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I wake up just 5 minute before the end, in time to throw 100$ more ^^

Much as I'd like the Cyberzombies if this is similar to other big KS projects where 5-10% of the pledges bounce that may not be possible

but fingers crossed

Some herald should ask them about the Zombie unlock.

Anyway, first comment:

Raging heroes wrote:Thank you all!!!!!
You have been unbelievable.
This morning, 24 hours ago, when we got up, we were not even sure that the second trike would be unlocked!
And the day before, we felt the same for the previous Stretch Goals.
This was really an incredible ride!
We really want to thank al of you who have been spreading the word around, and particularly the Raging Heralds, who have done so much. We would not have been able to make it without them.
And many thanks also go to Kenny for his pledge Caculator.
And again, thank you all for the support!

There's that big paypal link on the kickstarter page, so they're probably fine.

Nice! Let us know what they say on cyber zombies, I'm curious

So my pledge structure changed significantly from where I thought it'd originally be, I decided I couldn't support the EB commander I was at and dropped down to an EB4 Lieutenant pledge to get what I really wanted out of this Kickstarter, which I realized was really the gorgeous heroines, and those brutal war goddess werewolves.

So here's my list:

Ivanka Kruganova
Commander Elektra
One Shot Blondie
Karmina Noxx
Arushka
Snipers
General Ilsa Wolfenstein
Nepharya (Necro Priestess)
Werewolves (Zagrath and Sheera)

Really the only thing that's "intact" units wise is Karmina Noxx and her scout sniper team, Ivanka and Elektra weathered the storm of change, and Arushka got picked out of the three Soul weavers. Also went with General Ilsa instead of grabbing another troops box, purely for rule of cool.

Here's hoping when the game's rules drop that the werewolves play like the MCs they're priced like. Dropping two of those, a Yaga soul weaver and a heroine or two for support might MORE then enough army for a lot of situations.

Side note, found it highly amusing that the freebie pack to the DOLLAR doubled my pledge funds. Not bad value for money unless RH's sculptors decide they're having an impressionist phase...

Well I got EB commander and went for:

Irena Vega
Karmina Knoxx
Katrina Zerga
Elektra Eisenstein
Ivanka Kurganova
Volga Potemkin
Aaquila Noyakin

2 Kurganova troops
2 Kurganova command
1 Kurganova heavies
1 Kurganova heavy command
1 of each heavy weapon kit
1 Kurganova sniper team

Now to sit on the doorstep of my drop ship location for the next 14 months!

I'm in with a friend for an EB Commander + some extra cash. Total for just me: $220 worth of minis

IE:
#42
Doc Von X
Lady Sighrith
Rozenkrantz
Mortaria
Keela Krupps
Regular Troopers CG
Heavy Troopers CG
Snipers
Artillery unit (#3?)
Bike #2 (or Vera... really can't decide)
Jetgirls

Jailbirds:
Bernadette
The Lulu's

Kurganovas:
Ludmilla
Karmina Noxx

Haven't finalised what I'm getting yet, but it's going to be a lot of JB troopers and some heroines to pad things out a bit.

Currently have 24 trooper/command boxes pencilled in, to make two platoons of IG. With a heavy leaning towards the command box for the heavy weapons that are included rather than buying the artillery boxes. Price wise it's the same, but going the command box route gets 5 figures and a number of weapons.

The complicated part is working out total discount, as it's spread over three EB230 commander pledges. I decided the extra shipping was a fair trade off for the six or so freebies that were up at the time. It's certainly that way now that the freebies have a post KS value of $240, doubling the commander pledge value.

Raging Heroes wrote:THANK YOU!!!
Update #71 · Jul 7, 2013

Thank you all!!!!!
You have been unbelievable.
This morning, 24 hours ago, when we got up, we were not even sure that the second trike would be unlocked!
And the day before, we felt the same for the previous Stretch Goals.
This was really an incredible ride!
We really want to thank all of you who have been spreading the word around, and particularly the Raging Heralds, who have done so much. We would not have been able to make it without them.
And many thanks also go to Kenny for his Pledge Calculator.
And again, thank you all for the support!

