Midgard! Ware Mumak or Where Mumak Gone?

An actual lithogrpah from the Battle by A Bystander

 

No one knew from which cold Northern waste the pale blond-haired warriors came. Eager for war they were, mighty were their arms and they came in great numbers, led by valiant heroes and, a God walked among them.

Phwoar the Ebullient, ale-swoggling he came, with a maiden tucked under each brawny arm and a leg of cold beef behind his ear, thirsting for adventure, looking for War and laughing all the while. 

A great way South they came, all fled before them for they were fierce and terrible to look upon and very rarely washed. And on they came unopposed, until they reached the Hot lands in the far South, where the furnace heat of the wide deserts cook the air and the hot winds scorch the very land.

And there they met some who did not flee. A race far older than they, a fierce, cruel race whose Ancient Gods dwelt yet in huge stone edifices and demanded the Blood Price. Bold warriors of a wealthy Empire, steeped in cunning and the Dark Arts. They rode upon great monstrous beasts and had immaculate body hygiene and scented hair.

The two armies faced each other on the plain just North of the Desert of No Tears

The earth shook and trembled as the Empire advanced, two mighty pachyderms striding on the right flank their howdahs packed with eager warriors equipped with bows and long spears. Stalking among them the Royal Assassin F’Khaar

On the left flank rode the Noble cavalry, led by old grizzled general Hakkim Bahad, resplendent in scarlet with armour of brazen plates, their standard, a black serpent on a field of red, waves above their heads and before them gallop the Variags of Khand, horse archers on fleet steeds. (still taken from drone footage)

In the centre march three brave units of formed spears ,in heavy armour with round spike-bossed shields, they march in perfect rhythm. Khamoon Bakir, Margrave of Khand and the sinister Zokhora, sorcerer, Beholden of Demon’s stalks along beside him. No one knows his age, he has always been. Through the long ages of the Empire there has always been a Zokhora.  Before them, skipping and leaping and calling their strange war cries run the Jakhala, each with a bunch of javelins following their Champion Jakakalaka.

As for the Northmen, they came on in a shapeless, raucous mob, knowing little of tactics and caring not for formations, their long delicately woven braids swaying the breeze, a cloud of Patchouli oil and body odour preceding them.

Phwoar stepped out from the ranks and raised his voice in a mighty challenge  “Let he who will… take up  arms agin me, that we may settle all dispute and get the quicker to the alehouse!”

None there were to match blades with a God!

All declined. Empire lose one Reputation.

The armies take up their positions.Both sides send out skirmishers 

The earth shakes beneath their feet, all tremble at their passing, the mighty Mumaks advance, their crews blowing their brass horns and beating their drums.

Before them stand the Hearthguard of the Norts, Phwoar steadies them with constant flow of boisterous songs about drinking and fighting and drinking and whoring and drinking and drinking.Hagar the disagreeable, Magnus Madmansson and Ragnar Svelteleg also great heroes when it comes to a song cheer their respective war bands too!

Something is amiss with the usually dependable heavy infantry, it’s almost as if they have forgotten they are Drilled and stop after failing a Command Test to advance a second ST!

Could this be Northman sorcery? The smell of all those unwashed semi naked beer-swillers? Or is it the residual brain fog of an ancient gamer?

The Gods give and the Gods they take away but mostly they take away. On this occasion they took away the initiative from the Empire and the Northmen used the opportunity to charge into the stationary cavalry who, having also come under the spell of forgetfulness that seems to have fallen on their comrades, did not use their Thunderous Charge to counter-charge. 

At the same time, the Nimble Variags failed their Evade test and also got caught by the Berserkers! A very painful experience.  

Meanwhile, on the other flank, the Mighty Mumaks have become bamboozled by skirmishers and are soon resembling pin cushions. 

Great was the fight that day! Mighty were the warriors! Hacking and slashing and stabbing and gashing! And across the field the sharp, unforgettable stench of battle. A strange mix of unwashed bodies and Old Spice

Back to the drone for a quick report and the field is looking rather empty, casualties being heavy on both sides, but the large hole where the Imperial, cavalry have ceased to be is rather noticeable as is the even bigger elephant sized hole on the other flank.

