Kickstarter II, more
WIPs and the Angelcynn are locked soon...
Update #56 · Sep 13, 2013 · 2 comments
It's Friday, and that means update time!
We have important news of our next Kickstarter, some
WIP images of Angrislaug and a short missive to simply suggest that - if you want the Angelcynn starter set and associated miniatures, get it now because it'll be locked next week!
Darklands: First Edition Start Delayed
Unfortunately - and for various reasons - we've had to delay the start of our next Kickstarter project (entitled "Darklands: First Edition") until the week beginning Monday the 23rd of September.
We do hope to begin the project at around 7pm GMT on Monday the 23rd, which ensures both North America and Australasia are awake as well as Europe, but be warned that this is provisional! A more exact date and time cannot really be given until towards the end of next week, so there'll be an update to let you know exactly when.
We do apologise for the delay, because we know you're all getting very excited about it, but it's simply unavoidable. It does mean you have a little longer to save up, however ;o)
There's a little more information about the new Kickstarter project at the bottom of this update.
Bye Bye Trolls, Hello Angles!
We've just about sent all the Troll starter sets now, with the remainder being shipped early next week; this means that the Angelcynn Starter Sets will begin to ship next week!
To that end, the Angelcynn miniatures that are currently available - i.e., that are being shipped next week - will be locked from Monday the 16th of September onwards, so if you want any more Angles, you'd better order them now...
The Angelcynn should be completely shipped in early October and the Gorgonares should begin shipping at that point.
Penda the Bloody-Handed on Horse with Wolf Helm
The exclusive, limited edition Penda with Wolf Helm will not be produced until later on this month simply because we have yet to go digging!
Please note, there will be absolutely no issues involved with shipping Penda with Wolf Helm within the European Union. For those of you who have ordered Penda with Wolf Helm that live outside the
EU, we would like to state quite clearly that you choose to import Penda with Wolf Helm and his soil bag at your own risk. If your country does not wish you to import this soil (please check with your local customs offices), then please let us know and we will not ship Penda with wolf helm with the soil bag.
Works in Progress
As always, we bring you some
WIP goodies. Once again, Roberto Chaudon is working wonders with his sculpting tools and Angrislaug is coming along very nicely indeed!
Here's a scale shot for you, too:
The miniature that Angrislaug's next to is Galhwch Lladd Llaw of course - and he's not small! The top of a human-sized miniature's head would get to about Galhwch's knee...
Vókkinak and Ssibyros are still in progress of course, we just haven't had a
WIP for them for a little while. Both are scheduled to be finished at the end of September.
Darklands: First Edition
As we've mentioned previously, our next Kickstarter project - Darklands: First Edition - will focus on the full Darklands rules and, of course, will enable you to help our range and wargame grow. It's worth going into a little more detail now as a couple of things have changed since the last update.
"Darklands: First Edition" reward
The main reward of the project and the one we'd like everybody to go for is the "Darklands" reward, which will garner you the book and access to its stretch goals.
It will be available to purchase immediately the project begins and there will be a Darklands "early bird" reward (i.e., giving those who purchase the reward early a discount). The rulebook, and thus the project, will simply depend upon reaching the minimum amount of money we require to fund the project successfully - likely to be £20,000.
"I Just Want Some Cool Miniatures" reward
We will NOT now offer the nobles as separate rewards; these miniatures will simply be stretch goals that will be immediately available once the project begins. In the place of the Nobles reward, we're giving you the "I just want some cool miniatures" reward, costing £10, which will give you a commander of your choice and also enable you to cherry pick which miniatures (or other things) from the various stretch goals you really want. In short, it means you don't have to have the Darklands rulebook in order to get some cracking miniatures.
However, no stretch goals depend upon this reward and so if you want any "free" stretch goals or similar you'd have to go for the Darklands rulebook reward.
"Nobles" stretch goals
We now have five different nobles in five different stretch goals for you to choose from right from the start. These will be:
◾GENERAL -- £30 - a mounted (except for Khthones) general for each of the eight kindreds
◾COMMANDER -- £10 - a commander for each of the eight kindreds
◾FEMALE COMMANDER -- £10 - a female commander for each of the eight kindreds
◾SORCERER -- £10 - a sorcerer (or equivalent) for each of the eight kindreds
◾MONSTROUS COMMANDER -- £30 - a monstrous commander for each of the eight kindreds
Note that some kindreds' - mostly Khthones - miniatures will be a different price to the above, and these are noted on the stretch goal's descriptions.
