Digital U-Turn Alert

So, a momentous u-turn has been arrived at, fellow Miercenaries; starting in early November, we'll be offering a digital subscription again, mainly because the world is changing and we'd better change with it!

Tariff-a-Lago

The main reason behind offering digital files once more is mainly down to the new tariffs and other onerous customs duties around the world. The buying of physical miniatures is not so easy these days; not only do you have to pay postage and wait for us to make it (let alone wait for your package) many of you now have to pay a tariff or a tax to receive it.

Now, before we get into how it has affected us as a manufacturer, I am not one of those who bemoan such things (excepting the fact that all tax is theft, people); countries are well within their rights to re-shore manufacturing and services to their own country, benefitting their own people over time, and while trade ought to be as free as possible it should not... ahem... trump the basic fact that a nation's leader should look after his own people, and not China's. That's just my opinion; and as Clint once said, opinions are like assholes... everyone's got one.

So while, philosophically speaking, I do not mind the introduction of tariffs and customs duties - to be honest, it's been long overdue - it does affect our business, and has affected us recently. So we have to adapt rather than moan about it. But how to adapt?

Now, the reasons why I stopped the selling of our digital files last year are still valid in almost all ways, but there's very little I can do about tariffs and customs for you, a loyal Miercenary. Cutting out the middle taxman by offering our files for you to print is about the only thing I can do right now to mitigate against those charges.

Fairly obviously, I do realise that those of you without 3d printers around the world - or those of you that can't be arsed to print / have fallen out of love with printing - will still have to pay these tariffs and customs duties; I'd love to be able to refund them for you, or even have a manufacturing base in the USA and the EU, but neither of those things are possible for us right now. (I'll never say never here though.)

Of course, you may be asking why we haven't joined in with the IOSS and all that malarkey... well, a) I have an ingrained resistance to paying tax and b) you'd pay more for your Mierce Miniatures if we did that. There is simply no way we could give you half price deals or even 25% deals if we went down that route. I'd rather you took your chances with your local customs office - they don't always hit you, after all. Bear in mind, too, that any involvement with government leads to a great deal of time wasting, and I have no time to waste.

That's not the only reason why we're going to offer miniatures in digital form again though; almost a year on from the ending of them, I've really missed - and I'm sure you have - the new toys each month. It's always exciting to see new stuff! Having to wait to release miniatures physically because of what we have to make is taking a toll on all your interest, I believe; so let's try and get your excitement and interest back again! As well as that, if we get enough subscribers, we can bloody well finish the backlog without having to depend on physical sales all the time.

All right: u-turns always make the u-turner look a bit daft, and I guess many of you will be thinking that now, but my situation at the time was very simple - if I'd have carried on doing it I'd be in a straight jacket, howling at the moon. I'm not sure I would have returned to digital sales if the tariffs/customs situation hadn't affected our business, but I do feel like I've had enough of a break from it to start afresh in a more sustainable manner for us - and I genuinely feel excited about it, because it means I can let my imagination run wild for the first time in a long while. You will be getting new Darklands stuff each month!

So, let's get down to the nitty gritty... what's going to happen?

November, November

It's almost bonfire night here in Mierce, and I'm aiming to b̶l̶o̶w̶ ̶u̶p̶ ̶p̶a̶r̶l̶i̶a̶m̶e̶n̶t̶ blow up the internet on the 5th of November with some AWESOME new miniatures! Well, okay, maybe not, but it should be pretty cool nonetheless...

Rather fittingly, I'm returning to the kindred of the last battle host we offered digitally in 2024, the Atalantes. I've still not yet physically released most of the miniatures from that host - mainly because the backlog wouldn't allow it - and while some of you do have that last battle host coming to you, I'll be giving you different miniatures to ensure you won't be repeating things.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's talk about sustainability.

