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https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mierceminiatures/darkholds-ancient-barrows?ref=hero_thanks






Coming to Kickstarter in early August 2017!

Darkholds is a co-operative board game of combat and adventure in which you and your friends will play the part of heroes and henchmen that battle against the hordes of undeath to gain the ultimate prize - the secret of life after death!



Ax-Drune henchmen confront the hordes of the undead


Set in the lands of darkness - the brutal, uncivilised world of dark ages Britain in the 7th century AD - Darkholds is a board game containing miniatures, tiles, counters and cards to enable 1-4 players to control legendary heroes and their henchmen as they explore the caverns, barrows and halls of the undead Wihts.



Two happy fellows enjoying a game of Darkholds!

The game can be played as a story campaign comprising ten levels of varying design and aspect in three areas, beginning in the caverns and natural gorges near the coast (area 1, levels 1-3), then exploring the catacombs and barrows of the undead (area 2, levels 4-6) and eventually fighting through the halls of the ancients (area 3, levels 7-9) to gain the secret of undeath (the quest's end, level 10); but each level can of course be played on its own. You can even choose to play each area - three levels - as a mini-campaign! Players need not worry about the experience of their heroes or henchmen if they play later levels, either, for the skills and abilities of the adventurers are tied to the levels themselves.

If Darkholds is played as a campaign, players can purchase certain types of mundane equipment or hire henchmen in between levels - effectively meaning heroes have a retinue they can bring with them to the next level!


The Wihts of old

To succeed in their quest for eternal life players must overcome a horde of enemies trying to stop their heroes, gathering treasure, ancient artefacts and sorcerous weapons or armour to help them along the way. The Wihts, scampering grave spiders and huge, terrifying mound beetles, ancient Gāsta and shrieking Drēaguth all wish to deny the secrets of the Jutes to the outsiders, and they will do anything - including the destruction of their own halls and tombs - to stop them.

Players must also understand that - whilst the game is co-operative - there will also be an element of selfishness to how each player plays the game, for each hero has his own secret quest and must succeed in it if he is to progress through Darkholds successfully...



Darkholds cover artwork by Stefan Kopinski

Darkholds players can choose to play any of the five heroes included in the game, all of whom are very different to each other. Depending on how many players there are, each player could control up to five heroes on their own!

You could choose to play Penda the Bloody-Handed, a ferocious, skilful werwulf from Mierce; Nerys, an abbess of the Brythoniaid who abhors the blasphemous undead and can heal the adventurers; Carrowek of Carn Dhu, a heavily muscled fighter of immense strength from Kernow; Sáthach, a highly skilled Irish rogue that kills her enemies with twin swords or throwing daggers; and Gnith, a powerful sorcerer from the mountains of Alba.



From left to right: Nerys, Penda the Bloody-Handed, Carrowek of Carn Dhu, Gnith and Sáthach



There will also be a hero exclusive to backers of the Kickstarter project - Morag of Mann, an adaptable sell-sword able to fight her way through the tombs with axe, harpoon or spell! Backing the Darkholds project is the only way you will be able to purchase her.



Morag of Mann, project exclusive hero!

As well as the heroes, players will be able to hire - or possibly rescue! - henchmen from the lands of darkness. Carrowek will bring fellow fighters, Ax-Drunes, to fight for him. Penda will bring Gesithas, elite spearmen from his lands. Nerys brings black monks called Mynach Du to protect and fight with her fellow heroes. Gnith will bring crossbowmen known as Elbharud to defend him from the attentions of his enemies, and Sáthach will be fighting alongside Fiannagh, warriors of Danu from Ireland; and Morag may choose any henchman to adventure with her.



Nerys and three different types of Henchmen

As the project continues there will be hero and henchman expansion packs, so you can bring your favourite nobles from the lands of darkness - such as Daarkan of the Fomoraic, or Knútr of the Norse - to adventure with you!



Throughout each level will be various bits of treasure, some artefacts or discarded weaons or armour that players can find and pick up, collectively known as equipment. Enemies, when killed, may even drop equipment!

Each equipment marker found on a level enables a player to reveal an equipment card. This could be simple hacksilver or jewels - gold, in effect - to purchase equipment or hire henchmen with in between levels; an ancient artefact such as an amulet that heroes can use to increase their abilities, a torc to protect themselves or even an invocation to destroy their enemies with; a weapon such as a sorcerous axe that may be more powerful than their own, or can be used in addition to theirs such as a bow; or armour such as a helmet or a shield that could increase their protection and enable them to progress through a level without harm.

