Mierce Miniatures Darklands Ongoing News and Rumors Thread! Darklands Rulebook ships on April 18!

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**Bolognesus**

plastictrees wrote:
Lansirill wrote:
Is it just me, or does it seem like this will be a fairly expensive game to get into. $50 or so for the rulebook, $180 for a small starter set; and you'd probably want two in order to have an opponent (since it's of middling likelihood that you'll know someone else with an army.) Genuinely curious.

It's more like $180 for the starter and the rulebook.
That's more than you can start many games for and less than some others. So...yes? I guess. The quality of minis is just phenomenal, the rules, I can't comment on as I haven't used them (or read them properly).
It really depends what you're looking for for your dollars. Model per model I think they are actually quite competitive.

Competitive with what, though? Don't get me wrong, I love all the pics you guys are posting of stuff you've already received (nope, still not grumbling

) and I can't wait to get started on my Khthones, but competitive with what? FW/boutique stuff? Probably just about on par then. But let's not kid ourselves, they're aiming at the higher price brackets with their stuff. No problem - I'd say the bang for buck is easily there but it doesn't make it any less of a relatively expensive game to get into - especially since this is not going to be a 4-10 minis game once all is said and done, it would seem.
Fact is, many of us look at startups and kickstarted games like this as something fun, to do beside the 'main' game. In that same bracket, there's folks left and right getting into stuff like malifaux or infinity (which have established player bases as well!) for <$100 and having enough stuff to have a "full" playing experience with as well - that's nowhere near possible here.
Does that make it expensive for what it is? Not per se. But it's not a cheap game to get in to. Of course there's always the elephant in the room but just knowing a ferrari would be more expensive doesn't make a $70.000 car cheap

...Of course it seems a lot of us are underestimating the size of a lot of these minis we haven't handled IRL yet...

**zedmeister**

KS1 update: Vaak (what I've been waiting for)! and Angrislaug + final few KS1 mini production schedule

Hello Darklands: a World of War Kickstarter backers! Even though we have another Kickstarter project - Darklands: First Edition - going strong as we speak, we're still updating this one and keeping you all informed as to what's going on, for we have a couple of WIPs for you and news of fulfilment progress.

Angrislaug, Draiggoch of Eryri

Roberto Chaudon's masterpiece Angrislaug is 99% complete in these images, so they're not quite final, but he's still awesome just the same!

We should be getting Angrislaug shortly and we will begin to ship him in November. He's a complex piece and it will take a while to mould and cast him, especially as he needs to be produced in such numbers! Regardless, you'll have him in your grubby mitts soon enough.

Vaak, Moraine-Beast

Not content with whipping Angrislaug out very quickly indeed, Roberto Chaudon's started work on Vaak! He's a moraine-beast - that is, a beast of ice and rock merged together by sorcery - and thus is all sharp angles and nastiness. Whilst this is a very early WIP, Vaak's looking bloody awesome and just like the concept art by Stefan Kopinski!

Vaak will be on a 100mm base, so he'll be pretty chunky!

Darklands: a World of War Fulfilment Progress

We're over half-way through the Angelcynn starter sets - these are taking a little longer to complete than expected, simply because we're reinforcing their spears so they don't bend easily - but we do hope to have them sorted before the middle of October. At that point, the Khthones will begin to ship of course!

In terms of sculpting progress, here's a few snippets...

Allan Carrasco: Gamla Bror is being worked on now and we should have WIPs next week. Qaano will be sculpted later in the year.

Benoît Cosse: Vókkinak is stalled a little whilst some changes are made. All of his other projects - Aalvór, Maallolvór and the Werwulfas will follow in due course.

Roberto Chaudon: he's working on Vaak of course, and then he will begin Petróyos and finally Belech. At Roberto's speed they should easily be done before the end of November!

James van Schaik should be starting Drune Priest on Stag around the end of October.

Stéphane NGuyen is still sculpting Ssibyros, and that should be complete early in October. Druc will follow from him.

Stéphane Simon is on holiday until early October and will be starting Jowan and his hounds when he's back. Then he'll begin work on Leofwen on her Hart (as well as, probably, Leofwen on foot from Kickstarter II).

