Friday 22 September 2017

Dracula's America Twilight Faction

Last month I mentioned that I had received a whole bunch of figures and rulebook for a Weird Wild West skirmish wargame called Dracula's America: Shadows of the West. I have already painted quite a few of the official 30mm scale figures produced by North Star for this game and in this post I want to show you the figures belonging to one of the six main factions of the game - the Twilight Order.
The Twilight Order are amongst the bravest and most skilled of the forces of good and light as they fight to keep at bay the insidious forces of darkness and evil. Their forces are made up of Crusaders, Templars, preachers, ordinary gunmen and very occasionally, majestic otherworldly Seraphim.
From left to right are two Crusaders equipped with plate armour and weapons loaded with silver bullets. A Twilight Order faction may include two Crusaders in its posse. In the centre is a Seraphim. Wrathful, angelic beings borne aloft on majestic white-feathered wings, the Seraphim are Heaven's warriors in the guise of hauntingly beautiful gunslingers sent to aid the righteous in their war against evil. This creature must be summoned before it may join a posse and will leave when the encounter is over. She is armed with two Blessed pistols loaded with silver bullets that will never jam. Next in line is a Templar. A throwback to the Twilight Order's medieval origins, the Templars' methods of combatting the forces of evil have remained unchanged for centuries. Though somewhat out of place in the modern age, many posses have found cause to be thankful for the presence of these determined and ruthless warriors. He is armed with a Blessed great sword and wears full plate armour. Finally, is an ordinary preacher, whose stern admonishment or uplifting verse can inspire even the yellowest of hearts. He is armed with a sawn-off shotgun.
The reason why I chose to complete this faction first is simply because it contains my favourite figure out of the full range of Dracula's America figures and she is the Seraphim. Most surprising, given how much I like vampires, it was this one figure that captured my imagination the most. I think she is simply stunning! The full page illustration of her in the rulebook is even more beautiful than the figure is. To be fair, all of the figures in this range have been superbly sculpted by Mark Copplestone, but for the Seraphim I think he has really outshone himself.
I have the leaders of all six factions painted and once I finish painting the other figures for a faction I'll showcase them on this blog. I'll also be showing other figures that are extremely compatible with this fun little game. I do want to post a batrep of the game but sadly that must wait until next year by which time I ought to have amassed enough Wild West buildings to do it justice.

23 comments:

  1. I am almost tempted by this idea. BUT already have far to many projects on the go. Therefore I shall enjoy watching you progress this idea. Good luck mate.

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    1. I fully understand, mate. It's all about prioritising what we can afford and what we can find time to play. This, however, is a game that is very dear to my heart.

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  2. Was thinking these look like templars in the wild west, and then you confirmed it in the text. Very nice Bryan

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    1. Good observation, Dave. I'm glad you liked them.

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  3. Very nice mate, when you said about beautiful gunslingers I immediately thought of Sharon Stone in "The Quick and the Dead"

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    1. Ha, ha! When I first saw the figure I also thought of Sharon Stone.

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    1. It gives them a level of protection against gunshots, Phil. Plus, it's a holdover from their medieval origins.

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    2. I agree that it does look rather anachronistic with Wild West gunfighters wearing mediaeval armour, but the reasons why are well explained in the rulebook.

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  5. These look great Bryan, and I'll look forward to seeing not only the other factions, but also the other compatible figures - I must admit my heart sank a little when I read "official 30mm scale figures".

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    1. Thanks, Greg. Regarding scale, it seems to be the norm that figures are getting taller. 30-32mm seems to be the default size for so many figures these days. it does mean that figures can be a lot more detailed but can be worrisome if mixing with true 28mm scale figures. Fortunately for me, I can happily live with a slight discrepancy in heights simply because in real life people come in all shapes and sizes, so a bit of variety is a good thing.

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  6. Very nice. Definitely like your choice of colours as they certainly work well, allowing the non-dark parts of the model to really stand-out and be noticed.

    Was looking at the Confederate Revenant figures the other day, in light of using them with other Old West Zombies. I've the 7ombieTV rules and quite the number of 4Ground Old West buildings, so my thinking is that I may as well throw them together and see what works.

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    1. Cheers, Roy. The Confederate Revenant figures are so cool and I will be using them in "Six Gun Sound" and "Shadows of Brimstone" as well as "Dracula's America". As for the 4Ground buildings, I'm slowly building up my own collection of them. They are simply the best. Good luck with the 7ombieTV rules, which I know nothing about.

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    2. Crooked Dice's 7ombieTV rules are just a rules-lite 'Halloween' version of their 7TV pulp rules, as far as I know. I've owned the rules for years, but have never played them ... which is about right :(

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    3. I didn't get into 7TV until the release of the 2nd edition rules. I'm hoping 7ombieTV will get updated as I'm sure I'll like it.

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  7. Awesome paint work there Bryan. That's one project I wish I had bought into,but it hit right after another backed project and couldn't swing it.

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    1. Thanks, Tom. I know the feeling, mate. There's been a few Kickstarters I've had to walk away from because they clashed with something else.

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  8. Fantastic post, Bryan, with plenty of eye candy and lots of background info for those poor few who somehow missed out on one of Osprey's best genres to date. I must dig through my collection and see whether I own that medieval-looking mini; they look awesome. Great to see this sort of posting getting plenty of love on the "Lead Adventure Forum" too - very well deserved :-)

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    1. Many thanks, Simon. This is my second favourite faction in this game, after the Red Hand Coven (of course!).

      The game has most certainly be well supported on the Lead Adventure Forum, with the author making plenty of helpful contributions, which is always a good sign.

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  9. Lovely job on them all Bryan. The Seraphim makes an excellent centre piece. Shall look forward to seeing them in some AAR's.

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