Miercenaries will also gain access to our Welcome to Darklands package, which contains PDF copies of the latest version of the Darklands: Second Edition rule book as well as the Darklands: Second Edition Quick Play Guide, the What is Darklands? Guide, the Lands of Darkness Kindred Guide and the latest Mierce Miniatures Compendium (a catalogue of all our amazing miniatures). In short, you'll be given everything you need to start your journey into Darklands the wargame!

We begin our digital journey with a battle host for the Jutes. Outwardly very similar to the humans of the Anglecynn, many of the Jutes are also shape-shifters, morphing from their pupae into huge and powerful beetles and other creatures of the earth. Those that could not do so desired such power, but their attempts to cocoon themselves resulted in incredible longevity yet also deterioration. These wihtas proved that humans could indeed live beyond death, yet their minds grew dimmer over time until they became little more than creatures of bone and sinew, still with strength and will, but little intelligence.

The wihtas form the basis of this month's Jute Battle Host as it includes twenty-four different wiht infantry miniatures - seven wihtgāras, seven wihtsweords, five wihtboḡas and five wihtaxas, along with a wiht thain commander to lead them, known as Wihtwald, who has helm and sword variants.

Alongside the wihtas is a human sorcerer of the Cant realm of the Jutes - Ætulla (on foot and on horsling, hooded or unhooded) - a wiḡlāca who both invigorates and raises the dead. Supporting the wihtas are the remnants of kings, the gāsta, dark, incorporeal spirits around 60mm tall bound into a shell of armour, cloth and little else, full of hate for the living and well able to destroy them with the gārseaxas and grave lanterns they bring to battle.

Then, of course, there's Bānbreca, the mighty ettenwiht that stands over 230mm tall with his banner, a giant of old raised from the dead to defend the lands of the Jutes. Armed with ettenlantern and ax, and bearing five wihtboḡas upon its war tower, the ettenwiht acts as a fantastic centrepiece for any host and with its banner an important symbol for the Jutes as a whole!

The Jute Battle Host includes:

• Wihtwald, Wiht Thain on Foot
• Helmed Wihtwald, Wiht Thain on Foot
• Ætulla, Wiḡlāca on Foot and on Horsling
• Hooded Ætulla, Wiḡlāca on Foot and on Horsling
• The Dead of Black Barrow, Wihtgār Unit (7x warriors)
• The Lost of Black Barrow, Wihtsweord Unit (7x warriors)
• The Sinners of Chessell Barrow, Wihtboḡa Unit (5x warriors
• The Betrayers of Ceafor Barrow, Wihtax Unit (5x warriors)
• The Hateful of Mordain Grave, Gāst Unit (3x warriors)
• Tower Bānbreca, Ettenwiht of Lind Combe with War Tower

There will, of course, be another battle host next month of around the same size (the Atalantes kindred will feature next), and the month after that, and so on and so on; while we have a huge amount of digitally sculpted miniatures, around a thousand we think, it would be a complete nightmare to unleash all of them at once - it just can't be done in that manner. As you can guess, this means we'll be offering a portion of them on a month-by-month basis going forward. We've worked out that we have around eighteen months' worth of these ‘battle hosts’ that include our existing digital sculpts, and once they're released there'll be even more to let loose from the miniatures we've created during those eighteen months, so we'll certainly be busy. None of these battle hosts will include new miniatures; only our physical releases will include new miniatures for now.

Our digital journey does not mean we'll stop manufacturing in resin and metal. Far from it; we'll continue producing the finest resin and metal miniatures in the world for as long as we draw breath, for not everyone has the time or inclination to use a 3D printer. As well as that, we still believe cast resin will remain the highest quality you can get for a long time yet and, of course, we still love traditionally sculpted miniatures thanks to sculptors like Allan Carrasco and Valentin Zak. We will also be offering prints of our miniatures for sale on our webstore, too, once we get production going in that area.

We're not quite sure yet how, or when, our STL releases and physical releases will merge - we may well speed up the process with the odd kickstarter project for all of the STL files for a particular kindred - but at some point over the next couple of years we'll get there, and at that point... well, stay tuned!

Oh, and be gentle with us... it's our first time, after all ;o)

The Mierce Team