Collection round-up - June 2026 and a painted Wolfen Zombie

Another month, another collection update, and boy is this a big one. Let me tell you one thing, size does matter. Especially in this hobby, the bigger the box, the bigger the excitement. And, not to be exclusive, the bigger the receipt. 

This has been my second big purchase flying from across the pond from Chimera and I'll be sane enough to say that I'm certain that truly sane people would not be doing this. Yes, some of these models are rare, especially when NIB and especially in the current state of available supply on the market. And yes, this is Confrontation and yes, it is my main hobby where I don't flinch about expenses because I love it to death. But realistically speaking, if you are in Europe and doing it like this is not worth it unless you're really that deeply invested. Between the insanity of shipping rates for packages from the US, extra VAT, newly added EU import fees, and all the other things that can get complicated and expensive along the way in the global economy today, you're looking at a drastically inflated bill before the package lands in your lap. Not to mention the long transport time and the even longer customs clearance period. Horrid all around.

Buying single blisters or boxes is unwise since the shipping is always high to begin with, in most cases equal or more to the price of the actual model. Buying bulk like this skyrockets into oblivion, but maybe ends up being worth it if you can cash it out. Alternatively, European folks can stick to Europe and arm themselves with extreme amounts of patience, something that I always recommend. The well has been dry for months now, and although I imagine a lot of old product will surface back up once Incarnation sees the light of day, it would still add a considerable amount of time to the collecting agenda. So, choose your own faith based on that.

But enough of that, let's crack open the box!

First off, two Cry Havoc issues. My CH library still isn't anywhere near completion, but these I picked up primarily for the Hybrid cards and, of course, the Kaeliss card in issue #2. These have actually been the first CH magazines that I pick up that are completely NIB and for some reason it is such a nice feeling. Still haven't popped 'em open yet, I'll let them be glorious on the shelf for a little bit longer.

Also, speaking of Kaeliss...

... voila, the Starter Paint Set! Primarily got it for the miniature, but the paints themselves and the box with that cover art seem so iconic for that era. Rackham truly knew what they were doing with their packaging design. Similarly, of course the dropper bottles for paints will forever be superior to pot paints, but these Rackham pots look absolutely gorgeous! Still didn't open the box and I don't know the state of the paints inside, but I imagine they are dry after all these years. Regardless they will be beautiful on the shelf.

As far as the Fangs of Vile-Tis go, my Devourer army has been growing steadily every once in a while and it is always a joy to add them to the collection. Their units are impressive to look upon and I imagine that fielding them on the table is truly a sight to behold, something to look forward to! I do find them intimidating to paint, not sure my skills will do them justice. 

More Vile-Tis! The Flesh Eaters are probably my favorite sculpts of the army right after Shurat, happy to finally grab them. I'm still missing some important pieces for Devourers, like the Tyrant, so there's still thrilling stuff to hunt down.

Sasia is there for Hybrid, but also thinking about it I'd say that she's probably my favorite Dirz character. Purely based on aesthetics alone, she's such an iconic character in my eyes, way above many other fan favorites. Not exactly sure why, but I find her eeriness alluring. 

And now to dive into all these blister boxes...

Extremely glad to finally pick up these two, since these boys mark the nigh completion of my Behemoth collection with only the Troll missing now. Kolghor especially I am happy to acquire, as he has been eluding me on several past occasions locally. And it is funny to me how my previous, and in fact first, purchase from Chimera was just me waking up one day (?) with this inexplicable need to start collecting Behemoth, an army I previously never cared for much. Since then they grew on me a considerable amount and I'm confident to make the claim that they are, without a doubt, the most aesthetically pleasing orc miniatures ever designed. That said, truly hope the Behemoth Troll lands into my hands soon. 

So much stuff to unpack here, pun intended! As you can expect, all of these, sans the Knight of Cadwallon, have been picked up for Hybrid. Hybrid-related models have definitely become an important focus for my collection, since I want to own all the factions present there. Yes, even TNB, to my great disgust. To my even greater surprise, I have to be honest and say that these TNB models actually seem nice. I am not over the Moon crazy for them, but I do appreciate that they are single-piece models and that, for their size, they seem dynamically posed and hold details well. I'll most likely plan to paint one of these TNB blisters for the bingo, so I'm curious how that experience will be like, but I do have to say that I'm excited for it. Worry not, I still hate these dwarves with a passion. 

