Helm’s Deep with Midgard Heroic Battles at Fall In 2023, USA

The Fall In convention took place on November 4th and 5th in the US and amongst the many games was this fantastic Middle-earth battle in 10mm, presented by Chris Grau. Chris had spent some time planning his own version of Helm’s Deep and decided to run with my forthcoming Midgard Heroic Battles rules.

Over two days, this stunning terrain piece played host to 21 players and four games, with a pair of victories apiece for Rohan and Isengard. Chris had adapted the rules to add siege weapons and gave the Isengard players a menu of options, so each battle ended up slightly different.

Some of the highlights included:

• Isengard not bringing a battering ram and instead trying to set off the “Fires of Orthanc” in front of the Hornburg gate. When the devilish device didn’t go off right away, Theoden’s personal guard charged out to drive off the Uruk-Hai and just kept winning combat all the way down the ramp for the rest of the game!
• Isengard sent a unit of Uruk-Hai scouts to climb the mountain slopes above the Hornburg, causing chaos when they descended directly into the Hornburg’s outer wall.
• Everyone’s favourite archer – Legolas – died in 3 of the 4 games. He was somehow a magnet for arrows and Uruk-Hai blades.

Little Wars TV also included some footage of the game in one of their videos of the event, which you can watch here – Helm’s Deep features at 2:40.

I had a number of messages after the event from players and onlookers – clearly Chris had done a great job demoing the rules. Many thanks! Release date is TBC but will be 2024 – keep watching the web!