I bought a collection on eBay of “Song of Ice and Fire” miniatures some time ago thinking that in the future I would use them for generic barbarian types. The figures were great and the price was cheap so I put in an offer that was accepted.

Camp of the Free Folk

I had played the Song of Ice and Fire miniatures game pre-covid but wasn’t that interested.

During our recent game I concentrated on the rules and what they did, and this changed my thinking on the games system and I decided to fast forward the painting of a 50 point army list. I have about double this in units so I chose those that were readily accessible in the cave and looked cool.

I chose Tormund Giantsbane as the leader:

Tormund, often called Tormund Giantsbane, is a renowned warrior and raider among the Free Folk and one of the key leaders behind Mance Rayder. Tormund respected Mance as the King-Beyond-the-Wall and suspected he was the man to lead them through the Long Night.

Leaders need to be attached to a unit so I placed him with one of my two compulsory Free Folk Raiders.

“Plenty of little men tried to put their swords through my heart. And there’s plenty of little skeletons buried in the woods.” ―Tormund to Jon Snow

The bulk of the Free Folk forces are made up of the everyday people of the various tribes. They don’t have fancy metal armor. They don’t relentlessly train and drill maneuvers. They barely have weapons, just scavenging a bit of bone or old swords from the battlefield. But what they lack in military tactics, they more than make up for in one thing: numbers. When the Raiders come down from the north, they’re like a tidal wave, overwhelming enemy defenses as they go.

Free Folk Raiders

Giants are a non-human race considered to be a legend by the inhabitants of the Seven Kingdoms south of the Wall. However, giants do actually exist in the furthest north beyond the Wall, and have had some interactions with the human wildlings. This is in contrast with both the Children of the Forest and the White Walkers, which even the wildlings claim to not have seen in thousands of years.

Two giants came with the starter pack. I am not sure how effective they are but they looked cool so they were next to undercoat.

I wanted another big gnarly monster so chose a mammoth.

I liked the idea of some skin changers (shape changers). These are attachments to units so I attached a bear skin changer to a unit of savage cave dwellers as I thought that would be appropriate.

The second skin changer I chose was a wolf and attached them to a “trapper” unit.

There are non combat units in Song of Ice and Fire, that represent the political intrigues going on off the battlefield that still have an impact on field.

The firs I chose was Lad Val a Wildling Princess that helps with army movement.

The Free Folk warriors have little or no armour and suffer heavily in casualties so I chose Craster, who allows me to replace casualties. He is a horrible person in the books and the movie series but is great in game terms.

This should be enough to deal with those “Kneelers*” that chose to travel north of the wall!!

I will gradually paint these over the next few weeks.

*

“I know your kneeler’s knees must be itching, for want of some king to bend to”.—Tormund to Jon Snow

“You call us thieves, but at least a thief has t’ be brave and clever and quick. A kneeler only has t’ kneel”.—Ygritte to Jon Snow