Something happened with this KST release. We all got swept up in it. The whole team. And it turns out you did too. This army moved us, it blew us away, it inspired us. And you told us so, in every possible way: your messages, your comments, a whole wave of enthusiasm we've been riding ever since!!!
I have to be honest with you: we've been completely overwhelmed by it. Truly overwhelmed. And it means the world to me.
So this Sovereign felt like exactly the right moment to go deeper into a faction we've all fallen for: more miniatures, the exclusives that go with them, new characters, and dioramas that put the world of the KST center stage.
Here's the video - and after that, we have the background details and QUESTIONS for you. Oh, and if you want to join the Sovereign, simply scroll down to the end of the post for the direct links.
A faction I fell in love with + a question to you
As I told you in the post for the main release, this one goes back a long way. More than thirteen years ago, I sat down to design this army. And I told you that already: back then, the KST weren't the faction that set my imagination on fire.
But something funny happened. I worked on them and something lit up a spark, and I invented a story and characters that I fell in love with and became more and more inspired by it. So much that I wanted more.
For a long time now I've been carrying a version of the KST around in my head, just waiting for the chance to finally give them the incarnation I felt they deserved. Judging by your reaction, I think we got there. We brought something to life that clearly struck a chord with you. Honestly, there's nothing more inspiring for me than that.
βββ→ Which brings me to a question I can't help asking as I show you this Sovereign: will you want more? A second chapter: a full second KST release, somewhere not too far down the road? I'll come clean: I'd love to make it. And I hope these new pieces leave you hungry for it too.
So let's dig into everything together.
It starts with the Bears
You left no doubt about how much you loved the Bear-mounted Troops, so it's only right that we start there.
This unit gets Reinforcements that, if you ask me, are even better than the ones from the leader/overlord release: more dynamic, more alive, more charged with that unmistakable Raging Heroes energy.
From there, the Enforcers, the Red Tundra, the Cossacks, and the Blizzard Guards all get extensions of their own.
The Red Tundra in particular turned out really cool. Though I'll be honest, I catch myself saying that about every single one of these units.
Snegurochka, reborn as a Yaga
And then there's what I suspect will be the true star of this release: Snegurochka.
We first sculpted this miniature a very, very long time ago, and she's quietly become one of our best-selling stand-alone figures since the earliest days of Heroes Infinite.
Snegurochka comes straight out of Russian folklore. So when the idea surfaced, that is, to take the fantasy character she played in Land of the Frost and reimagine her as a sci-fi, powerful, revered Yaga, it simply felt right. Sometimes the right idea just announces itself.
For those of you still getting to know the background of our characters: the Yagas are shamans who keep the old Kurgan traditions alive. Most of them, though, have been requisitioned by the government: their psychic gifts amplified and multiplied by technology.
A more militarized Ivan
I also wanted to give Ivan's Mecha a more military version. Ivan, the worker turned hero of the people, is a character I'm genuinely fond of, and personally I love the image of him defending his own with nothing but the tools of his daily labor, reforged into a fighting machine.
But I had a hunch some of you would want something a little more conventional, a little more martial. So here we are.
Meet also Feida Fortunatova, a light Meksuit pilot ready to swell the ranks of your KST army. She's another one I'm really happy with, with that cluster of little cannons inspired among other things by the Soviet war machines once known as Stalin's organs…
Bringing the cold to old friends
Now, the throwback collections.
Until now, we simply hadn't released anything that matched the deep, bone-cold atmosphere that defines the KST, so adding Reinforcements to existing units was anything but obvious.
But there was a thread to pull. The characters and troops from Imperial Commando: Lost in the Jungle had been designed as potential KST warriors. So I wanted to give them a treatment that finally pulls them into the world we built this month.
That's how the Canopy Specters became the Whiteout Specters. The same characters at heart, but with a new look far better suited to the frozen climate of the tundra worlds the KST explore.
In that same spirit, the Iron Hog Brigade became the Kabany Bruisers. In my mind, these are the muscle for the rival mafias that carve up the underworld of KST civilization… and they're something more besides: the results of genetic experiments, some more successful than others, cooked up by rogue KST scientists.
Finally, we have the Ice Vdovy, a reinterpretation of the Frost Maidens from Land of the Frost.
I imagined them as silent fighters: close enough to touch the enemy lines before anyone hears a sound, striking with those exquisitely sophisticated bows, or in melee with their spears, and then, when it comes down to it, opening fire with the guns built into the spear tips the very moment they make contact. I loved this unit in its original form, and in this new sci-fi guise, I think it belongs to the KST completely.
Two faces of the Kurgan people
The two dioramas are, for me, a chance to show you two very different faces of the KST, of the Kurgan people.
The first, Oath of the Tundra, sets a bear-mounted warrior beside a small Kurgan lifting the army's banner high. It's a wink to some of our older Raging Heroes pieces, where we'd slip little street urchins right into the thick of the Jailbirds' or the Daughters of the Orphanage's adventures.
What I wanted to capture here is the fierce, unshakable patriotism that runs in Kurgan blood: the bear scrambling up that great fist of a statue, the child holding his people's banner aloft.
And then, almost its exact opposite: a hushed, tender little scene between Charlie and Malinka.
In case you haven't met them yet, Charlie is the dog of the three Kurganova sisters: Ivanka, Malinka, and Olga.
Malinka is the baby of the three, and by far the most spoiled and the most temperamental. After a stormy childhood, she reinvented herself as a tabloid darling, forever in the headlines for her outrageous stunts and her flings with half the famous names of the Kurgan world.
But behind that provocative front is really just a young woman adrift, lost in the churn of an endless war and a family whose power runs a little too deep for her to carry.
Deep down, she's still very nearly a child. And in her quietest, most private moments, like the ones she shares with her beloved dog, a completely different Malinka slips into view.
This is only the beginning
So, that's what we've cooked up for you this month. My hope is a simple one: that this Sovereign makes you want to get your KST onto the table more than ever.
And selfishly, I hope this is only a beginning. There's so much more of this world I'm itching to share with you, whole corners we didn't even touch in that first release…
The Were Gene, which grants some of them the power to turn into animals.
The KST Rebellion, rising up against the iron grip of the Kurganov family.
The scheming mafia factions, forever plotting to bring the regime down or bleed every last advantage out of it.
And the mines of planet Ultria… It was the working of those mines that handed the KST the staggering technological might they wield today.
More than anything, I hope this little burst of snow-swept Kurgan air brings you some relief in the middle of this blazing summer.
→ As always, I can't wait to see what you make of it all. Tell me which miniatures are your favorites, which ones you're rushing to print first, and how you're planning to bring them into your games. Truly! I can't wait to hear from you.
And then… see you in August!!!
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PS/ WANT Sovereign NOW? It’s easy!
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