Midgard arrives, even here.

 Midgard Heroic Battles, Flavour of the Month hardly covers the impact of the latest rules set to hit the streets, and it has arrived here. Stuart set up a Midgard game this week, it was to be simple and two starter armies were to meet in an engagement, Saxons and Romano-British, I brought the latter along as it didn't really matter how many men were in a unit as long as the frontages worked, which they did. My army consisted of two mounted and one foot Comitatus, elite, the rest were average and I had one archer unit along with three Hero's, the Saxons had at least two Hearthguard units, two skirmishers with slings and a bunch of average warriors, I believe they had one more than us, but not as many elite and no cavalry, and four Hero's.

My Romano-British with Stuart's Saxons in the distance.

Now boys, now.

Both armies before a duel which the Saxon Hero loses.

It was a meeting engagement as I mention above, Stuart had the rules and I had watched a few of the videos on how to play, I did give up on these when they got to combat but I had retained some information. I had a conflab with my second-in-command Andy and we decided just to go hell for leather at the enemy, what could go wrong, Stuart and Gary advanced as well but with slightly more caution. I rode down a set of slingers with my cavalry and Andy took on a warrior unit and although hit in the rear he did manage to destroy them before his horse dispersed. Both sides now clashed in the middle, the Romano-British had the upper hand and the Saxon elites were held up and pushed back by one of my average warbands, the Saxon morale now failed and the British were declared the winners.

The rule set is very much 'Heroic' and the leaders play an important part in the game, it really is Arthur of the Britons more than Harold of the Anglo-Saxons, and yes you can introduce Merlin and have a magic sword or ability, or of course you can leave that side of things out and just play Dark Ages, or Early Medieval as it is described in the videos. Both sides can earn or lose Reputation Points and once you lose all your points you lose the game. The combat system is fairly simple and there are several ways you can increase the number of combat dice you throw. No, I would not buy the rules, and this is no reflection on the rules simply the fact they are not my cup of char, I am an Old School Wargamer, I am not as open as many to new rule sets. I like what I like and once I have chosen a set I will stick with them, this can be frustrating as time marches on and I become isolated, but I have been lucky enough not to turn to Solo yet. I would however if offered be happy enough to play them again at the club as they provided a few hours of fun for all concerned, Andy at least was converted.

Have you noticed that new rules never seem to get a bad press, and I am lumping them all in with this, they recieve months of advertising and turn up as a glossy book with oodles of eye candy and photoshoped battles and somewhere in there are the rules. I also find that most in the end are a game, sometimes a good game, but with the pieces being soldiers rather than counters or wooden pegs. I want to have the excitement of throwing in my reserve brigades or unleashing my cavalry in a steel plated tidal wave as the rest of my army stands like a stonewall or dies on the nearest ridge, I want to command an army, not friends and family. In keeping with present trends I wonder if we will soon see Midgard Italian Wars or Midgard WWI.......

I decided a wee while ago to add some airplanes to my WWII forces, I have managed to complete a FW190F-8 which basically took over ground attack from the Stuka and a Stuka for early war games, in the process I found that I do not have the dexterity or patience I had when I was twelve. With the FW there are quite a few bits in the bin because you cannot see the underneath, the Stuka was an easier build, I was impressed with the tiny and complete decal sheets with both, but I only attempted the large ones in both cases. I obviously need something for the Allies and Soviets, I have bought a Spitfire from my grandson and am dithering on providing a Sturmovik for the Soviets, have you seen the price of model kits these days. I quite easily found a plastics outfit which provided the rod and base for the planes and the magnets were easily sourced from eBay.

FW 190.

Stuka.

I also decided to get a Panzer I for my early Germans, there has to be an option to field one of these as they trundle into France, while looking I came across a Mobelwagen on the same site which I had always wanted. They arrived the other day, a bit of a wait but well worth it, both models are beautiful, the gunners on the flakpanzer are a tad small so I will leave the second one off and pop a few Rubicon crew in the box. They were from MarDav Miniatures.

The club is getting ever more busier and there are a lot more games being presented, including many of the newer sets along with old favourites. Our annual Christmas game is being planned and our festive Curry Night has been set for the 3rd January, we seem to need a larger table every year now.

The ACW campaign is approaching the end of its first campaign week with only a few minor skirmishes between cavalry screens so far, both sides seem willing to fight a major battle but not until the odds are in their favour.

Rob turned up today for a Chain of Command action involving his Italians and my French, I was defending while Rob was the attacker. I thought Rob had an uphill struggle on his hands until I realised as Italian tankettes rolled down the road that my own tanks and support could not arrive until Turn 1 had ended.

French deployment area.

The Italians are coming the sheep are nervous.

To make things worse I knew Rob would not end the turn and it was going to take me a long time to get a Chain of Command dice in order to do it, I was not lucky throwing fives. Nevertheless my two squads and grenade team settled down to defend the village, the Italians moved forward aggressively on their right but their left flank stayed put. I popped some smoke grenades to protect my men and prayed I could hold on.

Hide.

The annoying little tankettes.

At last I managed to get the elusive CoC dice and ended the turn, and of course my tanks refused to turn up. Luckily this did not last long and reinforcements eventually took over the duty of defending the village.

Italians.

Even more but hiding.

My R35 was taken under fire by the Italian anti-tank gun which failed to penetrate its armour, it quickly scarpered out of sight and joined the World War I vintage Renault F-17 moving to attack the Italian right, the enemy infantry there beginning to suffer from the attentions of a newly arrived, French infantry squad.

At last the tanks arrive.

French reinforcements.

Forward or whatever in French.

As the French second wave arrived it became obvious the Italians, as in reality, would have to pull back and were not going to achieve their objective, which was a hard ask. I do think Rob missed a chance to pile forward while I had about half my forces still off table, but allied to this is the dismal make up of Italian forces at this point in the war and the dire choices of support. He could have brought a mortar barrage but this is looked upon as a game changer so unless absolutely necessary most players do not use it. We spent a good few hours chatting and playing and it passed a cold day.
 

And that's it, X-Wing will be turning up at the club next week after several years in the boxes as Jimi is showing an interest in Star Wars Legion but X-Wing is the best I can do, it should be fun. So far there is nothing planned in the Bunker for next week but I think real life is taking up most of it.