Like I wrote near the end of my previous article, I felt like I was opening a can of worms with some of my statements.
It seems to me, based on the kind of response, or lack there of, to these kinds of posts and on the blog stats alone that these topics don't provoke almost any kind of discussion at large, at least on the English side of the community. And it is quite a shame that most of the community decides to keep on getting more and more jaded instead of trying to spark up some healthy discussion in preparation for, hopefully, a steady revitalization of the scene. But oh well, to each their own, I will sleep better at night knowing I at least tried keeping it positive.
I've stopped my previous Monolith-related article at an interesting juncture. There was so much more written in the draft of that post before I decided to chop it all up and split it into numerous articles, hopefully creating a series that will prove true or false as time goes on. I left it adjacent to one of the most important topics regarding the revival of Aarklash, the questions surrounding miniatures in whatever kind of product we get from Monolith first. Word of warning though, when I say Monolith I also semi-adjacently refer to the new Rackham team since they are operating under their wing and it is effectively now Monolith's IP.
Curiously enough, since I wrote the previous article an interesting post popped up on the 7 Hills server:
This was essentially an unofficial additional response to a rather lukewarm and vague statement from Rackham Games about the current progress and future™ plans. While I do always consider these corporate statements an exercise in patience on behalf of the fans, Monolith would be wise to learn from these kinds of "mistakes". The history of the IP is heavy and "fans" are largely annoyed, thus vague statements are bound to provoke a response, which most of the times is best left unsaid. Of course, many a discord user failed to do just that and instead reactively responded with unwarranted outrage formulated into walls of text of senseless and baseless drivel.
But, I digress. Let us just consider the statement from Frédéric Henry on its own and let us consider for a moment that this is a genuine response and not a reaction to put out a fire. I personally believe that plans like these, shifting focus to a long-term perspective, impact not only the amount of care that will be paid to the product, but a fundamental change to how things are going to be done and a completely new incarnation of Monolith. If you think about it rationally, if Monolith indeed wanted to get an easy "win", no matter how small, we would probably have some kind of Aarklash related product in our hands by now.
What my gut is telling me is that this restructuring is largely focused on two things: different approach to miniature production and figuring out how to maintain a non-boardgame, living product. This time around I'll focus on the miniature angle.
The biggest question suggested in my previous article is just what kind of material will be used to produce miniatures. In relation to the above statement from Frédéric, the answer to that question will largely also answer just how serious Monolith is about this IP succeeding. There is simply no avoiding the fact that the original Rackham managed to impact the industry in so many ways that still resonate to this day, decades after its demise. In my eyes it would be quite sad to not at least try to honor that legacy, a thing other IP holders utterly failed.
I still firmly believe that metal miniatures are out of the question, if anything just for the production costs associated with metal. The roads to metal lead either through owning your own production plant, which I would not like to see from Monolith investments since that money could be used elsewhere more effectively, or having a much lower production scale and producing at a third party, which I also don't consider good. Unless, of course, Monolith wants to take it slow and have slow and steady scalability over time, which on the flipside might be a safe thing to do. Personally, I would love to see metal miniatures, but there are so many factors going against that that I simply doubt it will happen. Ready to be pleasantly surprised though!
Resin would be a terrible choice, as no sane person who plans on actually playing with their miniatures likes resin in this day and age. Yes, it can give decent results as far as details go, but the hassle of assembly, the brittleness of material, and the score of other annoying things coming along with it, resin is just a bad choice. 3D prints are largely laughable and still leave a bad taste in my mouth (metaphorically speaking, stop eating miniatures), no matter how much progress there has been with 3D printing technology. Just look at what Trench Crusade went through and it makes me not want to touch a 3D printed miniature ever again.
The harsh reality is that the thus far established Monolith miniature line featuring a mix of ABS and PVC plastic is simply not up to par for anything above simple board game quality. Meaning, it is amazing for MB-esque board games, but those same models standing on the table with other skirmish wargames is just not good enough. Not only this, but those production plants are based in China and despite their current Berserk and L5R minis being produced there I suspect that a lot of board game companies will be focused on either slimming down their games or moving away from China altogether, due to the current state of the world which I simply don't see getting any better any time soon sadly. It is, I suspect, not at all profitable anymore as much as it was back in a pre-pandemic world and the zenith period of huge games and Kickstarter companies. Lucky for us at least that Monolith managed to hold their ship afloat and come out of the decline of the bombastic KS craze as winners.