Juan Navarro Pérez has completed Brynhild Gunnblindi - in fact, we received her today - and so his work is now done on Kickstarter I. This means he'll be working on the miniatures for Kickstarter II very soon!

Darklands: First Edition

Our second Kickstarter project - Darklands: First Edition - has absolutely blown us away with how quickly we became funded. Within two days we've got £50,000 towards funding our full rules set as well as a load of new nobles miniatures, including the first miniatures for the Byzantii as well as the expansion of the Albainn. We're mightily happy with how it's going!

If you've not seen it yet, please hop on over and have a look - there's some stunning miniatures to come (including the awesome mini-Krull, Malacant) that will complement all of those you've got from this Kickstarter project - and we're nowhere near finished!

So tell your friends, your enemies, even passers-by to stop over at Darklands: First Edition and pledge!

**Denilsta**

I am really glad I ordered all the big guys, as usual another great sculpt by Roberto. He is destroying the original delivery date of December for these two.

**Azreal13**

Stéphane Simon is doing Leofwen on Hart?!

Squee!

Hadn't realised, but ordered it on the basis of the concept art, have never seen a mini from him I didn't like.

**JWBS**

Fenriswulf wrote:
Not sure about Malacant. I have Krull, but I don't know about having a lesser sized variation of him. Hrmmm.

Yes I think a variant head option would do wonders for Malacant.

**highlord tamburlaine**

My biggest fear with the Mierce stuff is actually painting it.

I'm afraid I'm going to lose all the detail with my slipshod painting. I try to thin my paints as it is, but every time I see painted Mierce stuff it just looks so far beyond my current abilities.

What works on a 2 dollar Bones figure and would be considered acceptable is a bit different than a 65 dollar resin one.

Plus, I'd have to make a decision as to what I actually want...

Maybe I should just scour the net for a somewhat cheaper Mierce monster and give it a go before I commit whole hog to another gaming system.

**judgedoug**

highlord tamburlaine wrote:
My biggest fear with the Mierce stuff is actually painting it.

I'm afraid I'm going to lose all the detail with my slipshod painting. I try to thin my paints as it is, but every time I see painted Mierce stuff it just looks so far beyond my current abilities.

What works on a 2 dollar Bones figure and would be considered acceptable is a bit different than a 65 dollar resin one.

Plus, I'd have to make a decision as to what I actually want...

Maybe I should just scour the net for a somewhat cheaper Mierce monster and give it a go before I commit whole hog to another gaming system.

They're a little daunting, but they're just so much fun to paint. And they're such amazing sculpts that even an average paint job looks good on them. (frpgames has a couple on sale if you wanna grab one in the USA - http://www.frpgames.com/cart.php?m=overstock&div=0&level=0&mfg=MRM)

Here's three Mierce models I spent about 90 minutes each on, maybe an extra hour on the cyclops one.

**zedmeister**

highlord tamburlaine wrote:
My biggest fear with the Mierce stuff is actually painting it.

I'm afraid I'm going to lose all the detail with my slipshod painting. I try to thin my paints as it is, but every time I see painted Mierce stuff it just looks so far beyond my current abilities.

What works on a 2 dollar Bones figure and would be considered acceptable is a bit different than a 65 dollar resin one.

Plus, I'd have to make a decision as to what I actually want...

Maybe I should just scour the net for a somewhat cheaper Mierce monster and give it a go before I commit whole hog to another gaming system.

Don't be afraid of them bud. Dive in and enjoy painting it. As judgedoug says, they really are amazing miniatures to paint. In many cases you will find that they almost paint themselves and hours fly by as you paint!

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

Judgedoug

what did you use for your verdigris ? It looks really good

**JWBS**

New info added to the comments

"The freebie will be a sell-sword monster hunter, a Visigoth called Danilo Cruz (I wonder where that comes from...), given to anybody who has pledged over £150.00 for free. As Tim says, Juan Navarro Pérez is sculpting him. You don't have to have purchased the book for this freebie, just pledged over £150.00
Additionally, anybody who purchases a Nobles set for £700 will receive a discount on anything above £100k, and anybody who has the Darklands & Uhtred in any of its four forms will receive a lesser discount on anything above £100k."

