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When we think of Halloween, we might not immediately think of wargaming and miniatures, but Halloween miniatures are absolutely a staple of the genre, as are Halloween wargames. While there are plenty of questing knights and lizardmen and Space Marines in wargaming, there is SO MUCH in wargaming perfectly suited for Halloween: demons, ghosts, vampires and zombies.

Honestly, any Halloween creature from any Halloween movie that you can think of has probably been made in miniature form and appeared on a tabletop somewhere. So while we may not think “It’s Halloween! Time to wargame!” there is still plenty of “It’s wargaming! This reminds me of Halloween!”

In this article we are going to break down 54 Halloween miniatures, Halloween wargames, Halloween rulesets, Halloween board games, Halloween terrain, and Halloween wargame-related books.

We have broken down Halloween wargaming products, Halloween miniatures, and other Halloween related stuff into four categories for this ghoulish list of all things spooky and sinister. First we have Halloween Miniature Wargames, which will include rulesets, codices, and packaged games. Second, we have Halloween Miniatures, and believe us when we say that there are a LOT of Halloween miniatures—we’ll have a lot of creepy, nightmarish Halloween miniatures to look at. Then we have Halloween Terrain (think ghostly graveyards and Satanic temples). And finally, Halloween Wargaming Books, because it wouldn’t be Halloween without ghost stories.

Halloween Miniatures Wargames

Halloween and wargames go together like trick and treat. Halloween can be anything to anyone, however, so while you might want to dress up as Lord Licorice or Princess Lolly for Halloween, we’re not going to include Candyland on our list of Halloween wargames. Instead, we’re looking for scary, the foul, the monstrous, the maddening. HP Lovecraft and Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley. This is where we’re drawing our inspiration for Halloween wargames.

Reign in Hell

This ruleset was developed and released in 2021 by two high-profile wargamers on YouTube, Uncle Atom from Tabletop Minions and Vince Venturella from Warhammer Weekly. The game is a miniatures agnostic skirmish game—“miniatures agnostic” meaning that there are no models that come with the game but you can play with whatever models you want to buy, print, or build. The premise is that hell was once a fairly stable place but has fallen into chaos with different demons vying for control. You create a cabal of demons, again, using whatever demonic models you’re interested in, and then fight other demonic cabals for dominion of the netherworld. You can buy the rules here.

The Quick and the Undead

As we’re going to find with most of the Halloween wargames on this list, zombies are an enticing subject matter for spooky evenings around the gaming table. The Quick and the Undead is a ruleset put out by Partizan Press designed to be played on a 3’ x 3’ board with one side controlling about six (living) humans and the other side controlling 12 to 18 undead zombies. Made to be played with Matchlock Miniatures “Bullets and Brains” 28mm figures, there’s a lot to love about these lumbering hordes. You can buy the rules here.

Zombicide

While yes, this isn’t a traditional wargame (it’s a board game) it is known for having a ton of great miniatures with nearly endless expansions into every deviously delightful zombie-filled niche. Coming from CMON (Cool Mini or Not), this is a collaborative game in which you and your friends have to find weapons, fight the zombies, and escape with your lives. One nice mechanic is that there is no player on the zombie side in Zombicide—the zombies are run by given rules, almost like an AI, so all of your group can play together as a team. This game has won award after award, and is known for having some great models. Some of the notable expansions are Zombicide Core Set (Buy from Amazon), Zombicide Green Horde( Buy from Amazon) , Zombicide Friends and Foes( Buy from Amazon) , Zombicide Fort Hendrix (Buy from Amazon), and Zombicide Night of the Living Dead. (Buy from Amazon)

Last Night on Earth

Sorry, this one’s a board game, too, but it’s absolutely too delightful to pass up in a discussion of Halloween miniatures. Last Night on Earth is another zombie game, but it is not collaborative and one of your friends IS trying to kill you. The best part about Last Night on Earth is how incredibly narrative it is: with tons of detailed story scenarios and elements from every horror movie you’ve ever seen incorporated into it, it’s easy to get lost as you play the troubled football hero protecting the prom queen, or you play as the mysterious drifter working his way through town after town, or as the tough farm girl protecting her ranch with her chainsaw. (Buy from Amazon)

Malifaux

Malifaux is fast becoming one of my favorite games because of its wonderfully varied characters and wild story ideas. Malifaux is an alternate earth which is equal parts steam punk and gothic horror, voodoo and Satanism, wild west and Dickensian London. If this sounds at all interesting to you, you owe it to yourself to dig into Malifaux. It’s a skirmish gang played with between six and nine characters on each side, and there is no real starter set because every single character (and there are a ton of them) have their own starting entourage. (Buy from Amazon | Buy from Element Games)

And if you’re looking for something *especially* Halloweenish in your miniatures games, try Malifaux’s storylines “All Hallow’s Eve” and “Trick or Treat”.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: The Grand Alliance of Death

There’s no way we can talk about Halloween wargaming without getting into the Grand Alliance of Death. After all, what is more Halloween than a group called the Flesh-Eater Courts? There are four factions in the Grand Alliance, the Flesh-Eater Courts (who are just as the name makes them sound) (Buy from Amazon | Buy from Element Games), the Nighthaunt (ghouls and ghosts and banshees) (Buy from Amazon | Buy from Element Games), Soulblight Gravelords (vampires and their twisted thralls) (Buy from Element Games), and the Ossiarch Bonereapers (who create both themselves, their mounts and their warmachines out of leftover bones of other creatures). (Buy from Amazon | Buy from Element Games).

