Midgard Bronze Age Playtest

 We had a game at East Leeds tonight to test the changes to James Moriss's forthcoming rules for heroic warfare, Midgard.

We have play tested these three times now and thoroughly enjoyed them, but there have been changes as they get nearer to publication so we wanted another go with the latest version.

I still dont have enough figures to get the best from the rules which can be used for very large battles indeed, I do have plenty left to paint, but otherwise we think they are good fit with their focus on rewarding the heroic behaviour of the Leaders and Champions and optional extra rules for magic, enhanced weapons, Shamen casting curses etc..

Chris Flowers would command a smaller force holding a hill. He has A level 3 leader and a level 1 and level 2 Champion, 2 units of javelin armed skirmishers, 1 of archers, 1 of light cavalry, 2 of warriors and 1 of Warriors Heavy Infantry. Thats those chaps in decent gear at the front with swords and axes.
 

My force was slightly larger.. I have the same levels of leader with level 3 Battle Queen Maive leading a level 1 and 2 champion. The other troop types I have one more of each than Chris other than the Warriors Heavy Infantry and Javelins. So 2 Light Horse, 2 archers, 2 javelins, 3 warriors, really this should more than offset the advantage of the hill. Let see.

The aim of the game is to deplete your opponents reputation whilst increasing your own through winning or losing melees or single combats, points can also be added for making the first charge of the game or charging your leader into melee. Adding in optional rules for magic etc can also give an extra layer to those games where this is appropriate. Clearly when units or champions are defeated this leads to loss of reputation. 

A silver goblet with jewels to represent your reputation is recommended, we made do with coffee mugs and curtain rings.

Chris wanted a photo so I decideed I needed a photo of him taking a photo of me, childish I know!

Game commences and immediately Chris Issues a challenge from his commander to mine, naturally I accept and we meet in the middle of the armies to conduct our duel.

Purely for visual purposes I swapped the Hero's on foot for the same figures riding in Chariots, I think our duel requires some more Panache.

After three rounds of combat both leaders retire having gained reputation points and both having their stamina reduced by one. Tiring work all this heroic posturing you know.

Lugh of the silver spear has come to take enemy heads, heres one he prepared earlier!

Back behind her army Queen Maeve urges them on and the army advances.

Each unit moves once, all measurements are in spear throws which is also a unit frontage, hence the movement trays. Foot move one Spear throw and mounted move two. Units can also attempt to move a second time needing a command roll, its fairly easy passing on a 3 plus, leaders and champions can also spend points to re-roll fails although move one this is not needed and all my forces leap forward two spear throws (four for mounted)

My right flank Cavalry are not quite close enough to reach Chris's light horse.

My other cavalry unit swings around the flank of Chirs;s forces led by my level 1 champion

Chris's turn and he charges my light cavalry, his level 1 Champion issues a challenge and beats my level 2. Damn!

His Light Cavalry also beats mine and reduces its stamina, but we pass our morale.

Chris turns his archers to fire at my passing horse without success, I chance a long range shot and take on point of stamina from him.

Our Javelinmen advance to exchange short range missile fire..

Chris chares my light horse with his warriors and our hero's engage in single combat, again Chris manages to win both combats, killing a second champion and damaging my light horse.

My javelins have made amess of Chris's but now he charges his Heavy Warriors and my Javelins evade.

Chris has the edge here as he has hit my ordinary Warriors first and they become my primary unit.

As the melee begins our Leaders ride into single combat again and you guessed it Chris kills the last of my Champions who is also the leader of my force and my reputation pot is lookign decidedly empty.

The battlefield is a waste of piled corpses as very few units remain at all and virtually none are left completely intact. 

One last roll of the bones with an even chance of beating Chris, 3 fives should do it.....no he rolls 4 sixes! Thats it my reputations points are gone and Chris takes the victory.

We call it a night, all of my Champions are dead, all my reputation is gone and most of my troops are food for the crows.

Chris's dice have been fabulous, even when I rolled well he rolled slightly better.

Fair play though , the Gods favoured Chris's troops this day.

Another good test for Midgard passed with flying colours, I really need to consider how I am basing the rest of this collection now to get the best out of them. Food for thought.

An Eclectic Workbench update

I have a few different projects on the go (Some might say too many, I couldn't possibly comment) and I have flicked about a bit this week painting and enjoying myself.

Bizarrely after buying a huge lump of 40mm Lead from the estate of the late great Ian Smith and a slew of plastic sprues to add to the bronze age project I randomly started painting Mexicans! Dont ask me, Im not in charge, I just do the painting.

Getting back to the 40mm I really need to get on with the British so heres a light infantry Sergeant to start me off again and a French Ligne officer, sold as a Hessian Officer but looks well in French colours, checking the time on his fob watch.

Three more French Legere, well on the way to another skirmish screen. The left hand running figure with bandaged head is my favourite from this group.

