Midgard - Saxons v British

[TWD]

Martin came over and we decided it was high time we played a game of Midgard together without having to rely on James explaining the rules to us!

I took my Saxons and Martin bought his Romano British



Arthur was soon leading his men in a devastating charge on my right flank.


Bloodthirtsy Saxon youths soon learned the folly of charging a shieldwall



Before too long the BRitish defenders were drowning the soil in Saxon bllod



More here:
https://tomstoysoldiers.blogspot.com/2024/03/midhgard-march-8.html

[Basementboy]

Looks like great fun! Mind if I ask where the banners are from, they look incredible

[Pattus Magnus]

That does look like a fun game! I’m very excited about the release of the Midgard rules (hopefully soon).

[Atheling]

 

[SJWi]

Morning Everyone. I was at "Herts of Lard" this weekend and spoke to Rich Clarke from Two Fat Lardies.  From what he said his next release will be the Chain of Command "Far East Handbook" hopefully end of April with Midgard next in line after that . 

[Old Hob]

That's proper, that is. Lovely armies as well, gents.

[Ran The Cid]

Was there a song that said "waiting is the hardest part"?  I'm rather interested in picking up Midgard when it comes out.  Hoping it can be a solid mid-sized system for Ancients and/or mythological forces.  I really want to see my Viking/Saxon armies with Giants.

[Ninefingers]

Morning Everyone. I was at "Herts of Lard" this weekend and spoke to Rich Clarke from Two Fat Lardies.  From what he said his next release will be the Chain of Command "Far East Handbook" hopefully end of April with Midgard next in line after that .

I'm sure there are literally dozens of people eagerly awaiting the Chain of Command Far East Handbook...

[SJWi]

Do I detect a degree of sarcasm in the comment? I have been amazed over the past few years how WW2 topics deemed "pretty niche" have become very popular, it isn't just 8th Army, Normandy and the Eastern Front. I'm sure this handbook ( or books?) will be very popular amongst the Chain of Command devotees as it will be something a little bit different. Part of the issue with 2FL's is that Rich Clarke sets very exacting standards, and of course he isn't the author of Midgard.  I recall playing a new game ( still unreleased) at a Lardie event back in mid 2022 where the game designer/author thought it pretty much finished. Rich Clarke's comment later in the afternoon when I asked him about a release date was "if he thinks that is finished well it bl**dy well isn't". They are still good friends!     

[TWD]

Looks like great fun! Mind if I ask where the banners are from, they look incredible

The British are Martin's work - I think freehand.

For the Saxons the big black dragon one is an LBMs commercial one. The others I made using some images I found on the 'internet. Initially I was concerned about copyright infringement, but then I read the site they were on a bit more and it was all right wing "Sons of Odin, pure race of the North" nonsense and, well, F*ck those Nazis. 

[TWD]

Was there a song that said "waiting is the hardest part"?  I'm rather interested in picking up Midgard when it comes out.  Hoping it can be a solid mid-sized system for Ancients and/or mythological forces.  I really want to see my Viking/Saxon armies with Giants.

We've played games from Bronze Age Greeks to Wars of the Roses both with and without fantasy elements (not too many of those in the WotR games TBF) and it works well so I think it'll be what you're looking for.
Martin took a wizard for this game, but I'm not sure he had a great impact on things.

[TWD]

That does look like a fun game! I’m very excited about the release of the Midgard rules (hopefully soon).

It was indeed a lot of fun.
The rules are currently with the designer I believe having nice graphics and images and diagrams added. So it's on "the home straight" for release I'd say.
After the Far East book for definite, but not sure how long after.

[WorkShy]

I'm pretty keen to try the Midgard ruleset. Is Midgard in any way a spiritual successor to the Age of Arthur supplement for WAB that James Morris also wrote? In WAB AoA the generals/heroes could have specific heroic traits that could be bought using points. This helped make each army different. It really added character.

My fear regarding Midgard is that it may well have a superior battle dynamic than WAB but it also might be rather generic. That's always the risk with any system that attempts to cover too many bases or tries to be too simple.

[TWD]

I'm pretty keen to try the Midgard ruleset. Is Midgard in any way a spiritual successor to the Age of Arthur supplement for WAB that James Morris also wrote? In WAB AoA the generals/heroes could have specific heroic traits that could be bought using points. This helped make each army different. It really added character.

My fear regarding Midgard is that it may well have a superior battle dynamic than WAB but it also might be rather generic. That's always the risk with any system that attempts to cover too many bases or tries to be too simple.

James started writing it because he wanted a Dark Age "big battle" type game but where heroes were important (as they are in the Sagas). It's element based units rather than individual model removal, so not like WAB in that sense.

Yes you buy upgrades/traits for your heroes so you can individualise them.

It hasn't felt especially generic and we've played games from Bronze Age myth to WotR and all points between. You just need to make sure the armies you build reflect your vision of the period. There are sugested lists in the book and there will be more available for download too.

[WorkShy]

James started writing it because he wanted a Dark Age "big battle" type game but where heroes were important (as they are in the Sagas). It's element based units rather than individual model removal, so not like WAB in that sense.

Yes you buy upgrades/traits for your heroes so you can individualise them ...

Good to hear you can individualise. I have no particular love of the WAB ruleset. What it offers is essentially big battles. In the physical sense of no max number of elements and a very large total number of minis on the table. Say a thousand! I just don't want to go down the route of DBA elements where you have very few minis. It just doesn't look like a wargame, more like chess.

In that sense I'm somewhat concerned that at 28mm the element width is just 12cm. That's going to limit unit sizes to probably only 4-6 minis wide. I only do dark age and like to see a decent shieldwall. I assume though that is easily solved by just pairing multiple 12cm elements into a wider elements. I wonder then though if you'd need to change all missile ranges etc.

Anyway will be buying when it finally comes out.