My Twilight Order Force

The Twilight Order is a religious group of vampire hunters. In the Dracula's America lore, before the current timeline, the Twilight Order hunted down and nearly destroyed Dracula. However Dracula manage to escape to America and infiltrate the political system. The Twilight Order learn about Dracula's whereabouts over a decade later and immediately sent agents to pursuit him. This lead to a secret war between the Twilight Order and the Red hand Coven, the servants of Dracula.

I envision my Twilight Order posse to stay close to this lore. I imagine my posse to be a mix of agents from Europe and newly recruited Americans. All the models I have brought for Dracula's America were meant to be apart of my Twilight Order posse. Well, except for a vampire model which was meant to be either the vampire encounter that is possible from random events or a start of a Red Hand Coven posse in the future. However, with a new campaign on the horizon, the fact that most of my models are still not painted and my interests in playing a different faction, I'm going to take a hard look at my collection and decide what I want for Twilight Order and what could possible be better off as a different faction.

She was the first model I brought for Dracula's America and she always was meant to be my Twilight Order's mage or arcanist as the setting calls them. She is one of the few models I got paint on though I still need to finish her, especially around the face. She was the prototype for designing how my Twilight Order models were going to look. I don't think I really decided on my posse color scheme when I started painting her. Eventually I decided to have every Twilight Order member have their own color scheme but paint everyone with a red cross on their back. That way I can show off a model's individualism (and practice different color schemes) and having an unifying theme with the red cross.

In the campaign I made her my leader so she would have an easier time casting spell. Funny thing is that I've never successfully cast a spell with her and really only tempted to do so once. One thing I would like to do before the campaign ends is to summon the Twilight Order's unique summons, the Seraphim (I still need to get a model for it) in a game. In my Twilight Order lore, she is an important high ranking member of the Order but she is not the leader. I've always envision the leader (local leader I suppose) would be one of the two Crusaders of the Order, the special units you get free for being a Twilight Order posse.

This is an official Crusader of the Order model by North Star Military Figures. I've was never a big fan of their models, plus they seem to be a little smaller than Reaper Miniatures. Now that I have it, I will paint it eventually but it is going to be after others that I like much more. One of the things I dislike about the model is that he has two pistols. The Crusaders of the Order are really slow due to them wearing armor. Being slow and using short range weapons doesn't seem like a great combination to me. Since I still haven't put him together yet, I might put a different weapon in his left hand. Extra rifle bits are probably going to more important models so this Crusader might still wind up with a short range weapon. But at least it will be a special weapon.

An issue I had when I started working on my posse was that I needed a second Crusader of the Order. I wanted to find an armored fantasy model in a pose that it would be easy to removed a hand so I could replace it western bits. Eventually I did find what I was looking for but not before the campaign started. The other players didn't really care but I wanted something that made sense to count as having armor. With this guy I imagine his coat having metal plate woven into it. I named him Mr. G in the campaign because I was going to paint his coat gold. He had the biggest impact in my games in the campaign so far. I've played 3 games and he is my only model that had a kill in every battle. In every game, he took out a supernatural threat in one shot. He would hit the opponent hard and they would fail the save by 5 or more. That means dead. So even though I got a new model to be my second Crusader, I'm still painting Mr. G gold because he has earn it. I may even continue having him count as armored.

The model on the left is the official Templar of the Order figure by North Star. Templar of the Order is a melee-only hired gun that only Twilight Order posses can hire. The model on the right is the Reaper Miniature I brought to be my second Crusader. That said, I almost like the Reaper Miniature better as the Templar of the Order! It would be less work and I can use my rifle bits on someone else. The problem would be then what would I use the official model for? Taking another look at the rules, I suppose it is possible to have 2 Templar of the Orders other than its a bad idea due to how expensive they are. Think I will stay with my original plan for him to be the second Crusader as that would make him my Twilight Order's leader. It is also fitting that Reaper calls the figure a Templar.

