After finishing my Church of Dagon posse, I have finally started work on my second Dracula’s America faction, the Dark Confederacy.
In my last post on the Dark Confederacy posse I mentioned that I had picked up the Dark Confederacy posse, along with a couple of extra blister packs and Quantrill’s Raiders, all from North Star Miniatures. Once I spread everything across the painting table and looked through the rules, it became obvious that I had more than enough miniatures to build a very flexible posse.
Quantrill, Necromancer and Bloody Bill
Rather than painting figures as I feel like it, I decided to work out a roster that should cover virtually every Dark Confederacy force I am likely to field. The current painting list is:
- Quantrill
- Sergeant Bloody Bill
- Necromancer
- Four Zombies (the maximum allowed in a posse, although I have another ten waiting in reserve)
- Two Ragged Veterans with rifles
- Two Ragged Veterans with shotguns
- Four Ragged Veterans with pistols
Four Dark Confederate Zombies.
That should provide plenty of options for different scenarios and campaigns without having to keep returning to the painting desk every time I want to try a different combination.
Two Ragged Confederates with rifles
Two Ragged Confederates with shotguns
Four Ragged Confederates with pistols
I also have two excellent Hired Guns ready to join the collection: the Stitch Doctor and the Gravedigger. Both fit the Dark Confederacy theme perfectly and add far more than just visual appeal.
The Stitch Doctor is exactly the sort of unsettling character you would expect to find travelling with an army that has embraced dark powers. Rather than relying solely on conventional medicine, the Stitch Doctor keeps fighters in the game through grisly battlefield surgery, patching up wounds that should probably have proved fatal. He provides valuable support by helping injured members of the posse survive long enough to continue the fight, making him an attractive addition to forces that expect to get into prolonged firefights.
The Stitch Doctor
The Gravedigger is equally thematic. Accustomed to spending his life among the dead, he is right at home in the supernatural horrors of Dracula’s America. His abilities revolve around corpses and the restless dead, making him an excellent companion for the Dark Confederacy, particularly when paired with a Necromancer and Zombies. Whether helping create opportunities for the undead or simply proving to be far tougher than his humble profession suggests, he looks as though he belongs with the posse.
The Gravedigger
One of the things I am really enjoying about collecting for Dracula’s America is that the game rewards variety. A posse is relatively small, but having a selection of leaders, specialists, Hired Guns and different weapon combinations means no two games have to be exactly the same. It also provides plenty of opportunities to paint characterful miniatures, and North Star have certainly delivered on that front.
The painting desk is now officially occupied by another collection of ragged Confederates, shambling zombies, and thoroughly unpleasant individuals. If all goes according to plan, it should not be too long before the Dark Confederacy is ready to take the field and show that, in Dracula’s America, some causes really do refuse to stay buried.
