The Iron Empire Returns!
Oh my God.
That was the first thing I said when I watched this month's video. And I suspect you're about to have exactly the same reaction.
Enjoy the video then come back to keep reading, because there’s lots of good stuff below!
Back to our roots, because you asked
A few months ago, we released a KST (Kurgan Shock Troops) collection that brought back some of the founding characters of the Raging Heroes universe: Alexander Kurganova, his daughters Olga and Malinka, and many other members of the Kurgan people.
You loved that return to our roots. And a great many of you told us the same thing: "It would be amazing if you gave the Iron Empire the same treatment." Our Iron Empire, one of the historic factions of our Raging Heroes miniatures brand.
Well, we listened. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
A year of pushing further
Before I introduce the faction, I'd like to look back for a moment at what has happened over the past few months.
About a year ago, I took a hard look at the releases we were producing. You were consistently enthusiastic about them, and we were very proud of them. And yet I had the feeling we could do better. That we could take Heroes Infinite toward something stronger, something more modern.
Every release since then has been a big success. Month after month, new collections broke our records for views on YouTube and across social media. Then came last month and the Heroes Infinite expansion of our Daughters of the Crucible.
That wasn't a record. That was quite literally an explosion. The release video is approaching 80,000 views to date, and the feedback we've received is completely wild.
A little Secret…
Let me share something I have never said in public until today.
Our original Daughters of the Crucible were first released years ago in our physical Raging Heroes range, as part of our second Kickstarter, The Toughest Girls of the Galaxy 2 (TGG2, for those of you who were there). At the time, I received a message from John Blanche himself, telling me that with the Daughters, I had in a way outdone him with these girls.
You can imagine my shock reading this and how touched I was! It was so nice from him to do this.
He asked me back then, for obvious reasons, to keep it to myself, and I did, for years. John Blanche passed away a few months ago, and today I feel I can finally share it. In a way, to me, the Daughters of the Crucible collection is dedicated to him.
Galvanized
The success of the Daughters gave us a tremendous boost to make the Iron Empire an exceptional release.
So today, I'm sharing with you the return of my favorite creepy faction.
Who are the Iron Empire?
For those of you who don't know them well yet: the Iron Empire are human colonists who left Earth in search of a better world.
Their fate was tragic. Their fleet was lost in space, and almost all of their people died from the radiation bombarding their ships. Then came a kind of salvation. They discovered the remains of an Egyptian-like civilization that practiced a form of technological necromancy. It allowed them to bring their dead back to a sort of half-life, and to build an entire civilization around this techno-necromancy.
The Iron Empire therefore brings together castes of techno-necro-priests, hordes of zombies fighting tirelessly on the battlefield, and a refinement inspired by the early twentieth century. The result is a faction of great elegance, and at the same time deeply, unsettlingly sinister.
An Empire of the Dead, with Exquisite Taste
Iron Empire culture is quite unusual, and I'll probably have the chance to explore it further in future releases. But here's one example.
On their voyage, they brought a great many animals with them. Like the humans, these animals perished. And like the humans, they were raised from the dead. Many of them are now kept in a completely insane zoo that would hold its own against the 1900 World's Fair in Paris: gigantic cages built from enormous steel and glass structures, immense domes, and colossal statues, blending the styles of Gustave Eiffel and Baron Haussmann.
The Iron Empire is also mad about opera. It sends its greatest singers onto the battlefield, turning the sound of their voices into extremely powerful psionic weapons. Front-row seats are not recommended.
In short, this mortuary empire is a dazzling and terrifying blend of extreme artistic refinement, boundless extravagance and a humanity broken by its ordeals, all led by a dark, occult power whose reach and workings nobody truly understands.
Meet the Court
Let's walk through a few of the highlights of this release.
First, the very memorable and very unsettling Klara von Stahlkönig, the Iron Wraith, Necropriestess. A sublime woman of immense charisma, always surrounded by hordes of utterly mindless zombie servants. She is one of the highest figures of power in the Empire, and her influence, at court as on the battlefield, is enormous.
General Valthor Grimmweil, the Merciless, is a high-ranking officer who has fought countless battles, and whose implacable character has won the Empire more victories than anyone can count.
He leads the Wiedergänger Veterans: zombie soldiers, often recovered from among the enemy's dead, then turned into cannon fodder in the most literal sense of the term. They have spent an eternity on the battlefield. And the countless medals covering their uniforms can't make anyone forget the eternal curse these poor damned souls are trapped in.
