Spitfyre: Bats Over Tôrg Baraz Funded!

Well that didn't take you long! It seems you are batty for Bats Over Tôrg Baraz! Thank you for your support. The supplement and its seven miniatures will be included alongside Spitfyre and the eleven miniatures that come with that for all Ace level pledgers!

Ok, so what's next? Well following the Dwarf invasion of Tôrg Baraz a "volunteer" force of Orc Air Force pilots flew to the Troglodyte realm to help fight the invading Dwarves. Alongside the Spitfyres and HurriKanes that headed north were a number of Defier wyverns, a rather unique air-beast with, literally, a sting its tail!

Rough concept sketch of Orc Defier wyvern

Noting this particular wyverns unique hunting habit of flying ahead of its prey and attacking with its venomous tail, the Orcs came up with the idea of incorporating the breed in the Orc Air Force, supplementing the wyverns natural weapon with a rear gunner firing four machine-guns. 

Defier tactics are to fly ahead of enemy bombers and then attack them in their typically unarmed front arc with their own rear facing weaponry. How successful was the Defier in combat? Well you'll have to wait and see...

Every Ace level pledger will receive one Defier wyvern and flying base for free if we reach £7000 in pledges...

Post-Kickstarter Update XII: Fomori, Skøgtroll and Leutnant Isla Antonsdottir...

Apologies for the tardiness in our update this week! Rob's been busy with Age of Tyrants, which is becoming an ever-more demanding role as they start going into their last few days. They have 9 days left...

Anyway, regardless of Rob's blatant bumming around, SOMEONE got some stuff done at Hysterical Games this week.

Coming Soon!

Craig's been working frantically on the Pledge Manager, which is in fact also our webstore and website. He's also been helping on retail packaging and the layout for our Playtest rules for Panzerfäuste Mass Battle - which Ian has finalised to a point it's ready to publish. We will share these with you on Sunday, when we're happy with the general 'lingo' and other bits and bobs. There will also be some snazzy tokens for you to print out and use to try the game. Much like a few other companies, these will also eventually be hosted on our website so you can try out our games before buying them (here's looking at you, Guildball, you beautiful, wallet-emptying, people!).

Rob, Ian and Steve did meet up to exchange a few pre-production models, as well as discuss rules, release schedules and shows. It resulted in Rob having a lot more packaging materials, Steve having a bunch of figures to assemble and paint and Ian a load of things to think about in the rulebooks!

Here is what Steve did with the Fomori that Rob, so gracefully, handed to him fully assembled!

a little bit shiny due to the mould being brand new

Steve's very own Orc Fomor!

Steve also took some sneaky snaps of the workshop, whilst Rob wasn't looking. However, the Khoven Gralski Baba have redacted much of it...

Boxes that are steadily being filled with cast and packed miniatures!

Part of one of Rob's production runs. These are not cleaned up yet, for packing!

Dolly parts for the Skøgtrolls (see if any of you recognise the weapons!) and Zombie Trolls

A bunch of figures and buildings, for photography

There's a real buzz of activity in that workshop; Rob's put in an awful lot of work to get that running, so we thought it was only right to share with you what we can.

Artwork

So, the artists have been busy, Gregor has basically finalised Isla Antonsdottir, who will be available in the Pledge Manager!

Meanwhile, Will has been drawing the last of the two Steurmer's Stormers (Straftruppen) characters. He'll now officially be working on our next campaign - so you won't see much, if at all, from him for the next few months.

Sculpting

Sadly, our Zombie Dwarf sculptor went on holiday, so didn't get anything done this week and our LOV sculptor simply couldn't find the time. However, they've both been genuine and honest about their delay - which is more than can be said for some people and something we all appreciate massively here.

Monsiuer Huntley, Esquire, on the other hand (Alex Huntley, of Warploque Miniatures) has been working away on our Skøgtroll Gevärstrupp... He's assured us that they'll be done in the next few days and likely with us in time to mould for next week! No promises, but, by jove, we will try our best to make that happen!

3D Printing

Anders has been a busy bee, getting more prints made for us. He's currently working using a slightly higher quality printer, but it's much more labour intensive. He's a student though, so his time is quite precious. He's managed to get another 2 units in the post to Rob this week though, which should arrive any day now. Of course, we'll keep you up to date on this matter. Thanks, Anders!

Okay, so it's a short one this week, that's a wrap. Next week should be promising, what with more sculpts, figures and rules.

Post-Kickstarter Update XI: Zombie Dwarves, LOVies & Trog War Moles...

Sculpting:

What. A. Week!

It's been a good'un!

We'd like to introduce you to Heriberto, our new sculptor, from Mexico - whom has been working on the Zombie Dwarves (bet you forgot about those!) for the Deathless!