Which leaves us with HIPS, in my opinion the only proper and feasible way to move into the wargaming world. This type of plastic production technology could do a wonderful job at materializing many concepts from original Rackham designs which simply weren't possible to do with metals back in the day and the only other feasible material solution that can cater to the hobby side of the consumer base in a professional enough way.
If all of this rambling of mine isn't enough, give me a few moments to put my tinfoil hat on and provide you with a solution of how I think Monolith could get into HIPS plastics. Without further ado, let me introduce you to Archon Studio.
So in case you don't know, Archon Studio is a company based in Poland and founded in 2014. I'm not gonna go too deep into their history, but as any other company it had its rocky start, namely some issues working with Prodos on their AvP game, but have since learned from their mistakes and grew into one of the best and my personally favorite European company. Over time they grew as a competent game design studio, but have also expanded into becoming a manufacturer, investing into their own plastic injection machinery to produce miniatures. This was initially to produce their own Dungeons & Lasers and Rampart lines of terrain, but they have since started producing for other companies and games, such as Trench Crusade and Conquest from Para Bellum. They worked on scores of other games which they acquired license for, such as Masters of the Universe, Heroes of Might and Magic, and the most recent StarCraft miniatures game. An overall great company that has been on an upward trajectory for years now and it doesn't seem like it is going to slow down any time soon.
Chance would have it that I've recently picked up a warband box set for Conquest, since my colleagues at work wanted to get into a miniature game and Para-Bellum's larger scale was appealing to them. Why is this important in the context of the article? Well, as mentioned above, Conquest uses Archon for the production of its miniatures.
I've picked up the Old Dominion faction, mostly because I wanted to use them as an excuse to practice painting rust effects and old bronze, plus the combination of Roman/Orthodox/Byzantine aesthetics is pleasing to me. You can browse the miniatures on Para Bellum's faction gallery, but here I will post a few photos I took of the actual plastic sprues.
Keep in mind that these miniatures are larger scale, 38mm, so by extension some of the details of the sculpts will be much easier to create. For the purposes of this article, the first two images posted above are of a mounted character, while the rest are infantry sized models. All of these are fantastic, especially some of the faces and pieces of armor which already have that rusted ancient metal detailing sculpted.
Anecdotally I also have Archon's "Masters of the Universe: Battleground" skirmish game, which might be an even better example to look into since the miniature scale is more on par with Confrontation, assuming of course that Monolith keeps with the original scale. Also keep in mind that in this project Archon worked on its own designs, unlike for Conquest which is obviously just producing Para Bellum's designs, but of course restrained by the original MOTU guidelines.
All of the photographed models are infantry sized. Honestly, the level of details and how crisp and clean they are is astounding. Upon inspection there is minimal cleanup required, essentially aside from the sprue mold lines there is not much left to remove. Almost no details have been lost in the process of producing these sculpts, from the clean facial expressions to the minute armor engravings and tiny details. Also, I personally love that they are doing differently colored plastics, as it is a great addition to any kind of box that features more than one faction.
Here's a few photos of some of the terrain and bases that come with the MOTU core box, mostly because some of these could easily pass as parts of an abandoned Dirz laboratory! Just beautiful.
That's all fine and dandy, but I hear you thinking and asking: "Stefan, you beautiful smart man, what does this have to do with Monolith?"
Aside from the amazing quality and selection of products under their wing, Archon vastly grew in popularity thanks to their regular AMA streams, being completely transparent with fans and supporters with how they do business, what their plans are, and what their overall thought process is. So with that being said, let me just...
