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 Alpharius wrote:
I haven't been this excited for a Kickstarter since Kingdom Death, and I haven't been this excited to get some miniatures and start painting and gaming with them since back in Rackham's glory days!

I'm sorry I missed out on KS1, but cincy helped me out there...

One quick clarification question - would I have to add in a total of £20 or £30 to get everything shipped to me here in the USA as soon as it is available?

Anyway...I am really excited to get all of this stuff and get to gaming!

If you add £10 everything will be shipped in one box once everything is done

If you add £20 you'll get two boxes, one with minis in the {General/Commander/Female Commander/Sorceror & Monsterous Commander levels} and a second with anything unlocking after £100K

If you add £30 you'll get three boxes, one with everything already sculpted (ie stuff already on the mierce website plus I think Malacant), plus the two boxes above


so to get your stuff as fast as possible add £20 if you're not getting Malacant or anything from Mierce's existing range, or £30 if you are

I'll have to be careful not to add in any existing things, and save myself £10 then, I think?

Of course, that's going to be hard to do!

I want a unit of trolls...

You can always ask for them to delay shipment until whichever wave you've paid for.

Welcome to the addiction wagon Alpharius!

Ha!

Just remembered to upgrade my pledge from an Early Bird £30 to a Sweet Spot £150 + £10 shipping.

So if you just saw the total jump up by £130 - that was me!

That early bird is still free, so someone could jump in,

So I'm one of the dudes responsible for The War Store demos at GenCon. I'm thinking Darklands may be one of my focal games for next year. If the KS can stick to Timeline, and based on previous experiences there's no reason to think otherwise, the rules would be dropping right before then.

My question is this: what two kindreds should I paint up and how many infantry models do y'all think are necessary to show how the group attacks can whittle down monsters? Mierce guys, I'd love your input here for that.

Id probably go the the Angelycnns and the Norse. The present range Norse are mostly beasts, the present range Angelcynns are mostly regular infantry. Would give you time to have both painted up when you go demo as opposed to waiting


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Granted those Vikings are so good. Personally Im looking to dual purpose the figs for saga since Im none to fond of their minis, but their rule set seems cool.

Mierce can probably make a better job of this but

I'll say Anglecynn,

they've got the Duguth (really nice human troops already), plus a variety of other musicians banner beaerers etc,

They've got decent female leaders (with clothes on) in Meloda and æthelglyth

They've got a few Creoda as a big monster

They've got Ceorl and his werewolf monsterous infantry, plus Beowa the werebear

They've got mounted stuff in Penda and Leofwynn

plus whatever KS2 brings giving you lots of options

The other faction is harder to decide on (and might depend on who gets human troops unlocked in KS2)

Option 1
The Fomorians have great monsterous infantry (Tarvrax/Sronax) and monsters

but only a few 'special' Gabrax but no real troops yet but if KS2 delivers i'd go here

Option 2
The Ysians, which already have a decent mix of stuff incuding brilliant mins like Carowek and Mawdred

but there are potential problems

The brutes are not as big and impressive as the other monstrous infantry

The troops (Melusines) are naked stripper women (which may cause one sort issues at the con) and to my eye not the strongest sculpts.

Torku (breasts/detailed vagina) and Euryalia will also push the 'sex' button so again might not be suitable

So they are useable now and KS2 will add stuff, but they probably don't show Mierce in such a good light as some of the other Kindreds

Option 3
The Brythonaid

Fantastic sculpts, but at the moment limited to monsterous infantry and monsters

but KS2 adds more variety and the human sized troops (Teulu) will hopefully appear and the art for them looks excellent

Option 4
The Norse

as above, good monsterous infantry, but dependant on KS2 to add human troops

Might be worth posting that question on the KS comments as well, cincy.

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
Mierce can probably make a better job of this but



Torku (breasts/detailed vagina) and Euryalia will also push the 'sex' button so again might not be suitable

Agree on Torku, not the best sculpt by far.
However, breasts are separate, and go in the bin, vagina is sanded back and filled, utterly stupid feature, this is a "Bone aberrant" why is it fleshy?
No, I'm not a prude, but I believe in subtlety and suitability, neither work in this case.
I also removed the hair, leaving just a bony cranium.
No one forces you to leave the models as they are sculpted, grab that exacto and go nuts!

