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From the front page on the Darklands Kickstarter and has been there since Thurs 17th

FAQ

If I choose more than one pledge do I have to pay for shipping on each pledge?
How do I choose my kindred/faction once I have pledged?
I see you have some optional extras I can choose from? How do I pledge/choose?
I want multiple amounts of the same optional add-on figure? Is this possible?
Can I add to my pledge at the end?
If I choose multiple starter sets does each starter set get a free mini set at the Stretch Goal?
Yes, once you check out at then end of the Kickstarter and let us know which kindreds you have chosen (we'll email you) we'll add the relavent free minis for your starter set choice/kindred.

Last updated: Thursday Jan 17, 10:36am EST

@I-Kore
I have to correct you there, I-Kore went under because some people from within (some the same that were involved in the crash of Target Games) made a lot of shady dealings. One sold stock twice and funneled the money into his own pockets. And there were also other not so nice things going on within. I-Kore died because they never got rid of the poeple that destroyed Target in the first place. And if you go back there is a whole line of companies that got killed by the actions of certain people.

@New Wave
quite some of what you wrote is true, but it gets less correct when concerning CMoN.

Carrowek is intense! love thst moel but i wonder if he is going to fit with fantasy mpdel file and rank models.

I have great expecations on Carrowek on horse. We know that Simon can make brutal human figures, but also great beasts of horses (like the mounted Drunes of Confrontation). I bet it will be quite the sight!

Yeah, that Carrowek #2 is going to be awesome

 Duncan_Idaho wrote:

@New Wave
quite some of what you wrote is true, but it gets less correct when concerning CMoN.

Which part? It was well documented they were deleting and editing posts to remove mention of Doust/NewWave and banning users that attempted to bring it up. I do not know if that is still the case currently.

Perhaps MM or someone who knows the background to this line can answer a few questions. I'm interested in the history of the miniatures and their creation etc.

The BaneLegions line seems to have started in May 2010. I'm not sure just how many mini's were released since then but there has to be more than a few!

What's the total number of mini's we can expect to see in this line (based purely on existing assets obviously, not new sculpts), and seeing as a vast number already exist (the 90% figure that has been bandied around that MM now owns) - how was this breakdown between Banelegions and Darklands determined?

Was it just that some had to be kept out of the ownership sale for whatever reason, or just simple economics and the rest may make it in after you've built up some capital? Will there ever be a list of the 10% missing so that past followers of the line don't invest in this now not knowing that their favorite ex BaneLegion mini isn't coming to Darklands?

I'm coming at this from the point of view of someone who until the KS was launched had only ever seen the occasional BaneLegion mini around but never really looked at the line. So for me every figure can be said to be new, although as I understand it some of these could have been sculpted over three years ago.

As this is now going to be something like WHFB, KoW et all with its own rules, I'm looking long term if I'm making an investment in the factions I might be interested in. I'm thinking of going back over the line and looking at various models as a kind of signpost of what to expect coming up.

Before I bother going to that effort though I thought I would ask here in case you can say outright that most of the mini's will see a release as part of the rules, or that XYZ mini is excluded so I don't see something awesome from 2010/2011 and get my hopes up not knowing that it either will never appear or the re-release is scheduled for 2-3 years away.

For example, looking at your website I see only 6 products listed for the Brythoniaid under Darklands. Was this always a limited line (hence the KS) or are there really a huge number of mini's from the original line that aren't represented here?

There are certainly going to be people like myself going from the KS to your website, and not knowing what the difference between Banelegions and Darklands is, doesn't help when searching the web as you obviously find many more results under Banelegions than Darklands.

Some sort of breakdown of which is which, a planned rollout schedule etc would help greatly in making a decision on which line to pick up in the Starter sets. Apologies if this exists somewhere already, my initial look didn't see anything definitive.

Ask in the comments of kickstarter. Mierce has been very good at answering questions.

You have to be a backer to post in the comments, and Mierce has posted some here, so hopefully they can answer.

I notice there's no small token pledge amount like in most Kickstarters I guess this is to stop people posting in the comments to warn about the company and it's ceo.
Honestly I would not be giving them any money until the investigation and winding up of maelstrom have been completed as it's to much of a gamble.

Nothing is charged until the KS ends, so I don't see why the pledge size would discourage people from jumping in there to comment.
There have been plenty of comments on the Rob Lane/MG situation.

