Winter of the World

[James Holloway]

Now, I am up to my neck in projects at the moment, so the odds of my ever actually doing this are pretty slim.

But you never know, right?

So: I have recently reread the Winter of the World books by Michael Scott Rohan, which I was a big fan of when I was younger, and I have been pondering some little skirmishes based on that setting. 28mm, I expect.

For those of you not familiar with the setting, you have:

Humans - these are divided into two main cultures, with your southern humans being more sort of ... late-medieval-y, while the northerners are a bit sort of Viking-y, crossed with the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest. Then you have the Ekwesh, the baddies, who are definitely Tlingit or Salish or something.

Duergar - Dwarfs in this setting are actually Neanderthals. I can see this being kind of a tough one.

Lots of Ice Age wildlife - smilodons and giant ground sloths and so on. I remember these very clearly being in 28mm from ... HLBSC? Is that right?

Anyway, recommend figure manufacturers, terrain ideas, that sort of thing? Also rules, although I can always just do it in SoBH, which is sort of my go-to light-hearted fantasy game.

[Red Orc]

How flexible are you about scale? And what kind of 28mm are you after anyway?

I thought of the southern Greeky-Celticy dudes (can't remember what they're called, but the city-dwelling ones anyway) as being quite similar to how the Gondorians look in the LotR movies, which is itself based on a load of art best represented by some of the stuff in the Tolkien Bestiary by David Day... don't know about the illustrators as I'm not at home to check my copy.

But anyway, that might imply that the LotR Gondorians, Arnorians and Numenoreans might be OK for them - should be fairly easy to get hold of pretty cheaply, lots of them are available in plastic. And then others from the same range, or anything of a generally not-heroic-28 kind of scale, might well fit - they're Perry sculpts, so...

As for terrain, I remember a lot of forests, and a couple of fantasy cities... again I'd be looking at a vaguely Greekish kinda architecture, or maybe at Gondor again.

[James Holloway]

How flexible are you about scale? And what kind of 28mm are you after anyway?

Both open questions at the moment!

I thought of the southern Greeky-Celticy dudes (can't remember what they're called, but the city-dwelling ones anyway) as being quite similar to how the Gondorians look in the LotR movies, which is itself based on a load of art best represented by some of the stuff in the Tolkien Bestiary by David Day... don't know about the illustrators as I'm not at home to check my copy.

But anyway, that might imply that the LotR Gondorians, Arnorians and Numenoreans might be OK for them - should be fairly easy to get hold of pretty cheaply, lots of them are available in plastic. And then others from the same range, or anything of a generally not-heroic-28 kind of scale, might well fit - they're Perry sculpts, so...

As for terrain, I remember a lot of forests, and a couple of fantasy cities... again I'd be looking at a vaguely Greekish kinda architecture, or maybe at Gondor again.

Yeah, I think they are a bit Gondorian. The southern people are called the Penruthya (at least in their own language). I could see a Gondor look, with all proud helms and whatnot. But you also want to be able to field a character like Roc, who has a kind of no-nonsense medieval bruiser look about him, with a mail shirt and a big old mace. So noble types in tall helms and fancy armour, and commoners in utilitarian plate and mail.

Terrain-wise, yes, deep forests and, of course, the Ice. You'd want to have some snow and Ice areas ...

... continues to ponder.

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

There is a US company that does nice winter terrain pieces - War Torn Worlds, IIRC.

They do both summer and winter versions of each piece.

Gale Force 9 does those "Ice" crystals - in translucent blue or green.

That plastic hex game (Heroscape?) that was popular a while back also had a winter set which had regular hexes in white and crytal formations. The best bit, though, were the ice hexes, which were translucent and really looked the part!

Also the Operation Frostbite set from AT-43 - good crystals there.

[Alxbates]

Forge of Ice makes some lovely prehistoric-type tents... 



Here they are with Manic Miner's Four A Barbarians.

-Alex in Alaska
-Forge of Ice

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

I was looking at the Forge of Ice site the other day and very little seemed to be available. Peacocks and T-Shirts only, IIRC.

Maybe it just doesn't like Opera?

[v_lazy_dragon]

for neanderthal/dwarves you could try Primeval designs (stocked in the UK by Magister militarium, or some such), as they have a range of ice age neanderthals all wrapped up in furs. For undressed types, pulp figures do some naked/near naked neanderthals.

IIRC the HLBS range was bought by Northstar, and Primeval designs also do some ice age critters.

For Medieval bruisers in chainmail, most pre/early 100 years war figures should work; especially if you mixed in some more ganeral fantasy types from the likes of Reaper or Hasslefree 

[James Holloway]

Thing is that the duergar are only _biologically_ Neanderthals -- they have a sort of medieval level of technology.

Heck, maybe I should seek out sculpts with particularly brutish features -- there's a lot of minis out there that might qualify as Neanderthals in mediaeval dress!

for neanderthal/dwarves you could try Primeval designs (stocked in the UK by Magister militarium, or some such), as they have a range of ice age neanderthals all wrapped up in furs. For undressed types, pulp figures do some naked/near naked neanderthals.

IIRC the HLBS range was bought by Northstar, and Primeval designs also do some ice age critters.

For Medieval bruisers in chainmail, most pre/early 100 years war figures should work; especially if you mixed in some more ganeral fantasy types from the likes of Reaper or Hasslefree 

[Alxbates]

I was looking at the Forge of Ice site the other day and very little seemed to be available. Peacocks and T-Shirts only, IIRC.

Maybe it just doesn't like Opera?

No, the site is just not fully set-up yet.  Between my webmistress being a firefighter and me being in the Police Academy I just haven't had time to get everything done.

I'm still taking orders through my old forum/blog here:

http://forum54.oli.us/index.php/topic,6610.0.html

I have everything and it's all available and for sale!  Including the new possessed mummies and the Pterro-Man.

-Alex

[swiftnick]

By coincidence I've just finished The Hammer of the Sun.
For figures I was thinking of early medievals for the Westlands. With 100 Years war figures for Kerys. I have a load of Nordic looking Dwarves that I think would suit the Duergar. The Ekwesh are tricky though. At the beginning of the trilogy they come over as vikings but at the end they sound more like Zulus. I am thinking maybe Celts with shields painted to look like animal skin. If I remember the book describes the different tribes having runes on their shields.
One thing that struck me was that Northerners are often described as dark skinned.

[Red Orc]

Some Northerners are dark skinned because they've been breeding with Ekwesh for generations.

The Ekwesh are Mongolian-Native American. The 'dark' is a copper-y colour. The Kerysians are basically prototypically Celtic (pale skin, red hair). The 'true' Northerners are blond and blue or grey eyed (which is what Alv/Elof is).