Which goes to show that the Gods may very well Give and Take but, on some occasions, they simply drop their celestial underwear and let fly

Surrounded by hairy savages and bleeding from a hundred wounds, the last elephant stampeded and was last seen heading over the hills.

  Which pretty well emptied the goblet of fate. The Empire army, like a dropped ice cream on a hot summer pavement, simply melted away

This was another Midgard playtest with regular opponent and part time Viking berserker Mark Taylor. We were testing the new shooting sequence and so kept the scenario to a simple meeting engagement with minimal terrain. Mark fielded a Viking Army and I used my version of the Haradrim, The Southron Empire. At 400 points I could only field about half this army and had to make some tough choices.

I had the most atrocious luck, particularly in the first few turns, so poor that at one point, a really bad roll produced no hits at all. My luck was so bad that Mark apologised when he rolled a handful of sixes!

Zokhora, my sorcerer could only roll ones. He needs both his Mighty Deeds to cast a spell and so is unable to Reroll any failures. Anything but a one is a successful cast! So, we are neither of us any wiser about how well magic works in this game.

The Monstrosities turned out to be wimps! I am not sure if this was down to the bad luck or whether the combination of Towering-Big target, bonus to shooters, Aloof, cannot use heroes Mighty Deeds to reroll Command Tests and a particularly weedy Stampede rule, which just makes the elephant runaway, resulted in such a poor performance. I shall have to test them out again.

The really good news was that the shooting amendment worked very well and fitted seamlessly into the rules set.

Midgard is a fast play Heroic Batlle game written by James Morris and due to be published by Reisswitz Press (Too Fat Lardies) at some future date after playtesting has finished.

I can highly recommend Midgard as an excellent game, great fun, a game where warbands are led by heroes, suitable for almost any pre-gunpowder era and Fantasy genre.

Last Stand! A new set of rules of great promise! Have I found my childhood Featherstone?

 

My first experience of wargaming came when as a young boy I started collecting Airfix 20mm figures and with a friend who lived in the next street would set up our armies and take turns to roll marbles at them. This progressed to rolling dice at them and if the dice landed on a six, we could roll the dice again. By the age of eight we had progressed to rolling the dice to see if we had hit them by the number rolled, a 5 or a 6 would do it.

  When I was ten, I found in the local library a book by Donald Featherstone, Advanced Wargaming, that changed my life. Some of the concepts were a little strange and I ached to find the “non-advanced” version, what was I missing?

  I ordered every Featherstone title that the library had, I read Wargame Campaigns, Naval Wargaming, Battles with Model Soldiers, Air Wargames and eventually War Games! 

There was an Ancients rule set credited to Tony Bath that I played to death, I loved its simplicity, it was fun! I created many different armies and drew maps and had campaigns and watched empires rise and fall and heroes win glory or death.

I was very happy. As I got older, I sought more sophistication, more realism, more complexity. I tried games with tables, complex algorithms, percentage dice, any number of sides dice, templates, graphs showing penetration etc and yet…

I never could find that sublime feeling I had as a boy. Yes, my memories are rose tinted, yes, it is nostalgia, yes, I was a child and easily pleased. If I played Tony Bath’s rules now, I expect I would find them unsatisfying, too simple…

There has been a general trend in the hobby back to the simpler gaming experience, buckets of d6, six is good one is bad, saving throws and some excellent games have come from this. Never Mind the Billhooks, Fantastic Battles even Middle Earth SBG which is in itself, pure Featherstone.

A very good friend, James Morris, has now introduced me to his own rule set, Midgard, and I have to say the child in me is very excited by these rules. The game is still in its developmental stage and is being play-tested by a group of fifty gamers who are pounding the hell out of it trying to break the system and refine any weak points. The system is very nearly perfect however, and resisting all attempts to break it! It is almost a finished article and just requires burnishing with a fine cloth.

The concept is a Heroic Battle Game, where the army is led by a great hero and consists of maybe a dozen small warbands of fifty to sixty warriors with several lesser war chiefs and champions to lead them. The game is designed for any pre-gunpowder era but definitely suits Dark Ages, Mythic and Fantasy genres best.

