Shieldwolf Miniatures (Official News thread) -- Production slots closed for 2025!

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**Shieldwolf Miniatures**

Spoiler:

@Jerram
We have done our homework quite some time now and before launching we had created 3 different plans that are all financially viable and will/should allow things to keep on rolling without stopping, thus ensuring a great campaign for all!

Mr Morden wrote:
Reading through the rulebook -

I realise you will be ultra busy but where is the best place to send any noted errors etc- eg: p4, last paragraph, 8th line - coltivate should be cultivate I think.

Any notes/feedback/corrections/suggestions/comments are always appreciated at info@shieldwolfminiatures.com
:-)

**scarletsquig**

So, after the $60k stretch that's 140 miniatures for $100?

This is the best value miniatures Kickstarter I've seen in a very long time.

Very interested in Shieldmaidens for use as Varagnur for KoW. And the orcs could be used as demons for my Abyssals too.

I'm in for $100, lets see where this goes!

Edit: Somehow managed to grab a $95 early bird too! Awesome.

**Mr Morden**

Shieldwolf Miniatures wrote:
Mr Morden wrote:
Reading through the rulebook -

I realise you will be ultra busy but where is the best place to send any noted errors etc- eg: p4, last paragraph, 8th line - coltivate should be cultivate I think.

Any notes/feedback/corrections/suggestions/comments are always appreciated at info@shieldwolfminiatures.com
:-)

Working on it now

**MattW**

I'm on the fence about this one. It's a great deal, but I'd like to see what's in the stretch-goal pipeline before committing.

I'm another that isn't a fan of the hair that's waving in the breeze- how difficult would it be to do separate resin heads that those in my boat could purchase as add-ons? It seems pretty clear that the current aesthetic won't change, so something supplementary could work?

**Shieldwolf Miniatures**

We are reading the comments but we can't commence making changes when people who have already pledged their hard earned money have been shown these designs instead. Having accusations we altered what we initially portrayed is the last thing we would like to see.

At best we can have an extra stretch goal created for additional heads. Still a long way to go however, plenty of time left.

**Goregut**

$160 for a free bitz box then we see whats next D: comeon!

**Ian Sturrock**

Stretch goal for armoured navels please!

**Red Viper**

My new years resolution was to not start any new armies. I didn't expect to be tempted so strongly this early.

If polar bear cavalry makes an appearance.. I may break.

**partisan_nick**

Still pledging, and maybe even a huge chunk. I don´t really like the skullmasks with more of the fluttering "schampoo and conditioner" -hair but the rest of the new models look nice.

I would absolutely love a cheap add-on for fierce short haired and more warriorlike heads tough! And maybe resin helmets + hair that could be added after trimming away the super hair from the existing heads? The facial features seem really good so would not need to be wasted. :-)

**Azazelx**

Looking at their art, I'd expect at least one spiky mohawk, and Angelos seemed receptive to my "several Lagertha-style haircuts" suggestion, so I'd imagine that there should be at least some on-sprue that you'll be happy with.

**Binabik15**

I think a nice mix of fluttering hair and other hairstyles is best. Not the biggest fan of everything blown to the side myself.

You haven't advertised the maidens with a big "all hair looks.like this" disclaimer, as long as the hairstyles shown sre featured along mowhawks, sidecuts, braids everyone should be happy. Less hair volume overall means more space for bits on the sprues, too.

Edit: More detailed. The maiden with the morning star has braids and long hair, it look great. Maiden with the double-edged sword has sidecut, veeery cool. Spearlady looks okay because a lock of hair falls over her face. The fourth maiden looks pretty boring in comparison because het hair is again being blown to her left side but she has nothing to differentiate it from the rest of the other hairdos. It looks lrss finished, so maybe it is unfair to conpare it to the rest, but IMO it'd look better if it was for example streaming back instead of to the side. Gusts of battlefield.winds can't be THAT uniform

**Theophony**

As long as they all blow in the same direction.....and any banner that they may have goes the same direction, then its alright with me. I don't want a star trek moment happening where half the crew moves right and the other half goes left during an impact.

**Shieldwolf Miniatures**

4th update is up!

A great book with great concept artwork for the game itself is necessary and part of this project and -while often neglected- we support artists & editors and consider them necessary for "War is Coming"!

**RiTides**

Maybe make the bits box something people can opt out of in the survey - seems like it will add a lot to your international shipping costs, so if folks are already set for bits boxes that would help the cause.

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

If the box is packed with the resin minis it's going to help keep breakages down though

**RiTides**

Good point - in their first Kickstarter they put minis in retail packaging to keep them from breaking, but if including this box they could keep them safe without that!

