Ulle paused on the forest track, he removed his heavy woollen hat and mopped his brow, using the opportunity to glance around as he did. He narrowed his eyes and peered at something in the distance, was that smoke? he replaced his hat and, adjusting the loaded packframe on his back he set off towards the faint plume he had spotted between the trees. It was several days since he had become separated from the rest of the band of Free Dwarf Traders on their way to the Northern Alliance Village of Holsingur, just beyond the border of the Halpi Mountain home of the Raven Clan of Free Dwarfs. Ulle blamed the good Mead he had brought to keep him warm, it was a little too good and when he had awoken the rest of the Traders had moved on. As this was Ulle’s first time to Holsingur he was unsure of the way and quickly found himself wandering forest trails at random. Although Ulle was used to living in the wilds his skills at tracking and pathfinding were non existent and so he was hoping that the smoke was either the Village he was searching for or, failing that, the camp of one of the Free Dwarf Ranger Patrols that maintained the Border, either way he would be safe.
As Ulle crested a slight rise in the path the trees opened out before him to reveal a Collection of wooden huts surrounded by a palisade of rough tree trunks and he could see the Fur Clad tribesmen inside, Ulle breathed a sigh of relief, it was the Village he was looking for, he nearly ran down the hill to the gate. It wasn’t until he stood before the central longhouse with its blood daubed walls and skull décor that Ulle realised his mistake and this Village was a Varangur settlement and not the Northern Alliance he had been looking for.
Ulle turned slowly to face the gathering crowd of wicked Warriors behind him.
“Errr Mead anyone?” he said weakly.
The Varangur have been used by the Trolls before, my Reader may remember the exploits of the “Army of Generic Evil” that was blogged about a couple of Years ago. Using the Varangur List and a selection of spare sprues an army was cobbled together and used in a couple of Tournaments. The Bloggery can be read here https://www.bleufish.uk/post/the-army-of-dorkness
The vision I have for the Varangur is the opening scenes of the Schwarzenegger Conan Film, where the Vanir raid the Cimmerian Village, with their Celtic style scout and Barbarian Horsemen with Wardogs and I still hear that Basil Poledouris Theme tune in my head when I play Varangur on the Tabletop. But then I am an old Romantic Troll at heart. I also now want to build a themed table for the Varangur with the Fighting Pit and the big grinding wheel on it, hmmmmm more ideas.
Over the past year the Trolls have laboured to produce a Northern Alliance army and it is nearly complete, the beauty of the Northern Alliance is that in the Lore for Kings of War the Tribes that make up the Northern Alliance and Varangur share a common heritage. Thus the same models that make up the Northern Alliance can be used to represent Varangur. Our Pack Hunters become Night Raiders and Frostfangs become Direfangs, while Tribesmen become, well, Evil Tribesmen.
With this in mind and following the disaster of the War up North, the Trolls decided to utilise some of their older models along with the new Northern Alliance Army to make another Varangur Army to close off the 24 season and maybe kick start the 2025 season.
As mentioned before the Trolls are going to utilise older Models to combine with the Mantic Models to make up the Varangur, the Draugr are going to be represented by SAGA Undead by Gripping Beast, an excellent range of Models owned by an old friend of ours, Andy Sherwell (Wheres my Tshirt ??) and a go to for any Dark Age army I build, excellent ranges of both Metal and Plastic models.https://www.grippingbeast.co.uk/product-filter/saga-age-of-magic,draugr
The Night Raiders are going to be played by the Three Regiments of Pack Hunters from the Northern Alliance army. They have been instructed to grimace and pull faces to look more evil. But eventually the idea will be to replace the Northern Alliance models with some suitable Kitbashes of Celts and Vikings with Bows to make the De Laurentis Style Barbarian Night Raiders, all tattooed and Ginger.
The Mighty Sons of Korgaan are being supplied by some of my favourite models from the 90’s in the form of Mark Copplestones Barbarian Cavalry, originally produced by the long disappeared Grenadier Miniatures, but now resurrected by Forlorn Hope Games https://forlornhopegames.co.uk/category/fantasy-warriors/barbarians and I have one regiment painted and the other has been stripped of their 90’s paint job ready to be daubed to join the Varangur. I may have to make use of their resurrection to expand my collection some more to make a really big Varangur Army.
The Northern Alliance Snow foxes will be encouraged to be “Naughty Boys” while they join the masquerade. But in the meantime some suitable “War Dog “ models will be sourced, maybe even the Abyssal Dwarf mutated Mastiffs , mmmmm food for thought.
The Magus Conclave will be ably portrayed by some more of the Copplestone Barbarians in the form of his Witch Doctors and Shamans performing their Dastardly rites, although some rebasing will be required. I had to have at least one Conclave regardless of the composition of the Army in tribute to Dan ”blast em till they’re Dead” Kings Varangur lists.
The Thegns on Direfangs will simply be the Northern Alliance Hero’s with a slight name change. Although I still think they need back banners to make them look heroic.
Magnilde, now here is a quandary, I do have the official Mantic Magnilde Model still in its Blister, but I do wonder if there are other female barbarian models that are more “Frank Frazetta”, having grown up with Conan and Sonia, Krull and the Beast Master I am not a subscriber to the realistic PC view of appropriate Armour on my Barbarian Models, I like them to show muscles and flesh. I will have a look through my selection of alternate “Magnildes” for a suitable stand in I think.
The Chimera Lords are going to Recycle two old GW plastic Chimeras I had originally bought for a 3000 point tournament, where they stood in for Dragons with Dwarf berserkers on their backs( it’s a long story) and I have two of the limited edition Northern Alliance Lord models from some Mantic release years ago and so , with the magic of Spray cans and Glue with a bit of paint and rebasing they will become the Varangur Lords of Mayhem ( or knowing my tactical skills the Varangur equivalent of the Chuckle Brothers)
The Varangur fit into My Little Corner of Pannithor in two areas , to the North , where the Raven Clan have liberated their Home Hold and so they now Border the Ogres, Northern Alliance and Varangur and in the South, where the Varangur represent the Fallen civilisation of the Gallia as described in the Am Mordras episode of this Blog [Am Mordras Link]
Eventually the Northern Alliance Models will be phased out in favour of dedicated Varangur versions, possibly not Mantic, but more in keeping with with my Conanesque visions, this will also reduce the amount of conflict between Trolls wanting to use their favourite armies and I will, of course, keep my Reader posted with the progress of these little fellas…
LET ME TELL YOU OF THE DAYS OF HIGH ADVENTURE!
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