Dracula's America - Figures, Games and Stuff

[fred]

Starting a thread to log my progress with DA.

As a group we only found these rules recently, following seeing an advert for the Hunting Grounds supplement. A first test game was very positive.

Having read the rules I'm really impressed with the way they are presented - they are extremely clear and straight forward to follow. Having recently read Bolt Action this is very welcome. The rules seem to have lots of good decision points and interesting parts - without being massively complex.

Seeing that the Hunting Grounds had Chinese I immediately thought of my Tong Gang from IHMN, and then when looking on NorthStar's sight, found that they had had the same idea! So a quick win, a gang straight away (well I ordered the new Railway Workers).

I've also ordered some Artisan 7th Cavalry Figures to make up the Foresaken gang.

I've had a rummage in my Reaper Bones figures, and found a number useful monsters (see below).

And while in town today, I popped into the local Wargames shop hoping they might have some MDF bases, and came out with two Perry Western style buildings. I don't need too much terrain, one of our gaming group has loads of Western buildings, but its always handy to have a second option if he's not around.

[fred]

First figures, these are all Reaper Bones figures from the Bones III KS. I'd backed this thinking I would use the figures for Frostgrave, but it took so long to come we'd moved on from Frostgrave. But quite a few look useful for DA.



First up a ghost (generic undead) and an Oni and a Fu Dog (thinking both as summonable entities for the Tong).

Painted all of these trying to model Hobgoblins method, white undercoat, brown wash, thin paint of colour and inking.  This was a pretty quick method from a painting perspective, although the washes seemed to take a long time to dry, so it took quite a while between coats. I think I will try a darker brown wash next time, I used Army Painter Soft Tone, which was covered fairly well by the paint layer, which perhaps could have been thinner too.

I'm quite pleased with how these have come out - not quite sure what to do with the Oni's face - its kind of screwed up and hard to tell what's what.




Saquatch, Bear Skin Walker, and Wolf Skin walker (or just large wolf)

These were done with black undercoat (my first use of Gesso) then lots of dry brushing. The bear still has various detailing to finish off.

All the figures need basing - waiting for some bases to arrive (see above).

[fred]

Had a rummage and found my Tong force



These were painted a while ago, mainly following the Dallimore guides posted by Northstar.

Comments and criticisms welcome - as I mainly paint 10mm and certainly painting the big critters is new ground for me.

[fred]

Had a go at another werewolf (another Reaper Bones figures) - gone for this kind of look



I think its kind of worked - wasn't sure with the first pass, but adding the yellow/brown has worked. The black on the back might be a bit light now?





(the base is unfinished)

[dinohunterpoa]

GREAT werewolf, CONGRATULATIONS!  

It doesn't even looks like a Bones miniature: no ugly mould lines or miscast parts!  

Have you ever considered getting rid of its integral base and mounting the mini on a clear round plastic one? 

 

[fred]

Thanks. I’ve not had problems with miscasts on Bones. Mould lines are another thing! They seem to hide until you paint the figures. See the Sasquatch above for a lovely mould line along his arm.

As to the base - I’ve not tried clear bases. I was planning to add an mdf base and texture. But I now wonder about removing the cast base and pinning to the mdf base. I’ll need to have more of a rummage for my pin vice as I couldn’t find it earlier.

[dinohunterpoa]

As to the base - I’ve not tried clear bases. I was planning to add an mdf base and texture. But I now wonder about removing the cast base and pinning to the mdf base. I’ll need to have more of a rummage for my pin vice as I couldn’t find it earlier.

Clear plastic bases are always the way to go IMHO, because the model fits in all kinds of environments! This werewolf in particular seems to have very nice sculpted hinders, so I think if would benefit a lot from a clear base!   

[fred]

I'll certainly have a think about clear bases. I was already thinking of fairly generic basing for these figures so they can be used in a variety of terrain.

My copy of DA The Hunting Grounds arrived today. From a quick flick through it looks very good. Lots of new stuff, both Hunting Grounds specific and lots of stuff that can be used generically.

[fred]

Mounted 7th Cavalry

Painted up these guys over the last couple of days.



As usual the photos show up all sorts of imperfections - how did I get blue on the boots of two without noticing...

Still feel my highlights aren't bright enough - when they go on they seem very bright, but they pretty much disappear in the photos.

I've tried to make the hats a greyish tone, while the black leather I have slightly highlighted with black mixed with brown.

Any suggestions on finishing these guys off will be welcome.

[fred]

First Game

We created $100 + Hero gangs to try out the rules. I went with Shadow Dragon Tong, and had a fairly small gang of 7 figures, kitted out with lots of equipment. Jon went with the Red Hand Coven, with a bigger gang, at least 9 figures and included a hired Scout.

The view from the barn, my gang deployed from, the Red Hand Coven are at the far side.



The scenario was a Fistful of Loot - I hadn't fully appreciated the scenario details, and thought that it was about getting the loot off the board, but actually its about gathering loot, and holding out against the other gang.
My Guilao (ghost men) sprinted forward to gather loot and bring it back.



Which all seemed to be going well. I then tried to contest a more central loot token (around the corner of the Laundry building). Forgetting my Guilao are Ethereal and can go through walls, the green jacketed one, ran into the open, and was promptly gunned down.

The second Guilao was rather cleverer and moved through the laundry to attack, putting a Broodkin down, and dodging lots of bullets. Rather than killing the downed Broodkin, he jumped onto the crate, to attack another Coven member holding some more loot. This didn't go too well, mainly as the Coven member disengaged making the Guilao a very nice target.



The Coven then pressed forward, with their Hero (Lee Van Cleef) climbing the roof of the laundry, and gunning down my gang member trying to recover one of loot tokens recovered earlier. My leader was busy skulking through the back of buildings towards the hotel to recover another loot token. Not an ideal job for my best figure. As I now had 2 casualties and 2 figures down, I need to make a bottle test. Needing a single 5+ on 3d10 I failed, and my guys legged it!

It was a fun game, we discovered a couple of minor things we had got wrong, but overall it was good fun, and a learnt lots about how to play. We then had a walk through the campaign phase, which seemed nice and straight forward, but with lots of fun and narrative elements.

[Dr DeAth]

Nice looking setup you've got there

[dinohunterpoa]

Nice looking setup you've got there

+1 !!!  

[fred]

Thanks chaps - this is actually my mate Jon's table, and very nice it is too. Expect some slightly less impressive photos this week from my place!

[fred]

More figures, arrived last night, cleaned and primed this morning.

I'll probably break this lot into 3 or 4 groups to paint.

[fred]

Mine Tower (Headframe)

I assembled this Sarissa mdf kit today, and have added some bits of card to give a bit more 3d-ness to some of the surfaces.



This is the tunnel underneath the tower



I'd quite like to add a hawser from the wheel at the top of the tower, through the square window, and out above the bracing struts. But I don't really know where it would attach to - it should attach to something some distance beyond this base to the left.