In those Archon AMA streams, there are nuggets of information one can pluck along the way. I usually keep up with their streams, though I've been lagging behind a couple of latest ones due to life, but Archon is definitely one of my favorite currently active bigger companies to follow and keep tabs on. Even though I am personally invested in only a few of their wide range of products, notably some are extremely uninteresting to me, it is always amusing to keep up with their growth as a company. What I find absolutely fascinating about Archon is that they've realized the amount of consumers that can be easily classified as nosy goblins (the ones constantly prying and demanding for answers, deadlines, and product pathways) and they just fully tapped into it. The way Archon is transparent, patient, friendly, and superbly professional with their consumer base is above and beyond anything you'll see anywhere else in the industry, and not only is it an absolute joy to watch, but one can learn a lot about how to run a successful business. Their growth over the years has been tremendous, planning and thinking ten steps ahead even in these insane times, all the while being so open about it, it just blows my mind every time.
Personally, I'm extremely annoyed with the goblinry of your average consumer and cannot stand the amount of senseless questions and demands a single "fan" can generate, but the way Archon approached and tended to their customers has undoubtedly brought on great success. And all they needed was "just" a tremendous amount of patience and willingness for communication.
If you listen carefully enough, Jarek, Archon CEO, talks a lot about what is in the pipeline for the company and many times throws little bits of interesting information that raised my eyebrow on multiple occasions, especially since he seems like a genuine nerd (and I say this in the most positive way imaginable) and always looks like he's biting his tongue to not say anything ahead of schedule. As I've shared on 7 Hills before, he is on record talking briefly about AT-43 and his interest in it, during a conversation with AMA chat where someone asked if Archon would do an X-Com game and then someone saying "do AT-43". Where most people nowadays don't even know what AT-43 is, he responds to it without a second thought, and implies that things are happening with it behind the scenes but that "it probably won't happen soon", meanwhile his AMA co-host Szymon is just standing there with a grin on his face... and usually Szymon is the one trying to make Jarek not reveal too much. Worth noting in this context is that Archon also produces pre-painted plastic things, which in relation to AT-43 is pretty a good checkbox ticked off.
What this little scene telegraphs to me is that there is definitely some rumbling in the background, where even an obscure product such as AT-43 is making noise. There is reason to believe that Monolith, at least in some capacity, approached Archon, and I can't think that it is for any other reason other than making a deal for production and distribution.
In context of this, a few months ago Jarek mentioned that while they do have scheduled upcoming miniature game releases for 2026, most notably StarCraft and, I believe it was World of Tanks, they still have open slots for plastic production available and some more IP's which they haven't announced yet. While I do think 2026 is still early for a Confrontation product, it is good news that Archon keeps room for picking up new clients and/or IPs, so there is room for Monolith to strike a deal.
So where does this all leave us in regards to Monolith? Aside from all the wishful thinking and wild speculation, I believe the best way going forward would be to work with Archon. A domestic European production company with a proven pedigree and serious upward trajectory is a sure and stable step for Monolith if they are at all serious about making their long term product a success. A deal with them would surely instill a lot of much needed security and trust with consumers, as well as open a big avenue for communication and information sharing if such a deal lands and production is in Archon's hands. This last bit is especially important since Monolith is not the best with sharing information and updates. Despite me having a lot of confidence in them due to all the previous experience I have with their products and campaigns, I know that their way of dealing with news and updates would not sit well with a lot of naysayers.
And to circle back to what started this article, Archon's plastic production and quality of said plastic would be able to do beautiful things in Aarklash. I would without a doubt put an absolute seal of approval on Archon making a Confrontation revival a reality. And not only this, but Archon itself would be a huge marketing platform, seeing as how many active consumers and followers they gathered as a company, especially now with the explosion of the StarCraft miniatures game. They alone would be able to create a lot of hype about the revival of our beloved Rackham IP's.
As I've mentioned before, I missed a few of the recent AMA's which I plan on listening to soon, and for some reason I'm sure I'll hear more things between the lines to solidify these claims. For now I just wanted to get this article out because it felt relevant to all the recent rumblings. Surely enough, if I hear anything else of interest from Archon I'll either update this post or mention it in a future one, since there is more to write about this entire subject.
But as I said, this is all just my own daydreaming sprinkled with a little bit of positivity and common sense. Time will tell how much I've missed the mark with what is written here... I might look back on all of this and think what a naive and hopeful fool I was, but then again what if I was even remotely right? In that case, man, good things lie ahead in Aarklash.
Thank you for reading, see you in the next one!
