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Weekly Trash - Fury of Dracula

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26 May 2008 14:26 #7088 by metalface13
Alright, since no one else has posted a Weekly Trash it looks like I'd better pick up the ball.

I'll go with Ken B.'s suggestion of Fury of Dracula. Originally published by Games Workship it was rereleased a few years ago by Fantasy Flight Games. The new edition adds Mina as a fourth characater ... and that's all I know of that was added. They probably did some other stuff with combat too or something.

As you can tell, I haven't played the old version, but I have played the new one. What gameplay boils down to is Scotland Yard with combat when you meet up with Mr. X. Except Mr. X is Dracula and he can leave behind vampires and other nasties for you to find during your investigations.

The combat system is a little murky. You pick a weapon card, vampire picks one of his attack cards (bite, punch, claws or something) and then depending on the card combos you roll some dice or something. I can't remember, it's been a while since I've played.

In the games I've played there hasn't ever been a whole lot of combat. The Dracula player (well, it's always been my brother) has always used his trickery powers to evade the investigators and flee across the country. The whole tracking down Dracula gameplay isn't really my forte so the game tends to drag on a bit for me and I'm usually disappointed by the lack of combat in the game. It's not a bad game certainly, but it's not my favorite. I'm always willing to play it around Halloween though.

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26 May 2008 15:21 #7091 by ubarose
I love me some Fury of Dracula. When I'm Dracula, there is always lots of combat. I play risky and recklessly, which is pretty much how I play all games. I believe in either winning spectacularly or losing spectacularly, because there is no second place in AT.

I try to hit the hunters with lots of minions who pick away at the hunter's life points, and then bring Dracula swooping in on them at night to finish them off for some big points. Mina is so tastey, it is hard to resist trying to land that second bite on her.

I love the blow by blow combat system. Color commentary of the fights is required. Slow motion replay is optional, but recommended.

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27 May 2008 08:07 #7105 by pbwedz
Excellent game, one of my few 10s.

The combat system is cool (the tiebreaker is silly, but that is a nit).

I've seen some people complain that the hunters don't 'stay dead' when killed, but I think it is a good thing as a Drac victory would be very likely with a hunter removed from the rest of the chase.

I rarely attack hunters as Drac and let the minions do most of my work for me.

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27 May 2008 08:44 #7109 by Ska_baron

I believe in either winning spectacularly or losing spectacularly, because there is no second place in AT.


So this needs to be on the Trashfest 09 t-shirts. Either this or "I believe in either winning spectacularly or losing spectacularly, because second place in AT is first loser."

Not sure what'd be the best graphic to go with it though.

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27 May 2008 09:15 #7110 by ChristopherMD
One of my owned, but unplayed games. Has one of the best looking boards though, imo.

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27 May 2008 09:46 - 27 May 2008 09:58 #7112 by Ken B.
ubarose wrote:

Mina is so tastey, it is hard to resist trying to land that second bite on her.



Holy shit, that's hot.



Thanks for picking up the ball, metal. This week is going to be a bit crazy for me. I'll have some thoughts to add on this later in the week.
Last edit: 27 May 2008 09:58 by Ken B..

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27 May 2008 09:53 - 27 May 2008 09:56 #7113 by jeb
Ska_baron wrote:

I believe in either winning spectacularly or losing spectacularly, because there is no second place in AT.


So this needs to be on the Trashfest 09 t-shirts. Either this or "I believe in either winning spectacularly or losing spectacularly, because second place in AT is first loser."

I was thinking more of a shirt that said "I'm with stupid" and had arrows pointing in every direction. The back would say, "I play Ameritrash and you don't."

Threadjack aside, Fury of Dracula is one of the games I am most trying to acquire. Either the old or new--probably old a little more desired here, because I'm old, and getting three people to play is tough, nevermind 19 or whatever the new one allows.

"Scotland Yard with combat" is exactly what I thought the game was, so having this confirmed makes me happy in knowing I'd totally dig it. I could crosspost this in the "Most Anticipated Games to Play in 2008" thread.
Last edit: 27 May 2008 09:56 by jeb.

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27 May 2008 09:58 #7114 by Matt Thrower
The redesign job FFG did on this game was interesting. In my opinion, it actually resulted in a marginally less interesting game. I prefer the original - it's one of my favourite games.

The "Mina" thing was actually a fan-made variant for the original that made it into the republished version. I sincerely hope the original fan who made up those rules got proper credit for it.

They changed quite a few other things. By far the most notable was that in the original, rather than tracking movement by cards Dracula had a screen and a little sheet with all the locations on it. When he moved and left encounters and local rumors behind, he recorded it all on this sheet. That way anything he left lurking was permanent - he didn't just get to pick a couple.

IIRC the change was instituted because the guys at FFG felt that one of the biggest problems with the original was that it was too easy for Dracula to cheat because the hunter players had no way of keeping tabs on him. This seems like an absurdly minor problem to me, and in no way justifies the huge changes made to the system to "fix" it. If you've got a cheating Dracula player then the only "fix" in my opinion is not to play games with him. The change isn't good - now the Dracula player has to remember, in his head, the last six locations he visited, what he's left there, plus the same information for the permanent encounters he's left on the board. This seems far more likely to confuse Dracula into accidental "cheating" than a clear, simple board layout where he can see where he's been and what he's left there. The ability to leave less permanent encounters means the strategy of playing Dracula is less interesting - in the original he could make risky sea moves and "hide" vampires in unlikely locations.

The two feel startlingly different to play. The original is a slowly unfolding game of sleuthing and deduction which peaks into crescendos of thrilling action. The newer one is more of a frantic chase game because it's much easier for the hunters to find Dracula.

