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A resin upgrade *seems* like a no-brainer, doesn't it?

I also hope one is offered, though I can also see why it wouldn't be, in the name of 'simplicity'...?

Jutes are one of the few factions I haven't invested in so simply offering the various bundles for them might be dangerous for me.

Undead, Giant Insects (oh and some people too), what's not to love....

Rob dropped some card pics this afternnoon


Hero Card


Darkhold Card


Reinforcement Card

@Paul - it's dependent on the video; it's not yet done, and whilst I'm hoping it will be done for next Tuesday, I'm not entirely sure it will be.

6pm GMT whichever day.

Until 6pm, 5th of September.

Stretch goals will be both more stuff and expansions.

Depending on price and content I'd love to snap this up just for the pvc undead. Much prefer single piece models for my gaming nowadays.

I really hope the rules will be good and we get character progression and campaign based gameplay...but i seriously doubt it. I wish MM would hire a professional designer. The minis deserve that :-)

Yeah, my worry is regarding the rules, too. I love the idea of a simple, elegantly designed, yet tactically deep dungeon bash using good quality PVC versions of Mierce's minis. But I'm not convinced that this will be that, or indeed that we will ever see such a thing. Almost every dungeon bash I've seen has been way too complicated.

Space Hulk should always be the model to aim for, here. Plays in an hour, but with genuine tactical depth and at least some strategic depth.

I guess you'll be able to see if they release the WIP rules for people to read through, pick through and playtest. It seems that designers and producers confident in their games are more likely to do so, while some notable cluster feths have done quite the opposite - treating their rules as some super-sekret special sauce that turns out to about as good as spoiled milk once released.

Yeah, good point. This is one time when I would be keen to look at the rules. With an Eric Lang design, I just buy. With good reviews from trusted boardgame reviewers plus good minis, I just buy. With Mierce... I've downloaded the quickstart rules for Darklands and had no inclination to either play those, or get the main rules.

And agreed -- any sensible company will happily release at least the basic rules for free, because that gets more people playing. It's how I started with Kings of War, and that got Mantic two rulebook sales as I got one for my daughter too.

Mierce's in-house rules do tend towards 'complicated', so hopefully the boardgame is more of a boardgame, and could help serve as a gateway to the 'game proper'.

Rob said they'd post beta rules at some point.

Not going to launch tomorrow

Mierce Miniatures 16-time creator about 4 hours ago

Morning all...

@Paul - no, it'll be next week I'm afraid. The video's being worked on; as soon as it's done I can launch, but I've no idea when that will be. Could be before the weekend, but we'll see what happens.

fingers crossed things get sorted speedily, Robs got an immobile honeymoon date in September and I want this to have a decent amount of time to gather backers (who aren't the normal miercenaries)

Latest launch date:

Right. Tuesday 15th of August is when Darkholds will launch, 6pm BST

I'm really interested in this- but I've never got anything from Mierce before.

I gather that we won't see production minis before the campaign?

Will the undead minions have multiple poses? Or will we be looking at a few identical spear-skellies and the big bugs?

MattW wrote:
I'm really interested in this- but I've never got anything from Mierce before.

I gather that we won't see production minis before the campaign?

Will the undead minions have multiple poses? Or will we be looking at a few identical spear-skellies and the big bugs?

I have no idea, but traditionally, in Mierce's previous Kickstarters, the miniatures are very similarto the concept art that is being used. So one can assume that if the concept arts will feature different poses, then so will the miniatures.

Right - Mierce miniatures usually very closely match the concept art - and in this case, there will most likely be a fair few that are PVC copies of existing resins.

Now...the Great Unknown here is just how Mierce's usual top notch stuff will make the transition into PVC Boardgame land.

That is the big question, and it probably will not be able to be definitively answered before the campaign ends.

The Kickstarter is to fund the production, so...unless there are advance samples (which would be great!), we'll be pledging on faith here!

I'd feel a lot better if they went the WoK route and hard hard plastic weapons tooled up to go along with the PVC miniatures - nothing worse that soft details and droopy weapons!

I second that hope for the hard plastic weapons- droopy spears would be pretty frustrating.

I'm not a guaranteed backer, but this might be my first KS...

PVC has come a LOOOOOONG way in the past few years. I would imagine that there might be some slight degradation of detail but probably not enough to be off putting. I personally wish Mierce all the best of luck withthis. I hope they mmake a mint!

Hi guys,

Tim from Mierce here. Just wanted to comment on a few points raised.

PVC - yes. We'll be using Dust Studios moulding and manufacturing prowess. They made the minis for The Others 7 Sins, WoK (insert CMoN game with nice minis here) - the quality is excellent and we'll be adding hard plastic weapons for the spears and bows etc. The quality of The Others and Blood Rage (with hard plastic on spears etc) is what we will deliver.

Miniatures - the vast majority of the Jutes (undead) have been sculpted digitally already. We'll be revisiting the files and making alterations - increasing the size of the sculpts to allow for PVC shrinkage and will also be bulking up ankle, wrists, shafts (ahem) etc. Some slight pose changes will be made to make for better casts also.

Miniatures that aren't digital and already exist as traditional (by which I mean epoxy or polymer clay sculpts) - some of them such as Sathach and Nerys (already quite small) will be re-sculpted in a digital format (in fact they already have been!) they have been sculpted with PVC casting in mind (deeper details) and will also be printed larger than usual to account for shrinkage.

