Saturday, November 3, 2018

A Beginner's View of Fury of Dracula and Secret Hitler Games






Had the opportunity to participate in a board game/party game session with a Halloween flavor today. Only had the chance to play two games, Fury of Dracula and Secret Hitler. Never player either games before but I enjoyed them both. Since there's no time quite like your first, here's what I thought of them.


Fury of Dracula


Board games are hit and miss with me. They tend to have a steep learning curve. Often you're learning on the fly too. Repetition and observation are generally the keys to my grasping an individual board game. I found Fury of Dracula both an example of the prior sentence and relatively easy to grasp. Of the four participants, the two experienced players did the heavy lifting, ie one played two characters while the other took the role of Dracula facing off against the rest of the table. When I began, I had no clue what I was doing. By the end, I had a strong grasp of basic fundamentals and strategy.  After five turns,  I was struck by the unfolding narrative. Couldn't resist taking pictures and knew I just had to blog my experience.

A quick primer: Fury of Dracula involves two - five players where one side is comprised of four characters who opposed Dracula in Dracula (Mina, Van Helsing, Seward, and Lord Farnsworth - hadn't read Dracula in ages so I was confused who this was) face an opposing player who controls Dracula. Gameplay consists of the players accumulating resources and traveling Europe looking for clues towards Dracula's whereabouts so they may destroy him. Each turn has a day/night segment. When a week passes, despair becomes stronger. Furthermore, when Dracula's activities clear off the board or when an agent/he defeats one of the characters his influence total grows. Should Dracula reach 14 influence (think that was the exact number), the game ends. Dracula wins. The other players must destroy Dracula to win the game (or force is life total to 0...?)

 I controlled Dr Seward, which helped me learn the game as not only did he recover from damage easier but he could possess more resources.

The Rule Book






Took this shot when we were about five turns in. Dracula had just taken to sea; and our characters were scattered about Europe.




We had deduced Dracula must've come ashore by this point and was still ashore as he was feeding. The group was checking out nearby seaports to narrow our deduction as towards his whereabouts.



Aha! Dracula has gone back out to sea. Meanwhile, Dr. Seward travels by sea to where we deduced he had made landfall. Fortunately for the good doctor, played by yours truly, he had the resources to easily dispense with the vampire laying in wait.






Five turns afterward including Dr Seward's triumph over the vampire, the rest of the group travels toward Northern Europe as they strongly suspect Dracula may have travelled to England. While Seward begins the trip back to mainland, Lord Farnsworth begins the trip over the English Channel.



Upon reaching London, Lord Farnsworth discovers Dracula in London. Van Helsing joins him and battle commences! While Dr Seward and Mina Harkness guard the nearest ports, Dracula is forced to flee as bat. However, Lord Farnsworth is badly injured in the process...





The fiend escapes out sea again - albeit weakening himself in the process. We start the process of deducing where he fled once more.




We spread our hunt outward. Against Doctor Seward's better judgement, he uses resources from an event card (there are event cards that aid Dracula and those that aid the hunters) to travel to South-western Europe. Van Helsing travels by sea through two different seas (the game subdivides the seas into several) and reaches the mainland. Meanwhile, the badly injured Lord Farnsworth investigates one of places in England where Dracula last was located. He encounters a vampire...




Alas, Lord Farnsworth was dispatched by the vampire! The vampire clears the board. He awakens in a hospital not too far from Dr Seward. Unfortunately, Farnsworth defeat boosts Dracula's influence significantly. Despite our best expenditure of resources, all Dracula needs to win is to hide. He does so.



Game over.


The game ran about two hours. A tense two hours as neither side was close to victory until about the end. However, when the end came, it was quick! Pretty confident a more experience group of gamers could play Fury of Dracula faster. Took us awhile to get a sense of what to do. Plus, those of us who played the hunters used a very conservative strategy.


Secret Hitler

A party game emulating Weimar Republic. The players are assigned roles. Many of them are assigned the role of liberal, while two are fascist - one of which is Hitler. Each turn the players vote to confirm the President's choice of Chancellor. If the vote fails, a different player becomes President. If the vote succeeds, the President takes three policy tokens, liberal or fascist, and selects two. The chancellor then selects the policy. Should there be five liberal policies, liberals win. When three fascist policies be selected, the President can attempt deducing who is Hitler and kill him. Another alternative is if Hitler becomes Chancellor both Hitler and the other fascist wins.


A quick and easy game. Had a lot of fun despite not being very good at it. During the course of two games, I never did figure out who was Hitler nor who was fascist when the end point was triggered.

Overall: both solid games. I'd have to play Fury of Dracula another time or two but right now it's solid 4 out of 5 stars. Could easily see giving it a five out of five. Because Secret Hitler is more of a party game and one I am not very good at, I give it a 3 out of 5 stars. Good for parties.

Happy Gaming!

Next time.


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