Just one year ago, we started thinking about doing a Kickstarter. We felt that Ivanka and her sisters would need a few troops to stir up and order around. At first, it was a pretty small project. And then, it started growing. What it has become today greatly exceeded our wildest expectations. This means a lot of new opportunities for Raging Heroes and for you the backers!

We cannot thank you enough for your amazing support. We would never have anticipated so much interest for the world we are developing around The Toughest Girls of the Galaxy, and for the background we created for each character.

Now that you've done so much for us, please be assured that it is our turn to take care of you and create the truly amazing minis you are waiting for.

We will now take some crucially needed rest, so that we can come back refreshed and ready to tackle the production and delivery of this project. We are likely to be out of touch for a few days.

And once we get back, we'll get the ball rolling again!

The Raging Heroes Team
Benoit, Mireille, Jean-Romain, Alex, Andrea

Would be fine if some herald could ask them about the Zombie unlock before they disappear.

 Kroothawk wrote:

Would be fine if some herald could ask them about the Zombie unlock before they disappear.

My thoughts exactly, would be a hell of a shame to get that close then not offer them, as I'd probably be in for a couple of boxes.

Damn it! I thought I've changed my pledge to the Lieutenant, but it still says Painter's Box at the end. What the hell can I do about that?

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Damn it! I thought I've changed my pledge to the Lieutenant, but it still says Painter's Box at the end. What the hell can I do about that?

Message them, you might be able to tack on some extra money with paypal if you need to then when the survey comes just add a note on it that you wanted the other one?

I'm sure Buzzsaw will soon have an indepth analysis to post, but here's a few random thoughts of my own:

For a niche product (alt IG/SOB) within an already niche market (mini wargaming), $698K is an amazing success for a product that currently (apart from those who collect rather than play) can only be used within preexisting game systems. Could it have done better if Raging Heroes had done things differently? Possibly, but I doubt it. At the end of the day, you either wanted these models for use within your current collection/games at the KS discounted prices, or you didn't, and Raging Heroes would not have been able to change that much after the project started. There's a reason why RH pointed out that they're the second most funded miniatures-only KS project: because comparing it to CMON, KD:M, or any number of other complete game KS projects is really comparing apples to oranges. Now, a comparison to Dreamforge Games, Bombshell Babes, Damsels of Darkmyre, and Reaper Bones is a much better performance comparison.

Kicktraq charts: Despite Kroot's and Alph's duelling charts they still basically show the same thing: big start, slow during the middle stretch, and a boost at the finish. I do think the charts are somewhat flawed, however, as the last "day" of the campaign was really only a few hours of the early morning for the USA audience, so, really, the performance for the last two days should probably be combined.

Pledge Breakdown: It's interesting to look at the numbers of pledges within the different pledge groups and how much money they contributed. The way I look at it, you basically have three groups of pledges: Those who went in "small," relatively speaking, because they wanted a few models or a squad ($165 Lieutenant level and below). Those who went in "medium" and wanted a full IG platoon and/or some support ($245 Commander level to $495 Major level). And those who "went large" looking for a full army ($745 Colonel level up to the $1490 Eminence level, but I would also include the $695 Connoisseur level in this). Here's the numbers for those three groups: 1645 Small, 828 Medium, and 187 Large (unless I'm blind, I've checked those numbers 3 times, so how come they add up to 2660 instead of the the KS total of 2748 backers?) Anyway, I think the interesting point there is that the "Large" group of pledges accounts for at least $177,105. Wow, about 7% of the backers accounted for about 25% of the total amount pledged (assuming I didn't mess up on the calculator).

Congrats to all!

My list - I'll be waiting for retail!

 Tannhauser42 wrote:
Here's the numbers for those three groups: 1645 Small, 828 Medium, and 187 Large (unless I'm blind, I've checked those numbers 3 times, so how come they add up to 2660 instead of the the KS total of 2748 backers?)

Anyone who pledged a single dollar or did not select a reward is probably missing from your sums but included in the kickstarter total.