Each of these stretch goals will ONLY be produced if a certain amount of money is pledged but are unveiled right from the start (and in the above order) so that they can be purchased immediately. We hope to reach the nobles stretch goals fairly quickly, and to that end, we're introducing early bird specials for each of the above (with a couple of pounds off each) and a huge "own them all" reward too. However, these early bird specials are tied in to the Darklands rulebook early bird reward - i.e., if you have purchased the Darklands early bird reward, you will be entitled to purchase the Nobles early bird discount.
So choose your reward wisely, and early!
"Hosts" rewards
The Hosts rewards remain the same as noted previously; these three rewards, of Encounter (500 gold), Skirmish (1,000 gold) and Battle (2,500 gold) sizes, will enable backers to purchase entire hosts for each kindred! These hosts will include new nobles from this Kickstarter as well as already available miniatures, packaged into a nice big box with tokens, dice and so forth and will be available immediately the project begins.
These hosts can be added to other rewards simply by increasing your pledge level, of course.
Note that some Hosts will only be produced if the units within them will be produced by this project; for example, an Albainn host would only be produced if Albainn units are produced. As such, the availability of hosts will be fairly dynamic during the Kickstarter.
Note that no stretch goals depend upon these hosts and so if you want any "free" stretch goals or similar you'd have to go for the Darklands rulebook reward.
Other Stretch Goals
We do expect to hit the Nobles stretch goals quite early in the duration of the project, and we will expand the miniatures available by unveiling units, beasts and other things as stretch goals once we reach certain levels. Each kindred will have units and beasts, but they will be unveiled one at a time; producing units and beasts is expensive, and it makes more sense to have eight stretch goals for lesser amounts than one big stretch goal for a large amount.
Freebies
There will be freebies, but they will ONLY be available if a relevant reward has been purchased and, of course, if a stretch goal is reached.
Shipping
One thing we didn't mention last week is shipping.
It's likely the miniatures from the Noble stretch goals will all be shipped all at the same time (as long as their sculptors deliver on time of course), at the same time as the Darklands rulebook, and then each stretch goal after that will be shipped as a "wave"; BUT shipping times do depend on how much money we get. If we get a lot of funds from this project, it's very likely that shipping dates will be shifted further back simply because of the time involved in casting the miniatures.
Thus, shipping times will be quite dynamic and we'll keep you all informed throughout.
Shipping Costs
Quite simply, we have been too generous with shipping charges for this Kickstarter and we have found that our budget for shipping was hit quite early. This was compounded by Royal Mail increasing shipping costs two months after the first Kickstarter ended! We've swallowed these extra costs, of course, but we are going to do things a little differently this time around.
Shipping costs will be very simple, however, and tied to stretch goals.
If you are outside the
UK, shipping will cost £10 for whatever you are purchasing for the FIRST shipment only, likely to be the Darklands rulebook and the Nobles stretch goals.
Now, you can wait for all of your purchases to be produced before we ship them, of course; but if you don't wish to do that, I'm afraid we must ask you for the shipping costs for each shipment.
Further shipment of purchases will cost a flat rate of £3 (
UK), £6 (
EU), £10 (ROW) - and these are "lowest weight" prices - for each stretch goal "wave" afterward, unless you wish to combine shipment of waves. Thus, if you have purchased miniatures from a stretch goal produced after the nobles, it will cost £3 to ship any or all of the miniatures from that stretch goal within the
UK separately from another wave.
It should be noted that shipping will be relatively fluid thanks to the time it takes for sculptors to, well, sculpt the miniatures; and thus we may be able to ship waves together, combine a stretch goal with the first shipment, and so on and so forth. As always, we will keep you informed as much as possible.
This will also be explained within the project ;o)
Sneaky Peaky
It wouldn't be an update without a sneak peek of what's on offer in the next Kickstarter... would it?
(It's worth mentioning here that Christophe Madura drew this for us back in 2012 - so don't worry, he's not been doing this instead of drawing Werwulfas).
