Manufacturing Underway

We hope you have had an enjoyable festive period, we certainly have! 

Apologies for the relative silence, we decided to take a well earned break and are due back in the office on the 3rd of January. Regardless of that, we thought it would be a great opportunity to get in touch with you all and let you know the progress of our project! 

Manufacturing Progress

So all of the figures for our first wave (the Starter Set and all unlocked freebies that come with that set) are 3D rendered, 3D printed and have made their way into Master Moulds. The next step will be to start making Production moulds and casting the miniatures to fulfil the first wave of shipments. 

Worth pointing out that we played around with the Wings on the Wyverns and we think they better represent their historical counterparts! 

Please also be advised that these are master castings, which we will use to make production moulds. There may be some variation in terms of placement of the supporting rods, to aid better casting, etc. 

Orc Spitfyre

Orc HurriKane

Dwarf Kampfkondor Bomber

Close up of the Kondor's Bombs

A feat of digital sculpting ingenuity! The Dwarf crew of the Kampfkondor!

Having finished the first wave of sculpts, Darko is now back to sculpting the last few units and characters for our Panzerfäuste Kickstarter before resuming work on this one. Any backers for Panzerfäuste should be prepared to see some more visual progress on that project too! 

...No Battle Plan ever survives contact with the Enemy...

...and I don't mean the Coventry-based popular music group... Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but there has been a little stumbling point beyond our control and, in the interest of open and honest communication, we thought we should tell you. Dice.co.uk are the UK and Europe’s main supplier of gaming components, including many of the plastic bases you will get from other manufacturers. They have been supplying flyings stands for a good number of years and well, sadly, their mould tool for the Flying Stands has broken and they have been out of stock for quite some time now. We have calculated that we’ll need roughly 10,000 flying stands, so we have been added to their queue of people waiting to get them. 

I cannot stress enough that we have costed the Kickstarter around these particular bases, at a price previously agreed with them so, although we would appreciate any suggestions you may have, please understand there may well be other reasons than ‘we don’t like them’ that we decide to not go with your suggestion. 

We will, of course, keep you in the loop with this. If it's clear the original plan has completely fallen on it's face, then we will absolutely make sure to find another solution.

Pledge Manager

We have been promising you that for some time and I am very pleased to announce that we have finally signed an agreement with Crowdox after a shining review of their service from our good industry friends, Warploque Miniatures. Given that both Steve and Rob have used Crowdox before, we both believe it is a very smooth and simple service that will make it very easy to see what options will be available. Right now, we are working on populating the Pledge Manager with products, getting the images sorted and making sure all is well. 

Spitfyre: Orc Defier Wyvern Funded...

Well that was an exciting day! You funded the first Spitfyre supplement Bats over Tôrg Baraz, the KriegAdler 110 Doppelmesser heavy fighters  and P11 War-Bat fighters that come with it and also the Defier Wyvern fighter with its unique rear facing weaponry - and one Defier will now be included for FREE in all ACE pledges!

Orc Defier fighter - now funded!

So what next, well it's back to the Gnomes Aéronautique de Oiseuax Militaire and their frontline, but rather slow and obselete, Pigeon de Guerre bomber, whose brave crew flew missions in both the Tôrg Baraz and Branzhûm air campaigns as well as in defence of their homeland.

Gnome Pigeon de Guerre bomber

If we can reach £8,000 in pledges we will include one Pigeon de Guerre bomber for FREE in each ACE pledge. Sacre bleu!

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...

Spitfyre: Orc HurriKane Fighter Funded!

Second Stretch Goal down! All Pilot backers in the Spitfyre Kickstarter will now get a FREE Orc HurriKane wyvern fighter and the rules expanded to include it!

Post-Kickstarter Update XXXIII: Orc Highlanders

Good news on Kickstarter completion, there are only 4 parcels are left to ship of Wave 3A and that we've already made big steps into getting Wave 3B made.

On the topic of Wave 3B  the Highland Orcs have been sculpted and we think you will agree Rafael has done a cracking job on what the Dwarves call "Orcs in skirts!" - right up until they get decapitated by the Highlanders claymores...

Hope you like them as much as we do here at Hysterical Games. We wanted them to have a very martial vibe, charging into battle to engage their enemies in hand to hand combat and we think Rafael has done the job!

The Dwarf Gebirgsjäger aren't too far behind, just a couple more to be sculpted so keep your eyes peeled for an update very soon.

Post-Kickstarter Update XXXII: Gebirgsjäger and Highlanders...

We are all so excited in Hysterical Towers that we are going to share with you a couple of work in progress pics...

The Dwarf Gebirgsjäger...

Dwarf Mountain Trooper

 And the Orc Highlanders...

Orc Highlander Charging

Now these are works in progress and a number of corrections need to be made, but we couldn't resist showing you these awesome looking 3D WIP renders!

Post-Kickstarter Update XXXI: Bogglez-wûrf and Koschei the Deathless...