I think success cannot be measured by the amount they got, or the percentage they blasted their objective by. 12K was unrealistic for such a project.

In my mind, success will be measured by the future take-off of the line and the game. If neither happen, then we'll have to reckon that the kickstarter was a failure. If only the line of minis survives and no game, then I'd call it a half success because they can sell their product, but will ultimately be dependent of other factors out of their control for continued volumes of sales.

Trust me, I want nothing more than an alternative to GW. I understand the place GW has in the market, but alternatives are always a good thing. Since my household is a DINK, even these boutique prices won't turn me off if the game is, say, platoon sized. Heck, even company sized over time would be fine by me. But they need that game, in my opinion, more than three more lines of minis. Even if the game is bare-bones, focusing only on these units, with more expansions later on.

The game will be the measuring stick, I say.

In the end they got fifteen of my Dollars, we'll see how this goes eh?

 Tannhauser42 wrote:
I'm sure Buzzsaw will soon have an indepth analysis to post, but here's a few random thoughts of my own:

For a niche product (alt IG/SOB) within an already niche market (mini wargaming), $698K is an amazing success for a product that currently (apart from those who collect rather than play) can only be used within preexisting game systems. Could it have done better if Raging Heroes had done things differently? Possibly, but I doubt it. At the end of the day, you either wanted these models for use within your current collection/games at the KS discounted prices, or you didn't, and Raging Heroes would not have been able to change that much after the project started. There's a reason why RH pointed out that they're the second most funded miniatures-only KS project: because comparing it to CMON, KD:M, or any number of other complete game KS projects is really comparing apples to oranges. Now, a comparison to Dreamforge Games, Bombshell Babes, Damsels of Darkmyre, and Reaper Bones is a much better performance comparison.

It's not just a case of wanting the figures at the discounted prices or not. There's a number of issues with the way that RH ran the kickstarter that they'll hopefully sort out for their next one. Getting these right would have made the final total higher than it was.

Backer Interaction

- Communication through updates / comments / Heralds. This was all, at times, quite lacking, especially in the first few days when they were likely running around like Zoidberg when the project was funded before most people had even realised it was live. They did get better, after comments here and on the KS board itself. But, it never really felt like they were getting involved with the backers. Sure, they'd stick around for 20-30 minutes after posting an update to answer a couple of questions that came up but that was it. They were also not that stellar with PMs, leaving people hanging without a response if the question was still being discussed internally rather than dropping a quick 'We're talking about it' onto the PM to let the backer / potential backer know that it hadn't been forgotten about. I also experienced this first hand, asking a question about personal drop ship options on the 23rd, being told that they were going to look at it fairly quickly and to ask again in a couple of days. Having done so on the 27th I didn't get any further response until update 63.

Stretch Goals

- These were all over the place, starting off quite low for the first 3 that were up before the frenzied assault on EB slots began. Though they went very elastic following this, with RH just unlocking things without giving us any indication as to why they were being unlocked. Then, when we came out of the pledge storm, the SGs posted were at a vastly greater interval than expected and we'd had a single freebie upgrade to some of the heroines. This lack of freebies was a little surprising, given that at that point they were sitting on $200k pledged against a goal of $12k. After a bit more faffing around with SGs, the 5k per SG interval did work for a while, but seemed to suffer later on due to lack of information about what was coming up further along. If they'd given us a longer roadmap for unlocks, as they did in the last couple of days, I'm sure that people would have been happier with this rather than worrying about the chance of X or Y being unlocked before the end or if they were going to hit the magic $730k mark to get everything unlocked.

The change to ad-hoc unlocks was interesting and does seem to have worked. Though I feel they should have brought the actual SGs back sooner, rather than waiting several days from when the last one (Jinx) was unlocked to reveal the final push SGs. If these had been put up a week earlier, and added to as we got further along, I'm sure this could have been easily pushed to the other side of $1 million.