Each equipment card also has a gold value, signifying its worth when sold, so even the most mundane item could prove useful when trading in between levels. Bear in mind there's a limit to how much a hero or a henchman can carry, however!



The enemies of the heroes will appear very quickly in each level. At the end of each turn, enemies will generate from entry points if heroes or henchmen are nearby. Before that occurs, however, any enemies already on the level will perform an action - either to Move towards the closest heroes, Attack them if they are next to them or Shoot them from afar!

There are many different enemies the heroes will have to contend with. The most numerous enemies will be the Wihts - either Wihtgāras, armed with spear and shield; Wihtaxas, armed with ax and lantern; or Wihtbogas, armed with a bow. They could also be joined by enemy heroes such as a Wiht Thain, who will be a powerful warrior in his own right but will also help his Wihts to perform better; or even a Wiglāca, a human Jute sorcerer who can raise the dead!


Wihtgāras, Wihtaxas and Wihtbogas defend their barrows, helped by Ætulla, an enemy sorcerer

Bigger enemies will appear less frequently (thankfully!), such as the shrieking Drēaguthas - wraiths full of hatred for the living - or the Gāsta, ancient kings of old who remember little of their former lives and are all the more spiteful because of it.



Sáthach faces off against a tomb spider

The last level of each area - and the quest's end level - will contain a powerful creature that the heroes must defeat to progress further; perhaps a tomb spider, a huge arachnid able to immobilise adventurers, or a powerful mound beetle able to crush the hardest of heroes in their jaws - and at the end, the mighty Culcca, a Gāst King who holds the secret to life after death.

Darkhold Cards

At the beginning of each enemy turn darkhold cards come into play. These cards are unique to each darkhold and represent enemy strategies, natural occurrences, random encounters and all manner of other things! They could change the behaviour of the enemies already on the level if enemy heroes are present, another entry point may appear, tunnel roofs may collapse on top of a hero, random monsters may pop up... who knows? You will, when you play the game!

Enemy Actions

Once a darkhold card is played, the enemies already upon the level must perform their actions. In general these will be very simple - either movement towards a hero or attacking/shooting them - and the game's artificial intelligence will enable the enemy player (chosen from amongst the players) to perform enemy actions very easily and without thought. Even so, the more powerful enemies can do various other nasty things, so it won't always be simple to defeat them!

There will also be rules for players who wish to play the part of the enemy - i.e., you could play a Darkholds game with 1-3 players using heroes and 1 player using enemies, for example!

Enemy Reinforcements

After the enemies upon the level perform their actions, enemy reinforcements occur. Each entry point draws a reinforcement card, which - depending upon the area - reveals the type and amount of enemies that appear. This could be a myriad of different enemies - one Wihtgār, three Wihtaxas, a Wihtboga or two or even a Wiht Thain (plus bodyguard!) - or maybe a Drēaguth or a Gāst!

Further Darkholds Info!

We will unveil more about Darkholds next week.

Stay tuned!

Demo Video

[youtube]https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mierceminiatures/darkholds-ancient-barrows?ref=hero_thanks[/youtube]


NOTE: All miniatures shown are mierce resins spray primed to show what the minis in the box should look like. The are not production plastic which is scheduled to be done by the same factory that does CMONs boardgames so stuff like Massivce Darkness, Blood Rage and Zombicide Black Plague should be a good indication of what the final result should be like

Excellent! Been waiting for this. They're aiming for PVC models if I recall correctly .

Will be all over this like a cheap rash!

Very nice looking, any news on whether it'll have scenery features ala Heroquest (chests, tables, doors etc?).

 Ratius wrote:
Very nice looking, any news on whether it'll have scenery features ala Heroquest (chests, tables, doors etc?).

Not planned for, for the initial round of goals. If it does well, perhaps

What is it with Mierce and the noodle axe hafts? I can't stand it. Does anybody like the noodle axes?

I am interested in the game. If the minis are going to be in PVC they better have a good value starter. Also, they will need to prove to me that they are thinking about/planning for PVC shrinkage if they want my money.

Agreed there - PVC isn't my favorite by a long shot, but I realize this is a 'boardgame' and will "NEED" to be preassmebled to avoid any boardgamer rage and/or blowback.

I do have a lot of these models in resin and metal already too...

I'd bet there would be a metal/resin 'upgrade' possibility here too, maybe?

The PVC looks good. Any idea on pledge price?