Warhammer 40k: Necrons

You didn’t think we’d forget about the undead robots, did you? Whether they’re space skeletons or space mummies, Games Workshop leans hard into the ancient Egypt flavor of these soulless automatons reborn after millions of years of sleep. Not only is the backstory of the Necrons amazing (read more about it here) but the rules are perfectly suited for alien undead with their reanimation protocols. (Buy from Amazon | Buy from Element Games)

Halloween Miniatures

When it comes to Halloween miniatures there is no end to the selection, no matter what kind of ghost, goblin or monster you’re having nightmares about. My very first Games Workshop purchase, made when I was ten years old at the shop around the corner, was a box of skeletons. Wargames have been producing Halloween miniatures for a long time. Here are just some of the best Halloween wargame miniatures we’ve found—some have Halloween rules, and some are just great Halloween sculpts.

Kings of War Undead

We’ve reviewed Kings of War on this website before, and one thing that I mentioned in that review is that the models are really great quality. In this case, the Kings of War Undead Army consists of skeleton warriors, zombies, revenants, mummies werewolves, and then their own invention, the Lykanis. A rank-and-flank game, Kings of War is considered to be one of the best mass-army rulesets on the market right now. (Buy from Amazon | Buy from Element Games).

Kings of War Empire of Dust

If you want your Halloween Kings of War miniatures to be more flavorful than standard skeletons and zombies, then the Empire of Dust might be just what you’re looking for. It’s essentially ancient Egypt (and, let’s be honest, it’s essentially Games Workshop’s discontinued Tomb Kings). In this army you get skeleton warriors, skeleton archers, revenants, mummies, enslaved guardians, balefire catapulpts, and a revenant champion. (Buy from Amazon | Buy from Element Games).

Malifaux

If you’re picking up Malifaux to play for Halloween, we suggest dipping into the Neverborn faction, creatures that are the native inhabitants of Malifaux. Pandora opens a box filled with your worst nightmares, be they haunted children or massive poltergeists (Buy from Amazon | Buy from Element Games). Zoraida is a swamp hag that uses voodoo to bring her wicked creatures into true form (Buy from Amazon | Buy from Element Games). The Dreamer, a young boy, manifests himself in dreams in the form of the gargantuan demon Lord Chompy Bits. (Buy from Amazon | Buy from Element Games).

Warhammer 40k: Necrons

As mentioned above, the Necrons are essentially ancient Egyptian robots come back to life after sixty million years sleeping in their tombs. Any of the Necron models are gorgeous (and remarkably easy for beginners to paint) but some of  the ones that we find to be most fitting for the Halloween miniatures theme are the Flayed Ones (who are trying to regain mortal bodies by wearing the skin of their victims) (Buy from Element Games) and Illuminor Szeras (who is just eviscerating this poor guy’s mind).  (Buy from Amazon | Buy from Element Games). Or just get started with the Combat Patrol box. (Buy from Amazon | Buy from Element Games).

Warhammer 40k: Chaos Daemons

There’s something very Halloween about daemons, and each one of the four brands of Warhammer 40k daemons are unique and delightfully disgusting. Try these Start Collecting boxes for the Daemons of Khorne—Blood for the Blood God! (Buy from Element Games). Or the putrid and vile Daemons of Nurgle (Buy from Element Games). Or the bizarre and everchanging Daemons of Tzeentch (Buy from Amazon | Buy from Element Games). Or the hedonistic and twisted Daemons of Slaanesh (Buy from Amazon | Buy from Element Games).

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Flesh-Eater Courts

Truly nightmarish monsters whose only purpose is to, well, eat flesh, there is a lot of love about painting these beastly things. The Start Collecting box (Buy from Amazon | Buy from Element Games) comes with a Terrorgheist, Crypt Horrors, and Crypt Ghouls.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soulblight Gravelords

For the classic undead army, look no further than Games Workshop’s most recent addition to the Age of Sigmar universe, the Soulblight Gravelords. Everything about this miniatures says Halloween. The Start Collecting box gives you a Wight King on a Skeletal Steed, Black Knights, and Grave Guard Skeletons (Buy from Amazon | Buy from Element Games), but it’s in some of the other offerings that I find the most Halloween-ish fun. Say what you will about how Games Workshop bungled the release and support of Cursed City, but the models were incredible, and you can pick up the main villains in Radukar’s Court (Buy from Element Games). And two of my favorite creeptastic models are Soulblight: Kritza the Rat Prince (Buy from Element Games) and Lady Annika (Buy from Element Games).

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Nighthaunt

These are easily some of my favorite sculpts in the game. The way they get these ghosts to be so ethereal and yet sturdy is really *chef’s kiss* sculpting. There is no Start Collecting box for the Soulblight, but Lady Olynder is an incredible model (Buy from Amazon | Buy from Element Games) and I don’t think there’s a more Halloween miniature around than the Black Coach (Buy from Amazon | Buy from Element Games).

Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game

For evil that is every bit as creepy as zombies and skeletons, but cut from an entirely different cloth, there’s Tolkien. Some of the best Halloween miniatures are the Black Riders (Buy from Element Games), the Mighty Shelob (Buy from Element Games), the Nazgul (Buy from Amazon | Buy from Element Games), and my favorite, the Dead of Dunharrow (Buy from Amazon | Buy from Element Games).

Konflict 47

For something entirely different, look into the Weird War game of Konflict 47. The premise of the game is that advanced tech got back to World War II and changed the outcome in a lot of ways and while that may not sound very Halloween, miniatures tell a different story. Russians got mutants and Italians got power armor, but the Germans have Nachtjager’s which are demons, pure and simple, (Buy from Element Games) and Totenkorps, which are zombie Nazis (Buy from Amazon | Buy from Element Games)..

Anvil Industries

Zombie heads. Nothing more to it than this: if you have some 28mm miniatures and you want them to have zombie heads, then Anvil Industries can hook you up. These will quickly make your game of Bolt Action (or your Astra Militarum) very different indeed. (Buy from Anvil Industries).

Miniac

The Duchess. Scott from Miniac is one of the best painters on YouTube, and a couple years ago he commissioned to have his own miniature designed, sculpted, and cast, and it’s exactly what you’d think Miniac would give you: a vampire. This gorgeous 75mm model comes with its own exclusive tutorials leading you through painting the entire thing. (Buy from Miniac).

Halloween Miniatures Terrain

It’s no good to have a Halloween army, and a Halloween ruleset, if you only have some green trees and country cottages. You need good Halloween terrain to back it up. Here are some of the pieces of Halloween terrain that we like the best.

Games Workshop: Sigmarite Mausoleum

Games Workshop has a lot of great and evocative terrain, but Halloween wargame terrain starts and ends with the Sigmarite Mausoleum. This set is jampacked with tombs and mausoleums and broken walls and weeping statues. It’s perfect for any and every Halloween terrain board. (Buy from Amazon | Buy from Element Games).

Games Workshop: Great Mawpot

This Ogor Mawtribes specialty is gruesome enough to fit into any spooky terrain, adding a little bit of blood and gore to your wargaming table. (Buy from Element Games).

Games Workshop: Bone-Tithe Nexus

We’ve had undead cemeteries and cannibalism—let’s add a little daemonic skull sacrifice to the mix. The Bone-Tithe Nexus, an obelisk surrounded by endless skulls, is a delightfully wicked piece. (Buy from Amazon | Buy from Element Games).

Games Workshop: Charnel Throne

From the Flesh-Eater Courts, this horrifying throne is made of bones and stands over a puddle of gore. I’m honestly not sure what purpose it serves in the game, but it’s plenty gross for your Halloween game. (Buy from Element Games).

Anvil Industries: Tombstones

If you are just looking for some straightforward scatter terrain for your Halloween wargaming board, you could do worse than these cheap and easy tombstones. (Buy from Anvil Industries.)

Printable Scenery: Doom Ramparts

The only 3D printing files that I’m going to post here, if you’d like to take your Halloween wargaming table straight to hell, build a demonic castle with the Doom Ramparts. While you’re on the site, look for the Skull Throne and the Maw of Despair. (Buy on Printable Scenery.)

Halloween Wargame Books

With all of the lore that exists out there in regards to wargaming, it should be no surprise that there is plenty of fiction related to wargames that is also horrific. And to while most of it comes from the Black Library, we’re going to start with one that doesn’t.

The Butcher of Khardov, by Dan Wells. Privateer Press.

From the game Warmachine, this novella was the first work of commercial tie-in fiction ever nominated for a Hugo Award. (Buy from Amazon)

 

 

The Oubliette, by J C Stearns. Black Library.

Set in the world of Warhammer 40k, a girl becomes Lord Governor when her father dies, only to discover something evil lurks in the depths of the palace. (Buy on Amazon.)

 

 

The Reverie: Warhammer Horror, by Peter Fehervari. Black Library.

Nothing natural grows in The Reverie, but the occasional wanderer will find themselves there, seeking revelation or redemption. But only one will face the true Reverie. (Buy on Amazon.)

The Wicked and the Damned: Warhammer Horror, by Josh Reynolds, David Annandale, and Phil Kelly. Black Library.

Three strangers meet in a desolate cemetery world and relate their stories in these three horror novellas, each with a distinctive feel. (Buy from Amazon.)

 

The Harrowed Path: Warhammer Horror, by Various Authors.

This anthology of short stories set in the Warhammer world are by the likes of Graham McNeill, Jake Ozga, Lora Gray and more. (Buy from Amazon.)

Conclusion

And there we have it: more Halloween miniatures and Halloween wargame content and products than you can shake a dismembered finger at. Have any products that we haven’t included here? Leave them in the comments, or email us at wargameexplorer@gmail.com and we’ll get them added to the list.

Are you ready for Halloween yet?