New Pledge Levels

Whilst these were a nice addition I think more could have been done with them. Either bringing them in earlier, in the case of the connoisseur level or not having the top two pledge levels in at the start and adding them in the same way as the Eminence level. Say, adding Colonel after the first week, then General a week later followed by Eminence a week after that. Bringing them in in the same way and giving us another round of the EB mini-game every so often to promote people to spend a little more for the next level up. I'm sure it could be argued doing this the other way, and having all the pledge levels in from the start, but I think bringing them in later would have a larger impact on numbers.

A ring for fic writing? Consider my hat tossed in sirs and ladies.



Lieutentant Sheera Yarost of the 1137th Heavy Assault Infantry was never what you would describe as a "calm" or "cheerful" woman. Her own mother, a skilled armor officer herself described her eldest daughter as "Terrifying, with a pleasantly psychotic edge" while the lieutenant was a capable tactician, her legendary rage made her the ideal commander of small squads of assault troops, amongst these elite units Lt. Yarost's rage was said to be worth more then a softening artillery barrage when it came to cracking a hardened position.

If fortified military outposts couldn't stand up to the hate of Sheera Yarost... the small run down pub she was currently occupying, just off of one of the many military bases deep in the Kurganova core worlds had never stood a chance. The destruction surrounding the solitary woman at the bar spoke to that. Of the former staff and occupants, those who weren't dead had fled, and most of the furniture had been smashed in one way or another, except for the stool Sheera now occupied, slamming back burning alcohol in a futile attempt to silence the howling rage that was pervading her very bones.

"All. Dead."

Her voice rasped out of her throat like a blade being sharpened against a leather strap. It was creaky from over use, screaming in pain, rage, and loss, had robbed her of her normal speech patterns. The drink wasn't helping her sore throat either. It took her a moment to notice her face was damp, blood? No... not blood? Tears? How long had it been since she cried...

A whisper of fabric against the ground, the soft striking of a staff being leaned heavily upon, alerted Sheera to a presence joining her in the room. A warming presence... familiar somehow, but not one she could locate for some reason, despite her best attempts as she whirled on the stool, searching for whatever had joined her, like her eyes refused to focus as she continued to openly weep for her dead.

"There there child, tell Baba what's wrong."

For some reason the crackled, aging voice shattered what was left of her restraint, as tears poured forth like rivers, and that cracking torn voice became a child's voice, the voice of a little girl running for mother's armored leg when something that seemed an unimaginable cruelty had occured..

"Baba... they're all dead Baba... those scum killed my squad..."

"and you seek revenge?"

Sheera's voice went from a blithering child to steely killer in a heart beat.

"Yes. With everything I am."

"Know there is no going back from this child."

"I have nothing to go back too."

A withered hand rests lightly on Sheera's shoulder as her eyes finally focus, revealing the heavily robed form of a withered crone in a heavy cybersorcery mantle, her craggy face cracked into a smile that managed to be both kind and unsettling.

"Good child, come with me, Baba Yaga will make it all better..."

prankster wrote:
It's not just a case of wanting the figures at the discounted prices or not. There's a number of issues with the way that RH ran the kickstarter that they'll hopefully sort out for their next one. Getting these right would have made the final total higher than it was.

Unfortunately, this is where we disagree. To me, everything you listed is basically the sideshow. The models are the main attraction. It's the models that put the proverbial butts in the seats. Almost every complaint people had about this project can also be applied to Games Workshop in far greater amounts (and GW actually has a Customer Service department), but people still continue to drop enormous amounts of money on GW product, because it's the product that sells.

Sure, I think they could have done better, but I do not believe it would have brought them to the million dollar mark like I've seen some people claim.

HEROINES
Jailbird Heroines:
- Mimi the Radio Satellite Comlink ($10)
- One-shot Blondie elite sniper ($10)
- Mad Nurse Bernadette ($10)
- Lieutenant Parker ($10)
- Punky Army Standard ($15)
- Cruz Heavy gunner ($15)

Kurganova Heroines:
- Ludmilla Magdanova Strategist ($10)
- Volga Potemkine Army Standard ($15)

Iron Empire Heroines:
- Mortaria Noctis Hitwoman ($10)
- Artemisia Rozenkrantz Strategist ($10)

TROOPS
- Jailbirds Regular Troopers ($15)
- Jailbirds Regular Troopers Command Group ($15)