The biggest problem with the original was the victory conditions. Dracula could win a "minor victory" by putting six vampires on the board and he could do this really easily by turtling, going to sea when needed, until he had all six in his encounter set and then plonking them all down as soon as possible. The result was a long and very dull game. To make the game come alive the Dracula player had to play for the "major victory" which required him to also kill or bite a hunter.

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27 May 2008 10:19 #7120 by pbwedz
MattDP wrote:

By far the most notable was that in the original, rather than tracking movement by cards Dracula had a screen and a little sheet with all the locations on it. ... The change isn't good - now the Dracula player has to remember, in his head, the last six locations he visited, what he's left there, plus the same information for the permanent encounters he's left on the board. This seems far more likely to confuse Dracula into accidental "cheating" than a clear, simple board layout where he can see where he's been and what he's left there. ...

The newer one is more of a frantic chase game because it's much easier for the hunters to find Dracula.


I haven't played the old one, so I can't compair one to the other. However, I can say I've never had a problem with the new Drac system. It's not like you can't look at the cards or chips after you place them, but I remember them anyway.

Also, as you point out, the hunters are on your trail quite often, so you likely don't have to recall all 6 anyway. Often half my trail is revealed (assuming I've been on land for some time) and I very rarely have 'permanent encounters'. Just another FoD rule that doesn't come into play often (however YMMV greatly based on your groupthink).

I think the cards and chips add greatly to the fun, as the hunters watch Drac to see what he turns over and where it is on the trail. :)

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27 May 2008 10:19 #7122 by Shellhead
I haven't played the original, but I have played with the kind of people who might be tempted to cheat in the original. I do love the modern version of FoD. I think that the hidden movement system is great, and the Dracula player will only mess up if he is too lazy to keep checking his facedown cards.

I have heard people complain (mostly at BGG) that the game is unbalanced. Some say that the Hunters are too strong, while others say that Dracula is too strong. Our group has found the game to be pretty balanced on average. We've played enough to see stunning variety in our games, including fast wins for both sides and protracted battles leading to narrow victories. We've had games that were heavy on deduction and games that featured lots of combat. There are a few fiddly issues created by encounter tokens or specific cards, but overall, we find it to be a great game.

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27 May 2008 10:31 #7125 by pbwedz
Shellhead wrote:

I have heard people complain (mostly at BGG) that the game is unbalanced. Some say that the Hunters are too strong, while others say that Dracula is too strong. Our group has found the game to be pretty balanced on average.


I agree that the game is balanced. However, if skill level difference between the Drac player and the Hunters is a lot, you can really get some one sided wins.

I guess you can say that in a lot of games, but it seems more so in FoD.

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27 May 2008 10:52 #7128 by JoelCFC25
I've only played a handful of times but it seems to me that you'd almost have to be developmentally disabled to cheat as Dracula in the FFG version.

When you first play as Dracula you start salivating at the prospect of dropping all these nasty encounters on the Hunters. However, the effects aren't usually as crippling as you'd like, and only 2 or 3 kinds even do anything should you be fortunate enough to mature them. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I've ever gotten an encounter to mature, and certainly haven't used the Catacombs yet. The Hunters have lots of cards available to reveal some/most of the trail if they spam the Event deck enough.

That said, I love the game and I keep wanting to rope more people into trying it. With a few more games under my belt I'll know for sure how to tweak it to my liking...I'd probably use some of the suggested tweaks in the rules--making Hunters spend 2 points of Resolve to get their benefit, fewer Newspaper Reports, etc.

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27 May 2008 11:28 #7134 by ubarose
MattDP wrote:

The biggest problem with the original was the victory conditions. Dracula could win a "minor victory" by putting six vampires on the board and he could do this really easily by turtling, going to sea when needed, until he had all six in his encounter set and then plonking them all down as soon as possible. The result was a long and very dull game. To make the game come alive the Dracula player had to play for the "major victory" which required him to also kill or bite a hunter.


I've never played the older version, however, the above sounds as if it still holds true. In my opinion, to win Dracula has to get those 2 extra points from either maturing a vamp, or killing/biting a hunter. If Dracula goes for the win by trying to kill or bite a hunter, you get an exciting game. If Dracula goes for the "mature a vamp" and run out the clock victory, the game tends to be rather dull. If Dracula just goes for the run out the clock victory, then Dracula is pretty much screwed, and the game tends to be rather long and dull until the very end.

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27 May 2008 11:39 #7135 by pbwedz
JoelCFC25 wrote:

Come to think of it, I'm not sure I've ever gotten an encounter to mature, and certainly haven't used the Catacombs yet. The Hunters have lots of cards available to reveal some/most of the trail if they spam the Event deck enough.


Toss some bats and fog in your trail before you drop the Vamp. Thief isn't bad either to make the hunter drop a random weapon.

Usually only one hunter is on Vamp duty, if you can slow him up or move him away maybe the Vamp will mature. If you make 2 hunters go on Vamp duty, so much the better for Drac to get away and hide another Vamp.

That should be able to make you have some better success.

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27 May 2008 11:50 #7137 by pbwedz
ubarose wrote:

In my opinion, to win Dracula has to get those 2 extra points from either maturing a vamp, or killing/biting a hunter. If Dracula goes for the win by trying to kill or bite a hunter, you get an exciting game. If Dracula goes for the "mature a vamp" and run out the clock victory, the game tends to be rather dull. If Dracula just goes for the run out the clock victory, then Dracula is pretty much screwed, and the game tends to be rather long and dull until the very end.


Yea, YMMV. Usually I run out the clock on D4 and I don't think either side has ever thought of FoD as dull when I do. They are usually right on my heels with time running down.

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