Played our first game yesterday, and the dark lord escaped on won in the third week.
1) From what we can gather, supplying at all costs in the early game is essential to the hunters.
2) How many hunters does it really take to take out Dracula, and with which items?
Plz post your expertise! :-)
Cheers,
Kepler
Basic Hunter Tactics (culled from discussions over at Board Game Geeks):
1) Use events and Mina's "radar" as well as physical searching.
2) Stock up on items and rail tickets in advance. When you do locate Dracula, you will have one chance to do damage -- don't blow it.
3) A well timed and placed Consecrated Ground can make a HUGE difference - and Wolf Form can't move through it. Using what you know from trail locations can help you with effective placement.
4) Remember that the Trail locations block Dracula's movement (Misdirect aside) and use that to pen him in.
5) Ideally, the hunters don't want to move onto Dracula, they want to force Dracula to move to them. This forces a DAWN combat, followed by a multi-hunter DUSK combat. (Using the LONG NIGHT event at the right moment can accomplish this.)
6) Combat with well-equipped hunter
s
(more than one!) is the goal. Have tickets and items ready. The earlier in the turn (of the 4 hunters) you can reveal Dracula, the better the opportunity to get more than one hunter there. If a hunter can't reach the combat site, can they block a potential "Flee as Bat" location? (see #5).
7) A wounded Dracula will have trouble using a SEA escape. Put Rufus Smith (ally) in play to limit his options.
8) HEROIC LEAP! A hunter armed with this event is big trouble for Dracula.
9) Position Mina so that her "Drac-sense" can be used the turn after Drac bolts, to halve the potential locations.
10) Don't forgot those slowly maturing encounters!
Game Balance:
If your hunter group is inexperienced, you may want to weaken Dracula's abilities somewhat. No power cards, one-use Power Cards, no Wolf-Form, restrictions to sea movement. Remove the restrictions when the hunters start winning.