SUPPORT
- Jailbirds Sniper Unit ($15)
- Jailbirds Mecha ($30)
- Kurganovas Sniper Unit ($15)
- Kurganovas Artillery 02 (Gatling) ($15)
- Iron Empire Mecha ($30)

OTHER
Kurgan Wereshewolves:
- Reyha ( ($25)

-----------------------
$275 + P&P

 Tannhauser42 wrote:
I'm sure Buzzsaw will soon have an indepth analysis to post, but here's a few random thoughts of my own:

For a niche product (alt IG/SOB) within an already niche market (mini wargaming), $698K is an amazing success for a product that currently (apart from those who collect rather than play) can only be used within preexisting game systems. Could it have done better if Raging Heroes had done things differently? Possibly, but I doubt it. At the end of the day, you either wanted these models for use within your current collection/games at the KS discounted prices, or you didn't, and Raging Heroes would not have been able to change that much after the project started. There's a reason why RH pointed out that they're the second most funded miniatures-only KS project: because comparing it to CMON, KD:M, or any number of other complete game KS projects is really comparing apples to oranges. Now, a comparison to Dreamforge Games, Bombshell Babes, Damsels of Darkmyre, and Reaper Bones is a much better performance comparison. ...

I will indeed be posting an in-depth analysis, but it won't be very soon I fear.

There is, however, one thing I would comment on quickly: the notion that TGG ought to be considered in some heretofore undiscovered category of "miniatures-only Kickstarter". This is (IMO) little more then self-aggrandizement, and more then a little intellectually dishonest.

TGG may not have a specific time-frame on when their rules will be out, but it is abundantly clear that a) they intend to have a ruleset and b) that the rules and background were non-trivial elements of the campaign.

When it suits their purpose, RH acknowledges as much: "there is a richness to this KS (e.g., major story lines and an upcoming game) that takes their craft to the next level”, (interestingly, this is stated immediately before they boast of being "2nd biggest miniatures-only Kickstarter"...) and elaborate (at times bordering on overly elaborate) back-stories for their units and heroines. They have publicly and repeatedly stated that they have a game in development, and have been doing so for some time.

Heck, we even know some of the rules for the game (when it is necessary to deflect criticism over the appearence of child soldiers their rules are suddenly rather thought out...);


In fairness, this is all a very small issue, but it is emblematic of a thread that ran through the campaign, of the desire on the part of RH not to be compared to other campaigns or companies.

Consider that "a comparison to Dreamforge Games, Bombshell Babes, Damsels of Darkmyre, and Reaper Bones is a much better performance comparison" actually illustrates how pointless such a comparison is. Not least of which because both Damsels of Darkmyre and Dreamforge have games associated with their properties in various levels of completion. If one is to compare to Bones or Bombshell, it must be pointed out that, compared to those two, there is an enormous amount of character background in TGG.

Bones and Bombshell miniatures are clearly intended to be used only as pieces in other games (although, it must be pointed out that Reaper does have a few rules sets that it's miniatures can be used in), to a far greater degree then TGG. The TGG line includes a number of exotic options that have little to no use in the dominant game system, because they are so infused with flavor specific to the TGG setting (the Lulus being the ultimate example).

Besides, what is the point of making the distinction in any case? Does it really matter that, say, we know the background for Mortaria Noctis, who by-the-by happens to look like she would make an amazing Callidus assassin (that's the sniper one, right?) but not the specific rules for her scarab mind-control rifle?

The fact is the single best comparison for TGG is not Bones, or Dreamforge, but Relic Knights and Deadzone. These projects each attempted to do the same basic thing: kickstart (pun intended) a complete game system, including multiple factions and a comprehensive amount of sculpts. At the time of close for both of those the rules for the games were at best in beta (and in the case of RK, word is the rules were in considerably more like alpha) condition. Is it really appropriate to make hard and fast category decisions based on the different degree of "in development" of the respective games?

