Bumper Update Fun
To make up for the dearth of news on our other Kickstarter project, today is going to be an awesome day here at Darklands: First Edition - for not only do we have some fantastic work in progress images of some previously unseen miniatures (as well as some previously seen), we have news of project fulfilment and a bit more information on how our next project will be structured. Huzzah!
Dúngal, Mormaer of Dun Durn on Horse
The Albainn general, Dúngal, is now sitting gracefully on a horse! Well, perhaps not gracefully, but you get the idea. Olivier Nkweti is really nailing the Albainn!
Dúngal on horse will be complete soon, even though there's still a few bits to do, but he won't be sent until Wave 1 of course, in June.
Bagseg, Oghurithne Umaer
Anybody who knows Confrontation will know that Yannick Fusier sculpted many amazing miniatures for Rackham in his time, but we think Bagseg is bloody brilliant and easily a match for anything he did for that wonderful miniature range. We defy you to state otherwise! Sculpted from a concept by Sam Lamont, you can bet that we'll be chaining Yannick down to do more sculpts for us in the future...
...and here's a shot of the sheep and Oghu stone:
No doubt we'll become known for farmyard animals on hips as well as feet on rocks and knuckle-walking monsters, but hey ho. Can anybody list all of our hip animals? There's a biscuit for the winner!
Again, Bagseg should be finished fairly soon and will be sent in Wave 1.
Angedern, Prifdyndraig of Gwaelod
Roberto Chaudon doesn't half shift! Angedern's taking shape very quickly and it won't be long before he moves on to some of our other sculpts!
Angedern will be a Wave 1 monkey just like the above.
Ieuan Longshore and Taranau
The frankly revelatory Stéphane Camosseto (which is the definitive spelling) has now completed our first descendant, John Longshore's Ieuan Longshore and mastiff, Taranau, and what a couple of miniatures they are. They're superb, and Ieuan himself bears a striking resemblance to John, we think!
Ieuan will be sent out with other Wave 1 products in June... although we reserve the right to send some to John before then ;o)
Jörmungand, Troll Jarl
Allan Carrasco, fresh from producing a masterpiece in Qaano, has blasted away at Jörmungand (from artwork by Stefan Kopinski) rather quickly, as you can see!
We don't think it will be too long before he's in our mitts, but again, he's a Wave 1 monkey. So be patient - and we're looking at you, Andrew Speirs!
Danilo Cruz, Beast-Slayer of Cantabria
Juan Navarro Pérez. What can one say about a sculptor such as he, that hasn't been said before a bazillion times? Danilo Cruz (drawn by Danny Cruz, heh) is, frankly, awesome.
Regarding the scenic base, that will be separate, and we will give you both a 30mm base (so you can use him in games) and an appropriate size base for scenic purposes.
The stupendous Danilo Cruz will be finished shortly and will ship with Wave 1 orders.
Darklands: First Edition Fulfilment
We are now shipping Wave 0 orders to backers from this project, but we would ask all of you to remain patient while we do so. We are only a small team and are still fulfilling the remaining orders for Darklands: a World of War, and we do expect to continue fulfilling Wave 0 orders throughout March and no doubt later. We will keep you all updated of course.
Sculpts and Sculptors
Here's the big list of who's sculpting what and when for Darklands: First Edition! Please bear in mind that this list may change over time, so don't take it as set in stone until the first work in progress shots appear.
Stéphane Cammosetto: with Ieuan Longshore and Taranau now complete, Stéphane will start work on Eadric on foot and on horse in April.
Allan Carrasco: Jörmungand, amazingly, is almost complete and after that (probably April) he will be sculpting Knútr on Foot, Knútr on Horse, Víthar, Birna, Rollo Iron Head and Cnebba.
Roberto Chaudon: Angedern is in progress, and he will be followed by Mag
ap Mag, Mälmord, Ágriosávra, Eikovra, Myrkranio and finally Djiuzu.
Daniel Cockersell: the Daddy of all monster sculptors, Dan has begun work on Scecchus, but it will be a while before he is done.
Benoît Cosse: Benoît is still working on Darklands: a World of War miniatures and won't start Hrór, Finnan, Praach and Baagath's Herd for a good long while yet.
Thomas David: work on Timoth has begun, but we only have an armature so there's not a great deal to see.
Pedro Fernández Ramos: Mananaan on foot is finished of course, and he'll soon begin work on Mananaan on horse.
Yannick Fusier: the awesome Bagseg is nearly done, and hopefully Yannick will continue his work with us in the future... on the Oghurithne warriors!
Jacques-Alexandre Gillois: he should begin work on Daarkan, Naraa and both Equitus Durio on foot and Equitus Durio on horse soon. Although not necessarily in that order, and we're not sure when - we just know they'll be done before May.
Gauthier Giroud: work on Idruaada has begun and it shouldn't be too long before it's complete.
Stéphane NGuyen: Stéphane should begin work on Seza soon, but we're not sure when right now.
Christian Hardy: Christian will begin work on Aldhelm (taken from Maxime Penaud), Velchior and Agathae soon.
Tre Manor: Tre of Red Box Games fame will be taking time out for us to sculpt Erebius, which is now underway.
Patrick Masson: It's Gaarwäg for Patrick next, although he won't be complete until May.
Hector Moran: Work on the Dawn of Khthon, Gorgórar Unit has begun (Myrinna, the champion, is complete, and we should see Syntyss next week), and after that he will be digitally sculpting Con I Modius, Legionary Contubernium.
Olivier Nkweti: Dúngal on horse is almost complete, and once he's done he will digitally sculpt Hanokh and Thoth. We have also decided to get Olivier to digitally sculpt Thelliatiss, thus relieving Stéphane Simon's heavy workload a little!