Similarly, the two blisters above are the first Acheron models I acquired and I was curious how painting that faction will be like, so stick around to the end of the post to see that! TL;DR I loved it and I'm excited to paint more Acheron. Weirdly enough, past more Wolfen Zombies, the Ghouls, which seem to be a pain to find, and the Morbid Puppets, which are even harder to find, I don't have a tremendous need for more undead. The faction is well designed and I appreciate it, but it is definitely near the bottom of my priority list, sans these few units for Hybrid. 

Similar situation with Dirz, in my opinion. I'm well aware how iconic they are for Confrontation in general and that they are among the fan favorites, but I haven't had a huge drive to collect the Alchemists. Most of what I own is either for Hybrid or happened to cross my path locally for ridiculously cheap, so I'm not going out of my way to put crazy effort into acquiring more than needed. It's not that I dislike the sculpts, on the contrary, but I simply wouldn't rank them among my favorite factions. Luckily, or unluckily, the list of Dirz available in Hybrid is considerable and I still have a long way to go there.

A wild mix of things in these photos. Drunes keep ever expanding in my collection, a sort of natural step following my initial dive into Sessairs. There is just something pleasing to me when it comes to Drune aesthetics and it makes me slowly keep coming back to them. Up to this point they have always fallen into my lap by pure chance of some good deals, but this is the first occasion that I purposely pick them up, a sign that they surely have my focus. If I manage to find enough time this year, I have a plan to make a small faction diorama for the bingo which I am really excited about... so many things to paint, so little time, and the collection just keeps getting bigger!

On a similar note, expanding the Ophidian collection is terribly difficult nowadays. The danger noodles are quite scarce, so I'm glad I managed to snag the small snek before that too disappeared. Also, always a pleasure to add some Mid-Nor into the pile. Despite me truly loving these dwarves, I don't prioritize them a whole lot. The Scourge Bearer was more of a tactical pickup since it was the last one in stock and it is one of my favorite Mid-Nor models.

Last, but never the least, some additions to my favorite faction. Thrilled to add the Elemental and the Familiars, since I adore those designs and I'm proud of Daikinee being wise enough to be so entwined with the aspect of water. Regarding the elves themselves, I always neglect talking extensively about them since I always save my thoughts for a dedicated Daikinee post, so I should get on with that sometime soon. Preliminarily thinking about doing a whole series of posts dedicated just to them and talking about various things. We'll see.

And that's an unwrap! Massive haul for the collection, always so thrilling when a box of this size is on the way and it finally arrives. Being so focused on collecting Confrontation and the pure speed at which I've been acquiring things, it is in a complete disharmony with the speed at which I am painting. But I'm having fun with both aspects of the hobby, collecting and painting that is, so I presume that that is what counts at the end of the day. Despite the complexity of my life this year, the output has been decent and I'm confident that the number of painted models by the end of the year will beat my numbers from 2025. Right now I'm primarily focused on painting Hybrid since I want that to start hitting the table when done, so having a plan is what seems to be working decently for motivation.

And speaking of all that, one final thing to show before closing this post! The Wolfen Zombie in the photo above has been promptly painted, so here it is in its final form.

This miniature was an absolute joy to paint, something I didn't expect! A fun time experimenting with painting undead flesh, the wounds, moldy hair, and all the gruesome details. That whole process alone made me excited to paint Chagall and all the other Wolfen Zombies when I get my hands on them. The blade especially was a breeze to do, especially surprising since it was done with sponges and acrylics, not any kind of specialist rust effect or pigments, so I am proud of the result. Overall I think I managed to keep the paintjob fairly clean and detailed, despite the whole process being messy and loose, plus I think I did a better job with the base compared to what I did with the Hybrid Griffins. Live and learn!

And that's a wrap for today, hope you enjoyed taking a look at my ever growing hoard of metal. I know I need help, you don't have to remind me. Thanks for reading though!

More news, more thoughts, more hype, some caution

It has been less than two months since I posted my thoughts on the initial preview of the Aarklash revival and we're already faced with a bunch of additional information and juicy teases! This will just be a summary of all the things we've gotten, or at least the things that I can remember, and my brief thoughts on all of it, so let us dive in.

Onyx returns!

The legendary Wolfen is coming back, as vital as ever. Based on an interview with Rackham CEO which was done after this preview, more on that below, Onyx has been busy recruiting "younger Wolfen" into his pack which will affect the overall tactics of the bunch, leaning more into agile harassment and less into straightforward aggression, collectively nicknamed "Les Furtifs", the sneaky ones.

It is great to see Onyx back, as he was always a beloved character in previous editions. I love this new version of him, the pose is dynamic and it somehow fits the description of his new pack.

