Supplemental Material

Battle Troll QRS's, so you don't have to break your book trying to photocopy them (PDF)

Band and Farm tracking sheets, so you don't have to break your book trying to photocopy them, either (PDF)

The following files are works-in-progress for the upcoming Battle Troll 2 book (Title undecided, date of release unknown...). Feel free to download them, play with them, and send comments to Roderick:

New Rules for Foreign Things (PDF)

Monsters from the Viking Supernatural (PDF)

Scenarios

Treasure of the Rauðr-Kunongr Venture into the far North to raid the alfar hero. Just in time for the Holidays!

Game Reports

From our friend Javier in Gran Canaria - a Battle Troll scenario with Vikings taking on actual trolls.

Figure Sources

25/28mm

Gripping Beast have specialized in this period, making not only the standard types (mailed huskarls etc.), but Viking merchants, women and children, buildings, ships etc., and specific figures (Olaf Tryggvesson, Egil Skallagrimsson etc.). They also make Anglo-Saxons, Normans, Picts, Irish, Skarelings of the proto-Algonquin type and an 'El Cid' range. Figures are sold in packs of 4. They also offer a box each of Viking Huscarls and Anglo-Saxon Thegns in hard plastic.

Artizan Designs offer a recent range of Vikings, full of character and enthusiasm, together with Carolingian Franks and Moors as opposition.

Crusader Miniatures’ excellent range of Vikings includes all the usual suspects, but also a set of thralls for the very bottom of Norse society. Strong on the Dark Ages in general, Crusader also features Normans and Saxons, Spanish and Byzantines, and – especially useful for Norse skirmishing– early Irish.

Old Glory makes a good line of Vikings, sold in bags of 30, with many different figures per bag. The ones listed as 'bondi' are largely unarmored figures ideal for feuding farmer types. The company also makes an extensive range of other Dark Age types, from Saxons to Steppe warriors, for our lads to tangle with. Old Glory figures are good, and cheap in bulk, but available only in packs.

Essex have a small but handsome line in sturdy Vikings, together with Anglo-Saxons, Franks and Normans, Rus and Byzantines.

Dixon have a range that is very strong on small ‘vignette’ groups, engaged in ant-social conduct involving other people’s property and family members.

Redoubt makes a beautiful longship and rowing crew, together with a small range of about 16 Viking raiders.

Wargames Foundry makes two range of Vikings, a 1980s-vintage range by the Perry twins and a more recent line by Mark Sims (now of Crusader Miniatures) together with Anglo-Saxons, Picts and Irish.

Irregular Miniatures have a line in Vikings that match the popular 'large 25mms', while many of their earlier figures (including a 'mooning' Viking chief) are rather smaller. But then, you'd expect those nimble Irishmen to be smaller than Norsemen, wouldn't you? Irregular also makes terrific livestock of all kinds, and a wide mix of unexpected items!

Brittannia makes a range of obviously larger figures. I only have one, a hulking berserker somebody gave me, so I can't judge the rest of the line.

Bronze Age Miniatures are on the larger side, with personality figures of Viking gods as well as character models.

There are other manufacturers out there – I have an old (a veteran!) Minifig spearman in my box, and a few older Ral Partha figures that are notably small and slender by recent standards (take off the beards and call them youngsters). Hinchliffe figures made in the dark ages themselves (alright, the 1970s) are still available. Recent manufacturers include ‘Heroes of the Dark Ages’ and Tanatus Miniatures. If you have the chance to browse boxes of old figures needing new homes, there is often a likely lad to be found; I have a few fantasy bandits, Crusading pilgrims and backdated medievals in my collection. Eastern woods Indians, minus muskets etc., might serve to fend off the Vinland settlers. Both gripping Beast and CP Models sell early Amerindians specifically listed as ‘Skraelings’. When I first complied this list I commented “Nobody makes Eskimos, do they?” Copplestone Castings and Eureka Miniatures have since produced Inuit figures.

Other Scales

It is possible to play Battle-Troll with figures of many sizes, although the smaller scales may demand reducing movement and shooting distance – and larger scales the opposite.

54mm is the traditional ‘toy soldier’ scale, although over the years this has generally become the preserve of finely-detailed ‘collector’ figures. Most of these are too expensive for the average gamer, but soft plastic Vikings are offered by Imex and B.M.C..

40mm figures are made in metal by Sash and Saber – fine figures at a very reasonable price – and by Graven Images (which I have not seen).

20mm (or 1/72 or 1/76) Vikings are made in soft plastic by Emhar, Strelets, Orion andZvezda. I heartily wish these had been available when I began wargaming forty years ago. Metal figures are made by Tumbling Dice. 15mm is a common wargames scale, used generally for army-level games rather than skirmishes. I have a lot of these, bought in the 80s and 90s (from Essex, Feudal Castings, Minifigs, Two Dragons and other makers no longer with us) and now serving in diorama-style groups for big battle games.