Midgard Heroic Battles released, latest update - Punic Wars lists 31.12.24

[vodkafan]

I’ve got my PDF now but my hard copy had to be shipped to a family member in another country so I won’t have that for another month. In any event I was excited to find out that the artist who did art for the One Ring RPG did the art for this book. Beautiful stuff.

Delayed Gratification is always the best

[RedRowan]

Not had time for a proper read yet but it really is a very nice looking book. Looking forward to having a read through it over the weekend.

Steve

[Leadjunky]

I am looking forward to purchasing the book. Are there any sellers in the US?

[James Morris]

I am looking forward to purchasing the book. Are there any sellers in the US?

Yes. Jeff Gatlin of Shieldwall Miniatures has it, either in stock or arriving today.

[Leadjunky]

Thanks.

[SBMiniaturesGuy]

Given the heritage of the authors, what previous system does this resemble? It's not like any of the other TFL games, but it looks similar to systems like Warhammer/WAB, or Saga. Is that correct?

[fred]

I don’t think Midgard has any great Warhammer heritage - not least as units as bases, not individual figures. Stat lines are nothing like WH ones.

I’m not seeing much link to Saga either, no battle boards, and whole base units rather than individual figures, the Stat lines are perhaps closer to Saga.

But that doesn’t answer the question of what it’s heritage is though?

[SBMiniaturesGuy]

I don’t think Midgard has any great Warhammer heritage - not least as units as bases, not individual figures. Stat lines are nothing like WH ones.

I’m not seeing much link to Saga either, no battle boards, and whole base units rather than individual figures, the Stat lines are perhaps closer to Saga.

But that doesn’t answer the question of what it’s heritage is though?

It looks like the same kind of design philosophy though. The rules may use different stat line terms but both have a Point Cost, a Melee stat (WAB = WS, Midgard = Combat Dice), a Missile stat, Defensive Stat, a Hit point stat and a Morale stat, and Special Attributes to give the figure some unique flavor.

[SJWi]

I'm sure James can answer for himself on this matter, but I recall speaking to him at length at "The Other Partizan" back in October 2021 which was the first show after lockdown, and from memory he was putting on a superb El Cid game using an early version of Midgard. He did mention WAB as being "an influence", not so much from the actual mechanics but from wanting a set of rules where "characters" played a major role. I think he was the author of the WAB "Age of Arthur" book so I guess many of the themes in there would feed into Midgard.

[fred]

It looks like the same kind of design philosophy though. The rules may use different stat line terms but both have a Point Cost, a Melee stat (WAB = WS, Midgard = Combat Dice), a Missile stat, Defensive Stat, a Hit point stat and a Morale stat, and Special Attributes to give the figure some unique flavor.

It’s not the slightly different naming as at that level a very high percentage of medieval era wargames would count as the same.

I think how the stats are used is very different between WAB/WH and Midgard.

[SBMiniaturesGuy]

Cool, thanks!

[James Morris]

The influences on Midgard are many and varied, but it takes very little from Warhammer apart from a determination to make the game fast, fun and well presented. The profiles are common to pretty much every ancient/ medieval wargame, I think, as you need somewhere to put the numbers.

The major design influences are actually John Keegan’s writings about heroic leadership and decades of reading about ancient and medieval warfare. Once I’d decided that’s what the game was about, I set about using whatever mechanisms were the best and simplest fit. There were a number of negative influences at this point as well - in terms of things that I wanted to avoid, which included over-complexity, overly prescriptive basing, implausible battlefield manoeuvres, a focus on tournament play, and a lack of diagrams.

Dan Mersey has been a constant positive influence, especially the simplicity that he brings to his games. ‘Euro games’ boardgames such as Carcassonne were the main influence on the Reputation system, along with a nod to Force Morale in Chain of Command.

But ultimately, it’s a melting pot of different mechanisms, all selected to keep the game moving and the players engaged.

[SBMiniaturesGuy]

Thanks, I appreciate that!!

[jon_1066]

We played our first game last week.  You can definitely see the smorgasbord of influences in the mechanics. 

A few things stood out.  The first was only moving straight ahead - any other movement halved the distance.  This is really different to almost every other rule set I've played and almost produces a grid like feel without a grid.

Second were the kill zones and their restriction on movement.  This stopped a unit charging another in the flank.  It really gave skirmishers some utility to pin units and prevent that issue of a breakthrough just leading to the breakthrough unit being immediately flanked. 

Armour 4 was very strong.  We played the hill fight and of the three Armour 4 units only a single one took a point of stamina loss.

Heroes are very important to fights - those extra dice are what tips you over the edge to the next stamina loss.

It definitely felt like the rules started with - how can we make some interesting decision points in a game where the basic tactic is get in two lines and bash each other?  Shield wall warfare is not inherently going to give you a lot of interesting decisions.  Adding the kill zones, skirmishers, some variety in troop types, the straight ahead movement and most importantly the heroes and mighty deeds gives a bunch more decisions to make.   The attacker gets to see the defender line up so can line up the matches he wants.  Do you as the defender then try to reshuffle your units to stop those match ups but risk disordering your line?  Once the feathers start flying how do you spend your mighty deeds?  When do you send your heroes in?  Do you issue a challenge?  Do you refuse a challenge?  There is quite a bit of nuance and strategy to the game.

[fred]

Useful write-up Jon. I’d thought the movement looked restrictive from the a read through - but interesting to hear how it plays out.