This week our game group played Fury of Dracula. This hidden movement game has been around for years. In this post I provide an overview of Fury of Dracula and a bit about our game we played. Fury of Dracula This is my favorite hidden-movement game. In this Fury of Dracula (third/fourth edition) designed by Frank Brooks, Stephen Hand, & Kevin Wilson one person plays as Dracula while the others play cooperatively as the hunters. Each of the four hunters is a unique character with slightly different stats and abilities (see photos below). The players use their advantages to work together and try to track down Dracula's trail of hideouts, moving to different locations on the European map/board. Hideouts are comprised of (typically) 1-3 face-down cards indicating which location the Dracula player has moved and any traps or vampires that may be placed there. As Dracula moves from location to location he must select from the deck of location cards of which there is only one card for each city/town/sea. The trail of hideouts slides down one position each round to make room for Dracula's next hiding place. Once cards advance past the sixth position, the location gets returned to the deck for possible future use and any cards placed on that location will "mature", thus granting additional benefits and possibly influence points. Dracula wins if he is able to advance the influence track to 13. Its not enough for the hunters to simply track down Dracula... they must defeat him by inflicting 15 damage to win the game. Combat sets this game apart from many other hidden-movement games. When hunters land on a location with Dracula, he is revealed on the board and a fight will occur at the next dawn or dusk. The combat system utilizes cards. The hunter(s) in the same location with Dracula draw a punch, dodge, and escape card to use in addition to any item cards they may have acquired. Dracula draws five random combat cards from his deck to use. Each combatant compares a single card to see if either attack is blocked and resolve each card as necessary. This continues until the hunter(s) or Dracula escape, or Dracula reaches 6 cards played. Dracula can fight and defeat each of the hunters gaining influence points, however he too may suffer damage in combat. If multiple hunters gang up on Dracula, they may be able to combine efforts to quickly deal enough damage to defeat Dracula before he can escape. Hunters may also attempt to escape combat rather than fight. Defeated hunters lose all items and must go to the nearest hospital to heal, returning at full health the following turn. Some Dracula strategies include a heavy dose of attacking the hunters, while other strategies may have him elude detection for as long as possible, advancing the time track. There are a lot of pros and cons for both Dracula and the Hunters to consider as they play cat-and-mouse across the board. The game board is a European map connecting cities and towns by road and by railway. Dracula may only travel by road, moving one location at a time. The hunters may travel by road as well as by rail. Hunters may acquire train tickets during there turns which specify how many segments they may move via rail, sometimes as much as three locations away. Both sides may travel by sea if they enter/exit via a port city. Dracula doesn't like water and therefore takes damage anytime he travels on the sea. Dracula posses five power cards that can be played to help misdirect the hunters, heal, evade, etc... The game turns are played in a sequence of day phase, night phase, then Dracula phase comprising one "day". The game grows progressively more in favor of Dracula as each week passes marked by despair tokens indicating that his influence continues to spread throughout Europe. Once three despair tokens have been placed (final week) the influence track moves drastically with each Dracula phase. If the game gets to that point, it will most certainly end soon. GameNight Gameplay When we played this week, I played as Dracula, while Nikki, Jeff, Chris and Dave played the hunters. Early in the game I was able to keep Dracula on the move and elude the detection of the hunters. Eventually the group discovered Dracula's trail and quickly devised a plan to cut off my movement. I had already taken some damage, as I had been traveling by sea early in the game and had used a power card which also drained some health. I was trapped. Determining that I wasn't going to be able to evade them any longer, I moved through the sea and followed by landing ashore at a location with one of the hunters. I used an event card to block the next day phase, which would keep any more hunters from being able to move into the port city during the next phase. During the battle Dracula was nearly defeated. Van Helming used his rifle effectively. The battle ended with Dracula having 12 damage to his 15 life. Van Helsing took damage as well, but wasn't defeated. Using more event and power cards, I was able to move Dracula safely away before the hunters could move again. I placed some road blocks to make it even more difficult to chase. After successfully hiding, I was able to use power cards and matured effects to heal some damage. This gave back the advantage to Dracula. I was able to evade for quite a while longer, then attack once one of the hunters closed in. The attacks against Mina Harker proved fatal as Dracula defeated her. The points awarded for the defeat gave me enough to win the game. That was my first win ever, playing as Dracula! I was delighted, however the other four were less than thrilled. Fury of Dracula is a wonderful blend of hidden movement and limited combat. The strategies can greatly vary from game to game. I think that's one of the reasons I like it so much. It never feels like the same game over and over. Everyone plays a bit differently. The item, power and event cards plus the combat component all make it more than just hide & seek.