As many of you marvel at your Wave 3A miniatures, work continues at Hysterical HQ on Wave 3B so here is a quick update for you...

Orc Squadron Leader Bogglez-wûrf 

Squadron Leader Bogglez-wûrf

The famous Orc Air Force Squadron Leader Bogglez-wûrf, a legend in his own lunchtime, has now been sculpted and comes with his life saving brolly (read G2 issue one for that story).

Remember he comes free with Sergeant level pledges or above so lots of you will be getting your Bogglez for free!

Count Koschei the Deathless

Count Koschei the Deathless

The infamous Dark Elf necromancer who raised the Deathless and introduced a whole plethora of new horrors onto The Land.

This sculpt of the Count is a Kickstarter exclusive, won't all your non-backer friends be so jealous of you? :-)

Lots more work going on behind the scenes, the Dwarf Mountain Troops and Orc Highlanders should be the next sets sculpted, so please bear with us and don't forget to share pictures of your painted miniatures on the Panzerfäuste Facebook Group, we love to see them!

Post-Kickstarter Update XXX: Orc Warlord Chûrg-ill

Just a quick update to show you the 3D render of Orc Warlord Chûrg-ill giving the traditional Orc two-fingered salute, which Herb has just finished...

Pretty awesome eh?

More soon...

We're Futbowel Crazy, We're Futbowel Mad!

As the first year of the Great Dwarven War draws to a close in the trenches of the Môn-Gerahnt Line, Orc and Dwarf soldiers settle down to celebrate Hognachtswatch. As both sides scoff their stollen or figgy pudding, some overly excited Orcs accidentally boot a futbowel across No Man's Land into the Dwarven trenches. Waiting for the expected response of machine-gun fire the Orcs are surprised when a voice calls out...

“Oi Orcy, doz youz fancy a game?”

Panzerfäuste Futbowel is a stand alone beer and pretzels game allowing you to replay the impromptu games of futbowel played in No Mans Land between the Orcs and Dwarves on Hognachtswatch. See how many goals you can score before High Command stops the fraternising by launching an artillery barrage and watch out for unexploded bombs when playing...

Panzerfäuste Futbowel will be released on 1st December 2016 containing a rulebook, 11 Orc futbowelers, 11 Dwarf futbowelers, a Gnome referee, 4 goal posts and a futbowel. The games normal RRP will be £50, but if you pre-order before 1st December you can grab a copy for £40.

As well as being used for playing games of futbowel, the figures can be used as POW's or unarmed troops in Panzerfäuste games and the goal posts as graves or objective markers. Additional teams can be purchased for £25, but if pre-ordered before 1st December will cost you just £20. 

You can pre-order Panzerfäuste Futbowel right now here.

Panzerfäuste Unarmoured Released!

Panzerfäuste Unarmoured, our introductory skirmish starter set, is now available to buy on our website - at the reduced price of £40 for the remainder of July (normal RRP £50).

Panzerfäuste Unarmoured comes with a 32-page full colour rulebook, a section of Dwarf Grenadiers and a section of Orc Infantry, as well as 4 Panzerfäuste D6...

Post-Kickstarter Update XVIII: Dwarf Penal Troops and Fomori Brute

Hail fellow Panzerfäustians...

Sculpting:

We've had quite a bit of progress on the sculpting front. We have two 'T-Poses' ready at this stage, we're not going to show them yet as they tend to lead to confusion. It's the step in 3D sculpting you take before posing the model, you lay it out like a mannequin almost, and then repose it.

However, Irek has finalised a number of his 3D renders for us, some of the Characters from the Dwarf Straftruppen set!

I think you'll all agree with us, they have a great deal of character and will really add something to any Dwarf army.

3D Printing and Casting (Wave 2)

We're still working away on this. Our 3D printer is due to arrive in the next couple of weeks, then we expect it will take a short while to learn how to use it properly. Once that has smoothed out, we will be able to really update you on this front. In the meantime, Rob has managed to mould up the Fomor Brute a few more times and has put it into proper production. Word Forge Games kindly offered to cast the Kaiser's Cat for us and is working on casting enough of the little guys to fulfil all of your orders.

Pledge Manager

Please, if you haven't filled in your Pledge Manager, try and fill it in as soon as possible. We really need to lock it down and still have 30% or so of the pledgers (not including £1) that have not filled in the manager. We're only a small company, so it's very important to know exactly what we need to do to get everyone the products they deserve.

If you have an issue with, or you do not believe you have received, the pledge manager, please email craig@shattered-glass.co.uk for advice.

Post-Kickstarter Update XVII: Local Orc Volunteers and Skøgtroll...

Greetings fellow Panzerfäustians...

Sculpting:

Heriberto has started work on the Deathless Kazak cavalry which should be awesome and Irek is beavering away on Steurmer’s Stormers (all the character heads are done now) which we are really looking forward to given their history in Panzerfäuste over the last eighteen years...