This is the last guy I definitively keeping as a Twilight Order guy. Early on I was buying models armed with the same weapons and equipment I wanted them to have in the game. Lassos have interesting rules in the game and I wanted someone in my posse to have one. With the lasso being the main reason I brought him, I don't think I realize he has an eye patch. Either that or I didn't realize the game has rules dealing with characters with one-eyes, (they sucked). Once he is painted up, game rule-wise, the eye patch will be something we will just ignore.

I have a few more models but I want more time before I decide what faction to put them in. If in the new campaign I switch factions, I will be picking up a few models specifically for that faction. Until then, the above miniatures will be the focus of my painting.

Dracula's America and 40k update

I haven't played 40k much recently due to being slightly discouraged. This is partly because of proxies and partly because of the latest FAQ. I have played around 10 games this year and I've thoroughly enjoyed them. However the army I played with looks nothing like what its suppose to. I have a decent collection of miniatures but they are mostly not for 40k and unpainted. And most of my 40k miniatures are Blood Angels which I'm not even playing. Playing with proxies have been apart of my gaming life for over 10 years now and it slowly been getting to me. For a period of time during the end of Warhammer Fantasy, I could play with a force without using proxies. The models were unpainted or partially painted, but otherwise the army looked like it should. Now I don't even have that luxury and its not going to change any time soon. I have pick up a small sample of what I've been using this year but I'm still in the progress of assembling and painting them. My delay in getting them finish is because I can't decided on how I want my 40k bases to look. I've never been fond of the idea of basing. The default of gluing green grit to the base to make it look like the model is standing in terrain just doesn't look good to me. However I wanted to something this time around with me getting back into 40k. I have an idea of what I would LIKE to do, but I have no idea how to do it. Trying to find a base scheme that I would like and in my ability to do has been seemly impossible so far. Until I solved this riddle, I can't really finish the miniatures I started working on. Of course there is also another reason I've been delayed on getting things done...

My 40k hobby has mostly been stopped in its tracks with the Big FAQ 1 release in April. In particular the Battle Brothers beta rules completely ruins how I wanted to play 40k. I will hopefully go into it more later but the highlights are thus. The small factions are probably not worth using. They have take up their own detachment and they do not give you command points. Given that using the various small factions of the Imperium was basically my army idea, I'm limited to only taking 3 factions (I sometimes use 4) and I have to organize them in an inefficient way that reduces the amount of commend points I get. In other words I get punished heavy for trying to make a Witch Hunter list from my 4th edition days. So now I'm not sure I want to use Sisters of Silence, Inquisition or the Assassins. And of course Inquisition and Sisters of Silence were some of the first new models I brought. I haven't even started painting Inquisitor Greyfax and now I don't think I want to use her anymore, not with the Big FAQ beta rules. The more I think about the beta rules, the more it depresses my interest in playing 40k. Besides working on an unit or two of Arco-flagellants I think I might need to step away from 40k for the time being. My future in 40k is too uncertain at the moment, and there are other games I'm interested in that aren't as much of a financial investment to play.

One of which is Dracula's America. I played a few games last year and I've like what I played. There were talks of a campaign but nothing really came of it. I also joined a pen and paper Deadlands game that reduce the time I could play Dracula's America with others. I grab a few models for the campaign that never happened. I planned to make youtube videos about Dracula's America but that also never happened. So instead those models just sat on my shelf. Then two things change in recent weeks. My library has an audio video studio that will eventually be available for me to use. That will make recording audio for podcasts and youtube videos much easier to do and allow me to get shows off the ground I've been thinking about for a year or more. I also learn that a Dracula's America campaign was starting this week and I could join. I was not exactly ready to be apart of a campaign but now that I'm in one, I will take this opportunity to work on my western models and to make Dracula's America content. I don't know how much of the campaign I will cover here. It is a pretty simple 5 person, 7 weeks campaign. I will mention highlights in my new podcast but that will probably be the extent of it unless something interesting comes up.

More Dracula's America content is coming! So stay tune.

