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 Theophony wrote:

 Alpharius wrote:
As previously noted, MIKH is in the same country as Monolith's main men, and seems to also be 'friends' with them too?

SO you should be OK.

But that October shipping 'estimate'?

With all the extras unlocked AND Chinese New Year 2015/2016 AND MIKH?

Ha!

According to their kickstarter update today they are still good for the October release. I think Mikh's models was ordered long, long ago and should easily be ready in time. It's probably one that kicked this model back further down the que, but that is what Conan does.

I can't count the number of times I've seen a KS be on-time and the creator in constant communication...until the pledge manager closes.

 Theophony wrote:

 Alpharius wrote:
As previously noted, MIKH is in the same country as Monolith's main men, and seems to also be 'friends' with them too?

SO you should be OK.

But that October shipping 'estimate'?

With all the extras unlocked AND Chinese New Year 2015/2016 AND MIKH?

Ha!

According to their kickstarter update today they are still good for the October release. I think Mikh's models was ordered long, long ago and should easily be ready in time. It's probably one that kicked this model back further down the que, but that is what Conan does.

If that's the case then he's certainly hearing all the lamentations of the Arena Rex backers!

For those paying attention to my little personal quest to play a game of Arena Rex with 100% painted pieces (arena to terrain to minis), here's my latest update featuring Noxius (and my newest arena hazards).

Very cool as always Gomez, thanks for linking! You're doing these sculpts justice, which is really saying something (I think lots of people are too intimated to paint them, like Kingdom Death mins).

Thanks for the feedback, RiTides - I appreciate it!

In all honesty, I think "intimidation" is my basic mental setting as well, but the excellence of the sculpts means that once you slap a little paint on them they sort of start painting themselves... Aside from Micon's skin, my three completed gladiators have been fairly straightforward jobs.

Also, RRG just threw this into the KS comments section:

Red Republic Games wrote:
Septimus and Nero are in the mail. Let's all make a sacrifice to the postal gods to ensure their safe delivery. We are so excited to see these minis and begin Wave 2 shipping!

YES!

Wave 2 shipping and then open up that webstore for sales of all available miniatures, please!

They look really great, dude. Inspired, and I love Micon as a dark skinned dude.

Gomze has already posted the good news on Septimius and Nero

ship fast, then off to the casters with you, hopefully with a swift turn around

 Gomez wrote:

Red Republic Games wrote:
Septimus and Nero are in the mail. Let's all make a sacrifice to the postal gods to ensure their safe delivery. We are so excited to see these minis and begin Wave 2 shipping!

Awesome news! Can't wait for them to go up for sale and I have a local friend who did not pledge for this but loves the rules of Arena Rex, so I may even be able to use them for the game they're intended for

More KS comments updates from RRG...

1. Septimus and Nero are in their hands and heading off to their casting partner posthaste. They are extremely excited to see them in the flesh and get them out to backers.

2. MIKH will continue with Hroka in March.

3. Another ludus is in the works (with more still in the "proverbial whiteboard" stage) but first they are "working on titans, beasts, and gladiators for each of the current ludii".

4. RRG are in the midst of a warehouse move which appears to be upgrading their space significantly.

Hopefully a more official update is in the works soon and we get another glimpse at the future of Arena Rex (and hopefully news about expanding their webstore).

This is VERY good news!

Thanks for sharing the update Gomez!

And on the non-KS front my Sthena purchase from the webstore has arrived

A really nice cast (and bigger than I expected at 60mm to the top of the head), but lots and lots of parts (18 or so) you need to like building

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
And on the non-KS front my Sthena purchase from the webstore has arrived

A really nice cast (and bigger than I expected at 60mm to the top of the head), but lots and lots of parts (18 or so) you need to like building

She looks amazing on the webstore, but definitely "fiddly". In fact, I really appreciate that RRG has been including a shot of the resin pieces in the bag as you'll receive them so you can see exactly what you'll be dealing with. It was pretty easy to see that she'd be rather complex and that Acerbus would be pretty straightforward despite his size.

Any chance you could post a pic of the parts out of the bag?

I'll get something done tomorrow when there's some natural light about

my one concern with her is going to be the trident, which I think is too thing to stand up to play, but a pretty easy swap for a wire one if you need to

Can't wait to see more from this company.

Only draw back is the fragility of the models. They are definitely stronger than the resin used on the wrath of kings models and Studio McVey's.

Bought a few extras to see how strong they are, can flick at the swords without them damaging but won't hold up from a long drop on a hard floor.

Perhaps one day they will be big enough to be able to work with wargames factory or have metal alternatives.

Since we have Native American style gladiator and being in a "mythic" world wonder if we will get a Oriental themed or Aztec/Mayan/Inca themed Ludus or characters?

Here's the Sthena sprues with a brave GW ork boy for scale

Thanks!

You're right - LOTS of pieces and I don't think that trident will stand up to actual playing. Maybe just clip the head off and mount it on comparably sized copper rod or wire?