SeanDrake wrote:
I notice there's no small token pledge amount like in most Kickstarters I guess this is to stop people posting in the comments to warn about the company and it's ceo.
Honestly I would not be giving them any money until the investigation and winding up of maelstrom have been completed as it's to much of a gamble.

Cant you just click the No reward: No thanks, I just want to help the project?

Or does that not allow comments?

It does. And even if it didn't, you could always just pull any pledge before the end, again.

You can, and I did so on page 1 or so of the comments when no one had linked to the threads discussing the prior situation.

However, most people won't, so it is good when companies answer questions outside of the KS comments to draw in potential backers who don't want to make a token pledge and then have to cancel it if they don't like the answer.

To be fair ks has the ask a question button - that doesn't require you to be a backer,

 Surloch wrote:
Perhaps MM or someone who knows the background to this line can answer a few questions. I'm interested in the history of the miniatures and their creation etc.

The BaneLegions line seems to have started in May 2010. I'm not sure just how many mini's were released since then but there has to be more than a few!

What's the total number of mini's we can expect to see in this line (based purely on existing assets obviously, not new sculpts), and seeing as a vast number already exist (the 90% figure that has been bandied around that MM now owns) - how was this breakdown between Banelegions and Darklands determined?

Was it just that some had to be kept out of the ownership sale for whatever reason, or just simple economics and the rest may make it in after you've built up some capital? Will there ever be a list of the 10% missing so that past followers of the line don't invest in this now not knowing that their favorite ex BaneLegion mini isn't coming to Darklands?

I'm coming at this from the point of view of someone who until the KS was launched had only ever seen the occasional BaneLegion mini around but never really looked at the line. So for me every figure can be said to be new, although as I understand it some of these could have been sculpted over three years ago.

As this is now going to be something like WHFB, KoW et all with its own rules, I'm looking long term if I'm making an investment in the factions I might be interested in. I'm thinking of going back over the line and looking at various models as a kind of signpost of what to expect coming up.

Before I bother going to that effort though I thought I would ask here in case you can say outright that most of the mini's will see a release as part of the rules, or that XYZ mini is excluded so I don't see something awesome from 2010/2011 and get my hopes up not knowing that it either will never appear or the re-release is scheduled for 2-3 years away.

For example, looking at your website I see only 6 products listed for the Brythoniaid under Darklands. Was this always a limited line (hence the KS) or are there really a huge number of mini's from the original line that aren't represented here?

There are certainly going to be people like myself going from the KS to your website, and not knowing what the difference between Banelegions and Darklands is, doesn't help when searching the web as you obviously find many more results under Banelegions than Darklands.

Some sort of breakdown of which is which, a planned rollout schedule etc would help greatly in making a decision on which line to pick up in the Starter sets. Apologies if this exists somewhere already, my initial look didn't see anything definitive.

Darklands are the minis they're fitting into their skirmish game.

Banelegions is other minis that they'll release from time to time (no elfs, dwarfs, orcs, etc.. in Darklands).

 Surloch wrote:
Perhaps MM or someone who knows the background to this line can answer a few questions. I'm interested in the history of the miniatures and their creation etc.

The BaneLegions line seems to have started in May 2010. I'm not sure just how many mini's were released since then but there has to be more than a few!

What's the total number of mini's we can expect to see in this line (based purely on existing assets obviously, not new sculpts), and seeing as a vast number already exist (the 90% figure that has been bandied around that MM now owns) - how was this breakdown between Banelegions and Darklands determined?

Was it just that some had to be kept out of the ownership sale for whatever reason, or just simple economics and the rest may make it in after you've built up some capital? Will there ever be a list of the 10% missing so that past followers of the line don't invest in this now not knowing that their favorite ex BaneLegion mini isn't coming to Darklands?

I'm coming at this from the point of view of someone who until the KS was launched had only ever seen the occasional BaneLegion mini around but never really looked at the line. So for me every figure can be said to be new, although as I understand it some of these could have been sculpted over three years ago.

As this is now going to be something like WHFB, KoW et all with its own rules, I'm looking long term if I'm making an investment in the factions I might be interested in. I'm thinking of going back over the line and looking at various models as a kind of signpost of what to expect coming up.

Before I bother going to that effort though I thought I would ask here in case you can say outright that most of the mini's will see a release as part of the rules, or that XYZ mini is excluded so I don't see something awesome from 2010/2011 and get my hopes up not knowing that it either will never appear or the re-release is scheduled for 2-3 years away.