Discount likely to be 5%. I doubt I'll be convinced to spend over £150 to get a free mini but I suppose it depends what the miniature and the yet to be revealed stuff looks like.

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

The Danilo Cruz freebie will need a stretch goal before it goes live

and Rob probably can't do an update till Monday as he's on kiddy sitting duty this weekend

**judgedoug**

OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
Judgedoug

what did you use for your verdigris ? It looks really good

Thanks, I just mixed some colors until it matched the verdigris examples I saw on google image search, then used one of these brushes http://www.thewarstore.com/product52842.html and just stabbed it on

the model itself I undercoated black, then I used Val Spar spray paints from Lowe's. heavy overspray of Bronze and then a light overspray of their Metallic Gold Chrome. actually it may not have been Val Spar. but the Lowe's I go to only has one bronze spray paint and one chrome gold spray paint, so I got those. (that's also how I undercoated my Greek army and my Orc army)

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

judgedoug wrote:
OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
Judgedoug

what did you use for your verdigris ? It looks really good

Thanks, I just mixed some colors until it matched the verdigris examples I saw on google image search, then used one of these brushes http://www.thewarstore.com/product52842.html and just stabbed it on

the model itself I undercoated black, then I used Val Spar spray paints from Lowe's. heavy overspray of Bronze and then a light overspray of their Metallic Gold Chrome. actually it may not have been Val Spar. but the Lowe's I go to only has one bronze spray paint and one chrome gold spray paint, so I got those. (that's also how I undercoated my Greek army and my Orc army)

thanks for that

**zedmeister**

£60k stretch goal reached, so looks like the commanders are unlocked. Nearly at Malacant and the female commanders....

**highlord tamburlaine**

Alright.

No thanks to you fine folks I took the plunge and now have a Clundwr, Dyndraig of Gwaelod coming to my home.

Maybe if it isn't an appalling paint job I might even post it up on Dakka once I'm done with it. I have a penchant for being ink heavy so I'll try to rain it in for this guy.

Hopefully he turns out decent and I can get at least Angedern this time around. Reptiles in armor to lead all my scaly hordes!

**judgedoug**

highlord tamburlaine wrote:
Alright.

No thanks to you fine folks I took the plunge and now have a Clundwr, Dyndraig of Gwaelod coming to my home.

**plastictrees**

Looks like (human sized) infantry will be expected to be unlocked from 120k - 170?k.

Mierce have also posted the names of each infantry type in the comments, but as seperate entries, so good luck digging through to find them.

They have also stated the the Byzantii Legionaires (their initial infantry) will have male and female models.

**Azreal13**

Well, I just had a rush of blood and went from the "cool minis" to the "book and bloke" early bird offer.

Feth it, I'm weak minded...

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

Hoorah!

**Azreal13**

What can I say, the lure of freebies and offers was too much for me, and I'm a sucker for a nicely bound rulebook.

**yxalitis**

azreal13 wrote:
What can I say, the lure of freebies and offers was too much for me, and I'm a sucker for a nicely bound rulebook.

I had this though process too, although so far the freebies aren't really grabbing me.
Get one foot soldier IF you buy the equivalent mounted...saving..£10...gosh...especially as I want the monstrous units, which all cost more!
I'll see, in the end, I can switch to Free Minis, and put the £20 towards some of those nice lookng £100,000 units

**zedmeister**

New stretch goal - the first of the Visigoths:

As we've now passed £55,000 and £60,000 - which means both the Darklands Concept Art Book and the Commanders stretch goal will be produced - we can give you a few more to aim at!

Thus, the first stretch goal to unveil (there'll be another later on today) is a lovely freebie for any backer that has pledged more than £150 - Danilo Cruz, Beast Slayer of Cantabria! He's a Visigothic sell-sword that will work for any kindred in Darklands, a warrior from the north of the Visigothic Kingdom (modern-day Spain) who hunts monsters for glory, money and maybe just to get the girls.

