A playtest of 'Midgard'

 'Midgard' is the name of a set of rules written by James Morris which will hopefully be published at some future point. I am very grateful to James for allowing me to become one of his play testers as Midgard is aimed at 'Heroic' gaming; just my sort of game. Their are several army lists already ranging from a generic Dark Age list, Mythical Norse, Heroic Greek and Late Medieval to quite Tolkien flavoured Elf and Dwarf lists etc... In other words, everything I could ever want! 

So today's game was to give the rules a good run through and a solid test. I opted to use my Arthurian/Romano British era 28mm collection supplemented by some of Ian's figures too.  

This photo shows some of my collection of figures along with a few of the tokens I have collected for use in the game. The red and white glass beads are used to represent a forces 'Reputation'. You can win or lose Reputation by your deeds and actions in the game. The mdf 'stars' we used to represent individual's 'Mighty Deed's'. These are used each turn to help your heroes fight or inspire their troops and the mdf 'arrows' depict which units are charging or winning melee's.  

So we noble, heroic few of the regular 'Settle and District' (SaD) wargamers deployed our forces and set to. We chose scenario 1 (aiming for 6 turns) from those in the rulebook, a straightforward clash of troops that can potentially start with a heroic challenge.

Our battle is set in 5th century Northern Britain with Aliortus the Romano British Warlord (me) defending his lands from Barbarian incursions. The Barbarians (Ian and Nigel) were led by their land hungry Warlord, Cynric the Saxon. Cynric has been causing trouble due to his beguilement by Morgana Le Fey. To counter her evil influence the Merlin himself has come to Aliortus's aid. (a good excuse to test a few of the magic spells). 

A quick shot of deployment. We tried the heroic challenge with Ian's Warlord taking on my level 2 hero who, to our amazement, won the duel. We then decided to ignore this for a first game as we did not want the Barbarians to be without  their Leader for the whole game. So we started again. With the dice telling us that I was the attacker. 

First main action of the game came in turn 2 when the opposing light cavalry units clashed on the hill on my right flank. The barbarians won the first melee but then my light cavalry were able to destroy them and went crashing on into the skirmish unit pushing them back into the woods. 

Meanwhile on the right flank my cavalry rode towards the Barbarian line boldly led by Aliortus him self. A move he came to regret. The Barbarians trait of 'Today we fight to win' really helped them in melee. 

Not even his Mighty Deeds (the star tokens) could save Aliortus from being pushed back. 

 

The centre was a huge clash of infantry with the Barbarians having the edge on the right and myself on the left. Morganna tried to cast 'Wall of Mist' and failed whilst Merlin was able to use his protection spell to good effect. (Magic is simple to cast with a good range of effects and also the odd 'miscast penalty). Morganna was able to curse one of my heroes later in the game.  

The right flank was falling to the Barbarians but it was a mighty tussle all round. 

(Combat is quick, but can be brutal and Ian and Nigel were soon working things out just from the QRS even though they had never read the rules). 

Turns 4 and 5 suddenly saw melee turn my way although both sides were starting to lose units and were running low on Reputation Points. By the end of turn 5 however, the Barbarians were on -1 Reputation whilst I was reduced to zero so a very close run thing. 

Conclusion (how did we find the rules and were they fun?): 

The basic rules are very quick and easy to pick up. I was the only one who had actually read the rules (reading a pdf of the rules three times to be ready for this game sent me quite cross eyed!) but the other players soon knew how to move, shoot and fight so the basic's are quick and easy to pick up. The subtly of the rules comes in understanding the flow of the game with it's unique Turn Sequence and also when to use ones Mighty Deeds and other abilities granted by the many and varied Traits that the Heroes can be equipped with. The quick reference sheet is very useful. It is clear and well written, making the appropriate sections easy to find. Magic worked well and is suitably subtle and low level

Did we have fun, yes we did, so much so that we aim to play again next week and Ian is going to rebase his figures to match mine. There are probably a few things we may have got a bit wrong but I am sure a quick re-read of some sections of the rules will soon put us right. James is to be congratulated on producing a cracking game.  

  

15mm General D'Armee

 This week Howard very kindly hosted us all for a 15mm Napoleonic game using the excellent General D'Armee rules. Howard has been working hard on his 15mm Napoleonic collection, adding flock and tufts to all his bases, painting several more units and adding more terrain and period specific buildings. The buildings are the mdf ones from Sarissa Precision that Warlord Games now sell in support of their Epic Napoleonics, but seem better suited to Howard's 15/18mm collection. It all looked fantastic. 

The dice decided that Ian and Nigel would control the French and Phil and myself would play the Allies with Howard umpiring. 

This photo is of the initial deployment. The game (set just after Waterloo) objective is for the Allies to move forward and capture both farms and the cross roads (behind the woods). 

The Allies had two Brigades of British foot (with artillery support), a cavalry Brigade and a very large Nassau Brigade (also with artillery support). 

The French had two brigades of foot (with artillery support) and a cavalry brigade to try and halt the Allies advance. .  

The French General's looking smug as the Allies keep failing their ADC rolls and also so many of their Brigades became 'Hesitant' each turn and refused to move.  

The French seemed to be advancing more rapidly than the allies. 

The British reserve finally start to advance down the road-it took 4 attempts to get them on the table. They are not that far behind the rest of the Allies due to all the failed movement. 