New blood!

Kylliar, as described by Monolith, "a young Wolfen predator carrying the weight of his father Killyox's failures on his back. Now he must prove that a son is never bound by his father's fate."

As stated in the promo image, this will be a gift for anyone following the campaign and pledging once it gets going. And as the saying goes, never look a gift horse wolf in the mouth, but I don't like the sculpt much. The stance is great, but the overall model is just too busy. Chains, beads, spikes, moons, ornaments, there is a few things too many. Also someone on discord pointed out that the blade looks like something Signum made and I fully agree. Maybe my perception changes when we see this model painted, but until then it's just drowning in unnecessary details. Still, it is a gift, and I won't give it too much of a hard time.

We had a lore update for Incarnation which nicely started digging into Aarklash and the overall struggles of its peoples. I'll not bore you too much with my dissection of it, I'll just let you enjoy it yourself.

There was also an update for Depths Of Cadwallon which goes into some of the introductory lore of the iconic city. Same as above, click the link and enjoy the read.

Now, let us move on to the meat and potatoes of this post. First of all, French youtuber Hiigy interviewed Boris, Rackham CEO, and a translated summary has been posted by user JangaMX on Discord, so here are the key points and my thoughts on them:

Scale will formally be 32mm. - To be completely honest, this is the one I hate, but also at the same time it is slightly tolerable. I find the scale creep in games annoying, since the fact that we are playing with "miniatures" is being lost in translation and it is slowly becoming "action figures" almost. Part of why I also get annoyed with this is that companies doing this are just following Games Workshop in their hyper capitalist desire to pander to the consumer base which is too lazy and intimidated by painting "super small" models and it is just so.... ugh. But, if I stop being a grumpy asshole, scale increase usually opens the door for more complex sculpts and intricate details, so at least that is not something to complain about. Unless of course you're feeling like me when it comes to the Kylliar sculpt, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Fewer stats than before. Movement, Attack, Defense, Shooting still exist, others TBC.  Mysticism now one shared stat for all mystics. - It was to be expected that we will see changes to the overall system and unit profiles, but without knowing other accompanying details it is difficult to give an opinion on this statement. My only hope is that the new system is similar enough that old profiles can easily be ported (and vice versa!) and to not dumb down the system too much from what it was.

"Divine Favour" is a new resource that models accumulate when rolling crit fails and can be used later for effects including rerolls. - This sounds boardgamey on face value, but I actually love game systems which award you in moments when you fail terribly. Most notably, the most fun I had was while playing an RPG called "Dungeon Crawl Classics: Dying Earth", where rolling a 1 grants you "grudge tokens" which you can later spend to make the GM (or even other players) reroll a successful die roll. Great fun, especially since it gives a dopamine hit once you critically fail, which is a bit of a weird sensation, but it also doesn't completely remove the fact that you indeed have failed. Either way, excited for this one, curious to see if they'll just use it for rerolls or something else as well.

The other 2 factions beyond the launch set are already fully designed, being sculpted soon. - Not much to say about this one except to be hyped based on all the reveals thus far. (EDIT: as I was wrapping this post up an update dropped on the Incarnation GF page asking followers to vote for their favorite faction, since Monolith decided to increase the number of factions for the initial release from 4 to 6, so check out the update and cast your vote here)

Competitive play and narrative play to be supported including one International Open tournament. - To get it out of the way immediately, I'll be honest and say that "narrative play" provides a massive amount of arousal in me. I've always been a fan of games which lean into their lore and actually do something with it, instead of just having it as a backdrop. The original Rackham knew what it was doing across all of its products when it comes to story, lore, and narrative play, so I am more than happy to see that Monolith is picking up that torch and carrying it onward. Similarly, "competitive play" and an "international open tournament" signal a desire for maintaining a live game with an active scene, which is a thing needed desperately in today's climate in order to keep your product alive and fresh. 

Aiming to add / add profiles to "several factions each year". - This is something I appreciate a lot and in fact something I wanted to write about in a new "Monolithic Expectations" article. Ever since the initial reveal that Monolith acquired the Rackham rights, I hoped that they won't make this a one-and-done campaign, but instead have a steady stream of releases over a prolonged period of time and provide continuous support for the game. It will make the world alive and thriving, not to mention the hype of the consumers having a steady heartbeat. So this point and the one above regarding competitive play and tournaments is exactly what I was hoping for. Great news! 

Rumored/mentioned (?) campaign in Q1 2027 - I'm not entirely sure where and when, if at all, was this mentioned in an official capacity, but the first quarter of next year has been circling around as the initial campaign launch for Incarnation. Makes sense, as half a year is enough to polish the game and warm up the crowd.