And it came to pass that Angbor the Fearless of Lamedon gathered unto him the men of Lossarnoch, Dimril Dale and Morthond under their captains Forlong the Fat, Dervorin and Duinhir and led the last Great Host of the Fiefdoms of Gondor to the succour of Minas Tirith. In his haste, he did not send scouts ahead and there in lay his doom, for Noblig the Grate, an Orc most foul had called upon his kinfolk to aid him, not least of whom, Shatrag the Unacceptable, the vainglorious Skaythe, shaman, and Skaag the Troll chieftain all of whom mustered their clans and heeding the call followed him to Emyn Arnen, where they surrounded “Man’s Last hope” atop the lonely hill.

Noblig at the centre of his mob of Uruks and Orc rabble

Angbor looks down on the Evil host from the crown of the hill

Ravens Eye view shows them to be surrounded

“Steady boys” counsels Aedwine, captain of the Hearth guard “Angbor has never lost a battle yet!”

Assaulting the Eastern side of the hill came Shatrag the Unacceptable leading a Bodyguard unit of Warg riders, some wolf riders and a pack of wild wargs, huge, slavering beasts with a taste for man-flesh and hatred of all that walks on two legs

With a snaaarl the Wargs leap forward…

..and are obliterated by the spears and javelins of the men of Lossarnoch

Shatrag escapes and joins the Warg rider Bodyguards leading another assault on the grim wall of shields

The Orc advance is relentless

Orc skirmishers, elite trackers, lead the way shooting a constant swarm of arrows

lumbering up the steep slope at the front of the hill come four huge trolls led by their chieftain Splaaag

Fearsome in their fury the Trolls smash into the Men of Lamedon pushing them back up the hill.

Bravely the men lock shields and shouting defiant war cries prepare for their doom

Mighty were the blows struck that day, many a blade was turned by the thick hide, many a spear sought its bed in the hard flesh of the trolls, many were those crushed beneath iron hard foot.

Cerdric the Unbelievable steadys his men with his Inspiring Trait 

Meanwhile on the West face of the hill, Orc warriors rushed into combat with the men of Dimril Dale who were not found wanting…

….wielding sword and shield they drive the Orcs from the hill and being impetuous follow them down from the heights , hacking and slashing at the fleeing foe

However, the Orc host is mighty and drawing support from the other units the Orcs survive the onslaught. The valiant men are soon surrounded and hacked to pieces.

Back on the East flank the men of Lossarnoch deliver a crippling flank charge into the Warg Riders wiping them out and slaying the hapless Shatrag whose luck has finally run out.

  The red arrows are charge/winning the combat markers.

Angbor draws his sword and calling across the din of battle in a voice of brass “Hey you stack of dung, you vermin of Malkoth, dare you wield your blade against mine? I challenge you to single combat!”

  Fearless indeed this Lord of Lamedon but maybe not so wise….

Splaag is not one to refuse a fight, he leaps up the hill and brings his heavy sword down onto Angbor’s sending the man sprawling in the dust.

Angbor leaps back to his feet but has been sorely wounded, blood runs from under his helm, angrily he wipes it on his forearm, raised his sword and with a cry of “Lamedooooon” he charges the monstrous foe

Splaaag brings his heavy rusted blade down from high above his head it scythes through the ancient sword of Angbor’s ancestors and through the brave Lord of Lamedon. Leaning forward the Troll bites off his head and spits it at the shocked warriors

  Angbor would probably have fared better if he had led a charge of the Hearth guard into the trolls using his “Today we Fight To Win” trait which would have given him d6 dice to add to the combat 

But I wanted to see how the challenge to single combat rule would work out and my curiosity sealed Angbors doom

Emboldened the Orcs swarm up over the hill and the battle is soon over, not a man survived the slaughter to come to the aid of Gondor, nor indeed, to bring news of the great defeat.

the tale of the Stones of Reputation. The dark blue ones are for the Evil force the pale blue are those of the Good side.

 A fun game of a one sided “Last Stand” scenario that the Defender can only win by holding on until the end of turn six when much need reinforcements from Dol Amroth will arrive. As it was the cup spilleth its last bead at the end of turn three!

I very much enjoyed this Heroic Battle Game and look forward to many more happy hours playing Midgard. Midgard is due to be published by Reisswitz Press at some future date