On Saturday 26 April, a bunch of hardy ne’er-do-wells convened at Boards and Swords Hobbies in Derby for the first ever official Midgard gaming day organised by author James ‘Mogsymakes’ Morris. A variety of settings were in play, but I joined the Arthurian campaign, dragging King Meirchion ap Gwrast, King of Rheged, south with his warband to support Arthur’s defence of Dumnonia against a massive Saxon invasion (heavily influenced by Bernard Cornwell and all the better for it!)
Here are Meirchion, Peredur and Madern all ready for action:
Game one was a scenario where King Meirchion had gotten a bit eager in his march. His contingent was holding a hill in the face of the entire Saxon army while Peredur’s and Madern’s contingents caught up.
The Saxon host poured up the hill, the Saxon king roaring out a challenge. Meirchion stepped gamely forward only to be slain in the third round of the challenge, although he had damaged the Saxon king in return. This was a massive loss of reputation, but I needn’t have worried as, during the clash of comitatus that followed, The Saxon king fell victim to a blow from a British warrior’s spear. Two kings gone in turn one! The ravens would not go hungry this day!
Here is Meirchion lying dead...
And his opponent suffering the same fate!
The rest of the game saw a titanic struggle for the hill which the Saxons were winning when I finally lined up the mother of all cavalry charges on their far flank. However, here the dice gods laughed in my face as I threw a bewildering number of 4s but only a handful of 5s and 6s (and no 1s, which I could have rerolled as a charge bonus!)
Too little...too late!
As my flank attack ground to an inglorious halt, my units on the hill finally succumbed. Saxon victory: +1 Reputation point to –5. Sounds like a massacre, but in truth the Saxons were almost as badly hurt as I was. Most were down to 1 or 2 stamina points and their king was gurgling in his own blood... Brilliant game!
Game two: ‘The Red Ford’. This was a tricky one. A ford just wide enough for 4 units in an otherwise impassable river was the setting. It was clear that this would be a hideous infantry slog and my two cavalry comitatus units would be almost useless.
This left Peredur, companion of Arthur, feeling a tad miffed, so he stepped into the ford howling a challenge. The Saxons duly obliged, at which point Peredur slipped on the gravelly ford-bed and was decapitated in one sword stroke by the Saxon opposite him, at which point the Saxons surged forward. Shrugging off the loss of my beautifully painted cavalry commander (because I had been gifted Arthur himself for this scenario to replace Meirchion, who it was rumoured was in a howel somewhere in a place called Avalon being tended back from the edge of death by some wise and mysterious ladies) my Britons surged forward too and the infantry lines collided in the ford with a crash like thunder, the splintering of shields and screams of the dying tainting the clear spring air. Fortunately, the Saxons seemed to find the gravelly stream bed a tad infirm and their combat dice were generally a bit rubbish, whereas mine were not. One Saxon unit broke through my spearmen into the tribal foot behind, but a unit of Peredur’s comitatus, incensed at their lord’s untimely demise, flung themselves in to stem the breach! Arthur felled a Saxon hero in a challenge, even though his British comitatus were slain to a man by some ridiculously good dice throwing by my opponent. Escaping to nearby spearmen, Arthur continued to reap red ruin on the enemy, ably supported by my remaining spearmen.
The Saxon reputation dropped rapidly to –3 while I had clawed back up to +4. Strong British victory, though in truth most of the infantry were literally on their last legs, although the two mounted comitatus were still at full strength. Arthur turned the tide here: level 4 heroes are tough! Another brilliant and tense, fun-filled game against a super opponent. Just what the doctor ordered!
Game three: My forces were besieging a town, and it had come down to a last roll of the dice for the beleaguered garrison. They had sallied two contingents forth, knowing that a third was approaching to arrive at a random point behind or on my flank at the start of turn 4. I adopted a refused left flank and concentrated on smashing the Saxon left opposite my centre while outflanking their left with my cavalry, including a unit of Welsh mercenary Noble Light Horse who had joined the resurrected Peredur for the occasion.
I wanted to get this done quickly before the flanking force arrived and in fact managed to do so by the skin of my teeth! There were no heroic challenges in this game, just a lot of fierce combats and I managed to cause enough damage to bring the Saxons into negative reputation by the start of turn 5, their flanking force on table and advancing, but too far away to hurt anything (my cavalry nearest them had wisely gotten behind the Saxon main line and caused mayhem there before the slower newly arrived foot could do any damage.) Another strong British victory against yet another lovely opponent.
Great day! Three fabulous opponents who couldn’t have been more fun to play against. All three games were fun-filled and challenging in different ways, and I was delighted to gain two hard fought victories and contribute to a British whitewash in the campaign, with saxon kings Aelle and Cerdic dead and the Saxon invasion unceremoniously flung back! HUGE thanks to James and to BASH for a brilliant day! Midgard is just my favourite ruleset for this period of warfare, as it’s heroic and brutal yet retains a ton of decision-making and subtleties within its system.
Looking forward to next year already!
December 10, 2013, 05:58:04 PM