The Dracula vs Van Helsing board game is completely addictive

As Valentine’s Day approaches, in previous years (2018, 2019, 2020, and 2023), we used to offer you a selection of games specially designed to play for two, and only for two. Not this year.

Not that there isn’t anything to get your teeth into. On the contrary, 2023 was particularly prolific from this point of view, between Sky Team, Tomorrow you killed me, Focus Or Mindbug. But we have already presented them all to you.

Fortunately, we discovered another one, just as good, very recently, just in time. As always, this is a real board game, intelligent, interesting, thoughtful. Not a vaguely erotic-playful substitute meant to spice up your evening. And if you can play it with your other half, you can obviously just as easily play it with a friend, your mom or your little brother.

In short, good games in perspective, perhaps as a couple, but especially as a couple!

What is a board game? Dracula vs Van Helsing ?

The game takes place when the famous vampire arrives in England aboard the ship Demeter. The game board, placed between the two players, represents five districts of the city, each inhabited by four onlookers. On one side, Dracula, on the other, Van Helsing, the vampire hunter.

Each is equipped with a card holder, on which five cards are placed, one for each of the districts. Each card is characterized by a number (from 1 to 8) and a color (red, green, yellow or purple).

Depending on your role, the goal is not the same. Dracula has to bite humans, while Van Helsing has to hurt the vampire enough times to eventually kill him.

We each take turns drawing a card. Then either discard it directly, or exchange it with one of its five cards and discard the latter.

In all cases, the effect of the discarded card is applied. Looking at a card from your opponent, swapping two of your cards, swapping one of your cards with your opponent’s… the greater the value of the discarded card, the stronger its effect.

And this value is important, because, at the end of the round, a battle takes place on each district: the largest card wins. If it belongs to Dracula, he bites an inhabitant there. If it is Van Helsing’s, he removes a life point from the vampire.

But one of the suits acts as a trump card, stronger than any value of the other three suits. If two cards that are not regalia clash, the higher value wins. But if a trump card is opposed to another card, it is necessarily the trump card that wins, even a 1 against an 8. Obviously, one of the card effects allows you to change the trump color!

A game lasts five rounds at most. Van Helsing wins if he manages to remove all the vampire’s life points. Dracula wins if he bites four humans in the same neighborhood, or if he survives the end of the game.

Why play Dracula vs Van Helsing?

Without being its direct sequel, Dracula vs Van Helsing is the spiritual successor to another excellent two-player game, from the same publisher: Jekyll vs. Hyde . Same box format, same universe, same game duration, same degree of complexity… given the excellence of these first two titles, we hope that this emerging range is regularly expanded with new gems.

And the comparison does not stop there, since the two games provide similar playful sensations. And yet, mechanically, they have nothing to do with each other, except this scale of color values ​​common to both. A game of tricks on one side, a game of majority on the other.

Like his big brother, Dracula vs Van Helsingis a gripping, addictive game. If the two players have a roughly equivalent level, the games often end down to the wire, in a pinch. We want to do it again, to take revenge by keeping the same role, or to swap them to discover another way of playing. Because even if the operation is identical on both sides, some subtleties that we discover gradually give the two camps present a slightly different flavor.

It is essentially a game of bluffing, of taking risks, of guessing(“as I think you have this value, I will therefore play this value to counter you”) and time delay. It thus offers a gentle mix of strategy and tactics, without any complexity, but with great depth. And with a little touch of randomness to spice it up.

So yes, from time to time, the luck of the draw can play tricks on you, and make you draw bad cards several times in a row. But you would have to be really unlucky for it to completely ruin your game. And even if that were the case, they are very short, and we then only want to start another one to take revenge and ward off fate.

It is also a game full of dilemmas. Obviously we want to keep large card values, and get rid of small ones. But the effects of large values ​​can reverse the situation, while small ones are often to our disadvantage. It’s up to you to juggle between the two.

We really can’t fault anything Dracula vs Van Helsing . A small, well-filled box. Superb material, wonderfully highlighted by superb illustrations, perfectly on theme. A small price. Simple, obvious rules, but a certain depth of play. And above all tense and short parts, which make you want to come back. You can even play it online on Board Game Arena.

Clearly, the Korean publisher Mandoo Games is in great shape in recent months, since besides Dracula vs Van Helsinghe published in quick succession the very good The Vale of Eternity And 12 Chip Tricks. We’re really looking forward to discovering the next releases coming from the land of morning calm!

• Dracula vs Van Helsingis a game by Théo Rivière and Maxime Rambourg
• Illustrated by Weberson Santiago
• For 2 players from 10 years old
• For games of around thirty minutes

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