Over halfway through the afternoon and the French still hold all the objectives and don't look like loosing any of them. 

The British reserve marched up the the bridge over the river and then refused to move any further. 

Some atrocious throwing for ADC's by the Allies really foiled any attempt to advance rapidly (or even advance at all in many cases!). The 2 in 6 chance of failing to get your ADC's seemed especially harsh today with all the poor dice throws. However, we did learn a lot about the rules and were progressing through turns quite quickly by the end of the afternoon. I think we managed about 12 turns (or more?) but the French were clear winners as the British got nowhere near achieving any of their objectives. 

Well done and many thanks to Howard for hosting us all this afternoon. 

This week I have completed my Battalion of 20mm WW1 Belgians adding the last two companies and a Minerva Armoured Car.  A good mix of Irregular and IT Miniatures. The Minerva Armoured Car is from Butler 3D printing, great service and equally good prices. 

Here is the whole Battalion inc. command.

 I just have the artillery and dog pulled MMG to paint now. 

Next week we go back in time to the Age of Arthur to playtest the up coming 'Midgard' rules written by James Morris using our 28mm figures.  

Borderland Battle, 15mm Fantastic Battles.

 The back story behind todays game of Fantastic Battles was that Ian's Nature Army was thinking of encroaching upon my Ice Elf lands only to find that Phil and his larger army Orcs had got there first. So the Forces of Nature quickly decided to ally with their previous foes the Ice Elves to try and halt the Orc Horde. Ian and I decided I would be the Warlord (cos he wanted more points to spend on troops) but we both agreed you don't get many companies for 500 points each. 

Deployment

Deployment after 'Mishaps' Phil's cavalry have gone back so far, they are now lurking behind the left hand hill.

My flying division supported by crossbow armed cavalry head for a flanking manoeuvre countered by the Orcs Wraith cavalry.

An overview of how the game was developing. Phil had pulled his cavalry back towards the centre so my flyers headed for the orcs instead. Ian had got his line back in order just in time to meet the advancing orcs. 

My Ice Elf Mage Lord on his Wyvern crashes into the orc line supported by Tiger Riders and Spearmen-the Orcs won! Phil was making good use of magic and he always seemed to be one step ahead of us when moving; a canny player! 

Phil managed to get his Wraith cavalry all the way round to the centre just as the two forces crashed into each other. 

This proved to be a long and bloody clash between Ian's humans and Phil's long line of Orcs.

Having defeated my initial charge on the left, it looked like Phil was on his way to victory.  

However, my Mage Lord on his Wyvern gathered his Draconian's and Crossbow troops for a last desperate charge on the left flank which (helped by some great dice throwing) he won scattering the orcs and their MageLord (B'arn-Door).  

On the other side, Ian also managed some great dice throws and suddenly the Orc line was scattering and a surprise victory was ours.

Fantastic Battles gives a great game every time and we are really enjoying this set of rules. . 

A first game of the Crush the Kaiser WW1 rules: 'Over by Christmas'.

 Recent interest in WW1 by our gaming group led to some of us getting copies of the rules set, 'Crush the Kaiser-Over by Christmas' aimed at the early war period, 1914-16. For some reason I found myself buying a few Belgian's in the chosen scale of 20mm from both Irregular and IT Miniatures. Although both ranges are quite nice figures the Irregular ones lack a variety of poses but mix the two ranges together and you do get the hoped for variety. So far I have painted up two companies (of 12 figures) and and the Battalion HQ. 

A close up of the Battalion HQ including a slight conversion on the kneeling figure to make a Field Telephonist. I sliced his rifle off and used a short length of wire stuck into a small piece of plastic eraser cut to size. The mouthpiece is made from the rounded end of a fine paint brush cut off and glued into place. I did google WW1 images of the Belgian army to find suitable inspiration to hopefully make a reasonably accurate figure.  

Onto the game. This week Nigel was hosting as he has already got quite a large collection of British, French and Germans as well as suitable scenery. In fact Nigel is really to blame for Ian and I now collecting armies, but then we are easily led and are having fun. Nigel certainly laid out a great looking table with a central river crossed by two bridges. 

The aim of the scenario was that my two companies of Belgians plus a whole regiment of BEF Scots had to hold the village and prevent the Germans from crossing the river. Ian and Nigel, controlling the more numerous Germans had to try and capture the two bridges and the village.

You can just spot the Germans advancing. 

The German force massed ready to advance

The BEF Scots Battalion

The Belgians advancing to find something to hide behind and guard the left hand bridge. 

This BEF machine gun was very effective until their building was attacked by artillery.

German Lancers getting close to the right hand bridge. 

Lots of Germans advancing. 

The BEF get into position

German artillery was slow to get into position. 

We made slow progress in this game for a few reasons. We probably had too many troops on the table for a first game and we also enjoy chatting over a cup of tea and a piece of cake (a weekly tradition in our little group). We probably deployed too far apart as well as we were fighting along the length of the table. We only managed 4 turns but learnt a lot about the rules and are quite enthused by them. They are a fairly simple system just with a lot to remember and get used to the turn sequence. 

However, the rules work well and I reckon we will progress quicker in the next game especially if we are less ambitious in numbers. A quick re-read of the rules before we next play will also speed things up. Now to finish painting my next two companies of Belgian Infantry.