I think the Ysians could work well, just go with ax-drunes, brutes etc. Throw in a Terror of Fortriu or Ungefelic for some recognisable monsters to catch peoples eye.

Ysians VS. Brythoniaid would be a nice set up IMO (once the welsh have infantry) as you get some excellent versions of traditional fantasy monsters, some stuff that's uniquely Darklands and a nice contrast between to the two sides.


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And now I want to buy a Ysian and Brythoniaid starter. feth.

I really like Torku as a twisted mass of flesh and bone (and have attached the breasts)

(although I may loose the hair, not sure on that yet)

but certainly not ideal for demos in public spaces

I would recommend the Fomoriacs. They have a lot of immediately-apparent dual use models that can get a lot of attention.

My biggest focus I think is going to have to be putting together two demo forces that highlight the unique gameplay elements darklands offers. I think it's really important to show how a group of infantry takes down a big creature as well as the orders. At the same time, the demo has to be small enough that I can do them in 10ish minutes as these take place on the vendor floor at gencon.

Additionally, it's be nice if, at that point, mierce had some plans for packaged "starter boxes," either as a starter force per army, or even a 2P starter box. I think the starter force per army is more realistic obviously. Maybe a commander, 3-5 human sized infantry, and 1-2 monstrous infantry for around $100 USD. The margins on it would have to be smaller, obviously, than some of the other products to make it viable.

Glad you're liking the miniatures guys!

Firstly, we'll never accept PayPal again I'm afraid, they are a law unto themselves.

Secondly, regarding swaps, I'm afraid there's no chance that we could do for you - logistically that would become a nightmare very quickly and lead to many errors. However, there's usually a few trades going on in the Mierce forums, so feel free to ask over there.

Hope that helps.

Cheers

Mierce Miniatures wrote:
Glad you're liking the miniatures guys!

Firstly, we'll never accept PayPal again I'm afraid, they are a law unto themselves.

Secondly, regarding swaps, I'm afraid there's no chance that we could do for you - logistically that would become a nightmare very quickly and lead to many errors. However, there's usually a few trades going on in the Mierce forums, so feel free to ask over there.

Hope that helps.

Cheers

Sounds like a good idea!

Once the Norse skirmish host is officially revealed, I'll do that on the Mierce Official Forums and here too!

And while I'm disappointed at the "no PayPal" decision I can understand it.

PayPal can be easily abused by unscrupulous buyers...


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And there it is!

Update #16

Oct 10, 2013
Unlockable Skirmish Hosts
Comment
1 like

As promised, here's some unlockable Skirmish Hosts for you all thanks to the infantry units close to being unlocked. Get pledging guys!



As it states on the graphic, these hosts really do depend upon the stretch goals being reached; but if you pledge for them now, it's much more likely that they'll be unlocked. That's the Kickstarter conundrum!

There will of course be more Skirmish and Encounter Hosts when more infantry units become unlocked, so watch for more very soon...

Anyone interested in a spare Blood-Maw?

Blood Maw is a great model dude. I swears.

I saw mention of the Monstrous Commanders stretch goal, which I think we're getting close to hitting, and searched out a picture of them...

...and I'm glad I did!

I'm trying to secure the funds for the Elephant man as I type!

EDIT
Now I just had a closer look at the concept of Thoth.


AAAARRGGGHHH!

Jormundgand gives me a gamer Boner.

Gaarwag is also incredibly cool, but I don't have any of the Formaic stuff, so I'm convincing myself I don't like him

 cincydooley wrote:
Jormundgand gives me a gamer Boner.

Gaarwag is also incredibly cool, but I don't have any of the Formaic stuff, so I'm convincing myself I don't like him

Yeah, but can you imagine a whole unit of them, like the Sronax?

I suspect, being ancient Briton, giant Elephant men will be comparatively rare, and too strong to be anything other than in charge.

