami of zombie porridge. 
The game is hard. The zombies are unstoppable this game is like left4dead only way harder. I’d played the original but a few versions on it’s become really really tough. 
Now normally I don’t like coops but I make some exceptions. This is one of them. As dungeon bashes go this is very slick indeed. The production values are excellent. Better than Fantasy Flight. Granted we were playing the Rolls Royce Kickstarter but even the base game is very nicely appointed. 

If you were going to dip you toe (and get it bitten) in the Zombicide world Black Plague is definitely the place to start. It’s a fine polished zombie game and if you’re a collector a game in itself sourcing all the extras for it if you’re one who just has to have it all. It’s also quick (scenario dependent), Pricey and only gorgeous. 

Top marks for a coop
Huzzah!
Vic 

Knaves,

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you, my transport manager just had a wee baby girl on Monday so has been otherwise occupied.  Here’s the cunning plan …..

The U.K. Games expo is on next year on the 2nd to the 4th June 2017. Knavecon is organising a road trip to get there…..

I’ve hooked up with an old friend of mine that runs Executive travel Coaches for amongst others the Munster Rugby team. He’s going to reconfigure the Munster coach with less seats and more tables so we can game all the way there and all the way back.

The coach is a new high spec Volvo coach with wireless internet, recharge points and so on.

The trek starts in Limerick early Friday morning and heads to Dublin where we will pick up additional gamers and get the ferry over to the U.K. Then slide down the motorway to the con laughing, joking and gaming all the way.  We leave Sunday morning and get back in time for tea in Ireland.

The coach unlike Ryanair will have practically UNLIMITED storage for any new games you pick up from the convention.  I’ll be bringing a stack of games from the Knavecon Library to tide us over and I’ll be acting as MC for the trip.

We will be taking 40. There’s room for nearly 60 but we’re going to limit it and travel like Kings with amble space for our husky gamer frames, snacks and gadgets.

Accommodation and tickets to the con we can figure between us. This is purely the transport part I’m talking about.  Plan would be to get a group rate in a hotel and have lots of space to game and have a drink or two after the con.  We have plenty of time to organise that

Total travel time will be around 8 plus hours from Limerick. 5 and a bit from Dublin. All motorway driving so a nice smooth game friendly ride all the way
Then it’s back home to a heroes reception*
Cost

The cost for this return trip  will be €140 per person.

So Executive Summary

Knavecon is bringing you to the UK Games Expo.  We buy all the games and come home happy

Huzzah!

Who’s game?

If it’s a hit this will be the start of series of Knavecon road trips to all the best cons in Europe…..

*actual heroes reception may vary

I have a cunning plan…
I’ve been to a few big game cons in different countries, they’re all been pretty cool BUT and it’s a big but and I cannot lie. I figured they could be done better. Here’s the problems. 
1. Meeting up with friends after cons to game was hit and miss

2. Paying big money for extra luggage to bring back games was too expensive and also a pain in the hoop to lug around 

3. The journey was dull

4. Travel is pricey. 
What if I was to tell you I had a plan for one hell of a road trip next year that got around all of these issues. Would you be on for it in principle ?
Details to follow…..

I haven’t board gamed in a few weeks for a variety of reasons. I have however gotten to play a good bit of Battlefield 1. It’s a lovely game….
Ok some more nuggets of info on BF1 on the PC
Weather affects are very welcome. Rain and dust storms can kick up reducing visibility. Fog can roll in making bombers effectively useless. Weapons become splattered with mud and rain. Water and mud splash as soldiers run through puddles. It does a fantastic job of conveying the misery of tench warfare, cold and the fog of war. 
Unfortunately there’s currently no joystick support. Just game controller support which is just not good enough. In the meantime while we wait for DICE to patch it in there is a solution in the form of an emulator xbox360ce. Here’s how I did it and it works a treat with my Hotas X. 
New to the series are two game modes carrier pigeon and operations. Carrier pigeon is like the games of murder ball from school where one person grabs the ball (pigeon) and holds onto it for a minute or so and scores points while the other team try to dissuade him from doing that. 
Operations on the other hand is like a mix between rush and domination. The attacking player gets a number of attacks and must take a series of points rush style before they run out of men. Fail and they get a few more goes and it rolls onto another map. A second wave of attacks might be backed up by a zeppelin or armored train which will shake up the defenders no end
So far the game is proving to be bf4 with a little bit of Battlefront thrown in but unlike battlefront it’s really good.  
Weapons are proving to be a mixed bunch. They’re a little inaccurate or then again that could be me. Happily it’s not at all turning into a sniper fest with snipers making up the minority of players in any of the games I played
Progress has changed a little now you don’t automatically unlock weapons. You get war bonds (gold) and can what you like. Each speciality has a number of tiers they level up to allowing them access to better weapons. 
Graphically the game is improved. Not massive leaps but it’s still prettier than the previous BF. 
The maps are nicely done with a nice variety of terrain. Mark my words we will be seeing snow in future expansions. So back to the war and it will all be over by Christmas. 
Tally Ho!
Vic 

