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.
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’m hoping for a Legion of Monsters affiliation once Morbius and Manphibian will be announced (it has to only be a matter of when not if at this point), but that isn’t quite the same. 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
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
Cheers from Germany 🍻
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