For example, looking at your website I see only 6 products listed for the Brythoniaid under Darklands. Was this always a limited line (hence the KS) or are there really a huge number of mini's from the original line that aren't represented here?

There are certainly going to be people like myself going from the KS to your website, and not knowing what the difference between Banelegions and Darklands is, doesn't help when searching the web as you obviously find many more results under Banelegions than Darklands.

Some sort of breakdown of which is which, a planned rollout schedule etc would help greatly in making a decision on which line to pick up in the Starter sets. Apologies if this exists somewhere already, my initial look didn't see anything definitive.

Decker pretty much got it in a nutshell. We own all of the Banelegions minis, it's just that we re-branded about 90% of them as Darklands minis to fit in with the Darklands game. Those minis that remain BaneLegions are the more high fantasy stuff like elves, orcs, dwarfs - that sort of thing and also the Vagrant Knight who doesn't fit the Darklands setting historically.

We still plan to keep supporting the BaneLegions range though, in fact we re-released some old favourites recently that we managed to re-master (the old Ox-Gore, three-face etc) and over the next month or so you should see some brand new releases for that line as well.

Going onto Darklands, some of the factions are more fleshed out that others. Ysians, Kthones and Formorians have had the most of the love so far. Going forward the Anglcynn, Norse and Brythons will get more love (though there will still be releases for the other 3 and also possibly those outside the core 6 as well.). Those 6 factions will be the core of the game when we launch the full game rules with a big stonking book, most likely in 2014. As far as release schedules go we released new minis every month since we formed. POst KS the new releases will be those funded by the KS, available to the wider public, retailers etc and after that new, unseen releases will appear again. A lot depends on what we fund via KS and what we don't. For example mtd Carrowek and Cearl will be funded at £25k. The next stretch goal may well have a new mini we would like to fund.

Moulding for some of the stuff that was funded at £5k begins this week btw. The Ysian Ax unit is on my desk now (the champ is already released) and the std bearer first cast are looking magnificent (we will be releasing the Ax unit one at a time for collectors, though KS backers will get the full unit before anyone else).

SeanDrake wrote:
I notice there's no small token pledge amount like in most Kickstarters I guess this is to stop people posting in the comments to warn about the company and it's ceo.
Honestly I would not be giving them any money until the investigation and winding up of maelstrom have been completed as it's to much of a gamble.

You can enter a pledge of £1+ on the pledging page, you don't need to choose a reward. And you can cancel it completely right up until the last second.

Edit: that's been pretty well covered already, sorry.

 scipio.au wrote:

 fullheadofhair wrote:
I own several Bane legion etc models. Love the sculpts and the the casts have been pretty damn awesome (except they cannot cast bases for gak).

I want to pledge on this. I really do. My wallet twitches and I have a filled out the screen several times. I just cannot bring myself to hit that final button. I just cannot convince myself I am going to see anything from this once the money has left my account.

I cannot be the only one who thinks like this surely?

How does Mierce manage to repair their reputation (other than Mr. Lane never having anything to do with them ever again)? I am not sure what would make me hit that final button.

Honestly, if Mierce and Lane really wanted forgiveness from the consumer end of the community, they'd contact all the people who were ripped off by Maelstrom's non-fulfillment of orders and offer Mierce Miniatures credit for the same amounts of money. It wouldn't do much for the supply chain end who got burned, but this is the only way I could see them having a mostly-successful mea culpa on a larger scale then their existing fans, apologists and those who don't care that the same people ripped a lot of our community off not 4 months ago. ("because, you know, it didn't happen to me!")

That's a really good idea!

Not sure how they'd manage it, but it sounds great to me!

I know something like that would get me to pledge for this one - there are some fantastic miniatures available on this one...

It'd be easy enough if they wanted to do it. No-one took the Maelstrom database off them, after all. A lot of people had their details and order history transferred to the EOTS website.

They also managed to send everyone on the Maelstrom mailing list a traditional Maelstrom-style email advertising the Mierce sale.

Load up the Maelstrom database files. See who had outstanding, paid, unfulfilled orders. Email those people with a "look how nice we are - here's some credit!" email. Take the orders, cast them up, and Bob's your Mother's Brother!

It'd cost them more in casting time than it would in resin, I'm sure.

It's a very good idea but it would probably kill Mierce viability, I'm assuming the debt to customers is quite big.

 scipio.au wrote:

They also managed to send everyone on the Maelstrom mailing list a traditional Maelstrom-style email advertising the Mierce sale.