Great news is that Victor has almost finished the Local Orc Volunteers (LOVies). There are a still a few tweaks required on all the models but we thought you’d like to see some now as they are brilliant!

"Don't tell them your name..."

"They don't like it up 'em!"

"We're doomed..."

"I got some 'essential supplies' lads..."

"I'll tell mum..."

"Bloody hooligans!"

Salute:

All hands to the pump this week to get ready for Salute (well Rob’s hands as Steve will be working in Germany and sadly miss the show).

Where are we?



We are on stand TH06.



What will we have there?

We apart from all the wave one releases we will have the first non-Kickstarter Panzerfäuste models, the mighty Skøgtroll sculpted by Warploque maestro Alex Huntley. They are amazing and will no doubt prove very popular. Rob has cast up a lot but to make sure you get your mitts on them rush over to TH06 as soon as you get to Salute!

Skøg! Skøg! Skøg!

Where if you are very quick you might be able to buy one of our extremely limited edition Panzerfäuste mugs! (we will have some for sale for those of our not able to attend the show so don’t panic).

Two Panzerfäuste mugs - only one on sale!

And if all this excitement is not too much for you, our amazingly talented concept illustrator Will Beck will be on the stand with pencil and drawing pad doodling away all things Panzerfäuste. We have given him the (top secret) list of ALL the planned Panzerfäuste races and historical equivalents so if you are lucky you might get to see what the Canadians or Chinese are going to be…

Oldfäuste:

Whilst looking for SWMBO’s Easter Egg Steve discovered a very small stock of the original 1998 Panzerfäuste skirmish rulebooks. Rob will have some of these on the stand at Salute but if you are not able to attend and want a piece of Panzerfäuste history send GBP5 (shipping included) via PayPal to Steve and he’ll send you a copy. There are just 21 left now and once they are gone, they are gone…



Community:

Aside from the official Hysterical Games Facebook Page there is a fans Panzerfäuste Facebook Group were Panzerfäustians across the world share ideas and photos. It’s a great community so if you want to find out how to make a Gnomish mushroom forest for example, and you are on Facebook, please join it - and if you are not on Facebook join Facebook just to be part of it!! :-)

Robyn's Gnome mushroom forest...

Ok, that’s it for this update.

If you can get to Salute make Hysterical Games your first port of call, if not watch out for the next update coming soon!

Post-Kickstarter Update XV: Hysterical is Go!

Blimey, what a busy week, indeed it is still ongoing as whilst I type this, Rob is still hard at work with the Hysterical trade stand in Abingdon so I picked up my Supreme Overlord mantle once more! In this capacity my first action is to award Rob the “Busy Bee of the Week” award due to his non-stop sterling efforts on the Panzerfäuste front! (I have graciously permitted him to have a five minute tea break tomorrow and go large on his Happy Meal at McD’s)

Orc Commandos deliver Rob's Happy Meal!

First off the pledge manager is up and running (hurrah!) thanks to Craig’s hard work. Emails are being sent out to pledgers in batches to enable us to manage things so don’t panic just yet if you haven’t had your email. We will let you know when all are sent out and then you can panic!

As promised Rob posted out the first tranche of Wave One Kickstarter Pledges for those who had contacted him as previously posted on Friday. Hopefully some lucky people will be getting deliveries very early next week and we are looking forward to seeing what you think of the miniatures and (more importantly) seeing some painted examples from you! :-)

Wave One parcels off to be shipped...

On Saturday we officially went public with our first trade stand at the Hammerhead show in Newark. We had a great first day of trading and lots of compliments over the miniatures on show. It was great to meet a number of KS backers in the flesh (even ones waiting for wave three!), thank you for your faith in us.

Our first retail customer!!!

Lee, Ant, Allan and Ian deserve praise for all their help and putting on a great participation game using the Panzerfäuste Mass Battle rules at the show (I’ve posted a number of photos in the Panzerfäuste Facebook page) and this was recognised by the show organisers as it won the ‘Best Looking Game’ award. Really chuffed for the guys, it was a great looking game and hopefully we’ll see it around the shows throughout the year. (You boys can go large as well, but no tea break!)

The winners of the Best Looking Game (not gamers!)

The Panzerfäuste group on Facebook is well worth joining and this week we’ve been having “Fun With Flags” with lots of Orc, Gnome, Dwarf and Trog designs being posted by gamers (especially an enthusiastic Robyn!). Some of these can be seen in the game photos as Ant printed them off to add a splash of colour.

Get a room! Mass Battle Ian and Skirmish Matthew discuss rules mechanics and whatnot...

Next Sunday we are at WMMS in Alumwell so hopefully we’ll see some more of you there. We should also have an update on the Troglodyte support and Mountain troops as Heriberto has been beavering away on them and I hope to get enough time this week to slap some paint on a Skøgtroll which we plan to release at Salute next month.

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.