In a somewhat close game, I could have won with Dracula but lost.

At first got a vampire token off the track and a day went by, giving me 3 Vampires in Europe. The first disadvantage I gave myself is I backed myself in Eastern Europe with only the Black Sea as an escape route. With 12 health after having set sail and earlier did a Dark Call, the Hunters began cutting off my escape. I could have chose to either continue by sea and try to go past Mina (who I did not know had a move 4 by sea card) around the map or go up and disembark and take a chance at fighting Lord Godalming in Venice with a Trap card in daytime. I chose Lord Godalming, and that was a poor idea. I didn't realize the potency of Sister Agatha and I went from 12 to 2 fast. He Sacred Bulleted my Claws off, so I was forced to choose Dodge or Escape. So if I have 2 health left, did I automatically die due to Sister Agatha or can only a Hunter character slay Dracula?

We ruled a Hunter had to, but I put my health down to 1. Instead of escaping north (when I fled from combat), I went to Florence on a bluff. Verbally admitting my move would be stupid to himself, my opponent continued to search other areas as I laughed and wept to my wounded self. Unfortunately Seward washed up to Rome, directly south of me. When Mina left Gosia, I walked in her shadow. Before moving Seward, my opponent was about to go by train, and then he reluctantly announced he'd go to Florence. Curse you, Seward! Mina then knew because Venice was locked down, I was stalking her, so she doubled back and went for the kill. A lucky escape as bat saved me, and I pursued Dracula's Castle as fast as I could.

On the way, I received Vampire Brides. Does Vampire Brides increasing my encounter hand size by 2 come into effect immediately or only when I refill my hand at the end of my turn?

When in Budapest, the meddlesome and weakened Van Helsing rode the train. Hoping for this, albeit a little soon, I welcomed him to a fight. If I could kill Hellsing, he'd increase my track to 5, and on my turn it'd be a New Day with my final Vampire. Instead, Hellsing plays Heroic Leap, auto-winning the game!

So, on my first play, I really liked the game. I was close but playing Dracula is a challenge. Those pesky Hunters get a lot of really good cards. Truly there are no poor item cards to really draw in the Item deck for them, and the Event deck has slightly better cards for the Hunters I observed and there odds of receiving those cards are 66%. I noticed a lot of the encounters do little to nothing. I was sure to play all my minions in Eastern Europe as to receive the +1 bonuses, but that really didn't seem to matter much. All in all, combat is fun and fast but the Hunters... wow, are they ever more powerful than the children of the night, including the Count himself!

Variant Speculation:

I was discussing afterward if Dracula needed a boost. He argued mostly Dracula didn't. He said when I play the Hunters, he believes I will appreciate how elusive Dracula really can be. Though we agreed we shall play a couple more games before adding variants, a discussion still commenced itself.

I am wondering how overpowered the +1 to Dracula's dice rolls for himself would be, but I digressed from that because I myself am skeptical to its abilities to possibly being overpowered. He and I instead contested over the topic of Blood Regeneration: I said whenever the Day/Night marker advances into a night space, Dracula regenerates one blood as if he used the card Feed (which he is still able to take as a card action). He thought that was slightly too powerful, opining instead Dracula regenerates one blood at Dusk (because he is fully rested) and one other blood regenerated at the Small Hours (has a "snack" before going to rest). The problem with his suggestion is the Hunter's Long Day card would have to be errata'ed, as it could work to Dracula's advantage and limits when during the day it can be used if the Hunters don't want to regenerate Dracula at Dusk twice.

How does everyone else feel about a blood regeneration variant?

Additional Question: how long can Dracula stay in Castle Dracula? Is Dracula forced to move? If Dracula is forced to move, can I use the Hide card to stay another turn at Castle Dracula? Do I need to turn the Hide card over if I wish to get an additional heal from Castle Dracula, or does that not work and the Hide card is played face-down for its regular benefits? May I place an encounter on a face-down Hide card while my real location is Castle Dracula?

Hi Tromdial,

I'm glad you played your first game :-) And I'm also glad you had a good time. As for your question:

a) yeah, you can be killed by Agatha as well. She's the strongest of Hunters' Allies, and she can be a major pain. Anyway, let me highlight you a passage from the FAQ that maybe you've missed:

On the right-hand side of Hunter Tactics cards, some Dracula and Agent Tactics cards are listed in bold and italics. This indicates that if that Hunter card is played against the bold/italic Dracula or Agent card and the Hunter wins the combat roll, the Hunter card will be destroyed (discarded into the Item discard pile at the end of the combat round).