That's a good point. How often were Maelstrom sending out discounts on their own line before things went wrong? I'm sure it was normally on the site at full retail.

Does that sale plus the Kickstarter indicate a need for cash?

Probably not. They ran 20% off during Salute in April, and last year they did 25% off for christmas.

Nominally the KS is for the rules+starter sets. I would also assume that the purpose of ANY KS is a "need for cash".

I'm not sure that MM is that well off financially. Earlier I posted a link to some news about the gaspowered games kickstarter. The gist of it was that GPG; creators of dungeon siege 1,2 and 3, started a ks recently with a target goal of one million. After 4 days, news slipped out that they had laid off most of their staff due to the disappointing results of the ks (100k reached out of 1 mill iirc) The boss came out and said that apparently they were depending on the KS to do well to be able to pay their wages for the next few months while developing the game at the same time. Due to the lacklustre response, he felt he had no choice but to lay off most of his staff; supposedly leaving him with maybe 4 staff left, and hope the company survives while awaiting the end of the KS.

How does this relate to MM? I can't imagine their sales are too good since the MG fiasco, plus they have been offering plenty of sales (sounds familiar?) Not to mention that according to the sob story the rep posted on the first few pages, MM doesn't make that much money. And that they had to pay a 'legitimate" amount to MG to get the MM line. So any money they might have stored up during their early years may be gone. So yes, they probably might need the money from this KS somewhat desperately

Of course, this is all just idle speculation. No one knows the truth except Rob Lane.

I bet they need the money for this KS just as much as CMoN's zombicide or relic knights, or Studio McVey's Sedition Wars, or Reaper's Bones, or Kingdom Death's Monster, etc. etc. etc. Kickstarting is the new and hyped way of selling miniatures. Everyone do it currently. MM mentioned that they would launch a KS early 2013 quite a while ago, so this isn't anything surprising.

 judgedoug wrote:
Probably not. They ran 20% off during Salute in April, and last year they did 25% off for christmas.

So it's maybe not that unusal.

Nominally the KS is for the rules+starter sets. I would also assume that the purpose of ANY KS is a "need for cash".

Most KS projects seem to be in raising capital to start a new product or production run, or a pre-order for stuff they are about to start making. I wouldn't be surprised if some companies who were having financial difficulties would start a KS project, as it's an easy way to get a large chunk of capital within about a week of the project finishing, relying on the income to keep going.

grefven wrote:
I bet they need the money for this KS just as much as CMoN's zombicide or relic knights, or Studio McVey's Sedition Wars, or Reaper's Bones, or Kingdom Death's Monster, etc. etc. etc. Kickstarting is the new and hyped way of selling miniatures. Everyone do it currently. MM mentioned that they would launch a KS early 2013 quite a while ago, so this isn't anything surprising.

So you don't think MM may be strapped for cash?

I'm still confused by the "plenty of sales"? Mierce has done one sale, post-Christmas, for 20% off, ever. If you want to include the previous history, then they did a sale at Salute in April (like most companies have their stuff on sale at conventions) and 25% off last Christmas. So one sale as Mierce, and three sales in the miniature line's history, from 2011-2013?

Every company needs money and KS is a great way of getting it. Plus they're launching the miniatures rules packed in with new retail packaging of Darklands Starter Sets with different warbands. Shrug. Almost every gaming KS is basically the same thing - preorder for a new product launch.

Well, I count the 20% sale from dec which they sent to the MG list and the 'discounted' existing figures in the KS. That's 2 sales in the 3 months since MG collapsed; which I consider the birth of this incarnation of MM really.

grefven wrote:
I bet they need the money for this KS just as much as CMoN's zombicide or relic knights, or Studio McVey's Sedition Wars, or Reaper's Bones, or Kingdom Death's Monster, etc. etc. etc. Kickstarting is the new and hyped way of selling miniatures. Everyone do it currently. MM mentioned that they would launch a KS early 2013 quite a while ago, so this isn't anything surprising.

How is being the mayor of ignorant-ville treating you? Well? CMoN is simply the publishing partner for Zombiecide (Guillotine Games) and Relic Knights (Soda Pop) so it's completely believable that they would need KS assistance to help complete push out their product, especially for Soda Pop who is completely retooling an entirely metal line for plastics as well as paying to sculpt and mould about 15 new models.

Kingdom Death is a one man operation that ran his KS on his own so to liken him to larger companies is simply foolish.

Reaper is perhaps the only one that could "afford" to do what they wanted without the KS, but certainly not as quickly.