March 2015 Update
Hello and welcome to the latest update on the colossal project that is Conquest of the Gods!
I have received a few emails over the past two weeks asking for updates on the game, sculpts and information on purchasing the miniatures. An update is way overdue, in part due to personal circumstances but also due to my focus on play testing and moulding and production. I am aiming to launch the starter sets and rule book at the same time and then follow up with the rest of the range fairly quickly.
I receive regular requests to buy the miniatures, so i have to flag up that the miniatures are not yet for sale, this is the most common question I get asked. The site and development blog are really here as a way for me to share the journey with those of you who are excited about the project. I plan to get most of the games miniatures range available for sale this year (2015), assuming I get everything I need moulded. Whilst I want to release them as soon as possible, i am not going to rush the release until I have everything organised. This includes finalising each models rules so its rules statistic card can be printed. I do not plan on selling the miniatures early without their stat cards to people who want to use them for other systems. So with that out of the way, let’s go over where things are up to.
Of the 116 individual sculpts over 47 unit entries for the core rule book, there are only 4 models left to sculpt for 3 entries in the book. This is not including a couple of other sculpts that are nearing completion over the next couple of weeks. My plan is that by Easter the few that are being worked on at the moment will be finalised and the final 4 sculpts will be under way, one of these is the Japanese giant that has been a fun and complex challenge to design.
Since my last update a number of models have either been finished or brought very close to completion, of these is the female sphinx for the Egyptians. I received an email specifically about this sculpt recently, so it’s time to show you how we got on with this one.
This beautiful sculpt is a multi-part design with some interesting interchangeable parts. The heads are interchangeable as you would expect, but the hair on each of these is also interchangeable, giving you some great options. For those who don’t like nipples, the breasts can be covered with an optional breast plate and the collar is also an optional part.
Here she is with the other three previously revealed creatures in this size category; an unfortunate Egyptian archer is also pictured for scale. As you can see we have one of these ‘cavalry’ sized mythical creatures for each army.
Another one that is nearing completion is the Norse Jotunn – I have shown this one before, and he has been slowly nearing completion. The delay on this is due to Carly working on the upcoming Warhammer 40,000 Regicide computer game. We have finished his artwork and he should be tied up pretty soon and ready to send over for prototyping and moulding.
Yes, those victims are to scale with the infantry in the game, meaning those are roughly the same size as most of the humans you will find in the other popular ‘heroic’ 28mm/31-32mm scale ranges.
And here are some other work in progress goodies that I plan to tie up over the coming month:
Shinobi – 5 poses; Work in Progress
Housecarls; Work in Progress
Broadly speaking the bulk of the range has been prototyped. There have been some minor issues with moulding that are being worked on, specifically the quality of some casts are not meeting my standards. In resolving the issues i am also looking at being more cost effective by moving more of the production in house. This means making a few significant investments at my end that I am slowly doing over the next few months. Costs and quality control have been challenges with some of the metal miniatures and I am seeking to address these as part of the wider investments I am making.
The rule book is nearing completion; it is in Beta. Play testing has been great fun and identified a few minor tweaks, and one or two major ones. One of the major play testing issues being worked through is balancing the models points costs and identifying any imbalance issues between the units. I may do a slight rescale on the Alpha sphinx to accommodate some rules tweaks for him, making him slightly smaller. The rule book has a few more art assets to go, these are taking longer than expected and could delay the release slightly.
So in sum, things are going quite well. I will look forward to providing another update after Easter when I should have some more news.
Until then, may the dice gods be with you.