Buy and Collect Numenor - My Experiences

Numenor is one of the smallest factions miniature-wise in MESBG - two named heroes, one unnamed hero and one warrior choice - that's it. And yet it offers quite a lot of options on how to buy it, including interesting alternatives. 

This is the army that fascinated me from the first time on watching "The Fellowship of the Ring" and was the reason I became motivated to start MESBG. I went through some interesting experiences while collecting this army. Therefore I want to share this knowledge and maybe encourage a fellow gamer to give this wonderful army a try ;)

Please note: This is by no means a complete guide for everything. I am myself not so keen in doing conversions although there is some great work of people out there and they are definitely doable. Also there is always the possibility to bring in models of other systems or reuse existing models as something else. 

This is just about my personal journey and what I learned from it :)

Named Heroes

Your options for named heroes are Elendil and Isildur. I will handle them together since there is no reason to not have both  of them.

Gamesworkshop 

GW offers a set containing both heroes for currently 14,5 €, which is ok. The miniatures are made of metal and considering their age they still fit pretty good in my opinion. Also there is not much that can get damaged besides the swords.

As far as mounted options go, Isildur has a mounted miniature which was for a very long time out of production. However on the 21.7.2022, GW announced that it would come back into the range! =)

Photo credit: GW

Second-hand shops

Because the miniatures are so old, you should have no problem finding a second-hand offer. WillHaben, Facebook Trading groups, Ebay, etc are good places. I personally bought them over the second. Just be aware that if you buy just one of them,  your future buy options for the other will be limited to someone selling just him or willing to sell only him in case he has two. Also despite my experience of very friendly traders and fair prices, you do not really save too much money buying second-hand. Especially if you do more than one order - shipping costs! Try to bundle things together - often the seller also offers warriors. I was also surprised that most of the time you can still get unpainted versions.

Davale

One cannot talk about buying a Numenor army, without mentioning Davale. The company offers alternative miniatures for multiple factions but most people know them for their High Human line. Its possible to buy digital licenses to print yourself. Alternatively there are several shops selling them beside Davale itself. But there is only one I know of that sells their hero options:

Photo credit: Direforge

Photo credit: Direforge

These miniatures are just amazing! The amount of detail, the poses, the armor, the horse, the clothe... everything about them is great =) 

There are some drawbacks in other areas. First these are two separate sets,  each containing the character on foot and horse. So you need to buy both. Plus each of them comes at a price of 31,5 €. Also I do not have experience with the miniatures and do not know anyone who has them.

On the other side the price seems appropriate for the (at least shown) quality.

So yeah, these are the luxury versions of our named heroes but I think they are great and I hope that at some point I will come around to own them myself =) Oh and their material is Resin, as with all miniatures from Davale.

Unnamed Heroes

Your only option for unnamed heroes are Captains of Numenor.

Gamesworkshop

There is no original miniature for captains from GW. Your only option would be to paint one of the warriors in a special way or do a conversion.

Davale

Again Davale comes to save the day ;) They offer you two options. First, another awesomely detailed set with one infantry and one horse version (and again for 31,5 €).

Photo credit: Direforge

Second,  a simpler but still good looking version, with two different poses. Davale itself offers only the full command set but at other shops you can buy them separately. And in this case there is no mounted version.

Photo credit: DavaleGames

Warriors

We have only one warrior option but there are multiple versions of them to buy, depending on the available gear - banner bearer, spear warriors, sword warriors and bowmen.

Gamesworkshop

GW offers all warrior options except the banner bearer. That one you would have to convert since there is no official model.

The standard sword and shield warriors are still available in the original box set of 2001, in plastic. However this one only contains eight of them while also containing 16 high elves. If you plan on creating a Last Alliance army with bigger focus on elves - perfect! If not, you are probably better with one of the other sources. Also it should be noted that they haven't aged well + their size is too small compared to newer miniatures - placing one of the heroes next to them makes them look hilariously small. The set price is 34 €.

Photo credit: GW

The original warriors with spears come in a blister of three and are made of metal. Their proportions are correct and they still look okish. Their price is 12,5 €. 

Photo credit: GW

The original bowmen come in a blister of three and are made of metal. Their proportions are correct and they still look okish. Their price is 12,5 €.

Photo credit: GW

Second-hand shops

Because the warriors from GW are one of the oldest miniatures of the system still being around,  there are a lot of them available second-hand. Again WillHaben and FB Trading groups worked pretty well for me. Because you can often buy a greater number of models in a bundle, you can save yourself money. I was also surprised that most of the time you can still get unpainted versions.

Davale

Prepare for another bunch of good looking alternatives ;) But important: Their proportions tend to be bigger than most original miniatures. So a Davale High Human Warrior next to an Uruk-Hai will look bigger.

For the banner bearer you have two options. First, a more detailed and finer version, coming in at 15 €.

Photo credit: DireForge

Second, two banner bearer versions of the commando set (see unnamed hero part from above).

For standard and spear warriors we have finer, more detailed version in a set of 12 miniatures, coming in at 40 €.

Photo credit: DireForge

The rest are more simpler versions than above. Nonetheless the have good details and a lot more variation + poses than the original ones.

Warriors with sword and shield - a set of six for 21,6 €.

Photo credit: DavaleGames

Warriors with spear and shield - a set of six for 21,6 €.

Photo credit: DavaleGames

Warriors with bows - a set of six for 21,6 €.

Photo credit: DavaleGames

Personal Overview

Now that I have shown you all the available options I have experience with, a small summary of how I bought my Numenor miniatures,  with links to my DeviantArt pictures as comparison:

• Elendil & Isildur: Original GW miniatures,  bought second-hand over FB Trading groups: DeviantArtLink-Elendil and DeviantArtLink-Isildur
• Warriors with sword and shield: Original GW miniatures, bought over FB Trading groups
• Warriors with spear and shield: Original GW miniatures, bought over WillHaben: DeviantArtLink
• Warriors with bows: Original GW miniatures, bought over WillHaben: DeviantArtLink
• Captain of Numenor: "simple" Davale miniature, bought over Pasch-Spiele: DeviantArtLink
• Banner Bearer: -"-: DeviantArtLink
• Warriors with sword + shield, spear + shield, bows: -"-: DeviantArtLink

Conclusion

I hope I was able to give a good overview of the possibilities to buy Numenor miniatures. In one of the next posts I will write about the army itself, my experience with it and why three heroes and one warrior might give more options than you think ;)