If you haven't played Fury of Dracula before, I hope my overview and gameplay has provided enough detail for you to determine if its something you might like. If you'd like to read more about this game on Board Game Geek, click here. Let me know what you thought of the overview and/or gameplay by leaving a comment below. You can send me your messages directly via the contact page. Keep checking out King's GameNight blog and... Game on!
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In looking back at games from my childhood and high-school years, I evaluated which ones may have had a part in establishing my love for tabletop gaming. This is my list of four games from my past that most influenced me. These are probably the primary games which formed the roots of my interest in hobby gaming. In searching my memory, I found it tricky to identify which games made the bigger impression or greater impact on me. Of course, I played classics like Monopoly, Sorry, Mouse Trap, etc... however those and others weren't necessarily the ones I enjoyed the most or felt best represented my favorites. After some scrutiny, I ended up determining which were my top four ... in no particular order:
RISK! This classic game originally published in 1959 was a favorite of my dad's. He had one of the early printings of the game. I tried to find some photos of the version we had. It had wooden pieces and a map with cartoonish depictions of a whale and dolphins. My dad taught me to play at an early age, though I wasn't any good at strategy, I'm sure. As time went on and my little brother got a bit older, we played this game quite often. Some of my friends enjoyed playing RISK! as well. I would say at the time, this game was the premiere territory control battle for world domination. I will always have a fond place in my heart for RISK! and still to this day see how it has influenced modern territory control games among others. Conquest of the Empire A series of several games designed by Larry Harris Jr. published by Milton Bradley came out in the early 80's. I recall that my brother Drew and I got to choose one to buy. We ended up selecting Conquest of the Empire. As it turns out, one of the other games in that series was Axis & Allies, which went on to become one of the most beloved war games of all time. The other in that series that I remember was Broadsides & Boarding Parties, pirate themed game. My brother and I learned this game and played it often. Sometimes we got dad to play as well. The plastic figures, catapults and coins made the production of this game extra cool. Employing economic and battle mechanisms, this was probably the most complex board game from childhood. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Once my friend Scott Miller introduced me to the world of Dungeons & Dragons, I was hooked. Though not a conventional board game, this is truly a tabletop gaming experience that has had impact and influence on my life. The immersive nature of a role-playing game really captured my imagination. It was so rewarding to develop a fantasy character and play through adventures, fight monsters, find gold & treasure and use gained experience to level-up a character. Scott taught our friends and me how to play. I in turn, taught my brother and others. I took time to design and write my own D&D campaigns and modules. I read and researched the manuals for guidance and recreation. This game pushed me to want to read and creatively write more than any other activity I can think of through middle and high school. It has influenced and inspired games (both board and video), books, TV & film. Dungeons & Dragons is alive and well today. After going through a number of revisions, it has now landed on what many now believe is the best version of itself. I haven't played in years, but would consider it if an opportunity to play in a local group of friends arose. Dark Tower This board game must have been one of the first to incorporate an electronic device or application to support gameplay. In my mind, this is one of the first to foray into app integration which we currently view as one of the "new developments" in board games. The fantasy theme, with warriors gathering keys in different lands and battling brigands along the way was quite appealing to me. It was a bit of a novelty to have this tower in the middle which made loud beeps and blips, lighting up the number of your warriors and the number of enemies. Novelty or not, I loved it. I'm still a fan of app integration. I think its important that it enhances the board game experience rather than take it over. No doubt that Dark Tower has influenced me and has influenced modern board games and app integration. Restoration Games will be releasing a Kickstarter campaign for the re-designed version called Return to Dark Tower. Keep an eye out for this one. Final Thoughts
Wow! What a blast from the past? I enjoyed looking back at some of my favorite games from long ago. They helped to form my early love of playing games and still influence me to this day. Though I mentioned these four... there were many other games that had varying degrees of impact on me. One of those games, I couldn't remember the name. I could remember some vague images in my head of the faction images and that it had somewhat of a sci-fi and/or space theme... but I just couldn't remember the name. My memories of that game were fond, but somehow I just don't remember any details by which to find it. I must have spent three or more hours searching the internet, trying to trigger a memory of this game. I searched through listings of games from the late 70's through the late 80's trying to see if something seemed to match. I found nothing. Had I found the game I surely would've