What’s this? video games again? well it’s not just ANY video game it’s the soon to be released (unless like me you got early access) new Battlefield game.  Battlefield 1

If you’re a BF fan you’ve probably already ordered it from a CD key site and this is a pointless post but I’m going to talk anyway.  I’m playing it on the PC btw since I’m not 13 years old

I started playing BF1 a few days back having gotten early access to it via a voucher for an upgrade.  So unlike YOU people I’ve had a hearstart. Anyhoe the big question you’ll have is… Is it any good.  yes, it’s VERY good, it’s better than BF4.  The setting is magnificent (WW1).  It’s varied, the graphics are magnificent and structures are more susceptible to destruction.  Driving a tank through a building is sublime.  The one thing I would say is it requires a bit more horsepower than BF4.  On high settings I found it chugged a bit on certain maps which contained a large amount of buildings.

It IS to a certain extent the same again as BF4 or maybe a BF4.5 but it’s good fun and we didn’t expect anything radical.  A couple of things I really liked were how the Zeppelin crashed.  OK you’ve probably seen the videos on this where one side gets control of a Zeppelin and rains hell down on the enemy below (the equivalent of the gunship in BF4).  When it takes enough damage the whole thing comes down Hindenburg style. Unlike BF4 where all of these big terrain crashes are on rails and more importantly static.  The crash happens where ever it got shot down and it comes down realistically littering the area with smouldering wreckage and lots of smoke.

The aeroplanes are a throwback to BF1942, slower and once again with bombs but not as overpowered as they were in BF2.  There’s a slow recharge of bombs rather than a nip home to rearm mechanic.  There’s a mixtures of 1, 2 and 3 seater planes.  No helicopters.

Spawning is pure BF4 and you get to pick vehicles at the start if they’re available.  I was concerned they’d go the stupid route of Star Wars Battlefront where you have to pick up a token to get access.   There is a bit of this where you can get access to special characters like Flamethrower man and Heavy Infantry with Heavy Machine gun.

There’s a few other game types in there and a very interesting looking campaign mode where you play a game over a range of maps.  A lovely feature I saw was where you could pick a full server and whilst queuing to join it browse other game servers in case something else took your fancy

It’s early days yet the game hasn’t been released to the hoi polloi yet so the underpopulated servers will fill up soon. If you’re wondering if you did the right thing preordering it.  I’m sure you did, it’s more BF they don’t appear to have messed it up yet.

Huzzah!

Vic

I’m a huge fan of xcom. I was a huge fan of it before it was xcom and it was laser squad. I followed it when It had shit graphics, when it went underwater, into outer space, when the aliens took over and more recently when it rebooted. Xcom have done a admirable job recreating the feel of the game. It oozes xcom. Actually Fantasy Flight have spoiled us with their production values. Every other new game is now FF benchmarked by default. 
I spoke about xcom when it came out but it had been a long time since we played it last and last Thur we had a quick crack at it again. 

Xcom is one of the new app driven games from Fantasy Flight. It’s a co-op game but it’s one of the better co-op games however that doesn’t make it a really good game. Ever stick a battery in a battery tester and it just makes it into the green good zone? That’s xcom. You can’t fault the game but it’s just not exceptional and more importantly having played it a few times I don’t have any urge to run out and buy it. 

The problem I have is you’re competing with the app. It’s tense it’s exciting but there just isn’t the same sense of achievement as beating a human. Imagine if Fantasy Flight’s Battlestar Galactica game didn’t have a traitor in it. Would you play it if everyone was really working together and it was a set of rules you were playing against? Red November anyone ?