He's an absolute speed-demon, he's managing to get these miniatures sculpted incredibly quickly, whilst retaining the character of them. He actually started off by following Gregor's Sketch, then making his own sketches, then going ahead an sculpting them. He's not finished them all, but the first 5 are ready to show!

Gregor's original Dwarf Zombie Concept

Heriberto's expanded concepts

Heriberto's Final Renders!

As you can see, they have loads of great details that make them look like the shambling mess that they should be! We all think the Deathless are going to shape up to be a truly characterful army.

Victor has also been a busy bee, and has made some progress with our Local Orc Volunteers. Keep in mind that these are quite WIP and there will be changes made to them, but the facial characteristics are all there. :)

A number of details will be changed - Don't panic!

I think you'll all agree that Victor has done a glorious job thus far. We really cannot wait to see what the whole unit looks like.

Artwork:

Okay, few exciting things here! Last week, we announced the Kret Bitewny (Battle Mole) for the Troglodytes. Well Will, being the efficient bloke he is, has managed to scribble up this masterpiece!

Based on the TKS-Tankette, which characterised the Polish military force in WW2, the Kret Bitewny will bring a further punch to the Troglodyte forces, with some medium firepower, but a terrifying ability to burrow up from underground, just like the Ulani Kret...

Meanwhile, Gregor has been sketching (only very, very roughly, mind you) the first of our Field Marshal Pledger characters!

This is 'Isla Antonsdottir'... More on her will be revealed once the concept art is completed, but she is a Officer of some description, within the Dwarf army. Steve is working on the background.

3D Printing/Casting:

Anders sent a bunch of 3D prints through, which arrived with Rob yesterday. Rob's had little opportunity to get these moulded up, but hopes to during this week. He's apparently got an Orc Fomor cast up, but it's one of the 'sticky' first casts, so doesn't want to photograph it. Next week should be a big week for casting, if all goes to plan!

As for existing models, Rob's been able to really push on with getting stock made up. Thing are going really well in that regard!

Pledge Manager:

Don't worry folks, this hasn't happened yet. We will make sure to let you all know about this as soon as we can. Craig is still tweaking it and making sure the basics work before loading up all the products. Our aim is to have pictures of as much as we can, to aid selecting your Sections, Sets and Characters. We know it can be very hard choosing stuff just from names - especially when they are in totally different languages!

To whet your appetite, here is the first sneaky preview of our sixth faction, the Skøgtrolls of Skøgmark. Now, there has been some confusion here, these guys are Forest Trolls and they represent the 'Norwegians' of Panzerfäuste. They are few and far between and not particularly well equipped compared to the invading Dwarves, but they are hardy fighters indeed. There will be other 'Troll' races in Panzerfäuste in the future, representing other Scandinavian countries.

Speaking of Craig, Craig is also the webmaster for Orcs in the Webbe. He's running a funding drive this year, to keep the website going. In recent years, he's had to fund the whole thing himself, even though it is a key part of the Historo-Fantasy Wargaming community AND acts as a major advertising platform for like-minded businesses.

Official Sponsors of Orcs in the Webbe!

Please check out Orcs in the Webbe, we are PROUD to be sponsors of his glorious website!

Post-Kickstarter Update IX: Strummer's Stormers and LOVie Heads...

This is going to be a short update, due to being a shortened week. Rob headed over to Beasts of War on Wednesday and Thursday to do some filming with them for the Age of Tyrants project that hs eals involved in. It was very successful and you guys will be pleased to know he has also got the ball rolling on some Panzerfäuste content.

Mould making

Rob did a few moulds this week, with mixed success. There's nothing to photograph regarding this that you haven't seen before. Resized Dwarves, as well as a failed mould of the Deathless Zombie Troll. Next week, we're hoping to ramp moulding up big time! Apologies for this. we do have some Zombie Trolls built up, but we don't think the quality is up there with the rest of the range and we don't want to confuse you guys. We'll make sure to show you as soon as we have something we're happy with.

We're actually in a bit of a sour mood about this, as many of the parts of the Zombie Troll have smashed to bits in the mould making process - rendering them useless and meaning that we have to get them reprinted and totally remake the mould. It's just a pain in the backside and a lot of work (and money!) wasted!

Anyway, moving on!

Casting

Nothing to report here. We're running the full capacity now, and casting as often and for as long as possible. It's hard to get the balance of work right at the moment, as casting requires pretty much endlessly working on it. However, we've managed to get a small stock ready and made up. Just gotta pack it into bags!

This has slowed right down. Irek is busy at the moment, but Victor did send us a WIP shot of the first of the Orc LOV Heads...

We're Doomed!

