If you could pick only one...

[Blackthorn]

I was fortunate enough to obtain both of these quest packs at a reasonable price and of the two, my favorite is the Barbarian Quest Pack. I really like the mercenaries with the changeable weapons and the unique abilities of the new monsters. The miniatures look fine to me and see nothing wrong with the sculpts, except that the mercenaries are a little out of scale (so were some of the miniatures in the base game). The snow and ice theme is cool (no pun intended) and the new traps and tiles have some clever ideas.

[tasoe]

I'd choose The Frozen Horror because it goes for slightly more on ebay and that's what I'd do with it.

This first thing when I read the topic was to write those exact words, but I didn't 'cause it would technically be off-topic (and because it's the mage of the mirror that's more expensive I think).

On a more relevant note, I think the barbarian pack has better figures than the elf pack and thus I would choose that one. I said "better than", not good.
Elf spells are stupid, especially the ones where you replay your move or stop time or something.

Wolves! I find them to be the best of all the new monsters. Cool and mix well with all other stuff!

I do not agree with that as well. If I ever wanted to buy the elf pack, and I was negotiating a price, and the guy told me at the last minute that the wolves are missing, I'd go "no problem mate" and I'd bid the same amount I would anyway.

[Goblin-King]

Tasoe... If you ever buy the elf pack, please send me the wolves!

I'm actually a little surprised about the dislike for the minis. I don't think there's anything wrong with them (Okay, maybe the yeti...).
But that's individual taste for ya...
What bothers me the most are some of the choices of monsters:
Elf warrior and Elf archer. Couldn't you handle that with quest notes and have more different monsters?
Polar War Bear isn't exactly a stroke of creative genius either.

As for the setting being non-Warhammer; is that really a problem?
I think it's nice they do their own thing instead of being bound by GW.
If it wasn't for the map we wouldn't really have much proof regardless.

[Blackthorn]

Honestly, I had no idea the there was a HeroQuest/Warhammer connection until joining this forum. Personally, I don't really care that much about the Warhammer world or it's background story.

[knightkrawler]

I don't either. But I do care for storyline cohesion through whatever background, in this case the feeling established by HQ and the first four expansions.

[Blackthorn]

I don't either. But I do care for storyline cohesion through whatever background, in this case the feeling established by HQ and the first four expansions.

Being from the US, "Wizards of Morcar" and "Against the Ogre Horde" are not part of the HQ storyline, and neither quest pack will work with the NA rules without major revisions as found in the localized versions you can find here. I don't see the stories behind the Elf and Barbarian packs as lacking cohesion, but then that's a matter of opinion and we all have our own ideas of how the HQ background world should look, sound and feel.

[Sjeng]

Frozen Horror. Cooler minis. I have plenty of elves, drow, and you can easily buy some dire wolves.
I kinda like the frozen theme and tiles too.

[knightkrawler]

Being from the US, "Wizards of Morcar" and "Against the Ogre Horde" are not part of the HQ storyline, and neither quest pack will work with the NA rules without major revisions as found in the localized versions you can find here. I don't see the stories behind the Elf and Barbarian packs as lacking cohesion, but then that's a matter of opinion and we all have our own ideas of how the HQ background world should look, sound and feel.

You're right about WoM and AtOH needing localization. For me, that's true, too, cause I play based on NA rules.
In all fairness, being from Europe, I wasn't even aware of MotM and TFH until a few years ago. Nostalgia simply doesn't kick in. I see ludicrously childish minis and quests even farther from being playtested than AtOH and WoM.
By cohesion, I include the art style. That's not to say it's bad, but it's different. The WoM cards lack that, too.

[Goblin-King]

I get what you are saying KK.
But in all fairness, those expansions didn't really expand the HQ world a whole lot.
Only AotOH brought new monsters to the bunch.

The story in KK and particularly RotWK is pretty exciting. The quests are thought through and very enjoyable.
But neither bring much new to the table. A couple of new tiles and mechanics, and that's that.

WoM expanded the gameplay a whole lot with lots of new spells for both sides. The cards are the bread and butter of this pack in my opinion.
The four wizards are very nice, but sorta unnecessary. They are special characters and could easily have used the Chaos Sorcerer or Notched Sword Orc instead.
The quests seem a little lazy... only one for each wizard and a finale where you battle all four? Couldn't they have made a couple of filler quests?
WoM feels like Game of Death where Bruce Lee must kill a wizard on each floor!

Finally we have AotOH. We had to get to the fourth expansion before getting some actual new monsters!
The ogres are very nice and I like how they simply made an entire pack based around a single monster with various ranks.
This makes it very easy to make an ogre based quest.

I guess the point I'm getting at is that the US expansions just seem to have much more content.
Monsters, cards, tiles...
That the quests themselves seem to be poorly written is less important, because (let's be honest here) the real fun is using the content to make your own quests!

[mitchiemasha]

I'm with knightKrawler. If I acquired either of these sets, i'd sell them both so it would be the 1 currently fetching the highest price.

WOM is still a lil out of my price range but I want it. If Ogre Horde makes a jump in price I'll part with that but I think it's high time has been. Sorry to go a lil off topic but!!!

For those prices i'd rather buy other minis and make/use other Quest. After our generation i don't see them increasing in value so those buying as a collector investment are buying at the wrong time. We'll possibly see another boom as the 90's child hit's his retirement and tries to interest his Grand kids into the game.