Spawning Grounds

It's almost November, Miercenaries! Where on planet earth does the time go? Who knows? What I do know is that it's about time to give you some news from Planet Mierce...

Spawn of Gorgoneion

...or, more correctly, the Bright One in the Gorgon's Mouth, because November's release is looming, and what a loom it promises to be. Ever since we released Pétroyos and Mazikílías back in the depths of time, when even I was young, you Miercenaries have wanted - nay, needed - the lískar. Wait no longer!

These evil-looking reptiles, hinted at being true aliens to this world, are exactly that: star-spawned beings from the system known as Gorgoneion (at least, to the Atalantes), and the planet known as Ho Lamprós; the Bright One. The lískar were brought by the Atalantes to this world for their own reasons, now lost in time, because these days they are mortal enemies. Some say the bronze kolossi were built to stand against the evil gaze of the lískar, as they do not turn to stone under their eyes - only living creatures suffer that way. As Ariadne the Atalantes warrior can testify to!

Now, some amongst you may worry that there's not much here - but trust me, these guys are big, and they are armed to the teeth! The lískar stand on 60mm bases and the lískrothar on 90x50mm bases, truly giant creatures; each have four eyes, six or ten limbs, and an implacable gaze.

So, in November you'll get...

• Pétroyos, Lískarchon
• Ariadne, Pétroyos' Victim [Pin Up]
• Ariadne, Pétroyos' Petrified Victim [Pin Up]
• Voidspawn, Lískar Unit (5x warriors)
  
• Starspawn, Lískrothar Unit (3x warriors)
  

Watch out for those early next week - we should have the files ready for Sunday, but it will probably be Monday with it being a weekend.

An Ice Age

December's battle host is well under way and we hope to bring you some fantastic Fomoraic feleacx and their associated Thulean raider riders! There's a mouthful.

Here's Rafael Callegari's take on the old Haraald - now called Aamaruq!

I've decided that the Thulean Raiders will have the names of the Inuit, as well as their looks; the Norse haven't got to Iceland yet. Because of the ice, you see... and those pesky sea devils!

In December you should have:

• Aamaruq, Thulean Raider Unthuln on foot and on feleacx
• Aastrid [pin up] (although she won't be called Aastrid any more)
• Tunaark's Raiders, Thulean Raider Unit
  
• Qaamak's Hunters, ThuleanTusk Hunter Unit
  
• Oqaark's Hornteeth, Thulean Horntooth Unit
• A suitably named feleacx unit!
• A very nice large monster for the Thuleans...

I think I'll drop the ‘Thulean’ in front of the unit names, it's getting to be a bit of a mouthful...

Darklands: Monster Mounts

That's not all, folks! I am getting ahead of myself here. November will also see the return of us to Kickstarter, and a nice little project to beat the Christmas blues. The last two weeks of Christmas are always a bit of a bugger for us as we don't have any sales in that period - but bills still need paying, you know? Not the least of which are wages. So, we always try to do something that mitigates against that and this year - we're bringing you some nice monster mounts and riders!

Most of these will be existing monsters with a new rider - such as Manwgan ap Eiludd, the Welshman from Powys who will be riding the awesome wocor, Twroch - but we have a trick or two up our wizard's sleeves... I'll give you a snippet right here:

Maybe you can guess for which kindred the camelopard above will be a mount for...? Answers in the comments!

I expect the project to start in mid-November and end in mid-December; there should be something for every kindred, and we'll do physical as well as digital tiers, so watch out for more news on this very soon. The ‘flagship’ will be Manwgan on Twroch, and after that... who knows?

Where Have all the Book Covers Gone?

On that note, who knows where all the book covers have gone? Anyone?

I often look in book stores, or libraries for that matter, just to see what's out there; I've always loved to see the different works on the shelves, all the different artwork, finding a gem with some intriguing art that catches my eye. I have favourite authors, of course, whose books I will always buy no matter their subject; but there's something very exciting about finding a new author thanks to cover art that has drawn me in.

That's a bit hard for me these days, and you. Head into your book store, or your supermarket, or even your library, and what do you see? Covers designed by graphic artists, or maybe AI these days, or even by AI nudged by graphic artists, and they all look the same. Oh, the colours change, and the fonts change, but most of the books these days just look... bloody boring. I mean, all those bizarre new-genre romantasy books are exactly the same, amirite? Some kind of flowery font, maybe a rose on the front, maybe some other stuff that doesn't catch the eye, with some vaguely fantastical title. Boring.

Give me some proper art! Something that intrigues me! Makes me stop and think - what could this book be about? Why is this girl running on a beige moonscape? Why is that other planet so close? What are the towers? The clouds? Are they clouds, or smoke? Well - I'd better get it, or borrow it, and read it to find out! Right?

