There comes a point in almost every wargaming project when you have to admit that things have got slightly out of hand. I appear to have reached that point with Dracula’s America.

What began as painting a few posses has steadily expanded. One posse became another, then another, followed by hired guns, monsters, summoned creatures, casualties and various other odds and ends that seemed absolutely essential at the time. Every completed group seemed to suggest another one that would be interesting to paint. This is, of course, how project creep works. It never announces itself. It simply keeps adding figures until one day you look across the painting table and realise that you are no longer painting a posse. You are populating an alternative version of the American West.

I have therefore made a decision. Other miniature projects are going on hold for the moment and I am going to concentrate on finishing my remaining Dracula’s America posses.

Unfortunately, while making this sensible and disciplined decision, I made another decision that rather undermines the first one.

I am adding the rest of my Wild West collection to the project.

The largest addition is my collection of 7th Cavalry figures. There are around thirty of them, with both mounted and dismounted figures. That already makes them considerably larger than a normal Dracula’s America posse, but apparently I was not content with merely having cavalry.

There is also mules, a wagon, a gatling gun and a cannon, with limbers and crews.

Exactly what all of this will eventually do in games remains to be determined. A Gatling gun is probably excessive for dealing with a handful of supernatural outlaws, but excessive firepower has rarely been considered a serious problem by wargamers.

The mounted and dismounted figures also open up some interesting possibilities for larger scenarios. Rather than treating the army as simply another posse, they could become a scenario force, an objective, reinforcements or the unfortunate military expedition sent to investigate reports that everyone back at headquarters regarded as nonsense.

They will learn.

I also have a considerable collection of Native American figures, including both Plains and Forest Indians. There are enough to create at least one useful skirmish posse for each.

These should fit particularly well into the expanded project because they do not need to be forced into the standard supernatural faction structure, although the figure will also fit directly into the Dracula’s America Skin Walker Tribes. They can operate as independent groups, scenario forces or locally raised warbands with their own reasons for becoming involved in whatever unnatural disaster is unfolding.

More importantly, they expand the setting beyond towns full of gunfighters and supernatural cults and make the wider landscape feel inhabited.

Then there are the actual Dracula’s America figures still waiting for attention.

I have the Red Hand and the Kin posses still unopened in their boxes,

Both of those factions will eventually receive the same treatment as my other posses, with names, characters and backstories rather than simply becoming collections of painted miniatures.

I also have various creatures that have accumulated during the project, along with some special “Hired Gun” figures.

At least these additions can legitimately claim to be part of the original project.

That excuse becomes considerably less convincing from this point onwards.

I have some of the Great Escape Games plastic Wild West sets, including mounted and dismounted cowgirls. These will be added to the growing population and should provide plenty of opportunities for hired guns, civilians, independent characters and possibly another themed group.

There is also a box of covered wagons.

Naturally, once there are covered wagons there will eventually need to be scenarios involving them. Wagon trains, ambushes, escorts, settlers attempting to escape something unpleasant and supernatural creatures attacking from the darkness all immediately suggest themselves.

The box has not even been built yet and it is already generating scenarios. This is precisely the sort of behaviour that caused the problem in the first place.

Finally, there is the bits box.

Every wargamer knows that nothing good ever comes from looking too closely into the bits box when trying to finish an existing project.

Mine contains a flying witch, assorted mounted and dismounted cowboys and a couple of rather substantial Mexican hombres. None of these figures currently has a clearly defined role, which naturally means that by the time they are painted they will probably have names, histories, enemies, supernatural abilities and several paragraphs explaining how they arrived in the territory.

The flying witch has already demonstrated how dangerous this can be. A single interesting miniature immediately raises questions about rules, equipment, movement and how she fits into the wider setting. One figure becomes a character, the character needs rules, and the rules create ideas for scenarios.

Project creep feeds itself.

I think I have finally reached the point where I should stop describing this as my Dracula’s America posse project and call it a Wild west project, as it has become something considerably larger.

The aim now is to create an entire Wild West collection both natural ans supernatural centred upon Dracula’s America. The existing and remaining posses will remain at its heart, but around them will be cavalry, Native American warbands, cowboys, cowgirls, civilians, artillery, wagons, monsters and assorted characters. Some will become formal posses. Others will be scenario forces, wandering characters, enemies, allies or simply useful figures for making the tabletop look more like a living and thoroughly dangerous frontier.

There is actually a practical advantage to doing it this way. Rather than continually starting new projects, I can pull together Wild West figures that have accumulated over the years and give them a common purpose. Once completed, the collection should allow me to play everything from small posse encounters through to much larger narrative scenarios without needing to hunt for additional figures.

That is the theory, anyway.

So everything else is going on hold while I concentrate on Dracula’s America and the increasingly large collection surrounding it. I will finish the remaining posses, work through the Wild West figures already sitting in boxes and see just how far this project develops.

Most importantly, I DO NOT need to buy anything else for it.

Probably.

Thanks to ChatGPT for help with the pic above and to Great Escape Games North Star for pics of their goodies.