Looks very cool! I hope this will help Mierce to become more popular and widespread

Check that, I see Orlando provided the price info and the fact they will have EB's.

I am literally on the verge of combusting from excitement.

Ernster wrote:
The PVC looks good. Any idea on pledge price?

Did they already show PVC minis?!?

I don't think they did?

Just standard (resin and/or metal) minis spray painted Brian and grey?

 Alpharius wrote:

Just standard (resin and/or metal) minis spray painted Brian and grey?

I assumed the Brown and Grey mini's were PVC. they look like they could be Ludo fact quality. They could have of course spray painted them the brown and grey.

There's a quote in the first post of Rob from a KSer comment stating they're just their resins spray painted.

I have faith in Rob and Mierce. I bet the quality will be Ludofact. I did not read the KS post in regard to spray painted resin. if not one can always skip the KS.

Ernster wrote:
I have faith in Rob and Mierce. I bet the quality will be Ludofact. I did not read the KS post in regard to spray painted resin. if not one can always skip the KS.

There's no way you'll see PVC before the campaign ends, so backing will be on blind faith.

This actually sounds really intriguing, but I have a self-imposed rule these days that I don't go in on "boardgame plastic" KS unless there are samples of the final models to show. It's Mierce so I'm sure the final result will be at least decent, but I won't risk it unless the value proposition becomes ridiculous.

I'll probably end up getting two, and using the second set of heros and henchmen to try get others into Darklands, with both sets expanding my jutes.

This looks amazing.

The CAD sculpts for the Jutes can be adjusted by the factory to account for shrinkage, but Mierce is going to need to redo some aspects of the ones that werent sculpted digitally. Not just spears, but faces etc need to be made with the medium in mind.

They also need to make it clear that these are resins spray painted, otherwise people are going to be in for a nasty surprise. PVC has come a long way, but Mierce's resins/sculpts are about the best in the business and PVC simply cant match it.

I'd also like to know the manufacturer, as quality can vary dramatically.

Rob has mentioned that there'll be a lot of new sculpts done for this.

One of the most exciting things is when he talked about possible future options: invading an icy Fomoraic realm in Ireland, the underworld of Par-Ys (Paris), Albainn warrens, Atalantes labarynths, Lugdumn underground compete with an entrance to hell and finally a Norse fortress with an entrance to Valhalla with this guardian:



Of course, that's years away and all depends on this Kickstarter. Though, I can imagine facing the vore above to be a tricky prospect

Though I will always be a valiant supporter of Mierce's endeavors, I worry that they just don't have the capacity to field the shear amount of stuff that's going to be thrown at them for some thing like this.

I know they'll do there damnedest to get the best looking PVC minis out there, and I trust that the game will be sound. But most of their social (everything) goes directly through Rob, who already has a 1Million.5 things on his plate. They really need to hire a dedicated social media person who can field all the fan stuff, and keep everyone sated. Rob does a great job with the time he has, but if they're going to be getting thousands of folks in on this thing, he's going to be either stuck dealing with backers all day, or avoiding most of them, and risking nerd/hate/backlash.

To some of you who are calmer, and more well disciplined, this probably seems like a non issue, but it can be REALLY damaging if not dealt with correctly, and timely.

I want Mierce to be successful in all their endeavors, but theres more to the current environment of Board/tabletop games then just 'making good games' nowadays.

Ernster wrote:
I have faith in Rob and Mierce. I bet the quality will be Ludofact. I did not read the KS post in regard to spray painted resin. if not one can always skip the KS.

I don't know what ludofact is, but definitely would be very surprised if the quality is not towards the top end of what is possible with a board game

Ludofact is one of the better manufacturers of "PVC" miniatures.

They are widely considered one of the better, if not the best, PVC miniature manufacturers available, and if a campaign announces that they're using them, it usually lessens the concerns of many...

Definitely keeping an eye on this.

Crap !!! Another sweet looking dungeon crawl to pick my pocket !! I am so weak !!

Potential launch date looks to be 8th August

@Paul - I'm hoping Tuesday the 8th, but it depends on when the video is done. It's been submitted and accepted, so the project is good to go, just waiting on that really.

 Alpharius wrote:
Ludofact is one of the better manufacturers of "PVC" miniatures.

They are widely considered one of the better, if not the best, PVC miniature manufacturers available, and if a campaign announces that they're using them, it usually lessens the concerns of many...

Thanks!

That seems like something definitely good to know!

OK no A Song of Ice and Fire for me then.

I am going to be all over this.

If a resin upgrade is offered, I will buy that also.