I haven't read The Airs of Earth by Brian Aldiss, in ages; but that art by Bruce Pennington... by gum, it got me! I still think of it all these years later, and still enjoy looking at it. Maybe I need to dig out the book again and actually read it (yes, I am a book hoarder. One day I shall be crawling through tunnels made of all the books I should have given away years ago).

Now, all credit to those companies that still produce books with proper artwork on their covers, of course; Black Library must have a mention here, and when you peruse your local sci-fi/fantasy book section you will see some others with nice artwork; but the halcyon days of 20th century bookshops and the Fighting Fantasy covers* are over, sadly. Walk into Waterstones, and you just see... fonts. Nothing wrong with a good font, but art sells books. Or it should!

*whoever makes the covers for the new editions of Fighting Fantasy needs to be shot. Then suffocated. Then trampled over by a herd of rhinos.

Did I say that out loud?

Ahem. Some people keep the art from back then alive: Follow Pulp Librarian, or 70s Sci-Fi Art, on X; they have some superb posts there and it's always really interesting.

To the point, I guess: I'll always ensure our books have some beautiful artwork on the cover, because there's something incredible about that, despite the cost. Of course, art is in the eye of the beholder; but I don't care what anybody says - you know when you see amazing artwork.

Stefan Kopinski, the artist of Attack at Amwythig above, says that when he creates any piece of artwork, the story of each character is what makes it come alive, because each one does have a story, and he tells it in his art. I think I agree!

Stefan Kopinski's art will adorn the cover of Darklands 3rd Edition, which will be released... drum roll... at Salute 2027! Assuming we can get a stall there...

Trailer Trash 2027

...and we will, because I am a positive guy. Most of the time.

As well as Salute, fellow Miercenaries, I am intending to attend as many shows as I can with our stuff in 2027. Hammerhead, Salute, Games Expo, er, others - with stuff you can buy! At the event! Monsters, Characters, and god knows what else... we'll certainly bring our monsters that you can pick up and gawp at, like we always do:

I'll never understand why more companies didn't do this - customers love it, they love being able to grab them and see them up close. We'll have plenty of that!

We'll also be bringing some blister racking and boxes full of stuff to buy, plus paints; and we'll be bringing some Avatars of War miniatures too, and... well, whatever we can think of.

It's about time we headed back on the road; the covid shenanigans put paid to the shows for a couple of years, and we've never really got back into the swing of it. That ends now! Watch out for more announcements on this shortly.

Have some Avatars

Speaking of which, I've finally been able to square away some time with the Avatars of War range and I'll be adding the new releases from the past few months - alongside some cracking new graphics!

One of the issues with digital ranges is that they're not geared for physical production - funnily enough. What I mean by that is that their graphics are great if you want to see everything you get with the digital files, but often they don't mirror what can be produced and sold as a physical product; for example, the above Black Orc Warlord comes with three different weapon options and two different heads, so to include all of that in the same product would make it rather expensive.

So I am doing some graphics of my own for everything you can get, and this will take time, but I'll crack on and hopefully it will all come together soon.

It does give me the opportunity to ‘split’ a digital product into many different physical ones - so you can purchase a chariot without draught animals or riders, for example, to pop your own on!

I know I've made a rod for my own back. Sigh. As always, I need to clone myself. About nine times...

Watch out for an announcement on an Avatars of War deal soon!

A Log of the Backlog Log

So, there's just time to tell you where we are on the backlog. Given the upcoming Kickstarter project, I'm working as hard as I can on the monster mounts that are outstanding - the corpse-dragon, for example. The first few have left the workshop and barring Global Thermonuclear War they should all be sent before Christmas.

Carawn has been a bit of a bugger; it's taken me six weeks to get him mastered. Much gnashing of teeth and tearing of hair has ensured I'm bloody sick of the sight of him, but he's finally in rubber and the first ones will go this week. No such problems with Baugir; he was one and done, and he's out in the wild. I must have rubbed the printer gods up the right way that week. Mind you, they had their revenge on me - the hálftrolls have given me some gyp, so the hosts haven't made it out until last week. We'll send the remainder this week, have no fear.

Next up will be the new vasílísk for the November release, in terms of moulding, and then I'll be getting Ilkulkaag into rubber. Finally. I still have to a-base myself to the printer gods for the, er, base, but he should be smooth and on his way out of the workshop in November. Iskarnos still needs some file fettling, but again, that should all be done before Christmas.

Right! That's all I've got time for. Enjoy yourselves, and watch out for those star-demons...