Juan Navarro Pérez: Danilo Cruz and Urien on foot are in progress, and Urien on horse, Carys, Caedoc and Ffion Ferddig will follow.
Stéphane Simon: we've loaded Stéphane up with Leofwen on foot (we should see images next week), Crom on horse, Zethag, Gondard and his Nithing, Xontór, the Holumenn Unit and the Gesíth Unit. Phew!
Valentin Zak: Valentin will sculpt Broga for us and will begin doing so soon.
Unknown: the remaining three descendants, which are Rick Boer's Frisian Warrior (due to be drawn by Stefan Kopinski), Trytheorn, Tomas Johansson's Geat Warrior (drawn by Danny Cruz, and hopefully sculpted by Juan Navarro Pérez) and Maximilian Schüte's Germanic Berserker.
Now that is a lot of sculpts...
Darklands: First Edition II
Okay, the time has come to reveal a little more on our next project, "Darklands: First Edition II".
The definite (barring a zombie apocalypse) start date of this project will be Monday the 24th of March, and it should end thirty days later on Wednesday the 23rd of April. This neatly avoids Salute 2014 the weekend before (12th of April), at which we will have a stall, and is just after the easter holidays. We'll be running it for the full thirty days this time, too!
Whilst the dates for the next project lie before Darklands: First Edition begins to be fulfilled, there'll be no conflict between the two because the next project simply adds to this project, and adds units mostly. Many of the early goals will be able to be shipped with earlier Waves, too!
What's the Focus?
The focus of Darklands: First Edition II is, put very simply, the creation of units for eight kindreds in Darklands - Albainn, Angelcynn, Brythoniaid, Byzantii/Infernii, Fomoraic, Khthones, Norse and Ysians/Vras. The Érainn and Atalantes miss out again, but do not worry - KS3 will drain your wallets, if you're interested in those kindreds!
Now, when the project begins, you'll be able to purchase one unit from each of the eight kindreds immediately, and the "ALL THE UNITS" reward will include all of them for one price at a further discount, but (as was the case in this project for generals and commanders) if the stretch goal total for a unit is not met, that unit will not be produced. We do expect to reach all of the unit goals, however!
That's not to say there won't be other, single miniatures for you all - there certainly will be, and some awesome things too. There'll be commanders, beasts, more units, monstrous beasts, all sorts, really - although they will depend upon stretch goals!
We'll also allow people to purchase both the Darklands rulebook (with Uhtred and Finnan), the Concept Art book and possibly a couple of other rewards from the First Edition project, but the whole thing will be a lot easier to grasp this time - there'll be no "hosts" or "starter sets" or anything like that, because they become incredibly complicated over time (and are a nightmare post-Kickstarter). Don't recoil in horror, however - we've hit upon a system that will replicate the discounts you got with those but also enables you to choose what freebies you'd like with what you purchase!
Gold and Bronze
That system is very simple. Each item on the project has a gold cost and a bronze cost in pounds sterling. If you purchase the "THE GOLD SPOT", the "ALL THE UNITS" or the "YOU'RE THEIR DESCENDANT" rewards, any purchase you make above what you get from those rewards will be at the gold cost, which is roughly 20% off the projected
UK RRP of the item in question. If you haven't purchased those rewards, you must purchase those items at bronze cost, roughly 10% off the projected
UK RRP of the item in question.
What's the Rewards?
There'll be four in total - "I JUST WANT SOME COOL MINIATURES", "DARKLANDS & UHTRED", "THE GOLD SPOT", "ALL THE UNITS" and "YOU'RE THEIR DESCENDANT".
The "I JUST WANT SOME COOL MINIATURES" reward is just for those who want a few single miniatures from the project, and you'll be purchasing them at bronze cost.
The "DARKLANDS & UHTRED" reward is for those who just want the rulebook and the freebie miniatures (Uhtred and Finnan) from this project. Any further purchases will be at bronze cost.
The "THE GOLD SPOT" reward is the one to go for; it gives you a freebie and also allows you to purchase items at gold cost. Additionally, if you go for this reward, you'll get some other extras... which we'll reveal on the day ;o)
The "ALL THE UNITS" reward enables you to purchase all of the units shown at the beginning, at a discount from buying them individually, and any future purchases will be at gold cost.
The "YOU'RE THEIR DESCENDANT" reward mirrors the one from this project, and enables you to purchase stuff at gold cost.
There's plenty more to it than that, but that's a simple overview of what you can expect.
Note, too, there'll be no "early bird" discounts - that won't make sense with the system we've come up with.
Shipping
There will be "Shipment Waves" in a similar manner to this project in the next one, but shipping will work very differently in terms of how you pay for it. This time, you will not be asked to add shipping when you make your pledge; you will simply pay for shipping in the post-project pledge management phase, on our website. This avoids many issues surrounding postage, not the least of which is increasing the pledge total artificially. To illustrate, around £5,000 of this project's total was in shipping - and that should not contribute towards stretch goals, because that money is destined to pay for shipping alone.
Now, we are aiming to have the website coded so that you will pay for shipping in a streamlined manner next time, as pretty much all of the questions asked of this project after it finished was about postage - but if the website isn't updated, please don't hurt us... time is a limited commodity!
Any more?
There's more, of course, but we've not decided on everything - and all of the above could change before the project begins (although this is unlikely now) - so please don't ask for more specifics yet!
There's only two more updates to go before the project begins... eeek!
To whet your appetite, here's a concept of a miniature that we hope we'll get to during the course of the next project...
Tykho, Byzantii Lesser Skorpion
We'll have more on Darklands: First Edition II next week!
, but I find these snake people on the silly side of things.
