Welcome back to One Turn Touchdown, today we would like to have an in depth look at a current live Kickstarter for an extremely interesting Amazon and Human team. We have in the past taken time to write about 3rd party miniatures and how Kickstarter has had a positive impact on the game, you can take a read here https://oneturntouchdown.com/2018/11/28/games-workshop-kickstarter-and-3rd-party-miniatures/. But in this post we would like to focus on one and have a look in more detail in what these campaigns involve, the people behind them and how it adds some differentiation to the game, something that isn’t seen much in Game Workshops brands.

I personally love a good range of 3rd party miniatures, even if I don’t end up backing the project I am all for what it does for the tabletop game, forever improving the vast range of unique models you have the chance to come up against. I mean lets be honest it can get a bit boring constantly playing against the official GW minis. It can be a breathe of fresh air and a great talking point when your opponent has a unique team, in particular in the tournament scene.

So lets jump in and have a look at the live ‘Bremuda’s Blitz’ campaign by Fite Games.

We had the chance to put some questions to Fite Games so we will share their answers throughout the review below to provide an interesting insight into the process.

Fite Games

So lets start with the people behind the campaign. Fite games is a team of tabletop gaming enthusiasts based in Aberdeen, Scotland. The city has interestingly been given the accolade of being the ‘luckiest’ city in the UK whilst also being famous for their Whiskey. Both are things that can make your games of Blood Bowl great fun.

So when did you establish ‘FITE Games’ and what made you do it?

We started Fite Games in 2017 to start a line of fantasy miniatures because we had a couple of ideas for games with miniatures which would also be suitable for a few different systems (D&D and some specialist games, as well as some of our own designs). The name ‘FITE’ actually comes from the first two letters of the names of the two of us that started it, Finlay and Terry

After talking to the guys at FITE it is clear that they are passionate about tabletop games, not just Bloodbowl but a wide range of games, and they want to share their visions in the physical form of miniatures with the community. Kickstarter allows them to achieve this. Like many of you reading this they have been playing tabletop games including Blood Bowl since their teenage years and are now in the position to share their passion with us.

How many people are involved in Fite games? How did you meet?

Me and Terry met around 10 years ago through my wife, and quickly became friends over shared interests like gaming and fly-fishing. He’s a very good artist, and we had complementing skills and ideas when it came to thinking about starting FITE. There are a number of people that I worked with at Games Workshop, and met through working there, that I speak to all the time; a lot of them are involved peripherally in design, with both art direction and the structuring of our projects.

Having a passion for your hobby is great but does not automatically mean you will be successful if you decide to take it further and get involved in projects such as this. But the team at Fite game have the experience and skills in order to make this campaign a success. Not only have they had two past successful projects in other game systems, Finlay having worked for Games Workshop brings both the knowledge and contacts for putting life into those creative ideas. Terry being the artistic element of the team.

On your website it mentions two previous campaigns for different game systems, can you tell us about them? What they are and how they went?

The two previous Kickstarters were “Salvation and Steel” for a range of 28mm fantasy miniatures and “Fate of the Eidolon” for 28mm sci-fi pieces. Salvation and Steel was a huge learning experience for us, and our first proper adventure into the whole process; the miniatures were pretty stand-alone. “Fate of the Eidolon” is a board-game we’ve been trying and testing for ages, and we wanted minatures to make the game come alive, so we wanted our second Kickstarter to start that process. They both funded, but we really priced things quite low, and only looked to break even; all profits were put back into more sculpts, so our start was very slow-burning and the process leant itself more to continuously rolling Kickstarters. With our third we hit a huge bump in the road when our caster folded his business and everything we’d established was effectively put on hold for a while.

For me a team that have had experience of running campaigns always puts my mind at ease when i’m backing a project, it gives you that assurance that they know what they are doing, know what issues they could potentially run into and how to overcome them to ensure us as the backers receive what we buy.

So with a good look into Fite games themselves lets take a look at the Bremusa’s Blitz campaign.

Welcome to the Jungle!!

With still no sign of an Amazon team from Games Workshop I am always very interested when I see one show its head on Kickstarter and Bremusa’s Blitz is no different. In the past there has been a lot of Amazon teams released which have had some controversy surrounding them down to the way they were modelled, mainly due to them being over sexualised and scantily dressed. Fite games do a great job with Bremusa’s Blitz in avoiding this whilst maintaining the Amazonian warrior aesthetic. Its a great balance.

When did you first get involved with Blood Bowl/Miniature gaming?

