Delayed Mierce Darklands: New Kindreds

[Beagle]

Mierce have set the standard for kickstarter management in terms of delivery and comms, but despite backing the first three I'm just feeling to kickstarter weary at the moment to support more.

As it stands I'm f-ing furious with a number of miniatures kickstarters (Low Life, Midgard, Imbrian Arts, Drake, Tome of Horrors), the companies behind have shown themselves to be complete incompetents when it comes to business and I'm tired of be reminded that I wasted my hobby money on these two year old disasters.

[MonkeySloth]

 

 

The other reason is that they truly do need to continue to expand the line at this point. But I honestly think that having 10 kindred pretty well fleshed out is going to be enough for awhile. Then it should be time to let some of these releases hit retail before amassing an even bigger backlog of finished but unavailable models.

I agree, and also hope they kind of take a break with the Kickstarters after this one. Finish the book, let the models hit retail. If they push on, with "New Kindreds II" this spring, I'll actually start to worry that they're caught up in some kind of KS spiral.

 

Hopefully history isn't about to repeat itself. Rob does have a history of getting in debt and going bankrupt (decent, though biased, summary of Maelstrom Games -> Mierce Miniatures (caution: strong language)). Only now, the "creditors" are Kickstarter backers.

 

Of course, even knowing all this, that undead concept art looks pretty sweet.

 

We all know about Maelstrom as it was a big discussion with the first KS (they aren't even the first mini company to have a problematic past as CMoN pulled a Maelstrom years before as a different company). The main issue with Maelstrom was a poor business model focused around seeing GW stuff for like 60% off MSRP to overseas buyers, as there are many area's where their GW prices are almost twice of the UKs. Once GW changed their policy to disallow stores from selling to countries that weren't their own Maelstrom kept doing it and GW refused to sell to them. That pretty much caused the whole thing to collapse. It didn't help that they tried to be the cheapest for all mini lines and did free shipping anywhere.

 

It seams like they learned their lessons as Mierce doesn't skimp on shipping costs nor do they sell terribly cheap. Also, as has been pointed out, the first signs of a company going under is no paying their sculptors.

 

That being said it does concern me when a company only makes money off of KSers and has multiple a year just because it seams if one doesn't fund they may just disappear. Mierce isn't the only like this, there are a lot (Stonehaven is one just to name someone that does the opposite cost level of Mierce) but the issue Mierce has is they're a very nitch product in a nitch hobby and a lot of us willing/able to pay for the quality of their stuff are getting burned out.

 

If I back, which I probably will for the KS exclusive, I doubt I can go more then a hundred or so. That will be the least I've ever spent on one from them.

 

Mierce have set the standard for kickstarter management in terms of delivery and comms, but despite backing the first three I'm just feeling to kickstarter weary at the moment to support more.

As it stands I'm f-ing furious with a number of miniatures kickstarters (Low Life, Midgard, Imbrian Arts, Drake, Tome of Horrors), the companies behind have shown themselves to be complete incompetents when it comes to business and I'm tired of be reminded that I wasted my hobby money on these two year old disasters.

I'm only in on Imbrian and Drake and, for some reason, the Imbrian doesn't bother me (probably because I feel I'll still get it even if it's 2 years away), but the appeal of KSer started to wear off earlier this year. Great deals but it always turns out to irresponsible spending in many cases.

 

If I stop buying stuff I don't think I could paint, in my lifetime, everything I've bought via KSer (partially because I'm a slow painter 5-6 min a figure), which is why I'm passing up more and more things I would normally back. The problem is there are still too many things I like which is why I'm trying to do around $30 for those and slowly get away from it outside of a few (like Tre and Mierce). $30 will go a long way with Tre but with Rob $30 is a mini.

[seej]

As long as Mierce is only ever using the funds from a specific Kickstarter to fund the fulfillment of that, and only that, Kickstarter, then all is well. The problem is there is no way of knowing that without looking at the books. If it is setup like a ponzi scheme, then it only takes one failure to fund for the whole thing to crumble.

 

It's also only slightly concerning when a company starts a new Kickstarter before completing fulfillment on a previous project. Mierce, however, is now more than one in the hole. Center Stage is another company that is now more that one KS in the hole, and, deservedly so, gets a lot of flak for it.

[MonkeySloth]

Yep. We know all that--but the same can be said for all most all kickstarters. Very few have the financial means that Reaper would to add in extra money if needed. Many of us who are adamant Mierce backers even have stated that if it was any other company running this many we'd be complaining that they have too many in the back logs. He does it to lock up sculptors for months at a time and, since he only gets the top people in the industry, it shows as there really isn't a line with the overall consistency of Darklands. And if you read through this thread you'll see that some of us are wanting him to focus less on KSers and on getting things in general release as all of the KS1 minis aren't out in the store yet (though I think it's a release or two away from that).

 

I've backed all four of theirs so far and have gotten all from the first, half from the second, half from the 3rd and 3/4s from the 4th. Even if they went under tomorrow I could sell what I have gotten for what I put into all the KSers and would come out even--and that's with 2 left to deliver several hundred dollars worth of goods.

 

We all took a risk with the first KSer and even though Rob has had problems in the past he's earned a lot of respect from how he's run the Kickstarters (weekly updates, never has missed, and has never had delays outside of on the rules). Heck, even Dakka is in love with Mierce now and Rob was public enemy there for quite some time.

 

It's cool if you're wary--I'm not going to judge on anyone that wants to be cautious, but I'd rather throw money as something like this then all the no names that pop up in KS that are 100x more prone to fail.

Edited September 14, 2014 by MonkeySloth

[Orlando_the_Technicoloured]

Now Live

 

with Atlanteans

 

 

Erainn

 

 

and Jutes

 

[MonkeySloth]

So far I'm resisting the starters but a helmless Knutr? Heck yes. 

[Dan d'Lyon]

I'm in for the Jutes at least.  But I'm going to show some self control this time around.  At least that's what I'm saying right now.

[ub3r_n3rd]

Got it on "remind me," but I think I may be a bit overextended with all the current KS and I'll pick them up piecemeal at retail later on.

[SamuraiJack]

Loving the not Leonidas

[talion78]

Link please

 

Found it

 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mierceminiatures/darklands-new-kindreds?ref=category_newest

Edited September 15, 2014 by talion78

[MonkeySloth]

I'm really waiting to see what  the monsters are as that's the ultimate deciding factor for me.

[talion78]

I'll probably throw in £10....I like some of their monsters, not a fan of the infantry

[SamuraiJack]

I'll add a link to the first post when I get home. Editing via phone stinks

[Dan d'Lyon]

Why can't I attach anything anymore?

[araziel]

Loving the not Leonidas

 

Seconded.

And the shambling mound looks great.

 

When it comes to darklands though I'm all about the beasts.

Only infantry I have is the Eye Ascendant and a few select hero characters. And the Eye Ascendant was mostly because I wanted Naraa :P