Not sure if it's been mentioned on here yet but it came up in the comments either yesterday or the day before

but Mierce have got Hector Moran (of Kingdom Death fame) on board as their first digital sculptor

he's likely to be working on things like the Kthones where the sculpting of 1000s of individual scales takes a heavy toll on traditional sculptors

(it's hard to keep scales uniform enough to look good and they get bored with it so it's harder to get them to commit to do multiple minis, especially big ones)

@Mierce -- Rule Clarification:

When an attack is occuring, the defender can nominate a number of parry dice up to either their attack dice, natural parrys, or armor/shield parries, correct?

For instance, and I'm using the host rules:

A single Duguth warrior is attacking a Troll with his Spear. The Troll player has 5 attacks with his two cleavers, and additionally has 1 armor parry dice with his heavy armor. The Troll player can elect to use his amor parry dice (which he gets for every attack) and elects to parry with two of his cleaver attacks as well, for a total of 3 parry dice, giving him an extra chance to parry even if both Duguth attacks connect. When the Duguth Warrior is unable to kill the troll, in step 6 of the combat sequence the Troll Warrior would be able to return 3 attacks against the Duguth warrior.

Is that correct? Could a player opt to not take ANY but natural or armor parry saves, in order to get extra attacks at the end of the combat sequence?

@cincydooley - no, only if the Troll cleaver weapon has the "parry" rule can he parry with it.

Mierce Miniatures wrote:
@cincydooley - no, only if the Troll cleaver weapon has the "parry" rule can he parry with it.

Oh. Snap. So the only save he'll get is the single armor parry, so if there are two hits from the Duguth, one is getting through automatically?

And then, following up, the Troll, as long as he is alive at the end of the Attackers Combat Phase, will get to return his attacks, correct?

 cincydooley wrote:
Oh. Snap. So the only save he'll get is the single armor parry, so if there are two hits from the Duguth, one is getting through automatically?

And then, following up, the Troll, as long as he is alive at the end of the Attackers Combat Phase, will get to return his attacks, correct?

No, that's not how it works. However many strikes the Duguth get, the Troll rolls to parry; and he can re-roll one of those strikes if he's wearing heavy armour. For example, the Duguth manages to strike the Troll with 1 attack die. That attack die becomes a strike die - i.e., the Duguth has struck the Troll. The Troll now rolls that strike die and may re-roll it if he fails it with his armour's parry die.

Hope that helps!

I'm putting a video up tomorrow (doubt it will get done tonight) which will run through a complete 750 gold battle, so you'll see how things work there! Should be instructive, although I sound like an idiot of course...!

Cheers

Oh perfect. Thanks for the clarifications. Looks like we were playing THAT wrong. Hahah.

I think too much of my confrontation background was showing through in that reading of the rules.

So to get it straight.

3 diguth hit with a total of 3 attacks.

Because it's an armor save, the troll gets just 1 armor reroll out of the three strikes. Or gets to reroll all 3 because it's an armor roll (whereas with a shield he would only get to reroll 1)?

From there, the strike takes the M+W and goes against the trolls C+Armor.

Troll gets easier to wound. But not easier to hit. Troll loses attacks as his C goes down.

 Alpharius wrote:
Anyone interested in a spare Blood-Maw?

Umm... yes? PM'ed

And those monstrous commanders do look sweet, but I'd rather wait to see sculpts instead of going off of the art (although I don't dispute that Mierce's scluptors have done a fantastic job of matching the art with their sculpts).

 cincydooley wrote:
My biggest focus I think is going to have to be putting together two demo forces that highlight the unique gameplay elements darklands offers. I think it's really important to show how a group of infantry takes down a big creature as well as the orders. At the same time, the demo has to be small enough that I can do them in 10ish minutes as these take place on the vendor floor at gencon.

Additionally, it's be nice if, at that point, mierce had some plans for packaged "starter boxes," either as a starter force per army, or even a 2P starter box. I think the starter force per army is more realistic obviously. Maybe a commander, 3-5 human sized infantry, and 1-2 monstrous infantry for around $100 USD. The margins on it would have to be smaller, obviously, than some of the other products to make it viable.

Are you using beta rules, or how are you already playing when this KS is for the rules? Sorry if this has already been answered and I'd love to get a demo of this from you if I'm at GenCon again next year.