Affiliation Overview: Thralls of Dracula (updated)

 

Why should you play the affiliation 

Because Dracula is an awesome character and having your entire roster be his vampiric slaves is pretty awesome. You could go all out with it and even convert and paint them like vamps but that's maybe a bit of a high ask.

How to start the affiliation 

You buy the absolutely awesome Monsters Unleashed pack which comes with Dracula and his leadership TTC as well as “unaffiliated” Werewolf by Night, N’Kantu and Frankenstein’s Monster. Unaffiliated is in quotation marks here because this is the fourth of four “everyone is in” affiliations. Dracula is the only actually affiliated character so everything else is up to you. You’ll probably want to look at characters able to hand out Bleed though.

What leaderships are available and what is the typical game plan? 

Bloodlust is a very thematic leadership. Dracula has turned your team into Vampires and they gain the vampiric ability to turn Bleeds on your opponents models into a heal for themselves. The first part of the leadership may come up sometimes too, but as said above I think it is a better route to be able to apply Bleed through different sources and rather take the heal for a power.

It makes for a good “fight and outlast them” leadership which is rather unique as often times you’ll either try to murder or to survive and win on points in this game. This will help you in a brawl a lot but might make it hard chasing teams that don’t want to engage with you anyway. There’s nothing to heal if you never get attacked in the first place.

Type 1: Pure Scenario team, as many VPs on the table as possible and try to win by scoring out as early as possible and with as little engagement
Type 2: Midrange Scenario team. Similar to Type 1 but can fight and chase if necessary
Type 3: Midrange Attrition team. Wants to be the beatdown but can shift to scenario play if the other side is clearly the beatdown.
Type 4: Pure Attrition team. Wants to murder you as quick as possible. Tabling is a possible and achievable goal here, but not the only way to win (they mostly score their points and deny yours by virtue of your models being dazed or KO'ed)

Who could be added to the affiliation in the future, especially as leaders? 

No one. It’s literally called Thralls of Dracula and even uses his superhero name not his alter ego so there’s simply no possibility of someone else in this affiliation. I was hoping for a Legion of Monsters affiliation once Morbius and Manphibian would be announced (it has to only be a matter of when not if at this point), but that isn’t quite the same. And we now know that Legion of Monsters is a Midnight Sons leadership (Elsa Bloodstones). It’d be cool to have some more Vamps in the game but this leadership already gives you the ability to use the most interesting ones: Superheroes turned Vampires and under Dracula’s control.

Rating every affiliated TTC and Character 

Thralls of Dracula

B. It’s nowhere near the level of Hellfire Club, which to be sure, is a good thing for the game. But it is a decent effect for a fighty team more built towards outlasting than straight up outfighting the enemy team. It will have difficulties against any kind of Bleed immune models for obvious reasons. So Dracula is actually much more afraid to see Sentinels on the other side of the board than any mutant team.

Dracula

A. Dracula is an excellent character but (thankfully) lacks a bit of action economy. If he had that on top of his extremely good attacks and superpowers he’d be the best 5 in the game with no question whatsoever. As is he’s still on the high end of the curve but at least he has a clear weakness.

You are contractually required to play a clip of Matt Barry from What we do in the Shadows yelling Bat if you want to use the ability on his movement though. Here I got you: https://youtu.be/OFGFD8g4gcg?si=7fptNe9FyT6jjJ99

Popular Splash Characters for the affiliation 

Anyone in the game that can hand out Bleed reliably. 

Example Roster 

Characters (10)

Dracula (5)
War Machine (3)
Skurge, The Executioner (3)
Baron Zemo (3)
Bullseye (2)

Malekith The Accursed (7)
Sabretooth (4)
Ultron, Metal Tyrant (5)
Squirrel Girl (4)
Venom (4)

Team Tactics (10)
Brace for Impact (R)
Dark Reign
Glory of Ultron
Happy Birthday, Runt!
I Am A Baron, After All
Lethal Protector
Midnight Phantasmagoria
Thralls of Dracula
They Say Keep Your Enemies Close…
Recalibration Matrix

Secure Crisis
Gamma Wave Sweeps Across Midwest (E, 15)
Intrusions Open Across City As Seals Collapse (C, 19)
Infinity Formula Goes Missing! (B, 17)

Extract Crisis
Research Station Attacked! (E, 15) (R)
Alien Ship Crashes In Downtown! (C, 17)
Fear Grips World As “Worthy“ Terrorize Cities (D, 18)

Everyone in the roster has the ability to hand out Bleed without the leadership and it keeps a Cabal flex for when you meet some pesky Robots and the like.

That's it for today. Next Up: Uncanny X-Men

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