In addition to the above, a streamer named GregauryC got to play one demo game and has since shared several key points:

Units will be cross compatible between skirmish game Incarnation and dungeon crawler game Depths of Cadwallon. - As expected, it is good that Monolith will trail the same paths as Rackham did, where all the releases for different sub-games are entwined and can be used together. I would hope however that there won't be a faction released ONLY via DoC, meaning for example Dirz get released only in DoC in pre-assembled plastic and not get an Incarnation HIPS release (this will make more sense when you read the point below) 

Models will be in HIPS plastic (like GW), assembly needed for Incarnation, but pre-assembled for Depths of Cadwallon. - YES!!! God damn it feels good to be right! Though to be completely fair, I was only half right, since I nailed the HIPS part. As I've written before in my second Monolithic Expectations article, my preferred material would definitely be metal, but I believe it simply isn't possible in this day and age (economy much?) so HIPS is the absolute next best option. HIPS will enable so many dynamic and detail rich sculpts to come to life, it will do wonders where previously metal failed to do justice (Kaeliss I'm looking at you). I had a lot of opinions in that article, so definitely check it out, though it remains to be seen whether or not I was also right about Archon stepping into the spotlight. When it comes to DoC being pre-assembled, it makes so much sense it simply blows my mind and the only reason I haven't considered this as an option is because I believed that DoC would actually be Hybrid 2.0, aka also come as HIPS. But pre-assembled models is the winner for the dungeon crawler part of Aarklash, since anyone who even remotely spent time around hardcore board gamers will know that a lot of them get instantly butthurt the second someone mentions the possibility of them having to assemble models. "USE GLUE?! ME!? MYSELF!? I BEG YOUR PARDON!!"

Board size is 24x24inch / 60x60cm. - Love this honestly. Of course, one will hope that the board size scales up with army size, but 60x60cm being the default is amazing. I've played some other skirmish games with this board size (Bushido, primarily) and I always enjoyed the compactness of the playing field in those. Smaller board means more impact given to terrain means more tactical movement means more thrilling actions sequences means... the list goes on and on. Naturally people will be worried about the smaller playing area and without previous experiences rightfully so, but honestly I am yet to see a game where things like movement or board control were an issue on limited table spaces. This is especially true if we get game rules where table elevation is important, which I would love as it opens up a whole new level (pun intended) of table design. I've spent a lot of time playing Infinity, where scatter terrain, building floors, and corners are important, so having something like that in Incarnation would be a welcome addition in my book. Excited about this one, it opens up a lot of room for speculation and hype, but with an important caveat that the actual rules of the game need to be properly designed and synced in order for things to truly work out. (EDIT: I was very close to expanding this section even further because I have a lot of opinions on it and because a new interview with more details also dropped while I was writing this article, but I will hold that desire in check for now and write about it some time soon) 

Bases are 32mm for human infantry, 40mm for Wolfen infantry, and looking like c. 50mm for cavalry, and larger base size bring certain bonuses in-game. - Kind of covered the scale increase, so won't bother you more with my rambling.

Alternating activations, activation order determined by players setting unit cards in a certain order in an activation deck, set after the initiative roll. - Smart to stay close to the classic, don't think anyone will complain about this one!

Each model has 2 actions except the incarnated who have 3. - Without knowing other rules or what constitutes as an "action", type of actions, etc. it is hard to comment on this one. It does seem a little bit like a step towards boardgame-ification of the original Confrontation rules, but I'll refrain from theorizing about this for now.

Each action is resolved by rolling 3D10 against a relevant stat (roll under ie 10s are fails). Bonuses and minuses add dice rather than change the stat. Examples are larger base size, charging, plunging fire etc. - I am split on this one. On one hand the D6 is somewhat iconic for Confrontation and I like the regular dice for their old-school feel, but mathematically speaking D10s are way better for a broader range of numerical values which add more nuance and minimize the dreaded fail/crit chances. I am extremely glad that they decided not to go with some custom dice bullshit since that rarely works for non-boardgames, so that is a sigh of relief. However, this plus the above mentioned reduction of stat categories for unit profiles signals huge overhauls of the game system which makes me a bit sad. I hope they retain the DNA of Confrontation as somewhat tangible, but time will tell.

Concept of "tactical movement": one attack dice or defense dice can be used to disengage or push enemy models 3 inches. Can create fall damage. - This is interesting, but again, without knowing other details it is hard to comment, though it looks like the actual engagements will be more dynamic and tactical which I definitely approve of.