I actually worked for Games Workshop twice, so while I was mostly involed with Warhammer Fantasy and Necromunda when I was younger, I moved into Blood Bowl pretty quickly! I’m all over Blood Bowl 2 on the PC at the moment; me and Terry both now have young families which (understandably, hopefully) restrict our ability to play, and are devastated that we were going to be getting involved with our local league just before the whole world got locked down.

What I really like about this team and these sculpts is how diverse and dynamic they are whilst also being unique. They are not all in your standard fantasy football positions which give them a lot of character.

The team is great but what this campaign does differently is how you back the project. Most Fantasy Football team Kickstarters usually give the option of a ‘full team’ and a ‘full team’ plus additional positionals. What you get with Bremusa’s Blitz is the ability to chose exactly what and how many of each sculpt you want, giving you the option to only get what you need or customise your team to be something else. Ranging from backing to receive 1 player, a Blitz Bowl team (6 players), a full team (11 players) etc. I really like the idea behind this and with the variety and quantity of sculpts it really allows you to make your team look how you want it (hopefully others will follow suit)

Who designed/sculpted the miniatures?

I designed the miniatures and David Whitaker who runs TytanTroll Miniatures did the sculpting work. He deserves a lot of credit. I’m pretty sure he’s psychic because he took my concepts (which basically amount to the kind of montages that you produce in art when you’re about 10 years old) and turned them into what we think are fantastic sculpts. I shouldn’t really be allowed near these things.

Although they fit the aesthetic of an Amazon team, with the range of positionals they could also be used as a female Human team, something that people in the gaming communities have started to see a demand for, more representation for women in these games. I’m sure you have heard to discussions on social media about female Space Marines and Imperial Guard.

What made you decide to create a team?

Pure selfishness; there wasn’t one I was 100% happy in the models with, and I wanted to roll out a great-looking Amazon team the first chance we get to meet up – from discussing it with quite a few people, they similarly said they’d like to see an updated, unique take on the team.

No good Kickstarter campaign would be complete without some stretch goals and goodies that get revealed the more successfull the project becomes with Bremusa Blitz being no different

With a list of different perks at different levels of funding its great way to get the community involved and make a joint effort, but on top of that they have worked with Lindorm Dice to potentially bring a set of their Blood Oath dice to your table

So all in all the Bremusa’s Blitz team is a winner. Great models with the option to choose which positions you would like all for a reasonable price, £62 for 11 or £88 for 16 is competitive and in line with some of the more established manufacturers.

I personally will be backing the project and believe if you are in the need for a new Amazon/Human team or even just a unique characterful team to paint you should definitely take a look at ‘Bremusa’s Blitz’. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1036171223/bremusas-blitz-amazon-angels

To finish this post here are some of the remaining Q&A answers from Fite Games along with some more images of the project.

Why create an Amazon themed team?

Amazons are my personal favourite Blood Bowl team, and I had never found a good, athletic looking team that wasn’t gratuitous, so it seemed like a no-brainer to try and bring something a bit different!

Have you ever scored a OTT?

Technically, none I guess… my human teams have never had the movement and my skinks have never organically levelled-up in the right way to allow it off the line, but there’s been at least one occassion when I’ve been receiving the ball and got a Blitz on kick-off which has allowed a skink to sneak through. We regularly reset teams in our online leagues so things don’t get too out of hand.

Thoughts on the news of the new edition of Blood Bowl?

I mostly like everything I’ve heard, there are bits and pieces that have had people frustrated for a while, and things like the new passing stat allows for a little more diversity in positions amongst the teams. I don’t like the fact that the Teams of Legend aren’t included from the word go (although I’ve heard a few people say that GW have said they’ll have support when it’s released?) I’d have thought we’ve reached a point now where at a general release there could be the full details for all of the teams that have been with the game so long now.

Any sneak peaks of future projects/ideas?

Well, after this project we’re looking to get back to our Fate of the Eidolon range and expand upon that. Also, one of the guys who has been heavily involved with the Amazon project has worked on a Norse project that we’re also looking to get going. Now that we’re back on our feet after our caster issues, we’re hopefully in a much better position to move forward with a number of different things – but as with our previous Kickstarters, it all depends on people liking the look of our stuff and be willing to join us in our adventure! The trouble is that we want to do all of this responsibly, and running multiple Kickstarters at once won’t give people much confidence (which is totally understandable), so it’s a tricky game – but we’re in it for the long haul!