We had loads of miniatures as files to release, back in the day; so I released them as big battle hosts, if only to get through them quickly to get us making new stuff. Then we got to making the new stuff and I carried on with those huge battle hosts. That was a mistake, really, and very quickly it became an all-consuming nightmare for me personally and for the guys. We basically gave away far too much for far too little, and we're not going to make that same mistake again.

There is a danger of going too far the other way, of course - charging too much for too little - but I'm pretty confident you guys will love what we'll do each month.

So we'll do this for the princely sum of £9.99 each month on this very webstore ($13 on MyMiniFactory):

• 1x Noble
• 1x Unit of infantry (or monstrous infantry, or cavalry) with at least two weapon choices
• 1x Monster (or unit of small monsters)
• 1x Loyalty Pin Up*
  

...which is far more sustainable for us; and over time - as we hopefully grow - we may be able to offer more than that.

All these files will appear on the webstore to purchase both as digital downloads and as physical miniatures, but I won't do a physical subscription simply because of the backlog. I may do once that has been dealt with, though.

*you will ONLY get the loyalty reward if you sign up to the webstore subscription - not MMF - in November; then in December if you were a member in November; then in January if you were a member in November and December; and so on.

November's Atalantes

So, what will you get in November?

• 1x Sunspear Thera (totally new pose)
• 1x Khalkotes Unit (5x warriors) with sunpistols and shields
• 1x Kentaurokolossos Unit (5x warriors) with spear / shield
• 1x Kentaurokolossos Unit (5x warriors) with bows
• 1x Loyalty Sunspear Thera Pin Up

Here's some lovely pictures - featuring the new colour I'm using for the promotional images of our miniatures, that I have named Brown Bone...

The very cool new Sunspear Thera

The Khalkotai or ‘bronze-fisted ones’ with sunpistols

...and finally, here's a kentaurokolossos; Rafael hasn't yet sculpted the rest of the unit, but here's a sample!

Abraxis the kentaurokolossos champion

December and Onwards

In December we will have the reivers for you, featuring a new Kaarstan, new reiver infantry and reiver horse, as well as a pinup Maari; and in January it will be the turn of the Albainn with a new warlord, new gairlom and new oghurüc... and so on and so forth!

Let's have a look at some more reivers from Rafael Callegari:

I know I say it every week but these guys are something special. Rafael continues to go from strength to strength!

Filing Digitally

Over the past week or so we've offered our digital files again here on this website and it's proven popular; so we'll carry that on when I can organise the pages a bit better, and probably more like the Darklands pages. I'll remove the Darklands Digital page early next week in anticipation of that.

NOTE!! Those digital battle hosts WILL be removed permanently from the store on Monday evening, so get them while you can!

I'll probably offer our files on MMF again; to be honest, I don't like their practices very much (certainly when it comes to actually getting your money from them; you may not know this, but you can only get your money twice a month, and if you miss the batch, you've missed the boat), but it's the digital marketplace and I'd be a fool to ignore it. I might add the files on Cults 3d as well, we'll see.

Physical Versions

We will of course offer these new miniatures physically, but as always - we do have a big backlog at the moment, so please don't expect them immediately; we are actively working to get that backlog sorted of course, inbetween the normal webstore orders. The vras war tower has proved rather annoying but is almost complete, the mallax are ongoing, and so forth. Currently the printers are red-hot, but we are getting there.

Owt Else?*

So what else have we been up to? Well, I'm building Adannwg and have set myself the task of painting the big bugger over the next couple of weeks; yes, even my ham fists have been known to hold a paintbrush now and again.

As you can see, he really is a really, really big dragon...! And yes, he's in the post for some of you - the boys are cracking on with him and shipments should be complete over the next couple of weeks. Then it's on to the backwhale, Ilkulkaag and Iskarnos!

*sometimes mistaken for the question "hotels?" by southern people in northern lands

That's it for today; I hope this missive finds you all well, and I also hope you'll subscribe to our new digital venture next week!