Click on this link for a larger version

The Danilo Cruz miniature comes with a scenic 30mm base complete with the skull of a Krokod and the severed head of a Krokodar, and whilst it probably won't look exactly like the image - he would have to be on a 100mm base if it did! - it will certainly show him atop a big monstrous skull.

Funnily enough, Danny Cruz has drawn his concept and Juan Navarro Pérez will sculpt him, coincidentally representing the descendants of the Visigoths from the new and old world respectively...

You can, of course, purchase the Danilo Cruz miniature regardless of how much you have pledged if you increase your pledge by £12. If, by purchasing him, you increase your pledge to £150, you will of course receive two Danilo Cruz miniatures.

However you get your hands on him, he'll be pretty awesome, we think!

**judgedoug**

upping my pledge to 150, wahoo!

**Azreal13**

Hmmm, if this is the way the freebies are going to go, I might just downgrade my pledge again or withdraw altogether.

I get that this Project is all about the book, and I will never begrudge anybody earning an honest profit, but £150 to qualify for a "freebie" just seems a little extreme.

I'm actually getting more disinclined by the stretch goals and new stuff rather than more excited. I've gone from "oooh" to "wahay" to "hmm" since this launched. Or perhaps I'm just disappointed that, being in a limited hobby budget, the opportunity to get some more Mierce for cheap isn't as great as I hoped.

Ah well, not exactly got my panties in a bunch yet.

@Mierce. If you're reading this, will you have the Kickstarter section open on the site again like you have for the first project? Because I'm much better placed to put money in spread out over the next few months than I am to pledge it all in a lump (not what Kickstarters about, but money's money right?) The prospect of adding to my pledge over the next few months would cheer me up no end!

**Mierce Miniatures**

Azreal13,

Yes indeed, a separate "Darklands: First Edition Kickstarter category" will be open afterwards on our website, but only to those who have backed it of course - so I wouldn't cancel your pledge if that's your intention!

This Kickstarter section will also include every miniature we already sell, but at a greater discount than available now, probably 20% off RRP.

Hope that helps.

**Azreal13**

Mierce Miniatures wrote:
Azreal13,

Yes indeed, a separate "Darklands: First Edition Kickstarter category" will be open afterwards on our website, but only to those who have backed it of course - so I wouldn't cancel your pledge if that's your intention!

This Kickstarter section will also include every miniature we already sell, but at a greater discount than available now, probably 20% off RRP.

Hope that helps.

Massively.

Consider my doubts overcome and my pledge intact!
Thanks for the quick reply.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

This guy is awesome, I'm back at "Wahey!"

**Baragash**

Mierce Miniatures wrote:
This Kickstarter section will also include every miniature we already sell, but at a greater discount than available now, probably 20% off RRP.

Well gak.

(Guess that's a second encounter host to go with a post-KS Kraken purchase then - pledge upped)

**alanmckenzie**

Mierce Miniatures wrote:
Azreal13,

Yes indeed, a separate "Darklands: First Edition Kickstarter category" will be open afterwards on our website, but only to those who have backed it of course - so I wouldn't cancel your pledge if that's your intention!

This Kickstarter section will also include every miniature we already sell, but at a greater discount than available now, probably 20% off RRP.

Hope that helps.

Sorry, just for clarity. If we pledge (e.g. £30 Rulebook + Uhtred), we can still add to this for a few months after the close of the ks, at ks prices? Also, we, as backers of this ks (but not the first) will have access to a decent discount across you're whole range?

I only ask again because I'm in a similar position to Azreal, very much interested in the game and, of course (especially), the models. Just not sure if I can afford one big hit 2 months before Christmas.

Thanks

Alan

**Mierce Miniatures**

Yes, for a limited time only to allow you to flesh out any bits and bobs you need to complete your kindreds that you couldn't get at the time.

Though, please note that only the amount you pledge during the KS counts towards any free stretch goals etc. Any amount spent afterwards is nothing to do with KS so won't count as part of your pledge ie; if you pledge £130 and later spend £30 (via our site where pledges and post pledges will be spent) - you won't qualify for a free Danilio Cruz at £150.

**judgedoug**

And, of course, any money pledged right now goes towards actually unlocking - ie, paying for - new sculpts of new models and freebies.