“Fury of Dracula third edition” review

Fury of Dracula

The most infamous vampire of all times terrorizes the living again in this third edition of Fury of Dracula! This is a board game of deduction and gothic horror based on Bram Stoker’s classic novel. One player is the legendary Dracula who stealthily moves and spreads the vampirism through the Victorian-era Europe surrounded by stormy seas and fogs. Will you be able to stop or he will drink all of your blood?

This game is the edition of world famous strategy and it was designed by

Frank Brooks, Stephen Hand and Kevin Wilson. They are famous for such games as «Game of Thrones», «Star Wars: Escape from the death star» and etc.

Arts and graphic design are established by Andrew Navaro and Scott Nicely. They are famous for such projects as «Arkham Horror» and «Star Wars X-Wing miniatures game» and many others.

The release date of third edition is October 28, 2015.

Game Contents

In this section we introduce you the card list, characters and etc. Have a look at this! Also, you probably would like to know that there are a lot of card sleeves available!

  • Game Board
  • Rules Reference
  • Character Sheets
  • Plastic Figures and miniatures (4 Hunter Figures; 1 Dracula Figure)
  • Event Cards (25 Dracula; 50 Hunter)
  • Encounter Cards (28)
  • Storm Tokens (6)
  • Fog Tokens (4)
  • Bats Tokens (2)
  • Item Cards (38)
  • Hunter Combat Cards (12)
  • Dracula Combat Cards (13)
  • Despair Tokens (3)
  • Influence Marker
  • Bite Tokens (4)
  • Power Cards (5)
  • Hunter Reference Cards (4)
  • Ticket Tokens (16)
  • Consecrated Ground Token
  • Damage Tokens (31)
  • Roadblock Tokens (8)
  • Heavenly Host Tokens (3)
  • Rumor Tokens (4)
  • Time Marker
  • Reference Map

Fury of Dracula - Board game layout

Gameplay

Fury of Dracula is a one-versus-many deduction game inspired by Bram Stoker’s classic novel Dracula. One player controls Dracula, and up to four players assume roles as hunters. During the game, Dracula attempts to elude the hunters as he spawns new vampires across Europe, while the hunters try to find and destroy Dracula and end his reign of terror. This game is full of danger and sense of emergency!

Game Setup

1. Place Game Board:

Unfold the game board and place it in the center of the play area within reach of all players.

2. Set Influence Track:

Place the influence marker on space “0” of the influence track.

3. Set Time Track:

Place the time marker on the yellow Monday (day) space on the time track.

4. Assign Roles:

One player chooses to control Dracula; he should sit near the side of the board showing the trail. The remaining players each choose a hunter to control. Each player takes a character sheet and figure, each hunter takes one hunter reference card, and Dracula takes the reference map.

5. Prepare Hunter Cards:

Shuffle all item cards and place them facedown near the board (5a). Then, shuffle both the hunter and Dracula event cards together into a single deck and place it near the item deck (5b). Sort the hunter combat cards by type and place them in three distinct piles near the item deck (5c).

6. Prepare Dracula Cards:

Sort the encounter cards (6a) and Dracula combat cards (6b) into two separate decks and individually shuffle them. Then, create the location deck (6c) by organizing the location cards numerically. Place all three decks facedown near Dracula’s side of the board.

7. Create Token Pool:

Place the ticket tokens facedown near the board and randomize them. Then, separate the remaining tokens by type and place them in piles near the board.

8. Draw Encounter Cards:

Dracula draws five encounter cards for his starting hand.

9. Place Hunters:

Each hunter places his figures on a city on the board. Lord Godalming is placed in Constanta (A), Dr. John Seward is placed in Marseilles (B), Mina Harker is placed in Brussels (C), and Van Helsing is placed in Amsterdam (D). When playing the advanced game, each hunter chooses his starting city (see “Advanced Game Setup” on page 2 in the Rules Reference).

Fury of Dracula - Dracula hidding out in England

Rules

Let’s see at the tutorial for this game! Also, besides the instructions you can find the video to learn how to play it or maybe you will take some tips. By the way, you can use the PDF manual and combat chart on our site!

Fury of Dracula is played over a series of game rounds. Each round consists of a hunter phase followed by a Dracula phase. Rounds continue until the game ends.

Each hunter phase contains both day and night. On the Day Phase hunters can move around Europe and search for Dracula’s trail. On The Night Phase hunters can investigate and prepare for the next day.

First, each hunter performs one action during day. Then, each hunter performs one action during night.

There are seven different actions a hunter can perform. Hunters perform actions as follows:

Fury of Dracula - Hunters

Move Action

Hunters can only perform move actions during day.

A hunter may move by road, railway, or sea, as follows:

Road: A hunter can move from one city to an adjacent city (see “What Are Roads and Railways?”).

Railway: If a hunter has a ticket token, he can spend it to move by railway.