Issue with Weapons in Dracula's America

I've played four games of Dracula's America and my interest in the game is even higher. (I actually played two games before I publish my review.) Its unique system keeps all players involve for most of the game. And every game so far has been very close, though I've always been on the losing side. Without a doubt Dracula's America has become one of our favorite games to play and we are looking forward to eventually starting a campaign. But as we prepare what we want for our initial posse, we realize an issue with the weapons in Dracula's America, at least under a campaign system. Well, an issue if you don't want to buy and paint 5 times the amount of miniatures you would otherwise need.

The issue has to do with a "what you see is what you get rule", which a lot of miniature games have. If you don't know what this rule is, it means that the model needs to have the weapons its equip with to be physical modeled on the miniature. In most games this is not a big deal once you figure out how to make the model fit your playstyle. But with Dracula's America, a model can only have 3 weapons and no more than two models can have the same weapon beside the basic pistol. A starting posse has 6 models and $22 dollars to equip them with. You can't have any uncommon gear in your initial posse, like repeating rifles, sawed-off shotguns and others. After your first battle, both sides get some cash and then you can start upgrading your crew. So the equipment your posse has can (and most likely will) change after every game for most if not all of a campaign. As someone whom uses proxies a lot the hobby, I understand why the rule is in place. In games with fully equip posses, it is extremely important to know that a model with a rifle if that suppose to be a normal rifle, repeating rifle or a buffalo rifle. Losing track of whose who is a big problem with using proxies, both for the user or their opponent. But at the same time if I'm planning on making a character look vastly different in two or three games from now, why should I model how they look now? I don't want to buy a model for every version I want to use. I suppose I should say this is a problem unique to Dracula's America's campaign system. If you are not a campaign style of player, then this won't be an issue for you. Dracula's America does have a match play system where you build your entire posse with $100. But I haven't play it yet and I'm currently focus on campaigns, so my point of view is only from the campaign side of things.

I didn't realize this issue when I pick up my first mini, a cheap Reaper Bone miniature. I like the model a lot but it only has a single pistol. Knowing what I do now, I wouldn't have pick it up, or I would have pick it up with the purpose of doing conversions on it later. But since I have it, I will make it my posse's spell caster (which the game calls Arcanist) and build the rest of my posse around her. Deciding on what to get next is further complicated by another issue related to weapons, available models. Northstar makes the official line for Dracula's America but I've not been that impress so far with what I have seen. To be fair, I've never seen their models in person which could make a difference. However, it is really off putting to me that they modeled something wrong. There are several creature that you can summon in Dracula's America and a specific summonable creature is an angelic two pistol using gunslinger called a Seraphim. The Northstar official model only has a single pistol. When the game has rules about models being accurately depicted, having the official model wrong undermines the rules. I also prefer to get my miniatures at brick and mortar stores and my local store would have trouble getting Northstar stuff. So that leaves me to find suitable western options that my local store currently has on the shelf, which is two: Malifaux and Reaper Miniatures. Malifaux has been on the edge of interest for me. I knew its setting was called the weird west but I've never got around to truly look at their model line until I needed to find stuff for Dracula's America. At this point I realize they went all in on the "weird" part as most of what I saw while flavorful was extremely outlandish and grotesquely weird. The only things I thought might fit was one crew (which another player interested in Dracula's America already have), a lone model and box of random bits that will allow you to build custom characters. The random bits is out of range of my budget for a while and I don't want the crew because I would like everyone posse to be as different as possible. The only other Malifaux model I'm interested in is the Forgotten Marshal. While he is pricier than what I would like, if no one else gets him, I will probably pick one up.

With Malifaux out, that just leave Reaper Miniatures. I've always been fond of Reaper's products though in the past I just browse their stuff without looking for something in particular, and picking up any miniature I thought was interesting. Now I'm looking for wild west miniatures equip with particular weapons. And it doesn't help Reaper's website is awful for searching. Reaper's miniatures have searchable labels and western is one of those labels. However that doesn't bring up all their western models for some reason. If I had to guess, I think the problem is that the western label only brings up miniatures under their Chronoscope brand and not under any other brand, like Savage Worlds which has their Deadlands minis. Whatever is the reason, it means I will eventually have to look through Reaper's very large catalog, one mini at a time. The reason I need to do this is because I need figures with multiple weapons, in particular rifles, shotguns and carbines. Figures holding a weapon in a way to make it easy to snip the hands off for conversion purposes is a bonus. What disappointed me the most about Reaper was the lack of Native American figures. I found only 3 in their catalog so far and none of them had range weapons. I wanted at least one Native American in my posse but at this time I don't have any viable options. If someone wanted to play the Skinwalkers faction(which only Native Americans can join), then Malifaux and Reaper are not options for them. Unless you want to do heavy conversions on three different models, then you would have look at one of the smaller miniature companies for Native American figures. Who? I don't know. I didn't see any Native American figures at Northstar under Dracula's America either!