There are some brand new sculpts new to Darkholds - all are sculpted digitally and with PVC in mind. We have been in regular contact with Dust with regards to PVC shrinkage rates, moulding, parts etc.



We'll be showing off new and groovy stuff during the KS, of course.

Some miniatures that already exist in traditional format will be retained. These are Penda, Carrowek and Gnith (as well as the odd henchman and bad guy) in all cases these are miniatures that are quite large to begin with and have well defined details. (Gnith was actually sculpted with Darkholds in mind which is why he's a little large)

The scale will be 32mm (after PVC shrinkage) which is a little larger than the average Darklands miniature, though the scale of Darklands will gradually increase going forwards to 32mm also (some already are) . It allows for bolder details, thicker (more durable) weapons and is easier for the naked eye to read.

In terms of the game - it is indeed a simple, tactical game. My favourite game growing up was Space Hulk and it's still a game I play regularly now. I suppose the best way to describe Darkholds is a bit of Space Hulk, Zombicide and WH Quest. Not quite akin to any one in particular but certainly has some inspiration here and there. There is character progression but this is handled via game level rather than XP. We have a golden rule of 'No pens' and any book keeping will be done via cards (treasure, items) and the player dashboard.

I think people will love the 'agendas' and I feel I must point out that although this is a player vs game co-op there is no rule that stops players from attacking one another....... There is also an option to make the game player vs player is someone would prefer to play as the undead.

There will be a gameplay example video shown off from the start of the KS.

There will 68 minis in the box (and a shedload of cards, board tiles etc) - a fair few of them rather large miniatures too! There will also be a KS exclusive mini free to all backers of the game right from the get go. There won't be a resin upgrade (where PVC is subbed out for resin casts) I'm afraid as the boxes will be packed in China. - Resins can, of course, be purchased on our website as normal (and if there's demand we could add a bundle deal of the resins on the site) So you'll be able to buy the new stuff in resin, but there will be no subbing out. It will be an extra cost purchased via the website.

The pledge level is £90 (ROUGHLY $117 USD) - there will be some very limited early birds set at £85 ($110) - shipping will be calculated at the time of shipping. We will have European and North American shipping hubs.

We've stretch goals planned out as long as your arm that we will unveil as we go along. How far we go and how many extras and freebies we unleash is all down to you guys. You won't feel short changed. There are freebies galore up for grabs if we get far enough. There will also be optional purchases and also a chance to buy extra Jutes as units should you plan to use extra for your wargames or other gaming uses.

I hope that covers most things. I don't pop by too often as I'm understandably very busy (always, especially right now) - the KS launches Tuesday the 15th August at 6pm (UK) which is 1pm (EST) and we'll have a regular online presence there during the KS to answer any questions you feel aren't covered by the KS and FAQs themselves.

See you next Tuesday!

Thanks for chipping in,

Very good to hear we'll be getting the ABS weapons as that's going to help a fair bit with spear/polearm/axe shafts

looking forward to it

see you then!

Man, what a great post, Tim. You pretty much addressed my concerns - I'm 100% happy with the type of PVC you'll be using.

Looking forward to game play videos, demos, beta rules, etc, but I'll definitely be backing regardless.

Well, that pretty much (mostly) dispels my concerns!

Thanks for showing up here on Dakka Dakka Tim.

(Now get back to casting up my stuff!!! )

Thanks, Tim!

Cheers Tim.

In terms of the game - it is indeed a simple, tactical game. My favourite game growing up was Space Hulk and it's still a game I play regularly now. I suppose the best way to describe Darkholds is a bit of Space Hulk, Zombicide and WH Quest. Not quite akin to any one in particular but certainly has some inspiration here and there. There is character progression but this is handled via game level rather than XP. We have a golden rule of 'No pens' and any book keeping will be done via cards (treasure, items) and the player dashboard.

I think people will love the 'agendas' and I feel I must point out that although this is a player vs game co-op there is no rule that stops players from attacking one another....... There is also an option to make the game player vs player is someone would prefer to play as the undead.

Most excellent. Warhammer Quest is a game I play regularly and the fact that you've got inspiration from it makes me very happy. Also, Agenda's sound like the old Warhammer Quest "Dark Secret" 8 card deck. I'm raring to go...

All this is great news - WoK/Blood Rage/New CMON Quality PVC level miniatures with hard plastic weapons is almost all I needed to hear!

bananaman wrote:
The scale will be 32mm (after PVC shrinkage) which is a little larger than the average Darklands miniature, though the scale of Darklands will gradually increase going forwards to 32mm also (some already are) . It allows for bolder details, thicker (more durable) weapons and is easier for the naked eye to read.

This is interesting - when did you start the switch over? I noticed my Oplites are a fraction taller than some of my older pieces.

Thanks Tim! That addresses pretty much all my concerns too.

Could you let us know how long the game will typically take to play, too?

Just save me a early bird guys!

Eagerly looking forward to it!

There's only a £5 difference - we'll be OK if we don't get it.

I do, however, understand the psychological benefit to getting one, and *usually* there are just enough Early Birds to 'fund' the project (The CMON Approach!) and I'll also admit that, as a long time supporter of Mierce's Darklands Campaigns, I'll still be (irrationally) miffed if I don't snag one too!

I do hope they off 'resin add-on' deals to get all the things in resin, as an option.