When one decides to start a Warhammer Norse army an imediate problem arises: Games Workshop has not produced single Norse minaiture for ages, and they discontinued their old Norse line. Well, never fear, my friend, because there is a host of companies out there who offer excellent Norse/barbarian miniatures at prices that put Games Workshop to shame. Also, remember that by ordering from online companies and stores, you can save up to 40%. So, it's not all that bad, you see. There are Harlequin, Grenadier (thought they went out of bussiness their miniature are still bought and sold on net and some stores and distributors might still have old packs), Ral Partha and many more. I have most of the miniatures recomended on this page so I have seen them first hand (catalogs sometimes distort details).

So here we go...

There are several companies that make quality Norse miniatures, and here are brief intros on them:

CITADEL - obviously, people who came up with Norse in Warhammer World, put up quite a few minis to support in 80s (4 pages in my catalog actually). They are a wild mix of stereotipical barbarians (Conan type) and more historical Northmen, and are generally smaller than current Citadel line (25mm as opposed to current 28mm+). Judging by the catalog and minis that I have, they are sadly lacking in musicians, standard bearers and characters and all are called just Norse, but you can easily assign them to Berserkrs, Valkyries, Huskarls, etc based on how they look. They also made many Norse Dwarfs.

GRENADIER - Good news! Here is an awesome Barbarian line. Bad News. Company went out of business a while ago. Still there are quite a few Grenadier barbarians still being sold on net and if you check your local gaming stores they might still stock some. I found 20+ Grenadier barbarian minis in a store in PA few months ago. Prime source for War Beasts, Heroes and Rank & File. Overall miniatures look nothing like historical Northmen, but this is fantasy world after all. If logic of bare chested men living in cold Norsca horrifies you, don't look at Grenadier. This is source of Conan the Barbarian lookalike minis.

RAL PARTHA - One of the few miniature companies with a website. Their human miniatures, although anatomically correct, do not fit easilly with other companies' musclemen and with the rest of Citadel line. Best bet with Ral Partha is their monsters which do not have firmly set size. However, a new line of barbarian minis (Tyrants) in Partha Fantasy Armies looks very promising.

HARLEQUIN - Harlequin has a whole Barbarian army at fairly decent prices. Quality of work is very nice, and can rival Citadel. There are about 30 different barbarian minis, and their catalog is very much worth getting - not just for barbarians they make other nice minis (orcs, beastmen, goblins, etc). I bought several of their barbarian minis and they fit in nice with Grenadier ones. Good job Harlequin!

HEARTBREAKER - Heartbreaker either doesn't have many minis, or maybe their catalog doesn't. However what they have is very nice and similar to Citadel style, not surprisingly as some of the former (and best) Citadel sculptors work for them.

OTHER COMPANIES - Other companies worth mentioning are Reaper (which will hopefully make some more barbarian minis sometime, but if you play Undead - Reaper is THE place to shop for characters). They do, however, have an AWESOME website. Also there is a host of companies that produce historical miniatures and that have Viking minis. Gripping Beast has a variety of historical Viking and other minis.

Heroes, Command and Special Characters

Characters

Citadel produced quite a few nice leader type minis in their Norse line, if you can still find them.

Heartbreaker has a miniature called Barbarian Mercenary (#5019, $2.00) that makes a great leader (and even comes with a 20mm slotta base). I use it as a leader of my Einherjar unit.

Grenadier had quite a few of suitable minis in their Mark Copplestone's Barbarians line. Barbarian Command (#1416, 4 for $6.95) consists of 2 leader types, 2 standards and a musician with coolest and biggest horn ever. Barbarian Heroes (#1431, 4 for $6.95) adds 4 more minis that are suitable for characters (I use one as my beastmaster for trolls). Another good mini is Barbarian & Companion (#905) with a nice barbarian and a lion. Barbarian Hero (#5615, $2.25), Barbarian Battle Leader (#5617, $2.25) and Barbarian Warchief (#5620, $2.50) are other nice character minis. I only have Battle Leader, but the other two look great too, and I want Warchief mini baaad. The other Grenadier command minis that I only saw in catalog (without pictures, but judging by quality of other Grenadier barbarians, chances are they are great minis) are Barbarian and Trumpeteer (#8501, $4.00) and Barbarian King's Standard and Bearer (#8502, $4.00). As for mounted minis, there are Barbarian Cavalry Command (#1454, 2 for $6.95) which consists of hero and a standard, Thorin-Rog: Barbarian Battleleader (#1455, $6.95) and Mounted Barbarian Hero (#8514, $4.00).

Reaper has a pair of nice royal models, if you don't mind your king/queen sitting on a throne in a middle of battle. They cost $3.75 each and numbers are 2082 for Agnus Stormhand, Barbarian King and 2083 for Shanon, Barbarian Queen.

Harlequin has a great miniature called Barbarian King (#3106 at $7.95). It is a miniature of a king standing on a shield carried by 2 barbarians. Great mini to paint, and perhaps make some special rules for. They also have a nice pack of 3 Barbarian Heroes (#3101, at $6.95).

Shamans and Wizards

Grenadier's Barbarian Shamans and Sorcerers pack (#1442, $6.95) has some nice and wild looking shamans in it - if you have a spare one let me know, I want some.

