The Old World Army Challenge: Just John's Norse Army

Well I'm back to try this again. My last OWAC ended in disaster with an ignominious trip to the Field of Bones in January. I initially considered revisiting last years Orc army but decided I needed a fresh start. Then, with this being a special edition, I considered doing a bunch of Mordheim warbands but somehow managed to talk myself out of it. Still not quite sure how but there's always the next special edition 😀. Instead I decided to go with an army of Norse warriors mainly because they will double up as the backbone of an historical Viking army that I will be using to fight a mates Anglo-Saxon army.

Citadel produced a very small selection of Viking minis back in the late 80's. Well that's not entirely true. They had a range of Dark Age minis, the DA range, but they are tiny beside modern minis being really only 'true' 25mm figures. The slotta-range of Vikings were the ones that caught my eye as a youngster partly because of this add from White Dwarf.

At the time I remember hoping that it would be the start of a larger range but it wasn't ever officially enlarged really beyond the ones on this advert

Citadel did add more figures to the range but they were a mix of Conan style barbarians, Native Americans and Celts rather than Vikings and eventually the two ranges were merged into a Norse range in the 1991 catalogue. Unfortunately that was it. Foundry split from Citadel and took the Vikings with them and rather than continue with the same sculptors they went off in a totally different direction with chunkier, and to my eyes anyway, less appealing range.

To make matters worse my poor 1980s Viking ambitions were ignored when Warhammer Armies was released and it was only with the publication of issue 107 of White Dwarf that an 'official' list was published.

It was a basic enough list with a somewhat historical core of Huscarls, Bondi (Bondsmen) and Thralls with Berserkers (what self respecting quasi historical army wouldn't have some of these). The true fantasy elements included Ulfwerenars, Norse Dwarves, dwarven berserkers and slayers. All in all a nice selection of minis.

Unfortunately apart from the Dwarven elements the entire army would need to be made up of the few figures from the above advert. Luckily this is no longer the late eighties and there are now a lot of companies out there making wonderful Vikings that fit well with the original Citadel range. The figures I have selected for the challenge are mainly Footsore and Gripping Beast with a few others added for variety.

I've decided to aim low this time and hopefully pleasantly surprise myself with the end results. I have selected 5 units of 10 infantry, all of which can be used for historical armies. The aim will be to paint 4 of these for the unit months. I might do the fifth for the wildcard month which hopefully I will manage to keep in reserve until close to the end of the challenge. I have to choose my leaders yet - I am currently spoiled for choice and can't decide on which ones to use. More on them closer to the time.

First up is a unit of 10 Bondsmen archers. These are mainly Footsore Miniatures with a couple from the original Citadel/Foundry range.

Then there is a unit of 10 Thralls, who are viewed as slaves armed with javelins or slings in the army list. These are mainly plastic figures from Gripping Beast with the single javelin armed Citadel example in the front rank.

These are the 10 figures that I have chosen as a unit of Bondsmen, or Bondi. They are mainly Footsore and Citadel/Foundry.

These are the Berserkers a mix of Old Citadel/Foundry, Footsore Miniatures, Stronghold Miniatures and a pre-slotta Giant at the back (he's tiny)

These are the beginning of the Ulfwerenar unit. These are Shieldwall Miniatures and the rest of the unit, which are from Gripping Beast, are stuck in the post somewhere between the UK and Ireland.