[Kickstarter] Shieldwolf:War is coming (Battle Orc Wyvern review page #11!)

[Shieldwolf Miniatures]

That too makes sense I guess... 

[Shieldwolf Miniatures]

Both concept artists and sculptor for the Warrior Priest on horse were instructed to "make the best mini ever". We believe to have done it! 
Here's a pic of one of the Concepts we discarded, might as well show it off here. 



There's also a hiden message in the pic above, you'll find out what it is on the 10th however... 

[The Red Graf]

Apologies all, especially Shieldwolf Miniatures if my recent comment on armor seemed over the top, it was not meant to be or to generate that much heat.

As I mentioned at its end and much earlier in the discussion I am very interested in this project.

I don't directly have issues with any of it and do look forward to a positive outcome from it.

Sorry Tactalvanic that wasn't really directed at you, my apologies if it came off that way. I probably should have just kept my mouth shut. At least that's what the Gräfin usually tells me, and she is usually right. 

[Tactalvanic]

Sorry Tactalvanic that wasn't really directed at you, my apologies if it came off that way. I probably should have just kept my mouth shut. At least that's what the Gräfin usually tells me, and she is usually right. 

I know but..

  I just could resist - it was a slow day in the office and it just...mmm

Problem being - in the office my better half is not there to tell me to shut it. 

Still - was the comparison mainly rather than caring what they are wearin'  that stuck.

That aside Shieldwolf Miniatures has a good point to raise - some suggestions of numbers of miniatures per sprue planned - boxes - number of base troops in them - etc would be of interest, and what bits and bobs are on the sprues with said troops - will they be similar in style to existing, and how are they all fitting in with the currently available miniatures?

[The Red Graf]

I would add to that. How are the figures presented? In other words do we get humans bodies (torsos and legs) with separate heads and arms, or are the heads attached. Are they metal, plastic, or resin.  Personally I like to kit bash so multi part plastic would be my prefrence.

[Shieldwolf Miniatures]

So, first enquires are for our plastics. Great! 

Planned plastics in HIPS: ALL the 3-ups for the 1st kit have already been sculpted. People may not know that, but sculpting the 3-ups is not sufficient, it's not like you can go right ahead and start creating the molds. One needs to see if there are undercuts that disallow tooling, then discuss and form the lay-out, see how this will make it easier for both the tooling process and facility of use of the final product. The fact we have already produced this allows us inner knowledge and saves time and resources. Those are reasons why cheaper production issues in far-away countries usually occur and compromise both time and quality. Plus the fact Renedra's quality is second to none and imo only comparable to Citadel Miniatures. Everything else from what we have seen till today falls behind. Both reasons for which we have selected top-quality European manufacturing, regardless of the higher costs. 

Anyway, this allows us to start the tooling immediately after the campaign has finished, saving backers at least a couple of months of additional waiting.
We will take some pictures of them, maybe even releasing/previewing a few before launching 

Number of bits: SWM will post with great detail during the crowdfunding campaign the number of parts that will go into each regiment (meaning how many torsos/heads etc). People have the right to know what they are backing! That's valid for everything e.g. for the weaponry we will do the same.

Number of troops: We have put into production 4 regiments till today, they all feature 20-strong w/command. We plan to do the same here. We do not want regiments of 10,15,16,17,24 etc we find that frustrating because we believe it is usually done in order to force a gamer into buying additional boxes to form round numbers. We have followed -and we will keep on following- the same path/policy. 

Another thing we will make sure to do with our plastics, is have additional bits left over. It was the only drawback for people who supported us and they told us about, so you can be sure this change will be implemented in all our future regiments.
As for the number of sprues included in each box, that depends on how much stuff gets unlocked. E.g. we will be offering 2 weapon options for the Orcs (2nd handed weapons and 2-handed weapons). If they both get unlocked, then the number of sprues will inevitably augment.

Last 2 questions, if they are similar with something else that exists and how fitting are they with other currently available miniatures.
To our knowledge all regiments planned are unique and nothing else similar exists maybe with the exception of our Orcs (if you overlook the face issue). The greenskins in HIPS are also available from Wargames factory, Citadel miniatures and Mantic Games. Taken from our Mountain Orcs, their cousins from the Valleys will be similar. For their kits, we will also maintain the same large number of modularity choices.
A wonderfully detailed preview can be seen here

 http://wargameterrain.blogspot.be/2014/03/shieldwolf-miniatures-plastic-mountain.html 

[Shieldwolf Miniatures]

I would add to that. How are the figures presented? In other words do we get humans bodies (torsos and legs) with separate heads and arms, or are the heads attached. Are they metal, plastic, or resin.  Personally I like to kit bash so multi part plastic would be my prefrence.