Sea: If a hunter is in a port, he can move to an adjacent sea zone.

Supply Action

When a player draws an event card, he must read it as some event cards must be played immediately. Event cards are drawn differently during day and night, as follows:

Day: During day, hunters take a card from the top of the event deck. If the top card of the event deck has a hunter icon, the hunter draws the card by placing it in his hand.

Night: During night, hunters take a card from the bottom of the event deck. If the event card on the bottom of the deck has a hunter icon, the hunter draws the card by placing it in his hand.

Trade Action

When a hunter performs a trade action, he chooses another hunter in the same city as him.

Special Action

When a hunter performs a special action he makes either an effect from an event card in his hand or ability from his character sheet that determines that it can be used as an action.

Reserve a Ticket Action

To move by railway, hunters need to reserve tickets. When a hunter performs a reserve a ticket action, he gains a ticket token by taking it from the token pool.

Rest Action

When a hunter performs a rest action, he recovers one damage.

Search Action

Dracula has the ability to hide encounter cards at locations he has visited. Hunters can use the search action to reveal these cards. This is explained in more detail later.

Dracula Phase

After each hunter has finished performing a night action, the Dracula phase begins. During the Dracula phase, Dracula leaves misery in his wake as he recruits supporters, creates vampires, and warps the forces of nature. During each Dracula phase, Dracula moves and then places an encounter card at his new location.

Moving

Dracula can move by road and by sea, but he cannot move by railway. Instead of moving his figure on the board like hunters, Dracula tracks his movement by placing location cards face down on the trail. Dracula’s location deck has one location card for each location on the board.

Dracula wins the game by moving the influence track to space number «13».

Fury of Dracula - Dracula card

2nd edition versus 3rd edition

Third edition features all-new art and graphic design crafted to complement the game’s intuitive, thematic mechanics. Rounds are now divided into day and night: hunters take actions during both and Dracula is only active at night. Combat is more straight and decisive and new rumor tokens allow Dracula to cheat hunters and extend his influence!

Solo and two player mode

In this edition, Fury of Dracula doesn’t have any solo rules to play but it perfectly runs for two players! But you must remember that if you are one hunter player you must control all four hunters.

Expansions

Unfortunately, there are no any expansions for this game at the moment but we will keep you informed about it!

Similar Games

Fury of Dracula vs Letters from Whitechapel

Letters from whitechapel

These games are different in a way that Letters of Whitecapel has more quest and deduction stuff without combat, events and special abilities. Also, Letters of Whitechapel can be a bit easier than Fury of Dracula.


Fury of Dracula vs Arkham horror

Arkham Horror

These games are strongly thematic and can be played for a long period of time. Arkham horror is cooperative and Fury of dracula is one against many. Arkham also has a huge number of complex rules to remember and Dracula is more in the middle level of complexity – not simple and not difficult either.


Fury of Dracula vs Scotland Yard

Scotland Yard

Are these games similar? Not exactly. Yes, they are both in deduction manner and there is a group of hunters and detectives who chase another player and this is where the similarities end. Scotland Yard is more simple than Dracula, but these games are both great.


Fury of Dracula vs Specter Ops

Specter Ops

Specter Ops is much more tactical but Fury of Dracula is about building up your characters and timing your assault at the most advantageous moment.


iOS and Anroid versions

It seems that there is no current information about the digital translation of this game. Some people say that there is a problem with copyrights and that’s why this game is still only on the board game platform. Will be waiting for the further information!

FAQ

Q: If a fight between an Agent and a Hunter concludes with an Escape or End result (or a Hunter defeat), what happens to the Agent encounter marker?

A: It remains at its location.

Q: Can Dracula’s Agents take wounds? What about agent health?

A: No, Agents do not take wounds – the Tactics cards are designed so that combat with Agents only produces Killed, Continue, and End results, as well as wounds for the Hunter.

Q: In combat, if a Hunter has 2 copies of, for example, Stake, can the Hunter play Stake twice in a row?

A: Yes. The rule is that you cannot play the same physical card twice in succession.

Q: How is a Bite result for Fangs resolved if the Hunters have played Garlic or Rage?

A: Rage and Garlic do not prevent the Fangs text from taking effect, so combat ends and Dracula must move 1 or 2 cities away by Road.

Q: In the combat caused by Vampire Lair, can the Hunters use Garlic? Can Dracula play Rage? If Sister Agatha is in play, does Dracula lose blood each time he plays an Escape card?

A: Garlic and Rage may be used normally in the Vampire Lair combat. (Thematically, the vampires Dracula creates are affected by garlic and are capable of going into a rage.) However, Sister Agatha only affects combats involving Dracula himself.

YouTube

Conclusion

It’s time to hunt down the Count for you! Gather your allies and prepare for battle! Use your dice and cards and crush the Prince of Darkness and beware his hypnosis! Buy this game on Amazon!

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