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 XIV: Troglodyte Support and Gorale

Thank you to everyone who has emailed Rob to let him know what items you are wanting from Wave One. Your prospective orders are currently being processed and it's been very helpful for us to understand which units are the most popular. Rob's been busily making moulds all week (especially of the Orcs!) in preparation for the shipment.

PLEASE LET US KNOW (BY PRIVATE MESSAGE) BY THE END OF THE DAY ON WEDNESDAY 2ND OF MARCH IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO BE A PART OF WAVE 1 TO ENSURE YOUR PARCEL WILL BE SHIPPED ON FRIDAY OR READY FOR A SHOW IN MARCH.

If you have already told us, then do not worry. :)

Okay, so let's get on with the update.

Pledge Manager:

Yes, this is coming this week. Apologies for the delay, this has come about because Craig is just tidying up the graphics and making it as easy as possible for you guys to find exactly the items you are looking for. It's a pain, but it's very important. Craig will update you all through Kickstarter, as well as email the first 50 people. The priority will be in people who have expressed interest in Wave 1. We will be contacting people in batches of 50. We expect to get everyone sorted very, very quickly indeed.

Sculpting:

Some nice progress this week. Firstly, we've had renders back for the Troglodyte Support. These are still work in progress, as we just fine tune a few details, but here you go!















Even more on the Troglodyte theme, we've had the first render of the Troglodyte Gorale as well! These are utterly FANTASTIC. We're really happy with these and simply cannot wait for the full section.



Casting:

Nothing new this week. Rob has been totally focused on items for the First wave, which will be shipping out on Friday, if all goes to plan. It's gonna be tight!

3D Printing:

Anders has come back and told us that he has shipped out a few more prints to us. We hope to get this all moulded up over the next few weeks.

Rules:

You can now access the Beta rules for Panzerfäuste Mass Battle. Ian Hill has been pivotal in the creation of these rules, so we thank him from the bottom of our hearts for his assistance. Please go and give them a read and let us know what you think in the main comments section on the Kickstarter! We are sure that Ian would love to hear your thoughts.

Keep in mind, they are just Black and White, they are not bookmarked or hyperlinked. We will make a document that is much easier to use, but we just wanted to get these basic things out before the Pledge Manager goes live.

The files are all locked down with a password, which is pzfks1

Shows:

As February closes and March begins, we start to really come into the UK Show Circuit...

We wanted to remind you that we will be at the following shows this month:

Alumwell - WMMS (West Midlands Military Show)

Sunday 13th March Aldersley Leisure Village Aldersley Rd Wolverhampton WV6 9NW

19th and 20th March 2016 English Institute of Sport Coleridge Rd Sheffield South Yorkshire S9 5DA

So yes, March is set to be a very busy month for us!

Other Announcements:

We're very proud to announce that we are expanding our range of products to include Maveryc's products. We are now the distributors of S.P.Q.oRc, their history-fantasy miniatures game which includes a number of charming and humourous designs within the campaign setting of 'Pax Bochemannica', which is set to expand into other regions of this particularly barmy world...

Pax Bochemannica Starter Box 

You will find Maveryc's products on our website, once the webstore goes live. You will also find the full range of products on our trade stand at all the shows which we will be attending! This includes a number of miniatures which have never been released before!

That's it for now, we will be back soon with the Pledge Manager!

Post-Kickstarter Update XIII: Zombi Dwarves, Zombi Troll & Skøgtroll

We're getting there! Promise! Turns out, the programme we're using for Pledge Manager doesn't support wave shipping, but we're working a way around it. We hope there will be something really very soon.

Those of you who have messaged us in regards to last week's update, thank you. This has been incredibly useful information. Rob has been busily casting miniatures, and we've had some great support from a few of our friends to help bump the number up a bit.

If you want to pick up at a show (for free shipping) or you want to have Wave 1 shipped out, please, please, please let us know roughly what you would like. Rob is going to start packing these orders as soon as he's got confirmation, so we know your orders are ready to go. That said, if you don't, we will do everything we can to ensure your Wave 1 still goes out before we start attending shows!

Right then, we've also made some fantastic progress in the last 2 weeks and we thought that maybe we should report on that.

Artwork:

Artwork has actually begun on the next campaign. Will Beck is starting to conceptualise the new races that will feature in the next campaign. Very exciting, but you won't see anything more on that for a good few months! On the other hand, sadly, the others have been committed to other projects and unable to deliver anything. We had hoped we would be able to share pictures of all the 'pledge level' characters before the Pledge Manager goes live, but that is looking quite unlikely! We'll do what we can to get them, or as much of them, or as much concept information made available to aid your selections.

Sculpting:

This is where we've had a bit of a stellar time. Heriberto has been busy on the Zombie Dwarves, completed them and is now working on the Troglodyte Support. He also has a friend working on the Troglodyte Gorale. We're hoping to share pictures of these in the Pledge Manager for you, when that finally goes live.

The last 5 Zombie Dwarves, hope these are gory enough!

Troglodyte MMG Team (Poses)

Troglodyte Anti-Tank Rifle Team (Poses)

Troglodyte Mortar Team (Poses)

Obviously the trogs are all in WIP poses, just to show how they will be arranged around the weapons. Heriberto is working on these this week and has assured us it should not be a too difficult job to complete.

We've also had some progress on the Skøgtrolls from Alex. Here are the first of the Gevärstrupp... We hope that, if we generate enough revenue from these, we will be able to shortly release the other half of the Demi-Section. Alex is fairly busy, so we've not commissioned them yet. His Kickstarter for Troll Bridge starts VERY soon!