Troops (with the exception of Ogres) will be ALL in HIPS. That's hard plastic on sprues, aka "real plastic".
Everything else will be in polyurethane resin (best type of resin available).
No metal (although it would be cheaper,  ).

For the Humans, heads and arms separate pieces, affirmative.  
Edit: Sorry, missed that  Humans (for reasons that will be obvious once revealed) torsos+legs will be single piece.

[Tactalvanic]

To our knowledge all regiments planned are unique and nothing else similar exists maybe with the exception of our Orcs (if you overlook the face issue). The greenskins in HIPS are also available from Wargames factory, Citadel miniatures and Mantic Games. Taken from our Mountain Orcs, their cousins from the Valleys will be similar. For their kits, we will also maintain the same large number of modularity choices.
A wonderfully detailed preview can be seen here

 http://wargameterrain.blogspot.be/2014/03/shieldwolf-miniatures-plastic-mountain.html  

Nice link, with useful size comparisons, but I think I did not word the question well.

Meant to ask in relevance to your own existing range of miniatures, and how they fit with them, and expand on that range accordingly.

For instance, kingdom of hell, you have one single demon/hero thing.

Whats the plan for them, within the constraints of what you can tell prior to kickstarter - are you evening out the races with more balanced number of troops for each race via the KS so that there are army options available for all of them within your own range?

Not surprised metal would be cheaper, its expense was always really a myth raised and propagated elsewhere - but leave that - lets have answers relating to your stuff.

Would it be a case that larger creatures, eg Ogres and other possible large troops/specials would be resin?

[Shieldwolf Miniatures]

Every creature that is not in the "troops" selection will be cast in polyurethane resin.
From simple characters on 20mm square bases till huge Monsters on 150mmx100mm bases (and we have some that are larger than Dragons!)

If the 5th army is one of those we currently have (Undead, Kingdom of Hell, Araves, Dracantropii), then they will receive a boost, yes. Should it be for the Daemons of the Kingdom of Hell, you can expect some Infernal beasts (from 50mm to 150mm bases), plastic troops on both 25mm and 40mm bases (with and without armor), along with a sinister female kit. A few heros, a couple of "peculiar" warmachines and some flying ugly things. These are our plans for them, at least for now. 
The Undead will be a more conservative force, with the exception of some huge undead beasts and somewhat innovative war-machinery, they will be what people usually come to expect from them. They go on 20mm till 150mm bases.
The Dracantropii will get some lightly armored troops, some jungle beastie stuff and we are thinking of adding some strange features into them but that's still to decide and these feautures would not be included in this KS. Nice thing about them, they have a bucket-load of options open to them (some of which very interesting we believe). 


Now, for the revealed factions.
Orcs will be by far our most enriched race, since they already have the Mountain Orc faction and the Valley Orcs will be far more option enriched, for starters they feature 2 beautiful Centerpieces while the Mountain Orcs currently feature... none!
 

The Shieldmaidens have won the love of the voters, almost 200+ voted in their favor so we could not but be graciously favorouble towards them. These tough ladies will also get a large variety of stuff to choose from, from single characters (on 25mm square bases) till huge Centerpieces (likewise, up to 150mmx100mm bases). We are very confident their plastics will be very well received once we get to the point of unlocking them.

The Ogres will be all in polyurethane resin and they start from 40mm square bases till... hehehe! 

The Humans will have monstrous cavalry as we have said, infantry troops in plastic, warmachines, and in general a very respectable selection to make your army from. Humans are a very important part of our world, this is only a faction of theirs. They start on 20mm bases and take it from there... some sweet (and probably unexpected) surprises for them too :-)

Hope this was more precise... 

[The Red Graf]

Thank you very much for all the information. That's really quite a bit to digest. Just one more question. Can you tell us anything about pledge levels? As of today it is no longer possible for me to avoid the Conan KS and while I could easily see myself going big with a pledge for your project I would like to be able to start off somewhat modestly. After all the new Raging Heroes KS and probably the Blood Rage Ks are coming this year. Good god the Gräfin is going to kill me.

[Shieldwolf Miniatures]

Thank you very much for all the information. That's really quite a bit to digest. Just one more question. Can you tell us anything about pledge levels? As of today it is no longer possible for me to avoid the Conan KS and while I could easily see myself going big with a pledge for your project I would like to be able to start off somewhat modestly. After all the new Raging Heroes KS and probably the Blood Rage Ks are coming this year. Good god the Gräfin is going to kill me.

Yes, Conan is blowing off the rooftop, we are very pleased because they seem to have done a good job.  