And is that resin slightly more yellow than the original pieces?

the resin is the same as the KS stuff, that's just my camera objecting to photographing white on white

as to the trident if you're gaming with her, yes, replacing the shaft will be essential

UPDATE:

RRG wrote:
Update #75

Mar 16 2015
The Ides
1 Comment
12 likes

Dearest Backers,

First, some excellent news. Septimus and Nero have been approved for production and prioritized with our casting partner for fastest production.

We should begin receiving production shipments over the next few weeks, and will begin wave two shipping as soon as we receive any stock. We have asked that they send us partial shipments rather than waiting for the full production to complete, and will be sending orders out as inventory becomes available. We know it has been a long wait, but the miniatures look fantastic (both mounted and afoot), and we hope you’ll agree on seeing them that the wait was worth it.

MIKH is targeting May for completion of Hroka -- more to come on that in its own update soon.

Some of you may know that we have been in the process of moving our warehouse. That move will be complete this coming weekend in preparation for wave 2 shipping. We want to thank everyone again for their herculean patience.

More soon,

-RRG

Pretty blah IMO. Hopefully the next update has some actual information in it...

Showed this game to a few game club members today. Both the rules and minis took off like a rocket.

Hope this company has a bright future.

Yeah, just wish they'd done anything with their forums... I and quite a few others made an effort to get some life there, but then RRG let things kind of trail off to nothing... haven't checked in a bit, but I felt like their complete lack of presence killed the forum after a decent amount of post-ks excitement.

 spiralingcadaver wrote:
Yeah, just wish they'd done anything with their forums... I and quite a few others made an effort to get some life there, but then RRG let things kind of trail off to nothing... haven't checked in a bit, but I felt like their complete lack of presence killed the forum after a decent amount of post-ks excitement.

This, exactly. I posted almost these exact sentiments directly in response to RRG on their KS comments section a few days ago, but didn't get any sort of response. I get the feeling that they are doing a lot behind the scenes and they're consciously keeping most of their development process essentially private, but you're right - that lack of transparency and their disinterest in their own forums are hurting their game right now IMO.

And not having all the MIKH sculpts available yet - which means they aren't selling via their online store.

MIKH has hurt this company almost as much as his great looking sculpts helped it.

In both cases, regarding lack of transparency and delay due to MIKH(!!!!), I feel like RRG was paying too close attention to their image at a weird sacrifice to their PR- I understand why they made both decisions, but also feel like it wasn't what would keep people involved/talking...

Yeah, I've been wondering about that with Arena Rex, too - it's cool that they are working so well behind the scenes, but it seems like showing some of it would have really helped keep momentum during the long MIKH-induced delay.

I know multiple backers encouraged them to start selling on the web store without having slow asses stuff done. It's really frustrating because I'd love to start growing the game locally, but can't because no one can get anything else.

I really hope that when they send out Septimus & Nero (later this month?) they then feel free to do so

the stuffs too good to languish in their warehouse when it could be in customers 'to paint' pile

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
I really hope that when they send out Septimus & Nero (later this month?) they then feel free to do so

the stuffs too good to languish in their warehouse when it could be in customers 'to paint' pile

Their last note in the KS comments said they'd begin 2nd wave shipments the "second week of April". Whether that's next week or the following is up in the air, I suppose, but it should be happening SOON.

 cincydooley wrote:
I know multiple backers encouraged them to start selling on the web store without having slow asses stuff done. It's really frustrating because I'd love to start growing the game locally, but can't because no one can get anything else.

Any idea if the company is listening to these backers? I bought Stheno and the rule book on a whim and was floored by the quality of the miniature, and immediately ordered two Acerbus models, but that is all I can find. eBay has nothing except for the KS exclusive Lupa (so I bought her), Bartertown has nothing, Dakka has nothing... getting into this game is rather difficult.

I am still in the building stage and haven't gotten to play yet, but does the game work with one gladiator on each side, or does it need each player fielding a group of gladiators to be fun?

 DarkTraveler777 wrote:

Any idea if the company is listening to these backers? I bought Stheno and the rule book on a whim and was floored by the quality of the miniature, and immediately ordered two Acerbus models, but that is all I can find. eBay has nothing except for the KS exclusive Lupa (so I bought her), Bartertown has nothing, Dakka has nothing... getting into this game is rather difficult.

I am still in the building stage and haven't gotten to play yet, but does the game work with one gladiator on each side, or does it need each player fielding a group of gladiators to be fun?

Good luck finding someone who's willing to sell their KS pledge - there have been one or two people who were, but quite a few more in your position who were looking to buy... Like you said, the miniatures are pretty amazing and the game is a ton of fun also IMO - that plus the game being small and supported almost exclusively by people who bought in as gamers/painters rather than investors means that until they open their webstore you're probably stuck. Having said that, it might be worth a shot to just email the RRG folks directly and ask if you can buy from them "under the table" so to speak - they've been really accommodating with their backers and MIGHT (unlikely, but possible) let you do that.

And to answer your question directly, unless I was just doing a quickie demo to get the rules down the fewest fighters I'd play with is three per side. There are some rules that come into play when you are down to your last man that would lose their luster if you just played with one per side, and you'd miss out on the rules interactions/synergies between team-mates that really help the game shine.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And, for those interested, I posted another update to my AR painting progress thread - Hermes finished, and Leo moving another step along.

Cheers!