One last bit of info which I will use in my closing statement for this post. I can't remember where this was mentioned exactly, I was just eager to publish this so didn't have time to research, but it was mentioned that Incarnation will be using inches instead of centimeters and that, somewhat obviously from the playtest pictures we've seen, the bases will be round instead of square. Both of these are fairly controversial points, along with the scale creep mentioned above, so I will give my take on the thing. You can, of course, list a number of pros and cons for these decisions, but what irks me about them is the sheer capitalist mindset of trying to pander to the consumer. 

"Inches are a standard in wargaming, everybody uses it!" 

"Round bases are a must in skirmish games!"

"It'll be easier to get people into the game if they are familiar with some of the concepts!"

To that, and much more nonsense that you are probably going to throw my way, I'll say:

... and a solid, stoic "no". I live for the day when companies will try something new and, gods forbid, dare to step out of standardized norms. Be unique, damn it! Do things that others don't have the balls to do! Stop being so afraid of your current and potential future consumers. Design your games how you feel you should, not how others expect you to design them. The outside world is full of life and chaos, stop being so timid and boring. 

Things like this piss me off, but I'll end it here. Thank you for reading, damn it.

Painting Hybrid - Templars of Hod

Another post in the painting category so soon after the previous one seems like a small miracle. This year I've been sorely behind on my planned Confrontation painting, but I'm slowly turning that around. I started out pretty strong with Cron and his diorama, but then it all somehow stopped in its tracks. In all honesty, the biggest blocker to my painting sessions, aside from real life which does fully intend to keep screwing up with me, was this Templar box. For some reason almost everything about it was a pain and instead of this being a quick and fun project it ended out being dragged out for months, so that was an additional motivator to sit down and sort my thoughts regarding the whole ordeal.

The kind of naiveté never seen before...

To begin with, assembly was a nightmare. The comment above was posted when I completed only the  Seneschal who was the easiest of the four Templars. These guys were like the greatest hits of painful assembly, they had it all: mould lines in all the wrong and hard to reach places, excess surfaces which simply didn't want to fit together, tiny joints which sadistically beg for pinning... just all of it. They all collectively made me question my sanity, sans Ambrosius who is a real chad. Pinning especially was a horrid experience due to the amount of excess metal that needed to be removed in order for the pieces to fit properly. In a couple of places I naturally managed to remove even more than needed, but luckily a proper amount of glue managed to hide my mistakes. Also since the tiny limbs really require a lot of precision and careful execution, which was hell in its own way, I'm starting to think that it might be a good decision to invest in one of those electric pen drill tools.

Work-in-progress photo doesn't begin to portray the horror...

This guy was the absolutely biggest offender since the placement of his arms just doesn't make sense physically. He looks like he is in the throes of challenging the Predator to a duel near the end of the movie of the same name, but he lacks muscle mass and his adversary already broke his limbs at the shoulder. Seriously Rackham, what even is this? The left arm in the photo especially was so bent backwards that it took me quite a few attempts of plain dry-fitting his limbs just to make sure that that was what Rackham wanted me to do. I should have taken a photo while I was trying to assemble him, but I was way too enraged to think about that...

So, when the painting was done this was the final product and it was a rather long road until I got there. They took ages to complete and for some reason I didn't enjoy the process at all. One of the things I find nice when painting a whole unit of dudes is that the unit is usually uniform, so using the same painting recipe for each one is somewhat easy on the brain. However, halfway through painting the Templars I realized that I don't really like my recipe for the blue coats. That particular recipe worked really well on some other non-Confrontation miniatures I painted a few years ago, but here I'm not too pleased with it, so instead of the aforementioned relaxation I was rather stressed, torn between redoing them or just plowing through. I ended up going with the latter. The more I look at them now, the more content I am with them, but I think this could have been better and I definitely want to try to find a better, more striking blue fabric recipe. Not to mention that one of the paints used, Deep Sky Blue from Vallejo probably due to age, ended up being too watery, which I didn't pay attention to, so highlights ended up more like glazes than sharp highlights like I intended to do.

The leather was fun to paint as usual. It is painted the same way as I did my Sessairs, only a tad bit less ivory stippling, while the smaller leather bits like the pouches I painted slightly different using Chocolate Brown, Flat Earth, and Old Wood, all from Vallejo. Unlike the leather, I'm still massively struggling with NMM. I think that my choice of paints is bad to begin with, but also I felt like the design of these blades was a bit too unnecessarily complex which makes it hell for an unskilled painter. Regardless, still figuring out how to do it and with some newly ordered paints and newfound guides I'll see how I fare on the next miniatures.