Even if it does not affect us since they launch a month after our campaign, hopefully -and with all respect to them- Raging Heroes will have the common sense not to launch any new KS after the whole mess their first campaign has proved to be, but unfortunately KS allows new projects to be launched even if others have not been completed (but instead are long overdue).
During our research, we found out that projects modestly planned but highly overextended (like the one you mentioned) was a reason for huge disappointment, and that's one of the main reasons we have stated from the beginning that we have a fixed stretch goal campaign. We cannot pretend to be able to do more than we can, we know our limits and every serious manufacturer imo should be doing the same. Once it has been funded, we STOP. We could get greedy and ask for more, but the last thing we want is people creating threads to make fun of us. We will not tolerate that.  
Another thing our research came up with was ill-prepared manufacturing methods. We are aware of 2 different campaigns regarding dwarf miniatures for example, where both manufacturers later stated that they had not realized the amount of work they had promised to do. Needless to say, both were generously funded, and both are long overdue...  
I'm only stating these to explain what our way of thinking is (and thus have avoiding naming them), we have no issues whatsoever with any of the above, here's hoping it all works out well for them and -mostly- for their backers.  


Now, to answer your question and not derail any longer  , I'll try to be as specific as possible in what our reasoning behind our pledge levels is.
Hopefully you can give us feedback on this

Although we found out the less pledge levels provided then the less complicated and thus easier it becomes for the backers (and the distribution afterwards for the creator), we have decided to proceed in a different way.  
We are going to have a very big choice of pledge levels (IIRC 12 or 13), starting from $5-6 and climbing up slowly to more than $1000.
What's the possible hick-up on this? Well, if everyone pledges 20-30$ while waiting to see what else gets unlocked from the mountain of stuff we have been working on, then number of backers is going to be large but number of stretch goals unlocked not so, creating a possible hazard.
What's the catch? We are going to have a number of limited quantities and early birds. Once these get grabbed by the backers, it creates a gap, where someone will either have to really bump up their pledge in order to get the additional bonuses, or simply be allowed to add $ but without the bonus stuff. This creates motive for EBs and limited quantities to be caught up quickly, so the hype created will unlock the stuff needed to keep things pumpin' nicely along...  

Now, for some more details.
Shipping will be added with the pledge. We would like people to know exactly what they'll be paying for, and not having a question mark after making the pledge (and even worse, get angry when they hear about the final cost!).
Early Birds. We will be probably be launching 21.00 or 22.00 Greek time. We respect all backers regardless of where they live, we do not want to favor or disfavor anyone since hard-earned money pledged has the same value. How do we avoid having people waking up on 03:00 in the morning then? Easy.   Kickstarter allows us to limit countries where the shipping will be for. That means we will have available e.g. a pledge level that will be available for Australia, Thailand, New Zealand and Japan pledgers ONLY, with very discounted shipping.  
Limited numbers available. That is done mainly because if our campaign is successful, we don't want to have a mess in our hands to handle. As said earlier, it's easier to deal with a low number of pledges, rather than many.
So, if someone's budget is limited, they should be quick to jump in...  

Edit1: Typos
Edit2: Modified "poorly" to "modestly" to avoid any misunderstandings.

[Tactalvanic]

Great bit of detail there, thanks very much

As The Red Graf said - lots to think on before launch.

 

[The Red Graf]

Thank you for the additional information. It sounds like you have done a lot of thinking on this.  I agree that a wide variety of pledge levels is a better way to go. I suspect that most people will go ahead and buy in at the level that gets them what they want.

As for Raging Heroes, I think you are being a bit unkind. Yes, they have been slow, but we are talking about toy soldiers not the cure for cancer. I myself pledged several hundred dollars to that Kickstarter and have never complained once. They make some of the finest figures in the industry and in my opinion they are worth waiting for. I received the first wave some time ago, the second wave with the bulk of my order is on the way now. I never felt they would not deliver on there promises.

As for their second kickstarter, it contains two armies I am very excited about and I am anticipating another large pledge pledge for it. The miniatures will get here when they get here.

[Shieldwolf Miniatures]

@The Red Graf

You might be right, you might not. I have no issues with RH (although a hobbyist didn't order any myself), and I didn't bring them up in the conversation anyway. I'm pretty sure their minis are nice and they will eventually be delivered someday, as I'm sure they'll get logically funded easily in March. In my honest opinion however, a creator must be held accountable for what he promises to deliver, both on material and time.

There's no need to open another issue that has nothing to do with the KS in hand and derail however (especially now that we got over the armor issue  ), I think we can simply agree to disagree. 

[Shieldwolf Miniatures]

Here's something else to change the subject, no need to mix topics... 



Gearworks Studios was put in charge of this, we believe work and dedication should show off even from the pitch video, on which we took our time working on.