Hello all,

I've been recently getting back into Strategy Battle Game and Battle Companies in particular and I happened to see in my November White Dwarf a Dale and Erebor list that really peaked my interest. I'm kind of focusing my various warbands around the War of the Ring war in the East (I'm making an Easterling force, a Dwarf force, a Moria force, and eventually hope to do a Dol Guldur and Dale force). Eventually as my Battle Companies grow I'm looking to expand them into a couple small armies (Dwarves with Men of Dale allies and Easterlings/ Moria).

All that said, I'm not really a fan of the depiction of the Men of Dale (and later Lake-Town) in the new Hobbit films. To be fair these depictions were all prior to the War of the Ring, but I always imagined Dale to be more Nordic influenced . I figure since Rohan was depicted in a manner similar to Saxons by the films, perhaps I would do my men of Dale in a more Viking aesthetic (it seems a lot of their culture is built around boats and lakes from the little I've gleaned from the internet.....It's been a decade and a half since I read the Lord of the Rings and I don't really recall the war in the East getting much attention anyways).

What do you all think of V&V miniatures Vikings? They seem to scale pretty well with Gripping Beast miniatures from my poking around the internet, which in turn scale pretty well with LOTR stuff.
Here is a link for those who have not seen them:
http://vminiatures.com/28-mm/vikings/

Any other suggestions would be much appreciated!

G;day,
I have a pack of V&V viking Huscarls. They are superb sculpts, cast in resin but a bit pricey. Still massively cheaper than GW though... For men of Laketown I bought a box from Fireforge Games of foot Steppe tribes (sorta dismounted Mongol types-ish). I think with some weapon and head swaps from 'left over' Dark Ages stuff a unique army can be built up. That's the plan .
I think anyway....
Hope this helps

Greg

Thank you very much for the feedback Papa Hoth, I'm happy to hear the V&V stuff is of good quality. It is pretty expensive for sure, I think a 12 man warband and a hero priced out to a few dollars over 40 USD, but compared to GW that's a steal. I think your plan with the Fireforge Steppe Tribes is a rather good one, and should save you a huge amount compared to the GW models. Plus you get more than three sculpts to build your force from, so that's a huge plus.

Thanks again, your feedback is much appreciated!

I've been considering the Russians from Fireforge games. I love their stuff, and these models really appeal to me. [url]fireforge-games.com[/url]

_________________
"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'nice doggie' until you can find a rock." -Will Rogers

The Russian city milita troops would make great proxies for Laketown militia. Maybe the Mongol and Russian troops kitbashed together would be good for Dale?

I've actually thought the Russian infantry with axes with a head swap would be good Axemen of Lossarnach for Fiefdoms.

Oh man, nice find on those Russian infantry GreatKhanartist. They have a really unique vibe to them (especially for historical minis), I think I may just go for them for my men of Dale (and they have options for hand weapons, spears, and bows...this may just be a perfect kit).

I think you could also get away with them for Axemen of Lossarnach Metalface!

You might look at Perry Miniatures Crusaders line. They're 11th-12th century Normans more or less. Mail hauberks, tear drops shields, conical helms with nose pieces. I'm painting some up now and they're really nice models, but more importantly they're smaller then most 'warhammer' size historicals by Gripping Beast, Fireforge, etc. and they look right next to the existing LotR lines.