It's a long way off yet, but a good start. The helmet will raise up a little bit and the hair will flick out a bit more.

We got the last STL file we're owed from Prodos Games as well. We don't think we're getting any more from them, just because they are too busy to provide (good for them!) in a timely manner for us. They've been super helpful with this process though.

Orc Matilda I War-beast

We're looking for 3D sculptors as well! Let us know if you are available! We're especially interested if you are keen to add to the Troglodyte and/or Deathless ranges.

3D Printing

Anders in Sweden is continuing to impress. It's a HUGE undertaking printing this amount of figures, so he's been absolutely golden. We're not really sure what we would do without him, not just for his skills as a printer - but also for his ability to organise everything. Rob's pretty scatterbrained and he's really helped rationalise everything logically. Cheers dude! He assures me us we'll have a small parcel next week with some bits and pieces in it.

Artwork

Will has drawn up some rough pictures for the last two characters in the Dwarf Straftruppen Section. These will be the next Dwarf unit to be sculpted.

In Mass Battle, the Straftruppen Set are usable as just any other Section of Straftruppen; but in the Skirmish game, they will be usable as an actual character unit - Steurmer's Stormers! Each member is a character with a short back story.

That Deathless Picture we showed you guys last week is now finished. Piotr has done a grand job!

Other News!

Really, really, really exciting news!

Allan Powell, very kindly has offered to fund a War-Beast set for the Troglodytes. This will be available in the Pledge Manager and we hope to share some concept art from Will Beck in next week's update (or the week after!). We also want to let you guys know that we will be offering all of the Troglodyte Scenery in the Pledge Manager too!

Post-Kickstarter Update VIII: Orcs, Enigma, Deathless and a Frog!

Casting

The good news for us is that we are preeeeetty much there to really push on with our own resin manufacturing at full tilt. Our equipment has finally all arrived as well as having been gone over by someone who is familiar with Pressure (Pressure is a scary and potentially massively destructive thing that can go very, very wrong - so this was important to check before rushing into anything).

This means we are able to start manufacturing figures at a larger scale than we have been up to now.

So, without further ado, here are the rest of the Orc Command (we decided to get the missing parts printed from an alternate source, just to get this ball rolling. Over a month late, but there we go). Thanks to Anders for getting these sorted out for us so quickly.

Orc Sarge and Orc Enigma Machine - Crewed by a pair of Boffins!

In addition to the Orc Command missing bits, Anders also managed to print out the Orc Support Set - which we have cast up (figures are a bit shiny due to being early casts from the mould. Models sent out to backers will NOT be shiny!

Orc "Drainpipe" Anti-Tank Team

Orc "Sausage Shredder" HMG Team

Orc "Pudding Tube" Mortar Team

3D Printing

We've got a load more prints from Anders to get through, with more coming. We don't like to say too much, just in case it's not up to scratch, but we'll show you as soon as there are casts.

Let's just say that Piotr's latest piece of (WIP) artwork should be a good hint...

Artwork

WIP Artwork for The Deathless...

Gregor is currently working on new full concept art for Prince Kaliko of the Gnomes. We hope to share that with you next week.

3D Sculpting

Victor, the sculptor of the Panzerbär, has just begun work on the Local Orc Volunteers. It's going to take him quite some time, as they are a complex unit to sculpt (lots of individual characters and tweaking), but we're hoping to share the progress with you over the next few weeks.

Irek, who sculpted our Dwarves, has committed to finishing the rest of our Dwarves and Gnomes. Again, this will be slow, but we'll get there. Irek is now freelance too, so it should be easier to get progress from him.

The first piece he's done for us since going freelance is Hauptmann Entwickler!

Hauptmann Entwickler and his Night-Vision Frog!

We absolutely love this character, first created by long-time Panzerfän, Luke Passingham. He is in a LOT of scenarios on the Orcs in the Webbe website, so get over there and check it out!

Community

Ant Evans has continued to be awesome and paint scenery for us. He's been working on the Snail Barn that Tony so lovingly sculpted up. We think you'll all agree that it looks really fantastic.

Also, we've been mentioned in the Beasts of War XLBS Video today! If you are a back-stager, check it out! They just run through some of the designs for The Deathless.

Merry Christmas!

Hysterical Games wishes you all a very Merry Christmas this year and would like to once again thank you for your support in 2015!

Post-Kickstarter Update II: Gnome Miniatures, Swarog, Koschei and Dwarf Uhlan

I was going to wait until tomorrow to post this Update, but I have all the information I want to publish available now, so figured why not update you all as soon as possible! 

Miniatures

So what's happened this week? I spent a bit of time mouldmaking this week. Sadly, not having my own space to do it set up yet, I haven't got loads done; but the Gnome Voltigeurs have their first mould made. Here's the resultant casts (Note: The Grenade Launcher snapped off in the mould, but this is fine now). 