The Venerable Ambrosius, on the other hand, was an absolute joy to paint, so much so that I've managed to finish him in some record time... if I'm not mistaken two sessions with only a handful of hours. The sculpt itself is interesting to me, especially the flag/cloak part which gives you a nice blank canvas to play with. I believe this is the first time I tried some freehand with the lettering and it was pretty intimidating, not gonna lie. I went back and forth a few times to align the text, it could definitely be done way better, but overall it was fun to try something new. Also the whole process of making the cloth dirty and worn was my favorite part of the whole thing.

Speaking of making things dirty and worn, I immensely enjoyed working on the sandy cobblestone. Working on anything scenery or terrain related is always such a relaxing experience to me, it makes me wonder why I don't work more on terrain pieces... This is actually something I plan to change in the coming months, as I need to start setting up my Confrontation terrain. But anyways, the idea with these bases was for them to represent the sandy halls of the Dirz laboratory being investigated by the Templar. In hindsight I think I made them just a tad bit too light, but I reckon it is an easy fix if I decide to make them darker.

Also on the topic of the bases, I spent quite some time thinking what I want to do for the bases and in the end decided to try out Spellcrow. This is their "Pavement v.2" resin kit, I bought three of these for 3 quid a pop and honestly couldn't be happier. The details are crisp and it is designed in such a way that there are some clear paths for easy cutting, so depending on how you decide to carve them you could easily fit one block on roughly sixteen 25mm bases. For this Griffin box it worked like a charm, especially since there is nice difference in elevation of the stones, so the bases and mini poses end up being quite dynamic. I'll try the pavement on a 40mm base soon, so I'm curious how that will look like. But overall, highly recommended if you want an easy cobblestone basing kit!

For all the whining I did in this post and the amount of time I invested in this wretched box, I'm actually satisfied with how the minis came out. Taking these photos on the Hybrid tiles also kind of fixed my perception of the bases, so I think I'll postpone the thoughts of darkening them and just wait and see how it is when they actually hit the table. Soon enough I plan on tackling the Dirz box and then you can expect some Hybrid session reports around here, which makes me extremely excited. Until then, thank you for reading, see you in the next one!

Collection round-up - February to May 2026 and a painted Earth Elemental

It has been a while since I posted a collection update, mostly because up to this previous month the purchases have been rather miniscule and unimpressive. Not for lack of trying, mind you! The fervor and desire to collect all things Rackham is still very much omnipresent, but it seems like we've reached a point where the market well has gone dry. Rare things seldomly drop, sometimes when they do they are region specific (curse you, the seller who doesn't want my money when I'm not from your home country), and overall it is becoming a challenge. The hunt continues though, I suspect we'll see a surge of things coming from people's attics and basements once Monolith starts making the revival more and more imminent. 

The solitary box up until May was Cardinal Aerth. It landed in my lap while visiting a random online store in search for some miniature paints and they had the good cardinal for dirt cheap. I love these boxes which have two versions of the same character and Aerth himself is an interesting chap. The sculpt is a bit cartoony with its unreasonably large sword, but the whole miniature is just full of life and grandeur somehow. It's a fine addition to my small, but increasing, Griffin collection.

Like the Mounted Standard Bearer, Sardar Tillius is one of the rare Alahan designs I really like and just looking at it makes me want to paint just so that it can be on display at all times. The sculpt has a lot going on, but it is all so subtly done and it doesn't seem overwhelming. I particularly love the armor design and the lion.

The Master of Carnage I was so excited about, especially since he was a very cheap pickup from the same seller that had Tillius... up until the point when upon delivery I realized that I already own this particular MoC version... I was absolutely convinced that I own the other one, but my apparently poor collection management got the better of me. I'll probably offer this one for trade on 7 Hills.

One other Confrontation blister crept in along with some other online store purchase and this one is rather special. A humble Familiars of Air blister which happens to be my very first mispack! Yes sir! It's rather funny, since I was making a big purchase of some other miniature related stuff and the store happened to have the familiars for 2 euros, so I just tossed it in there. The image just showed the card side and although it arrived NIB the blister contains only two minis, missing the little guy holding the book. Not so tragic as it was a cheap purchase and this particular blister is still fairly common, plus I guess mispacks are themselves a rarity... it makes an interesting story, at the very least! It is funny to me how many times in the past I heard stories of terrible Rackham quality control and how pieces were often missing from blisters and boxes, but this is the first time I notice it in all my purchases so far. Probably jinxed it now!

