The game is afoot! (Note: cards discarded to the cellar and moat would actually be face down.) the “city.” Then both players draw eight cards from their decks. They are sleeved and shuffled together and then three are drawn to be laid out in the “castle” while the other six remain in the deck, a.k.a. Each of these nine characters also has a card. The human player gets a small head start on figuring out which townsfolk are mere mortals by drawing two more tokens that they can cross off the list of possible monsters. To begin the game, the vampire player secretly draws three character tokens out of a bag. Meanwhile, the vampire player uses a different 40-card deck and some wily cunning to bluff the living’s plans, seducing the rest into the ranks of the undead. The human player uses a partially unique 40-card deck and keen intuition to deduce which three of nine characters are secretly revenants – and kill them.

It is also an interactive match of shrewd hand management, with a clever twist on that particular mechanic. Instead, Vampire Empire is an asymmetrical, two-player game of bluffing or deduction, depending on which side you play. The name is a bit of a misnomer – there are no imperial overtones. So channel your inner Nosferatu or Van Helsing and enter the realm of Vampire Empire. Will these vile creatures lure and trap the land’s innocent souls? Or will the humans successfully reveal their dark identities and hunt them all down before its too late? In this new release from Stronghold Games, you have the chance to accomplish either. An evil has infected the city! Roaming the streets and its foreboding castle’s halls, disguised as normal townsfolk, vampires walk amongst unsuspecting mortals.

Teen vampire combat