Tromdial said:

Yep, that's the point. If you're lucky, you got the Vampire on the first turn and you start in Cagliari (by the way, Cagliari is a city, not an island; the island's name is Sardinia). This means that until you have to put the fifth card on your trail, there are very, very, very few chances for the Hunters to spot you (only Hypnosis and the card allowing you to choose two locations on the map). If you don't place any encounter over the first card, then the reward is +1 point on your track when the new day dawns; otherwise this could very likely mean +3 on the track in 6+ movements. Which is kinda unfair, to me.

But anyway, the only important thing is that you and your pals have a great time playing :-)

Steve-O said:

I think you might get confused with the Double Back card. Hide is played as a normal location card (the back of the card is identical to any card in the location deck), and you put an encounter on it, again as a normal location card (with the only exception that encounters on Hide do not mature). So the trial lenghtens, and the Vampire eventually present on cards played before is one step closer to drop off the track. Actually, Hide is a great card: the less you move, the lower the chances Hunters can cross your path

Julia said:

Cagliari (cool to know about the island is Sardinia) was a one-time use. I will never use that island-city again unless I feel enough predictability has passed. Hired Scouts really does work very well. One of my friends (the one who is devious at playing Dracula) guessed correctly I was in Manchester only after having my second move. I've even done the same with Sense of Emergency late game (Dracula was like ). Also, in the past, it doesn't matter how soon Dracula gets his vampire points but at what critical moment can Dracula be found and staked to death. We've had a lot of games where Dracula had almost won and then someone found his trail, Sense of Emergency'ed, and then ended it even when Dracula had nearly full health.

Julia said:

No, that's not my point.

What you said seemed to imply that Dracula could put down one location card and stay there for as many turns as he wanted, without moving, without playing any more location cards to his trail, and that this was the reason there was a rule against putting an encounter on the first location card.

What I'm saying is that I'm pretty sure Dracula MUST put down a new location card every turn, and thus extend his trail.  (Although I do admit it has been a long time since I played this game.)  The purpose of Hide would be to do this without actually changing his location.  I was also saying that even if Dracula COULD camp on one location for several turns, the hypothetical New Vampire placed there wouldn't mature if he did, because it wouldn't be getting any closer to the end of his trail without new location cards being played.

You and I are usually on the same wavelength about most things, so let me know if I've got my wires crossed somehow. =)

Steve-O said:

Dracula can stay in place if he plays Hide or Feed or Dark Call. Because of this, Castle Dracula's location ability triggers, as it is board dependent, not the card itself dependent on the regeneration and +1 combat bonus.

Also never realized that bitten hunters had to keep at least one revealed Event and Item card revealed at all times, especially Mina who is always bitten. I am rereading the manual, for sure.

Steve-O said:

Sorry Steve if my words were confusing. Nope, I was never intentioned in saying that; you're right when you say that Dracula *must* place a card on the trail (the only case where the trail does not become longer is when you Double back one of the card in the Trail). I'll try to word this better. Dracula starts in City A. He is NOT allowed to place an encounter on the card. Then:

Turn 1: he plays Hide and places an encounter on that card. Encounters on Hide never mature
Turn 2: he plays Dark Call
Turn 3: he plays Feed

At this point, Dracula has 4 cards on the trail, but this is not a real issue for the Hunters, since there are no encounters that can be matured. But Dracula has also the great advantage that the most common "revealing cards on the track" Event of the deck (Newspaper report) is technically worthless because it can't be used to reveal Dracula's actual position. So, this could be a good scheme to follow if you start with very bad encounters and want to make Hunters waste some cards.

Viceversa, if Dracula has a new Vampire and another good encounter (like Bats, or Fog), he can start in City A.

Turn 1: he moves to City B and places the new Vampire on the new card. This encounter clearly can mature
Turn 2: he plays Hide + Fog
Turn 3: he plays Dark Call
Turn 4: he plays Feed

It's very similar to the first situation, but in this case you're vulnerable to Newspaper reports, and this means that Hunters can move towards the location where the new Vampire is hidden

Tromdial's suggested houserule says that Dracula is allowed to place an encounter on the very first card of the trial. In this way, as long as he remains in City A, he is immune to Newspaper reports, the trail grows longer AND the encounter can be matured, and I was saying that, by playing in this way, you could score three points very easily in the first 6 turns, which can be game breaking

Hope this clarifies my previous post!

Julia said:

Yes, thank you, that does clear things up for me. =)

I guess I wasn't paying as much attention to the thread as I thought, since that completely flew past me.

Steve-O said:

I'm glad of this :-)