Work in progress...

Work in progress...

Victor is still chipping away at the Orc LOV. He's told us that he is quite ill, with gallstones, so we hope he recovers soon. Despite being ill, he's still made a little progress.

These are all T-Poses, made before posing. Still a long way to go on the webbing, etc. Victor is learning history from scratch, so it's a steep learning curve for him!

Community:

Bit of a surprise, we're going to not show anything just yet, but progress continues on the Demo Boards for our UK shows. We think they will be utterly awesome and the guys at Leicester Phat Katz are doing a fantastic job!

However, Steve has been doing a little bit of painting himself. This time on the Deathless Zombi Mountain Trolls (Vuoritroll) which will be available in the Pledge Manager and as part of the Wave 2 shipment!

Standard Zombi Troll (No Crew)

Kickstarter Exclusive Zombi Troll (No Crew)

Okay, well that's it from us this week folks. We'll be back as soon as we've got the Pledge Manager down and confirmed. Again, sorry for the delay, but this just has to be perfect.

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 X: Battle Moles, Local Orc Volunteers and Kaliko...

Artwork

Okay, first up, we have some new work in progress artwork of Crown Prince Kaliko to share with you all, Gregor has been busily working on this! Just remember it's not finished.

Will Beck has been super busy, starting the week with a rough sketch concept for the Troglodyte 'Bitewny Kret' (Battle Mole). It will be a Naked Mole Rat and really nasty looking by the time its done. As miniatures, they will be 2 to a pack. :)

It's always interesting to see how these concepts grow and pan out.

Will has also worked on the final member of the Local Orc Volunteers, knowing that it will be much easier for Victor, the sculptor, to finish the models with a very clear concept to work from.

Here's an Orc that would knock your lights out for leaving your lights on! :D

Sculpting

Speaking of the Local Orc Volunteers, Victor has made a little progress on them. He is focusing on the heads, as that is the key to their character - then he will work on a generic body and do his 'thing' in to make them taller, slimmer, fatter or shorter as needs require.

Still quite work in progress, but he's working on them!

Also, bit of a surprise from a certain Mr Huntley of Arcworlde fame...

We present you, the one, the only, Hansi - the Kaiser's pet cat!

Alex is also working on the Skøgtroll range for us, when that eventually hits; but we're keeping that super tip-top secret. Who knows though, we might have a few in the Pledge Manager...

By the way, Alex is a wonderful bloke, really genuine and easy to work with. Give him a deadline, he'll hit it. If he can't, he's honest. So we'd like to invite you all to take part in his Mini-Kickstarter coming soon for Arcworlde. It's a great game, a fantastically creative concept and brilliantly immersive - remember to check it out!

Anyway, we digress; back to Skøgtrolls!

Rulebook

Ian Hill and Matthew Hartley, continue to work on the Mass Battle and Skirmish rules (respectively), meanwhile, Steve and Rob have been discussing how we are going to get them printed and bring them to market. We've had some very long discussions and had to make some decisions. We went out looking for pricing on the A4 format Paperback Skirmish book and Hardback Mass Battle book, but actually found these to be not particularly practical for the game.

Allow us to explain ourselves, before you set us on fire!

1. It's quite important to us to have continuity in our products. We feel like a roughly A5 format, Hardback book for both games still represents the quality we want to put across, whilst being much easier to transport and more handy for games. This is the same format used by Warploque MIniatures for their Arcworlde game, as well as Tor Gaming with Relics.

2. A new A5 format means that we can increase the page count of both books. This means they will both contain the Skøgtroll Campaign, Operation Grunwueste, as well as the Skøgtroll Army List! We will release an event deck for this particular Theatre of War via Wargame Vault a few months after the rulebook is released! For those who don't know, the Skogtrolls represent the Norwegians in Panzerfäuste.

3. This means that future expansions, which can be sold via Wargame Vault on Print on Demand, as well as a few copies from our fine selves, will match up with each other.
Some changes will also be made to the way the cards are packed and presented, but more on that once Ian has finalised the rules with Rob and Steve (no pressure, Ian!).

It's worth pointing out, we'll make quite a lot available via print on demand that we would otherwise have no budget to manufacture. Especially Stat Cards and other useful gaming resources.

Printing and Casting

We can wrap this up easily here. Rob's had a rather busy week with Age of Tyrants, which he is working as Community Manager for here and there. Both Rob and Steve are old friends of the MD there, John Robertson, so do check it out too. Nevertheless, Rob's managed to get a lot of casting done, but has been unable to make any new moulds this week for Panzerfäuste - due to waiting for 3D prints from Anders in Sweden.

Further to that point, Anders has been unable to get access to his 3D printer. The company he is working with on this has sadly had staff sickness, which has meant that the technician he has usually worked with has been unable to assist him. These things happen, but Anders hopes there will be progress tomorrow.

In the meantime, Anders has found an alternative, albeit slower and more labour intensive, printer to work with. We cannot stress how much we appreciate this! Anders has sent the parts to Rob in the UK, so they should get into moulds during the week, as soon as they arrive!

Packing

The first few models were packed up today by Rob and his friends, Allan and Ant. Thanks so much guys! It's been a good opportunity to do some quality checks on the casts he's made so far and, luckily, all seems to be well! We should tell you that the miniatures will not be sent with a casting 'foot', all the parts will be clipped off. This allows us to recycle the foot in the interest of the environment.