What if Fury of Dracula had an AI for Dracula or the hunters? Would you play that? Being able to point at you’re opponents and laugh at them when you beat them is what it’s all about. A smart phones not the same 
Xcom has the potential to be a magnificent game but it requires more human. What about a mechanic where the aliens are easier but one player is secretly an Advent agent working with the aliens? What about an expansion with a human playing the alien invaders? Fantasy Flight stop this coop madness. I don’t want to play coop I want to play a proper board game. If you want to add AI I have no problem with that but please don’t make it coop as a result. I don’t play nice with others. 
Huzzah!
Vic 

When Picard stared long enough he saw five lights. When I played quantum ones on the dice started to look really menacing. 
Quantum is a lite 4x space game. It might be missing an x or two but it’s no worse off for that. Players take control of three ships which are really three big d6 and set about trying to build a number of quantum cubes (just regular cubes) on limited spots on different planets before their opponents do the same. Obviously it’s not straightforward and you’ll get into fights with your up to three opponents. 

The game starts by picking a map to play on from the list provided. The maps consists of maybe a dozen or so beer mat type cards each with a planet on them and eight spaces around them you can occupy with ships. Each planet has a number from 7 to 10 on it and in order to build a cube you have to surround it with ships (dice) equal in total to it’s value. You can only have one of your cubes on any given planet and since you’ve a half dozen to build you’re going to rub up against you’re opponents pretty quickly. Oh err missus. 
Ships are rolled at the start. The number on them determining their type. Lower numbers are better in combat but slow moving and visa versa. Each number has a special ability so a scout (6) can transform like a robot in disguise into a different number. A space station (1) can fire on an adjacent space, a frigate (3) can warp and swap spaces with another ship and so on. There’s some really great combo moves to be played here where you warp here, transport there and so on. You have to think on your feet but it’s rarely analysis paralysis. 

In addition to their special moves ships can move, transform (reroll), build cubes, redeploy if killed. You can also research which gives you access to one shot gambit cards that boost some stat, adds additional ships to your fleet or take one of the white permanent affect cards that stay with you and give you some nice little advantage like rerolls or free research. So once again we’re spreading our limited resources between conquest and teching up. 
It’s a struggle to get all your cubes out (not sure if this deserves and oh err missus or not) and it’s also a very visible indicator of how close you are to completing the game. In our case when we played the classic of “quick! He/she’s winning let’s all gang up on he/she” happened and inevitably the player in second place slid in and took a win while we had our fingers in the dyke. (Nothing to see here move on)
The game is fast and fun. It’s beautifully produced with lovely artwork. Lovely sturdy player boards and nice big colorful dice (which DO look like Turkish delight Borys). You can set the game up for a variety of lengths but even a long game will be no more than the two hour mark. 

I had a feeling it about it when I saw it first and am happy with my purchase. This is a neat, clean unambiguous game and I say bravo
Then huzzah!
Vic 

We returned to 3rd ed Fury of Dracula last week. It had been played a few times at the last Knavecon and I as Dracula had gotten hammered twice in a row having talked big beforehand. A almost sure fire way of guaranteeing a loss before you start 
I’d played Dracula many times as the main man second ed. and I was eager to up my KD ration in third ed so off we set

If you like me (and the crew of firefly) like shiny you won’t be disappointed with the new edition. Everything is improved and it wasn’t too bad to start with. Art work is top notch. On the cards on the board it’s just lovely. Counters are a tad bigger and less fiddly. Combat has definitely been streamlined, note I didn’t say improved. Some of the silly OP cards are gone (not all). The models are arguably a step up too and then…. it all goes to pot
The game is just too bloody long. If Dracula is worth his garlic he’ll lead a merry dance but the end conditions are just too far away and the game drags. Yes it will speed up a bit as you learn it but not by much. By week three it accelerates dramatically points wise for Mr D but I really would have preferred a constant increase throughout not a sprint at the end. The sense of dread is not there if you can’t easily score early points 
The night and day cycle has been messed up. Before you had day lasting a few turns then night lasting a few turns and so on. Hunters had to be careful at night. Dracula was very powerful. Likewise Mr D had to avoid contact in daylight or face certain death. Now it flip flops and it’s impossible to build a plan around it. Combat has definitely been simplified and improved but it just doesn’t seem as dramatic or tense with day and night. I remember as Dracula grinning when the sun went down in second ed.

Attacking hunters is no longer a wise option. It’s so much easier just to avoid contact and hide out at sea in week three. It’s lazy. When I play a game I want options. In second ed stalking and killing a weaker hunter like Nina was magnificent and always put the dread sidewise in the hunters. 
While a number of the silly teleport, reset and gps cards are gone there’s still a couple of silly ones that allow you to instantly give up your position when you enter a sea space which kills the whole thing. 
So here’s what I want. I want Fury of Dracula 2.5. Same scoring and timer as second ed Remove a few cards and everything else from 3rd ed and now we’re sucking Diesel or more correctly blood. And I want to now. So get busy
Huzzah!
Vic