Looking at the first Month of The Ion Age

IMP01 The Kneeling Knight to be retired on 30th September 2013

At midnight on the 30th of September the first free miniature we offer on all placed orders, the Kneeling Retained Knight, will come to the end of its run and be retired forever.  Another free miniature with all orders will take its place on October 1st but in this post I would like to look back at what has been an awesome first long month for this new wargaming enterprise.  What we have done and where we are going next.  In fact if this posting proves popular enough I will do it every time the miniature changes!

Lets begin where a wargaming brand should with the new releases.  Since we began with the original core of the 15mm Ion Age miniatures we added firstly the archive codes Retained, Muster, Nox and Malig before mixing in half a dozen brand new poses of Retained into codes IAF001 to IAF004.  We were ready to begin in earnest and the website went live.

Since our launch we have released the following codes all sculpted and painted by our lead designer Sam Croes:

IAF005 Balthazar and Jerome

IAF006 Legionary 1^st Tesseran 

IAF007 Legion 'Canthus' Monocycle Set

IAF008 Retained Post Charlie

IAF009 Desteria Demi Alpha

IAFL01 Hackett and Tasker (500 Limited Packs) 

IAFL02 Grimwood and Wyrme (500 Limited Packs)

IAF010 Desteria Demi Beta

This is a total of thirty six miniatures in weekly releases so we have more than doubled in size since launch.  Not only that but we expanded the 15mm Ion Age into the wider scope of the existing 28mm Ion Age range with several new ideas and new types of troops. 

IAF006 saw the first of many to come 15mm Shia Khan Legion packs which brought a new 15mm force into being which had been requested hundreds of times over on 15mm.co.uk.  IAF008 brought new Retained Knights for the first time in more than a decade. IAF005 brought us character miniatures and gave us the first space opera heroes to follow in the future.  IAF007 replaced the original Khanate Monocycle from the HOF Range with a better Canthus MkII.  Brought into being for the first time ever also were 15mm versions of the Ion Age Desteria Knights in super heavy armour in IAF009. Last but not least two limited edition codes which brought collect ability to the Ion Age and introduced limited codes to 15mm science fiction as I outlined on my own personal blog.

This first month also saw the beginning of playtesting for our initial 15mm rules set Patrol Angis.  Twenty persons chosen from more than sixty applicants.  Six weeks of testing on a rules set which I feel is one of my very best.  Testers include Bob Minadeo rules writer and Flintloque fan and Chris Knowles he of Dropship Horizon along with Orcs in the Webbe guru Craig Andrews so it is a great group with a lot of experience.

I have ten years experience in this industry and want it to keep the fun and originality that makes wargaming a fantastic hobby.  Not for it to fall into 'cookie cutter' sameness. 

The next month will see the Ion Age expand onwards and introduce more firsts for us and also items that are not miniatures but something else entirely.  We will maintain the weekly releases giving you material to play with now instead of promises of something off in the future.

I would like to end with a sneak peek at October 2013's free miniature with all orders.  There will be a separate post on it but I wanted to show it now.

Thank you, all of you who have supported the team especially myself and Sam Croes in bringing to life an idea that both of us adore and want to share with the wargaming world.  We have been let down sure but we have been supported by a great many.  So bring on the Space Opera, the Heroic, the Knights in Space!

GBS

PLEASE READ THIS
May 2019 and The Ion Age has been taken back into Alternative Armies.  It continues with new releases into the future!  Go to Alternative Armies for Ion Age pages of the 15mm Range the 15mm Terrain Range the 28mm Range the Publications range and the Free Downloads collection too for the latest.  All links to the ion age site are now defunct sorry!  If you wish to see something or ask a question email me on sales@alternative-armies.com.  GBS