Alex and I had thought it would just be the two of us this Saturday, so we started planning to try out Star Wars: Rebellion, but as it turned out, M decided to join, and then Jon-Boy decided that bringing his kids over to play with Alex’s brood would be a nice outing for his family, so we ended up getting Fury of Dracula (2nd Ed.) to the table for a pre-Halloween horror game session. Oh, and Liz joined in too this time, for her first (!) play of Fury of Dracula.
I was able to get the game set up and check on the inevitable rules questions I thought of before we all sat down for some dinner, and the game got underway quickly after we ate, with minimal rules recaps.
I was Drac, of course, and I started off in Rome, making my way up the Italian peninsula and dropping a new vampire in Florence on my way. I dropped bats and fog in northern Italy to delay and mislead the hunters, and I moved up toward Mina, but my hopes for an early snack on her were dashed as she moved to the water to check out the British Isles. I had thought of beginning there, as it was left completely empty at the start of the game, but I’ve played out that gambit too many times for it to be exciting at this point.
The hunters were able to glean my trail and origins, but the bats and fog did their job well, and I was able to mature the new vampire before the hunters could reach her. Since the hunters had found my initial trail, it was decided that England was a waste of time and effort, so she headed back to the Continent during the second day.
I was able to position myself close to Mina– she stumbled into me, and I used Wild Horses to end the daytime combat and throw her into an adjacent city, putting myself between her and assistance. I then used an Event card to speed up the sundown and attack Mina at night. I gave her a Bite using Mesmerism. I was now one point from victory.
I used Wolf Form to move through the hunters down to Munich and then holed up in Venice. They found my trail but were unable to adequately catch me, even using Resolve to Sense of Emergency my way. Liz’s Van Helsing caught me, but it was nighttime, so even her stash of weapons (pistol, stake, knife) couldn’t withstand my powers. I decided to keep playing out the combat even though I really didn’t need to, since I was assured a victory in two turns any way.
After that combat, there was really no other opposition from the Hunters, and I ran out the clock for an easy win.
I still really like this game, even the clunky combat system, but it was rather lonely being Dracula, and I didn’t really have too much pressure on me this game. I think next time I may spot the hunters some resolve or require 7 vamp’s from Drac to win.
Misplays: Turns out we played Fog correctly. Even though the text mentions that “other hunters” cannot enter or leave the space, it is intended that it affect the hunter who encountered it as well.
Slight to major misplay: Forgot, once again, to clear Drac’s trail after the vampire matured. I’m not sure how this would have affected the outcome. Probably not much.
Always nice to get this to the table, and I was very impressed that we finished a 5-player game in 2.5 hours!
-kMs