WIPs, Wave 0... and Darklands: First Edition II Starts Today!
We have an incredibly exciting day for you today... not only do we have plenty of work in progress images, we also have news that Darklands: First Edition II - our next Kickstarter project - will begin today!
Leofwen, Thegn of Déra
First up for
WIPs today is Leofwen, our lovely Thegn of Déra on foot. She's now finished, thanks to Stéphane Simon's incredible speed, and looks blimmin' amazing!
As always, she'll be with us soon, but sent in Wave 1...
Urien, Teyrn of Môn
The amazing sculpts keep on coming. Juan Navarro Pérez is pulling out all the stops for us and Urien, our Brythoniaid warlord, is looking superb - especially as he's almost finished!
Again, he'll be with us soon, but only sent during Wave 1.
Angedern, Prifdyndraig of Gwaelod
Roberto's been hard at work on Angedern over the last week and the results are nothing short of spectacular...
Angedern is about done, but of course he won't be sent until Wave 1...
Thoth, Anax of Ýdron
Fresh from finishing the Albainn, Olivier Nkweti has been creating the Hydrar commanders from Beth Hughes' artwork! It's early days yet, but Thoth, the Hydrar warlord, is certainly taking shape...
At Olivier's pace, it shouldn't be too long before these are finished...!
Hanokh, Kentarch of Ýdron
Following on from Thoth, he's working on Hanokh too, the warchief...
We think we'll keep using Olivier!
Danilo Cruz, Beast Slayer of Cantabria
This working-on-two-sculpts-at-the-same-time lark is producing some stunning results, as you can see by Juan Navarro Pérez' progress on Danilo Cruz!
Danilo's now finished and cut, but he won't be sent until Wave 1 of course.
Zethag of Carn Dhu, Harvest-Drune
Incredibly, Stéphane Simon (who, admittedly, has a lot to do for this project) has started Zethag of Carn Dhu and, after just a week, she's half-way there.
Admire her disgustingness...
Darklands: First Edition Fulfilment
We have some good news! The remaining items from our previous project - Darklands: a World of War - are just about all sent (barring the Wælwulfas), and so we can bring our full attention to bear on Wave 0 orders. Even so, we would ask all of you to remain patient while we do so! We are only a small team and 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.
Olivier Bouchet: we erroneously reported that Thelliatiss was being sculpted by Olivier Nkweti last time - apologies for that! Olivier Bouchet has taken her on, and she will be sculpted traditionally.
Stéphane Cammosetto: Stéphane will start work on Eadric on foot and on horse in April.
Allan Carrasco: starting in April, Allan will be sculpting Knútr on Foot, Knútr on Horse, Víthar, Birna, Rollo Iron Head and Cnebba.
Roberto Chaudon: Angedern is now done and he will be followed by Ágriosávra, Eikovra, Myrkranio, Mag
ap Mag, Mälmord and finally Djiuzu, in that order.
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: 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: work has begun on Daarkan and Naraa (although they're only armatures as of yet) and will sculpt both Equitus Durio on foot and Equitus Durio on horse afterward.
Gauthier Giroud: work on Idruaada has begun and it shouldn't be too long before it's complete.
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 is ongoing and after that he will be digitally sculpting Con I Modius, Legionary Contubernium.
Stéphane NGuyen: Stéphane should begin work on Seza soon, but we're not sure when right now.
Olivier Nkweti: He has started work on digitally sculpting Hanokh and Thoth.
Juan Navarro Pérez: Urien on foot is in progress, and Urien on horse, Carys, Caedoc and Ffion Ferddig will follow. He has also agreed to sculpt Tomas Johansson's Geat Warrior, Trytheorn, although he's not sure when that will occur.
Stéphane Simon: thanks to his incredible speed, Zethag is underway; and after her, he'll have Crom on horse, Gondard and Ekk, Xontór, the Holumenn Unit and the Gesíth Unit to do. Phew!
Valentin Zak: Valentin will sculpt Broga for us and will begin doing so soon.
Unknown: the remaining two descendants, which are Rick Boer's Frisian Warrior (due to be drawn by Stefan Kopinski) and Maximilian Schüte's Germanic Berserker.
Now that is a lot of sculpts...
The Darklands First Edition Rules
Now, before we get onto the next project, a word on the Darklands: First Edition hardback rulebook.
We've decided to put back the printing of the rulebook to November.
There's a number of good reasons for doing this, but the main reason is simply so that we can include extra stuff - and so increase the value of what you're getting!
This extra stuff will include whatever we need for the miniatures produced by the next Kickstarter project (such as muster summaries, or perhaps new rules to cover the abilities of new creatures where required), more background material, more colour artwork... whatever we can fit in really.
Please note, the printing delay will NOT affect the delivery of:
miniatures slated for delivery in Wave 1
miniatures tied to the book itself (such as Uhtred or Finnan)
the rules themselves - we'll still give you the full rules in June as a PDF download, although perhaps not with as pretty pictures
We'll also ship the rulebook to you when it's available without tying it to a Wave - it's only fair to do so!
Now, we're aware a lot of you guys and gals out there were very keen to get your hands on the book when - let's face it - we said we'd deliver it; but we hope you understand that we simply want to make that book better for you.
The Darklands Concept Art Book
Similarly, we're going to delay the printing of the Darklands Concept Art book.
The main reason for this is very simple - we want to add as much art as we can to it, so we're going to include all the art seen in the next project. Again, we understand that you guys would want the book in June; but we just want to give you more for the same amount of money!
Okay, the time has come to reveal a little more on our next project, "Darklands: First Edition II", as it starts...
TODAY, at 6pm (GMT)!
The definite end date of this project will be Wednesday the 23rd of April (
St George's Day, of course). 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. That means we'll be running it for thirty-three days!
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: First Edition rulebook (on its own, without Uhtred and Finnan) and 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", "THE GOLD SPOT", "ALL THE UNITS" and "YOU'RE THEIR DESCENDANT". We've got rid of the "Darklands & Uhtred" reward - instead, you can purchase the Darklands book and Concept Art book, and you don't get Uhtred on foot or Finnan (although you can get those separately if you want them).
"I JUST WANT SOME COOL MINIATURES" bronze reward - for those who want a few single miniatures or other bits from the project, which will be purchased them at bronze cost.
"THE GOLD SPOT" gold reward - this is the one to go for; it 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 when they're ready ;o)
"ALL THE UNITS" gold reward - this enables you to purchase all of the units shown at the beginning, at an almost 40% discount from buying them individually, and any future purchases will be at gold cost. This is a fantastic deal!
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, except for minor things) - so please don't ask for more specifics yet!
Spread the word!
There's only a few hours to go before the project begins... eeek! Tell your friends, acquaintances and relatives - we need their support as much as yours!
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...
Torleik, Troll Warrior