included it as a fifth favorite. Do you have a short list of games that influenced you or provides fond memories? What are some of those games? Does you list include any of the four I mentioned? I wonder if you've also had difficulty remembering an old game. One in which the name alludes you. Please share in the comments below or post your thoughts in the King's GameNight group on Facebook. Keep checking out King's GameNight blog and... Game on! I had a chance to play Black Rose Wars last week. This recent Kickstarter shipped to backers this year. My friends Nikki and Jeff recently received their copy. We broke it out and gave it a whirl. I'm going to share some initial impressions of the game, however I'm not going to give a full overview or review until a later date. Black Rose Wars is a game for 1-4 players designed by Marco Montanaro and published by Ludus Magnus Studio. This competitive game uses deck-building, action selection and other strategic mechanisms for players to compete against each other as well as against the game system itself, the Black Rose. Players select a mage as their character. Each mage has a slightly different hand limit and life points as well as its own unique spell card to include in its grimoire. Mages start with initial spells for their grimoire and combine each round with additional spells selected from the different schools of magic. Each round players choose which spells to use in the current turn placing them face down on their player mat in specific positions. Each round the mages move into different hexagonal rooms activating their enchantments and choose to reveal selected spells to attack other mages, conjure creatures and alters or other effects. Mages earn victory points in a number of ways: Claiming a portion of the victory points for the defeat of another mage, destroying rooms, and completing quests. When defeated, a mage immediately re-spawns at its starting hex cell. The goal is to be the first mage to reach 30 victory points before the Black Rose itself reaches 30. Components and Artwork The game components and art are of the highest quality. Beautifully sculpted miniatures for the conjured beasts and alters as well as the mage figures. The player mats and room hexes use a thick-gauge cardboard with recessed areas for damage cubes to be placed. The dark magic theme is consistently illustrated throughout. One point of concern we found was in the use of color. The grey and blue colors used in spells and rooms were quite similar, making it difficult to differentiate at times. Other than a few minor quips about color or text size etc... this game is very nicely produced. Gameplay During this first play, Nikki, Jeff and I spent some time learning and understanding the rules and reading each of the spell cards thoroughly. This slowed us down quite a bit. There was one mistake I made that effected this initial play. When advancing upward on the victory points track there are thresholds which trigger new moon phases. This requires that players swap out the events and quest decks to the next level deck associated with the new phase. The first time this occurred I only updated one of the decks, leaving the other with the previous phase. This ended up slowing the game down, as the Black Rose didn't progress as quickly as it should have, pushing the timing of the game. Nonetheless, in this initial play we were attempting to understand how things worked and properly utilize spells, etc... Though we had that one hiccup, I could still see how the mechanisms were all working together creating for interesting gameplay. We ended up calling our game before the actual end-game trigger, as it was getting late. We would have most definitely completed the game had it not been for the deck error made. Initial Thoughts I really liked this initial exposure to Black Rose Wars. In many games where players attack one another, there can be an element of "meanness" or a feeling of being targeted. In this game, that feeling just wasn't there. We all knew we would need to attack each other and once defeated there wasn't much of a negative consequence other than the attacking player(s) receiving victory points for it. There are so many different combinations of spells to be drawn. Each card typically has two versions of a spell. The schools of magic each provide a different strategy/theme. I think this will make it very fun to explore all the possibilities. Multiple gameplay might become essential to actually start forming advanced strategies. It's a beautiful production! Fun to look at and to move and handle the pieces, placing them on the various hex locations. There are several promos and expansions for Black Rose Wars. Nikki and Jeff have the Crono expansion. We didn't use this expansion when we played. It adds an alternate figure (Medusa) which I believe replaces one of the mages and adds Crono who appears to be a large construct or monster of some sort. I'm not sure if this introduces a one vs many gameplay variation or if it simply adds to the existing game. I'm looking forward to getting to try this in a future gaming session. Now that Nikki's had some more time to read up on nuances and FAQs for the game and Jeff and I are familiar with basic gameplay, I think we'll be ready to fully experience the game the next time we get it to the table. I'm looking forward to it. I think this game is going to deliver an enjoyable, competitive experience... slinging spells, conjuring monsters and completing quests along the way. If you'd like to learn more, check out the Board Game Geek entry on Black Rose Wars by clicking here. Please leave any comments or questions you may have in the comments section below. I'd love to hear your thoughts about the description and photos.