Speaking of random bits and pieces, I came across this local sale featuring various loose bits of Confrontation models, primarily containing banners of all sorts. It was cheap and I think this lot will be useful for a couple of conversion ideas I have, so I just went for it. Surprisingly, it also features one complete Bregan, an incomplete Apostate of Darkness, and a Galhyan missing an arm and sword, all of which weren't even listed in the lot.

All of the above mentioned pick-ups were between February and April, but then May came along and a big boy dropped... 

...one of the biggest boys, in fact. The Cynwäll Dragon finally landed into my hands! I've been eyeing and dancing around it for months on end, but the English versions have been relatively hard to find, either not complete, too expensive, or not in Europe, aka not cheap. This one however I found for around 80e, which is quite on the cheaper side by today's standards, so it was time to pull the trigger. I didn't realize how huge the Dragon is, just the fact that the box is bigger than the usual Confrontation boxes made me squeal. Similarly, happy to add the Construct Warrior to my collection, both for the expansion of my Cynwäll roster and for use in Hybrid.

I was also very excited to get the version of Phidias which I was missing, primarily because I plan to use both incarnations for the bingo "character" challenge. Aside from that I love the sculpt, as it continues the Griffin vibe inspired by "Brotherhood of the Wolf". It is crazy to me how minimalistic the design is, but so evocative and effective, displaying that recognizable Rackham charm.

Last but definitely not the least, I've gotten another Kurujai, this one finally in English. This one was eluding me for quite some time. More than a year ago I ordered one from a seller expertly hidden in some backwater parts of eBay, but it turned out the person couldn't actually find where they stored the blister and so had to cancel the order to my great dismay. Then some time ago I found a French one on the cheap elsewhere, but it always bugged me that I don't have the card in English, a similar pain I'm still experiencing with my Erhyl who I also own in French.

A minor side note when it comes to Daikinee, people who know me also know by now that they are my favorite army and that I have a wild ambition and dedication to collecting them. I've purposely so far omitted writing about many Daikinee purchases I've made in the past year or so, but soon enough I plan to make a dedicated post for all of those as part of a bigger blog project. More on that later.

Also, I've used this bigger purchase as fuel for completing one bingo entry, namely I've painted the Earth Elemental for the "paint a mini within 48 hours of receiving it" and I've actually managed to pull it off.

Technically it is a bit of a cheat since stone and earth are very easy to paint, but then again it was fast and fun and thus a win! Such an amazing and underappreciated miniature, so many nice details and bits on it. Painted it all in one sitting and then decided to play around with some pigments and moss. Could have went a bit darker with the pigments and I still need to figure out how to more effectively do the moss effects (this one was the AK Interactive Moss Deposits and some White Spirits), but overall I'm pleased at the outcome especially considering the invested time. The pigment fixer stench obliterated me, next time I'm tempted to just do it on the balcony as it was truly horrendous. In any case, a great addition to the painted miniature cabinet.

And that is all for today, hope you enjoyed the read, see you in the next one!

Initial thoughts on the return of a legend

The Legend returns because Legends never die!

We all knew it was coming, but now it is official and we got to see little snippets and breadcrumbs of what the future looks like for Aarklash. Monolith sent out an email along with the trailer drop, so lets see how they broke it down.

This will be a string of products, as Monolith puts it "an ambitious new transmedia range of games, stories and roleplaying adventures", all interconnected and tying up in our beloved Aarklash. The projects so far unveiled are:

• Incarnation: A tactical fantasy skirmish miniatures game set in the reborn world of Aarklash. 
• Depths of Cadwallon: A fantasy dungeon crawler adventure game exploring the dangers of the Free City. 
• The Book of Aarklash: A premium definitive lorebook exploring the peoples, factions, kingdoms, wars and forgotten history of the universe. 
• Cadwallon Roleplaying Game: A new roleplaying experience developed with Modiphius. 
• Stories of Aarklash: New comics and graphic stories developed with Astrolabe. 

Along with these, they have already put up Gamefound preview pages for Incarnation, with a "coming soon" tag, and Depths of Cadwallon, tagged as "yet to come". I think it is safe to assume that Incarnation will be the first on the production line.