Hence, the Hunter had to discard Sacred Bullet and not Dracula his Claws (if you think about it, it's a lot more logical that a bullet is discarded, and not part of Dracula's body)

b) not so sure there is an official ruling on your Vampire Brides question. I've always played that new encounters are drawn only when refilling Dracula's hand at the end of the turn

c) variants and so on: yeah, play a couple more games and see how the game suits your needs. At the moment (32 games under my belt, all players are very skilled and usually Dracula is beaten, regardless of who's playing the Count), I'm pretty happy with this variant: raise Dracula's hand to 5 events (7 with Immanuel Hildesheim in play) and divide his 15 blood point life track into steps of 3 (3, 6, 9, 12, 15) instead of 5 (5, 10, 15) for purposes of being staked to death.

Tromdial said:

Think about Castle Dracula as a normal location, with the only exception you have to play this card face-up. So, if you want to stay there, you are allowed to, but only in case you can play Hide . You're hiding in a place that you have to play face-up, to inform the Hunters you're there, so I'd say Hide has to be played face-up. But of course you are allowed to place an encounter on Hide.

Thanks Julia. I played again today with my cousin and won as Dracula. I believe it was because he was still learning the game though and he was playing all four Hunters by himself while doing so. He also had a lot of unluckiness with the Event Deck and Delayed Over Papers. Evasion, by the way, is incredible.

Additional questions:

Is Wolf Form the only card that is played in addition to a Location card, and slid underneath the location card?

Does Unearthly Swiftness act as two-additional turns (ignoring additional use of other mechanics such as movement of the Day/Night track), meaning you lay two location cards down, one at a time, and the track could drop up to two location cards too, each with maturation and catacomb use as normal? If I want, can I use some of Dracula's cards instead of moving as normal, like Feed and even Wolf Form?

This may work best if I explained what happened: I moved from Atlantic Ocean to Galway. Next turn I played Dark Call. Then I played Hide, which would be in Galway, so my Dark Call is between these cards. As encounters, I played something that cannot be matured in Galway, but as part of my Hide, I played New Vampire. When Galway fell off the track, both the meaningless encounter fizzled and New Vampire matured, winning me the game. However, I was considering what if the encounter on my Hide card was not a New Vampire or anything else that could be matured? If you have one or more special cards like Dark Call and Feed in between the city and then you Hide, and your city falls off, what happens to the stuff in between if it's not clearing your track? Is there an empty spot where Hide was (because it falls off the track when its city drops too), or does the power cards like Dark Call and Feed get shifted up the track to fill Hide's missing spot?

Yeah, an Evasion card picked up at the proper time could be a game winner. That's why Hunters should be very carefull in drawing Events while cornering the Vampire ::laughter:: glad you won! Regardless of being Dracula or the Hunters, I'm always happy when Dracula wins.

As for your questions: yeas, Wolf form is played underneath the location card, but also Double back works the same (even if, clearly, with Wolf form you have to move to a new location, while Double back grants you to recover a card already on the track).

Unearthly Swiftness doesn't grant you two additional turns, but two Movement phases in the same turn. It's a little different: you are not allowed to place an encounter only on the second card, not on the first one (it's "move + move". Then the Movement phase ends, and starts the Action phase, and you place Encounters only in this phase - assuming you don't use Unearthly Swiftness to enter a Hunter's location). But you're right on all the rest, two cards drops off the trial, and encounters can be matured as well, or cards can be used to enter the catacombs. Basically, the card instructs you to move twice (sorry, I'd love to be more precise on the wording, but unfortunately I do not own the game in English but in my mother tongue, and sometimes translations create a huge mess), hence I believe you're allowed to play any card you'd normally be able to play during movement. Thus, I'm ok with you playing any of your Powers, as long as it's a legal action

And remember, you do not mature encounters played on Hide. So, you cannot win a game with a New Vampire on Hide (cross-check at pag 22, core rules). Nor you can catacomb encounters on Hide.

And as a city you hid (or dark called, or fed) drops off your trail, the cards "city-related" drop with the city as well. So, as soon as Galway drops from the Trail, you have to remove Dark Call and Hide as well

Julia said:

Ah, I can understand why. I am sure I would have won anyways because it had been a new day and my cousin already used all his Resolve points. Besides the new vampire I could have played in Dublin, I also had two more encounter tokens of new vampires. I grabbed Evasion right at the end too. Thanks for the info so I don't do that again though.

Tromdial said:

You're welcome ::smiling::