USD ($)
EUR (€)
One of my all-time favourite games. Have you played it? Fury of Dracula is definitely a game I would recommend. It has a wonderful theme based on the events in Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel, but set years later, on the premise that somehow Dracula returns.
Basic premise
In Fury of Dracula one player plays the evil count Dracula, spreading his undead plague across Europe. If he survives long enough his ‘threat level’ reaches a point that cannot be countered and the Dracula player wins the game. The other players, between one to four, play the four hunters, namely Lord Godalming, Doctor Seward, Professor Van Helsing and Mina Harker. Their objective is to catch up with Dracula and destroy him. There, simple really. But the game features a hidden movement mechanic so finding Dracula is half the game really, looking for clues, breaking his trail and deducing his location. The other side to the game for the hunters is preparation and equipping themselves with the items and supporting events to help combat Dracula, his minions and the obstacles left to encumber them.
Essential game structure
The hunters are placed in different locations around Europe with the players having the choice where to place. Europe is divided into regions and split between east (where the railway network is more limited and less reliable) and west. Each region has a number of towns and cities linked by road and/or rail with sea travel an option to sail from the Baltic, past the British Isles round to the Black Sea.
Dracula then determines his starting location and takes a first move and places an encounter at his new location. Dracula places a location card on his ‘trail’ and as the trail develops the cards are moved along until the card become available to use again. At this point, if the location hasn’t been visited it may trigger an event such as the maturing of a vampire which speeds Dracula towards his victory target.
The hunters get to take an action each during the day (including moving by road, rail or sea) and another action at night. When located in a town or city they get the option to equip themselves with useful weapons like knives or rifles or other items such as a crucifix or a pack of dogs. They may also trigger event which mostly help them but they run the risk of it helping Dracula; these events could be allies, abilities to use later in their quest or immediate incidents to use.
Combat
At some point, the hunters should catch Dracula or intercept the Szgany minions or maturing vampires. Then combat will begin and the options will be based on whether it takes place at dusk or dawn and what weapons or abilities are in play and Dracula at night can utilise an array of tactics from super strength to turning into a bat or mist. Combat will then take place for up to six rounds and it is a little bit like rock, paper, scissors. The clash of tactics tends to result in either Dracula or the hunters getting an edge, delivering wounds or negating the opposing tactic. Eventually the combat will either end in someone fleeing, stagnation or someone being defeated.
I have to say, as much as I like Fury of Dracula, combat feels a little underwhelming. It’s not a huge criticism, just that it isn’t a strong point and success depends a little on luck in acquiring the right items in time, keeping hold of them as there are ways to lose them and making the right tactical choices in combat. It does sometimes feel flat thematically as Dracula doesn’t always fully utilise his strengths and sometimes the hunters are simply caught out and not ready to fight; of course, then it is up the hunter players to prepare adequately in advance whilst tracking Dracula down.
Key mechanics
Hidden movement is perhaps the key feature of Fury of Dracula and one of the highlights. It takes some planning, secretive viewing of the gameboard (using a smaller map to help) and strategizing to best plan your route. Dracula has to weigh up how sneaky to be, how to avoid obvious routes, how to carefully double back or create confusion, which if he gets this wrong can lead to no legal move being available (because the location card must be free to use and not stuck in the trail). Dracula can choose to be super sneaky and track the hunters, but this can backfire if the hunters themselves backtrack, although personally I find this fun to do. If Dracula is feeling particularly unpleasant, he might try attacking a hunter early on, but in this version of the game, combat is best avoided by Dracula if possible due to the risk of weakening himself unnecessarily.
Dracula also as sneaky supernatural powers to call upon. This includes the ability to use a wolf form, which causes damage but allows Dracula to move two spaces and this bypass hunters or create a gap in a trail. There is also a Dark Call ability which allows Dracula to summon additional encounter options to give greater choice.
Balance
Dracula has some useful powers and events to support him, but he doesn’t have everything his way. Fighting during the day severely limits his options for example. He is also arrogant and doesn’t run away from a fight early on. In addition, Dracula is an aristocratic snob who chooses not to use the rail network because it’s beneath him, so these are further limits on his options.
But even with the balance, time is not on the hunter’s side. The game can be quite long anyway, and there are effectively three weeks’ worth of day and night actions, before Dracula’s fury starts to rise and effectively speed up the end of the game. The hunters can still win, but the threat level increases quickly and the hunters really need to know Dracula’s location by now and take risks to attack him or it’s game over. But with a little luck, some careful planning, use of deduction and combining forces where possible, using the hunter’s abilities, it is quite possible to track down Dracula and defeat him. The game may start with Dracula having the edge and this continues if the trail isn’t discovered in time, but often I find if the trail is found the hunters can build pressure and give Dracula fewer options until the final showdown is reached and then for the love of humanity may the hunters be victorious!
Final thoughts
Fury of Dracula is an excellent game that has gone through several revamps since its original version (sorry, couldn’t resist!). It’s a game that allows a touch of roleplaying which is fun and players can really get their teeth stuck into it (ok I’ll stop!). But seriously, although it can be a long game and it can be a victim of analysis paralysis it can also be quite absorbing. The artwork and components are generally very nice, although it seems no-one bothered to correct the map for accuracy as Manchester is located on the east coast of England wrongly (it’s to the west near to Liverpool), where arguably York should be (maybe a Lancastrian influenced design!). It’s actually not far off where Whitby is, where in the novel Dracula landed disembarking from the Demeter (Greek goddess of the harvest and fertility by the way). It’s a minor point and doesn’t take away from the enjoyment of the game, but it does feel like a lazy mistake. You will need a good few hours to set aside to play and it works well as a two-player game with one player taking control of all four hunters. The game is simple in some respects, elegant in design giving room for varied play. If you get a chance to play this, I highly recommend it.