So right off the bat, let us get one thing out of the way. Yes, these projects will be crowdfunded. A bold move by Monolith and a big mental hurdle for many fans who were previously burned by Sans-Detour, but a wise choice. Monolith is a crowdfunding company with an established pedigree and it is a smart choice for them to continue this trend for such a monolithic project. It will provide them with a needed jump off point and to once again prove why all their previous campaigns were successful and why so many people put their trust in them over the years. I wrote extensively about my experience with Monolith in the article where I did an unboxing of Mythic Battles: Isfet, so definitely check it out if you're still feeling uneasy. 

There is one thing which I believe will set this upcoming Incarnation campaign apart from all the previous ones and that is that I don't believe this will be a "one and done" kind of thing. All the previous projects we had a crowdfunding campaign, the game would be released and then that is simply it until Monolith does an updated version of the game or a new expansion. I believe now we will see the initial crowdfunding campaign and then somehow continued support of the project as a live game, ideally through retail. I touched briefly on that in my previous article where I also discuss the potential material used for miniatures and Monolith's desire for Aarklash to be the next step in the company's evolution, which you can read here.

So, Incarnation will essentially be the new incarnation of Confrontation. Along with the trailer and what was written in the email, we also got to see a miniature preview. You can briefly see a Wolfen, what I assume is a new rendition of the Prowler, and then the miniature dropped on the new Rackham Community discord server. Worth noting is that on the server it has been explained that this miniature is going to be used for demos and is not the official studio paintjob since it has been painted by someone local on the French CORD, so keep that in mind. 

Wolfen painted by Damien

More pictures from various angles of the miniature can be found on the Rackham Community server. Mini painted by Damien, who you can also check out on Instagram here.

Whether or not this ends up being a released miniature or not, the sculpting direction for the updated Wolfen is fantastic and I truly love this sculpt. I'll spout some heresy and say that I was never a hardcore fan of the original Prowler, somehow the whole "leg on a stick" gimmick killed it for me and I know people tend to consider it a cult Rackham sculpt, so this new version is a nice refresh for me. It is also exceptionally nice to see the community embracing the new sculpt and all the news with open arms, since the previous response to the initially revealed Wolfen was cringe worthy. Glad to see all the positivity about the reveals and I can only hope that some of my articles helped motivate the community at least a little bit towards lightheartedness.

What is really interesting as well is the inclusion of the round base which is bound to be a bit of a controversy in the community. Personally, I dislike round bases and truly hope that Monolith will give us the option of using either round or square... otherwise, I'll just continue using square bases myself.

Depths of Cadwallon will be the new dungeon crawler or what I previously believed will be Hybrid 2.0. I was actually in the process of writing a follow-up to that article to discuss what we might actually see in the an updated Hybrid, but now I will have to rethink this! On first glance I actually love that they decided to set the dungeon crawler under Cadwallon as it opens the game up for the inclusion of literally all factions, unlike Hybrid which might be more restrictive fluff-wise. For example, it might be a bit of a stretch to see my beloved Daikinee introduced into the arid deserts of Syharhalna, but now that we're in the depths of the most famous city in Aarklash there is a chance!

Also a thing that drew my attention instantly was that Depths of Cadwallon is marked as a "cooperative" and as a "1-5" player game, signaling up front that this will also be a game for solo players, which is huge! Obviously you could play any game solo with a little bit of adaptation, but actually having an officially supported rules system for that is something I'm very excited about.

Overall, a great little teaser for "Depths..." and I expect this to shape up into an interesting game. I love the choice of the preview art for this, as it immediately sets the mood for something dark and atmospheric without the need for a lot of words to back it up.

The other 3 products (the RPG, the comic books, and the lore book) we don't have any additional info for, aside from the collaborators on the RPG and comic book being Modiphius and Astrolabe, respectively. Personally, I am not the biggest of fans when it comes to Modiphius, primarily because I am heavily invested in other RPG games, but there is no denying that they create stellar products and are top contenders in the industry for quite some time now. It is amazing that Monolith managed to strike a deal with them, since the sheer enormity of Modiphius' platform alone will be an amazing way to spread the word about Aarklash and we will surely get a product on par with the beloved original Cadwallon RPG.

The Book of Aarklash, aka the lore book, is featured on both preview pages for Incarnation and Depths of Cadwallon, so I guess it is safe to assume that it will be part of both crowdfunding campaigns, possibly as an add-on. The comic book is not shown anywhere yet however.

I'll stop here and let you go back to enjoying all these lovely new previews. I am certainly more motivated than ever to keep walking on through Aarklash and continue documenting all these things as they transpire. It is honestly such a joy to witness a beloved franchise come back to life and I hope many more new folks join us along the way. Rackham never truly died, it was simply hibernating all these years, coming back stronger than ever! Thank you for reading, see you soon.