I use a Harlequin miniature for shaman - it wasn't made to be one, but it looks like one - here's a pic.

Rank And File

Warriors

Comming up...

Mounted Warriors

Comming up...

Werewolves

Harlequin has a nice blister with 2 savage werewolves (#7001) priced at $6.95

Reaper has a great werewolf blister pack called Jean-Paul Werewolf (#02139) at $2.50 a pack. It fits quite nicely with Harlequin werewolves. Look under Dark Heaven line on their online catalog.

One of the werewolves I use is an old Grenadier or Ral Partha werewolf, here's a pic.

Citadel produced two werewolves in their Night Horrors Line (#074542/13 and #074542/28). They also made Giant Werewolf (#074542/23), a great mini and very fitting for Ulfjarl.

Ral Partha has a whole line of werewolf minis - to support Werewolf the Apocalypse game. If you don't mind the bigger than standard human size, there are some quite nice minis here - and bigger ones can always be used as ulfjarls. Also, 3 different kech minis by Partha are readily available, and look (somewhat) like werewolves. Well, I just use them cos I have 6 or so :)

Berserkers

Comming up...

Einherjar

Comming up...

Monsters and Warbeasts

War Mammoth

One word: Grenadier. If you can get your hands on one of their Special Edition's War Mammoths you'll be set. This beautiful piece comes complete with a howdah. The archers that you get with it are weak, but you can just throw them in the bits box and use some of the Grenadier foot barbarian archers instead, as long as you cut their lead bases off. You can also add a beastmaster to it (I used one of the Grenadier barbarian heroes). All together I have 4 archers + beastmaster with whip riding. This mini fits perfectly on two joined 40mm Warhammer bases. Compared to Games Workshop price is right at $24.95, although price might be inflated now, due to model being out of production. Production number is 2530. If you find two cheap ones, let me know - I still want second one.

Wooly Rhino

Like War Mammoth, War Rhino is produced by, sadly deceased, Grenadier, in their Special Editions line. Unlike mammoth, tho, it comes with three very nice riders - in a same style as Grenadier's barbarian line. Two riders hang from the sides, while one sits on rhino's back. This mini also fits perfectly on two 40mm bases, although it comes with it's own metal base. Retail value is same as mammoth - $24.95, model number is 2533.

Sabre-toothed Tiger

Barbarian Mounted Beastmaster (Grenadier, #1445, $6.95) comes with a large Sabretooth tiger and a barbarian rider. This is a part of Mark Copplestone's barbarians line, and like the rest of it, it is a great mini. I use a different rider, although the original one is gret too.

Grenadier also produced Amazons line (by Bob Naismith) which included blisters of 2 Amazons on sabretooth tigers (with either spears or bows) and Amazon attack chariots - 2 Amazons in a chariot pulled by 2 sabretooth tigers. I have never seen these miniatures except in catalog, and in it tigers appear smaller than the one barbarian beastmaster is riding. At any rate this opens up some interesting doors... (sabretooth tiger chariots, heavy cavalry, you get the picture). Numbers are 51021 (Amazon Cat Riders), 51022 (Amazon Cat Archers), 5302 (Amazon Attack Chariots).

Ral Partha has a blister that includes a Sabretooth tiger - it is called Deelah and Sabretooth (01-703) and retails for $5. Another Ral Partha sabretooth tiger (#02-945, $2.50) is same size as first one, at least it looks like that in catalog. Both of these tigers are way too small, in my opinion, especially if you plan to use them as mounts for heroes.

Snow Trolls

I use two Grenadier Barbarian Giants (#1429, $6.95) as Snow Trolls. They are roughly the size of Gw's River Trolls and after their metal base is cut off, they fit 40mm base perfectly. I also converted them a lot, using barrel ,and sword from GW's giant, etc.

You could also use Citadel's River or Stone trolls, or some of the old line trolls (Marsh, Mountain, Hill, and Cave trolls) if you don't mind them looking same as , well, Stone or River trolls.

Heartbreaker has two miniatures called Half Troll with ball & chain (#5020, $2.00) and Half Troll with club (#5021, $2.00) that I thought of using as Snow trolls before I found Grenadier ones. Also, they seem very small (well, they are Half Trolls) and look more like young ogre than trolls, at least compared to Citadel standards. Heartbreaker also produces 2 Trolls for $2.95 each (#3605 & #3606) that would be better suited than half-trolls. They are part of Phil Lewis' Big Guys line. One is armed with two handed axe and another with 2 bones. They look OK in catalog.

Ral Partha has probably a second best solution - a whole troll line. Although I have hard time imagining Snow Troll shamans and standard bearers (hey, why not!) their Troll Rock Throwers (#02-142, 3 for $8.50) serve the purpose. For the curious one's (hey maybe this inspires a troll army :) here is the rest of that line: Troll Leader and Shaman, Troll Standard Bearer and Drummer, Troll Heavy Infantry, Troll Light Infantry, and Troll Catapult.

I also heard somewhere that certain miniatures company makes minis that are supposed to be Snow Trolls for Norse armies (from Citadel Journal rules). I think it's Ghost Miniatures, but I am not sure. Anyone knows?

Send all questions and comments to srdan@bastaic.com.

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