Norse Myth Round Up Part 2: The Battle of Thor’s Hill

The big push to get various frosty terrain and figures finished off was prompted by last week’s gaming fixture – a run-out of my Midgard rules at the club with old chum Kev M visiting from sunny Leeds. Tom WD had correctly pointed that, for a rules set entitled Midgard, we’d played hardly any games set in the world of Norse myth – so it was time to fix that.

Kev and Paul W take command of the Frost Giants’ army at the foot of Thor’s Hill. Fortunately for them, Thor has had one too many in the mead hall and isn’t on the battlefield yet.

We used the ‘Take the High Ground’ scenario that we’d played many times before, where a depleted force (Vikings and Dwarves in this case) tries to hold a vital hill – Thor’s Hill – against the attack of Frost Giants, wolves, Draugr and Alfar (a mixed bag drawn from our various Norse myth collections) It was a good opportunity to test out the monstrosities rules for the Frost Giants as well as some new undead rules for the Draugr and a seeress.

The three standing stones at the top of this shot are the objectives in this game – units can gain Reputation by holding them from Turn 3 onwards.

Kev and Paul decided to hold back Hrungnir (the giant commander) and his towering chums behind a front line of wolves, Alfar and smaller giants.

Game on: the wolves (centre and right) are straight up the hill!

The wolves did better than expected, causing problems for the front line of Dwarves throughout the game and forcing back the front line around the critical standing stones.

Hard fighting around the crest of the hill as the wolves tear into the dwarves

On the Viking right, norsemen and dwarves prepare to fend off the draugr

Dranghildr the Seeress (AKA Witch on a Moose, figure by Bad Squiddo) drives her draugr into combat. Kev’s gorgeous newly-painted Ragnarok figures lasted about two minutes!

We had some early excitement with our Dwarf commander, Grimnir, challenging Fenrir the Wolf to single combat. Grimnir should have been odds-on to chop up the oversized lupine, but instead fluffed his dice, took a wound and was then munched up! Not a good start for Thor’s forces.

Grimnir, Lord of the Dwarves challenges Fenrir to single combat. He went down in three gulps!

Svenn Bloody-Blade and his norsemen drive back the onslaught of the draugr

On the Norse right, the Svenn Bloody-Blade and his Vikings were doing a sterling job of holding off the Alfar and Draugr, although Svenn ended up being cursed by the witch. Soon after, Thor himself arrived, finally getting back from the mead hall. He didn’t turn up in the best position (on the right flank, which was already secure), but hurled himself into combat, taking down Agnarr, Champion of the Alfar, in a very one-sided single combat.

However, the Frost Giants were making progress and the big boys were now grinding up the hill. Reputation see-sawed back and forth as Thor’s force nearly hit breaking point, but clawed it back through the single combat and the boost of holding the standing stones.

Thor gets back from the mead hall! Dokkalfar leader Agnarr is crushed in single combat (Thor is a SHQ mini by Kev, Agnarr is a Red Book of the Elf King mini)

After six turns – the scenario limit – we reached a breathless halt. Neither side had broken (losing all their Reputation), so we checked the Goblets; incredibly, Thor’s forces had 4 Reputation tokens remaining, but the Frost Giants had 5, therefore winning by the closest possible margin!