As I mention earlier, many of these issue are only present if you play in a campaign. Under match play, you can make a list and then buy and convert your models to fit your list with little problems (unless you want Native Americans). For me, I think I will be looking to build my posse around where I see them during the middle of the campaign. Early in the campaign I think it will be easier to remember to disregard certain gear as weapon options are very limited then. As the campaign goes on, I can start buying items on the model but I don't have in my posse yet. By the time it gets past the middle and heading towards the end, I will probably be needing to expand beyond the initial six and will have a lot of experience to know what exactly I need. That's all I have on weapons in Dracula's America. Next time I will go into what I'm working on for my posse and talk a little bit about the factions. Thanks for reading. Until next time.

A Quick Review: Dracula's America

I had seen pictures of models on Twitter and in an email for Dracula's America. I wasn't really interested in it at the time. Partly because I'm already in too many games that I'm trying to buy miniatures for. And partly because westerns is a distance 4th for genres I want to play in. That said, I got the chance to read a review copy of the book during a 2 and half hour trip to play some Team Yankee. I wish I didn't. Not because it was a bad read. I wish I had not read it because now I really REALLY want to get a few western models and play a few games.

Dracula's America is a skirmish wargame in a similar vein as Frostgrave, Necromunda and Mordheim. You have a warband of six to ten models (Dracula's America calls it your Posse) where you battle other players' warband and random encounters to earn treasure. Build in these games are campaign systems where your force can gain experiences and grew in power. I will admit that I haven't read all of Dracula's America from cover to cover. I didn't get to the fluff of its alternate history. But I did read the rules of how to play, the various game mechanics, how to build a Posse, a few magic spells and all the powers you get from the special factions. In all, I think I read about 65% of the book and I feel confident that I could play a game with a pre-made Posse and would only have to look in the book for charts. To me that is amazing after a single partial read. For me to do that means the rules were written in a simple and easy to understand way for a game that has quite a bit of complexity to it.

The game uses a dice pool system in a way I've never seen or heard of before. Your base dice pool will depend on the action you want to take. For example, shooting is a 3-die pool while a dodge reactions is a 1-die pool. Situation modifiers can increase or decrease this dice pool, though nothing can reduce the pool below a single die. Any die that rolls a 5 or higher is a success. The more successes rolled, the better the result. The type of die used is depended on the characters. If a character has only recently started wearing a gun on their hip, then they will be using d6s for all their die rolling. Now if a character has been in a few fights and has seen a thing or two in their time, then they would be using d8s. But if a character's name is known throughout the country because of their exploits, then they would probably be using d10s. I really like this tier system. It is a way to make veterans of the west more powerful than novices without giving them bigger numbers for stats.

Like all western based games, Dracula's America uses a deck of cards. A deck per player to be exact. Cards are used as an initiative system. At the beginning of the turn, all players draw cards equal to half the number of models in their posse, round up. So if you had 9 miniatures on the table, you would draw 5 cards. You get to draw an extra card if your boss (whom is the leader of your posse) is still on the table. Initiative is done by each player picking a card in their hand and playing it face down. Once everyone has picked, the cards are reveal. The player with the highest valued card gets to act first, any black cards before red cards. In case of ties, roll off. And if two of the exact same cards are used, a special event happens as well. When its your turn to act, you can either pick one model to take 2 actions or you can pick two models to take 1 action each. After you have resolved both of your actions the model/s get a done token and discard the playing card. The player with the next highest card gets to act. Once all the players get a chance to act, play repeats itself by everyone picking a new card. Models with done tokens can't act again. Play continues until either all models on the table have acted or all players are out of cards. I've never seen an initiative system like this and at least on paper I love it. While essentially play is swap back and forth between two players, I see interesting choices being available at all points. You never know if your opponent will activated one model or two on their next turn. With the right cards in hand, you can setup a plan to take two turns in a row by playing a low card followed by an Ace. You won't have enough cards to have all your models take two actions, so you need to strategize who best to get those extra actions and when.