Some of them, though, seem able to pass through this eternity of carnage without their minds being crushed. Kreigsmar the Unyielding, Thousand Wars' Veteran Legend, the hero of the veterans, is one of them. Far from being broken, Kreigsmar seems to take a grim pleasure in living amid the chaos of war and destruction.
Madame Elvira Nachtwind, Psyker Siren, is one of the Empire's great opera singers. A diva whose psychic powers and extraordinary voice enchant the people of the Empire and terrorize the battlefield.
Duchess Friedricha von Eisenmark, Admiral of the Armored Forces, is, like so many citizens of the Empire, dead. She was raised from the grave, which makes her, in a sense, a zombie.
But not every undead in the Empire is in the same state. Some are far more damaged than others, and the Empire has developed techniques to keep some of its living dead in, let's say, good condition.
How you wear your death says a great deal about your place in society…
Among the common people, a ravaged face is often a source of shame. Some are further along in decomposition than others, some died in ways that left their bodies badly damaged, and many hide behind masks.
In the aristocracy, it's quite the opposite: showing that you are undead can be rather chic. All the more so because real power in the Empire is held by the Undeads, and by people who have no wish whatsoever to see life return.
The Duchess belongs to that world, and she makes no secret of what she is. Neither does Elvira, for that matter. As Admiral of the Armored Forces, Friedricha commands the Empire's enormous Tanks, a strange cross between bunkers and palaces, whose steel domes recall the great glass roofs of Haussmann-era buildings like the Grand Palais in Paris. And like many of the army's high officers, she is the picture of elegance, always impeccably dressed and coiffed. For these people, it's a way of holding on to their dignity, and to a human face, when their bodies are long dead.
Dr. Lazarus Grabstich, the Corpse Tailor, is a field doctor, a man of the battlefield whose job is to patch up the zombies. Not so much the veterans but rather the Empire's second-line troops. He carries everything he needs: spare brains, and some rather strange fluids he uses to restart zombies that have taken one dent too many…
Some familiar names
You may recognize a few names among the characters in this release.
Here is a new incarnation of Keela Krupps, Transmission Coordinator, our communications specialist.
And Philomena Rozenkrantz, Master Duelist, an exceptional swordswoman who is none other than the daughter of Artemisia Rozenkrantz, another legendary figure of bladed combat in the imperial army. Artemisia is one of the historic characters of the Raging Heroes range, straight from our very first Kickstarter, TGG1. And now, here is her daughter.
That alone is rare enough to be worth noting. After the massive irradiation they endured, the citizens of the Empire are almost all sterile. Those who aren't are generally recruited and sent to a planet said to be a paradise, to have children who will help repopulate the Empire. The fact that Artemisia not only got to keep her daughter, but was never sent to that planet, is truly exceptional.
Finally, Freya Wolfsmahr, Warden of the Totenhatz, is another very particular character. She leads a pack of undead animals, chosen from the imperial zoo and trained for combat. The word Totenhatz evokes a hunt with hounds led by the dead, and that is exactly the spirit of the corps Freya commands.
The Troops
On the troop side, you'll find a new incarnation of the Walküren Jetgirls, which I think is absolutely fantastic, with a steampunk flavor that many of you will surely love.
I've already mentioned the medal-covered veterans and their countless battles. But I also need to tell you about the Watchdogs, the Empire's secret military police. They wear strange gas masks shaped like the head of Anubis, which gives them a particularly terrifying look.
You can think of them as a kind of assassin unit. Or as the people on hand to motivate the troops whenever the urge to fall back creeps in. The Watchdogs won't hesitate to shoot deserters to restore the resolve of an entire unit. Morale, Iron Empire style.
A Vision Years in the Making
And how could I not talk about the vehicles and scenery? I'm particularly proud of them in this release, with the Prunkwacht Citadel, the Donnerhall Palatium and the Grabenhund Trench Crawler.
After many years of work, I'm finally able to truly bring to life the visions I've carried for a very long time of what this kind of design could be for a faction like the Iron Empire.
I wanted to blend the bunkers of the First and Second World Wars, with their brutalist shapes and sheer heaviness, with the slender, organic lines of Art Nouveau and the constructions of Gustave Eiffel.
Personally, I find the result looks like almost nothing I've seen before in this genre. I hope you'll love these creations as much as I do.
Your Turn
This is a particularly rich release, and I hope it will win you over and make you want to build your own Iron Empire army, or bring these miniatures into your own games.
As always, we can't wait to hear from you. Tell us which miniatures are your favorites and how you plan to use them. Which ones will you print and paint first?
In the meantime, we wish you a wonderful November. See you very soon, and happy gaming, everyone!