*Please note that this post is image heavy*
Greetings all, Salute 2015 was an absolute blast this year, I caught up with a lot of old industry friends and even made a few new ones. The repercussions of this however are a lighter wallet and a touch of exhaustion, this has not however stopped me from tearing into my new purchases from the event. A big surprise this year is that I did not come back with anything from Forge World! Despite getting to the event early and being more or less at the front of the queue, I was to face disappointment when it finally came to my turn. I was told that the new Vindicator and Deredeo plasma weapons had been delayed and was coming in after lunch...add on top the fact that they had nothing else I wanted with them, meant my wallet was surprisingly unscathed. I took one look at the ever increasing queue behind and decided 'I'm not doing that again!'.
This photo is from a friend who arrived mere minutes after Hellstrom and I did.
Check out his Horus Heresy pages Cthonian Darkness & The Dark Heart Of The XVI
With Forge World out of the way, I assumed that there would be nothing else of interest, until my email popped with a message from non other than Sven! To the Mierce Miniatures stand it was then! I have always popped over to the Mierce stand in the past, but generally to do nothing more than view; the always amazing models on display; which are on a table for punters to handle as well as cabinets stacked with some of the most beautifully painted armies I have ever seen. I didn't get a demo game - a mistake - but from what I could see the system is fluid despite the mix of regular and monstrous infantry. While Sven has always been our resident Mierce man, I have to admit that I am intrigue and do want to try the game out. Below is a selection of painted miniatures used for the demo games.
*Lots of photos from this point onwards*
As mentioned the cabinets are always filled with lovely models, a real draw to the passer by. This year I think they had the majority of factions represented along with some new pieces which should be going out to their various Kickstarter backers soon. All I can say is, having taken the time to look properly at the miniatures, I was convinced that this is something really good.
I was fortunate (unfortunate for my wallet!) to speak to Rob, who I believe is the creator of this project. He spent a lot of time telling me about the growth of the range and of course the various pro's of the system that has been produced, a very candid conversation which I respected. After indicating a fascination with all things Viking, the conversation quickly turned to his Norse range...and I have to say he did not disappoint - see below photo
Originally I just wanted to pick up the Trolls, however I ended up going back another three times to cheers of 'He's back again!' by Rob and the staff. By the third visit I had brought over more friends and decided to pick up the rest of the Norse general release range bar a Troll Jarl (sadly sold out on the day). I also convinced Hellstrom to cash in on a very sizable force of Bythoniaid - Gwynedd, West Country/Wales which as you can imagine is a army filled with dragons - I will pester Hellstrom for photos of those!
In review: The Mierce range has a wonderful immersive setting that can be at points a little confusing. From what I can see, there are lots of factions, each faction having a sub faction - and all written with Old English, Nordic etc names and terminology. Once you break past this and realise that trolls are still trolls and dragons are dragons, the range becomes easier to navigate. All the models are of a decent size and hyper detailed, especially the larger monstrous infantry and uber monsters. Warhammer The End Times gave me the perfect opportunity to drop the Warhammer system after 26 years, and while I thought that I would never go back to fantasy style gaming, Mierce has simply dragged me back in with stunning models and a intriguing system (rules free on site). I am very excited to showcase these models but the sheer detail of them, demands that I take my time and pick out the details, this is a fantastic chance for me to show nicely painted models as opposed to nicely painted tabletop armies.
I would urge fantasy fans and miniature fans to take a look at the vast range of models and download the free rules from their site: Mierce Miniatures
Since getting back from Salute, I have built six trolls and the Mjagnir (giant), and am on the way to starting painting. I look forward to sharing some wips this week with some scale shots to go with it. As always you can keep up with my projects in real time by following my Twitter posts or Facebook page - links below.
Thanks for reading,
DiStudios
Send The Eighth!
That happened at adepticon as well. The FW event models hadn't arrived yet, so you had to get back in line later to get them. But the line wasn't ever particularly bad there. Thanks for the photos, looks like you ended up with a nice haul regardless!
ReplyDeleteYeah I wasn't going to waste the event lining up, and in all honesty I think the Night Lords collection is starting come to a conclusion with the addition of two more Dreadclaws. This new stuff is going to keep me occupied for a very long time I suspect!
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