The types of actions available and interaction with terrain seem to be more or less standard with skirmish games. The one significant difference is that facing matters. Not only does a model have to face in the direction where it is shooting but also getting shot in the back does extra damage. Also one of the available actions is a ready action which allows you to interrupt an enemy model later in the turn. However you have to be able to see them to interrupt and if your back is to them, then you can't use the ready action. Now combat is anything but standard. I already explain how skill test work. For combat, you attack with a skill like shooting. If you get at least one success then you hit. The victim now has to make a save. This is not a test so a success isn't automatic at 5+. Instead the number needed to save is based on the number of successes the attacker got. 5+ on a single success, 6+ with two successes and so on. The victim needs to make this test even if they can't roll high enough to succeed. Damage is based on how much the victim fails their saved. There are three damage states in the game; shaken, down and casualty. Shaken means you have some light wounds and have some penalties. Down means you are either serious wounded, or too scared to get off the ground. Either way, the only thing they can do is crawl until they get healed. Casualty, like the name implies is being dead or too gravely wounded to continue. A model that takes a casualty is removed from the board.

I didn't get to fluff where they explain the story behind the setting because I ran out of time. I only know the tagline which is that Dracula's minions assassinated the president and mind control the congress into making him President for life. I also read about the playable factions in the game. I only got to their game rules but that was enough for me to get a favor of who they are and the possible role in the setting. I think the setting has a lot to offer. I am reminded of Deadlands in tone and mystery. I could very easily see adapting Dracula's America to play a wargame in the Deadlands world. Also I can see adapting your favorite pen and paper roleplaying game to have a lot of fun in Dracula's America as well. Just using Dracula's America ruleset as is or with slight changes make work as rpg as well. Some of the available factions includes The Crusaders of the Twilight Order (whom members can have knight armor, holy bless weapons and can summon angelic gunslingers), vampires that serve Dracula, devil worshipers whom can summon demons, Native American shapeshifters and just a lot more.

What I like most about Dracula's America is how they separated the mundane and supernatural. In most fantastical games, the supernatural aspect is entwine through out the rule system. This fine by me as I love my magic. But if someone was a historical player, it would be a headache if not just impossible to use these fantasy games as mundane historical games in my opinion. Dracula's America on the other hand has made it extremely easy to go mundane. If you want to play a historical skirmish western game, then all you need to do is read the first half of the book and play as it. If you do want to play with supernatural elements then the second half of the book can be seamlessly inserted into your game. I don't know if this design choice was intentional but it is really cool they gave us the option to play without magic if we want.

The only thing that disappointed me about Dracula's America is the campaign system that came package in the book. After seeing a few Frostgrave campaigns and how seemingly rich Dracula's America backstory is, I was expecting something rich with story. Instead we got a very abstract campaign system with very bland scenarios. To be fair Frostgrave's rich campaigns came in separate releases from the initial book. But at the same time Frostgrave had more initial scenarios and those scenarios were far more interesting. I suppose its not too bad to have this as your weak point as it easily fix with a new campaign book release. And my complains only deals with how you suppose to organize a campaign, how to decide the campaign winner and the lack of any kind of story. The system for how your posse grows in strength is excellent.

I'm really looking forward to trying Dracula's America. If you are a fan of a weird west setting or enjoy skirmish wargames with leveling up mechanics, then I would definitely suggest you take a look at Dracula's America. Even if you dislike westerns and/or vampires, as long as you are a skirmish wargame fan, I would still suggest looking at it. The uniqueness of the system might be enough for you to love the game despite its genre. Thank you for reading.