The number of free things makes me a little nervous, but it's good that the next plastic kit isn't until 60K, as that seems reasonable.

**Goregut**

Im already being swamped with Minis with just the standard $200 pledge, so anything else that gets chucked in will just drown me a little more

**Azazelx**

Putting resin models into the Bits Box is a great idea.

**Micky**

Azazelx wrote:
Putting resin models into the Bits Box is a great idea.

A bunch of stuff from the first kickstarter arrived in those boxes - they're small and basically the resin figures were split into different compartments for each unique piece.

**Azazelx**

Interesting. My resin figures from the first KS arrived in retail packaging.

**Micky**

Azazelx wrote:
Interesting. My resin figures from the first KS arrived in retail packaging.

I ordered a few units of their older stuff, in addition to new stuff from the KS. The older stuff came packed in bits boxes.

**Azazelx**

Just saw in my email that SW have cancelled the project. Very disappointing, as the shieldmaidens were well funded.

Did I read this right?! :-(
Yes, I'm afraid you did. After an 8-hour long discussion here at Shieldwolf HQ, and after each member debated their own, we took a decision and it was unanimous;
"If such a great part of potential backers thinks the deal has not been good enough to jump right on, then we really don't know what else is going to entice them and it's not really worth the trouble keeping the campaign running. Cancel it, fix it, and re-launch."
This is *not* a rage-quitting decision, quite the opposite! A very painful one I'd dare say.
Please try to immagine how much work we ahve put into this, how much time, thinking dedicated, and how happy we were when we got funded! People over here were high-fiving each other shouting "Real quality army gaming isn't dead! Real quality army gaming isn't dead!", and not only did we have a great deal from the start, for every plastic kit we funded we would throw even more, therefore it was only going to get better! Alas, it was not.
Campaign stalled (even backslided a bit) on the 7th day?! On a 30-day project? NO! No, no, no we've been through that on our KS-1, and we had said ever since "never again". It is painful and not easy to describe if you haven't lived through it. It's definitely *not* like someone wrote on a forum "when you go out there and beg for money", heck, we are not begging for anything, we are offering a great honest deal here! Watching this get stuck at the 40K mark, backslide, people tossing away Early Birds... no, we are not willing to go through another one of these, we have done so once, and it's really to much to bear it a second time...
Yeah, but what if things picked up? Or if you tossed some add-ons?
Things should have never stopped in the first place, the reason for this happening is beyond us. And even if we open the "allow-access-to-some-of-our-webstore-items" door, it's only going to help maybe reach the 2nd plastic kit. If backers don't see the initial value, they would see it then?! Nah, highly doubt that. But for arguments sake, even if so, then what? We also have stretch goals of 25-30K gaps, what would be done there?

Effectively...Nothing! Even with a few add-ons to spare, what would 9-15$ add-ons help at? Add 1-2Ks of funding? Everything seems black...

What were the mistakes?
We still don't know all of them, it is fair to disclose that we have been private talking with a number of you and it comes to a combination of factors.

- We hadn't communicated the real value; some people came in thinking the best mammoth currently available worldwide was a... 50$ add-on?! I'm sorry to say this but 50$ doesn't even cover the production expenses, let alone fees and packaging materials.
Or people thinking a 2,5K stretch goal could possibly ever be for a unit of bears w/riders? :-(
That would be three different sculpts, on 75x50mm bases + 3 different riders + alternative bits... yeah, more like a 10K SG I'd say...

- We didn't allow enough flexibility in the initial pledges not because we didn't want to go the extra mile, but because we sincerely couldn't!
Many many people messaged us saying "I would love to back for a campaign army, but I don't want the Dragon. What else do I get?" When we explained that we didn't have the manpower to handle switches while securing same costs, all these people (and there have been plenty that asked us this question both here, on email and FB page!) were never heard from again :-(