Apologies for the poor photo quality! I'm not a photographer at all! A 'proper' photographer will get the photos sorted as soon as, but I built these (rather excitedly) this morning and *had* to get a photo. 

I'm going to get them painted up in WW2 French Infantryman colours, though they would work in WW1 Horizon Blue, or even the WW2 Chasseurs a'Pied colour scheme with Dark Blue trousers... Or you could, of course, make it up! But I'm a purist! 

Artwork 

Gregor has been busy finishing off various bits of artwork and throwing some colours on them. 

Battle-Lord Swarog got coloured in a bit (it's unfinished!) and he has given Koschei the Deathless a body! 

This week also saw the return of Piotr, one of our original Illustrators, to the fore. He was away having eye-surgery and I want to give him a warm welcome once again as his artwork is bloomin' beautiful! I can't show his new piece, as it shows our elusive 6th faction off... ...ahhhhh bugger it, go on then. (Carefully cropped...) 

3D Printing

We've also made some progress with 3D printing. Prodos have completed the Orc Command Team, which are currently being cleaned up before shipping over. I should have photos early next week if all goes to plan. A good friend of mine is studying 3D Printing in Stockholm, so has offered to help with some printing as well. He is working his way through the Dwarf Command, which are almost complete. We're hoping they will be printed by the end of next week. Once these all arrive, I'll be sticking them in moulds, getting them built and getting them painted too! This side of Christmas will be spent getting as many of the Wave 1 items sorted; then, in the new year, I'll be casting like a mad-man! 3D Sculpting We've had some progress with the Panzerbär! Of course, it's just the bear (without his fur coat!), but still pretty cool to see.

Let's Talk Tanks!

Ok, let’s talk tanks!

When Panzerfäuste was originally released, the design of tanks was left somewhat ambiguous. The game was a section level skirmish game so we left decisions on what models, if vehicles were to be used, to individual gamers (Rob had a Dwarf Tiger tank). However with the introduction of Panzerfäuste: Mass Battle, we needed to cut through the ambiguity and make a decision of how tanks were going to look in the game!

We had a number of ideas, which we discussed at length, before coming up with a final decision that we were happy with (and hope you are too!).

First off we discussed just using historical models. There are a lot available and does reinforce the historo-part of the game. However, we didn’t think this really helped the fantasy vibe of Panzerfäuste and there was also the problem of scale given some races (like the Gnomes) might fit in 1/72nd scale tanks, others (the Orcs for example) would probably need 1/48th and others (Dwarves for example) somewhere in between…

We then considered making fantasy versions of historical tanks, exaggerating features, adding a load of bolts etc. Whilst that kind of works with Orcs (as MaxMini have done with their Green Alliance Orcs), we didn’t think this would look so good for Dwarf or Elf designs and was all a bit too Wacky Races.

Steve had for a number of years considered doing walker tanks, marrying historical tank turrets with AT-ST walker legs. A cool concept, but one DUST has made its own over the last couple of years.
In the end we decided we wanted something original. Something that would reinforce the fantasy elements of the game, but still look incredibly cool and eye-catching…

Enter the War-Beasts!

In Panzerfäuste each race will have an armoured war-beast. Imagine a giant animal, protected by armour plate and carrying a cannon in a turret as its armament on its back! Hopefully the concept art here of a Gnome snail-tank and Orc war-wyrm will show you what we mean.

We think these will look incredibly cool on the tabletop and hope that the Kickstarter allows us to make them.

If you aren’t so keen (are you mad?!!!!), we are not going to hold it against you if you wish to use some historical models or DUST walkers in your army, it is after all your game once you’ve bought it. You just won’t be able to sit at the cool kids table! ;-)

The Phoney War is Over!

Great news, the Phoney War is over and we are full speed ahead! 

The sculptors have almost finished the excellent work on Demigods Evolution (check it out) and will be back on Troglodyte sculpting duty imminently!

Prodos have also sent in sculpting reinforcements with work starting on the Orcs and the [REDACTED BY ORDERS OF THE KHOVEN GRALSKA BABA]…

In the meantime we thought you would like to see Gregor’s excellent painting of a Dwarf NCO!

The Land

A sneak peak of where you will be fighting! 

This is a small section of the map of The Land Piotr is currently painting, showing the homelands of the Dwarves, Gnomes and Trogs...

Tôrg Baraz

Piotr's painting of Tôrg Baraz - realm of the Troglodytes!

Dwarves Attack!

Here's the full picture of Piotr's awesome Dwarves v Gnomes painting. We'll be sharing more of this over the next few weeks...