Keep checking out King's GameNight blog and... Game on! Evil Comes PreparedLast weekend I had a chance to play Villainous. We tried out the new expansion "Evil Comes Prepared". I'll give a brief overview of Villainous and how this latest expansion fits into the greater game. Villainous The Disney Villainous game and now series of expansions seems to have gained ground. In the past, games based on intellectual properties such as Disney characters tended to be highly commercial and thin on strategy... focussing more on theme and sales. The Villainous game has defied that tendency and given us a game that hobby board gamers are excited to play. This game strikes a nice balance, while its not so complex and difficult to make it inaccessible to most, it is fairly involved. Don't expect a Monopoly conversion here. The basic concept of the game has players select a Disney Villain to play. Each utilizes a unique deck of cards and character board designed specifically for that villain. Each player reads the booklet provided for their villain which explains how that character can win the game. During the game, players try to advance the status of their villain while attempting to hinder their opponents using fate. Latest Expansion In this latest expansion as in the previous one, consumers have all they need to play within one box. It is not required to have the original set nor the other expansion to play, however the expansions include only three characters. Playing with four or more will require at least one of the other boxed sets. Evil Comes Prepared includes three new villains: Scar from The Lion King; Ratigan from The Great Mouse Detective; and Yzma from The Emperor's New Groove. My friends Don and Shannon own all three of the games (technically they're Shannon's). The original base game and the two stand-alone expansions. Playing with the four of us (Shannon, Don, Brenda and me), we used all three new characters from Evil Comes Prepared as well as the Evil Queen from the previous expansion Wicked to the Core. Components Villainous components are top notch. From the box to the inserts to the artwork, everything meets the top level standards of modern board game quality. The "evil" theme inspires the design and color scheme. Not you're typical bright-colored, whimsical Disney fare. Each player receives an artistic sculptural rendition (pawn/meeple) of their villain character. The colored clear plastic sculpts look as if they could be done in glass. Each is worthy of being collected for their artistic uniqueness. The quality of the components is probably the first thing most notice and one of the reasons to want to add these games to your collection. Gameplay As mentioned earlier, this isn't a typical family game. It will require some teaching/learning time, especially for new players. Though the overarching concepts are relatively simple and all players typically adhere to the same basic rules and actions, each Villainous character has its own unique way to play and win. Each comes with a small pamphlet describing its win condition and certain cards and items in its card decks that will help or hinder the villain. In our recent game, we all selected characters we hadn't played before. It took about 20-30 minutes to read and acclimate to the new character requirements. Once this initial learning curve is overcome, the game plays relatively quickly. Each player moves their character to a location in the villain's realm and selects from available actions to play. The game typically ends with one of the players announcing that they have won by meeting the win condition for their villain. Each of the new characters in Evil Comes Prepared brings new mechanisms or twists to the game. All three of the characters, Scar, Yzma and Ratigan offer interesting nuances to try to build a strategy around. Some of the same issues with previous characters exist in the new ones. For instance, sometimes it is required to find a specific card buried in your villain deck or fate deck. There are cards and mechanisms that are designed to help search through the decks or reshuffle, however sometimes luck works against you and makes it extremely difficult to unearth the desired card(s). Once you're aware of issues such as this, you can make adjustments to strategy to try to minimize any negative effects. The utilization of asymmetric powers for each different villain enhances the replayability. No two games are alike, especially when different villains are selected. One could try to get particularly skilled at playing a specific villain or alternate between different villains in subsequent plays to try out different ways to play/win. Overview and Thoughts Villanous is a great option for modern gamers who love Disney. Even for those who are lukewarm to the Disney intellectual property will most likely heat up when they see that the game revolves around the villains. They're just cool! Be ready to read the rules pamphlets... however its well worth it for this unique gaming experience. I thought that Evil Comes Prepared did a nice job adding to the pool of villains with three beautiful sculpts and unique gameplay styles. After playing, we discussed the possibilities for new characters and expansions. We can definitely see at least one more expansion on the horizon. Cruella DeVille has yet to be depicted and would be our guess at the next featured villain. If you haven't had a chance to try Villainous yet, maybe my description above sounds like something you'd enjoy. Even if you have played the base set or first expansion, the new characters available in Evil Comes Prepared provide some interesting new mechanisms to explore. What Disney villain would you like to see depicted in the next expansion? Leave your suggestions in the comments. Send any questions via the contact page and ... Game on! For the Board Game Geek page for Evil Comes Prepared click here. If you'd like to link to the review on WDW News Today click here.
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