I would answer no. But then again I fundamentally think there are mechanics of selling and psychology associated with that, mechanics which are largely independent of what you are selling. To be sure, there are intrinsics to any field, but especially as it comes to crowdfunding campaigns, there is far more common ground then is often appreciated.

But this was supposed to be a short reply, heh...

 Buzzsaw wrote:
There is, however, one thing I would comment on quickly: the notion that TGG ought to be considered in some heretofore undiscovered category of "miniatures-only Kickstarter". This is (IMO) little more then self-aggrandizement, and more then a little intellectually dishonest.

If that is intended to be an insult at me, then you can count me out on any further discussion, as we will have nothing to discuss. I disagree with you, but I see absolutely no need to call you and your opinions "dishonest."

Tann: I honestly think this was directed at RH.

My list was one each of all the heroines,
2 JB reg troopers,
2 JB reg comm,
Lulu's,
2 Kurg reg troopers,
2 Kurg reg comm,
Kurg hvy troopers,
Kurg hvy comm,
2 IE reg troopers,
4 IE reg comm,
1 IE hvy troopers,
3 IE hvy comm,
cyber zombies, (will trade out for P&P if not up)
Jet Girls,
1 each JB artillery,
5 JB bikes,
JB snipers,
JB Trike,
JB Mech,
1 each Kurg artilliery,
5 Kurg bikes,
Kurg snipers,
Kurd Trike,
3 Kurg mechs,
3 each of IE artilliery,
5 IE bikes,
IE snipers,
IE Trike,
3 IE Mechs
2 Zagrath,
3 Sheera,
2 Vankaree,
3 Reyha,
extra Kurg tank pilot
Nertha 54mm (to use as a Nurgle DP)

We're going to busy in a while, and I fear the Dark Elf list will be worse.

Edit: Wow, MDS! Nice haul

 Buzzsaw wrote:
The fact is the single best comparison for TGG is not Bones, or Dreamforge, but Relic Knights and Deadzone. These projects each attempted to do the same basic thing: kickstart (pun intended) a complete game system, including multiple factions and a comprehensive amount of sculpts. At the time of close for both of those the rules for the games were at best in beta (and in the case of RK, word is the rules were in considerably more like alpha) condition. Is it really appropriate to make hard and fast category decisions based on the different degree of "in development" of the respective games?

I would answer no. But then again I fundamentally think there are mechanics of selling and psychology associated with that, mechanics which are largely independent of what you are selling. To be sure, there are intrinsics to any field, but especially as it comes to crowdfunding campaigns, there is far more common ground then is often appreciated.

But this was supposed to be a short reply, heh...

I agree with this. Not sure how relevant it is, other than to note that RH is in a more crowded group than they compare themselves (i.e. to things like Relic Knights and Deadzone, rather than just Bones or Bombshell Babes).

Tannhauser- I am almost positive that Buzzsaw was referring to Raging Heroes, not you. His first line addresses you (that he'd be posting an in-depth analysis at some point), and then he moves to his general point about the kickstarter.

Anyway, like I said glad that this did well and I look forward to seeing the miniatures... hopefully in early 2014 as outlined, we'll see!

Question to those who have followed this one more closely to avoid digging through 113 pages of posts...
My buddy did the KS thing for this one for the 2 of us (I've done the last few and fronted the cash) but he only put in enough for the pledge level and didn't include enough for shipping. Should he be chasing them down via PM to adjust now or will there be a paypal option (I know there's one now) when the survey comes out?
Thanks in advance.

Summary:

Three complete miniature armies funded? Check.
All announced miniatures unlocked? Check.
Lots of upgrades and (from Lieutenant level upward) freebies? Check.
New units and heroines not previously announced unlocked? Check.
Big amount of money raised with most at the start and at the end? Check.

I think, all this qualifies as a success, most early fears about this kickstarter proved to be unfounded in the end.

If 2 updates per day on average is not enough or if an end result of 2 Mio. $ could have been possible, is a matter of personal opinion.

@ Tannhauser42

Beyond the first line, saying to you yes, but not soon, Buzzsaw does not reply to you in any way or form, I do not know how you find something clearly written as a commentary on RH behavior on kickstarter been directed at you.