Two more Spanish Guerilla's gives me enough to base up another skirmishing unit of 6, although I may still wait till I have a bunch more before pairing and basing any.. The left figure has the head I had removed from a spare Spanish regular who was pressed into service with my French for the last game.

A couple of British  privates takes my British line to 10 so I can start thinking about basing with a few more, I am still very unsure about the idea of mixing the Perrys (Left) with the Sash and Sabre (right) the style is very different and even the uniform details. I will no doubt play around with options when I have enough of them done.

Last but by no means least a few more Bonze Age warriors, lots of these to paint and I do need a lot more done to be able to field the armies for Midgard.

Plenty going on, main focus remains the 40mm to organise a larger Sharp Practice game in the near future.

Bronze Age Midgard Playtest AAR

Keen to play test James Morris's Midgard rules again and get my Bronze Age figures on table, Chris agreed to help me organise a game at Steve's,

It is only a small collection so we would be pushing the boundaries at the lower end of what the rules can handle but we managed to scrape together enough figures for a very small game.

We would play "None shall pass" with defenders holding two passing points on an obstacle gaining a win if they held both points at the end of the game. The attackers had 2/3 the strength of the defenders.

I ahve a shaman with my force and Steve has a witch, both spend a point to cast the omens, I roll a six and the Omens are excellent adding 2 points of reputation tomy pot, Steve rolls a one, oh dear "Are you sure you wish to fight today my lord?" 1 reputation point is removed.

As the game is heroic the individual characters play an important part and the gaining or losing of reputation one of the key elements of the game. Once one side has lost all their reputation they flee the field.

So as Attacker goes first Steve pushed forward with nearly every unit moving twice to get to grips as quickly as possible. My skirmishers all lined the steep impassable beck to be able to shoot at Steves figures as they tried to concentrate on the two crossing points.

As Heroism was the order of the day and I hadnt noticed a change James had made to the rules for Hero's I decided to try surprise Steve by charging out of the crossing points with my Chariots and Horse and two of my three heros. This lead our Chariots into an immediate confrontation. Unfortunately this did not go well with my Chariot unit being destroyed and my isolated Hero taken out of the game. I remembered a previous game where an isolated Hero was allowed to ride around causing havoc even after his unit had been wiped out. Made complete sense for James to change this I just wished I had noticed.

With the forces being so small my reputation was immediatly in trouble. Oh dear!

Steves turn again and his two units of light horse leap forward to pounce on my one that has been left exposed, my error is obvious now but the die is cast.

Steves forces all go forward as quickly as they can except the chariots who are pulled out to take a break.

Whilst Steve has the advantage initially that he is charging and is also supported he has not noticed that Balor of the Evil Eye is leading my Cavalry unit. One of his traits nullifies the supporting units which are the only way to create saving throws, he also adds 4 extra fighting dice to the melee.

We are pretty much coming to grips right along the line with showers of spear and arrow back and forth, mostly ineffectual.

Despite the odds in my favour I only just beat Steve, he is pushed back through the unit behind and I follow up.

On the left its now my turn and my elite Warriors charge through the ford to engage Steves Warriors, My Chieftain is with them and issues a challenge to the enemy Hero as both sides close on each other.

At this point Chris bursts out laughing "Thats the Dagda" I have mistakenly issued a challenge to a level 4 Hero with my level 2 Chieftain. We keep markers next to the leaders so they can spend their might points, 4 for a level 4, I hadnt noticed Steve spending his so the Dagda only had one marker and I mistakenly thought that meant he was a level 1.

Imagining my Cheiftains gulping down his adams apple as he realised who had challenged we went into battle.

I quickly decided I would not challenge him to a duel to the death and thus may escape alive, having spent most of his might points Steve added the one remaining to his 4 for being level four I had 2 might points unspent so tart off with 4 dice against Steves 5. I get lucky and win.

Steve losses 2 points and we go straight into second round of melee, this time its 4 dice against my 2.

Steve rolls 4 1's and 2's, I get double six and Chris is laughing even harder, the Dagda is dead and a handful of reputation points are removed from Steves goblet (A plastic pot really).

At this point Steve is at zero and I am at -1 but we have one further combat to go with our Elite Warriors having at each other. 

We are on equal numbers of dice, Steves troops have the Brutal bonus with their double handed axes so they hit on 4's rather than 5's, however with shields on their backs their armour is reduced by one. As I am charging I get a bonus and also hit on 4's, the dice are rolled and I manage to push back Steves Warriors, the extra points of reputation take me into plus figures and the end of the turn sees Steves reputation pot empty.

The attackers have lost and stream away in disaray, no doubt dis-heartened by the death of the Dagda.

 A short bloody and amusing game, I hope to add more figures to make this work a little better and we are already discussing using this for an Arthurian vs Picts game where we have a lot more figures to hand.

Overall I continue to be impressed by these rules. Fun, different and definately an heroic feel. I am already thinking about the best way to re-base the current collection to fit better with Midgard.

Great fun, we will do it again soon.