We were thinking to ourselves "well if you don't want the dragon, then sell it or gift it or throw it away or whatever, the rest is still great value!" but that was us, not them. Therefore the mistake is (again) charged on our tab...
- No knowledge from professionals on crowdfunding platforms; while in our honest and humble opinion we commissioned great artwork, great sculptors, great graphics and great painters, we never hired an expert on crowdfunding lay-out. Apparently we should have done that too...
But couldn't you just keep on going with the current backers and see where this lead instead of cancelling the project?
No. Instead of doing what we wanted to in our KS-1 (where we opted for 5 armies at a single campaign), we decided to take it one step at a time, funding two full/complete armies in every KS and launching a single project every 12-14 months, so after a few years we could have a complete game!
If in this KS-2 we sufficed in only a couple of kits (when the competition funds 5-6 times over using the same platform), then it's a contest we are hopelessly entering to lose. We feel like we asked for support and we are very grateful to those of you that gave it to us, more than you can imagine maybe, but we feel like we are holding a knife, and the opponent gets to choose which type of assault rifle he's getting... :-(
So trying to put things into place...
we would be putting so much more of our own funds into this,
we would have to work for an entire year labor-free to keep costs low,
we would have to keep on monitoring all forums, threads etc to keep contact
we would have to keep communication levels the same as KS-1, thus having to constantly check on a daily basis and take up the responsibility and risk the name and reputation of Shieldwolf
we would make sure all backers received a great deal for their involvement, faith and patience, trying to make this a really great experience
and we would be honestly willing to do all this but we would still not get at least a couple of full kitted armies....?
Yeah, that doesn't sound right... :-(

It means a lot to us and we are willing to wait for years but with this pace it would take decades, so as hard as it is for us, it's best cancelling it and relaunching. This has been a very very difficult decision for us to take. But we are doing something wrong, and we have to fix it...
Finally, a big last THANK YOU
Thank you for the trust and enthusiasm you shared with us not only during the days this project was live, but also prior to it, since many of you were on our KS-1 and it was a great honor seeing you back with us.
We know some (probably most) of you might not like this update, maybe feeling we threw in the towel too early and stuff like that, but please try standing in our shoes and seeing it from our perspective.

Hopefully you will like what we try to do in the future and support it again, just like you supported us on this endevour. We too are gamers and hope in the spirit of this genre of gaming that things will work out to everyone's benefit :-)
Sincerely yours,
The Shieldwolf Team.

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

Sad stuff indeed

**Nostromodamus**

Sad to see it will be cancelled.

Great value right off the bat, but unfortunately they felt they weren't getting the support they needed.

Well, best of luck with the secnd attempt. Those are always risky.

**Ian Sturrock**

It's a shame -- I was very happy with what I was getting, even sans stretch goals. But I'll stick around and see what happens next, and very probably pledge.

**Goregut**

Sad to see it, but understand their reasoning behind it. Ill be around in the relaunch all the same!

**RiTides**

Oh man...

On relaunch, I'd recommend going with an offering / deal you can sustain... it honestly was a bit of a red flag how good of a deal this was.

Sorry to see it cancelled and I hope you try again soon.

**Mr Morden**

Ah hell that's really sad - ah well I am still here when they want to go again

I will still plod along with suggested amendments to the rules and send it.

but sad day :(

**RiTides**

Reading through the update more thoroughly, it seems they really did cancel because they wanted to fund multiple plastic kits.

I think funding just the one (maybe two by the end!) kit would have made for an incredible campaign. It also seems like you had everything needed to do this. There's nothing wrong with making single armies at a time...

I know there's a long delay for tooling where you wouldn't be able to run another campaign (but maybe folks wouldn't mind if you did, if running multiple smaller campaigns and able to show the tooling in-process?). But 40k with lots of time left seemed plenty for the one kit, and it would show your skill. I think you should relaunch quickly and just focus on one or two kits!

**scarletsquig**

Campaigns slow down towards the middle. It happens. No need to restart the whole thing!
Also, if the value is really good and people still aren't backing, that's not a problem with what is being offered, it is a problem with marketing and possibly timing.

Not many people have heard of the company, or the KS, I only noticed the Ks 2 days ago.

Also, it's January, most people don't have much money left.

Does seem more like a case of the stretch goal amounts just not being enough to fund the KS.

If I had any recommendations for the re-launch it would be to really focus on a *single* army, with the base pledge being as much hard plastic as you can fit in there + a few resin characters.

Also, you can replace kits rather than add them as you make the campaign if you want to make it great value from the start.

For example, the base $100 pledge could be 120 plastic "Infantry models" + 3 resin characters. People can see the value there right away, and put money down for that. All 120 of the infantry would be shieldmaidens to start with.

Then, for the $60k stretch goal, replace 40 of the shieldmaidens with warmaidens, leaving every backer with 80 basic infantry, 40 elite infantry and 3 characters, a very solid army.

All of the other resin monsters, dragons, mammoths and things can be add-ons.

If a plastic kit needs $30k, and that's what you need, be clear about that and really focus on it.

Or, if you really want to simply do a campaign with a $60k goal for a single army with 2 plastic kits, make that as the starting goal, load it up with a ton of minis in the base pledge, plenty of add-on options to choose from and leave it there, once it hits $60k don't worry too much about stretch goals.