Check.
Stakes?
Check.
Cross bow?
Check.
Garlic?
Check.
We’re all tooled up which means one of only two things, we’re either going vampire hunting or I’m being forced to watch the Twilight saga again! The good news is we don’t have to watch Bella Swan sulk in a chair for an hour because Vampire Hunters from Dark Gate Games is on Kickstarter now.
Vampire Hunters is a 1 to 4 player cooperative board game where a team of church sanctioned tooled up exterminators have to delve deep into a nest of the undead. Their goal changes between scenarios, of which there are ten in the game, but each one will be a claustrophobic toe to toe fight with blood sucking vampires.
There’s a host of cool looking miniatures with the game including various breed of vampires and some unique looking vampire hunters. My favourites are the hunter with two shoulder mounted crossbows and a crazy Russian priest carrying a chain gun stake launcher.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I should point out that I have been involved in the production of this game. I am currently helping Dark Gate Games out as a proof-reader of the rule book. I have not been involved in the actual development of rules and you wouldn’t let me anywhere near sculpting a miniature (seriously, my experiments with green stuff are hilariously atrocious).
From reading the rules I can tell you that this game is going to be tough. The vampires are really hard and victory is only going to be achieved by careful team play and tactical thinking. It’s also going to be a quick and deadly game. The only downside to the provisional rules is that the vampire AI rules do seem a bit complicated at first, but I’m sure they’ll become second nature after a game or two.
The part of the game that’s going to be the most exciting is the ‘attack line’ system. Once a vampire is in a hunter’s line of sight the hunter can start shooting the approaching vampire. The problem is every time the hunter misses their panic level goes up making it more difficult to shoot. The concept is going to lead to some very tense situations and it reminds me of playing out the over watch during a game of Space Hulk.
As I write this Vampire Hunters has only been on Kickstarter for a few hours and its already achieved two thirds of its funding goal.
The attack line mechanic sounds pretty cool, and I love the look of the miniatures. Also good to see that it's passed its fund target already. Nice!
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